Friday, June 22, 2018
The Marine Corps has lost its first F-35
via Marine Corps Times.
An F-35B that erupted into flames caused by a faulty bracket nearly two years ago has been struck by the Marine Corps, making it the first loss of an F-35 for the Corps.Story here.
The Corps made the determination that the costs to repair the costly high-tech fighter would not be worth the return on investment.
However, the Marines have not put out an official strike message for the F-35B because the Corps has not decided whether the aircraft will be used as a trainer for maintenance or a museum centerpiece.
“With the specific F-35B involved in this discussion, the Marine Corps’ cost-benefit analysis determined the repair costs would not yield a sufficient ROI [return on investment] to justify the expenses,” Capt. Christopher Harrison, a Marine spokesman, told Marine Corps Times. “The decision was made to strike the F-35B; however, there has not yet been a strike message as the disposition decision has not yet been made.”
Even if this program and this jet ISN'T corrupt, it IS corrupting! Since when does it take the United States Fucking Marine Corps two years to declare a jet a write off?
It doesn't!
The games playing with this declaration tells you everything. This was simple and instead they make the obvious controversial. Military aviation is dangerous. Planes will unfortunately crash. I'm a BIG CRITIC of this program but a plane crash is part of doing work cause shit happens and Mr Murphy will come calling.
It does make me wonder though.
If they're this risk averse with regard to unfavorable paperwork then how risk averse are they when it comes to pushing this plane to determine its operational boundaries? Are they so timid that F-35 jockeys will in essence be practicing transporting passengers from city to city in their career after the Corps?
Thursday, June 21, 2018
Female Ranger Candidate dropped after getting impregnated during the course?????
Thanks to PitchBlackUniverse for the link!
via SOFREP.
Several sources reached out to SOFREP this week to report that a female student was discovered to be pregnant while attending Ranger School. The pregnancy is reportedly the result of intercourse with a male student that took place prior to the two beginning Ranger School at Fort Benning at Camp Darby which is the first of the three phase course, the other two being Mountain Phase in Dahlonega, Georgia and Florida Phase at Eglin Air Force Base. The pregnancy was not discovered until mountain phase.Story here.
The male student is currently continuing the course, while the female student had to be released and will hopefully have another chance to attend at a later date.
Ok. I've never been but from talking to a few Marines that have (admittedly old news now), Ranger School was a kick in the pants ontop of being pretty fucking filthy.
To let the birds and the bees have party time during the Ranger course indicates a toughness that I could never match, or two VERY DISGUSTING individuals.
I can't decide which.
As far as the actual pregnancy thing?
Happens aboard ship all the time. Guess it migrating to the foxhole was inevitable...but Ranger School?
I can't quite wrap my head around that.
Is the Q Course next?
What do we get with the ACV 1.1? Is it worth it?
The decision was made with no fanfare. No rollout of the vehicle. No presentation of the ride to the Marine Corps in a formal setting.
Almost in a sigh of relief the Marines selected the BAE/IVECO offering as its new ACV 1.1 (for the love of all that's holy will someone PLEASE rename this thing...ACV 1.1 needs to be abandoned like its an infectious disease!).
But the questions remain.
What do we get with the ACV 1.1?
Is it worth it?
Thinking long and hard I think the answer is simple. We got a modern APC that is far more comparable to its land counterparts than anything we've ever had in our history. The addition of a large caliber cannon will give the Marine Corps something that it has NEVER had.
A truly capable infantry fighting vehicle...or rather amphibious infantry fighting vehicle!
But what about its swim capability. Its no advance over what we have now you say.
To that I say fine. That's right I'm good with it. We labored long and hard but can't quite crack the egg. From my seat the SLED concept looks like the best bet but we'll make do with LCAC for long distance work and I'm still waiting to see what Mullen does with the in-stream launches from various ships.
What many fail to understand is that while the "sea part" is important, the "land part" is just as important and is where the ACV 1.1 will show itself to be yards ahead of the AAV.
Is it worth it though.
Do we get enough with the ACV 1.1 to justify the expense compared to just upgrading the AAV?
I say yes.
Even with the survivability upgrade from my chair the AAV will probably still be inadequate. You can bet body parts that additional armor will be applied to the ACV 1.1 that will practically transform it into a heavy APC (hopefully that armor will be flotation) but flat bottoms can't get past the IED/anti-vehicle mine.
We all get wrapped around the axle because the current wars are ours.
Ask a vet from WW2, Vietnam or Korea and they'll tell you that in everything from nation state conflicts to insurgencies anti-vehicle mines have been a feature. Ask a Ukrainian and he'll tell you that along with steel rain the Russians applied generous portions of anti-vehicle mines to the mix.
Long story short?
If we're actually talking about getting ready for a peer/near peer vs peer fight then the Marine Corps really had no choice but to get a more capable APC that will hopefully develop into an IFV.
The BAE/IVECO offering offers the chance of relatively easy and hopefully inexpensive upgrades into the future.
Yes.
The program has been slow walked.
Yes.
The vacillation that we saw with the former Commandant was infuriating beyond description.
Yes.
It's water speed is no great improvement.
But is it the right vehicle for this time? Will it give our Corps the kind of armored protection that we need when facing future opponents? Will this be the most capable Amphibious Combat Vehicle on the planet?
As we sit tonight?
Yes.
The ACV is worth it. It sucked getting here but in the end it worked out.
Wednesday, June 20, 2018
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