Raw Intel

From a little side-bar I was having with our buddy Galrahn - we wandered in the Royal Navy's VERY retro sounding Joint Concept Note 1/12: Future 'Black Swan' Class Sloop-of-War: A Group System. OK, the only retro use is "Sloop-of-War" - which I fully support. It ain't a corvette ... and it is almost more like the exceptionally poorly named LCS. Read the whole thing - but without picking it apart all over the place - right or wrong I like some of the intellectual work behind it. The Brits have done some good, modest, and reasonable intellectual ponderings; "122. The UK needs affordable solutions to deliver a balanced fleet. It requires the agility to adjust to a…

Democrats from the House Appropriations Committee published their estimates of the consequences of sequestration not just on defense, but as DID recently half-jokingly predicted, with an increasingly broad scope and dire consequences. If the loss of 1 million 2 million jobs did not adequately frighten you, consider that the sequester also means “3 million fewer malaria treatments” and “more than 14,000 deaths from completely preventable illnesses.” Forgive our cynicism but either the consequences attributed to the Budget Control Act (BCA) are way inflated for fear mongering purposes, or Congress was unfathomably irresponsible to pass the BCA in the first place. The Cong…

Professor Bruce Fleming has some observations and thoughts over at The Chronicle of Higher Education; Should we keep the academies? Maybe there's a place for them, if we can eliminate their worst flaws. The academies attract a certain type of student: hard-charging, military-oriented, with expectations of both physical and mental challenges. But the academies squander that rich resource. If we want to preserve the academies, and can accept the fact that they don't produce better officers than the cheaper routes of ROTC and Officer Candidate School, it should be possible to find a serviceable hull of a military educational institution under all the barnacles. American ex…

The following review by Elise Cooper is an exclusive for BlackFive readers. You can read all of our book reviews by clicking here or on the Books category: Dale Brown’s latest book, Tiger’s Claw , proves once again that he is able to bring to life a thrilling and dramatic story that could be in the headlines in the near future. Currently China is in a position to challenge America militarily, economically, and politically. After reading Tiger’s Claw people might understand how the Chinese-American rivalry will play out. The plot starts out with a powerful China and a US weakened by an economic downfall. After China launches its first successful test of…

Gateway Pundit has the letters and the scoop. Go check it out - apparently, Al Sharpton read Obama's original letter at the funeral for Heavy D. Over at IBD, an editorial that focuses on the issue: ...'I don't take these folks too seriously," President Obama recently told the Virginian-Pilot, referring to a group of former SEALs who formed the Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund Inc., to run ads attacking the leaking of details of the Osama bin Laden raid and other national secrets to further his reelection chances. Apparently the president doesn't take the sacrifice of Navy SEALs who've fallen in battle and the grief of their surviving families too seriously…

NASA Photo Very late on the night of 20 July 1969 in a small home in the Appalachians, I watched as a figure moved down a ladder, and into history. On that night, mankind became a true spacefaring spieces as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the alien world that is our moon. To be honest, I don't really remember his exact words. Neil maintained that he said "one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" and I will not dispute him on that. I also remember that our hosts, who were in many ways the grandparents I never had, remembered the night both for his step and for the fact that it was the latest they had ever stayed up in their lives. It was …

One of the SEALs from the bin Laden raid has apparently written a book about the operation. He uses a pseudonym, but I know his name and it will likely come out shortly. The bottom line is that doing this makes you a douche of epic proportions. There was whining about how former operators were pointing out that leaks about classified ops were hurting our security. They were called unprofessional, which was unfair. They were not giving out info, they were saying that the giving out of info was a dangerous thing This jackass is going to basically spill the details of the raid so he can cash in. Dear Loser, Enjoy the money, you are now dead to all the rest of us. Cordiall…

Wait. What?! This video (flying around today) of Democrat Senator Jeanne Shaheen is unbelievable...: Wonder how the SEAL Team chiefs and officers feel about that one... Jonn Lilyea says that this is evidence of the Dems swiftboating the SEALs. Heh. View the full article

Here is a title that isn't shocking to anyone on the front porch; U.S. Navy Officials Suppressed Bad LCS-1 Test Results Mike Faybey's article at AviationLeak is worth a full read, so is POGO's say about it. Nothing really shocking in some respects, especially the testing information - but what is more interesting is what this tells us about the culture. There are two things that I think are the most important in the article. They are things that perhaps the general public does not fully get a grasp of, and sadly those inside the lifelines know so well that they are an accepted part of the atmosphere. First, like we discussed with Chris Cavas on Midrats last…

This chills my bones. 10:45AM THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT meet with Secretary of State Clinton Oval Office Closed Press 12:30PM THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT meet for lunch Private Dining Room Closed Press Obama has shown repeatedly that you are onlyas useful to him as you are useful to him. Biden is not helping and is certainly hurting whim, just by being Crazy Uncle Joe. Romney just trumped him w/ the Prince of Veeps. O can one up him w/ the Queen of Veeps. A XX chromosome play will certainly change the dynamics and it is really all Obam…

Ummmm ... errrr .... DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY Boston Dynamics, Inc., Waltham, Mass., is being awarded a $10,882,438 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. The contractor will develop and build a set of identical humanoid robot systems for use by performers in both phases of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Robotics Challenge Program. This effort will develop robotic platforms consisting of two legs, a torso, on board computing, two arms with hands, and a sensor head. The robots to be delivered to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will be distributed to the top software development teams based on the results of th…

The latest lament of the lames in the Lamestream Media is that somehow, upon further inspection, Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan doesn't have enough Private Sector experience for the job of Vice President. For one thing, Ryan has no significant private-sector experience. Besides summer jobs working at McDonald’s or at his family’s construction company, or waiting tables as a young Washington staffer, Ryan has none of the business-world experience Romney frequently touts as essential for governing. The New Yorker, and specifically, Ryan Lizza, might want to take a moment to let the irony of saying something as galactically ridiculous as that sink in. I …

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…

Latest updates: Major article update. S-80 cutaway, labeled (click to view full) The CIM-2000 Scorpene class diesel-electric attack submarine partnership marked an important step for Spain’s Navantia, as it joined with France’s DCNS to enter the global submarine market. Scorpene is an advanced SSK design, and can be upgraded to AIM-2000 configuration by adding MESMA Air-Independent Propulsion (AIP) systems alongside their diesel-electric drives. Now Navantia is building on that base of expertise, to field its own S-80 Class for the Spanish Armada. Spain’s new submarines will be larger boats with AIP systems as standard gear, as well as other important modifications. Th…

PACIFIC OCEAN (July 27, 2012) The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) and the amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD 2) are underway in close formation during the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2012 exercise. Twenty-two nations, more than 40 ships and submarines, more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in the biennial RIMPAC exercise from June 29 to Aug. 3, in and around the Hawaiian Islands. The world's largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity that helps participants foster and sustain the cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world's oceans. RI…

Our friends at the Congressional Budget Office have done it again. Their analysis of the Navy's shipbuilding plan came out this week. You can get your copy here, or read at the bottom of the post. You need to read it all, there is a lot here - but here is what I found the most interesting at second reading. They lay it all out in the summary; we have garbage in and garbage out. Once you read the cold, hard, facts given by the CBO and then look at DoN's numbers, it almost seems like the two organizations are living in parallel universes. We'll get to the numbers in a bit - but one thing that kept coming to mind as CBO sliced off each of its thousand cuts w…

For the Little Crappy Ship and its sub-optimal construct; it's the easiest thing to do. We've been discussing Chris Cavas's articles on LCS for well over a half decade - and his latest work outlines in painful detail what critics have been warning about from the start. More from the Perez report is so Salamanderesque that I swear their team has been hanging out on the front porch. As we said in the middle of last decade, once hulls displace water in number; our reality will trump your PPT. The limited ability of the LCS crew to perform onboard maintenance, and the need to return to port for even basic repairs, “negatively impacts†the ships’ availabilit…

Christopher Carlson has produced a very good analysis on the ASCM hit on the INS Hanit. You can get the whole thing here. The Executive Summary: If missiles have your puzzl'r puzzl'n - then make sure and listen to yesterday's Midrats if you have not already. View the full article

Packed away in one of my boxes is a speech I outlined back in 2004. It was concerning a concept, a word, that with the last few generations we seem to have forgotten about.This forgetfulness manifests itself in different ways and in different degrees throughout history’s path. This isn't the first time - but in our living memory it is acute.It was on a word that is both a concept and a worldview; stewardship. I can’t find my outlined speech, but I was reminded of it Friday when I read this line from David Brooks article, Why Our Elites Stink: … today’s elite lacks the self-conscious leadership ethos that the … old boys’ network did possess. If you went t…

Nice. No sketchy sound track. Just Sailors and their ships.Me? I like it because it reminds me of one of the best views in my Navy career - early AM when an UDALOY and a RAPUSHKA came out of the fog off Portugal en route to the STROG.This is the ADMIRAL CHABANENKO of Udaloy II class. The Russians do make attractive ships. View the full article