F-35 News. Which is it? Ready for war or in development?

DoD Buzz has an article where the USAF Chief of Staff is saying that we shouldn't be "alarmist" over the engine fire that will probably result in one of the 100 F-35's delivered to be written off.  This comment from a reader caught my eye.

torquewrench· 17 hours ago"'It’s not unusual in a development program to have something like this happen,' she said."

The powers that be keep telling us on the one hand that the jet is nearly ready to go to war. As a reliable, available instrument of force projection.

Then when something like this happens -- a dangerous, costly Class A mishap which will probably result in the burnt airframe being written off -- and that merely from taxiing out for takeoff -- the powers that be promptly say, "Oh, it's still in _development_, silly, you can't expect stability or maturity from the platform yet."

Which is it? Ready, or unready?

Something is going on behind the scenes with this program.

The USAF Chief of Staff is out in full force defending the plane...the Air Force Sec is out saying that we need to be agile enough to modify plans and not get locked into an "all or nothing" mindset when it comes to procurement (ComNavOps has a must read on this...check it out here)...the Brits still haven't put down money to buy their first "tranche" of airplanes.....

Yeah.  Something is going on.

Lets talk civilian casualties in the Israeli vs. Hamas conflict.

You're a LCpl in the USMC.

You're on patrol in some Middle Eastern country.  You don't care about the politics or the controversy.  The only thing you care about is getting home alive (hopefully in one piece) and making sure all of your buddies do too.

Suddenly out of nowhere you start taking fire from one of the few Christian churches in the region.

Do you.....

A.  Return fire, assured in the fact that senior leadership will have your back because the enemy chose to make a place of worship a fortification and a legitamite target? Or....

B.  Sit there and do nothing while your buddies die all around you...because its a place of worship?

Expand that to a "nation state".  What do you do when the enemy has militarized every Mosque, hospital, school, UN facility, residence etc....

THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT HAMAS HAS DONE!

Check out the image above.  How do you target only military installations when the entire area they control has been converted into a military installation?  You accept the reality of the situation and act accordingly.  Hamas has chosen to place its people in harms way.

The Israeli's have accepted another cease fire.  That's unfortunate.  How do you lower civilian casualties in this war?  You finish the job as rapidly as possible.  The cease fire works against that.

Well that didn't last long.

Israel accepts a ceasefire (the same one I was railing against) and what does Hamas do?  They launch an ambush and kidnap/kill Israeli soldiers.  AMAZING!  How can they get so slack in their force protection measures?  This is not the Israeli military that I know!

TOS-1A in Iraq

Thanks to Dima for the article!

Article here.

Thermobaric rounds are nasty. The fact that they haven't been declared illegal for warfare is surprising to me.

Russian SU-27 Flanker pic via UK Ministry of Defence.

A Russian SU-27 Flanker aircraft photographed from a RAF Typhoon.

RAF Typhoons were scrambled on Tuesday 17 June 2014 to intercept multiple Russian aircraft as part of NATO’s ongoing mission to police Baltic airspace.

The Typhoon aircraft, from 3 (Fighter) Squadron, were launched after four separate groups of aircraft were detected by NATO air defences in international airspace near to the Baltic States.

Once airborne, the British jets identified the aircraft as a Russian Tupolev Tu22 ‘Backfire’ bomber, four Sukhoi Su27 ‘Flanker’ fighters, one Beriev A50 ‘Mainstay’ early warning aircraft and an Antonov An26 ‘Curl’ transport aircraft who appeared to be carrying out a variety of routine training. The Russian aircraft were monitored by the RAF Typhoons and escorted on their way.

The Typhoon pilots involved in the operation were Flight Lieutenant (Flt Lt) Mark Long of 29 (Reserve) Squadron (the Typhoon operational training unit) and a French Air Force exchange pilot Commandant Marc-antoine Gerrard who is currently attached to 1(Fighter) Squadron.

How many terrorists have we trained?

The above video is concerning.  The US military, the State Dept and the President are all fired up about providing training to various shady characters around the globe.

The latest are terrorists that are fighting in Syria and in Libya.

I wonder how many of those people were actually Hamas or ISIS?  I wonder how many of those same terrorists will soon be turning their weapons on US forces?  SOCOM, and the Pentagon need to do a serious gut check on the "partnership"/training mission mindset that has taken hold.

Israel is on the frontlines fighting the beast that is Hamas.  Soon he will turn up at our door....will he arrive with training we provided?

If this is true then the President of the US is no friend of Israel.

via Algeminer.com

The full transcript is below, translated from Hebrew, courtesy of The Times of Israel:

Barack Obama: I demand that Israel agrees to an immediate, unilateral ceasefire and halt all offensive activities, in particular airstrikes.
Benjamin Netanyahu: And what will Israel receive in exchange for a ceasefire?
BO: I believe that Hamas will cease its rocket fire — silence will be met with silence.
BN: Hamas broke all five previous ceasefires. It’s a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel.
BO: I repeat and expect Israel to stop all its military activities unilaterally. The pictures of destruction in Gaza distance the world from Israel’s position.
BN: Kerry’s proposal was completely unrealistic and gives Hamas military and diplomatic advantages.
BO: Within a week of the end of Israel’s military activities, Qatar and Turkey will begin negotiations with Hamas based on the 2012 understandings, including Israel’s commitment to removing the siege restrictions on Gaza.
BN: Qatar and Turkey are the biggest supporters of Hamas. It’s impossible to rely on them to be fair mediators.
BO: I trust Qatar and Turkey. Israel is not in the position that it can choose its mediators.
BN: I protest because Hamas can continue to launch rockets and use tunnels for terror attacks –
BO: (interrupting Netanyahu) The ball’s in Israel’s court, and it must end all its military activities.

Just plain wow.

"Israel is not in a position to choose its mediators"??????

Just fucking wow. 

Ukrainian troops lost 125 armored vehicles in eastern Ukraine in one day

via ITAR-TASS...

DONETSK, July 30. /ITAR-TASS/. Separatist militias in fighting with Ukrainian government troops near the city of Shakhtyorsk in the country’s east have put out of action 125 armored vehicles of the Ukrainian army, said Deputy Defense Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Fyodor Berezin.
“The enemy has lost a total of 125 armored vehicles in Shakhtyorsk yesterday, including tanks, infantry combat vehicles, armored personnel carriers,” the DPR official was quoted by the Novorossia news agency.
Representatives of the Ukrainian armed forces have not commented on these reports so far.

If this is true then DAMN!

I need the real story and less spin on events in Ukraine.  Something is brewing because we're seeing new sanctions by the US and EU....if the Ukraine govt forces were winning then I would think that it wouldn't matter if Russia was increasing aid to the rebels.

I think we'll see clarification and the real story on the results of recent fighting soon.