Friday, March 31, 2023

13th MEU Cobra Gold 23 Freefall in support of Amphibious Assault

Royal Thai Reconnaissance Marines jump from a KC-130 with U.S. Marines from Maritime Raid Force, 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, in support of an amphibious assault exercise during Exercise Cobra Gold 23 in Sattahip, Chonburi province, Kingdom of Thailand on March 3, 2023. Cobra Gold, now in its 42nd year, is a Thai-U.S. co-sponsored training event that builds on the longstanding friendship between the two allied nations and brings together a robust multinational force to promote regional peace and security in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Austin Gillam)

WTI 2-23: External Lifts

U.S. Marine Corps CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter assigned to Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One (MAWTS-1) executes an external lift of two High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles during an external lift exercise, part of Weapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI) course 2-23 at Auxiliary Airfield II near Yuma, Arizona on Mar. 28, 2023. WTI is a seven-week training event hosted by MAWTS-1, providing standardized advanced tactical training and readiness, and assists in developing and employing aviation weapons and tactics. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Ricardo Ramirez)

WTI 2-23: Bull Attack FARP

U.S. Marine AH-1Z Viper helicopters assigned to Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One (MAWTS-1) exit from Landing Zone Bull Attack near Chocolate Mountains, California, during a forward arming and refueling point exercise, part of Weapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI) course 2-23, March 27, 2023. WTI is a seven-week training event hosted by MAWTS-1, providing standardized advanced tactical training and certification of unit instructor qualifications to support Marine aviation training and readiness, and assists in developing and employing aviation weapons and tactics. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Ruben Padilla)

13th MEU Ssang Yong Amphibious Landing

HWAJIN-RI BEACH, Republic of Korea (March 29, 2023) – U.S. Marines with Battalion Landing Team 2/4, 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, arrive ashore in a light armored vehicle for an amphibious assault during Ssang Yong 23. Celebrating the 70th anniversary of the U.S.-ROK Alliance, Ssang Yong 2023 strengthens the Alliance through bilateral, joint training, contributing toward the ROK’s combined defense of the Korean Peninsula and increasing the readiness of the U.S.-ROK Alliance. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Austin Gillam)

Where are the ACVs? As a matter of fact have they been on float yet?

Ssang Yong 23 Amphibious Assault

 HWAJIN-RI BEACH, Republic of Korea (March 29, 2023) - Republic of Korea Marines drive a Korean amphibious assault vehicle onto the beach during an amphibious assault training exercise for Ssang Yong 23. Celebrating the 70th anniversary of the U.S. - ROK Alliance, Ssang Yong 2023 strengthens the Alliance through bilateral, joint training, contributing toward the ROK's combined defense of the Korean Peninsula and increasing the readiness of the U.S. -ROK Alliance. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Kevin G. Rivas)

'US says China can spy with TikTok. It spies on world with Google'

 via China Daily

United States lawmakers alleged TikTok, a partly Chinese-owned short-video app with more than 150 million users in the US, was spying on Americans during a congressional hearing lasting more than five hours last week. However, they overlooked the fact that the US government itself uses US tech companies, which wield substantial influence over the global internet, to spy on everyone else, according to Erin Hale's recent article US says China can spy with TikTok. It spies on world with Google published on Al Jazeera.


US lawmakers are also contemplating the renewal of powers that compel tech giants such as Google, Meta, and Apple to facilitate unrestricted surveillance on non-US citizens residing abroad.


Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires reauthorization by the US Congress before December to prevent expiration under a sunset provision, permits American intelligence agencies to conduct warrantless monitoring of foreigners' email, phone, and other online communications.


Although US citizens are partially shielded from warrantless searches under the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution, the US government has asserted that non-US citizens abroad are not entitled to these protections. Consequently, agencies such as the NSA, FBI, and CIA have broad authority to intercept their communications without obtaining a warrant.


Moreover, the US government may also disclose collected information to allies like the United Kingdom and Australia.

Here 

Wow.

Someone said outloud what I've been thinking.

We know for a fact (cause Special Forces psyops practically said it themselves), that not only does the military use social media to push its message (whether knowingly or unknowingly), but so does the rest of the US govt.

As far as data collection?

Does anyone really want to lift the veil on all the information that our domestic companies are gathering on each and everyone of us?

Does anyone really want to know how much of that information is gathered by the NSA?

The NSA doesn't have mega warehouses filled with servers and AC for nothing!

I don't know much about the TikTok issues except for the allegations made against it.

Quite honestly I view it more as an effort to condition the public to view Chinese corporations as the enemy and as part of the effort to slow walk getting the American public on a war footing with China.

I could be wrong.

Thursday, March 30, 2023

It would appear that the Marine Corps is having trouble communicating is needs for large amphibious ships to the Office Of The Sec Defense

 The people behind Force Design 2030 have stated that they haven't properly communicated the benefits of the concept to people with an interest in the direction of the Marine Corps.

But what happens when the OSD has heard the pitch and decided that new LPDs should have smaller flight decks/aviation facilities and smaller well decks?

Surely they know the concept inside and out right?

via Defense News.

The Pentagon team leading the charge to reduce the cost of amphibious warships has shown the Marine Corps drawings of scaled-down, less expensive ship designs — but a service general told Defense News he won’t accept them.

During a Tuesday hearing with the Senate Armed Services Committee’s sea power panel, Lt. Gen. Karsten Heckl, the deputy commandant for combat development and integration, told lawmakers he will not change his current requirements.

&

 The general told Defense News after the hearing he has two major concerns with the Pentagon’s suggested designs.

First is that amphibious ready groups — a collection of one amphibious assault ship and two smaller San Antonio or Whidbey Island amphibious ships — hauling Marine expeditionary units typically disaggregate as soon as they deploy to a theater. The Whidbey Island LSDs cannot operate alone, but the LPD Flight II replacements can, making this design a boon for the Corps and the combatant commanders who want flexibility in how they operate ships in theater.

Heckl said the proposed designs take away the ability of this revised LPD to operate independently.

Additionally, he said the flight deck and vehicle cargo storage spaces would be “reduced dramatically.”

Story here 

Everyone runs wargames.

This tells me that the OSD ran its own and came to the conclusion that the Marine Corps as projected would not be the boon to the joint force that FD2030 is claiming.

Next, I have to wonder where the Navy is in all this.

The good Navy is that they have priorities and have decided that to get ready for the big fight they need more subs, more destroyers, at sea replenishment ships etc...

The bad Navy is that they aren't buying what the Marine Corps is selling, have been burned too many times and don't want another run of the Expeditionary Fast Transport or the Expeditionary Sea Base...ya know the ships that "once we get them, we'll figure out how to use them" variety.

Lastly I have to wonder how a smaller, lighter, more agile USMC needs the capacity of the legacy model that had much more firepower and weight.

The crazy thing is that if the Congress handles this budget the way they have past defense bills then this thing will drag out past the end of Berger's term.

Berger will be handing his successor an unpopular FD2030 that is incomplete, an amphibious shipping crisis (for the Corps), waiting on the US Army to pull the Marine Corps nuts out of the fire with their logistics in a contested environment planning and a looming recruiting crisis because the former booster of the Corps that resided in the Retiree/Vet Community is souring on the current administration if not the current military's stance on woke issues.

Quite honestly if I was a 4 star Marine General I would beg to get a Combatant Command and NOT the Commandant's chair.

Berger has fucked that up for the next generation.

Sidenote.  Berger and his cronies have gone so far as pitch using well decks to house anti-sub gear.  If the Navy isn't biting on stuff like that which basically makes the Marine Corps a Navy Auxiliary then what hope is there for this concept.

Military training is hazardous. The loss suffered by the 101st is a terrible reminder...

 

Not a fan of the "we are all 101st" it reminds too much of the Ukrainian mess when we were all called Ukrainians by the puppet masters but I still get the message and approve.

God bless the fallen and my their memory be a blessing to their families.

Who is this cabal INSIDE the Marine Corps that called it a second land army?

 Amos really started the non-sense, but Berger has picked up the ball and ran hard with it.

The USMC is a second land army.

I don't care what people outside the Marine Corps in defense circles said, they don't matter.  What does matter is that the American people never thought that way and guess what?

Our history didn't think that way either.

This new construct.  This missile firing, littoral operating monstrosity that is only designed to fight China is an ABORRATION!

We have NEVER been that type of force.

At least for the modern era we haven't and that stretches back to WW1!

Think about our most historic battles.  Business Insider did and they compiled a list.

MOST if not the vast majority were actions far from the sea and the ones near the coast were all amphibious assaults.

Berger's plan isn't about amphibious assaults.  Its not about fighting the fights that the nation needs.

It's about a maybe fight against a peer foe that once engaged will relegate the Marine Corps to the sidelines.

Make no mistake about it.  At best the Marines will be a tripwire force.  At worst they will be killed in the opening minutes serving only to alert the Joint Force that we're at war (basically the same thing!).

Force Design 2030 is a freaking joke and anyone serving in the Marine Corps today outside of the Commandant's Office has to know that its only use to get Marines killed.

Studying Ukraine war, China's military minds fret over US missiles, Starlink

 via Reuters

China needs the capability to shoot down low-earth-orbit Starlink satellites and defend tanks and helicopters against shoulder-fired Javelin missiles, according to Chinese military researchers who are studying Russia's struggles in Ukraine in planning for possible conflict with U.S.-led forces in Asia.

*I thought the Pacific was a region where tanks wouldn't matter (even though we have our own WW2 experience that indicates otherwise), but its telling that China is worried about our anti-tank missiles against their armored force. 

"The excellent performance of 'Starlink' satellites in this Russian-Ukrainian conflict will certainly prompt the U.S. and Western countries to use 'Starlink' extensively" in possible hostilities in Asia, said a September article co-written by researchers at the Army Engineering University of the PLA.

The authors deemed it "urgent" for China - which aims to develop its own similar satellite network – to find ways to shoot down or disable Starlink. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.

&

 U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns has said that Xi has ordered his military to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027, while noting that the Chinese leader was probably unsettled by Russia's experience in Ukraine.

*The US won't be ready for war with China by 2027.  The best the current force can hope for in my estimation is a stalemate

One article, published in October by two researchers at the PLA's National Defence University, analysed the effect of U.S. deliveries of high-mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) to Ukraine, and whether China's military should be concerned.

"If HIMARS dares to intervene in Taiwan in the future, what was once known as an 'explosion-causing tool' will suffer another fate in front of different opponents," it concluded.

The article highlighted China's own advanced rocket system, supported by reconnaissance drones, and noted that Ukraine's success with HIMARS had relied on U.S. sharing of target information and intelligence via Starlink.

*This is interesting.  If this is indeed the case then Starlink is golden and everyone should be buying stock.  If they've been used as a communications hub then that indicates they've morphed beyond a commercial tool into a quasi civilian/military construct.  Elon Musk could easily morph into one of those future corporate heads with his own Army that could challenge many nation states...IF HE WANTED TO! 

Story here

We don't talk enough about the terrain in Ukraine...its maneuver hell! US forces would operate almost exclusively at night there...

Ya'll are gonna focus on the action but I ask you to step away and look at the terrain.

That is maneuver hell (unless you're doing a thunder run)!

Open farmland with strips of trees by roadways with water obstacles all over the place?

Cities placed in weird places that aren't by passed but fought over?

I'm not sure how the US Army would do an "assault on Ukraine" in a fictional world, but I imagine one of those now obsolete Penetration Armored Divisions would blast thru destroying everything in sight with support of a couple of Air Force Expeditionary Air Wings and then they'd drop light fighters in behind to clean up any resistance and probably grab every Military Police they have to deal with civilians/POWs.

Regardless, we need to take the terrain of this place into account when talking about this war.

If either side had the ability to have the now "old" Gorgon Stare Concept then light infantry with anti-tank missiles and HIMARS lobbing missiles would get clobbered.

I'm not sure there are any battlefield lessons to learn from this fight....plenty of lessons on LOGISTICS but not tactics.