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AC-235 Gunship Lite
One of our longstanding frustrations with the way the US purchases airpower is that it has so often sought the comprehensive solution to a perceived problem, and not the 80% solution at 20% cost. Rather than buying low cost platforms for low threat environments (such as Iraq and Afghanistan) in modest numbers, the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps insist on flying their dwindling number of strike fighters. An airframe has a finite number of flying hours available. And they’re being wasted droning over virtually secure airspace. The only push in the US for low cost solutions is coming from the Special Operations community, and they are getting pushback from the mainstream services.
The AC-130U is the definitive gunship conversion of a transport aircraft. But there will only ever be a handful of them. They’re such good aircraft because they are so lavishly equipped. They’re astonishingly expensive. I’ve seen quotes of a flyaway cost of about $190 million dollars!
The C-27J program looked at building a low cost roll-on package for the Spartan to provide top cover. That dream died when the Air Force smothered the program in its crib.
But the idea of putting some weapons and sensors onto a converted transport has merit. Witness the Marine Corps deployment of C-130J Harvest Hawks.
And other nations are catching on as well. The latest is Jordan. Jordan teamed with ATK to field a conversion of the popular CN-235 light transport into the AC-235 gunship.
That’s actually a pretty robust capability. As Think Defence notes, integrating the APKWS guided 70mm rocket is a no-brainer as well. With very good sensors (the SAR/GMTI radar is quite handy), and presumably a system similar to our ROVER that allows sensor video to be shared with troop units on the ground, the long endurance of an AC-235 allows much more than merely providing supporting fires. The top down view can allow a commander to exercise much better control over his forces, as well as providing a better picture of the enemy.
The US Coast Guard is buying a handful of CN-235s for Search and Rescue. They were going to buy more, but instead they’re taking delivery of a handful of C-27Js that were intended for Army and Air Force use. Would it be so hard for the services to buy a few more and convert them to AC-235s*?
*The Air Force quietly operates a pair of vanilla CN-235s for unknown purposes. My supposition is they are used to quietly move Special Forces troops around in Africa or other places that operations aren’t secret, but where a discrete footprint is desired.
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MiG-19
OK, I never knew the Russkies tried a ZELL (ZEro Length Launcher).
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Why Military Personnel Make Ideal IT Pros – Dice News
Every year, approximately 250,000 military personnel leave the service to return to civilian life. When the home front beckons, many will be looking to become IT professionals, a role that, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, is among the fastest growing jobs in the country.
How their field skills will translate to the back office is something to ponder. With the advent of virtualization, mobile, and the cloud, IT changes faster than the wind, as do the skill sets needed to succeed.
That said, the nature of today’s military—always on the go, and heavily reliant on virtual solutions—may actually be the perfect training ground for IT.
Consider that many war-fighters already are IT technicians. They need to be skilled in data management, mobile solutions, security, the ability to fix problems as they arise onsite, and more.
This IT knowledge is desperately needed, and matches many of the skill sets outlined in a recent public-sector IT survey by my company, SolarWinds. The only difference is that soldiers are using these skills with dusty boots on the ground.
via Why Military Personnel Make Ideal IT Pros – Dice News.
I know quite a few former military folks that went into the IT field. Not me, of course. I can manage to use technology, but everytime I start reading just the titles of various certifications, my eyes glaze over.
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Frag out!
Ignore the title that says Marine. He’s an American Soldier. And a stud.
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US airstrikes target French turncoat : This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here
Two European intelligence officials described the former French officer as the highest ranking defector ever to go over to the terrorist group and called his defection one of the most dangerous developments in the West’s long confrontation with al Qaida.
The identity of the officer is a closely guarded secret. Two people, independently of one another, provided the same name, which McClatchy is withholding pending further confirmation. All of the sources agreed that a former French officer was one of the people targeted when the United States struck eight locations occupied by the Nusra Front, al Qaida’s Syrian affiliate. The former officer apparently survived the assault, which included strikes by 47 cruise missiles.
via US airstrikes target French turncoat : This ain’t Hell, but you can see it from here.
This is pegging my weirdo-meter.
And its interesting that we took the shot, on behalf of the French.
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Nice video, frustrating history
AvGeek shares a very attractive Beechcraft video featuring their armed version of the Texan II trainer. It’s from last April, but still attractive.
What’s frustrating is that the AT-6C is for foreign buyers. Like the first A-29 Super Tucano delivered to the Air Force (to train foreign buyers), it is a low cost platform. And while the weapons it carries are nice, its ability to carry a powerful sensor package, and loiter overhead would be very nice to have in low intensity theaters.
We’ve long said we didn’t really care who won the LAARA competition. What’s frustrating is that the Air Force has resisted mightily the very idea that such a platform might have a place in the service.
Contrast that with Vietnam, where the Air Force bought and put into service several hundred A-37 Dragonfly light attack variants of the basic T-37 Tweet trainer.
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Jerry Hendrix Discusses Rep. Randy Forbes' Assertion That the US Navy Has No Strategy
Jerry Hendrix, late of the Naval Historical Center and now a fellow at CNAS, addresses a letter from Randy Forbes (R-VA) to CNO Admiral Greenert. Read it all on DefenseOne.com.
A response, but certainly not a rebuttal. I think the good Captain (Retired) is spot on with his assertions of the victory of the “Technical Rickovers” over the “Humanities Mahans”. And that the very lack of being able to verbalize the importance of seapower is a major factor in the dearth of strategic eloquence from our Navy leadership.
When senior admirals speak strategically, their message can be summarized as “we do what we do because we have always done what we have done. The oceans are peaceful, we created that environment, and there is no need to change the formula.”
Indeed. We are saddled with senior Navy leadership that assiduously avoids meaningful discussion about why the US Navy is building a fleet so entirely contrary to the requirements of the Cooperative Strategy. Inherent in that avoidance is the unwillingness to discuss true ship numbers, or anything approaching a proposition for a high-low mix. We have ever-smaller numbers of very large and very expensive warships which bodes poorly for forward presence. The result is an increasing tally of unmet requirements, and of capital ships being employed in very low-end missions, to the detriment of other missions more appropriate and important.
That shipbuilding is a colossal mess, with LCS being the poster-child, should be no surprise. This is the Navy, after all, that has its senior leadership in critical c0mmand positions offering up such gems as the Navy’s mission not being war at sea, and the most dangerous threat to US interests in the Pacific is not China or North Korea, but global warming. And, though less openly now, the rather curious assertion that forcible entry is no longer possible or required, that somehow the sea as strategic or operational maneuver space is an outmoded idea.
Have a read, folks, and let me know what YOU think of Hendrix’s assertion.
Around the web, budget, China, Coast Guard, Defense, history, Iran, iraq, logistics, marines, navy, Politics, Uncategorized, war -
Load HEAT- Kiele Sanchez
Best known for her role on the four year run of A&E’s charming little show The Glades, Kiele is here to brighten your day.
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USS Enterprise gives anchor to USS Lincoln – CNN.com
When it was found that one of the Lincoln’s 30-ton anchors needed to be replaced, crews turned to the Enterprise, which had an exact match that would have been headed to the scrap heap with the rest of the five-decade-old ship.
“With this anchor, both ships will be linked, and Lincoln will carry Enterprise’s spirit as it returns to the fleet,” Chris Miner, Newport News’ vice president of in-service aircraft carrier programs, said in a statement.
via USS Enterprise gives anchor to USS Lincoln – CNN.com.
OK, I’m curious. What the heck happened to Lincoln’s anchor that it had to be replaced?
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Defence cuts leave Royal Navy so short of engineers it has to BORROW them from US Coastguard – Mirror Online
American service personnel will start work later this month as engineering technicians on board Type 23 frigates.
Defence cuts have left the Royal Navy so short of engineers it has had to BORROW them from the US Coastguard.
American service personnel will start work later this month as engineering technicians on board Type 23 frigates.
If this is successful, a team of 36 US are due to be working in the naval dockyard in Portsmouth by the end of 2016.
The navy says it is bringing the engineers to the city because of cuts to staff numbers in the government’s 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review.
Britain is doomed. The once mighty Royal Navy is hardly even a pale shadow of its former self. The RAF could only contribute half a dozen Tornados to the strikes against ISIS. And those same Tornados will be retired by 2019 with a decade of service life left.
On the other hand, this could be a good deal for the Coasties. RN ships still have beer aboard.
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