Caption to the pics.
Photographer Tanto Yensen captured the incredible moment a mouse and frog became friends in Indonesia. He explained: “The frog opened its mouth to try and eat it but then changed its mind and became friends with the mouse instead."
“We, all of us, love the things we are getting rid of," Berger said during his Wednesday morning the keynote speech at the virtual Modern Day Marine expo held from Quantico, Virginia. “We have to make hard decisions about what we must retain."
The Marine Corps is cutting or reducing these programs to free up money in the budget to reinvest in what is needed in the future fight against China, Berger said.
He's right but it won't be in the Pacific. It'll be in Africa. More from the same article.
The plan would require Marines to “live” and operate well within range of China’s missile defense system, playing a sea denial and skirmish role against the Chinese military as the rest of the U.S. joint force moves in to win the war.
In order to survive against the Chinese missile threat the Corps will have to change its logistics network and work to reduce its signature in order to hide from the enemy, Berger said Wednesday.
Why does he not think (or wargame) China enhancing its sensor network to be able to locate these units? Once located they're meat on the table. I just don't get his thinking. Additionally can anyone explain how we went from an A2/AD penetrating their bubble to operating inside it type thinking? Whiplash anyone? Semper Gumby is one thing but the twists and turns from the Pentagon on the "latest and greatest" strategy (really buzzwords) is beyond tiring. A bit more.
The new technology will likely come out at a large cost, but the Marine Corps does not plan on asking Congress for money to pay for it, Berger said.
Instead the money saved from cutting 2,000 Marines in 2021, no longer supporting tank battalions and reducing the size of F-35B and F-35C squadrons from 16 to 10 planes will be used to buy the equipment necessary to fight the war, Berger envisions.
“We’re not asking for a nickel more the Marine Corps is not asking for any end strength increase any money increase," Berger said.
I've been using the old 150K number as the projected future end strength of the Missile Marines because Amos slipped and let that cat out the bag awhile ago. I'm revising my thinking. If this holds and Berger doesn't ask for an additional cent AND the budget doesn't increase then I'm guessing it'll actually be around 100K. If Berger puts into practice the whiff that I'm getting that he's focused only on China then it might be a bit smaller than even that.
The US Marines, Missile Marines, any Marines can't survive this kind of strategy.
If this plan is allowed to go forward then the Marines (in whatever form) are done.
Berger needs an intervention.
I might have to take this down because although the info I'm passing isn't classified, it does go against some common memes and thoughts. Thoughts that I even once held. '
Let's start with the one that kicked off all this madness. The Floyd Incident. A few things that you need to know. In that dept a knee restraint is allowed. So no matter how bad it looks its allowed in that dept use of force. The LEOs called for an ambulance twice. The second time was to tell them to step it up (get there quicker!). Floyd DID have a mix of drugs in his system. Finally he DID resist getting placed into the squad car.
That is straight from a brief I had.
The next concerns the Taylor Shooting. It too was legit. Taylor's boyfriend was a wanted drug dealer, they had a no knock warrant for his arrest. The kicker? They did announce as police before entry and they had a right to defend themselves when HE started shooting at them.
I'm not saying this. This is from a brief we had on the incident.
We're all getting played. Police are being overly cautious by waiting till all facts comeout so that they can properly give the whole story while a narrative is being allowed to, form in the general public and its obvious that someone in the media feels like the narrative being pushed is of benefit even when they know the facts.
Communicate people.
That is the key to getting shit done the right way.
Our communities need to start talking to and not at each other. That's the only way to get this back on track.
via Breaking Defense.
The Marine Corps is moving quickly to develop a new kind of infantry unit to challenge Chinese claims on small islands in the Pacific, while the Navy is developing new and smaller ships to move and supply them once they deploy.
The new Littoral Regiments won’t be fully fleshed out for several years, but Marine Corps leaders said today they will be bolstered by logistics and air defense battalions once they’re ready to go.
The Corps is wargaming “what assets would we be able to place in that battle space that are very low signature and that give us the firepower that we need to be a relevant force that provides consequences, should we get past the deterrence phase,” Maj. Gen. Kevin Iiams, assistant deputy commandant of Combat Development, told reporters at the virtual Modern Day Marine event today.
The Corps envisions three new regiments, with two based in Japan and one in Guam.
Plans call for the regiment to undergo wargames and experimentation for about three years until a unit is fleshed out and ready to actually deploy.
“Much like our [Marine air-ground task forces] that we have now, there are support elements to it,” Iiams said. “So, we’ll have a littoral combat team; we’ll have a littoral logistics battalion; and we’ll have an anti-air battalion,” Iiams added.
The units are part of the Corps’ effort to move toward building a fast-moving, hard to detect “inside force” that can operate within range of Chinese and Russian weapons ranges while packing a potent offensive punch.
A few things.
* We already knew this. I view this "announcement" as an effort to regain the momentum in Berger's "transformation". He's bogging down and he's running out of time.
* Remember when it was all about penetrating China's A2/AD zone? Now its all about operating inside of it. Amazing isn't it?
* Ships. A new toy is the make or break part of this concept? Stupid thing to place such a huge bet on. Think about it. The US Navy has finally rid itself of the amphibious assault requirement (you're welcome Navy...our Commandant is being batshit crazy) but in exchange the Missile Marines are asking for new ships? While the Navy already is lacking battle force ships that can contribute to the fight (yeah the Marines are talking about shooting from shore...Navy leadership is well aware that the cost benefit analysis of this plan is poor at best)? This is a hard ask for the Navy, a punch in the gut and probably viewed as pure folly.
* They're now talking anti-air? Seriously? This is another crazy part of this plan! Short range anti-air missiles against a storm of Chinese cruise missiles that will obliterate on shore anti-ship missile complexes? Its not gonna work.
* The cost of this plan must be staggering if its taken to completion. Think about it. The Marine Corps is standing up a littoral regiment. Building a division that is focused on China...but in order to do it, it's had to slash tanks, F-35's, CH-53K's and other forces? Is this new plan even affordable?
So much more to talk about but I'm out of time.
Hmm. Don't know how much stock I put in reports like this. I'll wait and see before jumping thru hoops. Don't know if you're aware but we had reports of this earlier this year and late last year and they could never be confirmed but were vigorously denied. Time will tell?The reports emerged after a Russian Air Force Su-30 fighter aircraft crashed in the Tver region during a routine training flight on September 22https://t.co/F8Msg5Whuz
— Defense Brief (@BriefDefense) September 23, 2020
Après une 1ère commande en 2017 de 339 véhicules blindés #Griffon et #Jaguar du programme #SCORPION, la DGA notifie une 2e tranche de production de 313 véhicules aux sociétés Nexter Systems, Arquus et Thales.
— Direction générale de l'armement (@DGA) September 22, 2020
➡️ Ces 271 Griffon et 42 Jaguar seront livrés entre 2022 et 2023. pic.twitter.com/jBtZcbAgME
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">French President Emmanuel Macron demanded an immediate explanation from Russia over the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, warning that Paris would not allow its red lines on the use of chemical weapons to be crossed <a href="https://t.co/Fc5paKhD8I">pic.twitter.com/Fc5paKhD8I</a></p>— Reuters (@Reuters) <a href="https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1308537810966765569?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 22, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
