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The U.S. Army has approved requests from 22 women to attempt to become 2nd lieutenants in infantry and armor units.

Thirteen women  will enter into the armor branch and nine will enter into the infantry branch in the coming weeks as commissioning and commencement ceremonies occur across the country, according to an April 15 Army press release.

All 22 women must complete the training requirements and standards before fully qualifying as infantry and armor officers, the release maintains.

The volunteers come from the Army's three traditional officer accession programs – Officer Candidate School, Reserve Officers' Training Corps and the United States Military Academy.

via www.military.com

13 Armor and 9 Infantry. The article notes that some will likely attend Ranger School after their basic branch course.

Unlike the previous women to attend Ranger School, these women have units that are in need of 2nd Lieutenants to serve as platoon leaders, and are unlikely to be willing to grant them time for recycle after recycle.

While I think women in the combat arms is a terrible idea, I do think if you must do it, it's better to have officers in place before enlisted. The article also notes that certain Year Group 14 and 15 officers are being asked if they want to branch transfer to Infantry. Slightly experienced officers transferring over is a pretty good idea as well.

Of course, no matter how badly they perform, the PC culture will dictate that everyone pretend the program is a success.

One of the funny things about fake internet friends is that they very quickly become real life meatspace friends. That’s a point that was driven home last week when I learned of the death of a long time blog buddy.

And so, today the opportunity presents itself to spend a few hours with some friends people I’ve known for years on another blog, and have met before, but only rarely get the chance to visit in person.

And so, after a tour of volunteer work at the Palm Springs Air Museum yesterday training as a docent, today, I get to go back and play tourist with my buddies.

On the downside, that’s less time to generate quality content for you, dear reader. On the plus side,  if you want pictures of any particular planes in the collection there, just let me know, and I’ll do my best to accommodate you.

Apparently, the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team had a couple of issues on a recent heavy drop at Hohenfels.

Adult language warning, but yeah, it’s worth some laughs.

I had a cup of coffee with renowned aviation artist Stan Stokes, then did some OJT at the Palm Springs Air Museum, working in the B-17 hangar. And as an added bonus, they have a PB2Y-2 Privateer that has stopped by for a couple days.

Spill was kind enough to remind me that today marks the anniversary of the first flight of theGrumman A2F-1 Intruder, more popularly known by its post-1962 designation, the A-6.

Given that our dad was flying in an A-6A the very day we were born, we’ve always had a strong affinity for the Intruder.

And as someone not overly blessed in the looks department, we’ve also liked that the Intruder may have been ugly, but it got the job done.

Austal Limited (Austal) (ASX:ASB) is pleased to announce it has been awarded preferred tenderer status by the Commonwealth of Australia for the Pacific Patrol Boats Replacement (PPBR) Project.

The PPBR project involves the construction of up to 21 steel-hulled patrol vessels and through life sustainment over 30 years in a total Government expenditure of up to $900 million. Austal’s share of the PPBR program will include the construction of the vessels and short to medium term maintenance components of the project.

via www.austal.com

So, Australia has a vast, vast set of seas to its north. And patrolling those waters is a prime mission of the Royal Australian Navy. The mission is not just a strictly military one, but also includes enforcing its Exclusive Economic Zone, and interdictnig illegal immigration (unlike the US, Australia has a zero tolerance policy).

Now, there are scads of small island nations to the north as well. And Australia has an interest in seeing them enforce the territorial integrity of their own waters and EEZs.

And so, a couple decades ago, Australia came up with the Pacific Patrol Boat program, wherein they would build a series of patrol boats, and give them to friendly neighbors. Those island nations are responsible for crewing and operating the vessels, while Australia provides a measure of ongoing support and maintenance for the fleet.

The initial tranche of patrol boats are reaching the end of their service lives, and so, Australia has decided to build a second fleet of patrol boats.

The program has been seen as generally a success, though some issues have arisen, primarily poor availability and boats suffering from poor day to day maintenance, which is a host nation responsibility. Further, some nations, being very, very small, have had trouble finding competent crews.

Opponents of the program charge that it is primarily intended to keep Austal busy building something, anything, until the next Australian shipbuilding program comes online. And the proponents of the program admit that there is a bit of truth in that. And that spending almost a billion Australian dollars is probably cheaper than having to rebuild Austal's capability in a couple years when it does come time to build more ships for Australia.

One of the weirder bits of Desert Storm was that under the terms of the cease fire, the Iraqis were allowed to withdraw the Republican Guard, provided they left their armor and heavy weapons behind. But two days after the cease fire, elements of the Hammurabi division and other remnants of the IRGC were caught on a narrow causeway in the marshes of the Tigris-Euphrates region. After opening fire on a US patrol, they were systematically destroyed by the 24th Infantry Division, and more specifically, by the division’s Apache attack helicopter battalion, the 1/24th Aviation Regiment.

There’s something oddly beautiful about this.

The 1916 Battle of Jutland was not a decisive battle, and yet… the German decision to not seek another fleet engagement led to the 1917 U-Boat campaign, which brought the US into the war. Decisively.

The Battle of Jutland Animation from NIck on Vimeo.