My good buddy Mike Yeo has the info on the Japanese 8x8!

Mike writes for Defense News and you can follow his tweets @The Base Leg!

via Defense News.

 Japan’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) has unveiled a prototype eight-wheel drive armored personnel carrier (APC) as part of a research project for a new class of modular vehicles. 
The project, known for now as the Wheeled Armoured Vehicle (Improved), will eventually lead to a new vehicle type to replace the Type 96 eight-wheel drive armored personnel carrier in use by the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF). 
The new vehicle will feature improved protection against a variety of threats such as improvised explosive devices, versatility and room for future growth in capabilities compared to the Type 96 it is replacing. It will also be fitted with a more powerful engine and a strengthened suspension to cope with the increased weight and payloads. 

Just a tease...head here to read the rest of the article. 

Defense News got a great guy with their hiring of Mike.  More than most defense writers these days he covers a broad array of defense related subjects (not just an another so called aviation expert) and has his nose to the ground when it comes to armor issues and trends...especially in the Pacific region.

I've been a follower of his for quite awhile now.  If you're not then you're missing out!

WTF is Israel thinking? Why bomb Assad forces?

Thanks to DavidJames79 for the info.

via Daily Mail.

Syria has accused Israel of bombing a military airport used by Assad's forces near the capital city of Damascus.
State television quoted the Syrian army as saying several rockets were fired at Mazzeh airport from an area near Lake Tiberias in northern Israel just after midnight.
The country's army chiefs warned of repercussions following what it called a 'flagrant' attack on a major strategic base used by Syria's elite Republican Guard.
The cause of the explosions was not clear, sources claiming the sounds heard in parts of the capital suggested they could be Israeli warplane strikes.

Story here. 

Ya know why the war in Syria/Iraq doesn't get more coverage on this blog?  Its simple.  The US, Turkey, NATO, Saudi Arabia and Israel (to include many others) have made this an even more chaotic battlefield than necessary.

For some reason leadership has decided to pursue simultaneous objectives against several different groups (not to mention the actual intent of our allies) which has all combined to make success impossible.

Take the Turks.  Their main goal is destruction of the Kurds.  The US supposedly is trying to kill ISIS inside Syria and Iraq while at the same time toppling Assad.  All the others are operating on variations of this same scheme.

Its no wonder that they're talking about years to win the war.  No one has any idea who they're fighting.

Which brings me to the Israelis.

Why attack Assad?  It makes no sense.  A strongman can be dealt with .... religious zealots not so much.  Do they really believe that destroying Assad will make the Middle East a safer place?

I hope we get an explanation if they actually did conduct these strikes.

C-7 Caribou transport plane crashes, after its tail section was accidentally shot off by American artillery

An ammunition-laden American C-7 Caribou transport plane crashes, after its tail section was accidentally shot off by American artillery near Đức Phổ Base Camp, Vietnam, August 3, 1967. All three crewman died in the crash

The "new" Ford Bronco won't be worth a second glance...

Name vehicles that would make me take a second glance and perhaps pay the outrageous prices that they're charging for new cars and the concept Bronco was definitely on the list (yeah I like Jeeps too but they're a bankruptcy starter kit...modding them to get them right costs a small fortune).

Well according to TRUCK YEAH the new Bronco is just gonna be a rebadged mall crawler that lacks any sort of sex appeal.  Check out the article here.  I'm personally amazed at the lack of awareness by corporations these days.  A couple of days ago Paramount/CBS killed a fan favorite movie that could have reinvigorated the entire series (AXANAR) just because it wasn't made in house.  Now Ford is basically pissing on Bronco fans by rebadging a truck they sell overseas.  Production cost smart, US market stupid.  When will these guys wake up?

Open Comment Post. Jan 12, 2017

Anyone know what that "pouch" is that the Glock is resting on?  I've been trying to figure it out for day but have had no luck.  If you know then do me a favor and pass the info!!!!

SEAL TEAM 6 lost its freaking mind!

via FoxTrot Alpha.

According to two senior SEAL Team 6 sources, however, the leadership dynamic in Blue Squadron was a failure. By 2007, the command’s leadership was aware that some Blue Squadron operators were using specialized knives to conduct “skinnings.” Using the excuse of collecting DNA, which required a small piece of skin containing hair follicles, operators were taking large strips of skin from dead enemy fighters. The two leading officers at the command, Moore and Szymanski, were informed that small groups in each of the three squadrons were mutilating and desecrating combatants in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Slabinkski and others in the squadron had fallen under the influence of an obscure war novel, “Devil’s Guard,” published in 1971 by George Robert Elford. The book purported to be a true account of an S.S. officer who with dozens of other soldiers escaped Germany after World War II, joined the French Foreign Legion, and spent years in Vietnam brutalizing the insurgency. The novel, which glorifies Nazi military practices, describes counterinsurgency tactics such as mass slaughter and desecration and other forms of wanton violence as a means of waging psychological warfare against the “savage” Vietnamese.
“These fucking morons read the book ‘The Devil’s Guard’ and believed it,” said one of the former SEAL Team 6 leaders who investigated Slabinski and Blue Squadron. “It’s a work of fiction billed as the Bible, as the truth. In reality, it’s bullshit. But we all see what we want to see.” Slabinski and the Blue Squadron SEALs deployed to Afghanistan were “frustrated, and that book gave them the answers they wanted to see: Terrorize the Taliban and they’d surrender. The truth is that such stuff only galvanizes the enemy.”

Wow.

What is it with SEALs?  I think the first warning signs happened under the leadership of McRaven.  The guy was the "Bull Frog" of the group and pumped up the junior guys in ways that seemed mind boggling.  It didn't help that the administration turned him into a rock star and the rest of the SEALs took his lead and started writing tell all books....but that's neither here nor there.

This is...stunning.  

One other thing. I bet body parts if a Marine or even one of the SEALs brothers in SOCOM an Army Ranger had done this stuff (let's not even mention MARSOC...they got pissed on by SOCOM itself for far less) then we'd be hearing about command firings AND people going to the brig.

For SOCOM and especially SEAL fanboys its gonna be a difficult read (maybe not...the enemy has done far worse and put it on YouTube...but we're suppose to be better than those bastards right?) but read it you should (here).

Finally! The General's Club is waking up to a possible "long", near peer war scenario!

via AOL Breaking Defense.

ARLINGTON: Military officers and analysts are increasingly worried that if a war breaks out with a major power — meaning China, Russia or both — the conflict would escalate faster, spread more broadly, and drag on longer than anything in recent history. Think World War II on speed, with no front lines or clear demarcations between the European and Pacific theaters.
“The history of short-war predictions is one of repeated disappointment, and it would be profoundly unwise to risk our security by preparing only for wars of limited duration,” warned Vice Adm. Frank Pandolfe, assistant to Gen. Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (Pandolfe represents the chairman on interagency bodies and particularly to the State Department). Dunford has pushed for a new trans-regional planning staff that transcends the current geographic combatant commands, arguing that new threats — like the Islamic State — sprawl too broadly in space for the current structure. Pandolfe is arguing threats may extend too long in time as well.

Then this.

Pandolfe said, but a long war against well-armed great powers would be very different. Sophisticated cyber and electronic warfare attacks would precede large salvos of smart weapons, “an unprecedented blending of mass and precision,” he said. Instead of the steady movement of front lines that gave America time to mobilize in World War II, fighting would leap like a wildfire over a firebreak, from one theater into another. Instead of World War II-era censorship or even Vietnam-era nightly newscasts, he said, leaks, propaganda, and fake news would pour over the Internet, “a torrent of real and false information transmitted in near real-time,” to attack the American people’s will to fight.
A great-power war would be so fast-paced, so intense, so destructive that some analysts assume it would burn out in weeks or months. Pandolfe disagrees — which implies Dunford does. “It is possible that shared concerns between states over the great damage that’s been inflicted on people, infrastructure, and trade will act to limit the time and space allowed for conflict,” Pandolfe said, “(but) this thinking is founded on presumptions that rational actors will prevail and that, upon the rupture of the international fabric, immediate and intense diplomatic efforts will be brought to bear.”
“However comforting such thoughts might be, military planners cannot assume such will be the case,” Pandolfe warned.
Could the United States endure such a conflict? I asked the admiral. In particular, could we mobilize our industrial base — as we did in World War II — to replace the sunken ships, the downed aircraft, the burnt-out tanks, the expended munitions? The first resort is to engage and deter, Pandolfe replied, “so we don’t ever get into that position again.” But if we fail to prefer a war, “I am very confident that America’s technological and industrial might would rise to the occasion.”

Last highlight first.  But if we fail to prefer a war, “I am very confident that America’s technological and industrial might would rise to the occasion.”

Seriously?

People discount the state of the American culture as part of the war winning effort in WW2.  Society had just endured the great depression and govt aid was scant at best.  People panhandled, lived hand to mouth, recycled and reused every bit of clothing/material on hand, was used to deprivation and hardship and lived a mostly rural lifestyle that allowed them to survive.

American has none of that today and I think our moral fiber is so weakened that any hardship would snap our country like a twig.  Rebuilding the industrial base in time of war?  You're talking months at best and years realistically.

In the meantime the US Army and Marine Corps along with the Air Force and Navy would be fighting desperate holding actions.

As I've said before.  RUSSIA IS NOT THE THREAT IN THIS TYPE SCENARIO!  Its the Chinese that we should be looking hard at.  They can pump out ships and planes rapidly....not refurbished models out of the bone yards like we would have to, but they could build new tanks/IFVs, ships and planes.

Despite all my misgivings I have to cheer this discussion.  They're at least thinking about the problem.  Of course this makes Trump's efforts to reach some type of diplomatic understanding with Russia essential.  One of these threats we can handle but both?  I have my doubts.  Additionally our allies in the Pacific are...unsteady....depending on the target that Russia picks in Europe or the Middle East the same applies to NATO.

F-35 delayed — again — despite CEO's promise to Trump

via Washington Examiner

The F-35 will be delayed an additional seven months at a cost of at least $500 million despite a recent promise from Lockheed Martin's CEO to drive down costs, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Tuesday.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in a statement, said the CEO's personal promise to President-elect Trump was "surprising" given a letter he received from the Pentagon last month detailing the latest delay.
"This is yet another troubling sign for a program that has already nearly doubled in cost, taken nearly two decades to field, and has long been the poster child for acquisition malpractice," McCain said.

This is just too fucking good.  The LM CEO basically lied to Trump's face and now the renegade McCain (Neo-Con supreme) calls them on it!

I can't wait to hear what the fanboy reaction to this one is gonna be!

New Japanese 8x8 APC/IFV (VIDEO)

New Japanese 8x8!

Thanks to Random Reader for the link!!!

What little I could find on this seems to point to this being a test bed (advanced) being demonstrated by the Japanese Ministry of Defense Research Branch.  I can't wait to see more.

UK Political, NATO Role Diminished Post-Brexit

via Sputnik

A leading British think tank says it will become harder for the UK to translate its influence on European security and military commitment into political influence after Brexit, warning it should not use its role as the leading West European military and intelligence power as a bargaining chip.
A new report from think tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) says the temptation to use the UK's "security surplus" — its role as the leading West European military and intelligence power — as a bargaining chip should be resisted.

Wow.  I see even the UK suffers from Think Tank idiocy and Globalist fantasy.  They have ONE bargaining chip and that is their military and intelligence supremacy in comparison to many European countries.  To think that they WOULDN'T use that is insanity.

The main complaint that RUSI makes is that the creation of a European Army is going to probably happen and that the UK will be frozen out of meetings in which security policy etc is being discussed.

That's a small price to pay for freedom from bureaucrats in Brussels.  Besides, EU fanboys think that a European Army will solve all problems but all it will do is allow the US to fully disengage from Europe.  Make an EU Army and NATO dies.  The US can fully say "ok, you guys got this" and pull out.

I would cheer such a result.

Open Comment Post. Jan 11, 2017

Six Functions of Marine Aviation by Sgt. Daniel Kujanpaa

Russian ground based electronic warfare vehicles will be the "overmatch" we can't duplicate...

Above is a 2 second Google search of Russian ground based electronic warfare vehicles.  We're focusing on cyber warfare because its the rage but we'll see our electronics fried because we don't have proper countermeasures to this threat.

Want to know what will decimate NATO forces in a peer vs peer conflict?  It won't be tanks, artillery or rocket fire.  It'll be electronic warfare that decimates our command and control.  The US and the Marine Corps in particular have put all of our electronic warfare eggs in the "aerial" basket.  But what if?  What if the enemy understands this and fights our airpower not to defeat them but to simply keep them busy?

Separate airpower from the US way of war and suddenly its an unfair fight with the advantage going to a well prepared enemy.  We've seen this too.  Ukraine is the living example with a big dose of the Crimea thrown in.

Luckily the US Army is pivoting to the threat but I fear it is too little.  What will we see in the future?  Enemy air bypassing logistics points and going after Command and Control.  Same with "little green men".  They're not going to sow confusion in a haphazard way.  They're going to target in theater Command and Control where possible.  Other targets will be on the list but the top spot will be obvious.

American ground combat forces need to get on the same page.  Electronic warfare needs to be able to keep up with maneuver forces and should be able to degrade enemy efforts.  Wide Area Security is another matter but everyone will need to be prepared to drop wrenches or laptops and fight little green men that appear out of the mist.

This is a blind spot for our forces boys and girls.  Wake up to the threat.

F-35 Needs Rigorous Review by Trump Team

Thanks to William for the link!

via Bloomberg

By Tony Capaccio
(Bloomberg) -- The Trump administration should “rigorously
and comprehensively review” Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 jet,
the Pentagon’s costliest program, the Defense Department’s
director of combat testing said.
Michael Gilmore, who will leave the post as testing
director when Donald Trump takes office as president next week,
cited the fighter’s “significant, well-documented deficiencies
in critical combat capabilities” in a letter Monday to House
Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry of Texas, who’s
a strong supporter of the F-35.
While Trump has tweeted that “the F-35 program and cost is
out of control,” Pentagon officials say the plane is now
essentially on schedule and close to its budget after earlier
problems. But Gilmore focused on unresolved performance issues
in the current $55 billion development phase. These must be
resolved before the aircraft can enter intense combat testing
and the eventual deployment later this decade of fully capable
combat jets.
Read about how Trump’s tweets reopened a Boeing-Lockheed
rivalry.
The Defense Department’s F-35 program office “has no plan
to adequately fix and verify hundreds of these deficiencies
using flight testing within its currently planned schedule and
resources,” Gilmore wrote. Deploying F-35s “with capable mission
systems is critical to our national security,” but the program
now “is at high risk of sacrificing essential combat
performance,” he added.
The Pentagon’s office of independent cost analysis
estimates that extending the development phase from its planned
test flight completion in September 2017 to as late as into 2020
could cost as much as $1.12 billion more. The number is
contained in the testing director’s new annual report delivered
to Pentagon leaders and lawmakers late Monday.
The program office has said completing the phase will
require about $530 million extra and acknowledges it may slip to
May 2018.
Gilmore’s annual report contains a 62-page assessment of
the program that’s a detailed primer for the incoming
administration on deficiencies that include software, weapons
accuracy, aircraft-carrier launching, the diagnostic system and
reliability.

Trump can do one thing to keep the status quo monsters that infect the Pentagon at bay.  Reappoint Gilmore so that he can keep riding herd on the F-35.  The entire defense establishment is all in on the F-35 despite it costing a king's ransom and it being so late that its no longer cutting edge.

If Trump keeps him then that's a serious blow to the program and will keep the futurists that sold us and several other countries this bill of goods on edge.

What kills me is that the program office is (if Gilmore is right) about to saddle our forces and those of our allies with a half finished fighter...The Defense Department’s F-35 program office “has no plan to adequately fix and verify hundreds of these deficiencies using flight testing within its currently planned schedule and resources,” Gilmore wrote.  This is damning and should land several general officers in jail.  History will not be kind to the supporters of this program.

Hey Dana! Want to save women's MMA? Put this freak fight together!

After Nunes (above) destroyed Rousey I all but declared Women's MMA dead.  I forgot about the one female fighter that could go square up with Nunes and take her apart (how I forgot about her is beyond me) that would be Cris "Cyborg" Justino (below).

Off cycle she looks like any other athletic female.  On cycle she's a monster.  As long as she stays away from Las Vegas she should be good and she is my bet to EASILY defeat Nunes.

The problem?  She already got popped for juicing and her ex-husband got destroyed in a fight and he'll take at least a couple of years to properly recover.  That MIGHT keep her out of the fight game for a bit longer.  Additionally since he migrated to Bellator I'm wondering if she will too.  I have no visibility on her contract with the UFC but Bellator is MUCH looser when it comes to "enhancements" at least from my chair.

If you like women's MMA then the best chance to save the bracket is to hope that a freak fight between Nunes and a juiced up Cyborg becomes reality (she can cycle off for promotions).

Bob Work asked to stay on as Deputy SecDef? Expect more transformation nonsense!

via The Hill Blog.

President-elect Donald Trump has asked the Pentagon’s second-highest ranking official to join his administration, according to a new report.
Trump has requested that Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work continue serving under his incoming Defense secretary, retired Gen. James Mattis, Fox News said Monday.
Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin said Trump’s team has asked Work to remain in his role in part due to concerns that North Korea and other foreign antagonists may test the president-elect after his inauguration.

This is nonsense and the second misstep in his appointments.  Bob Work?  Freaking seriously?  The guy is a transformation worshipper!  You can kiss any chance of serious reform at the Pentagon gone now.

The status quo will remain as far as the Pentagon is concerned.  This signals so many bad things that I can't even name them all.  Unless Trump goes rogue and dismisses all the advice he gets from his top leadership then this means that the F-35 program will remain virtually intact (Work loves attack UAVs so the Navy might be able to wiggle out but the rest of the program will be safe).

Yep.  This is a serious blow to reform at the Pentagon.  You heard it here first.

US Special Ops is conducting "capture" raids in Syria???

via Washington Post.

U.S. Special Operations troops carried out a ground operation in eastern Syria aimed at capturing an Islamic State militant, U.S. officials said Monday.
The raid took place Sunday near a small town along the Euphrates River valley, in the vicinity of the city of Deir al-Zour and deep in the heart of Islamic State territory, according to the officials and Syrian activist groups.
The troops, who landed on helicopters, spent about 90 minutes in the area, then left carrying Islamic State captives and bodies, according to witnesses quoted by the website Deir al-Zour 24, which monitors Islamic State activity in that province.
According to U.S. defense officials in Washington, the U.S. forces intercepted a vehicle carrying an Islamic State militant whom the U.S. military hoped to capture and interrogate. One official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an operation whose details have not been publicly announced, said that a firefight broke out and the suspect, along with another person in the car, was killed. No Americans were injured.
Col. John Dorrian, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, confirmed that the raid had taken place but declined to provide details.
“The Coalition can confirm a U.S. operation in the vicinity of Deir al-Zour on Jan. 8. The U.S. and the entire counter-ISIL Coalition will continue to pursue ISIL leaders wherever they are to ensure the security and stability of the region and our homelands,” he said in an email. ISIL is another name for the Islamic State.
Officials said the operation was conducted by a “small number” of personnel from the Expeditionary Task Force, a team of elite troops based in Iraq that is charged with hunting down Islamic State leaders.
“We’ve done them before and we’ll do them again,” Capt. Jeff Davis, a U.S. miliary spokesman, said of the task force operation, speaking to reporters at the Pentagon.

Wow.  I'm all in favor of the public being informed but geez close the freaking playbook!

SOCOM is gonna get ate up one day broadcasting this stuff.  That old warhorse was right.  One day the terrorists are gonna be waiting and that's gonna be a bad day for our Special Ops Community.

What kills me is the bravado by the military spokesman.  “We’ve done them before and we’ll do them again.”  That's the type of thinking that will get you fucked up against the right person...organization...or terrorist group.  I hope this thinking hasn't infected the trigger pullers.

Sidenote.  All that work.  All that risk..... and the guy they were after ended up killed in the firefight.  Maybe they should have just droned him and not risked the lives of so many people.

Is it time to start thinking about a mixed fleet of AAV-SU's with 30mm RWS?

Is it time to stop bitching about the way that the ACV/AAV upgrade program is going and pivot to talking about the need to upgrade the firepower on these vehicles?

Considering the thinking at HQMC I won't propose giving everyone of these vehicles a 30mm RWS but perhaps one of three?  The Marine Corps and Army talk alot about the future battlefield.  In the Marine Corps you're hearing about the need for "tactical hackers" (still don't understand that...isn't hacking at its root more a strategic type weapon...it would seem that ground based electronic warfare would be a bigger priority but I'm just a blogger) but the need to increase the inherent lethality of our armored force is being ignored.

The cynic and F-35 hater in me would point to that program but lets give the benefit of the doubt here.  What if the need has simply been overlooked?

In my view that would be a bigger tragedy but lets push forward.  The Chinese have their EFV clone, tank destroyers based on APC's that mount 105mm cannons and their everyday IFV mounts 30mm guns.  The Russians almost double that amount of firepower across the board on their armored vehicles. We've seen ISIS and other hybrid terrorist groups that have turned into quasi-state type formations with MUCH increased firepower.

Its no longer a good idea to upgun our vehicles but a necessity.  A good place to start would be with the eventual ACV winner and at least a portion of the AAV-SU fleet.

What the hell is going on in Mexico???

via BBC

Cities across Mexico have seen days of rioting after the government announced a hike in the price of petrol.
Hundreds of shops were looted and the government says 1,500 people have been arrested.
Soldiers and police officers were sent in to deal with the riots, and some groups of people have armed themselves.
At least six people have died in the unrest.

Ok this is two days old and since I was occupied this weekend I had no visibility on this.  A gas hike got this type of response?  Check this out from CNN.

A hefty government gas price hike is fueling protests, looting and road blockades in Mexico.
Authorities arrested more than 250 people for robbery and acts of vandalism around the country this week, officials said.
Some protests have been peaceful.

The pics from this are ... wild ... correction they're typical rioting nonsense...

 What is my take?  I don't have one.  I note that they pay a metric (literally) shit ton for a litre of gas...it went from 12 to 14 pesos. I'm not gonna look up the exchange rate to see what that is in dollars but doesn't it matter...average folks are being paid in pesos so it gonna hurt I imagine.

What does have me spinning is the thought that Mexico is this fragile.  I know they have an ongoing Narco-terrorism problem but I didn't think that a 20% hike in gas prices would spark this type of reaction.

I WAS ONCE a doubter in the need for a Southern Command but not anymore.  S. America is a tinder box waiting to go off.  Unfortunately the solution isn't a military one...not even when it comes to terrorism/insurgents/drug traffickers...the problem is economic!

American NGOs need to quickly pivot from the Middle East nonsense that is more a European concern to S. America which will affect the homeland directly.

Mexico is the tip of the iceberg and if they go the way of Venezuela then we're gonna need to deploy a couple of divisions on the border...if Mexico goes under then that means a whole lot of other S. American countries have already sunk.