Raw Intel

We've been doing "Diversity Thursday" on a regular basis since 2008 or so. Not my favorite topic, not a popular topic among some segments ... but we persist. We covered the military's drift towards racial essentialism earlier, but the "Diversity Thursday" segment really only became a regular thing about 15-yrs ago. We tried to warn everyone ... and here we find ourselves in the thick of it ... but now we are getting real and substantial advocates kicking back against the diversity cadre including out in the open in the Senate and House of Representatives and in the larger culture. You love to see it. One thing the left has always been better at than most is organizing. T…

G/ATOR diorama (click to view full) The US military’s long run of unquestioned air superiority has led to shortcuts in mobile land-based air defenses, and the US Marines are no exception. A December 2005 release from Sen. Schumer’s office [D-NY] said that: “Current radar performance does not meet operational forces requirements… consequences could potentially allow […]View the full article

To paraphrase Papa Salamander's favorite saying, "No one owes you a Navy." It has been eight decades since there was such a great gulf between the Navy our republic needs to meet a growing threat and the Navy its leadership was planning to have. As we discussed a month ago, the institutions everyone is relying on to make the future fleet have failed their moment in time. Another reminder broke above the ambient noise last week, and it wasn't an easy read for navalists looking for firm leadership who - at least in words - give the impression that they have not given up the fight for what we know we need should conflict come in the next decade west of Wake. Good thing I l…

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Americas Boeing won a $16 million delivery order for the repair of various avionics equipment used on the F/A-18 aircraft. The F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather jet aircraft that is used by the US Navy and Marine Corps as both a fighter and attack platform. In its fighter mode, the F/A-18 is used primarily as a fighter escort and for fleet air defense; in its attack mode, it is used for force projection, interdiction and close and deep air support. The single-seat F/A-18/E and the two-seat F/A-18/F fly greater ranges with heavier payloads, have more powerful engines and provide greater survivability than its predecessor. Work will take place in California and Pennsylvania. …

One of the more difficult things for me to work through is a certain intolerance at my core that is easily triggered, and I have to make a conscious effort to not be petty, mean, and flinty towards people an institutions who put it in my face. To be more specific, I have a very short fuse when people act shocked today when something happens that they have been warned about - and even suffered from - in the past that they could have avoided repeating in the future if they took basic and clear steps to learn their lesson. Let's go back to 2011, almost a dozen years ago; Less than a month into the Libyan conflict, NATO is running short of precision bombs, highlighting the …

Americas Raytheon, an RTX business, has showcased its cutting-edge Low, slow, small-unmanned aircraft Integrated Defense System (LIDS) during the US Army’s annual summer test period. The event attracted the attention of international allied ground forces, underlining the significance of LIDS as a counter-drone solution. LIDS leverages Raytheon’s Ku-band Radio Frequency Sensor (KuRFS) and the Coyote […]View the full article

The Chief of Naval Operation's 2022 Navigation Plan is out ... and besides a couple of expected errata points I'll cover at the end ... I like it. It answers the bell. I'm not going to go paragraph by paragraph as I want you to read the whole thing. The document is important because the CNO is the boss, and this is the Ref. A everyone needs to align with. It will drive discussions, efforts, focus, and defines the four corners for any argument the Navy will make. As such, read it if you want to understand what everything for the next year or more is going to be built around. It is just a couple of dozen and change pages. Lots of pictures and side-bars, so it is a quick rea…

The Russian Navy HQ in Crimea had a Sunday visitor, China continues to be prickly about its neighbor's guest list, the Navy gets a new oiler (yes, that is sexy), Sal wrote a couple of things that got people's attention, and we are just a couple of months away until winter hits the slogfest in Ukraine. Of course, that is just for starters because in a Midrats Free-For-All, you never know where the conversation will take us - and if you don't like where we're going, you can nudge us your way because the chat room and phones will be open when we are LIVE Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern. Join us live if you can, but it not, you can get the show later by subscribing to the podcast. …

Now that everyone has spent the last three weeks of the Russo-Ukrainian war watching what modern, precision guided, long-range fires can do to large, static supply bases - specifically "ammo dumps" - I'd like you to take a moment and read this in a new light; The Army in the Pacific had its first crack at testing out its APS-Afloat capability in March in the Philippines during exercises Salaknib 22 and Balikatan 22. part of Operation Pathways, a larger exercise in the theater. The 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division used it coming from ships designed to harbor complete equipment sets and spares the Army anticipates needing should a crisis unfold. ..…

A little over a decade ago, we lost the last half of one of the great teams of WWII; a local boy and father of USAF Special Operations. If what they did took place in Europe, they would have had a movie made out of it. As it took place in the Burma theater - well - at least we can cover it here. John R. Alison, a World War II fighter pilot who helped lead a daring and unprecedented Allied air invasion of Burma, has died, a son said Wednesday. The retired Air Force major general and former Northrop Corp. executive died of natural causes Monday at his home in Washington, John R. Alison III said. Alison's wartime achievements included seven victories, six in the air, qua…

Elite failure. I guess this is German week, but so be it, they're in the news. For those who follow me on twitter, you are familiar with the #WeNeedNewElites hashtag. I started using it as a reference point on the American issue with the serial elite failures that are putting our nation at strategic risk, but it applies throughout the West. The problem is dangerous to our collective security with our allies, especially Germany. More than anything else, Germany just frustrates me. Maybe I'm the problem as I expect more from her than she seems to want to give. I feel like a track coach who has a promising athlete that is so racked with self-doubt, conflicting priorities, a…

So, how is your week going? The Navy wants to shed 39 ships in Fiscal Year 2023, with the first ship set to depart on Halloween. The list, which includes five guided-missile cruisers Armed neutrality is a good thing - it keeps an enemy at bay. Being hostile while you are actively disarming yourself? That is begging for a whoop'n. Inaction. Inattention. Slavish devotion to process. Entitlement. Distracted leadership. That is how we got here – a destination we slid to this century on a carpet of happy-talk, half-truths, and aspirational time-buying. First, let’s start with a statement that I could have made myself. Via David Sharp at AP; Adm. Mike Gilday, chief of naval…

How long do you wait to see what you purchased with the lives of 17 Sailors? Back in 2015 I decided we needed a measure of time for things in the Navy, and settled on a measure of time called a WorldWar; I think "years" does not really tell the best story about how long it takes to get even the most simple ship to displace water after the "go" is given. Perhaps we need a new measurement - one that provides context. We need one defined in American terms, natch, and I have an idea. I've used it before; the time from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the signing ceremony on the Mighty Mo. That is 07DEC41 to 02SEP45. 3-years, 8-months, 26 days. Including the end date, that is 1,…

As with many things in the last nine months, the bolt from the blue in the maritime national security world that was the September 2021 announcement of AUKUS - trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States - has faded from view as the more immediate and interesting Russo-Ukrainian War took the headlines. Even without the war, as with many long-term programs that start with a flash, AUKUS would have become a background issue anyway - which is a shame. Most are left remembering the interesting bit - nuclear submarines for the Royal Australian Navy - but is that really the most important thing about AUKUS? Our friend Alessio Patalano o…

In the middle of Walter Russell Mead's article over at WJS, "The World Rejects the Wilsonian Order" there was an interesting insight for what the Russo-Ukrainian War revealed about the internal natsec divisions within the Democrat Party. While one could quibble around the edges, this seems sound; Within the Biden administration, the struggle is among three groups: liberal internationalists, who want America and the West to do what it takes to ensure that Russia loses the war; pragmatists who want to check Russia but fear Russian escalation and believe that the war will inevitably end in a compromise peace that falls short of Wilsonian hopes; and Asia-firsters who worry t…

Poland has taken delivery of another shipment of American-made Abrams tanks. According to Defence24, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz confirmed the arrival of 52 armored vehicles purchased from the United States. The shipment includes 38 M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams main battle tanks and 14 M88A2 HERCULES armored recovery vehicles. The latest […] The post Poland receives new batch of Abrams tanks first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Americas The project manager for the US Army’s Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft(FLRAA) says the final request for proposal is to be released this summer. Col. David Phillips said the final document will not have any major changes relative to the draft proposal that was release late last year. Raytheon won a $16.5 million deal for the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) program for Gordian Knot (GK) application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) life-of-type buy. This effort provides for a life-of-type procurement of GK ASIC in support of production and sustainment through the AMRAAM program of record. The AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, …

Time for a quick revisit to the most important DivThu related Supreme Court case we have seen since we started this series. We first touched on in 2018, and most recently back in August. This case has forced everyone to take the mask off concerning what anyone who has served on active duty for the last few decades has known as a truth; the US military actively discriminates based on race and ethnicity.So, we now have Students for Fair Admission v. President and Fellows of Harvard College & the University of North Carolina. If you need the details of that case, click here. We have a 2022 amici curiae for this case as well with Joe Reeder and his law firm again at the …

What can just a few Marines do? In March 1982, Thomsen was days from returning home from the small Royal Marine Falklands garrison when he was ordered to take eight men to South Georgia to monitor a group of Argentinian scrap dealers who had landed illegally and raised the Argentine flag, the incident which was to lead to full-blown war in the Falklands. Along with 12 other Marines under Lieutenant Keith Mills they arrived on the desolate island in mid-March. Two weeks later the crisis erupted when the Argentines invaded the Falklands. Section commander Thomsen and his comrades knew a large enemy force would descend on them within hours. With no hope of reinforcements, …