26th MEU conducts tactical offload of vehicles...Pics by Staff Sgt. Dengrier Baez

The Poles have the most curious mix of Soviet Bloc and Western equipment that I've seen.  The fighter in the pic above has got to be almost ancient!

26th MEU Tanks Platoon does work @ BALTOPS 2018....Pics by Staff Sgt. Dengrier Baez

The USMC is shedding itself of AAVs as fast as possible. Shipping 36 to Taiwan...

via Taiwan News.

The U.S. has set aside 36 Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAV-7) from its reserve inventory of vehicles to ship to Taiwan to bring the total fleet of the armored troop carriers to 90, reported Liberty Times. 

The vehicles which have been set aside are currently in storage, but they have been completely refurbished with new engines, transmissions and components. The U.S. military has already ordered the necessary components and made plans for the handover of the vehicles.

The Taiwan military currently has 54 AAV-7s in service, with the Navy primarily using them for combat and disaster relief. In 2015, Congress approved the sale of 36 additional vehicles and the official contract for the sale was signed in June of 2016.

The additional amphibious combat carriers are expected to be shipped to Taiwan in batches from 2020 to 2021. The original price of the package was NT$5.32 billion (US$178.43 million), but by the time the formal contract was signed by the two sides, the price had risen to NT$5.81 billion as the Taiwan dollar had weakened over that period. 

I wonder how many AAVs we have in storage now.  The numbers have always been a bit flakey because of how the modernization has been conducted.  Each improvement cycle has always neglected a certain portion of the vehicles and although the numbers on the net have always stated over 1000 the reality is that its probably closer to half that EXCLUDING gifts to nations worldwide.

Why does it matter?

Wartime stocks are starting to gain more and more of my attention.  Do we have enough vehicles to maintain our AAV Battalions in case of wartime attrition?

All I can do is hope that someone has done the math.

We all lack visibility so all we can do is guess.

Monday Motivational. The TWO meanings of Fear...

I'd probably replace "rise" with the word "respond" but you get the gist.  Fear is an emotion that has to be conquered or barring that at least controlled. 

Side note.  This doesn't apply to stupid tax.  If you do stupid stuff and by being stupid you place yourself in a F.E.A.R. inducing situation then you're probably gonna pay that tax.  But if you do things right and the wolf still comes calling then you have to face it down and hopefully shoot it between the eyes and dump the rest in its pelvic girdle so barring death it will be shitting in a colostomy bag for the rest of its miserable life.

Armor Porn. “Oplot” of the Royal Thai army.

Armor Porn. Screen Caps of KNW's New Amphibious Vehicle...

Thanks to Ogden for the screen caps!

I want to know more about this rig!!!!

Armor Porn. General Dynamics Europe shows new ASCOD...

Armor Porn. KMW's New Amphibious Vehicle (Vid)

Thanks to Random Reader for the vid...



This is what I've been waiting for.  Forget the mockups and the static displays..I wanted to see the thing move, both on land and in the water.

Having said that I'm still a bit....

I don't know.

I need performance data.

This is a unique solution.  I've never seen anything quite like it before.  It rides high in the water but you put up swim vanes around the driver and I assume commanders hatches (when in drive mode) when you put it in the water?

It moves backwards in the water?

Yeah I need to know more.

How fast in the water?  How many Marines can it carry?  What's it's blast protection?  What type weapons can it carry?  It's big but what's its STANAG protection across the frontal arc?  Finally how fucking much does it cost.

Looks interesting but inquiring minds want to know more.

Open Comment Post. 11 June 2018

Now this is an old skool safety brief!