Thursday, April 07, 2022
US Army Pacific is testing distributed operations....
They're coming. The 25th ID isn't getting feet wet for nothing. Expect every big deck the Marines vacate to be filled with Army helos/uavs.The US Army’s I Corps is testing a new distributed mission command concept that could fundamentally change how the Army Corps functions across the vast distances of the Indo-Pacific.
— U.S. Army Pacific (@USARPAC) March 27, 2022
Click this link to learn more: https://t.co/UW2OZ6rbNo@BreakingDefense @starsandstripes
Wednesday, April 06, 2022
We need better visibility on the war in Ukraine.
Those calling for war crimes investigations in Ukraine should understand that the actions of both sides could come under scrutiny https://t.co/rjgrqvzOcU
— Mark Urban (@MarkUrban01) April 6, 2022
Marines Load Record 16 F-35Bs Aboard USS Tripoli Test of ‘Lightning Carrier’ Concept...Fast Movers no longer support Missile Marines on the ground..
via USNI News
ABOARD THE AMPHIBIOUS ASSAULT SHIP USS TRIPOLI — The Marines broke a record on Sunday when they loaded the most 16 F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters ever aboard a big-deck amphibious warship.
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Questions remain how the Lightning Carrier concept will operate in the fleet without a capability to tank F-35Bs organically or without airborne early warning aircraft like the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aboard. USNI News understands that there is set to be broader testing with the concept later this year.
“Our goal,” Vaughn added, is that “if the Navy and Marine Corps team decides that this is an option at some point, here’s the playbook that we’ve developed.”
So now we see the "aviation" side of the Marine Corps going away to play baby Navy.
Awesome.
Yet Marine Corps leadership says that the MEU/MEB still exists and will do forcible entry, crisis response and the range of missions that we've done in the past?
All lies.
This new Marine Corps is for one foe, one region.
Berger went crazy and the Marine Corps as we've known it is dead.
Case the colors and rebrand/rename this monstrosity. They're not worthy of a proud past that they attempt to link to.
Tuesday, April 05, 2022
Even Tyler @ Aviation Intel is saying we're seeing a skewed view of the war in Ukraine!
Numerous OSINT accounts explicitly stated they will not share info counterproductive to Ukraine and it has led to many having a skewed impression of how the war is going nor any counter to pro Ukrainian misinfo 🤷♂️
— ramlaen 🇺🇸 (@ramlaen1) April 5, 2022
Ok. This rumor should be easy for the Pentagon to debunk. Check out this craziness!
Thanks to Carlton for the link!
NOTE!!! I don't know if this is true or false. What I do know is that its should be laughably easy for the Pentagon to debunk. Rumor control is necessary with this one, but I've seen and heard crazier.
via Veterans Today.
Warning: A NATO/Internet wide National Security Letter has been issued blocking all reporting of the alleged capture of an American general in Mariupol.
Our sources on the ground report that the last two helicopters trying to evacuate foreign VIPs from Mariupol were shot down this morning. They were sent on a suicide mission to collect Lt.General Coultier, who was, we are told, hiding in a huge industrial complex with some Special Forces staffers and about 30 Ukrainian Army, not Azov, soldiers. This hours old story from Tass is below.
From KP.Ru:
On the morning of April 5, another attempt by the Kiev regime to evacuate the leaders of the Azov nationalist battalion and “others” was thwarted near Mariupol. Two Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopters, which tried to break through to the city from the sea, were shot down from man-portable anti-aircraft missile systems, Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, said at a briefing.
Note that this is the third attempt by Kyiv to pull its war criminals from the crime scene. But it ended the same as the previous ones: the helicopters did not reach Mariupol.
Off topic (we just gotta wait and see on the above...it'll reach a point where the Pentagon has to speak on the subject).
One thing bugs me about this whole thing. The news media and social media is participating in a campaign of "news control".
That's disturbing.
I want the good, the bad and the ugly. I don't know if we're getting that.
Even more disturbing.
A huge segment of the population is happy with things the way they are when it comes to reporting on this story.
Stand-in Forces: Adapt or Perish By General Eric Smith, U.S. Marine Corps
Note. Read the entire article for yourself. I picked out a few tidbits and commented on them.
via USNI News
To be clear, A Concept for Stand-in Forces does not change the things about the Marine Corps that are tried and true, but rather how we prepare for the next fight. That is a subtle but important distinction. The Marine Corps is the United States’ crisis response force. It has been for decades, and it will remain so. We continue to train and deploy Marine air-ground task forces (MAGTFs) and recognize that the whole of a MAGTF is greater than the sum of its parts. We remain an amphibious force that, partnered with amphibious ships, provides our naval and joint force commanders the ready and capable forces they need. And finally, the ethos of Marines has not and will not change. We will continue to attract, recruit, and train warriors who are proud to be the “first to fight”—and to do so with honor.
I don't understand this statement. Has anyone seen one of those loadouts for an MEU today? Something like you see below.
Quite honestly I find it difficult to understand how the "tried and true" missions of crisis response and humanitarian assistance is possible with this new force structure. An MLR to perform a crisis response mission? Its a recon force for the joint force, crisis response is the Army's mission now!
Stand-in forces are units that are task-organized, trained, and equipped to disrupt an adversary’s plans at every point on the competition continuum.
I find this laughable. I didn't post about it on this blog but the Chinese Navy was involved in a standoff with the Philippine Navy WHILE THE US NAVY & MARINES WERE HOLDING JOINT EXERCISES WITH THEM(Philippine Forces)!!!!
The MLR was in no position to deter or disrupt the Chinese Navy's activity during this incident. Perhaps give more visibility but the Navy/Air Force recon aircraft, UAVs and sats told us all we needed to know.
Stand-in forces are not just roving bands of vulnerable Marines, placed on small islands and left to their own devices in the hope that an enemy ship might one day blunder within range. Yes, there are areas in this concept that need improvement, but these difficulties are solvable.
Again laughable! These units survive by not being detected. As currently constructed once that stealth bubble is broken they will be "found, fixed and destroyed" with no chance of escape.
By the very nature of distributed operations they will serve the purpose of letting us know that the enemy destroyed one of our units and that they're likely somewhere in the vicinity of said destroyed unit.
We will continue to task organize and train units for crisis response, raids, and assaults.
What? Why would a combatant commander call for an MEU? From what I've seen the Marine Corps isn't even sure what an MEU looks like! A MEB? WHY! They would get a force of light infantry that lacks the tactical mobility of previous generations, has no armor, has little cannon artillery, has MLRS but is optimized to sink ships. Better to call the 82nd airborne that will have infantry support vehicles, airborne tanks, copious amounts of cannon artillery, arrives by air, has dedicated Air Force support etc...
Adapt or survive?
More like get woke go broke.
This isn't the Marine Corps. This is a coastal defense force that is trying to live on the legacy of its predecessor.
Better to case the colors, shut down the Marine Corps and reboot/rebrand this new organization appropriately.
Sri Lanka's troubles are gonna go global. THIS IS THE DANGER OF THE SANCTIONS!
Thanks to Moebius2249 for the link!
via Reuters
Sri Lanka’s collapse is front of mind for many. read more Protesters fed up with crippling shortages of essential food and fuel items are on the streets, prompting multiple members of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s cabinet to offer to resign late on Sunday. Social unrest will probably accelerate a restructuring of some $44 billion of international sovereign debt. Though Sri Lanka’s problems follow years of mismanagement, its speedy unravelling is a warning to sturdier economies from Europe to Asia suddenly grappling with a spike in the cost of living.
A current account crisis read more has intensified after the West fired its sanctions bazooka at Russia as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine. Rolling blackouts and a state of emergency are frightening away remaining tourists, a crucial source of foreign exchange. Food inflation hit an eye-watering 30.2% in March. The currency’s 40% depreciation against the U.S. dollar in one month, including a central bank managed devaluation, is blowing out leverage ratios: Public debt estimated by the International Monetary Fund at 120% of GDP is perhaps some 40 percentage points more than might be deemed sustainable, guesses Citi.
This is the danger of the sanctions!
The knock-on effects of this thing are already being felt worldwide and its gonna get worse.
I would bet body parts that you're seeing all kinds of backroom games being played, band aides being applied and work arounds attempted to keep a lid on things but eventually you run out of room to maneuver.
This won't just be a 3rd world thing either. It's gonna go global and touch on the 1st world.
Our citizens are already stressed by covid, the protests, rising prices, the war in Ukraine and now runaway hyper inflation.
I AM SEEING signs that society is cracking. Not micro cracks but massive cracks that show signs of the whole thing shattering.
The sanctions will apply so much stress that a meltdown could occur.
Is there a better way to deal with Russia? Don't know. At this point I don't care. What I do know is that after the "Bucha" thing the first thing out of Biden's mouth is additional sanctions?
The fucker must be on crack.
If you're in America all I can tell you is to gun up, train up and get your ass in the gym. Crime is gonna spike and police are spread thin.
A crime wave from hell is on the horizon.
Monday, April 04, 2022
Trans-man finds out being a dude ain't easy. Must read Twitter Thread!
Yeah sunshine. Deal with it. Reality is a bitch ain't it?Trans Man: "It feels like everyone avoids me now, like a predator. I feel lonely and mad all the time. When I reach out and share my feelings of emotional starvation with other men, they tell me to shut the fuck up and deal with it, as if this is supposed to be normal."
— George Alexopoulos (@GPrime85) April 1, 2022
Northern Viking 22. Marines assist sea battles!
Once it was said of Marines..."We win battles"! Now? We assist in the sea battle?!?
via Navy.mil
U.S. Sailors and Marines joined multiple Allied Nations in kicking off U.S. Sixth Fleet’s Exercise Northern Viking 2022 (NV22) in Keflavik, Iceland, April 2, 2022.
Participating NATO Allied Nations include France, Germany, Iceland, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. The combined forces bring significant capabilities across the air, land and at-sea domains.
U.S. Navy and Marine Corps forces include the USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) Amphibious Ready Group / 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, P-8A Maritime Patrol Aircraft from Keflavik Air Base, the Henry J. Kaiser-class underway replenishment oiler USNS Patuxent (T-AO-201), Sailors from Task Force 68 and the Virginia-class attack submarine USS John Warner (SSN 785).
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NV22 strengthens interoperability and force readiness between the U.S., Iceland and Allied Nations and enables execution of multi-domain command and control of joint and coalition forces in the defense of Iceland and the Sea Lines of Communication in the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom Gap. The exercise includes amphibious landings, expeditionary and construction capability, search and rescue, and humanitarian assistance with forces demonstrating skills in events across multiple domains, climates, and vignettes to enhance interchangeability and interoperability.
How the mighty have fallen. Fighting to become an independent service, back to being the Navy's bitch. From evolution to de-evolution.
We've almost gone full circle. The only thing left to do is the reverse Tun Tavern.
Better to case the colors now and rename this new fucked up outfit.
"New breed? There's not a damn bit of difference as long as it's the Marine breed."
What Berger is building ain't the Marine breed. Time to rebrand this thing and make a complete break with the past.
I simply ask the question. Many are calling the killings in Ukraine genocide. Ok, but why no concern for the Uyghurs in China?
via Wikipedia
The Chinese government has committed a series of ongoing human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang that is often characterized as genocide. Since 2014, the Chinese government, under the administration of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping, has pursued policies that incarcerated more than an estimated one million Turkic Muslims in internment camps without any legal process.[3][4][5] This is the largest-scale detention of ethnic and religious minorities since World War II.[6][7] Experts estimate that, since 2017, some sixteen thousand mosques have been razed or damaged,[8] and hundreds of thousands of children have been forcibly separated from their parents and sent to boarding schools.[9][10]
Government policies have included the arbitrary detention of Uyghurs in state-sponsored internment camps,[11][12] forced labor,[13][14] suppression of Uyghur religious practices,[15] political indoctrination,[16] severe ill-treatment,[17] forced sterilization,[18] forced contraception,[19][20] and forced abortion.[21][22] Chinese government statistics reported that from 2015 to 2018, birth rates in the mostly Uyghur regions of Hotan and Kashgar fell by more than 60%.[18] In the same period, the birth rate of the whole country decreased by 9.69%.[23] Chinese authorities acknowledged that birth rates dropped by almost a third in 2018 in Xinjiang, but denied reports of forced sterilization and genocide.[24] Birth rates in Xinjiang fell a further 24% in 2019, compared to a nationwide decrease of 4.2%.[18]
This isn't an attempt at whataboutism, but in reality a question of WHY THE CONCERN in Ukraine when we have evidence/knowledge of mistreatment of people throughout the world yet show NONE OF THE CARE that is being shown in Europe/America/Western World.
I want someone to come up with an answer.
From what I'm seeing it can only be one thing.
They are "like" the concerned.
They "look" like the concerned.
They "worship" like the concerned.
In short. Oh and you're gonna absolutely hate this but the racial aspect of this thing is obvious.
We know the Uyghurs have been suffering in China for almost a decade now.
Sanctions against China for that? Nope. Outpouring of sympathy? From a few small corners (and no...I didn't want anything done on that issue either).
Which brings me back to this thing.
The war is horrendous. The suffering obvious. But we've seen all this before.
And we didn't give a fuck.
We certainly didn't take steps to wreck the global economy, further destroy an already fragile supply chain, take steps to push global energy/food prices into the stratosphere and last but not least DID NOT take actions that would threaten our privileged position of having the world's fiat currency.
Are you pissed by this post?
Good.
Now get over yourself and tell me where I'm wrong. Or you can be the pussy I suspect and report me to Google. At this point I'm not sure I care.
But be advised.
The pain ain't here yet. But its coming. America, Europe and the rest of the Western world isn't ready for the continued societal stress that we're dumping on ourselves.
How many times has the Marine Corps (in recent years) burned the Navy on shipbuilding? Well the Navy is now pushing back.
via USNI News
“The funding profile in the President’s budget submission essentially cancels the LPD program following the procurement of LPD-32 in FY23, a program originally planned to procure through LPD-42,” Lt. Gen. Karsten Heckl, the deputy commandant for combat development and integration, told USNI News last week.
After years of working together on naval integration, the line item is the latest example of a growing split between the Navy and Marine Corps, showing how the services have come to an impasse over the future of the amphibious fleet.
Following the rollout of the Navy’s FY 2023 budget, the state of the amphibious force structure is murky. The service’s budget proposal truncates the San Antonio-class LPD-17 Flight II production line and delays the Marine Corps’ new Light Amphibious Warship purchase.
The proposal – already receiving criticism in Congress – is exposing fissures between the two sea services over their visions for amphibious platforms.
There’s a growing divergence between the Navy and Marine Corps, specifically about the LAW, a smaller amphibious ship that’s key to the Marines’ Force Design 2030 initiative and Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations concept, multiple naval observers told USNI News last week.
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While buying smaller amphibious ships has become a priority for the Marine Corps in recent years, the service maintains it still also needs larger amphibious ships to complete its missions and meet combatant commanders’ needs.
Hugely difficult to justify large amphibious ships when Berger has stated (as have his lackeys) that amphibious assault is off the table and that the EABO is going world wide. If all that is true then you don't need larger amphibious ships! Complementary my ass!
Meanwhile, the Navy doesn’t plan to buy the next LHA – LHA-10 – until FY 2031, meaning there would be an eight- or 11-year gap between LHA-9 and LHA-10, depending on the procurement year assigned to LHA-9, Heckl told USNI News. Delaying the ship’s purchase until then would make “maintaining the line completely untenable for industry, particularly the supply base that construct[s] amphibious warfare ship components,” the deputy commandant said.
That line is ending. No way they keep it "warm" till 2031! But Berger's own concept has killed big amphibs! Unintended consequences and EXTREMELY poor messaging. He spouts "complementary" but never explains how. Additionally he is having the Marine Corps fight the sea fight. I'm sure someone in the Navy is saying why is a service that is on land become priority for shipping when we can get more frigates and other real deal battleforce ships?
While the Marine Corps has said the landing ships are key to moving its new MLRs around the Pacific, the Navy has kept delaying the start of the program.
The first LAW purchase was originally slated for FY 2022 under the Trump administration’s December 2020 shipbuilding plan, but delayed to FY 2023 in the Biden administration’s FY 2022 budget. Now the first purchase is scheduled for FY 2025. The current plan is to buy one the first year, another in FY 2026 and two in FY 2027.
“The first LAW will not deliver within this FYDP,” Heckl told USNI News in a statement. Heckl was referring to the Future Years Defense Program, or the Pentagon’s five-year budget outlook.
Pushing the delivery of the first LAW past FY 2027 means the Marine Corps would receive the ship after the so-called “Davidson window,” which refers to former U.S. Indo-Pacific Commander Adm. Phil Davidson’s testimony to Congress last March that China could try to take Taiwan in the next six years.
The Marines see LAW as an affordable, smaller ship the Navy could purchase quickly for about $150 million per hull. But keeping LAW affordable has become difficult as the Navy evaluates the survivability of a ship that could end up operating in the South China Sea.
“I think they’re not on the same page. I think the Navy essentially wants to truncate the LPD-17 Flight II and use that money to instead by the Light Amphibious Warship, with the idea that the Light Amphibious Warship is going to have to be fairly survivable to be viable inside these contested environments, which means it will be relatively expensive,” Clark told USNI News. “And therefore they need the money from the LPDs to pay for them because if you have a Light Amphibious Warship that costs $300 million – which is something that’s more in the scope of what the Navy’s thinking – then if you want to buy three or four per year, that’s essentially an LPD-17.”
The US Dollar used as an "economic weapon of mass destruction."
via CNN
The US may have the world's most powerful military, but the dollar is its greatest weapon. Now, after nearly 80 years of dollar dominance, the US might be in danger of losing its global reserve currency status.
About 60% of the $12.8 trillion in global currency reserves are currently held in dollars, giving the US an exorbitant privilege over other countries. And that privilege pays: Because US government debt backed by the dollar is very attractive, interest rates are lower. The US gets to borrow from other countries in its own currency — so if the US dollar loses value, debt does too. American businesses can make international transactions in dollars without having to pay conversion fees.
Perhaps most importantly, in extreme circumstances the US can cut off dollar access to central banks around the globe, isolating and draining their economies. Raghuram Rajan, the former governor of the Reserve Bank of India calls this power an "economic weapon of mass destruction."
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But with great power comes great responsibility: When you use a weapon of mass destruction, even an economic one, people get spooked. To protect themselves from the same fate as Russia, other countries diversify their investments away from the US dollar into other currencies.
Yes.
I get the concern about Ukraine.
But do you get my concern about how sanctions have been used like a club over the last 30 years? Do you understand the privilege (and I use that word purposefully) that comes with having the world's fiat currency?
Do you understand the danger that will come if the US loses that privilege?
Most don't.
The problem? This will touch on the US' ability to properly fund an adequate (much less the outrageous defense spending we do because so many have gamed the system where they trade in US dollars and are paid in US servicemembers lives/protection), will certainly affect our economic growth in the short and long term, and will alter the very trajectory of our children's lives.
I don't know what form this will take but you can bet that every country that has EVER been even glanced at sideways by US policymakers will be looking to insulate their economy from the type of sanctions that we're seeing now.
I don't have a better idea of how to "punish" Russia (still don't think this is our fight), but we're risking HUGE by doing things the way we are.
Oh and if Biden does reach for additional sanctions and IF Europe decides to get off Russian oil/gas NOW, then you can just pencil in that world wide recession NOW.
Those actions will make it a certainty.
Sunday, April 03, 2022
Exercise Cold Response 22 tests NATO Allies and partners
Once Marine Corps ops would have landings so that we could repel a Russian mechanized assault. Tom Clancy, Harold Coyle and others wrote about it. Messy affair according to those authors but work was being done to swing it to our favor.
Now?
The British Royal Marines will land to conduct raids and harass enemy positions in their traditional commando role. The US Army will have to deploy units to resist the mechanized assault (along with allies).
What will the US Marines (God, please change the name) do?
They'll look to the sea and hunt subs, shoot ships, and provide sea denial.
This ain't the Marine Corps that has EVER existed at ANYTIME in our history.
Back to the sea?
Nope.
Back to being the Navy's bitch...but on steroids...the good shit...that Tren shit.
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