More perusal of the service budgets reveal details of the Corps interest in the Internally Transportable Vehicle, a modernized version of the Jeep Willy that is designed to fly in the belly of an Osprey. 

The Corps’ original plan was to pair this mini-me vehicle with the Expeditionary Fire Support System 120mm mortar and storm them Warsaw Pact style off the backs of the Osprey’s diminutive loading bay. But many doubt that capability (I for one have never seen it tested and I can’t imagine having flown a lot in Ospreys that the entire suit can fit in the cargo bay). 

Yet the Corps keeps buyin’ ‘em. 

According to the budget submission, the Corps wants to pay General Dynamics of St. Petersburg, Fla., $28 million to purchase 73 ITVs in the Light Attack Vehicle configurations — in other words, not the 120mm towing version. 

Funds will support procurement of 73 ITV Light Strike Vehicles (LSV). The vehicles will be fielded to support upcoming Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) deployments to OEF. The procurement will also support production line activities used for the Expeditionary Fire Support System ( EFSS). The combined procurement of the ITV and EFSS prime mover platforms will allow production line operations to continue until the EFSS needs are fully satisfied. The unit costs for the ITV variants are impacted based on quantity differences and the negotiated prices derived from the negotiations. 

I know there’s a lot of caveats here, but that comes out to around $380K per vehicle. Some of the money is being used for spares and other support costs, but if I’m reading the documents right (page 285) it looks as if the base cost for each ITV is around $273,000. That’s a lot of jack for an unarmored max-4-man minijeeep.

Better have some Corinthian Leather seats, burled wood paneling and full DVD/GPS entertainment system with Bose boosters for that kind of coin.

– Christian

The Air Force looks as if it has punted the establishment of a COIN Wing (though we’ll see when the authorization process starts) based on its budget submission yesterday. 

Air Force budget officials said the so-called “light attack aircraft” would not have any significant funding until the 2012 submission, where the service will allot $172 million for the so-called COIN plane. 

The Air Force did, however, take a step toward a COIN wing by ordering up 15 Light Mobility Aircraft to the tune of nearly $66 million. According to a submission to FedBizOpps, the LiMA must be able to carry a minimum of six pax and crew, operate from “austere landing surfaces” and carry a minimum of 1800 pounds with crew. The plane needs a loading door that can take litters and a 36 inch warehouse skid and have two pilot stations but be able to be flown by one pilot. 

The Air Force is budgeting for these planes in FY 2011 only. And part of the idea behind the plane is to help train other air forces during counterinsurgency operations. 

The Light Mobility Aircraft (LiMA) program will acquire Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) aircraft to satisfy the USAF light mobility mission requirement. These aircraft will be suitable for building partner capacity (BPC) especially in lesser developed partner nations (PN). This program supports irregular warfare efforts that help prepare PN to defend and govern themselves by demonstrating an airlift capability that is consistent with their needs for supporting infrastructure, performance, anticipated methods of employment, acquisition and sustainment costs, and multi-role/multi-mission capability. 

– Christian 

Or is it?

This guy’s clearly wearing MultiCam and has all the high-speed identifiers that a US trooper would wear. I can’t seem to find a high-rez version of this photo, which itself is a mystery, but given the story that surrounds the photo and context of that area of Afghanistan, I’m leaning heavily toward an adoption by at least some groups of French military (their version of the PJs) of MulitCam uniforms.

In this photo released by the French Army, Nato French soldiers evacuate wounded from Tagab, Afghanistan, Monday Nov. 16, 2009. Insurgents fired two rockets Monday into a crowded market northeast of Kabul where the head of French forces in Afghanistan held a meeting with tribal elders. The attack killed at least twelve and wounded 20 other people, the French military said. (AP / HO / ADC Jean-Charles Thorel)

The only thing that makes me pause, is that I reported a while back that USAF PJs were wearing MultiCam combat uniforms in the AO. This guy could be a PJ but I can’t see enough of the helo and am skeptical that an AF bubba would be sporting Rock Star hair and a hillbilly beard. Wouldn’t look too good with the rest of his pals at the Bagram Links.

So help me with this dear readers…who is this guy?

– Christian

In a move that harkens back to the days of recycled World War II torpedo bombers sheep-dipped as close air support planes, the Navy intends to field a limited number of turbo-prop attack planes outfitted with the most modern surveillance, tracking and weapons systems to help special ops forces keep track of bad guys and, in a pinch, put warheads on foreheads.

Call it an A-1 Skyraider on steroids a Back to the Future-resurrection of a kind of plane last seen pounding enemy positions with rockets, guns and bombs over Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in the 1960s.

Code named Imminent Fury, the classified, year-long program has so far produced one fully-outfitted plane and is set to field four more to directly support SEALs and other operators on the battlefield in Afghanistan.

According to a source close to the program who declined to be named, the Navy has leased an EMB-314 Super Tucano for the job. Made by the Brazilian aerospace company Embraer, it is now being tested on desert ranges in California and the services top test facility at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md. The Navy loaded it up with sensors and weapons systems that would make an F-16 pilot blush, the source said.

With top end electro-optical and infrared sensors, laser and GPS-guided bombs, rockets, twin .50 cal. machine guns, encrypted radios and even the capability to tie in UAV surveillance feeds the Super Tucano outfitted for the SEALs is a ground-pounders angel from above.

Military.com contacted the Navy for comment on this story, but despite a detailed public briefing on the program in March by a high-ranking program official, the service declined to elaborate on the program other than to say in a written statement: Imminent Fury is a classified Navy initiative to address urgent warfighter needs. Initial developmental testing has been promising and the Navy is currently conducting discussions with our Joint partners on various courses of action as this initiative moves forward.

News of the Imminent Fury program comes as commanders in Afghanistan wrestle with the persistent problem of civilian casualties resulting from errant or mistaken bomb strikes typically from aircraft high above the battlefield.

A recent investigation report on a high-profile friendly-fire incident in Farah province showed that high-altitude B-1 bombers had little ability to discriminate enemy from civilians during several bombings in support of Marine spec ops forces under Taliban assault.

Many argue that low-altitude aircraft that can fly for long periods over combat zones loaded with various weapons are needed to avoid such incidents. For advocates of the Imminent Fury program, the Super Tucano with its five-hour endurance fits the bill for a so-called counter insurgency aircraft.

The SEALs said we want a persistent capability at low cost, small footprint and turbo-prop aircraft to do armed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, the source close to the program said. Everyone who gets briefed on this program has been blown away.

Over the past year, both Navy and Air Force pilots have flown the leased Super Tucano in tests. According to the source, the single-engine, two-pilot plane has successfully dropped both laser and GPS guided bombs, as well as a wide range of guided and unguided rockets.

According to statistics from an Embraer brochure, the EMB-314 has a maximum speed of nearly 370 mph and a maximum ceiling of 35,000 feet. The plane can take off and land in just under 3,000 feet and can carry a maximum load of nearly 3,500 pounds.

The initial cadre of four SEAL-supporting Super Tucanos will be flown by Navy pilots activated as individual augmentees, and multiple sources close to the program report that aviators are clamoring to get involved with the program.

But it is still unclear whether Imminent Fury will get off the ground since funding for the program is in doubt. Sources say there is no money earmarked for the program in the 2010 budget but that the service is hoping for some reprogramming authority to move funds from other accounts to buy the four planes requested by the SEALs.

– Christian

From today’s top headline at Military.com.

A Navy SEAL who was killed while leading a reconnaissance mission in Afghanistan will receive the nation’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor.

Lt. Michael P. Murphy, 29, of Patchogue on Long Island, is the first Medal of Honor recipient for combat in Afghanistan, the Navy said in a statement Thursday.

In late June 2005, Murphy led a four-man reconnaissance mission east of Asadabad trying to find a key Taliban leader in advance of a mission to capture or destroy the local militia leadership. Taliban sympathizers alerted fighters to the SEALs’ positions, and the four men were quickly outnumbered and came under fire, the Navy said.

Even after being wounded, Murphy crawled into the open to make a radio call for help and still continued to fight, the Navy said. The call ultimately allowed the rescue of one wounded SEAL and the recoveries of the bodies of Murphy and two others killed in the firefight.

President Bush will present the Medal of Honor to Murphy’s parents at the White House on Oct. 22.

“I think it is a public recognition of what we knew about Michael, of his intensity, his focus, his devout loyalty to home and family, his country and especially to his SEAL teammates and the SEAL community,” Murphy’s father, Daniel Murphy told Newsday for a story published on its Web site.

The Medal of Honor is the nation’s highest military award for valor in action against an enemy force. Murphy is the fourth Navy SEAL to receive the medal and the first since Vietnam.

The other two SEALs killed in the Afghan firefight, Petty Officer 2nd Class Danny P. Dietz, 25, of Littleton, Colo., and Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew G. Axelson, 29, of Cupertino, Calif., previously received the Navy Cross, the second-highest honor.

A U.S. helicopter that went to rescue the SEALs was shot down by enemy fire; 16 SEALs and Army special operations troops were killed in the crash.

The entire battle resulted in the worst single-day loss of life for Navy Special Warfare personnel since World War II.

Two Medals of Honor have been awarded posthumously in the Iraq war.

– Christian