Why do I have to constantly explain this? Forcible Entry is work! There are no shortcuts or easy ways!

I was reading the comments and once again I see the same tired, boring, bullshit argument being pushed.  How are you going to get the Landing Force to the beach in an A2/AD environment.

The answer is simple but lets wait while we examine the problem.

HQMC sold the idea that we needed to launch from over the horizon in order to successfully land the Landing Force.  Bullshit on a plate.  The reality?  I'll believe till my dying day that was simply a push to get more MV-22's bought.

It also negated the ability of critics (like me) to argue that a regular, less
expensive helicopter could fill the bill (something like the AW101 or S-92).

Did anyone raise the issue of long range anti-air?  Nope.  Did anyone raise the issue of long range anti-ship missiles that could reach out over 100 miles to strike ship BEYOND the horizon?  Nope.

Now back to the REAL answer.

We will do as we HAVE ALWAYS DONE!  Just like the former Navy Chief of Operations said...the Navy WILL roll back enemy defenses!

It's just that damn simple.

Also consider this.  The USMC is redesigning itself to face a problem that in reality doesn't exist.  The fight to get to the beach is just one small part of the problem.

Once you get ashore is when the real fight by the USMC  starts.  That's when you will fight terrorists that have almost combined arms teams consisting of artillery, tanks, and light vehicles bristling with machine guns.

If we fight a peer opponent then the threat goes up dramatically.

In either case the answer is the same.  The Navy will get us to the ashore.  It is our job to win the fight once we're feet dry.

Oh and the same applies to every other form of forcible entry.  The Marine Corps consists of 3 divisions.  The Army in essence has almost TWO Airborne Divisions of personnel AND an Air Assault Division.

They are just like the Marine Corps.  If an airborne op is called for then it will take a massive effort against a peer opponent.  You can probably double that effort its a Heliborne Assault with the 101st!

The focus of Marine Corps planners SHOULD be to enhance the MEU and our world beating MARINE AIR GROUND TASK FORCE!  All this talk of company landing teams, Lightning Carriers, MV-22 deep raids and such is fantasy.

Real world operations that are carried out following such idiocy will see body bags filled.

USS Tripoli (LHA-7) Commissioned. The ground side should just give the wing the carrier it wants...

via Business Insider.

The US Navy on Saturday will christen the USS Tripoli (LHA-7), its latest America-class amphibious assault ship that will pack Osprey helicopters, F-35 fighters, and thousands of Marines for rapid deployment from sea to shore.

Former Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus will break the ceremonial bottle of wine across the bow of the 844-foot warship during a ceremony at Huntington Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

Once it hits the fleet around 2018, the Tripoli will join the USS America (LHA-6) on the high seas, with the pair of ships packing unique capabilities among the expected total 11 ships of this class. Besides their power-plant and technology upgrades, the Tripoli and America will not have a well deck for launching small boats filled with Marines to the shore.

Story here. 

I am so tired of the Wing, the transformation-ist, futurists and all their camp followers that I can't see straight.

I'm also tired of cowardly Ground Component Officers that won't stand up for their side of the Marine Corps.

Just surrender that piece of ground.  Give Amos his ditch to die in and let the wing have the LHA-6 and LHA-7 as F-35 or Harrier carriers.

Don't fight it.  Encourage it.

Let them float without a ground component and when they're eventually gobbled up then let it happen.  Without a doubt the carrier navy will be out with the long knives and when they're left bleeding in the ditch beside Amos, we sit back...assess the situation...and keep marching down the road.

When they fail.  AND THEY WILL FAIL.

We don't allow them back into the tent.  We simply modify our way of doing business.  We go all rotary.  AH-1Z will be our attacker.  UH-1Z our utility.  CH-53 our lift.

In my way of thinking MV-22's will go along with the "Lightning Carriers" and they can make their bones serving as SOCOM's bitch.

But enough of this stupidity.

LHA-6 and 7 were mistakes on a drastic scale.  We're stuck with those monstrosities for the next 20 plus years.  

Better to send them on their way than see the MEU head out with an understaffed, under equipped, impotent ground combat element.

General Dynamics begins manned live-fire testing of AJAX armored vehicle

via UPI.

General Dynamics Land Systems U.K. has begun manned live-fire trials for its AJAX armored vehicle program, using the vehicle's CTA International 40mm autocannon, chain gun and smoke grenade launchers.

The trials will last five months beginning with static firing positions against immobile point targets and gradually progress to a moving vehicle engaging moving targets. The testing will occur in West Wales, Great Britain.

"The start of the CT40 cannon manned industry firing phase is a significant milestone in the AJAX programme," Kevin Connell, vice president of General Dynamics Land System U.K., said.

"This cutting-edge capability that enables AJAX to pack a significant punch, alongside its wide-range of best-in-class sensors that makes it an Information Age platform, ensures that the British Army has everything they need to do their job effectively," Connell said.

Story here. 

Hmm.  So the Brits are developing a middle weight force based on the AJAX Scout that is scalable, able to handle the full spectrum of threats?

Sounds like what the USMC has with its MAGTF, that the Army tried to copy with their Brigade Combat Teams don't it?

Open Comment Post. Sep 16, 2017

82nd Airborne conducts airborne op to take down the Night King!

The Night King finally gets defeated...by the 82nd AIRBORNE when we jump in and bring the pain! 

I like this.

The 82nd is dabbling in social media but they're doing it with flair!  I mean what better way to tie "The Game of Thrones" to your mission than to have the All Americans conduct an airborne op to take down the Night King (still don't get this GoT thing...is this the Night King or a Frost Giant...I'm so confused).

Either way.  Well done.

US Army Europe's Armored Brigade Infographic.

Hurricane Harvey & Irma lessons learned.

I've tried to think thru all the lessons learned after Hurricanes Harvey & Irma.

They won't work.

The problem is that the lessons learned would apply to govt and their reaction to the crisis.  I've shouted about the Marine Corps response.  I've cringed at the way NorthCom's Commander responded to this crisis.  "T" and "JD Strike" both commented on what happens at the local level as far as law enforcement is concerned (both Texas and Georgia seem to be wired tight...mutual assistance is real!) and we remarked on how large bases with thousands of troops weren't activated to deal with the disaster.

So what's left to talk about?

The responsibility of the individual to take care of not only himself but his family.  If you're able to aid neighbors and strangers that's good too, but it all begins at home.

So where does that leave you?

With doing the basics. Physically train yourself so that moving from point a to b is not a herculean effort.  Decide for yourself the danger the storm imposes. Especially if you live on the coast and a storm is in the vicinity then you should assess when its time to leave.  Don't wait for an evacuation order from some politician.

Keep your vehicle fueled and in good shape mechanically (don't be like all the idiots I see that spend 4 hours washing and waxing and won't spend a few minutes changing their oil).  Save money for that rainy day out of nowhere.  Be prepared to defend yourself against goblins that will roam the countryside even if you stay home.  Develop a system where you can grab not only essentials for a 3 day or longer stay away from home but also plan on being able to grab what is important with the thought that you might not come back to a home in "decent shape".

In essence the lesson learned is to be able to think, act, protect yourself and move without waiting for instructions from others.  A self important politician isn't "out for your best interests".  In the end it is as it always has been.  It's up to you to protect yourself and your family.


NOTE:  I know what some of you are gonna say.  Hey Sol, you're gonna give us that long ass song and dance and then tell us that the lesson learned is what we already know?  Fuck you dude!  Trust me.  I get it.  But the failure I see is in the system and that's just built into the gears.  You can't change a system when that same system is patting itself on the back for a job well done. 

Babcock - Arrowhead 120 Light frigate concept

Open Comment Post. Sep 15, 2017

Saudi warplane crashes in southern Yemen, pilot killed

via Press TV

A Saudi warplane has crashed in Yemen’s southern province of Abyan for unknown reasons, killing the pilot onboard.

The Typhoon warplane crashed into a mountain in Al Wade'a district on Wednesday, Yemen’s Saba news agency reported.

The report identified the pilot as Mahna al-Biz.

Last week, a UAE pilot was also killed in another warplane crash in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia along with his allies -- Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Sudan-- has been pounding Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstate the former Yemeni government, a close Riyadh ally.

Houthi fighters, backed by the Yemeni army and popular forces, have been defending the country against the all-out aggression.

Story here.

I haven't talked about it for a bit but the curb stomping that the Saudis are receiving seems to be continuing.

Doesn't matter if it was mechanical or a shootdown.

The Saudis just lost another of their first rate fighters and probably a distant relative of the crown prince.

The House of Saud can't be happy.

This was predictable. The Daily Beast takes aim at the Marine Corps over the AAV fire...

I was waiting for the age of the AAV to be commented on by the news media after word of the vehicle fire came out.

My thinking is that some brave soul might wander onto the pages of Naval Institute or Proceedings or Sea Power and discuss it there.

I was wrong.

Daily Beast took a swipe.  Check this out.

Nor is it clear the Sept. 13 amtrac fire can be blamed on the aged vehicle. “I would be very surprised if this has anything to do with the age of the vehicle or any maintenance issues inside the Marine Corps,” Dan Grazier, a former Marine officer who is now an analyst with the Project on Government Oversight in Washington, D.C., told The Daily Beast. “These vehicles run on a form of diesel fuel which does not generally just go up in flames.”
Grazier said he suspected a munition misfire was to blame for the fire. “This is really just speculation on my part,” he stressed.
But the GAO left no room for doubt when it declared the AAV “increasingly difficult to maintain and sustain.” In that regard, the vehicle has plenty of company. In 2017, the Marines have suffered a spate of air crashes that are at least partially attributable to old and worn-out planes.
It’s possible that an old, unsafe vehicle is at fault in the Sept. 13 accident. It’s also possible that a Marine made a mistake with some munition. Bad luck might also be to blame. “The investigation should answer all of these questions,” Grazier said.

Story here. 

A couple of things.  First I don't expect the findings, if it is the fault of an old vehicle, to be made public.  I no longer trust the ethics/morals/honesty of current Marine Corps leadership.  They've made it clear that they have an agenda and they will not let facts get in the way of what they want/decided upon.

Second is that they will continue to put lipstick on an old vehicle whose time has past.  The budget is a mess and the aviation situation almost guarantees that it won't be solved soon (got an article on the "side costs" of the F-35 and if the maintenance issue is as bad as I think we're in deep shit) with further buys of the plane up coming, the CH-53K waiting in the wings and the Wing convincing leadership that they suddenly need a tilt rotor UAV.

In essence the Marine Corps has an old vehicle on purpose.  Critics say that the Marine Corps is the Navy's Army.  They're wrong.  It's become the Navy's second Air Force.

SAIC still hasn't delivered the final two ACV prototypes...

via Inside Defense (behind paywall)

Science Applications International Corp. has delivered 14 of 16 prototype Amphibious Combat Vehicles, the company's chief executive confirmed Thursday. “We are completing production of the final two units,” Tony Moraco said during a call with analysts. “Testing of the ACV vehicles by the Marine Corps will continue through early summer of 2018, at which point they will make a production downselect contract decision.” As Inside Defense reported at the time , competitor BAE Systems as of early August had...

Forget the news about SAIC/ST Kinetics not delivering the final two ACVs to the Marine Corps.

SAIC is a MESS! This is what happens when you fire the subject matter experts...former Marines that understand the vehicle-will do work till its done and turn to college boys that look good in khakis but don't want to get dirty.  Alpha beats Beta everytime...except in corporate America!

That's not the real news.  The real news is that the Marine Corps is letting the ACV downselect slip till summer of 2018!

If that's because SAIC is slow in delivery or if it's because the Marine Corps has so poorly managed its procurement portfolio that it's allowed the F-35 to bend the Ground Combat Element over the table again is for you to decide.

One thing is clear.

Once again, a priority for the ground force is being delayed.