Military
Saturday - July 24, 2010
Newest Ship In The Army
Just over six months after the official opening of Austal’s new Module Manufacturing Facility (MMF) in November 2009, Austal USA hosted a keel-laying ceremony at its shipyard in Mobile, Alabama on July 22, to signify the erection of the first modules on the U.S. Department of Defense’s next generation multi-use platform, the Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV). This is part of a 10-ship program potentially worth over $1.6b.
Keel Laying is the formal recognition of the start of the ship’s module erection process. In earlier times it was the “laying down” of the central or main timber making up the backbone of a vessel. Today, fabrication of the ship modules begins months before the units are actually joined. However, the keel laying symbolically recognizes the joining of modular components and the ceremonial beginning of a ship.
Spearhead (JHSV 1) will be a US Army vessel (USAV) and its name represents a major feature of the Regimental Insignia of the Transportation Corps. The insignia is a gold color metal and enamel device consisting of a ship’s steering wheel bearing a shield charged with a winged vehicle wheel on a rail, all gold, centered upon a brick red spearhead point up, all standing upon a curving gold scroll spanning the lower tips of the spearhead and inscribed, “Spearhead of Logistics,” in blue letters.
The ceremony signified the erection of the modular components that will form part of a 338 ft aluminum catamaran capable of transporting troops and their equipment, supporting humanitarian relief efforts, operating in shallow waters, and reaching speeds in excess of 35 knots fully loaded. This is the first of a class of 10 vessels to be operated by both the US Army and Navy.
For some old timers who might be wondering if the Army having it’s own ships isn’t some form of wackiness, what I found out about this class of vessels is anything but. For starters, these JSHV ships are fairly inexpensive at under $200 million each, ready to sail. The ships themselves are only slightly modified, armed versions of an existing commercial design, the shallow draft trimaran ferry built by Incat Tasmania Pty Ltd., of Hobart, Australia, now partnered with Bollinger Shipyards of Mobile Alabama and doing business as Austal.
The ships are 338 feet long, and made primarily from aluminum. They are wide beam, shallow draft, light weight, and very stable. They can hit 35 knots or faster, and they use far less fuel than standard ships of their length or capacity. The Navy has been testing a few of them for most of a decade now, and everything seems to work well. The design is pretty odd, and highly modern.
These “little” ships will serve mainly as “floating pickup trucks” moving goods and people. I do not know what their role will be regarding the LCS (littoral combat ship) paradigm. The Spearhead and her sister ships can carry more than 300 troops quickly to shore and back again. This is the same ship design that Hawaii used for an inter-island high speed large superferry, until the enviro-wienies killed it. Those ferries could move 866 passengers and 282 subcompact cars at one go, and used jet propulsion instead of propellers to minimize risk to sea life. But that wasn’t good enough for the greenies!
All in all, it looks like this project was put together with a miraculous amount of common sense. Off the shelf ship that uses a radical but efficient and proven design. Cost effective from one end to the other. See what that kind of ship can do - the earlier ships tested by the Navy were used for logistics support in Iraq, to ferry aid to victims of the Indonesian Tsunami and victims of hurricane Katrina - then grow a role for the military around their capabilities. That’s the exact opposite of the I Have A Hammer approach, where they try to make everything look like a nail.
The JHSV (Joint High Speed Vessel) is a new generation, multi-use platform capable of transporting troops and their equipment, supporting humanitarian relief efforts, the ability to operate in shallow waters, and can reach speed in access of 35 knots fully loaded. The project brings together United States Navy, Army, Marines, and Special Operations Command to pursue a multi-use platform.
Originally built as a car ferry, the Swift [one of the earlier test ships] is a wave-piercing catamaran, a two-hulled, multi-decked craft with the length of a football field. She has a mission bay with 15,500 square feet of vehicle and module space. Her crane can launch and recover small boats. Her vehicle ramp is sturdy enough to accommodate M1A1Abrams tanks. A 4,000-square-foot flight deck has an adjacent hangar for two MH-60S Knighthawk helicopters. She can carry up to up to 250 combat-equipped Marines resting in airliner-style seats and up to 605 tons of cargo.
Propelled by four sets of Caterpillar 3618 marine diesel engines, gas turbines and water jets, she can cruise at a top speed in excess of 45 knots.
Yet the Swift’s aluminum hull draws only 11.15 feet of water. This allows her to operate in the shallow coastal waters of the Gulf of Mexico—or similar regions anywhere in the world. In the two years since the lease began, the vessel has provided transit support during the invasion of Iraq, participated in exercises off the coasts of West Africa, Honduras and Norway and provided tsunami disaster relief in the Indian Ocean.
“The Swift’s high speed makes it extraordinarily responsive, compared to other vessels,” Sodol said. “The higher payload requires fewer trips than a smaller high-speed craft, and the shallow draft enables it to enter ports and use small piers that are inaccessible to deep-draft ships.”
The Army and the Navy are alternating ownership of these ships. The first one built, Fortitude, and this one, Spearhead, are Army ships. #2 and #4, Vigilant and Fall River, will be Navy owned. So maybe it’s wrong for me to call this vessel USS? Maybe USAS instead? Naming conventions are out the window at this point, though the Fall River will be USNS.
Note to dedicated ship spotters: This is not the TSV-1X Spearhead, even though that ship is nearly identical to this one. TSV-1X was a test ship (hence the X) and this one will be a line ship. But the Army so loves the name it will get used on this one as well.
I can’t say how this new class of smaller, chunkier ships will fare in the long run, but one oxymoronic benefit they have is that they are not visually intimidating. Seriously. Maybe we all grew up understanding that the Navy was a floating steel manifestation of Force Projection, but that might be a bit unsettling for other countries when the Navy stops by for a social call.
A now-familiar gray catamaran pulled into the city of Port Antonio, Jamaica, on Jan. 4, carrying a team of sailors and Marines set to deliver a lesson in high demand among all the seafaring nations in Caribbean — how to fix small boats.
Boat repair, port security and basic law enforcement are part of the core curriculum available from the trainers aboard the high-speed vessel Swift, now three nations deep into a seven-nation tour of Central and South America as the United States’ floating embassy. Dubbed the “southern partnership station,” the Swift is becoming a regular visitor to many ports in the 4th Fleet area of operations, which is exactly what the Navy wants.
“This puts the U.S. military in good standing down here with these countries,” said Cmdr. Chris Barnes, the Swift’s mission commander, who spoke to Navy Times from Jamaica.
“In the three countries where we’ve been so far, we’ve been very, very well received. They appreciate the training, and we’re learning stuff from them, as well.”
Hearts and minds ... the theme that just won’t quit. All well and good in peacetime, but the real reason behind these ships is that they can take a quarter thousand soldiers in comfort and all their gear - the equivalent to 20 C-130 cargoes - and get them nearly up on the beach anywhere, and then offload the whole thing in under 15 minutes. Neat rah-rah video here.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/24/2010 at 03:38 PM
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Permalink • Wednesday - July 07, 2010
This Is Too Much
Following a recent spate of attempted attacks in the region, Somali pirates successfully hijacked a vessel in the southern part of the Red Sea on Sunday.
According to a report received by the International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC), a chemical tanker was hijacked on 4 July 2010 whilst transiting the Bab el Mandeb straits. According to reports, she has 18 crewmembers on board and is sailing towards the Somali coast.
This successful hijacking follows on from an increase in activity in the Bab el Mandeb region since early June 2010. In that period, five vessels reported attempted attacks with a further four reporting having been fired upon.
The tanker Motivator, carrying lubricating oil, reported coming under fire near the strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden on Sunday.
Contact was lost and the vessel was confirmed hijacked on Monday.
An international flotilla has been patrolling the Gulf of Aden to deter an increase in hijackings of shipping.
“The MT Motivator reported it was under small arms fire from a pirate attack in the northern Bab al-Mandeb area in the southern Red Sea,” the EU’s naval task force, Eunavfor, said.
“After notification of this attack, attempts were made to make contact with the Motivator but to no avail. The hijack was confirmed early on July 5.”
The MV Motivator, IMO 9340386, is a small tankship, 128 meters long by 20 meters wide. It is registered in the Marshall Islands.
One more pirate hijacking isn’t the news here. It’s the Where, not the What, that is the story. The Red Sea is pretty much a large salt water lake, with the Suez Canal at the north end and the Bab el Mandeb Straights at the south end. It’s essentially closed off, m’kay? The waters at the Straights are so narrow that there is a bridge being built across, between Eritrea/Djibouti and Yemen. And the waters of the Red Sea are COVERED in Navy, from every country that can paint a ship gray and set it afloat. WALL TO FREAKING WALL MILITARY VESSELS. And there have been FIVE other attempted hijackings in the very same, very small area, all within the past month.
This is inexcusable. I don’t give a flying fart which navy was nearby, they did nothing. They allowed this hijack to happen. Come on. The damned Straight is only 16 miles wide, and 10% of the world’s oil ships through it every single day, plus a huge amount of trade goods. You’d think the ships would be bow to stern in a conga line going both ways. Billions of dollars of goods every hour. And pirates got into this ultra-dense zone, little wolves amongst the flock, and plucked themselves a lamb. And 500 sheepdogs stood around and did jack shit. You effers are so fired. 50 helicopters could have been on scene in 2 minutes and shot these fools to shreds. Hell, land batteries could have hit the pirates from shore! ( oh, and the US has a huge military force right the fuck there, called the Combined Joint Task Force - Horn Of Africa. Right there, at Camp Le Monier in Djibouti, not even 60 miles away. It’s full of jets and helicopters and tanks and Marines and stuff )
What’s next, Somali pirates hijacking ships when they are in the locks of the Suez Canal? WTF, why not? How about Somali pirates following the ships right to their destinations, and hijacking them right out of the ports? They can do it, easily! Because the world is WASTING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS on multiple navies who DON’T DO A FUCKIN THING to stop them.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/07/2010 at 12:53 PM
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Permalink • Tuesday - June 29, 2010
A Dye Job For The Poodle Shooter
Sorry, but this smells like BS to me.
Picatinny Arsenal, Rockaway NJ: The Army announced this week that it has begun shipping its new 5.56mm cartridge, the M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round.
The ammunition will replace bullets that have been used since the early 1980s and will be more dependable, have improved accuracy, reduced muzzle flash and a higher velocity, the Army said in a statement.
Those readers who have been paying attention to my ammunition posts will immediately guess that this means the Army is using a faster powder. Experienced reloaders will look at the above picture and shake their heads in wonder, because the cannelure is on the wrong end of the bullet. Look how much case volume is lost because this low density slug has to be so deeply seated in the already minuscule 5.56 NATO case (the case is smaller than your little finger)! No way a merely faster powder could do the job. Ergo, the Army is using a special long duration “magic” powder you and I don’t have access to, probably similar to that “Leverevolution” “Light Magnum” stuff Hornady is loading these days.
The projectile represents the most significant advancement in general purpose small caliber ammunition in decades, according to Lt. Col. Jeffrey K. Woods, the program’s product manager.
The Enhanced Performance Round contains an environmentally friendly projectile that eliminates up to 2,000 tons of lead from the manufacturing process each year, the Army statement said.
Woods said the effort is an example of how “greening’’ a previously hazardous material can also provide performance improvements.
Army Smart - killing our enemies while making Mother Earth happy!®
Oh, and do the math. This bullet replaces the 62 grain M855 bullet, which used perhaps 40 grains of lead. At 7000 grains to the pound, 200 million of those doesn’t come close to using 4 million pounds of lead. They have to be implying that a bullet of similar style will be put into place for the heavier 7.62 NATO cartridge which uses bullets in the 150-200 grain range.
Picatinny Arsenal’s Project Manager for Maneuver Ammunition Systems, Chris Grassano, manages the M855A1 program.
“The Army utilized advanced science, modeling and analysis to produce the best 5.56mm round possible for the warfighter,’’ Grassano said in the Army statement.
The new bullet is tailored for use in the M4 Weapon System but also vastly improves the performance of the M16 and M249 families of weapons, the Army statement said.
“tailored for the M4 weapon”. Which uses a really short 16” barrel, instead of the normal 20-24” barrel on regular M16 rifles. Short barrels result in reduced muzzle velocity and increased muzzle flash and blast, as I’ve been telling you. The fix is usually a shift to a much faster powder that burns up quicker. The downside is that such a powder almost always gives lower muzzle velocities when used in the more traditional longer barrels. Once again, unless the Army somehow has “magic” gun powder, the ONLY way they can get better results from the stubby M4 and “vastly” improve velocity on the longer M16 is to raise chamber pressures by quite a bit. And the 5.56 NATO already runs at significantly higher pressure than the otherwise identical .223 Remington cartridge, which is the civilian name for this cartridge. Military rifles generally have bigger chambers and longer throats, which alleviates some of that high pressure. But still. Use your head here.
During testing, the Army fired more than 1 million rounds to ensure the new cartridge met or exceeded expectations. It is the most thoroughly tested small caliber round ever fielded, Woods said.
The Army plans to procure more than 200 millions rounds over the next 12 to 15 months, its statement said.
The M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round is the first environmentally friendly bullet resulting from a larger “greening’’ effort across the Army’s Small Caliber Ammunition programs. Other greening efforts include 5.56mm tracer, 7.62mm ball and green primers, the statement said.
Soldiers in Afghanistan will begin using the new, improved round this summer, it said.
Hey, I’m glad the thing is so well tested. But it had to be; this ammunition was supposed to be released an entire year ago, but that had to be pushed back because of major problems when the stuff was fired at high temperatures. The kind of temperatures you’d see in hot places, like summer in Iraq or Afghanistan. Or when your gun gets hot from shooting it a lot, like when you’re in a war. D’oh!
Temperature issues arise for lead-free slug
By Matthew Cox - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Aug 10, 2009 17:40:21 EDTThe Army is scrapping the latest design for its eco-friendly 5.56mm ammo after some of the bullets began to show trajectory problems when exposed to hot temperatures.
Army ballistics officials halted production of the M855A1 Lead Free Slug ammunition in mid July, launched an investigation and decided to replace the bismuth-tin alloy slug with another material, said Lt. Col. Jeff Woods, product manager for Small Caliber Ammunition.
“We are currently evaluating alternate lead-free materials, and we will resume qualification once a selection is made,” Woods told Army Times.
In the M855A1 LFS bullet’s design, the bismuth-tin alloy sits beneath a steel penetrating tip. A copper jacket encases all but the point of the bullet. The round was designed to work specifically with the M4 carbine. Army officials have maintained that the new round will provide more “consistent performance” than the current M855 round and perform better against hard targets.
The problem surfaced when some of the bullets did not follow their trajectory or planned flight path.
“During ballistic testing of production LFS cartridges, we noticed that some projectiles occasionally varied from the intended trajectory,” Woods said.
The plan was to start issuing the first of 20 million rounds in August, replacing the standard M855 lead round.
One thing the Army is sure of is that “this will delay fielding of the new round,” Woods said.
This is not the first hiccup to occur in the quest for lead-free ammunition, a program the Army has invested tens of millions of dollars in since the mid-1990s. The first attempt featured a tungsten-nylon bullet that didn’t perform well and proved almost as harmful to the environment as lead. This new wrinkle in the program appears to be linked to “higher temperatures,” but ballistic officials would not describe the specific temperature at which the problem occurs.
I love that “some projectiles occasionally varied from the intended trajectory” line. That’s Army-speak for “accuracy totally shit the bed when things got hot”. And no kidding: these lead free bullets are much less malleable than lead cored ones, which means they do not squish up to seal the bore upon firing (under the intense pressures inside a firing gun barrel, all metals are elastic, but the stronger ones much less so). Lead by itself is highly elastic; this squishing up effect is what made the Minie Ball work in the Civil War. Lead surrounded by a copper or brass jacket is much less deformable, but still can be squished up a little. Solid copper, steel, or bismuth bullets aren’t really malleable at all at similar pressures. When guns get hot their steel barrels get hot too. And expand a little. Which means that the bore, that hole in the middle of the barrel that the bullet slides down, also gets a little bigger. And that means a looser fit for an inelastic bullet. Loose fit equals lousy accuracy. D’oh!
So I’m really hoping that the new EPR bullet uses a softer and more elastic copper alloy, or at least is made 0.001 - 0.002” larger in diameter, to mitigate this problem.
So, is it effective? The Army wants you to believe so. The previous “solution” to the 5.56’s lack of hitting power was supposed to be solved by everyone switching to the M855 bullet, the so called SS109 Penetrator with it’s much heavier 62 grain construction and a hardened steel core. That was back in the early 80s. Using that bullet required putting new barrels on every rifle in service, because the bigger bullet needed a much faster rifling pitch to stabilize it, compared to the even older Vietnam era M193 55 grain bullet. All of which goes to show that our military has long been aware that the 5.56 cartridge isn’t quite enough gun to do the job. And so this week we have yet another stop gap effort, another dye job for the old poodle. Let’s hope that this shade of Nice ‘n Easy™ can turn the poodle into a pit bull.
But guess what? The Marines aren’t buying into it. They don’t want this new gee-whiz projectile at all. Oh no. Instead, they now have their own wunder-poodle-fixer-upper bullet!
The Marine Corps, however, doesn’t share this confidence. The Corps has dropped its plans to field the Army’s M855A1 and approved the new SOST round for Marines to use in Afghanistan. SOST, short for Special Operations Science and Technology, is SOCom’s enhanced 5.56mm round . It isn’t green, but it is deadlier than the current M855 round and it’s available now, Marine officials say. The Corps’ decision to purchase about 2 million SOST rounds in September illustrates the growing frustration with the M855’s performance on the modern battlefield. The M855 was developed in the 1970s and approved as an official NATO round in 1980. In recent years, troops have widely criticized it. They complain it is ineffective against barriers such as car windshields and often travels right through unarmored insurgents, with less than lethal effects.
SOST rounds have similar ballistics to the M855 round, meaning combat troops don’t have to adjust to using the new ammo, military officials say. Using an open-tip match round design common with some sniper ammunition, SOST rounds are designed to stay on target better than existing M855 rounds after penetrating windshields, car doors and other objects.
Compared with the M855, SOST rounds also stay on target longer in open air and have increased stopping power, according to Navy Department documents obtained by Marine Corps Times.
At 62 grains, they weigh about the same as most NATO rounds, have a typical lead core with a solid copper shank and are considered a variation of Federal Cartridge Co.’s Federal Trophy Bonded Bear Claw round, which was developed for big-game hunting and is touted in a company news release for its ability to crush bone.
Despite the popularity of the SOST, the Army isn’t backing away from its goal to perfect its green M855A1 round. “SOST is a good round, but SOST is not a lead-free slug,” said Lt. Col. Tom Henthorn, chief of the Small Arms Branch at the Soldier Requirements Division at Fort Benning, Ga. The Army will continue to develop an environmentally friendly 5.56mm, as well as a lead-free 7.62mm bullet, Henthorn added, “because we care about the environment.”
[eye roll] Oh God. About the only ground where ground water runoff could be contaminated with lead put there by bullets would be the rain water that drains off the dirt berms behind the shooting ranges at military training camps. Those same berms that have been in use since about ... 1915? I looked it up - there is no lead contamination in Rock Creek, the waterway that drains the Gettysburg battlefield, where millions of pure lead bullets each the size of your thumb were fired in 1863. Probably 100 tons worth in a 1 square mile area. Spending tens of millions of dollars to develop a new “earth friendly” bullet is asinine. Spending that money to develop a more effective, more lethal bullet makes a bit more sense, though the “green sell” seems rather hypocritical.
Posted by Drew458
on 06/29/2010 at 11:59 AM
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Permalink • Wednesday - June 23, 2010
Top Swap
President Obama announced Wednesday that he has accepted Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s resignation as the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan following a scathing article in which McChrystal and his aides were quoted criticizing the administration for its handling of the war.
In doing so, Obama nominated Gen. David Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command and the former commanding general in Iraq, to replace him. The president stressed that while the decision was a difficult one, it does not represent a change in the course of the war.
“This is a change in personnel, but it is not a change in policy,” Obama said in the Rose Garden, Petraeus by his side and McChrystal nowhere to be seen.
The president praised McChrystal, saying he always showed “great courtesy” and carried out his orders “faithfully,” and that they were on the same page in terms of war strategy. He said the decision to accept the general’s resignation was not based on “personal insult,” but a desire to ensure there is no “diversion” to the mission. Obama said the conduct described in the article “does not meet the standard that should be set by a commanding general,” which led him to his decision.
Wafflers McCain and Lieberman then took to the airwaves to provide a unified message from both left sides of the spineless middle (the left, and the further left). Yadda yadda yadda, “unfortunate remarks” yadda yadda “unity” blah blah frickin blah.
I don’t think these were unfortunate remarks. I don’t think McChrystal’s words were an accident. I think he said what he said with full knowledge of what would happen. And I think, in a couple years, he’s going to be a hero for saying it. Yes, I know, and everyone else who has ever been in uniform knows, that you don’t dis the Commander In Chief. But ...
I heard the other day that every Marine in Afghanistan has been issued a laminated little 3x5 ROE card that tells them they are not supposed to patrol areas where they expect to encounter any enemy forces. That’s even worse than the patrolling with unloaded weapons bit we heard about last month. The rules our leaders have laid down not only make it impossible for our troops to win, they make it impossible for them to even tie. The core idea is that same one recycled from Vietnam - winning hearts and minds. Winning hearts and minds may win the peace. Killing the enemy and making sure the locals are too afraid of the consequences of supporting those enemies actually wins the war. But it’s been obvious for more than 3 years now that our boys aren’t supposed to win that war.
Would you want to be in charge of that? I wouldn’t. Get out while you can and leave the end game to blacken someone else’s name? That may not be the bravest or most altruistic strategy, but it’s one I can understand. Lead your troops to win, and if you aren’t allowed to win, go home. And hey, bring the troops with you too.
So long General. I’m sure we’ll see you on the Tea Party talk circuit real soon.
Posted by Drew458
on 06/23/2010 at 02:20 PM
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Permalink • Tuesday - May 25, 2010
The Hippies ARE In Charge
This can’t be happening.
A proposal for a new “combat” medal honoring “courageous restraint” is being floated around the headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul, Afghanistan. The brain child of British Major General Nick Carter, commander for the Regional Command South of the ISAF, will be awarded to service members who hold their fire to save civilian lives, even if their lives or the lives of their comrades are at risk.
The new medal is being touted as a way to prevent civilian casualties. Now let this sink in: Brother O’s politically correct military is actually proposing a combat medal for soldiers who make a conscious effort to avoid a combat action.
The military’s rules of engagement in Afghanistan have become so emasculated that commanders are now considering the creation of a medal awarded for not using lethal force during war.
NATO Commander General Stanley McChrystal is currently reviewing the “Courageous Restraint” medal, which was suggested by British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter following an incident where U.S. soldiers fired on a bus carrying Afghan civilians.
“The idea is being reviewed at Headquarters ISAF,” said Lt. Col. Edward Sholtis, the spokesman for Gen. McChrystal. “The idea is consistent with our approach. Our young men and women display remarkable courage every day, including situations where they refrain from using lethal force, even at risk to themselves, in order to prevent possible harm to civilians. ... That restraint is an act of discipline and courage not much different than those seen in combat actions.”
However, restraint hasn’t translated into progress on the battlefield. A recent report from the Pentagon revealed that violence in Afghanistan is increasing – up 87% from last year – and that more districts support the Taliban than did six months ago (none of the 92 districts surveyed actively support the Karzai government while 42 are sympathetic to the Taliban). While our forces build infrastructure, provide medical care, and show restraint on the battlefield, the Taliban acts like barbarians – intimidating, raping, and murdering. Yet when our troops act in self-defense, Afghans gather in protest, chanting “Death to America.”
As Gen. McChrystal wrote in a July 2009 directive: “The Taliban cannot militarily defeat us – but we can defeat ourselves.” When we reward troops for not defending themselves – and take away their air and artillery support – that appears to be exactly what is going on.
McChrystal, who is leading coalition forces in Afghanistan, told reporters during a press conference at the Pentagon today that the military does not need a new medal to recognize a particular kind of valor.
Today, in reply to a reporter’s question about the rumored medal, McChrystal said the military already has “a number of ways to recognize courage.”
“I think courage in uniform can come under enemy fire in the most traditional ways or if you come under actions that may not be as expected or as traditional and involve killing,” he said. “It may involve protecting civilians.”
He referred to a photo that came out of the fighting in Marjah, in which a Marine is seen using his own body to shield an Afghan man and child from harm.
“He wasn’t shooting anyone, he didn’t kill any Taliban,” McChrystal said of the Marine, “but I would argue that he showed as much courage as any that I’ve seen on the battlefield.”
“So when you talk about courage, I don’t think we need a ‘different’ medal to differentiate different kinds of courage.”
So General McChrystal’s response is that the Army already has enough medals, and that they can use one they already have for this new “category”? Sickening.
This morning I learned that the friend of a son of a friend of mine, a 19 year old kid straight off of Paris Island, got blasted by an IED in Afghanistan very recently. One minute he was on patrol, the next time he opened his eyes he was in a hospital bed in Bethesda. It looks like they can save his leg and most of his face, but he’s going to be missing part of his ear. If the military is going to start giving out awards for not fighting, why is this young man even over there?
Posted by Drew458
on 05/25/2010 at 02:20 PM
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Permalink • Thursday - April 29, 2010
Gosh, it was right here just 9 minutes ago
Lockheed Martin and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are investigating why contact with the first HTV-2 test vehicle was lost soon after launch on a mission to demonstrate technology for high-performance, long-endurance hypersonic flight.
The third stage of the Orbital Sciences Minotaur IV Lite booster successfully completed energy-management maneuvers, released its clamshell payload fairing and deployed the HTV-2 at the edge of the atmosphere, but telemetry signals from the hypersonic glider were lost about 9 minutes into the mission, DARPA says.
Launched from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. on April 22, the unmanned HTV-2 was planned to cross the Pacific and impact the ocean north of Kwajalein Atoll in the first of two flights to demonstrate technology for a prompt global strike weapon capable of flying 9,000nm in less than 2 hours.
The HTV-2 is a slender, highly-swept, sharp-edged delta with “unprecedented” aerodynamic efficiency for a hypersonic vehicle, said Erbland. The vehicle is designed to fly at a low angle of attack relative to other hypersonic vehicles.
Autonomous guidance, navigation and control was designed to enable the HTV-2 to manage its energy and fly a precise flight path to a “very accurate” terminal location, said Erbland. After release, the vehicle was planned to navigate via a series of waypoints, managing its trajectory “to arrive with sufficient energy to get to the next one, plus a little extra in case the drag is higher than predicted.”
The test flight called for a 30-minute mission in which the vehicle would glide at high speed before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, north of a US military test site at the Kwajalein Atoll.
The glider separated from the booster but soon after the signal vanished, a spokeswoman said.
“Preliminary review of data indicates the HTV-2 achieved controlled flight within the atmosphere at over Mach 20. Then contact with HTV-2 was lost,” Johanna Spangenberg Jones, a spokeswoman for DARPA, told AFP.
The Kwajalein Atoll is in the Marshall Islands, roughly 1500 miles northeast of Papua New Guinea and 2300 miles west southwest of Hawaii. Call it next door to Bikini Atoll. Between 4100 and 4800 miles from Vandenburg AFB depending on their impact target. Not bad for a 30 minute trip; 8200 miles per hour or better. Waaay faster than 9000nm in <2 hrs as the DARPA press release states. Twice as fast.
No reward has yet been offered for the carbon fiber little wonderplane, although I hear the government has a rush order on printing milk cartons for the South Pacific.
Posted by Drew458
on 04/29/2010 at 02:51 PM
Filed Under: • Amazing Science and Discoveries • Military • planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles •
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Permalink • Tuesday - March 30, 2010
Today’s Version Of Events
I guess this lie d’jour is CYA in case video of the sunken ship leaks out, and the whole world sees that the side of South Korea’s corvette is blown IN, and not OUT, as would be the case with the “internal explosion” story from the other day.
Let’s face the truth: North Korea torpedoed the ship, sinking it and killing about 50 of the crew. And if they didn’t do it, then China did. Most likely culprit would be a submarine. All because the South Korean ship was too close to some imaginary line in the ocean.
But South Korea isn’t quite ready for an actual war with the Norks, so they’re backing down and creating cover stories left and right. No doubt with some major arm twisting coming from Washington DC.
So here is today’s lie. DO NOT attempt any research into military history that could prove that that bit of salt water was never mined. Never mind! Accept Today’s Truth and move on like a good world citizen.
Korean War mine ‘sunk’ South Korean navy ship
A mine dating back to the 1950-53 Korean War might have been responsible for the sinking of a South Korean naval patrol ship last weekend, according to the country’s defence minister.
His explanation came as hopes of finding 46 missing South Korean alive faded further after navy divers finally reached the upturned hull of the sunken ship but reported no signs of life within.
The 1,200-tonne corvett Cheonan sank on Friday night in the Yellow Sea along a disputed sea border with North Korea, sparking fears that Pyongyang had attacked the ship and temporarily sending shares lower in New York.
However, Kim Tae-Young, the defence minister, told a South Korean parliamentary committee that initial reports of a North Korean torpedo attack appeared unfounded, citing accounts from rescued sailors who had been operating the ship’s radar at the time of the explosion.
“It is possible that a North Korean sea mine could have drifted into our area,” he said, pointing out that North Korea had deployed some 3,000 Soviet mines in the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan during the war.
“Though many mines were removed, it must have been impossible to retrieve them all,” he added.
One mine was found in 1959 and another in 1984, the minister said, although an extensive South Korean search in 2008 did not trace any, however it was impossible to rule out that a mine could have come adrift from its mooring.
The UnTruth you must ignore here is that the South Korean Navy is unable to locate the North Korean Navy’s submarines, even with one of their anti-submarine ships like the Cheonan. To not ignore this would be to imply either that the crew was not doing their job, or that the ship’s detection equipment is not good enough. Both would be Questioning The State, an activity that is so forbidden that it is not possible to even think of it.
Instead you must believe with all your heart that an old mine, still active after 57 years, did the deed. No one is at fault. The mine had escaped detection for all that time even though this is some of the most heavily patrolled water in the world, under constant sonar scrutiny, and that several intense and specialized searches had failed to find it. Even though the last mine was found 26 years ago, others may still be out there waiting to serendipitously rust through their chains and come bobbing to the surface just as a South Korean Navy vessel comes by while accidentally sailing too close to the border. This is the Truth, there is no other Truth than this Truth.
Until tomorrow.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/30/2010 at 12:07 PM
Filed Under: • Military • North-Korea •
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Permalink • Friday - March 26, 2010
BREAKING NEWS: North Korea ‘torpedos and sinks’ South Korean navy ship with 104 sailors on board
The nut jobs running things in the starving north and of course that’s means Kim Jong one dong whoever. Whatcha thinks folks? War between the two after all these years? Prolly not.
But a Moonbat Award to: Kim Jong-il of N. Korea. Jerk.
NORTH KOREAN ATTACK ON SHIP FROM SOUTH
By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 4:23 PM on 26th March 2010A South Korean naval ship with 104 on board was sinking today after a suspected torpedo attack by North Korea.
The 1,500-tonne vessel is going down near Baengnyeong island, with rescue crews fearing many sailors have died.
In apparent retaliation, the South Korean navy shot at an unidentified ship in the direction of North Korea.
The incident is viewed as a potential flashpoint which could plunge the two countries into all-out conflict.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that it is not clear what caused the ship to sink. It is believed 59 sailors have been rescued.
South Korea’s government has convened an emergency meeting of security ministers, according to state television.
Authorities say the ship began sinking around 10:45 pm local time (1.45pm GMT) in the Yellow Sea.
The dramatic escalation between the two countries comes after North Korea has warned that it was bolstering its defences in response to joint South Korean-U.S. military drills that were held this month.
North Korea had already threatened ‘unprecedented nuclear strikes’ against its southern neighbour and the U.S over claims they are planning to topple the communist regime.
[ Drew steps in ]
I was just going to post on this one but Peiper beat me to it. Lots of links on the story everywhere.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/03/26/south-korean-navy-ship-sinking-near-border-n-korea/
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100326/ap_on_re_as/as_skorea_ship_sinks
http://www.winnipegsun.com/news/world/2010/03/26/13368231.html
The Winnipeg Sun is reporting that several of the sailors were killed.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62P30E20100326
Reuters is saying that the South Koreans are now saying that they are not sure that the North Koreans were involved. Politics!
Wikipedia says this ship, the Cheonan, named for a city in NW South Korea, was a member of the Pohang class of corvettes. Global Security confirms this. The Pohang class ships are about 290 feet long, armed with one or two 76mm guns, 2 30mm or 40mm rapid fire guns, and a small batch of anti-ship missiles. Mainly they are used for coastal patrol and anti-submarine duty.
These are not large ships, but they are still quite a bit bigger than the 165 foot motor gunboats pictured on South Korean television (see Yahoo News link above) and at the Daily Mail link Peiper sourced.
Stay tuned to this story. My guess is it will all blow over, and that the sinking will be attributed to some sort of accident, even though I think it was a mine that did her in.
UPDATE: That didn’t take long! Now the claim is the ship suffered a wardrobe malfunction accidentally set off some explosives onboard. Uh huh, right. Sure. Right off the Nork’s coast. I’m sure they were set off accidentally. By a torpedo or an anti-ship missile accidentally coming through the side of the ship and blowing up. Politics. Probably got a call from Obama who told them “not now dammit!” It’s such an obvious lie.
Posted by peiper
on 03/26/2010 at 11:27 AM
Filed Under: • Insanity • Military • Moonbat Award to: • Stoopid-People •
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Permalink • Friday - March 19, 2010
One hell of brave Battling Brit, kept on defying Taliban death traps
One hell of a brave soldier! Just another fine example of Brit training and bravery in the field. There’s so many articles about the useless scum in the streets that sometimes we lose site of guys like this cos they do not alway get the spotlight. (gee, I hope he likes poetry cos according to one would be expert, those who don’t are lesser beings. )
George Cross heroes: The bomb experts who kept on defying Taliban death trapsBy Ian Drury and Fay Schlesinger
Last updated at 4:30 PM on 19th March 2010After booby-trap bombs killed two of his comrades and left four maimed and stranded in the middle of a minefield, Staff Sergeant Kim Hughes knew he had no time to consider his own safety.
The bomb disposal expert had to clear a path across the dusty open ground so the wounded could be evacuated and the dead men retrieved - and he had to do it fast.
Shunning protective clothing to save time, the 30-year-old picked his way across the field dotted with more of the booby-trap bombs.
And all the time he knew the field was being watched by the Taliban fanatics who had planted the bombs. Indeed, even as he inched nearer the injured men, bullets were flying overhead as other soldiers tried to keep the gunmen at bay.
But, keeping his cool beneath the Afghan sun, he managed to dismantle seven of the improvised explosive devices - three by simply using his hands. There was no time to place charges and retreat to a safe distance.
His actions were described as ‘extraordinary’ by senior Army officers and yesterday Staff Sgt Hughes was awarded the George Cross for carrying out ‘the single most outstanding act’ of bomb disposal in Afghanistan.
It was one of two GCs - the UK’s highest accolade for gallantry not in the face of the enemy - to be conferred. The other was awarded posthumously to his friend and fellow bomb disposal expert Staff Sgt Olaf Schmid, 30
Posted by peiper
on 03/19/2010 at 01:45 PM
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • Heroes • Military • UK • War-Stories •
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Permalink • Monday - March 15, 2010
BATTLING BRITS IN AFGHANISTAN ….
Nothing for me to add here except to say these fellows are damn good and uphold a long and proud military tradition. They are better and braver then many who are representing them.
Inside Afghanistan: the sniper’s tale
Heathcliff O’Malley (camera) and David Ferrarotto
Published: 12:30PM GMT 15 Mar 2010
As part of The Telegraph’s series of videos looking at life for the British Army in Afghanistan, we hear from a sniper whose daily challenge is to kill before he is killed.
Telegraph photojournalist Heathcliff O’Malley spent two weeks embedded with British troops in Helmand, Afghanistan.
In this exclusive series, he shows what life is really like on the ground for the 10,000 soldiers serving in the country.
Posted by peiper
on 03/15/2010 at 01:22 PM
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • Guns and Gun Control • Military • RoPMA • UK • War-Stories •
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Permalink • Tuesday - March 09, 2010
ANOTHER VERY BAD IDEA BUT THEN, SOME WOMEN WILL BE MACHO. OH BOY. WANNA SEE THIS
OK. No long rant as I’ve said whatever I need to on the subject. But this might be taking equality very far. How good for morale can this be?
So near yet so legally far. I guess we’ll see in time. I think however that any sex scandal will be the least of the problems with this decision.
Navy sex scandal fears as women are set to be allowed to serve in submarines
By Daily Mail Reporter
Under plans due to be implemented later this year, five women officers will be deployed with all four Vanquish-class nuclear submarines. Each vessel carries 135 crew.
‘There is concern over what might happen,’ a naval source told The Sun. ‘If there was a sex scandal it would be impossible for anyone to be taken off until the sub returned from its four-month patrol.
‘The Navy will go to great lengths to make sure that the first women are officers with impeccable credentials.’
It emerged last month that the U.S. is axing its policy barring females from serving in submarines.
Robert Gates, the Defence Secretary in Washington, announced that he intended to repeal the rule possibly within weeks.
The Ministry of Defence in London is expected to follow suit - allowing the Navy’s 3,700 women sailors from taking jobs beneath the waves.
The review was ordered by the Government following pressure from senior Labour figures eager to introduce full equal opportunities for females in the Armed Forces.
Women have served on board Royal Navy surface ships for about 20 years but they remain outlawed from submarines.
The original refusal was justified on the basis of the cramped living conditions on board and concerns over the dangers posed by fumes inside the submarine to a foetus if a woman is pregnant.
If they discovered they were pregnant after going to sea, the commander could be forced to return home and abandon a secret mission.
The Vanguard-class submarines which carry the UK’s Trident nuclear missiles typically put to sea on patrols lasting four months or more without resurfacing, while ‘hunter-killer’ submarines remain submerged for months gathering intelligence or shadowing suspect ships.
The Royal Navy’s new Astute attack submarines could easily be adapted to accommodate females, while the design of the new Trident nuclear subs will also give ‘consideration to the possibility of women serving in the future’.
The Australian, Canadian, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian navies already allow women to serve on their submarines.
If the Royal Navy allows the move, only mine-clearance diving units and the Royal Marines would be closed to women in the Armed Forces.
However, an internal review conducted by the MoD two years ago supported the current policy.
The wide-ranging review of the role of women in the military was launched last year. It is also looking at whether women should be permitted to serve in infantry units or in tank crews.
Women have operated on the front line in Iraq and Afghanistan - as medics, intelligence officers and with the artillery. The RAF also has female pilots and navigators.
Posted by peiper
on 03/09/2010 at 11:32 AM
Filed Under: • Military • UK •
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Permalink • Friday - March 05, 2010
Our Captain Bligh is a Lady
Horry Clap, just what kind of a sewer mouthed monster does it take to get busted from command in the Navy? After all “swearing like a sailor” is part of our lexicon. And being tough is part of the job description. But apparently that kind of behavior has it’s own place and time, and just being angry and vindictive is no substitute for qualified leadership. Thus we see real equal opportunity means not just being promoted, but being demoted as well. This is not a happy post.
Women are so common in the upper ranks of the U.S. military these days that it’s no longer news when they break through another barrier. Unfortunately, the latest benchmark isn’t one to brag about: being booted as captain of a billion-dollar warship for “cruelty and maltreatment” of her 400-member crew. According to the Navy inspector general’s report that triggered her removal — and the accounts of officers who served with her — Captain Holly Graf was the closest thing the U.S. Navy had to a female Captain Bligh.
A Navy admiral stripped Graf of her command of the Japan-based guided missile cruiser U.S.S. Cowpens in January. The just-released IG report concludes that Graf “repeatedly verbally abused her crew and committed assault” and accuses her of using her position as commander of the Cowpens “for personal gain.” But old Navy hands tell TIME that those charges, substantiated in the IG report, came about because of the poisonous atmosphere she created aboard her ship.
A Navy captain was demoted because she berated and assaulted her crew, not because she led her guided missile cruiser on a drag-race with another U.S. warship in the Pacific, an investigation shows.
...
A Navy inspector general report said investigators had substantiated that Graf assaulted subordinates (pushing one, grabbing another and once throwing wadded up paper at another sailor) and that she regularly verbally abused subordinates by publicly berating them, belittling them and using profane language.
...
Graf once ordered a subordinate to stand in a “timeout” in a corner in front of the full watch team, which he complained to investigators was demeaning to him, according to the report.
The report also found she used her office for personal gain — that is, asked junior officers to play piano at her private Christmas party and to walk her dogs.
Among allegations not substantiated was one that she endangered the ship while allowing a drag-race between the Cowpens and the destroyer USS John S. McCain in February 2009.
The Cowpens lost the race too.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/05/2010 at 03:41 PM
Filed Under: • Military •
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Permalink • Wednesday - March 03, 2010
rotorhead II
Since Vilmar put up a post today on a new helicopter rotor design, I figured I’d add to the mix with a link and a small bit of science.
If you rub an amber rod with a cat you get static electricity. If you touch that cat to a grounded water pipe in a dark room you get sparks. Then you get your face clawed off as the cat discharges the room at near light speed. Don’t try this experiment at home kiddies, unless you have bandages at the ready and it’s someone else’s cat.
The old amber rod thing is an example of the triboelectric effect. In very dry and dusty environments you can get a similar thing with helicopter rotors. The blade builds up a static charge as it moves through the air, and when the hard metal of the blades impact the dry sand or dust in the air, they discharge a small spark as the sand etches away a tiny little bit of their surface. Perhaps a bit similar to Saint Elmo’s Fire on ships, the effect is very unpredictable, quite beautiful, and can be very dangerous. And it just goes to show that helicopters are high maintenance machines in a desert environment.
You’re thinking, “Oh, Ok, a little spark. No big deal.” But it isn’t just one or two. It’s millions of them at a time. Enough so that the rotors can create a shimmering halo that can be visible for miles. Not what you want when you’re flying in a combat zone at night. The phenomena is nothing new; it’s been known about for years.
A secondary concern with the erosion of metal abrasion strips pertains to the visible signature that occurs when microscopic metallic pieces are eroded away. In the erosion process, they often oxidize, giving off a visible spark and causing a corona effect in sandy environments
Although both Ni and Ti are hard metals, their hardness values are significantly lower than that of sand, which is primarily made up of quartz. This hardness differential results in the excessive erosion/degradation of rotor blades in desert environments. An equally important problem with Ti protection is that a visible corona or halo is generated around the rotor blades at night from the sand impacting the Ti leading edge and causing Ti to spark and oxidize.
To everyone’s surprise, Science, which lives to pin names on things, has not given this variation of the triboelectric effect it’s own name. And it is a variation, since erosion is involved.
Half a year or so ago Michael Yon took some fantastic photos of this effect in action, and after much research decided that it should be called the Kopp-Etchells Effect. I think it’s a good name, and his reasons for it are just as good or better than some beaker shaker’s attempt at immortality. I’ll respect his copyright even though hundreds of other sites haven’t, and instead send you over to take a look. Sure, it’s “only” “a plasma phenomena of ionized particles”, but all cool and rare things deserve a decent name.
This little update link implies that The Powers That Be may be agreeing that he coined a new phrase. Very cool.
Yeah, I’m six months late to this party. So what? It’s the neatest bit of helicopter news I could find on just one cup of coffee.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/03/2010 at 09:51 AM
Filed Under: • Amazing Science and Discoveries • Military •
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Permalink • Wednesday - February 24, 2010
Good Dog!
The life-saving skills of a black Labrador have earned him a top medal in the British Army, Sky News reported Wednesday.
Nine-year-old Treo’s job is to sniff out roadside bombs in Afghanistan for soldiers, and he has proved rather good at it.
In August, 2008, while working as a forward detection dog in Sangin, Treo found a “daisy chain” improvised explosive device (IED) - made of two or more explosives wired together - that had been carefully modified and concealed by the Taliban at the side of a path.
A month later, his actions saved another platoon from guaranteed casualties, again by finding a daisy chain IED.
Now he is being rewarded with the Dickin Medal - the animal equivalent of a Victoria Cross - the highest accolade for a military animal.
Treo retired and is now enjoying life with handler Sergeant Dave Heyhoe back at 104 Military Working Dogs Support Unit, in North Luffenham, Rutland.
The search dog twice saved soldiers and civilians from catastrophe while out on patrol in Helmand province by sniffing out explosives which had been wired together in a daisy chain and hidden in the path.
Princess Alexandra will award the dog with the Dickin Medal at a ceremony at the Imperial War Museum on February 24. [ although another ceremony seems to have been held on January 2nd ]
The medal was created by leading veterinary charity the PDSA and is recognised as the highest award an animal can receive for conspicuous gallantry or devotion to duty while serving in military conflict.
And muzzies think dogs are yucky and unclean. That shows you right there that their culture is bereft.
Posted by Drew458
on 02/24/2010 at 11:42 AM
Filed Under: • Animals • Military •
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