Army Special Operations pilot flies V-280

via Army.mil

Bell Helicopter's Air Vehicle Concept Demonstrator aircraft, funded under the Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstration program, was flown for the first time by an Army pilot Feb. 7.

Chief Warrant Officer 3, Tom Wiggins, of the U.S. Army Special Operations Aviation Command conducted the flight at the Bell Flight Test Facility in Amarillo, Tex.

During the flight, he performed Hover In Ground Effect repositioning, pattern flight and roll-on landings.

Well Bell just unzipped their pants and showed the goods to the whole world didn't she?

It's obvious that they're gonna be trying to at least get SOCOM to bite on the V-280 even if Big Army doesn't.

Pretty damn smart.  

I'd bet money they've taken note of the V-22's performance during landing and take-offs...particularly landing...and I'm sure SOCOM has expressed displeasure at its performance.

How do they solve that problem if SOCOM isn't using CV-22's for assaults? They invent a better tilt rotor to solve the problem.

I guess the Marine Corps could bullshit the Navy into buying the V-22 for the COD mission but SOCOM ain't so easy.  Getting shot up in Africa on a couple of occasions will do that to you.

https://sofrep.com/30798/west-coast-based-seal-team-3-injured-in-south-sudan/

https://theaviationist.com/2017/01/29/u-s-mv-22-osprey-tilt-rotor-aircraft-crash-lands-in-yemen-during-special-ops-raid-on-al-qaeda/

PKK affiliated HPG forces attack Turk base in Iraqi Kurdistan...the side of the story we're not following!

via NRTTV.com

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)-affiliated People's Defense Forces (HPG) confirmed it carried out an attack on a Turkish military base in Zakho district northwest of Duhok on Tuesday (February 13).

HPG Press Center said in a statement on Wednesday that its fighters carried out “an extensive operation” against a Turkish military base at 8:40 a.m. on Tuesday in Gire Biye near Begova town in south of Zakho.

The HPG fighters conducted the attack from eight directions on the military base of the Turkish army, the statement added.

“Effective strikes left two tanks and two armored vehicles destroyed … According to information obtained by our side, 22 enemy soldiers were killed and more than 10 others were wounded in this action,” it added.

NRT reporter Ahmed Zakhoiy said PKK fighters attacked the Turkish military base in Gre Biye village in the sub-district of Batifa in Zakho on Tuesday.

Following the collapse of a two-year ceasefire in 2015, the Turkish military has regularly conducted air raids against PKK bases in the Qandil mountain area of Kurdistan as well as many other rural areas in the Region.

Story here. 

Hmm.  A multi vector attack with a time on target for guns to sing?  This isn't exactly complex (we need more details before we make that assessment) but it ain't little league either.

I think we can assumed some type of anti-tank missiles were involved in this and additionally we can assume some type of fire support was included (mortars, artillery or even rockets).

What I find even more interesting is that they didn't go for the jugular.  If the count is correct then this base was reeling.  Why didn't they finish them off? Perhaps they know the response time of supporting aircraft etc...?

But I digress.  This is the side of the story we're not following and has been allowed to be placed on the back burner.

We're looking at Turkey occupying portions of Syria but they've done the same with Iraq.  I've wondered if US troops would cross swords with their Turk counterparts in Syria but the more dangerous situation is what's going on in Iraq.  The Turks have come and it looks like they plan on staying.

The Iraqis won't put up with that nonsense.

Will the US assist them in expelling them which means pushing an attack against a SUPPOSED NATO member or will they sit back and watch the inevitable fight?

HMS Queen Elizabeth off the coast of Gibraltar (Photo Essay) via UK Defence Journal!

11, 12, 13, or 14? What is the future size of the Marine Corps Rifle Squad.

Thanks to Ronald for the link!

via Marine Corps Times

For many years, the 13-man rifle squad has been the lynchpin of how combat power is built and organized within a ground combat element or Marine infantry unit.

But now Marine Commandant General Robert B. Neller is considering big changes to the size and tasking of the rifle squad, a move likely to have a major impact on the Corps’ culture and operations.

And beyond the rifle squads, Neller also plans to add an additional eight Marines to the scout sniper platoons that support infantry battalions, expanding the platoons up to potentially 28 Marine snipers.

Neller is considering new rifle squad configurations that include 11-man, 12-man and 14-man options. While Neller hasn’t yet decided on the size of the rifle squad, it’s likely he will add a drone operator.

“The 13-man rifle squad has served us very very well over time,” Brig. Gen. Christian Wortman, the commanding officer of the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, said Tuesday. “But with new technology and new capabilities developing, there’s a recognition that there’s an opportunity to better exploit that technology and that capability and to adapt how we structure the rifle squad.”

Story here.

Two things, with the last thing first.

Notice that they're adding personnel to the Sniper Platoon?  More shooters at that!  Notice that they're tinkering with the idea of going down to 11 Marines for the Marine Rifle Squad?

That tells us something.

Its beyond obvious by the design of new vehicles that a move to 11 Marines is damn near inevitable. 

The ACV will carry 11.  You can jam two 11 man squads on an MV-22 and practically 4 on a CH-53K.

They're adding by subtracting.

I don't know the number of Rifle Squads the Marine Corps "counts" but a move to 11 man squads will add to that number while not having to recruit, train or retrain to get it.  You simply move the people you have around.

Additionally by adding this drone operator or electronic warfare specialist to the mix you can "theoretically" state that they've become more lethal.

But I digress.

I believe we're gonna see a campaign to push the 11 man squad as being more lethal, easier to control on the battlefield and infinitely more mobile.]

I don't buy any of it.

I point to what they're doing with the Sniper Platoon as proof.  Snipers will still be called to engage the enemy while the new Expeditionary Rifle Squad will mostly serve as human sensor nodes to direct supporting fires.

We've heard the mantra and it's picking up speed.

The Marine Corps is in the midst of a culture change. The powers that be have ordained it, they're not going to be talked out of it and all we can do is enjoy the ride.

I'm looking forward to this new Corps being put to the test (along with the weapon systems they're bringing forward).  Don't get me wrong.  I fear for the safety of these Marines and don't want to see them killed or injured but I am not at all sold on what I'm seeing.

Time will tell who's right and who's wrong.

Blast from the past. F-105D hit by SA-2 over N. Vietnam

pic and caption via War History Online!

A U.S. Air Force Republic F-105D Thunderchief trailing fire and smoke just after interception by an SA-2 missile on February 14, 1968. The SA-2 did not actually hit an aircraft — the warhead was detonated by a command from the tracking radar or by a proximity fuse in the missle when it neared the target, throwing deadly fragments over a wide area. The pilot, Robert Malcolm Elliot (1929-1968), was killed. His body was not recovered until 1998. http://wrhstol.com/2BrKEyC

Defense News asks the question. Where was the F-35I in the strike on Syria?

via Defense News.

With the acknowledged benefit of 20/20 hindsight, some in Israel are wondering where the F-35 was.

“They were sure the F-16I could easily survive the environment, as it has done so many times before,” a retired Air Force major general told Defense News.

Another former officer surmised that the weaponry Israel used in that initial strike on the T-4 airfield in central Syria was not yet integrated into the weapons bay of the F-35 stealth fighter. “If it was determined to use our own special weapons for this particular scenario and this specific formation, what good would it do to hang it under the wings? You’d lose the stealth,” the officer said.

The Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, refused to specify which missiles were used in the initial attack on the Iranian command-and-control trailer, but multiple sources point to the Israeli SPICE, an autonomous, all-weather, precision-attack weapon that the Air Force is well-practiced in delivering at standoff range.

In conjecture officially denied by Conricus, the IDF spokesman, one officer suggested Washington may have discouraged or even vetoed Israel’s use of the F-35 at this point in the multinational program out of concern that Russian and Iranian specialists in Syria could gather information on its radar-evading capability and other characteristics.

Story here 

I'm not buying it.  I thought more of the IDF than to declare an airplane operational and not have it ready for war.

Alas it seems like they've been bitten with the same bug as as the US military.

S-34 with weapons pod

Thanks to s300v4 for the link!

Is that an EOTS on the front of the pod?

Dutch Foreign Minister caught lying about the "Russian" threat!

Thanks to Azad for the link!

via Reuters

Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra admitted on Monday he had lied about hearing Russian President Vladimir Putin make comments about plans for a “greater Russia”, unleashing a storm of criticism

“I told an untruth, it was unacceptable,” he told reporters. Zijlstra, who is scheduled to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow in two days’ time, said he had been “stupid” and regretted his behavior.

While election campaigning two years ago, Zijlstra said that in 2006 he had been at Putin’s dacha when he heard the Kremlin leader speak of plans for a “greater Russia” which would include some of Russia’s neighbors.

“I was tucked away back in the room, but I could clearly hear Putin’s answer to the question about what he considered greater Russia,” Zijlstra told a gathering in 2016 of his People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, which heads the new Dutch government.

Story here. 

Why do I include this story on a military blog?  Simple, its to back up my claim that Russia charging across its borders to gobble up Europe is a fabrication.

During other times it would be a fiction that we could live with.  It could be used to increase defense spending for the Army (and now the Marine Corps in the Nordic nations) and could goad our allies into doing the same.

But the threats we face are more complex and we don't have time to deal with the foolishness.

Russia is building its nuclear forces to PREVENT Europe/US from hazarding its borders and its conventional forces while formidable are no threat to the West.

Cyber?  I don't know.  All indications are that they are playing games but exploiting tensions in the US?  Doubtful!  The very dynamics they're said to be playing with would be in play regardless.

But even if you don't believe anything I've written here, take note.  A Dutch politician used this "threat" to ride into office.  At the very least that should be punished.

Australia's deadliest soldier....gallantry thru 3 wars!

Thanks to Dave for the link!

Story here.

Pigzilla in China!

Thanks to Privateer454 for the link!

Story here.

China has a problem with wild pigs.  Saw a video of a boar killing an elderly man and now this.  I bet that beast smells something rotten too...male boars reek!