CDR Salamander

Labels: Carrier, Cruiser, WWII

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 15:57

Labels: Long Game

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:44

Chief of Naval Operations Michael Mullen said Tuesday he is "embarrassed" by hefty cost overruns on the Littoral Combat Ship, but said he expects to get the program back on track as early as next month.

There is "plenty of blame to go around" between the defense industry and Navy officials who failed to adequately oversee the program, Mullen told the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee during a hearing on the Navy and Marine Corps fiscal 2008 budget request.

The Navy stopped work on the third LCS ship Jan. 12, after learning that the price tag on the first ship would total roughly $410 million -- well above the $220 million the Navy expects to pay for future ships. The price of the third ship was expected to be much less than the first LCS, but still fall well over $300 million.

"All of us are embarrassed by the costs of this LCS," House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha, D-Pa., said. "We can't have this happen. As the taxpayers' representative, [I say] you have to get this under control."

Murtha, a strong supporter of the defense industry, used the LCS cost increases as a launching pad to question the Navy on its inability to get many of its major shipbuilding costs under control.

Murtha and other shipbuilding enthusiasts would like the Navy to buy 12 ships in fiscal 2008 -- five more than are in the current budget request. But the Pennsylvania Democrat said he cannot do so until costs come down.

It would be "hard to recommend five more ships when we have this overrun," Murtha said.

Labels: CNO, Murtha, Shipbuilding

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:26

Labels: Iraq, Navy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 01:02

Labels: Me

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:43

Labels: WHATZIS

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:38

Thousands of miles from the bazaars of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan, U.S. military forces are quietly helping defeat terrorists in the jungles of the southern Philippines, a forgotten front in the global war on terrorism.

Working behind the scenes with a rejuvenated Philippine military, U.S. special forces have helped kill, capture or rout hundreds of Abu Sayyaf guerrillas who have links to the Islamic terror groups Jemaah Islamiyah and al-Qaeda, Philippine and U.S. military commanders say.

"The U.S. has done much better than the critics expected," says Philippines specialist Kit Collier, visiting fellow at Australian National University. "Five years ago, when U.S. troops were first sent to Basilan, many predicted 'a new Afghanistan.' Instead, the security environment there has been transformed."

Labels: Long War, Philippines

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:36

When the word gets out that the man who stood tall in the rubble of the twin towers is also a thrice-married supporter of gay rights, gun control, and legal abortion, die-hard Republicans may find themselves less keen to make “America’s mayor” its president. His opponents’ negative TV ads will practically script themselves, said Michael Tomasky in The American Prospect Online. After Giuliani left his second wife, Donna Hanover, for his current wife, he briefly shared an apartment with a gay couple, Mark and Howard.

Labels: Giuliani, Politics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:02

Labels: Ayaan, Islam

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 12:01

"After I had finished my tour as Naval Attache in Paris, 1897 to 1900, they would not let me come home. Anyway they sent me to the Kentucky on the way out [to the Asia Station]. I had never seen one of our battleships before. They were built while I was abroad. I was acquainted with the foreign ones. When I saw that battleship I was absolutely astounded. It is almost incredible that white men who have reached the present stage of civilization could have built a ship like that."

-Footnote 5, pg 80; Admiral Sims and the Modern American Navy

Labels: Leadership, Navy, Sims

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:28

Labels: USNA

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:00

Subject: FlagSESWeb Mail - Deployability and Employability

Admirals and Senior Executives,

In the last few months, we have been reviewing the deployability and employability of our naval forces with the fleet. The thrust was to examine the ways in which we might increase our operational availability
- the percentage of time our forces are available for operational tasks and missions - while still preserving our overall readiness and the quality of service for our Sailors and their families. This has been important work designed to strike the right balance between our need to provide rotational forward forces, our obligation to prepare both independent and major forces in a variety of surge scenarios, and our time at home.

As a result of the review, we are changing some deployment policies and revising some definitions and deployment metrics in the new Personnel Tempo of Operations instruction. While we increased the time available for employment in support of the nation's Combatant Commanders, I want our Sailors to understand that we have carefully considered the potential for personnel impacts. We are deliberately taking action to ensure leadership has the right kind of visibility and oversight into these new deployment metrics. We have preserved our traditional 50% time-in-homeport standard for our Sailors, taken steps to account better for our deployed time, while providing the most predictability we can in our deployment and operating schedules.

I want you to inform your leadership teams and Sailors of these actions when you engage them. I want them to recognize our responsibility to the nation. We must always be prepared to respond as the security environment dictates. That is why the nation has a Navy, and why we are establishing these new metrics.

I have attached a slide that maps our new terms and metrics to the old. You will want to be familiar with the following terms and definitions:

- Deployment. A deployment is time spent generating forward presence to Combatant Commanders (COCOMs) regardless of deployment length. The previous 56 day deployment minimum has been eliminated. Any forward deployed time now counts.

- Dwell. Dwell is the ratio of the number of days a unit spends between deployments and the length of the last deployment in an operational cycle. Dwell is a joint term that formally replaces the Navy's term Turn-Around Ratio.

- HOMEPORT TEMPO. HOMEPORT TEMPO is the percentage of time a unit is in homeport within an operational cycle. This metric is calculated by dividing the unit's days at home by the number of days in that cycle, which is usually about 27-32 months in length.

We will manage our deployments so that our Sailors and their families are not routinely subjected to excessive operational tempo. As such:

- I have reaffirmed our long standing goal of spending no more than 50% percent of the time away from a Sailor's homeport/home station across the operational cycle. Units will be scheduled in a manner that provides 50% HOMEPORT TEMPO. My approval will be required if HOMEPORT TEMPO drops below 50%.

- We will maintain Dwell ratios at greater than or equal to 1.0. While this is a significant change, the fleet has been operating under this policy in a de facto sense during the War on Terror. This change aligns Navy limits with those of the other services under our current wartime DoD policy.

- Maximum planned deployment length will be 7 months - only when necessary - for commands with a single deployment within an Employment cycle. If multiple deployments are required within an Employment cycle, the maximum planned length limit will be 6 months. In either case, we will not routinely schedule deployments longer than 6 months. Operational necessity may require an extension of these deployment lengths, but with rare exception and only with CNO approval.

Concurrently, I have also approved deploying an additional two surface combatants with each CSG (increasing the number of surface combatants assigned to a CSG from three to five). I will be releasing a NAVADMIN reflecting both this decision and our new PERSTEMPO terms and metrics shortly.

As we communicate these new terms and definitions to our Navy, I will need your help in aligning the message. In a time of war, this new approach to employability and deployability will do much for our ability to defend the nation, deter our adversaries, positively engage our partners and friends, and balance these priorities with time at home. Family readiness is a vital part of Fleet Readiness. We must make it clear we value the contributions and sacrifices of our Sailors and their families.

Warm regards, Mike

Concurrently, I have also approved deploying an additional two surface combatants with each CSG (increasing the number of surface combatants assigned to a CSG from three to five).

Labels: CNO, Navy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:41

Labels: America

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:29

Labels: Cartoon, Kerry

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:59

04.09.1939:	Together with Theodor Riedel and the mine layers Cobra and Roland , the Erich Giese lays the anti submarine mine field "f" MARTHA-HANS in the North Sea. 666 Mines are laid during this operation, 100 from Erich Giese .
05-06.09.1939:	Together with Theodor Riedel and the mine layers Cobra and Roland , the Erich Giese lays the mine field "a" MARTHA-IDA in the North Sea. 666 Mines are laid during this operation, 100 from Erich Giese .
06-07.12.1939:	Mine laying operation with Bernd von Arnim and Hans Lody against Cromer. During the operation, the German destroyers attack the British destroyers Juno and Jersey , damaging the Jersey with a torpedo fired from Erich Giese .
07.04.1940:	Operation Weserübung: Erich Giese joins the destroyers Georg Thiele , Wolfgang Zenker , Anton Schmitt , Bernd von Arnim , Erich Koellner , Diether von Roeder , Hans Lüdemann , Hermann Künne and Wilhlem Heidkamp in the Narvik Attack Group.
13.04.1940:	Operation Weserübung: The destroyer is sunk by the British destroyers Cossack and Foxhound west of Narvik.

Labels: Destroyer, Fullbore, WWII

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:33

A tour bus of U.S. senior citizens defended themselves against a group of alleged muggers, sending two of them fleeing and killing a third in the Atlantic coast city of Limon, police said on Thursday.

One of the tourists, a retired member of the U.S. military aged about 70, put assailant Warner Segura in a head lock and broke his clavicle after the 20-year-old and two other men armed with a knife and gun held up their tour bus Wednesday,

Labels: Vets

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:29

"Aside from the divergence in time horizons between the Navy and industry, there is another area that seems to divide us as well. I just do not see the sense of urgency in industry reflective of the fact that we are a nation at war. The behavior of industry reflects, by and large, the general attitude of the public, where people have resumed a routine of normalcy in their lives in the wake of 9/11.

The images of that fateful day - with planes crashing into the World Trade Center and people jumping to their deaths to escape the flames - are becoming a less-pressing memory. But we are at war, and our terrorist enemies have not given up.

Given those conditions, an attitude of "business as usual" is not consistent with the needs of the nation. By contrast, during World War II, there was a remarkable sense of solidarity, a feeling that the whole country was in this together. Consider the astounding feat accomplished by industry during World War II, when it produced over 2,000 Liberty ships between '41 and '45 - and another 2,000 Victory ships on top of those.

Industrialists such as Henry J. Kaiser, who had never before built ships, were eager to use mass-production methods in shipyards, and they stepped forward to meet the challenge. And they became national heroes for their leadership. It was the partnership between industry and the military that won that war - and both partners took enormous pride in their achievement.

Today, however, there is a difference between the atmosphere one often finds in corporate America and the atmosphere one finds in the military...."

"In the past, the Navy has had shipbuilding production plans that included 34 Spruance class destroyers, 30 Aegis Cruisers, 62 Arleigh Burke class destroyers, and 54 Oliver Hazard Perry class frigates - very large production runs over relatively short periods of time. Needless to say, those production rates are just not feasible with ships like DD (X), CG (X), CVN21, and Virginia class submarines. We need a new shipbuilding model that can cost-effectively provide significant increases in capability at low rates of production."
...and...

"We are at an inflection point in shipbuilding and in the defense industry writ large. It is, indeed, a critical time for our Nation, our Navy, and for our defense industry. We must be able to produce highly capable systems in relatively small numbers. We have all the right pieces, and we have completed the initial steps. We need to continue on a successful track."

"Competition is ordinarily pursued by cutting costs at the margin - all very good, but not adequate. While beneficial, competition to save a few percent on a product does not generate the capability, quality, or savings we desire.

What is really needed is a competition of ideas. When great minds focus on meeting requirements differently, truly innovative ideas can emerge.

The Navy's new Littoral Combat Ship is a good example of a ship that appears to be winning the competition of ideas. It is a capable, low-cost ship - with missions that include Mine Countermeasures, Anti-Submarine Warfare, and Surface Warfare. It is fast, flexible, and agile, and it meets our emerging green and brown water requirements today. And with modularity and Open Architecture, LCS can be rapidly adapted to meet the requirements of the future."

Labels: LCS, SECNAV, Shipbuilding

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:36

As you know, John Murtha has "said he would attach language to a war funding bill that would prohibit the redeployment of units that have been at home for less than a year, stop the extension of tours beyond 12 months and prohibit units from shipping out if they do not train with all of their equipment. His aim, he made clear, is not to improve readiness but to 'stop the surge.' So why not straightforwardly strip the money out of the appropriations bill, an action Congress is clearly empowered to take, rather than try to micromanage the Army in a way that may be unconstitutional? Because, Mr. Murtha said, it will deflect accusations that he is trying to do what he is trying to do. 'What we are saying will be very hard to find fault with,' he said." We Marines maintain that except for Lee Harvey Oswald, there is no such thing as an "ex-Marine." I believe that John Murtha has just joined that small club.

Labels: Congress, Murtha

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 10:42

Small but highly trained crews may succumb to “excessive fatigue and failure” in combat or a battle damage contingency on the Navy’s much-anticipated Littoral Combat Ship, according to a comprehensive evaluation of the nation’s current and future weapons programs.
...
“Initial conclusions indicate manning levels do not portend success in a stressing mine warfare scenario,” the report reads.

LCS has a total mission and ship’s crew of 75 sailors.
...
“Forget damage control — what if five of the crew come down with food poisoning?” he says.

Likewise, evaluators note that LCS is being built to the survivability standard of an auxiliary ship, rather than a combatant ship.

Labels: LCS

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 10:36

Perhaps the greatest short-term threat to world peace, Edwards remarked, was the possibility that Israel would bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. As a chill descended on the gathering, the Edwards event was brought to a polite close.

Labels: Democrats, Edwards, Israel

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:48

Labels: Iraq, Weapons

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 15:42

Labels: Congress, Politics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 13:30

Labels: ASCM, Iran, Weapons

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 12:50

Collins
Coleman
Hagel
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Warner

... Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, squeezed in a morning appearance in New Hampshire, where she told one audience, "We have to end this war and we can't do it without Republican votes."

Lex,
I think what we are seeing is a variation of what we saw in 72-75. The Left goes back to its playbook on a regular basis.

One thing that has been buiding over the last year in strength (though has been in the mind of the Left since we took Camp Rhino in late 01) - I really didn't think they would get a chance though I knew they wanted to do it - is that they want a defeat. They want a defeat they can use as a club to pound their domestic rivals and to prove one of the foundations of their political soul; America is a bad if not evil nation, should be shamed and never be allowed to feel that it is anything but the source off all that is bad on the planet.

They cannot let us let us win - and they will do anything and sacrifice anything to make sure that America and its military are shamed and cowed.

They did it in the earlz`70s when even though they cut off funds from S. Vietnam so they could not fight the conventional attack from the North like they did in '72.

America's loss in shame in Vietnam was the crowning joy of their youth, and like any plastic surgeon or Dr. that sells the oval blue pill will tell you - the Boomer Left wants nothing more than to relive their youth.

Labels: Politics, Senate

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 10:42

Labels: Broadside, Cartoon

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:29

"Mankind is a single body and each nation a part of that body. We must never say 'What does it matter to me if some part of the world is ailing?' If there is such an illness, we must concern ourselves with it as though we were having that illness."

Labels: Turkey

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:24

But sometimes the only way to show where you really stand is to vote with your feet. And so with great reluctance and best wishes to my former colleagues, with this column I am severing my 10-year relationship with NBC News.

Labels: Media

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 17:40

From the moderate suburbs of Delaware to the rural, conservative valleys of eastern Tennessee, House Republican opponents of President Bush's latest Iraq war plan cut across the GOP's ideological and regional spectrum.

Numbering a dozen or more, these House Republicans have emerged as some of the most prominent opponents of the plan to increase troop presence in Iraq. They admit to being a ragtag band, with no scheduled meetings and little political cohesion.

Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-MN), Rep. Ric Keller (R- FL), Rep. Phil English (R-PA), Rep.
James T. Walsh (R-NY), Rep. Walter B. Jones (R-NC), Rep. John J. “Jimmy” Duncan, Jr. (R-TN), and Rep.Michael N. Castle (R-DE).

Reps. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), who won by less than 7,000 votes, and Heather A. Wilson (R-N.M.), who won by less than 2,000 votes, both announced Wednesday that they would oppose the Democratic resolution, condemning it as nothing more than "symbolic."

"The majority is clear on what it is against, but does not say what it is for, leaving us with what exists right now, the status quo," Shays said on the floor. "The resolution sends the wrong message to the president, to our troops and to our enemies. It will not get my vote."

Labels: Congress, Iraq, Politics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 12:34

WHATZIS?

Labels: Artillery, Fullbore, Tanks

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:33

A commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Wednesday that a commando unit has engraved the military organization's emblem into the side panel of an American warship stationed in the Persian Gulf.

Nur Ali Shushkari, the head of the Revolutionary Guards ground forces, told Iranian pro-government news agencies that the symbol was etched onto the ship by the crew of a submarine that had managed to reach the U.S. vessel without detection by radar.

Labels: Iran

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 13:03

Two key Democrats in Congress disclosed Wednesday that they are digging through Defense Department funding mechanisms to find a method to choke off funding for the Guantanamo Bay detention facilities.

"We're looking at a schedule - a reasonable schedule - to close it down in stages," Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said in a broadcast on National Public Radio. "We can limit the funds for it and that would shut it down."

Labels: Democrats, GTMO

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 12:43

During a heated debate in a class I teach on social justice, several US Marines who had done tours in Iraq told me that they had "sacrificed" by “serving” in Iraq so that I could enjoy the freedom to teach in the USA. Parroting their master’s slogan about “fighting over there so we don’t have to fight over here,” these students proudly proclaimed that they terrorized and killed defenseless Iraqis. They intimated that their Arab victims are nothing more to them than collateral damage, incidental to their receipt of some money and an education.
...
The American military and mercenary soldiers who “sacrificed” their lives did not do so for the teacher’s freedom to teach the truth about the so-called war on terror, or any of US history for that matter. They sacrificed their lives, limbs and sanity for money, some education and the thrills of the violence for which they are socially bred. Sacrificing for the “bling and booty” in Iraq or Afghanistan, Philippines, Grenada, Central America, Mexico, Somalia, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, or any of the other numerous wars and invasions spanning US history as an entity and beginning with their foundational practice of killing the Indians and stealing their land.
...
Yet another soldier-student said that there would always be wars and someone had to do it. The ”it” is killing, rape, and plunder for profit. ... Their bottom line was getting the money and their thrills by joining and belonging to the biggest terrorist organization in the world, the USA. ... Their plan is to secure the oil, the diamonds, the gold, the water, the guns, the drugs, and the bling for their masters, who they hope will cut them in on the swag. They say that someone has to be on top and they want to be on the side of the strong, not the weak. Robbing Hoods, not Robin Hoods.

And now, here they sit in my course on social justice, terrorist war criminals, wanting high paying “criminal justice” jobs in a university Justice Studies program. They want approval, appreciation and honors for terrorism, torture, and murder. They want a university degree so they can get an even higher salary terrorizing more people around the world with security companies such as Blackwater or Halliburton. They want that appropriately named “sheepskin” so they can join the CIA, FBI, and other police and track down and terrorize US residents here.

These military and mercenary terrorist-students are trained in terrorist training camps all under the USA, funded by American taxpayers. In fact, people under the USA are “sacrificing” their health care and their children’s educations while donating their tax dollars to these terrorist training camps.

These terrorist camps train money hungry working class stiffs to murder, steal and plunder for the power hungry US corporate war lords.

There is a saying that “if you do the crime, you do the time”. My response is that “If you do the war crimes, you will do time in hell, whether the hell of war trauma and shock, of diseases such as those caused by depleted uranium, the old-fashioned traditional hell, fire and brimstone assigned to malefactors…or the hell of sitting in a social justice class and discovering what the hell you are in hell for, or are about to be.

Labels: Moonbats

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:48

The shrugged shoulder is real, a daily reminder that part of Italy's charm rests on the fact that it does not much care for rules. Italians can be downright poetic about it, this inclination to dodge taxes, to cut lines, to erect entire neighborhoods without permits, or simply to run red lights, while smoking or talking on the phone, or both.

"We undervalue the law of cause and effect," said Lisa Tumino, who runs a bed and breakfast here near the Vatican. "We overvalue the law of the universe."
...
Beppe Grillo, the Italian political satirist, keeps a running list on his Web site of members of the Italian Parliament or Italian members of the European Parliament, 25 in all, who have been convicted of crimes, mostly for corruption.

Just last week, an Italian newspaper reported the existence of a new little town outside Naples, of 50 houses and 435 apartments, for which not a single building permit had been issued. About 31,000 illegal structures reportedly went up in 2005 alone.
...
Faced with greedy and hostile authority over many chaotic centuries, it is argued, Italians fell back into what is often called "familism," the idea that only the family can be trusted. Everything outside the realm of family and clan can be ignored — or tricked into submission.

"We are a people of saints, heroes, improvisers and artful fixers; above all we are cunning," a 1986 study on Italian values concluded, finding the nation's mind set little changed over time. "Our cunningness consists of believing that others will take advantage of us if we do not first take advantage of them."

Labels: Italy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:26

R 092153Z FEB 07
FM CNO WASHINGTON DC//N1//
TO NAVADMIN
INFO RHMFIUU/CNO WASHINGTON DC//N1//
RUENAAA/CNO WASHINGTON DC//N1//
BT
UNCLAS //N05354//
NAVADMIN 035/07
MSGID/GENADMIN/CNO WASHINGTON DC/N1/FEB//
SUBJ/2007 EQUAL OPPORTUNITY (EO) AND EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPPORTUNITY
/(EEO) CONFERENCE//
GENTEXT/REMARKS/1. THIS NAVADMIN ANNOUNCES THE 2007 EQUAL OPPORTUNITY (EO) AND EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY (EEO) CONFERENCE.
2. A JOINT EO/EEO CONFERENCE WILL BE HOSTED BY THE NAVY AND MARINE CORPS FROM 19-22 MARCH 2007 AT THE VIRGINIA BEACH HILTON, VIRGINIA BEACH, VA. THE THEME FOR THIS YEAR'S CONFERENCE IS "EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY-ROADMAP TO DIVERSITY." THE CONFERENCE IS PART OF THE CONTINUING EDUCATION OF MILITARY AND CIVILIAN EO/EEO PRACTITIONERS WHO PROVIDE ADVICE TO COMMANDERS, SUPERVISORS AND MANAGERS CONCERNING READINESS ISSUES.
3. ATTENDANCE IS STRONGLY ENCOURAGED FOR NAVY EQUAL OPPORTUNITY ADVISORS NOT FORWARD DEPLOYED, MILITARY PERSONNEL AND CIVILIAN EEO PERSONNEL. FUNDING FOR CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION IS AN INDIVIDUAL COMMAND RESPONSIBILITY. A LIMITED AMOUNT OF BILLETING HAS BEEN BLOCKED AT THE VIRGINIA BEACH HILTON AND MAY BE RESERVED BY CONTACTING HOTEL REGISTRATION AT (757) 213-3001.
4. MILITARY UNIFORM FOR THE CONFERENCE: E-7 AND ABOVE-KHAKIS, E-6 AND BELOW-WINTER BLUES. CIVILIAN ATTIRE IS BUSINESS CASUAL.
5. POINT OF CONTACTS:
- MILITARY PERSONNEL CONTACT: MR. (REDACTED) AT (901) 555-5555/ DSN 555 OR FCC (REDACTED) AT (901) 555-5555/DSN 555.
- CIVILIAN EEO PERSONNEL CONTACT: MS. (REDACTED) AT (202) 555-5555/ DSN 555 OR MS. (REDACTED) AT (202) 555-5555/DSN 555.
6. RELEASED BY RADM E. MASSO, N1B.//

BT
#1273
NNNN

Labels: Diversity

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:22

A question hovers over the United States' blooming friendship with India: How good a friend will India be should it emerge as a great power?

Will it be a Britain — a loyal ally, a partner against terrorism, a fellow evangelist for free markets and democracy? Or will it be France — sharing Washington's bedrock values but ever willing to pursue its own interests at the expense of American ones?

Or will it be China — a competitive threat to the U.S. economy, using its influence to thwart American diplomatic pressure on nations like Sudan and Iran?

This week, government officials and military-hardware makers from the United States will be looking for clues to India's strategic intentions as they attempt to break new ground. At an air show outside the technology hub of Bangalore, they are seeking to sell American-made warplanes to India, which has never before bought them.

The world's two largest democracies were on frosty terms during the Cold War, and India relied for most of its military firepower on Soviet imports. But with times changing, particularly after the 9/11 attacks highlighted common security interests, the leaders of the two nations declared in July 2005 that they were warming their ties into a strategic partnership. At the heart of the new bond is a civilian nuclear deal, recently enacted as law in Washington, that lifts constraints on India's purchases of nuclear fuel for its civilian reactors and frees American companies to sell sensitive technologies to India.

The Pentagon has authorized the largest-ever deployment of display aircraft to the subcontinent. India is expected to open a tender this year for 126 new fighter jets to modernize its fleet, and the Americans are hoping that their new friendship with Delhi will give the F/A-18F Super Hornet, built by Boeing, and the F-16, built by Lockheed Martin, an edge over the Russian MIG warplanes that have long dominated the Indian Air Force fleet.

To counter Russia's historical advantage, Boeing has offered to produce the F/A-18F jointly with an Indian company. Lockheed scored public-relations points by recruiting Ratan Tata, a billionaire Indian industrialist and amateur pilot, to fly in an F-16 at the air show.

The Americans are also peddling Chinook choppers, C-130 Hercules transport planes and the P-3C Orion surveillance aircraft, and the American companies sending representatives to Bangalore this week include Boeing, Lockheed, General Electric and Pratt & Whitney. They will join hundreds of companies from 28 countries, according to the Indo-Asian news service.

American defense companies regard India as a $30 billion opportunity over five years, one leader of the American delegation, William Cohen, a former U.S. defense secretary, told reporters in New Delhi on Monday.

Labels: India

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:21

Rudy's views on many, many issues are going to be very compatible with people in the conservative political community and the political legal community. Nobody's going to be able to find a candidate with whom they agree with 100 percent on every issue. Overall, Rudy's strength of character, his capacity for leadership in a time when a strong executive is important, his energy level, his ability to provide the kind of leadership that Ronald Reagan did -- I think that is going to be very persuasive with conservatives.

Labels: Politics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 13:24

"When you put too much power in the hands of unelected, unaccountable people who have every incentive to focus massive resources onto one particular person — who gets the plaudits in the media for doing so — it's a bad thing. And many, many times an injustice can occur," said Thompson in an exclusive interview with ABC News.

Labels: Senate

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 13:22

The F-15 Strike Eagle recently swapped out with the A-10 Thunderbolt II to assume responsibility of the close-air-support mission here.

Labels: Afghanistan, Aircraft

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:00

Labels: Culture Wars, Germany

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:51

Labels: Culture Wars

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:23

Labels: Navy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 12:07

...evidence of Iranian involvement in Iraq's troubles is limited. U.S. troops have found mortars and antitank mines with Iranian markings dated 2006, said U.S. Army Col. David W. Sutherland, who oversees the province. But there has been little sign of more advanced weaponry crossing the border, and no Iranian agents have been found.

Austrian sniper rifles that were exported to Iran have been discovered in the hands of Iraqi terrorists, The Daily Telegraph has learned.
...
The guns were part of a shipment of 800 rifles that the Austrian company, Steyr-Mannlicher, exported legally to Iran last year.
...
Within 45 days of the first HS50 Steyr Mannlicher rifles arriving in Iran, an American officer in an armoured vehicle was shot dead by an Iraqi insurgent using the weapon.

Over the last six months American forces have found small caches of the £10,000 rifles but in the last 24 hours a raid in Baghdad brought the total to more than 100, US defence sources reported.

Labels: Austria, Guns, Iran, Iraq

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:59

A German court on Monday approved parole for one of the last jailed members of the Red Army Faction in a case that has revived painful memories of the left-wing terrorist group's 1970s heyday.

Brigitte Mohnhaupt, 57, will be released March 27 after serving 24 years of a life sentence for multiple murders, the Stuttgart state court ruled. Mohnhaupt was convicted in 1985 of involvement in nine murders, including those of West German chief federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback and of Hanns-Martin Schleyer, the head of the country's industry federation.

She was given five life sentences on the murder charges and convictions on other counts. Those included attempted murder for her part in a 1981 rocket-propelled grenade attack on the car of U.S. Gen. Frederick Krosen — then the commander of U.S. forces in Europe — which injured both the general and his wife.

The court decided Mohnhaupt fulfilled the conditions of her sentence and no longer posed a threat to society, court spokeswoman Josefine Koeblitz said.

The decision was made "according to legal conditions and was not an act of clemency," Koeblitz said.

Mohnhaupt was captured early in her involvement with the Red Army Faction in Berlin in 1972 and jailed for several years. Released in 1977, she immediately went back to the group and played a key role in the trail of death it left later that year, which became known as the "German Autumn."

She was arrested again in then-communist Yugoslavia in 1978, but allowed to go six months later.

She was finally captured by West German authorities on Nov. 11, 1982, as she went to an arms cache in woods near Frankfurt, which had been staked out by a special police unit for two weeks after they received a tip from locals who had stumbled upon it.

Labels: Germany, Terrorists

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:43

Still, until that day, I wave the Palestinian flag in solidarity. And will even let it fly over my bed. Know this, future ex-boyfriends of mine.

Labels: Moonbats

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:28

We support victory in the war against radical Islamists. We supported the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and we believe victory is necessary in both countries for America's self-defense.

If that sounds right to you, then join us: register an account here , and let us know as much (or as little) as you care to share about yourself with your fellow Caucus members. One of the main goals of this effort is to show our leaders that there is a broad and influential community of citizens (and voters --- and donors) who believe victory is necessary. So the more info you can share with us, the more credibly we can convey that message --- but it's entirely up to you how much you'd like to share.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 17:10

Leftist activists who march to the Pentagon next month will discover that their path won't be as clear as it has been in the past.

The group, led by Cindy Sheehan, Jane Fonda, Ramsey Clark and their ilk, plan to gather March 17 at the Vietnam Memorial Wall to begin a march to protest America's involvement in the Iraq war. The date marks the fourth anniversary of the war's beginning.

This time, however, protestors will see objectors if they spit on Iraqi veterans again, or throw paint on a war memorial. This time, they will encounter a buzz saw of Vietnam veterans and supporters who will gather to protect the Wall, and show their support for U.S. troops. The counter-protestors are calling themselves the Gathering of Eagles.

"… An eagle knows when a storm is approaching long before it breaks. The eagle will fly to some high spot and wait for the winds to come. When the storm hits, it sets its wings so that the wind will pick it up and lift it above the storm. While the storm rages below, the eagle is soaring above it."

An unknown author wrote that description, but it describes how the veterans see their mission. They are angry that the Wall is being used as a jumping off point for a political protest and they are gathering to protect it from another storm of anti-war activists.
..."The anti-war/anti-America group cannot be allowed to use the Vietnam Memorial Wall as a back-drop to their anti-America venom and stain the hallowed ground that virtually cries out with blood at the thought of this proposed desecration ... it must not happen," said veteran Bud Gross. "… All Americans are invited to support our effort, which is intended as a defender of hallowed ground and intended as a non-violent competition between those that would sell out America and those of us who support freedom and keeping the fight with the enemy on distant shores."

The group defending the Wall will be wearing armbands to identify themselves. Those who are unable to stand with the defenders are being asked to wear armbands with small U.S. flags to show their own communities that they abhor the Fonda-Sheehan tactics.

"We'll be there to act as a countervailing force against the Cindy Sheehan-Jane Fonda march from the Vietnam Memorial to the Pentagon," retired Navy Capt. Larry Bailey said. "We will protect the Vietnam Memorial. If they try to deface it, there will be some violence, I guarantee you."

Bailey and thousands of his fellow Vietnam vets are worried that the anti-war protesters will damage the wall, just as they spray-painted the steps of the Capitol at their last march.

Labels: Moonbats, protests

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:38

Managers of the U.S. Coast Guard's $24 billion fleet-overhaul program appeared to cover up a Navy engineering report that highlighted design flaws in a new flagship cutter under scrutiny by government investigators, a senior House Democrat said yesterday.
...
But the warnings were deleted in a copy of the report given by Coast Guard officials to Department of Homeland Security auditors and altered in an edited version included in a wider briefing on the $1 billion-a-year fleet-replacement program, known as Deepwater, to the Coast Guard's commanding officer at the time, Waxman said.

"Sugarcoating of the situation may have made life easier for the program management, but it certainly is a disservice to you, to the Coast Guard community and to the taxpayers of this country," Waxman told DHS Inspector General Richard L. Skinner in a hearing.

On the Deepwater project, Skinner's office reported last month that the Coast Guard's failure to properly oversee contract team Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin led to problems with the new cutter. The flaws may reduce the cutter's operating days by as much as 20 percent and could help to potentially double the cost of completing the first two of eight planned vessels, Skinner said.
...
He said the Coast Guard this week changed the contract to lower the cutter's required operating days by 20 percent, blaming the gap cited by Skinner on confusing terms in the original contract.

The cost of a new Lockheed Martin ship will increase about $100 million, Navy leaders told a skeptical House panel. The cost of the first littoral combat ship will increase to about $350 million to $375 million from about $270 million, Navy officials said, though some expect it to be closer to $400 million.

Labels: LCS, Shipbuilding, USCG

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:21

"For all other 2ID Soldiers who choose to consume alcohol, they must do so responsibly at all times. Specifically, they will moderate their alcohol consumption and not consume alcohol to the extent that their blood alcohol content (BAC) is above .10."

In the years I have been following USFK issues it seems like every time a new general comes in they face the same problem the commander before them faced and the new general issues blanket policies similar to the last guy that didn’t solve the problem then and won’t solve the problem now. Former 2ID commanders General Honore, Wood, Higgins, and now Coggin have all had their fair share of alcohol related incidents and underage drinkers. Mass punishment policies that have a short term impact that looks good on Powerpoint slides are always implemented, but in the long run the same issues will persist and rise again at the expense of the morale of all the soldiers in Korea.

Any bets that the next 2ID commander will be facing these same problems when he takes over? It seems nothing ever changes except the name of the commanding general.

Labels: Korea, Leadership

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:13

Labels: Censorship, Islam

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:04

Labels: Broadside, Cartoon

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:33

- Ashura –

(The Prophet Noah’s last meal on the Ark)

When the waters of the great Flood began to recede, the Prophet Noah and his family are said to have gathered up all the food remaining on the Ark and transformed it into a delicious pudding. The Ark eventually came to rest on Mount Araarat (today Agri Mountain in the eastern part of Turkey). Over time it came to be associated with and adopted the name of the Feast of Ashura, a day with multifaceted significance.

Taking place on the 10th day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar, Ashura celebrates the martyrdom of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed who was killed in 680AD during the Battle of Karbala. For centuries the Jewish people have observed Yom Kippur (the 10 of Tishri (a month in the Jewish calendar), on this day God delivered Moses and his people and drowned Pharaoh and his forces) the Day of Atonement with fasting and ritual. This date has also been commemorated as the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, life and death, heaven and hell, the Pen and the Tablet, the deliverance of Abraham from the fire, and the reuniting of Jacob and Joseph. And also it is believed that Jesus was raised to heaven.

Today, mostly in the Middle-East, Muslims and Christians make a particular dessert called Ashura, a pudding made of cooked wheat, large quantities are made which takes hours to cook. It is then poured into dishes to cool and given out to family and friends.

Ashura commemorates a struggle that is steeped in deep spiritual meaning, not only for Islamic history, but for all humanity. It is a struggle between good and evil, between just and unjust, between weak and powerful, between immediate and the eternal, between principle and ambition.

Labels: Islam

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 08:03

Self-conscious about what you wear while working out? A Dutch gym plans to introduce "Naked Sunday" for people who like to huff and puff in the buff.
...
Nude exercisers would be required to put towels down on weight machines and to use disposable seat covers while riding bikes. All machines would be cleaned and disinfected afterward. "We clean them every day anyway," he said.

Amsterdam's mayor has reportedly changed his mind and allowed the city's upcoming Gay Pride festival to include a canal boat for 11 to 16 year-olds.

Labels: Dutch

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:54

Labels: Innovation

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:42

One by one, several French writers and intellectuals are making the startling confessions. After decades as committed leftists, they are defecting to the right — many saying they've lost faith in Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal.

With just 10 weeks to go until the election's first round, Royal still has no platform. She has made gaffes on international affairs, and her popularity with intellectuals and ordinary voters alike has slipped, leaving conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy at the top of the polls.

Royal, 53, will take a big gamble Sunday in unveiling, at last, some of her plans for France in a platform speech that will be judged by especially tough standards because she has waited so long to make it. Until now Royal has been in a "listening phase" of her campaign,
...
Royal "scares me because she's not cut out for this, she doesn't have the qualifications to be president of the Republic," Hanin told Europe-1 radio. "When you love your country, that's scary."

Leftist essayist Alain Finkielkraut blasted Royal's "manifest incompetence" in an interview with Liberation newspaper, saying he felt closer to Sarkozy, though he did not outright endorse him.

Philosopher Andre Glucksmann backed Sarkozy in a commentary in Le Monde, complaining that the French left was "marinating in its own narcissism." Though he said he respected Royal, he nonetheless took a dig at her by saying that "the left's emptiness was even greater than her own."

Labels: France

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 17:19

13th. of December 1939.
At 0520 ( 5.20 AM ) the squadron was in position 34 degrees 34 minutes South, 49 degrees 17 minutes West, on a course of 060 degrees, at a speed of 14 knots, cruising in line ahead Ajax, Achilles and Exeter. Smoke bearing 320 degrees, ie to the South West from the force, was sighted at 0610 ( 6.10 AM ) and Exeter was ordered to investigate, she soon replied:

"I think it is a pocket Battleship!"

It did not take long for Graf Spee to act, in only two minutes she opened fire with her 11 inch turrets, one firing at Exeter, and one at Ajax.

The first division altered course to 340 degrees to close the range to the enemy, whilst Captain Bell hauled out of the line, altering course to the west, so he might attack Graf Spee from a widely different angle. All ships increased speed, now it should be noted that the enemy armament had almost twice the power of the British
cruisers, both Ajax and Achilles were light cruisers mounting 6 inch guns in their turrets, whilst Exeter was the lone ship of her class, mounting 6 by 8 inch guns in three twin turrets, A and B turrets forward, and a single Y turret mounted aft.

By 0623 ( 6.23 AM ) all ships had opened fire, and an enemy report was broadcast.Graf Spee straddled Exeter ( that means shells in a salvo fall both sides of the target ), one shell burst short, and killed the starboard torpedo tube crews, riddled the searchlights and the aircraft on the catapult, which was manhandled over the side, leaving the ship without any spotting capability from that source. The enemy ship seemed undecided about her gunnery policy, as she shifted targets several times before concentrating both turrets upon Exeter. The third salvo from

By 0624 ( 6.24 AM ) Exeter sent off 8 salvoes against the enemy, but on the incoming path, she received a direct hit from an 11 shell in the fore part of the B turret, putting it out of action, as splinters from this shell burst swept the bridge it killed or wounded all personnel there except for the Captain and two others. It also demolished the wheel house communications, leaving Captain Bell without any means of giving wheel orders to enable course changes, or orders to the engine room regarding speed changes. He decided to fight his ship from the after conning position, but the communication system here was also damaged from the shell burst earlier that effected the torpedo tube crews etc. A chain of messengers was set up to pass orders to the after steering position.

Now two further 11 inch shell hits registerd in the fore part of the cruiser, and Graf Spee shifted one 11 inch turret onto Ajax, who was straddled three times. The secondary armament of the German ship now took on Ajax and Achilles alternately, but to little effect.

During all of this intensive engagement, Ajax achieved a minor miracle by being able to catapult her aircraft for spotting purposes.

Exeter had fired off her torpedoes at 0632 ( 6.32 AM, ) but did not achieve any result, now at 0637 ( 6.37 AM ) Graf Spee altered course some 150 degrees, steering to the North West under cover of smoke.

0638 to 0650 ( 6.38 to 6.50 AM )
At about 0638 ( 6.38 AM ) Exeter altered course to Straboard to allow the firing of her starboard torpedoes, then took off to the North East to close the First Division, at 0645 ( 6.45 AM ) she turned westerly to keep within range.

Two more 11 inch hits fell upon Exeter, one put A turret out of action, and another started a fierce fire in the Chief Petty Officer's flat amidships, the 4 inch magazine was flooded through a burst water main. All the compass repeaters were out of action, the Captain had to rely on a simple boat's compass to allow him to keep the ship pointed so that Y turret might keep up her firing at the enemy, locally controlled, with the Gunnery Officer taking control from the searchlight platform.

At 0640 ( 6.40. AM ) an 11 inch shell fell just short of Achilles in line with her bridge, it burst at the waterline, with splinters killing four sailors, stunning the Gunnery Officer, ( many unkind Officers might comment, But that is but the normal condition for most Gunnery Officers. ) and slightly wounding the Captain and his Chief Yeoman of Signals.

0650 to 0708. ( 6.50 to 7.08 AM )
Achilles with her guns firing in local control could not find the right line with her gun fire, her salvoes falling short. The aircraft from Ajax, reporting that the salvoes were all falling short, but in Achilles, their gun control officer was unaware that Ajax was not still in concentrated firing, he therefore wrongly concluded it was his fall of shot being reported as short, and corrected accordingly, this had the effect of all his gunfire falling way over the enemy pocket battleship. A real mix up at a time when to achieve hits on the enemy was crucial. With all the smoke added to the general confusion, direct spotting was quite hard.

Graf Spee made frequent course alterations trying to throw off the British ship's gunfire, she also made skilful use of the smoke she generated.

Exeter valiently kept up firing her Y turret in local control, but she now had developed a 7 degree list to starboard, adding to the difficulties of keeping Y turret firing. She was still a target for fire from Graf Spee, but shots fell consistantly over.

0708 to 0728. ( 7.08 to 7.28 AM )
Graf Spee was still 16,000 yards from theFirst Division, and they were ordered to close the enemy at speed, accepting they would lose the benefit of having their guns bear on the enemy whilst they steamed closer to the German ship.

At 0708 ( 7. 08 AM ) Graf Spee made a dramatic alteration of course to port under cover of her smoke, and at 0720 ( 7. 20 AM ) she turned back to the North West to bring her guns to bear, and Ajax was very quickly straddled three times from a range of 11,000 yards.

At the same time, the First Division turned to starboard to bring all their main armament bearing on Graf Spee, their fire appeared to most effective with Graf Spee on fire amidships. But at 0725 ( 7. 25 AM ) Ajax was hit by an 11 inch delayed action shell on the after superstructure, its passed through some cabins, wrecking them, then it went through X turret trunk, wrecking all the turret machinery below the gun house, a part of this shell base then struck Y turret barbette, close to the turret training rack, and jammed the turret. Thus one shell was responsible for putting both X and Y turrets out of action, for killing four, and wounding another six of X turret's crew.

It appeared that Graf Spee was neglecting Exeter, as she steered North West to close on the First Division, with Ajax assuming that the German ship would hold this course, she decided to fire off a broadside of her torpedoes. At 0724 ( 7. 24 A M ) she turned to starboard, and let go four torpedoes at a range of 9,000 yards, but without result.

Graf Spee must have seen them coming, and quickly took avoiding action by turning 130 degrees to port, and then returned to the North West after about three minutes.

Exeter was slowly dropping astern of the action, the forward damage taking it's toll. At 0740 ( 7. 40 A M ) Y turret still in local control stopped firing, this was due to a power failure caused by flooding. At 0740 ( 7. 40 A M ) Exeter was steering South East at a very slow speed, she needed to both make repairs and herself seaworthy again.

Now Ajax and Achilles altered course to 260 degrees so that the range to the enemy was reduced even more, then at 0721 ( 7.21 A M ) the spotting aircraft reported "Torpedoes approaching, they will pass ahead of you." The two cruisers decided to make sure they missed, and altered course to 180 degrees.

At 0732 ( 7.32 AM ) Graf Spee turned away to the West and started to zig zag, and Ajax seemed to be making good use of her three available guns, one of the hoists had failed in B turret, and both X and Y turrets were out of action.

Suddenly at 0736, ( 7.36 AM ) Graf Spee altered course to the South West to again bring all her armament to bear on the First Division, the range now down to 8,000 yards.

Ajax reported she had only 20% of her ammunition left.

The shooting by Graf Spee was accurate, and Commodore Harwood did not think she had suffered much damage from the salvoes from the British ships, so he decided to break off the action, at least till after dark. One of the last salvoes from the enemy had demolished Ajax's top mast, and with it all of her aerials, so jury aerials were rigged as quickly as possible. As the British ships turned away, Graf Spee did not follow them, but then altered course to 270 degrees, her speed 22 knots, this course would take her directly to the River Plate. The First Division, now turned to place themselves in shadowing positions on both quarters of the German ship, at a distance of about 15 miles.

British shipping in the area was alerted to Graf Spee's position, course and speed, this information was also sent off to the British Admiralty.

At 0912 ( 9.12 AM ) Ajax recovered her aircraft, then at 0916 ( 9.16 AM ) Harwood ordered Cumberland from the Falkland Islands to close the River Plate at full speed, he was in dire need of reinforcements to his force.

At 1104 ( 11.04 AM ) a merchant ship close to Graf Spee was stopped and blowing off clouds of steam, a signal from the pocket battleship read: "Please pick up lifeboats of English steamer." When coming up to the British ship, SS Shakespeare, all her boats were hoisted, and she reported that she was not in need of any assistance.

At 1105 ( 11.05 AM ) Exeter signalled that all her turrets were out of action, she was flooded up to No. 14 bulkhead, but could proceed at 18 knots, she was ordered to sail to the Falkland Islands at her best speed without placing strain on her bulkheads.

At 1342 ( 1.42 PM ) the British Naval Attache at Buenos Airies was informed that Graf Spee was making for the Plate. The shadowing of Graf Spee continued, and at 1915 ( 7.15 PM ) she suddenly fired off two salvoes at Ajax who turned away under smoke, the first salvo fell in line, the second in her wake as she turned, the range 26,000 yards.

It now seemed that Graf Spee intended to enter the Plate, and Achilles was told to follow her if she went West of Lobos, now Ajax was to proceed South of the English Bank, just in case the German doubled back that way.

Just after sunset, Graf Spee fired off three salvoes at Achilles, the third lobbed very close, in return, AchillesGraf Spee now proceeded North of the English Bank, and anchored in Montevideo roads at 0050. ( 00.50 AM ) fired 5 salvoes that seemed to straddle the enemy ship.

Harwood now reports that his main concern was how long Graf Spee intended to stay here.

At 2350 ( 11.50 PM ) Ajax and Achilles were ordered to withdraw from the Plate, Harwood did not want to risk them having to face Graf Spee silhouetted by the rising sun behind them. Achilles was to patrol the area from the Urugayan coast to a line 120 degrees from English Bank, whilst Ajax was to look after the Southern area. Both cruisers were to move back to the mouth of the Plate after the threat posed by the dawn had passed.

Labels: Battleship, Cruiser, Fullbore

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 18:03

"Some deliberately want to keep NATO and the EU at a distance from one another. For this school of thought, a closer relationship between NATO and the EU means excessive influence for the USA."

Labels: France, NATO

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 17:27

...help us to stop the war and violence, and oppression and occupation.

Labels: Democrats, Dhimmi

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 01:25

Small but highly trained crews may succumb to “excessive fatigue and failure” in combat or a battle damage contingency on the Navy’s much-anticipated Littoral Combat Ship, according to a comprehensive evaluation of the nation’s current and future weapons programs.
...
“Initial conclusions indicate manning levels do not portend success in a stressing mine warfare scenario,” the report reads.

LCS has a total mission and ship’s crew of 75 sailors.
...
“Forget damage control — what if five of the crew come down with food poisoning?” he says.

Likewise, evaluators note that LCS is being built to the survivability standard of an auxiliary ship, rather than a combatant ship.

Labels: LCS

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 10:27

“We’re in jail, dude,” is the unforgettable line from the cockpit video that appears to show the “friendly-fire” attack that killed Lance Corporal of Horse Matty Hull.

This was a mistake that should never have happened. It is not among the few cases, these days, that might be justified by the “fog of war”.

All the same, after watching the video, many will sympathise with the pilots of the two US A10 aircraft that fired on the British convoy near Basra. As they realise what they’ve done, the recording breaks up into anguished swearing; they could not be more stricken or berate themselves more harshly.

The same cannot be said of the Ministry of Defence and the Pentagon.

The MoD told Lance Corporal Hull’s family that some classified material could not be released to the inquest, but did not reveal the existence of the recording. It then said that it could not release the tape without authorisation of the US military. But the Pentagon refused to give the video to the family, saying that only the MoD had clearance to see it.
...
British officials have rushed to say that they tried to persuade the US to release the tape to the family, but it would not. The MoD said yesterday that it had not intended to deceive the family by withholding its knowledge of the recording, but this is disingenuous; it hardly helped them. The leak is an embarrassment to the British Government, which went along too quietly with the US stonewalling.

The US can legally refuse to have the pilots give evidence at the inquest, but it has a harder job morally explaining its refusal to help an ally when it had important facts to hand.

The US Embassy in London added farce to that insult yesterday when it said that the US was “considering declassifying” the video, which has now been seen around the world.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 04:48

Labels: USCG

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 18:54

Nowak's biography shows she is a 1985 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis with a degree in aerospace engineering, and a former test pilot who has logged more than 1,500 hours of flight in at least 30 types of aircraft.

A Navy commander, Oefelein is a former test pilot who attended TOPGUN, the U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons School. He has flown more 3,000 hours in more than 50 types of aircraft, including over 200 carrier landings, according to NASA.

A married mother of three, Nowak told police that she was "involved in a relationship with," Bill Oefelein, another NASA astronaut, which she categorized as "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship," according to the charging affidavit.

Nowak, 43, is charged with attempted kidnapping, battery, attempted vehicle burglary with battery and destruction of evidence. Police considered her such a danger that they requested she be held without bail in the Orange County Jail, reports show.

Labels: fools, NASA

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 02:09

The military judge at the pretrial hearing reprimanded Vice Adm. Rodney P. Rempt for attempting to bias the proceeding against the defendant. The judge concluded there was an "appearance of unlawful command influence" in the case. The judge declared, "This is almost trial by public policy, trial by press release."

Thus, the Naval Academy rape case from its start resembles the Duke Lacrosse rape case, where three innocent team members were publicly "nifonged" by the Durham District Attorney. Lamar Owens was "Rempt-raped" by the superintendent. One is Rempt-Raped when one's name, honor, character and future have been maliciously destroyed by a male or female agent of the radical feminist matriarchy -- a superior officer whose position and power is used to further his or her career at the expense of justice in a case of a false sexual accusation by a female.

The answer rests at the "political" source of power in each case. In North Carolina, it is at a very low level of governance. At the Naval Academy, it has its origin in the Congress and executive branch of the U.S. government. And the latter are driven solely by politicians doing the bidding of the radical feminists.

Why is there no outcry for the public censure of Vice Adm. Rempt for his Rempt-rape of Midshipman Owens? He is furtively fighting for his reputation by delaying the decision on Midshipmen Owens until soon before his expected retirement this coming summer, while Midshipman Owens languishes at the Naval Shipyard, awaiting punishment. Michael Nifong -- meet Rodney Remp.

Labels: USNA

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 01:53

Labels: Democrats, Hillary

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 15:19

A former Army officer and Middle East analyst has called on the nation's service academies to trade in their focus on engineering for a more modern curriculum on international relations.

Andrew Exum, who led combat units in two tours in Afghanistan and one tour in Iraq, said the engineering coursework required at the U.S. Naval Academy and U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., is a holdover from the 19th century, when that was the direction of future warfare.

"I think the author, Andrew Exum, has really shown light on exactly the right discussion," said William Miller, the Naval Academy's academic dean. "We all should be asking ourselves how we should be preparing the next generation of leaders in the Navy, Marine Corps, Army and Air Force for the 21st- century battlefield. We are always having that discussion."

Miller said the difficulty with changing the curriculum at the Naval Academy is that many graduates need sufficient training to operate nuclear reactors in submarines or work with other cutting-edge technology in the surface fleet.

Only 12 percent to 13 percent of each graduating class enters the Marine Corps infantry field, officers who have been on the front lines in the war on terrorism. And among those, 50 percent are social science or humanities majors.

Officials at all three academies said they are well on their way to sending 30 percent of cadets and midshipmen abroad and hoped to surpass that figure. In the 2005-2006 academic year, the Naval Academy sent 150 midshipmen through language immersion programs, 10 to full semesters abroad at foreign military academies and others to train with foreign navies during summer break.

The Air Force Academy sent 18 cadets to foreign military academies, 12 to foreign civilian universities, 200 to short cultural immersion programs and 225 to language immersion.

West Point sent more than 150 to foreign countries, and set a goal to send all language majors, about 10 percent of graduates, for a semester abroad.

The Naval Academy sent 150 midshipmen through language immersion programs, 10 to full semesters abroad at foreign military academies and others to train with foreign navies during summer break.

"Our foreign language department is the best funded of any academic program that I run at the academy," Miller said. "I think it's indicative of the importance attached to this shift in emphasis by other military departments."

While he lauded recent strides to promote cultural awareness, Exum in the policy paper, published Monday, made three challenges to Annapolis and West Point (he left out the Air Force Academy because he said he was not familiar with the training of Air Force officers).

First, the service academies should focus less on an engineering curriculum, he said. Second, they should send more cadets and midshipmen abroad, perhaps as many as 30 percent of all graduates.

As such, since the September 11 attacks, both West Point and the Naval Academy have rapidly increased the numbers of foreign languages taught and the opportunities for cadets and midshipmen to study abroad. In any given academic semester, more cadets and midshipmen than ever before are in exchange programs with military academies in other countries or are spending an academic term in a foreign country in some other capacity. At West Point, around 15 percent of all cadets study abroad at some point. That is better than some civilian institutions, but not when compared to universities with strong international relations programs. At Georgetown University and Tufts University, for example, 58 and 48 percent of all undergraduates study abroad, respectively. Surely the military academies can reach at least half these levels.

Remaining Obstacles

Despite the earnest efforts of their faculties, both academies fall short of providing the kind of language and cultural skills that ground commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan say they want in their junior leaders. Each cadet at West Point is required to take only two semesters of a foreign language—hardly enough to develop significant true proficiency. At the Naval Academy, meanwhile, there is no language requirement. Thus, some midshipmen can graduate without any language instruction whatsoever.

As a veteran who has spent the past few months since I left the army traveling around the country, one refrain I keep hearing is "I don't think we need to be in Iraq, but I support the troops." I have heard this in New York City as often as I have in my hometown of Chattanooga, Tenn. No matter what the opinion of President Bush's decision to invade Iraq, the admiration and appreciation the public feels for its veterans is widespread and genuine. Not even the horrors of Abu Ghraib seem to have dampened the public's view of the men and woman fighting abroad.

But as anger builds toward President Bush over the Iraq War, I fear that anger is eventually bound to spill onto the foot soldiers anonymously serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. I don't think it's an irrational fear: Even those of us born after the Vietnam War read about the "baby killer" epithets that greeted returning veterans as the antiwar sentiment escalated. And so as I began to survey much of the antiwar popular culture for this essay, I found myself increasingly uneasy by what I saw. Not so much in the works themselves, but in the reactions of the people with whom I sat.

Labels: USNA

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:19

On Monday, four US military recruiting offices in Seattle were shut down when students blocked the entrances to protest recruitment practices and to oppose the occupation of Iraq. Meanwhile the Parent Teacher Student Association at one school has passed a resolution recommending that military recruiters be barred from the campus.

Labels: Moonbats, protests

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:08

Some seven GOP senators are said to be wavering between the Democratic resolution and the McCain Graham-Lieberman alternative supporting Gen. Petraeus and the troops. They are Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Sam Brownback of Kansas, Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, John Sununu of New Hampshire, and George Voinovich of Ohio. Alexander, Coleman, and Sununu are up for reelection in 2008.

Labels: Politics, Senate

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:03

First, let me say thank you to all of you in Soldiers' Angels. Your Group are really wonderful and great.
...
We have 2 kids [ages 14 and 12]. My husband and I are both from the Philippines and migrated here in the states some 20 years ago.

My husband was station in USS Frank Cable in Guam just a couple of months when the unfortunate accident happen in the ship. Him and other sailors (7) were involved in a steam burn due to one of the boiler exploded. They said he was a hero for he stayed to shut down the boiler before it can cause more life in the ship. That is why until now he is still in ICU burn unit here in Brooks Army Medical Center, Texas. They were transported here from Guam last December 1,2006 and till now he is still fighting to survived due to 75% bodily burn and extensive steam inhalation lung burn. He had about four skin graft surgery which I almost lost him and still more to come.
...
To all the members of Soldiers Angels that sent my husband well wishes and prayers I am very thankful and appreciate you all.

For all the goodies I receive and for the [Valour-IT] laptop that my husband got thank you.

And if ever I have forgotten to say thank you with others, I say thank you now.

Labels: heros, Navy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:02

Labels: Broadside, Cartoon

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:34

Seven new ships are budgeted for this year, .... Fifteen will be decommissioned, ... The result is a fleet of 276, the lowest total in nine decades.

Navy leaders and military analysts have warned that if Congress doesn't boost the Pentagon's shipbuilding budget – $11.6 billion this fiscal year – the Navy won't be able to meet its growing list of commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Latin America and the western Pacific.

The problem isn't easy to fix. The parties most heavily involved in shipbuilding – Congress, the Navy and shipbuilders – all have incentives to add expensive, high-tech gadgets that pump up the capabilities and prices of new vessels.

Pentagon officials and shipbuilders trade jabs at conferences such as West 2007. The Navy blames shipbuilders for busting budgets, while shipbuilders point a finger at the Navy for frequent design changes and a lack of steady work that forces them to boost costs.

The Navy's biggest cost headache is the still-unbuilt DDG-1000 destroyer. The ship was conceived a decade ago as a $750 million replacement for the Spruance and, eventually, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers that now form the backbone of the surface fleet.

Technologically, the sleek DDG-1000 is loaded: It will boast advanced radar, vertical-launch cells for Tomahawk and Sea Sparrow missiles, 155-mm guns with long-range, precision-guided projectiles and a super-efficient electrical generation system – all packed into a stealthy hull inspired by the Air Force's B-2 bomber.

But with a cost that has swelled to $3.6 billion, the ship keeps accountants awake nights. The Navy has cut its planned purchase of the ship from 30 to seven. Some defense analysts predict the Pentagon ultimately will buy only two or three.

“Cramming that much capability onto one ship is ludicrous,” said Bob Work, a defense analyst for the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, D.C. “Everybody outside the Navy looked at it and said, 'You're crazy.' ”

The no-frills design would allow the mass production of at least 55 littoral ships, at a cost of no more than $220 million apiece. It is the key to Mullen's 313-ship blueprint.

The first four littoral ships, all under construction, were bound for San Diego. Then last month, Navy auditors discovered that costs had nearly doubled on the third ship, which Lockheed Martin is building. The Navy ordered the contract suspended for 90 days while it investigates.

Dimensions:
Length: 138 m (about 4.5 meters longer than a Knox Class)
Beam: 20 m (about 6 meters wider than a Knox)
Draught: 6 m (about 1.5 meters shallower than a Knox)

Displacement: 6,200 tons (about 2,000 tons greater)

Complement: Around 100 men (accomodation for 160)

Armament:
1 - 127 mm Gun M/02
1-2 - 76 mm Gun M/85
1-2 - 35 mm Gun M/04 (CIWS)
x - 12,7 mm Heavy Machine Guns
16 - HARPOON SSM Block II
24 - Evolved Sea Sparrow (ESSM) SAM's
1 - Mk 41 Multi missile launcher with 32 cells for long range SAM's etc.
2x2 - Stinger SAM Lv M/93
2x2 - Anti Submarine Torpedo Launchers (MU-90)

Speed: 28 knots

Range: 9,000 nautical miles at 15 knots

“What you really want to do is mass-produce,” said Chris Hellman, a military analyst with the Washington D.C.-based Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. “We're already operating the best Navy in the world. Our edge is so vast, we don't really need a huge technological upgrade.”

To help pay for shipbuilding, the Navy has cut thousands of sailor billets from its rolls since 2003. It also has trimmed orders for new ships and stretched them out over more years.

Meanwhile, the nation's six shipyards – including General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego – fear they'll have to lay off more workers if the Navy's pace of new projects doesn't speed up. The lack of steady work also prompts highly trained employees who design and construct warships to find other careers.

“That's a skill that, once it's lost, it'll be very, very difficult to get back,” said Fred Harris, president of General Dynamics NASSCO.

Labels: DDG-1000, LCS, Shipbuilding

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:16

Days after taking office Dec. 1, Calderón announced Operation Michoacán by sending 7,000 military and federal officers into his home state. "This is a very difficult battle,"said Army Gen. Manuel García Ruiz, who heads Operation Michoacán, at the airfield of the Lázaro Cárdenas Airport before a recent drug raid. "It will last as long as it is necessary.
...
Calderón has also opened new fronts in the border city of Tijuana and the Pacific resort town of Acapulco. He sent 3,300 soldiers and federal police to Tijuana and 7,600 troops and police to Acapulco this month.

The US has, thus far, voiced optimism. "We certainly are supporting [Calderón's] moves to try to do something about the issues of drug trafficking; not only does it affect his country but it affects the US as well," says Christy McCampbell, the deputy assistant secretary in the US State Department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.
...
Calderón has transferred 10,000 military personnel to the federal police, and promised raises to the lowest paid members of the armed forces.
...
Calderón has promised to root out corruption, particularly among the local police. In Tijuana, for example, the 2,300-strong local police was made to relinquish their arms when the military moved in to patrol streets and set up checkpoints.
...
Calderón has also voiced support of an overhaul to the legal and penal systems, cleaning up legal codes and stiffening criminal sentences, and moving toward oral trials to bring more transparency to the judiciary, says Ackerman. Currently, almost all trials are written, making them more secretive and vulnerable to corruption.
...
Last week, Calderón told the Financial Times newspaper that the US must do more to help Mexico achieve success. "The [US] is jointly responsible for what is happening to us ... in that joint responsibility the US government has a lot of work to do."

Michael Shifter, vice president of policy at the Inter-American Dialogue, points out parallels between Calderón's efforts and those of Colombia's President Álvaro Uribe, who has received more than $7 billion from the US in recent years for his country's war on drug trafficking. "Uribe tapped into a real sentiment that was widely held in Colombia, where insecurity had just become intolerable for people," Mr. Shifter says. "Somebody had to take charge. Calderón senses the same thing in Mexico in 2007."

Calderón has already started trumpeting security improvements. "Today Mexico has more peace and certainty than at the beginning of my term, and that fills me with satisfaction," he said recently at a press conference.

Venezuela's Congress on Wednesday granted President Hugo Chavez powers to rule by decree for 18 months as he tries to force through nationalizations key to his self-styled leftist revolution.

Opposition politician and newspaper editor Teodoro Petkoff on Tuesday wrote an editorial in his Tal Cual newspaper drawing parallels between the enabling law and Cuban Communism and European fascism in the 1930s.

Hernandez, of the Venezuelan Communist Party, rebuffed such charges.

"When our enemies say we are granting dictatorial powers to Chavez, they know that they are lying," he said.

Labels: Latin America

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:37

Smoky Parisian cafés will soon be nothing but a fond memory. As of Thursday, smoking is banned in public places in France and in a year, the blue haze will disappear from cafés and restaurants as well. C'est la vie.

For all the jokes about the rudeness of Parisiens, it's hard to deny that they know how to enjoy life. What, after all, could be more French than strolling into a café, ordering up a café au lait, lighting up a Gauloises and immersing oneself in a Camus novel?

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:25

Following an overhaul at Pearl Harbor, Tang began her fifth war patrol on 24 September 1944. She topped off fuel at Midway, then proceeded to the Formosa Strait. On the night of 10-11 October, she put down the freighters Joshu Go and Gita Maru. Tang continued her patrol, making contact with a large convoy on 23 October.

She closed three ships in a night surface attack, two of her torpedoes hitting the closest, one more hit the second, and two more blasted the stern of the farthest ship. While lining up her stern tubes on a tanker, Tang had to maneuver quickly to avoid a transport, which was attempting to ram. Since the tanker was also trying to ram, the transport's efforts backfired, and she ended up ramming the tanker instead. Tang fired her four stern tubes at 400 yards, and the tanker sank. As Tang raced away to avoid the escorts the transport exploded.

The next evening, Tang found another convoy. She fired six torpedoes at three targets. Running parallel to the convoy while picking another target, she fired her stern tubes at another transport and tanker. The tanker blew up and a hit was observed on the transport. A destroyer, which had come around the tanker's stern, also blew up. The transport remained afloat, but was dead in the water.

Returning after hauling off to avoid a counter attack, Tang fired her last two torpedoes at the tanker. The last torpedo was defective and began a circular run. Tang put on full emergency power and maneuvered to evade, but the torpedo returned and struck her aft. O'Kane and eight others went into the water. Five more used their Momsen Lung escape gear to get to the surface from the sunken submarine. By morning, only nine, including O'Kane, were still alive to be picked up and imprisoned by the by the Japanese. They spent the rest of the war as prisoners. O'Kane received the Medal of Honor, retiring in 1957 as a rear admiral.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:19

» He laid out the political future: “Hillary will be the next president, and she’ll be the worst president we’ve ever seen.” No matter what happens, the situation in Iraq will “assure that the GOP gets massacred in 2008 congressional elections.” In 2010, the Republicans will take back the Congress — “Hillary will give Republicans the same gift she gave them in 1994” — and they’ll win the presidency in 2012, but thanks to demographic shifts favoring Republicans (sic) (namely the rising Hispanic and African-American populations), “that will be the last Republican president we’ll ever see.”

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 10:13

“The thing we’ve learned is that you can’t debate a war and fight it at the same time,”

1986 interview about Vietnam.

"The president took us into this war recklessly," the Democrats' chosen messenger, Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, said in his prepared response to Bush's State of the Union address Tuesday evening. "We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable — and predicted — disarray that has followed."

SOTU response, 2007

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:07

If I weren't the United States, I'd say the story end with a military coup where those in the know, and those with fire in their bellies, save the nation from the people. But it is the United States and instead this NBC report is just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary - oops sorry, volunteer - force that thinks it is doing the dirty work.

I'll accept that the soldiers, in order to soldier on, have to believe that they are manning the parapet, and that's where their frustrations come in. I'll accept as well that they are young and naïve and are frustrated with their own lack of progress and the never changing situation in Iraq. Cut off from society and constantly told that everyone supports them, no wonder the debate back home confuses them.

Friday's NBC Nightly News included a story from my colleague and friend Richard Engel, who was embedded with an active duty Army infantry battalion from Fort Lewis, Washington.

Engel relayed how "troops here say they are increasingly frustrated by American criticism of the war. Many take it personally, believing it is also criticism of what they've been fighting for."

First up was 21 year old junior enlisted man Tyler Johnson, whom Engel said was frustrated about war skepticism and thinks that critics "should come over and see what it's like firsthand before criticizing."

"You may support or say we support the troops, but, so you're not supporting what they do, what they're here sweating for, what we bleed for, what we die for. It just don't make sense to me," Johnson said.

Next up was Staff Sergeant Manuel Sahagun, who is on his second tour in Iraq. He complained that "one thing I don't like is when people back home say they support the troops, but they don't support the war. If they're going to support us, support us all the way."

Next was Specialist Peter Manna: "If they don't think we're doing a good job, everything that we've done here is all in vain," he said.

Through every Abu Ghraib and Haditha, through every rape and murder, the American public has indulged those in uniform, accepting that the incidents were the product of bad apples or even of some administration or command order.

We just don't see very man "baby killer" epithets being thrown around these days, no one in uniform is being spit upon.

Arkin is a veteran of four years in the Army (he served from 1974 to 1978) … His employment since leaving the service is easier to trace. Arkin cut his teeth with the lefty Institute for Policy Studies, and went from there to positions with Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Human Rights Watch. He has been a regular columnist for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:44

Some 400 Romanian troops on Friday said goodbye to their families, friends and colleagues in a military and religious ceremony, before leaving for Iraq to replace colleagues.

The 495 Infantry Battalion, which includes 10 women, leaves starting on Sunday, said captain Pavel Petrea, a Defense Ministry spokesman.

They will serve under British command in the area of Tallil, patrolling, observing and supporting the local civilians, Petrea added.

The 400 troops have trained for the past three months for this mission and are to replace the Transylvanian Dragons, who have been operating in Iraq since August.

Last week, President Traian Basescu said in a meeting with foreign diplomats that Romania will respect its commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans.

Romania, which joined the European Union on Jan. 1 and became a NATO member in 2004, has 600 troops in Iraq, 800 in Afghanistan and 230 in the western Balkans.

Labels: Romania

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:19