Thought for the Day
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Remembering Midway – 68 Years Later
In every battle there is a moment when the combatants, and the world, seem to catch their breath. It is a fleeting moment, lost in the blink of an eye. But in that same blink, everything changes. Such moments are borne of desperation, of courage, of plain dumb luck. But they are pivotal – for…
Transitions, Carrier-style
There is, afterall, a certain degree of symmetry to things… NORFOLK, Virginia (April 7, 2008) USS George Washington (CVN 73) prepares to depart Naval Station Norfolk. George Washington is departing Norfolk as her homeport for the last time, and will transit to her new homeport of Yokosuka, Japan. George Washington will replace USS Kitty Hawk…
Countdown to Midway: 3 June – First Contact
WEDNESDAY, 3 JUNE 1942 ALASKA: In an attempt to divert forces from the Midway area, a Japanese carrier-based bombers and fighters bomb and strafe Ft Mears and Dutch Harbor in several waves inflicting little damage but killing 52 US personnel. P-40s from Cold Bay trying to intercept them arrive 10 minutes after the last attack…
Iranian Link to Russia’s MiG-31 Sale to Syria?
(Picture from globalaircraft.org) Reports at the Paris Airshow this week that something was afoot between Russia and Syria over sales of MiG-31’s (and thereby updating Syria’s aging fleet of MiG-25’s) has generated a certain amount of heat over allegations that Iran is secretly funding the deal. More below the fold:
Midway 74 Years Later and the Dauntless on My Desk
In every battle there is a moment when the combatants, and the world, seem to catch their breath. It is a fleeting moment, lost in the blink of an eye. But in that same blink, everything changes. Such moments are borne of desperation, of courage, of plain dumb luck. But they are pivotal — for…
Implementing the Maritime Strategy: Sizing the Force
A couple of articles in the open press that reveal portions of VADM Morgan’s “Three Futures, One Navy, A Portfolio Analysis” thought piece on three different futures of what the navy might look like have spurred some pretty decent discussions – again – in the Navy blogsphere, particularly over at the usual suspects. Now we…
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I am so ready for the Navy to bail on the F-35B/C, and develop a long range multirole strike aircraft. The air wing needs to get back some serious legs. The Navy can replace its legacy Hornets with the Rhino, and he Marines can make do with them as well – the whole V/STOL thing is just not really worth the money for the capability it brings.
I’m really not qualified to make a well informed
statement here, but here goes-
What allowed things to get this far?
Not just the F-35, but all these whiz bang
programs. The system that produced
these things is at fault. The government
and contractors share in the responsibility
(or lack thereof as the case may be….).
In the case of the F-35, SOMEONE should have
seen this coming long ago, after the F-111 deal.
Very frustrating. What to do if you scrap
the F-35? Again, no easy answers and the clock
keeps ticking….
I saw that there is a topic about “Future of Air War”. Maybe I agree with all the theories, but do we even have to talk about war? Because with the technology of today and with all the secrets that we don’t know, since “we are not prepared yet for the truth”, a war may endure only fraction of seconds, the world can be destroyed in no time…
“with the technology of today and with all the secrets that we don’t know”
“a war may endure only fraction of seconds, the world can be destroyed in no time…”
Which is exactly what was said by atomic bomb (then hydrogen bomb) advocates – right up until the Soviets, then the Chinese, then the Indians, etc. got the bomb. In the meantime there have been any number of wars of and by proxy and such. Prudence, and history, demand preparedness across a range of conflict and capability/capacity. It need not necessarily be a 1:1 match versus (a) potential foe(s) – there is merit in asymetric response.
Sitting on one’s hands, however much it might be a choice, is nonetheless a historically proven poor one.
w/r, SJS