Oh, Sal. Don’t you understand? “Imagine” is a much, much better plan than mere “Hope” because no one in the next SEVERAL administrations has to actually produce anything useful! Or even close to being tactically relevant or remotely sailor-proof. Does anyone remember the Great Green Fleet fiasco? It never produced anything useful, and no one was ever fired for incompetence. Because, hey, it’s Washington.
“Every key DoD stakeholder will have a seat at the table: combatant commanders; military departments, service secretaries and service chiefs; and OSD component heads.”
Is this how we got it done at Los Alamos? I think not. I’d argue that that’s the only “silver bullet” ever produced in the history of warfare. One O-6 in charge, later promoted to 1-star. No bullsh1t. Just get it done.
And BTW, CDR, would love to read your take on the movie “Oppenheimer,” if/when you see it.
Damn it... I've got to remember to stop reading CDR Sal's work anywhere near 5:00 PM... It only makes me want to add another finger to the Knob Creek on the rocks.
Yawn. Heard it all before, never seen it work. How about every person working in DOD that has never served go put on a uniform and try to make Midrats out of the pile(s) of BS that DOD serves up?
Phib, you are one of the best salesmen for bourbon the world over… (but don’t give up brother, even if so many of us have).
I'm an Armor guy and the Biden folks have promised me all electric tanks which are gonna save lives because we won't have that vulnerable log tail of fuel trucks.
Personally, I'm waiting for the fusion powered hovertanks with the 20cm powerguns
How long have I been calling for the deep-sixing of DOD-5000? Fifteen years? Twenty?
Let's think about it...what systems have been fielded in the last twenty-five years that actually delivered results FAST? I can think of four: MQ-1 Predator, MQ-9 Reaper, RQ-4 Global Hawk (ACTD and Block 10), and RQ-4 Global Hawk Maritime Demonstration (later renamed BAMS-D).
All four short-circuited the DOD-5000 process. I was on the DARPA team that did the RQ-4 program - with a specification that was 10 Powerpoint slides. The result was a system that flew less than three years after contract award, delivered battle-deciding ISR capabilities in combat four years later. GHMD? The Navy's team got the airplanes and software (the latter was held up - long story) in late December of 2006. Spent 2007 sorting out operations and dissemination issues, flew wargames in 2008...and some quasi-operational tasking as well. Deployed in January 2009 on a six-month deployment - that ended thirteen years later.
Put a bullet into DOD-5000, and give me a team of bad-tempered veterans from the field activities. We'll make miracles happen.
So does a ground-launched rocket-boosted Quickstrike-ER air-deployed sea mine qualify as (checks notes) ADA2-worthy? It’s certainly attritable, it flies and then splashes and sinks, so that’s two domains, and it’s autonomous, counting and exploding as programmed. If it got a sat data link that works in flight, that would be THREE domains. And if it could be launched from those box launcher trucks the Marines are getting among others, and we could get thousands of them into theater in a year and a half, that would be a Good Thing Indeed.
Or is it not droney enough, nor made of cardboard?
Hmm... Sal, this from your pull-quotes of Hicks: "the PRC, has spent the last 20 years building a modern military carefully crafted to blunt the operational advantages we've enjoyed for decades."
.
Okay, yes... But left unsaid is that the PRC has spent the past 40+ years building out a modern, world-class, every-element-of-the-periodic-table, top-to-bottom, energy-industrial complex, from which to craft its military. Because (copybook heading, here): "Military Power Is the Absolute and Unalterable First Derivative of Industrial Power."
.
And deindustrialized nations do not remain military powers for long; a generation or two to burn down the legacy capabilities. Closer to pierside, nations without a broad, deep, innovative, reactive shipbuilding industry do not long remain naval powers; a point too evident to belabor here.
.
And out of that talk, I detect a Full-Strength Kool Aid-level commitment to the hardline, Biden admin Climate Change agenda, viscerally anti-oil/fossil fuels. If nothing else, there's that cringeworthy line about "distributed pods of self-propelled ADA2 systems afloat, powered by the sun and other virtually-limitless resources, packed with sensors aplenty..."
.
Oh, goody! Win the war with solar-powered sailboats. Dissuade. Deter. Detect. Defend. Defeat. With windmills and solar panels. Or something like that, right?
How many more painful lessons are we going to get served up by the priesthood of the Eternal Church of Transformational Acronyms? Escalate complexity... but at an "attributable" price point? Achieve overmatch in 18 to 24 months because that's a length of time that is not too hot... not to cold... it's just right. Now I'm going to pour 3 fingers of bourbon.
Oh, Sal. Don’t you understand? “Imagine” is a much, much better plan than mere “Hope” because no one in the next SEVERAL administrations has to actually produce anything useful! Or even close to being tactically relevant or remotely sailor-proof. Does anyone remember the Great Green Fleet fiasco? It never produced anything useful, and no one was ever fired for incompetence. Because, hey, it’s Washington.
I'm waiting for DEPSECDEF Hicks to be more like Corporal Dwayne Hicks:
https://cdn.quotesgram.com/img/17/65/564671072-f4b74d28b85d00c6aefcb8d1de48f566.jpg
“Every key DoD stakeholder will have a seat at the table: combatant commanders; military departments, service secretaries and service chiefs; and OSD component heads.”
Is this how we got it done at Los Alamos? I think not. I’d argue that that’s the only “silver bullet” ever produced in the history of warfare. One O-6 in charge, later promoted to 1-star. No bullsh1t. Just get it done.
And BTW, CDR, would love to read your take on the movie “Oppenheimer,” if/when you see it.
Damn it... I've got to remember to stop reading CDR Sal's work anywhere near 5:00 PM... It only makes me want to add another finger to the Knob Creek on the rocks.
Yawn. Heard it all before, never seen it work. How about every person working in DOD that has never served go put on a uniform and try to make Midrats out of the pile(s) of BS that DOD serves up?
Phib, you are one of the best salesmen for bourbon the world over… (but don’t give up brother, even if so many of us have).
I'm an Armor guy and the Biden folks have promised me all electric tanks which are gonna save lives because we won't have that vulnerable log tail of fuel trucks.
Personally, I'm waiting for the fusion powered hovertanks with the 20cm powerguns
How long have I been calling for the deep-sixing of DOD-5000? Fifteen years? Twenty?
Let's think about it...what systems have been fielded in the last twenty-five years that actually delivered results FAST? I can think of four: MQ-1 Predator, MQ-9 Reaper, RQ-4 Global Hawk (ACTD and Block 10), and RQ-4 Global Hawk Maritime Demonstration (later renamed BAMS-D).
All four short-circuited the DOD-5000 process. I was on the DARPA team that did the RQ-4 program - with a specification that was 10 Powerpoint slides. The result was a system that flew less than three years after contract award, delivered battle-deciding ISR capabilities in combat four years later. GHMD? The Navy's team got the airplanes and software (the latter was held up - long story) in late December of 2006. Spent 2007 sorting out operations and dissemination issues, flew wargames in 2008...and some quasi-operational tasking as well. Deployed in January 2009 on a six-month deployment - that ended thirteen years later.
Put a bullet into DOD-5000, and give me a team of bad-tempered veterans from the field activities. We'll make miracles happen.
So does a ground-launched rocket-boosted Quickstrike-ER air-deployed sea mine qualify as (checks notes) ADA2-worthy? It’s certainly attritable, it flies and then splashes and sinks, so that’s two domains, and it’s autonomous, counting and exploding as programmed. If it got a sat data link that works in flight, that would be THREE domains. And if it could be launched from those box launcher trucks the Marines are getting among others, and we could get thousands of them into theater in a year and a half, that would be a Good Thing Indeed.
Or is it not droney enough, nor made of cardboard?
Hmm... Sal, this from your pull-quotes of Hicks: "the PRC, has spent the last 20 years building a modern military carefully crafted to blunt the operational advantages we've enjoyed for decades."
.
Okay, yes... But left unsaid is that the PRC has spent the past 40+ years building out a modern, world-class, every-element-of-the-periodic-table, top-to-bottom, energy-industrial complex, from which to craft its military. Because (copybook heading, here): "Military Power Is the Absolute and Unalterable First Derivative of Industrial Power."
.
And deindustrialized nations do not remain military powers for long; a generation or two to burn down the legacy capabilities. Closer to pierside, nations without a broad, deep, innovative, reactive shipbuilding industry do not long remain naval powers; a point too evident to belabor here.
.
And out of that talk, I detect a Full-Strength Kool Aid-level commitment to the hardline, Biden admin Climate Change agenda, viscerally anti-oil/fossil fuels. If nothing else, there's that cringeworthy line about "distributed pods of self-propelled ADA2 systems afloat, powered by the sun and other virtually-limitless resources, packed with sensors aplenty..."
.
Oh, goody! Win the war with solar-powered sailboats. Dissuade. Deter. Detect. Defend. Defeat. With windmills and solar panels. Or something like that, right?
What would Bill Knudson do?
Our only hope is the Chinese have their analog equivalents of Kathleen Hicks and her ilk screwing up their procurement.
"Emperor Elon, First of His Name" I needed that chuckle.
Would that the proportions were reversed.
Did anybody else get severe SkyNet vibes from ADA2?
How many more painful lessons are we going to get served up by the priesthood of the Eternal Church of Transformational Acronyms? Escalate complexity... but at an "attributable" price point? Achieve overmatch in 18 to 24 months because that's a length of time that is not too hot... not to cold... it's just right. Now I'm going to pour 3 fingers of bourbon.
Another brilliant analysis by Sal! If a Republican gets elected Pres, I suggest Sal for Sal for SECNAV.