Video of the Ambush on the Special Forces Team in Niger is in the wild...We're not posting. Here's why.

The video showing the go cam footage of one of the individuals that was actually there has leaked into the wild.  Let me be clear.  SOMEHOW the video of one of the Special Forces personnel that was involved in the fighting when they were ambushed in Niger is now out.

We're not gonna post it here.

The reason.

Because we won't aid the enemy.

Doing lessons learned after fights is always a good thing.  Doing lessons learned after a fight gone wrong is beyond necessary it's essential.

But there are venues in which you do it.

This blog isn't one of them.

The problem here is that there are so many with so much experience and knowledge (the variety of expertise across so many fields amazes me...I'm talking about real deal, not the fuckers that pull shit out of their ass!) that we would be giving a how to course to people that our boys will be going up against.

God knows SOCOM has done enough of that with their crazy ass training missions to every Tom, Dick and Harry on the planet, that we don't need to add to it.

The video is tragic.

Our Special Forces fought bravely.

But on this day the enemy either got lucky or it was one of those day where Murphy shows up and kicks you in the ass.

The boys at Bragg can do the after action analysis.  We won't.

Rooikat Armored Fighting Vehicle - South African Firepower

The Most Decisive Ancient Naval Battles

via War History Online.

241 BCE: Battle of the Egadi/Aegates Islands


Though many of the battles are relatively unknown, the first Punic War between Rome and Carthage was a titanic struggle that would decide the ruler of the Western Mediterranean. The struggle was mainly for control of Sicily and while land battles were fought, the war largely revolved around vast naval battles.

The Romans were new to large-scale naval combat while the Carthaginians were descendants from the sea-mastering Phoenicians and had proud naval traditions. Initially met with several defeats, the Romans invented the spiked Corvus bridge to link to enemy vessels and let their superior swordsmanship shine. This proved costly however as the heavy bridges led to the loss of over 100,000 men through storms alone.

Story here. 

I'm not at all good on ancient naval battles (especially those in Asia...the ancient Koreans and Japanese had some EPIC at sea fighting!) but I've always wondered if this fight didn't birth the idea of the "original" Marines.

You know.  The idea of boarding ships in the middle of fight and going man on man to find out who gets to see the next sunrise....

All that leads me to this.  Is there a part to play for aggressive boarding parties in a major war today.  Not against pirates but against a peer foe.

Consider this.

The US Navy is pushing the idea of independent ship operations.  Could an enemy force (the Chinese) at the start of hostilities decide to launch an operation to grab one of those ships operating alone and steal her secrets?

I'm not even sure we would consider it an automatic act of war.  I'm guessing that the calls for calm would be heard worldwide, that Trump needs to find a peaceful solution and if they played it correctly, meaning that they blamed a local commander and stated they would return the ship and survivors as soon as possible...play the UN game by accusing the US of doing whatever wrong...allowing the Red Cross to visit the prisoners...while they steal anything onboard the ship that gave a clue to codes, networks, and other things.

And after that dance has been played out they strike with no mercy.

I know it sounds crazy but in this political climate I think it could EASILY work.

Side note.  I think the Russians would just blast it with trons and drive the crew batshit crazy!  Just joking...had to take a stab at the Russia-phobes.

Open Comment Post. Mar 4, 2018

F-35 Program hopeful but Flightglobal warns of death spiral unless issues resolved...

via Flightglobal.

According to Winter, the JSF’s programme executive officer, the aircraft’s costs are unsustainable as the fleet grows.

Such a statement has severe repercussions: the US military expects to increase the fleet from 280 aircraft today to more than 800 over the next five years. If it cannot afford the bill to operate the F-35 in 2022, the Pentagon could be forced to slow procurement. As the production ramp-up slows, planned manufacturing efficiencies will be lost, further increasing costs. It is the familiar “death spiral” of defence acquisition, in which unaffordability leads to lower production volumes, causing costs to rise still further.

Winter’s office is now attempting to intervene. Its strategy covers a broad set of targets. Nearly 200 F-35s delivered before the ninth lot of low-rate initial production must be upgraded to the latest software standard. Lockheed must resolve issues with its maintenance alerting system, and the US government is helping industry fix a chronic and costly spare parts shortage.

Here. 

This has been a recurring talking point lately.

I wonder if those early in the program, like General Amos who said this is a die in the ditch program and others that said there is no plan "B", understood what they were doing by putting the air supremacy of the West in the hands of a corporation that has more allegiance to its shareholders than it does to the country or alliance?

The reality is stark.

I don't see these problems being ironed out before they make the call for full rate production.

Which means that mistake jets will be what our services and other countries are getting.  That means hanger queens which means that we will cut our buy (I can see that happening anyway...sequestration is coming back...it almost has to due to the Trump tax cuts mixed with our deficit) of the airplanes which will start that death spiral Flightglobal talks about.

While Flightglobal is optimistic I see nothing in Lockheed Martins past behavior to justify that.

If anything it seems as if they've already reached the bottom line cost of the airplane and I get the feeling that they will resist going any lower for any reason.

With a looming trade war on the horizon, sequestration coming back, our deficit, the need to fund infrastructure...and a Congress that has trouble making even simple deals, I just don't see how this works.

The dream of almost 2500 F-35's for the Air Force is just that ... a dream.  I imagine we'll see the same with a number of other aviation programs.

They're getting just too damn expensive for anyone, to include the US, to afford.

Only Half of F-35s Available for Flight, Program Head Says

via Military.com

Of the 280 operational F-35s purchased to date by U.S. and international partners, only 51 percent are currently available for flight, Vice Adm. Mat Winter, director of the F-35 Joint Program Office, told reporters Wednesday at a round-table event.

Winter added that availability rates are lowest for aircraft purchased in early lots, which were beset with a number of hardware and software issues that later production lots addressed. Low-rate initial production lots 2 through 4 have availability rates between 40 and 50 percent, Winter said. The most recent LRIP lots, 9 and 10, which include aircraft that are still rolling off the production line, have the highest availability rates, 70 to 75 percent, he said.

"If you can afford to buy something, but you have to keep it in the parking lot because you can't afford to own and operate it, then it really doesn't do you much good," Winter said.

Story here.

Teacher tried to create 'army of children' to launch terror attacks in London

via Reuters.

Umar Haque, 25, showed the children beheading videos and other violent militant propaganda, forced them to re-enact deadly attacks on the British capital and made them role-play attacking police officers.

“His plan was to create an army of children to assist with multiple terrorist attacks throughout London,” said Dean Haydon, head of the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command.“He tried and he did, we believe, radicalize vulnerable children from the ages of 11 to 14.”

Despite having no qualifications and being employed as an administrator, police say Haque used the guise of teaching Islamic studies to groom 110 children into becoming militants at the Lantern of Knowledge, a small private Islamic school, and at a madrassa connected to the Ripple Road Mosque in east London.

Of those children, 35 are now undergoing long-term safeguarding measures involving social services and other authorities. Six of the group gave evidence at Haque’s trial, detailing how he taught them fighting was good and had given them training such as doing push-ups to build their strength.

Story here. 

My pet theory was that defeating ISIS in Syria would end or at least limit future terror attacks.

I was wrong.

Europe, especially the UK, Sweden, Germany and a few others appear to be facing at least a couple of generations of radicals in their midsts.

This bears watching but these kids have been indoctrinated.  It will take serious work to get them back right...and the terrible thing is you'll never know if it worked.

ASCORD 2 Family Of Armoured Vehicles

The music is cheesy but a nice vid with a good overview of the vehicle.

Hypersonic vehicles from around the world via Naval News Instagram Page...

Still don't know what the speed is that a supersonic vehicle becomes hypersonic but pretty cool anyway.

I personally think hypersonics will be short lived as a strike weapon.  Lasers are coming along too fast and getting too powerful for that to be the case.  I think they'll really come into their own as transports!

Adam Middleton's "Boba Fett"