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Carter Announces Operation Inherent Resolve Campaign Medal > U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE > Article View

WASHINGTON, March 30, 2016 — Service members who serve or have served in Iraq or Syria as part of Operation Inherent Resolve will receive the Inherent Resolve Campaign Medal, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced in Tampa, Florida, today.

Carter announced the new award during the U.S. Central Command change-of-command ceremony. Army Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III transferred the command’s flag to Army Gen. Joe Votel.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the creation of the Inherent Resolve Campaign Medal, March 30, 2016. DoD Illustration

Inherent Resolve Campaign Medal

Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the creation of the Inherent Resolve Campaign Medal, March 30, 2016. DoD Illustration

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“It is fitting then, that as we mark the change of command between these two leaders, that we introduce the Inherent Resolve Campaign Medal,” Carter said. “I am pleased to announce today, by the president’s order and upon the chairman’s and my recommendation, that our sai

via www.defense.gov

It was only a matter of time.

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A Chinese Way of War.

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RAF considering an active jammer expendable decoy.

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Boeing built a stealth prototype 20 years before Lockheed.

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CHP chase ends in fatal crash into a F/A-18 at NAS Lemoore | abc30.com

NAVAL AIR STATION LEMOORE , Calif. (KFSN) --

An investigation is underway at Naval Air Station (NAS) Lemoore after a CHP chase ends with two people dead.

Officials say the incident started around 4 a.m. on Thursday with a wrong way driver on Highway 198 -- heading towards NAS Lemoore. The California Highway Patrol chased the vehicle as it crashed through the south fence of the airfield and then crashed into an F/A-18 fighter jet on the south side of Naval Air Station Lemoore.

Both the driver and the passenger of the vehicle died in the crash. They have not been identified.

via abc30.com

Welp, there's your wild story of the day. And you just know the jet is badly enough damaged that it's probably a strike.

And you damn well know the dead driver didn't have insurance.

Lockheed Martin moves, restarts TACMS production line | IHS Jane's 360

Lockheed Martin has restarted the production line for its Tactical Missile System (TACMS), the company announced on 29 March.

The weapons, formerly referred to by the contractor as the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), was built for about 20 years near El Paso, Texas, but production was moved to Camden, Arkansas, to "consolidate all of Lockheed Martin's Precision Fires missile and rocket production", the company said.

Accordingly, TACMS production "was temporarily suspended in 2014" and the move was made to Arkansas, Lockheed Martin explained.

TACMS, initially fielded in 1990, includes one missile in a pod and can be fired from the US Army's family of multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS), such as the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and M270 MLRS. The weapon can reach out to 300 km.

via www.janes.com

I'm a little surprised. With the replacement program getting ready for bidding, you'd think the Army would be just relying on existing stocks. I know we've been using some lately, but surely not that many? They're pretty damn expensive.

Lockheed Martin moves, restarts TACMS production line | IHS Jane's 360

Lockheed Martin has restarted the production line for its Tactical Missile System (TACMS), the company announced on 29 March.

The weapons, formerly referred to by the contractor as the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), was built for about 20 years near El Paso, Texas, but production was moved to Camden, Arkansas, to "consolidate all of Lockheed Martin's Precision Fires missile and rocket production", the company said.

Accordingly, TACMS production "was temporarily suspended in 2014" and the move was made to Arkansas, Lockheed Martin explained.

TACMS, initially fielded in 1990, includes one missile in a pod and can be fired from the US Army's family of multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS), such as the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and M270 MLRS. The weapon can reach out to 300 km.

via www.janes.com

I'm a little surprised. With the replacement program getting ready for bidding, you'd think the Army would be just relying on existing stocks. I know we've been using some lately, but surely not that many? They're pretty damn expensive.

Cool as a cucumber, the pilot of this emergency aircraft has a plan and takes charge.

I spent a lot of time listening to Air Traffic Control. And very often, when an aircraft declares an emergency, they really need to lean on ATC for help. But it is sometimes the case that the crew of the emergency aircraft get behind the aircraft. But not this guy. It’s a very minor emergency, but he’s quick to act with authority, formulate a plan, and let ATC know his intentions.

World of Warships- The Kirov

The U.S. Army Is About to Double Its Howitzer Range | War Is Boring

The Army is cooking up a suite of improvements could double the range of the existing M-777 howitzer. Right now the 155-millimeter gun, in service with the Army and Marines, can lob shells at targets up to 18 miles away.

The M-777ER version the Army is working on “will be able to reach out and hit targets … before the targets can reach them,” David Bound, the lead engineer on the project at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, told Army reporters. Troops “won’t have to worry about coming into a situation where they are under fire before they can return fire.”

via warisboring.com

URR is always going on about the improvements in tube artillery. Well, this is a big one. The much longer tube means you have more time for powder to burn as the shell begins to move through the tube. And that gives increased acceleration and muzzle velocity, which translates into longer range.

It's also important that the weights aren't going up much, as the M777 was designed to be transported by the CH-47. And it is pretty much on the upper limit of the Chinook's useful payload.

Finally, as the battlespace typically occupied by a Brigade Combat Team is much larger than in the past, the same artillery battalion needs to have much greater range to cover the entire BCT with fires, or it must parcel out tubes in penny packets of platoons or batteries, and lose the ability to mass its fires.

Prototype M777ER- US Army Photo

Chant du Départ: Cruel Is The Sea

Off the northeastern coast of Scotland lie the Orkney Islands. As that picture above shows (taken in August of 2010), even in the summer the Orkneys are gray and bleak. The Nuke once visited the area on a high school field trip. She told us about the puffins she saw there. I remember asking her if she had seen any sunken ships there.

"No, why?" she had answered with a puzzled look.

Well, Scapa Flow was the home base of the British Grand Fleet in World War I and again in World War II. It was also the destination of the German High Seas Fleet after Germany's defeat in World War I. The Germans scuttled their ships in Scapa Flow rather than let the British have them. While most of those ships were raised (due to being hazards to navigation and of course it was a Royal Navy anchorage) a number of the Kaiser's ships still lay on the sea bed there.

via oldafsarge.blogspot.com

Go read the whole thing. Sarge has some fine history, pictures, and even a short video.

Army plans 9-month deployments for armored brigades in Europe

The U.S. Army in Europe will have a permanent footprint of three fully manned brigades on the continent by next February, defense officials announced Wednesday.

The Army will begin continuous rotations of U.S.-based armored brigade combat teams on nine-month deployments to train with Eastern European allies, officials said.

via www.armytimes.com

The incredible drawdown of US forces from Europe in the post Cold War era was stunning, and we should have grasped sooner that the collapse of the Soviet Union would eventually see the rise of other power in the region, either in Russia itself, or some other nations. Nature abhors a vacuum.

So the Army is looking to maintain one Armored, one Stryker, and one Airborne Brigade Combat Team in Europe for the forseeable future.

When I arrived in Germany in 1989, my division alone had three armored brigades, and was one of four divisions in Germany, along with two separate armored brigades, and two big cavalry regiments.

Oh, and there's this:

5/ Lithuanian intelligence report: deployment time of RU QRF currently capable of mil action against Baltic States: 24-48 hrs @20committee

— The OSINT Broker (@BalticFrequency) March 30, 2016