China Air Show 2016 : J-20 Stealth Fighter Flight Demo

HMS Ocean in the Mediterranean

Pictured is HMS Ocean during Joint Expeditionary Force (Maritime) (JEF[M]) in the Mediterranean.

She is shown with Apache, Merlin and Chinook helicopters embarked...This year’s major task group deployment, to the Mediterranean and Middle East, will demonstrate the Royal Navy’s enduring ability to deploy highly effective and combat-capable maritime forces anywhere in the world. ..'Britain’s biggest warship', the helicopter carrier and assault ship HMS Ocean (L12) is the Flagship of the Royal Navy...In her role as a helicopter carrier and amphibious assault ship, Ocean is designed to deliver troops by helicopter or by landing craft – the ship has six helicopters and carries four Mk5 landing craft vehicle and personnel (LCVP)...In 2015 HMS Ocean completed fitting new communications and IT systems which now allows the ship to host a staff, headed by a Rear Admiral, commanding UK and NATO Task Groups.

As well as the ship’s role as the Royal Navy’s Flagship, the headquarters staff in Ocean will be the Maritime Component Commander of the NATO Response Force (NRF) in 2016.

Open Comment Post. Nov 1, 2016.

What's on your mind?

Tell me something I didn't know!

Battle of Xa Cam My. Is this a warning from the past with regard to Company Landing Teams?

Your assignment for the week.  Study the Battle of Xa Cam My and compare contrast that to the planning that is being done for distributed operations/Company Landing Teams/Expeditionary Squads.

As far as the video above?  Give yourself a free hour and half, make sure you have your favorite adult beverage nearby and ignore the style of the speaker.  I'll never understand how people with absolutely riveting information can present it in a style that makes you want to punch walls.  Not because of what's being said but how.

If you're able to make it past the style of the speaker and can dig into what he's saying then you might come to the same conclusion that I have.  We're seeing rehashed Vietnam concepts that are being dusted off and made to fit the times we're in.  I really think someone is making a terrible mistake and I continue to marvel that some maverick Colonel isn't poking holes in this pipe dream.

Anyway, here's the cliff notes if you're too busy to spend an hour watching the vid.  via Wikipedia...

Commencing on March 29, 1966, Operation Abilene was a U.S. search and destroy mission through Phuoc Tuy Province, targeting the 274th and 275th Regiments of the Viet Cong 5th Division and their base areas in the May Tao Secret Zone.[2] It involved two brigades of the US 1st Infantry Division, while the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment and 161st Battery, Royal New Zealand Artillery were also attached.[3]However, the Viet Cong largely avoided battle and contact with the sweeping US brigades was light.[4]
Major General William E. DePuy, as commander of the US 1st Infantry Division, subsequently planned to lure out the Viet Cong by using Charlie Company, US 2/16th Infantry Battalion as a bait. Once the Viet Cong attacked the isolated company, DePuy planned to rush in other rifle companies to destroy the Viet Cong. The next phase of the operation began on April 10, 1966, with soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division moving into positions between Saigon and Vung Tau in search of the elusive Viet Cong D800 Battalion. Unlike previous operations, Charlie Company numbered only 134 men because of casualties, leave and other reasons. In addition to the lack of numbers, the company was also cut off from Alpha and Bravo Companies.

And then this.

On the following day as Charlie Company moved through the Courtenay Rubber Plantation, they encountered sporadic fire with Viet Cong snipers attempting to knock the Americans off one by one. The sporadic fire allowed the Viet Cong to maneuver around the outnumbered Americans. By 14:00, VC officers were spotted around the positions of Charlie Company, directing the encirclement of U.S positions.
By that time it had become clear that the Viet Cong had taken the bait. However DePuy's gamble on other rifle companies arriving in time was thwarted by the thick jungle.
To minimize casualties and break the ambush, Charlie Company formed a circular perimeter with interlocking fire. The situation deteriorated as Charlie Company found itself increasingly isolated with only a distant hope of reinforcement. This was made worse when misdirected artillery fired upon Charlie Company instead of the aggressive VC forces.
The fighting continued well into the night with the desperate Charlie Company throwing all it had at the aggressive Viet Cong using tear gas grenades. However, their efforts were not enough to stop the Viet Cong from breaking through their lines. Through the night, small units from the Viet Cong D800 Battalion breached the American perimeter, retrieving their own casualties and slitting the throats of wounded U.S soldiers along the way.[citation needed]
After five hours of brutal fighting, what was left of Charlie Company formed a tight perimeter, protected by a barrage of artillery fire which came down at a rate of five or six rounds per minute. By 07:00 on April 12, the Viet Cong had disengaged from the battle before other U.S units could arrive.

An Infantry Company from the Big Red One was used as bait to lure the Viet Cong forces into a fight.  Instead of being bait they were isolated and practically destroyed in place.

This unit suffered 80% casualties rendering it combat ineffective even in the old Soviet style order of battle.

Some jack wagon asked the Senior why we were getting massive doses of Marine Corps history during boot camp.  Instead of getting smoked the surprisingly calm answer was so that we'll know what to do, what's expected and what not to do in the future.

With that in mind do you still think Company Landing Teams are a good idea?

Chinese Red Arrow-10 Anti-Tank Missile?

The above pics are from Chinese Military Review (more here).  It shows what they call the Red Arrow-10 Anti-Tank Missile.  Why is this interesting?  Because it bears a striking resemblance to an old US Army project that was abandoned, the EFOGM.

The Army was hot and bothered about being "mobile" (I think they get the bug every 10 or so years) and they had a "Rapid Force Projection Initiative" setup that would build what they're trying to reinvent today.  A powerful medium

and light infantry force that could fight above its weight and win against numerically superior/technologically equal forces.  The EFOGM was suppose to be HUMVEE mounted and able to kill enemy tanks at 15km and even engage low flying helicopters.

So what does this have to do with the Chinese model?  It gives a bit of insight into how they're viewing the future battlefield.  This Red Arrow-10 is suppose to have a range of 10km and can defeat tanks and low flying helicopters.

Did you also note that the weapons carrier is a fully tracked vehicle and that it carries eight ready to fire missiles?  Sorry but I'm gonna beat the drum again.  The Chinese are gearing up for a long distance heavy mech fight and we're going light with distributed Expeditionary Squads. Whoever is right will win the war.  The side that is wrong will fill body bags.

The SCIENCE! Behind the Zombie Apocalypse

Dreams of societal collapse, zombie apocalypse, or some other form of break down is a fantasy for many.  They get to pull out the guns and go crazy.

What should scare everyone is a modern day Spanish Flu.  A modern day pandemic that is resistant to our currently deployed medicines would spread rapidly due to globalization, get into our country before we could stop it and would break everything from our education system, health/medical facilities, Wall Street and even jeopardize our national defense.

Want to know what's scary?  Having a stockpile of weapons when what you really need is a N95 surgical respiratory mask (w/valve).

Regardless.  Talking zombies is fun.

Hybrid T-55's in brush wars..

Thanks to Costas TT for the pics!

I wonder how long it will be before someone gathers up all the pics on the net and puts together a book on the modified armored vehicles used in the fighting in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen.  It will sell well to the modeling/armor enthusiast community.

Blue Coral Snake bite. Nope. Nope. Fuck Nope!

via Gizmodo.

Almost immediately after being bitten, the victim enters into an agonizing catatonic state, with its muscles stuck at full flex. The venom causes all nerves in the body to fire simultaneously, triggering full body spasms. Paralyzed and helpless, the animal is eventually put out of its misery by the killer snake.

This thing just doesn't kill you.  He won't even JUST bite off the juicy bits, no this son of a bitch has leave you paralyzed and fully aware of what's going on.  Nope.  Nope.  Fuck Nope!  

Thank God this thing is native to SE Asia.  If this bad boy was in the US then I'd be in the house or walking around with a 12 gauge on my back.

Full story here (they try and soften things up by saying that this critter goes after other poisonous snakes but don't be fooled..you're on the menu). 

Side note.  I hate snakes.

Open Comment Post. Oct 31, 2016

Well we tried again in yesterday's open comment post and the foolishness continued.  I'm not interested in the sins of your or anyone else's father.  I'm focused on the here and now.

So to clean things up, the ban hammer is coming out.  No explanation, no rationalization just the cold reality that this is not a public commons and I can refuse comments by anyone.  Long short?  Don't act an ass and tell me something I didn't know.

"Great leaders but weak on strategic thinking"

via Stars and Stripes.

The current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, and the former uniformed leader of the Air Force were viewed as "great leaders but weak on strategic thinking," according to a Pentagon official detailed to the National Security Council.
Stolen emails released by WikiLeaks on Sunday revealed a March 30, 2015, email from Christopher Kirchhoff to top Clinton campaign aide John Podesta that offered stark opinions about the nation's top military leaders. At the time President Barack Obama was considering which officer to nominate as Joint Chiefs chairman.

And then this.

"Winnefeld is a lucid thinker in crisis whose grasp of the substance of military options would best serve you and the president in a true emergency," Kirchhoff wrote Defense Secretary Ash Carter. "He is more ready than anyone else for the 3am phone call."
Kirchhoff also writes from his government account that national security adviser Susan Rice was "not opposed to but also not particularly excited by" Kirchhoff's preferred candidate, Winnefeld.
He tells Podesta he's attaching a "final memo" advocating for Winnefeld "in case you want to back channel it to Denis." That's apparently a reference to Obama's chief of staff, Denis McDonough.
Ultimately, Obama himself cited the influence of his relationship with Dunford as one reason he picked him.

Wow.

Did Wikileaks just kick the final piece of dirt on Dunford's legacy?  This is damning.  Of course it can be explained away as only one person's opinion but the way that this is being discussed should raise eyebrows in the General Officer Corps...or maybe not.  They've been so politicized that they're probably aware that the best isn't chosen, just the most popular...or most yielding to the thinking of decision makers.

The Mysterious Hellhound of World War 1

via CuriouslyStrangeHorror Tumblr Page.

The Mysterious Hellhound of World War 1

The tale of The Hound of Mons was originally brought to public attention in 1919 by a Canadian war veteran by the name of F.J. Newhouse, who brought back the gruesome tale from the battlefield. The story was originally published in a 1919 edition of the Ada Evening News from Oklahoma, but was soon picked up by other publications of the time. According to the account, the incident started. A Capt. Yeskes and four men of the London Fusiliers braved the perils of no man’s land in order to carry out a patrol of the area. The patrol never returned. This was not strange in and of itself, remember this was a bloody battle during World War I. But when the bodies of the men were found several days later, it was discovered that something had ripped their throats out and left gaping teeth marks upon the corpses. One night a few days after this, it was reported that soldiers from both sides heard an ear piercing, monstrous howl emanating from the darkness of no man’s land. The bloodcurdling shriek was allegedly so terrifying that some soldiers who had braved battle day after day considered retreating at once.

During the ensuing days more patrols would set out into no man’s land only to be found later in a similar mauled state, throats ravaged by some huge beast. The occasional anguished cries of terror from German soldiers seemed to indicate that they were suffering similar attacks. The eerie nighttime roars also increased in frequency and it was around this time that some of the soldiers on sentry duty along the edges of no man’s land reported seeing an enormous, gray hound skulking about out in the shadows of the war torn chasm between the two enemies. For two years the hound prowled the battlefield of Mons, gaining an ever growing list of victims and instilling horror in the troops. Then, as suddenly as it had appeared the hound was gone and the attacks ceased.

Interesting.  I wonder what other lost tales of the Great War have been lost to history.  It makes total sense too.  Predators and scavengers are attracted to the battlefield.  Either to feed on the dead...or the near dead.

Open Comment Post. Oct 30, 2016.

I'm disappointed about the discussion on the Lithuania govt preps for war with Russia.  Great info that hasn't been seen anywhere thanks to an alert reader and then a conversation that could be had by drunk monkeys.  Not well done people.  Step up your game or just shut up.

I need and want insight from people living in Europe.  I want gaps in my knowledge base filled.  I got none of that.  Just a bunch of school girl squabbling.

That's on my mind.  What's on yours?

NOTE:  I've been watching football and enjoying the great weather and when I check the blog what do I see?  More of the same so comments are closed for today.