Wednesday, October 07, 2020

French Griffon & Jaguar conduct naval/amphibious integration tests...

 



Here

French Scorpion Program Vehicles @ PCAT 2020

 





China builds a Wiesel clone...

 


Here

The Chinese have absolutely NO shame. Ya know what the problem is though.  They'll copy it and product improve it!  Diabolical!

Now we know what will happen to the Marine Corps LHA/LHDs...the Missile Marine Corps will turn them into Light Carriers to augment the big deck carriers. But what about the LPDs?

 via Naval Institute News.

Esper’s Battle Force 2045, which he rolled out during an online event today at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, lays out plans for achieving a fleet of 500 manned and unmanned ships by 2045, and a fleet of 355 traditional battle force ships by 2035 – all in a resource-constrained budget environment.


First, he said, the fleet would have a larger and more capable attack submarine fleet of 70 to 80 SSNs.


“If we do nothing else, the Navy must begin building three Virginia-class submarines a year as soon as possible,” he said in the event during his opening remarks. “If we do nothing else, we should invest in attack submarines,” he repeated later during a question-and-answer session.


Esper also called for refueling a total of seven Los Angeles-class SSNs, compared to the five or six the Navy had previously discussed, and invest heavily in the SSN(X) future submarine program.


Second, Esper stated that nuclear-powered aircraft carriers would remain the most visible deterrence on the seas, but he said a new future air wing would have to be developed to increase their range and lethality, and that light carriers would have to supplement the Nimitz- and Ford-class supercarriers to help achieve greater day-to-day presence while preserving limited CVN readiness, which has been strained recently by overuse and backups at maintenance yards. Up to six light carriers, possibly based on the America-class amphibious assault ship design, would operate both instead of and alongside the CVNs.

Here

I've wondered what the Missile Marines were gonna do with the LHA/LHD since they would no longer be needed for the amphibious assault mission (remember Berger tossed the idea of amphibious forcible entry into the trash can) and now we know.

They're gonna use them for a bullshit light carrier mission.

Never mind that they're not designed for that role.

Marine Aviation has been tossed a temporary bone to keep them at the table (and prevent them from joining with the Ground Combat Element in being repulsed by this idea).

I say temporary because all that money the Missile Marines are tossing to aviators that left the service (up to 100 thousand dollars to return to active duty) is just a short term fix.

Check this out from the same article.

Sixth, he said, the Navy would need unmanned aircraft launching off carrier decks to cover all the missions of today’s air wing: fighters, refueling, early warning and electronic attack. He alluded this recently while speaking to sailors aboard USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70), USNI News previously reported.

Read the article to get the flavor for yourself and develop your own opinion.  Oh but let me leave you with this.

Remember me telling you that those Light Amphibious Ships was a shatterpoint for this whole concept?  Behold!

 And lastly, he pledged his support for the Marines’ Force Design 2030 effort and the new classes of ships and connectors needed to accomplish this, though he added that more work would be needed in this area.

Amazing.

The current individual sitting in the Commandant's chair will be a lame duck by the end of next year.  The bubba sitting in the SecDef's chair will be gone sooner no matter how the election turns out.

These plans are D-E-A-D. DEAD!

They worked hard to produce a steaming pile of shit. 

Sidenote.  The answer to what will happen to the LHA/LHDs has been answered. So let's assume that this abomination actually gets done.  What happens to the LPDs the Marine Corps demanded it needed and now a few years later appears to have no need for?

Patria AMVxp integrated with Elbit Systems MT30MK2

Tuesday, October 06, 2020

NATO BATTLEGROUP LATVIA @ Silver Arrow 2020

Their minds just snapped via ZuluFucxs Instagram Page...

 

zulufucxs “It was the fourth day after we landed, I was all alone, lying on a slope on the edge of an airfield, when I heard some ships’ horns sounding. And cheering started from guys in the foxholes.

I casted my eyes to the summit of Surabachi, and there was the flag! What a feeling that was! I felt ecstasy! I knew it was all over. So many of us had been killed. We made it through... I quickly realized it wasn't over at all.

I endured the entire 37-day fight, day after bloody day.

I hate to use this term, but Iwo Jima was really a killing ground. Hate to say that, but that’s exactly what it was.

I came across Marines sitting on the ground, hands to their faces, sobbing their hearts out. Their minds just snapped.

Toward the end we were told to go pick up the dead Marines and put them on the edge of the road to be picked up by truck and taken to the cemetery. Many of them have been laying there for a week or so. A lot of guys grabbed a dead Marine by the arm or leg—and it would come off.

Long trenches were scooped out in the ground, then row after row of dead Marines were wrapped in their ponchos and laid to rest. I remember looking for the grave sites of my buddies who were killed.. I then realized I was looking over the graves of thousands of young Americans who gave their lives, many too young to have learned what life was all about.

That wasn’t a pleasant sight, as a matter of fact, I don’t remember ever seeing a pleasant sight on Iwo. Except the ship when we left.

Out of the 50 men I landed with, only myself and 5 others survived." – PFC Bill Montgomery, 2nd Bn, 26th Marines, 5th MarDiv, Iwo Jima survivor.

Astounding gallantry and bravery tossed into the trash heap of history in pursuit of a new "operating concept" and "transformation".

Our honored dead are probably mortified.  


Another Boxer ICV pic from the Australian Army Instagram Page...

 


German "HEER" Steel on the heath...

 






Non-White Proud Boy says that the entire organization denounces white supremacy?

Amazing.

The old Soviet Union spy masters predicted this.  They said we would live in a "land of mirrors" and wouldn't be able to tell up from down before it was all over.

I wonder if historians will say that while we chest thumped about winning the cold war, in actuality both sides lost? 

This dude gets it when it comes to the Coronavirus...

 


This guy gets it!

Of course we protect the weak, the infirm, the feeble, the elderly and those that are at risk....BUT...the rest of society moves forward boldly!

Instead those that are supposedly experts want to stall out not only the economy but our lives!  How many will die because they weren't able to get medical treatment for current illnesses?  How many will die because of poverty that they were forced into because of the economic distressed caused because they couldn't work?  How many families will fail?  

My point?

WE HAVE ALLOWED THE CURE TO BE WORSE THAN THE DISEASE!  WE WERE ONLY SUPPOSE TO FLATTEN THE CURVE...WE WERE TOLD TO EXPECT THIS DISEASE TO LAST FOR ONE OR TWO YEARS!

Somehow that has been forgotten and everyone is demanded to be made to feel "safe".

There is NO safety in life!  Life itself is RISK!

The Lynx and Boxer look AWESOME coming off that Antonov....