Hezbollah Terrorist Group is forming a reinforced Tank Battalion????

Thanks to Don for the link!

via Elijahjm Blog

Google translation:
– Iranian Special forces arrived to Damascus this week to join Russian and Hezbollah counterparts
– Areas of influence, deployment and tasks are distributed between Russia, Syrian Forces, Hezbollah and Iran.
– Russia will be incharge of Lattakia, Hama and Aleppo
– Iran will be in charge of the protection of Damascus, Daraa, Quneitra and the Golan to the Israeli borders
– Hezbollah will be deployed on the fronts with al-Qaeda and the “Islamic State” group
– Hezbollah is forming the first new armored brigade composed of 75 Tanks newly received

JESUS!

If this is true then we need to TOTALLY reorient our position on Russia (meaning the Pentagon and State Dept).  I've been calling for a partnership with Russia on the ISIS issue and I've talked about them helping to keep Hezbollah on a leash.

If Hezbollah is actually forming a reinforced Tank Battalion...if Iran is going to be in charge of the opposite side of the Golan Heights then its essential that we at least talk to the Russian Bear like adults.

I can't confirm any of this but it wouldn't surprise me if its true.  The media in the US is ALWAYS late with breaking developments.

Is Russia doing a 2015 version of Operation KavKaz?

Many thanks to Robert for the link!

Susan Powers at the UN talking to the Russian rep...body language tells it all....she's exasperated, frustrated and on the verge of coming unhinged.  The people in background almost laughing out loud tell the rest of the story.  Our people are ideologues and amateurs...while they have professionals.

via Foreign Affairs.

This year, Moscow is celebrating the 45th anniversary of Operation Kavkaz, the Soviet military intervention on behalf of Egypt in the 1969–70 Israeli-Egyptian War of Attrition. The engagement was a key moment in the history of the Cold War. It caught Western intelligence by surprise, and it was the first—and only—time the Soviet military fought the Israeli Defense Forces. Operation Kavkaz saved Russia’s closest ally from regime change and protected Moscow’s strategic assets on Egyptian soil. The Soviet Union’s subsequent activism in the region marked the height of Moscow’s Cold War achievements in the Middle East.
Once more, the Kremlin is increasingly assertive in the Middle East, and once more, it has surprised the West. Emboldened by its perceived success in addressing regional challenges and capitalizing on opportunities, it has gotten closer than ever to its key diplomatic objective: acquiring a regional status on par with Washington’s.
KREMLIN’S TRIUMPH
Seen from the Kremlin, Russia’s regional policy has been a series of remarkable triumphs. Moscow’s traditional goals are straightforward: to build a buffer against radical jihadists on its southern flank, to export arms and nuclear energy, to project power in the Middle East’s warm waters and beyond, to compete with the West, and, recently, to expand influence among and through regional Christian ....

Register to get the rest....ITS QUITE COMPELLING...trust me, its a great read, but I won't post it here.  I figure they won't get too mad if I send some traffic their way so I'm comfortable by giving this tidbit.

The part of this that annoys me the most?

I'm an amateur student of history.  I KNEW of the Russian intervention to save Egypt but failed to put it in the context of today's world.

This is a re-run of history...just the players have changed and the region is MUCH more chaotic.

This shouldn't give us confidence but should trouble us even more.  Why?  Because most of us aren't paid to read between the lines but the people that are seem to be constantly behind the power curve.

The Russians have pros and we have amateurs...not even good amateurs...

The US Army has gone native! Check out the shoulder patch for the fight against ISIS...

via USA Today...

The palm wreath is symbol of honor. While the stars and the buff-and-blue colors on the patch indicate the three-star command and the land, air and sea forces involved in the fight.
Scimitars and palm wreaths have appeared on patches from previous periods of war in Iraq. Saddam Hussein also favored the look, building a grand sculpture called the Arc of Triumph to commemorate the Iraq-Iran War in the 1980s. It became a favored back drop for soldiers, contractors and journalists to snap photos after the invasion in 2003.

Here.

Taking pics of yourself in exotic locations is one thing.  To slap an image of it on your shoulder is something entirely different.

What the fuck is the Army thinking?

A Marine body slams the Army's vision of its future...

via Real Clear Defense...

With such large cuts facing the US military as a whole and the Army in particular, it surprised me that the Army’s vision for the future included a major section on expeditionary forces and scalability.
The Marine Corps, in its planning document, Expeditionary Force 21, presents itself as the nation’s “middleweight force.” Indeed, the Corps is exactly that. Unfortunately, to a large extent, so does the Army. The Army Vision describes the unique capabilities of the Army very well: “Consolidate strategic gains,” “integrate operations,” “enable sustained operations,” “operate among populations.” Those are indeed the core competencies of the Army; especially consolidate strategic gains, which the Vision describes the Army as “the Nation’s means to seize and hold territory and consolidate gains.” Seizing and holding territory is the reason we have an army.
When the Army Vision discusses the exact characteristics of the Army needed to achieve those capabilities, it spends a majority of its text discussing the agile, expeditionary, scalable, and flexible nature of the force. If those sound familiar, that’s because those exact words were already used in the Marine Corps’ Expeditionary Force 21.
It appears that the Army has seen the results of the Pacific Pivot. Its emphasis on rapidly deployable crisis response units was to the relative benefit of the Marine Corps. The lesson the Army drew was not that the Marine Corps was filling that need for the country and that its niche should be to provide a different type of land power. Rather, the Army learned that the Marine Corps was making out like a bandit in the whole expeditionary business and that she’d better get a piece of that action.
Of course the Army has always had a key role in crisis response with such units as its special operations forces and its airborne forces. Having a portion of the Army devoted to non-maritime rapid deployment makes sense, and is complementary to the capabilities of the Marine Corps (NOTE FROM SNAFU!--I've been harping on this for a long time...we'll know that Army leadership is serious when they workout the 82nd with our Marine Expeditionary Units).
However, the nation already has a Marine Corps devoted almost in its entirety to expeditionary operations. The active-duty Army is already reduced to barely twice the size of the Corps, with significantly more manpower devoted to institutional overhead. Devoting more than a subset of designated forces to such duties is not the optimum task organization for U.S. landpower as a whole. Large parts of the Army are becoming a Marine Corps, but without ships to carry them. The Army needs to focus on heavy forces and the long war.

Here.

EXTREMELY WELL SAID BROTHER!  But this will fall on deaf ears.  The Army has been trying to be a "Marine Corps" since the Korean War.  For a service with such a glorious history they're remarkably jealous of the standing that the Marine Corps has with the American public (we're pissing it away but that's a discussion for another day).

To make Army Infantry and Armored Division into a quasi-expeditionary force will see them fail horribly on the battlefield.

This Marine just body slammed the Army's vision of its future.

Sidenote:  To all my readers that happen to be Soldiers don't get offended and for God's sake please don't pull out some fucking AR manual.  Just deal with the reality and fix yourselves!

A new Chinese APC?

Defense Blog posted the above pic of a new Chinese Wheeled APC.  Quite honestly it doesn't look ground breaking but seems to be substantially larger than what we've seen in the past.  Curiously it seems to have a side hatch.  It almost has a RG-35 design aesthetic.  Story here.

Question. Is it time to bite the bullet and use A-29's for MV-22 escort?

Question.  Is it time to bite the bullet and use A-29's for MV-22 escort?  Trust me, I've thought long and hard on this one.  The USMC is feeding the aviation beast and the problem is that its insatiable.  The more you give it the more it wants.

Having said that we have a capability gap.  The MV-22 flies too fast for effective escort by AH-1Z's and too slow for the Harrier and F-35.  That's where the A-29 comes in.  If you check its performance profile you'll see that its almost tailor made for the mission.  We've pushed the AH-1Z hard but it won't accomplish this very important mission and when the CH-53K comes online will be hard pressed to even escort that helicopter (unless they install the Piasecki solution and I don't see that happening).

If the answer is yes, we need an effective escort for the MV-22 then the next question becomes one of cost AND basing/deployment.

Lets hit the deployment issue first because its the easiest.  Did you know that every MEU and SPMAGTF-CR has KC-130's attached?  Did you know that those aircraft "shadow" the MEU when its on cruise...leapfrogging from land base to land base so that if needed they can respond?  We can do the same with the A-29 (and if the F-35 is canned then also with the Super Hornet, but like the Fallout 3 StoryTeller series, that's a discussion for another day).

With that I think we have the basing/deployment covered.  The next issue becomes cost.  Easy.  Scratch the purchase of ... what would it be?  Maybe 2 or 3 F-35's and we could buy a whole squadron of these planes....make the pilots smile by letting them become qual'ed in AH-1Z, UH-1Y and A-29....do the same with maintainers and having the HMLA's all plus size?

Easy peezy.

I think we should do it.  The USMC has been without a REAL fixed wing light attack platform for too long.  The fixation on vertical take off and landing has caused us to overlook common sense solutions.  Time for that to end.

SIDENOTE:  John made me realize something in the comments section that I didn't state in the original piece.  The effort to arm the MV-22 is failing horribly.  Time to cut loses and realize that the airplane will not be the all dancing super performing workhorse that many hope for.  Instead of killing carry ability and performance why not reprogram the funds for all the uparming work into buying some relatively cheap A-29's?

US Marines & Singapore Army at Exercise Valiant Mark 2015...

Note:  The USMC unit participating in this exercise isn't identified and its too early to try and root it out.  If you know just tell us in the comments.

Did Yellen have a stroke on stage?

Yellen is the head of the US Fed and was giving a speech about the markets.  Everyone is saying that she looked sick but I think its possible she had a stroke.

Look at the left side of her face.

I hope she's ok.

Exactly how big is the Terrex 2 Advanced?

Soldier Systems Blog is at Modern Day Marine and has an excellent photo spread of the different Amphibious Combat Vehicles.  A comment he made set me back though....

You can literally stand erect inside the SAIC version. Well, short guys anyway.

Here.

Interesting.  I guess they've not only streamlined the vehicle but added internal volume to make it swim better.  I would love to be a fly on the wall for the swim tests!

Stick a fork in relief from a CR...Boehner will resign...

via New York Times...

WASHINGTON — Speaker John A. Boehner will resign from Congress and give up his House seat at the end of October, according to aides in his office.
Mr. Boehner was under extreme pressure from the right wing of his conference over whether or not to defund Planned Parenthood in a bill to keep the government open.

Stick a fork in relief from a continuing resolution.  The Republican Conservatives were already in a foul mood and this last dirty trick by Boehner to pass a CR with Democrat votes practically kills any chance for the F-35 to get a waiver.

The DoD is about to get crushed, but the President will get a balanced budget.

This does explain why Boehner was so emotional when he met with the pope though.  I wonder how long it takes for him to pivot into a lobbying job.