Open Comment Post. Oct 6, 2017

The blowback against the NRA has begun.

Unless you've been hiding under a rock then you know that bump stocks have become the hot thing in Washington.  The politicians are wanting to be seen acting after the latest terror attack so they're going after the low hanging fruit of banning those particular stocks.

The NRA (I assume) stuck their finger in the wind and decided that they would support a ban but backwards.  They want the ATF to revise their previous findings that bump stocks DID NOT violate the law and to not only ban future manufacture but to also do some kind of absolute ban with (I assume) voluntary turn ins (that's the Dems that are pushing for no grandfathering of those already purchased) in exchange for nationwide reciprocity for CCW holders.

Well Military Arms Instagram Page isn't having any of it.  Not only did he post the pic at the top of the page but he also put out this statement...

Effective Immediately: I withdraw my support for the @nationalrifleassociation until further notice. I have suspended all support and recruiting efforts. The next couple of videos I have are already edited and have a request for you to join. Please ignore that request. I am currently traveling but will remove the link in my future videos to the NRA website. I will be speaking with NRA leadership soon (hopefully) and if their position is to negotiate in any way whatsoever with anti-gun forces my future support will end and I will resign my membership. 

If you don't know who this guy is, he's a prominent YouTuber, former Marine, former Law Enforcement (might still be a reserve I'm not sure) and of course a well known gun guy.

The backlash against the NRA has begun.

Expect a modification of the stance taken by Republicans and for this to get pushed down the calendar.

The Gun Owners of America will get even more members and the NRA is gonna get a severe black eye.

Long story short?  There is no middle ground in this debate.  There is no trust in the gun community toward the gun grabbers.  The Sandy Hook gun grab attempt has spoiled this issue (the bait and switch that was attempted) for another 20 years.  There will never be a compromise that will satisfy both sides.  The status quo for better or worse is where we will remain for the foreseeable future.

ST Kinetics, SAIC & CMI are teaming to make Singapore's Next Generation Fighting vehicle into a Mobile Protected Firepower contender (Light Tank)

via Business Wire.

Science Applications International Corp. (NYSE: SAIC) announced today that it will compete to rapidly develop combat vehicle prototypes to meet the U.S. Army’s need as part of the Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) program. SAIC, together with ST Kinetics and CMI Defence, will develop and integrate a vehicle that offers the Army an innovative solution that provides infantry forces access to combat environments in 21st century operations.

“As a systems integrator, SAIC can deliver an alternative option to the Army that brings together best-of-breed, non-developmental components to field a new combat vehicle quickly that meets critical requirements,” said Jim Scanlon, SAIC senior vice president and general manager of the Defense Systems Customer Group. “Rapid delivery of this MPF solution is essential to the Army and our solution is extremely well-positioned to meet these requirements and deliver a modernized vehicle to soldiers.”

Based on ST Kinetics’ Next Generation Armored Fighting Vehicle (NGAFV) chassis and CMI Defence’s Cockerill Series 3105 turret currently in production, SAIC will compete for an Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) contract to build prototypes that incorporate a lightweight combat vehicle design while still providing mobility and lethality for Army units. Such a vehicle will enable freedom of movement and action, specifically for restrictive, urban operations but tailorable for full-spectrum combat environments.

Story here. 

I've gone from being enthused about the Army's Mobile Protected Firepower program into being extremely skeptical.

This might be the solution for other countries...slapping a tank caliber gun on an APC chassis but for the US Army it seems like a terrible move.

The US can build a dedicated light tank. 

If the Chinese can so can we...think about that.  We're now comparing the gear we procure to what the Chinese are doing.  Excuse me while I punch a wall....

NRA just went bat shit crazy. They're for outlawing bump stocks.

Let me say this right off.  Bump stocks are stupid.  Only idiots run them on their rifles and everyone that I know that's serious about the trade would never consider them.  Not even for recreation.

But the NRA just went bat shit crazy saying that they back the idea of the ATF re-examining them because they turn "semi autos into machine guns".

THEY DO NO SUCH THING!

The NRA, supposedly the guardian of our gun rights is allowing the gun grabbers to get their nose under the tent.

If we follow this along naturally then we can expect trigger kits, mags, optics and every other thing that can make a shooter more lethal (in defense of himself or others), accurate (to lessen accidents) or have better control over his weapon (increase defense capability, lessen accidents, and increase handling) to come under attack real soon.

Of course it will be called common sense gun control but its nothing of the kind.

It's an opening and you can expect the Democrats to run with it.

Thanks NRA, you guys are the true Blue Falcons.

Side note.  Some people just want to watch the world burn.  Some people are just evil beyond comprehension.  The Las Vegas shooter was both and probably a whole lot more.  Want to see gun crime plummet?  Enforce gun laws.  Make it stick.  Make the sentences mandatory.  Don't infringe rights but enforce the law.  You shoot someone in the act of a crime then you go away for a long time with no chance for parole.  You do that with all violent crime and watch it go down in just a few years.  People do bad things not tools.  Punish the people, don't demonize an inanimate object!

Fuji Combined Firepower Exercise 2017 : Type 16 105mm MCV, AAV + Armoured Vehicles

MCV at the 14 minute mark...AAV at the 16 minute.  I see the Japanese culture is alive and well.  They're crazy neat freaks (not a bad thing at all) and they keep their vehicles LOOKING in pristine condition.  Even their old rides are EXTREMELY well maintained.

Heritage Foundation ranks USMC & Army weak, USN & Air Force marginal in power index...

via Defense News.

The index gauged America’s armed forces’ as “marginal” in their ability to win wars against two major adversaries simultaneously, its yardstick for what the nation needs.

In the report, Heritage calls for an Army of 50 brigade combat teams, a Navy of 346 ships and 624 strike aircraft, an Air Force of 1,200 fighter/attack aircraft and a Marine Corps of 36 battalions.

Any buildup would be a tall order under current Capitol Hill dynamics. Lawmakers championing a larger military have for years run into the cross-currents of Republican opponents of deficit spending and Democratic allies of nondefense spending — all pressurized by statutory budget caps passed in 2011.

Heritage gave the Navy, Air Force and nuclear suite a collective grade of “marginal” for total power — a kind of D grade — compared with a top score of “very strong.”

The Marine Corps, meant to be the nation’s expeditionary armed force, which sustained decreases in amphibious ships and available aircraft as aging aircraft have been decommissioned. The index downgraded its readiness from “marginal” to “weak,” alongside its capacity — attributed to a number of aging air and land platforms.

“The Marine Corps dropped because of their aircraft woes and its general readiness,” Wood said. The index cited the USMC’s reporting at the end of 2016 that only 41 percent of its fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft were flyable.

Story here. 

Heritage Foundation Report here.

Wow.  He backs up his assessment with facts but I really wonder if we're actually looking at a funding problem as he asserts or if we're looking at management woes.

Notice that the Marine Corps is paying a penalty in its readiness quotient because Aviation is jacked up from the floor up.

How that has been allowed for almost a decade is beyond me.  The F-35 just wasn't worth the damage that its caused to Marine Air.  No plane, even the Death Star from Star Wars would be worth this much pain.

Read the article and digest the report.  Then weep for your US military.

Blast from the past. 6 Marine Snipers killed in Iraq. How can they keep pushing the Expeditionary Rifle Squad?

This incident seared into my brain how batshit crazy it is to try independent small unit actions in the modern era.  Moving forward a few years after this one and we saw over and over that it just doesn't work today.

This is why the Expeditionary Rifle Squad irks me so much. It might be envisioned that they will operate independently only in benign situations, but reality and the fact that they have the Eagle Globe and Anchor stenciled on their boonie covers mean that they will always be high priority targets.

My plea to the guys at Quantico?

Remember the past, not just the glory and the victories but the tragedies too.

Open Comment Post. Oct 5, 2017

A newly minted "Communist" US Army Officer?

via The Daily Caller.

The Army officer who outed himself as a radical Marxist had been reported back in 2015 for publishing inappropriate and outright anti-American views online, according to a scathing report obtained by The Daily Caller.

The report gave exhaustive and damning details on 2nd Lt. Spenser Rapone’s disqualifying insubordination at the U.S. Military Academy, extremist political views and out-of-regulations online activity. Still, the Academy’s administration saw fit to allow Rapone to graduate in 2016.

Story here. 

Have you been watching this story?  I have.  Quite honestly when I first saw it I thought it was some bat shit crazy far right news being posted for some weird reason or to distract.

Now I find out that not only is it true, but the guy is a HARDCORE, RABID, and PROUD Communist.

This is interesting to me because it indicates that US military culture is broken.

Think about it.

West Point, supposedly the most prestigious military academy allowed such an individual to make it thru its doors. They saw fit to commission a person as a US Army Officer that has views that are in opposition to the oath he swore and he constantly posts info on social media sites to prove his loathing of the nation he supposedly will die to protect.

This is the predictable result of social engineering with the military and the "anything goes" mentality that many have today.  The military has been transformed into an institution that reflects America instead of an institution that protects America.

Society can be idiotic and goofy.

They can experiment with all kinds of weird social constructs and face no consequences.

The military can't.

This is a minor incident in an organization as big as the US Army but it's telling.  Basic right and wrong is no longer an easy call for them and that should worry us all.

Either the mannequins are realistic as hell or the makeup artist needs a raise...pic by Sgt. Wesley Timm

This pic is via 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force's Instagram Page.  When I first saw it all I can think is someone had a bad day and I hope they're ok. I was positive that this was a pic from an actual fight, but lo and behold the caption says it's a simulated casualty.

I don't know who came up with the idea of pushing more realistic training but they need a raise....and if that's makeup then so does the artist.

US Army Special Forces Troops killed in ambush on their patrol in Niger.

via Reuters

Five soldiers from Niger and three U.S. Army Special Forces troops were killed and two wounded in an ambush on a joint patrol in southwest Niger on Wednesday, according to Nigerien and U.S. officials.

The five Green Berets were attacked while on a routine patrol in an area known to have a presence of insurgents, including from al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Islamic State, a U.S. official told Reuters.

It was unclear who fired on the U.S. and U.S.-backed forces, the official said. Those forces were not patrolling the area with any specific objective, such as a high-value target or rescuing a hostage, the official added.

Story here. 

I keep saying it but no one in SOCOM is listening.  Africa will eat our forces up. We want no part of that continent.  Why Special Forces in particular are so enamored with the idea of getting in the fight there is beyond me, but we will see horrors that will make an ISIS executioner recoil in terror.

No one will listen but that's the awful truth.

Next, I don't understand the fascination with these small unit actions.  No one has noticed but this is a lesson that was taught during the early days of our Invasion of Iraq.  Retaught during fighting in Afghanistan and is being shown in Syria to be bat shit crazy.

Warfare has evolved.  If you head out in anything less than platoon strength you stand virtually no chance.

What we're seeing here is what we will see in the continued fight against terrorist and God forbid a war against a peer power.

Small units will be found, fixed and destroyed.

These poor guys were dead as soon as they headed out the wire.  5 Special Forces advisors on a patrol with host nation troops?  They were probably clocked as soon as they left the wire.  I wouldn't be surprised if this was an actual attempt to capture those boys.

That's the only saving grace about this thing.  No one was captured so they can be put thru a living hell on earth.

Side note.  Everyone likes to talk about whether amphibious assault is still viable, whether airborne assault or air assault will work against a peer threat. Has anyone considered that maybe the "force multiplier" aspect of Special Forces is no longer valid?

Dunford just signed us up for another 6 or 7 years in Afghanistan...

via The Drive.

Corps General Joseph Dunford went to Capitol Hill to talk to Senators about the state of America’s longest war. Among other things, America’s top uniformed military officer discussed efforts to improve the capability of Afghanistan’s military, specifically noting plans to deliver a gunship version of the UH-60 Black Hawk to the country’s air force.

On Sept. 18, 2017, two UH-60A+ Black Hawks, the first of nearly 160 aircraft the United States plans to deliver to the Afghan Air Force, arrived a Kandahar Air Field on board a U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo plane. The entire fleet will eventually incorporate almost 60 aircraft equipped with forward firing weaponry for close air support missions.

“Longterm, and that's about six or seven years from now, we'll completely have transformed the Afghan Air Force,” General Dunford said in response to a question from Senator Deb Fischer, a Republic from Nebraska, during the hearing on Oct. 3, 2017. “A key piece of that is the transition from Mi-17 helicopters to UH-60 helicopters, which includes an attack variant.”

Story here. 

Everyone loves attack helicopters.  I know I do, but this time people got dazzled by the metal instead of examining the words of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

He sees us in Afghanistan for another 6 or 7 years.

Trump lied.

The Pentagon lied.

They're giving us generational warfare whether we like it or not.

When will someone with brains decide that he biggest part of the swamp is at the Pentagon?  If you want to actually drain the DC cesspool then you might want to start with leadership in that building.

Why am I pissed?

Because he is in essence telling me that his new strategy to win the war will require almost another decade of Americans dying in Afghanistan.

Think about it like this.  Someone just got to Junior High.  He doesn't know it but he might meet his maker seven years from now in the mountains of a country he doesn't even know exists.