More bad news for the F-35 "Lightning" Joint Strike Fighter program - this time from the US Navy's Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jonathan Greenert. In the July 2012 issue of the US Naval Institute's magazine Proceedings Admiral Greenert indirectly calls into question one of the key assumptions undergirding the development of the F-35C (the Navy's version of the JSF): the need for stealth.
As part of a larger article detailing why the Navy needs to focus on building dependable, affordable platforms capable of delivering a wide range of payloads to flexibly adapt to numerous missions
It is my hope that everybody in the United States is spending at least some time today thinking of the sacrifices made by our veterans over the two plus centuries of our nation's existence. In particular, and given this website's focus, I hope people take a moment to think of those who gave their lives during the Second World War - the last time this nation's independence and way of life has truly been threatened during an actual shooting war.
As such, and in special remembrance of our Second World War veterans, please find here a series of pictures of one of World War II's iconic ships; the
Two different news items - but each frustratingly related to the other. In both we are reminded yet again how fundamentally bankrupt the process is by which this nation produces and procures weapons systems for its armed forces.
In one article we find yet again that the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces is out to lunch and failing dismally in its oversight role.
The USS Laffey is best remembered today as the "ship that would not die" - this moniker given after the 2,200 ton destroyer survived five kamikaze and four bomb strikes that caused 103 casualties, from a crew of 336, all while the ship was on picket duty off Okinawa in the spring of 1945. However, what also must be remembered is that the USS Laffey, launched in 1943, is also the sole surviving World War era US Navy destroyer to have participated in the epic Battle for the Atlantic fought between the Allies and Nazi Germany.
Late last week the USS Iowa (BB-61), the lead ship in the final class of US battleships ever built, began a voyage from Suisun Bay, California that will ultimately end in Los Angeles - where she will serve as a floating museum.
Laid down in June 1940 and commissioned in February 1943 the Iowa weighed in at 45,000 tons, was 887 feet long and included a crew of over 2,750 officers and men. Her potent main armament of nine 16 inch (406mm) guns could rain one ton shells down onto targets over 20 miles away.
