Tuesday, June 26, 2018
F-16 Block 70 line stays hot....Bahrain to buy 16~!
Story at Aviation Recognition (here).
I don't know if this art is actually representative of its weapons load out but if it is and if it has the latest avionics (which it most certainly will) then I'd say Bahrain is helping ensure the USAF has an adequate plan B!
Armor Porn. M1128 Stryker Mobile Gun System
Note. How could such a seemingly simple concept have turned out so badly for the US Army? Many countries have mounted large caliber cannons on medium weight vehicles and had them perform successfully...but we haven't cracked the code. A big question is on the horizon. What happens when a light tank (IF) is introduced into service? Will Stryker Brigades have a new direct fire asset or will they try and adopt the turret to fit the Stryker...or will they do for a foreign offering from CMI or another defense contractor?
Is this a mobility issue or an issue of Europe being unconcerned about a Russian attack? UPDATED!
via NewsMax.
The worried commanders gave such examples as humvees being stuck behind slow-moving semis on narrow roads as they made their way east across Europe, tanks ruining rusting bridges too weak to hold their weight, and troops held up by officious passport-checkers and stubborn railway companies.Story here.
Although many of these barriers would likely be eliminated if there were a declaration of war, the unclear period before military action would present a major problem, so much so that during at least one White House exercise that gamed out such a scenario, the logistical stumbles contributed to a NATO loss.
And in an actual exercise last year, a U.S. Army squadron that budgeted two weeks to get their Stryker armored vehicles back by train to Germany from the nation of Georgia instead took four months, leaving the troops sitting in Germany without their weaponry. If a crisis had broken out during that time, the squadron would not have been ready to roll out.
I wonder.
I've been beating the drum about Europe not paying for their fair share of their own defense but what if the real issue is that they don't actually see Russia as a threat?
We look at this as a mobility issue, something I have trouble with since we're forward deployed, but in actuality its a bureaucracy issue.
The Europeans aren't cutting red tape to allow us to move our equipment across borders so they obviously don't view things in the same light we do.
Instead of getting outraged maybe its time we took note and acted accordingly...
UPDATE!
I've been reading some of the comments and they're all valid. During the days of REFORGER you could crash into a house and the farmer would be paid, life went on and everything was cool. Car crushed by a tank? Paid and life moved on. My understanding is that it got so accepted that people started gaming the system trying to get paid for damages that never actually occurred due to exercise activity (different story though). For that type of urgency to be absent today is telling. Along with the REFORGER line of thinking. How would we surge units to Europe if a real emergency actually did occur? Have we even practiced it once in the last 20 years? Forward deployment might be a cover. Can we still surge forces in an emergency? How long would it take? Would the war be over before we even got the 1st MarDiv aboard ship? 1st Armored? 10th Mountain?
The other part of the F-35's enormous cost....new facilities...
via Marine Times
Costs to upgrade Marine Corps bases to house new aircraft and amphibious vehicles and to support modernization efforts are proving exceedingly expensive, with costs in the hundreds of millions of dollars.Story here.
The Senate’s version of the annual defense legislation approved $199,630,000 in funding for construction projects at Camp Pendleton, California, $133,860,000 at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, and $326,845,000 for projects on Guam.
The soaring figures are partially the result of the Corps’ efforts to modernize its force and ongoing construction projects to house nearly 5,000 Marines on Guam.
“We have quite a bit of hangar and utilities work to support the first F-35 squadrons assigned to MCAS Cherry Point,” said Marine spokesman Rex Runyon.
At Camp Pendleton, the Corps is building a new maintenance facility to support Assault Amphibious Vehicles, or AAVs, and the Corps’ latest Amphibious Combat Vehicle, or ACV.
This article is VERY CLEVERLY written. Additionally I like how the Marine Corps is camouflaging the cost of F-35 hangar facilities by hiding it in the total cost of facilities upgrades at each base.
I can't recall the article but the costs of hangar facilities to house the F-35 has been covered but for some reason never gained traction.
To put it mildly the costs are just south of outrageous.
Additionally no one was ever able to explain to me how the F-35 would operate from austere bases overseas yet need such lavish facilities in every country it was to be operated from.
Want an example of the crazy price of hangar construction for the F-35? Check out this little ditty from GovTribe...
The North American Industry Classification Code (NAICS) for this procurement is 236220, Commercial and Institutional Building Construction, $36,500,000.00 average annual gross revenue for the last three (3) fiscal years. Estimated cost range for this project is between $10,000,000.00 and $25,000,000.00.Story here.
This part of the story has been lost in the weeds. No one payed attention to the cost of facilities to maintain the F-35 and everyone bought in to the idea of it being expeditionary, therefore needing little "special care".
This is why the F-35 is gobbling the Pentagon and allowing our enemies to catch up.
Boy hacked to death in NY...we're prepared for knife attacks but machetes???
via WGNTV.com
Seven people are in custody after a savage machete attack left a 15-year-old New York City boy dead in what was an apparent case of mistaken identity.Story here.
Six suspects were being held in Paterson, New Jersey Monday, awaiting an extradition hearing in the brutal death of Lesandro “Junior” Guzman-Feliz. One other suspect, 19-year-old Kevin Alvarez, has already been charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter, gang assault and assault. He pleaded not guilty.
WPIX first reported Sunday that multiple people were taken out of an alleged gang stronghold on East 24th Street in Paterson.
They are suspected of being members of the Trinitarios gang.
Prosecutor Camelia Valdes announced the extradition hearings of the following suspects:
Jose Muniz, 21, of Paterson, NJ
Jose Taverez, 21, of the Bronx, NY
Manuel Rivera, 18 of Bronx, NY
Danel Fernandez 21 of Bronx, NY
Joniki Martinez 24, of Freeport, NY
Santiago Rodriguez 24, of Bronx, NY
Their extradition to New York could happen as early as Tuesday.
Paterson, New Jersey police first received a tip at about 1:45 p.m. Sunday. They sent a large contingent of cops and found four people tied to the attack of Lesandro “Junior” Guzman-Feliz who were holed up at a house on East 24th Street in Paterson, a source told WPIX.
Note: This one is kinda rambling so I apologize in advance....
I don't know the particulars of this incident. I do know its a tragedy and I recoil at the thought that they're only facing 2nd degree murder.
But I want to take a big picture view.
I've watched with more than a little horror at the push to roll back sentences.
Remember the chick that Kardashian got Trump to pardon? That person was a crack kingpin. They call it a victim less crime? BULLSHIT! That epidemic roiled communities! She affected so many lives that its impossible to calculate yet now she's a compassionate figure? Now we should feel sorry for her and want her released? What about her victims? Many that had nothing to do with the drugs she sold. How many houses and cars were burglarized to fuel addiction? How many people were assaulted so that they few dollars they had in their pocket could pay for some bastards wants?
How many people died in turf wars.
This machete attack is a reminder of that time. Mistaken identity? I don't care. They went out hunting for someone and picked the wrong target.
Mark my words. We are importing a knife/machete culture into the US. That's a fact. We will see more crimes like this and it will be a terrible sight to behold.
Does this have me spooked?
No! This has me aware. We've talked about multiple assailants attacking one person and what it would take to survive. The problem is we talked about knife attacks, not machetes. The right one of those can actually take an arm and that's the common training idea when dealing with a knife attack...to give up an arm so that you can return fire if the fight takes place in close quarters.
I need to research this but as of now I don't know of anyone teaching techniques to deal with it. More to come unfortunately....
Monday, June 25, 2018
A sudden realization. Trump might have unknowingly put the Marine Corps on the chopping block...
I've been hearing news reports that Mattis was against the formation of a space force. There are logical reasons for opposing such a move. Militarization of space is undoubtedly happening but to push a "space force" would accelerate that race at a time when we're trying desperately to regain a bit of a technological lead against our competitors.
But there is something else going on too.
Trump just ruined recruiting for all the services with those two little words...Space Force!
Imagine you're an Air Force recruiter and you hit someone with the the old "Aim High" campaign. Young dude will look you in the eye and say I am aiming high...higher than you guys! I'm gonna join the space force!
But what I'd like to know and no one has even bothered to ask is what will be cut to pay for such a force?
As much as it pains me to say it, the obvious service would be the Marine Corps.
Is the Corps the bargain that it once was?
I don't think that claim can be made anymore.
Can the Army perform its missions?
Not as well, but in a pinch and at great cost...yeah...they could.
I've been looking around and social media is all fired up about the space force but no one is asking serious questions.
Trump's space force could be the biggest threat to the Marine Corps since Truman.
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