Happy Birthday US ARMY!

I tease you guys but luv ya all the same.

Happy birthday little brothers.

"Before We're Through With Them, the Japanese Language Will Be Spoken Only in Hell."

Cracked magazine is cool.

They've been hitting on some pretty awesome military themes and today's escapade involves the 6 coolest things said by soldiers before killing people.

The title of this post was uttered by Admiral Halsey while surveying the damage after the attack on Pearl Harbor.  The shame of it all is that the US has such a fascinating military history that few people know, the pity of it is that the Navy doesn't advertise stuff like this but the greatness of it all is that a mag like CRACKED dug it up.


Love it.  Check out the rest of it here.

VBTP-MR...is it the SuperAv by another name?

via Shepard International.

Speaking at Eurosatory in Paris on 12 June, Iveco company executives described the agreement with the Brazilian Army's Science and Technology Department, which will focus on the development of a 'wide variety' of vehicle configurations in order to help them fulfil roles including personnel carrier; reconnaissance; and ambulance.
The deal follows a 2009 agreement in which the army contracted Iveco to supply 6X6 Guarani or VBTP platforms as part of a wider 2,044-strong family of APCs. Over 100 units will be manufactured each year at a new manufacturing plant in Sete Lagoas, Brazil from 2013 onwards. A first prototype, which was delivered in 2011, is currently 'performing very well' during tests in Rio de Janeiro, it was added.
Iveco CEO, Alfredo Altavilla said: 'The Brazilian Army has made a decision to follow-on with the development of a new version of Guarani for mechanised brigades. It will include the specific needs of infantry applications and configurations which are now under discussion.'

Officials added that an 8X8 variant would be considered as well as modifications to the internal layout of the existing Guarani platform. A final decision on the configuration is expected in the next few weeks with the new vehicle due to begin testing in 2013 and beyond.

Guarani is an 18-ton platform which is powered by an FPT Industrial Cursor 9 engine with automatic gearbox. It is capable of carrying 11 personnel and can be airlifted by C-130 or KC-390 airframes.
Iveco's programme manager in Brazil, Paolo Del Noce, highlighted export potential in South America, saying: 'There is potential for sales in several world markets. The Argentinian Army has already demonstrated its interest. They are working with Brazil for a procurement in 2013.

Interesting.

Brazil and Iveco are teaming to develop the VBTP-MR into a multi-platform vehicle.  Argentina has also stated that they intend to buy a couple of dozen of these vehicles and it all adds up Iveco having fully planted its flag in S. America.

Additionally with Brazil being the "front man" on this vehicle it should open more doors to unaligned countries...especially those in Africa and Asia.

I have no idea about how this vehicle fits into Iveco's broader sales campaign but it seems to be taking on more importance everyday.

What's confusing is the idea that an 8x8 version will be considered.  Is that just the SuperAV under a different name?

What is the game here?

UPDATE:
My bud BB1984 made a statement in the comments section that deserves to be highlighted...

I was wondering that too. I dug around a little online and Iveco seems to be saying they have three distinct vehicle families:
-- The SAT family, which includes these vehicles
-- The Super AV family
-- The Centauro family

The Centauro series is bigger and heavier and was not designed with amphibious performance in mind.

The Super AV was designed with amphibious performance in mind but also apparently with a goal of simplifying the overly complicated 8x8 drivetrains that are now common.

The difference between the Super AV line and the SAT line isn't clear to me. Iveco's site seems to say they are distinct, but not how they occupy different niches.

If I had to guess it would be that the SAT incorporates more truck components to keep costs down and make it more produceable in Brazil, but that is just a guess. 

It possible but it makes me wonder.  The VBTP-MR is also suppose to be blast/IED resistant.  If it can be done with mostly automotive parts...and if they're looking to build it into an 8x8, while retaining its amphibious capability...and if they're successful in simplifying the complex drive system then what is the difference between the classes of vehicles?  Questions remain but BB1984 has at least given us a starting point.

The real argument against women in the Infantry.

BlackFive has a post up defending the decision to allow women to attend Ranger School.  A commenter named Grim has made the most fact based case against it....

Grim said...

A better argument: women are structurally at least four times as likely to be seriously injured in this kind of intense physical training, and possibly -- if the British army's experience is telling -- as much as eight times as likely.
This leaves three options for implementation, all of them bad.
1) Hold the line. Qualified women attend at full speed. Through no fault of their own, but simply due to the physics of body construction, we lose some of the best female soldiers in the Army to career-ending injuries; and/or we lose years of their careers to recuperation. This attains the stated end -- women who survive and get the tab will be due much respect -- but at a very high cost to the force, and the country.
2) Make another line. Men continue to attend at full speed. A second track for women, with a lighter physical load, is developed. Women with Ranger tabs end up the butt of jokes instead of getting the intended respect, because everybody knows they got the tab for less effort. This fails to attain the stated purpose of the reform, as the Ranger tab won't get the women any respect. This also severely damages the Ranger ethos, by making some Rangers more equal than others. A two-track elite is not an elite; only the top of the two tracks is the elite.
3) Abandon the line. Move the physical standards back to levels women can complete without sustaining the kinds of disabling injuries associated with the current physical fitness standards. This fails to attain the stated end, and actually achieves what Killcullen is worried about: it destroys the ethos associated with the Rangers.

And that's the real issue.

If women are allowed to serve in the Infantry...or go to Ranger School then you're going to have to lower the standards.  There is no if's and's or but's about it.

If you don't lower the standards then you're going to lose some outstanding individuals that could have served admirably in another career field.

If you make it a two track system where standards for women are different from men then you have just solidified them as second class warriors.

Men had to do more and be better to get to the same place.

THIS SOCIAL EXPERIMENT GOES AGAINST THE VERY FIBER OF THE MARINE CORPS AND ARMY.

This will end badly and the same feminist that are pushing this idea would never allow their own daughters to go through the training.  The same men that are so OPEN MINDED and don't care are the same men that would cringe at the thought of a woman they love going through this training.

Guys who are so behind this idea are either full of shit, lying to themselves or being politically correct.  Probably all three.

Australian Tiger. Wallpaper worthy.

The Siege. DVD movie of the week.

Your DVD movie of the week is "The Siege"...Watch it and think....what if we had a couple of active terrorist cells operating along the East coast corridor from Virginia up to Boston and over to New York City.

First custom gear, now custom weapons?

U.S. Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Michael Nelson, a Security Force member of Provincial Reconstruction Team Farah, provides security during a key leader engagement in Cin Farsi Village, Farah province, Afghanistan, June 9. SECFOR is made up of National Guard infantrymen out of Alaska who are responsible for ensuring the safety of everyone assigned to PRT Farah.

Wow.


Steve at the Firearms Blog caught this and it has me saying what the fuck!


Thats an ADCOR 10.5 inch upper on that soldiers weapon!  Gucci gear but is it authorized?  Is it effective at the distances required?  If it isn't then is this soldier risking the lives of his fellow troopers by not being able to provide adequate fire support?


The rapid fielding initiative has gotten out of hand.  Super expensive gear that doesn't work any better than the standard issue is being handed out like candy and no one is calling bullshit on it.  If this is an unauthorized weapon then the Army has much bigger worries on its hands than implementing DADT and getting women into combat.


If an unauthorized weapon is being used then the Army is fucked up from the floor up.  This IS BASIC SHIT!

Steroid mad thugs.

A short story about Syria's death squads.

via the Mirror.

“They used to smuggle weapons and drugs but now they are butchers,” said Michael Weiss, a Syria expert at the UK-based Henry Jackson Society. In return for letting them operate above the law, the Shabiha act as Assad’s enforcers. They murder opponents and terrorise Syrians into obedience. The Ghosts are fanatical followers of the Muslim Alawite sect which rules the country and have been brainwashed into thinking the Sunni majority are enemies.
Now the Shabiha, who can be seen in action in videos, are being told they are fighting for their lives as they will face revenge if the regime is overthrown. A source said: “Their mission is to terrorise the civilian population and conduct ethnic cleansing.”
They have been blamed for the murders of 108 civilians – including 49 children – in Houla a fortnight ago. The Shabiha are then reported to have shot dead 12 workers in Qusayr before 78 villagers were slaughtered in Qubair last week.
Dr Mousab Azzawi, who runs the Syrian Network for Human Rights from London but had treated some of the Shabiha in Latakia, said recently: “They were like monsters. They had huge muscles, and big bellies and beards.
“They were very tall and frightening and took steroids to pump up their bodies. I had to talk to them like children as the Shabiha likes people with low intelligence. That is what makes them so terrifying — the combination of strength and blind allegiance to the regime.”

Read the whole thing....I still don't think we should get involved but this will get nasty. nastier.

USNI blog news. Haynie got slapped down...again.

You have got to go to the comments section at USNI Blog.  

Haynie is on a feminist jihad cleverly disguised as a desire to improve conditions for all Marines.  UltimateRatioReg dismantles her argument, turns around and body slams the morons that attempt to come to her rescue---- its a sight to behold.  Oh and she gets prickly too.  I can almost hear the tears!

11th MEU. Is this rifle standard issue or Recon specific?

PACIFIC OCEAN (June 9, 2012) Sgt. Brenden Grace, assigned to the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (11th MEU), demonstrates to Lt. j.g. Stephen Logan how to properly handle an M4 rifle on the aircraft elevator of the amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island (LHD 8) during weapons familiarization training. Makin Island and embarked Marines assigned to the 11th MEU are deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet Area of operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Dominique Pineiro/Released)

The caption isn't specific but is the good Sgt with the Raid Force or line units?  If he's with Raid, read that to mean Recon which wouldn't make the rifle and its accessories unique.  If he's in one of the line units then wow.  Silencers have been talked about but to my knowledge, no one has acted on it for conventionals...new holsters yes, Vickers slings yes, nsn numbers for unit purchases of automatic or custom knives yes...but for this potentially revolutionary tool for conventional units...no.

On a sidenote I am still amazed that the US Army and Marine Corps are calling a carbine a rifle and complaining because they're not getting the performance of a rifle in that smaller package.  Additionally with all the stuff being put on these carbines they're now as heavy as a full size rifle.  You add a can to them and you have the length of a rifle too.  Like I said.  Amazing.

Tornado GR4 with Storm Shadow Cruise Missiles.

F-35A AF-19 First Flight

Lockheed Martin test pilot Al Norman was at the controls for the first flight of F-35A AF-19 on 9 June 2012 at NAS Fort Worth JRB.

Stryker Brigades are killing the Army.

The US Army is losing its future in pursuit of its Stryker concept.  Check this out from AOL.

To bypass these chokepoints, the wargamers experimented with a concept called "seabasing," putting an entire Army Stryker brigade afloat on ships and then landing them at minor harbors -- fishing villages, for example -- or even bare beaches without ever going through the ports. In some ways it was a 21st century version of the D-Day landings 68 years ago, albeit with much smaller forces going much longer distances. Army leaders were excited about the idea, but the actual players struggled with how to implement it. Unlike some past simulations, this year's wargame didn't handwave the logistical difficulties of such an operation or postulate future technologies that would somehow make the problem go away.

"This time they forced us to only play capabilities that are in the current [budget] program, which added a good dose of reality," said one participant, who asked to remain anonymous. Today, for example, the US military flies personnel overseas and only sends their equipment and supplies by sea, which means it has few ships designed to accommodate large numbers of troops. So the wargamers improvised by chartering two civilian cruise liners. They also had to hire civilian vessels to carry some supplies; that proved a problem when the simulated enemy mined the sea lanes, scaring some commercial transports into turning around without making key deliveries - something military crews would not have done.

The wargame also showed a bottleneck in the ability to get troops from the transport ships to shore without going through the easily targeted major ports. To unload from the big seagoing ships onto small landing craft while both are out at sea, the military relies on something called a Mobile Landing Platform, a kind of floating, self-propelled pier that can serve as a port facility in mid-ocean. The problem, the same participant said, is that "there's only three mobile landing platforms that are currently resourced" in long-term budget plans, and some of them were needed in a second simulated conflict underway at the same time in the Pacific. "We had to fight for those to enable the seabase," he said.

So while seabasing is a neat idea, it turns out the Army needs more ships of specific types, such as those Mobile Landing Platforms, in order to implement it. But those additional ships aren't only not in the current budget plan: They would never be in the Army's part of the budget at all. Like long-range cargo planes, seabasing is something the Army has to beg its sister services to buy so they can get it to the fight. That's not a happy fact for the Army to encounter, but it's a lot better to encounter it in simulation than in a real shooting war where it's too late to fix anything.

"One of the great challenges is being honest with yourself: You have to actually identify what you can do and where you have real difficulty -- and that is happening," said a civilian participant. "The thing is, we have to be very clear now. The stakes are much higher from both a bureaucratic and strategic sense... Right now DoD [the Department of Defense] is making hard choices about what capabilities they have to invest in and what capabilities they feel can take some risk in, [and] it's very important that the Army test their real demands pretty hard before DoD makes any of their choices permanent."

Notice whats at work here?

They didn't include the 82nd Airborne...they could have flown straight into the warzone and parachuted in...right on top of the refugees.

They didn't include the 101st...they could have teamed with Marines on an LHA or even converted an oil tanker and flown straight to the refugees.

But a mechanized brigade...that you have to supply and replenish?  That you have to support in the field?  That isn't designed for amphibious operations?

The game players in this scenario probably had to play the game with certain units.  The problem for the Big Army is that its choosing the wrong units to get into the Pacific.  Light Infantry divisions.  Airborne and Air Assault divisions will be the Army's saving grace in the Pacific.

Not Stryker Brigades.

The sooner the Army realizes it the better it will be.

2nd Battalion, 10th Marines....

U.S. Marines with Golf Battery, 2nd Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment (2/10) set up security and await an Explosive Ordinance Disposal team during a patrol through local Afghan settlements in Habbib Abad, Afghanistan, May 28, 2012. 2/10 conducted the patrol to interact with and record data from the local population of Boldak, in support of the International Security Assistance Force.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Robert Reeves)

An artillery unit doing grunt work.  And aren't we suppose to be cutting the number of infantry battalions?

Why the Marine Corps is broken and whats up with USNI?

First click here to read an article by Haynie at USNI Blog.

Then read the answer given to BJ by UltimateRatioReg.....

While the examples you cite do indeed separate generations, the divide is cultural and not necessarily age-related. In fact, one could point to long periods of peace and then periods of war as having formed those generations, irrespective of the specific duration of each periods.
No, the generation gap (the “Old Corps” always ended the day before you came in) is not the problem. Peacetime militaries become bureaucratic, because the can, and not pay a high price. Until some supply sergeant is making soldier sign for ammunition while the Zulus are massacring 24th Foot at Isandlwana.
The younger generation earns the respect of the older one by performing to an established standard. Upholding the good name of the unit. Traditions of things endured and things accomplished, such as regiments had down forever, as it were.
Those young Marines are magnificent. As good as any who assaulted through objectives with M-1 in hand. Micromanaging, and zero-defects, and stifling of new ideas are not generation-dependent. They are the result of a culture that has lost its focus on what is important. Training to fight and win wars against our nation’s adversaries. That is a lot more important than perceived “generational conflict”.
When we bend the armed forces to accommodate raising families, sabbaticals, non-military related educational opportunities, and journeys of self-discovery, we are as lost in our focus as are those who think we need Cinderella liberty at fleet week and breathalyzers in the workplace.
As a LtCol, I walked patrols with PFCs who were not even born when I joined the Corps. And we had a Chief Corpsman who could draw on his IRA without penalty. So your assumption isn’t correct.

Now re-read the article by Haynie.

Now answer this question.  Which one is describing the kind of Marine Corps you would want to serve in?

45 Commando's Falklands Yomp.

A forced march of 50 miles and upon completion you go into action against enemy forces....

How many forces could do it today?

Could you say confidently that a US Marine Corps or US Army unit could?  Quite honestly I'd lay money on the Rangers being able to get it done....maybe a battalion or two at Camp Pendleton or 29 Palms (if they have a balls busting CO that doesn't give a rats ass about political correctness)....perhaps the the 82nd....but I bet it isn't many.

I wonder.

New helos in Okinawa....

SIDENOTE:  This is just sad.  First we had a Marine Corps journalist post a story that has the Marine Expeditionary Unit supporting the Maritime Raid Force and then we have this person proclaiming that the 31st MEU "leads humanitarian missions around the Pacific with the help of aircraft like the UH-1N helicopter"...she didn't even get the aircraft designation right in the caption to the video.

Its here....the USMC's forward deployed elements are now MEALS ON WHEELS.  Put away the weapons.  Close up shop.  USAID can do this mission.  Or the Salvation Army...or Catholic Relief Society or any of a number of other organizations.  The pussification of the Marine Corps needs to stop.  I can guarantee you this.  Young men aren't joining the Corps to be part of a glorified relief society.

Oshkosh. Is trouble ahead?

L-ATV

M-ATV

M-ATV Special Forces

TAPV

MTT

MTVR

OSHKOSH had the most to gain and the most to lose in the Canadian TAPV contest.  The problem is that its own vehicles are eating each other.  The only other manufacturer in the defense realm that has a similar problem is maybe...maybe BAE but their portfolio is so much larger that it really just lets them customize vehicles to the needs of the user.

Take the M-ATV.  It has spawned numerous clones but probably most disturbing is that I see nothing in the pipeline once the JLTV is chosen.  Unless OSHKOSH wins they're gonna be in trouble.  Tamir of Defense Update posted a story that they're looking to win orders in Africa and the Middle East but that's a longshot...

On the big truck side its not much better.  The MTT and MTVR eat each others sales and it even flows further up the line.

OSHKOSH is ripe for someone to swoop in, separate the Defense from the Commercial line....buy the Defense line and then pare down the number of vehicles it has in production.

At the end of the day, the MTVR, FMTV and one of the heavy trucks LVSR or HEMT will survive.  OSHKOSH Defense is in trouble.

USS New York (LPD 21) and USS Enterprise (CVN 65)

U.S. 5TH FLEET AREA OF OPERATIONS (June 9, 2012) The amphibious transport dock ship USS New York (LPD 21), left, transits alongside the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65). New York was commissioned in November 2009 and is currently on its maiden deployment, while Enterprise was commissioned in November 1961 and is on its 22nd and final deployment after more than 50 years of service. Both ships are currently deployed to the region in support of maritime security operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Scott Pittman/Released) 120609-N-FI736-409

Marine Week---Cleveland....

Photos by Cpl. Marcin Platek