A different take on the LCS..

Daniel Goure, PHD of the Lexington Institute is becoming one of my favorite defense thinkers.  Not only is his thinking truly out of the box (and in opposition to conventional thinking found on the East and West Coast) but its reasonable, thoughtful and extremely practical.

He also has the gift of not reverting to defense/business/academic speak which I find annoying.  In addition to all of the above, he gets the internet...make your point because your readers have lives!

No 18000 word, rambling piles of mush from this guy...THANK GOD!  This is a slice of his latest...

Both LCS 1 and LCS 2, the USS Independence, will open up new opportunities for naval collaboration between the U.S. and its allies, particularly in the Pacific region. Its modular design will allow the LCS to rapidly switch between the currently planned set of surface warfare, ASW and mine countermeasure missions. Clearly, the inherent flexibility of the LCS design will allow for other combinations of capabilities to be deployed, such as air and missile defense, shore bombardment, humanitarian assistance and air and sea surveillance.
Equally important, both LCS variants offer the potential to equip foreign navies. In the past, U.S. Navy ships have been too expensive and even too capable for all but the richest and most sophisticated foreign navies to procure. LCS will be relatively less expensive and possesses the virtue of an open architecture that will enable foreign navies to customize the ship to meet their needs. There is a tremendous value also to foreign navies operating the same platforms and weapons systems as the U.S. Navy.

I never considered those points.  Maybe the Surface Navy knows what its doing after all?  Read it all here.

Gibbs High Speed Amphibians.

Do you remember the buzz when Gibbs first unveiled their line of military amphibious vehicles?  Excitement was in the air and many predicted that these vehicles would be in the hands of Special Operations Command.

That hasn't happened...and for the life of me I can't figure out why.

A160T crashes in Mojave.

via Alert5 and Mercury News.

"The A160T Hummingbird reconnaissance helicopter crashed Wednesday afternoon two miles from a runway at Southern California Logistics Airport, the old George Air Force Base near Victorville where Boeing Advanced Systems has a test facility.
The helicopter, which is 35 feet long and has a 36-foot rotor diameter, was approaching Runway 17 when it crashed. The cause of the crash hasn't been disclosed."

Sweetman has been complaining about bandwidth issues with UAVs and now, in addition to the crashes in the war zones and the revelations in the WikiLeaks saga, we have this.

The question remains.

Who has been pushing UAVs?  The services in order to fully fund a revolutionary vehicle or the makers of these vehicles in order to keep the gravy train going?

Either way, we've been deceived when it comes to an actual discussion of their utility and their survivability in modern warfare.  We're not their yet...not even close.

Video of the Naval Flotilla Operating off the Coast of Korea.

Is the USAF flying Combat Air Patrols against the Iranians?

I found this photo on the Air Force website.  At first glance, nothing to it.  An Airman is assisting in a pre-flight inspection of a F-16.

The problem comes with the weapons layout.  Sidewinders and AMRAAMs for air support missions?  Not bloody likely.  Is this an indication that the USAF is flying Combat Air Patrols along the border with Iran?  I think it does.  And before I get the "that's old news" line, please direct me to the story!

U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Nick Forester performs preflight checks on an F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft preparing to launch for a mission from Joint Base Balad, Iraq, July 24, 2010. Forester is a crew chief with the 169th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron out of McEntire Joint National Guard Base, S.C. (DoD photo by Tech. Sgt. Caycee Cook, U.S. Air Force/Released)

3rd MAW helo pilots killed in Helmand province - MarineCorpsTimes.com

3rd MAW helo pilots killed in Helmand province - MarineCorpsTimes.com

Lejeune Marine dies in Afghanistan
Reserve lance cpl. dies in Helmand province
Why no mention of this USNI Blog????  Surely the courageous actions of these men is worthy of mention...or is it only Sailors and not other members of the Naval Services that are worthy of concern and praise?

But you did have time to comment about the Public Affairs Officer managing the spin on this story...
The PAO’s Nightmare: Or What Keeps CDR Charlie Brown Awake At Night

2/3 conducts NEO training.

MARINE CORPS TRAINING AREA BELLOWS, Hawaii-Canadian soldiers with Company G, 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, Canadian Army, move toward their next objective during a noncombatant evacuation operation at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows, Hawaii, July 26. The NEO, an emergency evacuation involving the use of military forces and capabilities in order to provide aid, assistance and movement to safety of American citizens overseas, was conducted as part of interoperability training between coalition forces during the multi-national Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2010., Lance Cpl. Reece E. Lodder, 7/26/2010 3:15 AM

MARINE CORPS TRAINING AREA BELLOWS, Hawaii-U.S. Marines assigned to 3rd Marine Regiment utilize amphibious assault vehicles to set up a cordon around a mock U.S. embassy during a noncombatant evacuation operation at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows, Hawaii, July 26. The NEO, an emergency evacuation involving the use of military forces and capabilities in order to provide aid, assistance and movement to safety of American citizens overseas, was conducted as part of interoperability training between coalition forces during the multi-national Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2010., Lance Cpl. Reece E. Lodder, 7/26/2010 3:26 AM

MARINE CORPS TRAINING AREA BELLOWS, Hawaii-Canadian soldiers assigned to Company G, Royal Canadian Regiment, Canadian Army, provide security as a CH-53D Sea Stallion helicopter arrives with Marines from Company F, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, during a noncombatant evacuation operation at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows, Hawaii, July 26. The NEO, an emergency evacuation involving the use of military forces and capabilities in order to provide aid, assistance and movement to safety of American citizens overseas, was conducted as part of interoperability training between coalition forces during the multi-national Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2010., Lance Cpl. Reece E. Lodder, 7/26/2010 4:29 AM

MARINE CORPS TRAINING AREA BELLOWS, Hawaii-Infantrymen with the Indonesian Marine Corps move from U.S. Marine Corps CH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters to amphibious assault vehicles during a noncombatant evacuation operation at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows, Hawaii, July 26. The NEO, an emergency evacuation involving the use of military forces and capabilities in order to provide aid, assistance and movement to safety of American citizens overseas, was conducted as part of interoperability training between coalition forces during the multi-national Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2010., Lance Cpl. Reece E. Lodder, 7/26/2010 4:09 AM

MARINE CORPS TRAINING AREA BELLOWS, Hawaii-U.S. Marines assigned to 3rd Marine Regiment utilize amphibious assault vehicles to set up a cordon around a mock U.S. embassy during a noncombatant evacuation operation at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows, Hawaii, July 26. The NEO, an emergency evacuation involving the use of military forces and capabilities in order to provide aid, assistance and movement to safety of American citizens overseas, was conducted as part of interoperability training between coalition forces during the multi-national Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2010., Lance Cpl. Reece E. Lodder, 7/26/2010 3:50 AM