Corsican Lion 2015....Joint Franco-Brit exercise (pics)...

pics via the French Ministry of Defense...

European blogs are all excited because they believe that the US Army is going to select L-CAT for its next landing craft...I'm not so sure.  The budget is going nowhere and they'll be looking to probably upgrade existing boats instead of buying new.

Air and Sea graphic of Russian assets in Syria...

This is old...I'm looking for an updated graphic of the current situation...

Russia putting together Tactical Recovery of Aircraft & Personnel (TRAP) Teams for action in Syria!

Thanks to John for the link!

via Defense 24

According to the official announcement, an intensive training program for the CSAR element of the VVS has been going on for two weeks now. However, it turned out That no proper training center, required that realize a dry program, exists, THUS the pilots training center in the village of Nagoya, in the Krasnodar Krai area (close to the Black Sea), has been adapted to fit That purpose . However, he Earlier this center was used by the pilots, where they have been learning the survival techniques. Now, it turns out That Combat SAR specialists are also going to be educated at that facility.
The training included, above all, the areas of parachute jump landing accuracy, mountain and forest areas survival techniques, and survival techniques that could accommodate be Implemented in tough weather conditions, along with the skills required is the rescue of the persons from water and in unsecured areas. 70 rescuers from the whole Russia were Involved in the program.

Interesting.

This is one that I thought the Russians already had covered but apparently not.  Makes you wonder what the thinking was during the cold war with regard to pilots and aircrew going down.  Additionally what was the thinking when they were at war in Afghanistan during the 70's?

The Russian forces are advanced but there are holes in their doctrine....but everyone does so at least they're correcting on the fly.

Israel knife attacks. A warning for Europe!

via Reuters.

Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon accused Washington of "misreading" the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and he said shooting knife-wielding Palestinians was self-defense. Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan called the U.S. remarks "foolish".
With U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry due to travel to the Middle East soon to try to calm the violence, Israeli officials said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swiftly ordered cabinet ministers to say no more publicly about the latest acrimony in a long-troubled relationship with the Obama administration.
Seven Israelis and 32 Palestinians have been killed in the past two weeks of bloodshed, including 10 assailants, as well as children and protesters shot in violent anti-Israeli demonstrations.
The violence has been partly triggered by Palestinians' anger over what they see as increased Jewish encroachment on Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque compound, which is also revered by Jews as the site of two destroyed biblical Jewish temples.
At a daily press briefing on Wednesday, State Department spokesman John Kirby said Israel, which has set up roadblocks in Palestinian neighborhoods of Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem to try to stem attacks, has a right and responsibility to protect its citizens.

If you haven't been following this then you're missing another piece of the Syrian conflict that is HUGE.

The attacks on Jews by the Palestinians have been nothing short of barbaric.  Additionally, readers have sent me videos of Muslim Clerics calling for even more attacks while wielding knives from the pulpit (or whatever those bastards call it).

To me that's not the real story though.

Israel will either get a handle on this situation or the current govt will fall and some people that can will be elected.

The real story is the potential for the same thing to happen in Europe!  Imagine all those newly arrived refugees...then imagine that groups of knife wielding young men go on rampages in European cities.

Thank God for concealed carry in my part of the United States.  As far as my European readers are concerned?  Good luck.  I think trouble is coming your way and your society isn't ready for it.

More on Cuban Forces in Syria...

via FoxNews.

Cuban military operatives reportedly have been spotted in Syria, where sources believe they are advising President Bashar al-Assad’s soldiers and may be preparing to man Russian-made tanks to aid Damascus in fighting rebel forces backed by the U.S.
Gen. Leopoldo Cintra Frias, head of Cuba's Armed Forces, recently visited Syria to lead a group of Cuban military personnel joining forces with Russia in their support of Assad, according to information received by the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies.
On Wednesday, a U.S. official confirmed to Fox News that Cuban paramilitary and special forces units are on the ground in Syria, citing evidence from intelligence reports. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Cuban troops may have been training in Russia and may have arrived in Syria on Russian planes.

This shit is going to spiral unless the Admin, State Dept and Pentagon get a handle on this with a quickness.

Name one country in the Middle East that is not negatively affected by the drama in the region.  Tell me that this cancer isn't spreading to Southern Europe and Northern Africa.

Yeah.

Forget the popcorn.  Time to warm up the grill and pass the beer. 

2nd Expeditionary Base Mobile Ship begins construction...via Seapower Magazine

via Seapower Magazine.

The 784-foot ship will be configured with a 52,000 square-foot flight deck, fuel and equipment storage, repair spaces, magazines, mission planning spaces and accommodations for up to 250 personnel. The ship will be capable of supporting multiple missions including air mine countermeasures, counter-piracy operations, maritime security operations, humanitarian aid and disaster relief missions and U.S. Marine Corps crisis response. It will also support MH-53 and MH-60 helicopters, and will be upgraded to support MV-22 tiltrotor aircraft.

Amazing.

Another ship that was to support surface assault from the sea is being turned into an aviation only asset.

Heads up boys and girls.  If the enemy has the weapons to make it impossible for us to get within 100 miles of the coast (anti-ship missiles), they also have the tech to make it impossible for helicopters/MV-22s to penetrate that zone as well (yeah that includes you bubbas in the 82nd Airborne arriving in lumbering Air Force transports).

Forced Entry is not going to be easy.  The Pentagon needs to do away with the fantasy that it will be.

Fast roping w/K-9...pics by Lance Cpl. Jessica N. Etheridge

Cpl. Conner Scott fast-ropes out of a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter with Bobo, his military working dog, at Camp Hansen, Okinawa, Japan, Oct. 8, 2015. This is the first time Scott and Bobo have fast-roped out of a helicopter together. The training familiarized handlers and their dogs with proper fast-roping and landing procedures. Scott, from Long Island, New York, is a dog handler with 3rd Law Enforcement Battalion, III Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group, III MEF. The CH53E is with Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 462, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, III MEF

US Army/DoD shredding training documents of first Women """Rangers"""

via The Daily Caller.

The military may be “shredding” documents that could indicate whether or not women received special treatment while attempting to become the first female Army Rangers, a letter from an investigating Congressman suggests.
Rep. Steve Russell of Oklahoma, himself a veteran and Ranger School graduate, has been investigating claims that Kristen Griest and Shaye Haver, the first ever female graduates of Ranger School, received special treatment. In September, he sent a letter to Army Secretary John McHugh requesting Army records relating to the women’s test scores, medical history, evaluations, and other background details that may help indicate whether they benefited from a lower standard.
But new documents, first written about by Susan Keating of PEOPLE and now obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation, suggest the Pentagon may be playing a cat-and-mouse game with Russell, first stalling for time and then later telling Russell that the information he requested had been destroyed.
Russell’s request to McHugh was delivered to McHugh Sept. 15, PEOPLE reports, and gave McHugh a ten-day deadline to produce the records. On the 24th, McHugh replied with a request for more time to compile and review the records, citing a concern for Griest and Haver’s privacy. Later, Army officials met with Russell in person to discuss his concerns.  After several more weeks passed, Russell sent a follow-up letter, where he indicated that Army officials told him records of the female Rangers may have been destroyed.

Told ya once I'll tell ya again.

You can pencil whip a monkey thru a physics course but that doesn't make him a physicist.  The same applies to Ranger School.

This is worse though.  This means that everyone of those people that appeared on the podium to talk about that class (students)...all of the instructors at Ranger Training Battalion...the Training Cadre at Ft Benning...every swinging dick and ovary at TRADOC...and all those bastards at the Pentagon participated in the lie.

Common sense is an uncommon virtue.

So is integrity. 

JESUS! Now Cuban Special Ops are in Syria supporting Assad!

FoxNews just reported that Cuban Special Ops are in Syria supporting Assad.  Additionally Defense Blog is reporting that Mi-28's have arrived to support the upcoming offensive.

I try and look away but this train wreck is just too fascinating.  We're seeing something ominous here and most citizens don't even know it.

Sidenote:  Isn't it fucking ironic that the two countries that we just signed treaties with ... Iran and Cuba ... are now actively moving against our national intent with regard to Syria?  Absolutely amazing.

Sidenote 1:  Still don't think this is beginning to look like a MAJOR regional war that will suck our forces into the fight....our GROUND FORCES?

UH-1Y Yankee and AH-1Z Zulu In Action (Bell Helicopter Propaganda)