India and Pakistan on the brink.

Thanks for the article Samar!!!

via HindustanTimes.

India has avenged the murders of its soldiers along the Line of Control (LoC) by the Pakistani army last year by inflicting casualties on the neighbouring army, General Bikram Singh said on Monday.
Warning Pakistan against border violations, he said India could not be expected to stick to rules if the neighbour was breaking them.
Quoting Pakistani news reports that 10 of their soldiers were killed and another 11 injured in recent clashes along the LoC, Singh said, “Our boys have done a stupendous job. They have retaliated well… and done their bit.”
He was responding to queries on the prevailing perception that the army was not taking action along the LoC where Pakistani troops had beheaded one Indian soldier and gunned down another in the Mendhar sector last January.

Read the whole story here.

I haven't touched on this subject lately but it should concern everyone.  India is practically the epicenter of future conflicts.

They've suffered border incursions by both Pakistan terrorist and military while at the same time fighting off Chinese claims on land (along with more border incursions) on their other flank.

The Indian people are not amused and their patience is wearing thin.  Nationalism runs deep in the region and India is no different.  The India-Pakistan-China issue bears watching. 

Law Enforcement MRAPs. Nervous Police Departments?

Thanks for the article Jonathan!

via PoliceOne.

The first issue to overcome is one of public image. There is no shortage of people in the United States who are vocal about how the police are becoming militarized, possibly (according to some, probably) to facilitate disarming the citizenry and bringing about the New World Order. Painting your agency’s livery on the side of a truck that has been in the newspapers carrying soldiers and Marines for the past 10 years is fuel for these folks’ fires.
The police department in the town where I grew up is getting considerable flak for their new acquisition, even though they badly needed a new tactical vehicle.

&

There is a reason that rollovers are a special concern. Of 66 MRAP accidents overseas between November 2007 and June 2008, 40 were rollovers caused by rough roads, road shoulders collapsing, bridge failures or bad driving. These vehicles have a high center of gravity, and taking them on an incline of 30 degrees or more can cause them to topple.
The crew member in the top turret is at greatest risk in a rollover. While just taking personnel out of the turret is an option, it invites a new hazard. Visibility from inside the vehicles is very poor, and the person manning the turret often has to advise the driver via the vehicle’s intercom about obstructions to the side or rear.
The turret itself could be a problem in an urban environment. The turret is almost ten feet off the ground, and a rider’s body adds to that height. Troops manning turrets were occasionally clotheslined by utility cables or booby traps while crossing the terrain they were navigating.
The vehicles are extremely heavy for their size. The Caiman weighs 24 tons unloaded; the MaxxPro over 18 tons. Personnel and equipment add to that load. Small bridges have collapsed under the weight of MRAPs. Would the bridges in your community be up to the challenge?
Most of the MRAPs are street legal as delivered, but don’t count on taking them on any regional excursions unless you have a trailer to transport it. The vehicles get around 6 mpg, and hold between 50 and 80 gallons of fuel. The trucks run on diesel and/or JP8 fuel.

Yeah.

The LEO's don't care about any of that.  They have a cool new vehicle to parade around in.

If they were serious about changing public perceptions, the first thing they would do is find the most dangerous group of individuals in their area and go after them with a passion.  They would strike hard and continue to strike until they were all in jail or moved on to greener pastures.

But this isn't about that.  Its about slamming Joe Public as hard as possible and then expecting him to kiss your boot and thank you.

I find it interesting that they list rollovers as a danger for these vehicles.  The Army and Marines used these vehicles in primitive conditions.  These PDs will use them on roads that are maintained.  Once again you have civilian PDs trying to equate the dangers that they face with those of our military.

The arrogance never stops.  American Mercenary had it right.  These guys only want to dress up as Timmy Tactical and use military gear in a fight against law abiding citizens.

F-35. Chinese parts in the allies "number 1" fighter?

via Reuters.

Honeywell decided to move the sensor production to China to save money, and simplify its supply line, he said.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, is also looking into the sensor issue and two others involving the F-35, as part of a report due March 1.
U.S. lawmakers ordered the GAO report because they are concerned American firms are being shut out of the specialty metals market, and that U.S. weapons could become dependent on parts made by a potential future adversary.
Pentagon spokeswoman Maureen Schumann said the Pentagon's Kendall had granted national security waivers to allow foreign-built parts on other aircraft in the past, but had no immediate details about those cases.
DellaVedova, the spokesman for the F-35 program office, said the thermal sensors were simple parts that did not include any software and were not programmable. He said there was no security risk associated with use of the sensors.
He said all the Chinese-built sensors would eventually be replaced on the F-35s, but the process had not yet been completed. He had no immediate information on how many Chinese-built sensors were installed on the planes.
"This will all be taken care of," DellaVedova said.

A couple of issues for F-35 supporters.

1.  This airplane is compromised.  I wouldn't accept Chinese built parts for my rifles or pistols.  In a 200 million dollar plus airplane that is suppose to safeguard our future?  This is complete and utter bullshit.

2.  F-35 supporters can take the "economic" benefits of this jet and shove them up their ass.  Honeywell is probably the tip of the iceberg on this but its obvious.  They offshore production of certain parts to save money.  Not for the taxpayer but for their own bottom line.  National security be damned.  The American worker be damned.  Shareholders and company officials are the only ones that profit from this airplane.

Someone should go to jail.  The F-35 program spokesman needs to find a deep hole and think carefully before he speaks again.  My nominations for the big house include every Program Manager involved with the program, the Commandant of the Marine Corps and the USAF Chief of Staff, along with every CEO, COO and individual involved with the F-35 from Lockheed Martin.

Barring jail terms the only other thing I wish is that they all fry in hell.

Sidenote:  Yeah, I'm pissed.  I parroted the talking points for this program for so long and to finally see them in all their glory makes me want to punch walls.  Shoot me, stab me, steal from me.  I won't like it but I can get over it. Lie to me and then have me lie for you?  I'll never forget or forgive.

VTOL Dynamics miniature test vehicle vid.

This could actually work.  I think I'll be keeping an eye on these guys.

Chinese troops to seize Zhongye Island back from the Philippines in 2014

via China Daily Mail.

Relying on US support, the Philippines is so arrogant as to announce in the New Year that it will increase its navy and air force deployment at Zhongye Island, a Chinese island that it has illegally occupied for years.
It will be an intolerable insult to China
According to experts, the Chinese navy has drawn a detailed combat plan to seize the island and the battle will be restricted within the South China Sea.
The battle is aimed at recovery of the island stolen by the Philippines from China.
There will be no invasion into Filipino territories.
A report in the Philippines Star confirmed the Philippines military buildup on the island.

Yeah.  I can see this happening as a test run for US reaction to Chinese aggression for more important targets.

The Obama Administration has shown itself to be a bunch of rookies when it comes to foreign policy/defense of US interests.

The Chinese will roll the Filipino people and the "free trade" idiots, peaceniks and left wing pussies will blame the Philippines for the conflict.

This is almost a done deal before the first boots hits sand.

Should have ducked (semi graphic) via Tac Blog.

Military/Police-itization of Fire Depts?

We talked about the militarization of fire depts with a story on them getting bullet proof vests and I wondered if we should arm them for self defense purposes.  I got an interesting note from Joe Collins, EMS/Fire Fighter & Writer on the subject.  His thoughts are below.

My opinions are my own and do not reflect the views of my employers, past, present and future.

They are also my opinions and observations, nothing more.

I have been involved in EMS and fire for almost fifteen years as a volunteer EMT, paramedic and as a volunteer fire fighter. I worked for almost eight years in the downtown area of a metropolitan area that has been declining economically and socially for the last twenty years.

I probably have another five years in this business before I find some other way to make a living. Currently, it's a calling for me, not just a job. I like being able to occasionally help the sick, injured, frightened and dying despite the hours, working conditions, crummy pay and lack of respect by everyone who deals with us. I have two college degrees and could make a decent living with a little work, but I still get up in the morning with the expectation that I may be able to make a difference despite that chance that I could die in a flaming ambulance wreck, get killed on a call by a wacked out nut job or be crippled for life lugging some 400 pound medical train wreck down stairs, all for the princely sum of $32K or so a year.

From your first day in EMS class it is pounded into your head, “Scene safety, scene safety.” You were not to enter a scene without making sure that the scene is “safe.” Now, safe is a relative thing—we all have to consider the potential danger on every scene no matter what it looks and sounds like. As an example, I was once attacked while at an extended care facility that costs over $6K a month to live at.

If there is a shooting, suicidal person or potential for violence, we are to wait until police go in first and let them clear the scene for you. Never mind it might take them a while to arrive on scene and the patient may bleed out on the front lawn while the cops do their thing. On the other hand, when a scene becomes unsafe—which happens all of the time, and you needed help, they always seem to be ten-minutes away.

The joke in EMS class was that the police were the “blue canaries.” Like the canaries carried into a coal mine to check for the quality of air, the idea was that if you rolled up on a crash say involving the potential for hazardous materials, and you saw a police officer laying on the ground clutching their throat and twitching, put the ambulance in reverse and get the hell out of there.

It is also pounded into our heads both in the fire service and EMS that on a scene, my first priority is my safety, then that of my partner and fellow first responders, followed by the patient and public at large.

As a paramedic, body armor has always been on the list of equipment that could be bought with your uniform allowance. There are several paramedics in a service that I know that have bought soft body armor and carry all sorts of knives and “compliance” weapons. They would carry guns if they were allowed to do so. However, they work in a rural system beset by meth cooker types and general dirt bags. I worked there for a while and at several scenes I wish that I had access to air strikes and artillery on call.

The concern is that we, firefighters, medics and cops all wear uniforms and many in the public can't much tell the difference between of us. I feel there is a deep distrust of anyone in authority that is growing in this country.

Many of us do a horrid job in nasty places and don't get respect from anyone. We deal in the worst that humans can do with each other all of the time--I've spent too much time washing brains off my boots over the years and have the nightmares and PTSD to prove it.

As for medics working for private services, we get paid horribly for our trouble—I am the highest level of pre-hospital care and am proud of the title “ditch doctor” or “alley doctor” pulling off feats of medicine that scare even ER doctors. Yet the starting wage for many of us $12 an hour.

There have been more than a few situations in the past that I wish I would have worn body armor--either as a volunteer firefighter or as a medic. I am assaulted while working as a medic at least 2-3 times a year. It's part of the job and happens to almost all of us. As much as I want to stomp some of these drunk, drugged out morons, there isn't much I can do if I want to keep my job--I used to love to brawl in the back of the rig, now I just sedate the heck out of them and let them wake up with a tube in their throat in the ICU.

My physical skills to defend myself are based on years and years of martial arts training and experience, not the stupid classes taught by some employers unsuited for dealing with a violent patient in the back of an ambulance.

As someone who follows the militarization of the police, I honestly don't think that it's going that way for firefighters and medics as there are too many of us older, more mature medics who believe that the militarization of police is a wrong thing. For me as a medic, an intoxicated, overdosed or psychiatric patient is a medical problem not non-compliance with the police orders kind of situation.

The attitude of police has changed over the last fifteen years that I've been doing EMS. There was a case around here where a guy had a seizure, wrecked his car, was unresponsive and uncooperative as seizure patients often are, so got tazered for his trouble.

I don't have a gun, and can often talk the most violent patients into cooperating. Yet, when the police show up, they almost always escalate the situation to the point it makes the patient very much harder for me to deal with. Then they get to go back to their squad car and I have to deal with a very pissed off patient until we arrive at the hospital.

There are police officers who arrive on scene and are helpful, taking your gear back to the ambulance for you, helping haul patients and keeping the family out of our way when needed. Some of them have driven the ambulance for me while my partner and I were in the back of the ambulance fighting for the life of a very sick or injured patient. But the good ones are greatly overshadowed by the jack-booted thug type of officer who is typically young and expects everyone to instantly comply with their every command no matter what is going on.

I think the attitude of the officer arriving on scene to help is based on how the department is run. If the department is staffed with young, ex-military people with all the military toys, and they are allowed by command to do what they need to get the job done, my life as an EMT suddenly becomes a great deal more difficult.

There are probably a lot of factors involved in the attitude of the responding police—in one town where I worked, the officers, while being young, were mostly not ex-military, had lived in the town for years or just moved there and were active members in other aspects of the community. They cared about the people they serve and it showed in the way they dealt with everyone.

In other, larger, better equipped, higher call volume systems, everyone is seen as a dirt bag criminal, even EMS and FD. Rather than living in and being part of the community, they live in suburbs and quickly drive out of town at the end of their shift.

Now, this isn’t a bash the police type of opinion piece. I am happy to count as friends many officers who believe in actually helping people, contributing to their community and not considering everyone that they deal with as a violent criminal.

The original theme of this article was the militarization of the fire and EMS service. I think that the better term should be “policifying” of those services. It is perfect as many of these services already are para-military in nature with officers, uniforms, policies and procedures for dealing with various situations.

Several firefighters that I know have gone through the LE academy so now they can carry guns while on duty and are technically sworn LEO's. Some of that is involving being a fire investigator with powers of arrest. But with that police badge, they seem to immediately become a super cop.

There are also a couple of local FD's involved in "tactical medicine." In theory, they would stay outside the danger zone during a SWAT raid to provide care, but some are sworn officers so they can enter with the team, carry weapons and all of that fun stuff. My sources tell me that there has not been yet one call out for their services despite it being in place for half-a-dozen years.

As far as military surplus materials being distributed to fire departments, there is a lot of stuff like trucks that lend themselves to being utilized by other than police services—civilian equipment isn’t often built to the rugged standards required by the things a fire department has to do.

A lot of problems going on now, I feel, is that the public thinks that FD, medics and PD are all the same anymore.

In conclusion, there probably are wanna-be police officers in EMS or on fire departments. But, no one is prepared for the repercussions when the lines between all of us are blurred to the point where no one can tell the difference. I hope I don’t have to work in the future where if you show up at someone’s house to help them and are wearing a uniform, any uniform, you are automatically considered a threat and are there to find an excuse to beat them up and or throw them in jail.

More sauce for the goose.

Again.  I.  Just.  Don't.  Know.

I have to chew on this one a bit longer.

Militarization of police now complete. Check out Texas Game Wardens!

First, read this story from "SHTF Plan Blog"....

Second, check out this from TPW Magazine...

I'm of serious mixed feelings on this one.  Want to talk about some of the most dangerous law enforcement duty you can ever do and you're talking about game wardens.  Every person you come across in the deep woods or desert is armed to the gills.  On some hog hunts I go out with an AR-15 and almost a combat load of ammo plus a side arm...and thats to kill pigs.

Oh and trust me.  I'm on the light side of things.  I've seen guys that take arsenals out to the deep woods.

And all that is before you think about some of the characters you run into.

But this?  I just don't know.

Advanced Hybrid Transporter

Thanks for the link Joe!

Website here.

Landing Ship Tank (LST) 1942-2002

  Landing Ship Tank (LST) 1942-2002

Australia proves, once again, that its the most fucked up place on the planet via IO9

pic is via IO9  by Pahko Moreno

via IO9

Hendrik Helmer awoke a few nights ago to find that his ear canal had been invaded by a rather large insect. The Australian man first tried to suck it out with a vacuum cleaner, then to flush it out with water. But nothing worked.

He was finally in so much pain that he went to the hospital, where doctors poured oil on the insect, a nearly inch-long cockroach, which pushed itself even deeper into Helmer's ear before it finally died. Once the bug had stopped struggling, a doctor pulled it out with forceps. According to Helmer, speaking on the ABC, the doctor told him she'd never seen that large of an insect inside somebody's ear.
Now everybody in Australia is going to start sleeping with earplugs.

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE SHITTING ME!

Really?

Seriously?

The spiders can't just bite you and suck out your brains, the crocodiles can't just bite you in half and leave your corpse to the dingos, the great whites from hell can't just take a chunk out of you and then leave you in agony...the snakes just can't poison you and then laugh while watching you die.

No.

Now we have fucking cockroaches that want to get in on the agony.

As if I needed to be convinced.

Australia is the most fucked up place on this planet. 

DDG 1000: America's Next-Generation Destroyer

A warship has less lines of code than the F-35!  I don't know what to make of that. I bet it has better stealth!

AT Black Knight Transformer via Vertical Magazine.

Read the article here.

Company website here.

Update and Clarification. BAE SuperAv in heavy surf.

Just an quick update and clarification on the video I posted earlier.  A little birdy tells me that the SuperAv was COMBAT loaded and had remote weapon station  ballast on the top of the vehicle when you saw it enter the surf.

Shas raised the issue of it not being able to perform like it did in the video while decked out.  Shas was wrong (nothing wrong with that...we all are at one time or another).

The burning issue for the Marine Corps is simple.

Should we consider replacing tracks with wheels for the Amphibious Combat Vehicle requirement?  Should we get what is available now, label it interim and wait for tech to develop to the "EFV but affordable" standard later?

NOTE:  Watch the video again.  Take a good look at the surf thats the vehicle is going thru.  BAE has a tremendous amount of confidence and guts to take a vehicle out in those conditions.  A failure would have been catastrophic.  Consider this also...AAVs have sunk in calmer conditions.

Pics of the Day. Aerial Insertion Edition.

Marines with Air Delivery Platoon, Landing Support Company, Combat Logistics Regiment 17, 1st Marine Logistics Group, conduct jump training aboard a CH-46E Sea Knight with Marine Medium Helicopter Training Squadron 164 (HMMT-164) aboard Camp Pendleton, Calif., Jan. 8, 2014. Air Delivery Platoon conducts training jumps to maintain the unit's deployment readiness. 

(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Lauren Falk/Released)

Marines with 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, practice their fast-roping techniques Jan. 8 at Camp Hansen. The Marines fast-roped down from a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter in a precision hover at 30 feet. More than 100 infantrymen completed two iterations, one with minimal equipment and the second with full packs and weapons. The Marines are currently assigned to the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, III Marine Expeditionary Force. 

(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Natalie Rostran/Released)

F/A-18 Hornet 35 Year Anniversary

F-35 quote of the day. Norway's defense minister comes clean.

via Yahoo News.

"We have concluded that these planes are the best ones for us. There is nothing in the development over the past couple of years that has shaken that decision," she said. "At the same time, it's a huge investment and it's definitely also something that will have consequences for the rest of our armed forces."

Yeah.

Told ya so.

We can quibble about the effectiveness of the airplane.  We can argue about the total obedience to orders that Lockheed Martin has over some members of the Pentagon.

But the extreme cost of this airplane, both to the nations buying it and to the rest of their militaries is beyond doubt.  The F-35 is so expensive that its making our partner Air Forces smaller (so small that they're no longer effective) AND having a knock on effect of gutting their other forces to the point of irrelevancy.

Type 52D embarks on its maiden voyage.

Thanks NICO for the link!

BAE Marine Personnel Carrier in heavy surf.

Chinese Z-19. Copying Japan's OH-1 this time via Alert 5.

The first pic is of the Z-19.  The second and third are of the Japanese OH-1.  Note that the Japanese OH-1 came into service many years before the Z-19 and also note that gunship versions have been proposed ever since the type entered service.

The Chinese have no shame, will copy anyone and its obvious that export controls aren't working and unfettered free trade is only strengthening their military.  The only bright spot is that the globalization scheme is already unraveling.  Without it, China goes back to being a third rate power.