FUCK! 2 Marines killed in MV-22 crash at African Lion 12.

Thanks Think Defence for the heads up....wish it were better news.

via Marine Corps Times.

An MV-22 Osprey from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit crashed Wednesday during training exercises in Morocco, according to a Marine official. An official at the U.S. Embassy in Morocco said two Marines were killed in the crash, and two more were injured.
The crash took place in southern Morocco during exercises involving Marines and Moroccan troops, embassy spokesman Rodney Ford said. The 24th MEU is participating in Exercise African Lion, a 10-day joint exercise overseen by the 14th Marine Regiment.
Agence France-Presse reported that the crash took place in the region of Ouad Daraa, about 550 miles from Rabat.
The 24th MEU deployed from Camp Lejeune, N.C., on March 29. The Osprey was part of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 261 (Reinforced), out of Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C.
Further information about the incident is being withheld until the next of kin have been notified, Ford said.

I hate this.

You know every family member on the aviation side of the 24th MEU is going crazy.

God Bless.

CDR Salamander. They were listening!

Littoral combat ship USS Independence (LCS 2) steams through the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida. Sailors from Independence's Gold Crew and embarked Mine Countermeasures, Detachment 1 are underway for the ship's maiden voyage to San Diego after successfully completing testing on the MCM mission package.

CDR Salamander just wrote a blogpost this morning covering the LCS woes much better than I ever could.


Then this afternoon we get this from the LCS geeks.


Interesting.

Question:  Are those missile covers just behind the gun?  I wonder what missile they're for?

Army Future Vertical Lift.

Thanks for the article Jonathan!

via Army News.

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, April 10, 2012) -- The Army's aircraft of the future will be faster than what the service has now, it will carry more weight, it will require less of a logistical footprint, and officials said it will better do what Army aviation is meant to do: serve the ground commander.

While what is now being called "Future Vertical Lift," or FVL, by the Army is still a concept, its capabilities are already known.

The FVL concept will be "able to support the Army and the ground commanders better than we can do it today," said Maj. Gen. Anthony G. Crutchfield, commander, U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence." I see this aircraft being able to do all the missions that we currently do. I see the aircraft that can do it because it can be scaled. It may be a medium variant, something that is the size of maybe a Black Hawk or an Apache is today, that can do the attack mission, or the assault/lift mission. I see the same aircraft scaled smaller that will be able to do the reconnaissance mission, similar to what a Kiowa Warrior does today."

Crutchfield said it's not known if the FVL concept will end up producing a rotary-wing aircraft, like the Army AH-64 Apache, or a tilt-rotor aircraft like the Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey.

What the FVL will do is perform missions the Army does today with its aviation assets, missions that will not change.

"The vision is that we can have an aircraft that can do all the missions that we currently have," he said. "Our missions will not change. We still will do attack and reconnaissance, we still will do sustainment and troop movements. It's an enduring mission that will not change. I just want to do it better."

The FVL aircraft will perform multiple roles, Crutchfield said, and that means that the end result is that there will be fewer types of aircraft in the Army's fleet. It's also possible that there will be fewer aircraft overall, because a more capable aircraft means that fewer aircraft will be needed.

"Today there are concepts where there are aircraft that we consider rotary wing, that can fly in excess of 300 knots," Crutchfield said. "No other aircraft we have today can fly 300 knots. If you have an aircraft that can fly 300 knots, it can cover more terrain faster, and if you can cover more terrain faster, theoretically, you would need less airframes to do the same type mission."

And because Crutchfield said the idea behind the FVL concept is to have the same aircraft be able to perform multiple missions, the Army will need fewer types of aircraft. That means a smaller number of parts will be needed to sustain the fleet, and a shared pool of maintainers and maintenance equipment. That will result in a reduced cost for logistics.

Crutchfield said that the FVL could come in different sizes, depending on the mission it will perform, but things like engine, drive train, and cockpit components would be the same, common between the two, and swappable.

Today's Army aircraft, Crutchfield said, are capable. But there is a limit to the performance that can be squeezed from them.

"Although we have great aircraft today, the best in the world, no matter how much money we invest in these aircraft of today - the aircraft are not going to fly any faster than they fly right now," Crutchfield said. "They are not going to be able to carry any more payload than they do right now. They will not be able to reduce any of the logistical footprint [more] than they do right now. That's what future vertical lift will do. That's what we see for the Army Aviation force of 2030."

It's expected that this summer, performance specifications for the FVL aircraft will be unveiled. Development of the program is an Army-led, joint program, that includes all military services, including the Coast Guard.

Sorry.

I won't take the Army seriously until they give a good look at the Piaseki concept.

They already have in hand the ability to boost the speed of the Apache and BlackHawk helicopters by a large margin with little modification.

They just don't want it.

My prediction.  In 2030, the Army will be flying Apache Block 50, and Chinook Yankee.

More African Lion 12

An assault amphibious vehicle moves across the beach in Morocco carrying Marines with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and members of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces April 10, 2012, during Exercise African Lion 12. The training allowed the Marines to introduce the Moroccan troops to the unique capabilities of the AAV, which the Marines drove onto the beach that morning from the USS New York off the coast of Morocco. This exercise is the first event for the 24th MEU and Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, which deployed in March on a regularly scheduled deployment to serve as a theater reserve and crisis response force.  Photo by Staff Sgt. Robert Fisher

Marines and Sailors with Alpha Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, meet and take pictures with members of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces in an Assault Amphibious Vehicles on the shores of Morocco April 10, 2012, during exercise African Lion 12. The training allowed the Marines to introduce the Moroccan troops to the unique capabilities of the AAV, which the Marines drove onto the beach that morning from the USS New York off the coast of Morocco. This exercise is the first event for the 24th MEU and Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, which deployed in March on a regularly scheduled deployment to serve as a theater reserve and crisis response force.  Photo by Staff Sgt. Robert Fisher

Marines with Alpha Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, conduct bi-lateral training with Royal Moroccan Armed Forces during exercise African Lion 12 on the shores of Morocco April 10, 2012. The training allowed the Marines to introduce the Moroccan troops to the unique capabilities of the assault amphibious vehicle that the Marines drove to the beach that morning from the USS New York off the coast of Morocco. This exercise is the first event for the 24th MEU and Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, which deployed in March on a regularly scheduled deployment to serve as a theater reserve and crisis response force.  Photo by Cpl. Michael Petersheim

Members of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces unload after riding in an assault amphibious vehicle April 10, 2012, with Marines from Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit during the bi-lateral training exercise called African Lion 12. The training allowed the Marines to introduce the Moroccan troops to the unique capabilities of the assault amphibious vehicle that the Marines drove to the beach that morning from the USS New York off the coast of Morocco. This exercise is the first event for the 24th MEU and Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, which deployed in March on a regularly scheduled deployment to serve as a theater reserve and crisis response force.  Photo by Cpl. Michael Petersheim

What he's really thinking...

Capt. Robert May, commanding officer of Alpha Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, speaks with a member of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces on the shores of Morocco during Exercise African Lion 12, April 10, 2012. The training allowed the Marines to introduce the Moroccan troops to the unique capabilities of the AAV, which the Marines drove onto the beach that morning from the USS New York off the coast of Morocco. This exercise is the first event for the 24th MEU and Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, which deployed in March on a regularly scheduled deployment to serve as a theater reserve and crisis response force.  Photo by Staff Sgt. Robert Fisher

The caption indicates a normal conversation.

The look on the Marines face tells a different story.

What he's really thinking is...

Ok. The LCS is jacked up. What now?

We've been talking about alternatives to the LCS but that misses the real issue.

We're stuck with them so what now?

CDR Salamander has an excellent article on where the LCS is now...read it at his spot but check out this part.

OK - so we will have purchased ~43% of a run of ship without one ... a single one ... FMC mission module in place. If the mission modules shift to the right, as they will probably do, then will we have over half before we even know we can get any fight out of them?

Read the entire article but his leads to the point I'm trying to make.

We will have ships that will sport one 57mm cannon, two 30mm cannons, close in defense cannons and maybe a stinger crew that can pop out on deck to help with the air defense missions if it gets really wild and hairy. In essence we get a powerful Offshore Patrol Vessel or a very weak Corvette.

So I ask again, how do we make these ships useful RIGHT NOW instead of 5 years from now?

The answer is to load them with habitable container modules (you're welcome Think Defence), assign them to SOCOM in each operational area (probably no more than a total of 8 ships...I hope) and we get them into the fight now.

Additionally they could participate in Southern, African and Asian partnership missions with the same habitable container modules but with a different cast of characters...Riverines, US Army Light Infantry, Marines when they're not on float or otherwise assigned, USAF Security Teams and heck even US Coast Guardsmen in the drug interdiction role.

The habitable container module is ready now.  We can do this, all it takes is a little will.   Read about the above module over at SeaBox.


Instant mothership/special operations base/enhanced drug interdiction ship TODAY!  Oh and SOCOM can go on and put the tired USS Ponce to rest.

Sounds like a winning idea to me.

Pic of the day. F-35 in Royal Navy markings!

via Savetheroyalnavy.org by Al Clark @ janetairlines

Rough Seas.

HMS Daring in some rough water.


The Royal Navy is definitely working this ship hard.  


I like it.

Bell Helicopter's 525 Relentless.

Hmmm.

Don't know how I missed this but so did a lot of the aviation big boy news media.

A 16 seat super medium helicopter?  Its obviously designed to battle Sikorsky's S-92 and whatever EADS and Westland have on the market.  Its pretty but I wonder if its enough.  They are right in concentrating on the civilian market.  The Western militaries will be upgrading before they start buying new.  Read about the 525 Relentless here.

On a sidenote this helo reminds me of the 214ST.  I guess evolution is becoming the norm instead of revolution.

Interesting. A one man crime wave.