Raw Intel

The following press release was put out by Juliet Marine Systems, Inc. Keep in mind this is a press statement... Juliet Marine Systems, Inc. (JMS) announced Aug. 10 that the US Navy/USPTO have removed Secrecy Orders previously applied to GHOST. For the first time, Juliet Marine is able to release photographs of GHOST, the first super-cavitating craft, to the public. GHOST was designed and built by US Citizens for the US Navy at no cost to the government to protect US sailors, servicemen and servicewomen. Development of the first ever super-cavitating craft, in many ways, is as difficult as breaking the sound barrier. GHOST is a combination aircraft/boat …

Interesting. OPNAV NOTICE 5400 (PDF) from August 1st is worth a few comments. 1. Purpose. To approve the change in permanent duty station (PDS) for Carrier Strike Group (CSG) NINE per reference (a). 2. Background. Per POM-12 guidance, Navy will resource and align CSG staffs equal to the number of operational CVNs. CSG-9 will change PDS from Everett, WA to San Diego, CA and will change carrier assignment from USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CVN-72) to USS RONALD REAGAN (CVN-76). LINCOLN will shift homeport from Everett, WA to Newport News, VA for Refueling and Complex Overhaul in August 2012. CSG-9 will be reassigned to REAGAN, homeported in San Diego, replacing CSG-7 due …

The 2-503rd rocking in Afghanistan during OEF X (2009-2010): View the full article

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

My kind of girl. View the full article

Today was the official casing of the colors for the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. An awful lot of military folks have moved through there over the years and have received some of the best medical care in the world. There may have been some glitches, but all in all it was a safe haven for our wounded and sick. There was quite a going away party today and I attended w/ my girlfriend who is in the Wounded Warrior program there. The Golden Knights jumped in and started things off which is always fun. My girl went to introduce me to a double amputee skydiver who used to be a member of the Knights and actually returned to the team after losing both legs at the knee. F…

Our good friend TSO has a post up at The Burnpit regarding Seattle University's School of Law. Only, they seem to only be interested in their own law. Not the one of say, the Federal Gov't or the Constitution. “Passionate about issues facing veterans in our community? Interested in educating active service members about their rights? Looking for a concrete way to support the men and women who join the military? “The training covers rights and resources for active service members and their families such as types of discharges (Conscientious Objector, Hardship, etc), Family Plans (for caring for children while service members are deployed), and Court Martial …

First, if you don't read Day By Day by the most excellent Chris Muir, you should. It is also that time of year when he raises the money that lets him keep going. Second, if you don't read Delta Bravo Sierra, by the most excellent Damon Shackelford, you should. For there is Strange, and then there's Army Strange. And, if you want to get a bit of the background, along with some outstanding art by some other military artists/cartoonists, you need to check out The Best of Military Cartoons, Volume 1. I've seen an advance copy, it is a great introduction to today's military cartoons, and it is now up for pre-order. LW View the full article

Want to see the next bubble? Over at FT, they have it for you - if you want to see it (click image for larger). According to the report , between 1990 and 2006 — the year in which issuance of Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) peaked — assets with the highest credit rating rose from a little over 20 per cent of total rated fixed-income issues to almost 55 per cent . Think about it. More than half of the world’s debt securities were, for all intents and purposes, considered risk-free . In 2006, that was nearly $5,000bn of assets. The financial crisis had a lot to do with triple-A ratings being slapped on to subprime securities which didn’t warrant t…

One of America’s oldest military organizations will celebrate its 204th birthday this month. The Washington Light Infantry (WLI), headquartered in Charleston, S.C., has participated in every conflict since its founding in 1807 and is still in service today. The unit is named in honor of Gen. and President George Washington. The unit’s flag was given to them by the widow of George Washington’s cousin, Col. William Washington. The “Eutaw†Flag is believed to be the last remaining battle flag from the American Revolution, and is still used today by WLI. The unit also participated in the founding of The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, in 18…

The Salamander underground comes through. The report to Congress on Fire Scout referenced earlier this week can be found here. You have to skip the first 11 pages of letters to Congressmen and Senators to get to the meat. Head to the link above, give it a read and then come back. Let's discuss. Here are my Top-3. 1. Since Milestone C, the program has conducted extensive flight testing collecting 1,500 MQ-8B flight hours between March 2007 and March 2011 . Contractor developmental test pilots executing developmental test plans flew 1,250 of those hours. These developmental tests were not operationally realistic, and yielded little insight into the oper…

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…

Kyle Mizokami has a fine piece up at the Diplomat about the prospects for a Japanese amphibious fleet: Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief missions are typically supported by naval vessels. The March Tohoku emergency, as well as the January 2010 Haitian earthquake, saw multinational fleets sortieing to the assistance of island nations. In both instances, natural disasters disrupted local airports and port facilities, slowing the flow of relief into the disaster zone. The design of naval vessels, such as the USS Essex in Tohoku and the Italian aircraft carrier Cavour in Haiti, made them key to opening up affected areas. Self-sufficient in food and power, and desig…

If you think I am being unkind to the Greek military - well, I'm not. From AFG to HOA to Libya - pound for pound few NATO nations have contributed less to the war effort than Greece. Heck - even Bulgaria contributes trigger pullers in a fashion. I'm not being unkind, I'm being honest. What we do know is that the Greeks have a spending problem that even the present American administration would have trouble understanding. Their military doesn't help much with the problem, it seems. When a military officer dies, his pension continues for his unwed daughter as long as she remains unwed. Considering the Greek marriage stats - that is just pathetic. Don't just smi…

What are the odds of this actually happening. Russian officials on Thursday said that the country will be completing the construction of a new class nuclear-powered destroyer by 2016. Russian Navy Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky told RIA Novosti that the prototype of the new class destroyer, which is designed to be used at sea, would be finished in around five years, adding that the warship had a 90 percent chance of being powered by nuclear energy. Vysotsky spoke at the 5th International Maritime Defense Show, IMDS-2011, in St. Petersburg, Russia, after Roman Trotsenko, President of United Shipbuilding Corporation, had previously stated that the company wa…

From the June 2011 issue of FORCE magazine, an Indian National Security and Defense magazine, comes this remarkable article. Pakistan’s efforts to have a sea-based minimum credible nuclear deterrent vis-a-vis India took a significant step forward last month when the state-owned, Wuhan-based China State Shipbuilding Industrial Corp (CSIC) ferried the first Qing-class conventional attack submarine (SSK) to Shanghai to begin a year-long series of sea trials, which is likely to include the test-firing of three CJ-10K submarine-launched, 1,500km-range land attack cruise missiles (LACM) capable of being armed with unitary tactical nuclear warheads. Called the Qing-class …

Sigh. Her sporty older sister is in the background too. I still think we made a huge mistake not going with the F-14D new production. Range, range, range; payload, payload, payload. H/T B. View the full article

This is HMAS Sydney (FFG 03) firing a SM2 on June 18th test off Hawaii. This weapon system appears to be perfectly capable today. The United States Navy still operates many frigates that could, yet cannot, use this weapon system. I believe we may have been right to retire the missile when we did, but we have also been lucky we have not needed it. USS Halyburton (FFG 40) and now USS Carr (FFG 52) have been operating in the Mediterranean Sea near Libya, and Libya may indeed one day find a way to shoot ASMs at ships offshore if this war continues much longer. If they do, having a functional SM2 sure would be handy for protecting the ship... Just saying. …

... I might have to shift my support from T-Paw to him. Why? Simple - we have similar tastes in toys. Perry ... carr(ies) his .380 Ruger - loaded with hollow-point bullets - when jogging on trails because he is afraid of snakes. He'd also seen coyotes in the undeveloped area. ... "I'm enjoying the run when something catches my eye and it's this coyote. I know he knows I'm there. He never looks at me, he is laser-locked on that dog," Perry said. "I holler and the coyote stopped. I holler again. By this time I had taken my weapon out and charged it. It is now staring dead at me. Either me or the dog are in imminent danger. I did the appropriate thing and…

The Royal Navy speaks so it can sleep at night. Adml Sir Mark Stanhope said the campaign would have been more effective without the Government's defence cuts. The aircraft carrier and the Harrier jump-jets scrapped under last year's strategic defence review would have made the mission more effective, faster and cheaper, he said. Sir Mark warned that the Navy would not be able to sustain its operations in Libya for another three months without making cuts elsewhere. ... "The pros would have been a much more reactive force," he said. "Rather than deploying from Gioia del Colle, we would deploy within 20 minutes as opposed to an hour and a half, so obvious…