European "political correctness" got their people killed....

The latest?

Terrorist are shooting hostages one by one in the concert hall and explosions have been heard.

A raid is going on as we speak.

My takeaways?  This was a predictable event.  How many times have we discussed coordinated terrorist attacks in a major city?

Europe's leaders did the politically correct thing and allowed hundreds of thousands of unvetted immigrants into their countries.  Now their citizens are paying the price.

What comes next?  I have no idea.  But a passive, politically correct Europed died along with the victims tonight.  This has changed politics in all nations.  Neo-Cons are done.  No one will want to dip a toe into the cesspool called the Middle East.

We might see a time coming where they are left to their own devices and we sit back and watch them burn.

Terrorist attack in Paris? UPDATED!

Thanks to "NO" for the link!

via CNN

Gunmen have opened fire in several places in the French capital, Paris, causing several casualties, French media report.
At least one man opened fire with an automatic gun at the Cambodge restaurant in the 11th district.
Liberation newspaper reports four deaths. It also reports shootings near the Bataclan arts centre.
An explosion is also reported to have targeted a bar near Stade de France, where France were hosting Germany.
Reports say President Francois Hollande was watching the match and has been evacuated.
A BBC journalist at the Cambodge restaurant says he can see 10 people on the road either dead or seriously injured.
He says police have now arrived.
Shooting is said to be continuing.

A few things.  If you're squeamish then turn away.  If you think I'm being racist then deal with it.

1.  This is what happens when hundreds of thousands of people are allowed into the EU without proper vetting.

2.  I wonder if Merkel is still opening her arms.

3.  This is undoubtedly a terrorist attack.

4.  The European People deserve better.

UPDATE:  This is sounding like a coordinated, complex ambush/attack.  If this was being conducted by US Marines I'd say it looked like a coordinated assault by a well trained platoon.  Explosions?  Automatic weapons fire?  Yeah.  This has ISIS written all over it.

UPDATE:  HOSTAGE SITUATION AT CONCERT HALL.  Beslan incident 
repeat?

UPDATE:  At this time French police are confirming 18 dead.

UPDATE:  Explosion at McDonald's.  Hostage situation continues.  Death toll increased to 26.  

SNAFU's Ramblings.  The Right Wing groups in Europe are about to take over.  We're about to see a govt or two fall.  Additionally we're about to see something nasty.  I haven't posted on it but gun sales, pepper spray etc...is flying off the shelves in Europe.  This is going to get nasty and all those that talk about Islam being the religion of piece are in for a rude surprise.

SNAFU's Ramblings 1.  On this day the Democrat party just lost the election next year.  On this day the EU became threatened and individual nations will see to their own defense...damn what Brussel's has to say.  One thing I find interesting.  There are more hostages than hostage takers.  Why not fight back?  

UPDATE:  French police are raiding the concert hall.

Hillary tried to join the Marines? We dodged a bullet! I need to buy that Recruiter & OSO a beer!

via Washington Post.

“He looks at me and goes, ‘Um, how old are you. And I said, ‘Well I am 26, I will be 27.’ And he goes, ‘Well, that is kind of old for us.’ And then he says to me, and this is what gets me, ‘Maybe the dogs will take you,’ meaning the Army.”–Former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking at a breakfast, Manchester, N.H., Nov. 10, 2015One Clinton story that has often been greeted with skepticism is her claim, first made in 1994, that she once tried to join the Marines in 1975. On the campaign trail, she brought up the story again. (Go to the 1:35 mark.)
Can this story be confirmed?

Here.

If this story is true then WHEW!  We dodged a bullet on this one.  I think the Recruiter would have forwarded her package to the regional Officer Selection Officer since she would have been been a college graduate at this time.

So yeah.  Hillary in the Marine Corps?

We wouldn't have made it to 240!  I owe those guys a beer!

Sea Basing 101 Document (2015)

Thanks to Lee for the link!

  Sea Basing 101

I'm glad Jihadi John is dead but why is our warfare so personalized?

via BBC

US forces have carried out a drone strike in Syria against the Islamic State group militant "Jihadi John".
A US military source said there was a "high degree of certainty" he had been killed in Thursday's attack near Raqqa.
PM David Cameron said although it was not yet certain whether the strike had been successful, targeting Mohammed Emwazi was "the right thing to do".
The Kuwaiti-born British militant appeared in videos of the beheadings of Western hostages.
It is believed there was one other person in the vehicle targeted in the strike.

Here.

I'm glad this bastard is dead.  Don't get me wrong.  He was pure evil and seemed to revel in his acts of barbarity.

But when did and why is our nation state warfare so personalized?

Think about it.  We sent a drone on a mission to kill one man!  I'm of the belief that the people that are operationally important are never seen on camera.  The people that make ISIS "win" on the battlefield aren't the guys making YouTube videos.

I might be way off base here but the battlefield is where it gets "personal", airstrikes should be looking to cause certain effects.  That one drone flight could easily have been used to destroy ISIS infrastructure, armored vehicles and training camps.  Instead it was used to hunt down one guy....a useful idiot that had blood lust.

Yeah.  The world is a better place with him dead....but is our war against ISIS served by using so many resources to whack him?

While we're waiting on news of the ACV, Venezuela gets new Tracked and Wheeled Amphibious Vehicles...

Thanks to Max for the link!

Word is its being delayed.  Meanwhile in Venezuela, they are getting brand new Chinese wheeled and tracked amphibious vehicles.  Story here...vid below.



What is the water speed for that track?  It looks faster than our own AAV...not faster than the canned EFV but faster than our legacy vehicle.

But the big question for me is this.  How can a backward, tiny, damn near communist, economic basket case S. American country get its armored house in order but the mighty US Marine Corps be stuck on stupid?

Putin and the "secret" material that got televised...

via Defense Talk

Two Russian television channels have unintentionally aired footage containing confidential information on military weapon systems, Russian officials said. The pictures allegedly showed plans for a nuclear torpedo.
The televised images show a military officer looking at a confidential document during a meeting of President Putin with army top brass in Sochi.
“It’s true some secret data got into the shot, therefore it was subsequently deleted,” Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told journalists on Wednesday.
Two Kremlin-controlled channels, NTV and Channel One, broadcast the video on Tuesday before discovering the mistake. Although the original footage was deleted, several websites still published screenshots from it.
The document, clearly visible for several seconds, showed drawings and information on a nuclear torpedo, allegedly being developed by Rubin, a nuclear submarine construction company from St. Petersburg.
The Status-6 torpedoes would target “economically important enemy facilities in coastal regions” by creating “zones of extensive radioactive contamination making them unsuitable for military or economic activity for a long period,” the document says.
Missiles to beat the shield
It was not immediately clear how the pictures got on air in what are usually carefully controlled reports.
“In future we will undoubtedly take preventive measures so this does not happen again,” Peskov said.

Everyone has been all in arms about this.

I've watched and read all the talk and I'm amazed that people are actually buying this.

Putin is old school KGB.  These aren't the type of mistakes that he would make. Not even rank amateurs would get caught like this.  Putin travels with a security detail.  They would sweep the area before he walked into a room and they would be savvy enough to realize if something confidential was laying about...especially since they knew that the news media was trailing him.

This is a planted story.  I would bet body parts on it.

So the question must be asked.  What message are the Russians trying to send?

Did this cop cross the line or justified?

I want to get the pulse of the crowd.  Did the cop cross the line in the above vid or is it justified?

I look forward to your comments....

We're delaying the ACV and buying a plane that needs to be fixed after we get it????

Thanks to Don for the link!

I'm waiting for an answer to whether or not the ACV is being once again delayed like the little birdy that landed on my window sill is claiming.  If it is then WTF!  You know the culprit and so do I...the F-35.  But do you know, or rather do you remember this info bomb that the Program Office dropped on us?  via Defense News...

"So when we have those 493 airplanes out in the field in 2019, guess how many will be in what I consider to be the right configuration? Not a one," Bogdan said. "Every airplane coming off the line now and coming off in the next two and a half years, plus all the airplanes we've built already, will need some form of modification to get them up to the full capability that we promised the war fighter."
Each aircraft confined to the depot for modification is one less plane the services can use to train pilots and maintainers, Bogdan emphasized. This is a particular problem for the Air Force, which must meet certain training requirements in order to declare IOC in 2016.
To address this gap, the JPO is sending field teams to do F-35A depot work at the bases, rather than bringing the jets to the depots, Bogdan said. This saves time on the front and back end of the process, allowing the maintenance teams to move the jets through modifications more quickly.
The Air Force also may be able to borrow Navy and Marine Corps planes, or even jets from partner nations, to complete some training, Bogdan said.
"The biggest constraint to the mod program right now other than money — because it costs an awful lot of money to do that — is can the service, can the partner afford to keep the airplane down that long without their pilots flying?" Bogdan said. "So we have to try to balance that."

This plane is WRECKING the USMC's budget.  Its just not fucking worth it!

Sidenote:  Only the US Govt...and now the United States Marine Corps would ever consider buying something brand new with the knowledge that it doesn't meet specifications!  Can you imagine buying a brand new Ford F-150 Raptor 4x4 with the knowledge that the transmission needs to be fixed and the dashboard displays don't accurately tell you your speed?  Simply Amazing!

Amphibious Combat Vehicle to be delayed again? Budget woes cited?

A little birdy dropped a note in my inbox saying that the ACV will be delayed once again and budget woes will be claimed as the reason for the delay.

I sincerely hope that someone is just jerking my chain, but I'm gonna fire off a e-mail to that office in a few to get the real deal.

The problem?  It wouldn't surprise me if its true.  More to come....but I need to wait.  Never communicate with HQMC when you're pissed.  It never ends well.  Some lessons you never forget.

FC-31 Stealth Fighter to equip Chinese Air Force...

via Defense Tech...

What’s more, the FC-31 is apparently no longer simply intended for export, as the officials said talks were underway to supply the aircraft to the People’s Liberation Army Air Force, the article states.

Hmmm.  Do you really think that we shouldn't be starting on a 6th gen airplane right now?  Even if it isn't superior to the F-35 it will be produced in more numbers.  It'll also be faster, fly higher, be more maneuverable and have better range.  The procurement model failed on so many levels.... the decision to not cancel it once it became apparent that the F-35 wasn't viable and then the appearance of stealthy fighters from Russia, China, S. Korea, Japan etc...all that and more shows that someone made a big goddamn mistake!

Lt Gen Deptula (Ret) proposes retiring AH-64's to pay for A-10's! Budget wars begin!

via SLDInfo.

We can no longer afford individual services seeking self-sufficiency.

Let’s take the example of the A-10.

The Air Force would like to retain the A-10 but given the resource constraints mandated by the Congress reducing the Air Force budget, the Air Force must reduce force structure to meet that requirement. After extensive comparative analysis, terminating the A-10 would result in the least impact to the spectrum of capabilities provided by the Air Force.
The Army maintains a very large fleet of Apache helicopters that conduct close air support. The A-10 is a much more capable asset to conduct close air support. So why not retire a part of the Apache force to achieve the same cost savings as retiring the entire A-10 force–that would allow still retaining a significant number of Apaches in the Army–and also retain the more capable A-10 force?
The point is to think across service boundaries in the context of capability, not limit force structure trades inside service stovepipes.

Here.

Plain talk.  Marine Air Leadership has crawled into bed with SLDInfo in the push to make the Marine Corps more aviation centric.  I've screamed, yelled and pounded the table about what I saw as the real goal.

To not only destroy the Marine Air-Ground Team but also to pivot the entire force into a "mini-USAF" across the board.

I think this proves not only that, but also the idea that everything must die to push forward the F-35 AND the idea of an air centric US military posture.

Do me a favor though.  Follow the link and read the entire article.  Then consider this.  Deptula speaks for a large portion of the USAF.  Additionally he and SLDInfo throw up trial balloons for policy makers.  Think about his proposal. "Retire a portion of the Apache force to allow retaining the A-10"?  If I'm wrong about everything else, I'm spot on about the budget wars beginning.

French Army on exercise via Theatrum Belli

Check out TB's Flickr Page here.

Chinese take stealth coatings to the next level...read it and weep F-35 fanboys...

Thanks to ApatheticRealist for the link!

pic via AUSAirpower.net

The year is 2025.  Despite efforts of real reformist, patriots and those concerned about US air power and not slaves to one particular airplane, the F-35 has made it into service.

A flight of F-35's from the USS Wasp are conducting a fleet air defense tasking.  Why?  Because those same patriots were shot down when they stated that an LHA wasn't properly equipped to act as an aircraft carrier.  4 of the F-35's are airborne (stripping away the Ground Combat Element and its vehicles and helicopters allows 20 to be carried) and according to the proponents, this is sufficient.  After all...the F-35 is a combat multiplier.  Its capable of doing things that the Super Hornet can only dream about despite it being slower, lower flying and less maneuverable.  Despite the fact that the Super Hornet carries a Rafael Pod that can identify, classify and sort aerial targets at BVR distance.  Despite the fact that the Super Hornet had been upgraded with an AESA that equals the F-35.

No.  The F-35 was the dancing, prancing all star.  Unfortunately the fanboys assumed that a plane planned in the 80's delayed until 2020 before it reached full operational capability would still be viable.

They underestimated their enemies and now they would pay.  Sensor fusion was suppose to be the saving grace of the air plane.  A flight of 4 planes in spread formation, so far away from each other that they were out of sight, could sweep the sky and see the enemy before being seen.  First see, first kill.

The Chinese aren't dummies.  They were drinking the milkshake of these pilots as soon as they left the deck of the Wasp. The worse was yet to come. In a blatant display of uncharacteristic arrogance, the Chinese sent up one (1) J-20.  It was loaded with six long range infra-red missiles in its cavernous hold.  An additional two short range missiles were loaded in its cheek bays.  They weren't needed.  The F-35's didn't see its attacker, only the fact that four Mach 3 missiles were heading toward them.  They turned to head away but the plane is slow.  They showed their back to the enemy and it just made them easier targets.  The missiles closed, the ship's air boss put his two MV-22's in the air because he knew that if he was lucky he'd be fishing his guys out of the ocean...but it wasn't to be.  Remember the Rand report?  The missiles continued to close and although skilled, the plane wasn't worthy of its pilots.  The plane maneuvered like a B-17.  Chinese arrogance was well founded.  One J-20 sent four USMC F-35's to the bottom of the sea.  The only thing left to do was to leave the area and notify the on-duty Casualty Assistance Officer....and the Chaplain.  They had bad news to deliver to the Mother's of America.  Sound far fetched?   Check this out from Defense One.

“Our proposed absorber is almost ten times thinner than conventional ones,” said Wenhua Xu, one of the team members from China’s Huazhong University of Science and Technology, in a statement.
In their paper, published today in the Journal of Applied Physics, the team describes a material composed of semi-conducting diodes (varactors) and capacitors that have been soldered onto a printed circuit board. That layer is sitting under a layer of copper resistors and capacitors just .04 mm thick, which they called an “active frequency selective surface material” or AFSS. The AFSS layer can effectively be stretched to provide a lot of absorption but is thin enough to go onto an aircraft. The next layer is a thin metal honeycomb and final is a metal slab.
The good news: the material isn’t locked away in a lab but published openly, so it’s not going to surprise anyone.

The next question we should ask is this.  They're putting stuff like this in open source materials.  What are they working on in secret? 

USMC F35 Pilot talking to ALIS Tech Support (dark humor)..

Courtesy of InvaderNet, a long time reader!

"Hello ALIS Tech Support, how may I help you?"

Marine: "My F-35 won't let me take off, what the hell?!"

"Have you tried turning it off and on?"

Marine: "Yes! It still won't start!"

"One moment please, I'll check it's computer records"

Marine: "....."

"Hmm, sorry it seems your gun.exe file is corrupted. You'll need to reinstall your software."

Marine: "I'm in the middle of the goddamn Hindu Kush! How can I possibly download 100Gb of software?!"

"I'm sorry, you'll need to find somewhere with a good connection. Can you get to Kabul?"

Marine: "No I f**king can't go to Kabul! There's about 5000 Taliban in the way!"

"Are you able to fly to Kabul?"

Marine: "NO BECAUSE MY FUCKING PLANE WON'T START!!!"

"One moment, I'll get my supervisor."

"*&@#%*@#^*&@#%(@#^%......."

This is all fun and games now...but the risk is real.  How many work arounds are we going to accept?

Kill it now, like we should have at least 5 years ago and let's do this right.  Oh and let's follow Greenert's advice.

PAYLOADS OVER PLATFORMS! 

If you're wondering why I'm focusing on the F-35 its simple.  This one program has so warped the DoD's procurement AND its warfighting concepts that its become a greater danger to the US and its allies than China, Russia, N. Korea and Iran (combined) could ever be!

The F-35 is killing the USAF budget too!

via Air Force Times..

The F-35 is going to eat up so much of the Air Force’s procurement budget going forward that the service will likely have to reduce the number of joint strike fighters it buys to pay for other things, such as the Long Range Strike-Bomber, experts said on Tuesday.

Then this...

In order to pay for the bomber, the Air Force will likely have to reduce the number of F-35s and other procurement programs, said Richard Aboulafia, an analyst for the Teal Group.
“You’ve got so many competing requirements for the Air Force’s procurement budget, and on top of that, you’re inserting $4 to $5 billion a year for LRS-B – or more – I believe it peaks at a somewhat higher number than that. There’s no way right now to make that all work,” Aboulafia told Air Force Times after speaking at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

And this...

“One: You could grow the topline [budget], which is not likely,” he said. “No. 2: You can create this national strategic priority line which comes out of somebody else’s budget – a lot of people tried that. It generally doesn’t work. Three: It can die and become a bill-payer for all for the other programs, which would be sad. Or four: The other programs have to give ground, either in terms of year-by-year procurement numbers or total procurement numbers, or both.”
Since the F-35 represents the lion’s share of other procurement programs, the Air Force’s stated goal of buying 1,763 joint strike fighters has become “highly untenable,” Aboulafia said.

Repeat after me!  DEATH SPIRAL!!!

Thanks to the readers that locked onto this in the comments section of another post.  But you do get what's actually happening here don't you?  They're all but shouting from the roof tops that this program is about to take a SERIOUS HAIRCUT!  But wait.  It gets even better!

Meanwhile, Canada plans to withdraw from the F-35 program and Norway may follow suit, and that will increase the cost of each F-35, said Eaglen, who also spoke at the Mitchell Institute.

Yeah.  That sound you hear from the F-35 Program Office is a mixture of pure fear and desperation.  This thing is spiraling and I couldn't be happier.

Autonomic Logistic Information System (ALIS) ... a single point of failure that should scare any expeditionary force!

Thanks to Mark for the link!

via Defense Aerospace

The biggest risk is that, since the F-35 cannot operate effectively without permanent data exchanges with its software labs and logistic support computers in the United States, any disruption in the two-way flow of information would compromise its effectiveness.

All F-35 aircraft operating across the world will have to update their mission data files and their Autonomic Logistic Information System (ALIS) profiles before and after every sortie, to ensure that on-board systems are programmed with the latest available operational data and that ALIS is kept permanently informed of each aircraft’s technical status and maintenance requirements. ALIS can, and has, prevented aircraft taking off because of an incomplete data file.

Given that the United States hopes to sell hundreds of F-35s to allies in Europe, Asia and Australia, the volume of data that must travel to and from the United States is gigantic, and any disruption in Internet traffic could cripple air forces as the F-35 cannot operate unless it is logged into, and cleared by, ALIS.

For example, “Mission data load development and testing is a critical path to combat capability,” Pentagon OT&E director Michael Gilmore said in his fiscal 2014 report. “Accuracy of threat identification and location depend on how well the mission data loads are optimized to perform in ambiguous operational environments.”

Updating and uploading mission data loads depends on a functioning Internet, and asWired.com noted in an Oct. 29 story, “undersea Internet cables are surprisingly vulnerable.” It quoted Nicole Starosielski, a media scholar at New York University, as saying that “people would be surprised to know that there are a little over 200 systems that carry all of the internet traffic across the ocean, and these are by and large concentrated in very few areas. The cables end up getting funneled through these narrow pressure points all around the globe.”

Recent activity by Russian ships near crucial undersea cables has added to concerns about the vulnerability of Internet, as recently illustrated by the New York Times, which noted that “Russian submarines and spy ships are aggressively operating near the vital undersea cables that carry almost all global Internet communications, raising concerns among some American military and intelligence officials that the Russians might be planning to attack those lines in times of tension or conflict.”

Here.

Yeah.  You read that right.   This is a layman's example but I think it applies.  How many times have you had the internet go down right here in the US?  Now imagine conducting operations in an out of area location...with bandwidth at a minimum and everyone wanting to get a piece of it (they're even talking about handing out phones and tablets)...and suddenly that Marine Platoon Leader is told that the air support he was counting on isn't coming because the computer won't let the plane fly!

When he calls back cussing, fussing and damning the Air Operations Officer to a bloody end, he gets the answer its because the link for ALIS is down!

Simply amazing!  HOW MUCH RISK ARE WE WILLING TO ACCEPT TO GET THIS AIRPLANE?

Open Source is a VALUABLE intel source! UPDATE.

via Free Beacon

The Washington Free Beacon disclosed this week that the photographs were actually of an Oct. 30 test of one of China’s secret anti-satellite missiles.
Other weapons systems that first appeared online on Chinese websites either unofficially or with the backing of Chinese censors are:
The new J-20 stealth jet that was made public in late 2010 in what analysts say was a managed Chinese propaganda roll out. The jet was first flight tested during the visit to China by then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who questioned Chinese leaders about the timing and was told the first flight was not intentionally timed for his visit.

• A graphic showing plans to build a military airstrip on Subi Reef in the disputed Spratly islands in the South China Sea, where a U.S. warship recently conducted a defiant freedom of navigation passage to Chinese maritime claims.

• The new DF-26 intermediate-range missile first disclosed unofficially in September 2014 and officially made public during a recent military parade.

Story here.

Chest Thumping Time!!!!!

Hey boys...GET YOUR ASSES OVER HERE!  SCHOOL CIRCLE!!!!

What we do here...What I hope that we do and why I love the tips from ALL MY READERS is because we're doing what some greasy haired bastard that's still a virgin, is worshipped by CIA/DIA intel heads and is being paid a boatload of money to do.  We're utilizing open source intel to get a better picture of whats going on in the world!

We're ahead of the curve.  We're not 100 percent right...but we're closer than many want to admit.  Stay the course gents.

UPDATE:  I failed to properly credit CANUCK FIGHTER with the link detailing the story about the real reason why the Israelis want the F-35.

India-Russia joint military exercise?

via Russia and India Report.

India and Russia will hold joint Indra-2015 military exercises in India's largest state Rajasthan on November 7-20, the Indian Defense Ministry said Thursday.
"A 250 member strong Russian Army contingent would arrive in Bikaner for INDRA-2015 for the joint exercise to be held with the Indian Army from 07 November to 20 November 2015," the ministry said in a press release.
The seventh joint Indra drills will take place in northern India's Mahajan firing range. The exercises will focus on ‘Counter Terrorism Operations in Desert Terrain under a United Nations Mandate,’ the press release added.
The drills are due to be conducted in two stages, namely "Combat Conditioning and Tactical Training" and "Validation," according to the press release. Senior military officials from India and Russia are expected to observe the exercises.
Russia and India have maintained close partnership in military and technical cooperation for decades. The two countries have been conducting joint military drills annually since 2003.

This.  This is why I find it hard to classify India as a "real deal" ally.  It also makes me question the "partnership" activities that the US military in general but the Marine Corps/Navy in particular seem so fond of.

India is doing what's in their best interest of course.  They not only get to cherry pick the best gear from both sides but they also get to train using the best tactics (ground and air) that both have to offer.

They probably have the best "hybrid" force on the planet.  They use Russian fighters while employing Western fighter tactics?  Then they get to work them out against both the US and the Russians to see how they stack up?  Now its migrating to their ground forces? Stunning in its simplicity, common sense and practicality.

Happy Veterans Day!

I'm not sure how it happened, but Veterans and Memorial day have become mixed and both days are looked upon as a day that you remember those that have been lost.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  This is a time to toss back a few, call that buddy that you haven't talked to in awhile...remember the good times... this day honors those that did the Patriot thing....the few that did the military thing.  Veterans day is to be celebrated.  Now get it done...if you're not hungover from the Marine Birthday Ball that is...