Raw Intel

If you are a regular in the chat room during the live airing of Midrats or EagleOne's homeblog - then you know who Saturn 5 is. He even visits here now and then. Though most may not know it - he is also one of the few regular commenters from Turkey in the Navy milblogosphere. After my post earlier this week - I asked if he wanted to offer up a guest post here on the topic of Turkey today, Kemalism, and where things are headed - from the Turkish perspective. BZ to S5 - he dove right in with a quick response. Thanks S5! The rest of this post is from Saturn5.While the dust cloud around Israeli raid on Gaza flotilla last week is settling down, informed minds…

The Department of Defense (DoD) announces that Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn will leave the post later this year. A replacement is expected to be found by the autumn. Two House Foreign Affairs sub-committees held a joint session to consider the extent of Somalia’s piracy and crime networks, the influence of the Islamist al Shabaab group and the growing humanitarian crisis affecting almost 3 million Somalis. More and more shipping companies are ignoring the UN’s IMO, and hiring armed guards to fight pirate attacks. The IMO is expected to cave soon, and introduce vetting procedures for guards. Following Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s dem…

Hat tip ThatGuy. View the full article

This would stir thing up a bit. A leading defence expert has projected that China will attack India by 2012 to divert the attention of its own people from "unprecedented" internal dissent, growing unemployment and financial problems that are threatening the hold of Communists in that country. "China will launch an attack on India before 2012. There are multiple reasons for a desperate Beijing to teach India the final lesson, thereby ensuring Chinese supremacy in Asia in this century," Bharat Verma, editor of the Indian Defence Review, has said. Verma said the recession has "shut the Chinese exports shop", creating an "unprecedented internal social unrest" w…

Tejas LCA (click to view full) GE’s F414 turbofan engine will power Tejas Mk2. (Oct 1/10) India’s fighter strength has been declining in recent years, as the MiG-21s that form the largest component of its fleet are lost in crashes, or retired due to age and wear. Some MiG-21s are being modernized to MiG-21 ‘Bison’ configuration, while other current fighter types are undergoing modernization programs in order to maintain the fighter force until replacements can arrive. On which note, an ongoing tender has Russian, French, American, Swedish and European manufacturers dueling for the MMRCA, a multi-billion dollar, 126+ plane light-medium fighter sale. This still leav…

Good analysis by NIGHTWATCH of some events taking place in the South China Sea. Philippines-China : The Philippine military on 2 March sent two military aircraft to patrol the ocean and air space near Reed Bank, a long time Philippine-occupied territory in the South China Sea. The Philippines took the action in response to the behavior of two Chinese patrol boats which harassed a Philippine ship searching for oil, according to Philippine military commander Lieutenant General Juancho Sabban. A Philippine OV-10 aircraft and an Islander light patrol aircraft were deployed after the incident was reported, Sablan said. The Chinese boats appeared ready to ram the Phi…

The Russian supercavitating torpedo, the Shkval, has been with us for decades. Partly because it has not been used in combat and partially because we just don't think it is all that much of a threat because of our own biases and understanding of the technology, we have not given it all that much thought. We are very focused on defending against threats from the air, A2AD and all that jazz, and for those below, we have nifty little countermeasures and anti-torpedo defenses we are trying out - but those are focused on what we know and am comfortable with - traditional torpedoes. Via The Economist, I'm not quite sure we are that ready for this; WHEN introduced 40 years…

There has been a lot of talk about weapons carry status for our troops in Afghanistan and whether they are being told to carry in amber status i.e. no round in the chamber. I asked ISAF HQ and got the following response. Jim, Headquarters ISAF, the ISAF Joint Command and the Regional Commands have not issued guidance to units instructing them to conduct patrols without rounds chambered. Force protection levels are dictated by the local threats and determined by commanders at the lowest possible tactical level, so without knowing the specific unit from which this report came I can't verify with absolute certainty that verbal or written guidance has not been issue…

SSG Sal Giunta was awarded the Medal of Honor today. It has been since Vietnam that the medal has gone to a living recipient, and Sal Giunta was a perfect choice. He has been nothing but humble and self-effacing, pointing out that he was just one of many brave paratroopers that day. He is absolutely correct, but he is the one who charged the enemy and stopped them from capturing one of his compatriots. There was a reception held by the Bravo Bulls who represent the same company (Bravo/Battle) of the 2nd of the 503rd, 173rd Airborne since the Second World War. This unit has always been called on when we need to break glass in case of war and has always delivered. SSG Giu…

I am a little thrilled right now. I didn't think Romney was going to make the bold move, but he did and now we can have the battle for this country that we need. Paul Ryan is the right man to articulate the right case that Obama and the left have put this country on the wrong path. Romeny is a solid competent executive with a proven track record of making big things work. Ryan is a bright, young energetic guy who can argue the difficult issues in a positve and upbeat way. That is a combination tat can devastate Barack the incompetent and Biden the batshit. The VP debate should be called off now using the mercy rule. I am about to donate to a political campaign for the fir…

I just saw this on the Navy Times Website--news of a new Navy commercial soon to replace the "Accelerate Your Life" campaign. Obviously aimed at the demographic groups most likely to enlist, the commercial features lots of pictures of Seals and inshore types, some ships, some airplanes, and some footage of WWII sailors doing the things they did. (Here is the commercial) I've had conversations many times with Peter Swartz of the Center for Naval Analyses, a brilliant man, a great American, and one of the godfathers of the 1980's Maritime Strategy. He was particularly helpful to me and the strategy team as we conducted our deliberations, serving as a sounding board fo…

David Axe has done an excellent job retelling the history of the Littoral Combat Ship. The final program that the Navy has developed today has been around since 2003 - roughly eight years, although David Axe does go back further to tell some of the back story that began with DD-21. It's a really good article, and I think everyone should read it. I don’t know how it influenced you, but I thought it was good enough to inspire me to write - alot. Four posts with a new one every few hours. View the full article

Some goob who I assume thinks he knows what he's talking about has decided, based on something he read in the Wall Street Journal, that the Medal of Honor has become "feminized". That's right - "feminized". We all know what that particular little code word means, don’t we? He couldn't just say, on the day Sal Giunta was awarded our nation's highest honor, "well done and well deserved". Oh, no. He had to make a point to try to cheapen the award by qualifying it somehow. Here's what he said: The Medal of Honor will be awarded this afternoon to Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta for his heroism in Afghanistan, and deservedly so. He took a bullet in his protec…

It's kinda funny that just as the shrieking socialist, chicken littles are wrapping up their complete waste of time in Hopenchangen, huge snow storms hit there and DC. The one here is pretty awesome. We are 12 hours and about 12 inches into it and it is picking up steam if anything. Heh. View the full article

A Japanese whaler rammed a Sea Shepard vessel this week. See video below. Two more videos for context and here. Serious question. Should we care and why? The Sea Shepard folks on their own show Whale Wars have done things that are clearly illegal, and this particular incident shows the Japanese Whaler clearly turning into the vessel to ram it. What does the ongoing saga represent? Is this non-state law enforcement in the protection of the environment? Is this international piracy by environmental groups? I have had the opinion expressed more than once to me that this is legitimatized Western maritime terrorism and can be classified as piracy under interna…

Ark Royal moves on: The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal has sailed into Scotland for the last time, as part of a farewell tour. The fleet flagship of the Royal Navy, which is being decommissioned after 25 years service, sailed down the Firth of Clyde. It is due to dock at Glen Mallan Jetty on Loch Long to unload its ammunition. The ship will stay in Loch Long for five days before sailing around the north of Scotland and on to Newcastle, close to where she was built. The Ark Royal left its Portsmouth base for a farewell tour of the UK on Tuesday. The aircraft carrier is being retired three years early as part of cost-cutting measures announced by the UK …

DigitalGlobe Inc., a commercial satellite company, said Wednesday that it took a photograph of China’s first aircraft carrier during a sea trial in the Yellow Sea, off the Chinese coast. View the full article

Well except maybe for this lady who put 5 rounds from a .38 into a home-invading scumbag and then had to BS him when she ran out of bullets. The woman was working in an upstairs office when she spotted a strange man outside a window, according to Walton County Sheriff Joe Chapman. He said she took her 9-year-old twins to a crawlspace before the man broke in using a crowbar. But the man eventually found the family. “The perpetrator opens that door. Of course, at that time he’s staring at her, her two children and a .38 revolver,†Chapman told Channel 2’s Kerry Kavanaugh. The woman then shot him five times, but he survived, Chapman said. He said the woman ra…

Can't think of a better name for this lovely. The Pentagon said Thursday that it intends to spend $400 million to develop a giant dirigible that will float 65,000 feet above the Earth for 10 years, providing unblinking and intricate radar surveillance of the vehicles, planes and even people below. "It is absolutely revolutionary," Werner J.A. Dahm, chief scientist for the Air Force, said of the proposed unmanned airship -- describing it as a cross between a satellite and a spy plane. Actually, evolutionary - but I won't quibble. View the full article

Very rarely do people talk about all the interesting things submarines do, except maybe this article. Revelations by prominent British journalist and author Gordon Thomas in his latest book, Inside British Intelligence: 100 Years of MI5 and MI6 , published last year, show Britain's foreign secret intelligence service mounted an operation to thwart the Chinese arms delivery to Zimbabwe in April 2008. "Britain's intelligence services have increased surveillance of China over the years because of China's activities in Africa. In April 2008, MI6 asked for one of the Royal Navy's nuclear Trident-class submarines to track a floating arsenal of weapons and bombs dis…