The fight for survival is extreme in the animal kingdom!

Do you see the intensity in the above pic?  Some people claim that animals aren't expressive but this picture proves otherwise.

The almost desperation on the face of the Jackal...the desire to do the deed on the face of the Cheetah...

This is beyond intense.  This borders on absolute madness.

Oh and for those that are curious the caption from Wildlife HD says the Jackal made a lucky escape!

Armor Porn. The multinational battle group of 9th Armoured Brigade attacks

Chinese LCAC (Hull 3327) during the amphibious assault exercise

Pics via Naval News Instagram Page.

Combat Aviator Instagram Page Pic!

If you like Army Aviation and the AH-64 in particular then you should check out this guy's page.  It pains me that someone stole his "pickle Rick" missile photo and isn't crediting him but such is the internet.  Anyway make sure to check out his page.

Armor Porn. FNSS PARS III 8x8

SpaceX's Dragon cargo craft in orbit below the International Space Station...

Capturing a #Dragon! While the International Space Station (@ISS) was traveling more than 250 miles over the Earth, astronauts Ricky Arnold (@Astro_Ricky) and Drew Feustel (@Astro_Feustel) captured SpaceX's Dragon cargo craft this morning using the space station’s #Canadarm2 robotic arm. Following that, SpaceX's #Dragon cargo craft was bolted into place and is now attached to the International Space Station where it will be for the next month delivering more than 5,900 pounds of research, crew supplies and hardware to the orbiting laboratory.

Astronaut Ricky Arnold (@Astro_Ricky) shared this view of the Dragon cargo spacecraft as it traversed Italy en route to the space station earlier today.

If we could just move a bit faster we could have several space craft capable of carrying Astronauts into space.  Is the Dragon due to become manned or is it to remain just a cargo carrier?

German Army 9th Armoured Brigade training for NATO Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (2019)

Deutschland übernimmt 2019 als Rahmennation die Verantwortung für die schnelle Eingreiftruppe der #NATO, #VJTF. Um dieser Aufgabe gerecht zu werden, trainieren die Soldaten der #Panzerlehrbrigade9 für ihre anstehenden Herausforderungen. Dabei kam auch das Mehrrollenfähige Leichte Lenkflugkörpersystem, kurz #MELLS, zum Einsatz. // Germany will be responsible for the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force in 2019 #NATO. To be able to fullfil this new task the soldiers from 9th Armoured Brigade trained for the mission, by using the the multiple-role lightweight guided missile system (MELLS). (Video: #Bundeswehr) #milstagram

A post shared by Bundeswehr (@bundeswehr) on Jul 2, 2018 at 8:24am PDT

ASCOD for Australia's Land 400!

Wow.

Why does it look so much "neater" than the Brit example?

Armor Porn. Czech T-72M4CZ.

Is NATO worth keeping?

via Defense News.

The Pentagon is reportedly analyzing the costs and repercussions associated with a “large-scale withdrawal” or a “transfer of American troops stationed in Germany,” the Washington Post reported Friday.

The Post’s report was based on interviews with U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, but who are reportedly familiar with the assessment.

The U.S. officials emphasized that the assessment is an analysis exercise and is currently limited to exploring options internally.

Top military leaders are not involved, and the Pentagon has not been tasked with taking steps to execute any option, according to the Post.

All this is part of a larger narrative.

*  The EU spends too little on defense.

*  NATO was designed to deal with an enemy that no longer exists.

*  EU Defense, NATO, and individual countries have commands that overlap and mirror.

Long short?

NATO as its currently constructed is inefficient.

NATO was built to counter the Soviet Bloc.  That Bloc is gone and in addition for every NATO command the EU Defense Group (Dept or whatever they call it) relies on the same units to fulfill the same roles.

Let's be honest.

NATO serves only one purpose.

To tie the US to Europe.  It's past time someone did a real assessment of whether that continues to make sense.

Side note.  The sad reality is this.  Planning to fight Russia is easy.  The infrastructure is setup, the allies set and the ground prepared.  So instead of planning for the probable fight against China, which will be hard as hell because all the enabling conditions have not been established, we see many defaulting to the politically expedient foe instead of the likely one.  Will we pay a price for laziness?