Fighters heading to the Middle East now this???

Information Dissemination has a story out about naval movements to the Gulf in preparation for a war against Iran.

Additionally there has been rumblings about Fighter Squadrons on the West Coast getting orders to ship out to the Middle East in support of operations and supposedly one of the Marine Expeditionary Brigades Headquarters is suppose to be going down range to become MEB (FWD).

These movements are outside the normal rotation pattern.

Between the information that Information Dissemination provided, in addition to the rumor control about fighters and I do believe we're seeing the world line up for ANOTHER war in the middle east.

Terrible news from Cold Response...

Bjørnar sends the following (thanks dude)...

Norwegian C-130J with five crew reported missing - presumed crashed - during exercise Cold Response in mountainous terrain near the Norwegian-Swedish border. Norwegian and Danish aircrafts are assisting Swedish search end rescue units. There are unconfirmed reports of a Danish Merlin helicopter picking up emergency radio transmissions and that Norwegian F-16s has picked up "heat signatures". If accurate it could however be animals or other people.

I hope the crew is alright.

If I've said it once, I'll say it a thousand times.

Even training is dangerous.

Air Delivery Operations Training

First Flight for Last Raptor

The final Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor took to the skies for its first test flight in Marietta, Ga., on March 14, 2012, with company test pilot, Bret Luedke at the controls. Raptor 4195 has a May delivery date and will join other F-22s in the U.S. Air Force’s 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska

Now this partnership makes sense!!!!

Now I can get behind this partnership.

There are a few Army units that I consider squared away (probably because I got a chance to see them up close).

The 82nd, 101st, 10th Mountain and 25th are all good to go.  With that being said this news puts a smile on my face.  via Marine Times.

The two services are planning a series of exercises likely to take place in North Carolina, where tens of thousands of soldiers and Marines are based at Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune, which are located just 90 miles apart. With the future security environment uncertain, and an end in sight to combat operations in Afghanistan, the services are discussing ways to leverage complimentary capabilities, said Lt. Gen. Richard Mills, the Corps’ deputy commandant for combat development and integration who serves also as commander of Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Va.
“As we look at new strategies, as we look at potential areas of operations in the Pacific, I think it’s very natural that the Marines and the Army discuss it … should we have to go somewhere where people don’t want us to go,” Mills said.

You can bet that Bold Alligator was the primer that got the Army on board with doing Forcible Entry training with the Marine Corps.

Good thing too.

These are the units that will win battles in the Pacific.  For all the Special Ops fan boys out there (and that includes the bastards in the White House and Pentagon), they just don't work in areas with a police force or military.

In those situations Special Ops teams will be isolated, pinned down and destroyed in place.

And that characterizes the Pacific battlespace.  In that arena you need the rapid response and firepower that comes with an MEU or a Ready Battalion from the 82nd.

The axe falls on Marine Combat Power.

The axe falls.  via Reuters....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Marine Corps said on Wednesday it would cut four infantry battalions and 12 flying squadrons over the next five years as it shrinks by 20,000 personnel to meet budget constraints and peacetime needs after more than a decade of war.

The biggest cuts would fall on Marine Corps bases in North Carolina, with Camp Lejeune and the adjacent New River air base losing 5,800 personnel and Cherry Point air base losing another 2,100. Three California Marine bases - Camp Pendleton, 29 Palms and Miramar - would lose a total of 6,000 personnel.

and then this...

 Mills said the corps would add 250 personnel to improve its strength in cyberspace, put an additional 821 people in the Marine Corps Special Operations Command and add another squadron of unmanned aircraft to the Marine Corps Reserves, bringing the total to two

This is poor planning.

Adding boatspaces to a cyber unit????

Adding boatspaces to Marine Special Ops????

Another UAV squadron????

This is all bullshit!

When the nation calls on the USMC they are asking for a robust combined arms team that can rapidly deploy, and act as shock troops in whatever action is deemed necessary.

They aren't calling on the Marine Corps to provide help with cyber warfare.

They aren't calling on the Marine Corps to provide help with Special Ops.

They aren't looking to us for another batch of UAVs.

They want HARD CORPS ass kickers that come from the sea. 

Admit it.  When you think cyber war  your think USAF or USN.  When you think Special Ops you're thinking Green Berets, Navy SEALs or Rangers.

When you think Marines you think hard charging infantry arriving from the sea in AAVs, helos, tilt rotors fighting battles that would make lesser units break.

The little feel good part about this being a gentle slope to a drawdown is bullshit and everyone knows it.

The clerk with a perfect record will be allowed to reenlist and go to MARSOC while the grunt that's been in trouble once but has been deployed four times won't.

Welcome to the pussification of the Marine Corps.

.

Gnarly ammo from back in the day...

Shooting Illustrated has an old article up about ammo from the past.  This is one round that I kept coming back to...The Pin Grabber.  That is one gnarly looking bullet!  I wonder what it would do to human flesh?

A secret base in Africa?

With the little information that's leaking out about US forces operating in Africa one thing has struck me.

There MUST be another base in Africa from which US forces are flowing from.

Think about it like this.  Camp Lemonnier has all the makings of being a logistics hub.  Last Google Earth photo that I saw showed:

5 CH-53E.

4 C-130.  (I believe that two of those visible must be MC-130J's because of the darker shade of gray applied to them)

6 F-15E.


And that's just on the "military" side of the base.  That my friends is a logistics hub with a force of F-15E's to provide rapid aerial response for units out in the boonies that need air support.

My guess when it comes to where this "secret" base is located would be Kenya.  The government is rather stable, its English speaking, has port facilities and has been cooperating with the British and US governments in the fight against terrorist on the continent. 

You can also bet that with Special Forces operating there (and they have a huge contingent in country), that MH-60's or even CV-22's should be visible, but they aren't.

Kenya has to be it.  Time to take a look at Google Earth again.

UPDATE*

Will left this comment and I think its so spot on that it needs to be included in this piece so that all eyes can get on it...

 I gotcha covered Sol. Camp Simba, no bullshit, a naval port in Kenya. And some extra tidbits on the topic: http://www.esquire.com/features/africacommand0707 - It's from 2007, if you can stomach it, but there's six pages of intel to sift through.

Ghana also came up in 2008. Big, bold letters: "There is already a US military presence in Ghana." That's here: http://crossedcrocodiles.wordpress.com/2008/02/18/africom-us-military-bases-and-ghana/

From 2011, Q3's answer listed a new AF base in Ethopia: http://csis.org/publication/kenyas-military-operation-somalia

Manda Bay, Kenya also came up here: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/us-military-bases-a-global-footprint-1/

Africa is the last unstomped land for the U.S. Military. It's time to expand, and we're getting right on that with the draw-down of Afghanistan. I just don't think anyone saw what Iran pulled out of it's ass, nor have they considered what could come of that. Nuclear war is in the cards, and has to be taken more seriously.

Hmmm.  Its starting to make sense.  I think I'm seeing a pattern in US operations and AFRICOM is beyond being just a salvation army with guns.  They're taking the fight to the terrorist and using conventional forces as the shield behind the real activity that's going on.


Conventionals get the shit jobs of guarding facilities, handing out food to local populations and generally waving the flag for all to see.


SOCOM gets to have the fun of conducting raids and have a 2 month stint in country count as an actual deployment.


Even if we draw down our forces in Afghanistan to one Brigade this year it will actually mean nothing.


The new Battle Ground is AFRICA.  Welcome to the future.

US Marines are fighting in Africa...

They slipped this one past me.

Marine Forces Europe touts the training mission that its engaged in with the Georgian military and training exercises with our NATO allies.

What they've been less forthcoming about is the fact that Marines are involved in the fighting in Africa.

KONY 2012 supporters should be pleased.  Force Recon is training Ugandan soldiers.  Check out this article from Shadow Spear.  Read the whole thing but this stood out to me....

“We are answering a stated need by our African partners,” said Lt. Col. David L. Morgan, commander of SPMAGTF-12 and 4th Force Reconnaissance Company. “Our mission in Uganda is yet another example of what this versatile force can do.”

The task force has dispatched teams across a wide swath of Africa over the course of their six month deployment in support of Marine Forces Africa, sending anywhere from five to 50 Marines into partner nations for days to months at a time. The unit is among the first of its kind and the mission in Uganda is one of its last.

So we have a Special Purpose MAGTF setup thats sending units into Africa.

Amazing.

What isn't making sense is how the Marine Corps is approaching this.  The Georgian military has conventional US Marines doing the training.  In Africa, its being done by Force Recon.  A reserve unit at that.

What gives?  Are we doing a SOCOM light and are we going to start tasking Force Recon with training or is it like I suspect.

US Marines are engaged in the fighting in Africa.

It shouldn't be surprising.  The stories have been leaking out for months but I didn't want to go ahead with saying anything because I didn't want to be called a loon.  But with Australian SAS, SEALs, a HUGE number of Special Forces and Air Force Special Ops (Para-rescue, Combat Controllers and Weathermen...along with a couple of MC-130's that I saw at Djubouti) its beyond apparent that the US is involved in the fight against terrorist on that continent.

The problem is this WILL turn into a 3 way affair.  The US and its allies on one side.  Terrorist on another and then China on the other.

More to come on SPMAGTF-12.

Special Ops fanboys are gonna wet themselves over these pics....

Thames River Police Boarding Teams in Olympics Security Exercise, London

Members of the Metropolitan Thames River Police are pictured practicing boarding techniques in a Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) during an Olympic Games security exercise.
The Thames River Police lead maritime security exercise in conjunction with the Royal Marines was carried out on the river Thames in preparation for the Olympic 2012 Games. Photographer: POA(Phot) Terry Seward

Pic of the Day....

U.S. Army Pfc. Cristian Franco, assigned to 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry Regiment, carries an M240B machine gun while descending a mountain path during a security patrol overlooking the Pesho Ghar valley and the Enzarkay Pass in Paktya province, Afghanistan, on March 2, 2012. DoD photo by Staff Sgt. Jason Epperson, U.S. Army. (Released)

Porcupine Prototype 155-mm self-propelled howitzer

Read about this unusual wheeled artillery vehicle over at Military-Today.com.