The CVR(T) lesson from the Falklands for the 82nd...

First, go to THINK DEFENSE and read this article....

Next, consider this....

The other technique employed by the CVRs is known as “zapping”: …the CVR crew would engage the Argentine position with a brief burst of machine gun fire provoking a response, which was promptly silenced by the main gun. The 30mm RARDEN cannon, with its high velocity and great accuracy, was much favoured for this technique.

The issue isn't whether or not such a tactic would work today...against even a moderately capable foe it wouldn't...the issue is the fact that even a light tank mounting a 30mm cannon provided fire support to airborne troops that they normally wouldn't have available.

The other issue is time.

The US Army announced a while ago that they were interested in a mobile gun or airborne tank for the 82nd.  Since that announcement we haven't heard a thing.  We've wasted time and the Army risks falling into the Marine Corps trap.....seeking perfect when good enough is all around them.

The CVR is being retired and is long in the tooth, however their are plenty of vehicles that match the requirements of the airborne tank.  Its time the US Army got this done...even if they have to do an urgent operational request.

There is only one unit in the free world that can put a division ready brigade on the ground within 72 hours...they need to have the tools to fight and win when they get there...

Exercise Eager Lion 2014...photos by Sgt. Austin Hazard, USMC

A Jordanian Armed Forces AH-1F Cobra helicopter flies past U.S. Marine Corps assault amphibious vehicles with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) toward targets during a combined arms live-fire exercise, the culminating event of Exercise Eager Lion 2014.

The 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) light armored vehicles and M1A1 Abrams tanks provide direct-fire support with Jordanian Armed Forces YBR-765 armored personnel carriers and HMMWVs during a combined arms live-fire exercise rehearsal as part of Exercise Eager Lion 2014

The 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) amphibious assault vehicles carry infantry Marines while M1A1 Abrams tanks provide direct-fire support during a combined arms live-fire exercise rehearsal as part of Exercise Eager Lion 2014.

U.S. Marines with Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), advance on foot during a combined arms live-fire exercise rehearsal as part of Exercise Eager Lion 2014

Note:  Bottom photo....do you see it?  1/6 is better than that.  They're entirely too close together.....basic shit like that will get guys killed and a unit rendered ineffective with a lucky enemy barrage.  Practice like its real!

Russia Central District gets new Tiger vehicles....Is the experiment with the Iveco Lynx dead?

 SPM-2 GAZ-233036 ‘Tigers

Iveco lynx

via Chihan.com

Russia’s Central Military District (CMD) is to receive ten new armored "Tiger" vehicles, Colonel Jaroslav Roschupkin said Friday.
"Tolyatti Special Forces will receive ten new armored SPM-2 GAZ-233036 ‘Tigers’. In accordance with the 2011-2020 state arms procurement program, the vehicles will be delivered by the end of 2014," Col. Roschupkin said.
Earlier this year, Col. Roschupkin reported that the CMD was to receive 24 "Tigers" by the end of 2014.
Last year, Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said Russian Armed Forces’ demand for “Tigers” had reached unprecedented highs following the upgrades to "Tigers" that eliminate the previous advantages of Iveco’s “Lynx” light motor vehicles.
The SPM-2 GAZ-233036 “Tiger” is a high-mobility multipurpose military vehicle manufactured by MIC, a GAZ Group division, at the Arzamas machine-manufacturing plant.
It has a maximum speed of 150 kilometers per hour and can carry up to nine personnel or 1.2 tons of cargo. (Cihan/Ria Novosti)

If I remember correctly Iveco made a splash when they announced that the Russian military would be using their vehicles.

Views of the incident in Crimea and with the above news article, it appears the experiment is over.  Russia is buying Russian again...especially when it comes to armored vehicles.

On a sidenote, I haven't heard whether or not the Typhoon 6x6 has actually entered service with the Russian Airborne Forces.

The USMC's version of Sgt Bergdahl.

via National Review Online...

Ten years ago this month, U.S. Marine Wassef Ali Hassoun disappeared from Camp Fallujah in Iraq. After a five-month military investigation, he was charged with desertion and theft, brought back to Virginia’s Quantico Marine base, and then transferred to North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune for trial.  Yet, a full decade later, Hassoun is as free as a bird.  The accused deserter’s whereabouts are unknown. No trial ever began. No punishment ensued.
And our leaders in Washington don’t seem to be doing a thing about this.  Hassoun was born in Lebanon and immigrated with his family to Utah in 1999. A few years later,  he joined the Marines as an Arabic translator. On June 20, 2004, Hassoun bailed on guard duty at
his base in Fallujah. He took his military-issued gun and his Muslim prayer rug. Military records
obtained by the Salt Lake Tribune showed that he was “torn between military loyalty and his
Muslim beliefs.”  According to the internal probe, he undermined intelligence-gathering operations by refusing to  translate questions about Islam. He balked at raising his voice to suspected jihadi imams and sheiks. e openly threatened to “walk out the front gate and leave.”
The Muslim Marine told his colleagues he supported Hezbollah terrorist attacks on Israel. Members of his unit told investigators he was “anti-American” and listened to jihad sermons on propaganda CDs. Hassoun had received spiritual counseling from Navy Lieutenant Commander Abuhena Saifulislam, a Muslim military chaplain tied to a radical Wahhabist outfit under federal investigation, according to Hoover Institution fellow and journalist Paul Sperry.

Read about this traitorous bastard here.  

Then punch walls, break things and think about how this fucked up war has been conducted.  We should have won easily but the powers that be insisted on being politically correct instead of militarily wise.  It cost us lives.

This guy should be on every wanted poster in America.  Instead it takes Michelle Malkin to raise awareness.  But even more troubling is how quiet this was kept.  I NEVER HEARD OF THIS INCIDENT!

Japan & Germany to work on next generation tank?

Thanks Slowman for the link!

via JiJi.com

The appeal to the German side the small size and high mobility is a characteristic of the 10 Tank of GSDF state-of-the-art, to explore the possibility of joint development of the successor to the Type 90 and Leopard 2 in the future.　

Google Translate struggles with Japanese...as a matter of fact it handles Mandarin much better...but the gist of the article points to the Japanese and Germans working on the next gen MBT.  Again, the translation is sketchy but it looks like they're going to do studies with the idea of joint development/production.

What do the Japanese know that we don't?

I've been waiting for advanced armor out of China for awhile now...could they have eyes on something that causes concern for them?  The Type 10 is relatively new yet they're already looking at a replacement?  Something strange is going on. 

SgtMajor of Marines gets involved in stupid nonsense...

Thanks USS Helm for the link!

The above photos show a confrontation between an Active Duty SgtMajor and a former Marine that is protesting outside Paris Island about the Bergdahl issue.  Read the story here.

There is no reason for the SgtMajor to have gotten into a confrontation over this issue.  If this is how senior enlisted now behave then good order and discipline is a thing of the past.

Flood of illegal immigrants into Texas...

via WOAI.

The surge of illegal immigrant minors rushing over the Rio Grande threatens to overwhelm the Texas Border Patrol, and new figures show the unexpected development will cost U.S. taxpayers more than $2 billion this year, 1200 WOAI news reports.
More than 1,000 unaccompanied immigrant children are arriving in the U.S. each week, according to figures released by the Department of Homeland Security, and some 60,000 are expected to arrive in the U.S. this year. That is up ten times just since 2011.
U.S. Rep Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo), who represents a large portion of the border where the waves of unaccompanied children are arriving, says the situation is out of control.
"The Border Patrol is telling me, we need diapers, we need baby seats, so we can transfer them," he said.
Some of the unaccompanied children are as young as three years old. More than 1,000 have been sent to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, and others are being sent to other locations far from the border because the flood has left Border Patrol housing facilities packed.
Cuellar says the flood of unaccompanied minors is costing taxpayers $252 per day per child.

The unemployment rate is 6.3%.

What they don't tell you is that the labor participation rate is at a 36 year  low.  What does that mean?  It means we don't have enough jobs for the people we already have, much less for a new flood of illegal immigrants.

Spare me your table pounding about this being a humanitarian crisis.  Its not.  This is an economic move designed to put even more people on the dole and to change the Southwestern States to Democrat.

I was neutral on the issue of illegal immigration but stuff like this gets my hair up and I'm going to start opposing it until they can at LEAST secure the damn border.

This is bullshit. 

Bergdahl News. In march the political operatives....

I've been reading on a particular military website about how we should wait.  How we should get all the information before we comment on the Bergdahl situation.  How we should let the US Army investigation play out before taking a position.

THAT IS UTTER BULLSHIT!!!!

We have heard from Bergdahl's teammates.

We have been told by men that were there exactly what happened.

We've been told that the US Army had these guys sign non-disclosure forms!

This is about to become a muddled mess.  The reason?  Political operatives from both the Republican and Democrat parties have now stuck their fingers into the mess and are trying to steer public opinion.  Righteous anger made this a news story and now late to the fray these fucking clowns are attempting to modulate the reaction to it.

FUCK THEM ALL!

Blast from the past. A-7 Corsair II

Note:  The A-7.  A subsonic performer that flies as fast in the transonic region as the F-35, carries almost as many bombs and can go further....at a significantly lower price....

F-35 News. General Hostage admits the poor kinematic performance of the plane...

via Breaking Defense...

“The F-35 was fundamentally designed to go do that sort of thing [take out advanced IADS]. The problem is, with the lack of F-22s, I’m going to have to use F-35s in the air superiority role in the early phases as well, which is another reason why I need all 1,763. I’m going to have some F-35s doing air superiority, some doing those early phases of persistent attack, opening the holes, and again, the F-35 is not compelling unless it’s there in numbers,” the general says. “Because it can’t turn and run away, it’s got to have support from other F-35s. So I’m going to need eight F-35s to go after a target that I might only need two Raptors to go after. But the F-35s can be equally or more effective against that site than the Raptor can because of the synergistic effects of the platform.”

Wow.

Did you catch that?

This is the first time that the USAF has admitted that the Rand Reports assessment of the F-35..... "Can't Turn, Can't Climb and Can't Run" is actually spot on.

The little war fiction at the beginning of the article was cute, but consider this.

The Rand assessment was based on the F-35 facing SU-27 family of airplanes.  How do you think it would fare against the like of the PAK-FA or the J-20?  Have you noticed that we have not received any updated assessments against these threats?

I'm guessing here, but the tea leaves indicate that the F-35 is facing some pressure behind the scenes when it comes to numbers to be procured.  Hostage saying "another reason why I need all 1,763" is in my mind telling.  The cuts are coming, the death spiral is here...and just like Amos finally getting out of my beloved Marine Corps I couldn't be happier.

Kershaw CQC-5K

I'm not one of those guys that collects knives.  Its a cool hobby but its just not for me.

Then I saw this Kershaw/Emerson CQC-5K....

Instant HARD-ON!

The price?  $54.99!  Its not for sale yet but will be soon.  I can't wait.  Check it out here....

This is why cops fear vets...Meet Justin Bourque...

Read about this case here.

The deal?  Cops fear vets because they have the knowledge and ability to employ weapons at a skill that is at least equal if not greater than their own.

Additionally if that vet has maintained his physical fitness, has equipped himself with the latest gear then it becomes a case of how many cops will die before he's apprehended.

The issue is clear.  Many members and former members of the military feel preyed upon by society, and the government.  What happens when a wolf decides he no longer wants to be prey and then decides to become a predator?  An even scarier thought...what happens when those wolves decide to form a wolf pack? 

'For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.'

Sidenote:  I shouldn't be surprised but as usual a few people are getting sand in their vagina's and think that I'm cheering on a cop killer.  Nope.  This post was to illustrate the type of destruction that a vet could do to law enforcement and to further explain why the Dept of Justice fears us.  This is why people piss me off.  They don't take time to read and discern.  They only whine and react. 

General Dunford! The next Commandant of the US Marine Corps!

Thanks Aaron!!!

via Defense.gov

General Officer Announcement
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced today that the president has made the following nomination:
Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., for appointment to the rank of general and for assignment as the 36th commandant of the Marine Corps, Washington, District of Columbia. Dunford is currently serving as commander, International Security Assistance Force-Afghanistan; and commander, United States Forces-Afghanistan.

Fantastic news.  I can get behind this!!!

SIDENOTE:  A grunt is back in the big chair!  THANK GOD!

AAV Crewmen Conduct Desert Training

Bradley AMPV is a money saver?

via Defense Media Network...

“The most expensive components on a Bradley are the turret and turret components – the lethality components that are not included in AMPV. And our projections say that a Bradley-based AMPV would have about the same operating cost as an M113 does. So the Army is going to get sort of ‘improved performance for like money.’”

That is a bold statement.

It does however make you wonder.  The turret and components are the most expensive parts of an APC/IFV?

Really?

With blast seats, reinforced hull, modern suspensions/engines and comm systems?

Additionally is he talking about procurement or operating costs...in the statement it seems like he switches from talking procurement to operating costs without missing a beat...so which is it?  I'm gonna e-mail the writer of this story for a clarification on a few things. 

Leaving your unit 101...

Watching the media twist and turn in an attempt to minimize Bergdahl's actions.  Its not working guys and here's why...consider it a "leaving your unit without permission" 101...

If you leave your unit without permission stateside...and you're gone more than 30 days...its called AWOL (or whatever they call it today)....If you leave your unit without permission in a warzone then its called desertion and its punishable by death.

Bergdahl deserted.  

You can twist, turn, equivocate, spin and basically lie but it is what it is.

This bastard needs to burn.  Fuck his five years of captivity.  He did that to himself.  If anyone needs to be made an example of its Bergdahl...oh and remember this.  We've seen Marines burned for alot less.

Amphibious Combat Vehicle dies by a 1000 cuts....Amos changes course again....

Thanks Lee for the link!

via Defense News (subscription required)

Senate authorizers want to slash about $52 million in fiscal year 2015 funding for the Amphibious Combat Vehicle funding "at the request of the Marine Corps," according to a report issued on Wednesday.
The Senate Armed Services Committee's report accompanying the FY-15 defense authorization bill recommends shifting $45 million from the Marines' ACV request to the Navy's shipbuilding account for the Landing Craft, Air Cushion service-life extension program, as well as $7 million in the research and development account for surface connector research and LCAC stern ramp testing.
House authorizers did not make the same recommendation in their mark of the FY-15 defense authorization bill, setting up a conference issue.

The issue with Marine Corps armor shows the total failure of leadership that has surrounded Amos' tenure as Commandant.

How many starts and stops have we had with the ACV program?

Ukraine switches to Dozor APCs. Dropping BTR-4E.

via Voice of Russia

Turchynov reviewed on Wednesday heavy armored and special vehicles at the Chuguyev firing range in the eastern Kharkov region, which will be used by the Ukrainian army, including during Kiev’s punitive operation in the country’s east, the acting president’s press office reported.
The armor was also inspected by Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and commanders of the battalions involved in Kiev’s so-called "anti-terrorist operation" in the country’s east.
"The small armored personnel carrier Dozor is three times cheaper than the BTR-4E APC and has proved its efficiency in field conditions. Today this vehicle is awaited in the National Guard," the press office quoted Turchynov as saying.
Military experts say it will take several months to put the Dozor APC into serial production. Poland earlier purchased a license from Ukraine to make these combat vehicles operational in the Polish army.
Turchynov, Avakov and battalion commanders are expected to visit the headquarters of Kiev’s military operation near the town of Slavyansk in the eastern Donetsk region on Wednesday, Interfax reports.

The President of Ukraine is touring defense manufacturing facilities and announces that instead of their premier vehicle, the BTR-4E, they're switching to the cheaper DOZOR.

They're dealing with an insurgency/civil war and they're scrimping on defense?

Their economy must be worse than I thought.

Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_06_04/Ukraine-starts-mass-production-of-armored-personnel-carriers-for-National-Guard-5624/

H&K VP9.

I think H&K are a bunch of anti-gun snobs that happen to sell guns to people they don't like.

Having said all that, this gun is sexy!

I wonder how many body parts its gonna cost?

Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control

Note:  I've been yelling for Lockheed Martin to separate their MFC from the F-35 program.  They need to establish a ground division for their MPC, SMSS and JLTV projects with a quickness.  The fact that they've failed to do so indicates that internally they don't realize how controversial the F-35 program has become.  The longer that airplane is tied to the rest of the company the greater the chance that govts will begin to question their entire enterprise..