Tipping point

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SAN DIEGO (Nov. 23, 2015) Aviation Ordnanceman Airman Noe Mendoza, from Harlingen, Texas, raises the American flag aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71). Theodore Roosevelt arrived at its new homeport of San Diego after completing an eight-month around-the-world deployment. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Anthony N. Hilkowski/Released)

SAN DIEGO (Nov. 23, 2015) Aviation Ordnanceman Airman Noe Mendoza, from Harlingen, Texas, raises the American flag aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71). Theodore Roosevelt arrived at its new homeport of San Diego after completing an eight-month around-the-world deployment. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Anthony N. Hilkowski/Released)

As noted in an editorial in Sea Power, according to Bryan Clark and Jesse Sloman of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, the Navy/Marine Corps team is at a tipping point, with a 272-ship fleet still tasked like its the old school Lehman 600-ship Navy of the Cold War, of possibly not being able to meet commitments.

The fix, instead of either just pulling a Royal Navy post-Suez drawback or moving to 9-month+ deployments, is to keep more ships overseas and use civilian-manned vessels more. You know, how like we moved the fleet from California to Pearl Harbor in 1940.

From the piece:

One alternative is to “increase further the portion for the fleet that is forward deployed,” the report notes. The advantage of forward-deployed ships is that fewer ships are required to maintain a given level of presence. The adaptation of some Military Sealift Command ships as expeditionary ships in relatively permissive environments, with rotational crews, also could reduce the burden on warships. Maintaining forward-deployed ships is more costly, however.

Clark said the forward deployment of a second aircraft carrier in the Western Pacific would enable the Navy to meet the requirement for a carrier strike group year-round using only forward-deployed forces. This would allow the Navy to get by with a total of nine carriers or, with 11 carriers, it would allow the Navy to keep an East Coast-based carrier deployed to the European area of operations, leaving the Persian Gulf to West Coast-based carriers and the Western Pacific to the two forward-deployed carriers.

Making that ol’ Garand

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Ever wondered how the old school U.S. Army’s Springfield Armory cranked out the M1? Well here’s a 1950s documentary on not only the development of the Garand (with Mr. John C. Garand himself speaking in his distinctive accent) but production as well. Its pretty neat.

Boeing comes clean on the Army’s Quiet Bird after 50+ years

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Boeing just posted a bunch of information and imagery on a program, the Model 853, that has been suppressed for a half century.

The Quiet Bird was a version of the Boeing Model 853 which started out as an Army observation airplane study, this version of the 853 study was used to test materials and shapes that would reduce radar cross sections (RCS). The model was built and tested in 1962- 1963 at Boeing Wichita, these test were on a radar range and no actual flight testing was done. The tests reportedly achieved excellent results in reduced radar cross section, but it was a bit ahead of its time and did not generate interest from the military. The lessons learned on Quiet Bird probably did influence the design of the Boeing AGM-86 Air Launched Cruise Missile. Internally Boeing continued to work on the non-metallic structures aspects that were pioneered with Quiet Bird, and that effort eventually lead to the use of increasingly larger and more complex composite structures in Boeing aircraft.

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Of course, you know the Air Force would have shit a whole duck if the Army ever tried to get a jet-powered observation plane, especially in the 1960s. That’s why the Army was stuck with OV-1 Mohawks and OV-10 Broncs in Vietnam.

Mini-14s clocking in on terror threats around the world

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This week saw a tragic incident in San Bernardino, California in which two individuals, currently under investigation by the FBI as potential terrorists, left 14 dead at a holiday party for county employees. Within minutes, a huge law enforcement presence mustered and just two hours later, the suspects, armed with AR-15s and pipe bombs were engaged in a fierce firefight with peace officers that halted the continuing threat.

Moreover, it was hard not to notice all the Ruger Mini-14s in use.

Why rifles for law enforcement officers?

Most officers are armed with a variety of less-than-lethal weapons and a handgun to which they train to engage a target out to 25 meters. When confronting a suspect armed with a rifle or shotgun or barricaded in a position the officer is over-matched. A good example of this scenario is the 1997 North Hollywood Shootout where two suspects armed with assault rifles held nearly 300 handgun-armed law enforcement officers at bay for 44 minutes. The use of a rifle by the officer creates a tactical advantage and prevents this scenario.

With the wide variances between patrol rifles/carbines, long range precision rifles and hybrid systems this training needs to be very specific. Therefore, training is spread across many courses and instructors to get the widest knowledge base to hone your skills.

Patrol rifle training

Basic patrol rifle courses last for a minimum of 3 days, which include some 24 hours of classroom and live-fire range instruction. These courses include familiarization training, weapons transition to and from handguns, short-range marksmanship; close quarter battle drills, firing at multiple targets, shooting positions and safety. These classes will typically train an officer to use his high capacity pistol caliber (9mm-45ACP) or carbine caliber (.223/5.56mm) rifle out to 100 meters. Again, this is the basics, with many classes moving well past this into the precision rifle concept.

Why the Ruger

In the US the Mini-14GB was marked “For Government and Law Enforcement Use Only” on both the receiver and the magazines (20-round standard rather than the flush fit 10-rounders). Sales were enough to police and sheriff’s departments to keep the gun in Ruger’s LE line for several years.

State conservation officers, often having to confront armed poachers, frequently did do with a GB at their side. Corrections agencies, especially large state agencies, thought the GB was perfect for prison response teams, horse patrols, and tower guards.

Further, these guns got away from the M16 black rifle look, which was important for many towns concerned with PR issues. A Mini-14, even if it could mount a bayonet, just looked a whole lot more like Andy Griffith than Judge Dredd. Moreover, it gave the opportunity to use the gun for ceremonial details as a nice sparkly bit of chrome on the end really snazzed up the rifle.

And the San Bernardino Sheriff’s department had its Ruger game on point.

"San Bernardino police officers in SWAT gear secured the scene at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, Calif., on Wednesday." Note two deputies with traditional composite-stocked Mini's while the detective in the polo has a folding stock GB or AC556 with wooden furniture. Note the prevalence of the 20-round stainless mags. Image by Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times Via DallasNews.com

“San Bernardino police officers in SWAT gear secured the scene at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, Calif., on Wednesday.” Note two deputies with traditional composite-stocked Mini’s while the detective in the polo has a folding stock GB or AC556 with wooden furniture. Note the prevalence of the 20-round stainless mags. Image by Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times Via DallasNews.com

Read the rest in my column at Ruger Talk

Here’s some 21st Century warbird nose art for you: A High Value Target EW kill mark

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VAQ-137 EA-18G Growler aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt

From the Aviationist
The image in this post shows the nose of a VAQ-137 EA-18G Growler aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt, supporting Operation Inherent Resolve against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Interestingly, the aircraft sports a quite unique kill marking, showing a person “hit” by a lightning bolt.

According to our sources, this is the kill mark applied when the Growler is used in an operation during which it jams cell comms or pick up cell comms and that person is targeted.

All the other “standard” lighting bolts are for generic Electronic Attack support: usually, jamming during ops when F/A-18s are dropping ordnance.

But the cell phone one is very specific to targeting a High Value Target or other individual with a cell or cell-jamming over an area. Ordnance is often employed in this context.

So much for turning the other cheek

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Reds of "Budyonny's Cavalry Army" (Konarmia) the key Bolshevik fire brigade of the Russo-Polish War. Note the mix of French Adrian helmets, Cossack shapskas and Trotsky caps for headgear. Also note the Cossack at the left is wearing the 1909 pattern officer's webgear to include a trench whistle near his left armpit. As pre-Civil War Cossack officers in the Konarmia were rare (Budenny himself had only been a senior NCO in the Imperial Dragoons) this officer is likely had an interesting tale-- though notably he has ditched his shoulder boards.

Reds of “Budyonny’s Cavalry Army” (Konarmia) the key Bolshevik fire brigade of the Russo-Polish War. Note the mix of French Adrian helmets, Cossack shapskas and Trotsky caps for headgear. Also note the Cossack at the left is wearing the 1909 pattern officer’s sam browne web gear to include a trench whistle near his left armpit. As pre-Civil War Cossack officers in the Konarmia were rare (Budenny himself had only been a senior NCO in the Imperial Dragoons) this officer is likely had an interesting tale– though notably he has ditched his shoulder boards. Then again he could just be a guy who found some web gear.

Sputnik, which is more or less a pro-Russian propaganda site masquerading as news, kind of Moscow’s Fox News if you will, actually has an interesting historical piece about the lost Bolshevik Red Army POWs from the 1919-21 Russo-Polish War.

Of course it bends to the East in slant, but honestly I have never read anything about this facet of that war before, so I found it a good read, especially as they tried to spin the Katyn Massacres of World War II as a sort of fair-play retaliation for what happened back in 1921. Whatever you have to tell yourself to get through the night…

During the Polish-Soviet war over 150,000 Soviet military servicemen became prisoners of war and were held in Polish POW camps. The camps were located in Strzalkowo, Pikulice, Wadowice, and Tuchola.

Professor Gennady F. Matveyev of Moscow State University carried out thorough research on the matter and published the book “Polskiy Plen” (“The Polish Captivity”) which sheds light on this controversial historical episode.

Citing Russian and Polish archival documents the professor underscores that Poland had captured up to 206,877 Red Army soldiers, while 60,000 to 83,500 died in captivity due to unbearable living conditions, poor nutrition, torture and disease.

More here

The sea sometimes leaves only mysteries. Especially the seas around the Hermit Kingdom

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Wooden boats filled with decomposing bodies hinting at DPRK origins have been washing ashore in Japan. The boats appear to be full of fishing equipment, including tangled cords and netting, and fishing hooks, but little in the way of hull numbers, ship’s logs, flags or documentation.

Worse, it seems no one has reported these boats missing in the first place.

From Reuters:

The Japanese coast guard and police reported 12 incidents of wrecked wooden boats, including some that were in pieces, on the country’s shores and waters since October, containing 22 dead bodies, including five skulls.

Japanese authorities declined to comment on the origins of the boats or the possible identities of the dead, but a hand-written sign identified one boat as belonging to unit 325 of the North Korean army, according to footage from Japan’s NHK Television. Tattered cloth was found aboard the vessel that appeared to come from the North Korean flag, the video showed.

Defectors and experts say fishing boats under the command of the Korean People’s Army may have succumbed under pressure from Kim to catch more fish, drifting off course and ill-equipped for rough seas.

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From Stars and Stripes:

Abandoned ships washing ashore aren’t especially uncommon – 65 were found last year and 80 the year before, the coast guard told Stars and Stripes. However, the groups of ships landing so closely together and the state of some of the bodies — two of which were missing heads, per media reports — are raising questions about what may be happening in North Korea.

Some have suggested the ships were part of a coordinated defection, but Kim Jin Moo, a senior researcher from the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul, strongly doubts it.

“They don’t seem to have gathered together and have been saying ‘Let’s [flee] by ship,’ ” Kim said.

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Changes in drone ops from the HOA?

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An Airman assigned to the 432d Aircraft Maintenance Squadron performs a visual inspection on an MQ-9 Reaper as it prepares to taxi during a routine training mission, Sept. 26, 2012. An MQ-9’s primary missions are close air support, air interdiction, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. (U.S. Air Force photo by 432d Wing/432d Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs)

An Airman assigned to the 432d Aircraft Maintenance Squadron performs a visual inspection on an MQ-9 Reaper as it prepares to taxi during a routine training mission, Sept. 26, 2012. An MQ-9’s primary missions are close air support, air interdiction, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. (U.S. Air Force photo by 432d Wing/432d Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs)

From Defense Industry Daily:

A US Air Force MQ-1 squadron has been deactivated in Djibouti, raising doubts over the continued use of UAVs in combat operations based out of the area. The 60th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron had flown over 24,000 hours between November 2014 and October 2015. During this period, the MQ-1s neutralized 69 enemy fighters, including five high valued individuals. Based out of Camp Lemonnier, the MQ-1s were involved in operations not only on the African continent with Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA), but in the Gulf region as well. It is unclear if other units are operating UAV missions from the base or its network of camps and outposts or if the 60th is to be replaced.

As noted by The Strategy Page last week, in 2013 MQ-1s made up a small slice of the air assets at Lemonnier :

As of 2013 (the date of the leaked documents) Task Force 48-4 (the U.S. Air Force unit in charge of the air operations) had fourteen large UAVs (ten MQ-9 Reapers and four MQ-1 Predators), six manned U-28 aircraft and eight F-15E fighter bombers. The two seat F-15Es carried surveillance gear and could fly long distances, find a target and destroy it with a GPS or laser guided weapon. In addition U.S. Navy ships off the African coast sometimes had MQ-8 and ScanEagle UAVs operated from ships to search inland. The U.S. Navy also had two P-3C maritime patrol aircraft stationed near Camp Lemonnier.

In 2013 most of the air reconnaissance flown out of Camp Lemonnier was for Yemen, where al Qaeda was trying to take control of south Yemen. Most of the remaining air operations were over Somalia, where the local Islamic terrorists (al Shabaab) were taking a beating, partly because the peacekeepers and government forces had American air surveillance working for them. Most of the sorties were for surveillance but there were one or two air strikes a month, usually using UAVs (Reapers and Predators were armed, as were the F-15Es). Eighty percent of these attacks were in Yemen.

Odds are there is a new unit in town that will pick up drone ops from the old French Foreign Legion facility and the beat will go on.

And of course there is always speculation that the RAFs drone force may be involved in the HOA

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