Northrop Gumman press release:

Northrop Grumman Corporation’s (NYSE:NOC) first KC-30 Tanker aircraft completed initial airframe assembly in July, illustrating an efficient and low-risk approach for quickly replacing the U.S. Air Force’s KC-135 tanker fleet.

The first developmental KC-30 aircraft, designated SDD-1, entered final assembly a month earlier at the EADS commercial aircraft center when technicians began fitting together large subassemblies to create the commercial A330 airframe.

“If we’re successful in our bid to provide the Air Force with the more capable tanker — we’re ready immediately,” said Paul Meyer, Northrop Grumman vice president and general manager of the KC-30 program. “Having the very first KC-30 already completing airframe assembly clearly shows the advantage in leveraging a current and efficient production line, which we feel offers a competitive advantage. We’re absolutely committed to meeting and exceeding the Air Force’s need to quickly replace its mission-critical tanker aircraft.”

Sooner or later a decision on the new tanker needs to made, doesn’t it?

Strategy Page:

Another relic of World War II is fading away. The reserve fleet of support and war ships maintained for the U.S. Navy since World War II, are down to about 200 ships, and those may all be gone within a decade.

The Royal Navy Invincible-class aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious (R 06), and Nimitz-class aircraft carriers USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) transit in formation during a multi-ship maneuvering exercise in the Atlantic Ocean. The three carriers are currently participating in Operation Bold Step where more than 15,000 service members from three countries partake in the Joint Task Force Exercise (JTFX). U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jay C. Pugh

For more info on Bold Step, see U.S., U.K. warships to drill off U.S. coast. Pic from Navy NewsStand.

The technical problems that plagued MO’s host yesterday seem to have been resolved.

Dun Surber: Farm subsidies=bad foreign policy

The United States needs all the help it can get in fighting terrorists. To his credit, the president has worked well on the international stage forming the largest international coalition since George H.W. Bush was president. You try to get Pakistan and India on the same page.

But farm subsidies strain international relations. The BBC reported that the United States just had its chops busted by the World Trade Organization for giving subsidies to cotton farmers. Brazil had complained.

The WTO reviewed the complaint and said Brazil would be right to retaliate against this unfair trade practice.

Has anyone in America ever heard of free trade?

I think it goes a lot deeper than international relations, though.

In the comments section, what appears to be a Surber response to a comment reads:

There is no connection between terrorism and poverty. Osama bin Laden’s loaded.

I disagree. Bin Laden may have been loaded, but without widespread poverty and anger against those perceived to be maintaining that poverty, the extremists don’t have such a large pool of volunteers and supporters or so many places to hide. Poverty doesn’t cause terrorism, but poverty enables terrorism. At least the terrorism we’re fighting right now.

In 2003 I wrote in Farmers and the Fourth World War:
(more…)

Just finished reading World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks. Murdoc’s not particularly a zombie fan, but this book was a good read, definitely enjoyable for casual zombie fans. How it holds up for hardcore zombie freaks I can’t say, but one of them I know enjoyed it thoroughly. Here’s the blurb:

Brooks tells the story of the world’s desperate battle against the zombie threat with a series of first-person accounts “as told to the author” by various characters around the world. A Chinese doctor encounters one of the earliest zombie cases at a time when the Chinese government is ruthlessly suppressing any information about the outbreak that will soon spread across the globe. The tale then follows the outbreak via testimony of smugglers, intelligence officials, military personnel and many others who struggle to defeat the zombie menace. Despite its implausible premise and choppy delivery, the novel is surprisingly hard to put down. The subtle, and not so subtle, jabs at various contemporary politicians and policies are an added bonus.

Most of the military aspects of the story appeared to be spot on, with the exception of a few cancelled programs that are written about as if they entered the field. As far as I can tell, the Zombie War took place sometime in 2009-2012, in the term of the US president following George W. Bush.

I know that there are bunch of zombie fans out in the bunch of MO regular readers. Has anyone checked out this book? Is this considered a solid piece of zombie fiction? Most of what I’ve seen is pretty weak, honestly, and this book is not. Or does Murdoc ‘just not get it’?

Combined Interoperability Pic of the Day!

Head on over to Pinch’s for pics and more.

Instapundit: HOW TO GET RICH: Quit watching TV.

From the linked article:

If you want to know why you don’t have enough money, the first question to ask yourself is how much time do you spend watching TV? It’s probably a lot more than you ever realised. While most people focus on the cost of cable when they think of the price of watching TV, I would argue that a far more costly aspect is the opportunity cost — the things you could be doing during the time that you’re actually watching TV.

To put it into perspective, if you watch an average of 31.5 hours of TV each week (which the average person in the US does) and you value your time at minimum wage of $5.85 an hour, you are spending nearly $800 a month ($798.53) to watch TV.

I haven’t really been much of a TV watcher since I was a teenager, and even then I read more than I watched the tube. And since then the majority of the hours I’ve watched television programming have been sports. I’ve never really got into television dramas, and sitcoms never did it for me.

My loophole in all this has been the watching of movies on television. I watch a lot of movies. I used to average about ten or twelve movies a week (seriously…I used to log them) and that’s a lot of time. Since I started MO over four years ago, however, even my movie watching has drastically declined, probably averaging about two per week now.

Since the advent of TiVo and the ability to watch what I want when I want, I’ve got three weekly hour-long television dramas I watch, which is actually three more than I used to care about. At a half-year of weekly one hour shows per series, two movies per week, and about 40 three hour sporting events per year, I average about 8 hours of television per week. (40 sporting events is probably far more than the real number, but I’ll go with it.)

I also sometimes watch television shows during dinner with my family (classic Star Trek is a favorite) and don’t count that as I wouldn’t be doing anything else anyway, and I feel justified in not counting it because during virtually all sporting events I’m online working at least some of the time.

8 hours per week, to be honest, is more than I would have expected. But at least I don’t know who’s winning ‘Dancing with the Stars’.

I would bet that MO readers watch far less than the average of 31.5 hours of television per week, though I’d also bet that most of you watch more than 8.

No More Pistols? (subscribers only)
Many U.S. Marine Corps Leaders To Carry M4

The Marines, for the most part, have stuck with the M16 rifle over the shorter M4 carbine, and are well into a Corps-wide transition to the M16A4. But Defense News recently reported that more M4s are on their way, though not to replace rifles:

The U.S. Marine Corps on June 22 announced a major shake-up in weapon assignments, saying that staff sergeants and up, as well as second lieutenants through lieutenant colonels and chief warrant officers, will now be issued the M4 carbine as their T/O, or –table of organization,” weapon — the weapon associated with their rank. Marines in those pay grades were previously issued the M9 pistol, which colonels and up will continue to carry.

Privates through sergeants will still be issued the M16A4. Assignment of automatic rifles will not change.

Sailors E-5 and below who are with Marine units will be issued the M4. The remaining pay grades will still carry the pistol.

This is probably more of a condemnation of the M9 9mm pistol than an endorsement of the M4. Though most of the Army has shifted to the M4 due to the lighter weight and more maneuverability of the shorter weapon, the 5.56mm round, already questioned over its “stopping power”, loses a lot of steam when fired from the M4’s barrel.

Commander’s discretion will allow Marines previously issued M9s to continue to carry the pistols in addition to their new carbines.

Though additional training and qualification will be required initially, it seems to me that M4 training and qualifying will save time over the pistol option in the long run. Not to mention that the added capability the M4 brings when compared to the handgun will probably save lives.

Question: Why don’t they go with the collapsible stock on the M16? Wouldn’t that address at least some of the concern over weight and weapon length while keeping the better barrel?

Report: Japan to develop prototype fighter jet

We continually deny the ability to export the F-22 Raptor, and Japan is getting tired of trying to get them:

Japan plans to develop a prototype of an advanced fighter jet in the hope it will spur the United States to review a ban on selling F-22 fighters, a news report said Tuesday.

But an official of the Defense Ministry said no decision has been reached.

Japan’s largest daily, The Yomiuri, said the Defense Ministry plans to request a budget for the next year to build the test model of a stealth fighter jet.

We want to keep the F-22’s advanced technology out of anyone else’s hands, even those of close allies. This makes sense in a lot of ways, but not everyone is pleased, as the USA Today reports:
(more…)