Saturday, November 11, 2017
Friday, November 10, 2017
21st Century Asian Arms Race Blog has a concise history of Israeli MBTs....
I don't know how accurate the history of Israeli MBTs on 21st Century Asian Arms Race Blog is, but I do know that at the very least its a good primer on the subject. Check it out here.
BTR-4E still in the running in Thailand according to Ukraine...
via Janes.
Ukraine’s state-owned defence exports and industry agency UkrOboronProm is continuing discussions with the Royal Thai Army (RTA) over the supply and local production of the 8x8 BTR-4E armoured personnel carrier (APC), Jane’s has learnt.Hmm. I just don't see the Ukrainian offering being able to match what the Chinese are in the VN-1. That rig looks like a more modern design, seems to swim better and as far as weapon systems it looks like its almost plug and play.
The BTR-4E and China’s 8x8 VN-1 APC, made by Norinco, were downselected to meet the RTA’s APC requirement earlier this year, with the Chinese product declared by the government in June as the preferred tenderer.
However, a contract between the RTA and Norinco has not yet been signed and a UkrOboronProm official stressed that the agency remains “actively engaged’ with the RTA about a potential order of the BTR-4E.
It'll be fun to watch Thailand on this one.
Pickle Rick Fight Scenes
Pickle Rick. If you don't know who he is then you better ask somebody! My view? The most powerful superhero introduced in the last 10 years.
Pickle Rick rocks!
242 years of motivation....Video by Lance Cpl. Gloria Lepko
Yeah cupcake. You're getting shit like this all day. Deal with it!
Happy Birthday Marines!
Happy birthday Marines!
Get drunk, get laid (no end of the bar uglies allowed) and get home safe ready to do the "Marine Thing" next week!
God Bless!
Interesting list but they left off the most important weapon in the Marine Corps arsenal...
Via National Interest.
The list is kinda interesting but nothing spectacular. It covers the basic Marine Corps standbys.
So why this post?
Because its probably my fault, maybe your fault, maybe our jaded view of things and the love of stuff that goes boom, but from my seat the most important vehicle in the Marine Corps wasn't covered and gets very little airtime on these or any other pages.
What's the system?
The MTVR!
Troop carrier, supply mule, primary weapons mover...the list goes on. The Marine Corps won't win unless these vehicles are up and doing their jobs.
Want to know what the new jeep has been for the last 20 years (at least in the Marines)? Its the MTVR. Oshkosh isn't properly promoting this vehicle cause it should be taking the world by storm.
Wildfire work? Dial in the MTVR. High water rescue? Not perfect but it can handle a fair bit. Supply? Every allied nation we have really should be in on this.
If we pushed vehicles the way we pushed planes we'd get more bang for the buck and commonality with allies on systems that count.
The MTVR is the real war winner. Its just not sexy.
In the event of a conflict on the Korean Peninsula, U.S. and South Korean forces will root and and destroy the regime of Kim Jong-un. The need to properly secure the country’s weapons of mass destruction will necessitate an invasion of North Korea, much of which will come by sea. Leading the way will be the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC). Here are five USMC weapon systems necessary in Korean War II.Story here.
The list is kinda interesting but nothing spectacular. It covers the basic Marine Corps standbys.
So why this post?
Because its probably my fault, maybe your fault, maybe our jaded view of things and the love of stuff that goes boom, but from my seat the most important vehicle in the Marine Corps wasn't covered and gets very little airtime on these or any other pages.
What's the system?
The MTVR!
Troop carrier, supply mule, primary weapons mover...the list goes on. The Marine Corps won't win unless these vehicles are up and doing their jobs.
Want to know what the new jeep has been for the last 20 years (at least in the Marines)? Its the MTVR. Oshkosh isn't properly promoting this vehicle cause it should be taking the world by storm.
Wildfire work? Dial in the MTVR. High water rescue? Not perfect but it can handle a fair bit. Supply? Every allied nation we have really should be in on this.
If we pushed vehicles the way we pushed planes we'd get more bang for the buck and commonality with allies on systems that count.
The MTVR is the real war winner. Its just not sexy.
Thursday, November 09, 2017
Politics Talk....Just some musings...
Haven't done a politics talk in awhile so I decided to share a few thoughts...
1. Virginia.
The news media is making this sound like a repudiation of Trump. As much as I think the guy is more harmful to himself than his enemies this isn't true. Have you looked at the electoral map? Northern Virginia, to be precise the suburbs of DC voted overwhelming Democrat. We shouldn't be surprised. Those are the homes of Federal Workers. They are either Obama holdovers or Republican establishment types. They are voting their pocketbook. Big govt is their meal ticket and if Trump's ideas of a leaner govt catch on they're in trouble.
This wasn't a real test. This was the power of 8 years of big govt being used to change a state. Virginia is no longer a southern state, its part of the NE corridor. The election there proves absolutely nothing.
2. Moore in Alabama.
This one has me scratching my head. It just reeks to high heaven. It also smells of a dirty trick. I don't know if the Dems working with the news media tried to time this for max damage but it sure looks like it. The actual crime happened forty years ago, there are no real corroborating witnesses and if someone did a deep dive into any guys background you could probably come up with some type of sexual harassment charge if he's over 35. This whole thing is turning into a dangerous dirty slope. I hope the powers that be and women understand the ramifications of this thing. All it will take is one false accusation against a high enough profile guy and this thing will blow up in their faces. But back to Moore. I'm willing to call it now. The citizenry of the Republican party have finally dialed into the fact that this is a cultural war. They'll stick with Moore and the elite will accept it and swallow hard. The old rules are out the door. If you vote right and talk right and DELIVER then the base will stick with you. Moore will win on election day despite this "news".
3. Republican controlled Congress.
The Republican elite have finally discovered their true enemy and it is them. They just can't govern and even though they've pushed Trump to run their agenda during the first year of his tenure they can't get shit over the finish line. Expect year two to pivot to solid Trump issues. Immigration, Trade and an Infrastructure bill. The Dems will only be able to cry from the sidelines and the establishment will be forced to get it done. They tried the old Republican playbook and once again its failed. This party will turn populace whether they like it or not. What remains to be seen is what big business does. If they don't own the Republicans will they try and make common cause with the Dems and if they do will their base accept it?
Well that's it. There is more to talk about but I'm gonna go drink a protein shake and take more cold medicine. Later.
1. Virginia.
The news media is making this sound like a repudiation of Trump. As much as I think the guy is more harmful to himself than his enemies this isn't true. Have you looked at the electoral map? Northern Virginia, to be precise the suburbs of DC voted overwhelming Democrat. We shouldn't be surprised. Those are the homes of Federal Workers. They are either Obama holdovers or Republican establishment types. They are voting their pocketbook. Big govt is their meal ticket and if Trump's ideas of a leaner govt catch on they're in trouble.
This wasn't a real test. This was the power of 8 years of big govt being used to change a state. Virginia is no longer a southern state, its part of the NE corridor. The election there proves absolutely nothing.
2. Moore in Alabama.
This one has me scratching my head. It just reeks to high heaven. It also smells of a dirty trick. I don't know if the Dems working with the news media tried to time this for max damage but it sure looks like it. The actual crime happened forty years ago, there are no real corroborating witnesses and if someone did a deep dive into any guys background you could probably come up with some type of sexual harassment charge if he's over 35. This whole thing is turning into a dangerous dirty slope. I hope the powers that be and women understand the ramifications of this thing. All it will take is one false accusation against a high enough profile guy and this thing will blow up in their faces. But back to Moore. I'm willing to call it now. The citizenry of the Republican party have finally dialed into the fact that this is a cultural war. They'll stick with Moore and the elite will accept it and swallow hard. The old rules are out the door. If you vote right and talk right and DELIVER then the base will stick with you. Moore will win on election day despite this "news".
3. Republican controlled Congress.
The Republican elite have finally discovered their true enemy and it is them. They just can't govern and even though they've pushed Trump to run their agenda during the first year of his tenure they can't get shit over the finish line. Expect year two to pivot to solid Trump issues. Immigration, Trade and an Infrastructure bill. The Dems will only be able to cry from the sidelines and the establishment will be forced to get it done. They tried the old Republican playbook and once again its failed. This party will turn populace whether they like it or not. What remains to be seen is what big business does. If they don't own the Republicans will they try and make common cause with the Dems and if they do will their base accept it?
Well that's it. There is more to talk about but I'm gonna go drink a protein shake and take more cold medicine. Later.
Marine Scout Sniper wins in court!!!! THIS IS GREAT NEWS!
Thanks to Mobeus for the link!
via Marine Corps Times
This is good news and I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK! Another of Amos' injustices that was foisted on the Corps has been overturned.
Of course its too late for this guy to get his name and honor back...too late to save the career of a guy that faced the enemy and won on a consistent basis but it does prove that justice, even if delayed too long, does exist.
Too many Marines are...how did Amos say it..."crushed" by those in senior leadership that are more politician than Marine.
Yeah boys. This shit is fucking fantastic.
Note: I was gonna wait and post this in about 4 hours so that it would be top of the page on Friday. I couldn't do it. This is too important...too significant to delay. Slowly the bad years are being dismissed. Of course more shit is piling up but one day the Marine Corps will return to its roots and focus solely on warfighting.
via Marine Corps Times
"A military court has dismissed charges against a former Marine scout sniper who pleaded guilty to urinating on Taliban corpses, finding that former Commandant Gen. James Amos had illegally interfered with the legal process at the outset.Story here.
Staff Sgt. Joseph W. Chamblin was reduced in rank to sergeant and orde red to pay $500 after he pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the 2011 incident in Afghanistan, which became a national scandal after video of the Marines urinating on the bodies was posted on YouTube in January 2012.
But neither Chamblin nor his defense attorneys knew at the time that Amos had replaced Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser as the first convening authority in the case after telling Waldhauser that he wanted the Marines involved with the urination incident to be “crushed” and discharged, the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Appeals found on Wednesday."
This is good news and I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK! Another of Amos' injustices that was foisted on the Corps has been overturned.
Of course its too late for this guy to get his name and honor back...too late to save the career of a guy that faced the enemy and won on a consistent basis but it does prove that justice, even if delayed too long, does exist.
Too many Marines are...how did Amos say it..."crushed" by those in senior leadership that are more politician than Marine.
Yeah boys. This shit is fucking fantastic.
Note: I was gonna wait and post this in about 4 hours so that it would be top of the page on Friday. I couldn't do it. This is too important...too significant to delay. Slowly the bad years are being dismissed. Of course more shit is piling up but one day the Marine Corps will return to its roots and focus solely on warfighting.
ISIS is still fighting hard in the Philippines.
via Almasdarnews
Six troops were shot dead and four more wounded as militants loyal to Abu Sayyaf (local ISIS franchise group) attacked a Philippine Army convoy on the island of Basilan on Wednesday.Story here.
According to Colonel Juvymax Uy, Task Force Basilan Commander, the jihadist insurgents opened fire as government forces approached the Basilan Circumferential Road near the town of Sumisip, leading to a firefight that lasted three hours.
Why are these computer gamers dying so young?
via Kotaku.
Team Liquid confirmed last night that League of Legends head coach and former Overwatch coach Dennis “INTERNETHULK” Hawelka died yesterday, at age 30.Story here.
Outstream Video
The family of Hawelka have not yet released details as per the cause or time of death.
Hawelka was a longtime veteran of the esports scene, competing in everything from StarCraft 2 and World of Warcraft to League and Overwatch.
This is weird and not many people are talking about it. For some unknown reason I'm seeing a bunch of computer gamers dying young. I mean its a freaking mystery.
And its happening every couple of months that a high profile guy bites the dust.
Is it drug related? I don't think so. We would have heard that screamed to the rooftops I would think. Energy drinks? The same.
Lack of sleep isn't the issue either..at least I don't think it is. I had a BN commander that thought that it was fun to go all out on exercises with no sleep for anybody for 48 hours...just to see how we would do. We did that probably once every 6 months too. So sleep deprivation in the form of these 24 hour broadcasts showing these guys playing games isn't the reason either.
So what could it be?
F-35A first USAF deployment...first emergency landing!
Thanks to Noble for the link!
via Japanese Times
A U.S. Air Force F-35A fighter jet made what appeared to be an emergency landing at a base in Okinawa on Wednesday, only about a week after the U.S. military made its first-ever deployment of the stealth aircraft in the Asia-Pacific region at the base.Story here.
The U.S. Air Force said the jet made a “precautionary landing” at the U.S. Kadena Air Base. But the Kadena Municipal Government said it was an “emergency landing,” citing an observation by one of its officials who saw two fire trucks on standby on either side of the runway when the landing was made.
Nothing to see here. Probably just a bird strike...I mean it worked for the Israelis when one of their F-35's suddenly went off line and is no longer flyable so why won't it work for the USAF?
7 aircraft carriers (and ships of their strike groups) are at sea at the same time? WTF is going on???
via Business Insider.
For the first time in years, seven of the US Navy's 11 nuclear aircraft carriers are at sea simultaneously, according to US Naval Institute News.Story here.
The USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), USS Nimitz (CVN 68), and USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) are in the Western Pacific on operational deployments. They have full air wings and carrier escorts.
The USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) and USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) are in the Eastern Pacific, while the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) and the brand-new USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) are in the Atlantic. Those four carriers are on training missions or doing workups before deployments.
All the carriers — including the ones converging on the Western Pacific — are on planned operations amid President Donald Trump's 12-day trip to Asia.
Someone better be able to write a big ass check to the US Navy for this "situation"!
What do I mean.
Maintenance. Every single ship is gonna need after deployment work done it. Seven carrier strike groups out at the same time? That's alot of maintenance work!
Personnel. Those sailors on deployment are gonna all rate at least a few days off when they get back. They also should rate some dwell time. But unfortunately the Navy is just like every other institution. You have people that are homesteading...they never go to sea. So that means that someone is gonna have to write a check to all those guys that are gonna be asked to go back on float just as soon as they got back. I thought cross decking was a thing of the past. I guess I was wrong.
If this is just a result of a couple of combatant commanders smelling their oats and deciding that they rated an aircraft carrier, or if this is part of the runup to war...I just don't know.
What I do know is that seeing more than half our carrier strength and escorts at sea at the same time is peculiar as hell!
Three Carrier Strike Groups in the Sea of Japan at the same time? That's a huge amount of firepower for a bluff!
via USNI News
Three U.S. carrier strike groups will drill together – in the first tri-carrier operations in a decade of the Korean peninsula in the Sea of Japan, several sources confirmed to USNI News on Wednesday.Story here.
USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), USS Nimitz (CVN-68) and USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), along with their escorts and air wings, are set to meet off the coast of Korea for four days of exercises later this week.
“These three carriers are not there specifically targeting North Korea. … This is a routine demonstration of our commitment to the region,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford said last week.
Everyone is missing the real story here. People are getting locked in on 3 carriers operating together. That's the wrong way to look at it. This is one of those times when you MUST be clear and specific.
We have 3 Carrier Strike Groups operating together.
Check out the pic below that shows the composition of an "average" carrier strike group.
This is the standard. We don't know if these groups have been enhanced/reinforced or augmented.
Do you get the force of connection here?
The US Navy has been complaining about maintenance and getting its rotation back in order and with this one move they're throwing that out the window for at least a year if not longer.
I don't know what's going on but I definitely don't buy that this is a simple training move. They're messing up too many people, are potentially taking too many ships off the line (in the future...for maintenance) for this to be just training.
The Combatant Commander requested this and I imagine we'll all find out why so enough.
Oh and my prediction stands. A limited strike on N. Korea with no boots on the ground (except for maybe a suicidal Special Ops raid to decapitate the little fat boy....SOCOM needs to learn to say no!) will occur sometime this winter. I'm figuring late Nov all the way to early March.
Wednesday, November 08, 2017
Latest F-35 talking points don't even mention stealth...
 |
| The F-35A Conventional Takeoff and Landing variant is an agile, versatile, high- performance 9g multirole fighter that provides unmatched capability and unprecedented situational awareness to the U.S. Air Force and its allies around the world. Lockheed Martin photo by Liz Lutz. f35.com |
Hmm. First make sure you read the caption on the pic above.
Next, notice that there is a photo dump of the F-35 after news is breaking out in the UK and Denmark doubting the capabilities and cost of the plane.
Finally check out that caption again. Agile, versatile, high performance multi role fighter? I disagree with that but let's just roll with it for now.
What happened to affordable and stealth?
You do get the force of connection don't you? The talking point has changed once again. If I'm right I think this is the fourth time. First stealth was the big bad that couldn't be copied. But we heard from Raytheon about their GaN tech with the Russians, Chinese, SAAB and others saying that they could detect stealth too, so the stealth talking point vanished.
Then they hit on the sensor fusion. But everyone FINALLY asked what did they mean by fusion and that talking point took a hit. It all came back to the AESA array and even the most batshit crazy fanboy had to admit that legacy planes could carry more powerful arrays and that the EOTS on the F-35 was being outperformed by the latest offerings already on the market.
Looking for a way out of this trap they switched to affordability. They put out several press alerts about how the cost of the F-35 was rapidly going down. But under close examination by others, that was quickly left in the ditch bleeding from a thousand cuts with the program office once again looking like a bunch of liars.
So now they're back to what we see above.
If I wasn't so convinced that the F-35 is a failure of epic proportions it would be funny.
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