XBradTC

If I had servers full of classified American intelligence, I guess I wouldn’t sign that either.

Incidentally, if she did sign it — you think it’s at all impossible that someone decided to Make It Go Missing?

via Ace of Spades HQ.

Mad props to the first person to hand Clinton an OF-109 on camera and ask her to sign.

It’s not like it’s hard to find a download link.

The USMC inducted the AV-8A Harrier into service in 1971 and military minds in the DoD were quickly trying to think of every way they could use the “Jump Jet’s” new abilities. One of their experiments was to integrate the AV-8 into a conventional USN Carrier Air Wing. This happened during the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Mediterranean cruise in 1976.

via The Time When AV-8 Harriers Deployed Aboard A Fixed-Wing Navy Carrier  .

Dad was XO of FDR a few years before this. The FDR, unlike its two sister ships, was never SLEP’d,* and so by the time she took aboard the Harriers in 1976, she was pretty tired. She was scrapped almost immediately after the cruise.

The AV-8A version of the Harrier had an appalling safety record, and was not terribly popular with its pilots. The AV-8B is essentially an entirely new design, and obviously quite a bit more successful.

Oh, and Tyler makes an error. Landing Harriers over the bow is hardly the first time it has been done. The Essex class carriers were designed from the start with high backing speed, specifically so they could recover planes over the bow. They even had arresting gear forward for just that purpose. In the event, it was very rarely done, and the forward gear was soon removed. But it was used in testing.

*Service Life Extension Program- a massive overhaul to basically reset all the plumbing and wiring as well as the combat systems.  It essentially resets the odometer to zero.

NAJAF, Iraq — Iraqi forces’ operation to retake the city of Tikrit has stalled as troops suffer heavy casualties at the hands of Islamic State militants, raising concerns about whether the pro-government fighters are ready for major offensives.

After two days of little activity on the battlefield, Iraq’s interior minister, Mohammed al-Ghabban, confirmed Monday that the offensive has “temporarily stopped.” The steady flow of coffins arriving in Iraq’s Shiite holy city of Najaf suggests a reason for the pause; cemetery workers say as many as 60 war dead have been arriving each day.

Since last week, Iraqi forces have hemmed in the Sunni militants in Tikrit, claiming control of the majority of the former Islamic State stronghold. But the operation has come at a cost, with soldiers saying the fight has been tougher than expected. As the momentum has slowed, some Iraqi officials have begun to publicly call for U.S.-led air support.

via Iraqi offensive for Tikrit stalls as casualties mount – The Washington Post.

One is slightly bemused that war correspondents don’t grasp that as you approach the enemy Main Line of Resistance, you tend to get more resistance.

Whether the volunteer Iraqi militias, who are the bulk of the forces at work here, can mount a sustained campaign is a valid question. And it is a near certainty that they’re going to take more casualties than even a minimally trained genuine army.

But if Iraqi forces can isolate Tikrit, or even just mostly interdict the main lines of communication, they’ll have time on their side. They’ll be able to set the time and place of their assaults. They’ll be in a position to receive logistics and reinforcements, while IS forces work from dwindling stockpiles.

Ordinarily, one would urge speed in an assault. But that’s normally because you want to prevent an enemy from becoming set in his defenses. IS has been in Tikrit for months now. They’re defenses are already fixed. That argues for a more methodical approach by the Iraqi forces. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

I’d love to know the back story on this…

Thanks. LT Rusty

From Operation Desert Storm to Operation Enduring Freedom, the United States Navy has enjoyed an asymmetric technological advantage over its adversaries.[i] Uncontested command and control dominance allowed American commanders to synchronize efforts across broad theaters and deliver catastrophic effects upon the nation’s enemies. These years of uncontested command and control dominance birthed a generation of commanders who now expect accurate, timely, and actionable information. High levels of situational awareness have become the rule, not the exception. The Navy and its strike groups now stand in danger of becoming victims of their own technological success. An overreliance on highly networked command and control structures has left carrier strike groups unprepared to operate effectively against future near-peer adversaries.

via Back to the Future — The Bridge — Medium.

LCDR Curtis has a great piece on the US Navy and Network Centric Warfare.

The impressive command and control systems our forces use give even relatively modest forces greater ability to accomplish the mission. Unfortunately, those same systems are, or will be, vulnerable to attack, either electronic or kinetic.

The Navy used to routinely practice working in an environment where its electronic systems were degraded or denied.

It takes a lot of training to learn to properly use the command and control systems we have. It takes even training to learn to operate without them.

And the Army would do well to consider the same challenges.