Russia has closed the gap on A2/AD.

via Breaking Defense...

“The advantage that we had from the air I can honestly say is shrinking,” Gen. Frank Gorencsaid, “not only from with respect to the aircraft that they’re producing, but the more alarming thing is their ability to create anti-access/area denied [zones] that are very well defended” by batteries of ground-based anti-aircraft missiles.

Then this...

“Some of the array that’s in Kaliningrad extends into Poland today. That’s a fact,” he said. In other words, launchers on Russian soil can hit targets in NATO airspace. In fact, Gorenc has said in the past that a third of Polish airspace is in the Russians’ range.
“Up to this point, we have talked about anti-access/area denial with respect to the Pacific problem, but what I’m telling you is this is not just a Pacific problem, ” Gorenc said. “It’s as significant in Europe as it is anywhere else on the planet.”

Story here. 

A few things pop out to me.  We're finally hearing a US general basically confirm what the people over at Air Power Australia have been saying.  Obviously the S-300/400/500 is a beast.  Remember my scenario where MV-22's are shot down as they lift off the deck of our amphibs?  Seems as if that wasn't too far fetched now.

Next.  Russian launchers reach that far into Polish/NATO airspace?  The USAF has to start taking electronic warfare seriously if this is true....indeed NATO as a whole needs to be buying EA-18's (or a similar airplane) like their lives depend on it.

Last.  I wonder why we're getting this assessment now.  Is it to save the F-35?  Is it part of the internal pentagon budget battle so that the USAF continues to get the lion's share of money?  Is it an effort to scare the Congress into upsizing the defense budget?  I don't know but the timing is suspicious to me.

US Army Soldiers pose for breastfeeding photo.

This photo must send chills down the spine of America's enemies.  Story here. Today's Army.  Defense is no longer the priority.

Sidenote isn't it ironic?  On one hand you have feminist demanding that women be allowed in combat arms and on the other you have them demanding breastfeeding stations (what exactly is that anyway?).

India & China face off in the Himalayas...

Thanks to Aditya for the link!

via India Today

Indian and Chinese troops recently had a face-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, the same area where People's Liberation Army had pitched camps in April, 2013 that had led to a three-week long stalemate.
According to officials in the know of developments, the Chinese troops had built a temporary hut in Burtse, North of Ladakh, which was subsequently demolished by the ITBP and Army jawans on Friday.
China is said to be eyeing this area, which gives advantage to India to overlook the Karakoram highway linking the territory illegally occupied by China with Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir.
Besides, India has an Advanced Ground Landing (AGL) facility in Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) which was activated in August 2013 and the Indian Air Force had managed to land a C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft at the air strip located at 16614 feet above sea level.
After reports about the construction of a hutment reached ITBP personnel, a joint patrol of para-military forces and the Army was sent to the area after which it was demolished.
Attempts for a flag meeting did not succeed as Chinese side did not revert on the date for a meet, the sources said. The PLA troops had made attempts to push the Indian troops back but these were thwarted, they said.

I wish they had characterized how they attempted to push the troops back and what type of resistance was offered.

Do you get the vision of a shoving match in the mountains?

This is interesting for one very important reason.  India is the only country that is forcefully "repelling" attempts by China to gain more territory.  India could easily find itself in a war with China over some mountainous terrain....

Europe is already regretting the German decision on immigrants...

If what I've been reading from alternate sites is accurate then this immigration thing is already spiraling out of control.  Check out the pick below...

Yeah.  Immigrants are fighting the German Polizei with ISIS flags.  Merkel won't survive this unless she cracks down hard....and now!

Houthi Rebels seize the Faridhah military base in Saudi Arabia..

via PressTV.

Yemeni forces have taken control of a Saudi military base in the southwestern border province of Jizan as part of retaliatory offensives against Saudi Arabia’s ongoing invasion of their country.
Fighters from the Houthi Ansarullah movement, backed by allied army units, seized the Faridhah military base and destroyed three Saudi armored vehicles in their retaliatory attacks against Saudi positions in Jizan, local media reported on Monday.
According to reports, Yemeni troops also launched an attack against Saudi-led foreign forces in Yemen’s central province of Ma’rib, killing scores of them, including a Qatari and an Emirati officer. At least 21 armored vehicles were destroyed during the raid.

Things are spiraling for Saudi Arabia/GCC.  They're losing and badly.  The question now becomes ... do you continue the assault or do you protect your own land?

Oh and PressTV has always been a reliable source of news that is rarely mentioned by mainstream US news, but this passage in the story gave me pause...

Saudi Arabia began its aggression against Yemen on March 26 – without a UN mandate – in a bid to undermine the Ansarullah movement and restore power to the fugitive former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.

Interesting.

The more I look at this thing, the more I try and peel back the layers, the more confusing/annoying it becomes.

One thing is for certain though.  Saudi Arabia is getting its ass kicked.

Crocodile measuring 28ft. Shot by a hunter in Queensland, Australia in 1957.

Thanks to Constantin for the link!

pic via Coffee and Spent Brass Tumblr Page.

I keep telling you people but no one is listening.

Australia is beautiful but its got FUCKED UP CRITTERS!  Admit the gut churning truth.  You know this crocs daddy is still wandering around the outback is probably twice the size!

BMP-3 weapon engagement distances with different turret options..

Thanks to Info Infantrie for the link!

What caught my eye?  If you look at the pic (click to enlarge) you can see that the 57mm doesn't actually bring anything that they don't already have in the 2S25 (Object 952) you see below.  Interesting that the Russian Airborne have essentially a light tank in service (it has the same gun as the T-72) and its essentially flown under the radar (pun not intended).

I'm also curious about the gun fired missiles.  The Russians seem all in on them and like the Canadian ADATS they seem to have both an anti-tank and anti-helicopter role.

The Russian armor development is curious.

Houthi rebels have captured 4 bases inside Saudi Arabia!

Thanks to Spook for the link!

via PressTV.

Yemeni forces have seized control of four Saudi military bases in the southwestern province of Dhahran al-Janub.
Fighters of the Houthi Ansarullah movement, backed by allied forces of the army, took control of the strategically important bases in the Saudi province, the southwestern region of Asir, Yemen's al-Masirah TV reported on Saturday.
The Yemeni forces set fire to lookout towers and three munitions depots at the Saudi bases. The Ansarullah fighters also destroyed at least 19 military vehicles of Saudi forces in the region.
Several Saudi soldiers are reported to have been killed in the latest operation by the Yemeni forces.
Separately, Ansarullah fighters inflicted heavy losses on Saudi forces after they targeted military installations in the regions of al-Hejlah and Jabal al-Doud in Jizan Province of southern Saudi Arabia.

The Yemeni Rebels have taken the fight to Saudi Arabia!

This crisis has turned into a massive shit sandwich and I would be body parts that US forces are already enroute and will be deployed on the ground shortly.

The regional war I predicted is officially here.

As a sidenote we have to give the Rebels and their advisors credit.  They face a much more lavishly equipped force and not only are they defeating them, but now they're carrying the war to their home turf.

The EU/US/NATO?  Zero. Zilch.  Nada.  Iran/Houthi/Assad/Putin?  1000!

The "listed" enemies of the EU/US/NATO are having a run of good luck....or as professionals would say....they adjusted to changing situations, planned properly and then implemented it to perfection.

We need pros in our military, intel and diplomatic depts.  Our amateurs, zealots and true believers are getting their asses kicked.

Europe, America and Syria...games were played! Part 2.

Thanks to Brunswick for the link!

How well do you remember the events that have led up to the refugee crisis Europe is facing today?  You believe you know the facts?  Yeah so did I...but I forgot many things and luckily Moon Of Alabama Blog as a nice history of it (here)...a tidbit though...

In 2007 a plan for regime change in Syria was agreed upon between the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia. The aim was to destroy the "resistance" alliance of Hizbullah, Syria and Iran:

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has cooperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

And then this...

The British parliament voted down a request from its government to join the war. The British population, like in the U.S., had no stomach for another lengthy war. Obama was in a catch 22 situation. He could go to war without asking Congress and would then face a possible impeachment from a very hostile House, or he could ask Congress for a vote for war. He soonclimbed down from his "I'll wage this war" position and decided to go to Congress. The U.S. population was widely against another Middle East war as was the U.S. military. Pressured by their constituents and in view of unconvincing claims of evidence about the "massacre" Congress denied Obama its vote for war. In this Congress even defied AIPAC and the Israel lobby lost its first fight in over 22 years.
Obama has an urgent domestic agenda to implement. There is Obama-care, the budget and an upcoming fight over on the debt ceiling. Having lost in Congress Obama could not, solely on his assumed presidential powers, go to war. He would have risked an immediate impeachment process and a lame duck status for the rest of his presidency. What was he to do?
There the white Russian knight, Vladimir Putin, rode to Obama's rescue.
Putin offered a deal: Syria would agree to give up its unconventional weapons and the U.S. would agree for the Syrian government and president Assad to stay in power. The idea goes back to August 2012 when former Sen. Richard Lugar had proposed such a deal in Moscow.

Yeah that's right boys and girls.

The Obama Administration might publicly vilify the Bush term in office. Republicans might vilify Obama and say that his foreign policy isn't robust enough.

The reality?

They're following the same playbook.... and we're being treated like fools by the govt, most news sources and the "Think Tank" crowd.  You might say that I'm putting on a tinfoil hat but MoA has links to mainstream news sources.

When it comes to this and other subjects we should NOT trust talking points, spin and the media.  This is bigger than Benghazi and yet no one is talking about it.

We must DARE TO THINK...the conventional wisdom is not only wrong, its a sad joke.

F-35B...new problems found weekly!

Thanks to THINK DEFENSE for the link!

via TD...

Squadron technicians experience new technical faults for the first time weekly. Most are as predicted by the [aircraft’s] designers; however technical faults still occur during flight where components did not perform as expected.

That's extremely damning isn't it.  TD tries to moderate it (as does the author) by adding this...

This will continue to occur as the airframes and systems are exposed to growing number of flying hours and the flight envelope is expanded. New procedures are required to repair this type of damage.

That's a nice cleansing statement isn't it.

But no so fucking fast!  The USMC has declared this airplane operational.  Its part of the fleet and we're retiring aircraft as fast as possible on the hope and dream that the F-35B delivers as promised.

Additionally our British partners are being rather "cheeky".  They're not buying hundreds of these planes but instead only 3 dozen or so.

They can accept poor performance, horrendous maintenance costs and tragic availability rates because they're really all in on the Typhoon and really see their Queen Elizabeth aircraft carriers as simply really large LHDs.

And that's the problem for the program office.  The closer people get a look at this airplane the better they understand that fantasy does not trump reality.  You're looking at a plane desperately fighting off the death spiral and patchwork development.  Workarounds can only work for so long before someone finally calls bullshit on the whole thing.

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