Jesus! This Canadian Trooper has an identity crisis!

I am truly at a loss on this one.

Canadian Cammies.

18th Airborne Corps patch on one arm.

Canadian flag flying above the same arm.

American flag on the opposite arm.

I'm assuming (don't know) Canadian jump wings below the flag!

Exchange officer?  Some kind of adviser on a humanitarian mission going on somewhere and we're falling in on Canadian forces?

Regardless there is alot going on in this pic.  Dark green soldier just over his shoulder is gazing off into space, obviously uninterested in what's being said.

Colors are cased.  Wonder why.  You drag it out then you let that puppy fly!  Nobody looks exactly thrilled and no one is pristine so maybe someone screwed up and they're hashing it out.

Regardless I'd sure love to know the story behind this bubba's uniform setup.

AB made a terrible bed he now has to lay in...

Beat the odds pic.twitter.com/j31922ROkv

— AB (@AB84) September 21, 2019

Wow.  It's a weird thing.  In addition to being a Saint's fan I'm also part of the Steeler nation.

This AB thing has me spinning a bit.

Dude was such a feel good story.  Homeless as a youth, putting all his efforts into getting into the NFL and becoming a success.

Then.

Then it seemed to unravel in Pittsburgh.

He talked smack about the organization and giving the benefit of the doubt I just thought maybe it was a few egos colliding and that while he wasn't on one of my teams he still was good to go.

He pushed his way out, got a huge payday from Oakland and then the weirdness began at training camp.

The rest is well known but its stunning how quickly he went from having generational wealth to looking for a job and probably blackballing himself from the entire league.

Everyone (myself included) is always focused on generating wealth.  Perhaps the focus needs to change drastically.

1.  Look after your mental well being cause AB obviously needs help.

2.  Look after your physical well being.

3.  Take care of family/those you care about.

4.  After your other priorities (religion etc...) then worry about wealth.

This dude just proved one thing.

As fast as you can aquire things on this planet, you can just as quickly lose them.

AB is a mess and now he's a meme.  I pity him but I can't feel sorry for him (there is a distinction).

He made a terrible bed and now he has to lay in it.

Russian Thermobaric Launchers on exercise...

Thanks to S300V4 for the link!

Naval Guns compared by Engaging Strategy Twitter Page...

Some Naval Gun systems compared.

Just a taster, more to follow. pic.twitter.com/LEUijt8pFC

— Engaging Strategy (@EngageStrategy1) September 21, 2019

Iranians are displaying an anti-air system with Global Hawk kill mark ....

Looks like a display of the actual Sevome Khordad TELAR involved in the RQ-4 shootdown, complete with killmark pic.twitter.com/eidOce92e8

— Aᴍɪʀ (@AmirIGM) September 21, 2019

I don't want war with Iran but they're being provocative as hell.  Unfortunately we're dealing with madmen so a region already in flames will likely explode if we choose even a moderate response.

But that's the problem.

If we don't respond we encourage further attacks.  If we do then we could make a regional war already in progress explode to involve nationstates instead of proxies.

I don't want war.

But I'm tilting toward a dramatic response to put them in their cages or give us reason to bomb them back to their level of thinking.

My desired targets?

Bomb every oil producing installation we're aware of.  Forget the nukes.  Go after their economy and make them suffer.

Add to it a dedicated naval campaign to destroy every oil carrying vessel in port and I think we can wrap up the first stage of the operation.

What if they retaliate?  What if they go after the Saudis again?  I'm not sure the Saudis are worth protecting BUT the Iranians are getting out of hand.  If that's the case then another strike will be necessary.

This time we go after nuke facilities, Quds Force barracks/installations and we even go after the country's leader.  Yeah.  We target the Ayatollah.

I'm really tired of playing with these boys.  If the Ayatollah can't control his generals then he gets to meet his God.

That's my rough sketch.  What's yours?

Algeria is building Boxer IFVs?

#QUICK_NEWS these days #Algeria started the manufacture of German #boxer #IFV in small numbers (200) and has already received all it's parts and soon will pass to the second stage which is to raise the numbers and the proportion of integration of some parts Just like the #Fuchs 2 pic.twitter.com/TUuCIKD978

— KAD-GHANI (@kad_ghani) September 20, 2019

Ok.  I'm just not buying it.

The German govt has to be subsidizing the purchase of these rigs and in a big way.

How did the Boxer go from being one of the most EXPENSIVE 8x8 going to being handed out like chips to Brits?

MV-22 Variants...what happened with that?

I was strolling thru my Twitter feed and ran across a conversation that Nicholas Drummond was having with one of his many followers.  The V-22 was the subject and they were talking about what could have been.

They're Brits so their main focus was on the AEW version of the bird...

Drummond's response was funny so I'll toss that in too...

Humor aside it did get me thinking.  What happened to all those promised V-22 variants (or mods if you like)?

From the same thread this one came up.

This one is particularly surprising because it was said that we were one year away from fielding back in 2015 (story here).

I'm a knuckle dragging American so I like to see shit go boom.  What happened to the rocket firing MV-22?

But circling back to the Brit position (which was the focus of Drummond and his pals that I was eavesdropping on)...what about all those palletized modules they were talking about?

Remember the idea of doing the Merlin job to the V-22?

The V-22 is the perfect example of my frustration and at the same time pride in the Marine Corps.

We see out of the box thinking that appears to be awesome...appears to work. Then just as suddenly we see those ideas dropped and HQMC is off chasing the next shiny toy.

Much love.

Much hate.

Much frustration.

We have the thinking.  We have the moxy to try and maximize the gear that we have.

Either we lack the money OR we lack the follow thru to make it work and to carry it to completion.

If its a money thing then Congress be damned.  If its lacking the will, the work and the competence to follow it to completion then we're screwed up and need to do a self assessment.

Russian Marines conduct large scale exercise in the Arctic (vid)...

Open Comment Post. 21 Sept 2019

I luv this plane!  Wish it went into service.

Portuguese Marines on an exercise. ...with an autonomous mortar vehicle..

Thanks to CoffeeJoeJava for the pic!

Don't know the size of that mortar (maybe 60mm..perhaps smaller) but its moving with the Marines AND its Portugal that's doing it.

For better or worse robotic vehicles WILL BE a feature on the modern battlefield.

The crowd gathering to "storm" Area 51 is kinda strange...

The world we live in.  People will actually heed the call to go to Area 51 to supposedly storm the place using Naruto runs but real deal problems are ignored to the extreme.

We live in a weird, not interesting time.

Sidenote.  How much ya wanna bet that crowd is overflowing with all kinds of illegal drugs, maybe a few weapons etc...additionally I'd love to know who funded this little expedition.

The Chaotic Evil in me wonders if we should actually let them thru and simply charge the lot with trespassing on a govt installation.

USMC...take a look at the Rafael RWS for the ACV...

From my chair the USMC should look at two RWS for the ACV.  The EOS out of Australia and the Rafael.

Testing will reveal which is best but they appear to check all the boxes WITHOUT being unwieldy beyond description.

From these pages to HQMC's ears!