Friday, June 19, 2020
I was worried about this. Atlanta PD has entire zones uncovered in sickout...
via Star Tribune.
Atlanta police officers called out sick Thursday to protest the filing of murder charges against an officer who shot a man in the back, while the interim chief acknowledged members of the force feel abandoned amid protests demanding massive changes to policing.Here
Interim Chief Rodney Bryant told The Associated Press in an interview that the sick calls began Wednesday night and continued Thursday, but said the department has sufficient staff to protect the city. It's not clear how many officers have called out.
"Some are angry. Some are fearful. Some are confused on what we do in this space. Some may feel abandoned," Bryant said of the officers. "But we are there to assure them that we will continue to move forward and get through this."
I was worried this was coming. Worse? I can see this going nationwide. The problem? Let's say that many LEOs in your dept decide to participate in this type of action.
You (assuming you're a LEO) know the deal and know that instead of backup being a few minutes away because your buddy will drive like Mad Max to get to you, you now know it'll be 15 minutes because the closest backup is across the city?
How do you walk into that snake pit knowing that reality?
Even worse? From my chair we've seen these "pop up" mobs (I make the distinction between protests and mobs that are surrounding police cruisers/assaulting police etc..) and you're asking a force that is already under staffed to operate in even MORE understaffed condition in this environment?
I have to admit that I saw the shooting in Atlanta as justified. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the prosecutor overcharged but the end result of all this will be the same.
You can expect ever major urban area to become even more unsafe than they are today. We're on the cusp of a major crimewave and at the end of the day the reasons are irrelevant.
T-90 tanks, Su-30 fighter jets, Mi-28 helicopters, Buk-M2 air defense systems on exercise in Algeria...
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China CAPTURED 10 Indian soldiers during the recent border clash!
via Bloomberg
China’s military has released 10 Indian soldiers captured on Monday during deadly clashes between troops from the two nations along their contested Himalayan border, senior Indian officials with knowledge of the matter said.Curious.
The Indian Government did not ever confirm the troops -- including two officers -- were missing. Instead it issued a statement on Thursday saying there were no soldiers missing in action.
Their release followed talks between senior military commanders in Galwan, the officials said, asking not to be identified because the matter isn’t public.
The skirmishes with stones, iron rods and bamboo poles wrapped in barbed wire laced with nails left 20 Indian soldiers dead along with an unknown number of Chinese casualties. The scuffle is the worst border incident between the two nations in at least 45 years, and signaled a sharp deterioration in ties between the two regional giants.
The violence broke out Monday afternoon and went on until midnight on the Tibetan plateau along the freezing Galwan river.
Indian Army spokesman Aman Anand declined to comment, while India’s spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs, Anurag Srivastava, referred Bloomberg to the one-line statement denying Indian soldiers were missing.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs didn’t respond to a request for comment.
I really can't explain this except that is magnanimous behavior on the part of the Chinese AND it appears to be an attempt at de-escalation.
Gotta give credit where it's due.
This move plays to even a critic like myself of the Chinese govt so it should play extremely well in the court of international opinion.
On the other side of the table is the Indian govt reaction.
Surely they knew that their soldiers had been captured. So why no mention of it? Did they assume that the Chinese would kill them? I don't know but its curious indeed.
More to come. Obviously alot more happened on that mountain pass than we're being told.
Single Seat A-6 Intruder variant mockup, for the program to replace the A-4...via Reddit Weird Wings...
Never heard of this before. I'm rather intrigued. If they could have kept the same avionics and fuel carriage (which I seriously doubt with regard to fuel) then this thing would have given the A-7 Corsair II a run for it's money.
Thursday, June 18, 2020
General Dynamics European Land Systems Dragon 8x8...pics by JM Serrano
Thanks to Toni Hawk for the link!
India moving more troops to "Line Of Actual Control", authorizing emergency buildup of war stocks
via Times of India.
The government has given powers to the armed forces to make emergency procurements to stock up its war reserves in the wake of escalating conflict with China along the Line of Actual Control.Story here.
While India has initiated dialogue to contain the conflict in Ladakh, sources said, the government did not want to leave anything to chance at this stage, especially after the violence on Monday night.
I really don't know if either country will be able to pull back due to their cultures (I don't mean that in an insulting way so don't get it twisted).
The weird thing?
I've talked about an aggressive battalion commander kicking this off but its much worse than that. All it will take is one macho company commander, hyped up platoon commander, balls to the wall squad leader on either side to possibly start a war.
This is the terrible thing about forward deployed forces within close proximity to enemy troops.
One miscalculation on either side could turn deadly.
Pacific Power Display..
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I saw this vid and all I could think is that line from the Star Wars movie by Darth Sidious...
Sidenote.
The Commandant is talking about more and better integration with the Navy. Cool. But he's bypassing the low hanging fruit. The purchase of F-35C's should be cancelled immediately and the Marines should be buying Super Hornet Blk 3's like candy before Halloween.
Ground based anti-air efforts...
Thanks to Snafuperman for the idea...
Snafuperman asked what happened to the US Army's Multi Mission Launcher. The quick answer? They quit the project.
For whatever reason (I believe its the fighter mafia combined with the ground forces belief that the aviation would get the job done so there was no need to invest in the capability) US ground forces have had a pathetic record when it comes to ground based anti-air capability.
The LAV-AD had perhaps the shortest active run of any vehicle in the US Marines in recent memory. It seems like one day it was in service, the next day retired.
I don't know anything about how the Army views the Avenger but it has been around awhile. Biggest obvious plus? 8 ready rounds to engage the enemy (or 4 plus the laser in butched up versions).
Moving toward the future the US Army has a new SHORAD Stryker based setup that looks right. Problem for the Marines? Fitting it on a JLTV will be beyond problematic. If the MOOG system is too heavy then this will flatten the roof of a JLTV while you're setting it up much less driving cross country.
The Russians always have emphasized ground based anti-air and use the Tigr platform as the baseline for the Gibka anti-air command vehicle and missile carrier.
The Poles use the POPRAD that also comes with a radar (mounted on the same vehicle type) that just entered service.
Even the Chinese have a ground based anti-air system with more than 4 ready rounds!
Long story short?
I'm not sure US ground forces have taken the idea of organic anti-air seriously. There are various examples around the world of how it could be done.
What has me spinning? If its about killing UAVs then EOS Defense Systems USA has shown that its R400 Mk 2 has an organic anti-air capability.
If we're not gonna get serious about building the capability in a unique vehicle then our IFVs should have the ability to at least defend themselves with the proper weapons fits.
Snafuperman asked what happened to the US Army's Multi Mission Launcher. The quick answer? They quit the project.
For whatever reason (I believe its the fighter mafia combined with the ground forces belief that the aviation would get the job done so there was no need to invest in the capability) US ground forces have had a pathetic record when it comes to ground based anti-air capability.
The LAV-AD had perhaps the shortest active run of any vehicle in the US Marines in recent memory. It seems like one day it was in service, the next day retired.
I don't know anything about how the Army views the Avenger but it has been around awhile. Biggest obvious plus? 8 ready rounds to engage the enemy (or 4 plus the laser in butched up versions).
Moving toward the future the US Army has a new SHORAD Stryker based setup that looks right. Problem for the Marines? Fitting it on a JLTV will be beyond problematic. If the MOOG system is too heavy then this will flatten the roof of a JLTV while you're setting it up much less driving cross country.
The Russians always have emphasized ground based anti-air and use the Tigr platform as the baseline for the Gibka anti-air command vehicle and missile carrier.
The Poles use the POPRAD that also comes with a radar (mounted on the same vehicle type) that just entered service.
Even the Chinese have a ground based anti-air system with more than 4 ready rounds!
Long story short?
I'm not sure US ground forces have taken the idea of organic anti-air seriously. There are various examples around the world of how it could be done.
What has me spinning? If its about killing UAVs then EOS Defense Systems USA has shown that its R400 Mk 2 has an organic anti-air capability.
If we're not gonna get serious about building the capability in a unique vehicle then our IFVs should have the ability to at least defend themselves with the proper weapons fits.
Chinese propaganda about a possible fight with India ramps up..
Chinese #PLA's recent intensive drills amid #China-#India border conflict showed that Chinese border forces have high combat capability, and troops from across China will come to their aid if needed: analysts https://t.co/OA6WL1sJAx pic.twitter.com/w53k5vlj0U— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) June 18, 2020
"Chinese border forces have high combat capability". Burn that into your brain cells. China won't lose face over this incident. India won't lose face. I know without a doubt that the Indian Army has a HIGH martial spirit and will find it difficult to de-escalate and perhaps even more worrisome is the fact that the Indian people are equally determined.
I've tried to wrap my brains around what the coronavirus has done to US society and a connection between the lockdowns and the recent unrest (to include the reaction/counter reaction of law enforcement as far back as the arrest of shop owners that opened up early in Texas to the Floyd incident) but I hadn't considered the virus' ramifications on international relations.
Internal problems? External boogeyman. Could this be as simple as China needs a distraction?
Beijing on "wartime footing" as a 2nd wave of coronavirus hits...
Thanks to UtahBob for the link!
via NPR.
For nearly two months, the Chinese capital, a city of more than 20 million people, did not report a single local case of the coronavirus. But a recent spike in confirmed cases has officials in Beijing afraid they're staring down a new outbreak — and they are responding with swift and sweeping measures to contain it.For a nation that "weathered the storm" during the first reports of this thing (which we have since learned actually broke out in Oct 2019), they sure are reacting with a bit of alarm here.
Authorities say there have been seven new cases in the past three days, all of which are connected to the Xinfadi market, the city's largest wholesale food market. Health officials said Saturday that, of the 517 samples that they took from market workers the day before, 45 tested positive for the virus.
Under China's standards for confirming coronavirus cases — which exclude asymptomatic individuals — this cluster of people won't be counted as confirmed unless they begin displaying symptoms and come up positive on a separate nucleic acid test. Yet officials view the development with significant alarm — at least partly because the market employs or hosts some 10,000 workers and vendors and provides 90% of the capital's vegetables and fruit, according to state-run media.
"Depending on the results [of epidemiological surveys and contact tracing], Beijing should take swift action, expand the testing pool to include all personnel involved with the market, and investigate surrounding neighborhoods," Beijing officials said in a statement outlining the contents of a high-level meeting Friday.
Authorities have shut down the market itself and parts of several others in the city, while canceling classes for at least nine schools nearby. Eleven residential neighborhoods in the city's Fengtai district now require temperature checks and are closed to outside visitors.
The entire district has been placed in a "wartime emergency mode," Chu Junwei, a Fengtai official, told a news briefing Saturday, according to a Reuters translation.
Many believe that China did not suffer as many infections as we have here in the US but I don't find that credible. The numbers put out by the Chinese govt just don't ring true in light of open source materials on the activity we saw.
They shut down so many industries that air pollution decreased substantially. We saw reports that cremation factories were running full tilt for weeks. They even cancelled New Years celebrations.
The coronavirus hit China hard.
It looks like they're worried its gonna hit hard again.
What happens when their vaunted rising middle class starts getting hit without the safety net that we have in the West?
I believe that the widespread riots, flaunting of social distancing rules and other issues that we see in the West is in part a result of the lockdown (which is why I believe the next lockdown will be more targeted the next time). How is it playing in China?
Should we be looking more closely at their news to see if there might be some signs of disturbance that we're missing? Regardless China is gonna feel the same pain that the rest of the world is.
This virus didn't spare the host. Patient (country) zero ain't immune.
India sending "mission specific troops" to the border with China...
A consignment of 500 body protectors (riot protective gear) was airlifted from Mumbai to Leh, where it will be distributed amongst #IndianArmy troops who are deployed along LAC.— Indian Defence (@IndianDefenceRA) June 18, 2020
Source - India Today pic.twitter.com/gsutOqbwBt
Well at least they'll be better equipped to deal with barbwire wrapped clubs. The bad news is it looks like efforts to de-escalate this thing appear to be failing.
How long before some battalion commander says the hell with it...my troops will not get blungened and we're gonna start shooting?
The weird thing? Face saving culture on both sides will preclude either from backing down. Unless we see a UN Force between the two this will inevitably lead to shooting at some point...perhaps EVEN WITH a UN Force trying to maintain things.
Wednesday, June 17, 2020
Is the Boogaloo Movement an offshoot of Sovereign Citizens?
Was watching this video and I have to wonder. Is the Boogaloo Movement an offshoot of Sovereign Citizens?
I haven't been keeping up with this thing because at first I thought the "Hawaiian shirt" thing was just a crazy meme that started in the gun movement.
Reality is something else entirely (although I do believe that many guys are doing it without being part of the thing).
Glad the Feds are watching this thing. It seems like the next big thing for the fringe.
French Army Jaguar conducts dynamic performance testing...
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