Bundy Ranch News. Protesters turn back illegal immigrant buses...Fed Law Enforcement rebuffed again.

via CNN

(CNN) -- A wall of angry protesters blocked three buses of undocumented immigrants in Southern California, forcing them to turn around -- but with no clear final destination.
The immigrants had traveled from South Texas to San Diego and were on their way to be processed at the Murrieta Border Patrol station when the standoff took place Tuesday.
Protesters chanting "USA!" "Impeach Obama!" and "Deport! Deport!" blocked their route. A heated yelling match ensued between the demonstrators and a group of counterprotesters.

Read the entire story here.

I don't know if anyone has made this connection but this is the second time in a matter of months that Federal Law Enforcement has been defied by average citizens.

That is stunning, unprecedented and points to one undeniable fact.

We're on the brink of widespread civil disobedience. 

I could be wrong but I don't think so.  The country is on edge and the powers that be either don't know it or don't care.

Vid of police brutalizing handicapped man in a wheel chair...

Just plain wow.

Sometimes words are not enough.

The Russian Lada. The best small 4x4 you've never heard about.

via Jalopnik..

First, there was the Lada Niva. Which was known as the Sport in Iceland, the Taiga in Western Europe and the Bushman in Australia. Then, the Russians renamed it simply to 4x4. Now, it's time for the Lada 4x4 Urban. Are you ready for so much excitement?
Unlike the Land Rover Defender, the Mercedes-Benz Geländewagen and the Lada Niva are here to stay. But since the Russians don't really have the sort of technology the Germans use to keep the G-Wagen fresh, AvtoVAZ had to make due with a very modest facelift.

I've seen vids with these little beasts going through stuff that would bog down many other vehicles.

I'd love to get my hands on one! 

KMW and Nexter to unite?

Thanks for the article Jonathan...

via Business Week

The head of a business lobby allied with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party said the planned merger of Kraus-Maffei Wegman GmbH and Nexter Systems SA shows Germany must do more to retain its defense industry.
Kurt Lauk, who heads the Christian Democratic Union’s Economic Council, said a restrictive stand on arms exports by Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel is threatening Germany’s defense industry. Gabriel heads the Social Democratic Party, Merkel’s junior coalition partner.
“One shouldn’t be surprised that the arms industry is following the implicit call by the government to leave the country,” Lauk told reporters in Berlin today. “If you don’t want arms exports, you don’t need an arms industry” because sales to close military allies alone can’t sustain it.
Lauk’s comments reflect frustration in the CDU about its policy influence in Merkel’s third-term coalition that took office in December. A survey of 2,017 people who are council members showed 79 percent aren’t happy with the coalition’s achievements, according to a June 4-25 poll presented by Lauk today.
While promoting arms exports isn’t an economic-policy goal, Gabriel wants “a competitive German defense industry,” Economy Ministry spokesman Tobias Duenow said in an interview. The German-French merger is an example of European defense cooperation that “would seem to make sense” and Lauk’s portrayal is “not accurate,” Duenow said.
Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, the German maker of the Leopard II battle tank, and Nexter said yesterday they plan to combine. Gabriel is trying to block the sale of 800 Leopard tanks to Saudi Arabia, the Bild am Sonntag newspaper said in April, citing government officials it didn’t identify.
Germany was the third-biggest arms exporter behind the U.S. and Russia between 2009 and 2013, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in March.
Inside the European Union, defense spending by member countries excluding Croatia and Denmark fell 0.6 percent to 189.6 billion euros ($259 billion) in 2012, declining for a fifth year, according to the European Defense Agency.

Interesting.

I hadn't considered this in a political sense, just economically.  But it does make you wonder.  Nexter has been aggressive in seeking business everywhere...with everyone.

KMW has been fighting against other corporations and the German government for business.

France is about to become the seat of European military production (well a large part of it anyway). 

Iraq Order of Battle News. USAF Contingency Response Security Force headed to Baghdad International Airport?

via Air Force Times...

A team of 100 contingency response airmen have been ordered into Iraq to protect U.S. assets at Baghdad International Airport.
The airman and another 200 new troops — charged with protecting Americans in locations such as the embassy in the capital — are being sent because the Pentagon has “reason to be concerned” about the safety of the airport and other areas in Baghdad, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said Tuesday.
The team of airmen had been standing by outside Iraqsince June 16. The contingency response group, which includes the airmen, were ordered to protect U.S. personnel and assets, not the entire airport, Kirby said.

I just don't know.

If a major push for the airport was to actually occur or if they were to start taking sustained artillery fire, I just wonder how good USAF Security Forces are.

There is USAF hard and then USMC/US Army hard.

Not taking shots at our USAF brothers and sisters but these guys haven't seen major league unit action since Vietnam.

And only 100?  If you really want to secure that airport you're going to need a Battalion sized force...the planning on this is more political than practical...politics is going to get our people killed.  In for a penny in for a pound!  You're either going to fight or you pull our people out.  I say get out.  Iraq and getting between another sectarian fight (this time between Sunni's and Shiite's instead of Northern Army and Taliban in Afghanistan) is not worth another drop of American blood. 

F-35 News. Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan....legacy building if I ever heard it...

Thanks Peter for the link...

Bogdan is really spreading it on think.  I consider this a legacy building exercise with a HUGE dose of blaming his predecessors (rightly or wrongly I just don't know anymore) for the problems that we're currently seeing with the program.   He also takes a couple of veiled swipes at Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney over cost escalations.

Hear the interview here.

Blast from the past. de Havilland Sea Vixen

via Royal Navy Website....
An historic Royal Navy 1950s fighter, the de Havilland Sea Vixen, will join the fly past over the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, at the official naming ceremony by Her Majesty The Queen in Rosyth, Scotland on Friday 4 July 2014
Sea Vixen FAW2 (Fighter All Weather) G-CVIX XP924, painted in the colours of 899 Naval Air Squadron from HMS Eagle in 1971, is the last and only flying Sea Vixen in the world.  Read more about it here.

NOTE:  This is the plane that is replacing the F-35 at the Queen Elizabeth Aircraft Carrier fly over event.

Order of battle shaping up for our "Iraq" mission...

Fox News is reporting that one of the units going to Iraq is a detachment of Apache Attack Helicopters.

This caught me off guard.

Unless they're talking about flying missions just outside the airport (perimeter patrol) and maybe escorting convoys to and from the airport, I just don't get it.

Even with that limited mission scope, you'd need to setup a "reaction force" to be prepared to recover downed helicopter pilots and that can be a manpower intensive, risky affair.

This thing is already suffering mission creep.  I can see the planners now.  We can do it with X, Y and Z...but if you want to ensure proper force protection we're going to need 1, 2, and 3.

How soon before we see a Stryker Brigade dispatched?

F-35 News. F-35 will NOT make Queen Elizabeth Aircraft Carrier flyover.

Aviation Week, reported by Amy Butler...

Because of a 36-hr. turnaround time on the ground at Patuxent River upon arrival from Eglin, it is looking increasingly unlikely that the F-35B will make an appearance at the naming ceremony for the HMS Queen Elizabeth on July 4 in the U.K. Though the ceremony is not on the official F-35B schedule, program officials had hoped to arrive in time to conduct a flyover, as this class of ship will eventually host the single-engine, stealthy fighters to re-build the U.K.’s carrier strike capability.
Meanwhile, officials announced June 30 that the last flying de Havilland Sea Vixen — a 1950s-era, carrier-based U.K. fighter — will perform a flyover at the new carrier’s naming ceremony. Planners have shifted from one extreme to the other; they once hoped to showcase the future of British carrier aviation but are now settling for a nod to the past.

Congrats to Lockheed Martin Aviation Team and the F-35 Program Office.

You just gave your biggest supporter a black eye.

Well Done! 

Philippines moving to replace their OV-10...Why aren't they considering the A-10?

Interesting.

Who is running Philippines acquisition?  If I was doing this I'd be hanging out at the USAF HQ, ready to pounce on A-10C's that have just been redone and are set to be retired.

Whoever gets those planes is gonna get a steal.

Scorpion Jet is on its way to Farnborough International Air Show

The world is burning news. We're gearing up for some type of intervention...

Interesting.

NBC and MSNBC are mouth pieces for the administration.  So when they put up a video saying that ISIS is now a threat to the US, I sit up and pay attention.

I can't read the tea leaves on this one but I do know this.  We were told that the 300 US Army Special Forces guys would be it.  Now we see an additional number of forces arriving in the area (I believe they're FAST Company Marines...it would make sense for the embassy reinforcement mission...who and how they're protecting the airport is beyond me....did they bring in anti-missile/artillery systems in country?)

I get the feeling that they're talking about some type of intervention....an intervention that will result in retaliation.  It will probably be airstrikes, either by drones or manned aircraft (that's this administrations preferred method of operation).

Either way the world continues to burn.

NOTE:  At the 2:20 mark of the video did you notice the terrorist say "Obama, we're coming for you"?  It appears that this new foreign policy is doing nothing but illustrate American weakness.  

A must read at Navy Matters Blog!

I won't even spoil it with a preview.  Go here to read it for yourself!

Blast from the past. Old Skool Recruiting Poster...

ACV News. Throwing money around without a plan...

Do you want proof that the Marine Corps is in a tailspin when it comes to armored vehicle procurement?  Do you want an example of wasting money without a real plan?  Check this out from MarineLink...

The US Department of Defense informs it has awarded contract modifications to previously awarded contracts with BAE Systems Land & Armaments, as well as with General Dynamics Information Technology to understand the risks and assist the government in determining the best approach for developing a High Waterspeed Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV).
The DoD explains that detailed trade studies, requirements studies, operational effectiveness analyses and initial concept design results have been reported to Marine Corps leadership and the assistant secretary of the Navy research, development and acquisition by each of the companies named.
These two companies are now required by the respective contract modifications to continue these studies as they relate to flexibility and modularity requirements and the impacts to derived system specification requirements.
BAE Systems Land & Armaments, Santa Clara, California, is being awarded a $7,882,132 modification to previously awarded contract (M67854-13-F-0009) while General Dynamics Information Technology, Fairfax, Virginia, is being awarded a $7,346,539 modification to previously awarded M67854-13-F-0010 to carry through these tasks.
The Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, Virginia, is the contracting activity.

Yeah.

During this time of supposed austerity....when the US Army is rushing forward with the AMPV because they see a small window of time before sequestration kicks back in full force, the USMC thinks it can waste 15 million dollars on studies.

Fifteen million dollars.

I could MAYBE go with it if Dunford called for this just as he was coming onboard but this is coming from a guy with 3 months left in office.

Its legacy building.

Its illustrates confusion at the top.

The only thing left to do is for Dunford to fire every person thats been involved with the AAV Upgrade/EFV/ACV/MPC and ACV 1.1.

CARAT - Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training 2014...

They're prepping to evacuate the US Embassy in Iraq.

via ABC News...

The U.S. is sending another 300 troops to Iraq to beef up security at the U.S. Embassy and elsewhere in the Baghdad area to protect U.S. citizens and property, officials said Monday.
That raises the total U.S. troop presence in Iraq to approximately 750, the Pentagon said.
The State Department, meanwhile, announced that it was temporarily moving an unspecified "small number" of embassy staff in Baghdad to U.S. consulates in the northern city of Irbil and the southern city of Basra. This is in addition to some embassy staff moved out of Baghdad earlier this month,
Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the Baghdad embassy "will be fully equipped to carry out" its mission.
The White House announced that President Barack Obama had directed that 200 troops be sent to reinforce security at the embassy, its support facilities and Baghdad International Airport.
The Pentagon said the 200 arrived Sunday and Monday.

Sounds to me like they're preparing to evacuate.

It won't be like Saigon and helicopters on the roof....no, this will be a slow motion, hope the news media doesn't catch on to the fact that its going on and leaving a skeleton crew in place to allow the fiction of activities going on as normal to carry the day.

I've looked a bit and I can't find the info on the units involved.

That makes me especially curious.  If they're FAST Company Marines and the Red Horse guys from the USAF then I'd be more certain.  Time will tell though.

Sidenote:  Moving personnel to Irbil and Basra has me stumped though.  It makes no sense.  Yes, they're supposedly in "safe" areas but in a situation like this you're going to disperse your personnel?  I guess the State Dept has bought into the Distributed Operations concept too.

About the ads on the page...

Hey guys,

Just a quick note about the ads on the page.

I'm trying to grow the blog and while I'm happy with where we're at, I'd still like more.  With that in mind, Google has been pestering me not only about ads but there placement on the blog.

Supposedly it'll drive eyeballs to my page and they'll help me do it.

Yeah.  I'm Googles bitch by doing this but either it helps me accomplish the mission of growing the blog or I bail on the whole thing.

So do me a favor and deal.  If its a song and dance they're selling then trust me they'll be gone like the wind.  Oh and you can always try an ADBLOCK if ya hate the tracking that Google does to tailor ads to you (along with a good "Don't track me" app).

Blast from the past. US Soldiers tells Iraqi Police "You're too fucking pussy to go 3 Km down the road" via Foxtrot Alpha...

Truth!

Well said by this US Army Soldier.  This is old skool Army though.  He'd probably get an Article 15 for the same talk today.

Kevin Martin's Flickr Stream...

Note:  If you're into aviation photos (car racing too) then you really should check out Kevin Martin's Flickr Stream.  The below photos were taken in Le Luc, France this year and they're simply....awesome!