Open Comment Post. 26 Oct 2019

McGregor waded into water he doesn't understand...this dude ain't the only one that feels this way!

Conor @TheNotoriousMMA McGregor dodges a bottle thrown by angry Dagestani man seeking answers for his words about his homeland and @TeamKhabib pic.twitter.com/4kJZUOU58j

— RT Sport (@RTSportNews) October 25, 2019

He better up his security staff.  They take stuff like this serious.

Only the K Can

Awesome vid.  If the helicopter delivers on the promise then unmatched capability.

But I still can't wrap my brain around paying 100 million dollars per copy.

Challenge ever preconceived notion says the Commandant?  Then this has to be on the list.  Can we justify paying such a price for one helicopter?  How about 200 of them?  Would we be better served with 600 (for the same price) CH-47's?

I'm just asking the questions.  The answer will come from HQMC, but the questions need to be asked.

The Italian Army carries out its first firings with the Freccia Armoured Mortar Carrier

Story here.

Our foreign policy is officially batshit crazy...we're now sending armored vehicles to defend oil fields...

via Politico

The Pentagon plans to use armored vehicles to defend northeastern Syria's oil fields from attack by Islamic State fighters, Defense Secretary Mark Esper confirmed today, minutes after President Donald Trump tweeted that the troops are coming home.

“We are reinforcing that position. It will include some mechanized forces,” Esper said at a press conference at NATO Headquarters in Brussels when asked about the new stay-behind force Trump authorized this week.

Story here

Every ounce of doubt is now gone.

This whole exercise was never about ISIS, it was all about regime change in Syria and for some ungodly reason...oil.

The idea of sending a mech force to guard oil fields in Syria is batshit crazy!

It makes absolutely no sense and will end up being a target for every radical group in the region.

This will end badly.

Mark my words this will end in tears.

Turkey, Russia close to reaching agreement on Su-35 fighter jet sale

Thanks to Alpay for the link!

via Daily Sabah

Turkish and Russian officials are discussing the details of the sale of a total of 36 Su-35 fighter jets to Turkey, two months after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's visit to the International Aviation and Space Salon (MAKS) aviation show outside of Moscow.

Sources added that officials are also discussing Turkey's possible involvement in the production of some components of the fighter jets, including its precision weapons and ammunition.

At a visit to MAKS-2019 on Aug. 27, Erdoğan was shown the newest generation of Russian stealth aircraft, the Su-57 fighter jet, Su-35 fighter jets, the Ka-52 military helicopter and Mi-38 transport helicopter.

Soon after Erdoğan's visit, Sergei Chemezov, the head of Russia's state-owned manufacturer Rostec, said they would be willing to sell Russia's top air superiority warplane to Turkey if Ankara "expresses the desire."

Story here. 

Hmm.  What I find interesting is that the Turks aren't biting on buying the SU-57.  What does that tell us?  Either...

1.  They have knowledge of the F-35 and the SU-57 doesn't measure up.

2.  The SU-35 will meet their immediate needs.

3.  They don't have the money available to enter into another development program partnered with the Russians.

4.  They don't trust partnering with another nation after being burned in the F-35 deal.

Can't wait to hear more on this deal...

2nd MAW supports 2d MARDIV in preparation for MWX....pics by Pfc. Patrick King

Blast from the past. Broken Arrow Accidents...

via AtomicHeritage.org

At 11:50 a.m. local time on May 22, 1957, a B-36 aircraft jettisoned an unarmed Mark 17 ten-megaton hydrogen bomb over Albuquerque, New Mexico. The thermonuclear device, weighing 42,000 pounds, was being transported from Biggs Airfield in Texas to Kirtland Air Force Base just miles south of Albuquerque.

Accounts of what caused the incident vary, but one version suggests that a crewmember in the bomb bay was jolted by sudden turbulence. He grabbed hold of the manual bomb release lever to steady himself, causing the weapon to fall through the closed bomb bay doors and plummet to earth.A Mark 17 bomb, the type accidently dropped at Kirtland

The nuclear chain reaction necessary to set off the bomb did not occur because the bomb’s fissionable plutonium component was stored separately aboard the aircraft. However, the device’s conventional explosives detonated, leaving a crater 12 feet deep and 25 feet wide on an uninhabited area of land owned by the University of New Mexico. The Field Command division of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project, responsible for recovery and cleanup operations, reported the incident’s only casualty was a nearby grazing cow, and found that radioactive material did not spread beyond one mile of the crater.

The incident was revealed to the public for the first time in the 1980s, after the Air Force released declassified documents under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). AHF Board member Robert S. Norris, then a research associate for the National Resources Defense Council, remarked that the Mark 17 “is possibly the most powerful bomb we ever made.”

More here. 

Close calls.  Many close calls that we know of and probably even more that we'll never hear about.

Add this to what goes on in the other nuclear powers and its amazing that we haven't seen a catastrophic event.

Open Comment Post. 25 Oct 2019.

Unspeakable savagery by Turkish backed militants...

Note.  I can't post this thing here.  Won't do it.  But if you want to see something chilling then click here.  I don't want to delve into the females in combat thing but I keep seeing it and I wonder what the fuck are they thinking.  This woman submitted to this dude to be carried to her execution instead of fighting him with every ounce of her strength.

I just don't understand it.

Not trying to be macho either.  I've seen it with dudes too and it mystifies the fuck outta me.

Back on task.

The Middle East is a cesspool.  There is a SIGNIFICANT population that resides there that just seems to refuse to be part of modern society.  I don't see the good that will come from allowing them to immigrate to the West.

I know how that sounds but it is real. 

As far as the bigger picture is concerned I don't have the answers.  I do know that our continued missions in the Middle East aren't having a desired effect. I do know that I believe its time for the US to pull out.  I do believe that the Kurds themselves initiated this situation by their call for statehood.  I do believe that Turkey is committing war crimes.

But I don't know what we could do different and still act in the best interests of the US.

Continued military operations for the sake of continued military operations is madness.  Insisting on maintaining an artificial status quo is also madness.

Somehow, someway we've got to extricate ourselves from the lunacy that is the Middle East.

Blast from the past...This day in 1944, Wehrmacht forces recaptured Nemmersdorf, East Prussia, and discovered a massacre committed by Soviet troops.

This day in 1944, Wehrmacht forces recaptured Nemmersdorf, East Prussia, and discovered a massacre committed by Soviet troops.

Citizens were raped, tortured and shot. Some were nailed to barn doors in crucified postures according to witnesses. #WW2 pic.twitter.com/7xd3L5s3DN

— WWII Pictures (@WWIIpix) October 24, 2019

Spanish Navy & Army doing some type of amphibious exercise (Google Translate let me down)...

Hoy estamos realizando los adiestramientos "Coraza Avanzada".
Una colaboración entre el Grupo Naval de playa #GRUPLA, el @EjercitoTierra y el Buque de Asalto Anfibio #Galicia.
Potenciando la interoperatividad de nuestros ejércitos.

!La #Unión hace la #Fuerza¡🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/PJZNw909p3

— Armada Española (@Armada_esp) October 23, 2019