Thursday, November 28, 2019

Massive turret front on fresh M1A2SEPv3's from factory




This thing is a beast!  I think it retains the crown of the most heavily armored tank in the Western World.

Question.

Will the USMC finally decide to join the US Army and piggyback on their new ride or will we continue on with the M1A1?

Hopefully the US Army can give us a discount.  Consider a domestic "FMS" for a brother service!  Hell in reality they should go one step further and just give us a 120 or so...
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Wednesday, November 27, 2019

SFA stuns Duke + Titanic music



Where did she go?  Always liked her music did she retire?  Anyway this is the perfect song to go along with a perfect upset.
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Never was a Marine division in greater danger of being cut to pieces....



My fear with distributed operations?

We'll see this in the future except instead of facing the combined power of a Marine Division the enemy will be facing scattered pockets of small units that are unable to withstand the onslaught.

How do you dismantle an anti-air network?  You take apart its pieces.  How do you destroy a distributed force?  You take apart individual pieces.

The Chinese are one thing.

Patient.

Deliberate attacks at key nodes of our distributed force will hazard our entire effort.  Over reliance on networked systems that can be degraded, command and control that can be disrupted, and a shaky fires scheme will see us lose.

Learn from history.  Learn from the battle of the Chosin Reservoir.
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HAWKEI Protected High Mobility Vehicle in Canadian Snow (pic)...


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America's trust in the US military is still high but a 10 point drop in a year is concerning.



This is worth watching.

America still trusts its military but a 10 point drop in a year?  That's concerning.

Don't get me wrong.  84% trust is still high.  But it would be a prudent move by someone in the Pentagon to dig into the poll and see what's going on there.

The budget wars are coming.  If trust is falling then it will be harder to get the funding necessary to meet the coming challenge.

My personal issue?  I can't put my finger on cause behind the drop.  Is it the wars?  Is it the F-35? Is it a perception of the military changing...becoming more like other govt institutions that have failed us time after time?

I'm not sure but I look forward to what the so called big brains think.

Update.  Could this be as simple as "get woke, go broke"?
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Rheinmetall sets three new distance records for indirect fire in South Africa




via Press Release.
At a test fire event on 6 November at the Alkantpan Test Range in South Africa, Rheinmetall demonstrated its extensive expertise in the world of indirect fire. In the presence of international partners and customers, the Düsseldorf, Germany-based defence contractor proved how new technologies can be used to boost the performance of systems that are already in extensive use around the world – those which meet the NATO standards set out in the Joint Ballistics Memorandum of Understanding (JBMoU) as well as non-JBMoU systems. During the event, three new maximum effective range records were set using various guns. A G6 howitzer with a 52-calibre gun achieved the longest range ever attained with a conventional 155mm artillery round: 76 kilometres, while the 52-calibre gun of PzH2000 self-propelled howitzer lobbed a shell 67 kilometres. Finally, a field howitzer with a 39-calibre gun attained a range of 54 kilometres.

Rheinmetall Waffe and Munition, Rheinmetall’s centre of excellence for cannon technology, showcased the self propelled howitzer PzH 2000’s main armament in action. Over the past decade, this 155mm weapons system has proven to be one of the world’s most effective conventional artillery systems, capable of attaining the high rates of fire specified in the JBMoU. Developed and manufactured by Denel Land Systems, the G6 used at the live fire event was a new version designed to attain greater ranges in line with non-JBMoU standards.

Using the celebrated Assegai V-LAP shell is an example, modular upgrades of the artillery ammunition were on show at the event. The delegations could see for themselves the marked improvement in its performance with respect both to propulsion and range when fired from 39- and 52-calibre guns. Coupled with technologies from Rheinmetall Waffe Munition and Nitrochemie, Rheinmetall Denel Munition artillery shells exceed previous maximum effective ranges when fired from any conventional 155mm artillery system currently in use.

The maximum range of over 76 km was achieved with a non-JBMoU-compliant gun. This gun served as evidence of the feasibility of a new howitzer with a range of 83 km. Working in close cooperation with the German procurement authorities, Rheinmetall plans to develop and manufacture a new 155mm gun of this type, which will feature a significantly larger chamber and a longer, 60-calibre barrel. The gun should be able to fire existing JBMoU-compliant rounds as well as new ammunition families. On the one hand, these new ammunition types will be optimized with respect to stresses occurring in the new gun, but will also be able to be fired from legacy JBMoU-compliant guns. Here, 83 kilometres serves as the benchmark, since the course correction fuse necessary for precision at these ranges reduces the attainable range by approximately ten percent. This means that the maximum effective range of 75 kilometres specified by the German procurement authorities is attainable.

Rheinmetall Norway’s 120mm Ragnarok motor system and ammunition from RDM round out the Group’s indirect fire profile. This combination lends itself especially well to multipurpose vehicle applications with a rapid-fire capability. It also enables friendly forces to quickly evade counterbattery fire.

The event’s host, the German-South African joint venture Rheinmetall Denel Munition (RDM), welcomed participants from several NATO nations to the event in Northern Cape province on 6 November. As RDM managing director Jan-Patrick Helmsen explains, “Our goal is to be a true partner to the military. That’s why transparent cooperation and trust are so important to us. Tube artillery can provide defensive and offensive fire support. It’s cheaper and faster than rockets or air support, can operate around the clock, and engage targets with great precision using indirect fire anywhere within its range. Of course, range has proved to be a limiting factor in recent years, giving rise to the need for increased operational reach.” During the event, Jan-Patrick Helmsen noted that RDM has already been working to extend the range of artillery shells for some time now. “We’re known for the Assegai family and our V-LAP round, the longest-range conventional artillery projectile. The combination of South African technology and German expertise has already resulted in enhanced range, effectiveness and precision. When it comes to artillery, Rheinmetall takes a totally holistic approach”, declares Helmsen.
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Australian Army M1A1 Deep Fording Exercise...










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McDonnell F-4M(FV)S Phantom II High Variable Sweep Wing Fighter






This plane looks to me like it would have been a MONSTER (assuming it had the right engines to push it along). 

Having said that I really hope the USAF is successful in its push to go back to the "Century Fighters" type development in this modern day.  That would give all the new designs (and improved variants) a chance to at least see the light of day.

To my knowledge the F-4M(FV)S was never built.  Not even a demonstrator.  If it had it would probably have gone the same way as the XF8U-3 Super Crusader, another MONSTER of a plane that didn't get into service.

Are there these kinds of mods floating in the mind of an engineer for the Super Hornet, F-15 etc...?

I bet there is.  Hopefully with the return to past development cycles we'll at least see them on paper.
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Open Comment Post. 27 Nov 2019


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Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Christine Rollins: Woman Killed by Feral Hogs in Texas

via Heavy.com
Rollins was a 59-year-old woman who was attacked and killed by a pack of feral hogs in Anahuac, Texas. She was at her job as a home healthcare worker for an elderly couple who live at the house on State Highway 61 in Anahuac, which is about 50 miles east of Houston.

It isn’t clear how the attack happened and whether Rollins fell first and then was set on by the wild hogs, the Chambers County Sheriff’s Office said on its Facebook page. “At this time detectives are unable to determine if she collapsed due to a medical condition and the fall caused the head injury, or if the animals may have caused the fall and contributed to her death,” the sheriff’s office said.

Her cause of death was officially ruled as “exsanguination due to feral hog assault.”

It appeared that Rollins suffered some kind of animal bites and had severe blood loss, according to KHOU11, a CBS News affiliate. Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne told the station, “I don’t want to go into detail, but, in my 35 years, I will tell you it’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.”

Hawthorne told reporters that the scene was so bad when deputies arrived they initially thought a crime had occurred.
Story here. 

Amazing.  I don't understand some Southern states (to include my own) that require a lic. to kill these things.

Feral Hogs are a true menace.  They can't even be farmed for their flesh unless they're properly prepared (or you're killing piglets...but they always seem to have piglets around) and they're hell on wheels to every other form of wildlife.

This is an animal that rates kill on sight status.


God bless this woman, I hope her memory is a blessing.

Now take another look at the pic above.  This is a rural issue but mark my words.  One day a small child will be replaced with that baby doe.  Laws need to change before that happens.  They won't but it should.

Animal rights activists have no real concept of how life is outside of big cities or the dangers posed by wild animals...especially feral hogs.
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SISU GTP 4×4

Thanks to ChevalDeFrise for the link!


Here
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MRF-E 20.1 Ice-Breaking B-Roll...Video by Cpl. Menelik Collins



This shit does not look pleasant.  To be frank this shit looks like a MASSIVE shock to the system.

Stupid question but I just don't know.

Is this a real danger when working in the arctic?  You just can't watch where you step (like I said I don't know) or is this one of those "character" building rights of passage that the Royal Marines pushed our way (they seem to be real big on this)?
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