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The Douglas AD/A-1 Skyraider was a quite remarkable aircraft, and spent 23 years in US Naval service.  In addition, Skyraiders of various types served with the air forces of Cambodia, the Central African Republic, Chad, France,  Gabon, South Vietnam, Thailand, Sweden, and the Republic of Vietnam (and quite likely the North Vietnamese after the collapse of RVN).

Dad’s first squadron command was of VA-85 “The Black Falcons” then equipped with the A-1. Mind you, it was a short tour, as he had not yet screened for command. As it happened, the squadron CO and XO were lost in the space of about a week, and as the next senior officer aboard the squadron, he assumed command. When in charge, take charge. VA-85 actually won the Battle E competition while Dad was in command.

Here’s a bit of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) showing Russian Electronic Warfare activities in support of “separatist” “militias” (that is, Russian forces) in the fight for Debaltseve in Ukraine.

It is worth reminding, that in a recent publicationR-330ZH ‘ZHITEL’ in Donbas According to Social Profiles and Drone Flyovers we have already presented evidence about this Russain AJS: a video revealing the jammer on its march towards the Ukrainian border in the summer of 2014, station elements in pictures in the profile of a Vostok gang militant in the area of Makiivka in the summer of 2015, as well as recent drone images confirming the positioning of the station in the same area as of March-April 2016.

There was only one element missing in the body of evidence: we needed to get inside the Zhitel station. Hackers of the Trinity group gave us this opportunity. The cloud storage connected to the mobile phone of a Russian serviceman contained two interesting photos. During their analysis, we found that these photos were taken on January 24, 2015 at 19:49 and 19:51 Kyiv time using a Lenovo A516 smartphone. They are showing working screens of the R-330Zh Zhitel AJS terminal.

The R-330ZH isn’t an especially significant piece of hardware. It’s been around a while, and is well known to the West.  It is just more confirmation of Russian involvement in a battle they claim they aren’t involved in.

It should be noted that for all the US investment in Electronic Warfare, the vast majority of our investment in is Airborne Electronic Attack, and that Russian jamming and intercept capabilities in ground based EW, particularly against ground based communications and networks far outstrips our own. Maybe we ought to think about changing that.

What’s also interesting is that the jamming appears to be targeted at tactical level hand held radios such as the Baofeng UV-5R, which I would note is quite popular here in the US with survivalists and preppers. the UV-5R is a commercial radio, available off the shelf, as opposed to a more sophisticated tactical radio one would expect to see in military service. The problem there is, the Ukraine Army uses Soviet era radios, which the Russians are equally capable of jamming.

Pretty long video, but it gives a good display of transporting the HIMARS aboard a C-130, loading the pod, and shooting. It takes a while to get there, but there’s also some impacts, and it closes with a brief look at the Fire Direction Center.

URR is just upset I didn’t find any Marine tube artillery video.

Over at The Angry Staff Officer, PowerPointSapper has a little fun:

Military doctrine is updated every few years, to reflect the changes in technology, tactics, operations, and strategy, as well as to keep several thousand doctrine writers employed. Next to military doctrine, famous quotes from past military leaders are the most commonly cited source when two strategists are arguing.

But although we update our doctrine, we never update our quotes. In an effort to assist the military in transitioning into the 21st century, I have very helpfully taken classic military quotes and brought them up to date with the digital age so that young service members can better relate to them.

“It is well that PowerPoint is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it.”
– Robert E. Lee, J-3, CENTCOM

Go read the whole thing. And the comments are pretty good as well.

Whidbey Island’s Penn Cove, upon the shores of which lies the bucolic village of Coupeville, is also home to the Penn Cove Shellfish Company, the worlds largest mussel farm.  The Jeffords have been selling the best mussels anywhere for decades.

Penn Cove is also a frequent destination for a pod of local orcas.

As the clouds of war gathered over Europe in the late 1930s, it became obvious to the US Army that its Army Air Corps (later, Army Air Forces) would need vastly more airplanes than industry was then capable of producing.  And so, the Army persuaded the Congress to appropriate funds not only for the purchase of airplanes, but just as importantly, vast sums of money to build a multitude of new factories in which to build those planes.

Furthermore, it became ever more clear that traditional aircraft manufacturing techniques were never going to provide the planes needed as fast as they would be required. Mass production techniques would be needed, and no one in America was more acquainted with mass production than Henry Ford.

And so, the stupendous Willow Run plant was commissioned to build the Consolidated B-24 bomber. Willow Run was hardly the only B-24 plant, but it was, in the end, the most prolific. Mind you, however, it took a considerable length of time before production really hit its stride. The learning curve shifting from building cars to vastly more complicated airplanes was very steep. And simply training the workforce was quite the daunting task.

After the war, Ford wanted to turn that hard earned expertise into either an entry in to the aeronautical industry, or at a minimum, build goodwill with the public, and use that to sell cars the the millions of GIs returning home from the war.

Take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of two iconic British jets, the Lightning, and the Tornado.

After six years in the fleet and some controversy, the blue-and-gray cammies could be headed for Davy Jones' seabag.

The digital blue Navy Working Uniforms were a fleet mainstay until 2013 after they were found to be unsafe to wear while fighting a fire. One plan is ditching these blue Navy working uniforms in favor of their green cousin. The service could potentially save millions by switching to the woodland cammies already worn by Seabees and master-at-arms. The green-and-tans are also not flame-resistant but would be the standard for ashore wear; flame-resistant coveralls and flight suits are mainstays for at-sea wear.

via www.navytimes.com

Of course, CNO wants to replace the blueberries with the Navy's green/brown digital cammo uniform.

Look, just copy the Coast Guard's working uniform, and save everyone time and money.

We could argue all day about the definition of a British War Film and what the best means but for this entirely unscientific list, the definition of a British War Film is one that is largely British in character. They may have been directed by non-British directors, have non-British actors and may even have been made in Hollywood or elsewhere, but they retain that element of Britishness that we all understand. So no Das Boot, Saving Private Ryan, Apocalypse Now or other such great films.

The judging criteria does not include historical accuracy, whether the correct buttons and rank insignia were worn, or whether the film is a ‘visceral and worthy portrayal of the realities of war’ or some other such artsy bollocks, instead, it is simply enjoyability for a wet Sunday afternoon in. So, it is not a list for the film buff, historian or the yoghurt weaving wheatgrass smoothy types for them to bemoan the inhumanity and pointlessness of of war.

Most of these have a back story that is as good as, if not better, that the film.

In reverse order, the Top 25 British War Films;

via www.thinkdefence.co.uk

One of my very first posts was a Top 10 War Movies post.

Agree or disagree with this list, there are some fantastic films on it.

CAPITOL HILL: Chronic maintenance problems with the aging F-18 Hornet are hobbling the Marines, leaving them with less than 60 percent of the strike fighters they need to conduct training and operations, the deputy commandant for aviation told the Senate this afternoon.

“I pulled up our readiness data just yesterday,” Lt. Gen. Jon Davis told the seapower subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We have 87 aircraft that were mission capable. Out of those 87 airplanes, I put 30 airplanes in the training squadron and 40 airplanes deployed forward. There’s not a lot left for the [remaining] units to train with.”

Lt. Gen. Jon Davis

How many Hornets should the Marine Corps have ready to go? Under the current, shrunken force structure, 150: a training squadron of 30 and 12 combat squadrons of 10 aircraft each. Until 18 months ago, that figure was 174 — 30 training aircraft and 12 squadrons of 12 aircraft each — but the Marines decided to shrink each squadron to reflect the reality of insufficient aircraft.

via breakingdefense.com

This is the Marines own damn fault.

They made the decision back in the late 1990s to not buy any E/F model SuperHornets, and gamble that they could keep the legacy Hornet fleet flying until the JSF (now F-35B) came online.

Well, not surprisingly, the most complex airplane in the world is over budget and behind schedule.

The Navy was practically begging the Marines to buy SuperHornets, to drive down the unit costs, but the Marine fear was that doing so would push the F-35B purchase even further to the out years, and they would be facing an end of life crisis with the AV-8B fleet. Which, they're pretty much facing anyway.

I get the doctrinal and operational reasons why the Marines felt so compelled to bet the future of the Marine Corps as a service on the MV-22B, the F-35B, and the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. But it also looks like they might have lost the bet.