The M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicles (ABV) are being divested from the Marine Corps (read that to mean Berger kicked them the fuck out!)

Caption.

1stmardiv Moving Forward!

The M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicles (ABV) are being divested from the Marine Corps in an effort to accelerate modernization and realign 1st Combat Engineer Battalion's (1st CEB) capabilities.

Yesterday, Marines with 1st CEB disembarked the ABV's from San Mateo as a part of Force Design 2030.

(U.S. Marine Corps photos by Cpl. Jailine L. AliceaSantiago)
The M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicles (ABV) are being divested from the Marine Corps in an effort to accelerate modernization and realign 1st Combat Engineer Battalion's (1st CEB) capabilities.
Yesterday, Marines with 1st CEB disembarked the ABV's from San Mateo as a part of Force Design 2030.
(U.S. Marine Corps photos by Cpl. Jailine L. AliceaSantiago)

Read all that bullshit happy talk to mean that Berger kicked them the fuck out and that Ground Combat Power no longer exists in the Missile Marine Corps.

This is not the Marine Corps that we all know.  The Missile Marines will be incapable of land combat.  The Missile Marines will FAIL in their efforts to influence the sea battle (just like the disbanded coastal defense units of WW2 failed against the Japanese and ended up being killed or captured) and they will be useless anywhere but in the Pacific.

Our beloved Marine Corps is dead.

We are witnessing the birth of the Missile Marines.

Better to change the name of the organization than sully its reputation with the abomination that we're seeing developed before our eyes.

Rock and Reload: 3rd MAW Band Live Fire (check out the caption though!)

Caption:

U.S. Marines with the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (MAW) Band, operate M240B machine guns and Mark 19 40mm grenade launchers at a live fire range at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., Sept. 4, 2020. 3rd MAW continues to pave the road for the rest of the Marine Corps by providing realistic training with real world applications to develop recognition primed decision-making in preparation for future conflicts. (U.S. Marine Corps video by Lance Cpl. Juan Anaya)

Craziness aside.  WHAT THE FUCK IS RECOGNITION PRIMED DECISION MAKING?

PLA on Wed released a video of Tibet military command’s live-fire drill on the plateau

 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The PLA on Wed released a video of Tibet military command’s live-fire drill on the plateau. PLA also conducted a drill of airborne troops. Yes, these are all aimed at the situation on China-India border. The Indian army will either stop provoking or be prepared to be defeated. <a href="https://t.co/124h0ccu8h">pic.twitter.com/124h0ccu8h</a></p>&mdash; Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) <a href="https://twitter.com/HuXijin_GT/status/1303701622757814272?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 9, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The BearCat armoured car: A warhorse on the streets of Antwerp....American style policing is coming to Europe

via BrusselsTimes

Antwerp mayor this week announced the launch of Operation NightWatch, a crackdown on drugs crime which he promised would be the city’s “largest security operation in 20 years.”

The initiative has been generally – but not universally – been seen as a flexing of the city’s muscles at a time when it seemed that criminals had free run of the city. There have been numerous reports in recent weeks of grenades and other explosions, and houses and business premises being shot up. Strangely, or perhaps fortuitously, nobody has been injured.

Now the city and its police force are not prepared to take a chance on innocent people escaping violence forever, and nothing could demonstrate a flexing of muscles like the deployment on the streets of the Bear-Cat armoured vehicle.

The BearCat, manufactured by Lenco Armored Vehicles of Massachusetts in the US, is only available for military and law enforcement use, and it is deployed in more than 40 countries.

The name stands for Ballistic Engineered Armored Response Counter Attack Truck, and is basically a heavy-duty commercial pick-up encased in an armour coating of military steel up to 1.5in thick (3.8cm), with ballistic glass, blast-resistant floors and gun-ports as standard.

It can on request also be fitted with sirens, spotlights, thermal cameras and a battering ram.

The vehicle comes in nine different configurations, and judging by photos in the press, the model chosen by Antwerp appears to be the BearCat G3, which its manufacturer describes as suitable for off-road and rural operations, able to seat 12 fully-equipped officers and designed to rescue “downed personnel”.

The Lenco website makes it sound rather unsuited for the Antwerp urban situation: “If your mission takes you off-road, the Lenco BearCat G3 will get you where you need to go,” the company says.

Antwerp purchased its BearCats from Lenco in 2017 to act as a rapid-response vehicle, although it was only rolled out two years later during what seemed like a hostage situation which turned out to be a misunderstanding. It was also brought out last New Year to block off streets.

The curfew introduced last month by Antwerp province’s governor Cathy Berx (CD&V) has ended, but another de facto curfew could be beginning. De Wever and his police chief Serge Muyters (the brother of De Wever’s party colleague and former minister Philippe Muyters) have promised that anyone on the street in sensitive areas like Borgerhout and Deurne may be stopped and subjected to an ID check, and if necessary some streets could be closed to all traffic.

“We are going to try to make it clear to the drug environment that they have gone too far,” Muyters said this week.

“Since weapons of war are being used, the BearCats will be on the street,” De Wever told local TV station ATV.

“If those people are caught red-handed, we aim to be able to meet them with equal force,” he said.

Sad but inevitable.  Are we still the ugly Americans or are we now considered wise?

Chris Cuomo got called out...

CHALLENGE TO @ChrisCuomo .

Prove you’re not a liar. Prove that you can actually lift the weight you’re shown with.

I will fly anywhere you’d like to witness it and we can either have a charity event or I’ll donate $1k to a charity of your choice.

PLEASE RETWEET! pic.twitter.com/5vVZpUoW8S

— Marc Lobliner (@MarcLobliner) September 9, 2020

This probably seems like no big deal to most of you.  BUT TO US GUYS THAT GO TO THE GYM!  We hate this shit.  That ain't nothing.  That's a big lift and he's posing like he's doing it no problem.

Like Mark says.  We hate fakes.  This smacks of fake.  Like I said to most its a little thing but to gym bros this is a sin.

VT-4 Main Battle Tank

Officers and soldiers training to operate the VT-4 Main Battle Tank rounding up. The VT-4 MBT is a 3rd generation tank. It features an automatic loading system and unmanned gun turret. pic.twitter.com/kbF4zuVaM8

— Defense News Nigeria (@DefenseNigeria) September 4, 2020

Nigeria should be fully in our camp and we should be GIFTING them MBTs.  Instead they're turning to China.  The generals are focusing on the Pacific and that's not where the next fight will be.

It's gonna be Africa and its gonna be mechanized/motorized with long supply lines, fierce fighting and the environment possibly taking more lives than the fighting.

But yeah.  Let's focus on the fight we want rather than the one that's coming.

陆 军 就 该 是 这 样 的 · 第 二 集 https://t.co/1bvhvFeSOn pic.twitter.com/Q4GWDgRE0y

— 蜜柑🍊 (@KushigumoAkane) September 8, 2020

USS America (LHA 6) And 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit Conduct VBSS Exercise (The Wing Has Won!)

Take a look at USMC social media.  Look at what they're emphasizing.  The Wing Has Won!  I've said it before and I'll say it again.  The Ground Combat Element needs a 4-star ADVOCATE at HQMC.  The lies, cost and sacrificing of all other Marine Corps capabilities at the altar of the F-35, CH-53K and MV-22 will be seen as the seeds that will cost us a war with China.  Do you NOT think that they're gonna ramp up their anti-air capability across the board? Do you really believe they won't be able to defeat a USMC turned Missile Marine Corps that is so heavily biased toward Air & Missiles at the expense of ground combat capability?  They're gonna rape this new Marine Corps and it will be brutal, shocking and demoralizing to the nation.  Last thing.  You actually trust the generals that lost to fucking tribals in Afghanistan to win a war against the Chinese?  Are you smoking crack????

1st Sgt talks about preventing suicides in the ranks...

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Confirmation that the LAV-25 is dead as is LAR as we know it...

via National Defense Magazine.

Another platform that may not last much longer as the Marine Corps transforms is the eight-wheel light armored vehicle, LAV-25, which is used for reconnaissance and was first fielded in the 1980s.

“They’re not strictly looking for a new vehicle that looks like an LAV,” said Cross. The so-called advanced reconnaissance vehicle is not a program of record and not currently in PEO land systems’ portfolio, but he would say that the Marine Corps is looking at how it wants to replace the capability. It won’t necessarily be a straight-up replacement vehicle.

“The Marine Corps is very much in that phase of understanding what’s out there, where the state of the technology is and then providing [leadership] with what the requirements seem to be,” said Cross.

The LAV-25 replacement could be a “family of systems” and might have a mix of manned or unmanned vehicles, he said.

Like a few old friends from Down Under told me.  Believe your lying eyes.  Replace hope with facts.  Never appeal to authority.

Anyone that thinks that a new 8x8 is in the offering to replace the LAV is lying to themselves.

Berger told you that it's gone.  Some of you don't want to believe your lying eyes.

Russia's VPK rolls out Strela 4×4 light armored amphibious vehicle

via IsraeliDefence.co

The Janes website reports that Russia’s Military Industrial Company (Russian acronym: VPK) unveiled an amphibious variant of the Strela 4×4 light armored vehicle at the Army-2020 defense exhibition held near Moscow on August 23-29.

VPK Director General Alexander Krasovitskiy told Janes on August 27 that Russia has no amphibious vehicles of this class in its inventory. The vehicle has reportedly passed factory swimming tests. Krasovitskiy said VPK had built the first two Strelas – the utility vehicle and the amphibious platform – under the self-funded program. VPK signed a contract for the development of the Strela family baseline utility vehicle, amphibious platform, low-payload vehicle, and buggy. "The whole family will comprise four vehicles, including two new systems: a multipurpose swimming buggy for airborne soldiers and a soft-skin command-and-control vehicle,” said Krasovitskiy.

The website noted that the use of new technologies and modular layout give the Strela family of vehicles the lowest price tag in their class in Russia, while also having the same protection, maneuverability, and cross-country capabilities as the heavier Tigr and Atlet.

The Strela’s chassis shares maximum commonality with other VPK systems. For example, the armored doors and protected windows are interchangeable with those of the VPK-Ural and Atlet vehicles. The amphibious Strela is 4.7 m long, 2.2 m wide, and 2.1 m high, and weighs 4.9 tons. The payload capacity is 800 kg. The system is powered by a 2.8 liter/200 hp diesel engine, producing a top road speed of 120 km/h, a maximum swimming speed of 7 km/h, and a range of 1,000 km.