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U.S. lawmakers recently questioned Army and Marine Corps leaders on small-arms and why the two services buy completely different bullets for the M16A4 rifles and M4 carbines.

“You guys are using two different rounds, and you have procured several million rounds to date and you have used them in combat,” Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., said at a March 19 House Armed Services Committee hearing.

Sanchez, the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces, wanted to know why the Marine Corps uses the M855 5.56mm round and the Army uses the M855A1.

The services met with the subcommittee to discuss Fiscal 2016 modernization efforts — a touchy subject these days since the Pentagon is facing another round of mandatory budget cuts under sequestration in 2016.

“Maintaining two inventories of the same size combat ammunition is probably not the most efficient way to go,” Sanchez said.

via Army and Marine Corps Still Disagree over M16/M4 Bullet | Military.com.

Loretta Sanchez is, of course, something of a dim bulb. First, one powerful argument for using two different types of ammunition is that the Marines and the Army use two different weapons. While the mechanics of the M16A4 and the M4A1 are virtually the same, the differences in barrel length argue for different ammunition.

While buying two different types of ammunition is somewhat inefficient, it’s not all that inefficient. After all, the services actually buy literally hundreds of different types of small arms ammunition.

By the way, one thing Big Army really likes about the newest M855A1 iteration is that it is environmentally friendly.

Now, before you roll your eyes about that, it actually makes some sense. While lead remediation isn’t a major issue on most local shooting ranges, it does become an issue on military installations, where 50 years or more of firing takes place. Further, the Army does a surprising amount of shooting on non-federal lands leased or loaned to the Army for training purposes. With the zealousness of the EPA, environmental concerns make it less likely for landowners to cooperate with the Army.

Three years ago, Army Secretary John McHugh visited Joint Base Lewis-McChord to announce plans for a kind of unit that would be unique in the military: A division headquarters led by a two-star general that would never go to war.

To drive home the point, McHugh said he’d assign the division just 250 soldiers, making it about one-third the size of a full headquarters. That would be enough to oversee home-station training of the combat brigades JBLM gained during the Iraq War, but not enough for its own overseas missions.

McHugh’s original plan now has been thrown out the window.

via ‘The little division that could:’ How JBLM’s ‘non-deployable’ unit was called to deploy | Military News | The News Tribune.

When the Army switched from a divisional model to the BCT model, one thing they did was try to trim the size of headquarters. Honest. Really. In fact, for a while there, the Army increased the size of its divisions from 3 brigades to four BCTs as a means of increasing its combat units without increasing the numbers of headquarter units. They had to strip a maneuver battalion from each BCT to do it, but it was an honest attempt to field leaner units.

Unfortunately, that left Joint Base Lewis-McChord with something like 10 BCTs and only one division headquarters to supervise training. That was a bit much. So the 7thID headquarters was reconstituted to provide adult supervision to some of the BCTs on base (which, interestingly, didn’t patch over to 7thID, but held onto their existing alignments in terms of heraldry, but reported to 7thID for training and court martial authority).

But, as the article notes, division headquarters are being deployed a lot. Mind you, they aren’t necessarily out in the field as command elements for full up divisions. Rather, divisional headquarters are tailored to act as a command node integrating not just Army maneuver elements, but all ground elements, and, critically, act as the integrator for other services and nations, and other government agencies when deployed overseas. Not every deployment calls for a full theater command, with a four star general and subordinate three star component commanders. The divisional HQ is about the lowest level that can provide this command node, even though it might have only a single BCT directly reporting  to it.

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. — Marines will have to spend less time checking off annual training requirements starting now.

As packs grew heavier during more than a decade at war, so too did the service’s training burden as lessons were added for everything from preventing suicides to combating human trafficking.

Many of those requirements remain valid and necessary, according to officials here. But others can be streamlined, shortened or ditched all together.

In an effort to alleviate the ever-growing burden, the Marine Corps’ Training and Education and Combat Development and Integration commands undertook a comprehensive review to update Marine Corps Bulletin 1500 Annual Training and Education Requirements. The newest version, published Feb. 20, will give commanders more discretion on when, where and how they meet requirements given the needs of their unit’s specific mission.

via Marine Corps cuts annual training burden.

Common sense breaks out in the Marine Corps. Meanwhile, Army is doubling down.

A lot, and I mean a LOT of this training is purely check-the-box, cover the boss’s butt stuff. That’s not to say there isn’t value to some annual training requirements. But the idea that forcing a young troop to sit in front of a computer for an hour long power point presentation is valuable training is rather silly.

Further down, there’s a bit about empowering junior NCOs to conduct the training. Which, that’s the whole  point of having NCOs in the first place.

Pay attenti0n, Army.

So, Hugh Hewitt says if the GOP doesn’t increase the DoD budget, that’s bad.

Sean Davis rebuts him.

Then  Kurt Schlichter (who, in addition to being a lawyer is a retired Army Reserve Colonel) weighs in.

For my money, I’m with Kurt.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Mac Thornberry, echoing comments made over the past several months by a host of top Pentagon officials, argued Monday morning that the long-held American technological superiority over its adversaries is quickly eroding.

The answer to how to reverse this eroding advantage, the head of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) said, is to reform how the Pentagon buys the things it needs, while also reaching out to the commercial tech industry for innovative ideas.

via HASC Chair Outlines Big Pentagon Reforms.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this will merely add another layer of complexity and reams of reports on top of what is already a stunningly sclerotic process.

The Westland Lynx is a very successful helicopter design, and still in production today. It’s also just about the most maneuverable helicopter in the world.

Apologies for the poor picture quality. I wasn’t expecting to have to sprint to the end of the street. I didn’t know this was going to happen. Apparently a nice little formation fly-by of SNJ/T-6 Texans is just the thing to open up the final day of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Update- They just flew over again. And this time, I got a much better look. As Matt on FB pointed out, these are Nanchang  CJ-6s.