Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Grant Turnbull found a Challenger 2 with a new turret AND a 120mm smoothbore by BAE/Rheinmetall!!!!




THIS IS AWESOME!

Monday, January 21, 2019

Iran has a stronger military than Israel?

via Jerusalem Post.
Israel’s military has slipped below its arch-nemesis Iran in the ranking of military powers, ranking 16 out of 137 countries, according to the international defense site Global Firepower (GFP).

It was the third year in a row that Israel fell in the site’s ranking, falling one spot from the previous year and down five spots when it ranked 11th in 2016. Iran, meanwhile, climbed to 13th in 2018 from 20th in 2017.

According to the defense site, it only takes conventional military capabilities into account when compiling and factors in another 55 criteria, such as the range of weapons in its arsenal, amount of available manpower, abilities of the local defense industries, as well as natural resources, geographical size and economic strength.

“The unique, in-house formula allows for smaller, more technologically-advanced nations to compete with larger, though lesser-developed ones,” the site said, adding that “a perfect PwrIndex (Power Index) score is 0.0000 which is realistically unattainable in the scope of the GFP formula.”

The site also allows for one to compare two specific countries against each other, showing military data such as total manpower available, active personnel, total amount of reservists, and total military personnel. The site also shows the total amount of arms such as aircraft, tanks, naval assets as well as artillery strength.

Hmm.  I've sensed that the IDF has grown soft and this report confirms it.  I don't put much stock in numbers comparisons though.  The Quds Force has been getting a big time workout.  Iranian Commanders have been schooled at the knee of the Russians in Hybrid Warfare and IDF ground commanders have been in the relative lap of luxury while the Air Force has been conducting the brunt of the fighting in Syria (make no mistake...I'm sure the IDF has been running covert missions but the conventional army has been sidelined).

I worry about what the next ground war the IDF engages in looks like.

They've been bitten by the civilized/limited warfare bug and they will get slaughtered in the field because of it I fear.

Two Soldiers injured in roadside bomb attack in Syria...



Above you see pics of the Bearcat the Soldiers were supposedly riding in when they were attacked.

Not a good look.

On a side note.  Everyone is assuming that the rash of recent attacks has to do with Trump's statement about withdrawing from Syria.  I think otherwise.  We're closing in on the last remaining stronghold of ISIS forces.  How it's taken years to destroy a force number no more than 100K is beyond my understanding but that's a different subject.  Back on task.  We're closing in on their final defense.

These are the hardcore fighters.

We have to assume that natural selection means that these are some of their most skilled and cunning fighters (or just plain lucky)...or else they would have been killed earlier.

An increase in casualties under these circumstances should be expected.

Royal Marines Recruits return from their 9 mile speed march...




Pretty cool that the staff comes out to cheer their return...

BAE & Rheinmetall are teaming up to form a joint venture in the UK...


Hmm.  Does this mean that we're gonna see the Challenger fade away and Leopards land in the UK?

I still think they're building a weird vehicle fleet but Boxers, Ascod II's and Leopard 2's would help rationalize things a bit...assuming they're willing to throw the Warrior, Challenger and a few other vehicles in the waste bin.

German SecDef pleads for NATO to continue...

via Sputnik
The 'World still needs NATO' wrote German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen in an impassioned appeal to support the increasingly unpopular military bloc.

In an effusive New York Times opinion piece published Friday, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen pleaded for support for the continuation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), even as the bloc increasingly comes under fire from nationalist political movements across Europe.

Describing NATO as an "emotional bond" between Europe and the US, the top Berlin military official appealed for a continuation of the alliance, now seen as being under threat of dissolution after 70 years, particularly at the hands of an acrimonious US president, Donald Trump, according to the New York Times.
Story here. 

This is puzzling.

Germany isn't holding up it's fair share of the burden of defending Europe but they plead for NATO to continue?

US policymakers shout to the rooftops that NATO is needed to blunt Russia but when was the last time we practiced moving a division worth of armor from the US there?

She goes for the emotional instead of the practical?

I would think that she would appeal to our intellect not our emotions.  The fact that she didn't lay out a solid case for continuing NATO but instead chose to use the words "emotional bond" says everything.

Even our disposition of forces on the continent tells us that they're not really designed to blunt a Russian attack.

Where once we had heavy armored divisions we know have paratroopers in Italy and stored Marine gear in Norway along with a Stryker Brigade running all over the continent in show the flag ops.

Long short?

Not even the US military believes Russia is gonna invade Western Europe.

Open Comment Post. 21 Jan 2019


Memo from Lin Wells to Rumsfeld in April 2001 on difficulty of prediction.

via Michael Neiberg's Twitter Page.


The future is a mystery.  Plan your "today's" accordingly.  What do I mean?  Make commonsense plans that yield the best cost-benefit solution.  Long shots rarely workout and seeking to maintain the status quo often leads to becoming irrelevant.

Tweets from "Within Syria" Page concerning airstrikes, retaliatory raids & more airstrikes...









Follow this dude!!!

Interesting isn't it.  The Israelis are going after the Quds Force and I have no problem at all with that.  Furthermore they've taken off the gloves and went after Air Defense Sites.  They must have some good info...cause I don't think they would go after Russian manned installations.

Remember me calling this a regional war?  

I think that's spot on.  ISIS is just a proxy.  This is about something else AND Iranian influence.

The problem?

Assad will most likely survive and he's being deeper into the arms of Iran and Russia.  You can bet these losses will be replaced and you can bet that whatever the Russians want (maybe sole ownership of that port) you better believe Assad will give it to them.

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