HG S2 (Intel Bot)

Today is the day to let a vital part of American society know that we appreciate them. Mostly for the tasty, albeit overpriced cofee, but also for not caving in to anti-gun zealots. Many people who love guns and coffee particularly appreciate Starbucks. In the 12 states with unfettered rights to “open carry†a gun, including Virginia, and the 16 others that are mostly open carry, Starbucks has rebuffed attempts by gun control activists to keep guns out of the national coffee shop chain. So on Friday, 2-22 (for the Second Amendment), gun rights supporters are holding “Gun Owners Support Starbucks Day,†and will be drinking their joe while openly packing their heat. In Northern Virginia, this is being organized by Ed Levine, who already has an “I Love Guns and Coffee†website (there are two) and mints a guns and coffee challenge coin, seen above. He wants 2-22 to be an annual day of support for Starbucks by gun owners. I think this is more of a business gesture than a show of support for guns. If they cave on this they will be open to protests about every soleth of the politically correct left. But it is still good to see them stand up on a principle that local laws mean something. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz told ABC News in 2010, “I’m not a politician. I run a coffee company and we’re trying to abide by the laws in which we do business.†Keep it up sir, the pressure is not likely to lessen. View the full article

U.S. Marine Corps 1st Lt. William Kavanagh uses the optic lens on his M4 carbine to scan the area in the Kajak district of Afghanistan's Helmand province, Feb. 8, 2013. Kavanagh, a company executive officer, is assigned to Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 7. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Kowshon Ye View the full article

Hat tip ThatGuy. View the full article

I am going to anonomize this as I don't want every to tease this COS. Those who have been in the rodeo awhile will be able to narrow down who this is .... but .... Shipmate has to be thinking to himself, "I am a senior Captain in the world's largest navy. I have a respectful record of service at peace and war. I am the Chief of Staff at a significant command with oversight of thousands ... nay ... tens of thousands if you count in right ... and ... sigh ... sequestration can bite me." From: [redacted] CAPT [redacted] , N01Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2013 17:30 To:[redacted] _ALL_[redacted] Subject: STAFF BUDGET REDUCTION Staff, I am sure that you all have been hearing quite a bit about sequestration recently. With that, we have been directed to reduce our admin costs and limit our travel to Mission Essential only. Below is a summary of what we are currently doing, and what I am expecting from every employee. Reduce Printing: - Be mindful of what you are printing. Where possible, review the document/data electronically. PowerPoint presentations should also be reviewed electronically and only be printed when finalized. - If you print, ensure that for documents/emails that you are printing on both sides of the page, front and back. For PowerPoint presentations, you should print two slides to a page on both the front and back page. - If you attending a brief that will be presented on a large screen, printing of the brief should be limited to only those that are briefing. - Effective immediately, if [redacted] is going to be briefed with a PowerPoint brief that is greater than four (4) slides, the Flag Conference room should be reserved to brief [redacted] utilizing the large screens. Only one copy of the brief should be printed, which will be used by the briefer for notes. N6 and the Flag Secretary will coordinate the logistics of the brief. Government Vehicles: - I have directed a 50% reduction in the number of vehicles that we are leasing. To support this effort, we will be developing a pool of vehicles that will support all of our codes. The process for this will be provided in the near future. Blackberries, Cell Phones, and Air Cards: - We are currently reviewing individual requirements for communication needs, and we will possibly reduce staff blackberries, cell phones, and air cards. Mission Essential Travel: - We must reduce travel immediately to Mission Essential only. Travel is authorized for requirements that would negatively impact [redacted] ’s mission, if not executed. All travel should be discussed with COS via your ACOS/SA prior to entering the Authorization Request into DTS. Admin Supplies: - Funding for admin supplies has been reduced. Admin supplies that will be provided will be limited to basic requirements; we will not be providing any specialty type of items. Information about sequestration is coming out regularly, and I will provide you all with an update when appropriate. Thank you all for your hard work and dedication in supporting our ships, units, and sailors. Together we will get through this. Regards, COS View the full article

The Navy just released an interesting video of Raytheon's Griffin missile testing from USS Monsoon (PC-4) off VACAPES last month. Although relatively short-range (about 5km), Griffin brings some much-needed offensive firepower to the PCs. The $45k a pop Griffin has proliferated in the U.S. military in the past few years, with roll-on installations on Marine Corps C-130s and other aircraft. Monsoon's testing also represented a successful demonstration of laser designation and targeting at sea (albeit on a clear day). The dual quad-pack Griffin set up onboard Monsoon is very compact and lends itself to installation onboard even smaller vessels such as the MK VI. The Patrol Coastal Griffin Missile System, the addition of remotely-operated MK 38 MOD 2 25mm chain guns onboard other combatants, and a few other programs are part of the Navy's rapid deployment efforts to counter the fast inshore attack craft/fast attack craft swarm threat. View the full article

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Oh goodness. I really don't want to make it a habit of Fisking Flag Officers, but if you are going to put your by-line out there, well, welcome to the scrum of the marketplace of ideas. VADM Copeman, again, "With all due respect ... but ..." - you brought up the subject. Out of nothing but love ... we must engage on ... the Little Crappy Ship. BEHOLD The alternative universe of the Potomac Flotilla! Sigh. Here we go, paragraph by paragraph. By Vice Admiral Tom Copeman I'll afford you the same benefit of the doubt as I do all VADM, I really don't think you penned it all, someone on your staff got it started and you got a chop on it. Well, I don't know, maybe you did. If you did, I don't think your Staff served you well if you let them chop on it. Twenty-five years ago, then CNO Admiral Trost looked into the future and began our shift from a Cold War focus to dealing with regional and littoral conflicts in the years to come. So we started down the path to where we are now—working through various iterations, starts and stops, and plenty of ideas on ship types and classes to deal with unknown future threats. 25 years ago was JAN 1988. I'm sorry, no one in 1988 was seeing the end of the Cold War, much less shifting away from it. We were both JOs then ... come on, you remember. Heck, Hunt for Red October wasn't even in movie theaters yet. Future without the Red Banner Fleet as our primary threat? Future where we would need more smaller ships? (actions of the next decade+ tell a different story as the legacy Riverine forces in the reserves were killed in the late '90s, PHMs were sent packing, PG gone, OHPs castrated, etc). I don't see 1988's Admiral Carlisle A. H. Trost, USN (PBUH) having any of the LCS stink on him. As a matter of fact, dig around the good Admiral's tenure as CNO and most of what will be found is about physical fitness, the IOWA turret explosion, spanking Lehman, women at sea (he was not a fan). Here is the WSJ from OCT of '87. Lots of talk about the meeting of the Supreme Soviet and their next 5-yr plan. You brought Admiral Trost in to it ... so ... what was he writing about in 1987? Here, read it yourself from JAN 87's Proceedings; Let's go to 1989, 24 years ago. What was Admiral Trost saying? Oh, hey .... let's let the newspaper of record tell us. From the DEC 89 NYT; Despite rampant revisionism in Washington on the changing scope and nature of the Soviet threat, he continues to base his analysis of the Navy's needs on a belief that the Soviet Union is just as dangerous as ever. I'm sure I am missing something. Can anyone here give me something with a '87-89 date stamp where Admiral Trost sees the decay of the Soviet Union and the need in 2012 to have a corvette that can't even get its 57mm and 30mm guns to work right? Sigh. VADM Copeman; you need a historian on your Staff ... pronto, if for no other reason than to say, "You may want to reference that comment." Now, back to the article. Now we have assets in place to operate in the littorals and we have new ways of delivering troops and equipment to the beach. OK, soooooo ..... the gun line off Vietnam was not in littorals? 5-inch Friday off Al-Faw in 2003 was not the littorals? LCS is actually and asset we can, in 2013, fight in the littorals? "Now"? No we don't. Not now.We have a lot of "hope" and "will" and "plan" but no there-there. It will be years until we know if LCS will be able to do squat ... and until then the best thing to do is to keep it far away from any possible threat until we figure out exactly what it can or cannot do. Right now, we know mostly what it cannot do - which is all of its primary mission areas. How many of us saw the expansion of C5ISR? Or, who knew in the late 1980’s that there would even be UAVs, much less see the ubiquity of their use? Which is the sticking point about the future—it is wholly unknown. And for those who say past is prelude. That may be, but the past isn’t a plot. Well, only the cynic would have said, "Oh, come on. We went from C2, to C4I, to another NCM for C4ISR. What more can they do - make it C5ISR? Please, everyone will think it is an old air-force cargo plane doing ISR ... no one will make that acronym .... we'll be stuck with C4I or C4ISR ... you can bank on it." Oops. That is what you get for not being cynical enough. By 2020, what more can we add to it? But yes, a lot of people saw the future of UAVs .... the military had been using them for decades and as technology, communications, and everything else advanced, so did their utility. Good googly moogly .... don't engineers read science fiction if not their own history? The past isn't a plot ... but it is the best reference point to the future. Only a few thousand years show us that. I'm still not sure what "...past isn't a plot." is trying to address. While I nood'l that, let's get back to VADM Copeman; The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) is an important addition to the Battle Force and is exactly the ship we envisioned 11 years ago to fill a capability gap in the Littorals in Surface Warfare, Mine Warfare and Anti-submarine Warfare. It is here now and we fully expect it to be an important an integral and substantial part of our future force. Exactly? Define soon? Not that important right now ... or in the next few years. I'll take that bet. Well, that mention of a year is fun. 11 years ago was what .... 2002. What was being said in 2002? The Defense Planning Guidance in May 2002 directed the Navy to pursue a new class of small, stealthy "Littoral Combatant Ships" to support troops ashore and to conduct anti-mine, intelligence and reconnaissance operations. The Navy planned to build two "Flight Zero" LCS vessels to refine the new class' concept of operations. More detailed mission modules are to be developed for the Flight One LCS that was hoped would appear soon after 2007. The Navy wanted to buy eight of these ships through 2009, with the first in 2005. No, go back to RADM Don Loren's 2002 article; nothing has changed. It is still think'n, hope'n and plann'n. In twice the time it took to fight WWII, LCS isn't PMC in any of its primary mission areas. One could argue ASUW. One could, but I wouldn't. Back to VADM Copeman; It’s a high speed, shallow draft, multi-mission workhorse full of technology that is our future. As we decommission different ships of various classes, LCS will step up and fill multiple roles. It is far more automated than previous class ships, and with lower manning, requires us to adapt our training and operations to meet that reality. A ship that cannot deploy for more than 4-months due to crew burnout and habitability issues is not a work horse. Show pony, perhaps .... but not a workhorse. It is not multi-mission. It is at best uni-mission. You cannot take a training time out and swap out mission modules when a brace of Houbei come around the inlet you are hunting mines in. Also, you cannot use the present tense. I like optimism ... but that is for the future when all the pixie dust takes root. Not now. It cannot today, tomorrow or until at earliest mid-late decade even partially fill in for anything. So, let me get to my priorities: 1. Warfighting. It’s what we do – A large part of that will be with LCS. LCS must get into the Fleet and fully integrated where we will use both variants and the mission modules to their best effect. 2. Readiness. The world is a dynamic place and the Navy has to have the best trained Sailors who will operate the best equipment possible. In many ways what we operate will determine the number, type and training of Sailors needed. That support trail begins now for what we will require in the decades to come. 3. Building the future fleet. What will the world look like in another decade. That’s a question which forces us to make assumptions about future resources, alliances, bases and strategies. The concepts, design outlines, support requirements—training, simulators, supply chain and dollars—required to operate in 2025 have to get underway soon. No, we won't do much warfighting with LCS. Its best utility will be presence operations in peacetime. Warfighting will be with DDG and up. LCS will be kept far away from significant warfighting, if it can avoid it. It simply is not ready, and won't be for awhile. The points about readiness and the future fleet are spot on. VADM Copeman is also spot on about the need to focus on 2025 now (where have we heard that before .....). This is the point of the article where I am actually starting to pay attention and am leaning in to read what he has to say. It sounds right and reflects sound reasoning one would expect from a USN VADM. Looking to the next paragraph; No matter what news you see or hear about our budget, as of today, we get to steam around the world as part of the most powerful Navy in history. We have the best people, representing the best nation, with the best ships ever known. Let’s keep it that way… tell the Surface Navy story wherever you go. The oceans aren’t getting smaller and the world isn’t getting safer. A maritime nation needs a worthy maritime capability. NOOOOOO! Tease! I feel robbed. Ending the article with output from the Random Flag Officer Speech Generator? I feel like for most of the article I was reading a press release from industry and then the start of an actual article of interest starts .... only to be cut off at the knees by a paragraph by the RFOSG. If I may humbly make a request to VADM Copeman .... take Priority 3, flavor it with Priority 2, and flesh that out to about 3,000 words or more. Submit it to Proceedings and use that as a conversation starter. Heck, do that and I'll extend an apology for being a snarky and immature smarta55, and offer you a full hour on Midrats to discuss it. 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 ran out of bullets but threatened to shoot the intruder if he moved. But hey she couldn't have used say 15 rounds of .40 S&W from one of those evil semi-autos that use a soon-to-be-banned high capacity magazine, right. No Ma'am you have to count on luck and the fact that this clown wasn't sure if you had a revolver or a semi-auto. If he had known, he could have figured out she had fired six rounds, not five, and decided he felt lucky. But we can trust Diane Feinstein to keep her safe, right? View the full article

While working on the orchard at my Dacha/bolthole this weekend, acreage so far off the grid I can't even get broadcast TV unless I get a 20' tower, I had a little revelation when thinking about a video I saw last week. What is one of the breathless reasons we seem to have disgorged so much intellectual, professional, political, and real capital on LCS over the last decade? What is the panic button ... ah yes; "the swarm." Sure, you hear MIW and ASW wishfull chattering of "make it work" about; but the swarm is the driver. The fear of a bunch of expendable guys in small expendable boats with unguided weapons or suicide packages attacking ships in relatively confined waters. Yep, to some, that is the billion dollar tactical challenge of this generation. Excuse me if I am not impressed. Not content with doing the logical thing, which would be to plus-up existing ships with everything from .50cal crew served weapons, to the well developed 25mm and 30mm manned or remote weapons out there that are "bolt and go" with a few minor alterations and training (which we have done some, here and there) - no - instead we had to throw away decades of solid experience in shipbuilding, repeat the vice of our ancestors with speed fetish, and squash anyone who spoke against the buzzword named Littoral Combat Ship. Now we have a sub-optimal Tiffany China Doll of a ship with nothing but shame and excuses to show for it. All of this for what is really only a very small, and frankly, a relatively easy tactical problem to solve in just a couple of years of pondering; if that for a partial solution - heck, WWII could have been fought twice+ in the time we have been trying to find "the" solution. If you need any evidence of how broke our system is - look at the inability to efficiently address the smallness of our problems. You want a tactical problem to solve? How about a regiment sized horizon of these guys? A couple-three generations ago, those who came before had significant challenges with the TU-22M and the older bombers with newer ASCM. From the F-4 to the F-14 and Aegis, they found solid solutions to that tactical challenge. A challenge that was from a serious peer competitor. Those who drove the Pop Warner level LCS clown car over the last decade+ were JO's when the varsity-level challenge of long-range naval aviation and the ASCM came to the front - along with the submarine threat, and the .... etc. In the large scheme of things, look at the exquisite dog's breakfast that is the attempt to confront a 3rd-rate power's suicide fleet and terrorist bomb laden clusters of Carolina Skiffs. Next time you hear someone make excuses about how "hard" it is to get a WWII DD sized warship to get more than a 57mm to work with a couple of Bushmasters, ask them, "Hard compared to what?" Until then, just be glad we didn't have to face these guys - after all, it looks like someone just got their qual. View the full article

From almost day-one of the LCS saga, the turrets-like response to any criticism to the capabilities of this sub-optimal platform has been, “Swarm attack, swarm attack, swarm attack, boobies, pee pee†– or something like that. When the never-was-has-been that was NLOS was deleted from the PPT, about the only reasonable thing that could fill the literal gaping holes was the Griffin missile. After all, we all know in hushed tones the limitations of sensor to shooter of the single … yes single .. 57-mm “main†gun and they had to get something. An OK something now is always better than a perfect thing that may never arrive. The key is to know you just have an OK and act accordingly. Thank goodness that we have the 30-mm and .50-cal onboard, as that really is the best response against swarms as it stands going in to 2013. We also know that history tells us that when actually faced with such attacks, like the Royal Navy did in San Carlos Water (but from the air), you will have Sailors with small arms shooting as well – all the while cursing that you are on a ship that, simply, does not have enough easily added medium caliber general purpose guns. Every war starts with ships getting additional small/medium caliber weapons added; so it will be with the next. But … let’s move on to the Griffin. Something is better than nothing, but we need to be clear that Griffin is simply not the answer. It is useful, but as sub-optimal for its needed purpose as LCS is. From a well known expert in weaponeering, I got the nod to share his thoughts and observations on Griffin. The balance of the below is a paraphrase with a few modifications and additions from his email. Assuming that Griffin is the Navy's answer to swarming tactics, there's a drawback. Griffin uses semi-active laser homing. That means the target has to remain painted by the laser so that the Griffin's seeker can home on the reflected laser light (visible or invisible to the human eye). Meanwhile, what about multiple bogeys? Unless you have multiple laser designators for the other bogeys, a swarming attack can overwhelm this kind of system. That's what the Iranians and others are training to do. Weather also affects laser targeting. Water droplets in the air (low cloud, rain, fog, mist) or smoke particles will scatter the laser beam to the point the missile cannot identify its target (unless it has some kind of "home on last good fix"). Those who have had to fly in the Arabian/Persian Gulf know what a nightmare the atmospherics can be in that place. The problem with the "last good fix" is the target is moving so it will be gone when the missile gets there. What is needed is a missile that has its own guidance system that's fire and forget once target lock is established. Once you get "tone", fire and switch to a new target. The Israeli Spike MR or ER is a fire and forget type of missile that's perfect for swarming attacks. Comparing Griffin to Spike, the better missile is the Israeli Spike MR or ER. The Spike guidance uses both imaging infrared and charge coupled device sensors for guidance. Countermeasures that work against lasers don't work against this kind of guidance. The above is the Executive Summary of the sub-optimal missile we play on putting on our sub-optimal platform. More work needed, and LCS are still in production ... and will be filled with Sailors who will be put in harm's way. We need to do the best we can with what we have. Still ... in many ways the LCS drama kind of reminds me of .... View the full article

If you worry what kind of impact the money trouble in DC may have on the condition of the ships we are riding hard and leaving up wet, I invite you to spend some time with RDML Joe Carnevale, USN (Ret), Senior Defense Advisor for the Shipbuilders Council of America, presentation from 5 December 2012. I recommend slide 31 if you are in a hurry. View the full article

... I raise you a deployment. Via Reuters; The Indian navy is prepared to deploy vessels to the South China Sea to protect India's oil interests there, the navy chief said on Monday amid growing international fears over the potential for naval clashes in the disputed region. India has sparred diplomatically with China in the past over its gas and oil exploration block off the coast of Vietnam. China claims virtually the entire mineral-rich South China Sea and has stepped up its military presence there. Other nations such as Vietnam, Philippines and Malaysia have competing claims. Indian state-run explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has a stake in a gas field in the Nam Con Son basin, off Vietnam's south coast. Indian Navy Chief Admiral D.K Joshi said while India was not a claimant in the dispute over territorial rights in the South China Sea, it was prepared to act, if necessary, to protect its maritime and economic interests in the region. "When the requirement is there, for example, in situations where our country's interests are involved, for example ONGC ... we will be required to go there and we are prepared for that," Joshi told View the full article

While many here have spent a fair bit of time poo-poo'n the Chinese's first baby steps in to carrier aviation, I think the engineer-heavy USN mind has largely missed the point - there is a lot more going on here. It looks like the Chinese get it. They get the symbology, the images, the significance of the milestone. They know there is a lot more to do - but they are not focused on the right-now. While we have spent a lot of time and money diminishing our national capital - from "Global Force For Good" to appologizing for our power, to begging for a 1,000-ship volunteer international navy to do our bidding (har, har, snark), to intentionally keeping our CVN away from Libya so our allies could play top-dog while they empied their shallow bunkers - the Chinese continue to build, and message. The Chinese people get it. Think about it. Here's what I mean. Via The Atlantic - guess what this guy is doing besides post-modern cat-blogging? Yep, he is a P-3 guy on a disassociated sea tour ... no wait ... no ... he is just the cheeky part of what has become an organic Chinese meme. A meme of ... They get it. Good for China, and I am glad to see that they are enjoying something that they should be proud of. Anyone have any NIMITZ memes we can counter this with? Hat tip PK. View the full article

It has finally happened. We finally have news confirmation from Xinhua and also have pictures of J-15's first take/off and landing from Xinhua. The news of first landing came a couple of days ago, but this is the first time we have seen the photos. Here is a timeline of China's naval flanker program just to give you an idea: 2001, Assemble the T-10K-3 prototype that PLAN purchased from Ukraine. Use this for long term technical study. January 2007, AVIC1 and PLAN’s major program (J-15) research work started. July 2007, AVIC1 SAC had a large program tackling meeting January 2008, blueprint work finished, start prototype research & production stage August 31st 2009, J15-0001 had maiden flight May 6th 2010, maiden take-off flight from the simulated jet-ski at CFTE. Continued production of single digit number of prototypes for future testing August 10th, 2011, China’s first aircraft carrier went out for sea trials. J-15-0005/CFTE-554 and J15-0008/CFTE-556 prototypes made numerous fly-overs, low altitude touch and go landing along the way. July 2012, Finished certification test flights, given permission to product single digit number of batch 0 J-15s for initial testing/trials works September 25th, 2012, PLAN first aircraft carrier was named Liaoning and had its first sailing after commissioning in October November 3rd, 2012, J-15S-0001 had maiden flight Early November, 2012, Liaoning had second sailing after commissioning November 20th, 2012, a PLANAF pilot made the first carrier landing trial. November 23rd, 2012, Two PLANAF pilots flying 2 J-15s finished carrier op controlled first official takeoff and landing trials. This marks successful completion of first stage of the Carrier aviation project. View the full article

Perhaps it is because I spent a lot of time as a JO playing around with the how, when, and to what degree we would nuke someone that nuclear weapons can sometimes be a cold subject. Especially at the tactical nuke level - it isn't the end of the world. Indeed, we trained to fight and win in a nuclear environment not that long ago. Along those lines, I think more people should get comfortable with Alex Wellerstein's NUKEMAP. From Davie Crocket to the Tsar Bomb - play dial-a-yield all you want. Want to know what a probably terrorist nuke of NYC would look like? Without pondering fallout .... build your own ... even your hometown if you wish. View the full article

In this superpower, now on the wane. I guess "lady parts", class warfare, welfare, racial identity, and incompetent foreign policy are compelling to the "undecided" and the "moderates", and to far too many sheeple. . The fate of our Nation was determined by the state that gives us the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals. To quote a friend of mine from my Twitter feed: FreedomOfChoice lost. Rugged Individualism lost. What used to be "what made America great" lost. Isn't it funny...NOW is the time to find common ground? The last four years were about being told "common ground" was succumbing to Progressivism. /Rant Time to kit up, ruck up, and get back into the fight. Catharsis... View the full article

Over at Foreign Policy, John Arquilla - the professor and chairof the defense analysis department at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School - writes about Game Theory with regards to the state of our Navy and recent overly-confident statements by our own President. Instead of using complex algorithms, Professor Arquilla uses games we all know - Battleship and Stratego - to demonstrate the lack of strategic understanding at the highest levels of the Obama Administration. ...In the finalcandidates' debate last week, President Obama delivered a telling, somewhatsnarky zinger in response to Governor Romney's call for naval expansion: "Thisisn't ‘Battleship.'" He then went on to school Romney about how having someaircraft carriers and submarines means we don't need more ships. The governorhad no adequate reply. But the fact ofthe matter is that the old "Battleship" board game -- not the more recent movieflop that was somehow based on it -- offers exactly the right metaphor todescribe strategic affairs in the information age. "Battleship" does so bycapturing the distilled essence of naval operations today: the hider/finderdynamic... Read the whole piece here. View the full article

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 an uncertain future where it is not known precisely, who, where and when, it will be required to fight. It only knows that history has shown that it will be required to fight. Defence, therefore, needs an intellectual and physical agility that is able to deliver this fleet, fit for task. If not, the Navy risks slipping into terminal decline unable to protect the UK’s vital interests." ... "206. Evolution Rather than Revolution in Maritime Affairs. As the Royal Navy is always in contact, its response to technological change has always demanded an evolution, rather than revolution, in maritime affairs. As one of the major tasks of the Royal Navy is ‘to exert power and influence in support of national political objectives with the aim to prevent conflict by deterring, coercing, stabilising and reassuring others in time of crisis’, the audience needs to believe in that power. It is this interpretation that prevents conflict. A maritime power, such as the UK, would not wish to risk a revolutionary change in its means of applying that power being misinterpreted as a marked reduction in its warfighting capability and/or credibility. Therefore, any change not only needs to deliver improved capability but also requires a clear articulation of its credibility in order to support the primary objective of maritime power: to prevent conflict." OK, the concept has some typical RN issues (like undergunning) - but I like the intellectual nature of their paper. Worth your time. View the full article

DDG 1000's composite deckhouse was revealed this week down in Gulfport. The uniquely angled 48.8m long, by 21.3m wide, by 19.8m high balsa-wood core carbon fiber super-structure is designed to provide the Navy's newest guided-missile destroyer a low radar and infrared signature. The deckhouse, combined with a low-profile tumblehome hull will likely achieve this goal, but is it truly fair to say that this design is "stealthy?" Today's enemies will not operate long range maritime patrol aircraft and radar satellites like the Soviet Union did to locate U.S. fleets on the open ocean 30 years ago. They will, however, use a network of tattletale fishing dhows equipped with satellite phones, cheap tactical UAVs, and HUMINT networks in nearby logistics ports with twitter accounts and smart phones to find ships operating in narrow seas such as the Arabian Gulf. A singulary-unique profile 14,000 ton combatant is not likely to be able to hide from these intelligence platforms, no matter how innovative her design may be. One hopes that the three staggeringly expensive DDG-1000 destroyers will validate many new naval technologies, but how to hide a ship in the littorals during 21st Century irregular warfare will not likely be one of them. Ingalls Photo of the Week: Ingalls shipbuilders at the Gulfport Composite Center of Excellence watch as the DDG 1000 deckhouse begins its journey from the factory to the barge that will deliver it to Maine. Photo by Steve Blount. The opinions and views expressed in this post are those of the author alone and are presented in his personal capacity. They do not necessarily represent the views of U.S. Department of Defense, the US Navy, or any other agency. View the full article

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 Congressional Research Service published an overview [PDF] of the various job loss scenarios built around sequestration. Neither they nor us saw the “think of the African children” angle coming though. Sequestration is a bad mechanism that would have adverse effects because of its hamfisted nature. That should provide enough impetus to steer Congress into action, rather than constant predictions of impending doom followed by apathy. The US Defense Acquisition University updated its Defense Acquisition Guidebook to reflect recent regulatory changes including evolutions in the Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution (PPBE) process, affordability requirements, and the role of the Analysis of Alternatives (AoA). THE US Army War College’s SSI argues in favor [PDF] of maintaining American troops in Europe, if only to sustain interoperability with other NATO members. Vietnam ordered 2 more battleships from local shipbuilders, following a first delivery back in January. Vietnam’s naval modernization so far relied on Russian restocking. Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) found Apple’s new smartphone mapping application too accurate for their taste, with its high resolution pictures of an early radar system yet to even be put online. After a similar piece from the Center for Public Integrity published by NBC News in July, CNN takes its turn presenting the remanufacturing of M1 Abrams tanks as a politically-motivated, lobbyist-protected job program. Video below: (more…) View the full article

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 exceptionalism, or failure to adapt? View the full article

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 its anti-ship ballistic missile the US President, Kenneth Phoenix, fears the America will lose its naval supremacy. Because America is recovering from a massive recession and has no funds to compete with China’s advancing technology the President enlists the support of retired US Air Force Lt General Patrick McLanahan. His idea is to have the US refurbish old but potent long-range bombers that will be able to push back against Chinese aggression. After being given the green light he leads a force to challenge the Chinese threat head-on. Dale Brown told BlackFive that he wanted to alert his readers by creating a doomsday scenario, especially since sequestration appears to be going forward. Sequestration is the trillion-dollar budget cuts mandated by the Budget Control Act, passed by Congress last year. As of January 1st, 2013, half of those cuts must come from defense, $500 million over a period of ten years. Brown stated, “I decided to paint a picture where China gets strong enough, rich enough, and bold enough to enforce their historical claims of the South China Sea.†This book is about outsourcing America’s defense to private contractors. Since Brown was a USAF navigator in the B-52G Stratofortress bomber and a radar navigator in the FB-111A supersonic bomber he definitely knows about how long-range bombers work. He uses his past knowledge to show the need for long-range bombers because of China’s distance and their 100 million soldiers. In one of his past books, Plan of Attack , he created an American Holocaust, having Russia wipe out two-thirds of America’s nuclear capability, leaving only submarine cruise missiles. His books previous to Tiger’s Claw are about a militarized space, but because of the real-life budget cuts Brown had to create a universe that “adapted to the real world. Thus, I came up with a story about outsourcing American fighters. I got the idea from viewing the Boneyard at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. B-1 bombers were just sitting out there. I had the idea to dust off these airplanes and re-build them with modern systems capable of flying long range.†As with all his books the military hardware and technology have been the main characters to support the plot. He told BlackFive, “The characters live to support the gadgets. After twenty-five years of doing this I decided that character development must be secondary to the plot.†Tiger’s Claw is a very insightful and interesting book. Readers will be able to gain an understanding on where the next danger could be for America’s military. It has an interesting and fast paced plot that is very realistic. View the full article

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, judging from the form letter sent out to the families of 17 who were among 30 U.S. service members killed when a CH-47 Chinook helicopter transporting them crashed in Wardak province, Afghanistan, on Aug. 6, 2011... View the full article

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 a night of firsts, a night for which people shared televisions with those who had them not, or were not able to get to one at that amazing time. At that age, it really didn't register to me that Neil Armstrong was a Naval Aviator (Lt. JG) or that he had flown combat in Korea. I never new until years after about his plane being hit on a mission, and that he kept it in the air but then lost a few feet of wing to a pole (some say he hit an anti-aircraft chain) because of how low he pulled it out. He kept it in the air despite that, and finally ejected only when it could be done safely over water -- even if winds blew him back to land where a friend with a jeep picked him up. What is out there about him comes almost exclusively from others, complete with contradictions. Then again, that's not surprising as he was in many ways a quiet and modest man. Someone who much preferred teaching to the telling of tales. Someone who worked hard to build the next generation of explorers, aviators, and engineers. Today, he has taken that final giant step that awaits us all. Godspeed Neil Armstrong. LW View the full article

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. Cordially, Everyone else from the Special Ops community View the full article