Ruger PC9 or PCC9 Take Down 9mm Carbine looks awesome in the Military Arms Channel Review!!!

Wow.

I questioned the ergonomics of this thing but the thing looks like a pure beauty in Mac's vid.  Even better is that this beast will feed from any Glock magazine (seems to have a bit difficulty with ETS mags but not too bad), both OEM and aftermarket.  I've seen (and own) a few Korean Glock Mags and while I've never had an issue, I have heard horror stories.

Last but not least?

It doesn't have an issue with hollow points.

I can tell you know this is a definite buy for me.  Oh and all the guys wanting one in 10mm or 45 cal or even 40 cal (don't know why...40 sucks) I get it.  The 9mm tribe gets all the goodies (especially the Glock cult) and everyone else gets left in the cold.

Well to you guys I'm already making the call.  If by chance Ruger makes this in your caliber then buy it quick.

MAC referenced it in his video.  The last time we saw something like this was from Marlin.  A Marlin employee made it 9mm compatible and if you can find one today then you have a gem.

I don't know how this one will do in today's AR crazy market.  But buy it while you can.  Democrats will probably take over Congress late this year and Trump is a bit unsteady on gun issues (looking at his past not his stance since running as a Republican).  Better to be safe than sorry.

Is Chinese A2/AD concept even viable considering US forward basing?

This one is short and sweet.

Is the Chinese A2/AD concept even viable considering US forward basing?  Do we face an anti-access problem or are we thinking about this the wrong way?

Think about this.

*  Penetrating an A2/AD fits in perfectly with the US idea of offensive operations.  Are we a slave to offensive operations?

*  The US has numerous forward bases in the region.  Many of them can be considered mega-bases.  Between Japan, Guam, S. Korea and the Philippines (leaving out distant Australia), we are in their backyard.

What if we took a beat and paused.

What if we flipped the script and thought differently.  Thought defensively.  What would we do?

How about instead of thousands of Marines on Guam setup for defensive operations we tailor the force to contain China.

Army Anti-Air Battalions replace some of our forces (yeah...Marines are vicious in offense, tenacious in defense but we don't have the tools for my thinking on this one).  Instead of USAF B-52/B-2 rotating into that air base we instead station pure air defense/superiority squadrons.  Additionally the Navy pivots back to the sea battle in a big way.  They also send pure interceptor/fighter squadrons on the base along with long range anti-ship/sub aircraft (both manned and unmanned).

Of course we put every available ISR platform (within reason) in the area so that we have a better picture of Chinese fleet, air and troop movements.

We repeat that on every base in the region with the exception of S. Korea.  Those forces would be augmented but the deterrence of N. Korea would continue.

My point is this.

We're thinking that we have to break into the region.  We don't.  China has to try and push us out.  We're seeking to tailor the fight to what we're comfortable with.  Offensive operations.  We don't.  We're on the defense.  China will have to go onto the offense.

The Alraigo Incident..

via Enrique 262 Tumblr Page!

The Alraigo Incident refers to the landing by a lost British Royal Navy Sea Harrier fighter aircraft on the deck of a Spanish container ship in 1983.

On 6 May 1983 Sub Lieutenant Ian “Soapy” Watson was a junior Royal Navy Pilot undertaking his first NATO exercise from HMS Illustrious, which was operating off the coast of Portugal. Watson was launched in a pair of aircraft tasked with locating a French aircraft carrier under combat conditions including radio-silence and radar switched off.

After completing the search Watson flew to an arranged meeting point with his flight leader. When the flight leader did not appear Watson turned towards Invincible expecting it to appear on the radar; when he was unable to find the carrier he made a radio transmission. It was at this stage he realized his radio was not working and the NAVHARS (inertial navigation system) had not taken him back to the expected location for landing.

As Sea Harrier ZA176 began to run low on fuel Watson turned the aircraft East towards a known shipping lane making radar contact with a surface vessel at 50 mi (80 km). At 12 mi (19 km) he made visual contact with the container ship Alraigo and initially planned to eject in sight of the vessel.

After performing an initial fly-by of the Alraigo Watson noticed that the ship was carrying a number of flat topped containers similar in size to a practice landing pad. The container was carrying a base plate for a telescope being delivered to the La Palma Observatory in the Canary Islands. On his second approach Watson landed the Sea Harrier on top of the shipping container with only a few minutes of flight time to spare. As he touched down the aircraft began to slide backwards on the wet surface. Watson attempted to retract the landing gear to arrest the slide but this failed and the aircraft slipped backwards off the container and onto the roof of a van parked on the deck. The van partially held up the fuselage and stopped a further slide.

Four days later a considerable international media presence witnessed the Alraigo sail into dock at Santa Cruz de Tenerife with the Sea Harrier still perched on its container. The aircraft was salvageable, and the ship’s crew and owners were awarded £570,000 compensation.
Sea Harrier ZA176 was converted to the FA2 variant in 1992 and retired from service 20 September 2003. The aircraft is now on display at Newark Air Museum in Nottinghamshire England in its FA2 configuration.

Simply awesome story.  Wonderful airmanship.  Nicely done.

Anniversary of the Philippine Landing

Hudson Institute says that the Chinese J-11 severely outclasses the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet & F-35C Lightning!

via National Interest.

Already, the F/A-18E/F faces a severe speed disadvantage against Chinese J-11 aircraft, which can fire longer range missiles at a higher kinematic advantage outside of the range of U.S. AIM-120 missiles.”

Nor does the F-35C—which suffers from severely reduced acceleration compared to even the less than stellar performance of other JSF variants—help matters. “Similarly, the F-35C is optimized as an attack fighter, resulting in a medium-altitude flight profile, and its current ability to only carry two AIM- 120 missiles internally [until Block 3] limits its capability under complex electromagnetic conditions,” the authors wrote. 

Story here. 

Read the entire article but this is the closest I've seen a Think Tank finally admitting what most of the readers of SNAFU! have known for years.

The F-35C (and family) is screwed against even CURRENT Chinese/Russian fighters (as is the Super Hornet).

I still believe that the Super Hornet is "serviceable" in certain roles in the event of peer vs peer combat but the F-35 has taken too long, cost too much and will deliver too little to allow the fiction of its lethality to continue.

Someone must save leadership from itself.

The F-35 won't deliver.

It's time to cut bait and start an air superiority program that will give the US and its allies an airplane that will be able to compete and win against the best from China/Russia.

We just don't have anymore time for vanity....or to allow profits to trump national security. 

China says its military is paralyzed by peace and that war is not far off...

Thanks to Danger Carlos for the link!

via Yahoo.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) criticized its own military personnel for being paralyzed by peace as China ramped up preparations for war.

This week, a PLA Daily report blasted its own soldiers for refusing to face the possibility of war, blaming the recent period of peace for paralyzing the current generation of troops, reported the Global Times, a newspaper produced by the ruling Communist party.

"War is not far from us. Regional situations around China are complex and unstable, and dangers are hiding under the peace. China cannot afford a military failure, so we must be fully aware of potential crisis and be prepared for battle at all times," the official PLA newspaper read.

-------------

 "In regions like the Korea Peninsula, China-India border area and the Taiwan Straits, the PLA needs to be prepared for all possibilities. Our overseas interests in regions like Africa and the Middle East are also under threat due to local instability,” he said.

Story here. 

Ok Major Pallas. I like your thinking. But can you get it past HQMC?

via War on the Rocks.

In his recent birthday ball message, the Commandant of the Marine Corps stated that the Corps can’t “lose to learn — we gotta win.” To ensure the Marines continue to win, they have to develop their training to meet the threats of the future. Right now, the Marine Corps is practicing against an open backfield and shadow boxing in the mirror — marines are often a self-licking ice cream cone patting themselves on the back when complete. It’s time to move past sustaining this model and develop the ability to conduct realistic force-on-force training.

The Marine Corps prepare for the unknown. I have always taken great pride in that marines are able to fight and win in modal domains within the spectrum of human conflict. If they are warfighters, they must train against the “anti-warfighters.” They must train against a force that is scalable, experienced, and the subject matter experts of enemy tactics, techniques and procedures. Marines have to stop training only in what they are good at and instead train for exposure to an enemy that is intimately familiar with Marine tactics, in order to expose their weaknesses and create a greater force at the outcome. To do this, the Corps should create and resource an Adversary Air Ground Task Force, or the A-AGTF.

The A-AGTF would provide a unit made up of free-thinking, breathing, adaptable individuals well-versed in enemy tactics as an adversary force for service-level training. Due to the existing “canned” tire stack, plywood, and static metal enemy force, the current training construct does not allow for rapid changes on the practice field or improvised decisions played out in execution, nor does it account for decisions made by the enemy and how they affect the decisions marines make in training. Marines operate by a well-defined and scripted playbook that does not allow free thinking at the lowest levels of leadership. This problem is hard to crack — in fact it would require a complete paradigm shift in Marine Corps training philosophy — but a requisite one if the service is to truly prepare to face the threats of tomorrow.

Story here. 

Wow.

Read the story but I actually like this proposal.  Correction.  I love it!

The Major is doing two things, one of which will probably ensure his promotion.  Let's talk about him punching his ticket (oh and I have no problem with that as long as it's because you've done something worthy of promotion).

Dude has taken the Commandant's own words and "actionized" them.  He has devised a plan to actually make training more meaningful and realistic.

The second thing he's done will probably see him on most wanted posters by Think Tanks.

The Major's schemes will give us an opportunity to take all these flights of fancy and get them from around meeting tables, water coolers etc...out into the field where these free thinking adversary forces can either confirm or fuck beyond recognition the favored concepts being pushed.

I would bet body parts that in a REAL scenario, a 1000 mile raid by a Company Landing Team will end in horror unless it is MASSIVELY supported.  That fantasy that Amos ran with students from Infantry Officer Course was batshit stupid on a stick.  Nothing was certified, nothing tested, they simply burned aviation gas and the boots yelled cool.

This proposal could actually put such concepts to the test.

I like it!

I'll bet money it'll never happen though.  Concept guys don't like to be told that they "don't have any clothes"...just like the mythical king.

Two SEAL Team 6 members. An Army Green Beret. A murder.

via Vox

On June 4, Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar — a 34-year-old Army Green Beret — was found dead in US Embassy housing in Mali while he was on a secret assignment. Investigators currently believe he was strangled to death — and that two members of SEAL Team 6 may have killed him.

Murder among US service members is relatively rare, but it’s especially shocking to see that the two suspects — Petty Officer Anthony DeDolph, a former professional mixed martial arts fighter, and a still-unnamed sailor, both Melgar’s roommates — form part of one of the most revered military units in the United States. SEAL Team 6 became internationally famous for successfully killing Osama bin Laden in Pakistan on May 2, 2011.

A probe, first reported by the New York Times, is ongoing — and no one has yet been charged with a crime. But it appears the suspected SEALs changed their story and lied about about what happened. The Daily Beast reports that Melgar found out the two SEALs were taking some money designated for an informant fund. The SEALs asked Melgar if he wanted to get involved, but he declined.

The SEALs first told investigators that they found Melgar dead around 5:00 am on June 4. But after an autopsy showed Melgar died of asphyxiation, they said the three of them were doing fighting exercises when Melgar passed out, after which they tried to get Melgar medical attention. The SEALs claimed Melgar was drunk — but he didn’t drink that day — which raised suspicions of their account. The two SEALs have left Mali and are now on leave.

Read the whole story here. 

You can follow that link and read the whole story but you really don't need to. See that portion I highlighted?  That tells you all you need to know.

Let some Marine kill a Soldier and you know what would happen?  NCIS would be crawling up his rectum so far that his voice would change octaves and he'd start to question his sexuality.

These SEALs will get off.

They're on leave? 

That's batshit insane.  That means that SOCOM is wanting this whole thing to fade away. 

My guess?

We'll see them plead guilty to false statements and quietly separated from the service.  From the outside looking in on the SEAL community this won't keep them from cashing in on post activity duty benies either.  They'll get hooked up with CORPORATE security work and they'll do the same thing they did in service but only for Xi, Triple Canopy or one of the other firms out there.

The only thing that has me truly puzzled is this.  Why is the Green Beret community and Army Special Operations so silent on this issue?  I thought for sure they would be beating a drum and I expected MASS exodus of Navy Special Operators from any locale the Army had sunk it's teeth into.  I can't explain the silence but I find it extremely curious.

One last thing.

No one will touch on it but SOCOM is a HUGE piece of the waste, fraud and abuse problem.  The bigger they've gotten the more "slush" money they have which means loose money is floating around for anyone to grab.  The idea that SEALs were suspected of stealing informant money isn't really news to me.  The fact that a SF Soldier put them in a position to even wonder if he would rat them out means that there are a few men of integrity left in SOCOM.

Romania buys Piranha 5.

Today, General Dynamics European Land Systems signed a contract to deliver up to 227 PIRANHA 5 wheeled armored vehicles in six different configurations to the Romanian Armed Forces. The contract has a total value exceeding $1 billion. It is part of the Romanian Army’s plan to modernize its...

This news is all over the place so this isn't to inform my readers but to ask a question.

I understand the popularity of wheeled infantry vehicles for forces that have to travel great distances.

It just makes too much sense based on logistics alone.

But Romania isn't one of those countries.  Neither are a few that I can name that also jumped on the wheeled IFV bandwagon.

The question is this.

Assuming that this program is designed to blunt a Russian invasion (an invasion that I continue to believe WILL NOT HAPPEN), then do they believe the nature of the fight in Europe has changed?

Hear me out on this one.  Challenger, Abrams, Leopard and LeClerc were born from the idea of intense combat.  So were their stablemates, the Bradley, Warrior, Marder etc....

If high intensity warfare does return to Europe (and I'm proven wrong as two left feet) will wheeled IFVs stand up to the fight?

I just wonder.

Remember the things that once made a good fighting vehicle.  Low silhouette, fast (forward and back), good armor especially over the frontal arc....I'm not so sure wheeled vehicles check those boxes.

My point is this.

The US has skewed its way of warfare toward being totally offensive.  Even in the defense we're offensive!  Think about it like this.  Why would we need to penetrate A2/AD?  Why have we had a premium on knocking down anti-ship missiles instead of developing our own?

If this way of thinking has truly become our way of warfare then we've seriously allowed current mission mindset invade our future warfare thinking.

Have our allies made the same mistake and are buying vehicles that aren't tailored to their defense needs?

Full Disclosure!  I'm a huge fan of the Piranha 5.  I think its an awesome vehicle.  This isn't a critique of the vehicle, just musing about whether its the right one for Romania's needs.

Open Comment Post. Jan 12, 2018