Navy Matters on the ACV versus the LTV-4 & AAV....

Oooh.  The numbers are shocking.  But it's got to be more than just numbers in making this comparison right?

I think so.

No preview.  Just head over to Navy Matters (here) and check out the article.  Then come back and let's talk it out.

5th Marine Brigade update

According to source the 5th Marine Brigade is all wheeled while the 1st, 2nd and 6th are all track based.  Now do you get the force of connection?  Our 2030 Force is gonna be light as hell, basically missile based and our Chinese competitors are gonna be zooming around the battlefield in either motorized or mechanized formations.  The future USMC is gonna get skull fucked unless we change course.  By chance the Navy MIGHT win the battle at sea (with their current setup) but the Marines will be filling body bags and trying to dig into the center of the earth to avoid the massed fires that are incoming....the reality is that the US Navy needs to get 110% back into the ship killing business...the ship killing business!  The USMC can't make up for that deficit. Make no mistake.  The Bush Admin with its focus solely on the war on terror and not future fights (which birthed the LCS to fight small boats...a stupid concept if I ever heard one!) did the Navy a disservice, but the USMC shouldn't be forced to make up for that mistake.

Open Comment Post. 19 Apr 2020

Chinese FTC-2000G gets its first customer....

via Alert 5.

Chairman of Guizhou Aircraft Industry Corporation, Wang Wenfei, has revealed that the company had secured an order for the FTC-2000G advanced jet trainer this year.

The company’s wechat channel said the order was place in January and delivery will start in two years time.

Wang added that it was a South East Asian customer that placed the order.

Hate to say it but that's a clean looking airplane.

It's been totally off my radar but that will probably change.  Let's hope the new USAF trainer from SAAB/Boeing can prove superior in the light fighter/attack role.

If not then we're looking at the successor to the BAE Hawk as the plane I consider the former ultimate trainer/attack jet plane.

AAVs @ 24th MEU exercises command and control of amphibious forces....Photos by Staff Sgt. Mark Morrow

U.S. Marine Corps M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicle exits a U.S. Navy Landing Craft Utility on Camp Lejeune, N.C....Photos by Staff Sgt. Mark Morrow

24th MEU exercises command and control of amphibious forces....Video by Cpl. Gumchol Cho

Marines and Sailors with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit conduct Type Commander Amphibious Training at Camp Lejeune, N.C., March 18-19, 2020. The purpose of TCAT is for the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and participating elements to exercise expeditionary command and control and rehearse amphibious operations. (U.S. Marine Corps video by Cpl. Gumchol Cho)

People are observing something unusual on Israeli Merkava MBTs...

Ok #tanktwitter what is this on a IDF Merkava? We saw them last year and there was speculation it was a UAV. Does anyone know? @EliLea1 @strategic_tank @TankerAussie pic.twitter.com/NfpcgsEYGY

— matthews@eclips.engineering (@MatthewsECLIPS) April 18, 2020

Russian unmanned combat ground vehicle (heavy) on display...

Note.  Trying to characterize these unmanned ground combat vehicles.  My basic design is to simply label them light and heavy.  I guess it'll get more detailed in the future but this is where I'm at, at the moment.

Роботизированная платформа семейства "Уран" pic.twitter.com/jJ1AZNc0co

— Specnazopedia (@specnazopedia) April 18, 2020

F-15G Wild Weasel A chinpod was tested in 1983

F-15G Wild Weasel
A chinpod was tested in 1983 pic.twitter.com/SHDTMD4kOL

— Fighterman_FFRC (@Fighterman_FFRC) April 18, 2020

Why are we able to come up with so many good ideas and then just leave them on the table?

The USA is innovative in ways that other countries just can't compete with.  Other nations simply follow our lead and work on improving versions of what we're doing.

But we start down paths and then leave them in the dustbin.

We need to change that.

Some disagree but I believe the coronavirus will  kill defense budgets worldwide. 

This is the time to get smart.  The time to truly innovate.  The time to evolve our systems instead of trying to once again make transformational leaps.

Armor P*rn. Stryker armored vehicles of the 75th Ranger Regiment deployed to Manbij, Syria. Mar 2017

Interesting isn't it.

The US Army's Premier Raid Force even uses Stryker ICVs in the hybrid war in Syria yet the USMC has floated the idea of CUTTING the number of ACVs it will purchase because Berger "does not have confidence" that they'll be useful in the future.

Simply amazing.

The new Marine Corps concept is a clusterfuck from hell.

Open Comment Post. 18 Apr 2020