08/26/2014:A time-lapse video of the heavy lift vessel Blue Marlin as it transits the Columbia River past Astoria, Ore., Aug. 24, 2014.
The Blue Marlin is being escorted by Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary personnel, working with local law enforcement, to help ensure the safety of boaters as it carries a dry dock to a shipyard in Portland.
Credit:U.S. Coast Guard District 13:8/24/14
08/24/2014: On 19 June, 2014 the Air Combat Elements attached to Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force (SP-MAGTF) Crisis Response and conducts as fly-by over the USS Bataan (LHD-5).
The KC-130Js conduct fixed-wing and rotar-wing aerial refueling with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit’s Air Combat Element and rendezvous with one of their MV-22 Ospreys before returning to base, June 15th, 2014, Mediterranean Sea.
Credit:U.S. Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa:6/19/14
08/20/2014: The French and the Marines have a special relationship forged in war. Marines with Kilo Company, Battalion Landing Team 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, present Marines new to the unit with the French Fourragere during a ceremony at Camp Lejeune, N.C., June 19, 2014.
The country of France awarded the French Fourragere to the Marines and Sailors of the 5th and 6th Marine Regiments in 1918 for their heroism and bravery in the battles of Belleau Wood, Soissons, and Champagne during World War I.
To this day, the 5th and 6th Marine Regiments are the only U.S. servicemembers authorized to wear the Fourragere.
Credit:24th Marine Expeditionary Unit:6/19/14
08/19/2014: U.S. Central Command provides an update on U.S. airstrikes on ISIL targets near Mosul, Iraq over the weekend
Credit: DOD News:8/18/14
08/19/2014: The Navy’s unmanned X-47B conducts flight operations aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71).
The aircraft completed a series of tests demonstrating its ability to operate safely and seamlessly with manned aircraft.
Credit: Navy Media Content Services:8/17/14
And from a piece published by our partner AUVSI:
The U.S. Navy has started another round of X-47B tests yesterday, this time pairing the unmanned combat air vehicle with manned aircraft on board the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
“Today we showed that the X-47B could take off, land and fly in the carrier pattern with manned aircraft while maintaining normal flight deck operations,” said Capt. Beau Duarte, program manager for the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier Aviation office. “This is key for the future Carrier Air Wing.”
The Navy operated the tests in conjunction with an F/A-18 Hornet. The X-47B flew for eight minutes before performing an arrested landing. Then the deck operator used a new deck handling control to move the aircraft to then allow the Hornet to land immediately afterward.
“For this test period, we really focused on integration with manned aircraft,” said Lt. Cmdr. Brian Hall, X-47B flight test director. “We reengineered the tailhook retract actuator and updated operating software to expedite wingfold during taxi, both of which reduce time in the landing area post-recovery. Our goal was to minimize the time in the landing area and improve the flow with manned aircraft in the landing pattern.”
The Navy will continue X-47B tests through the next year and will incorporate night deck handling and flying quality evaluations in future exercises.
By Danielle Lucey
08/18/2014: U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Terry G. Robling, Commander, U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific (MARFORPAC), relinquishes command to Lt. Gen. John A. Toolan Jr. during the MARFORPAC change of command ceremony, on Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay, August 15, 2014.
Lt. General Toolan served as the I Marine Expeditionary Force Commander prior to assuming command of MARFORPAC.
Credit: Marine Forces Pacific Combat Camera:8/15/14
The U.S. Marine Corps is in the throes of a significant shift in the Pacific in the disposition of its forces.
Because two thirds of Marines are deployed to the Pacific, such a shift is a key event in shaping the Marine Corps stance in the decade ahead.
Just as the Marines are transitioning, so is the U.S. Air Force shifting toward a more flexible deployment stance as well.
That means that USAF lift is going to be dedicated increasingly to supporting the deployment of distributed airpower. That will enhance the importance of the U.S. Navy-Marine approach to sustainment with their own assets.
The demand to support distributed forces is rising and will require attention to be paid to the connectors, lifters and various support elements.
Part of that demand can be met as allies modernize their own support elements, such as Australia and Singapore adding new Airbus tankers which could be leveraged to support Marine Corps Ospreys as well as other aircraft.
Indeed, a key element of the distributed laydown of our forces in the Pacific is the fact that it is occurring as core allies in the region are reshaping and modernizing their forces as well as partners coming to the table who wish to work with and host USMC forces operating on a rotational basis with their forces. The military and political demands for the kind of forces that the Marines are developing also are what allies and partners want for their operations.
In turn, this drives up the importance of exercises in the Pacific with joint and coalition forces to shape new capabilities for the distributed force.
The distributed laydown, the evolution of the capabilities for distributed forces, the modernization of allied forces and the growing interest in a diversity of partners to work with the USMC are all part of shaping what might be called a deterrence-in-depth strategy to deal with the threats and challenges facing the United States and its allies in shaping a 21st-century approach to Pacific defense
It is clear that as the distributed approach is shaped in the Pacific, the demand on support, connectors and lift is going to increase.
There will be a need for Military Sealift Command ships and amphibious ships and to draw heavily on new ships like the T-AKE and USNS Montford Point (MLP-1).
The demand on airlift is significant, and it’s clear from developments in the Pacific and new approaches like Special Purpose MAGTFs that KC-130Js need to be plussed up.
LtGen Robling underscored the nature of the challenge: “The demand signal goes up every year while the cost of using the lift goes up every year as well. This has me very concerned.
“The truth of the matter is the Asia Pacific region is 52 percent of the globe’s surface, and there are over 25,000 islands in the region. The distances and times necessary to respond to a crisis are significant. The size of the AOR [area of responsibility] is illustrated in part by the challenge of finding the missing Malaysian airliner.
“If you don’t have the inherent capability like the KC-130J aircraft to get your equipment and people into places rapidly, you can quickly become irrelevant. General Hawk Carlisle uses a term in his engagement strategy which is ‘places not bases.’
“America doesn’t want forward bases. This means you have to have the lift to get to places quickly, be able to operate in an expeditionary environment when you get there, and then leave when we are done.
“Strengthening our current partnerships and making new ones will go a long way in helping us be successful at this strategy,” the general added. “We have to be invited in before we can help. If you don’t have prepositioned equipment already in these countries, then you have to move it in somehow.
“And, right now, we’re moving in either via naval shipping, black-bottom shipping, or when we really need it there quickly, via KC-130J aircraft or available C-17 aircraft. Right now, we are the only force in the Pacific that can get to a crisis quickly, and the only force that operates as an integrated air, sea and ground organization.”
Allies see the Marines clearly on the right path, and that path is a powerful one.
But funding for the capabilities needed and the proper training will not happen by itself.
Amazingly, the USMC exercise budget is under regular attack.
The KC-130Js are not being procured in the numbers needed, and too many inside Washington, D.C., have not recognized what the evolution of a tilt-rotor-enabled ground force can be for 21st-century operations.
The Marines are innovators; however, they need support to turn those innovations into the combat realities the United States will need in the decade ahead.
For an article looking at the distributed laydown:
https://www.mca-marines.org/leatherneck/2014/08
And for a flip book version of the article:
http://sldinfo.wpstage.net/flipbooks/Distributed%20Laydown/DistributedLaydown/
08/17/2014: Canadian Sailors aboard the HMCS Summerside conduct a Mediterranean Mooring maneuver during exercise Tradewinds at Las Calderas Naval Base, Dominican Republic, June 19, 2014.
Tradewinds 2014 is a joint combined exercise conducted in order to build partner nation counter-transnational organized crime missions and humanitarian aid and disaster response operations capacity and promote interoperability and multinational relationships throughout the theater.
Credit:Marine Forces Reserve:6/19/14
08/17/2014: The USS America is in transit to San Diego and then on to San Francisco for its official commissioning in October.
In transit, the crew is training and fitting out the ship. In this slideshow, some of the many skills being learned and applied at sea are highlighted, and these are not the skill sets which are immediately visible as airplanes take off and are recovered aboard the latest large deck amphibious ship.
Lieutenant Col. George Hasseltine, the Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force commanding officer, and a native of Metairie, La., conducts rifle drills during a dry-fire exercise aboard the future amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6), Aug. 14, 2014.
The purpose of the training was to refresh the Marines on their weapon skills prior to conducting a live-fire event later this week. Training like this ensures that Marines with the SPMAGTF are prepared to provide our nation and partners with the capacity to respond immediately to a multitude of crisis.
SPMAGTF-South is currently embarked aboard America on her maiden transit dubbed, “America Visits the Americas.
Credit Photos: USS America, August 2014
The ship has three synergistic decks, which work together to support flight deck operations.
These photos show some of the sailors and Marines living and operating on these decks.
There is space to maintain and sustain the Osprey and the other aviation assets, and prepares for the coming of the F-35B as the ISR C2 asset taking the assault force to another level of capability