There are approximately 900 Active-duty general/flag officers (GO/FOs) today of 1.3 million troops. This is a ratio of 1 GO/FO for every 1,400 troops. During World War II, an admittedly different era, there were more than 2,000 GO/FOs for a little more than 12 million Active troops (1:6,000). This development represents “rank creep” that does not enhance mission success but clutters the chain of command, adds bureaucratic layers to decisions, and costs taxpayers additional money from funding higher paygrades to fill positions. As end-strength fluctuates, force structure and strength projections for the next decade show the uniformed Services maintaining substantial excess capacity at senior ranks. Although historical numbers are inexact guides and future threats could radically change circumstances, the case for reduction is strong. The Department of Defense (DOD) should reduce the numbers, billets, and percent of GO/FOs in each Service to increase efficiency, streamline decisionmaking, achieve modest cost savings, and enhance accountability of decisionmaking.

Red blip in a blue city 2 hours ago

650 Generals and Admirals? Some serious inflation going on there:
https://ndupress.ndu.edu/Publications/Article/1325984/are-there-too-many-general-officers-for-todays-military/

There are approximately 900 Active-duty general/flag officers (GO/FOs) today of 1.3 million troops. This is a ratio of 1 GO/FO for every 1,400 troops. During World War II, an admittedly different era, there were more than 2,000 GO/FOs for a little more than 12 million Active troops (1:6,000).

That was from 2017.

The movie “Oppenheimer” opens Friday. I’ve read and seen a lot about the man and his contribution to the Manhattan Project. Was he a genius? Sure. Was he later conflicted about what he did to usher in the atomic age and end World War II? Apparently. Would atomic energy have eventually found its way into weaponry without him? Of course.

The movie will spark a renewed “debate” regarding the efficacy and ethics of dropping two atomic bombs to end the war in the Pacific. On one side of the scale, there are people who firmly believe that killing a massive number of civilians wasn’t necessary. (The fire-bombing of Tokyo likely killed more people than died at Hiroshima, but that is another story.)

Those people might be pacifists; they might just be contrarians who believe that America could have warned the Japanese of our “super weapon.” America did, in fact, drop leaflets warning civilians of Hiroshima to get out. It was done throughout the war, but both cities were warned.

Or there are people who contend that we could have “demonstrated” one of the bombs by blowing up an open field. There is no evidence that the Japanese were not going to surrender after a demonstration.

On the other side of the ledger are people like me, who believe that although Hiroshima and Nagasaki were terrible means to an end, those two events brought a close to a world war. I am also convinced that without those bombs, I never would have been born because my father never would have come home.

My dad joined the Marines in 1943. Thereafter, he participated in five assault landings—island hopping with the Marines—then ending with the 4th and 6th Marines Divisions. The last big battle he was in was the assault on Sugar Loaf Hill on Okinawa, which resulted in 3,000 US casualties. It was the only time he gave any thought to dying. When he was in combat before that, he never thought he wasn’t coming home. Others were fatalistic. My dad was an optimist. But there was one other time he thought about death and dying in combat. Fortunately, it was after Japan had surrendered.

He was part of the occupying force that landed in Tokyo Bay (Task Force 31). He and thousands of Marines, sailors, and soldiers were on ships that slowly worked their way into the bay. That’s when he saw them. Thousands of flags. White flags. Like the hills were blanketed in snow. After the Japanese surrendered, the Japanese home forces were instructed to place a white flag on gun emplacements on the hills around the bay, so occupying forces would know where they were. My dad described it

Chills ran up and down my spine. I thought: “Man, if we’d invaded here, we would have been cut to ribbons.”

Operation Downfall was the invasion code name. Operation Olympic was the code name of the invasion of Kyūshū. My dad would have been part of Olympic’s landing and invasion force. Estimates of casualties vary, but most estimates place casualties in the millions, and that was just for Allied forces. DoD estimates of KIA were conservatively placed at a half-million dead soldiers, sailors, and Marines.

When my dad stood on the deck of his ship and stared at the hills around the bay, he knew. He knew had he been on a landing craft in November 1945 for his 6th assault landing, he wasn’t going home. After three years of never being wounded, his odds of survival were slim.

Chris DeRose @chrisderose
·
Oppenheimer is sure to revive some debates about the end of WWII. Worth noting: Purple Heart medals awarded in Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf, War on Terror—all 370,000 since 1945—were manufactured for the anticipated invasion of Japan. We have 120,000 remaining.
10:34 AM · Jul 21, 2023

The battered Seawolf class submarine that hit a seamount will not be repaired till sometime in 2026 at the earliest. //

The Navy has posted new pictures of its Seawolf class nuclear fast attack submarine USS Connecticut (SSN-22), which was badly damaged when it struck a seamount while on patrol in the South China Sea on October 2nd, 2021. The Connecticut is currently in Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, undergoing a long series of repairs that will last until 2026, at the soonest.

In December 2021, the prized submarine limped back to its home port in Washington State, completing an arduous voyage across the Pacific while surfaced after a long emergency stop in Guam and another stop in San Diego.

The U.S.’ ongoing naval challenges give Red China an opportunity to accumulate more power throughout the Indo-Pacific.

The importance of last night’s performance can’t be overstated. For years the anti-American left that has opposed Ballistic Missile Defense ever since President Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” speech has claimed that Patriot doesn’t work and that an anti-missile system can’t hit either a hypersonic missile or a missile with some maneuverability. //

Last night should put to rest, for once and for all, the bullsh** slung by the “arms control” kibitzers who have made tenure and a lot of money chanting “you can’t hit a bullet with a bullet” for 40 years. It is apparent that Patriot is a viable system for defending a city against a variety of simultaneous missile attacks. Patriot’s performance demonstrates it has capabilities that haven’t been advertised and lead one to think that THAAD can do a lot that we don’t know about.

As I write this, another Russian missile attack is targeting Ukrainian cities. Kiev is not among them.

Dieter Schultz SupplyGuy
a day ago edited

Had we provided air superiority this war would have been over shortly after it began... Did we choose not do so out of incompetence?... Fear of escalation (I'm so sick of that yellow bellied excuse)?
Laocoon, arguably our best, and a much better than average, source of information and tactics with respect to air power, has made it fairly clear, air superiority is not something that will occur with the snap of our fingers or, for that matter, with the delivery of air-superiority fighters like the F-16.

Air superiority occurs when the totality of the equipment, ground support, training, and air doctrine is aligned in something resembling what the US air force has developed and implemented.

Because of that, giving Ukraine F-16 fighters, or for that matter Abrams tanks, regardless of their capabilities, without adopting the totality of the war doctrine, training, and infrastructure that supports and expecting what the US gets is just... dreaming.

Air superiority, or even superiority on the ground, comes about not because we have great fighter jets like the F-16s or tanks like the M-1, but because of all of the other things that our air and armed forces have put in place to go along with the equipment.

I'm all for giving Ukraine what it needs and, I'm even in favor of giving it more than it can use as long as it is a net-positive in the war, but I'm not in favor of arguing that just giving them 'stuff' will win them the war.

If the Ukrainians do... good enough... and eject Russia from their territory... then I'm OK with that even if we might have been able to do it with less. But, right now, I'm not convinced that giving them just the air-superiority tools that they, and you, say they need will result in them winning the war. //

Dieter Schultz Laocoon
a day ago edited
Thankfully, I'm not omniscient and, regardless of what equipment they have or don't have, I don't know whether the Ukrainians will win or not win but if it were just 'hardware' that mattered the Russians would have won a year or so ago.

In fact, if it were just those factors then Afghanistan wouldn't have fallen when we left because we left more than enough equipment to allow the Afghani government to continue operating without falling to ISIS.

I realize this may seem a bit blasphemous but there's an awful lot of what's missing in these discussion that closely resembles what is missing in the area of religions... there's something more than just 'bread' that people need and, similarly, there's more than these 'things' that people want to talk about that matters in these discussions.

It is the 'other' things... that shadow our spiritual world... that matters and we fail Him if we don't realize that the spiritual... the abstract... that comes into play and powerfully affects the outcomes. //

Laocoon Dieter Schultz
a day ago
Completely right. There is a spiritual componant to alot of this that we often just gloss over. Otto Von Bismarck once said:

“God has a special providence for fools, drunkards, and the United States of America.”

I actually think that the old Prussian got alot of that right.

Last Friday, a Marine celebrated his 100th birthday. On December 7, 1941, he was sitting in the “great room” of his fraternity when news of Pearl Harbor arrived in the form of a shout. A fraternity brother was listening to the radio and loudly announced that the Japanese had bombed Pearl. America was at war, and so were each of the “brothers” in the house. Some joined right away. Others waited.

This Marine finished his freshman year and then enlisted. Why the Marines? “Because the Marines are first in the fight,” he said. //

He knows that he was one of the lucky Marines to come home. The heroes, he said, never came home.

Unveiled in 1956, the B-58 Hustler was in service for the U.S. Air Force between 1960 and 1970. Convair built 116 jets in total, with 86 going into operation, and 30 built as pre-production and test aircraft. The Hustler was capable of reaching speeds of 1,325 miles per hour, and could achieve a total range of 4,400 miles without refueling. Hustlers could also achieve an altitude ceiling of just under 65,000 feet. While it's possible for commercial jets to reach great heights, the majority of travel that ticketholders cruise along for is done at an altitude of roughly half this feat (35,000 feet, typically).

Read More: https://www.slashgear.com/1201823/the-high-speed-strategic-bomber-that-pushed-the-limits-of-supersonic-aviation/

The Manoeuvering Room on board HMS SCEPTRE seen as she lays alongside at Devonport dockyard just prior to decommissioning and disposal. Part of the Marine Engineering Department, the Manoeuvring Room houses the equipment which controls and monitors the submarine's nuclear reactor. It is also from where the boat's power and speed is controlled using the throttle, seen centre right.

Baby Olme, who is expected to arrive in April 2023, has become one of the first babies in the Department of Defense to clock 9.2 hours in a supersonic aircraft.
As Maj. Lauren Olme, 77th Weapons Squadron assistant director of operations, fires up the engines of a B-1 Lancer on Dyess Air Force Base, she is living out her lifelong dream of being a pilot. In addition to that dream, she achieved a new feat that will impact future generations of servicewomen: Flying while pregnant.

Chinese balloon shot down of Myrtle Beach

Thousands of tanks on each side have been destroyed in the 11-month-old war, though it’s unclear how many remain in play. Ukraine claims to have destroyed 3,161 Russian tanks while Russia says it’s eliminated 7,617 Ukrainian “tanks and other armored fighting vehicles,” the countries’ respective defense ministries said Wednesday. //

The M1’s superior maneuverability will play a valuable role in traversing the vast, flat open ranges in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, where the majority of fighting has been occurring since the war’s early months. The US tanks also boast greater lethality and survivability and are equipped with superior cannons, guns and armor than the T-72. //

The Army declined The Post’s request for an interview about the M1’s capabilities while “we await additional guidance from the Department of Defense,” but noted that the tanks outcompeted T-72s in prior conflicts, most notably the Gulf War and the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. //

While the T-72’s top speed of 47 mph is slightly higher than the M1’s 42 mph, the system is far less agile than its American alternative. For example, it is incapable of driving in reverse at speed – a key capability the M1s and other Western systems such as the German Leopard 2 can provide. //

Joe Fliel
1h ago

Poorly written and researched. Honeywell's AGT1500 gas turbine engine is a multi-fuel powerplant. The multi-fuel capability was specifically designed by allowing the Abrams to use a variety of fuels in order to simplify logistical requirements. It can run on anything combustible from JP-8 to diesel, mogas, alcohol (which includes liquor like Russian vodka) and even perfume. HUMMWV's also had multi-fuel engines for the same reasons.

The Navy Isn’t Prepared To Face The Growing Diesel Submarine Threat

A veteran submarine hunter explains how the proliferation of ever more capable diesel-electric submarines is a major problem for the U.S. Navy.

On November 04, 1965, CDR Clarence W. Stoddard, Jr., Executive Officer of VA-25 "Fist of the Fleet," flying A-1H Skyraider Bu. No. 135297, NE/572, from Carrier Air Wing Two aboard USS Midway, carried a special bomb to the North Vietnamese in commemoration of the 6-millionth pound of ordnance dropped. This bomb was unique because of the type..... it was a toilet!

Also unique to this mission is the fact this aircraft was named "Paper Tiger II" (a temporary name used for just this one flight).

The following is an account of this event, courtesy of Clint Johnson, Captain, USNR Ret. Captain Johnson was one of the two VA-25 A-1 Skyraider pilots credited with shooting down a MiG-17 on June 20, 1965.

"I was a pilot in VA-25 on the 1965 Vietnam cruise.

572 was flown by CDR C. W. "Bill" Stoddard. His wingman in 577 (which was my assigned airplane) was LCDR Robin Bacon, who had a wing station mounted movie camera (the only one remaining in the fleet from WWII).

The flight was a Dixie Station strike (South Vietnam) going to the Delta. When they arrived in the target area and CDR Stoddard was reading the ordnance list to the FAC [Forward Air Controller], he ended with "and one code name Sani-Flush." The FAC couldn't believe it and joined up to see it. It was dropped in a dive with LCDR Bacon flying tight wing position to film the drop. When it came off, it turned hole to the wind and almost struck his airplane. It made a great ready room movie.

The FAC said that it whistled all the way down.

The toilet was a damaged toilet, which was going to be thrown overboard. One of our plane captains rescued it and the ordnance crew made a rack, tailfins and nose fuse for it. Our checkers maintained a position to block the view of the air boss and the Captain while the aircraft was taxiing forward. Just as it was being shot off we got a 1MC message from the bridge, "What the hell was on 572's right wing?"

There were a lot of jokes with air intelligence about germ warfare. I wish that we had saved the movie film. CDR Stoddard was later killed while flying 572 in Oct 1966. He was hit by three SAMs over Vinh."

The Nighthawk remains an odd duck. Designated a fighter, it has no air-to-air combat capabilities. It paved a path for other stealth aircraft, but its children did not resemble it in the most important particulars. Its most famous moment came at the hands of the Serbian air defense network, when an enterprising group of officers laid a trap and managed to down one of the aircraft. Nevertheless, the F-117 was one of the most consequential aircraft for the future of military aviation, demonstrating the essential viability of stealth aircraft under conditions that the United States could reliably replicate. Its absence might well have left a large hole in U.S. aerospace strategy for the twenty-first century.

As reported by Breitbart under the banner of “exclusive,” the branch’s training details updated directions for bathing. And the rules are plenty far from what you might find familiar.

The training — purportedly delivered via scenarios — prescribes proper responses to issues concerning transgenderism.

Vignette Nine, for instance, deals with mandated urine specimens: What if an “observer” is uncomfortable having to watch a soldier — who has “not [had] sex reassignment surgery” — pee into a cup? //

Soldiers must accept living and working conditions that are often austere, primitive, and characterized by little or no privacy. All soldiers will use the billeting, bathroom, and shower facilities associated with their gender marker… //

Facilities will not be designated, modified, or constructed to make transgender-only areas. Any modifications made must be available to all soldiers to use. Accommodations cannot isolate or stigmatize the transgender soldier.

Might unrequired accommodations such as curtains make a transgender soldier sense stigma? Surely there’s a solid chance.

Of course, the situation was inevitable once government adopted the revolutionary notion of “gender.” //

All branches are bound to command co-ed cleaning:

Report: Navy Says Sailors Can Use Whichever Locker Room Suits Their Gender Identity https://t.co/tfn1dregSa

— RedState (@RedState) July 9, 2021

the Shah was a very intelligent man and knew the benefits which an F-14/AWG-9/PHOENIX system would provide in defending the borders of his over country from Soviet overflights by MiG-25s. He made his decision in a carefully crafted speech to the Navy and Air Force participants. He told them his country needed an air superiority fighter such as the F-15. (This, of course made the U.S. Air Force participants almost wet their pants). Then he deflated them by adding that his country also needed an air supremacy fighter such as the Navy’s F-14!

‘Ever since then I have used the expression “maritime air supremacy” in describing the mission of a Navy fighter. So, whether we are talking about the airspace over a battlefield, or deep behind enemy lines or even over the open ocean in the vicinity of a carrier battle force, the Navy fighter needs to achieve and maintain air supremacy for as long as is necessary to get the job done!

The Air Force’s mission is considerably different. It has the mechanism in place to replace its attrition fighter forces much more easily than the Navy can. The carrier battle force must be more autonomous and self-sustaining. Its attrition fighter forces may not be so easy to replace. Therefore, it needs to be so much better than any forecast enemy fighter force that the exchange ratios will be concomitantly high, negating the need to do any substantial turnover of replacement hardware during the brief prosecution of the mission. The Navy’s fighter force must consist of maritime air supremacy platforms.’

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, many people have wondered if China will be motivated to invade Taiwan soon. Should that happen, will the United States and China fight a war over the future of Taiwan? In his new book War Without Rules: China’s Playbook for Global Domination, retired Air Force Brigadier Gen. Robert Spalding says the United States and China are already at war, and it is a war without rules.

Spalding’s book doesn’t present any new thesis. Instead, it explains the idea presented by another book published more than two decades ago. That book was titled Unrestricted Warfare. It was written by two Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) colonels, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, published in 1999.

In Unrestricted Warfare, the two colonels argue that China must learn not to rely on armed forces alone to achieve global dominance. Instead, future warfare is about “using all means, including armed force or non-armed force, military and non-military, and lethal and non-lethal means to compel the enemy to accept one’s interests.”

The non-military means could include everything from corporate sabotage to manipulation of international laws. //

I share Spalding’s concerns that too many Americans, from political leaders to business elites, misunderstand or ignore the CCP’s war without rules. He points out that “the Biden administration, despite some positive moves, is seriously underestimating the malevolence and power of the Chinese threat,” an assessment I couldn’t agree with more.

Arguing that “the United States has never confronted anything quite like modern China,” and “we are already at war with China,” Spalding presented recommendations on what Americans should do to fight the CCP’s unrestricted warfare in his final chapter. Here his emphasis that the United States is only at war with the CCP, not the Chinese people, is laudable.