The Frigate HMCS Charlottetown left Halifax yesterday for the Libyan coast where it will meet up with the forming US Naval Battle Group. All Canadian Naval ships are fully interoperable with their US counterparts when it comes to data links and the like. There is a CH-124 Sea King with air detachment aboard.

Joint Task Force Malta is the Canadian Forces team based in Valletta, to help the staff of the Embassy of Canada to Libya — temporarily relocated to Valletta — assist the departure of Canadian citizens and other entitled persons who wish to leave Libya.

One CC-177 Globemaster and two CC-130J Hercules transports are currently based at Malta International Airport. An Operational Liaison and Reconnaissance Team (OLRT) of 13 personnel deployed on February 26th, accompanied by aircrews, Military Police and medical personnel. Co-ordination staff, logisticians and technicians soon followed, for a total of about 70 Canadian Forces members as of March 2nd

Thee are also rumours that Canadian Special Forces Command troopers are in Malta and that they may have already been operating on the ground in Libya assisting with the evacuation of Canadian citizens and diplomatic staffers.

The New York Times is reporting that Boeing has won the KC-X contract.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/business/25tanker.html?_r=1&hp

What would ark/lusty do? They have no planes.

AEW

The worst the UN can do unfortunately is write Gaddafi a nasty letter and hope for the off chance he doesn’t chuck it in the trash. They have no power, considering they great those genocidal dictators pretty much as equals.

What can be done? Good question. Italy could deploy fighter from tarpani for CAP, but that might be unlikely given economic ties with Gaddafi. Same deal with the French. Personally, I’d order Vinson and Enterprise to the med and Lincoln back into the gulf.

The UN could demand that their air force be grounded. Is the Charles De Gaulle back from the Arabian Sea yet? Is the USS Enterprise carrier group still in the Med or has it transited the Canal for the Arabian Sea? Could the Italians, Spaniards and French scare up some CAP fighters/tankers and base them in say Sigonella and run cab ranks over Tripoli?

you have to be fair and say it looks a bit like Tiger (in the faceting) a bit like Mangusta in the general shape and a bit like the Havoc in the engine and rotor department.

But thats to be expected, because they all are good designs for this job.

It looks a little stealthy though eh? and i too query the exhaust IR signature.

IR diffusers/suppressors would definitely be fitted on service helos. Those exhausts as is are screaming out for a visit from a Stinger/RBS-70/Mistral type MANPAD.

This is quite the accomplishment…and the 1/1/11 date for first flight was obviously not coincidental with the luck overtones it has in Chinese culture.

The shots posted of all three stealth fighters is an interesting comparison in itself. The Chinese and Russian entrants are obviously not the full on stealth article the Raptor is considering the fact that the F-22 was obviously built with all aspect stealth in mind while the T-50 and J-20 are without a doubt less stealthy from the rear.

I guess it comes down to a cost/benefit analysis. The Chinese and Russians obviously believe that all aspect stealth is not worth the obscene cost that it was for the USA when the Raptor was developed.

The USMC in many ways is perhaps the most “loved” branch of the American military by their populace. There is no way in hell that a President/Secretary of Defense (either Democrat or Republican) would advocate abolishing the USMC.

Nor do I think it should be abolished. What the Marines bring to the table is a unique ability to complicate the the thinking of adversaries the way the US Army (due respect to them) simply cannot. The Marines have the ability when called upon to fulfill just about the full spectrum of military action, and they can get into the fight considerably quicker. For want of a better word, they are “portable”.

The USN has a significant amount of assets tied up in supporting the USMC. The “Gator Navy” is I think roughly made up of about thirty ships (with about ten more on the way to replace older hulls) Of roughly 280 combat ships of all types in service the thirty odd amphibs make up a huge chunk of the service.

The issue in my eyes, that many others in this thread have already ably discussed, is the waste that comes from the fact that the Marines are looked upon as a separate service with some unique ways of doing things as part of their doctrine. The Marines do not need in my eyes their own fixed wing combat aircraft with their own training establishments and supply chain. They are carried into the fight for the most part by the USN. Many of their Hornet/Prowler squadrons routinely deploy as part of Carrier Air Wings anyways and USN pilots are I am sure are as able to support the ground pounders from a technical perspective as USMC aviators are. The Hornets and Prowlers have arrester hooks and the Marine Aviators are carrier qualified. The US military establishment has spent time and effort becoming much more of a “joint force” anyways and getting those assets integrated into the USN would in and of itself save a huge chunk of change would it not?

Keep the USMC. Just get rid of the pieces, like fixed wing aviation, that duplicate other American military capabilities and whose loss will not impact the core ability of the USMC to do what it already can ably do. The USMC and its capability so complicate the defensive plans of potential adversaries that they provide outstanding value for money. The key is to keep the core of that capability without spending so much money to do so.

A full non destructive structural survey including bulkhead X-ray testing, full avionics upgrade, hell just to rewire and repipe the bird would cost a fortune.

d they still can’t replace the old engines… With BA retiring their old Boeings there must be some low hour RB-211’s lying around in Arizona somewhere.