With Expeditionary Force 21 are Marine Tanks dead???

I'm still chewing on the Expeditionary Force 21 "guide" and I suddenly realized something.

If the next Commandant follows through and actual pursues this plan then Marine Tank Battalions are an endangered species.  If they continue it will be at the MEF or Division but even if they survive they will be drastically cut.

Last numbers I had was a total of 221 Abrams M1A1 Main Battle Tanks in Marine service.  I could easily see that number being cut in half.

Additionally left unsaid, but pointed out by many is the fact that sequestration WILL continue and that will affect total end strength.  A USMC that totals 150,000 (my early prediction on where we were actually going) will out of necessity mean a much larger air wing and a much diminished Ground Combat Element.  EF 21 if actually implemented will change the Marine Corps in ways that will make it unrecognizable to current and former Marines.

Sidenote:  I continue to marvel at the fact that with 7 months left in his tenure as Commandant, Amos would drop this bombshell on the Marine Corps. This is legacy building pure and simple.

  Marine Corps Expeditionary Force 21 Capstone Concept 12 Mar 2014

American Mercenary's thoughts on the future look of US forces

AM gives his take on how US forces will look in the future.  I thought my estimates of troop and equipment cuts was pretty dire.

He goes even further.

One thing is becoming apparent though.

In the military blogging community critical mass has arrived.  Everyone thinks continuing with the F-35 at the expense of every other capability is a mistake.

Russian robotic propaganda vid...

Bear with the slow opening.  Once it gets going it grabs the attention.  On a side note have you noticed that all these vids show who the projected enemy is?  US propaganda is aimed at the Chinese and the Chinese aimed at the US.  In this vid the Russians are aiming at NATO in general.  I saw a Leclerc, what looks like US troops and a British Challenger as well as generic Apache Helicopters.

Conflict over a derelict ship turned outpost????

via Gobalnation. Inquirer...

MANILA, Philippines—China was warned Thursday against trying to tow away the BRP Sierra Madre from Ayungin Shoal, as this could be considered an attack against the Philippines and prompt the United States to defend the country in keeping with their Mutual Defense Treaty.
And should this happen, international law expert and University of the Philippines law professor Harry Roque said, the result could be a war in Asia.
“The result: the West Philippine Sea [dispute], unless China backs off, may trigger the biggest armed conflict in the region since the Vietnam and Indochina conflict,” Roque said in a statement.
Roque noted that the Sierra Madre has always been described as a “derelict,” but the government recently described it as a “commissioned naval vessel.”
A statement released by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on March 14 said, “The BRP Sierra Madre, a commissioned Philippine naval vessel, was placed in Ayungin Shoal in 1999 to serve as a permanent Philippine government installation in response to China’s illegal occupation of Mischief Reef (Panganiban Reef) in 1995.”
The Philippines says Ayungin Shoal is part of its continental shelf, over which it has “sovereign rights and jurisdiction” and by pointing that the Sierra Madre is a commissioned ship, the government “really wants to trigger the applicability of the Mutual Defense Treaty,” Roque said.
That is why China should “rethink” any plans to tow away the Sierra Madre, he said.
“Derelict, as it may be, it is subject to full sovereign immunity and any attempt to tow it away from Ayungin may finally trigger the applicability of the US-Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty,” he said.
Attack on Sierra Madre
And while the United States has said that the treaty may not be triggered by fighting in the West Philippine Sea because it does not recognize Philippine title to the area, this is not in the case when it involves a commissioned naval vessel, Roque said.
“An attack against a Philippine commissioned naval vessel may be sufficient for the purpose,” he said.
Asked whether he believed China had plans to tow away the Sierra Madre, Roque said China could have such plans, as it was now in the next phase of its 50-year maritime policy that includes “denying others possession of coastal waters” in the South China Sea.
Beijing is “determined to get as much as it could” in the South China Sea, he said.

Two things disturb me about this story.

First they don't tell us where they're getting the idea that China is about to tow away the ship.  Perhaps there are Chinese salvage vessels in the area and they've intercepted communications discussing it, but as it stands this sounds like a controversy they're pulling out of there ass.

Second, its a bit unsettling to see how quickly they are to toss the US into the middle of a messy international dispute.  An attack on the Philippines proper is one thing, but a tiny outpost in disputed waters?  Really? Seriously?

The Pentagon and State Dept needs to have quite a few adult conversations with allies in the region.  

Beware of senior officers that are looking to build a legacy!

Breaking Defense has an article up covering  Expeditionary Force 21.

Read it here but come back and drink back in all my "told ya so's"....

1.  They're tossing away the ACV, MPC and AAV upgrades.  The Marine Corps has sold its soul to an Air Winger and that bastard wants to fundamentally change the Marine Corps.

2.  Stand off distance is bullshit.  65 miles offshore is still in range of anti-ship missiles AND many anti-air systems.  They want a sea going 101st Marine Corps force yet ignore that air systems will be as vulnerable if not more vulnerable than sea systems.

3.  This "Crisis Response" Battalion that can deploy from the US to hotspots is NOTHING new.  Only arrogant fucks that don't Marine history would think that they're doing something new and glorious.  Air Contingency Battalions have been around for a long time.  All this "rebranding" is annoying.

4.  We're seeing more evidence that the  Commandant is positioning the Marine Corps to HAVE to go all in on his favorite toys no matter what the costs.  The F-35 will break us but we still have to buy more MV-22's, and CH-53K's.  If his concept is accepted then he wins and airwing become dominate.

Finally you should beware senior officers that are looking to build a legacy.  The end of their service is chaotic, and they attempt to set conditions that influences organizations long after they've left.

Don't be dazzled by Amos' bullshit.

He WILL be known as the worst Commandant of the modern era and all of this busy work that he has his staff doing will not change that fact.  As a matter of fact unless an Amos ass kisser is promoted to Commandant then I expect most of his initiatives to be rolled back.

A great man passed today...God Bless General Carl Mundy.

A great man passed today.

General Carl E. Mundy, 30th Commandant of the Marine Corps was 78.  Read about this outstanding Marine, a no bullshit allowed leader and American Bad Ass here.

Toward the sound of chaos...except when on a military installation...

Wrap your head around this....

Marines and Soldiers are taught to run toward the "sounds of chaos" at every instance....except on their own military installation during an active shooter scenario.

Then we expect them to shelter in place.

Do that overseas and you're lucky if your unit members don't  pound you to an inch of your life and command doesn't charge you with dereliction of duty/cowardice under fire.

How do we solve the problem of active shooters on base?

I don't know.  What I do know is that what we're doing now doesn't help.  Maybe a rotating, small (4 man team?) quick reaction force trained and equipped to deal with the issue?  Again I don't know but the shelter in place is something for civilian and school kids.  Not warriors trained and skilled in combat.

Sidenote:  Have you noticed that these shootings have an unusually high body count?  Since Clinton's 1992 ban affecting personal weapons on military installations and with ever increasing restrictions coming from the Pentagon, its obvious that military installations are in essence "gun free zones".  The nightmare scenario has always been that terrorist would attack a Mall.  Unless things change we might wake up to a rampage on a military post by a group of terrorist that ends up gunning down a battalion of service members following the "shelter in place" edict.

F-35 News. The Marine Corps is screwed.

via Global Post.com

He said the service made difficult choices in its fiscal 2015 budget and five-year spending plan to protect the ramp up in F-35 production for that reason.
"The operation and sustainment cost is a bigger issue," LaPlante said. "It's the one that will say whether or not we can afford (the F-35)" in the longer run.
The Pentagon's chief weapons tester reported in January that the F-35 fleet was available for use an average of 37 percent of the time from late 2012 to October 2013, far below the minimum threshold of 50 percent and the program's goal of 75 percent. The program is aiming for 60 percent availability by 2015.

This is why the Marine Corps is in the middle of its biggest procurement wreck and holiday in its entire history.

I've said before that the Marine Corps shelved personnel, the ACV, MPC, AAV Upgrade, JLTV and probably the CH-53K because of that Walking Dead cast member.

The trouble is obvious.

Even IF (and its a HUGE if..) they are successful in driving down the unit costs you then are faced with operation and sustainment...what you and I would call maintenance costs.

Unless they've waved a magic wand then these will be some expensive, hangar queens that continue to cost even after they enter service.

The Marine Corps is broke.  More money will NOT be coming and every available cent is currently programmed for the F-35.

We're screwed.

Note:  Operations and Sustainment costs...maintenance!  I don't care about the stealth coatings  Its about not only procurement but also maintenance and if maintenance is unaffordable then neither is this airplane.

Shooting at Ft. Hood.

News is slow in coming but at least two people have been shot and at the time of me writing this the shooter is still at large.

Ft. Hood is snake bit.

Interesting isn't it.  The FBI and Army Intel had put out an alert about a Ft. Hood style jihadist and then later in the evening retracted it.

Additionally we can't forget about the shooting aboard the docked ship.  Is there a connection.

More to come.

Amos' latest on the ACV. Dazzling us with bullshit.

via Breaking Defense.

“We were talking to some [congressional] staffers last week and things were changing just as we were talking,” Pacheco told me in a Tuesday evening phone call, “but I’d venture to say we’re pretty close to making some announcement.”
What Pacheco laid out was the most refined and detailed form I’ve seen so far of the Marines’ new multi-phase, multi-vehicle approach.
The first step has to be making the existing AAV-7 more robust, Pacheco said. That means those “limited survivability upgrades,” such as blast-resistant seats and additional armor, which may require a new transmission to handle the extra weight. But only about 390 of the more than 1,000 AAV-7s in service will get the upgrades. There is no current plan for a fleet-wide overhaul or a service-life extension program (SLEP) for the aging vehicles.
The next step is what the Marines are calling “ACV 1.1.” This will not be an all-new vehicle but rather a “non-developmental item,” that is a modification of an existing US or foreign design. It also probably won’t be able to swim from ship to shore under its own power, instead requiring some kind of landing craft.
“It won’t go from the ship to the shore on its own — at least at this point right now,” Pacheco told me. “I know at least one vendor who claims they’ve deployed their vehicle from the back of an amphib, [but] we have not tested that.”  (Editors Note from SNAFU!...the vehicle talked about is the BAE/Iveco SuperAV)
A “fully developed acquisition strategy” for ACV 1.1 will take a little longer, Pacheco said. But the Marines’ deputy commandant for “combat development & integration,” Lt. Gen. Kenneth Glueck, is currently finalizing the detailed requirements that will allow the Marines to write a Request For Proposals and start a formal competition. (Glueck happens to be testifying before Congress on Wednesday morning, when we may hear more).
That ACV 1.1 competition would be for about 200 basic troop transports. If that goes well, the Marines will expand the program to an ACV 1.2, buying up to an additional 400 vehicles in multiple variants: not just personnel carriers but also, say, a mobile command post or a fire support vehicle that trades passenger capacity for bigger weapons.

You read the above and you think, "well Sol they're hitting all your buttons" so why ain't you happy?

Because its all bullshit.

They're getting READY to write a request for proposal.

It won't hit till after the current Commandant is long gone from office. The fact of the matter is that the F-35 has gobbled up all available funds and the Marine Corps is doing its best to stagger purchases.....but that one airplane keeps coming back like a Walker from the "Walking Dead" TV show.

Have you noticed it?  Talk of the JLTV is done.  Not even the Army is talking about it.  Additionally the Marine Corps has the CH-53K in the que, is still buying MV-22's and is somehow going to buy ACVs?

It happy talk.

It designed to keep the masses quiet.  I'd be pissed but its just more of the same.

Indecision.  Equivocation.  The innate inability to be decisive.

That is our Marine Corps leadership with every issue except the F-35.  Marines will die in a ditch to get it because they won't have proper armored transport.

Ssang Yong 14 Dogue Beach.... Video by Staff Sgt. Joseph Digirolamo

What is the medical protection plan for our forces in Africa?

via CNN

CNN) -- An outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in West Africa has spread to Guinea's capital and beyond its borders in an "unprecedented epidemic," a leading aid agency reported Monday.
A total of 122 patients are suspected of contracting Ebola and 78 have died, Doctors Without Borders said. Most victims have been in Guinea, but the World Health Organization reported Sunday that two deaths in Sierra Leone and one in Liberia are suspected to have been used by the Ebola virus.

We have forces throughout Africa at this moment, Marines, Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen AND Reservist.... This story is going under reported but the outbreaks seem to be gaining speed... Canada even had an Ebola scare.

The questions must be asked.

Is Navy medicine on this?  Are the Corpsmen assigned to our units aware of the possible dangers with this disease?  

A Ft. Hood style attack in the making? Homegrown terrorist???

via FoxNews...

EXCLUSIVE: The FBI is searching for a recent Army recruit believed to be planning a "Fort Hood-inspired jihad against U.S. soldiers," FoxNews.com has learned.
The alert, whose legitimacy was confirmed by military and law enforcement officials, stated that a man identified as Booker had told friends of his "intention to commit jihad." Booker, who is also known as Muhammad Abdullah Hassan, was recruited by the U.S. Army in Kansas City, Mo., in February 2014 and was scheduled to report for basic training on April 7. But he was discharged last week, apparently after law enforcement authorities learned of his alleged plan.
Both the FBI and the 902d Military Intelligence Group at Fort Leavenworth are involved in the hunt.

Just awesome.

First the Army has lost track of one of its ex-recruits that it finds wants to commit "Jihad" against the US military and second, we have a US Army unit conducting an investigation that might have its roots inside the US.

A bigger question is this.

Why did they make this public?  Are the leads that few?  Are they worried about these guys going operational?

Is an attack imminent?

More to come I'm sure.

SIDENOTE:  Does this information put a different spin on the attack of the docked ship by the madman that resulted in the killing of one of our Sailors?  Was he part of this jihad?

2016 Bronco SVT!!!....

Oh my GOD!

If this doesn't give you an instant hard-on you're a eunuch.

I'm on a no new debt kick but this makes me think about taking the plunge....the only nagging issue?  Aluminum.  I bet it crunches like a coke can.  Read about it here.

2nd Amphibious Assault Battalion Helo Training ....Video by Chief Warrant Officer Georgi Hernandez

Space Shuttle Designs from the '60's and '70's....

Note:  I got curious after reading an I09 article on this subject.  A quick Google led me to the Kuriositas website (where the pics are from).  I'm kinda surprised that Upship Blog hasn't hit on this.  Its usually his bread and butter....

Ssang Yong 2014 from the S. Korean Marine Corps perspective...(photos)

What the fuck is going on with civilian police????

I'm late to this but WHAT THE FUCK!

I say with a certain amount of happiness that I haven't had a bad experience with police but this stuff is becoming more than alarming.  Lets be real.  This could happen to anyone given the proper set of circumstances.

What bothers me most about the video?

They start playing to the camera after the shooting.  The "drop the knife" and bean bag was just trying to put some justification into a terribly unjustified shooting.

Hearing the guy on the ground wheezing and no one calling for an ambulance is also telling.

They needed the guy to die so that only their version of events would come out.  This is bad stuff.  Real bad stuff.

Sidenote:  What irks me the most is that most major cities have gangs that need to be dismantled.  ATF, FBI, US Marshals etc...could all be going after those guys with a vengeance and get cheered on when they use their "armored vehicles"...City police and Sheriff's depts could be doing the same.  Yet all I'm seeing are people that are trying their best to mind their own business getting gunned down.  Its sad and pathetic.

The worst is yet to come for Ukraine.

Article from the Daily Beast, Weapon analysis from the Armory Blog....

This was spotted in Crimea recently, that doesn’t look very Russian to me. From what I can tell he’s using an Adams Arms Piston upper, Zeiss scope, Magpul butt-stock and angled foregrip and a Primary Weapons Systems KAC556 muzzle brake. Pity about the barrel mounted bipod, it’s actually a pretty nice build minus that....Armory Blog

DB...

This, U.S. officials believe, is because Russia is invading Ukraine with its Spetsnaz—the special operations units and battalions attached to both the military and the country’s intelligence agencies.U.S. intelligence officials now say Russia’s Spetsnaz are expanding into eastern and southern Ukraine, as well. The intelligence report from February assessed that Russian provocateurs would look to instigate low-level street brawls or “skirmishes” in eastern and southern Ukraine. The report also predicted that Russia’s shadow warriors would seek to pay off Ukrainians to attend pro-Russian rallies and in general fan the flames of separatism. And since then, eyewitnesses say, that’s exactly what’s happened

They're going for multiple ways of getting this done.  Right now they're attempting to influence a fragile govt and a restless populace but could switch to attacks against the infrastructure to destabilize the economy and cause economic rioting that would make what came before look like Disneyland.

Putin is playing it smart.  Our leadership is still behind the curve...even though they're being given information on what is happening and even speculation on what MIGHT happen.  Ukraine will fall.  Maybe not today, tomorrow or this month, but it will fall. 

But that isn't even the biggest of our worries.  Reports indicate that Russian troops are now active along the border with Georgia.  The Europeans are nervous, the US News Media is oblivious and our policy makers are lost in the woods.  Just like your girlfriend this issue isn't there yet but its coming.

Amphibious Combat Vehicle Increment 1 & 2...What we all missed...

I was reading SLDInfo and ran across something that I had seen before but didn't take in fully..

The Marine Corps is planning its Increment 1 and 2 Amphibious Combat Vehicles around a design used in foreign militaries and built by several manufacturers, some of which have open production lines, Commandant of the Marine Gen. James Amos told Defense Daily after a Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee hearing Wednesday.
What I hope is we can get Increment 1, some number­200, 300, we¹re still sorting that out­but we can get that under contract as soon as we can, and those would be [commercial off-the-shelf] vehicles, the four-star general said. ³It¹s going to come from a manufacturer that more than likely is already making these things, so we don¹t have to reinvent something, we don¹t have to go through the developmental testing and costs. So that¹s Increment 1.
Makes sense, get it sooner, let the Marines figure out what they need to do to change it. And then Increment 2 would be, in my mind, a spiral development. Tis would be like the second flight of the first increment. Amos said Increment 2 would be a jazzed up version of the original based on feedback from Marines in the field, and developmental costs would be kept low.
Asked if he could name the platform he is looking at or its manufacturers, Amos smiled and said absolutely not. But he did say it would be a wheeled vehicle rather than a tracked vehicle, which comes with a host of benefits that makes it immensely superior on land­greater safety, greater protection, simpler maintenance and better maneuverability, to name a few.

Amos just threw away tracks in favor of wheels.

We all missed it because we were all happy to see some progress on the ACV front, but this is mind boggling.  The MPC is NOT capable of swimming from ship to shore (unless the requirements changed and the performance of the contestants was better than advertised) which means that he is going to limit the Marine Corps to getting ashore by either LCAC or Helicopters.

This is so idiotic that words can't properly describe it.  The implications of this are so serious that I'm surprised it isn't getting a serious airing in Marine Corps specific blogs.

This commandant is changing the very nature of the Marine Corps.

Note:  I still like the Marine Personnel Carrier as a supplement to the ACV but not as a replacement.  Forcible entry is still a mission set of the Corps and one that cannot be performed by Helo or LCAC alone.