Wednesday, April 01, 2015

Iran has the equivalent of two Marine Expeditionary Brigades in Iraq?

via Defense 24.
Currently, it is estimated that Iraq is now about 30,000 Iranian "advisers" military and Shiite militias, representing 2/3 of military force in the final offensive in the Sunni province of Salahaddin, are closely associated with the Iranian Pasdaran and General. Qasem Sulejmani, one of the major formation commanders. Also in Lebanon, Hezbollah's position began to grow, after the country at last. r. plunged into a political crisis and became the target of an Islamic state and al Nusra Front of land neighboring Syria.
Read the entire "op ed" type piece here.

Note:  A Marine Expeditionary Brigade is a combined arms force comprised of 14,500 Marines complete with an air, ground, and logistics component.  It is a self contained force that can operate across the COMPLETE spectrum of operations.  No other force on the planet is able to replicate this capability.

If this is true then we're seeing the calm before the storm.  You can bet that Israel will soon be attacked, there is no hope of deposing the Syrian President and that the rest of the Middle East will HAVE to get involved to guarantee national survival.

In the future the nuke negotiations will look like the US fiddled while the Middle East burned.

Air Defense Armored Fighting Vehicle Concept Art...


5.11 Tactical Hardcase...



5.11 is good.

They always do these tease/April Fool's releases on today just to stir the pot.  It gets interest up, makes for GREAT word of mouth and then the masses go crazy to get this piece of kit.


Jade Helm 15 briefing to local officials...



Some of these guys might cross the wrong bubba's back 40 and end up in a firefight.

I don't think the Pentagon understands rural America anymore...once they did but they've all gone MetroSexual.

Missile Trucks are back...

15th MEU Mechanized Raid Training...vid by Sgt. Emmanuel Ramos

ACV News. Quietly, without fanfare, the Request For Proposal is out...

 

via FBO.gov
:
M67854-15-R-0001
:
Modification/Amendment
:
Added: Mar 20, 2015 12:24 pm--------------------------------------------
Program Executive Officer Land Systems (PEO LS/PM AAA) is releasing the thirddraft Request for Proposal (RFP) M67854-15-R-0001 for the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) 1.1 requirement.  This third draft RFP is associated with the ACV 1.1 Request for Information (RFI) M67854-14-I-0013.  Please see the cover letter for instructions.
Read it all here (the number of attachments is mind boggling--its gonna take awhile).


The Marine Corps has quietly and without fanfare moved the program along. 45 days to respond?  That's REALLY short fused for a project this size!

This is where it gets interesting though.  I've heard all kinds of rumors...from partnerships dissolving and unlikely corporations building there own vehicle to submit...to levels of corporate espionage that would make the Chinese blush with envy.

I do make this prediction.  I think we're gonna see more than the SAIC Terrex 2, Lockheed Martin Havoc, BAE SuperAV and whatever General Dynamics names their beast in this competition.

IF this program survives the budget trainwreck the Marine Corps is facing then we just might get a a worthy replacement to the damn near legendary AAV.

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

A new Stryker variant?

Photos from Militaryphotos.net.  The person posting these pics states that an unknown Army Officer stated that its an Electronic Warfare and Command vehicle.  I personally have no idea but everyone is focused on the aerials, what appears to be SATCOM devices and jammers.

Of course this could be just another vehicle and nothing special.





Armata MBT Infographic via Tank & AFV Blog


Wheels vs Tracks. The debate never ends...

Thanks to Jonathan for the slides...