Mission Accomplished...congrats President Obama!

We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.President Barack Obama

WW2: Invasion in the making - Training new Amphibious troops

24th MEU offload ops. Photos by Cpl Mary Carmona

Marine Corps Prepositioning Program-Norway Ship offload pics.

MCPP-N Modernization in Norway

Vehicles and equipment are staged at the designated offload pier during a pre-planned Single Ship Movement and offload of military equipment from a Maritime Prepositioning Force ship in the Trøndelag region of Norway. U.S. Marines from 2nd Marine Logistics Group out of Camp Lejeune, NC, in coordination with their Norwegian counterparts, are modernizing some of the equipment currently stored within six caves as a part of the Marine Corps Prepositioning Program-Norway by placing approximately 350 containers of gear and nearly 400 pieces of heavy rolling stock into the storage caves. 

Specific equipment which will greatly increase the program’s readiness includes M1A1 Main Battle Tanks, Tank Retrievers, Armored Breeching Vehicles, Amphibious Assault Vehicles, Expanded Capacity Vehicle (ECV) Gun Trucks and several variants of the MTVR 7 ½ ton trucks. Planning for this equipment refresh began in the spring of 2010. Marines and contractors from Blount Island Command in Jacksonville, Fla. and Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa are also in Norway to ensure the operation is conducted in a safe and timely manner.

I feel a demonstration of a MEB & a couple SPMAGTF-CR coming....

via War is Boring.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel says 130 more U.S. troops are now in northern Iraq, where Kurdish forces are battling Islamic State Sunni extremists.
These new advisers include Marines and some members of the other military branches. The Pentagon already has 40 people at a Joint Operations Center in Irbil, the Kurdish regional capital.
This shared headquarters likely has been working to figure out what Kurdish forces can and can’t do—and what they might be need in their fight against Islamic State. On Monday, Pres. Barack Obama announced a plan to step up military aid to Iraqi forces, including the Kurds.
But Hagel described the new contingent as an “assessment team.” The contingent will only be working to figure out “the scope of the humanitarian crisis” in the region, a DoD News report explained.

A little explanation.

The 1st MEB has been doing a large scale exercise at 29 Palms.  They've suddenly gone quiet.

Additionally the SPMAGTF-CR for Africa is back at its base (at last check) and one was being assembled for the Middle East.

While two SPMAGTF-CR's are still smaller than one MEU, you can bet that the HQMC is aching for them to participate in a HA/DR of those people trapped on the mountain.  Additionally because you have two SPMAGTF-CR's coming together with what I can guess will be US Army, USAF, USN and allied forces that makes it a joint command .... the very scenario that makes the MEB viable.

I don't know the behind the scenes politics but I would bet that we're going to see MV-22's, CH-47's (US Army, British and Canadian) and several French aircraft evacuating people.

Additionally you can bet that you're going to see a massive airpower display with everyone working out their latest toys.

Get ready for the rally round the flag moment...and more than a little chest thumping from Amos (on his way out the door) and his sycophants....if it works out well that is.

ISIS is in America.

photo by Marc Leibowitz

via Washington Free Beacon.

Police in Garwood, New Jersey, ordered that a militant flag associated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) be removed from the front of a local home after hundreds of online activists expressed fear and revulsion.
Garwood Police Chief Bruce D. Underhill confirmed to theWashington Free Beacon that officers had been contacted and residents at the suburban home “voluntarily” agreed to remove the flag.
A photo of the home with the ISIL and Turkish flags was tweeted out Tuesday morning and quickly attracted hundreds of retweets and comments.
Underhill told the Free Beacon that the police are aware of the situation and are working to uphold the public safety.

If NSA is actually doing its job then these people would be monitored 24/7.  Additionally the FBI Counter Terrorism Task Force should be launching a full investigation into these clowns.  Immigration and Customs should be investigating their immigration status.

The problem?  I doubt any of that is happening.

My worry?  This is just the tip of the iceberg.  ISIS is here.  We've been told that sleeper cells exist.  Its only a matter of time before they attack. 

Has the Hannibal Protocol run its course?

Thanks for the link Maurice!

via Times of Israel.

Hamas operatives were waiting in ambush. Two soldiers, Major Benaya Sarel and Staff Sergeant Liel Gidoni, were killed, and a third, Lt. Hadar Goldin, was abducted.
Other members of their unit, Sayeret Givati, moved under fire to the fallen soldiers but did not at first realize that one of the three bodies was a fallen Hamas man, perhaps in IDF uniform, according to the Haaretz report. When it became clear that Goldin was missing, though, the officers in the field did not have to unfurl a long explanation over the army radio frequency. All they needed to do was utter a single word: Hannibal.
The Hannibal Protocol was drafted in the summer of 1986 – one year after the lopsided Jibril Agreement, in which Israel traded 1,150 security prisoners in exchange for three Israeli soldiers, and several months after the ensuing abduction of the soldiers Yosef Fink and Rafael Alsheikh. The idea was to establish a set procedure, known to all soldiers, to limit the success of any abduction operation.

Read the entire article but I marvel at some Israelis.  They have the wolf at the door and instead of girding themselves for battle...they equivocate.

I thought the left in the United States was loony.  The left in Israel is worse.

Not only is the Hannibal Directive necessary but it needs to be strengthened. Mark my words, Hamas or some other terrorist outfit will capture an Israeli Soldier or Civilian and they will be decapitated with the video posted on YouTube.  

Its just a matter of time.  The directive is tough medicine, but it just might prevent a larger war from occurring and national fear.  The liberals there just don't understand the reality of the world we live in.

Russian Ministry of Defense buys the GAZ-3344

Thanks for the link Jonathan!

All pics via http://nevskii-bastion.ru/

via Janes.

The Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) is to acquire a large batch of GAZ-3344 tracked articulated all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), the civil and military versions of which were demonstrated on 4-5 August at the Russian MoD's Innovation Days 2014 exhibition at the Alabino test range near Moscow.
News of the acquisition was revealed to IHS Jane's by Valentin Kopalkin, director-general of Zavolzhsky Caterpillar Tractor Manufacturing Plant (ZZGT), which will manufacture the vehicles.
The GAZ-3344 is conceptually a new vehicle type for Russia, although Western manufacturers such as Hägglunds and Sisu have produced tracked articulated ATVs for some time, the distinctive characteristic of which is their extremely high offroad mobility. Such vehicles comprise a forward drive module and rear mission module, the tracks of the latter also being powered by an articulated drive coupling.
While touring the Innovation Days exhibition, Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu tested the GAZ-3344, after which he said the MoD would buy a large batch. Shoigu said the MoD was interested in procuring five GAZ-3344 variants: logistics vehicle, troops carrier, weapon carrier, ambulance, and firefighting vehicle.
The GAZ-3344 is due to complete trials by the end of this year and by February 2015 is scheduled to enter service with the Russian armed forces.
According to Kopalkin, the ZZGT plant will start producing 600 GAZ-3344s a year as early as January. The plant will manufacture the vehicle chassis and weapon carrier module, and will assemble the vehicle, ordering other modules and components on a co-operative basis.

Canada better watch out.  Russia isn't just talking about moving on the far north, they're acquiring vehicles to make it a reality.

Additionally, no matter what you say about the Russians, they obviously have one thing we don't.  Check out the vid below....



The Russians have a plan.  They're not wandering from crisis to crisis.  They're focused on a set of goals that might not seem clear at present but we can get inklings.  I've already talked about how they appear to be making real moves on the Arctic.  It appears that the issues in Crimea and Ukraine are aimed at creating a buffer against NATO.  They're making investments in Chechnya to quiet the rebellion there and they're solidifying alliances around the globe.

China is stumbling (economics is there Achilles heel....when the global recession is acknowledged they're in for a terrible time) and might be a long term threat at best...Russia is who we should really be watching in the short term.

Heavy wheel BMP "ATOM"

Thanks to info-infanterie for the link.  All pics via War Diary Igor Korochenko

NOTE:  I've got to get up to speed on Russian armor projects.  I thought this was called Boomerang.  Additionally I think (definitely not sure) that this is a joint French/Russian program.  Will the sanctions affect it?  Interesting vehicle though and that cannon will change the battlefield.  Instead of a two mile range you're talking about seven or eight. 

IDF used an unmanned M113 (APC) to deliver supplies in Gaza (first time in history)...

via Israel Hayom

During Operation Protective Edge, the Israel Defense Forces used a unmanned armored personnel carrier, a first in history. The vehicle was used to deliver supplies to soldiers on the battlefield.
"This is history," Lt. Avidav Goldstein, the head of the IDF's unmanned vehicle unit, said. "I feel we really broke ground in this realm. This is the first time in history, throughout the world, that such a thing has been done."
The IDF modified an old M113 APC (the type of APC in which seven Golani Brigade soldiers were killed by an anti-tank missile in Shujaiyya), giving it the ability to carry several tons of supplies to soldiers in the field without endangering lives.
The unmanned APC can travel 50 kilometers per hour (31 miles per hour) and hold around four tons of equipment. It is operated remotely by soldiers in a control vehicle, located inside Israel, which has a steering wheel, pedals and a screen.

The USMC and US Army have been pursuing this tech for years.  Its been ready to go but for some reason neither service has gone forward with it.

The IDF did.

I wonder where this will lead.  The obvious would be combat engineer vehicles operating unmanned in a route clearance role.  Eventually you might even see a platoon of unmanned tanks being controlled by a command staff in an accompanying APC/IFV.

However this develops it looks like armored vehicles are going to take a step forward into the unmanned field.

Wow! Saudi Arabia just said that there is no more Saudi-Israeli conflict....new concerns have emerged!

via Jerusalem Online.

An international Saudi newspaper, which is the mouthpiece of the royal family based in Riyadh, declared that there is no longer an Israeli-Arab conflict, but an Israeli-Turkish-Iranian conflict. The paper declares that if Israel wants to do a big deal with the Arabs, now is the time.
Under the headline “there is no more Israeli-Arab conflict,” the article indicates that the attacks on Israel come from Gaza, who carries out the mission of Iran with the assistance of the Muslim Brotherhood and their patrons, Turkey and Qatar.

Read the whole thing here.

Uh...WOW!

The immediate losers in this is Kerry and Obama.  The Israeli's don't trust them enough to be involved in the negotiations (if they eventually happen) and its certain that Saudi Arabia just doesn't respect us.

This bears watching...if this is an olive branch then it could lead to a complete realignment of the Middle East.

Old skool USMC FARP...

Russian aid trucks heading to Ukraine.

via USA Today.

MOSCOW (AP) — A convoy of 280 Russian trucks reportedly packed with aid headed for eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, but Ukraine said it wouldn't let the mission in because it isn't being coordinated by the international Red Cross and could be a covert military operation.
The neutral agency said it had no information on what the trucks were carrying or where they were going. That has raised fears in Ukraine and the West, where leaders have voiced concerns that Russia could use the initiative as a pretext for sending troops into separatist-held territory.
Russian television and news agencies reported that 2,000 tons of aid was en route to Ukraine, where fighting between pro-Russian separatists and government forces has claimed more than 1,300 lives since April, according to a U.N. report.

The Kiev gov is in a no win situation.  Either they allow the Russian aid trucks in, not knowing exactly what they're carrying or they deny entry and they suffer the ramifications of an entire region of their country dying in view of the rest of Europe.

Looming over all of this is the R2P.

It really looks like Russia is setting the table to justifiably go in to protect Ukrainian citizens that are being savaged by the ongoing fighting.

NOTE:  I forgot who first raised the issue on this blog, but winter is rapidly approaching.  That will be the make or break time for this conflict.  The city will be starving and without heat.  Summer soldiers will have to fight in the cold....and trust me.  The cold will make a man out of you!  Ill equipped Kiev forces better get it done and quick or they're going to lose it all in November and December.

A passion piece to push further involvement...

via The Daily Telegraph

I was on board an Iraqi Army helicopter, and watched as hundreds of refugees ran towards it to receive one of the few deliveries of aid to make it to the mountain. The helicopter dropped water and food from its open gun bays to them as they waited below. General Ahmed Ithwany, who led the mission, told me: “It is death valley. Up to 70 per cent of them are dead.”  Two American aid flights have also made it to the mountain, where they have dropped off more than 36,000 meals and 7,000 gallons of drinking water to help the refugees, and last night two RAF C-130 transport planes were also on the way.  However, Iraqi officials said that much of the US aid had been “useless” because it was dropped from 15,000ft without parachutes and exploded on impact.

Bullshit.

The USAF doesn't and wouldn't do that.  I make fun of the boys in blue but to even hint that they lack the professionalism to perform airdrops properly is pure insanity.

The 70 percent being dead?  I have no idea.  It sounds super inflated but I'm not there so I don't know.

This article is obviously a passion piece designed to pull on the heart strings.  We shouldn't take the bait.

The Canadian Prime Minister's F-35 problem.

via The Record.com

Somewhere in Ottawa, unknown to the outside world, there is a black hole — a secret place where the government consigns toxic ideas, ideas that it dares not implement, yet cannot bring itself to kill.
The F-35 fighter jet is one such idea. The Harper government has been grappling with it ever since it took office in 2006. It has heard from experts that the super-sophisticated F-35 is not the right plane; that it does not suit Canada's modest military requirements; that its single engine makes it too dangerous for patrols across the country's vast distances; and that its humongous cost — $45 billion or more for 65 aircraft — puts it well beyond the reach of the budget-conscious Conservatives.
Somehow the F-35 has managed to survive on the government's to-do list, never categorically endorsed, but also never firmly rejected. This June, it surfaced on the cabinet's agenda for a decision. To his credit, the prime minister removed the item from the agenda, ostensibly to give ministers more time to weigh the implications. So the F-35 went back into that black hole.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  Critics of the F-35 should have focused like a laser on the airplanes costs.

298 Billion dollars has been spent on this flying clusterfuck and its still in development!

The death spiral will arrive because the US and its allies will not be able to buy enough, fast enough to "push the cost curve down".  Additionally, you can expect a crash program to develop a 6th gen fighter to come out of the shadows and take center stage when development continues to drag on.

This plane is the walking dead.  We just need Rick to shoot it the face so the disease can't spread. 

Are we looking at a coup in Iraq????

Thanks for the link Joe!

via CNN

Iraqi troops, security forces and tanks surged into Baghdad on Sunday as political turmoil deepened over who should lead the country.
Military tanks were deployed to several neighborhoods in central Baghdad, two Iraqi police officials told CNN. The officials said there are also significantly more troops in Baghdad's Green Zone, the secure area where many government buildings, the military headquarters and the U.S. Embassy are located.
The stepped-up troop presence comes as Iraqi forces battle Islamist militants in northern Iraq, and just after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki accused Fuad Masum, Iraq's newly elected President, of violating the country's constitution by extending the deadline for Iraq's biggest political coalitions to nominate a candidate for prime minister.
The precise reason for the growing number of troops in the Iraqi capital was unclear. But CNN military analyst retired Lt. Col. Rick Francona described it as an "ominous" development that signals the Iraqi Prime Minister doesn't want to hand over power.

This shit is about to turn nasty.

My recommendation from the cheap seats?  Get US personnel out NOW!

You're about to see this country explode into three separate states...and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it.

Russians committing war crimes in Ukraine?

Thanks to Andre for the link.

The paratrooper in the photo above has a 20,000 dollar bounty on his head.  Want to know why?  Go to this link and drink it in.  Is it true?  I have no idea.  But if it is then shit is real in Ukraine and it won't be solved by negotiations...blood has been spilled and payback is a bitch.

Second Line of Defense gets it wrong...again...

Why did the fabulously equipped Iraqi Army lose to the ISIS thugs?  Second Line of Defense blog has an idea.  Check this out but read the whole thing...

It is not about having an effective fighting force for domestic security or defense of the country.It is about an air dominance enabled ground force versus one that it is not.  And when the ISIS were able to aggregate forces, the absence of an air enabled ground force, demonstrated a fundamental fact often forgotten: it is not about airpower versus boots on the ground.
The point of having a military force is its ability to fight and defend the country, not simply to manage domestic affairs to the benefit of the current despot.
And no amount of COIN training or understanding of the current fad of US Army, Human Terrain Mapping will overcome that problem.

Really?

Seriously?

So the reason why the Iraqi Army folded like a cheap suit is because they didn't have an air dominance enabled ground force?

BULLSHIT!

They were defending and they outnumbered their attackers!

They were better equipped and had heavy armor (M1 Tanks), heavy artillery (M198 Howitzers), armored personnel carriers (Armored Security Vehicles), and a whole slew of MRAPs and Humvees.

The problem wasn't the lack of airpower, the problem is the quality of the Iraqi fighting man.  Despite our best efforts to modernize them, they are at heart a primitive society that operates best in tribal settings.

High tech fighters, bombers, transports and helicopters wouldn't have changed the outcome of the fight.  We really should let this part of the world burn.  Unless we decide to finally cut our losses then we will be involved in perpetual warfare, fighting for people that WILL NOT fight for themselves.

They did the aid drops at night? You gave it away CENTCOM! SF is definitely on that hilltop.

So let me see if I have this right.  They did a heavy, night time aid drop.  These planes were escorted by F/A-18's and we can easily imagine that they had UAVs flying overhead recording the entire thing.  Since at least one person in the chain of command has the smarts to do a little worst case scenario planning we can expect some type of electronic warfare plane to be in the area.  I'd guess one of the EA-18G's but maybe they used one of the remaining EA-6's....and since we're talking worst case they also had a TRAP mission planned if sugar turned to shit.  This was a MUCH bigger mission than is being portrayed to the American people.

But back to the aid drop.

That is a classic pathfinder mission.  Someone is on the hilltop that has the training to identify a suitable drop zone, is able to coordinate it in such a way as to ensure that the pilots can be talked onto target etc...all while keeping the refugees from getting crushed by a falling pallet.

After seeing this vid and reading about the number of aircraft involved and doing a little common sense thinking its easy to see.

We're back in the war and boots are on the ground.  Consider this too.  The Iraqi govt forces have been defeated in every fight.  Even the Kurds have lost ground to ISIS.  Would you sprinkle Special Forces throughout Iraqi forces or would you want all your boys together so that they could fight and trust the man beside them?

300 SF in Iraq is a lie.  I wouldn't be surprised if the entire 10th or 3rd SF Group(s) is in country.

US order of battle vs. ISIS (infographic)

Graphic is via The Guardian, read the accompanying article here.

They're under estimating the forces available.  If an airplane goes down during a humanitarian air drop you can bet that MV-22's (SPMAGTF-CR...a trap mission is what they're probably best designed for) or MH-47G's (with the size of the aircrew of C-17's plus the needed shooters to provide security, I'd almost bet they were choice but I don't know) are around waiting to pick them up.  I'd guess that they're flying racetracks during every mission waiting to go in as fast as possible.

Oh and don't forget those 300 Special Forces advisors, or the 200+ FAST Marines probably wanting a piece of the action.

Boots on the ground in Iraq?  THEY'RE ALREADY THERE!