Sunday Funnies

No less realistic than Top Gun.
Hat tip PK.

Patriot Deployment to Turkey: Netherlands Wins!

From a liberty perspective; Hup Holland Hup!

Germany, the Netherlands and the United States have offered to provide two Patriot batteries each. Germany will deploy its batteries to Kahramanmaras, the Netherlands will deploy its batteries to Adana, and the United States will deploy its batteries to Gaziantep.

Maps are important. Look at the below, ponder ....

A lot about what you need to know about NATO is right there. 

As anyone who has tried to fill a NATO Combined Joint Statement of Requirements will tell you, this deployment makes sense.

The USA is deployed closest to the danger. Germany has found a place near the rear and out of the way. The Netherlands - game as she usually is and boxing above her weight compared to her neighbors - takes what is left ... with the extra bonus that she has the best view and liberty options. Adana is in a beautiful location with great beaches just a short drive away.

Win to the Dutch!

Fullbore Friday

For the FbF before Christmas, there can be only one Fullbore.

LCS, Griffin, and the Swarm

From almost day-one of the LCS saga, the turrets-like response to any criticism to the capabilities of this sub-optimal platform has been, “Swarm attack, swarm attack, swarm attack, boobies, pee pee” – or something like that.

When the never-was-has-been that was NLOS was deleted from the PPT, about the only reasonable thing that could fill the literal gaping holes was the Griffin missile. After all, we all know in hushed tones the limitations of sensor to shooter of the single … yes single .. 57-mm “main” gun and they had to get something. An OK something now is always better than a perfect thing that may never arrive. The key is to know you just have an OK and act accordingly.

Thank goodness that we have the 30-mm and .50-cal onboard, as that really is the best response against swarms as it stands going in to 2013. We also know that history tells us that when actually faced with such attacks, like the Royal Navy did in San Carlos Water (but from the air), you will have Sailors with small arms shooting as well – all the while cursing that you are on a ship that, simply, does not have enough easily added medium caliber general purpose guns.

Every war starts with ships getting additional small/medium caliber weapons added; so it will be with the next. But … let’s move on to the Griffin.

Something is better than nothing, but we need to be clear that Griffin is simply not the answer. It is useful, but as sub-optimal for its needed purpose as LCS is.

From a well known expert in weaponeering, I got the nod to share his thoughts and observations on Griffin. The balance of the below is a paraphrase with a few modifications and additions from his email.

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Assuming that Griffin is the Navy's answer to swarming tactics, there's a drawback. Griffin uses semi-active laser homing. That means the target has to remain painted by the laser so that the Griffin's seeker can home on the reflected laser light (visible or invisible to the human eye). Meanwhile, what about multiple bogeys? Unless you have multiple laser designators for the other bogeys, a swarming attack can overwhelm this kind of system. That's what the Iranians and others are training to do.

Weather also affects laser targeting. Water droplets in the air (low cloud, rain, fog, mist) or smoke particles will scatter the laser beam to the point the missile cannot identify its target (unless it has some kind of "home on last good fix"). Those who have had to fly in the Arabian/Persian Gulf know what a nightmare the atmospherics can be in that place.  The problem with the "last good fix" is the target is moving so it will be gone when the missile gets there.

What is needed is a missile that has its own guidance system that's fire and forget once target lock is established. Once you get "tone", fire and switch to a new target. The Israeli Spike MR or ER is a fire and forget type of missile that's perfect for swarming attacks. Comparing Griffin to Spike, the better missile is the Israeli Spike MR or ER. The Spike guidance uses both imaging infrared and charge coupled device sensors for guidance. Countermeasures that work against lasers don't work against this kind of guidance.

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The above is the Executive Summary of the sub-optimal missile we play on putting on our sub-optimal platform.

More work needed, and LCS are still in production ... and will be filled with Sailors who will be put in harm's way. We need to do the best we can with what we have.

Still ... in many ways the LCS drama kind of reminds me of  ....

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UPDATE: Our weaponeer has a few more thoughts.

...as I re-read the article, one thing seemed to jump out at me and I thought it worth commenting upon.

The demise of Raytheon's NLOS-LS PAM with a range of 21 miles resulted in the Griffin-B with a 3.5 mile range and is semi-active laser guided.

I discussed the limitations of the SALG method of targeting on CDR Salamander's blog, but then I banged into this range issue. "3 Griffin missiles were fired from a sea-based launcher at 3 separate speeding-boat targets more than ... 1.2 miles away." This is TOO close! We are talking .50 caliber machine gun range here. What happened to the 3.5 miles?

Both Rafael's Spike MR and ER are fire and forget missiles with ranges of 1.5 miles and 5 miles respectively. Given my choice, I'd like to engage at 5 miles rather than 3.5 or 1.5 or 1.2 miles. Since the USN is already testing Spike MR, why don't we upgrade to the longer range bird? When engagements happen under real world scenarios, ranges typically get closer. I'd rather start out with a longer range missile to engage at a shorter range, rather than a shorter range missile with an even shorter range. If I could really have Santa give me my wish list, I'd opt for Spike NLOS with a range of 16 miles.

Why are we spending our hard earned money on these short range birds? Longer stand-off distances are our friend. Why not longer range?"

Diversity Thursday

Hey, I know things will not be where I want them to be overnight. We have a long way until we can get by the retrograde racialist attitudes as pushed by the Diversity Bullies.

After decades of Mau-Mau'n their way in to nice paid billets, the Navy's branch of the Diversity Industry has too many BA/NMP filled, and millions of millions going to their pockets that then go to support their approved political buddies - we won't get to a race neutral place soon. No, there is too much money to be made on division and encouraging sectarianism.

There is also quite the headwind, though not as strong as it was a few years ago. I also know that incredible damage was done to race relations and unit cohesion by the previous CNO's unhealthy obsession with early 1970s race theory, and that the present CNO can only try to bring us back to centerline a bit at a time.

That is why I can pause, read, and nod my head in approval at the Admiral Greenert's (D)iversity Vision. It says the right things to keep the Commissariat at bay, but it also does not say a lot of things.  Read it yourself and you should see what I mean.

We will not get this right overnight - but especially considering some of the patronizing goo that has oozed out in the last few decades, this is at least not worst ... at better perhaps a sign that things will get better.

Is it what I would write? No - but considering the circumstances, is it OK? Sure.

Oh, and yes ... it is OK to still giggle at the Potemkin pictures the (D)iversity types continue to pick out.
USN DEC 12 Diversity Vision 
At the same time, things in some areas where the retrograde forces are stronger, there is still bad news. To continue to justify those who get paid to collect numbers and create briefs with them. 

So, the Navy is a model employer because it forces multi-ethnic and multi-racial people to "pick" which part of their DNA is "them?" It forces you to accept that you are defined by something as useless as where your DNA came from a few thousand years ago?

Pathetic. Please tell me it lets you pick as many as you want to. If so, jam the system. They don't have "other" - so pick them all. You are an American. The rest of the world sees you that way regardless of the shade of your skin or the nature of your hair.

Jam the system - select them all.
 Verification of Workforce Disability Statue

From the words of a French Captain

The eldest Wee Salamander made the mistake of asking me, "Dad, can you help me find some quotes on the impact of the Peace Movement on the Vietnam War?" .... oh, boy; she had no idea what she was getting herself in to.

In a flash I took off to my rather jumbled stacks of books and shelves I call a library. To her slightly humored frustration and her mother's eye rolling, I soon had a rather high stack of books in my hands, and through much protestations I began handing her books, tossing hastily selected books aside, and flipping through indexes.

I was in my zone, and I think I was hearing things like, "I just need a quote or two about the impact of the protesters ... no, no, Dad, that's OK ... I only need one reference ... it's only a small paragraph ... Dad ... " but I was on a roll, and heard nothing.

After much geeky fun, I found what she was looking for in our regular guest on Midrats, Jim Robbins's book, This Time We Win.  I also found a quote she could use in Lewis Sorley's, A Better War.

In one of the books I grabbed, Jim & Sybil Stockdale's 1990 printing of In Love and War, I found a torn off bit of legal paper with the following quote from French historian, soldier, and resistance fighter who was executed by the Nazis, Marc Bloch. I don't know if it came from the Stockdale's book, but you can find it in Bloch's 1940 book, Strange Defeat.

In it, you can if nothing else take some solace that others have been here before - led by those who take power for power's sake, but do it for things other than the good of the democracy that granted them that power.

I am reminded of what we just signed up for four more years of. Though I was not raised in the same political stew that they were, I do come from the class of which Bloch speaks.

A democracy becomes hopelessly weak, and the general good suffers accordingly, if its higher officials, bred up to despise it, and necessarily drawn from those very classes the dominance of which is pledged to destroy, serve it only half-heartedly.

Some time in 1990 I felt the need to write that down and put it in a book. If you told me that as 2012 was coming to an end I was about to write about it in place where well five-figures worth of people will read it before it is archived forever - I would have laughed at you; or maybe not. 

Hey, here is something fun. Want to know what books are thrown in front of you (literally) if you ask Sal a question about the impact of "peace" protestors during the Vietnam War? Well, in about 90-seconds you get the following:
 

MIDN Cheech?

It's a fairly slow news day on the maritime beat, so as a lot of the email that has come across the transom in the last few days has been about the "drug problem" at Annapolis - before the Front Porch gets grumpy with me, let me dive in to it a bit. From our friends from The Capital;

When the Naval Academy closed its 11-month investigation last year into the use of synthetic marijuana by midshipmen, officials said they’d dismissed 16 mids — but found no evidence of drug dealing.

What the academy’s account didn’t reveal was just how significant a drug culture Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents found.

The investigation ended the military careers of at least 27 midshipmen, including those allowed to resign while being investigated for drug use and an undetermined number suspected of drug use who were dismissed for collateral reasons.

...

The investigation also uncovered a drug culture replete with users and dealers. Agents not only found use of synthetic marijuana, called “spice,” but that some mids had used cocaine, mephedrone, mescaline and psychedelic mushrooms.

Some mids possessed soda bottles with secret compartments to hide their drugs, and fake bladders called “Whizzinators” to avoid detection of their drug use in urine tests.

First of all, let's start with the obvious, USNA does not have a "drug culture" and to imply that it does is an insult to no-kidding colleges out there that have robust and entertaining "drug cultures" - in a counter-cultural fashion.

What we may have actually going on here are a few things:

1. Any, and I mean any, population of young men and women who all of a sudden find themselves away from their parents and are stretching their wings in to adulthood, will have a certain percentage who will not only test the envelope, but will jump WAY past it.

2. These are human, fallen creatures who make poor decisions and have bad judgement. Some worse than others. Some with less luck than others.

3. We are talking about a long running NCIS investigation here; not something with a track record of .... well .... we all know what we means.

The drug problem was so rampant NCIS agents sometimes interviewed dozens of mids in a day, according to NCIS documents The Capital received in September in response to a federal Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, request. “If I had to estimate the number of mids who are actively smoking spice or doing other drugs,” a midshipman and lead informant told NCIS, “I’d say it’s about 300 to 500 mids.”

Ah, there we go. 


 
Something else we know, there are certain personality types who, when they are caught doing something they should not, will turn on everyone and anyone. 

Like a drowning man, in an effort to save themselves, they will drag down anyone and everyone around them they can. In order to try to elevate themselves in any way, they will try to drag down as many people as possible in a desperate effort to save themselves.

Are there MIDN who use drugs? Of course, always have been, always will be. Does USNA as an institution - and the student body of Midshipmen in general - have a "drug culture?" Don't be silly.

I like to use nice round numbers; USNA student population is ~4,500. After over a year of trying to find out who stole the strawberries, they have kicked out 27 - or .6%.

Let's say the rat is right, that there are ~400 drug users, that is 9%. Give me a break.

As a NROTC guy from a large institution, I have some exposure to what it takes to have a small drug using population - and 9% at a place like Annapolis? No. 1%, sure, but until Cheech and Chong buy season football tickets and join in the tailgating festivities, I think you can put that number in the "drowning men do the strangest things" category.