Military News Watch

PBS Newshour does Final Countdown

2012-01-23T18:51:00.000-08:00

The video for the PBS NewsHour for Jan 23rd, 2012 did not say "File Footage", which is really really odd, because they showed more than a half dozen F-14s parked on the deck of an aircraft carrier in motion.

Perhaps these were Iranian F-14s?

-HJC

How to identify stealth fighters

2011-11-22T17:46:00.001-08:00

Intel Committee launches probe into security threats by China

Prototype of Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter jet that allegedly defeats U.S. defense technology. Much of the technology was stolen from United States.

If only the writer would have looked at the full size image, he would have seen "YF-23" and "U.S. AIR FORCE".The USAF isn't currently part of China.-HJC

Swift is not a LCS

2011-11-21T07:37:00.001-08:00

U.S. Shifting Military Forces Closer to ChinaThe article isn't too bad, but it includes an image labeled "Littoral Combat Ship" and in this image there is exactly one ship. That ship is clearly marked "HSV 2".The HSV-2 Swift is not a LCS.The Navy used to have a factsheet that compared JHSV vs. LCS, but The Swift isn't a JHSV either. The JHSV design arose out of operations involving The Swift, so it is a lot closer to being a JHSV than it is to being a LCS.-HJC

You want more wanring time, not less.

2011-11-19T06:52:00.001-08:00

Taiwan Hawkeye aircraft head for US upgrading

Analysts say all four E-2Ts will be upgraded to the Hawkeye 2000 configuration, further reducing warning time if the Chinese were to launch an air attack on the island.

If the upgrade does not increase the warning time, then why bother with it?-HJC

Pentagon rushes into the asbestos of tomorrow, today.

2011-11-16T07:04:00.001-08:00

United States Department of Defense Taps Nanocomp Technologies as Nanomanufacturing Partner

The U.S. Dept. of Defense recognizes that CNT materials are vital to several of its next generation platforms and components, including lightweight body and vehicle armor with superior strength, improved structural components for satellites and aircraft, enhanced shielding on a broad array of military systems from electromagnetic interference (EMI) and directed energy, and lightweight cable and wiring. The Company's CTex(TM) CNT yarns and tapes, for example, can reduce the weight of aircraft wire and cable harnesses by as much as 50 percent, resulting in considerable operational cost savings, as well as provide other valuable attributes such as flame resistance and improved reliability.

Yet another super material promoted by the United States military. What could possibly go wrong?

Study Says Carbon Nanotubes as Dangerous as Asbestos

Oh yeah, that.

-HJC

USAF's new bomber

2011-05-25T06:41:00.000-07:00

FEULNER: Obama’s defense defunding. Wash. Times, 24 May 2011.

... an Air Force bomber and the second airborne laser aircraft.
...
So would be the Army’s surface-to-air missile, the Air Force’s new bomber ...

So Mr. Feulner is saying that the President who is starting the USAF's new bomber is the one who is canceling it and this is so important that he has to list it twice?

Where did they find such an idiot?

Ed Feulner is president of the Heritage Foundation

Oh, well that explains it.
-HJC

The techniques of achieving low maneuverability, or stealth as it's popularly known

2011-05-10T19:43:00.000-07:00

Technology in US helicopter not so secret: expert, AFP, 9th May 2011.

"The techniques of achieving low maneuverability, or stealth as it's popularly known, are fairly well understood."

The "expert" in this case is Mr. LockMart Institute himself, Loren B. Thompson. I think LBT understands quite well that the days of the "wobbling goblin" are long over and that this is most likely the result of a dial-by interview along with a transcription error.

-HJC

Global Communist Conspiracy threatens Australia

2011-02-10T08:38:00.000-08:00

"Elusive warbird F-22 Raptor makes its Australian debut", Steve Creedy, Aviation writer and Village Idiot, The Australian, February 11, 2011

The decision, which capped F-22 production at 187 aircraft, has been called into question by the public emergence of China's J-20 and a co-operative program between Russia and China to build a similar aircraft.

So China is part of the Sukhoi/HAL FGFA along with Russia and India? What amazing sources Mr. Creedy must have! Did some Goon tell him this?

It seems like the major threat to the future of Australia must be in their drinking water.

-HJC

EVF, V for V-shaped hull?

2011-01-30T13:09:00.000-08:00

Amphibious Assault Vehicles still in the fight, JDNews, 30 January 2011.

... and in the all-important category of survivability. The EFV would have provided a tougher exterior and a hull that was V-shaped, rather than flat, to protect against the modern threat of improvised explosive devices.

No, it does not have a V-shaped hull. It has a flatbottom so it can hydroplane like USS Freedom, only half as fast.

Henry J. Cobb

There are no F-15SE Silent Eagles

2010-07-14T20:44:00.000-07:00

There's just one tiny problem with the recent test flight of the Boeing Silent Eagle aircraft.

There are no Boeing Silent Eagle aircraft. The first one has not been built.

What has flown is this:

Boeing F-15 Silent Eagle Demonstrator Makes 1st Flight

Silent Eagle flight demonstrator aircraft F-15E1 completed a successful first flight on July 8 from Lambert St. Louis International Airport.

The F-15E1 is, as the designation suggests, a slightly modified Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle that has been wired to operate the Conformal Weapons Bay which is being built for the Silent Eagle.

Once the F-15E1 tests are complete the very first F-15SE Silent Eagle can be built with the final version of the Conformal Weapons Bay. Because this will be a somewhat stealthy aircraft the fit between the Silent Eagle and the Conformal Weapons Bay must be exact. This is why the CWB is being built (and flown) first and then the final aircraft will be built to match it.

Naturally the media is already at play with this.

Israel Eyes Boeing's Stealthy F-15E

The Israeli Defense Ministry is talking with the Pentagon about buying Boeing's F-15E1 because of delays in developing Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Israel's first choice for its next major fighter purchase, The Jerusalem Post reported Monday.

-HJC

China Won’t Rule The Skies

2010-05-27T08:25:00.000-07:00

A guest piece in The Diplomat:

Obviously, if China were to successfully field a fighter with even a fraction of the F-22’s versatility or survivability, that would present major problems for neighbours such as Taiwan—there’s no air surveillance radar in the world today that can successfully track a fifth-generation fighter.

Actually every stealth aircraft has some slight radar return and just about every air surveillance radar can track every stealth aircraft, if it is close enough.

A radar warning device, like the fuzz buster for a car to help prevent speeding tickets, can detect a radar out to a distance governed by the power of the radar divided by the square of the distance. Therefore a radar that is four times as bright can be detected twice as far away. The reason for this is that doubling the radius of a sphere increases its surface area by four times, but increasing the power of the radar by four times keeps the same energy striking a limited surface like the antenna of the detector.

Radars work by detecting the reflection of their own transmissions on the targets. So a target that is twice as far away will have a fourth the energy striking it and this return spot will then be divided by another factor of four on the return trip. Therefore to detect the same target twice as far away requires a radar with 16 times the power. Distance applies as the fourth power.

Now let's mount the fuzz buster on a stealth car with the same radar return as the F-22 Raptor, that is to say it reflects radar waves as if it where a steel marble. This gives the same result as reducing the power of the radar by the ratio of the change in the Radar Cross Section (RCS). A car has a front surface area of say two meters and no concern for stealth in its design so let's assume that it has an RCS on the order of one square meter. The steal marble has a surface area 10000 times smaller and so is detected at a tenth of the usual range. The cops could search at the usual range by using a radar that is 10000 times more powerful. (However microwave ovens are a spinoff from radar research, which is why navy ships and fighter aircraft have danger signs marking their radars.) But this dangerously powerful traffic radar could be picked up by the fuzz buster from a hundred times further out so the driver would have plenty of warning.

And that is how the F-22 Raptor avoids being seen on radar. It sees the radars first (ground or air based) and avoids them.

Now, who was this person who wrote the article who didn't know anything about radar?

Dr. Loren Thompson is Chief Operating Officer of the Lexington Institute, located near Washington, D.C.

Henry J. Cobb

USAF Grooms Teenage Computer Geeks

2010-04-10T14:38:00.000-07:00

USAF Grooms Teenage Computer Geeks, Aviation Week

In order to see what a dreadful choice of terms this is, check the following helpful resource.

How to Recognize Grooming

-HJC

Unmissile Frigates vs Unmanned LCS

2010-04-09T19:04:00.000-07:00

Mayport frigates may get reprieve

Most of the cost would be due to personnel since the frigates need nearly 200 sailors, whereas new littoral combat ships need about 40 sailors each.

USS Freedom does indeed have a "core crew" of 40, but it needs a mission crew to do anything other than just sail around. The main way that a LCS resembles these Frigates (sans the big missiles they were built to carry), is that they both operate helicopters and the crew required to maintain and operate those helicopters are not included in the 40 "core crew".

USS Freedom is built to house 75 total crew, but on its first deployment required a mini-trailer park setup in the cargo bay to bunk another 20 crew just to perform missions well short of full scale combat.

That's still half the crew to operate the same two helicopters, but not a fifth the crew.

-HJC

Carbine Dating

2010-03-07T11:13:00.000-08:00

Opinion: U.S. armed forces still using outdated equipment. By Michael Lynch, Special to the Mercury News, Posted: 03/06/2010 08:00:00 PM PST

I was issued an M16A2 when I was mobilized and deployed to Iraq as a sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserve's 341st Military Police Company (San Jose) in the spring of 2003. However, we should have been issued an M4, the more modern version of the M16, which active-duty MPs were given. Instead I was handed a weapon that was state of the art during the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

The M4 carbine is not an assualt rifle like the M16 rifle. It is a lighter and less powerful weapon (same bullets, but a shorter barrel to add energy to the bullets) and yes it would have been a better choice for a MP unit, if not for line infantry.

Journalists can be forgiven for not knowing the difference between a rifle and a carbine, but it would be nice if the service members of this nation's armed forces who are issued such weapons could tell the difference.

-HJC

Prime Minister Bill Clinton

2010-03-01T08:02:00.000-08:00

Exclusive: Inadequate Budget Support for Air and Naval Power, William R. Hawkins, Family Security Matters, March 1, 2010

The last bomber program resulted in the B-2 Spirit, a marvelous stealth aircraft far ahead of anything flying elsewhere, but that program was capped at 21 planes by the Clinton administration.

Mr. Hawkins must not be very familiar with the federal government structure we have here in the United States of America, where it was the United States Congress (under "Newt" Gingrich and Trent Lott) that failed to provide funding for additional aircraft. Perhaps as he gets to know our country better he can avoid these mistakes in the future.

-HJC

Tax America to save Europe from itself

2010-02-23T08:03:00.000-08:00

The Heritage Foundation finds The 2011 Defense Budget: Inadequate and Full of Inconsistencies

This approach reveals that building a force of the size and composition recommended in this paper will require increasing the core defense budget from the current 3.8 percent of GDP to 4 percent. This means that the FY 2015 core defense budget, the last year of the current budget projection, will be $767.6 billion, compared to the Administration's recommendation of $648.2 billion.

$120 billion dollars is a lot of money. Why do we need to raise taxes to cover this?

Area #2: An inability to prevent a hostile power from dominating Europe.

Huh? The Russians are in no shape to invade. What is this threat to Europe that requires American troops to defend against?

Politically, some voices in the EU are calling for a unified Europe to serve as a counterweight to the U.S. in global affairs. In this context, the EU could emerge as the dominant power in a Europe that is hostile to the United States.

So we need to tax Americans to maintain troops in Europe to keep Europe from mutating into a hostile power? So all of the democratic institutions that so many American service members died to ensure in Europe are useless? Really?

-HJC

Obama budget saves F-22 Raptor

2010-02-16T11:20:00.000-08:00

New report provides detailed analysis of the Defence market

The December 2009 budget will save the F-22 Raptor fighter plane, due to an appropriation of US$6.3bn for the US Air Force (USAF). Exports of these advanced systems are vital for business and to maintain skilled employment.

No, these billions and billions of dollars will not buy a single additional aircraft, much less provide any for export.

Instead these funds are needed to upgrade the USAF's existing F-22s to a combat configuration. So they can actually be sent to war rather than just to airshows.

Defense Writers Group transcript, page 15

So one thing that's in the budget and I talked about yesterday is to bring more of that fleet, most of that fleet, to a common, high end, capable configuration. But the cost of that is $6.3 billion of R&D. This is in a platform we've already developed. We're going to spend six billion more of R&D to engineer the 3.2 upgrade for the software and the changes in the jet, and then about $2 billion to modify on the jets. That's $8 billion more, and $8 billion I think needs to be spent in order to make sure the 183 airplanes we have will be highly capable fighters.

So the $6.3 billion is only the start of the costs for the Raptor, not the end.

-HJC

China's Scary Space Ambitions

2010-01-20T10:24:00.000-08:00

China's Scary Space Ambitions, RICHARD D. FISHER, JR., WSJ, JANUARY 20, 2010

As China signals its intention to build space-combat capabilities, increase the size and survivability of its nuclear missile forces, and build new fifth-generation air combat systems, the Obama administration is signaling retreat on the same fronts.

Obama has already responded to the Chinese missile plans by making a tens of billions of dollars shift from shore hugging to missile defense destroyers.

Missile Threat Helped Drive DDG Cut
Zumwalt Class Could Not Down Chinese Weapons, CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS, Defense News, 4 August 2008

The threat posed by a super-secret new Chinese ballistic missile is among the factors driving the U.S. Navy's decision to "truncate" the planned seven-ship DDG 1000 Zumwalt class of advanced destroyers and build more DDG 51-class ships.

-HJC

Known as MH (mine hunter)-60S

2010-01-13T12:17:00.000-08:00

LCS-2 Independence commissioning to include display of high-tech equipment, Kaija Wilkinson, Press-Register, January 12, 2010

A helicopter outfitted with a console that allows Independence to hunt mines and perform tasks such as search and rescue touched down this morning. Known as MH (mine hunter)-60S, the Knighthawk helicopter is the Navy's newest, entering service in February 2002.

It's more like "Maritime Helicopter" and very few Knighthawks are used for mine hunting.

-HJC

Crossing the Korean Rubicon

2008-01-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

Stopping Iran - Norman Podhoretz, WSJ, 23rd Jan 2008

The CIA was established in 1947 in large measure to avoid another surprise attack like the one the U.S. had suffered on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor. But only three years after its founding, the fledgling agency missed the outbreak of the Korean war. It then failed to understand that the Chinese would come to the aid of the North Koreans if American forces crossed the Yalu river.

If American forces had crossed the Yalu then the Chinese would have been perfectly justified to react to an invasion of their country as this river lies on the Chinese Korean border.

Later in the war the USAF would take pains to stay on the Korean side of the river while bombing the bridges over it used by the Chinese to resupply their forces.

Japan rolls back pacifist pillars - CNN.com

2006-12-17T08:14:00.000-08:00

Japan rolls back pacifist pillars - CNN.com, 15th Dec 2006

Postwar Japan has been solidly pacifist under the 1947 U.S.-drafted Constitution, which foreswears Japan from using force to settle international disputes, and Tokyo maintains fighting forces only for self-defense.

Which has been deployed to support American forces at sea and in Iraq. Also this Self Defense Force is quite large.

Japan Self-Defense Force - GlobalSecurity.org

With nearly 240,000 military personnel and an annual budget of close to $50 billion, Japan's military outstrips Britain's in total spending and manpower, while its navy in particular scores high among experts for its sophistication.

-HJC

U.S. Navy denies deal to battle Somali piracy - Apr 18, 2006

2006-04-20T06:24:00.000-07:00

U.S. Navy denies deal to battle Somali piracy - CNN, Apr 18, 2006

But Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Brown, spokesman for the U.S. Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, denied any deal. "The Somali government did not talk to the U.S. Navy. The U.S. Navy has no agreement with the Somali government," Brown said.

I trust that that the U.S. Navy is not running their own foreign policy on the side.

However we do have a combined civilian and military task force in the area and I wonder why CNN couldn't find the time to ask them about this. Are the reporters lazy or just ignorant?

Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa

-HJC

Army not fit to fight GWoT?

2006-04-18T22:33:00.000-07:00

Generals' Revolt - PBS Newshour, April 18, 2006

The second thing is we put an army on the battlefield that I had been a part of for 37 years. The truth of the matter is: It doesn't have any doctrine, nor was it educated and trained, to deal with an insurgency. And that insurgency challenged us, as I knew it would for that first year.

Now if only we had a ground force that has trained to deal with stability operations for the past 66 years.

Perhaps even Corps sized would be a little small if they had to shoulder the brunt of the Global War of Terror on their own, simply because the US Army couldn't be bothered to properly prepare for the post Cold War world.

USMC Small Wars Center of Excellence

-HJC

The buck does not stop with the SoD

2006-04-16T11:02:00.000-07:00

Debate Over Rumsfeld's Future Grows - CBS News, Apr 16th, 2006

A tumultuous week for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld did not end on a quiet note as prominent military and political leaders debated his future on the Sunday morning talk shows.

Busy McCain expresses views on Rumsfeld, immigration, Iraq war - The Tribune, Apr 15th, 2006

Or more precisely, the generals are falling in line with McCain's long-standing assessment, McCain said Friday.

"I was asked a long time ago, I think a year and a half or two years ago, if I had confidence in Secretary Rumsfeld. I was asked that directly. I said, 'No,' " the Republican senator said during a news conference at his Phoenix office.

Darth Rumsfeld - The American Prospect February 26, 2001

Though genuflected to by the Washington press corps and political establishment as a genteel graybeard, the real Rumsfeld may be, in fact, much closer to Darth Vader, both on defense issues and as a practitioner of politics. "The notion that he's a gray eminence," laments William Hartung, the World Policy Institute's veteran defense analyst and a longtime Rumsfeld watcher, "is, in large part, based on press laziness."

Rumsfeld's agenda and failings were very clear from the start and if Senator McCain had a problem with the Secretary he could have held up the confirmation. He didn't.

If Senator McCain has a problem with America's defense policy then he should take it up with the President who has repeatedly turned down Secretary Rumsfeld's offers to resign.

This isn't about 2003. It's about 2006 and 2008. If Senator McCain is serious in his policy objections and believes that the nation is being endangered then he should take the constitutional path and come out with support for Bush's impeachment.

Otherwise Senator either shut up and get back to work or resign from the Senate and go campaign full time.

In this time of crisis, American, like Iraq, needs a stable government, so either accept the team we have now or make a change at the top, because the buck does not stop on the desk of the Secretary of Defense.

-HJC

How to lose in Iraq by fighting the Media.

2006-03-26T15:44:00.000-08:00

Yes, the American media is biased.

But it isn't a liberal bias, a conservative bias or even a pro or anti American bias as much as it is a lazy bias.

Time and again the media all over the world gets military issues wrong simply because they can't be bothered to take the time to become educated on the subjects they cover.

Take one of the great events in 20th Century media, the Pentagon Papers. The New York Times was spoon fed an internal government document, printed it verbatim and changed the course of a war.

It's useless to blame the Press for bad press. They simply aren't capable of the sort of detailed analysis required to make sense of the big issues and attacking the media simply gives them the chance to rerun the items complained about which takes even less effort on their part.

The Bush Administration has access to the media (when was the last time bin Laden or al-Zarqawi gave a press conference attended by western media?) and the responsibility for ensuring favorable media coverage lies in the White House.

The American armed forces cannot lose in Iraq. All of the islamic nations on Earth combined cannot match the power of the Pentagon and the american losses in Iraq to date are far less that what America has suffered in a single day's fighting in previous wars.

But Operation Iraqi Freedom can be lost in the American heartland. If the Republican congress revolts and demands an immediate pullout of American forces then Iraq will crumble and fragment into another Somalia, this time in the heart of the Middle East.

The current Bush plan for Iraq is almost correct. Even more important than an Iraqi government of national unity are Iraqi security forces of national unity. As long as the Iraqi security forces are seen as various militias in different uniforms then the Iraqi people will all turn to their own militias for defense against their government rather than working with the government to defeat the insurgents.

If the American policy was simply that American forces will not train, equip or operate with segregated Iraqi forces then the Iraqis would be forced to come together and work as one nation.

While this unified Iraqi army is being put together the President needs to hold the country and the Congress together.

The Congress is easy to manage. Simply give them time in the spotlight to expound on the issues of the day and they won't be too tempted to actually do anything. The best way to handle this is to put a high profile charismatic administration figure before a congressional committee every week. There's no need to put a big panel together as it would waste the time of all of them as the congress critters make speeches rather than asking questions. Condoleezza Rice, Stephen Hadley, Peter Pace and the rest of the joint chiefs are good choices for this because their personal negative ratings are manageable enough to keep them from being the headlines.

As for the Press, the three biggest dangers are Dick Chaney, Donald Rumsfeld and Scott McClellan.

The Vice President needs to be kept far away from foreign policy. A great backdrop for a Chaney speech would be some small family owned firm that has managed to stay in business because of the President's tax cuts or some event by a socially conservative group.

The Secretary of Defense needs to speak more about transformation. Send him out to meet with the Striker brigades, the Marines testing the V-22 or the workers building the first LCS. When he talks about Iraq it shouldn't be a debate with the media about what mistakes were made. Instead he should talk about lessons learned, the unknown unknowns that happened and how Americas armed forces are learning from them and always striving to do better.

The White House Press Secretary is still the same privileged brat that he was in high school and it's hurting the war effort. Scott needs to learn to be calm and rational and appear humble and spin free in public. Instead of blasting the press he needs to learn to say that he doesn't know the details in question but that he'll check with the people who do and get back to the journalist. Any day when the headline is that the Press Secretary yelled at a journalist and hurt their feelings is a distraction away from the job of spoon feeding the media with the President's message in small easily digestible chunks.

The expense of the LCS.

2005-12-26T07:41:00.000-08:00

The Pentagon's Outdated Budget Priorities, Fred Kaplan for Slate, Dec 22nd, 2005

Nearly all the big-ticket items belong to the Air Force and the Navy. These services aren't experiencing much of a manpower crunch. (Few pilots or sea crews are being killed in Iraq or Afghanistan now.)
...
The Littoral Combat Ship: tripled, from the administration's request of $249 million for one ship to $689 million for three.

The Navy's major contribution to the Global War of Terror (other than flying sorties over Iraq and Afghanistan) is by patrolling sealanes looking for terrorists and WMD.

$689 million wouldn't buy even one DDG, which is what they're using now because the Navy didn't budget for very many small patrol craft during the Cold War or the Clinton holiday.

281 Deployable Battle Force Ships simply isn't enough and we can't afford to buy ships that are bigger than are needed for the job at hand.

And best of all the LCS carries a fourth the crew of a DDG which allows the Navy to cut total payroll, which is always the biggest lifecycle cost of any ship.

-HJC

The Raptor will be a weasel, someday.

2005-08-13T17:20:00.000-07:00

The best weapons money can buy, Lawrence Korb, LA Times, 13th August 2005

There is no doubt that even with the defense budget at historical highs, the Pentagon cannot afford the $1.5 trillion worth of weapons that the military services would like to purchase. However, although the Defense Department is correct in trying to slash the F/A-22, it is dead wrong in trying to save money by canceling the Joint Strike Fighter. ... The Air Force has recognized this and has added a ground attack — or bombing — mission to the Raptor. But using the world's most expensive fighter, which travels at twice the speed of sound, for attacking ground targets is neither cost-effective nor technically practical.

Sorry, but there are ground targets where stealth and supersonic agility are vital.

These are the ground targets that bite back.

The problem is that the F/A-22 is not yet rated to launch HARM missiles because the F/A-22 software is running on obsolete i960 processors that will need to be replaced in order to meet mission growth requirements.

In recent wars a quarter of all sorties were SEAD missions and none of the current Wild Weasels are at all stealthy.

So we need a fighter with the brains of the JSF and the agility of the Raptor in order to take on the next generation of air defenses.

So someday the Air Force will will give the Jurassic Fighter a brain transplant.

-HJC

Unrestricted Warfare against China

2005-07-22T08:14:00.000-07:00

China's stealth war on the U.S., Max Boot of the LA Times, 20th July 2005

Their different approaches include financial warfare (subverting banking systems and stock markets), drug warfare (attacking the fabric of society by flooding it with illicit drugs), psychological and media warfare (manipulating perceptions to break down enemy will), international law warfare (blocking enemy actions using multinational organizations), resource warfare (seizing control of vital natural resources), even ecological warfare (creating man-made earthquakes or other natural disasters).

China is more vulnerable to each of these attacks than the United States is, especially since the United States with the help of its European flunkies controls the World Bank, IMF and United Nations, while the United States Navy controls every sea lane in international waters.

When the Chinese banking system collapses, sometime in the next 10 years, it will be the Americans who dictate terms to the Chinese and not the other way around.

-HJC

Appeasement in our time.

2005-05-06T22:54:00.000-07:00

Tehran seeks fresh nuclear talks, BBC News - 5 May, 2005

Enriched uranium can be used as fuel for civilian nuclear reactors, but is also the explosive material for atom bombs.

Most nuclear reactors run on enriched uranium of much lower quality than the level required to create a bomb.

The problem is that traces of bomb quality highly enriched uranium have already been found inside Iran.

This is not a nuclear power program, it's a nuclear bomb program. Which is why Iran requires a uranium enrichment program rather than imports of reactor quality uranium.

-HJC

F/A-22 for Australia's new bomber.

2005-03-27T08:08:00.000-08:00

Houston, we have a problem with JSF, Robert Gottliebsen - The Australian, 21st Mar 2005

"Unfortunately, it will be a much less stellar performer in critical roles of intercepting high-performance fighters, cruise missiles and strategic bombers and penetrating deep behind enemy defences to gather data and bomb critical targets. It is too small to be an effective cruise missile carrier," they say.

"By focusing on the JSF rather than the F/A-22A, Defence is effectively committing Australia to dependency upon the US Air Force for capabilities that the JSF cannot perform well."

First off, the F/A-22 has a smaller "stealth" bombload than the JSF and neither aircraft has any chance of carrying the current air launched cruise missile used by the USAF.

However a new generation of smaller cruise missiles is under development for use by the JSF.

AGM-158 Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) - Global Security

JASSM is a precision cruise missile designed for launch from outside area defenses to kill hard, medium-hardened, soft, and area type targets. The threshold integration aircraft are the F-16, B-52, and F/A-18 E/F, and the airframe design is compatible with all JASSM launch platforms: the B-52H, F-16C/D, F/A-18E/F, F-15E, F-117, B-1B, B-2, P-3C and S-3B.

Note the non-mention of F/A-22 in that list.

Finally the F/A-22 might never have those other capabilities added because the United States simply cannot afford the cost of the future spirals to add them for so few aircraft.

Air Force Still Needs Business Case to Support F/A-22 Quantities and Increased Capabilities - GAO

The decision to terminate procurement after fiscal year 2008 places the current modernization plan in doubt as key ground attack and intelligence-gathering enhancements had been slated for aircraft now eliminated from the program. Without a new business case for adding a more robust ground attack capability and for new intelligence missions, the Air Force may be at a disadvantage when the time comes to justify the modernization plan in the face of future budget constraints.

-HJC

Jamming so good that even the media can't spot them.

2005-02-28T01:55:00.000-08:00

Chief rejects Air Force 'death spiral' talk, Sig Christenson - San Antonio Express-News, 28th Feb 2005

The service that dominated the sky over Iraq and single-handedly won the 78-day Kosovo war has wanted to buy 381 Raptors and scrap 800 aging jets.

It must be quite a surprise for the pilots and crew of the 37 EA-6Bs that flew in the Kosovo conflict to suddenly be assigned to the Air Force.

Just remember that Air Force stealth is so good that it can't go anywhere without Navy department jammers to blind enemy radars so that they don't spot these aircraft that are "invisible" to radar.

-HJC

Raptor now only twice as expensive as Super Hornet.

2005-02-11T22:04:00.000-08:00

I don't have a media reference for this one, because it hasn't been covered.

Just as the F/A-22 costs are getting under control the plane is being cut back.

By the Defence Department's budget for 2006, 4.1 billon dollars bought 22 F/A-22s in the 2004 budget while it only takes 3.7 billion dollars to buy 24 of them next year. That's only 153 million dollars each.
-HJC

Commander of the Naval Surface Forces confused about LCS.

2005-02-11T21:56:00.000-08:00

Admiral faces uncharted waters with new classes of surface ships - Jack Dorsey, The Virginian-Pilot

plus a Littoral Combat Ship, LCS, built for high speed in shallow waters and with a variety of functions, using either the twin hulls of a catamaran or a single hull to skim the water.

Neither of the two current contenders for the final LCS design are catamarans.
At first I thought that the reporter badly mangled this, but the quote seems to be accurate. Perhaps Adm. Etnyre should follow the lead of Air Force Gen. Jumper and spend some time on the ships he'll be looking after.
-HJC

A defense of military transformation.

2004-12-16T20:24:00.000-08:00

Rumsfeld's War by Tom Donnelly, Weekly Standard

For the past 15 years, big thinkers and strategists have observed that the application of information technologies had made businesses more efficient and effective. Why couldn't similar efficiencies and increases in battlefield effectiveness be wrung from military forces which, after all, were troglodytic expressions of the Industrial Age? Heavily armored ground forces, in particular, were too ponderous and therefore vulnerable in the emerging age of "netwar" with al Qaeda and spectacularly "enabled" leaders like Osama bin Laden. And, as Rumsfeld told the troops in Kuwait, armored vehicles still get blown up anyway.

Whatever genuine wisdom was resident in these observations was long ago smothered by two more traditional impulses: air-power theory and number-crunching systems analysis. In fact, these two schools of thought actively conspired to capture the flag of transformation. And so it turned out that transformation perfectly fit the programs that the Air Force already had on the books, most importantly and expensively the tactical fighter programs like the F-22 and the Joint Strike Fighter. And to pay for it, the green-eyeshade analysts at the Pentagon looked to cut Army force structure. Like all good captains of industry, they looked to substitute capital for labor.

Those "heavily armored ground forces" of heavy tanks and infantry fighting vehicles have always required an immense logistical tail of soft skinned trucks to keep those tanks running.

This wasn't a problem when fighting the Chinese Communists or the Nazis because the US Army had a well defined front line to put the tanks at and a much safer area behind friendly lines to run the trucks. Note that Patton was stopped when he ran out of fuel and not because of any enemy action.

The same principle of relatively safety for logistics would have applied against the soviets.

But these days nobody stands up against the American front lines for long. Note that more Americans have been lost in Iraq since the Iraqi army disbanded than before it.

So these "heavily armored ground forces" need to be transformed into smaller lighter forces that require fewer convoys to support them as these supply convoys are toughened up to resist attack.

Now unlike former SoD Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld isn't cutting troop numbers, he's increasing the number of available troops by converting as many as 300,000 military jobs to outsourced civilian positions by turning paper shufflers into warfighters.

The problem is that this military transformation isn't going fast enough because we're still wasting too much money on the F/A-22 instead of hardening our exposed assets in a battlefield without a front line.

-HJC

A smaller version of the F-22?

2004-10-23T11:34:00.000-07:00

Rumsfeld's Legacy by Fred Kaplan in Slate

$4.3 billion for continued development of the F-35 Joint Strategic Fighter, a smaller version of the F-22;

That is a complete misunderstanding of the Joint Strike Fighter.

The current F/A-22 has no attack capability and is just an air to air fighter and there is no excuse for the "/A" in its designation.

The F-35 is primarily an attack aircraft whose limited anti-air capability matches the best opponents it is likely to face.

F-35Bs operating from amphibious assault ships or improvised runways deep inside enemy territory will be vital to the campaigns of the global war against terrorism of the late 2010s and other F-35s in the hands of our allies will allow them to keep up in the fight.

The Joint Strike Fighter is not a jurassic throwback.

-HJC

A balance of terror across the Taiwan Strait?

2004-09-26T14:56:00.000-07:00

Taipei Times - archives

Taiwan should rely on a Cold War-style "balance of terror" to safeguard national security in the face of intimidation from Beijing, Premier Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday in response to a rally against his proposed arms-procurement package.

Wouldn't such a balance require weapons of terror in the hands of the Taiwanese?

Will a lack of faith in the ability or willingness of the Americans to defend Taiwan lead to a nuclear arms race in East Asia?

-HJC

Beach Volleyball with nukes.

2004-08-17T08:12:00.000-07:00

Realigning the troops, San Francisco Chronicle, August 17, 2004

While Western Europe has no need for resident U.S. troops, South Korea and Japan could face additional danger from a nuclear-armed North Korea should the United States draw down its military strength too quickly in that region.

How exactly are ground forces expected to stop incoming nuclear weapons?

Wouldn't sales of Patriot Missiles do these countries more good than stationing garrisons there, if the entire mission is about protecting against North Korea rather than China?

-HJC

Seven carriers assembled off China, not.

2004-07-24T15:49:00.000-07:00

Gunboat diplomacy near China last hurrah of the neocons, Chalmers Johnson of the LA Times, July 19, 2004

This will be the first time in U.S. naval history that seven of our 12 carrier strike groups deploy in one place at the same time. It will look like the peacetime equivalent of the Normandy landings and may well end in a disaster.
...
According to Chinese reports, Taiwanese ships will join the seven carriers being assembled in this modern rerun of 19th century gunboat diplomacy.

U.S. Navy - Status of the Navy, July 23, 2004

Carriers:
USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) - Pacific Ocean
USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) - Persian Gulf
USS George Washington (CVN 73) - Atlantic Ocean
USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) - port visit, Pearl Harbor
USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) - Atlantic Ocean

Chalmers Johnson doesn't seem to understand that the carriers are deployed at about the same time, but to different locations throughout the world.

Summer Pulse '04 is about sending a message to China about the US Navy's ability to respond quickly, but it's not the start of a major attack.

-HJC

Or they'll stop selling stuff to K-Mart?

2004-07-13T18:16:00.000-07:00

China warns US to stop arms sales to Taiwan or risk bilateral ties growth, Agence France Presse, 14 July 2004

China warned the United States to stop selling advanced arms to Taiwan and cut military links with the island if it wanted any improvement in bilateral relations.

Missile tests fuel Taiwan’s tension, Daily Times of Pakistan, 14 July 2004

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is to stage a mock invasion of Taiwan this month, with SU-27 fighters battling for air superiority and supporting an amphibious landing in land, sea and air exercises on Dongshan island, less than 300 km (200 miles) from Taiwanese soil, state media said.

China hits at US moves over Taiwan, Financial Times, July 14 2004

The remarks come as the Taiwanese legislature prepares to debate an $18bn (£9.7bn) proposal to purchase submarines, anti-missile equipment and anti-submarine aircraft from the US. The opposition Kuomintang is expected to attempt to block or delay legislative approval for the package, which was approved by the Taiwanese cabinet in June.

I think the Kuomintang is going to lose that vote if China keeps up the pressure. After all, firing missiles towards Taiwan worked so well in 1996.

And the United States is so easy to push around, just ask Britain, the CSA, the Spanish Empire, Imperial or Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, North Korea, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, etc.

I'm not worried about China's Peaceful Rise, because I'm sure they're going to mess it up.

The pity is that "One China" more or less works and it's been trade and investment from Taiwan that has fueled China's rise to date.

So go ahead and mess with the bald eagle, if you want to find out what your place in the global pecking order really is.

-HJC

Pearl Harbor's Radar Warning

2004-07-10T18:07:00.000-07:00

Long history of intelligence failures, BBC, 11 July 2004

The US Congress issued a stinging report because no adequate steps were taken in Pearl Harbor itself to cover against an attack.

Although the radar station picked up the approach of the Japanese aircraft, nobody could interpret the signs and there were no aircraft ready to repel them.

There were plenty of aircraft near Pearl Harbor. More were expected that day.

That's why no alarm went out. The radar operators had no way of telling friendly from hostile aircraft.

Which lead to the development of IFF during World War II.

-HJC

Battle between the 21st century monitors and the USS Virginia

2004-07-08T20:12:00.000-07:00

During the American Civil War, the United States Navy launched the first of a new breed of littoral combatants.

The USS Monitor was a small stealthy ship with advanced armament and was armored to face the close in battles of the littorals.

The ship was successful at operating in a hostile littoral area and kept the CSS Virginia bottled up.

The 21st century equivalent to the USS Monitor is the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) and lots of people in the media seem to believe it will do battle with the USS Virginia class of submarines for budget dollars.

Submarine fleet seen as shrinking in near term, Providence Journal, July 7, 2004

Third, submarines are not among the programs that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his chief of naval operations, Adm. Vern Clark, have identified as top spending priorities. Higher on the wish list, for example, is the development of the new "littoral combat ship," a small, fast, relatively cheap vessel that can fight near shore.

The LCS and the Virginia seem to be in competition for the same role. They both use stealth to close in on the enemy shore so they can deploy unmanned vehicles and sensors.

And yet the two classes are entirely complementary.

The USS Virginia as a submarine has a higher level of stealth than any surface ship, but it cannot operate surface or air craft and is restricted from doing missions such as boarding specious ships and while the LCS can travel in much shallower water, it lacks the Virginia's long range firepower in cruise missiles and torpedoes.

A squadron of three LCS backed by a single Virginia class submarine can do things that neither could apart. The LCS can act as the eyes and hands on the surface using their speed and air assets to strike and withdraw while the submarine lurks ready to apply decisive force.

If the 21st century monitors team up with the Virginias then the US Navy will be the clear winner.

-HJC

Draft is for Beer

2004-07-06T00:33:00.000-07:00

Why we need to resurrect draft in America

But the nation also needs a draft because it is one proven mechanism to bring unity to our rapidly separating parts. It needs a draft to provide that common civic grammar that encompasses those who have served and their families and friends.

If there wasn't a war on, I might see the point of using a draft to advance some social goal.

I could think of a lot of far less expensive ways of introducing people. Give scholarships to the needy and they will rub shoulders with the best and brightest. And best of all the Pell Grant program runs less than five percent of the defense budget, because it's a lot cheaper to buy books instead of tanks.

But we are in a war and it is the most dangerous war America has ever been in.

The Axis powers were stopped before they could develop weapons of greater destruction than nerve gas.

The Cold War always had a return address. Perhaps the USSR and the PRC didn't always make the wisest choices, but they always knew that we knew where they were.

And now we face a shadowy enemy who finds virtue in any murder of innocents and the bigger the scale of the carnage the better.

There is no retreat with honor or even our skins from this fight.

If this war is over by 2020, we will have lost and America won't be here anymore.

Iraq is only today's battleground and we must win the hearts and minds of all of the islamic states.

If we just throw bodies at this problem they will return as corpses and on the way to their body bags they will leave a trail of destruction that hardens hearts against us.

We must put our best and brightest forwards into the line of fire so that they can find a way through to the other side.

This requires a slimed down professional transformed military that strikes for effect, not mass.

-HJC

Littoral Combat Ships on Oil patrol.

2004-07-04T13:43:00.000-07:00

Massing ships around Iraq's two terminals has been effective so far, says Capt. Kurt Tidd, commander of the Navy task force in charge of protecting the terminals. But the world's oil infrastructure is vast. "We can line up all the ships in the world around all the platforms in the world, and we're going to run out of ships."

If the US Navy wants to protect the flow of oil from Africa and the Persian Gulf and interdict terrorists on the high seas worldwide then it's going to need a bunch of cheap and versatile ships, hence the LCS.

-HJC

Teach a man to build steel sharks and you've got a proliferation problem.

2004-07-03T16:11:00.000-07:00

Arms needed for cross-strait balance, China Post, July 3rd, 2004

Lee said yesterday U.S. officials said Washington was willing to help Taiwan obtain the submarines but not willing to assist Taiwan develop the capacity to build them.

Apparently the United States has said no the the request.

-HJC

The gap in the New Map on Palestine.

2004-06-29T19:24:00.000-07:00

Not everybody agrees with Dr. Thomas Barnett's New Map.

New Map, Same Bad Destinations, Karen Kwiatkowski, AntiWar.com, June 7, 2004

Barnett is adamant that barriers must come down, that engagement and integration must happen; he spends several pages explaining that he dislikes the divisiveness of the term "arc of instability." Yet, in the case of Israel, he advocates a wall separating the West Bank and Gaza from Israel, "to keep suicide bombers out while creating a de facto border between the two states, separating a demographically moribund Israel from a youth-bulging Palestine."

I agree. As long as Palestine remains poorly connected to the rest of the world it will remain a threat to American national security.

-HJC

The Answer is No.

2004-06-24T23:14:00.000-07:00

The Proliferation Security Initiative: Can Interdiction Stop Proliferation?

What PSI cannot be viewed as is a substitute for these other elements of a nonproliferation policy. No interdiction effort can be 100 percent effective. Intelligence will not always be accurate, ships may only dock in ports of states that do not subscribe to the initiative, and the indigenous capability to produce WMD components without foreign assistance is rapidly spreading.

Correct, but the but the advantage of the PSI is that it makes operations harder for the bad guys and so makes it more likely that they'll trip up.

-HJC

Insecurity Council

2004-06-23T18:42:00.000-07:00

Arms trade 'hurting development', BBC, 22 June, 2004

The largest arms-trading nations globally are the US, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China, according to Oxfam.

Which are exactly the Permanent Members of the UN Security Council.

It's not so much the foxes guarding the hen house as a practical measure. If one of these countries really wanted to subvert a UN action, they could provide arms to the other side.

It was only the boycott of the UN by the USSR that allowed a security council vote to protect South Korea in 1950. (The People's Republic of China was not recognized at that time.)

-HJC

This means war?

2004-06-21T23:25:00.000-07:00

Taiwan defense minister confirms computer simulation games successful

The Chinese-language newspaper China Times reported that the Americans were training Taiwanese officers to use the U.S.-designed computer system as a prelude to a joint U.S.-Taiwan simulated war game next year.

You cannot declare that a group is in rebellion against a government that you recognize and then expect that your arming and training them should not be seen as a nonhostile act.

The One China policy is not consistent with treating Taiwan as an ally.

-HJC

Barrel, scraping bottom of.

2004-06-20T09:19:00.000-07:00

Fort Irwin 'not closing,' Lewis told, Claire Vitucci and Tammy Mccoy, The Press-Enterprise, Friday, May 21, 2004

About 150 soldiers of the 58th Engineer Company, which supports the 2,500-member 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, are scheduled to deploy sometime in the next 70 days, said Maj. Chris Belcher, Fort Irwin's public affairs officer.
...
But the Army is considering sending some or all of the regiment to Iraq, Lewis said.

It's unclear when that decision would be made, Lewis said. But if it does happen, reservists will first come and train with the unit, also called the Army's Opposition Force, and then fill in when the regiment is deployed.

That way, specialized training for armored units could continue at Fort Irwin, Lewis said.

If the Army is cutting into their training facilities in order to deploy troops then nobody can complain about their own tour of duty being extended for a few years.

But it does bring up the question of whether the United States was prepared to open this second front as Bush proposed and Kerry voted for.

-HJC

Torpedo the dam?

2004-06-19T08:37:00.000-07:00

Taiwan, China gear up for arms race, CNN, 18th June 2004

Reference was made to Taiwan's so-called "Scorpion Strategy" under which Taipei would lob missiles at not only big cities such as Shanghai but also major infrastructure such as the newly built Three Gorges Dam.

China told to use nukes if Taiwan hits dam, Straits Times, 19th June 2004

China should withdraw its undertaking on no first-use of nuclear weapons should Taiwan try to blow up the Three Gorges Dam, according to some parliamentary delegates.

The call was made by them - as well as some who sit on the country's top political advisory body - in the wake of a recent US Defense Department report which suggested that Taiwan could target the dam in a pre-emptive strike.

China general threatens war if Taiwan targets dam, Benjamin Kang Lim, Reuters, June 16th, 2004

Liu said no country had conventional warhead missiles capable of critically damaging the dam - made of concrete with a maximum thickness of more than 100 meters (328 feet).

I have to agree, the dam attack comment in the Pentagon report gives no details of how this attack would take place other than "Leaders have publicly cited the need for ballistic and land-attack cruise missiles" which seems to call for a nuclear attack and Taiwan does not currently have a nuclear weapons program.

Taiwan: Nuclear Nightmare Averted, David Albright & Corey Gay, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January/February 1998

-HJC

The sinking of the Silent Service.

2004-06-18T07:50:00.000-07:00

Navy may shrink fleet of attack subs, David Lerman, Daily Press, June 11, 2004

Despite a surge in defense spending since the Iraq war, Navy leaders have begun rethinking the rationale for subs that cost upward of $2 billion a copy.

A Navy report cited by O'Rourke - one that hasn't been released - is said to conclude the military could make do with as few as 37 attack subs if some intelligence missions were handled by other means, such as satellites and unmanned vehicles.

This has been one of the biggest underreported military stories of the last several years.

The US Navy has been retiring old subs faster than new ones are built and the case isn't being made for why they need submarines at all.

So far in the Global War on Terrorism, the sub force hasn't done much more than launch cruise missiles at "empty tents" and the naval actions against terrorists have consisted of boarding actions which submarines do poorly at and even billion dollar DDGs are overkill.

But there are other countries with naval forces and some of these aren't always on the same page as the United States.

These potentially hostile forces can track the American surface fleet fairly easily, but before they launch any naval aggression they first need to ask where the American submarines are and the Silent Service will not answer.

-HJC

Dean Acheson's green light district.

2004-06-16T22:35:00.000-07:00

Confusion in the South Korean ranks, Bruce Klingner, Asia Times, Jun 17, 2004

South Korean officials, however, have grown increasingly concerned that the United States has begun to marginalize South Korea in its Asia policies. Policymakers, perhaps fearful of a repeat of secretary of state Dean Acheson's infamous 1950 speech delineating Korea as "outside our defense perimeter", cited a recent speech by the head of the US State Department Policy Planning staff that failed to include South Korea among "key bilateral relationships" as indicative of a fundamental shift away from the bilateral alliance and toward a broader focus on China and Japan.

Failing to mention Korea was not the same as giving a green light.

Historians debunk some popular myths about the war, Bruce Steele, University of Pittsburgh, June 22, 2000

But they do have a point about America returning to familiar patterns.

Korean War and Japan's Recovery, Bureau of Public Affairs, U.S. Department of State

Acheson signed the San Francisco Treaty on September 8, 1951, the same day he and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru signed the United States-Japanese Security Treaty. The treaty allowed the United States to station troops in Japan, and made the Japanese islands into an important facet of America's global containment structure.

It's more like a global containment web these days, where every potentially hostile state sees American bases in every direction.

-HJC

The Three-Block Small Wars

2004-06-14T22:47:00.000-07:00

Avoid pre-Iraq mistakes in military, Palm Beach Post Editorial, Friday, June 11, 2004

Troops are asked to be warriors one moment and peacemakers the next.

Yes, but we've got a force that has been training for this...

The Marines' Three-Block War in Iraq, Global Beat Syndicate, October 28, 2003

The U.S. Marines have a name for a combination of operations like those going on in Iraq: a "three-block war." That term was first coined by Gen. Charles Krulak, Marine Corps Commandant from 1995-1999, to describe scenarios where troops are engaged in a spectrum of operations, from humanitarian missions, through peacekeeping and peace enforcement-type actions, to full-blown combat -- possibly within the space of three city blocks.

...since at least 1940.

Small Wars Center of Excellence.

-HJC

Jimmy Carter's Military Buildup.

2004-06-13T14:45:00.000-07:00

One bit of propaganda that the media in general has swallowed hook, line and sinker is that Carter cut the military budget and then Reagan increased it.

This is part of a pattern that paints the Democrats as weak on defense and haunts John Kerry today.

It might just be true, except for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan which seemed to turn Carter around.

Jimmy Carter's Legacy, Angelo Codevilla, The Claremont Institute

We should not forget that it was Mr. Carter who began the great anti-Soviet military buildup generally attributed to his successor. Mr. Carter would have built 200 MX missiles; Ronald Reagan meekly accepted 50. Mr. Carter imposed the grain embargo on the Soviet Union; Mr. Reagan lifted it. Mr. Carter kept Americans out of the 1980 Summer Olympics. Mr. Carter sent weapons to the Afghanis. Mr. Carter's National Security Council, not Mr. Reagan's, stated the goal of forcefully changing the character of Nicaragua's Sandinista regime.

-HJC

Congress Backs Pentagon Budget Heavy on Future Weapons

2004-06-12T17:35:00.000-07:00

Dan Morgan, Washington Post, June 11, 2004

As Congress moves ahead with a huge new defense bill, lawmakers are making only modest changes in the Pentagon's plans to spend well over $1 trillion in the next decade on an arsenal of futuristic planes, ships and weapons with little direct connection to the Iraq war or the global war on terrorism.
...
The defense budget before Congress looks far different from the one Rumsfeld envisioned when he first came to office. At that time, he was pushing the armed forces toward a "transformation" creating lighter, faster, electronically networked and smaller forces. That approach already has resulted in plans for the Army's Future Combat Systems and the Navy's proposed Littoral Combat Ship
...
The House-passed defense authorization bill reduces funding for developing the Littoral Combat Ship and the next-generation DD(X) destroyer.

It's hard to tell from this article whether the LCS has any place in the global war on terrorism.

The answer is yes.

Littoral Combat Ship Sensors Pose Integration Challenges, Sandra I. Erwin, National Defense Magazine, December 2003

As to whether other ships, such as destroyers or cruisers, could be assigned to littoral warfare missions, Spicer said that would be wasteful. The Navy’s billion-dollar multi-mission warships are not "optimized" to take care of missions such as mine and submarine detection, or maritime interdiction, he said. "Everything points to a smaller, high speed more agile combatant."

If you're going to catch terrorists traveling in small ships in congested waterways, you're going to need a small fast ship.

-HJC

Taiwanese insist on building submarines in US deal

2004-06-11T21:56:00.000-07:00

Daily Press June 5, 2002

"This will not only help save on maintenance expenses but will also invigorate Taiwan's shipbuilding industry," lawmaker Lin Yu-fang has said.

So, rather than being a vital part of their defense it's now a jobs program, at US expense?

-HJC

The Stryker is not a tank.

2004-06-10T06:54:00.000-07:00

The Economist: Restructuring the superpower

The Stryker is a new, wheeled vehicle with tank-like armour and weapons, but lighter (and thus easier to transport) than the mainstay Abrams battle tank. The Stryker is at the centre of the transformation of America's military championed by Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary.

Even with the chicken wire up, the Stryker is nowhere near as well protected as any tank since WWI.

Oddly enough, the entire American military is not deploying Strykers. For the moment the Strykers are US Army only, and only a stepping stone to their Future Combat Systems (FCS).

The Stryker itself is a development of the Light Armored Vehicle (LAV) that the USMC has been using for years.

Each of the other armed services sees Military Transformation as a buzzword to cover their own pet projects, but if any one system could be said to represent the term it would be the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) which the USAF, USN and USMC intend to use.

If you dig a little deeper you will find the actual vision each service has, such as the Marines' Operational Maneuver From The Sea with the V-22 Osprey, the Navy's Sea Power 21 with the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) or even the Coast Guard's Deepwater with the National Security Cutter (NSC).

How this all will play together is anybody's guess.

-HJC

Jimmy Carter as James Bond

2004-06-09T07:28:00.000-07:00

The media coverage, Former president, first lady christen USS Jimmy Carter, seems to be overlooking exactly what this new sub will be used for.

USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23)

but on 10 December 1999 Electric Boat was awarded an US$887 million extension to the Carter contract to modify the boat for highly classified missions and testing of new submarine systems, missions previously carried out by Parche (SSN-683).

The exploits of the USS Parche(SSN 683) have been partially revealed in Blind Man’s Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage.

-HJC

The difference between the bases in Korea and Okinawa

2004-06-08T07:08:00.000-07:00

Capability buzzword in Pentagon jargon. Tsutomu Ishiai: The Asahi Shimbun

Seen from this standpoint, U.S. military bases in Okinawa Prefecture allow for quick deployment to the Korean Peninsula as well as to the Taiwan Strait and Afghanistan.

That is why Rumsfeld apparently views the U.S. military presence in Okinawa as a ``very helpful base.'' The role of U.S. forces there is expected to continue even after the global realignment is complete.

The reduction in the U.S. troop presence in South Korea does not necessarily translate into a cut of U.S. forces in Japan

The US forces on Okinawa have always had an external focus. The island chain was only captured to provide a stepping stone for an invasion of the Japanese mainland and they have been used as forward bases in every war since.

Most of the forces on Okinawa are part of America's expeditionary armed force, the United States Marine Corps.

The difference is in Korea where mostly Army bases will now be used as staging bases to project force further out rather than as the static defensive positions they started out as. This parallels what has already happened with the bases in Germany that started out near the front lines and are now used to support operations deep in Asia.

But this pattern was established a long time ago. The American bases on Puerto Rico have just started to close down after a century long stay.

Isn't it a measure of success that bases are realigned and closed when the countries they were built in become stable well connected democracies and the front lines in The Pentagon's New Map of the war against oppressive disconnection are drawn further out?

-HJC

Does the Great Leader even have enough troops to conquer South Korea?

2004-06-07T07:13:00.000-07:00

Channelnewsasia.com: Withdrawal of 12,500 US troops draws mixed reactions in South Korea

Others say they should leave, accusing the US of being in the way of reunification between South and North Korea.

-HJC

The big shuffle of American forces.

2004-06-06T09:28:00.000-07:00

NYT: A Pentagon Plan Would Cut Back G.I.'s in Germany

The Pentagon has proposed a plan to withdraw its two Army divisions from Germany and undertake an array of other changes in its European-based forces, in the most significant rearrangement of the American military around the world since the beginning of the cold war, according to American and allied officials.

This is overdue, the United States in a new war and needs to shift her forces to deal with it, but not without talking to the allies she will depend on.

Korea Herald: Signs of friction in South Korea-U.S. alliance

The Pentagon under Donald Rumsfeld has been so single-mindedly pursuing the transformation of the U.S. military into a leaner, meaner, more mobile force that they have proceeded without adequate consultation and input from allies. Similarly, Gen. Campbell's impolitic remarks revealing intentions to expand the role of U.S. Forces Korea beyond the Korean Peninsula were totally insensitive to the fact that any redefinition of roles requires the consent of the Koreans.

-HJC

Singing Japanese sailors to fight pirates?

2004-06-05T07:40:00.000-07:00

Japan Today - Picture Of The Day - The Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) is airing this 15-second promotional ad 30 times a day on three billboards in Shibuya. The song-and-dance routine ends with the sailors chanting "We love Japan. We love peace.

Japan may use military to fight pirates

Although international law guarantees Japan's right to come to the military aid of an ally, the Japanese government interprets Japan's pacifist constitution to mean that the country cannot actually exercise that right.

Other countries in the region may also recall the last time Japan patrolled the Pacific.

-HJC

Back door draft.

2004-06-04T18:57:00.000-07:00

Kerry says he would update military

Pointing to a plan that could extend the terms of active-duty and reserve forces headed for Iraq and Afghanistan even after their voluntary tours end, Kerry accused the administration of starting a "back-door draft."

I don't think so.

Everybody who volunteered for the US military did so with the understanding that in times of war their service would be rather open ended.

Where they may have an argument is whether Senator Kerry and the other members of Congress took their constitutional war declaration powers seriously enough.

-HJC

The Pentagon does China.

2004-06-04T07:11:00.000-07:00

FY04 REPORT TO CONGRESS ON PRC MILITARY POWER

Great stuff, don't let the media filter it for you, though naturally the Pentagon folks have their own blinders on.

Other OIF “lessons learned” impacting PLA thinking include the integration of psychological operations with air and rapid ground operations designed to target enemy leadership, its ability to communicate, and its will to fight.

Looks like they're still trying to push Shock and Awe.

-HJC

UK Royal Marines invade Spain again.

2004-06-01T21:20:00.000-07:00

Royal Navy says sorry after Spanish arrest SBS pair

Two members of the Royal Marines Special Boat Service have been arrested while driving on the Costa del Sol carrying military equipment.

It's been over two years since the last time Britain invaded Spain so it was about due.

Spanish smiles over invasion gaffe

Red-faced Royal Marines have been forced to beat a hasty retreat after storming a Spanish beach resort instead of the fortress rock of Gibraltar.

-HJC

Taiwan's Marines aren't in any shape to send anywhere.

2004-05-31T22:13:00.000-07:00

Taipei Times - Marines take on a series of uncertainties

"For instance, they do not have state-of-the-art weapons. Many of their weapons are actually leftovers from World War II," he said. "In addition, constant government cutbacks to marine numbers is making the problem go from bad to worse."

-HJC

Is Rumsfeldology the new Kremlinology?

2004-05-30T11:13:00.000-07:00

Iraq War Woes Deepen Internal Pentagon Tensions

"He has alienated the military," Kohn said. "Many of them are waiting him out, or avoiding bringing problems to him, or trying to avoid dealing with him. And he knows that. And he avoids them quite frequently, and circumvents them, and tries to get around the bureaucracy."
...
"The Constitution calls for civilian control of this department, and I'm a civilian," Rumsfeld once told reporters.

Yes, but are you the right civilian for this job?

-HJC

Ghostbusters called in by Royal Navy

2004-05-28T22:12:00.000-07:00

icWales

No comment.

-HJC

Maybe the Navy does want to conquer Africa?

2004-05-27T22:14:00.000-07:00

Perhaps I'm reading too much into the comments of

Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England at the National Press Club

With the help of Marine General Jim Jones, the Supreme
Allied Commander in NATO, we are looking to enhance our
operations in the ungoverned regions of Africa. The Gulf of
Guinea, for example, is an area where a Navy presence would
constitute a strong message. Security, stability, and
reconstruction operations are needed in this important region,
and the U.S., along with our NATO allies, will be there to help.

But it does sound a lot like what Easterblogg of The New Republic had to say.

Charlie's Angels is latest US weapon in Afghanistan

2004-05-26T22:52:00.000-07:00

Warning, Marines being cheesy.

Khaleej Times

-HJC

Big news about Taiwan not sending troops to Iraq.

2004-05-25T20:49:00.000-07:00

Suddenly there's big news about Taiwan not sending troops to Iraq.

US looks to stop talk of Taiwan role, Taipei Times, Most Taiwanese oppose troop deployment to Iraq, Taiwan News,
No plans to send Marines to Iraq, The China Post of Taiwan etc.

It looks like congressmen Dana Rohrabacher and Jim Ryun floated a proposal independently of a low level Taiwanese defense ministry group study on what they possibly could do.

If Taiwan actually did go around spreading democracy overseas, I suspect that Beijing would consider this to be dangerous anti-state activities.

The most interesting comment is buried a little deeper in the article.

> In addition, Nadine Leavitt Siak, an information office for the Taipei
> Office of the American Institute in Taiwan told the Central News Agency
> Monday that while Washington appreciates the humanitarian aid that Taiwan
> has extended to Iraq, the U.S. has never asked Taiwan to deploy troops
> there and never will.

Now, how can anybody lower than an full ambassador make such a comment?

And if there is a full American ambassador in the American Institute in Taiwan, doesn't this make it an embassy to an independent country?

Well, don't tell Beijing.

-HJC

Which Korea?

2004-05-24T18:47:00.000-07:00

Navy plans to purchase new submarines
> The Indonesian Navy has proposed that the government purchase two submarines
> from North Korea
...
> Bernard said that one South Korean-made submarine, which he said was of
> good quality, was priced at between US$200 million and $300 million.

There is a slight difference between the two Koreas.

-HJC

Wrong Coastline

2004-05-23T07:11:00.000-07:00

Easterblogg of The New Republic on what to use the LCS for:

http://tnr.com/easterbrook.mhtml?pid=785
> How would Littoral Combat Ship really be used? Most likely, to prowl the
> waters off the Western coast of Africa.

Actually if you look at the US Navy's powerpoint slides https://www.nipo.navy.mil/NIID.cfm, the examples they use are Iran and China.

More details about the LCS can be found on DMOZ.

-HJC

Reuters fails to check GlobalSecurity about Lockheed's KC-X

2004-05-22T10:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.forbes.com/markets/newswire/2004/05/21/rtr1380632.html
> A copy of the previously undisclosed proposal was obtained by Reuters
> from a source outside the company who declined to be named.

Perhaps they downloaded it from globalsecurity.org anytime after Nov 7th, 2001?

At least that's when archive.org grabbed it.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/kc-x.htm

-HJC