Friday, June 14, 2019
Turkey issues the US a threat over S-400...
via Express.uk
Washington claimed it would trigger economic warfare on Ankara if Turkey went ahead with its deal to buy S-400 missiles from Moscow. The US, who recently sold 100 F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, see the S-400 missile systems as a threat and said Turkey could not have both at the same time. However, President Erdogan’s administration pledged to respond to any aggression with action of their own.Story here.
Foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said: "If the United States takes any negative actions towards us, we will also take reciprocal steps.
"We are determined on the S-400 issue. No matter what the results will be, we will not take a step back.”
The minister added that it is impossible to cancel the order from Russia.
Interesting.
Isn't it funny how a simple move to punish enemies has suddenly escalated into a tool to push certain behaviors on the part of frenemies?
Everyone is outraged by Trump's tariffs but its the natural extension of the sanctions regime that started in the Carter era and picked up steam in every administration since.
I can see Turkey actually agitating to make sure that they aren't part of a sanctions scheme. I can see them attempting to retaliate.
This is the tender underbelly of Erdogan's leadership. The economy has to work.
The flip side of all this is that they are setting up the end of globalism. Turkey will join many minor countries along with Russia in setting up a backdoor...a black market that will help end this all.
I can't wait to see how this ends....
The US has the largest and most technically equipped corps of marines in the world,” military expert and retired Russian Aerospace Force Colonel Mikhail Khodarenok told RT....YOU DAMN RIGHT COMRADE!
via RT.
The recent ‘elephant walk’ of US Marine Corps helicopters and Osprey tilt-rotors is an impressive display of air power, but will likely intimidate only small countries without air defenses, a military expert tells RT.Story here.
In what the USMC called a “dynamic display of strength,” aircraft from the Marine Aircraft Group 16 in Miramar, California staged a mass take-off last week. Video of two dozen MV-22B Osprey tilt-rotors and 16 CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters shows them in “elephant walk” formation on the tarmac before they take to the skies.
The Super Stallion is the latest version of the heavy-lift helicopter designed by Sikorsky in the 1960s, and is used by the Marines to lift artillery pieces and light armored vehicles. The MV-22, on the other hand, was developed by Bell (now Bell-Boeing) as something unique: a tilt-rotor aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter, but flies like an airplane.
“The US has the largest and most technically equipped corps of marines in the world,” military expert and retired Russian Aerospace Force Colonel Mikhail Khodarenok told RT.
The rest of the article is as expected. The USMC isn't a threat to a technologically advanced nation and that whole display only intimidates small countries.
Still.
Dude called it straight and from a Retired Russian Aerospace Colonel its high praise...even better RT quoted him.
Just to repeat. “The US has the largest and most technically equipped corps of marines in the world.”
Thursday, June 13, 2019
F-35 Hit With Cluster Bomb Of Damning Reports....by Joseph Trevithick & Tyler Rogoway
via The Drive.
Less than 48 hours after Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon reached a handshake agreement on the purchase of a whopping 480 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, an absolute cluster bomb of stories has dropped detailing significant technical issues with the jets. The revelations cover ongoing problems for all three F-35 variants, including performance limitations, troubles when operating in very hot or very cold weather, dangerous cockpit pressure incidents, faults in the helmet-mounted display, serious safety concerns in the event of a blown tire, and much more. The new details underscore the Joint Strike Fighter's ongoing troubles as the Pentagon's central Joint Program Office, or JPO, seeks to move the aircraft out of its developmental phase for good, as well as highlighting a worrying, but long-standing lack of transparency about the state of the program.Story here.
Defense News dropped the bundle of stories near-simultaneously on June 12, 2019—all of which are well worth reading in full—based on documents that it had obtained detailing 13 remaining Category 1 deficiencies across the F-35A, B, and C variants as of late 2018. These reviews of the issues were reportedly marked unclassified, but "For Official Use Only." Not all of the problems in these reports were previously unknown, but a number of them had never become public and the details about the known issues add important additional context. In total, this also represents what is perhaps the first full public accounting of so-called unclassified "CAT 1" problems across the Joint Strike Fighter program at any one point in time. Keep in mind there are also throngs of other deficiencies still in play that are serious, but don't rise to the CAT-1 level, at least not at this time.
This is a nice primer on the F-35 issues if you don't have time to read all the Defense News articles (which I highly recommend).
But I want to pivot to another issue.
Did you notice how the Pentagon/Lockheed Martin and the Program Office bookended this news?
THEY KNEW WHEN THE STORIES WOULD BE PUBLISHED!
So what was the response?
They announce a massive price drop on the airplane early this week. It was timed so that most of the defense websites would be drooling over that news. Casual defense news consumers would note that and assume that all was well.
It dominated alot of blogs for a couple of days (not to mention the pre-news that they were getting close to an agreement).
Then Valerie's story hit and they already had talking points lined up.
But to add a little sauce to the goose the Polish Prime Minister arrived at the White House to announce that he was buying between 32-35 F-35's and the USMC did a slow speed flyby at about the same time.
The propaganda being used to sell this plane is EXTREME!
The manipulation of not only the public but journalists should be eye opening to everyone.
This isn't about a plane meeting specs anymore. This is about livelihoods. Desperation to get it done.
Defense of a nation (or the air arms of our allies)? A distant consideration that isn't even the top ten of their concerns.
In light of problems with the F-35 does the F-15EX and Super Hornet Block 3 make sense?
Hopefully you've had time to digest the terrible (but predicted) news about the F-35.
I was wondering...
In light of the issues with this plane, many of which WILL NOT be fixed before full rate production hits this fall, do you think the F-15EX and Super Hornet Block 3 makes sense?
Do you understand why the US Navy made the decision to upgrade the Super Hornet instead of pushing all in with the F-35?
Is it understandable why the Pentagon (under Mattis) decided that the USAF would be forced to buy the F-15EX?
Oh and one other thing. Is anyone outraged that we didn't know about these problems sooner? Is anyone pissed that the USMC/Joint Program Office/White House/Poland decided to do a bit of propaganda with the F-35 flyby and the announcement of sales in a vain attempt to drown out this news?
I'm just the messenger and I'm just asking questions. What say you?
Indian Air Force unsatisfied with Russian R-77 Missiles will replace with Israeli Derby AAMs...
via NDTV
In two years from now, the Indian Air Force's frontline Sukhoi-30 fighters may be re-armed with Israeli Derby air-to-air missiles after the jet's Russian-made R-77 missiles were found wanting in air combat operations over the Line of Control on February 27 this year.Story here.
Sources in the Indian Air Force told NDTV, "We already have the missile as part of the SPYDER (Surface-to-Air Missile) system. Integration (with the IAF's Su-30s) is the next step.''
Retaliating to the IAF strike on the Jaish-e-Mohammed training facility in Balakot on February 26, the Pakistan Air Force aggressively positioned a large formation of 24 fighters near the Line of Control (LoC). A handful of these jets managed to cross the LoC to fire precision-guided glide bombs towards Indian military positions in the Rajouri sector.
Wow. The Indian Air Force is all but saying they had their behinds handed to them by the Pakistani Air Force.
The question is simple.
Are they looking for a scapegoat with the R-77 or is there an actual problem with that missile?
Open source tells us that there were many breakdowns on the part of the Indian Air Force tactically so I'm not sure this is valid.
I wonder what the real back story on all this is.
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Politics Talk. The FBI Counter Intel Unit might be in trouble...
BREAKING: In (LIVE) hearing, Nunes just pronounced: "The counterintelligence department over at the FBI is in big trouble."— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) June 12, 2019
A couple of things. This dude is right wing but he's pretty reputable. Additionally he's all over the Mueller report and that's of personal interest to me. Next is Mr. Nunes. He's one to throw stuff out there so I don't know how real this is but if it's tracking with what little information I've been able to read then this ain't one of those times.
If you have time read the rest of his Tweets. Some pretty interesting stuff is coming out.
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