pmaidhof

To go with paraphrasing a recent former US President, "...it depends what the definition of 'weeks' is..."

Troublemaker! In a place of prominence, look at the US flag on the Missouri (2nd photo), what's behind it??? Yah, right there next to the ANW CD case. Alright, alright, I see the green dvd box now. It is sort of washed in the photo, but I'll take your word for it.

I can hear Tony now..."Hey, check this out!...BOOM!"

Gulf Strike prominently displayed...ok, where's TacOps?

MRAPs going to Iraq on Russian cargo planes By Erik Holmes - Staff writer Posted : Friday Oct 26, 2007 17:29:47 EDT The Air Force has been forced to use Russian commercial cargo jets to rush mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles from the U.S. to Iraq because it does not have enough C-5 and C-17 planes to do the job, the service’s top civilian official said recently. Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne said at an Oct. 24 House Armed Services Committee hearing that American reliance on Russian Antonov jumbo jets to move critical war supplies indicates that the Air Force may need more than its current 300 C-5s and C-17s. “We are now sharing the mission of flying MRAPs over to Iraq between C-17s and Antonov airplanes,” Wynne said. “Did [we] truly envision that we would fly war supplies with Russian-made airplanes? I don’t know.” MRAP vehicles are the Defense Department’s top procurement priority, and the department this month ordered an additional 2,400 to help protect American servicemembers from roadside bombs in Iraq. The department has said it needs 15,274 MRAPs for all the services. Wynne said the U.S. military has used the enormous Antonov planes to transport more than 200,000 pounds of cargo to Iraq. Rep. Jim Saxton, R-N.J., said he was unaware that the Antonov airplanes are being used so extensively in the war effort. The Russian-made Antonov An-124 is 25 percent larger than the C-5, the U.S. Air Force’s largest cargo plane. The AN-24 is operated primarily by Russian and Ukrainian freight companies, according to the Web site, Airliners.net. Find Armytimes article here.

8.1.1 Nice pictures and description Tony. Didn't see where pete logs on wanting to command a multi divisional air and sea assault on a hostile shoreline.

Tony, Download results in an error.

Wreck of Civil War gunboat found under mud? By Russ Bynum - The Associated Press Posted : Friday Oct 26, 2007 7:30:32 EDT SAVANNAH, Ga. — Captured by Confederate sailors in a bloody midnight sneak attack in 1864, the gunboat Water Witch became one of the few Civil War ships to sail under the flags of both the Confederate and Union navies. Archaeologists say they found strong evidence Thursday they’ve located the Water Witch’s wreckage buried under more than 10 feet of mud in the Vernon River south of Savannah. Divers pushed a 20-foot metal rod through the river mud Thursday and tapped solid wood and metal underneath. It was the same location where an 1865 survey map showed Confederate sailors burned the ship to prevent Union Gen. William T. Sherman’s army from recapturing it. “In all likelihood, it is the Water Witch,” said Gordon Watts, an underwater archaeologist hired by the state of Georgia. “We’d have to absolutely dig something up to say for sure.” If Watts is correct, the Water Witch would be just the third Civil War shipwreck — along with the ironclad CSS Georgia and the blockade runner CSS Nashville — to be found out of dozens known to have been sunk in Georgia waters, said Dave Crass, Georgia’s state archaeologist. “There are lots more that are out there and we know where they are, but it’s cost-prohibitive” to go after them, Crass said. Archaeologists got lucky with the Water Witch. The state Department of Transportation had to survey a part of the Vernon River it plans to bridge with a parkway extension. The agency agreed to go ahead and check a spot just two miles away where the Water Witch was believed to have burned. Using a magnetometer, a giant metal detector, surveyors detected large iron objects scattered beneath the river’s surface in an area 200 feet long. An 1865 map marked the same spot as the Water Witch’s grave. Crass said the state will consult with the federal government, which technically owns the wreckage, to see if they support funding an expedition to verify whether the diver found the Water Witch. The 160-foot, wooden-hulled Water Witch was built by the Navy in 1851 as a sort of hybrid of old and new seafaring technologies. Though outfitted with a steam engine and side-mounted paddle wheels, the ship also had 90-foot masts for sailing. During the Civil War, the Water Witch patrolled blockades off the coasts of Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, but mostly in the waters of Ossabaw Sound between Ossabaw Island and the Georgia mainland 15 miles south of Savannah. That’s where Confederate Navy Lt. Thomas Pelot was assigned to lead a raid to capture the ship in the early-morning darkness on June 3, 1864. Pelot led a group of about 120 men who used small boats to slip alongside the Water Witch undetected. Their numbers gave them a healthy advantage over the ship’s crew of 65 sailors. Taken by surprise, the Union sailors still put up a fight, engaging the Confederates in close-quarters combat with sabers and revolvers. Luther Billings, the assistant paymaster aboard the Water Witch, later estimated 40 men were killed or wounded in the raid. The dead included Pelot, who led the assault, and Dallas Moses, a slave who was also paid a $100 monthly salary as a Confederate river pilot. Moses piloted the lead boat in the sneak attack, and was supposed to steer the captured Water Witch back to Savannah — under the flag of the Confederate Navy. Though numerous ships were captured by both sides in the Civil War, few actually served on both sides during the war, said Bruce Smith, executive director of the National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus. “It was fairly uncommon,” Smith said. “It did happen a number of times, less than a handful.” Because Moses was killed before he could pilot the captured Water Witch, the ship never made it back to Savannah. Confederate sailors dared not take their prize back to sea, where Union battleships watched for it, and the inland waterways to the city were too shallow. The Water Witch remained in the waters near Ossabaw Sound for about six months until December, when Sherman’s Union troops closed in on Savannah. Fearing the Union would reclaim the ship, Confederate sailors burned it in the water. Smith said written orders from the period show that sailors stripped the Water Witch of its guns, ammunition and most of its supplies before burning it. But he said any artifacts that could be recovered would be valuable. “If it was just doorknobs, that would be fantastic as far as I’m concerned, if it was the real deal,” Smith said. Find NavyTimes article here.

you'll get nothing and like it. Sorry , I have had such a dearth of things to say of late, I had to say something.

I read that list last night, intrigued about the too many I have not seen and chuckling about the thumbs down, especially the scathing U-571 retort.

Leader Vows To Modernize Military Cites global ‘trends’ in need for able army By Scott McDonald, Associated Press BEIJING — China’s sprawling military will speed up its modernization during the next five years, increasingly adopting high-tech battle systems and upgrading training, President Hu Jintao said yesterday. In his keynote speech at the opening of the Communist Party Congress, held every five years, Mr. Hu said he was committed to making China’s military more modern. “In keeping with the new trends in world military affairs and the new requirements of China’s development, we must promote innovation in military theory, technology, organization and development,” Mr. Hu said. In a two-hour, 20-minute address, Mr. Hu outlined no bold initiatives. But he offered something for most key constituencies — tinkering with an authoritarian political system for the party’s liberal wing and praising Karl Marx and Mao Zedong. But he insisted the Communist Party must stay in control of the changes. Mr. Hu’s comments have additional weight because he is also the party’s leader and head of the party commission that controls the People’s Liberation Army, the world’s largest standing army, with 2.3 million members. The PLA retains its highest loyalty to the Communist Party, not the Chinese state, and Mr. Hu said the party’s absolute leadership over the armed forces was a “fundamental principle.” Reflecting that special status, PLA members were represented heavily at the congress, accounting for about 13 percent of the 2,217 delegates attending, even though the armed forces make up just 2.2 percent of the party’s 73 million members. About 1.6 million members of the PLA and the paramilitary People’s Armed Police are party members. The PLA has seen its budget rise quickly along with the growing economy as Beijing tries to upgrade the massive but largely obsolete force. China says spending for the PLA grew 17.8 percent this year to nearly $45 billion. It was the largest annual increase in more than a decade. That puts China roughly in the same neighborhood as Japan, Russia and Britain in defense spending, although it spends less than one-tenth of what the U.S. military does. The Pentagon says China’s real defense spending may be much more because the official budget doesn’t include major weapons purchases and other items. Mr. Hu said China will “adjust and reform the systems of defense-related science, technology and industry and of weapons and equipment procurement, and enhance our capacity for independent innovation in research and development of weapons and equipment.” He did not give details on how that would be done.

Yeah, like some simple open ocean, essentially blue-on-blue "exercise" With the relatively new trilogy air rules, it could be completed without too much hair loss.

"We" could try this in HCE...when it's released.

That was my initial response, ugh!

Alright then, one of you "busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest " folks throw out a couple of date/times so that we may collectively decide on when to meet.

In spades!

Not sure what happened. Most everyone was eager to play. Lets set a time that works for the majority and "fly". Pete

Hi David, The bottom half of page 132 found in South Atlantic War 2 provides the brief, but hopefully soon-to-be expanded, Annex T. Enjoy. Pete

It really makes me wonder if the RN truly needs a “return to big deck carrier aviation”. I would think that with all of their legacy interests around the world, real or perceived, would steer them towards having the platforms to; a.) maintain presence, and b.) have the ability to concentrate. Why are they putting all of their proverbial eggs into one or two baskets? Is it all a prestige thing? The F-35 Lighting II’s that they are planning to purchase – are they not the short take-off and vertical landing variant – the B Model I believe? The article mentions that the Invincible-Class they currently have often deploys without aircraft due to a shortage of Harriers. While it seems that replacing the aircraft may be the answer, their carriers are also apparently at the end of their service life. Has the cost of ship development and building gotten to the point that if you are going to build a large warship such as a “general” carrier, you might as well just built a fleet carrier? I suppose that’s a rhetorical question. I’m all for power projection, and the need for sea-basing, but wouldn’t the RN be better served with a handful more V/STOL capable CVL’s?

China makes military strides as Iraq fight rages By Eric Talmadge - The Associated Press Posted : Saturday Sep 29, 2007 9:04:46 EDT KADENA AIR BASE, Japan — While the U.S. has been tied up in Iraq, China is modernizing its military and its air defenses are now nearly impenetrable to all but the newest of American fighters, the senior U.S. military official in Japan said. Lt. Gen. Bruce Wright, commander of the roughly 50,000 U.S. forces in Japan, Washington’s biggest ally in Asia, said in an interview with The Associated Press this week that the Iraq war is reducing the availability of U.S. troops and equipment to meet other contingencies. It’s also eating funds that could go toward replacing or upgrading planes that are being pushed to their operational limits, he said. China, meanwhile, is rapidly filling the skies with newer, Russian-made Sukhoi Su-27 “Flankers” and Su-30s, along with the domestically built J-10, a state-of-the-art fighter that Beijing just rolled out in January. China has also improved its ballistic missile defenses and its ability to take the fight into space — as it proved in January by shooting down an old weather satellite at an orbital height similar to that used by the U.S. military. Wright stressed he is “positive” about the current efforts to increase diplomatic and political engagement with Beijing. But he said the Chinese military buildup is disconcerting. China says spending for its People’s Liberation Army, the world’s largest standing army with 2.3 million members, grew 17.8 percent this year to nearly $45 billion. The Pentagon estimates China’s actual defense spending may be much higher, because the official budget does not include money for high-priced weapons systems and some other items. In the U.S., the Senate is wrapping up debate on a $672 billion defense policy bill that would authorize more than a half trillion dollars in annual defense spending and $150 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Are we in trouble? It depends on the scenario,” Wright said Thursday. “But you have to be concerned about the small number of our forces and the age of our forces.” Wright noted the Air Force’s fleet is older than ever before. The average age of the F-15 fighters, for example, is about 24 years, while that of the KC-135 Stratotanker, a mid-air refueling plane that is a key element in the Air Force’s ability to conduct long-range missions, is 46 years. Wright, who was at this air base on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa to meet with local commanding officers, said the improvement in Chinese air defenses has made China’s airspace “difficult if not impossible” to penetrate with the kind of U.S. fighters — F-15s and F-16s — now deployed in Japan. Doing so would require the F-22 or the Joint Strike Fighter, which both have stealth capabilities. The Air Force sent a dozen F-22s to Japan earlier this year, but only for a temporary deployment. It has no plans to bring more here permanently. The Joint Strike Fighter, or F-35, is not yet combat-ready. “Our planes are much older than the planes they would be matched against,” Wright said. “For the first time in history, we are seeing another nation, in this case China, with newer fighters than we have. We know that they continue to invest at a level that is unprecedented. We need to be watchful of Chinese military capabilities.” He said the demands of supporting ground troops in Iraq has pushed the Air Force to draw on its fighters from virtually anywhere they can be found. Two U.S. F-16 fighter squadrons from the northern Japan base of Misawa are currently rotating in and out of Iraq. “The question is how much more are they going to need,” he said. “They are already pulling them out of Misawa, so where else are they going to come from?” Wright noted Beijing is also at an advantage because it is not now at war, and can thus devote more of its resources to building up new capabilities. “China is not engaged in a tough ground war in southwest Asia so they have the freedom to maneuver to modernize forces that are not current,” he said. Air Force officials have sent up alarms recently regarding funding. Although the Army and Marines are increasing their troop levels by 92,000, the Air Force had announced plans to cut its costs by reducing 40,000 personnel. That plan had to be scaled back, however, because of the need for support for the larger number of ground troops. In May, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said drastic action was needed. “I’m concerned for the future,” he said. “We’re simply not funded to maintain and do everything that everyone wants us to do.” Wright, who is also commander of the 5th Air Force, which is based just outside of Tokyo, said the crunch is being felt in the Pacific. “It’s not just boots on the ground that’s fighting the war right now,” he said. “There’s a funding top line for the Department of Defense, and the Air Force needs more of it.” Find Marine Corps Times article here.

From my experience CBU-type ordnance is equally effective, provided it is on target, whether it explodes and does the intended damage or become UXO and thus needs to be cleared as such. There is also the legacy effect of UXO's. Depending on the surface and angle that exposive rounds may impact on, all sorts of ordance becomes in effect an area denial weapon, with potentially catastrophic results. As I may have mentioned here before, in immediately post-hostilities Kuwait, I lost a HMMWV to american UXO bomblets lying on the sand. Didn't destroy it, but was an effective "mission kill". I also was present at a fam-fire over there when a Light Anti-tank Weapon (LAW) bounced off the sand and then to add fuel to the fire, the braniacs decided to fire some 40mm Mk-19 rounds at it in order to trigger a sympathetic explosion, when all it accomplished was shutting the range down and calling in EOD.

Follow-on waves....? Hey! there only one LCU..I built it from scratch.

Thanks Jan, Looks like it will provide some interesting reading, and more importantly maybe some gaming what-if's.

Ok, still need to do some minor detailing, but here it is, a scratch built LCU in approximity 1/285 scale. The tanks are 1/285 GHQ. Off load from the starboard side. The business end of an M1A1 section. Off load from the port side. Blurry overhead...sorry. Detailed off load, M1A1 turns turret as not to bury it like a lawn dart.

Not as grand and sexy as Brad's new addition to the CV32 State Arsenal, I am about 98% complete on a scratch built 1/285-ish Landing Craft Utility. By 1/285-ish, my 1/285 M1 Abrams look just about right when loaded, and during off-load. I captured an image of the LCU from global security. Cropped, resized, colored, printed, cut, used to trace on to styrene, cut styrene, glued my colorized images onto the styrene, glued the styre pieces together. looks pretty good. It is useable, but I feel that I cannot leave it as is. I will attempt to construct the pilothouse tonight with styrene components since the rest of the ships edges are fairly 2-D. Photos (hopefully) soon.