Russian Military Police Commandos look just like SOCOM.

The above photos are the latest "hotness" floating around Russian Military Blogs.  It shows Russian Military Police Commandos on exercise.

What is amazing is how you would be hard pressed to tell them apart from US SOCOM.  That camo pattern at least in these pics looks just like MultiCam.  They're driving UltraLight Weight Vehicles that resemble Polaris RZRs that SOCOM and the 82nd are so in love with now.

They're even wearing Ops Core helmets...or a decent knock off...even down to the rails for attachment of lights etc...

The only thing that shows them to be "other" is weapons fit...and SOCOM likes working out with Polish forces and they use similar weapons.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then SOCOM should be happy as hell.  They've become so joint that even potential opposition forces are on board their initiatives/concepts.

The Ahmed story. Let's get real.

via Los Angeles Times.

When Ahmed Mohamed decided to bring a homemade electronic clock to his Texas school, he hoped his teachers would be impressed with his ingenuity. Instead, Ahmed found himself at the center of a teachable moment on racism and terrorism after he was taken from the school in handcuffs because a teacher thought the device was a bomb.
On Monday, Ahmed, 14, brought the device, a collection of wires and electronic gizmos, to MacArthur High School in Irving, near Dallas. The boy, who had never been in trouble before, was eventually sent to the principal’s office and questioned by four police officers. They led the ninth-grader, who was wearing a NASA T-shirt, from the campus in handcuffs and took him to a youth detention center where he was fingerprinted and then released to his parents.

Read the whole story here.

Let's be honest for a minute.  I'm a six foot two, two hundred fifty pound black guy that likes the gym, has tattoos, sports a bald head and goatee and I have a deep voice.

People pause.  Do an assessment and determine whether I'm a threat or not.

It happens on a daily basis.  Why?  Because of the part of my culture that is inspired by gang antics, stupid dress style (sagging pants???? I'll never get over that...I've been told by people that know that its an indication in prisons that you're ready to be penetrated anally) and criminal behavior.

Do I like it?  No.  I don't carry myself that way, but while it irks, it's at the same time understandable.

Fast forward to the Ahmed story.

The Dallas metroplex witnessed an assault by Muslim Terrorist not long ago.  Additionally we've seen all kinds of attacks by young Muslim men.  Is it outside the realm of reasonableness for the school personnel with no knowledge of bomb making etc to react badly?

Life is life and snap judgements/mistakes are just part of it.  Let me give you a scenario the other way.  Three bikers walking down the sidewalk heading toward me.  I see Aryan Nation patches, 1% patches, Swastikas and steel toed boots.  My hand will slide to my G26 and I will make ready until we either pass each other without incident or they cross the street.

Reality is reality.  Its time America start dealing with it.  This isn't Islamaphobia.  This is a reaction to the activity that we've seen out of the Middle East and just down the road in Arlington Texas.  The loonies need to relax the stupidity.

When did BAE sell NIMR the rights to the RG35?

Above you see what was once the BAE RG35.  A family of vehicles that I was smitten with but failed to experience sales success.

While making my spin thru the internet I ran across this NIMR press release...

NIMR Automotive LLC, a military vehicle manufacturer based in Abu Dhabi, UAE and a member of the Emirates Defence Industries Company (EDIC), has expanded its range of vehicles with the N35Multi-Role Protected Vehicle.
The N35 4x4 and 6x6 wheeled armoured combat vehicles are an evolution of Denel Vehicle Systems’ (DVS) RG35, now under full ownership of NIMR. NIMR continues to collaborate with DVS to enhance the design, performance and capabilities of the vehicle range...

Is this the new model?  Major defense corporations develop vehicles and then simply sell them to nation state sponsored entities?

If this is the case then the armor race is not only on but about to become a bit chaotic.  Vehicle identification is going to be an issue and Blue Force tracker (or whatever its called now) will become even more important....additionally knowing the capabilities/vulnerabilities of the enemy you face will become a bit more difficult.

Rick Santorum illustrates a Republican vulnerability for the upcoming election...

via The Hill...

Pushing back against Sen. Lindsey Graham's (S.C.) criticism during Wednesday's undercard debate, he noted that less than 1 percent of American workers are earning the minimum wage.
"What every Republican is up there saying is that we are against the minimum wage, because if you are not for increasing it and [few] are making the minimum wage right now, the answer is: Republicans don't believe in a floor wage in America," he said

And this...

"Fine, you go and make that case to the American public. I’m not going to. Not from a party that supported bailouts ... not from a party that supports special interest tax provisions for a whole bunch of other businesses. But when it comes to hardworking Americans who are at the bottom of the income scale, we can't provide some level of income support."

And finally this...

"We trotted out one small business person after another for almost an hour that night. ... You know what we didn't do? we didn't bring one worker on that stage," he said.

Santorum is onto something.

The Republicans better reorient and with a quickness.  Everyone is wondering why Trump is on fire?  Its because he's giving voice to a Middle Class that is under assault.  The same applies to Sanders.

Why is Jeb Bush failing to catch fire?  Because he's doing the establishment thing (just like Hillary is doing) and playing to special interests.  Immigration?  Its a big business meme.  If the Republicans really want to be competitive they better start talking to current concerns (which means they need to drop beltway thinking).

The funny thing?  Tomorrow is a day of destiny that few are paying attention to.  If the Fed raises rates then several BRIC countries are going to get slammed and the world will probably sink into recession.  If they don't they're just inflating the bubble even larger.  The Fed MIGHT determine the winner of next years election on Sept 17, 2015.

The F-35 is already in its death spiral.

via NLTimes

The purchase of the Joint Strike Fighter jets may be more than half a billion euros more expensive than expected. According to the new estimates, the project will cost over 5.2 billion euros, 550 million euros more than the previous estimate. Higher sales tax adds another 75 million euros.
Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert wrote this in the budget for her ministry for next year, the Telegraaf reports. The cause of the price increase is the “substantially higher” dollar exchange rate.
The Minister wrote that the budget will not yet be adapted for the new estimate. “This would require abrupt, drastic measures, while it is uncertain whether it will ultimately be needed”, Hennis wrote. “Also because the devises in several tranches over a period of years. Both changes in the dollar exchange rate and in the price (in dollars) will affect the estimates in the coming years.”
The Netherlands wants to buy a total of 37 JSF’s to replace the F-16’s. The government reached what Hennis calls “the point of no return” earlier this year when the contract was signed for the purchase of the first eight jets. The first jet will be delivered in 2019. The new jets should be fully implemented in 2024.

Wow.

Now it all becomes clear.  Now we know why the USAF and the Program Office is so desperate to increase production.  The Netherlands has already reduced the number of aircraft its programed to buy and when you add this to the mix you can expect the extremely frugal Dutch to bail...or at least further reduce their buy.

As a matter of fact the best thing that the USAF could hope for is that they delay purchases and wait to see if the price drops. But that might be a false hope.

Why?

This is strictly my opinion but the President is looking past today and focusing on his legacy.  He is seeking savings. All the low hanging fruit in the Pentagon has been picked.  That leaves the F-35.  Since the President wants to brag about how he saved the country from economic crisis...and since so many Americans feel like the country is still in recession, his only hope is to try and push the meme that he righted the budget.  He won't touch social programs so the Pentagon will pick up the bill.

Will Republicans save the DoD?  In my opinion not likely.  The Defense Hawks are on their back feet.  They no longer have sway over the party.  Who has the power in the party?  Budget Hawks and the Tea Party(almost the same thing).

As Don has pointed out, we still haven't seen LRIP-9 for the F-35.  We're still waiting on LRIP-10 for this year.  Meanwhile the Program office is talking about LRIP-11.

I'm surprised I didn't clue into this sooner.

The F-35 is already in its death spiral.

Rafale pics via France's Defense.gouv...

Note:  I wonder if this plane deserves more credit?  Its fast, maneuverable, has IRST built in and carries a massive bomb load as well as being nuclear capable.  

Well that explains the recent rash of F-35 propaganda...

via Reuters...

U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh on Tuesday warned that short-term moves to revise downward the Air Force's planned purchase of 1,763 Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 stealth fighters could damage the program and scare off foreign buyers.
"Let’s delay this discussion for a little while until we see what happens in the world," Welsh told reporters at the annual Air Force Association conference, citing efforts by Russia and China to field more advanced fighter aircraft of their own.
"All we do right now is risk damaging a program that's now gaining some momentum and is about to become operational," he said.

Well ain't that a kick in the pants.

A Pentagon spokesman went to great lengths to say that Dunford was lying/mistake/senile/didn't know what the fuck he was talking about when he stated that they were taking a hard look at overall F-35 numbers.

Now Welsh let the cat out of the bag and admits that they are.

Yeah baby!  Death Spiral!  Bring it on!  1,763?  It ain't happening!  I wondered why there was so much desperation at this Association meeting and now we know.

Europeans (and American military critics) need to dump the "not invented here" lie.

Above you see a chart of the biggest arms exporters and their top 3 clients.  Slide down to Germany and the UK.  What do you see?  The US is the top customer for German military equipment and the US is the second largest customer for UK produced gear.

Now imagine if the "not invented here" meme was real.  Imagine if we had a strict policy of only buying US equipment!  We would with a quickness cut 11% of German, 12% of UK arms sales and could invest the money on our own shores.

Am I calling for us to do so?  Not at all.  I am saying that the meme "not invented here" needs to die.

Cdr Salamander rides to rescue the USNI Blog...

Commander Salamander has a new blog post up at USNI Blog.  Read it here.

While I'm a fan of his, I can't help but notice the timing.  I can't help but be annoyed and even more pissed off at seeing this than I was at Mabus for his idiocy.  USNI Blog needs to be taken down to the river and held under til its feet stop kicking.  It needs to be shot in the face.  It needs to be curb stomped.

Those bastards pushed the female in the infantry agenda.  They did it and they basically spit in everyone's faces when they were called on it.

So now they get what they want and believe that a "cleansing" blog post by Sal can set everything right?

Hell no!

Three words for the people in that shop.

Fuck you all.

Mystery Thai Wheeled Amphibious 8x8(s)...

Thanks to Sawit for the pics.

Note:  I don't know if we're seeing two different vehicles or not.  I didn't even know the Thai's were working on a new 8x8.  Could this be one vehicle and we're seeing the design evolve or two?  I have no idea.

This kinda looks like the GPV from this angle...