Dawn Blitz 17 HIMARS ... video by Sgt. Logan Block (nice exercise but it wasn't as big a deal as we thought)

Caption from the vid...

U.S. Marines with 5th Battalion, 11th Marines, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Unit, set up and launch a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) aboard the USS Anchorage (LPD 23) during Dawn Blitz 2017, Oct. 22, 2017. Dawn Blitz allows the amphibious force to integrate the HIMARS into the exercise to validate a capability with platforms not traditionally used at the Marine Expeditionary Brigade/Expeditionary Strike Group level. 

I've been chewing on this awhile and my initial happiness with this move has been tempered.

WTF am I talking about?  Remember this pic from Defense Tech that had us all going goofy back in 2010 (article here)?

Yeah.  We just experimented with a concept that the Chinese Marine Corps were doing almost a decade ago to "validate" the concept.

I don't recall my reaction at the time but looking at it now I wonder.  This is an extremely poor way of delivering fires.  You better have calm seas, a totally deconflicted sea space to perform this op in (God forbid if some hot dog pilot pops over the horizon or some missile boat skipper gets a wild hair and your arty/MLRS is lashed to your deck!) and if you're gonna actually put steel on target you better be working some good voodoo with your math unless the ship is at anchor.

The reality is stark...and simple.

We're trying to make it work with the resources we have, and despite spending a fortune on defense we still have a basic capability gap.

We don't have proper naval guns to deliver the weight of fire needed in this day and age if we were to ever cross swords with a peer threat.

What we need is a proper battleship for the 21st century and the Zumwalt while a decent attempt won't get it done.

Luckily for us planners have already crunched the numbers on this.  Remember the document outlining future "wishes" for the force?  On one of the slides was a requirement for what is essentially a Landing Ship Medium (Rocket), which is what you see above.

Long short?

The demonstration was nice but the action is with the budget and the Navy. Will they give the Marine Corp another toy after getting burned with the Zumwalt, the Mobile Landing Platform, the F-35, being coerced into using the MV-22 for carrier onboard delivery and being begged for space aboard the space constrained LCS to deliver Marines?

I'm not sure.  You can push goodwill too far and the Navy has bent over backwards to put into service ships and planes that we have to "figure out what we're gonna do with them, after we get them".

173rd Airborne Brigade via Army Flickr Page, pic by Paolo Bovo

Paratroopers assigned to 173rd Airborne Brigade, prepares to land after exiting a U.S. Air Force 86th Air Wing C-130 Hercules aircraft, during exercise September Heat at Rivolto Italian Air Force Base, Udine Italy, Sept. 26, 2017. The 173rd Airborne Brigade is the U.S. Army Contingency Response Force in Europe, capable of projecting ready forces anywhere in the U.S. European, Africa or Central Commands' areas of responsibility.

Hmm.  In light of the incident with the Special Forces team just a few weeks ago, is it smart to have your "contingency force" stationed in Italy especially considering the size of Africa?

Let's be honest.  Europe is NOT in need of an airborne unit from the US.  They can neither deter or prevent a mythical invasion by the Russians.  Seems like it would make nothing but sense to station them in Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti.  It would suck for the paratroopers (I saw a Pizza Hut on a map of the base so maybe it wouldn't be so bad!) but it would put them ALOT closer to the action if they're ever needed.

Open Comment Post. Nov 2, 2017

Glenna June Bellomy Anderson (1926 - 2008). via SixPence Tumblr Page.

Glenna June Bellomy Anderson (1926 - 2008). When the cemetery sexton sold Glenna her stone, her request for the inscription on it was “I was… somebody.” He said the reason was that Glenna felt that many years after she died no one would probably remember her anyway. By having this inscription on her stone, people would see & remember it. Park Cemetery, Carthage, Missouri.

Psalm 144:4 They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow....I'm not religious but it does seem that the good book got this one right and in spades.

Anglo Engineering Concepts via Think Defense Blog!

Thanks to Ogden for the link!

This thing is too good to spoil!  Head over to Think Defense for the full story and tons of additional pics!

Turkmenistan parades ground vehicles

Wow.  The MRZR is almost basic military equipment around the world now and the US military might be slow to accept the Polaris Dagor but everyone else is buying it like candy.  The other thing that shocks the system is that the Israeli 4x4 is alive and well and in service.  Simply amazing.  It looks like its straight out of the HALO video game...pics via Bmashina Tumblr Page.

Open Comment Post. Nov 1, 2017

Assault Breacher Vehicle tested aboard a Landing Craft Utility...

via Janes.

After years of successfully operating its Assault Breacher Vehicle (ABV) in overseas conflicts, the US Marine Corps (USMC) has found a way to fit the mine-clearing modified tanks on Landing Craft Utility (LCU) vessels.

The USMC tested the revamped ABVs during the last week of October as it stormed beaches and practised other amphibious operations during its annual Bold Alligator 2017 exercise along the Atlantic Ocean coast of North Carolina.

“Now we can offload [from the LCU], drop the front-end equipment and start plowing,” Lieutenant Oscar Machado told Jane’s during a break in the exercise. “That’s what we’ve been trying out for Bold Alligator, onloads and offloads with the LCU – the first time we’ve used it like this.

I assumed that the ABV had been tested for shipboard capability long ago but I  guess its better late than never.  This has to be the new bastard vehicle of the Marine Corps.  YOU NEVER hear anyone with stars even mentioning the thing!  Will it stay in the active force, to the Reserves or worse to storage?

Brazilian Army and Marine Corps on exercise (AAVs, MLRPs, Piranha IIIs)

A coup in the US in 1934? Have you heard of such a thing?

A little late night viewing had me stumble across the above video.  While it has a "History Channel" vibe to it I can't be sure if its legit.  I also can't be sure of the subject matter but it's rather compelling.  I'll do a Google search to verify if the US avoided a coup attempt in 1934 thanks to General Butler but in the meantime enjoy.