Saturday, March 16, 2024

China is practicing precision drone flying...a job soon to be done by AI

Interesting isn't it. Cutting edge tech seems to be making the "old" version obsolete faster than lingering "legacy" tech. Drones are the hotness but the days of drone operators seem to be numbered. Meanwhile some of the old mundane stuff like the drudgery of airplane maintenance seems to hang on despite the latest advancements. I know they have predictive programs to tell when something will wear out but you get my meaning. We still need people to turn wrenches.

Open Comment Post. (LATE) 16 Mar 24

The time when vets went to war against the local sheriff...

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

And YOU thought the Army would send its best and brightest to command West Point, yet they come up with this steaming pile of BULLSHIT!

 

Its one of two things or both. Either the US Army fucked up by putting this guy in charge of West Point and/or future Army leaders are fucked up. Either or both. You decide. My rationale? With all the things that the Commanding Officer of the nation's premier academy has to deal with, for him to decide that THIS is the thing that needs to be changed tells me that he's more concerned with optics than he is with developing the next gen of officers. This alone should see him sent packing.

Force Design 2030 can't make up for China's shipbuilding power...The US Navy and our Pacific strategy is behind the eight ball...

Read this entire thread.

We are currently outpaced by China's shipbuilding power and FD2030 won't do a thing to change the equation.

Even worse is the fact that adding in allied Navies in the region we're still lagging far behind.

Air power is the key.

A naval battle in the Pacific if it is to be won by the US will have to leverage the full capability of its air arm.  We don't have the pilots but the Navy needs to get back to the days of plugging 100 planes on each of its carriers.

Instead of tearing apart the Ground Combat Element the USMC should buy as many F-18's as it takes to plus up the carrier air wing to the max.

Medium range bombers (good on you USAF for the B-21) will have to carry a huge load in the "war" by launching long range missiles from distance to destroy as many ships as possible.

The Navy would do well to build a modern A-6 to get back into the long distance strike realm.

We can't build enough ships to keep up.

Long range medium bombers carrying a shit ton of anti-ship missiles with range is the only way.  Loyal wingmen that are sized like the manned medium bombers would be a nice plus.

At least on paper I just don't see how we match up to win a fight in the Pacific in the near term.  Longer term unless something radical happens it just gets worse.

Someone tell me I'm wrong.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

USMC budget request is out and my confusion intensifies...

Ok. Don't get this. Yeah I'm still harping on the ACV buy. THAT DOES NOT FIT WITH FD2030! Now they're buying a whole batch of upgunned versions? I really don't understand. Additionally (I didn't post it...you can read it here) they want to add a cannon to the recon vehicle they're buying!

That thing is gonna need a trailer!  Its gonna have a gun, launch loitering missiles, have communications that rival a command vehicle AND they're primes are both sporting masts on them!

With a rig that was supposed to be about the size of the legacy LAV, its gotta be approaching ACV or bigger with everything planned.

But that's besides the point.

A stand in force that relies on stealth and uses the ocean as its maneuver space (to such an extent that its asking the Navy for a new ship to get them around even in this time of tight budgets) has tossed away tanks but is switching to what amounts to IFVs?

For what purpose?

We've seen the SIF being touted as being viable from the Pacific to Northern Europe and I would assume if that's the case then they're probably convinced that the recon/counter recon mission is gonna be good for the Middle East & Africa too.

SO WHY ARE THEY PUSHING AHEAD WITH THE ACV AND ARV...ESPECIALLY UPGUNNED VERSIONS!

PS.  It was supposed to be out by now but I'm still waiting to see what this new, better, more capable MEU looks like.

The US Army skipper headed to build the port for Hamas has no chill...they set sail to the Imperial March from Star Wars...

 

Chief Warrant Officers truly have NO FUCKS to give. The Army gave them command of ships? THAT WILL BE A CRUISE TO BE REMEMBERED!

US Army ships set sail to build a port for Hamas. Force Protection better be tip top or we're looking at some dead/injured soldiers...

Besides the "Holy Shit" the US Army has ships, the other big thing is that they better have Force Protection nailed down for this one. Even worse? I can really see some kind of goofy incident where this thing gets the friendly fire treatment. History might not repeat but it does rhyme. Make no mistake about it. This is for one reason. To keep Hamas in power. Why the current admin would want to do that is beyond me but that's my view. 30 days to get there (kinda fast but ok). How they're gonna fly in the personnel to the actual location to do the work is beyond me...will the Bibi admin allow a corridor? If yes and they're sleeping on Israeli soil then that's a huge red flag to all kinds of terrorists. One of those barracks ships? That would be a target too. I just don't see how you do this in an active war zone.

Of course there is the political angle too.

All kinds of crisis hustlers are spoiling to get into Gaza to rebuild it so money will flood in and the Palestinian people won't get their fair share (remember that when all the appeals for money come in), so that means that pockets will be lined in a FORCED ceasefire.

Could this be the fig leaf used to get one and save Hamas?

Yeah.  That sounds right.

Build a "relief" port, use the humanitarian thing to save Hamas and line pockets all in one sitting.

Diabolical but sounds spot on.

But Bibi is in this for his legacy.  He might be dirty as fresh cow shit but if his story includes the man that destroyed Hamas then that might make up for all the bad stuff (emphasize might).

So we have the clock.  Either the IDF makes a push into the last stronghold with a quickness or this thing is done.

Just plain wow! I thought the NMESIS was somehow a revolutionary vehicle...an X'er revealed why its anything but...

I thought this thing would simply roll around the battle space, put itself into position and sit there waiting to fire off its missiles. Nope. A Marine walks beside it with a game controller to direct it? Its everything except being autonomous? This is what we tore up the MAGTF to gain? Its as big as a freaking house but its supposed to be "hidden"? You can see this fucker from orbit! The more you ACTUALLY see on Force Design 2030 the more bullshit becomes obvious.

I wonder how many souls the devil is collecting for the lies being told to aid Ukraine & degrade our own defenses....

How this fucker can lie with such a straight face is amazing. Truly senior service in the US govt demands that you either sell your soul or don't have one to begin with. This admin is seriously putting us all in danger. Notice the testimony about all the terror suspects having entered our country is hardly reported on? The talk of a run on our border by Haitians fleeing unrest in their own country? We have the world's most formidable military and we only defend others, not ourselves? MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!

We've been flooded by everyone else, I guess its Haiti's turn now...at least according to the Biden Admin...

 

Open Comment Post. 12 Mar 24

 


Russia said it repelled brazen cross border raids. Those raids take on a new look since we now know US/British forces are operating in Ukraine don't they?

Those cross border raids take on new meaning now don't they? At least to me they do.

Have ya'll noticed something about those raids?  From my knowledge (at least what I've seen on the net), we never see dead operators being "exhibited" by the Russians.  We never even hear about wounded from these raids.

Add to all that we now know that the US/Brits are operating over there and I just have to wonder.

How many different units from SOCOM are just clamoring to get a piece of that action?  How many different Brit outfits?  Hell let's expand this shit and make it a Special Operations Olympics part III.  With that you have to include the Poles, French, Norwegians, Swiss, Germans, Italians, Spanish...hell you can include every Special Op outfit in NATO!

Its a good thing that both sides are trying to play this thing nice (as nice as war can be I guess).

If I was in charge of the bad guy side I'd be laying trap after trap, not to kill but to capture.

Oh and lets not be silly either.  You know the boys from the 160th are out to play too.  They're the only ones that can get past the front lines in a helo and make insertions and extractions without getting blown to bits.

No wonder the Russians were once talking about going nuclear.  The red line about NATO involvement in the actual shooting war was crossed probably LONG ago.