Open Comment Post. March 22, 2017.

The situation in Venezuela is still bad...SouthCom better be watching!

How is water delivered to the citizens of Venezuela?  By water truck to a central location and then it flows thru the water system.  

Another "oh shit that's really a thing" moment came when Enrique stated that every house has a water tank.  Not to HEAT water but to store water for potable use.  I can't speak for you but I find this rather stunning.  When was the last time each house had to have its own stored water because it did not flow thru our pipes from a treatment center?  I dare say that except for a few locations today this is a pre-WW2 type thing.

How bad is the infrastructure in Venezuela?  With the new deliveries of water there is a downside.  The pipes are leaky and that causes the streets to flood.  He talks about the water covering potholes and wrecked cars!

Enrique 262 Tumblr Page originates in Venezuela.  Besides posting pics of tanks, planes and ships that he finds interesting (to include I believe his games on War Thunder), he also blogs about the situation in his homeland.

To say that its bad is an understatement.  Go here to read it for yourself.

My point?  SouthCom better keep an eye on the situation in Venezuela.  The Border Patrol better gear up for the possibility of a mass migration of people to our borders and the public should prepare to hear horror stories with the meme being pushed that these are "economic" refugees.

The situation in Venezuela is bad and I don't see anyone leaning into the problem to prevent their troubles from washing up on our borders.

Side note.  I've talked about prepping and the main driver for me was the chaos of Katrina.  Seeking refuge in the Superdome or begging for help on the rooftop of  house instead of being able to fend for myself is too much to bear. People talk about losing faith in govt?  I didn't lose faith, but I realized that depending on govt to safeguard me and mine was a non-starter.  I won't even touch on the stories that I heard of the idiocy that went on in that place (I've talked to Katrina survivors and it was bad...real bad).  An economic collapse in the US? A great depression part 2?  How do you really prep for that?  I need to chew on that a bit.

Podcast Update!

Hey a quick podcast update.  By the time you read this me and ELP should have touched base by phone and setup a run thru/test drive for Weds.

If everything goes right (and even if it goes wrong) we will be going live Thurs!  Time to be determined but you will be kept in the loop.  I'll also give a list of issues that we'll be talking about and taking recommendations for other stuff that we should touch on in future broadcasts.

If this takes off the way that me and ELP hope then not only will we touch on military matters, but also firearms, politics, fitness etc.  Consider this the last redoubt for manliness!  So saddle up boys.  It might be a rough ride but a bad ride is better than a good walk!

US Army training to drink every other service's milkshake...

via Defense News.

The Army is creating an experimental combat unit to develop new tactics for lethally fast-paced future battlefields. The Multi-Domain Task Force will be “a relatively small organization…1,500 or so troops,” the Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, told the Future of Warfare conference here this morning. While small, it will have capabilities not found in the building block of today’s Army, the 4,000-strong brigade. “That organization will be capable of space, cyber, maritime, air, and ground warfare,” he said, extending its reach into all domains of military operations to support the Air Force, Navy, and Marines.

“It’s got a bunch of capabilities, and that’s what we’re going to play with to figure out what’s the right mix,” Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson, the deputy chief of staff for operations (G-3/5/7), told reporters at last week’s Association of the US Army conference. “It’s got some aviation. It’s got some maneuver. It’s got signal. It’s got cyber.” In English, that means it has helicopters, infantry and/or tanks, communications troops, and technical troops to protect (and perhaps attack) computer networks. By contrast, a typical Army brigade today, a much larger formation, has maneuver and signal, but no helicopters or hackers.

Story here.

Make no mistake about it boys and girls.  That's not a supporting force they're talking about building.  That's a replacement force for Marines and something that will quickly evolve into a supported force.

Make no mistake about it.

By the time the Army is finished tinkering with this thing what you're gonna see is their version of the MEU.  While we're playing with this Distributed Operations and small unit silliness, the Army is gonna reinvent the MEU, maybe go with my idea of making it Enhanced (Reinforced if you like) and they're gonna offer it to Combatant Commanders.

When we offer Expeditionary Rifle Squads the Army is gonna have a "Multi-Spectrum Combined Arms Team" ready to go.  They'll holler about needing transport and suddenly our Gators will be retasked to transporting Army Dawgs to a hotspot to do OUR FUCKING MISSION SET!

WAKE UP HQMC!

The Army is about to drink our milkshake!

Pic of the day...Ben Allen Photography's Vulcan Bomber!

Politics Talk. Trump thrives in chaos.

Growing up as a devil pup, I remember always being told...it was damn near a mantra and anyone with stripes or shiny shit on their collars said over and over...Marines MUST thrive in chaos.  It's what we do.  It's part of our ethos. The bigger the drama, the more chaotic things become, the more professional..more determined...more focused on mission accomplishment we must be.

Looking back over the past couple of months of the Trump administration, the enemies (I would call them the opposition but their actions have gone beyond simply being political opponents) actions indicate that they wanted to stun them into paralysis.

They wanted to throw so much shit at him that he froze in fright.  The funny thing?  With a normal politician it would have worked.  An establishment administration would be in a fetal position right now.

But Trump seems to at worst continue to march forward.  At best?  The bastard seems to thrive!  Did you notice the signing ceremony today for the NASA budget?  Dude seemed totally unfazed.

That's a good thing.  He's taking frontals all day and night but still remains on task and on mission.  The controversies are a bit disturbing (even if I realize that most of it is manufactured) but I'm pumped up by him still moving forward.

The Dems are quickly coming to the point of being spent.  When that happens is when the Trump agenda will pick up speed.  Now isn't the time.  But after the summer recess?  Then we will see stuff happen.  The Democrat resistance is going to lose.  We and he (Trump) just need to continue to hang tough.

China attacks/conquers the Philippines. Could it happen?

My buddy Miguel over at 21st Century Asian Arms Race Blog has an interesting article that explores how China could attack/conquer the Philippines on the cheap.

He lists 7 actions that could be taken that would result in a humiliating defeat for the Philippine govt and because its a variation on the Russian "little green men" and cyber would probably leave us in a state of "paralysis by analysis" (an affliction suffered by those that seek the perfect plan instead of realizing that NOT actng is an action itself!)while the Think Tanks try and come up with a course of action.

Read it here.

Taifun-Airborne APC. Is it really this freaking tough?

The article from Sputnik was standard fare and showed the usual testing of a new armored vehicle. Read it here.  What captured my attention and wondered if the editors over there had ingested crack or if the Russians had cracked the code was this portion.

A direct hit by an artillery shell or a landmine have always been a major problem for any types of armored vehicles.
Here too the Taifun escaped largely unscathed with a direct hit by a blast-fragmentation shell causing a tiny crack on the porthole, cracking a back view mirror and doing other, equally insignificant, damage.
During one test a Taifun withstood some 15 direct hits, including by a self-made bulk explosive device. The amount of explosive was enough to blow a Gazelle mini-truck to bits, but the Taifun remained roadworthy and its engine kept running even if the hood was blown off.

A direct hit by an artillery shell?  I'm not sure what they're talking about when it comes to a self made bulk explosive but I was taught how to make an explosively formed penetrator as a devil pup.  That can shred most things up to a MBT.  Could they be saying that this vehicle withstood that?

Let's hope the editors are smoking crack or just talking mad, crazy shit!  If this is real then they have a wonder vehicle.

The 155mm Advanced Gun System-Lite (AGS-L) (PDF)

PDF here, JPG conversion below.

Marine Corps Captain calls for the San Antonio Class to get "Advanced Gun System Light" for naval fire support.

via CIMSEC

In light of the distributed lethality operational concept, the Navy is looking toward up-gunning the ‘gators.’37 Original designs of the San Antonio-class LPD called for two 8-cell Mk-41 VLS in the bow of the ship, but the cells were cut during development.38 Marine Commandant General Neller has expressed public enthusiasm for reversing this decision, stating that the addition of the VLS to the LPD would “change the game.”39 The addition of missiles would provide long-range fires to Amphibious Ready Groups or Marine Expeditionary Units, and support disaggregated, independent operations by the LPD. While the addition of 16 TLAMs would increase the LPDs’ lethal capability, it does not appreciably improve NSFS capacity, especially if the LPD is operating independently. The lack of a reload capability restricts tactical flexibility for fire support: the threshold to expend a TLAM would likely limit small, distributed units from exploiting gaps and seams as they develop. It also limits operational flexibility as the small magazine would prevent longer operations and limit time on station.

Instead of installing a VLS into the LPD, the services should investigate the possibility of installing a naval gun. Quantity has a quality all of its own: guns provide a capacity that a 16 cell VLS does not. From an economic perspective, the use of a naval gun allows the Navy to invert the acquisition model from one centered on high-cost, low capacity missile purchases to a low cost, high-capacity gun system that will would enjoy better economy of scale.40 While the initial costs in ship modification may be more expensive when compared to the VLS, the price dynamics of a gun system are more favorable than TLAMs over the long term, especially given the tactical dividend of the gun’s ability to be reloaded indefinitely at sea.
A potential course of action could be the Advanced Gun System Lite (AGS-L), a modified AGS that was designed to fit into the same space as the Mk-45 5-inch gun found on most surface combatants.41 The AGS-L is capable of firing the LRLAP to its 71 nautical mile range, at six rounds per minute, housing up to 240 LRLAP rounds in the magazine. 42,43 More importantly, the modification of the LPDs to support deck guns would allow the ships to capitalize on the future Hyper Velocity Projectiles (HVP) that are currently in development for strike and air defense.44 Capable of being fired from a traditional gun, HVPs launched from the AGS are capable of intercepting cruise missiles at ranges over 10 nautical miles, but are exponentially more affordable than the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles currently stocked in the VLS for defense.45,46 When Houthi rebels attacked the USS Mason with Chinese-produced C-802 anti-ship cruise missiles in October, James Holmes estimated that it cost the Navy upwards of $8 million dollars to defend the vessel against enemy projectiles valued at $500,000 piece; a cost ratio of over 8-1.47 The installation of a naval gun not only allows the LPD an increased capacity to support troops ashore, but also position the fleet to take advantage of fiscally sustainable medium-range air and missile defense capabilities in development.48

Counter-arguments to the retrofitting of the AGS-L into standing surface combatants exist. Studies would have to identify the effect of the gun on other naval systems, specifically the heat, vibration, and gases. Of most relevance is the ship’s superstructure: will the bridge’s fragility prohibit a gun entirely? While BAE promotional materials highlight the similarities of the physical dimensions between the Mk-45 and the AGS-L, careful attention would need to be paid to the extent at which the ship would have to be modified to support shell hoists, cooling, and magazine spaces. The back end logistics and life cycle maintenance would be an additional cost to consider.

While these challenges are indeed daunting, the ability for an LPD to provide NSFS to the Marines already embarked would relieve other surface combatants and their magazines to prosecute other warfighting functions. An LPD is already better suited to provide NSFS because her engines and fuel supply allow for longer on-station times compared to cruisers or destroyers. On a personal level, the LPD crew providing fires to her previously embarked Marines could yield a familiar and habitual relationship between supporting and supported units, leading to increased combat effectiveness (and plenty of opportunities to practice processes while underway).49 Combined with her reduced radar cross-section, aviation space, and command and control capability, the LPD would be in a unique position to operate independently, supporting distributed operations across the maritime domain.

Click here to read the entire article.

Click here (or the highlighted portion above) to read the brochure on the Advanced Gun System Light.

I personally like this idea!  Still not sold on the idea of LPDs having to provide naval gunfire while operating independently (why is the entire Marine Corps so enamored of the Expeditionary Squad Concept...do they want these little groups of Marines to be highlighted on an ISIS beheading and soon rape video???) but as part of supporting an Enhanced or Reinforced MEU?  It freaking sings!  Well done Captain!

Spain takes delivery of second phase of Pizarro via Janes

Thanks to Jonathan for the link!

via Janes

General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS) has completed the delivery of 83 Pizarro tracked infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) to the Spanish Army.

A ceremony to mark the handover of the last of the vehicles took place during the 2017 International Exhibition of Security & Defence Technologies (HOMSEC) held in Madrid from 14-16 March, a GDELS spokesperson told Jane's.

The programme will now switch to producing the remaining 36 vehicles, all of them recovery variants, at the group's Santa Bárbara Sistemas plant at Alcalá de Guadaíra near Seville.

The GDELS spokesman said the recovery vehicles will have better protected hulls and that production is due to start later this year.

Interesting.  I wonder why the high number of recovery variants?  Additionally I find it curious that the same vehicle that Spain calls an IFV is called by the Brits a scout vehicle!

Regardless, this is the future.  Whatever vehicle is selected, it's obvious that a family of vehicles is the way ahead.

Open Comment Post. March 21, 2017.

Photo via DSully Flickr page.

Sorry for the late post.  Busy day!