XBradTC

`First, someone made a move in the right direction in the LCS program, about 32 hulls too late, but I’ll take it.

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has ordered the Navy to trim its total buy of Littoral Combat Ships to 40 and down select to a single shipbuilder and design for the class as part of its fiscal year 2017 budget, according to a memo obtained by USNI News.

The directive to trim the service’s planned total of 52 planned LCS and Frigate hulls and direct the savings into other programs was contained in the Monday letter from Carter to Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus.

The new plan would call for a building only six LCS between fiscal years 2017-2020 – eight less than the Navy’s submitted in its 2017 plan – and directs the Navy to down select to a single shipyard and a single hull type in 2019.

The insanity of having two different yards building two completely different hulls with two completely different combat systems was supposed to have been addressed half a decade ago, but SecNav Ray Mabus just punted on that rather than face the complaints of the congressional representation of the loser.

Why is two different hulls/combat systems bad? Well, it costs twice as much to develop, for one thing. But that’s already a sunk cost. From the beginning, LCS was supposed to have two designs. But it was also intended to downselect to one for mass production.  Two different hulls, and two different combat systems means the Navy now has to maintain two entirely separate maintenance pipelines, and two different school systems to train crews. Worse, even though the Navy is finally going to one design, it will still have several of the losing design in the fleet, and be required to support them for their entire service lives.

The announcement is one thing. But as they sometimes say, the medium is the message- as Bryan McGrath notes in a post at Information Dissemination,

What struck me most about this memo was its almost parental tone of disappointment. I told a friend yesterday that it sounded like a letter a young man would get in college from his father when he had serially overspent his allowance. One rarely sees THIS level of bluntness in correspondence between the policy elephants. Which brings me to the most shocking part of this memo—that it wasn’t classified or limited in its distribution in ANY way. Either OSD utterly failed to appreciate the gravity of the memo and simply overlooked its control, or there was a desire for it to be leaked to the media. And while I generally tend to follow the rule of “when faced with a choice between villainy and incompetence in a bureaucracy, choose incompetence”, in this case it appears that the darker view applies.

Emphasis mine.

It’s happening: Enlisted airmen will be allowed to fly some remotely piloted aircraft.Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James announced Thursday that enlisted airmen will be able to fly RQ-4 Global Hawks, unarmed RPAs that fly high-altitude reconnaissance missions.“There are no weapons on the RQ-4. However, there are not limitations on enlisted members employing weapons,” said Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Karns. “The Air Force employs enlisted airmen on other aircraft where they are responsible for employing lethal force where necessary.”Currently, the Air Force is not considering allowing enlisted airmen to fly other RPAs, such as the MQ-1 Predator or MQ-9 Reaper, Karns said in an email Thursday to Air Force Times.

Source: Air Force to have enlisted pilots for first time since World War II

The ever increasing demands of the RPA community, coupled with some bad personnel management choices, and some structural/economic issues leaves the Air Force with a crippling shortage of available pilots.

Which is kinda funny, because most folks who garner a commission in the Air Force just want to fly.

There’s an obvious solution here that the Air Force will simply never embrace.

Warrant officers. The Air Force is the only branch of service without them.

But flying warrant officers could be a viable community. You’d probably not really have success simply restricting them to RPA only (they’d get burned out just as fast as commissioned officers) but you could easily design a career path where warrant officers spent time as RPA pilots, and then spent tours in other communities. No, the Air Force would never let them into the fast jet community. But how about in the Undergraduate Pilot Training field? Or some of the more esoteric Special Operations or rotary wing fields? Or have a secondary career track, such as specialists in aviation safety or engineering?

So, bit of a kerfuffle last night during the debate.

Staffers on the Senate Intelligence Committee are looking into whether Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) disclosed classified information during the debate, according to the committee chair.

“I’m having my staff look at the transcripts of the debate right now,” Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters on Wednesday, according to The Hill. “Any time you deal with numbers… the question is ‘Is that classified or not?’ or is there an open source reference to it.”

While Rubio and Cruz were debating each other’s records on national security and surveillance, Cruz got into some details about what the bulk data program covers.

This will prove a handy line of attack for Clinton, and those parts of the GOP that dislike Cruz. Just one problem- the Washington Post has already written about this capability, over a year ago.

Royal Navy training film circa 1988. Loading the main gun rounds is pretty straight forward, but loading the missiles is pretty trippy.

AMES, Iowa — If you think interior design is all about paint colors, fabric swatches and furniture styles, think again. Students in an Iowa State University graduate studio have propelled interior design to a place it’s never been before: the 21st century combat outpost.Students in the advanced experimental studio class created environments that support combat soldiers’ mental health and help alleviate post-traumatic stress disorder. (PTSD). Their designs balance privacy and connection, relaxation and security, meditation and activity.The 1920s cots (yes, they’re still used), standard-issue tents and hanging-poncho privacy dividers are replaced with individual spaces that soldiers can personalize and control. Communal spaces are strong and masculine; personal spaces are soft and soothing.Believed to be the only class of its kind, “In Harm’s Way: Interior Design for Modern Combat” is the brainchild of Interior Design Professor and Chair Lee Cagley.

Source: Iowa State students design interiors for combat outposts – News Service – Iowa State University

While I can see some immediate challenges (primarily logistical) that is an interesting subject. For small units, quarters are primarily their own problem. That is, if you’re a platoon assigned to occupy and build a COP in the middle of Afghanistan, you’re not going to have a lot of engineering support. Your going to be living in tentage and maybe repurposed Conex boxes mostly.

But the major Forward Operating Bases will have plenty of support. CHU farms, and mess halls, laundries and practically every other service found on a stateside military installation are used.

There’s generally a reason why the Army does things the way it does, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be willing to look outside for better ways.

Regimental Sergeant-Major Jack Chaffer, who has died aged 91, devoted his life to the Army from the day he was born a “barrack rat” in quarters at Kingston-­upon-Thames on March 6 1924 to his final retirement as a yeoman warder at the Tower of London.The son of a regular soldier, Henry Chaffer – known as Jack – falsified his age to join the Grenadier Guards at 16, and suffered his first setback on sentry duty at Windsor Castle, when he was presenting arms as King George VI walked past with his dogs. As it was a hot day, and he was wearing a steel helmet and respirator on his chest, the King suggested that he might be more comfortable if he stepped back into the shade of a buttress.

Chaffer’s commanding officer was unimpressed by his account, however, and the young man spent three days in the guard room until an equerry confirmed his story. He received a week’s leave in compensation.

Source: Regimental Sergeant Major Jack Chaffer – obituary – Telegraph

Read the whole thing.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has been recommended for trial by general court-martial, the Army announced Monday.Bergdahl is charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy and could face life in prison.The case was referred to court-martial by Gen. Robert Abrams, commanding general of Forces Command and the court-martial convening authority in the case.A date for his arraignment hearing has not been announced. The hearing is expected to take place at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where FORSCOM has its headquarters.

Source: Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will face court-martial for desertion, misbehavior charges

Good. Of course, it is by no means a slam dunk case. And the political shouting surrounding the case might raise some interesting defense issues about undue command influence.