Any excuse to go hunting

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Note the Enfield M1917 in 30.06

Note the Enfield M1917 in 30.06– still a great hunting rifle today.

From Fort Wainwright’s PAO:

On June 16, 1941, Lieutenant Milton Ashkins and his crew chief Sargent R.A. Roberts took off from Ladd Army Air Field (outside of Fairbanks) in an obsolete Douglas O-38 observation plane with the intention of checking in on an old prospector friend.

Ashkins directed the plane southwest of Fairbanks and once he reached the prospector’s camp, he flew a low, slow pass-over. Seeing their friend and satisfied that all was well, Ashkins advanced the throttle and the engine responded with a cough and then quit. Unable to restart the engine, Ashkins crash landed the plane into the soft tops of some nearby fir trees and both men survived unscathed.

Once on the ground again, Ashkins radioed their location back to Fairbanks and within a few hours a Douglas B-18 Bolo bomber flew over to drop emergency supplies including a rifle, a rubber raft, ammunition, and rations. The two men then made their way overland, accompanied by their prospector friend, to a rendezvous point 20 miles outside of Fairbanks. Ashkins recalled the trip back to Ladd as taking, “10 wonderful days” that were filled with fishing and hunting, “and just plain loafing with our prospector friend.”

Ashkins, who at the time was chief of the Fighter Test Section at Ladd Field, went on to command the 54th Fighter Squadron, Adak Island, Aleutians, and served in Alaska through 1943, finishing the war as deputy group and group commander, Headquarters 1st Fighter, 15th Air Force, Italy.

He retired from the Air Force in 1965 as a Brigadier Gen as deputy commander, Mobile Air Materiel Area, Brookley Air Force, Ala. He died in 2008.

The crashed O-38 was deemed a total loss at the time and, as the Army was busy ridding themselves of the type anyway, no efforts were made to retrieve the wreckage.

The wreckage was eventually rediscovered nearly thirty years later during an aerial survey of the area, and the plane’s type was soon identified. The staff of the Air Force Museum recognized it as the last surviving example of the type, and quickly assembled a team to examine the aircraft for possible retrieval and restoration.

Upon arriving at the crash site they found the aircraft surprisingly well preserved, with only the two seats and the tailwheel curiously missing. The team was even able to light their campfires using the aircraft’s remaining fuel.

Plans were soon made to remove the aircraft by a CH-47 Chinook from Fort Greeley on 10 June 1968, and it was transported back to Dayton, Ohio. Meanwhile, the missing seats were found in the shack of a local frontiersman where they were being used as chairs. The missing tailwheel was taken because he thought he might build a wheelbarrow someday.

The restoration by the museum’s staff took several years, and many structural pieces of the wings had to be reverse engineered from original plans and damaged parts. The finished aircraft with its original engine was completed and placed on display in 1974.

It is currently displayed hanging in the museum’s Interwar Years Gallery.

Ashkin's O-38, as restored after 27 years in the Alaskan bush

Ashkin’s O-38, as restored after 27 years in the Alaskan bush

Marine battalion to get very quiet in upcoming tests

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A U.S. Marine with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, conducts a company attack range in Twentynine Palms, Calif., Oct. 23, 2016. Bravo Company is participating in Integrated Training Exercise (ITX) 1-17 and preparing to support Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Sarah N. Petrock, 2d MARDIV Combat Camera)

A U.S. Marine with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, conducts a company attack range in Twentynine Palms, Calif., Oct. 23, 2016. Bravo Company is participating in Integrated Training Exercise (ITX) 1-17 and preparing to support Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Sarah N. Petrock, 2d MARDIV Combat Camera)

The U.S. Marine Corps is expanding its use of suppressors in a test that will see a full battalion using them on everything from service rifles to .50-caliber machine guns.

An infantry battalion of the 2nd Marine Division will have every element, from combat engineers to headquarters units, equipped with suppressed weapons in an upcoming experiment. The concept has already been trialed so far this year in company-level exercises.

I spoke with Adam Mehlenbacher, who knows firsthand about dealing with hearing loss and complications for many service members and their families. He’s an audiologist who heads up the American Academy of Audiology’s Government Relations committee and he is also an Army veteran who had deployed to Bosnia and Iraq.

“Hearing loss and tinnitus are the most common service related disabilities. They can have an enormous negative impact on communication ability and quality of life,” Mehlenbacher told Guns.com. He added that they’re both completely preventable.

“Everyone in the military is issued hearing protection and as an audiologist I will say you should always wear it,” he said. “Although, as a veteran I know there are times when service members just do not. Issuing weapons with suppressors is a great way to reduce noise exposure.”

More in my column at Guns.com

We the People now available

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A friend and co-worker of mine, Ben Philippi, has finished his second book project, a hardcover entitled We the People, which he compiled over a five year period from coast to coast, profiling various gun owners and their personal firearms.

An excerpt:

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“I sought to produce a collection of photographs and words as unbiased and true to the diverse social fabric of American gun owners today,” says Ben.

Pick up yours at Amazon or email him ( ben@guns.com ) to buy a copy.

NATO hangs it up on Blackbeard

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NATO’s last counter-piracy surveillance aircraft is flying her final mission, as part of the now-shuttered Operation Ocean Shield. The Royal Danish Air Force crew a Boeing Maritime Surveillance Aircraft, a modified Bombardier Challenger 604, and talks about how much the coast of Somalia has changed since the height of pirate activity in the Horn of Africa.

The operation, which began in 2009 as part of a broader international effort to crack down on Somali-based pirates who had caused havoc with world shipping, was conducted alongside Operation Atalanta— the EU operation in the area which current have a frigate each from Holland and Spain supported by a German P-3– and the 25-nation Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) Combined Task Force (CTF) 151, both of which are on-going.

At the height of piracy in January 2011 over 700 hostages and 32 vessels were being held by Somali pirates, with huge ransoms demanded for their release.  Today, no vessels or hostages are being held by Somali pirates. The most recent pirate incident occurred on 22 October 2016, when a chemical tanker, CPO Korea, was attacked by six armed men 330 nautical miles off the east coast of Somalia.

“The global security environment has changed dramatically in the last few years and NATO navies have adapted with it,” NATO spokesman Dylan White said in a statement. “NATO has increased maritime patrols in the Baltic and Black Seas. We are also working to help counter human smuggling in the Mediterranean.”

As for the EU operation, on Friday 25 November 2016, the European Council extended Operation Atalanta’s mandate to deter, disrupt and repress acts of piracy off the coast of Somalia, until 31 December 2018.

Warship Wednesday Nov. 30, 2016: The Almirante and her Yankee (and Chilean) sisters

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all of their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016: The Almirante and her Yankee (and Chilean) sisters

Colorized from Detroit Publishing Co. no. 022451 in LOC https://www.loc.gov/item/det1994012334/PP/

Colorized from Detroit Publishing Co. no. 022451 in LOC

Here we see the fine Armstrong-built protected cruiser (cruzador) Almirante Barroso of the Brazilian Navy (Marinha do Brasil) during the 1907 International Naval Review in the Hudson River, a gleaming white ship already obsolete though just a decade old.

As part of a general Latin American naval build-up, Brazil ordered four cruisers in 1894 from Armstrong, Whitworth & Co in Elswick from a design by naval architect Philip Watts. These ships, with a 3,800-ton displacement on a 354-foot hull, were smaller than a frigate by today’s standards but in the late 19th century, with a battery of a half-dozen 6-inch (152mm) guns and Harvey armor that ranged between 0.75 inches on their hull to 4.5-inches on their towers, were deemed protected cruisers.

For batting away smaller vessels, they had four 4.7-inch (120mm) Armstrongs, 14 assorted 57 mm and 37mm quick-firing pieces, and three early Nordenfelt 7mm machine guns. To prove their worth in a battle line, they had three torpedo tubes and a brace of Whitehead 18-inch fish with guncotton warheads. They would be the first ships in the Brazilian fleet to have radiotelegraphs and were thoroughly modern for their time.

However, their four Vosper Thornycroft boilers and turbines, augmented by an auxiliary sailing rig, could only just make 20 knots with everything lit on a clean hull.

The lead ship of the proud new class would bear the name of Admiral Francisco Manuel Barroso da Silva, the famed Baron of the Amazon, who led the Brazilian Navy to victory in the Battle of Riachuelo during the Triple Alliance War in 1865, besting a fleet of Paraguayans on the River Plate, and would be the fourth such ship to do so.

barao_do_amazonas
Nonetheless, financial pressures soon limited the Brazilian shipbuilding program and, with each of the Barroso-class cruisers running ₤ 265,000 a pop, the fourth ship of the class was sold while still on the builder’s ways to Chile, who commissioned her as Ministro Zenteno.

The U.S., up-arming for a coming war with Spain, purchased two other incomplete Barrosos in 1898 — Amazonas and Almirante Abreu— that were commissioned as the USS New Orleans and USS Albany, respectively.

One of six 6-inch main guns of the US Navy protected cruiser New Orleans originally ordered in England for Brazil as Amazonas. Note the Marine with his Lee Navy rifle at the ready. 

The Brazilians also sold the Americans the old dynamite cruiser Nictheroy, though without her guns.

In the end, only Almirante Barroso (Elswick Yard Number 630) was the only one completed for Brazil, commissioned 29 April 1897.

As completed with her typically English scheme of the 1890s

As completed with her typically English scheme of the 1890s

Her naval career was one of peacetime showmanship and diplomatic visits, taking President Campos Sales to Buenos Aires on a state visit in 1900, serving as the flagship of the Naval Division, making a trip to the Pacific in 1907 and the U.S.– shown in the first image of this post above– as well as other state visits.

Subsequent trips took her as far as the Middle East and Africa.

almbarroso2x10 almirante_barroso2-1897

With Brazil escaping involvement in the Great War that engulfed the rest of the war from 1914-17, Barroso enforced her country’s neutrality and kept an eye on interned ships during that conflict until switching to a more active campaign looking for the rarely encountered Germans in the South Atlantic after Brazil entered the war on the Allied side in late 1917.

Barroso with her post-1905 scheme from a post card of her at porto de Santos.

Barroso with her post-1905 scheme from a postcard of her at porto de Santos.

By the 1920s, obsolete in a world of 30+ knot cruisers with much more advanced armament and guns, Barroso was used as a survey and navigation training vessel.

By 1931, she was disarmed and turned into a floating barracks, ultimately being written off sometime later, date unknown.

Her 4.7-inch Armstrong mounts and 57mm Nordenfelts were installed in Fort Coimbra at Moto Grosso on the left bank of the Paraguay River, where they remained in service into the 1950s.

One of Barroso's 120s in 1947

One of Barroso’s 4.7s in 1947

When the fort was turned over for preservation, they were repurposed and put on display.

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Her sisters, ironically, all suffered a similar fate though Barosso outlived them.

Chile’s Ministro Zenteno sailed the world far and wide only to be laid up in the 1920s and scrapped in 1930.

USS New Orleans was bought from Brazil while under construction in England. Catalog #: NH 45114

USS New Orleans was bought from Brazil while under construction in England. Catalog #: NH 45114

New Orleans exchanged gunfire with Spanish shore batteries off Santiago in 1898 but missed the big naval battle there while off coaling. She went on to perform yeoman service as flagship of the Cruiser Squadron, U.S. Asiatic Fleet for several years and patrolled the coast of Mexico during the troubles there in 1914. Escorting convoys across the Atlantic in World War I, she ended up at Vladivostok in support of the Allied Interventionists in the Russian Civil War. She was sold for scrapping on 11 February 1930.

USS ALBANY (CL-23) Caption: Running trials, 1900, prior to installation of armament. Catalog #: NH 57778

USS ALBANY (CL-23) Caption: Running trials, 1900, before installation of armament. Catalog #: NH 57778

Albany missed the SpanAm War, being commissioned in the River Tyne, England, on 29 May 1900. Sailing for the Far East from there where she would serve, alternating cruises back to Europe, until 1913 she only went to the U.S. for the first time for her mid-life refit. Recommissioned in 1914, as was her sister New Orleans, Albany served off Mexico, gave convoy duty in WWI and ended up in Russia. With the post-war drawdown, she was placed out of commission on 10 October 1922 at Mare Island and sold for scrap in 1930.

A single 4.7-inch Elswick Armstrong gun from each of these English-made Brazilian cruisers in U.S. service is installed at the Kane County, Illinois Soldier and Sailor Monument at the former courthouse in Geneva, Illinois.

albany-new-orleans-gun-4-7-inch

Specs:

b019-f06Displacement: 3,769 long tons (3,829 t)
Length:     354 ft. 5 in (108.03 m)
Beam:     43 ft. 9 in (13.34 m)
Draft:     18 ft. (5.5 m)
Propulsion: mixed steam and sail; four Vosper Thornycroft boilers and turbines, coupled to two propellers, generating 15,000 hp., 2850 tons of coal
Electricity: 3 generators of 32 Kw, engines by Humphrys Tennant & Co, Deptford
Speed:     20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement: 366 officers and enlisted
Armament:
6 × 6-inch 152/50 Armstrong QF
4 × 4.7-inch 120/50 Armstrong QF
10 × 57/40 Hotchkiss (2 in) 6-pdr Hotchkiss guns
4 ×  37/20 1 pdr guns
3     machine guns
3 × 18-inch (457 mm) torpedo tubes (1 x bow & 2 x broadside)
Armor:
Gun shields: 4 in (100 mm)
Main deck: 3.5 in (89 mm)
Conning Tower: 4 in (100 mm)

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find http://www.warship.org/membership.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

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Smoke em if you got em

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Australian National Maritime Museum Object number 00049309

Australian National Maritime Museum Object number 00049309

Bill Ettershank (owner/skipper) of the KEWARRA, lights one up while out looking for anything unusual in WWII as part of the Australian Volunteer Coastal Patrol. Note the binnacle and sail boom.

This image belongs in a collection that includes many images of members and vessels operated by the Volunteer Coastal Patrol (VCP) in the 1940s. It is believed most of the photographs were taken by the professional photographer and patrol member Peter Luke. Luke’s yacht WAYFARER served with the Volunteer Coastal Patrol on Sydney Harbour and along the NSW coast until the war ended in 1945. In 1944 Peter Luke was one of the co-founders of the Cruising Yacht Club and the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

The Volunteer Coastal Patrol, the oldest voluntary sea rescue organization in Australia, was established on 27 March 1937.

When World War II was declared in 1939, members of the Patrol affirmed their desire to serve their country as a volunteer service by patrolling Australia’s waterways. In 1940 the Patrol had some 500 vessels and 2,000 members on its register– much the same as the Corsair Fleet formed by volunteers in their personal boats under the aegis of the U.S. Coast Guard at the same time.

During the war, Australian Coastal Patrol members became special constables and guarded commercial wharves, oil installations and bridges. By the war’s end, patrol vessels had patrolled 128,000 miles of harbor and coastal waters and donated 393,000-man-hours of unpaid war service. They were granted the right to fly the Police Nemesis pennant as recognition of this service and the right to fly the New South Wales State Flag as their ensign.

The VCP continued to operate in the post-war period in a purely voluntary capacity, constituting an important element in national security. Its objectives were rewritten to make the organization of value to the country in times of emergency as well as peace. In 1974 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth bestowed the ‘Royal’ prefix to the Volunteer Coastal Patrol, and the group survives to this day in much the same role as the U.S. Coast Guard Auxillary.

Getting in sync

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One of the key developments in World War I aerial combat was the synchronizing gear that allowed machine guns to be fired through the prop in front of the pilot without shooting said prop.

The gun synchronizer, an interrupter that linked the passage of an airplane’s prop with the firing of a machine gun set directly behind it, was pioneered in the years directly before the Great War but it was the German Eindecker, a revolutionary single-wing monoplane fighter introduced in 1915 that flew with the first (kinda) reliable synchronization gear, and soon cleared the sky of British and French airplanes.

Before then, pilots and aircrew were limited to firing rifles and handguns at passing aviators and mounting machine guns overhead on the wings, none of which proved very good when it came to aiming.

As the war wound on, the use of synchronizing gear became widespread on both sides and remained standard in the air forces of the world to some extent into the Second World War.

With all that being said, The Slow Mo Guys take a great look at a low-speed prop set up with a vismodded “Vickers” machine gun to get the idea of just how such a gear works– and what happens when it does not.

Quiet time, at under $1K

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So ARMTAC is marketing the coolest little (and I do mean little by design when compared to a 10/22 with a screw-on can) rimfire rifles.

ruger-10-22-rifle-with-armtac-monotube-integral-suppressor-and-hogue-overmold-stock-brand-new-assemblies-975-00
They have taken Ruger 10/22 rifles, added a Hogue Overmold stock, and equipped the whole thing with a ARMTAC Monotube integral suppressor. Brand new assemblies run $975 plus stamp (which hopefully the HPA passes next year so…)

Of course you could buy your own 10/22 ($309 MSRP for base 1103 model), forgo the overmold stock above (-$90), get a replacement threaded barrel (starting at $100) and get a low-end screw on can for $99 (Rebel markets a decent one for that price plus stamp) but it’s not integral and certainly won’t be as smooth as the above. Mileage varies.

For Dallas at least, the hunt is over

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The Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Dallas (SSN 700) returns to homeport at Groton, Conn., following its final scheduled deployment after more than 30 years in service. (U.S. Navy photo/Released)

The Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Dallas (SSN 700) returns to homeport at Groton, Conn., following its final scheduled deployment after more than 30 years in service. (U.S. Navy photo/Released)

On 22 November USS Dallas moored at Pier 8S on NSB New London following an extended seven-and-a-half month deployment to the U.S. 5th and 6th Fleet AoR. The sub traveled 37,000 nautical miles and also made port calls to Brest, France; Hidd, Bahrain; and Duqm, Oman.

It was her last patrol, and she is slated for decommissioning.

The Dallas (SSN 700) is 13th Los Angeles-class attack submarine and the first U.S. Navy ship to bear the name of the City of Dallas, Texas. She was commissioned 18 July 1981 and has spent 36 years with the fleet.

While she carried one of the Navy’s precious few Dry Deck Shelters (aka frogman hotels) for over a decade– meaning she likely has gone several places that will never be noted publicly and did things that will never be spoken of– and completed one deployment to the Indian Ocean, four Mediterranean Sea deployments, two Persian Gulf deployments, and seven deployments to the North Atlantic, it is her fictional life that will live on.

If you ever read (or watched the film, which she took part in) Tom Clancy’s The Hunt for Red October, you remember Dallas as the main U.S. vessel in that work. She also appeared in some of Clancy’s other works as well as John Ringo novel Under A Graveyard Sky.

Dallas is one of the last of 30 Flight I Los Angeles-class boats still in the fleet, with the majority of the class still active being the “688i” vessels of the Flight II/III program complete with a 12-tube VLS capability, better senors and noise reduction technology.

The only other Flight I’s still active are USS Bremerton (SSN-698), USS Jacksonville (SSN-699), USS Buffalo (SSN-715) and Olympia (SSN-717), the newest of which was commissioned in 1984.

Dallas did outlive most of the Soviet Typhoon-class subs, of which the Red October was depicted as. Of the six constructed, just one, Dmitri Donskoy (TK-208), is in semi-active use, though she rarely takes to sea.

I think Captain Marko Aleksandrovich Ramius would be proud at how things turned out.

typhoon_iced

Ersatz carrier, you are here

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A joint US Navy/Marine Corps “Proof of Concept” demonstration held off the coast of Southern California Nov. 18-20 put the largest force of F-35B Lightning II stealth STOVL strike fighters ever assembled at sea together by placing a full dozen planes from the “Wake Island Avengers” of VMFA-211,  fleshed out by VX-23 and VMX-1 from Patuxent; along with a few MV-22B, AH-1Z and UH-1Ys aboard the USS America (LHA-6).

The F-35B Lightning II third developmental test phase (DT-III) evaluated the full spectrum of joint strike fighter measures of suitability and effectiveness in an at-sea environment.

161115-N-N0101-012 PACIFIC OCEAN (Nov. 14, 2016) Ordnance is prepared for an F-35B Lightning II short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft on the amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6). This event marked the first live ordnance uploaded to the F-35B at sea.During the third and final F-35B developmental test phase (DT-III), the aircraft is undergoing envelope expansion via a series of launches and recoveries in various operating conditions such as high sea states and high winds. (U.S. Navy Photo/Released)

161115-N-N0101-012 PACIFIC OCEAN (Nov. 14, 2016) Ordnance is prepared for an F-35B Lightning II short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft on the amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6). This event marked the first live ordnance uploaded to the F-35B at sea.During the third and final F-35B developmental test phase (DT-III), the aircraft is undergoing envelope expansion via a series of launches and recoveries in various operating conditions such as high sea states and high winds. (U.S. Navy Photo/Released)

In preparation of DT-III load testing, America‘s Weapons Department assembled two types of smart bombs. The team assembled 72 laser-guided Guide Bomb Units (GBU) 12 and 40 satellite-guided GBU-32s for the first time in the ship’s short history.

America, the ultimate evolution of the 1970s Tarawa-class LHAs and 1980s LHD designs, looks a lot like an Essex-class fleet carrier from WWII. In fact, they are the same rough size (45,000-tons/844-feet for LHA vs. 36,380-tons/872-feet for CV) though the old school flattops were much faster, carried an immense array of topside armament, and could squeeze 100~ piston engine planes on their deck.

However, a dozen or so F-35Bs with 5th Generation carrier-strike capabilities, when the bugs are worked out, should prove much more capable than a few squadrons of Corsairs or Hellcats.

Also, there is always the prospect of adding a second squadron aboard, giving an LHA a full 24 aircraft, which isn’t too far-fetched, after all, it should be remembered that 20 AV-8Bs of VMA-331 operated from USS Nassau (LHA-4) in support of Operation Desert Storm, flying 240 combat sorties and dropping 900 bombs. Sure, the F-35 is heavier than the Harrier, but LHA-6 is optimized for aviation operations, whereas Nassau was not.

Such an ersatz carrier group, augmented by a few DDG/CG assets to screen it, could fill several expeditionary contingencies short of all-out war. For instance, recent limited air operations off Libya, non-combatant evacuation operations offshore of a country with a deteriorating security situation, keeping sea lanes open against an asymmetric threat, or enforcing a naval quarantine.

Besides the meaning for U.S. carrier forces, being able to add some LHAs as mini-flattops in a pinch, this month’s trials with a dozen F-35s at sea shows the Brits what they have to look forward to. Though the beautiful 70,000-ton HMS Queen Elizabeth is to commission next year, the RN Fleet Air Arm has no real fixed wing assets to put aboard her at this time.

Queen Elizabeth is capable of carrying up to 36 F-35s in her hangars, and while the current plan is for the carriers to deploy with an air wing of just 12 jets, this may take a while to pull off. The Brits, who intend to ultimately have as many as 138 joint RAF/RN F-35s, will only have their first operational squadron in late 2018 and just 24 operational frames in inventory in 2023. Indeed, USMC F-35Bs are expected to deploy on QE until the UK gets theirs fully fleshed out.

And the gentlemen from the UK were on-hand on America this week.

“As we all know, we can’t choose the battle and the location of the battle, so sometimes we have to go into rough seas with heavy swells, heave, roll, pitch, and crosswinds,” said Royal air force (RAF) Squadron Leader Andy Edgell, an F-35 test pilot embedded at the Pax River ITF. “The last couple of days we went and purposely found those nasty conditions and put the jets through those places, and the jet handled fantastically well. So now the external weapons testing should be able to give the fleet a clearance to carry weapons with the rough seas and rough conditions. We know the jet can handle it. A fleet clearance will come — then they can go forth and conduct battle in whatever environment.”

In the meantime, in 2017, an up-gunned Expeditionary Strike Group consisting of a three-DDG strong surface action group and a more traditional three-ship Amphibious Ready Group centered around USS Wasp (LHD-1) with an LPD and LSD in tow, will deploy with a squadron of Marine F-35Bs. 

Welcome to the new Navy.

PACIFIC OCEAN -- An F-35B Lightning II takes off from the flight deck of USS America (LHA 6) during the Lightning Carrier Proof of Concept Demonstration, November 19, 2016. The demonstration is the first shipboard Marine Corps F-35B integration demonstration alongside other Marine Corps Air Combat Element assets. (U.S. Marine Corps Photo by Cpl. Thor Larson/Released)

PACIFIC OCEAN — An F-35B Lightning II takes off from the flight deck of USS America (LHA 6) during the Lightning Carrier Proof of Concept Demonstration, November 19, 2016. The demonstration is the first shipboard Marine Corps F-35B integration demonstration alongside other Marine Corps Air Combat Element assets. (U.S. Marine Corps Photo by Cpl. Thor Larson/Released)

161120-N-VT045-0001 PACIFIC OCEAN (Nov. 19, 2016) Four F-35B Lightning II aircraft perform a flyover above the amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6) during the Lightning Carrier Proof of Concept Demonstration. The F-35B will eventually replace three Marine Corps aircraft; the AV-8B Harrier, F/A-18 Hornet and the EA-6B Prowler. (U.S. Navy photo by Andy Wolfe/Released)

161120-N-VT045-0001 PACIFIC OCEAN (Nov. 19, 2016) Four F-35B Lightning II aircraft perform a flyover above the amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6) during the Lightning Carrier Proof of Concept Demonstration. The F-35B will eventually replace three Marine Corps aircraft; the AV-8B Harrier, F/A-18 Hornet and the EA-6B Prowler. (U.S. Navy photo by Andy Wolfe/Released)

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