Textron's Tactical Armored Patrol Vehicle (TAPV) get improved mobility...

via DefenseNews

Defense News reported in April that Textron's TAPV failed a series of tests last year, forcing the company to go back and make design changes to the wheeled vehicle it is offering Canada.
"We did a true bottom-up systems engineering look and evaluated every single aspect," Gelpi said. "We're confident we have all of the issues licked."
The testing at the Nevada Automotive Test Center ended in late May, although additional tests are expected in coming months.
Canadian Department of National Defence spokeswoman Ashley Lemire said deliveries of the first TAPVs are expected to start in early 2016. Gelpi said that should occur in March but could begin sooner.

Interesting.

I thought that this would be a relatively simple procurement project.  They selected what was essentially an off the shelf design and one that has been in service with the US Army for years.

Having said all that this was a rather strange requirement to me.  The Canadians already operate the LAVIII and are moving to the LAV 6.0.

What does the TAPV bring that those two vehicles don't?

Turkey is pissed and ISIS vs the Taliban...Opportunities and Peril....

These two stories crossed my feed this morning...first via The Daily Beast...

A battle in the northern Syrian border town of Tal Abyad has inflicted a potentially crippling defeat on ISIS that could impede the jihadists’ rampage through Syria and Iraq. But U.S. ally Turkey is not happy about it. In fact, Ankara is accusing Washington of foul play. Some in Turkey want their own military—which is part of NATO—to intervene on Syrian soil, and not againstISIS.
The Kurdish People’s Protection Units, a militia known by the initials YPG, says itcaptured Tal Abyad from ISIS after fierce combat and also secured the town’s border crossing into Turkey. The fighting, which saw jets of the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition attack jihadist positions in support of the assault by the YPG and allied militias, sent more than 20,000 people from Tal Abyad and surrounding villages over the border into Turkey in the last two weeks.

This is the disgusting dirty secret about our Turkish ally.  We view the Kurds as a reliable partner, Turkey views them as terrorists.  It also highlights another issue.

Europe is being bombarded with refugees from the Middle East.  Not only will this strain their social welfare systems but it will also make them vulnerable to terrorist acts on their own soil.

Between the possibility of Turkey attacking the Kurds AND the Obama Administration being put in the position of either defending the Kurds...and ally against ISIS OR allowing them to be decimated by Turkish forces, an ally in NATO, makes this a dicey situation.  The issue with refugees in Europe....well lets hope someone isn't stupid enough to unleash that beast.  Another "French Incident" in another European city will bring a backlash that would make people worldwide recoil in horror.

Now to the news in Afghanistan...via Long War Journal...

The Islamic State’s Khorasan province brutally executed one of its former shura members, purportedly for defecting back to the Taliban last month. The execution, as well as the assassination of the Taliban’s shadow governor for Nangarhar province, likely by the Islamic State, preceded a warning by the Taliban’s deputy emir to the leader of the Islamic State to end discord between the jihadist groups in Afghanistan.
The Islamic State released a video showing the execution of Sa’ad Emarati, a senior commander as well as a member of the “Khorasan Shura,” the province’s executive council. Emarati’s head was placed on his back after it was removed.
The Islamic State said it executed Emarati because he left the group and rejoined the Taliban, presumably the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan.

This is an opportunity.

We will never see peace between the Taliban and Northern Alliance.  We might see an uneasy truce.  If that proves unachievable then we can at least attempt to stir up fighting between the Taliban and ISIS.

Opportunities and peril...That's just the world we live in....

Spanish Navy F-100 Frigates...

"Dare to compare" what a Frigate is in the rest of the world to the LCS "Frigates" that are being produced for the US Navy.  Pics via Armada Espanola Flickr Page.

Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System Infographic...

Argentina to buy 110 Chinese VN-1 Wheeled IFVs.

pic via Air Power Australia.

via Want China Times.

Argentina has finalized an order of 110 8×8 VN-1, the export version of ZBL08 wheeled fighting vehicles from China North Industries Corporation, reports Reference News, a subsidiary of China's state-run Xinhua News Agency.
Designed with an operational weight of 21 tons, a single VN-1 armored vehicle is capable of carrying 11 soldiers in full equipment and an additional three-man crew. The VN-1 Argentina was developed for amphibious warfare. Unlike other ZBL08, usually fitted with 105mm anti-tank gun or 155mm howitzer, it is only equipped with a 12.7mm machine gun. Argentina is licensed to assemble the vehicles at its Tandanor-CINAR shipyards, according to the report.
While the first batch of the vehicles will be supplied to the Cruz del Sur, a joint peace keeping force formed by Argentina and Chile, the rest are going to be provided to the 10th Brigade of the Argentine Army. Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner made her decision to purchase the vehicles during her visit to Beijing earlier this year to improve the relationship between the two nations, said the report.

Here.

Uh HELLO!  Is anyone paying attention to China's inroads into S. America?

Many will discount this move by Argentina to buy Chinese armored vehicles, but if you add it to other countries in the region that are doing the same and its obvious that we need a pivot to Central and South America as well as the Pacific.

The focus on the Middle East...the more than a decade of continuous war in that region is leaving us vulnerable at our backdoor.

We are seeing a perfect storm on the horizon.  Russia has us tied up in Europe.  China has our allies going nuts in the Pacific which means we'll be reacting there.  The Middle East will boil for another 100 years before it has a chance of calming down....and now the Chinese are setting the stage to have S. America set on fire.  The arms purchases are insane (especially when you consider how impoverished some of those nations are), the border disputes go back many years and all have a population that is unhappy.

Your next flashpoint?  Venezuela, Argentina or another S. American country I haven't been paying attention to.


Sidenote:  I'm waiting to see what airplanes the Chinese gift Argentina.  That will tell us if we're looking at a Falkland Islands II.

31st MEU Night Deck Qualifications...photos by Gunnery Sgt. Ismael Pena

The Rachel Dolezal story.

For some reason this story has captured the attention of many.  I hope this stays civil (if not I'll simply delete the post) but this is how I see things...

*  Many Whites participated and DIED during the civil rights struggle.  Her being President of the NAACP chapter in Seattle is not at issue.  Whites participated in the creation of the organization and have been a part of the movement from the beginning.  Her claiming to be Black is the issue, but even that is debatable, apparently many officers of the Seattle chapter knew that she was White!

*  She has a part time teaching position at a local college teaching African American culture.  Again her skin color has no bearing on that (or shouldn't).  If she's qualified then have at it. If she obtained that post because of her color then it can be said that a crime was committed both by her and the college.

*  I can't be outraged by this at all.  If we are being told to accept men that identify as women, and women that identify as men...and we're told that we should deal with them as they identify, not as they are biologically then what is the issue with a White woman deciding to identify as Black?

All and all this is a big fat nothing burger.

This is irrelevant, unimportant, silly and just another example of a nation that focuses on triviality instead of serious issues.

God save us all.

MacGregor gives voice to my concerns about the light vehicle trend...THIS IS A MUST READ!

UPDATE:  A conversation with MHalblaub in the comments section made me realize something.  I buried the lead in this piece.  MacGregor isn't only turning his back on the light vehicle trend but also appears to be pushing a "traditionalist" view of roles with the Marine Corps.  He states quite clearly that the nation already has a Marine Corps and doesn't need another.  I read that to mean that he's ALSO pushing back on the Light Fighter/COIN mafia that seems to have the entire DoD by the short hairs.

via Defense One.

First, direct the Army to scale back its plans for more “light” vehicles: Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, Strykers, and Ultra-Light Combat Vehicles. One military analyst summed up the problem: “Wheeled armored vehicles can’t outrun what they can’t outgun, and they can’t outgun what they can’t outrun.” This truth has been proven, most recently, by the Israeli Defense Force’s operational experience in Gaza.
Second, tell the Army to look at — and report back to the SASCon — the Puma, a 43-ton, 1,003-horsepower German infantry fighting vehicle, or IFV. In 2013, the Congressional Budget Office took the rare step of identifying the Puma as the best available option for the Army’s GCV program. After evaluating four vehicles, the CBO analysts concluded that the GermanIFV was the least expensive, the most capable, and — because it is already in production — at the least risk of missing its budgetary or capability goals.

Here.

Consider me shocked.

I always considered MacGregor to be the bandleader for the transformation crowd...and moving toward wheels/ultra light vehicles is a natural part of that scheme.

To hear him come out against it is telling.

More important is what I'm reading between the lines here.  "Wheeled armored vehicles can't outrun what they can't outgun, and they can't outgun what they can't outrun"!  WOW!  Is he telling us that the Stryker is an utter failure?  Is he telling us that armored cars (the old designation for wheeled vehicles) are as they have always been...unsuited for conventional warfare?

It does make you wonder about the Amphibious Combat Vehicle for the Marines doesn't it.  What makes me pause though is his endorsement of the Puma.  Why?  Is it that much better than the Bradley that its worth pursuing now?  Are there issues that we don't know about that makes the Bradley ill suited for frontline combat?  I need to chew on this one a bit.  This one will make the circles though...keep your ears open.

A400M's for the USAF or SOCOM?

via Breaking Defense

The A400M can do things no C-130 can. It’s much bigger than a C-130. The air platform is reportedly incredibly stable in flight, raising the possibility of launching rockets from it or putting high accuracy guns on it.
But it’s got a few problems. First, it’s European. Second, much of the senior Airbus leadership remains deeply scarred by their experience with their last big American sales effort, the failed attempt to sell the Air Force the A330 tanker, first with Northrop Grumman and then through their American subsidiary, then called EADS, now known as Airbus Americas.
UPDATE BEGINS The door for a visit was — encouragingly — left wide open this afternoon by the head of Air Force acquisition, Bill LaPlante. “In general, when we talk to Airbus, we think the more the merrier in terms of getting industry to think about our missions,” he said. “We understand there’s the history with the tanker.” He noted that, “we’ve been trying to bring Airbus in to our CEO roundtables.” UPDATE ENDS
I heard last year that Airbus was hopeful of beginning the briefing process in the Pentagon, catching the ear of some Air Force or Special Operations Command leaders.

Airbus is smoking crack.

This will never be allowed, it'll never happen....they can suck up to SOCOM all they want but even the sunglass boys won't get them across the finish line.

Air Force Special Ops should have built a C-17 Penetrator long ago.  They should have tested gunship variants and even tried to get other aircraft into service to take care of their special requirements.

But they didn't and now its too late.

You can ignore the European canard, you can throw the tanker experience out the window...the real problem is that the Pentagon is in the middle of a HUGE cash crunch.

The F-35 is sucking all the oxygen out the room, the Next Gen Bomber (or whatever they're calling it) is a beast that they're trying to sneak in, the Navy is up in arms because they need to get the ballistic missile subs replaced (the only real survivable part of our nuclear triad...why we continue to bear the expense of manned bombers and land based missiles is beyond me), buy new aircraft carriers, build ships etc....and then you have the Army and Marine Corps needing to get different programs done that there is NO money anywhere to buy SOCOM a unique airplane...especially when they ditched the chance to get the C-27's.

Airbus is a decade late to the party...they should have built that plane on schedule.

SIDENOTE:  Of course the biggest factor keeping SOCOM, USAF Special Ops or any part of the US military from buying the plane is the price.  171 million dollars a copy...just a little less than a faster, higher flying, longer ranged C-17.

Iraq, Afghanistan, Generational War & fights that will matter in the future.

Sarabvir and Galvars were talking about events in the Middle East (apparently the Kurds went on the offensive supported by US airstrikes and routed ISIS) but I wonder.

Has any nation in the modern era been engaged in continual warfare for 10 plus years?

Has an all volunteer military been able to keep up the pace of operations that the Pentagon appears ready to hoist upon the shoulders of the force?

We've ditched the idea of fighting two major regional wars but could we handle an outbreak in the Pacific or a major flare up in the Middle East?

The Think Tanks and COIN/Small Wars/SOCOM mafia, along with their acolytes in the US Army and Marine Corps have been so successful in pushing this generational war theme that its no longer debated.

Pity.

We're involved in wars of choice.  Will we win if we're faced with a war for survival?