The return of trench warfare.

Thanks Mr. T for the article!

I consider this to be an unusual phenomenon...we're seeing the return of trench warfare.  Check out the pics below....

Uzbek authorities have started digging trenches in the disputed areas along the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz and Uzbek services report.

Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region is digging a trench along its border with Syria to prevent the infiltration of militants and smuggling from the war-racked country, officials say.

Odessa region vidhorodytsya 450-kilometer "Transnistrian ditch." To block the movement of heavy military equipment and moving contraband goods on the Transnistrian segment of the Ukrainian-Moldovan border began work on engineering enhancement - to 450-km boundary proryyut trench width 3.5 meters and a depth of 2-3 meters.

I really can't explain it.

This isn't even a difficult field problem and you would expect a good Marine just out of boot camp to be able to lead a crossing of such an obstacle.

So why is it suddenly popular again?

I can only imagine that it has to do with moderately mechanized units.  In Western or advanced military forces engineers, bridging and obstacle clearing equipment is a given.  In many of the world's forces they're an extravagance that can't be afforded.

So as primitive as it might seem, it does appear that this extremely old skool type of warfare is making a comeback.


NOTE:  I made a couple of assumptions when I posted this.  The first assumption was that people would understand that the term "trench warfare" was tongue in cheek and did not refer to WW1 battle type tactics but to what we're seeing in these pics.  The second assumption was that even if people didn't get the "tongue in cheek" aspect of this then they would have enough sense to realize that I do know what actual trench warfare is.  Seems I was wrong on both counts.  

4th Tanks amphibious training...video by Lance Cpl. Angel Serna

Marines with 4th Tank Battalion, 4th Marine Division, conduct amphibious training aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. Marines with 4th Tank Battalion, the Navy’s Assault Craft Unit-5 and the Army’s 481st Heavy Boat Company teamed together to conduct several rehearsed amphibious landings. Through integrating Marines, Sailors and Soldiers as well as equipment, small unit leaders gained familiarity with operating in a joint environment as well as exercise senior leader’s ability to communicate and effectively manage operations across three service platforms.

The Army is making sure that it will have a role in the Pacific.  Between this exercise, paratroopers making 15 hour flights to Australia and suiting up inside the plane before the drop and then inviting Indian forces to the US to train, its obvious that they're serious about a seat at the table.

LCU (F). Damnit! Just build it and test it already!

via Proceedings...

An alternative conceptual craft with its pedigree in the LCU-1610 class is the LCU (F). This design was described in Proceedings in the summer of 2013 (see “A Landing Craft for the 21st Century,” by Susanne Altenburger; Commander Michael Bosworth, U.S. Navy (Retired); and Captain Michael Junge, U.S. Navy, July 2013, pp. 60–64) and currently only exists in PowerPoint, but appears worthy of further examination. It promises to provide the higher speed, larger payload capacity, greater fuel efficiency, and better beach-landing ability needed to fulfill today’s amphibious-force requirements, yet the LCU (F) could be hydraulically folded in a “transformer-like” manner to fit neatly into the standard well-decks of major amphibious transport ships. In theory, conceptual connectors like this could also be flexible enough to aggregate via nonconventional means, similar to how we bring lighterage into theater via container ships today. Additionally, the LCU (F) is envisioned to carry up to 200 tons of personnel and equipment at a speed of almost 20 knots—an improvement of more than 20 tons and 10 knots when comparing it to the LCU-1610 class.

That article has the current Commandant's name on it.  Read it here.

My take on it?

Enough dithering.  Give these people some coin and have them prove the concept.  If it works then we've solved a number of issues....They can be carried aboard the deck of MPS ships, Amphibious Ships and in the right conditions self deploy.

Do I believe in Amos' 200 miles off shore sea base?  Nope.  Do I believe that we need an LCU 1600 replacement?  You bet your ass.

So again.  Enough talk.  We've seen MCDCC waste enough money on several dubious projects.  This one makes sense.  Lets get on it.

Sidenote:  I continue to be unimpressed with the L-CAT and wonder why it has so many fans.  Read its stats here but its payload is unimpressive and its speed mediocre when compared to the LCAC or what the designers say the LCU(F) will deliver.  The Marine Corps has a fascination with foreign designs...and sometimes they deliver.  The L-CAT in my opinion doesn't and should be dropped from further consideration.

Details on the Libya Embassy Evacuation.

We're still not getting the real story on the force that was sent to evacuate the embassy.  Check this out from Marine Times...

Overhead, three Air Force F-16 fighters and two Marine Corps MV-22 Ospreys kept watch on the convoy, said Tom Saunders, a spokesman for U.S. Africa Command in Germany. The aircraft were accompanied by an unspecified number of surveillance drones.
“We did provide [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] support,” Saunders said, “but as a matter of policy we don't discuss ISR operations, to include the number of assets supporting a mission.”
The F-16s, which flew out of Aviano Air Base in Italy, were supported by a KC-135 aerial refueling tanker from RAF Mildenhall in England, Saunders said.
A 24-man Marine quick reaction force and a two-person medical team were inside the Ospreys, Saunders said. They were supported by a KC-130 refueling tanker. All of those personnel are assigned to Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response based in Naval Air Station Sigonella, Italy.

So lets see.

80 USMC Infantrymen reinforced the Marine Security Guard at the embassy.  You add another 24 in the MV-22's flying overhead...probably Force Recon or MARSOC, they wouldn't dare let a regular line company get the mission.

But overhead you have three F-16's and probably a whole shitload of tankers to keep the MV-22's refueled since they're flying race track patterns over the convoy.

So what was the plan if they got hit?

I don't know how big the convoy was so you do the standard kill the lead, trail and command vehicle then go after the rest if you're a terrorist?  That's not much reaction time for the Marines flying overhead or the F-16's.  That means they had a shitload of UAVs scouting the route...probably armed too.  But you had to account for someone getting lucky and avoiding detection.  You also have to account for a mechanical problem in one of the vehicles causing you to have to abandon it and continue on without leaving personnel behind.

And finally you have to account for the possibility that sugar turns to shit and you have to get people out because all the vehicles are killed/disabled.

Yep.  They're not telling us the whole/real story on this plan...This package was light as hell, didn't have much redundancy built into it and doesn't account for worst case scenarios.  

Sidenote:  I'm guessing that this whole "drive out of Libya" was more a political decision than operational one.  The boys from the 160th could have flown in with their MH-47....say 6 of them for redundancy....landed at the embassy, been protected by UAVs and F-16s and been out of the country in much less time than this clusterfuck.  I'm smelling the fear of a Saigon Evacuation driving common sense military ops.

F-35 now restricted to a Cessna 310's flight profile?

I got a note from a little birdy and it made me sit up and say WHAT THE FUCK! in a crowded Starbucks I was enjoying a coffee in.  I won't include the entire note, just this section....

We understand JSF aircraft flight operations are now significantly restricted and limited to:
- minus one (-1) to plus three (+3) normal “g" envelope
(the equivalent of a FAR Part 23 Normal Category General Aviation aircraft envelope e.g. Cessna 310)
- maximum speed of 0.9 Mach
- 18 degrees angle of attack
- half deflection lateral stick
More critically, after every three (3) hours of flight time, each front fan section of each engine must undergo a full internal borescope inspection which will likely take a minimum of 4 to 6 man-hours.

I'm going to run all this down but if this is true then we're looking at a program that is far from the most open in history.

Something is very much wrong with this airplane and its being hid from the public.

More to come but if the above is true, then it isn't allowed to maneuver, its restricted to speeds just above that of modern airliners and its turning into a maintenance nightmare. 

SIDENOTE:  I'm keeping up with this program despite world events and in watching the different opinion pieces I've noticed one thing.  The supporters of this program are hanging their hats on the fact that we've spent so much money we have to continue.  No one is defending it as ground breaking anymore.  No one is saying that its war winning tech.  All they're saying is we have to continue because of how much we've spent.  THAT'S BULLSHIT!

MV-22 capabilities. Are they being purposefully overstated?

I'm getting a bit miffed by the spin being generated around the capabilities of the MV-22.  War is Boring Blog wrote a piece on it that had my blood pumping yesterday and then we have the fuzzy news of its use in an evacuation in Libya.  First check out this bit from WIB....

Contrary to the paper specifications McCain cites, no CH-46 I have ever flown in ever carried 14 troops over a distance of 160 miles. Marines planned for 12 combat-loaded troops, max—and often planned for just eight. Admittedly, the V-22 advertises 24 troops, but planners shoot for no more than 18 combat-loaded Marines.
The V-22 might be limited to 233 miles on a single tank, but surprisingly McCain doesn’t mention that it can also refuel in flight. This effectively gives the Osprey indefinite range, provided tankers are available.
Oh yeah, and it does it all at incredible speed. The CH-46 cruised at 140 knots while the Osprey moves at 240 knots in airplane mode—and maxes out over 300 knots.

On a sidenote, I really need to nail down the stats on the V-22.  I've read that max troop load is actually 12-16...not the 18 that the author states.  Additionally the range quoted has me scratching my head.  233 miles?  If thats true then Amos' mythical 200 miles off shore is as dead as disco.  Even the MV-22 doesn't have the range to get their without refueling.

And that brings me to the video above.

The number of personnel being evacuated indicates to me that the force package being quoted to the media is not even close to being real.  80 US Marines and 150 embassy personnel?  How many MV-22s would you need to be able to haul 230 people out of the desert if sugar turned to shit? 

And that has me turning back to the main question.

Why are they trying so hard to spin us on the MV-22?  The plane is being bought so is their pressure to cancel the remaining buys?  Is the SPMAGTF under pressure to be disbanded (as I've called for)?

Something is going on behind closed doors because the lobbying for the plane is in overdrive.

Flyer Gen III GMV 1.1 Advanced LSV

A rant about Israel vs. Hamas press coverage.

I've been watching the news and reading some of the comments here and I'm becoming a bit irritated with Hamas supporters.

Consider this my list of annoyances...

*  Israel is being accused of war crimes because they accidentally injure/kill civilians.  The news media and Hamas apologists on this blog, not to mention the UN are all about investigating and prosecuting Israeli's.

No one says a word about Hamas purposely targeting civilians everytime they launch a rocket barrage toward one of the Israeli cities.

*  People are talking about proportionality in warfare.  This one is particularly annoying.  Let the USMC go into combat against an enemy and we have proportional casualties and I'll personally be traveling to Quantico to kick someone's ass.  if you're waging warfare correctly then you better be getting lopsided results on the battlefield.  If you have a small, high tech, mechanized force then by God you damn well NEED to make sure that the enemy is bleeding more than your forces.

The same applies to the IDF.  The proportionality idiots in the media need to seriously suck a dick.

*  The US State Dept.  These clowns are looking at a crisis in Europe that needs serious attention yet we have the Sec of State in the Middle East dealing with the conflict there.  You attack the most serious issues first and despite the attention that the cocktail set gives the Palestinian movement, its just not that important in the grand scheme of things.  Quite honestly I rank world issues in this order....

1.  Ukraine.
2.  Iraq-ISIS issue.
3.  Jordan refugee crisis.
4.  Syria.
5.  Boko Haram in Nigeria.
6.  Saudi Arabia/Qatar/UAE insurgency issues.
7.  Afghanistan....and then finally....
8.  Israel vs. Hamas.

Its ok for a blog to become focused on a conflict.  Because of my support for Israel and my watching the performance of their military, its captured my attention.

But make no mistake about it (yep, gonna repeat myself...again) the Ukraine crisis is the one that will wreck the global economy and plunge us all into a recession (well a deeper recession).

Breaking News. Russia openly supply rebels with tanks, massing troops.

via International Business Times.

More than 15,000 Russian troops have amassed along the border with Ukraine as the Pentagon said Friday it appears Moscow is about to transfer “heavy caliber multiple rocket systems” to pro-Russia separatists.
Reuters cited the U.S. ambassador to NATO in a tweet reporting that 15,000 Russian troops are on the Ukrainian border. The news wire service didn’t offer further details about the deployment.
The development came as the Pentagon said a transfer of “heavy caliber multiple rocket systems” from Russia to pro-Russia rebels in Ukraine was “imminent.”
Russia is also reportedly arming the rebels with tanks, armored vehicles and other high-powered weapons, according to U.S. officials who spoke to the New York Times. Andriy Lysenko, a Ukrainian military spokesman, also told the paper that government forces were taking more fire from the Russian side of the border. The spokesman said Ukraine responded by shooting down three Russian drones.

A division of troops massing on the border?  Supplying the rebels with tanks, IFV/APCs?

This is about to get nasty.

Diplomacy has failed.  People are grabbing their guns. 

The US Navy refuses additional USMC amphibious ship demands...

Check this out from AOL Defense.

But the Navy’s top acquisition official, Sean Stackley, made clear today the service dares not sign that contract until it’s confident that it will eventually get full funding to buy the ship, about $2 billion. Congress already voted “advanced funding” in fiscal year 2014, and House authorizers and Senate appropriators have proposed $800 million in “incremental funding” in fiscal year 2015. “We appreciate your support,” Assistant Secretary Stackleytold the House Seapower subcommittee this morning, but even if the full $800 million is approved, “we are still a billion-plus short.”
Especially with the prospect of sequestration cuts looming over budgets for 2016 and beyond, Stackley is far from sure that the missing billion-plus will ever materialize. If the Navy could find that much additional money, he said bluntly, “we have other bills that are frankly higher-priority, [e.g.] the refueling of the carrier” USS George Washington.
In fact, Stackley made clear to reporters after the hearing that the Navy would rather repurpose some of the LPD-28 funding to invest in cost-reduction efforts for future amphibious warships across the board. That would include not only LPDs but the “big-deck” LHA-8, a much larger and more expensive ship, and most importantly the as-yet-undesigned LX(R) series, meant to be less capable but more affordable.

I don't ever recall the US Navy getting funding from Congress for amphibious ships and stating flat out that they had other priorities.

I sense serious funding issues for the Dept of the Navy.

We've talked about the procurement train wreck for the Marine Corps and how it would have to stagger purchases of weapon systems.  I've railed about how the F-35 has made a bad situation worse in that respect but I didn't consider how that one program is destroying the entire budget for the department.

Ships before aircraft.  Carriers, ballistic subs and destroyers before amphibious ships.  Looks like the Marine Corps is about to get frugal again whether it wants to or not.

11 Luchtmobiele Brigade gets ready to step into the Ukrainian quagmire.

Cdr Salamander has the story and its a must read here (go there first and then come back).

Ok.  You're back.

Yes, I know they're only going to provide security for the crash site but this will predictably get messy.

All it will take is one undisciplined rebel and we're looking at the 3rd European war.  The one bright spot is that the 11th are probably a well trained force (I never heard of these guys so I'm assuming) and many of its members probably have experience in UN peacekeeping missions....so getting shot at and not being able to shoot back is something they're familiar with.

I still think this will end badly, and for little purpose.  The time to secure the site has long since passed.  Everyone knows that so this is something else entirely.  What?  I have no idea.

Peruvian Marines buying LAV-25's.

via Press Release.

LONDON, Ontario, July 24, 2014 -- The Peruvian Ministry of Defence has awarded a USD$67 million contract to General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada for 32 Light Armoured Vehicles (LAVs) for the Peruvian Marines. General Dynamics Land Systems, the Canadian company's parent corporation, is a business unit of General Dynamics.
The contract was signed through the Canadian Commercial Corporation, a Crown corporation of the Government of Canada.
Vehicles provided under this contract will be personnel carrier variants of the LAV II family of vehicles with amphibious capability. Included in the contract is a complete logistics support package. Deliveries will commence by mid-2015.
Danny Deep, vice-president of General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada, said, "We are proud to have been selected by the Peruvian Marines to meet their armoured vehicle requirement and look forward to establishing a long-term relationship with this very important customer."

Not surprising.

The USMC and Peruvian Marines are developing strong bonds.  I expect to see more of a USMC presence in that country going forward to counter Chinese attempts to gain influence in the region. 

Ukraine. A one sided proxy war and looming economic collapse.

The above video says that the Russians are not only firing across the border but they've also activated Motorized Infantry Battalions.  The Russians are fighting a proxy war and we're sending MRE's and radios.

US and EU foreign policy has completely failed and the sanctions are a sad joke.

But even more frightening is the current economic state of the Ukrainian government.  Russia doesn't need to do anything and I believe these moves are simply to spite President Obama.  What should scare everyone is that a failed state is about exist in the heart of Europe.  An economic recession is bound to hit Europe...they can't afford a full bailout and neither can we.  Even if we could Congress and the American people wouldn't stand for it.

The fighting in this country is now a sideshow to the looming economic misery.  Bosnia is going to look like the good ole' days before this is over.

This is why the IDF is taking unnecessary casualties in the Gaza fight. UPDATE! Check out American Mercenary's latest!

NOTE: Check out American Mercenary's latest on the Gaza issue.  Its well worth your time and in my opinion a must read.  


Check out the above vid.

Did you see it?  Do you notice the problem?

You have heavy armor operating in an urban setting without infantry out and about hunting anti-tank teams!  You have the IDF being restrained by overly restrictive rules of engagement and you have them taking unnecessary casualties.  I will not even dig into the issue of Hamas using civilians as shields...kinda cowardly in my opinion for warriors to hide behind non-combatants.

You have the same issue with the attempts to attack rocket launch locations...you have the same issue with tunnels.

The IDF is fighting this battle with one hand behind their backs and several fingers tied on the other.  Political correctness does nothing but prolong conflicts and inflict increased casualties on both sides.  Instead of a quick, sharp battle we're seeing a protracted one, not because of military necessity but because of political expediency/correctness/false morality.

BLT, 3rd Battalion/ 5th Marines Mechanized Raid Exercise ...pics by GySgt Ismael Pea

Buddy carry...a MilPriority pic.

Note:  If you haven't checked out MilPriority's Facebook page you're missing out.  He's one of the great up and comer's when it comes to military photography...and he's one of the few that focuses on infantrymen and not aviation.

An Infantryman carries the Ruck of an injured marine during a grueling movement at Camp Pendleton.

The champagne is on ice. Dunford confirmed.

Read the article here.

Long story short?  Dunford will replace Amos this fall.  The champagne is on ice, the sour mash is hid in the footlockers (we'll bring that out once the women and children have gone to bed) and a warrior culture will hopefully return to the USMC.

Namer Command Post Variant?

I haven't heard that Israel has designed a command post variant of the Namer but this particular vehicle has an unusually large number of antennas.

Command post or intel variant is my guess.

Ship to Ship transfer tested...photos by Sgt. Sarah Fiocco

Note:  HQMC is highlighted the ship to ship transfer (really just an at sea test of the MLP) concept.  Has anywork been done on selective offloading?  Does this have any utility for the MEU or will this sit on the shelf until a Marine Expeditionary Brigade is needed?  Remember this small factoid.  MEU's are the unit of choice for combatant commanders.

IDF armor and artillery in action in the Gaza Strip.

Note:  All pics are via the IDF Flickr page (captions are embedded in the pic...you can see the caption by downloading them or by going to my Google Picaso and seeing them there)

Sidenote: Any explanation of why the IDF doesn't use towed artillery?  It really does bring the "artillery raid" concept into question.  If any nation would be inclined to use it then it would have to be the Israeli's.