USMC/Navy Aircraft Readiness Rates and Deployments (Potential Action in Korea).

One thing has irked me after getting back online and reading some of the comments on other blog posts.

People take raw facts/issues I raise and discuss them with no nuance...no understanding...with little (apparent) understanding of how the military works.

The issue at hand?

There have been numerous reports about the poor readiness rates of USMC/USN strike aircraft. God knows  I have bitched about it enough on these pages. What stunned me (and it really shouldn't have) is that a person thinks that because the entire fleet has a poor readiness rating that it would automatically extend to units that are deployed.  More specifically that it would apply to units that were primed (it seems) to enter a read deal shooting war.

What I'm trying to decide is whether its up to me to explain that deployed units get priority...that units that seem ready to go to war would get enhanced support...or if I should expect my readership to understand that.

Long story short?  Every Super Hornet in the US would be stripped of parts to support those airplanes on the carrier if war were to be declared.  That goes for every other plane operating in the theater if the balloon goes up.  Military flights would shut down in the US and in select locations overseas before a unit involved in active combat operations went without the parts they needed.

So yeah those readiness rates are real...but qualified.  I hope I'm clear but if not talk to one of the guys in the Wing that frequent the page.

APC Concept Art by Jama Jurabaev

Open Comment Post. May 30, 2017.

I'm not a Mattis fanboy but this is pretty funny!

Thanks to Max for the link!



I'm not a Mattis fanboy but this is pretty funny...and cool.  Nice to know he hasn't lost that Marine Corps swagger when he switched from a uniform to a suit.

This is an alarming amount of firepower off the coast of Korea...

Zebra Dunn rattled off the power that we're seeing off the coast of Korea and while I initially asked "what the fuck is going on", I've now gone toward the position of saying "oh shit...it's about to get real"!

Zebra was spot on but let me highlight it for you...via Wikipedia...

A carrier strike group[1] (CSG) is an operational formation of the United States Navy. It is composed of roughly 7,500 personnel, an aircraft carrier, at least one cruiser, a destroyer squadron of at least two destroyers or frigates,[2] and a carrier air wing of 65 to 70 aircraft. A carrier strike group also, on occasion, includes submarines, attached logistics ships and a supply ship. The carrier strike group commander operationally reports to the commander of the numbered fleet, who is operationally responsible for the area of waters in which the carrier strike group is operating.

The stunning thing is that we've seen no reaction from China to this move.  Russia is silent on the issue too.

Check this out via Wikipedia...

A fleet or naval fleet is a large formation of warships, which is controlled by one leader[1] and the largest formation in any navy. A fleet at sea is the direct equivalent of an army on land.

If we heard that the 3rd Army was being activated and they were deploying to Saudi Arabia, everyone would be jumping thru hoops and the mainstream news media would be going ape shit.  We're seeing the naval equivalent off the coast of Korea and no one is even batting an eye.  I am dazed and confused by that.  I guess people really don't understand the military and don't get it when they hear the drumbeats of war.

WTF is going on in Korea...3 carriers? UPDATE!

Thanks to Sam for the link!

via VOA

The United States is sending a third aircraft carrier strike force to the western Pacific region in an apparent warning to North Korea to deter its ballistic missile and nuclear programs, two sources have told VOA.

The USS Nimitz, one of the world’s largest warships, will join two other supercarriers, the USS Carl Vinson and the USS Ronald Reagan, in the western Pacific, the sources told VOA's Steve Herman.

This is somewhat alarming.  Everyone is still on alert, 3 carriers are about to be in the region, the rest of the Navy has gone silent, the 2nd ID is acting like they're Delta Force and you don't hear or see them at all...and the usual loud as hell, chest thumping USAF Pacific is church mouse silent.

Wow.  If I didn't know better I'd think we were seeing a combatant commander assembling forces before a planned assault.

Why aren't we seeing more ground troops moving?  My guess is because someone wants to test out the Air-Sea Battle, but that's just crazy talk right?

I mean no one would want to do a quick, hardcore, air - sea assault (meaning aircraft, cruise missiles...not an amphibious assault) on the little fat boy's nuke facilities would they?

Update! Hey guys, I don't think many are understanding what a big deal this is.  When we send a carrier to a region, its not just a carrier but a carrier battle group! This news means we have 3 carrier battle groups near Korea. That is unusual to say the least and a MASSIVE show of force. Think about US commitments worldwide.  If the US is deciding to put this many carriers off the coast of Korea then its not for fun and games. 

More pics of the Singapore Next Generation Armored Recovery Vehicle

Thanks to Benjamin for the link!

Add this one to your blog rolls guys!  Kementah Blog!  The guy is a former defense correspondent that decided to hang up his own shingle and the site is a wealth of information!

I've been trying to tap into more blogs in that region and this is a good one!

Canadian Army @ Maple Resolve Exercise. Parachute Malfunction Practice and Jump...

A post shared by Canadian Army/Armée canadienne (@armeecdnarmy) on May 27, 2017 at 2:58pm PDT

With all the busted knees and backs they should be stressing proper PLFs and backwards PLFs (do they still call it that?)....either way...I'm betting a bit of ground rush was felt by all ... ya can't help but look at the ground instead of the horizon..wonder why that is?!

Shenyang J-31...the beast is real...

Thanks to Enrique 262 for the pic!

If the F-35 doesn't do everything we've been told it does, if the theories about the future air battle isn't what we've been told it is, then we're screwed.

Syrian 5th Assault Corps Overview ...vid by Southern Front (MUST SEE)

Thanks to Noble for the link!



Noble made this statement that bears highlighting...

I've long felt that the Russians have the "secret sauce" to training and leading large-scale forces of "locals", at which, IMO, the US still has a poor track record (from South Vietnam to Afghanistan). Can anyone glean from this description of Syria's 5th Assault Corps what the Russians are doing that we aren't?

That's the 25 million dollar question isn't it?

How can the Russians get so much out of their allies with a much lower expenditure of lives and treasure than we do? 

The UK is screwed...they have a division(+) worth of terrorist roaming their country!

via Times of London

Intelligence officers have identified 23,000 jihadist extremists living in Britain as potential terrorist attackers, it emerged yesterday.

The scale of the challenge facing the police and security services was disclosed by Whitehall sources after criticism that multiple opportunities to stop the Manchester bomber had been missed.

About 3,000 people from the total group are judged to pose a threat and are under investigation or active monitoring in 500 operations being run by police and intelligence services. The 20,000 others have featured in previous inquiries and are categorised as posing a “residual risk”.

The two terrorists who have struck in Britain this year — Salman Abedi, the Manchester bomber, and Khalid Masood, the Westminster killer — were in the pool of “former subjects of interest” and no longer…

23K terrorists?  If we go by the US Army standard of a division numbering around 18K troops, then we can properly state that the UK has a REINFORCED DIVISION of terrorists within its borders!  It's even more powerful than that. We can assume that everyone of them is a shooter, or willing to blow themselves up so in essence they probably have the combat power (insurgent power) of a division and a half.

The UK is screwed.

There is only one answer...

Just joking.

But we seriously need to properly screen people from the UK entering the US.  We probably need to screen people coming from the EU.  We must prevent their terror problem from becoming OUR terror problem!

GR-50 Heavy Military Dropship MK5 Series...Concept Art By Stephane Chasseloup