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We don't have enough ships in the Navy to stand up to a peer opponent.
We wasted how many billions on the Littoral "Combat" Ships?
The services are allowing retirees under 60 to return to the fold, though with nearly no benefit to doing so. (See juvat's post from yesterday.) (When will that become non-voluntary, I wonder?)
The services can't make their quotas for new accessions (officer and enlisted).
War rages in Ukraine and Gaza.
People are setting themselves on fire outside Israeli embassies in this country.
The world has gone insane and we have a doddering old man at the helm of the ship of state.
The former President who wants to replace him has had the Deep State trying to send him to prison since the day he took office. And is still trying.
What lies ahead for this nation?
I wish I knew.
But the current crop of "leaders" simply ain't cutting it.
YMMV.
Makes me sick it does. Makes me sick ...
What say you?
When the Roman demographic collapse happened in the later stages of the Empire, the armies were filled with "barbarians" and the proven training, weapons and tactics were replaced . This lead to a less effective military, Our barbarians are the entitled, stupid and undisciplined who are no longer required to meet the standards of an effective military and their abilities reflect that.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more.
DeleteThe camel's nose is under the tent flap already as California has graduated their first "undocumented Immigrants" police (persons?). I was chuckling a little about the mental gymnastics of providing rules for folks that CANNOT OWN FIREARMS in America being police (persons?).
DeleteI've already heard RUMIT of doing the same for the active-duty military situation. Citizenship by service act or such. I remember the effects in Vietnam about Makimura's Morons when they allowed sub-IQ recruits to boost up the army's manpower.
I know you're not fond of preppers, but can I suggest that given the writing on the wall that having a deep larder and ability to repair your own home from disruptive situations might be a good idea(tm)?
As I've mentioned to a few internet gunbunnies you cannot shoot yourself out of starvation. Even the deet run out pretty soon as the Great Depression pointed out.
Deer not deet although deet is nice when sanitation is weak.
DeleteHaving sufficient supplies on hand is never a bad idea.
DeleteGood luck hunting deer in the city anyway! (Or deet, as the case may be. 😉)
DeleteRome is an apt comparison, but the Weimar Republic is closer in history.
DeleteBG
I'll need to think about that comparison, BG. But there are some parallels there.
DeleteDivide and conquer.
ReplyDeleteSeems to be working for them too.
DeleteWhen I saw that stupid plan I thought the same thing. F35 sux,A10 is a great platform. They need to make more. But, in America, if it works it's not appreciated. If it works Great it must be eliminated.
ReplyDeleteSeems to be the case. More money to be made from a new aircraft. Seems the dopes at DoD forgot that their job is to deter war, failing in that, it's to win wars.
DeleteFollow the money.
DeleteRob - Always.
DeleteYou forgot the part about the tech companies in league with the cabal using modern technology to tighten control on the people.
ReplyDeleteI seem to be living that shite right now.
DeleteWhen they get serious about it (tightening control) the blogs I follow will not be there...
DeleteWe might be the canaries in the mine.
DeleteConcur with all. The USA is going to collapse and die from within. "A Republic, if you can keep it." We lost it with the post Civil War Amendments. Not the things about race, the structural changes. It's taken a long time for it to become apparent.
ReplyDeleteYou might be on to something there.
DeleteSop on with your analysis of the problem; but the USA will NOT die, as long as Patriots are willing to fight, kill and die to protect it. The current regime will march on Lexington and Concord ( figuratively), likely within the year.
DeleteBoat Guy
I don't think it will fall either, the Tree of Liberty might nee watering again - with the blood of tyrants.
DeleteWhile I'd certainly like for it to be solely the "blood of tyrants" the actual quote is " ...the blood of Patriots and tyrants"; make no mistake, if it comes to that some of us will die. Hey, you gotta die of something, right? Face down in a pile of warm brass surrounded by the bodies of my enemies sounds a lot better than cancer in the old folks home.
DeleteBoat Guy
Oh, I knew the quote, but the tyrants need to pay the biggest bill. They're the a$$holes who caused this mess.
DeleteWould that the "...a$$holes who caused..." all of these things pay the price, alas t'is not so. However, after we win we can impose a little restorative justice. Lots of lampposts on Independence and Constitution till we get the gallows built on the Mall.
DeleteBG
Pour encourager les autres!
DeleteTINVOWOOT
ReplyDeleteLogistics and sanitation are pretty important.
Deletecannon- no there isn't
DeleteMichael - always
DeleteSarge, I read the article. While confusing to me that Congress has the ability to specify types of weapons and their continued production (or not), I find it equally confusing that the Services plan to fight "the next war" by removing current inventory in hopes of new technology that has proven itself in limited form - or not at all. At at time when we are burning through certain kinds of weapons stocks.
ReplyDeleteIf you find yourself bored (because, you know, you have nothing else to do with yourself) you might read up on the history of the Byzantine Empire if you had never done so - in my opinion (and most applicably) the latter empire following the 4th Crusade, although really anything following the Battle of Manzikert up to the Fourth Crusade is probably applicable as well.
In short, the Battle of Manzikert (A.D. 1071) lost the heartlands of Anatolia and allowed Turkish nomads to gain a foothold (not the Ottomans; they would come later). The Empire, now set back, reached out for some support from the West - And got the First Crusade as a result, which was disruptive at best and created an opponent in the East (and arguably eventually strengthened the Islamic world by encouraging centralization of power; see Salah Al-din) as well as continued interference in the West (looking at you, Italian merchant states).
Even after A.D. 1204 and the fall of Constantinople, things did not necessarily have to go as wrong as they did- except the remaining Empire spent as much time squabbling internally as it did trying to rebuild, all the while their opponents (the kingdoms of southeastern Europe but also the Ottoman Turks) made significant gains. "Suddenly" (not sudden at all, of course), the Empire found itself collapsing from within and without, reduced to the Emperor going around in the 1400's on a "Live Aid" Tour, trying to drum up support.
Its fall was noted was alarming - but became all the more so especially to the states of southeastern and Central Europe, when - without the Byzantine Empire present - the Ottomans rolled up and through them, taking almost all of the Kingdoms in the Balkans and many of the parts of southeastern Europe, even up to Vienna.
The fall was epic to be sure, but those that had sought to feast off the remains ultimately got little benefit from it.
All to say, singleness of purpose and unity of state will likely always triumph over a lack of unity and disparate purposes.
I am somewhat familiar with that time period and the Byzantines. Seems everyone back then screwed the pooch in every way possible. Same thing could happen today, maybe it already is.
Delete(Looking at you big corporations.)
A excellent reminder that borders on maps are not permanent features, and only fools will squander blood and treasure to attempt to preserve them forever. Especially when said borders are far from their own, and the disputants' interests and motives are not directly related to the distant power's.
DeleteALL alliances are for convenience and never permanent, as interests, costs and benefits of nations and non-national actors are constantly changing. E.g.- U.S. pledging to defend an island from which Japan had recently been evicted may have been a good idea 80 years ago. Continuing to pledge our children and borrowed/printed money to that cause when it is between an island and an adjacent nation with ethnically similar composition is ignoring reality.
War is politics by force, and by choosing to atrophy our forces and the industrial base necessary to wage a successful war, we are no longer prepared to win on the world stage. It is not even clear that we are able to function in a stable manner within our own borders due to dissension, dependence and ignorance instilled in our citizens. That fact that a potential adversary is fomenting such attitudes while conducting termite warfare via fentanyl, and prepping the battle space with cyber and sleeper cells does not bode well for our chances for victory on the domestic or world stage.
Interesting times.
John Blackshoe.
Or "the things which keep me awake at night."
DeleteThe late caliphates (before the Ottoman Empire) and the Ottoman Empire spent a lot of money to destabilize the Christian Europeans. And Byzantium spent a lot of time screwing over the Christian Europeans while trying to play favor with the caliphates and the Ottomans, often playing both sides and being stuck in the middle.
DeleteCan you imagine what would it be like if the Eastern Roman Church was fully behind the Western Roman Church's Crusades? Supplying troops and supplies rather than pirating supply ships and making it difficult to pass through Byzantium on foot or hoof?
Which reminds me of... modern western Europe pre-Trump, where the various nations in the EU screwed over the US regarding trade and NATO requirements while enjoying all our security.
Bah...
History rhymes.
DeleteSarge,
ReplyDeleteReading that source article sent me back in time. That was my job at Ft Fumble. Some Congresscreature from Dumass, Iowa needed a few million for a project in his district desperately needed for...(The real reason of course is to buy votes in the next election.) I would have to go through the $6B Information warfare budget I was responsible for and find places money could be moved from a project to the congressman's district. (Not capitalizing congressman is deliberate.) I would do my best to find ways to minimize the damage to the projects I was responsible for funding, but I had to find the money regardless.
Now I know nothing about the pro's and con's of the F-35, but I do know that the F-15 first flew 52 years ago and the A-10 is in a similar age bracket. Now that the Camel riders are able to fire medium range rockets accurately and have other new capabilities, maybe we should upgrade our capabilities above theirs. I don't know enough about the F-35, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to be a good substitute for the Close Air Support (CAS) mission the A-10 was specifically designed for. I did a lot of CAS in the F-4 and while it was OK in that mission, it didn't have the loiter time or the survivability the A-10 does and the mission requires. I think those shortfalls will be even worse in the F-35. I could be wrong, just my gut feel.
That having been said, I think it's a moot point. Our Federal Government nowadays is only interested in one thing, lining their pockets with taxpayer money. The F-35 is a complex machine and the Ancient Greek definition of "Complex" means "extremely expensive with a lot of room for additional funding being diverted to my district".
That was the reason I hated my job at Ft Fumble.
juvat
I don't mind Congresscritters making more money than the salary we taxpayers provide. Just tax anything above what we give them is taxed at 100%.
DeleteI am very uneasy about the F-35. It has taken far to long to go into service, and it has yet to see combat, to my knowledge.
DeleteYet the F-15 and 16 soldier on.
That makes two of us.
DeleteA10 isn't a sexy fast fighter. I seem to remember the same ideas about dog fights after WW Twice. No guns needed, we got the rockets and missedles. Until we needed the guns to dogfight again. Maybe that was post Korea, now that I think of it. If only those that take away our useful ordinance were slated to suffer a fine like Robespierre (8£ or was it 8# the average weight of the human noggin) if their decisions are failures that lead to unnecessary cas.
ReplyDeleteGuns aren't needed until they are. The Phantom was designed without an internal gun. "Won't need it, we got missiles." Then we discovered that the Rooskies and the NVAF were playing by different, older, rules. So they strapped a gun pod on old Double Ugly and the next model came out with an internal gun.
Delete"Experts." Gotta love 'em.
Somewhat reminiscent of the original pre-WW2 B17 dogma. A bomber formation would not need fighter escort because they were so well armed they could protect themselves. Turned out they couldn't. They needed more guns AND fighter escort all the way to the target and back.
DeleteDouhet's theory that "the bomber will always get through," once again proved that theories often don't survive the harsh light of reality.
DeleteRight about now, I'm OK with the deterioration of the military; at least the ground and air forces, because with the current regime they are more likely to be sent against me and mine than any legitimate enemy. IF we somehow replace the regime ( somewhat unlikely IMO) then I'll be all over making the federal forces effective again; unless/until that happens, by all means replace the Hogs, that is one dangerous and capable aircraft.
ReplyDeleteBoat Guy
You do have a point there!
DeleteWhile not disagreeing with anything you say, I wonder how the F-35 is doing in Israel service?
ReplyDeleteThe Israelis will pull all the crap that doesn't work will out and install their own stuff in its place.
DeleteThen again, Hamas has no air force and CAS in the built up areas of Gaza would kill many civilians, which the press would be all over.
So, bottom line, who knows?
The Israeli F-35 has been carefully used in Syria against 2nd rate but upgraded soviet S-300. "Officially" only two I think were damaged by "Bird Strikes" in "Training Accidents" over Syria. One 35 might have been lost in an "accident". Seems the local birds are quite fierce in Syria.
DeleteI get it, but why give the enemy intel that otherwise they'd have to wait for CNN to tell them?
DeleteI understand, though I hate to admit it, the need for the F-35 on the initial sweep of the combat environment, as it is more stealthy and scoots faster than the A-10. But once air superiority is achieved the need for loiterable aircraft is a must.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part, the A-10, in Iraq and Afghanistan, was a bomb truck and missile truck, not firing its cannon. Standoff and drop precision munitions of one sort or another. Which the F-35 can do. Just not carry the munitions weight of the A-10.
And with Congress and Emperor Poopypants sucking all the money out of the Defense Department and using it on illegal aliens (the money sent to Ukraine did an excellent job of bleeding the Russkies, so, eh, money spent with some achievable goals) there isn't room in the budget for multiple versions of aircraft.
And don't forget the AF thinks the Super-Tucano is the COIN aircraft of the future. Rather than the Warthog.
Yeah...
My old service is now run by self-deluded idiots. Not to put too fine a point on it.
DeleteOn one side of the aisle we have "leaders" that are driven by the Whim of the Week (whim o' week, whim o' week, in the jungle...) of fringe social justice activists trying to assuage their self -imposed white guilt and professional victims who are convinced that they are owed panem et circenses plus 40 rooms and a Mazzerstti(sp?).
ReplyDeleteOn the other side of the aisle we have "leaders" that promise to uphold the Constitution, but when faced with the mobocracy and condemnation of The Press, which seems to be the propaganda organ of the first set,collapse with all the spine of an undercooked blancmange.
Unfortunately, we have allowed the first group to control the language and set the definitions, which get changed at irregular intervals and without warning. Until, or unless, we get some leadership that is willing to face down The Press and say, "That's a load of fecal matter!" and insist on proper definitions of terms, we are recipients of pointes helical fasteners.
Exactly.
DeleteOld Sarge. What’s the likelihood of a story, er, book, er series addressing where we are and are going. Lots of possibilities here and ample opportunity to keep you up at night. Unfortunately, we live in interesting times.
ReplyDeleteI know, the thought of writing such a thing crosses my mind from time to time. Stephen Coonts wrote about such a thing, Liberty's Last Stand.
DeleteAlthough you can do something does not mean you should. Your aborted contemporary scenario was well written, but could be misconstrued by some [idiots] as being fodder for insurrectionists or some such nonsense. You have better topics to exercise your considerable skills without danger of tarnishing your reputation.
DeleteJB
This is true, I'd rather not provide grist to the insurrections'/anarchists' mill!
DeleteYou like Frogs and their adventures. Go write about some of those, when the French were busy trying to shift lines on maps.
DeleteLike maybe the Battle of Cinco de Mayo, where the French were beaten by the Mexicans, a good work up for the Franco Prussian War. That was about the same time the French were [over] extending their colonial empire to include Cambodia, and what we know as Vietnam. (sites for future French defeats).
JB ;-)
I do like the French.
DeleteIt's in my blood.
"War rages in Ukraine and Gaza."
ReplyDeleteWasn't there a song from the '20s (that's the 1920s) with a refrain, "Houthi, Houthi"?
A bit before my time boron, not even my 93-year old Mom would remember that!
DeleteSorry. It was Goody Goody ( not Houthi, Houthi, though we are/should be IMHO doing a bit more there).
Deletehttps://youtu.be/0ZkL0t5c1Lk
Goody Goody from Mrs. Henderson Presents
Ah, never heard that before, rather a catchy tune.
Delete(And that "Houthi Houthi" refrain has to be one of the most ironic comments ever.)
Part of me wants to think that all these issues are unrelated and a result of this Administration not having a true leader in charge. Therefore all those different voices and agendas get to have their say- climate fear mongers, Defense Industry wonks, LGBT activists, DNC power-brokers, Big-pharma, lefty/commie/socialists, union money people, etc. However, it also seems like there are a few string pullers at the highest levels that are just enjoying watching this country burn to the ground.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a mixture of both, feckless, ineffective leadership causes problems both at home and overseas. There is also a group of the ultra-rich who think they could do a better job of running things.
DeleteThis is in reply to a bunch of comments above. I worked on the F-35 Program for 15 years. Beans has it pretty much nailed on the CAS mission of the F-35. But, if there is air superiority and no need for stealth, the F-35 has a bunch of hard points on the wings to carry external munitions. But, the F-35 cannot really replace the mission of the A-10. Whether you agree or disagree with the 2003 operation in Iraq, that cannon on the A-10 was invaluable in taking out Saddam's armor. And it has the survivability of some of those WW II bombers; limping back home on a wing and a prayer.
ReplyDeleteI do think that a lot of the airstrikes in Gaza are being done with F-35s. The munitions' delivery system is very accurate. If you look at some of the airstrikes done, they are taking out the house next door with minimal collateral damage (unless the house is full of explosives, then all bets are off). With reference to WSF/OAFS above, the F-35I is a special variant of the F-35A for them to do with as they need.
Went to a training course with a chap who flew A-10s in the Gulf War. He used that cannon to good effect!
DeleteI had assumed that the Israelis would have their own version. They had F-4s, but they put their own avionics in from what I understand.
I don't doubt the computers on the F-35, nor the individual pilots' skills, but the damned thing is expensive!
(This coming from someone who has worked Zumwalt for 20 years ...)
Simple and effective is far better than exquisite, unreliable, and gawdawful expensive.
DeleteAmen.
DeleteSarge, echo Amen! Does there exist anywhere a "Red Team" to dream up countermeasures? From accounts back in Vietnam, there were sophisticated helicopter deployed sensors to detect urine indicating troop concentrations. The VC/NVA simply filled plastic bags and hung them wherever they went. Similarly, was an air-dropped seismic motion detector to sense vehicle movement. When found, a rough road would be made, and a single truck driven round and round it. Giving the indication of large troop movement and triggering a useless massive air strike.
DeleteThose tricks were damned effective!
DeleteThe military always fights the last war. The last war they won. Which would be the Cold War imho. Not Iraq 1. Afghanistan and the rest of the WOT were abject failures since we didn’t kill then all.
ReplyDeleteThe A10 is like the DC-3. You can’t build it again and the ones that are left are worth their weight in gold.
We’ve adopted a habit of only building one airframe and it’s gotta be all things to all people. The same airframe is a fighter. A bomber. Recon. Attack. Etc etc. and it does NONE of them well. It’s a total compromise that accomplishes none of the reasons why it was built.
But. It does include a nationwide supply chain and has jobs everywhere and gets votes in Congress.
My end point is simple. When China launches 500 Migs with a Kh.23 under each airframe - 48 F-35s aren’t gonna do anything other than watch the missiles sink mother. Its inevitable. And Stalin was right when he said quantity has a quality all its own.
The first sunk carrier and Tico class screens will drive the US back beyond the range of the MiGs and Missiles. And Taiwan will be left defending itself with lawn darts. And a few missiles launched from Nork will freeze Japan.
A pretty damned valid, and accurate, scenario.
DeleteRemember how China tooled along for literally decades with about 50 or so long range ballistic missiles as their deterrent force but under Biden they launched on an enormous expansion? You have dunderheads literally positing a war with China and they don't seem to be aware that we never really signed a peace treaty with them over that whole Korea thing 70 years ago which means we didn't win that one and yet we moved all of our manufacturing over there decades ago and cannot bring it back for some reason.
ReplyDeleteI miss the evil rulers of the 1930s. They bumbled into war but at least the evil geniuses running the Axis Powers prepared for the damned thing before bumbling into it. We just got idiots.
The idiots love poking the bear ...
DeleteAnd the dragon.
They poke with the bones and blood of our treasured ones, not theirs. Fuzz
DeleteIndeed!
DeleteWhen someone as corrupt and stupid as Joe Biden gets " elected ", receiving " 8 million more votes than Obama ", with very questionable voting practices, and it is accepted, then perhaps we deserve to lose everything.
ReplyDeleteYup.
Delete