Sunday, January 21, 2018

Up armored Leclerc in service with UAE



Below The Turret Ring has the story here (definitely worth a read).  

That is one big ass Alligator Snapping Turtle!

pic via Bayou Man's Blog.


Jesus!  Do you see the head on that thing?  Bayou Man says that it could take off a leg and other "vital" parts of a man's anatomy.

Uh yeah bro.  That critter is absolutely prehistoric!

Open Comment Post. Jan 21, 2018


Ops Tempo & crazy exercises are breaking the force...listen to a midlevel careerist talk about the issue!


We've been talking on these pages for quite awhile about the crazy ops tempo and the exercises that make absolutely no sense.

Much to my surprise and amazement that shout to the rooftops is finally being taken up by others.

Still, the issue needs to be highlighted and efforts done to rectify the situation.  What better way to do that than to listen to a midlevel careerist that's in the middle of the fight.  No names but drink in the words.  Remember, his comments are about endless exercises and the crazy op tempo that results from it.
I've come to the same conclusion. All of these bilateral and joint exercises....if there is more than one component playing, it's practically guaranteed to be a PACOM-directed event. I'm pretty sure a 4-star sitting in Hawaii has no clue what impact back-to-back training exercises are having on the force.

We've got aircraft going down regularly in Okinawa, Navy ships that can't sail without hitting something......and nobody has come along to tell the COCOM "hey dial that shit back and reset your force, or I'm gonna crush your nuts".

The system is teetering at the brink of fracture and WE AREN'T EVEN FIGHTING A PEER COMPETITOR. We're just training, with a sprinkling of deterrence and COIN. If something serious goes down we are gonna pay for it in blood for at least the first few days/weeks/maybe months......and that just seems inexcusable for a $600B+ budget and more institutional warfighting experience than any other military on the planet.
If that isn't damning enough he later made this comment on the same thread...
 Yup. It's the mid-career experienced professionals who have to juggle relationships and families and shit that are getting worn out. To plug the experience shortfalls, we waste huge amounts of money on DoD civilians and contractors. Their expertise is needed partially because the Active-Duty folks are just plain tired.

If you want people do "Marine stuff"(PT, rifle range, field exercises), that's fine. If you want people to do "staff/bureaucracy stuff"(proficiency training, Operational Planning Teams, and various institutional process improvements and sustainment), that's fine. But if you want people to do BOTH, at a high tempo, especially when the staffwork/bureaucracy is massively inefficient and time-wasting.....expect people to call it quits.

When we do the same exercises every year and, YEAR AFTER YEAR, they are disorganized shit-shows that provide very little actual warfighting skills improvement to the *US* force (maybe our coalition partners learn a little something), people get disillusioned and frustrated. People work overtime and then the Staff NCOs and Officers get hammered because not enough of their personnel completed Tobacco Cessation on MarineNet. Or PT scores fall. Who has the energy to be a PT god when repeatedly burnt out from late nights prepping equipment for training deployments, or building Powerpoint slides for a brief when the same slides were probably built 3 years ago but lost?

Etc, etc....
Someone might come along and say "Hey let's doing something useful and relevant, maybe a snap readiness drill simulating a Chinese TBM attack."

"There's no space for that on the TEEP." Maybe we'd have space if we didn't do so many BS bilateral exercises practicing shit that won't matter in a real fight.

"There's no money for that." Maybe we'd have money if we weren't putting contractors up in 5-star hotels repeatedly for planning conferences.

Anyways, I kinda went off on a rant there but I'm sitting in a hotel in a foreign country experiencing this stuff first-hand right now. -_-
So what is the answer?  I've recommended establishing a desk in the SecDef's office to approve all requests for units from the Combatant Commanders. That system which was originally designed to make our forces more responsive to threats around the world has instead become a self licking ice cream cone that plays with units and personnel like they were play things instead of the essential elements of national security that they are.

Add the Combatant Commander desire to be relevant and therefore demonstrate that by demanding units, mixed with the false idea of partnership exercises increasing combat capability with our allies and you have the mess we're faced with.

People are voting with their feet.

You want to make US forces more capable?

Stop driving them into the ground with useless exercises and deployments.  Make the training relevant.  Finally (I'll use the wing as an example...God knows I've pounded on them enough) adjust criteria for promotion.  If these guys are turning wrenches for 14 hours a day, six days a week then how are they gonna be PT studs, experts with their rifle and have 1st class swim quals?

Long story short?  Save the force by putting Combatant Commanders back in their cages. 

Saturday, January 20, 2018

Open Comment Post. Jan 20, 2018


4th Brigade (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division @ Arctic Warrior 2018











T17 Deerhound Armored Car.


You can see the root of our modern wheeled IFVs even in the WW2 examples from both the allies and axis powers.

The tech has supposedly improved to a point to render the mobility differences between tracked and wheeled vehicles to be practically moot.

I've heard the claims but still question the idea.  I missed the testing of the Amphibious Combat Vehicle in Mississippi (no one at HQMC would answer my e-mails) so we didn't get a chance to see them in the muck.

Did they do arctic testing?  How strenuous was the testing on the beach?

Lots of questions few answers.

Convoy Operations...vid by Cpl. Tyler Harrison



Note.  I'll post these short format but highly informative videos whenever they're put out.  I'm repeating myself but I'm loving them.  They're telling the story and not taking all day to make the point.  Well done.  Whoever thought of this needs a NAM.

Friday, January 19, 2018

The battle that made a myth of the German Blitzkrieg during the early part of WW2...

Chars 1B Heavy Tank...best tank in the early part of the war...

via Wikipedia.
This small village, consisting of only a handful of farmsteads, was heavily contested during the invasion of France in the Second World War. The village changed hands 17 times over the course of three days of fighting between 15 May and 17 May 1940.
Operations near the town involved 90,000 German troops and 300 German tanks, opposed by 42,500 French soldiers and 130 French tanks. The Germans lost 26,500 men (wounded and killed) and 24 tanks, while the French lost 7,500 men (wounded and killed) and 33 tanks.

On 13-14 May, 1940, German tanks crossed the Meuse river under the command of General Heinz Guderian. The town of Stonne and the woody hills of Mont-Dieu were the single area where it was possible to try to stop this German advance. On the night of 13 May, the French moved various elements to this area to attack the Germans;
Story here. 

Some battles deserve detailed examination and study.  This is one of them. Can you imagine?  90K German soldiers vs 42.5 French?  The Germans got the bloodiest nose of the encounter and the French not only fought bravely but were competent beyond belief?

Kinda makes a lie of the "French surrender" meme doesn't it?

I've come to a personal conclusion that the reason why the allied forces weren't more successful in the initial fighting against the Germans isn't because they had inferior weapons or military leadership.

I believe that like in most conflicts the politicians let them down.

Anyway back on task.  Read that short Wiki article for yourself and tell me you're not intrigued!

Russia green lights operations against PKK/YPG...pull forces back and Turkey begins assault!

via Daily Sabah.
Turkish security forces launched a military offensive into Afrin on Friday following a withdrawal of Russian forces to sweep out the PKK-affiliated Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed People's Protection Units (YPG).

Russian forces' withdrawal came shortly after Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli said that Russia informed Turkey about its plans to pull out its military assets from the Syrian district.

The minister said talks between Turkish and Russian officials regarding the operation will continue. Shortly after Canikli's remarks, sources in Afrin told Anadolu Agency that the Russian military had started to withdraw its forces deployed in the northeastern Kafr Jana region of Afrin. Some Russian security assets have reached Nubl and Zahra on the outskirts of Afrin, which are currently held by the Syrian regime.
Story here. 

Holy shit!

The Russians pullback forces and are allowing the Turks to conduct the assault?  Don't care if you love or hate the Ruskies but this is fucking brilliant.

You want to talk about conservation of forces?

Limiting casualties to your own side?

Preserving combat power?

The additional benefit?  With all these discussions you can bet that once they're cleared out they'll withdraw.  The Turks don't want to be caught between the US and Russia so they've obviously chosen (in this instance at least) to ride with Russia.

That means they have a buffer against US "interference" in their operation.

The PKK/YPG is screwed.  Prison screwed.