Defence Technology Review (August issue) is out!

http://tinyurl.com/qflg2ej

Another great issue from the guys over at Defence Technology Review...what caught my eye? A view on Thailand picking Chinese Subs...Elbit entering the Land 400 contest....and the arrival of the C-27J.  A must read!

ROK Army Special Operations Training Group Maritime Infiltration Ops....

HSV-2 Swift supporting Saudi operations in Yemen?

Many thanks to Robert for the links!

via Janes.

The ex-US naval logistics ship Swift is now operating under the flag of United Arab Emirates (UAE), which may be using it to support an amphibious operation in Yemen.
Built by Australia's Incat shipyard in Tasmania, Swift was chartered as High-Speed Vessel 2 (HSV-2) by US Military Sealift Command from 2008 to 2013. IHS Maritimedata shows it was back at the Incat yard in Tasmania from October 2014 until late June, when it set out for the UAE and arrived on 15 July.
The vessel is now operated by the UAE's National Marine Dredging Company, according to the Incat website.
Shortly after its arrival in the UAE it set out for Yemen, transiting through the Strait of Hormuz on 23 July and visiting the Omani port of Salalah on 26-27 July. Its last recorded AIS signal at the time of writing was from 0343 h GMT on 29 July as it headed into Aden harbour.

Interesting.

I thought we owned them.  Talk about live and learn.  Still its an indication of the "seriousness" with which the GCC is taking ops in Yemen.  Additionally we have pics of the armor arrayed via  محمد بن خالد@saikhamk Twitter page...

The exit interview of Capt Kirby Jones, USMC....a warning to leadership...

I was doing my late night turn thru the web and ran across this article from USNI News.  Read it all here, but the part that is a warning...a stark and urgent warning to leadership is below....

I was continually frustrated by the prevailing hypocrisy and mixed messages coming from all sides and lower than expected levels of competency and character in leadership. Throughout The Basic School it was preached to me that I would be a leader and need to make quick, decisive, important decisions, but in the fleet it felt as if everything I did had to be run by several levels above me. Even as a Company Commander, I often felt powerless to make simple decisions for my Company knowing that they would just be overruled later. This impression filtered down to subordinates in being constantly told to trust your enlisted Marines, but yet scolded when you let them take charge and ceased to micromanage their efforts. I had exceptionally high expectations of leadership gleaned mainly from the awesome Marines that I encountered very early on in my career and the majority of leaders that I served under did not reach these high standards.

The warning has been issued.

The tribe is restless, frustrated, and in some cases disheartened.

Will the new Commandant be able to fix this?  I don't know.  Alot of stuff is said but in the end that 6,000 mile hammer is always hovering overhead ready to pound those that do instead of those that simply talk.

What should have the nation spinning is the obvious.  We're not talking about the Army, Navy, or Air Force.  This is being said in the USMC.  If its reached this level in our house then what's going on with our brother services?

Chinese Marines ZBD05 participates in Russia's Tank Olympics...

Photo and story from China Defense Blog...

Here comes the PLAN Marine
The "Caspian Derby" individual race, which was one of the events of the Russian International Army Games 2015, kicked off at the Adanak Range in Kaspiysk, Russia on August 3. China's three participating crews ranked the first, fourth, and fifth respectively. Russia's three crews ranked the second, third and seventh respectively, and Kazakhstan's three crews ranked the sixth, eighth and ninth respectively.

From what little I've seen from these Tank Olympics, it seems that the Russians were impressed with the physical fitness of the Chinese more than their vehicles...don't know if that's true but from reading Russian armor forums that's the impression I get.

Additionally it seems that someone tried to drift a tank and ended up rolling it....and more countries showed up with the Russians INVITING THE US TO PLAY!!!!

Yeah.  The Ruskies basically challenged the US to come and play in their Olympics.

1st or 2nd Tanks should take them up on it!

M1A1 at Range 500, 29 Palms....photo by Lance Cpl. Julio McGraw

An M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank crew with Company A, 4th Tank Battalion, fires its 120 mm main gun during the company’s pre-qualification tank gunnery at Range 500, Aug. 4, 2015. The live-fire exercise tests tank crews on their ability to work together on target acquisition and accuracy.

USS Kearsarge prepares for flight operations....photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Hunter S. Harwell

ATLANTIC OCEAN (Aug. 4, 2015) Sailors prepare for flight operations on the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3). The Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group and the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (26th MEU) are conducting a composite training unit exercise in preparation for an upcoming deployment.

Off topic question.

Why does the Navy include the MOS of individuals when it comes to rank?  Is it simply tradition or is there another reason.

Camp Shelby is being fired upon...BREAKING!!!

I can't believe how STUPID the people at SOCOM are.

Its so obvious that they have no idea of the feelings that are flowing thru some sectors of the community down South.

They really should have talked to some people, gauged public reaction...got a feel for HUMAN TERRAIN before they started this exercise.

Let me repeat.  Too many people in the "exercise area" have military experience and training.  Too many are aware of the LAVISH combat cities that are available for use by the armed forces on VAST SWATHS of federal land.

The response to questions by citizens that amounted to "trust us", "its secret" and "fuck  you" is resulting in this violence.

Do I condone it?  No way.  Could I see it coming?  Hell yeah...anyone could that took the time to see.

No one was hurt at Camp Shelby (that's a good thing) but expect even more of this....you should really worry about what will happen in West Texas, Arizona and New Mexico...there are some people out there that will come loaded for bear and won't simply fire warning shots.  Its about to get real for the sunshade boys.

Yemen is getting nasty. Debka File is reporting two Saudi Armored Brigades in country.

via Debka File...

After clinching its conquest of the Yemeni port of Aden – contrary to all Western predictions - Saudi Arabia teamed up with the United Arab Republic and, together, on Tuesday, Aug. 4, landed by sea and air two armored brigades and several commando battalions. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that this was the first time that any Gulf nation had shown itself capable of a sea landing on this scale.
Tuesday night, the roads heading north out of Aden resounded with the thunder of convoys of heavy Saudi Abraham M1 tanks and long lines of heavy French made Leclerc tanks contributed by the UAE army.
The landings from the Red Sea were covered by intense gun and missile fire from the multi-Arab fleet of Saudi, Egyptian and UAE missile vessels and warships offshore.
Among the heavy vehicles freighted in by air were hundreds of armored personnel carriers, some of them Russian-made BMD3s, others Humvees made in America - and all fitted with short-range ground-to-ground missiles - as well dozens of US-made mine-resistant, ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles designed to withstand roadside bombs.
To speed the arrival in Yemen of mountains of armored military reinforcements, plus equipment, supplies, ordnance and medical evacuation services, the Saudis and UAE hired an Abu Dhabi firm specializing in airport construction, Within 48 hours, the Aden airport which had been badly damaged in the fighting was ready for large transport planes to come in to land.
Tuesday night, the workmen were busy on a second project, preparing Al-Anad, Yemen’s biggest airport 48 km north of Aden, for Saudi and UAE fighter-bombers to take off for air strikes.
The newly-arrived tanks, APCs and commando fighters were meanwhile advancing rapidly toward Yemen’s next largest town, Taiz.
Our military sources report that the Houthi insurgents have nowhere near the quantity or quality of equipment and weaponry to withstand the assault coming their way from a combination of armored, naval, air and commando firepower, and so they began falling back.Their patron, Iran, was caught unawares by the massive onslaught and is in no shape to render immediate assistance for redressing the huge imbalance which now charactises the state of the Yemen war..

Well ain't that a bitch!

Looks like alot of crow is going to be eaten.  The GCC is kicking ass, taking names and winning.

Meanwhile the US and its Western allies are being stalemated by ISIS.

Do they have better leadership than we do or is it something else?  Either way we tried to hold them back, they ignored us and now they're winning.

Sidenote:  Still waiting for confirmation of the new offensive going in Yemen.  If true then we're seeing the balance of power shift in the Middle East and possibly and newly assertive Saudi Arabia. 

China is building a unique aircraft carrier...possibly nuclear...

via National Interest...

China has all but confirmed that it is building an indigenous aircraft carrier, and that it may even be a nuclear-powered one.
On Thursday, huanqiu.com, the Chinese-language version of the state-run Global Times, published an internal document of the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, one of China’s two largest shipbuilding companies. CSIC is a state-owned company.
The report lists building nuclear submarines and an aircraft carrier as the company’s “priority missions.” It also states that progress on these projects has been smooth.
"The priority missions of building the aircraft carrier and nuclear-submarines have been carried out smoothly and with outstanding achievements," the document states, according to a translation provided by Taiwanese media outlets. The same Taiwanese reports go on to say that the document suggests that China’s first homegrown aircraft carrier is likely to be nuclear-powered, without elaborating.
Adding credence to this viewpoint is that this week huanqiu.com also featured promiently a new Russian report that claims that China’s first homegrown aircraft carriers will be nuclear powered. Specifically, earlier this week Sputnik News reported, citing an assessment by Vasily Kashin, an expert from the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, that “it is known that China plans to build large nuclear aircraft carriers, equipped with electromagnetic catapults. Work on the main units and elements of the ship is already underway, and the project documentation part of it has been completed.”

Here.

They are trying to drink our milkshake!

Military power isn't anything like  "Game of Thrones" television show....in real life you can't tame a dragon....