Fullbore Friday

The 70th Anniversary of one of the best uses of lawfare to respond to a direct and deadly threat passed last week; the Berlin Airlift ended 70 years as of September 30th.

Mark Felton always does a nice job. I'll let him tell the story.

The Navy Defines Professionalism Down

I can hear Mama Salamander right now;

If everyone else jumped off a cliff, would you?

This is wrong in so many ways.

Starting Monday, Navy personnel will walk the Pentagon’s corridors dressed in green as the service falls in line with the other military branches who years ago authorized wearing utility uniforms throughout much of official Washington.

On Oct. 1, the green camouflage Navy Working Uniform (NWU) Type III officially supplanted the Type I, popularly known as the “Blueberries.” In doing so, the Navy worldwide joined the other service branches in donning a camouflage pattern composed of mostly a green décor.

However, by authorizing Navy personnel in the Pentagon, on the Navy Yard and at several other facilities in and around Naval District Washington (NDW) to hang up their khakis and wear the Type III Saturday through Thursday each week, the Navy is bucking a long-standing policy of using a more formal working attire in the nation’s capital.

I didn't like it after 911 when other services did it. The fact we are following their mistake is beyond understanding.

Why no?
1. I see the people in the Metro. They are sloppy looking, unkempt, and seem out of place.
2. In a republic of a free people, its military should not be wearing a combat uniform in the nations capital as daily wear. It sends the wrong message.

Mostly, it is just an unprofessional look.

Are our leaders so ashamed to be Sailors that they are content to let everyone be mistaken for being a Soldier or Marine?

Just a poor, patronizing, and wrong headed call.

Under Air Attack by the Luftwaffe, at Sea

From the USS Ancon (AGC-4) - what we would today call a LCC - a newly found recording from the D-day invasion of Normandy from reporter George Hicks was found ... and it is fantastic.

Head on over to USNIBlog to hear it.

Keeping an Eye on the Long Game: Part LXXXIV

Here it is, all 2-hrs of China's 70th Anniversary under the Communist yoke parade that everyone is yapp'n about.

- Note the air quality.
- Note that, generally speaking - a nation that goose-steps is not your friend.
- Note that they don't consider diversity a strength.

Amid the roar of tanks rolling through a residential street in central Beijing at midday, 31-year-old Li Meiping cried tears of joy.
...
The parade, which included some 15,000 troops, cutting-edge military hardware and a flyover by dozens of jets, is a celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of Communist Party-ruled China and is the most important event in the country’s 2019 calendar.
...
“In the whole world there is no other country that has a parade like this ... long live China,” said Li, who came with her four-year-old daughter.

More than anything note this; China feels strong and growing. At some point her relatively untested military will want to demonstrate to the world that China is back, militarily, on the world stage as well.

It is only a matter of when and where.

If no More 355 - How Can USCG be of More Help?

When money gets thin, you have to be imaginative.

In case it slipped your scan mid-month, Under Secretary of the Navy Modly said in public what has been well known for a while;

The Navy's second most senior civilian today acknowledged the service will not achieve its 355-ship goal in a "reasonable" amount of time and that without a $20 billion to $30 billion increase in annual funding, the Navy could only maintain between 305 and 308 ships.

There are a variety of things that can be done to increase the American ability to flex at sea - one of which Chuck is offering up; call the USCG;

The Coast Guard used to be an armed naval force prepared for war. We came out of World War II with an ASW mission, and while our assets got older, the mission continued. In the late 80s we cut the number of ASW assets, but modernized the best of our ships, upgrading their ASW equipment and adding anti-ship cruise missiles.

Then, we all got a break. The Soviet Union collapsed and the need for ASW escorts pretty much disappeared. The Navy downsized and the Coast Guard removed all ASW equipment and the anti-ship missile.

We had almost 30 years without a major naval threat, but it looks like that is changing.

The US Coast Guard is the US Navy’s closest ally, but it seems there is little coordination between the two in defining Coast Guard roles in a major conflict. We certainly don’t see any evidence in the way the cutters are currently being equipped.
...
Upgrading the Bertholf class NSCs and the Offshore Patrol Cutters could add up to 36 light frigates to the national fleet. The Navy would need to provide some additional equipment, but that cost would be far less than the cost of adding similar ships to the Navy, and the difference in operating costs between ships with or without the upgrades is very small.

Well inside a generation ago, the Coast Guard had both ASW and Harpoon ASUW capabilities.

Bring them back.

We don't have to invent new ideas - more often than not - we can bring by proven ideas we left behind in myopic bliss.

...and so; Goodbye to the Blueberries

As I've been aghast at the NWU since 2006, let me quote myself (a favorite pastime) when the Navy decided to force the blueberry uniform on us;

This is the wrong answer. As we say in D.C. - I non-concur, sir.

At last, our long national nightmare is over;

The last day of approved wear of the Navy Working Uniform (NWU) Type I is Sept. 30, as this uniform has been replaced by the NWU Type III, as announced in NAVADMIN 174/16.

If people would just listen to 'ole Sal and the Front Porch earlier, we would be saved from such grabassery - but such is life.

Next, let's move on to LCS.

Behold the Dawn of the "Second Century Fighters?"

After years of yelling in to the void, it is nice to hear an echo now and then.

So, who's up for a return to evolutionary development?

I don't care if the USAF leads ... but I like the direction they are going with the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD).

Details at USNIBlog.