Down with COIN!

Good news for all full spectrum operators today! Acquisition officials all over the US military are licking their lips in anticipation of ignoring the lessons of irregular warfare and moving ahead with their multi-billion dollar acquisition plans.

The new line of attack:

Counterinsurgency tactics [by US forces] could leave U.S. forces vulnerable to the kind of coordinated attacks that stymied Israel [against Hezbollah in 2006].

OK, so let Kip get this straight. We should invest heavily in Force XXI capabilities so that we aren't outsmarted by the next Pancho Villa when he provides threats and jokes to a vast Univision audience while firing rockets across the southern US border into San Diego?

(Kip realizes that there are a few viewpoints in the article and his caricature of complexity)

What's next?

All hail the resurrection of the Crusader!

If there was really any lesson from Israel's escapades toward the Litani, it was clearly the effective information operations and tactical results from virtually unconstrained use of Air Power. No better reason than to ignore the Office of the Secretary of Defense and double the number of F-22s that you are going to buy over what you're authorized.

"How you going to pay for it?" you might ask U.S. Air Force Gen. Bruce Carlson, chief of Air Force Materiel Command. From "operations and maintenance, research and development and procurement [funds]," he would respond.

So Kip has got it straight now. The Air Force is going to use operations and maintenance funds that could be used to repair and maintain its current fleet, research and development funds on extending fleet life, and procurement funds for technology much cheaper than an F22 to increase fleet capability and is going to apply it toward purchasing more F22s. Suddenly the Air Force is going to tell the Army (again) that it can't keep its F15s up in the air to support ongoing combat operations because it has been unable to maintain and sustain them and that this would be fixed, how? You got it boys and girls....even more F22s! Kip wishes that the Army could have used blackmail so successfully during his most recent tour in Afghanistan so that he might not have had to ride an unarmored pick up truck for six months.

The Air Force to Secretary Gates: Bring it on!