Tuesday, March 03, 2020
Monday, March 02, 2020
Well that didn't last long...Taliban end truce to resume operations against the Afghan govt...
#BREAKING Taliban ends partial truce, to resume Afghan 'operations': spokesman pic.twitter.com/tRA6gZBAVK— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 2, 2020
Sometimes despite the issues you just have to get up and walk away from a bad hand, bad relationship, bad deal or all three. The war in Afghanistan is all three.
Time to go.
Correction.
Past time to go. If the Afghan govt can't get it together after almost 20 years then they get hammered and we bounce rubble from distance to keep them from launching terror attacks.
But no more lost lives, injuries or misspent American treasure.
Czech Air Force Venom and Viper Helicopters sporting an usual but attractive camo pattern....
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Royal Marines and Commando Wildcats of 847 NAS have been on winter training alongside British Army Apaches of 4 Regiment AAC .
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MiG31 intercepts simulated aggressor in Russian airspace above Kamchatka
#MiG31 intercepts simulated aggressor in #Russian airspace above #Kamchatka— RT (@RT_com) March 2, 2020
MORE: https://t.co/3fhE1H4uoS pic.twitter.com/sx44L7Zgdw
SAAB introduces GRIPEN for Canada!
Freaking awesome. I'm a GRIPEN fan. Love the plane. Love its capabilities. Love its affordability/reliability/lethality!!!!
UK Joint Helicopter Support Squadron at work....
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Interesting take on the Brit "Invincible-class aircraft carrier"
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Since the Marine Corps appears to be heading back to the Coastal Defense Battalion concept of WW2, I have to wonder if we might see some of the close in air defense systems replaced with anti-ship missiles or rather augmented with them in the near future.
My problem with that possibility?
We're giving up combat power ashore (weight has to be made up somewhere and the more stuff dedicated to the sea battle the less you have for the fight ashore).
Will the Marine Corps devolve to a point where even a hybrid terror group has equal or greater combat power on land than the future Ground Combat Element?
Are they focusing so much on the sea battle that we start losing the land fight?
Berger really needs to get out of his foxhole and start laying out his ideas.
Russians begin airlift of arms to Syria...
Mass transfer: 8 Il-76 arrived in Khmeimim, as well as a group of air defense officers🇷🇺🇸🇾— Sukhoi Su-57 Felon 🇷🇺🇮🇳 (@I30mki) March 2, 2020
3 Il-76 transport aircraft of RuAF arrived in Khmeimim in Syrian province of Latakia on night of March 1 to 2. In general, over past 72 hours, 8 aircraft of this type have landed at AFB. pic.twitter.com/2aSNZPeNDi
Everyone is focusing on the Russian Air Force's airlift of arms to Syria. I think they're missing the real news though. I think the focus should be on civilian and Russian Navy shipping to Syria.
If they're going to get artillery, rockets and armor to the Syrian forces (to make up for losses) then its gonna go by ship, not air.
Look to the seas to get a clue of Russian intention. Not the air!
‘We fought Russia 16 times and will fight it again,’ warns Erdogan’s adviser amid Idlib escalation
‘We fought #Russia 16 times and will fight it again,’ warns #Erdogan’s adviser amid Idlib escalationhttps://t.co/fYsZIH2iK3— Sukhoi Su-57 Felon 🇷🇺🇮🇳 (@I30mki) March 2, 2020
The Turks better be careful. They can talk up a fight with the Russians all they want but I guarantee they don't want to poke that bear. Turkey stands alone and their actions aren't winning them any allies.
Releasing immigrants into greater Europe? Buying S-400 missiles in defiance of NATO (they could have bought European systems if they didn't want US systems)? Backing new adventures in Libya in support of terrorists? Supporting terrorists in Syria and slamming the Kurds?
I don't get their thinking. It's like a madman is running that country. The Turkish people deserve so much better.
Side note. All this and I'm betting that the Coronavirus is running rampant in Turkey too? That govt will be lucky to survive with all this drama swirling around it.
Geez. The Poles are going hard on illegal immigration....
Dr Fauci, Director Of Infectous Diseases says we have definitely have an outbreak and likely a pandemic.
Just finished interview with Dr. Fauci, US director of infectious diseases. Hour-long interview. Detailed. He said: We're dealing with clearly an emerging infectious disease that has “now reached outbreak proportions and likely pandemic proportions.”— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) March 2, 2020
It gets better ...
Top US virus-control official, Dr. Fauci, cautiously, thinks current mortality rate will go down as more cases discovered: “I think 2.5% is probably a bit high... It's dangerous to make firm kinds of predictions. I think it likely will be down around 1 percent, but I'm not sure.”— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) March 2, 2020
Don't know the context of the question but 2.5% is a bit high? Does that mean that the kill rate is above 2%?
But this is the kicker.
Dr. Fauci said United States may have to consider social “mitigation,” acts like temporarily closing schools and events with large crowds in confined spaces. “We're not ready for it right now, but we need to be at least thinking about the possibility.”— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) March 2, 2020
Yeah.
Mitigation issues.
That's the danger and the threat to the economy. This thing is probably already across the US and I still say the WHO is now worthless.
But my prediction is that this will flare out...BUT RETURN mutated this fall. The global economy is about to be smashed. Not by politics but by disease. It'll also increase nationalism (small "n", meaning not white supremacy based) in all countries.
In essence I think we're getting our version of the Spanish Flu in the modern age, not now but later this year.
What say you.
Sunday, March 01, 2020
Trailers for Stryker IFVs and now the Brit Mil Twitter wants them for Boxers...
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Air Force general: Two-bomber fleet is the future
via Air Force Times.
The future of the Air Force’s bomber fleet will be the B-21 Raider, now under development, and a heavily modified version of the Cold War-era B-52 Stratofortress, Lt. Gen. David Nahom, deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, told lawmakers on Thursday.Here.
Nahom said getting to that two-bomber fleet is important as the Air Force shifts to a strategy focused on what the Pentagon calls “great power competition” — preparing for a conflict with a peer or near-peer nation such as China or Russia.
“On the bomber fleet, there’s nothing more important to the Air Force,” Nahom told the House Armed Services subcommittee on seapower and projection forces. “If you look at what the bombers bring, no one else brings it. Our joint partners don’t bring it, our coalition partners don’t bring it.”
The B-1B Lancer and B-2 Spirit are important in the meantime, and each bring important capabilities, Nahom said. The B-2′s ability to penetrate enemy airspace and carry nuclear weapons, and the volume of ordnance the B-1 can carry, make each aircraft crucial for now, he said. The Air Force needs to keep the B-2 until the B-21 is delivered and nuclear-certified, he said, which will likely take about a decade.
Keeping the B-1 is trickier, Nahom said, largely because the Air Force has flown it so hard over the last several years.
“We’ve used that airplane, and overused it over many years,” Nahom said of the B-1. “It’s broken, in many ways.”
Marine Corps to pivot on critical war fighting systems, but commandant still vague on details
via Marine Corps Times.
The top Marine told Congress that this year is the “inflection point” for the Marine Corps to begin changes that will keep it relevant and ready against adversaries a decade from now.Here.
But he remained vague on the details of those changes.
On Thursday, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger told the House Armed Services Committee that this year is the time for the service to pivot, but that the budgets for fiscal years 2022 and 2023 will show significantly more changes.
There were new priorities already in the pending 2021 budget, such as anti-ship missile systems, he said.
A massive change in the force structure of the Corps along with huge changes to the type and quantities of gear we purchase?
Amazing.
It irks that instead of the low hanging fruit of aligning Marine Air more fully with Navy air, or paring down the huge number of Generals inside a force that has 3 divisions (seems like 3 division should equal 3 Generals right?) that is being ignored in order to radically transform the Marines.
Bad vibes on all this...my spider sense is tingling.
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