Police State USA. Sheriff's Dept raids an animal shelter over a fawn!

Don't believe we're on a bad piece of road?  Click here to read the story and view a  vid of SWAT being used like a hammer when a cop on a beat would have gotten the job done.

SOCOM theory and a bad future.

Upgraded BMP-2.

Socom does all kinds of training to defeat insurgent and terrorist forces.  What it doesn't do and what always gets it into trouble is when they're faced with fighting conventional forces.

That's the dirty, filthy secret of SOCOM units.  When faced with conventional (or conventional acting) forces, they always come out second best.

1.  Scud Hunt in Iraq.  Special Ops units were either hunted down and killed, hunted and harassed or aborted their missions due to the threat of running into an Iraqi Rifle Company or larger.

2.  Assault on Panama.  A heavy SEAL unit was tasked with taking out Noriega's plane.  The unit ran into a buzzsaw of alert security, security that stood and fought and a blown approach to the objective.

3.  Assault on Grenada.  A SEAL unit got chopped up and had to be rescued by the 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit (love that name...we need to drop "expeditionary" and readopt "amphibious"...everyone is expeditionary now...amphibious is unique).  The only thing that prevented annihilation was a brilliant move by one of the SEALs to use alternative forms of communication.

4.  Small Unit Ops in Afghanistan.  The stories are legion and legendary about small units being fixed, fought and damn near annihilated in the Afghanistan mountains. I've been told that its worse than the official record indicates and that several missions resulted in "bad days" but they've been classified.  I list such talk as nothing but hearsay, but it must be considered.

I said all of the above to point out the obvious.  SOCOM and small units are always at risk of being destroyed by conventional units with superior firepower and mobility.

Heading into the Pacific the question must be asked.

Why is the West emphasizing Special Operations Forces while China is doing everything in its power to improve its conventional forces?

The answer is obvious.

In a war between China and the West,  SOCOM will be a bit player.  Regular US Army and Marine Corps units will either carry the day or lose and die.

The Counter Insurgency Mafia is leading us astray.  Raids, Raids and more Raids will not work in the Pacific.  Instead of facing unorganized and poorly trained insurgents, those SOCOM forces will be facing military styled internal security or regular infantry formations.

And against such a force, getting to work by parachute or scuba tanks will matter little.  What will matter is the weight of fire that can be brought to bear.  In such a scenario 16-30 rifles along with anti-tank weapons will be small comfort against 100-400 well trained infantrymen supported by artillery and armored vehicles.

What concerns is that leadership is aware of this.  But for some reason they've convinced themselves that for the foreseeable future Special Ops and airpower will be what is needed to hold the line until economic conditions improve for the US to modernize its forces.

I think its a fool's bet.

I think that China will notice, will bide its time until the cuts are deepest and make some type of move to gauge US reaction.  No reaction or simple protests to the UN will embolden them.  But that is probably the best that we can do even now.

If China makes a land grab in the Philippines then there is nothing anyone can do to stop them.

The military decline of the US has truly begun.

PAK-FA via War Machine.

Is the US Army suffering from an "aviation bias"?

via Daily Intercepts

Since the GCV is the Army’s second-highest acquisition priority after the WIN-T communications network and is being billed as the centerpiece of its armored formations of the future—replacing the Bradley Fighting Vehicle—Odierno told the audience that “we need the Ground Combat vehicle and we have to have it. Now, we might have to delay it because of budget cuts. I don’t know; we haven’t made the decision yet.”
While this wasn’t necessarily anything new, the GCV has taken its share of lumps in recent months, having been delayed in January and then being on the receiving end of a highly critical Congressional Budget Office report in April that evaluated several existing foreign infantry carriers that the government budgeteers said would meet most of the requirements of the GCV at a lower cost.
Still, the Army will do what it can to leave the program intact even as it prepares to absorb $52 billion in cuts in fiscal year 2014.

Sorry.  I'm running out of fucks to give for the plight that the services find themselves in.

The Army is following the USMC's lead by shielding its aviation programs and ignoring the issues with its armored forces.  Buys of the AH-64E and CH-47F are continuing.  Meanwhile the Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) and the Armored MultiPurpose Vehicle (AMPV) appear to be on life support.

I  point to the Stryker and talk about Army modernization efforts but the reality is that it was only meant to be an interim vehicle and served more to bring into being a Brigade based operating doctrine more than fulfill a requirement for a new Army troop carrier.

I don't know the hows or the whys but it appears that in both of the services that concentrate on winning battles and wars on the ground, aviation is taking a seat of dominance over armored protection for the troops.

I've got to figure out why.

Soldiers turned hitmen.

via Fox News.

Mexican cartels are recruiting hit men from the U.S. military, offering big money to highly-trained soldiers to carry out contract killings and potentially share their skills with gangsters south of the border, according to law enforcement experts.
The involvement of three American soldiers in separate incidents, including a 2009 murder that led to last week’s life sentence for a former Army private, underscore a problem the U.S. military has fought hard to address.
"We have seen examples over the past few years where American servicemen are becoming involved in this type of activity," said Fred Burton, vice president for STRATFOR Global Intelligence. "It is quite worrisome to have individuals with specialized military training and combat experience being associated with the cartels."

Click here to read it all.

DHS has the ball it needs to make every person that ever served in the military suspect now.  I find it interesting though that the "ex-LT" would engage in such behavior.

Well maybe I shouldn't be surprised.  If a lying to the Senate, using improper command influence, record falsifying Commandant can get the full support of the SecDef, then why shouldn't it be ok for an Army Officer to become a hitman for the drug gangs in Mexico while on active duty?

Welcome to the new US military.

4th Combat Aviation Brigade conducting training.

Note:  Does anyone remember the "netfires" concept?  Couldn't help but remember the promise of that project when I saw the shipping container.  

Marine Armor Predictions.

I've been playing catch up on the latest news from the SecDef regarding his "fears" if Sequestration continues.

Oh and be advised.  It will continue.

And I keep coming back to the same issue.  What does this mean for the Amphibious Combat Vehicle?

It means bad news.  The Aviation Commandant has already delayed it 3 times and when Sequestration hits full force this fall, that will be the final nail in the coffin for this program.  We'll hear the same excuses that we did for the Marine Personnel Carrier.  Talk about how it'll be revisited.  Talk about how we can make do with the vehicle we have.  Talk about how this is managed risk.

But in the end, we'll have Marines riding into combat in 50 years old vehicles.

SideNote:  From what I'm hearing the JLTV is DRT...Dead Right There.  Notice no public discussion of the program?  Its because its being taken down to the river and held under until it stops kicking.

Titillating Thursday.

Thanks All.

Just wanted to tell everyone that some VERY unforeseen issues popped up that had me knocked on my ass looking slack eyed and silly.

I appreciate the concern and I'm trying to get my blogging legs back.  Expect things to be a bit helter skelter for a day or two till I settle in.

Amos. The lying piece of shit Commandant.

I'm not even going to bother compiling all the articles outlining his wrongdoing.

Suffice it to say that my instincts were right on.  He is a lying, sniveling, weird, disgraceful, arrogant, and totally insufficient Commandant.  During a time when we needed bold leadership we got this instead.

Undue Command Influence.  Improperly classifying information to hide his acts.  Lying to the Senate with regard to the performance of the V-22....

I'll sit on my hilltop and keep beating this drum.  Amos must go.