XBradTC

Whoops. First, kinda insane launching inside the harbor.

As an “IT guy,” Clemins began to carry a laptop with him, an unusual sight in the 1993 Navy. It was an Apple PowerBook, probably a 160 with 4 MB of memory and a 40 MB hard drive. It was one of the earliest flip top portable computers and had a grayscale LCD screen. It weighed 6.8 pounds.

His Powerbook was his constant companion, even on trips to the Pentagon. He found that people, specifically Admiral Robert J. Kelly, Commander of the Pacific Fleet based in Hawaii, were asking him for copies of the notes he took on his portable. He was living the Information Revolution of the time. “That started the use of computers, we, at Training Group Pacific, led everybody, with desktop computers,” Admiral Clemins told me.

via How PowerPoint Kicked Off A Revolution In Military Affairs.

Well, now we know who to blame for Death by PowerPoint.

It’s an interesting history lesson, and worth the five minutes.

Here’s some B-roll of the loading, launch, and drop of a GPS guided dial a yield B61 bomb. The enhanced accuracy of the B61-12 means a smaller yield is needed to destroy a given point target.

I’m curious what that effect was just after release. It looked like some type of pyro effect. Any thoughts?

When the US Navy’s Atlantic Fleet F-14 community at NAS Oceana got together for their annual formal/symposium/fun week, they produced what has to be one of the earliest moto videos.

Alarmed by the continued spread of the Islamic State, Turkey will bow to a long-standing American request and allow the United States to fly bombing missions against the militants from one of its key air bases, a move that effectively thrusts Ankara into a war it has long sought to avoid.

Under the deal, manned and unmanned U.S. aircraft will be permitted to use the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey to launch strikes against the Islamic State, a change that will open the door to an expansion of the U.S.-led air war in Syria and Iraq.

After months of negotiations, the deal was sealed in a phone call between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Barack Obama on Wednesday, U.S. officials said.

via Turkey Enters the War Against the Islamic State | Foreign Policy.

Yes, this is something of a diplomatic victory for the Obama administration. Or at least, they’ll take credit for it.

But the real reason Turkey has accepted the deal is the suicide bomb attack that killed 32 earlier this week.

Turkey has been willing to watch the fight from the sidelines as long as it was left alone. But that attack, and a recent firefight on the border show Turkey that while they may not be interested in fighting, the ISIS is. And so their hand has been forced.

Of course, if Turkey was serious, their large, relatively well equipped army would begin ground operations. But since we’re not serious, why should Turkey be?

The Marine Corps has confirmed that it has prepared Purple Heart award packages for the Marines killed last week in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, however, must first formally declare ties between the shooter, Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, and a foreign terrorist organization before the packets can be submitted.

“Determination of eligibility will have to wait until all the facts are gathered and the FBI investigation is complete,” Marine Corps public affairs officer Maj. Clark Carpenter told Marine Corps Times.

The Marine Corps is also looking into the criteria and requirements for awarding the Purple Heart to Sgt. DeMonte Cheeley, a recruiter who was injured in the attack, said Capt. Alejandro Aguilera, a spokesman for 6th Marine Corps District.

via Purple Heart packets prepared for Marines killed in Chattanooga.

Hopefully it won’t take the shameful five years it took the victims of Nidal Hassan to receive their Purple Heart medals.

The relatively poor performance of the USAF and the US Navy in air to air combat in Vietnam led both services to take a close look at their training methods. Famously, the Navy instituted TOPGUN. Somewhat less well known, the Air Force instituted Red Flag.

TOPGUN initially started training selected aircrews from the fleet squadrons in air combat maneuvering, the classic dogfight, from 1v1, up to 4vmany. Once the aircrew graduated from TOPGUN, they returned to their squadron, and became the subject matter experts on ACM, sharing their wisdom among the squadron aircrews.

On the Air Force side, the internal look at training focused somewhat more on a unit level, typically a fighter wing (the classic fighter wing in those days consisted of three squadrons of 24 aircraft each, or 72 jets in a wing). Building on their experience in Vietnam, the Air Force Red Flag scenario would task a fighter wing to conduct both air superiority mission, and attack missions.

The introduction of dedicated Aggressor squadrons, typically mounted in the nimble F-5 Freedom Fighter, provided a very realistic foe. Soon, Red Flag exercises began integrating other air assets such as E-3A AWACS to more realistically portray an air campaign. From the very beginning, the paradigm was to provide aircrews with their “first 10 missions.” The chances of making a fatal mistake were far and away higher during the first 10 missions an aircrew flew in combat. So if you could provide those first 10 in peacetime, it would stand to reason that losses in combat would accordingly be lower.

And thus it has been.

Over the years, each Red Flag has become progressively more complex, with greater numbers of aircraft, types of aircraft, other services and allied nations, simulated ground based air defense, electronic warfare, and often integration with US Army exercises at the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, CA.

Each Red Flag provides both high stress training for aircrews, and operational experience in planning air campaigns for higher level leadership.

I agree so seldom with what is written in the Huffington Post as to be just this side of never.  But lo and behold, yesterday there was a column by Tom Mullen about the arrest of Sandra Bland that should resonate thunderously across this country.  In that article, the author spares the reader the indignant shrieks of “racism!”.

It wasn’t her being black that started the tragic chain of events. It was refusing to follow a police officer’s orders.

At some point between ratification of the Fourth Amendment and the death of Sandra Bland, the entire principle underpinning that constitutional protection has been lost. The Fourth Amendment assumes armed agents of the state can’t be trusted to issue their own orders. That’s why we have warrants in the first place. They are permitted only to enforce the orders of an impartial judge, who authorizes them to apprehend suspects upon the judge’s determination of probable cause.

That’s not to say many or most officers aren’t well-intentioned or trustworthy. But their job is to use force. That role must be separated from the issuance of orders.

Had Sandra Bland been a murder suspect and arresting officer Brian Encinia serving a warrant for her arrest, no one would have questioned Encinia’s conduct in ordering her out of her car.

But Bland wasn’t a murder suspect. As she quite rationally protested, she was ordered out of her car over a “failure to signal.” She had complied with the traffic stop. I seriously doubt there is a law or ordinance requiring her to stop smoking while being issued a citation for a traffic violation.

Emphasis mine.  Read the whole thing.  Definitely points to ponder.  Much has been said here and elsewhere about the runaway authority being exercised by law enforcement at the expense of Constitutional liberties.  Ferguson, and the “stop and frisk” policies in Brooklyn are such cases.  However, quite deliberately, the usual suspects shout “racism” at the tops of their lungs to obfuscate the true issues and stifle intelligent discussion.

In Ferguson, the conversation had drifted from Michael Brown’s actions (robbing a store and reaching for the policeman’s gun) to the actions of deputized law enforcement brought in to keep order.  These actions included pointing a loaded weapon at an unarmed and innocent civilian with a threat to inflict mortal harm.  It was when those actions became the focus of outrage, that AG Eric Holder and his ilk moved in to redirect the story back toward cries of racism, and the utterly disingenuous “Hands Up” meme.

I have had a number of conversations about the “stop and frisk” policy in New York.  It was immediately surmised that such a policy was inherently racist, and that is the reason it should have been stopped.  When I point out that, racist policy or not, the Fourth Amendment forbids the police from stopping and searching someone ANYWHERE without probable cause, I often get surprised looks.  A recitation of the Fourth Amendment sometimes helps.

The author offers a highly plausible explanation for the actions of the arresting officer:

…it’s much more likely he treated her the way he did because she didn’t exhibit blind obedience to his every whim, something he was trained not to tolerate and Americans of all political persuasions seem to have acquiesced to without question.

The idea of going along to get along has become a very dangerous thing in the larger picture.  It is creating precedent of unfettered authority in the hands of law enforcement, while at the same time, de facto negating our civil liberties in the face of petty tyranny.

Mix in what XBRAD has documented so often, the militarization of our police forces nationwide, and the result is the subjugation of a free people to an authority without control or restraint, except that of the temperament and decency of those in that authority.  Our Constitution was written, and has been enforced, to prevent precisely such an eventuality.

If you’re a sailor in the Navy, you can say goodbye to fried chicken, French fries and fish sticks. There’s a new ban on fried food in the dining halls.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced changes to dining hall menus in May. Listed in the changes are a switch from frying items such as chicken and French fries to baking them.

Michelle Obama urges Americans to drink more water; cue the critics

Michelle Obama urges Americans to drink more water; cue the critics

And you won’t be able to have your morning coffee with whole milk either. That’s being replaced with skim milk and soy milk.

A similar program exists for the Navy SEALs, who have something called “Fuel to Fight,” a program that promotes lean proteins and vegetables.

Mabus told the Navy Times that the shift in diet will be “the foundation of a healthy lifestyle” and may lead to decreased medical costs.

via Navy bans fried food in its dining halls; some blame Michelle Obama – LA Times.

Actually what it tends to lead to is more people skipping the dining hall, and buying lunch at McDonalds on base.

Incidentally, Scott the Badger pointed us to the 1945 US Navy cookbook. Some of the recipes are… outside the norm of today’s tastes. But some look pretty damn good.

Lockheed Martin Corp’s (LMT.N) decision to buy helicopter maker Sikorsky Aircraft and sell $6 billion in lower-margin units marks a clear turning point for Lockheed CEO Marillyn Hewson, who is shaking up the world’s largest weapons maker.

Thrust into the CEO job in January 2013 after retiring CEO Robert Stevens’ designated successor was fired for having an affair with a subordinate, Hewson spent her first year largely executing a strategy Stevens had mapped out and repairing tense ties with the Pentagon on the $391 billion F-35 fighter program.

Over the past 18 months, the seemingly mild-mannered engineer who is ranked No. 4 on Fortune’s list of most powerful U.S. women executives, has grown more assertive, her power buoyed by a powerful share price rally that has earned her the respect of her board and key shareholders.

Lockheed shares closed at $202.79 on Wednesday, not far off a historic high of $207 reached in February.

“It’s a great story. The accidental CEO steps in, doubles the share price, raises margins and then executes the biggest M&A deal the company has done in two decades,” said one industry executive familiar with Hewson’s career. “But remember, the higher you aim, the greater the crash if things don’t work out.”

Indeed, the Sikorsky acquisition could test the 61-year-old executive’s legacy of pleasing investors by running a tight ship.

via Lockheed Sikorsky deal marks turning point for more assertive CEO | Reuters.

Everyone loves to bash LMT. Cost overruns, bloated programs, timeline shifts and a reputation for getting the DoD to buy what LMT wants to make, rather than making what DoD wants.

Having said that, Hewson really has done some good work at the defense giant. For instance, as a program, the F-35 has improved greatly since she took the helm.

We’re not wild about Sikorsky being assimilated by the Borg of the defense industry. The article notes the flagship product of the Sikorsky line as the MH-60R and MH-60S helos. But that somehow overlooks the ongoing UH-60M production, and what’s likely to be a fairly lucrative production line for the CH-53K, slated to have its first flight later this year, and eventually replace the Marines CH-53E fleet.

DoD is also starting the Future Vertical Lift program, which is, as we feared, shaping up to become the giant program of programs that so well fit the LMT business model.