Tiny Team Beefs Up Marines’ Comms To SOCOM

Tiny Team Beefs Up Marines’ Comms To SOCOM
Tiny Team Beefs Up Marines’ Comms To SOCOM

BALLSTON, VA: A soufflé is fluffy but a SOFLE – a brand new military acronym that stands for Special Operations Forces Liaison Element — is sinewy and powerful. Just ask Marine Lt. Col. Andrew Christian, who led the first such unit for the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit during a seven month deployment to the Pacific…

Navy’s Magnetic Super Gun To Make Mach 7 Shots At Sea In 2016: Adm. Greenert

Navy’s Magnetic Super Gun To Make Mach 7 Shots At Sea In 2016: Adm. Greenert
Navy’s Magnetic Super Gun To Make Mach 7 Shots At Sea In 2016: Adm. Greenert

[UPDATED April 8 with more rail gun & laser detail from Rear Adm. Klunder] NATIONAL HARBOUR: 23 pounds ain’t heavy. But it sure hurts when it hits you going at seven times the speed of sound. That’s what a prototype Navy weapon called a “rail gun” can do, and it does it without a single…

A Sneak Peek At Marines’ New Amphibious Combat Vehicle

A Sneak Peek At Marines’ New Amphibious Combat Vehicle
A Sneak Peek At Marines’ New Amphibious Combat Vehicle

UPDATED 1:35 pm Wednesday with more details from Lt. Gen. Glueck WASHINGTON: The Marines are about to move out sharply with their once-stalled Amphibious Combat Vehicle, the smallest service’s biggest program. After years of uncertainty and a last-minute change of course that came too late to make it into the administration’s budget request for 2015,…

‘If It’s Not Survivable, We Don’t Care:’ HAC-D’s Peter Visclosky On Littoral Combat Ship

‘If It’s Not Survivable, We Don’t Care:’ HAC-D’s Peter Visclosky On Littoral Combat Ship
‘If It’s Not Survivable, We Don’t Care:’ HAC-D’s Peter Visclosky On Littoral Combat Ship

The House Appropriations defense subcommittee pressed the leaders of the Navy and Marine Corps today about how they could meet the national security challenges with shrinking budgets, questioning the survivability of the Littoral Combat Ships, the status of the costly and controversial Joint Strike Fighter and the Navy’s plan to take seven cruisers and possibly…

Marines Budget Scramble: Commandant Resurrects MPC, ACV In Limbo

Marines Budget Scramble: Commandant Resurrects MPC, ACV In Limbo
Marines Budget Scramble: Commandant Resurrects MPC, ACV In Limbo

Imagine you’re a military supply officer, weary but proud as you watch the train you’ve laboriously loaded with gear roll out of the depot towards the front. And then you realize: You packed the wrong tank. Now you need to get that vehicle off and the right vehicle on — while the train’s already leaving…

Afghanistan ‘As Good As It’s Going To Get’: Marine Commandant

Afghanistan ‘As Good As It’s Going To Get’: Marine Commandant
Afghanistan ‘As Good As It’s Going To Get’: Marine Commandant

As America winds up its 13-year war in Afghanistan, where do things stand? “I leave this Saturday night [for Helmand province] to meet the governor and the provincial police chief,” Gen. James Amos said this afternoon. “My sense is, it’s about” — and here he paused — “it’s about as good as it’s going to…

Amos Says Marines To Drop High Speed ACV, For Now; Phased Approach Likely

Amos Says Marines To Drop High Speed ACV, For Now; Phased Approach Likely
Amos Says Marines To Drop High Speed ACV, For Now; Phased Approach Likely

CRYSTAL CITY, Va: For years the Marines have argued they need a new amphibious combat vehicle that can cut through water at high speeds so Marines can get to the beach safely and then fight their way inland. But Marine Commandant James Amos signaled yesterday there just isn’t enough money to buy a “planing” vehicle…

F-35 Operational Test and Evaluation Report; Marines Say No IOC Changes

F-35 Operational Test and Evaluation Report; Marines Say No IOC Changes
F-35 Operational Test and Evaluation Report; Marines Say No IOC Changes

UPDATED: Marine Commandant Lists Top 3 Concerns; Lockheed Commits to Software Delivery In Time For Marine IOC. Here it is, for everyone to ponder, the F-35 portion of the annual report from Michael Gilmore, director of the Pentagon’s Operational Test and Evaluation office. The only sort of public annual benchmark on the success or failure…

Marines 2014: Year Of Decision For Amphibious Combat Vehicle

Marines 2014: Year Of Decision For Amphibious Combat Vehicle
Marines 2014: Year Of Decision For Amphibious Combat Vehicle

Marine Commandant James Amos must make a tough call this year on a program that will define the future Marine Corps: whether to develop and buy the Amphibious Combat Vehicle. “The Commandant considers a replacement craft for his aging AAV7 Amphibious Tractor to be his number-one priority,” said Gen. Amos’s spokesman, Lt. Col. David Nevers,…

Amos & Dempsey: Don’t Just Stop Sequester, Save The Ground Force

Amos & Dempsey: Don’t Just Stop Sequester, Save The Ground Force
Amos & Dempsey: Don’t Just Stop Sequester, Save The Ground Force

REAGAN LIBRARY, SIMI VALLEY, CA: Sometimes you have to listen closely to the soft-spoken Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Sometimes the Commandant of the Marine Corps says “hey, Sydney!” and hands you his message on a plate. But this Saturday, both Army Gen. Martin Dempsey and Marine Gen. James Amos were talking about…

Secret Brief On DoD Readiness Woes Set For House Members; HASC Hopes To Sway GOP Leaders

Secret Brief On DoD Readiness Woes Set For House Members; HASC Hopes To Sway GOP Leaders
Secret Brief On DoD Readiness Woes Set For House Members; HASC Hopes To Sway GOP Leaders

CAPITOL HILL: The House Armed Services Committee will hold an extraordinary classified briefing Thursday, open to all House members, on the state of readiness in the US military. Rep. Randy Forbes and other HASC members who pushed for the briefing hope it will help convince Speaker John Boehner and other key GOP leaders that the combined effects…

Service Chiefs Critique Hagel’s SCMR: ‘Rosy’ & ‘Dangerous’ Assumptions

Service Chiefs Critique Hagel’s SCMR: ‘Rosy’ & ‘Dangerous’ Assumptions
Service Chiefs Critique Hagel’s SCMR: ‘Rosy’ & ‘Dangerous’ Assumptions

CAPITOL HILL: We’ve had nearly two years of hearings about how hard the automatic budget cuts called sequestration would hit the Department of Defense. Yesterday, we saw something new. For the first time, the uniformed chiefs of all four services publicly told Congress that they have big problems with their civilian bosses’ plan to cope…

Raytheon Non-Lethal Heat Beam Tackles New Missions

Raytheon Non-Lethal Heat Beam Tackles New Missions
Raytheon Non-Lethal Heat Beam Tackles New Missions

WASHINGTON: The Marine Corps has long championed what are called non-lethal systems, designed to stop mobs from killing Americans without us having to kill them. After all, Marines are responsible for defending American embassies and consulates around the world, which are all too often threatened by rampaging crowds angry with whatever the latest American perfidy…

US Military Could Not Handle One Major Theater Operation If Sequester Sticks

US Military Could Not Handle One Major Theater Operation If Sequester Sticks
US Military Could Not Handle One Major Theater Operation If Sequester Sticks

CAPITOL HILL:  Even the cameras stopped clicking in a hushed Armed Services hearing room today as Rep. Jim Cooper told the Joint Chiefs of Staff and his colleagues on the biggest committee in Congress today that America’s lawmakers had failed the country. “You gentlemen make life and death decisions in the Tank almost every day,”…