Hasik hints at an airpower takeover of the Pentagon.

via National Interests...

. Until now, these particular ships hadsurvived the critics, but now, the Joint Strike Fighter is eating the budget, and it must be fed. Given trends in military technology, and a fundamental question about American strategy, I do wonder if this re-emphasis on aircraft and quality over ships-in-quantity may be the wrong call.

Then this...

If surface flotillas are to survive in the most hazardous seas, as Commander Phil Pournelle of the Office of Net Assessment keeps saying, thennumbers will be needed. To command the seas one wants to command, as Bryan Clark of the CSBA has argued, more ships with more missiles and more missiles per launcher will be required.

And finally this...

None of this means that the Freedom or the Independence, in an LCS or FF version, is the right ship for the U.S. Navy, but it does mean that ships in quantity are what’s right for anyone serious about an open-ocean navy. That dynamic is what recently led T. X. Hammes of the NDU to argue both thatquantity will trump quality in future wars, and that blockading China makes more sense than fighting across its shores. If you’re bent on frequently fighting air wars over someone else’s territory, then doubling-down on F-35s might make sense. If you’re looking to keep the oceans open for business, you’re going to need a lot of ships.

Read the whole thing but I wonder.

Are we finally going to see open warfare inside services (like the Marine Corps with the Wing vs the Ground Combat Element) and then intra-service...the USAF vs everyone else?

The ENORMOUS cost of the F-35 mixed with the Long Range Strike Bomber, Tankers and the tilt toward airpower could not only make the USAF winners...it could make the nation a HUGE loser in the coming peer vs peer conflict.

MGunz of Corps Strength nails it!

via Soldier Systems

As a Marine and life long gun guy, I do my best to get to the range on a regular basis. Plus as a citizen that carries a Concealed Carry Weapon, I feel it’s a serious responsibility to keep my skills up, not just for my sake, but for those around me. Depending on what shooting I go to several different ranges in my area, both outdoor and indoor. Shooting is very popular down here, not that it’s not in other places, but the fact we have decent weather year round and very little restriction on gun ownership (good thing), the ranges are almost always crowded.
In these crowds you’ll see a wide range of different types of people. People shooting hunting rifles, home defense folks, skeet shooters, men, women and kids of all ages and different ethnic groups. A wide range of skills and experience for sure but overall good people. With that there is one group that always shows up (in larger and larger numbers as of late) and I’m sure you’ve seen them; the camo down, geared up, military style guys. I’ve seen this group at ranges all over the country and within the law people are free to do what ever they want and I would be the last one to try and tell free people what to do with their time and money.
However one thing that you notice with this group other than the obvious fact that they’ve spent a lot of money on gear and weapons is that most (not all) are way out of shape.

Read it all, over at Soldier Systems but its why I harp on fitness.

Do just a little and I mean a little bit of research on fight physiology and you'll end up like me.  How do these guys even expect to survive their own body's reaction to the stimulus its gonna pump out when in a fight situation if they're 100 pounds overweight?

That's a quick way to figure out if someone is really serious about self defense or if they're just doing the male version of barbie.

This is a must read and pretty timely.  We're heading toward the new year and I've already adjusted my schedule to late night/early morning workouts cause of all the new jacks that will be showing up.

Unfortunately for them I only have to do this for about a month before we're back to normal traffic flows but if you're serious and you really want to make a change then now is as good a time as any to get it done!

Bloggers need to get real about OPSEC and blurring photos.

Above you see a photo that I posted about a group of staff SOCOM bubba's from  Germany that got turned around in Libya when they got off the airplane to support activity there.

I looked around the web and it flooded the zone.

This pic and others were everywhere to be found.  No biggee.  A MINOR and I mean minor embarrassment, but the mission will go on and they'll probably be back in country soon (if they're not already).

So what has me punching walls and asking what the fuck?  Well a picture is worth a thousand words.  Check this out from Tyler over at FoxTrotAlpha...

I have nothing against Tyler of FTA.  He does good stuff, aimed at a mostly non-military crowd, but he hits hard at times.  So what's the issue?  It's the blurred faces.

Why?

The pics are out all over the internet but he posted blurred face photos.  Oh and this isn't the first time its happened.  Remember the intense firefight in Kandahar when terrorists made it inside the NATO compound and started shooting up the joint?  Well some of our friends from Australia or New Zealand (don't remember which) took care of business  in a big way.

The above pic is one of the iconic photos of the Afghan war.

How did bloggers respond?  I got some hate mail saying that I was putting these guys lives at risk because I was violating OPSEC (many bloggers posted the same pic with blurred faces).  I was so alarmed at the charge that I wrote SOCOM and they told me that they had no problem and would have shut down any photos if they did!

All of which brings me to my point.  Bloggers need to get real.  I'm hardly a SOCOM booster, but I do believe that they can get the job done.  I also believe that when it comes to the safety and security of their personnel and their family members that they'll shut any and all of  us down before we even get CLOSE to crossing the line.

So in short, get over yourself bloggers.  Show these guys training, show them in combat and show them getting fucked up in a bar trying to take a fat girl home.

Its all good info and its part of a story that should be told...without the blurred faces.

F-35's at Steel Knight. Did they even drop ordnance?

I've had a chance to read the press releases...I've watched the videos...but I haven't heard a thing about the F-35s dropping ordnance at Steel Knight.

It IS a live fire exercise so this should have been a given, but there is nada on it.  Why not?  The USMC made headlines and the fan club has been hitting us over the head about the F-35 reaching Initial Operational Capability.

Dropping bombs at an exercise should be a given.  Quite honestly I'm having trouble with the logic.  We're flying Harriers against ISIS and if they can get their hands on one of our pilots then its gonna be a public relations disaster.

If the F-35 is so superior why not have it moving sand and micro fragmenting terrorists in the Iraq/Syrian deserts?

173rd Airborne Brigade does jump ops from CH-47F Chinook Helicopters...Photos by Sgt. Thomas Mort

Integrating an artillery platoon within an infantry company landing team....Video by Cpl. Lucas Hopkins

They keep trying to push this meme! Don't they understand that in the end they're going to re-invent the Marine Expeditionary Unit?

Today's it's an attempt to add artillery, next you're gonna need armored ground mobility so we'll see AAVs or ACVs added to the mix.  Of course we're gonna be looking at increased logistics support so we're gonna have to build a Company Logistics Platoon.  They're gonna need vehicles so 7 tons will be added to the mix.

And then after it's all said and done, they'll talk about combining several of these Company Landing Teams together and we'll be right back to a Marine Expeditionary Unit.

HQMC!  Just fucking stop.  You're drunk.  Go home.

New German Police Special Ops Unit...BFE+

via Military Tech Magazine

The BFE+ will begin its work immediately Five locations, 250 security operatives
A new special unit is supposed to change that. It has been named the Beweissicherungs- und Festnahmeeinheit plus (evidence collection and arrest unit plus), also known as BFE+. Fifty agents will begin working at the federal police's Blumenberg location near Berlin immediately. Four more units, comprised of 50 agents each, will soon be deployed in other locations around the country.
To date, Germany's elite GSG9 special forces unit responded to scenarios like this, where risks to the lives of individual agents were accepted as part of the job. The GSG9 is designed to end such situations and restore order. The unit keeps its skills up-to-date with permanent training, and similar units, like the SEK (a SWAT unit) and MEK (a mobile tactical force), are also maintained throughout Germany.
But these units are all direct attack forces, and are not necessarily trained to conduct large-scale, sustained manhunts. The BFE+ is meant to fill that gap. They are to offer support to GSG9, as well as federal and state police, during large anti-terror operations.
Yet there is an enormous discrepancy between these elite units and everyday police officers patrolling their beat, Jörg Radek, deputy chairman of the police union GdP said. He warns that the protective vests issued to police cannot withstand the impact of rounds fired from assault rifles.

Interesting.

SO what they're actually doing is saying that what we've done in the two incidents that I remember best...the Boston Bombing and the San Bernardino terrorist attacks....isn't satisfactory.

What do I mean?  Bear with me cause I'm eating some crow on this...but if I'm reading this correctly,  then what they're saying is that where we used normal patrol officers to provide perimeter support or even participate in hunting down the terrorists, they instead will use a special police unit.

If I'm reading this right then the Germans have an enormous hole in their response to a Paris, Mumbai or San Bernardino type incident.

It seems like they're saying that unlike our Law Enforcement that is now training to run toward mass shooters and terrorists to stop the incident as soon as possible, they're instead going to do what we've abandoned.

They're going to set up a perimeter with the BFE+ and then assaulting the terrorists with GSG9.

Man I hope I'm reading this wrong.  If I'm right then the Germans will be looking at future blood baths.  The tragedy in the music hall that we saw in Paris will look like a spring shower with rainbows compared to what the German people could eventually confront.

Japanese Self Defense Force demonstrate their version of the Australian Bushmaster...

via ajw.asahi.com

By YUSUKE FUKUI/ Staff Writer

The Self-Defense Forces on Dec. 17 revealed its new armored vehicle equipped with a roof-mounted machine gun that will be used to evacuate Japanese civilians in a foreign nation in conflict.
Japan’s “transport protection vehicle” was put through the paces in an SDF drill at the Somagahara Maneuver Area that straddles Takasaki and Shinto in central Gunma Prefecture.
A V-shaped hull makes the 10-seat vehicle highly resistant to bombs and other munitions used by insurgents.
It is the SDF’s version of the Australian Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle. Australian forces used the vehicle in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Four were deployed this year to the Ground SDF’s Central Readiness Regiment stationed in Utsunomiya. The regiment acts as an advance team for the SDF.
The drill simulated the rescue of Japanese civilians gathered at the Japanese embassy in a nation undergoing turmoil after a change in political leadership.
Fifteen SDF members acting as civilians were led into the armored vehicles under simulated conditions of being surrounded by an angry mob or attacked with a bomb as they headed to an airport.
Although recently enacted national security legislation eases restrictions on the use of arms in overseas rescue missions of Japanese civilians, the SDF decided not to use the machine gun during the drill.

For all the fear and trembling in Asia over the "rise of Japan" they're still taking baby steps toward militarization.

The idea that they wouldn't mount machine guns for an exercise and for it to be highlighted in an article tells me they're far from being the monsters that some make them out to be.

Side Note.  I wonder if they bought them or got a manufacturing license?

Did the Commandant call you all gear whores?

Did the Commandant call you all gear whores?  I think so, but as is the case for senior officers, he was diplomatic.  Check this out from Kit Up from earlier this week...

MC commandant Neller says gear has become too complicated "we've allowed ourselves to become Gucci gear people" #iitsec

— JenJudson (@JenJudson) December 2, 2015

Like I said.  Its diplomatic but I think we can read between the lines.  The real problem?  He might be right.  God knows I like a nicely made piece of cordura!  But seriously.  If you consider the average Marine's load, I wonder how much of it can be considered "snivel" gear...how much of it can be considered "fashion" gear...how much of it is actually needed?  And if it's just for "comfort" or "fashion" then how much would be gained if we got anal with the pack lists again.

Germany to buy another 131 Boxer APCs...via Defense News.

via Defense News

Plans to provide the German Army 131 more Boxer armored personnel carriers have passed the German Bundestag. On Wednesday, the parliament's budget committee approved the procurement of the APCs, a Defense Ministry spokesman confirmed.
The wheeled fighting vehicles carry a price tag of €654 million (US $709 million), including 19 percent VAT, parliamentary sources confirmed. While around €566 million will be spent on the vehicles, about €47 million is earmarked for weapon stations. European armaments agency OCCAR will implement the project. The vehicles in the configuration A2, which come with better protection than previous batches, are due for delivery from 2017 to 2021.
Last week, Lithuania announced its intention to order 88 Boxers in infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) versions with a 30 mm cannon and anti-tank missiles. The State Defence Council selected the vehicle for the 8X8 requirement on Dec. 11. Those deliveries are set for 2017 through 2020.

“The production capacities in Germany and the Netherlands for Boxer vehicles can easily cope with the second batch for Germany and the vehicles for Lithuania,” said Stefan Lischka, managing director of Boxer manufacturer Artec, a joint venture between Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann. He even sees an increase in efficiency when production exceeds 30 units per year.

Two things.  First I wonder why the Europeans apply that "value added tax" to even items purchased by the govt?  It seems like an unnecessary doubling of expenses.  Why make the gear even more expensive by pasting a tax onto it?

The next thing is that the Boxer, somehow, is beating the excellent PUMA IFV in the  competition for the next general purpose armored vehicles for the German
Army.  That caught me totally by surprise.  Many experts consider the Puma the finest IFV in production (I'm partial to the CV90 but to each his own).