Ugh.  Morrison is not even lightweight in this discussion.  He'd be better of saying nothing at all.

Ugh.  Morrison is not even lightweight in this discussion.  He'd be better of saying nothing at all.

Puts one in mind of Vince Gair's description of Billy Snedden as "a lightweight who couldn't go two rounds with a revolving door, and wouldn't make an impression in a soft cushion."

Mr. Lane

USN's own documentation says that the LCS ships are not built to survive weapons impact, and that their primary means of providing crew safety is speed - 8 knots in a Freedom... HMAS Leeuwin could outrun it without breaking a sweat - and it's most dangerous opponent is likely to be some illegal migrants in an Indonesian fishing canoe. At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter that their duties are, if it's a war situation the other side is going to target ANY large asset on your side that moves, and quite a good number of assets that aren't moving too. A hell of a lot has to go right/wrong outlook depending before a Uran, Klub or Granit can hit your ship too, but you better believe that the US/NATO carry defense to them, Zircon? A decoy at end stage is useless unless you can move properly quick, like faster than any ship currently known.

Not every ship needs to be a multi billion dollar guided missile destroyer.

I wont argue that the LCS are great ships and yes the Freedom class has serious issues, but there needs to be context. The reason the LCS program started was because the USN needed to retire its old Oliver Hazard Perry frigates and was sending multi billion dollar guided missile destroyers and cruisers with their 300 plus crew to chase down pirates, drug runners and ward off terrorist speed boats.

This is an expensive use of valuable high end assets and also was resulting in these ships deteriorating more quickly than planned. The LCS was designed to solve this problem. They are not surface combatants designed to go toe-to-toe with the PLAN...they are designed to be deployed elsewhere so the serious surface combatants can be deployed to where they really need to be.

Did it turn out? Not really, but that has more to do with technical issues with the ships themselves rather than the concept and the fact that people keep trying to turn the ships into something they are not.

They need to get back to the basics with the LCS and refocus them on their original low end roles, not try to make them some sort of frigate.

As for missile defense, well a few things. First, NO ship is surviving a hit from a hypersonic cruise missile LCS or otherwise. Second ECM/jamming and decoys have ALWAYS been the most effective defense against guided missiles, NOT kinetic defenses.

Modern USN ships are as much electronic warfare platforms as they are weapons platforms: the ships are bristling with all sorts of antennas and arrays that are designed to send out jamming, blinding, spoofing and scrambling signals. There are more electronic weapons systems than actual weapons.

At the end stage there are decoys like SBROC and Nulka and others. SBROC works by shooting enormous blooms of radar reflecting material over the fleet that obscures the ships below. Nulka (an Australian developed system) works by hovering above the ships and mimicking the radar returns of the ship thus luring the missiles up and harmlessly over the top of the ship.

That doesn't mean the ships are invincible, but weapons like Zircon are not some definite end for surface warships.

There seems to be women and children onboard.

I'm speechless:

A U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III safely evacuated some 640 Afghans from Kabul late Sunday, according to U.S. defense officials and photos obtained by Defense One.

That’s believed to be among the most people ever flown in the C-17, a massive military cargo plane that has been operated by the U.S. and its allies for nearly three decades. Flight tracking software shows the plane belongs to the 436th Air Wing, based at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

A photo from the inside of Reach 871, a U.S. Air Force C-17 flown from Kabul to Qatar on Aug. 15.

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The C-17, using the call sign Reach 871, was not intending to take on such a large load, but panicked Afghans who had been cleared to evacuate pulled themselves onto the C-17’s half-open ramp, a video posted late Sunday showed.

I've heard repeatedly from people who are experts on the situation in Afghanistan, the core of the problem was that the US-backed government was hated (because it was corrupt) and the Taliban were widely supported in the rural areas in particular because they promised a return to stability and proper government. Somewhat ironic-sounding but then we don't live there so maybe what they say is true.

Either way its pretty obvious that almost no Afghanis supported the US-backed government just like the South Vietnam government.

I unfortunately have had some very unpleasant dealings with Afghans...... OMG

Heartbreaking

https://t.co/brA3WRdPp8" / Twitter

Not many women there...

It's probably mainly folks who would have worked for the just deposed government and their allies. One of the sad inevitabilities of any conflict ending, especially one that had been going for so long.

Only men worked with the deposed government? Even if it were only men that did, these men didn't see fit to try taking their mothers/wives/sisters/daughters with them? If Australia was overrun tomorrow, you best be believing I wouldn't be going anywhere without my wife, and mum and dad, likewise I am certain my sister's husband wouldn't be leaving her or the kids or his him mum behind either.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said he hoped the Uighurs could allowed to adopt a moderate Islamist policy.

In a statement on Thursday, the Pentagon press secretary John Kirby confirmed the two explosions outside Kabul Airport were the "result of a complex attack that resulted in a number of US & civilian casualties." Twelve American service workers were killed and a number of others are being treated for wounds, US officials told The Associated Press. One explosion was a suicide bombing near to the closed Abbey Gate where British troops had been stationed, according to the BBC, while the second explosion was close to the Baron Hotel.