Proactively “From the Sea”; an agent of change leveraging the littoral best practices for a paradigm breaking six-sigma best business case to synergize a consistent design in the global commons, rightsizing the core values supporting our mission statement via the 5-vector model through cultural diversity.
OK all you history buffs, all you former and active Harpoon players - all those who love their Navy and a good video game at the same time. Think about what, in even a modest manner, you would like to see for the official US Navy's first mobile gaming product. Let that warm and excited feeling soak in for a bit. Now, brace yourselves and head on over to my post at USNIBlog for the details. Gird your loins. As a side note, if you read this blog and are not also a member of the US Naval Institute, you should really consider joining. Look on the right side of the page for the widget, give it a click and find a few shekels.
With the new defense budget out, new QDR out, the withdraw of maneuver forces from Afghanistan, rising interest in INDO-PAC operations, and a resurgent Russia: after over a decade of COIN and land wars in Southwest and Central Asia - what is the status of the United States Marine Corps? Materially, intellectually, and culturally - is the USMC set up to move best towards the expected challenges and missions? Our guest for the full hour this Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern will be Dakota L. Wood, Lt Col, USMC (Ret.), Senior Research Fellow, Defense Programs at the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign and National Security Policy at The Heritage Foundation. Following retirement, Mr. Wood served as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Most recently, Mr. Wood served as the Strategist for the U.S. Marine Corps’ Special Operations Command. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Oceanography from the U.S. Naval Academy; a Master’s degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the College of Naval Command and Staff, U.S. Naval War College.
Join us live if you can with the usual suspects in the chat room and offer up your questions for our guest, but if you miss the show you can always listen to the archive at blogtalkradio.
I have always liked this story and the painting it tells - truth is always better than fiction - and with the goings-on in Ukraine as of late, I can think of no better time to bring it up. If you so wish, do a little reading up on the history of the Zaporozhian Cossacks of Ukraine; but let's keep this FbF clean and to the point. As everyone is hip to "cultural sensitivity" let's try to get some insight in to the cultural foundation and references of the Ukrainian people (and the Russians too). This took place, roughly, in 1676. 100 years before our Declaration of Independence, and the same year we first recognized by proclamation the very American holiday of Thanksgiving. So, yea ... it works. First of all, we have a letter from the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud IV.
Sultan Mahmud IV to the Zaporozhian Cossacks:
As the Sultan; son of Muhammad; brother of the sun and moon; grandson and viceroy of God; ruler of the kingdoms of Macedonia, Babylon, Jerusalem, Upper and Lower Egypt; emperor of emperors; sovereign of sovereigns; extraordinary knight, never defeated; steadfast guardian of the tomb of Jesus Christ; trustee chosen by God Himself; the hope and comfort of Muslims; confounder and great defender of Christians -- I command you, the Zaporogian Cossacks, to submit to me voluntarily and without any resistance, and to desist from troubling me with your attacks.
--Turkish Sultan Mahmud IV
... and the Ukrainians pondered a response ...
... and then you have a bit of poetry (potty-mouth warning);
Zaporozhian Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan!
O sultan, Turkish devil and damned devil's kith and kin, secretary to Lucifer himself. What the devil kind of knight are you, that can't slay a hedgehog with your naked arse? The devil excretes, and your army eats. You will not, you son of a bitch, make subjects of Christian sons; we've no fear of your army, by land and by sea we will battle with thee, fuck your mother.
You Babylonian scullion, Macedonian wheelwright, brewer of Jerusalem, goat-fucker of Alexandria, swineherd of Greater and Lesser Egypt, pig of Armenia, Podolian thief, catamite of Tartary, hangman of Kamyanets, and fool of all the world and underworld, an idiot before God, grandson of the Serpent, and the crick in our dick. Pig's snout, mare's arse, slaughterhouse cur, unchristened brow, screw your own mother!
So the Zaporozhians declare, you lowlife. You won't even be herding pigs for the Christians. Now we'll conclude, for we don't know the date and don't own a calendar; the moon's in the sky, the year with the Lord, the day's the same over here as it is over there; for this kiss our arse!
Fullbore. An American would have simply said, "Nuts" - but we are a simple folk.
Sometimes the Diversity Bullies do us a favor and let the mask slip. In 21st Century America, there is only one place where it is socially acceptable, and indeed, professionally rewarding, to be an out-and-out bigot. Where, you ask? Simple ... any of the paying gigs in the Diversity Industry's various commissariats - especially in our educational system. As you read the below I want you to remember this; we do roughly the same thing every day in our Navy. We pay money to send our diversity commissars to the same conferences and get the same training. This is the cancer we soak our soul in. Via King-5;
A group of employees at South Puget Sound Community College sent out an invitation to all 300 staffers.
The "Staff, Faculty and Administrators of Color" encouraged employees to reply to the invitation to find out the confidential date and time of what was being called a "happy hour" to "build support and community" for people of color.
The invite made it clear white people were not invited.
The email read: "If you want to create space for white folks to meet and work on racism, white supremacy, and white privilege to better our campus community and yourselves, please feel free to do just that."
...
Karama Blackhorn, program coordinator for the school's Diversity and Equity Center, helped write the invitation.
She said it could have been worded differently, but she maintains the staff members of color would have a more honest discussion about race without white employees.
"When trying to explicitly talk about race it can be a really difficult conversation for a lot of people," said Blackhorn.
No kidding Karama. I sure if some people of pallor decided to have a sit in at your racist little gathering, you would have made them plenty uncomfortable. What a bitter, small minded, bigoted little twit she is. Amazing ... and your tax dollars are paying her salary - or even better - your student loans.
Just thought I would beat the LCS drum a little more.
SAN DIEGO (March 10, 2014) The littoral combat ship Pre-Commissioning Unit (PCU) Coronado (LCS 4) passes the amphibious dock landing ship USS Rushmore (LSD 47) as Coronado makes it way to its new homeport at Naval Base San Diego. Coronado is the third U.S. Navy ship named after Coronado, Calif., and is the second littoral combat ship of the Independence-class variant. (U.S. Navy photo by Senior Chief Mass Communication Specialist Donnie W. Ryan/Released)
Next time someone mentions, "Small" when they talk about LCS, please show them this pic of PCU CORONADO (LCS-4) and USS RUSHMORE (LSD-47). There are many things to describe either class of LCS - but little is not one of them. Smaller, yes; small, no. Words mean things.
Hat tip NH. UPDATE: Let's keep with the LCS theme a bit. How many task forces, PEO, Blue Ribbon umptifrance items do we need as a substitute for strong programmatic leadership and vision?
Under orders to reexamine the Littoral Combat Ship program and begin the process of evaluating possible new designs, Adm. Jon Greenert, chief of naval operations, said Monday he was preparing to stand up a new task force to provide him with recommendations.
The effort is in response to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s direction to begin consideration of a more heavily-armed and survivable small surface combatant, with recommendations to be in hand in time to guide 2016 budget formulations.
Let's also use the correct terms here. A "more heavily-armed and survivable small surface combatant" compared to a LCS is ... wait for it ... a frigate. We spend more times playing games with names than we actually do intellectualizing what proper Fleet THE world's maritime power needs. To do that, though, we need intellectuals. We need people who are willing to engage in the marketplace of ideas - you know - the whole creative conflict without friction thingy. What message are we putting out there on the rewards we give for such behavior?
The new task force will supersede the LCS Council, a group of high-ranking officers assembled in August 2012 to help guide the program. Under the guidance of the director of the Navy Staff, Vice Adm. Richard Hunt, the council issued directives and gave the program a new high-profile emphasis.
But its actions largely fell out of sight after Hunt’s retirement last summer, and his successor, Vice Adm. Michelle Howard, never spoke publicly in a council role. She has since moved on to a deputy CNO position, and has been nominated to become the vice chief of naval operations.
So, this will be interesting to watch over the next few years. Via USNINews;
The Navy has abandoned its plans to buy 17 additional Northrop Grumman Fire Scout rotary wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the next five years as part of its Fiscal Year 2015 budget submission.
The submission zeroed out purchases of the helicopter UAVs over the Future Years Defense Plan (FYPD) — the five-year planning period that extends to fiscal year 2019. In its Fiscal Year 2014 FYDP the service indicated it would buy close to 17 MQ-8C Fire Scouts from 2014 to 2018 — primarily for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) mission packages.
So far the Navy has purchased 28 of the legacy MQ-8B Fire Scouts and paid for 14 of the larger MQ-8C variants — including two demonstration airframes currently being tested by the Navy in California.
I guess you can always grab come commercial Bell 407s and spray paint the inside of the glass gray later if needed - if things go as expected.
We can call this and "undesired 3rd order effect." It is a bit hard to argue the logic - if I were a Ukrainian patriot, I would be well along the road of working this out.
The United States, Great Britain and Russia agreed in a pact "to assure Ukraine's territorial integrity" in return for Ukraine giving up a nuclear arsenal it inherited from the Soviet Union after declaring independence in 1991, said Pavlo Rizanenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament.
"We gave up nuclear weapons because of this agreement," said Rizanenko, a member of the Udar Party headed by Vitali Klitschko, a candidate for president. "Now there's a strong sentiment in Ukraine that we made a big mistake."
...
Rizanenko and others in Ukraine say the pact it made with the United States under President Bill Clinton was supposed to prevent such Russian invasions.
...
To reassure the Ukrainians, the United States and leaders of the United Kingdom and Russia signed in 1994 the "Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances" in which the signatories promised that none of them would threaten or use force to alter the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine.
They specifically pledged not to militarily occupy Ukraine. Although the pact was made binding according to international law, it said nothing that requires a nation to act against another that invades Ukraine.
...
"Everyone had this sentiment that for good or bad the United States would be the world police" and make sure that international order is maintained, Rizanenko said of the Budapest pact.
"Now that function is being abandoned by President Obama and because of that Russia invaded Crimea," he said.
"In the future, no matter how the situation is resolved in Crimea, we need a much stronger Ukraine," he said. "If you have nuclear weapons people don't invade you."
If you wonder a bit about the UDAR party - this Wikipedia article is a nice summary. Compared to some member of the popular front that took power, you can call UDAR fairly mainstream. As a side note, if you didn't review the "Salamander Play" from March 3rd, read it again. I'm standing by it.
