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CottageLV said:

If I were the navy chief of staff, I would've given the orders solely to Independence class just based on its looks. Freedom class is too ordinary, not wowing at all.

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Military dumps infamous ‘BCG’ eyeglasses

By Patricia Kime - Staff writer army times
Posted : Friday Jan 20, 2012 14:41:11 EST

Military recruits who wear glasses no longer will have to endure the embarrassment of sporting BCGs — those beloved standard-issue specs, technically called S9s, which are universally known as “Birth Control Glasses” because they’re supposedly so unattractive.

The Naval Medical Logistics Command has chosen a new design, which will be offered to all active-duty and Reserve personnel and will be the sole choice for service members at recruit depots.

The glasses, with a hipster, Buddy Holly vibe, will soon be the rage on recruits’ faces in Great Lakes, Ill., Parris Island, S.C., Fort Sill, Okla., Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, and elsewhere.

“Service members have told us they like the appearance of the new frame. We are confident this frame will increase the likelihood that military personnel will continue to utilize their eyeglasses beyond boot camp,” said Capt. Matt Newton, commander of the Naval Ophthalmic Support and Training Activity, Yorktown, Va.

Recruits who need glasses are issued them as part of standard boot camp medical care. Service members who have not been issued glasses at boot camp within the past year have access to a broader variety under the military’s “Frames of Choice” program. They can choose from among six frame designs that come in several color choices and include wire frames and aviator styles.

Before the new specs, called 5As, were selected, they were put through a rigorous test program, challenging their endurance, functionality and yes, even their cosmetic appearance.

The 5A will arrive at recruit depots in the coming months. Within six months, they also will be available to all active-duty and Reserve service members, according to a Navy release.

As for the BCGs? They’ll continue to be standard issue for retirees, at least for now. According to the Navy, the Defense Department’s Optical Fabrication Enterprise will decide during the next two years whether to provide the new glasses to the retired population.

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Panetta says military committed to F-35B

But SecDef also issued this warning on the STOVL variant of the Joint Strike Fighter: It’s ‘not out of the woods yet’
By Robert Burns - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jan 20, 2012 15:04:47 EST

NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — The U.S. military is committed to developing the Marine Corps version of the next-generation strike fighter jet, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Friday, but he warned that the program is “not out of the woods yet.”

Standing in front of one of the fighter aircraft at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, where the program is run, Panetta said the Pentagon needs “to make sure we’re on the cutting edge” of military technology.

“This fifth-generation fighter behind me is absolutely vital to maintaining our air superiority,” Panetta told about 100 people inside an aircraft hangar at the air station. Many in his audience work on the test program.

Before his address, Panetta visited an F-35 flight test simulator. He “flew” it briefly and also got briefings on progress made to resolve technical problems with the Marine Corps and Navy versions of the F-35.

The F-35 Lightning II is the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program, and it has been troubled by schedule delays and cost overruns. Ten years in, the total F-35 program cost has jumped from $233 billion to an estimated $385 billion. Recent estimates say the entire program could exceed $1 trillion over 50 years.

Last year, former defense chief Robert Gates announced he was putting the Marine Corps’ variant on probation and said he would try to cancel it if problems were not resolved within two years.

In practical terms, that threat lost its power when Gates left office at the end of June. But Panetta made it official Friday.

The Marine version, he said, “has made, I believe and all of us believe, sufficient progress so that as of today, I am lifting the [fighter’s] probation.”

The military is developing three versions of the F-35 for the Navy, Air Force and Marines.

The new jet will replace the Air Force’s F-16 Falcon and the A-10 Warthog aircraft. A short-takeoff and vertical landing version will replace the Marine Corps F/A-18C/D and AV-8B Harrier aircraft. And the Navy is buying a model designed for taking off and landing on aircraft carriers.

Marine commandant Gen. Jim Amos welcomed Panetta’s announcement and said he will monitor the program closely. In a statement Friday, he said introduction of the fighter into the Marine’s training squadrons and combat units will be done responsibly based on the merits of the test program and its progress during the evaluations.

Amos added that the F-35 is the only fighter model capable of operating off of the large-deck amphibious warships, or in austere and remote expeditionary operations.

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CAMP PENDLETON — Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich will serve no time for his role in the 2005 killing of 24 unarmed Iraqis, including women and children, according to terms of a plea agreement revealed Tuesday.

The 31-year-old Marine pleaded guilty Monday to a single charge of negligent dereliction of duty, as part of a plea agreement that dismissed earlier voluntary manslaughter and assault counts.

On Tuesday, a military judge handed down the maximum possible sentence of three months in the brig, but the jail time was eliminated under terms of the plea agreement. Wuterich’s only penalty will be a reduction in rank to private.

The announcement in a Camp Pendleton courtroom brings to a close the longest-running criminal case against U.S. troops stemming from the Iraq War.

Military prosecutors had argued that Wuterich spurred his squad of infantry Marines on a vengeful rampage on Nov. 19, 2005, by telling them to “shoot first and ask questions later,” which made the Marines believe they could ignore usual rules of engagement that minimize civilian casualties. Wuterich countered that he was only telling them not to hesitate in the face of the enemy.

Prosecutor Lt. Col. Sean Sullivan, in closing statements, said the November incident is the worst possible outcome of dereliction of duty.

“Not one witness called by the government or defense ever testified that any Marine facility ever trained Marines that to shoot first and ask questions later is appropriate,” he said. “That’s why this is so negligent.”

Wuterich’s attorneys on Tuesday lambasted military prosecutors for how the investigation and legal case were handled. They said military lawyers dropped charges against or gave immunity to the wrong people and tried to create a “false narrative” about what happened following a roadside bomb attacked that killed a Marine.

Seven other Marines charged for the killings, or a failure to properly investigate them, have been cleared of criminal wrongdoing. Only the former battalion commander, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, was censured for “substandard performance.”

“In view of what everyone was seeing in court, that these witnesses had their statements manipulated, had their facts twisted to support the narrative that a crime was committed — once it began to fall apart in court, the government saw the benefit of the deal,” said civilian defense attorney Haytham Faraj, a former Marine officer. “Which is something we’ve put forward all along, to say he takes responsibility for his actions that day.”

Neal Puckett, Wuterich’s other civilian lawyer, said if there are going to be accusations of injustice for civilians killed when the Marines “cleared” two Haditha houses, they should be leveled at prosecutors.

“We don’t understand how if crimes were committed in those bedrooms, how the only people who could have committed them were given immunity and their charges dismissed,” Puckett said.

The Marine Corps prosecution team declined to comment, and a spokesman said he wouldn’t respond point-for-point to the statements voiced by the defense. Lt. Col. Joe Kloppel said the plea agreement was the result of a negotiation between the two sides, not an admission of defeat by prosecutors.

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MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — U.S. Navy SEALs parachuted into Somalia under cover of darkness early Wednesday and crept up to an outdoor camp where an American woman and Danish man were being held hostage. Soon, nine kidnappers were dead and both hostages were freed.

President Barack Obama authorized the mission by SEAL Team 6 two days earlier, deploying the same unit that killed Osama bin Laden last year. Minutes after the president gave his State of the Union address to Congress he was on the phone with the American's father to tell him his daughter was safe.

The Danish Refugee Council confirmed the two aid workers, American Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen Thisted, a Dane, were "on their way to be reunited with their families."

Buchanan, 32, and Thisted, 60, were working with a de-mining unit of the Danish Refugee Council when gunmen kidnapped the two in October.

The raiders came in quickly, catching the guards as they were sleeping after having chewed the narcotic leaf qat for much of the evening, a pirate who gave his name as Bile Hussein told The Associated Press by phone. Hussein said he was not present at the site but had spoken with other pirates who were, and that they told him nine pirates had been killed in the raid and three were "taken away."

The hostage rescue was carried out by the same SEAL unit behind the operation in Pakistan last May that killed bin Laden, two U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity to discuss the operation. It was not clear if any members participated in both operations. The unit is the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, also known as SEAL Team 6.

One official said that the team parachuted into the area before moving on foot to the target. The raid happened near the Somali town of Adado.

New intelligence emerged last week that Buchanan's health was "deteriorating rapidly," so Obama directed his security team to develop a rescue plan, according to a senior administration official who was not authorized to speak publicly. A Danish Refugee Council official, Mary Ann Olsen, said that Buchanan was "not that ill" but needed medicine.

"As Commander-in-Chief, I could not be prouder of the troops who carried out this mission, and the dedicated professionals who supported their efforts," Obama said in a statement released by the White House. "The United States will not tolerate the abduction of our people, and will spare no effort to secure the safety of our citizens and to bring their captors to justice."

A Western official said the rescuers and the freed hostages flew by helicopter to a U.S. military base called Camp Lemonnier in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the information had not been released publicly. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta visited Camp Lemonnier just over a month ago. A key U.S. ally in this region, Djibouti has the only U.S. base in sub-Saharan Africa. It hosts the military's Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa.

The timing of the raid may have been made more urgent by Buchanan's medical condition. The Danish Refugee Council had been trying to work with Somali elders to win the hostages' freedom but had found little success.

"One of the hostages has a disease that was very serious and that had to be solved," Danish Foreign Minister Villy Soevndal told Denmark's TV2 channel. Soevndal did not provide any more details. Soevndal congratulated the Americans for the raid.

The Danish Refugee Council said both freed hostages are unharmed "and at a safe location." The group said in a separate statement that the two "are on their way to be reunited with their families."

Olsen informed Thisted's family of of the successful military operation and said "they were very happy and incredibly relieved that it is over." Olsen said the two freed hostages were in Djibouti and would soon be moved to a "safe haven." She said Buchanan does not need to be hospitalized.

"One of the first things Poul and Jessica were able to do was to call their families and say they were freed," Olsen said. "They will be reunited with their families as quickly as possible," Olsen said.

The head of the Danish Refugee Council, Andreas Kamm, said he would have preferred to see the two hostages freed peacefully after working with Somali groups to win the pair's freedom, "but we're happy with the outcome. This is a day of joy indeed."

The two aid workers appear to have been kidnapped by criminals — sometimes referred to as pirates — and not by Somalia's al-Qaida-linked militant group al-Shabab. As large ships at sea have increased their defenses against pirate attacks, gangs have looked for other money making opportunities like land-based kidnappings.

The Danish Refugee Council had earlier enlisted traditional Somali elders and members of civil society to seek the release of the two hostages.

"We are really happy with the successful release of the innocents kidnapped by evildoers," said Mohamud Sahal, an elder in Galkayo town, by phone. "They were guests who were treated brutally. That was against Islam and our culture ... These men (pirates) have spoiled our good customs and culture, so Somalis should fight back."

Buchanan lived in neighboring Kenya before Somalia, and worked at a school in Nairobi called the Rosslyn Academy from 2007-09, said Rob Beyer, the dean of students. He described the American as quick to laugh and adventurous.

"There have been tears on and around the campus today," Beyer said. "She was well-loved by all her students."

Buchanan graduated in 2006 from Valley Forge Christian College, a small suburban Philadelphia school. The school's president, the Rev. Don Meyer, said Buchanan taught at Rosslyn as part of her studies and "fell in love with Africa."

"Ever since Jessica was captured, we all as a community have been praying for her safety and for her safe release," Meyer said. "We are also grateful that our prayers have been answered."

Buchanan and Thisted were seized in October from the portion of Galkayo town under the control of a government-allied clan militia. The aid agency has said that Somalis held demonstrations demanding the pair's quick release.

Their Somali colleague was detained by police on suspicion of being involved in their kidnapping.

The two hostages were working in northern Somalia for the Danish Demining Group, whose experts have been clearing mines and unexploded ordnance in conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East.

Several hostages are still being held in Somalia, including a British tourist, two Spanish doctors seized from neighboring Kenya, and an American journalist kidnapped on Saturday.

Associated Press reporters Julie Pace in Washington, Jason Straziuso in Nairobi, Kenya, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Patrick Walters in Philadelphia contributed to this report. Houreld reported from Nairobi and Dozier from Washington.

Follow Katharine Houreld at

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NATO to sign delayed AGS deal by May
By: Craig Hoyle London - 09:00 20 Jan 2012

NATO's long-running process to order an Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) capability could at last achieve a contract signature within the next few months, although the scale of its programme appears to have again been revised.
"We have the contract, and it's under negotiation," said US Air Force Maj Gen Steve Schmidt, commander of the NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Force. A 13-nation deal should be signed before the next NATO summit, in Chicago from 20-21 May, he added.
"I fully expect to see the announcement that NATO has purchased AGS by that summit," Schmidt told the AEW and Battle Management conference in London on 17 January.
Schmidt valued the pending acquisition at about €1 billion ($1.3 billion) for five Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 40 unmanned air vehicles, each equipped with a Northrop/Raytheon surveillance payload. An associated 20-year operational support package is expected to total a further €2.2 billion, he added.
This assessment contrasts with a previous plan, which had called for the purchase of six Global Hawks, to be operated from NAS Sigonella in Sicily from later this decade. Northrop officials last October said a deal was expected to be signed in early November 2011. ...

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Sources: USAF To Kill Block 30 Global Hawks
Jan. 25, 2012 - 03:01PM | By DAVE MAJUMDAR

The U.S. Air Force is likely to retire its fleet of Block 30 Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk high-altitude unmanned surveillance aircraft, an industry source confirms, breathing new life into the five-decade-old U-2 program.

On Jan. 24, analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, Arlington, Va., said the Pentagon is planning to mothball its recently acquired Block 30 Global Hawks, which are designed to collect imagery and signals intelligence. Not only would the Air Force stop building the aircraft, but existing planes in the current inventory would be retired.
The Air Force had been planning to buy 42 Block 30 aircraft. According to 2011 budget documents, the cost of each aircraft was around $215 million. It was not immediately clear how many Global Hawks the Air Force has.
The aircraft is being terminated mainly due to its high cost to buy and maintain, but it has also failed to live up to the promises that the program had originally offered, sources said.A knowledgeable industry source confirmed that the Air Force is killing the program.
“Yes, this is accurate — been a lot of discussion on the possibility of this a long while,” said the source, who was not authorized to speak to the media. “There is a high probability it will come to pass now unless Congress takes a major exception.”
But the industry source said that’s not likely to happen due to budget constraints.
“I don’t think that’s likely in the economic environment of this year’s DoD budget, and there are no real ‘hawks’ in Congress from California,” he said. The aircraft is built is both built and based in California.
A senior Air Force official would neither confirm nor deny that the Pentagon had deleted the Global Hawk from its proposed budget. But “clearly, FY13 is going to be a particularly tough budget year for the DoD,” he said. The official is not authorized to speak to the media.
Northrop Grumman officials could not immediately comment.
The Air Force declined to provide an official comment, other than to say that no budget details will be made available before the budget is released.

If the program is killed, Thompson said the cost of the U.S. Navy’s Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) variant of the Global Hawk could go up, which could render that aircraft unaffordable. There is a proposal to equip the Air Force with the naval variant, he said, but that is unlikely to happen.
The Navy wants to use the BAMS aircraft as a communications relay and maritime surveillance tool with its 360-degree sensors that include radar, an electro-optical/infrared camera, Automatic Identification System receiver and electronic support measures.

One source close to the Air Force said the sensors, data links and other equipment on the Global Hawk are less accurate, and provide less resolution, less range and less collection capability than other intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms, particularly the U-2.
“As for the Global Hawk system’s capabilities, it is good at long-endurance flight with its so-so sensors,” the source said. “They are currently and will continue to be well below par.”
The Global Hawk has never lived up to the Air Force’s original expectations, critics have said.
Even if additional resources were added to the program, “it will never live up to the hype the Military Channel, Aviation Week, etc., have been leading the public to believe,” the source said. “The technology advertised as currently on-board many UAVs is nothing short of science fiction, not mature and won’t be until billions are spent to make it happen.”
Additionally, the Global Hawk doesn’t have the U-2 Optical Bar Camera, which creates 6-foot-long wet-film images of the ground. Congress had barred the Air Force from retiring the U-2 until all of that aircraft’s capabilities are replaced.
The Global Hawk is also far less reliable than the Air Force had hoped, he said. The aircraft “spends most of its time hiding in its hangar broke.”

The fate of the Block 40 Global Hawk, which is equipped with the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) radar, is not clear. The MP-RTIP is a powerful ground surveillance radar designed to create photo-quality imagery of the Earth’s surface and overlay moving ground targets over those.
Nor is it clear if NATO’s proposed buy of five modified MP-RTIP-equipped Global Hawks for its Alliance Ground Surveillance program or if Germany’s EuroHawk program will be affected.
The demise of the Global Hawk means that the U-2 has a new lease on life. Thompson said the venerable aircraft will now remain in service till at least 2023.

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From Combined Maritime Forces Public Affairs

USS HALSEY, At Sea (NNS) -- USS Halsey (DDG 97) responded to a call of distress from M/V Albrouj, a Yemeni dhow that was en route to Somalia from Yemen, while the U.S. ship was conducting helicopter operations in the Gulf of Aden, Jan. 19.

The guided-missile destroyer Halsey, which was two hours away from the position of the dhow, immediately responded to the distress call. The Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light (HSL) 49 air crew quickly relayed the vessel's position to Halsey. The ship responded quickly. Upon arriving on the scene, the ship launched two rigid hull inflatable boats (RHIB's) to provide assistance. Two electricians from Halsey conducted an investigation along with Albrouj's boat engineer, and discovered a faulty alternator and four dead batteries. The ship provided the dhow with two batteries to allow the crew to safely continue their voyage to Somalia.

"We quickly realized that the problem lay with the alternator and that the batteries were being drained extremely fast," said Electrician's Mate 2nd Class (SW) Clinton D. Easley, one of the Halsey electricians who boarded the Yemen dhow. "By providing them with a couple of spare batteries that we had onboard, the problem was solved and the dhow was quickly on its way."

"All mariners who sail the oceans should respond quickly to a fellow mariner's distress call. The sea can be an unforgiving place, when your vessel is adrift and without power," said Commodore Aage Buur Jensen from Commander Combined Task Force (CTF) 151. "I'm very pleased with the swift assistance that USS Halsey rendered on this occasion."

Halsey is currently the flagship of CTF-151 conducting counter piracy and maritime security operations.

Halsey has recently assumed the role of flagship to Commodore Aage Buur Jensen, Royal Danish navy and his multinational CTF-151 command staff. CTF-151 transferred command from the Pakistani navy who were stationed aboard the USS Kidd (DDG 100).

CTF-151 is one of three task forces assigned to combined maritime forces. Established in February 2002, the Task Force's key mission is to conduct counter-piracy operations in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Somali Basin, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. It protects and defends the legitimate use of the ocean by fisherman and merchants, and stands ready to assist any mariner in distress.

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By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (SW/AW) Josue L. Escobosa, USS Mesa Verde Public Affairs

USS MESA VERDE, At Sea (NNS) -- Sailors and Marines aboard USS Mesa Verde (LPD 19) provided assistance to ten Morrocan mariners whose vessel had capsized three days earlier in the Mediterranean Sea, Jan. 24.

The mariners' vessel had capsized in rough seas leaving them without food or water for three days until members from Mesa Verde rescued them via a rigid hull inflatable boat.

"The Mesa Verde Sailors responded professionally, quickly and efficiently," said Ensign Matthew Colpitts, the boat officer. "They did exactly what we train to do. The crew impressed me more than anything; we had to turn crew members away that wanted to help, there was just too many people asking to lend a hand in whatever way they could."

After the stranded Moroccans were brought aboard, they were immediately taken to the ship's medical ward where they were examined and treated for hypothermia and dehydration.

"As soon as our lookouts saw the capsized vessel we had response teams manning up within seconds," Cmdr. John K. Reilley, USS Mesa Verde commanding officer. "It only took an hour and a half from the time we first saw them, to our recovery on board the ship. We couldn't have asked for a better response from our blue and green team."

The Mesa Verde boasts a medical ward, intensive care unit and an operating room. The ship also has a shock and trauma team, fleet surgical team, and several well-trained hospital corpsmen.

"I'm incredibly proud of all of the Sailors and Marines today," said Hospital Corpsman 1st Class (FMF/SW) Shannon Kirby. "Our training paid off and when it was time to go, we all responded swiftly and professionally."

According to the mariners, other ships in the area had passed by and not offered assistance.

"The Moroccan sailors thanked us all profusely," said Cpl. Aaron Payne, a translator. "They credited us with being the only ones willing to help them when most others just passed them by."

The mariners were later transferred to the Spanish coast guard.

The Mesa Verde is deployed as part of the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and deployed from her homeport of Norfolk, Va., March 23. The Mesa Verde has spent the past 10 months supporting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th and 6th Fleet areas of responsibility, and is returning home after having been relieved by the Makin Island ARG.

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The program manager for the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship program was fired Thursday due to allegations of inappropriate behavior, according to Naval Sea Systems Command.

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