Armored Vehicle Turret Guide from Armada.

A  one of a kind guide to vehicle turrets from our friends at Armada.  If you don't visit their website or read their magazine, then you're missing out.  

  Armada Dec 2013 Jan 2014 Compendium Turrets

Benghazi, IRS, ObamaCare and other scandals in a new light....

Excerpt from Bob Gates book.

The ‘controlling nature’ of the Obama White House and the national security staff ‘took micromanagement and operational meddling to a new level,’ Mr. Gates writes.
Under Mr. Obama, the national security staff was ‘filled primarily by former Hill staffers, academics and political operatives’ with little experience in managing large organizations. The national security staff became ‘increasingly operational,’ which resulted in ‘micromanagement of military matters — a combination that had proven disastrous in the past.’

This should put the tragedy in Benghazi, the IRS scandal and the ObamaCare debacle in a new light.

If Gates is right, and from my chair it looks like he is, then the highest levels of the White House were fully aware of the issues noted.  They were probably intimately aware of the situations as they developed and participated fully in the choices made.

The truth here is painfully obvious.

The White House ran the response to Benghazi.  The death of an American Ambassador, former Navy SEALs and State Dept Workers can be laid at the door steps of the Commander in Chief.

Algerian Navy set to receive new LHD. via Military Photos.

-Total displacement = 9000 tons
-Length = 142.9 meters
-Width = 21.5 meters
-Flight deck with two runways and landing pads for heavy-lift helicopters in the extremities and 30-ton lift in the central part of the deck
-The power plant includes two diesel engines Wärtsilä 12V32 rated at 6000 kW
-The maximum speed = 20 knots
-Cruising range = 11,265 km
-Generation of electricity will be provided by four diesel generators Isotta Fraschini V1716 C2ME capacity of 1300 kW and one emergency V1708 T3 of 600 kW
-Armament includes MBDA SAAM-ESD (Aster missiles + A50 launcher Sylver) behind the island superstructure + Oto Melara 76/62 Super Rapid + 2 Single 25mm 
-The electronic structure will include Selex Sistemi Integrati EMPAR + AESA radar of CICS Athena-C + navigation radar and flight control by -gosopoznavaniya SIR + Communication system supplied by Selex Elsag + EW systems produced by Elettronica and Thales + two SCLAR-H decoy launchers 
-The Algerian helicopter landing ship dock can accommodate 3 Landing Craft Mechanized (LCM) + 3 small Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel (LCVP) + 1 large Landing Craft Personnel (LCP) + 2 semi-rigid boats. The garage can accommodate up to 15 armored vehicles.
-The crew = 150 people
-The landing force = 440 people

I look at this ship and lust after it for the US Navy and Marine Corps.  Have you noticed something about the US Amphibious Fleet?  The further we move away from actual combat at sea (talking WW2.....the last extensive at sea fight) the bigger our ships have gotten.  When you must land the landing force, you don't put all your eggs in one basket or even a couple of baskets...you spread it out to make it resilient.

In the 1960's the USMC spread a MEU among a LPH, LPD, LSD and LST.  Today?  You can fit the entire MEU aboard an LHD and LPD.  Knock out one of those ships and you basically kill 50% of a potential landing force.  Knock out the LPD and you take away most of the MEU's ground mobility.

Smaller, more numerous and simpler Amphibs might be what we should be investing in.  Which is more flexible.  Five 9,000 ton LHDs or one 45,000 ton LHA?

The fight to avoid the blame begins.

via US News.

"[Obama] didn't believe in his own strategy, and doesn't consider the war to be his," Gates writes in the book. "For him, it's all about getting out."

Everyone is so focused on the politics of this thing that they can't see what the Gates book is really all about.

It's about the history of the war stupid!

Gates remembers Vietnam.  He knows how views change and how heroes today can be transformed into villains tomorrow. Gates knows that historians will not be kind to those who had their hands on the controls of the fiasco that is Iraq and Afghanistan.

He's simply getting his side of the story out first.

What should really be interesting is when the General's club finally wakes up to the fact that they're on the hook for much of the blame too.  When that happens expect some serious tell-alls from the military side of the house.

That's when this will get fun.

Philippine Military to get M-113 fitted w/76mm guns.

via PhilStar.

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Army will acquire 14 M113 armored personnel carriers in 2015 to boost its fire support capabilities.
Army spokesperson Capt. Anthony Bacus said the M113 vehicles will be installed with 76-mm turrets among others from decommissioned Scorpion combat vehicle reconnaissance (tracked) units.
"It will be fitted with modern fire control and thermal imaging equipment. Once it is completed, the 76mm cannon armed M113s will be quite lethal," Bacus added.
The Army is currently operating over 100 M113 units, and the would-be acquisitions are manufactured by BAE Systems Land and Armaments.
In the United States Army, the M113 series have been replaced as front-line combat vehicles by the M2 and M3 Bradley.
The Department of National Defense had said that more than P85 billion is needed for the modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines from 2014 to 2018.
Last year, the Army commissioned excess M1114 Armored Humvees as well as M939 and M35 truck series from the US. The new fighting vehicles provided fire support during the Zamboanga siege last September.

When I first saw this I cheered and groaned.  I cheered because the M113 is a good APC that has great mobility, amphibious, and is easy to work on.  Groaned because I wondered why revert back to a 76mm gun instead of going with a readily available 90mm gun from Textron or even follow the Egyptian Fighting Vehicle model and mount a Bradley turret on the M113.

Is this a money saving feature. Or it could be an indication that jungle fighting requires a different vehicle setup than we're used to seeing? I'm leaning toward the latter.

V-22 long distance raid. Pass/Fail?

Above you see a vid that I've been hesitant to post on these pages.  Its supposedly a "proof of concept" that the Marine Corps is able to conduct 1000 mile raids.

SLD says this...

This is a total distance of approximately 1,100 miles and will solidify the Marine Corps as the only DOD asset to have validated the ability to provide this capability.
From 27 November 2013 to 19 December 2013, IOC (-)(+) deploys to the MCAGCC in 29 Palms, CA to conduct mechanized and dismounted, combined arms, live-fire training, full-spectrum, blank and live-fire urban training, and a “proof-of-concept” long-range operation IOT prepare infantry and ground intelligence officers for duty in the Operating Forces.
PALMFEX is a newly validated capability as it applies to Crisis Response, HA/DR, Anti-Piracy missions and other DOD strategic requirements.

A Marine Lt in the Infantry Officer Course said the following...

If this class is any indication of what Marines can be do with the Osprey then their is no reason why the Marine Corps at large can't be brought to this standard.

The reason my young Padawan is because in the REAL WORLD the bad guys shoot back!  Aircraft get penetrated by small/large arms fire, and you're lucky if you're not dogging ManPads and RPGs to and from the Landing Zone.

This is another piece of flawed Marine Corps propaganda for a concept that will get men killed.  The desperation though is palatable.  This vid.  The dog and pony to evacuate US citizens.  The Marine Corps I knew would never have stooped to these levels.  

The bright spot??  Amos will be gone by the end of this fiscal year.  Thank God. 

US Army increasing combat power in S. Korea.

via Global Post.

The US military will deploy 800 additional troops from an armored unit to South Korea to bolster its forces in case of a crisis with North Korea, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
The US Army soldiers, armored vehicles and tanks from the 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment will be stationed at camps Hovey and Stanley near the demarcation line with the North starting next month, military officers said.
The rotational deployment is part of a strategic shift towards the Asia-Pacific region "and allows for greater responsiveness to better meet theater operational requirements," the Pentagon said in a statement.
"This is a plus-up," spokesman Colonel Steven Warren told reporters, confirming that the US military presence would expand under the decision.
The move "is part of our rebalance to the Pacific," he said.

Read it all here.

Many have said it but I have to repeat.  The S. Korean military is one of the toughest, most professional and technologically advanced forces in the Pacific region.

Quite frankly, if they can't defeat the N. Koreans by themselves then something is terribly wrong....So why are we still stationing troops there and why is the Army seeing fit to increase the combat power on the border?  

Are there signs of N. Korea destabilizing that I've missed? 

Note:  Upon reflection, the youngster running that country probably doesn't have the full support of the military.  Having to "off" your uncle by feeding him alive to a starving pack of dogs and watching them devour his body over the course of a couple of hours probably indicates more than just a seriously warped mind.  Something obviously is going on there.

Quote of the day. Regarding Females and Marine Corps Pull Ups.

The quote of the day regarding females and Marine Corps Pull Ups comes from "Chap" in a comment over at USNI Blog in response to Jeanette Haynie's latest feminist rant.

It just takes time and training. Yes, with a lot of time and intensive training, female Marines can get to the level that men have to meet the day they report to boot camp.

Wow.

I hadn't even considered that. A female will be able to graduate from boot camp at the same strength level as a male that enters.

And you believe that females will stand up to the rigors of infantry life?

Farley calls for abolishing the US Air Force!

via Foreign Affairs.

The United States needs air power, but it does not need an air force.
In fact, it never really did. The U.S. Air Force, founded in 1947, was the product of a decades-long campaign by aviation enthusiasts inside the U.S. Army. These advocates argued that air power could not achieve its promise under the leadership of ground commanders. With memories of the great bombing campaigns of World War II still fresh and a possible confrontation with the Soviets looming, the nation’s would-be cold warriors determined that the age of air power was upon them. But it wasn’t. Advocates of an independent air force had misinterpreted the lessons of World War II to draw faulty conclusions about air power’s future.

Their mistake produced a myriad of problems. Modern warfare almost invariably demands close cooperation across air and surface units. In naval operations, all of these assets -- submarines, surface ships, and aircraft -- belong to the same service. In the case of the army and the air force, however, the component parts end up being divided -- or needlessly replicated -- by separate bureaucratic organizations, each with its own priorities. As a result, the services tend to plan operations and procure equipment based on their own needs rather than those of the military as a whole. When they ask lawmakers for funding, moreover, they tend to concentrate on missions that they believe they can accomplish on their own. Finally, during wars, the services often struggle to cooperate by scaling the bureaucratic walls they constructed in peacetime.
With the benefit of hindsight, the United States should fold the U.S. Air Force back into its two sibling services, the army and the navy. Done properly, such a reform could improve military readiness, cut mounting and unsustainable defense costs, and refocus the Pentagon on preparing for the fights of the future.

Uh.  Wow!

I'm just gonna sit back and watch the fireworks on this one.

Its gonna get good.  Read the entire article here first.  MANY GREAT POINTS.

Side Note:  I can't wait to see the reaction from ELP Blog, Elements of Power, Think Defense, Bill Sweetman and Peter Goon on this.  Fireworks baby!

Side Note 1:  This Boston Globe article brought the subject of this post to my attention.  Read it here.

Everyday Carry. Are we doing it wrong?

via EDC Forums

via Homestead Survival

Above you see two examples of everyday carry.  I'm not trying to judge the individual choices that these guys made, but want to look at it in a broader light.

Are we doing everyday carry right?  I contend that we're not.  If you look (and I'm still being general) you find a few items in common that MOST (not all...I'm not putting a number on it...yeah I'm being vague) people carry.

* Knife
* Pen
* Phone
* Laptop/Tablet
* First Aid Kit
* Flashlight
* Wallet
* Para cord Bracelet
* Watch
* Handgun
* Spare Magazine

And the list goes on.

I remember a time when guys would bitch about all the shit women carried in their purses and now it appears that guys are doing the same damn thing.

What the fuck happened?

Did we get feminized on the sleigh and we're simply doing a male version of a female thing?  Are we actually carrying what's needed?

USAF? Happy. US Coast Guard? Happy. US Army? Screwed Again!

via xsimreviews.com

Imagine this scenario.

The US Army needs to update its light transport aircraft.  Its been flying the Sherpa for almost as long as the USMC has been operating the AAV...in others words they're old as dirt.

So what does the Army do?  They talk to their "brother" service and the USAF agrees that the Army actually does need these aircraft, the Army promises not to step on USAF toes and Jointness is once again king.

But before the ink dries the USAF conducts combat operations on the most fierce battlefield known to man (if you're a paper pusher) and the war commences on the plains of the Pentagon.

So what happens?

The USAF gets the C-27J's that the US Army desperately needed, they promptly mothball them, then the US Coast Guard, SOCOM and Homeland Security and the Forestry Service all puts dibs on them.

The US Army Chief of Staff is saying "WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED" and before you know it the deal is struck.

The Coast Guard gets the C-27J's and gives the USAF old C-130's, the USAF will refurbish and modify the C-130's for fire fighting duty for the Forestry Service and the Army is left looking slack eyed and silly.

Photo: Modified J-20 via Alert 5

This jet is alleged to have the serial number 2011, 1st jet of the 1st limited production series.

A few things.  First I'm not an aviation guy but that looks like a "F-22" treatment so I guess thats to improve either control or could it be a LO treatment?  I don't know.  Second, if they follow the same game plan as they did with the J-10 then we can expect incremental improvements until the decide to enter full rate production.  They appear to be on a much faster development schedule than the F-35 though.  However they're doing it, it might enter service at the same time as the F-35 (I mean real service, not the nonsense the USMC is doing).

Hopefully the US Navy is all over getting the F/A-XX going.  Hopefully.

MMA fighter defeats 4 home invaders, kills one.

Thanks for the article Dwi!

via New York Daily News.

A New Mexico mixed martial artist won the fight of his life — outside the ring.
Joseph Torrez, 27, repelled a home invasion, killing one man, injuring another so badly he left in an ambulance and persuading two others to run in fear, authorities said.
Torrez and the men clashed on New Year’s Day at his home outside of Las Cruces, reportedly part of an ongoing feud.
One of the attackers, 22-year-old Leonard Calvillo, called ahead to threaten Torrez, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported, citing court documents.
“I’ll kill you and your family ... I’ll go to your house,” Calvillo reportedly said.
Calvillo arrived shortly after with 20-year-old Nathan Avalos and brothers Sal and Raymond Garces and pounded on Torrez’s door, authorities said.
Torrez’s fiancee, son and the fiancee’s sister were all home at the time, authorities said.

Read it all here. 

Another story where it seems there is a whole lot more to it.  I wonder what the ongoing dispute was about?  I wonder if the victim has gang ties?  And if he does, does it change a thing.

This too vexes me.

This story vexes me. Retired Colonel is homeless.

via Philly.com

After a 30-year military career in which he earned three graduate degrees, rose to the rank of colonel, and served as an aide to Pentagon brass, Robert Freniere can guess what people might say when they learn he's unemployed and lives out of his van:
Why doesn't this guy get a job as a janitor?
Freniere answers his own question: "Well, I've tried that."
Freniere, 59, says that his plea for help, to a janitor he once praised when the man was mopping the floors of his Washington office, went unfulfilled. So have dozens of job applications, he says, the ones he has filled out six hours a day, day after day, on public library computers.

So Freniere, a man who braved multiple combat zones and was hailed as "a leading light" by an admiral, is now fighting a new battle: homelessness.
"You stay calm. That's what we were trained for when I went through survival training," he said recently in King of Prussia, where he had parked his blue minivan, the one crammed with all his possessions and held together with duct tape.
As of January 2012, more than 60,000 veterans were homeless, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Reducing that number has been a priority for the Obama administration - and the number of homeless veterans dropped 24 percent nationwide from 2009 to 2013. In Pennsylvania, however, it jumped 46 percent, to more than 1,400.
Joblessness among returning service members is even more common. Freniere describes a monthly lunch he has attended in Washington, a hushed tradition that he says attracts about 200 veterans. After they eat, the men and women who are unemployed stand up one by one to recite their service records, hoping someone else in the room will hire them.
Many, he says, are highly accomplished.

Read it all here.

Unusual Armor. via War Machine

One of the many different configurations trialed on the AMX chassis.  I would assume this was a heavy anti-personnel/aircraft variant.

RBT-5 rocket launcher artillery version, equipped with two 420mm tank torpedoes (prototypes only).  Looks like the Christie chassis and I have absolutely no info on the RBT-5.

S. Korea moves up its timetable for a homegrown F-16 class fighter.

Thanks Slowman for the article!

via Korea Herald.

South Korea plans to kick-start a long-delayed program to build fighter jets despite lingering skepticism over its feasibility and technological barriers, officials said Sunday.

The ambitious project, called KFX or Boramae, is aimed at producing F-16-class fighter jets. The military aims to introduce the first model by 2023 and deploy 120 units over the following several years, officials said.

“The Boramae project will kick into high gear this year to develop 120 Korean-made fighter planes,” a senior military official said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The Defense Ministry secured 20 billion won ($19.1 million) for the program this year.

The initiative was incepted in 2000 to replace the military’s aging F-4 and F-5 warplanes with homegrown ones starting 2020, but has dragged on due largely to controversy over its feasibility.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff Council has decided to shorten the period of the project from the original 20 odd years, as the Air Force faces a shortage of about 100 fighters in 2019, when nearly all the F-4s and F-5s are expected to be decommissioned.

The Air Force says it needs at least 430 fighter jets to prepare for possible wartime operations ― some 100 high-end, 200 middle-range and 100 low-end models.

In late November, the military decided to buy 40 F-35 stealth jets from Lockheed Martin for deployment from 2018-21.

With Seoul seeking more sophisticated technologies, observers raised the possibility of a purchase of 20 additional warplanes from Boeing or the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, which displayed more willingness to share their expertise than Lockheed.

Interesting.

A force that has a dire need for fighter jets now...is supposedly buying F-35's...is now about to start a develop program to produce its own fighter and have it into service by 2023.

Tell me again how the F-35 will soon equal the cost of a 4th gen fighter. 

Is the US Navy interested in sinking ships?

BrahMos Anti-Ship Missile.  Range 300-500 Km with a speed of up to Mach 3.  Supposedly a hypersonic version is already in development that will operate at Mach 7 or better.

Steve made a statement that deserves further discussion...

It doesn't appear that the US Navy is interested in sinking ships.

Besides the long serving and small Harpoon anti-ship missile (that is slow speed and short legged) name the other anti-ship missile in US service (the Penguin doesn't count...even smaller...even shorter legged).

I can't think of one.

Meanwhile the Russians, the S. Koreans, the Japanese and the Taiwanese just to name a few (besides India) are all putting into service large, fast weapons.

What does this all point too?

It tells me that while the Marines have been called a second "land army" the Navy has played the "joint" game far too well.  Its neglected its primary responsibility of being able to win a war on the high seas.  Using Small Diameter Bombs, Long Range Air to Surface Missiles or Joint Direct Attack Missiles as adhoc anti-ship devices is unacceptable.

As much as I've praised the CNO for keeping his options open on the F-35, it appears that he and his predecessors have dropped the ball on a basic function--fighting and winning a pure naval battle.

Side-note:  I understand that after the collapse of the Soviet Union the Navy had a grace period and naturally turned its focus...but the rise of China has been slow and steady.  A reorientation back to pure naval warfare should have mirrored that rise.

H-6G carrying two YJ-12 supersonic anti-ship missiles. via Alert 5.

The illusive YJ-12.  Its real.  Its deadly and China is putting it into service.  

Do Fire Fighters need to be armed for defensive purposes?

Thanks for the video Joe



Are we heading toward a future of combined Law Enforcement/EMS?

I once thought like Nicky.  That fire fighters need to only wear body armor if they're accompanying SWAT or police into a high risk situation.

But consider this.  EMS is dispatched to a car accident with injuries.  The fire dept is busy that day so they send the EMS only instead of with a fire truck. EMS arrive on the scene and what are they faced with?  Yeah its a car accident but instead of two citizens that had a boo-boo you're faced with two car loads of gang members that were involved in a rolling shoot out.
The bad guys don't target the EMS on purpose but how many times have you seen gang members at the range practicing their skills?  Bullets fly, EMS is hit, and after all is said and done you have EMS that needs EMS, a couple of bystanders shot and on top of it all you still have a couple of scum bags that need to be patched up so they can hopefully be executed by the state.

Body armor isn't the real question.

The real question is do we need to arm fire fighters so that they can defend themselves?

Personally.  I think so.  But only for the purposes of self defense.  If we remember the Mumbai Incident, the Kenya Mall Shooting and fast forward to what we can expect (or perhaps better stated...imagine) terrorist will bring to our shores then self defense for all people (and I advocate civilian concealed carry rights) including Fire Fighters in the performance of their duties just seems to make sense.

Additionally if we're expecting Fire Fighters to enter active shooter situations to save lives then they need to be able to defend themselves and the injured.

Will we allow Fire Fighters to perform Law Enforcement of any kind?

No.

Will they face sanction if they attempt to do so?

Yes.

Will this idea fly with the public?

Unknown.  If properly explained, to include the limits and why it makes sense then perhaps.  Push back will occur from libertarians (I think), Gun Control Advocates and Police (they'll feel as if their turf is being invaded). It doesn't need to be that way.  This is simply a defensive measure.

What do you think?

Rescue Task Force Concept Brief.

  Rescue Task Force Concept.