CH-53 admin movement...pics by Lance Cpl. Jacob Pruitt

Marines with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit load into a CH-53E Super Stallion with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 161 (Reinforced) to be transported to the USS America (LHA-6), April 10, 2017. The 15th MEU utilities air assets to transport personnel between ships during PHIBRON-MEU integration. The 15th MEU’s rapid ability to mobilize people and equipment makes the amphibious force uniquely postured to respond to any mission around the globe. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Jacob Pruitt)

New North Korean Pokpung-ho Tank. Should we follow their lead?

Thanks to DWI for the link!

This is an interesting concept.

Yeah this is a N. Korean idea but should the USMC follow their lead?  Think about it.  The chance of us acquiring a family of vehicles is slim.  Add to it the idea that we will have enough to protect our maneuver force is even slimmer.

But what if we added a simple anti-aircraft mount to each of our vehicles?  Does it make sense especially when you see the widespread use of drones now?  So maybe not missiles but anti-drone systems?

Regardless we can learn from every force on the planet...even the N. Koreans.

Will we strike?

This is turning into an interesting weekend.

I think we're all seeing the same thing here.  The US is coiled and ready to strike.  The N. Koreans will not sit idly by.  They have a reputation to save.  If they back down now they'll lose face.

Is the little fat boy wise enough to walk away from a fight that he can't win? Have we pushed him into a corner that will demand that even if he fights and loses its still a win?

That's the problem here.  We haven't left him with a credible way to back down.

Pass the popcorn.  This is gonna be an interesting watch.

The planning to strike N. Korea has been going on longer than you want to believe.

I haven't posted on it but I've been monitoring several reports that indicate a decapitation strike on the little fat man might be what the preemptive/retaliatory strikes talked about if the N. Koreans test a nuke weapon this weekend are really about.

What the fuck am I talking about?  Check this out from the Diplomat (Jan 10, 2017)...

The South Korean government argues a swift targeted operation against North Korean leadership will serve as a prepared retaliatory strike against any North Korean provocation, doubling as a deterrent to North Korean nuclear ambitions. The thinking goes, “Cut off the head of the snake and the whole regime falls apart.” The logic is clean, simple, and completely idiotic. This kind of thinking is fortune cookie wisdom masquerading as strategic thought.

This this from Sputnik (Aug 10, 2016)....

 "Some Chinese scholars and policy makers began to talk about supporting ‘surgical strikes’ and decapitation’ by the US and South Korea as one policy option," said the esteemed professor. "More radical proposals indicate that China should change the leader, send troops across borders and station in DPRK, force DPRK into giving up nuclear and beginning opening up and reforming."

Then this from USA Today (yesterday)...

 The Trump administration has reportedly been drawing up contingency plans for solving the problem before millions of American lives are at stake. National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster said Sunday that deploying forces in the region was prudent and that President Trump has asked for “a full range of options to remove that threat to the American people and to our allies and partners in the region.” The Trump administration isn't the first to consider preemptive military action against North Korea. Defense secretaries from the Obama and Clinton administrations made the case in 2006. But active counterproliferation against North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs — which is to say, destroying them — has always been risky because of the threat of millions of North Korea troops swarming south.
However, there may be a solution that at least lowers the risk. During last month’s combined exercises in South Korea, U.S. forces participated in a simulated decapitation strike to take out North Korea’s leadership. 

I was wrong.

Think Tanks, Neo-Cons and the National Security establishment have been planning this type of action for quite awhile.

Looking at things in this light (sorry I didn't remember this sooner tribe members) it seems like a well laid plan is being carried out.  The meeting with the Chinese President MIGHT (pure speculation) have been to hammer out a few details.  The strike in Syria might have been a way to "acclimate" the American people to sudden military action (as was the dropping of the MOAB in Afghanistan yesterday).

If we see missiles fly this weekend, it was because this shit has been planned for at least 6 months or more.

How about a little sauce for the goose?  Check this out from Business Insider...

The annual Foal Eagle military drills between the US and South Korea will include some heavy hitters this year — the Navy SEAL team that took out Osama bin Laden, Army Special Forces, and F-35s — Korea JoongAng Daily reports.
South Korean news outlets report that the SEALs, who will join the exercise for the first time, will simulate a "decapitation attack," or a strike to remove North Korea's leadership.
Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Gary Ross later told Business Insider that the US military "does not train for decapitation missions" of any kind.
Yet a decapitation force would fit with a March 1 Wall Street Journal report that the White House is considering military action against the Kim regime.
The SEALs boarded the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and should arrive in South Korea on Wednesday, Joon Gang Daily reports.

Using open source materials we can put together a pretty circumstantial but in my eyes convincing argument that China, S. Korea, the US, and Japan are all in this and that the "war package" is already assembled.

They did this in the open and we all missed.  I again apologize.  I should have seen this sooner. 

Offensive Air Support 5...pics by Cpl. AaronJames Vinculado

Open Comment Post. April 14, 2017.

The amazing art of Antonis Karidis

Check out all his amazing work here.  I love this guy, he just puts out fantastic stuff. 

US prepared for preemptive strike if N. Korea does a nuke test this weekend.

MSNBC is reporting that the US military is on full alert (meaning the 2nd ID boys are jumping thru hoops) with several Tomahawk firing subs and ships diverted off the shore of N. Korea.

The reason?

Several high placed Trump admin officials state that the US is prepared to conduct a preemptive strike if N. Korea does a nuke test this weekend.

My take?

What the fuck is McMasters, Dunford and Mattis thinking?  Are they shitting me?  Trump is turning into a fucing tool of the Neo-Cons.  I'm SERIOUSLY on the verge of going from cautious optimism to wall punching fury.  Trump is really starting to make me believe he's a fucking lunatic.

I want to still think that he's gonna follow thru on his campaign promises but if this is true and not part of some kind of elaborate psyop campaign then I owe my readers an apology.  If this is true then you guys were right.  I helped elect a fucking madman.

Boeing/Sikorsky future attack helicopter concept.

pic/story via The Drive.

On April 10, 2017, Lockheed Martin, which owns Sikorsky, posted a sales video online that included a depiction of the “attack variant” of their FVL – Medium (FVL-M) contender.  The Army specifically wants the FVL-M to replace both the UH-60 Black Hawk transport helicopter and AH-64 Apache gunship. It has not specified whether or not the transport and attack versions need to be based on the same aircraft, but obviously this would be very beneficial, and Sikorsky and Boeing appear to have chosen to develop two separate, but highly related designs with common components.

Story here. 

Do you ever think that the Marine Corps pushed too many concepts that just weren't ready too soon?  Do you think that instead of waiting for those concepts that have been bought to fully mature before buying more (think V-22) and instead going with what works now (what I'm proposing is to cancel the remaining V-22 purchase and instead go with S-92s) that we could have saved a metric shitload of money?

I do.

What does this mean if the Future Vertical Lift actually delivers?  It means that the Marine Corps will be stuck with obsolete vertical assault lift.

If, and it's a big IF, the tech for the FVL delivers (especially if after years of trying the F-35 continues to disappoint) then the USMC will be looking at another budget trainwreck.

US just dropped a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb in Afghanistan.

Thanks to Matthew for the link!

via CNN.

The US military has dropped an enormous bomb in Afghanistan according to four US military officials with direct knowledge of the mission.

A GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb — nicknamed the "Mother of All Bombs" (MOAB) — was dropped in at 7 p.m. local time Thursday, sources said.

This is the first time a MOAB has been used in the battlefield, according to the US officials.

Military sources said the target was ISIS tunnels and personnel in the Achin district of the Nangarhar province. The military is currently assessing the damage.

This munition was developed during the Iraq War but was never used in the battlefield.

What kind of target did they find where a MOAB was the answer?  

Why hasn't the Trump admin produced evidence of Syrian chemical attack?

Ok.  This is gonna piss alot of you off but I'm gonna throw it out there.  I just watched snippets of Assad's interview and while I know for a fact he will lie at the drop of a hat,I wonder.

Why hasn't the Trump admin produced evidence of the Syrian chemical attack?

The Pentagon is used to providing documentation and radar tracks of these type things.  We've seen it more than a couple of times in the past.  As a matter of fact they would provide a spokesman to walk the press thru every bit of information they had to make the case to the public.

They're tardy this time.

Yeah.  I know this takes me to some murky areas.  Yeah!  I know that this is exactly what Russian Security/Intel Services want talked about.  But I still can't wrap my head around this "so called solid evidence" as claimed by Trump.

How they could get solid proof that Sarin gas was used so quickly (before the strike) confused the hell outta me.  The fact that the UN agency responsible for keeping tabs of this shit is sitting on its hands now is also curious.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not making accusations but wondering why they don't put this issue to bed.

If they don't do so in a couple of days then we're headed toward some really uncomfortable territory.  If (and it's a huge IF) the rebels were able to stage an incident so convincing that the US military went off half cocked then we're in trouble.

My hope.

I hope the Pentagon and the Trump administration gets out in front of this and makes their evidence public.

USMC 4th Tank Bn (M1A1 Abrams) & RoK Marines 1st Tank Bn (K1A1) - 1st AAV Bn on exercise (VIDEO)

Video by Cpl Anthony Morales...

Wheeled IFV Pic-o-Graph...

Thanks to SkyLancer for the pic!

click on pic to enlarge 1400x8387

China is playing us like a fiddle.

The President of China meets with Trump and what do we see?  We see that today they abstained at the UN Security Council on a resolution to condemn Syria for using chemical weapons (story here), but a tidbit.

A vote by the U.N. Security council on a draft resolution to condemn the chemical weapon attack in Syria failed Wednesday with a veto by Russia, but fellow member China abstained, a sign that talks with President Trump last week may have had an effect on the superpower.

Interesting turn around isn't it.  But wait there's more.  China also activated 150,000 troops and placed them on the border with N. Korea.  I thought it was out of fear of a US attack (and so did many of you).  We were wrong.  In hindsight we should have been more aware.  This was a sign to Trump that they were willing to "play along" and get more aggressive with N. Korea.

My last piece of evidence?

Trump stated that the American dollar was too strong in relation to the Chinese Yuan.  The US dollar immediately plunged in value.

My point?

China is playing us like a fiddle.

You say its because of the N. Koreans?  I say that they can put that back in the bottle any time they want.  To give them concessions based on that issue when they've practically denuded this country of industry is insane.

Even more important?

They're in the middle of an arms build up that is truly stunning.  I haven't posted about it but they're on track to launch their second aircraft carrier soon.  We talk about a credible 300 ship navy?  They already have that (especially if you count their Coast Guard...never mind their merchant fleet) and will probably have a 500 ship navy by 2020 or shortly thereafter.

Yet for some reason Trump is focused on the Russians.

The Russians aren't building up a force to directly challenge us, the Chinese are!  The old cold warriors are failing the future.  They so desperately want one last swan song against their old enemy that they can't see the current threat.  Misplaced fear in Washington and Europe has us focusing on the wrong foe.  China is making an ass of us all.

Open Comment Post. April 13, 2017.

ISIS penetrated a US Special Forces base in Syria...

via Business Insider.

US forces in southern Syria came under attack by Islamic State militants around midnight local time on Saturday, joining with local partner forces to repel the assault in an hours-long fight that required multiple airstrikes and left three US-backed Syrian fighters dead.

US special-operations advisers were on the ground near the al-Tanf border crossing when a force of 20 to 30 fighters with the Islamic State, the terrorist group also known as ISIS or ISIL, attacked in what a US Central Command spokesman called a "complex and coordinated" attempt to take the base from the coalition.
"US and coalition forces were on the ground in the area as they normally are, and participated in repulsing the attack," said Air Force Col. John J. Thomas, a spokesman for Central Command, according to the Associated Press.

"There was close-air support that was provided, there was ground support that was provided, and there was med-evac that was supported by the coalition," Thomas added. No Americans were killed or wounded.

"Clearly it was planned," Thomas told reporters at the Pentagon. "The coalition and our partner forces had the resources to repulse that attack. A lot of them wound up being killed and the garrison remains controlled by the people in control before being attacked."

"Ultimately the attackers were killed, defeated, or chased off," Thomas said.

1.  Well done to Mr. Woody, the author of this piece.

2.  I'm in awe.  I might go sideways with the leadership but these guys are doing WORK!  Well done to the boys at the base.

3.  Don't let the dry description fool you.  This article made my skin crawl.  When the Marine Corps says "rigorous training program" that means you're about to get punched in the nuts.  When the Pentagon says SOCOM bubbas repulsed a complex attack then you know it was a hairy affair.  Vehicle Borne IEDs, Suicide Bombers, massed assaults...?  I'd bet body parts that I highly value that more than a few times guys were asking God for just one more sunrise.

4.  Did I say well done to the SOCOM bubbas?

This thing is fraught with peril.  I get the impression our boys are doing a HELLUVA lot more fighting than they are advising.  The Iraqis have never impressed me with their fighting prowess.

I hope our current President gets his mind right and ends this war poste haste.  This is not our fight.  This belongs to the Iraqis.  We gave them a nation at relative peace.  If they can't properly manage the gift then its not up to us to give them another bite at the apple.

Remember the US Army's Ground Mobility Vehicle Program? Rumor says General Dynamics OTS won initial contract.

A little birdy is attending the MCOE Industry Day at Ft Benning and gave me an amazing tip (THANK'S DUDE!).

Supposedly General Dynamics OTS has won the initial contract to outfit the Army's Airborne Brigade Combat Teams.

True?  Not confirmed but my source is solid which is why I'm not gonna out him!  I thought this project was all but dead.  If this proves out then HOLY SHIT!  The Army is rolling hard.

USAF to life extend the F-16 to make it flyable till 2048!

via Press Release.

The U.S. Air Force authorized extending the service life of the Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) F-16's designed service life to 12,000 Equivalent Flight Hours — far beyond the aircraft's original design service life of 8,000 hours.

Following F-16 Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) structural modifications, the U.S. Air Force could safely operate Block 40-52 aircraft to 2048 and beyond. The Air Force and Lockheed Martin also reduced projected service life costs for the Block 40-52 fleet, paving the way for safe, cost-effective F-16 flight operations decades into the future.

"This accomplishment is the result of more than seven years of test, development, design, analysis and partnership between the U.S. Air Force and Lockheed Martin," said Susan Ouzts, vice president of Lockheed Martin's F-16 program. "Combined with F-16 avionics modernization programs like the F-16V, SLEP modifications demonstrate that the Fighting Falcon remains a highly capable and affordable 4th Generation option for the U.S. Air Force and international F-16 customers."

Validation of the extended flight hour limit directly supports the SLEP goal of extending the service life of up to 300 F-16C/D Block 40-52 aircraft. SLEP and related avionics upgrades to the Air Force's F-16C/D fleet can safely and effectively augment the current fighter force structure as U.S. and allied combat air fleets recapitalize with F-35 Lightning IIs.

Seems like my contention that the F-35 will not meet operational requirements is coming true.  If it did then why the plan to life extend the F-16?

Spare me the talk of a high low force mix!  The reality is simple.  If the F-35 delivered at the price point they're talking about then they would neck down to that one airplane...especially if its capabilities actually met the talking points of the generals!

If the F-35 is trash and this is another piece of evidence proving me right.

About the heavy drug use in the Navy SEAL community.

I posted a blog article on the use of drugs in the Navy SEAL community.  I did it without comment but to be honest I can't hate them for it.  I see it as both a cultural thing and an abuse thing.

Culturally...

1.  People can't seem to wrap their heads around the fact that grunt shit hurts and wears on the body.  The average football players carrier is two or three years.  Even with that we hear about how they wake up with aches and pains. The silly thing is that people don't give that benefit to the grunt world and especially to the special ops community.

2.  High risk jobs attract the type of people that like to push the edge.  In other words if your job might see you shot and killed at the end of the day its pretty hard to get worked up about the dangers of getting high.  If you can accept one with a grin and a fuck it attitude then drug use is nothing.

Abuse...

1.  I'm not talking about the abuse of drugs I'm talking about the abuse forced on these guys by the demands of the Pentagon and their leadership. Missions that should be spread to the conventional forces are instead SOCOM/SEAL only.  That means that they're being overused.  If you're always forward with the idea/knowledge that tomorrow might be your last day then you party hard today.

2.  McRaven.  Remember when the "Head Bullfrog" was pumping up the SEALs and every other day we heard news of a new movie or book deal?  I call this abuse because in my opinion it got out of hand.  Instead of recognizing that these are flesh and blood human beings they allowed themselves to morph into something different.

Long story short?

I don't want to see one of these guys punished.  I want them to get freaking help.  Not because they're special but because in my opinion we as a society have used and abused me.  Sometimes it took the form of lavish praise and hero worship that they probably feel a need to live up to.  Other times its deciding that they must be in the lead even though its obvious that the force is tired.

You might disagree but I can't wag my finger and talk trash about them.  You call it a personal failing?  I say maybe but we played a role in the problem.

Sacramento Officer investigated for jaywalking incident. Public Service Announcement Number Two.

My take?

1.  Taking off your jacket is the international sign of "it's time to GO!" or as they say in the teams..."THE FIGHT IS ON".

2.  Jaywalking?  Seriously doubt it but it's a reason to approach a suspect.  Flimsy as hell but anyone with sense knows the deal.  Cop wanted to check him out.  Not saying that the reason is good to go, but TECHNICALLY it is legal.

3.  Cop fucked up by initiating physical combat.  What do I mean?  Yeah taking off your jacket IS the international sign of "the fight is on" but he doesn't operate under civilian rules.  

In essence, consider this public service announcement number two.  If you don't want your ass kicked by police then follow instructions.

The charges of resisting arrest were dropped, and the Cop is on paid administrative leave.  The likely outcome is that the cop will be back on the job after being punished with a week unpaid, the guy will get a pay out from the city for "trauma" (he's probably been in much worse fights just for fun) and the world will keep spinning.

Side Note.  This cop has at least rudimentary training.  Did you see the takedown and then the damn near perfect mount?  He's been working on his self defense techniques.