3rd Reconnaissance Battalion Conducts Deliberate Water Parachute Operations

 

Open Comment Post. 15 May 22

 

North Korean M2020 Tank-Destroyer via Reddit

Note. I unashamedly post this from Reddit. Reddit is the INTERNET! You can find the good (like this...at least for those interested in military matters) and the wicked, forums like the clown in New York used to self radicalize. Save the rage. It's 2022, the world is aflame, people are stressed to the point of breaking and bad shit happens all the time.

Having said all that, does anyone know if this thing even works? 

Screenshot of the manifesto of the racist murderer in New York

Dude ran straight to his death...mildly graphic

Graphic video of a UAV from Ukraine's 59th Motorized Brigade dropping a munition on Russian troops in a defensive position.https://t.co/agePBKISTh pic.twitter.com/PjZrBTdOFC

— Rob Lee (@RALee85) May 14, 2022

More Chechen fighters flowing to Ukraine...

Footage of Chechnyan's preparing to deploy to Ukraine.

Date unknown, but the foliage indicates it was fairly recent. pic.twitter.com/fwodiVxaMW

— OPSEC? (@GuinieZoo_Intel) May 14, 2022

I would classify Chechen troops more in the category of being shock troops. Tactically ok, but more biased to brute force ops. I wonder if they're headed to the steel plant. The encriclement is working but perhaps its taking more time than desired?

China is practicing strikes against Taiwan

Satellite images ‘suggest China is practicing strikes on Taiwan and Guam’ https://t.co/YdVzE0aFhM via @scmpnews

— EndGameWW3 🇺🇸 (@EndGameWW3) May 12, 2022

Open Comment Post. 14 May 22

Apparently the Leopard 2 MBT is getting embedded APS

 

Get ready!
new #Rheinmetal #Leo2 turret with #ADS APS embedded #ΕΣ #Ελλαδα pic.twitter.com/K3RKyLI9ou

— Defencegreece-Media (@defencegreece_m) May 13, 2022

Probably a silly question. But do APS guard against small bombs dropped by UAVs? Are they effective against loitering munitions? If not then they soon will be. That's when things will get interesting for light forces.

Did India just start the global food war?

 

BREAKING: India has banned wheat exports with immediate effect

— The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) May 14, 2022

Knock on effects boys and girls!

You thought I was being foolish because I wanted a party, any party to start talking to Ukraine & Russia and get them both to knock this off.

Well this should be an eye opener.

Want to see a nation collapse?  You think the fights over religion have been bad?  Believe that the past few years has been a fight over oil?

You ain't seen shit yet.

Wait till you see global tension rise over food.  Wait till you see the refugee streams because poor nations can't feed their people.  

Think crime is bad?  Wait till people start stealing for food instead of drugs!

Unless we get nations together to work out solutions to our various problems (and I'm not talking about climate change) then we will see pop up wars all over the globe, govts fall and societal chaos in developed countries.

USMC plans for Light Amphibious Warship [1440x975] via Reddit Warship Porn

 

The Philippine Marine Corps stood up a coastal defense regiment that looks similar to the MLR, Brady said......

 via Defense News

The U.S. Marine Corps’ first unit designed to carry out new concepts of operations conducted its first exercise in the Philippines and is now preparing to start a range of experimentation and training events this year.

The service this spring formally transformed 3rd Marine Regiment into 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment, which will be organized and equipped in new and modern ways. The Corps already activated the 3rd Littoral Anti-Air Battalion under the regiment, and by this fall it will also have a combat logistics battalion and a littoral combat team.

Col. Tim Brady, who commands the 3rd MLR, said the new unit has much to learn about leveraging these battalions and a slew of subject matter experts at the headquarters level as it operates small units of Marines across wide swaths of maritime space to have an outsized effect on the enemy.

The experimentation began in early March, before the Corps formally redesignated the regiment. Last fall, the regiment conducted a service-level training event at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California, where it was already “starting to conduct operations quite a bit differently than what a traditional infantry regiment would,” Brady said during a panel discussion at the Modern Day Marine conference this week.

In March, just weeks after the redesignation ceremony, a portion of the MLR shipped out from Hawaii to the Philippines for the exercise Balikatan. Brady told reporters that the terrain used this year was new for the annual exercise, and was meant to challenge the MLR and its Philippine counterpart as they eye new types of operations.

The Philippine Marine Corps stood up a coastal defense regiment that looks similar to the MLR, Brady said, and the American regiment was on hand for the activation of the Philippine regiment’s new shore-based, anti-ship missile battery, similar to the MLR’s littoral combat team.

Here 

The difference?

The Philippine added a new unit to their Marine Corps...they didn't transform their entire Marine Corps to the new unit!

I knew this was coming and Nicholas said it out loud. Ukraine convince me that protected 4x4s able to mount ATGM, light cannons, and loitering munitions are ideal for light forces across a range of scenarios. Inexpensive and modular, with decent on-road / off-road mobility, they maximise mass and bang-for-buck.

The conflict in Ukraine convinces me that protected 4x4s able to mount ATGM, light cannons, and loitering munitions are ideal for light forces across a range of scenarios. Inexpensive and modular, with decent on-road / off-road mobility, they maximise mass and bang-for-buck. pic.twitter.com/ljCS4gLfhj

— Nicholas Drummond (@nicholadrummond) May 13, 2022

I believe Ukraine is a unique fight with its particular quirks.

Having said that, its apparent that many are trying to validate preconceived notions from a war that is being strangely fought.

This blog refuses to be captured by the "hotness" of the moment. Some things can be gleaned from this fight but to declare any particular concept/weapon system as being the key to the future fight is premature.

From my chair the only thing that we can be certain of at this moment is that huge stocks of munitions are a necessity.  Additionally the number of vehicles that will be destroyed will probably outstrip the inventory of most nations.

Other than that, we have much analysis/study to do to determine where wars go from here.

The sad reality?  I BELIEVE we're in a period that resembles the interwar period just before the start of WW2.    Many are reaching to determine where the tech goes but that is a fools errand.  Better to be agile and ready to procure necessary systems as they develop than to predict where things go.

If we want to get ready for China then preparing our manufacturers to be agile and ready for max production no matter where the tech goes will be the smartest move.

German KF41 Lynx project with BSP / loitering munition Hero launcher.

 

Niemiecki KF41 Lynx projekt z wyrzutnią BSP/loitering munition Hero. Polski NBWP Borsuk/BWP Rosomak (każdy wóz w plutonie lub tylko niektóre) również powinny mieć możliwość operowania z integralnym systemem BSP. pic.twitter.com/txgPi9Rcgc

— PortalMilitarny.pl (@P_Militarny) May 13, 2022

Canadian Army @ Exercise MAPLE RESOLVE 2022

 

Exercise #MAPLERESOLVE 2022 kicked off with a vehicle convoy operation in Wainwright, Alberta on May 10. The approximately 3,200 participants in this year's Ex MAPLE RESOLVE 22 will spend the next two weeks in the CFB Wainwright training area conducting force-on-force operations.

MWX 3-22: 1st LAR in the defense

 Question.  Do you think LAR survives in the form of a "similar" vehicle (the Textron Cottonmouth or modified ACV) or does it die and is a mix of being mounted on a JLTV/UAV/Unmanned Boat type mix?

U.S. Marines with Bravo Company, 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, sit in a defensive position in a light armored vehicle during Marine Air Ground Task Force Warfighting Exercise (MWX) 3-22 at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California, May 6, 2022. MWX is a force-on-force exercise that challenges the division to fight at scale against a free-thinking adversary. 

French military receives initial batch of new ‘Serval’ armored vehicles

 

via Defense News

The 4x4 vehicles, built by Nexter and Texelis under a temporary joint operation, are expected to replace the 1970s-era VAB armored personnel carriers, ministry spokesman Herve Grandjean said during a Thursday press conference. Weighing between 15 and 17 tons, the Servals will be a lighter-armored vehicle dedicated primarily to the Army’s 27th Mountain Infantry Brigade and the 11th Parachute Brigade, he said.

The ministry has ordered 364 Servals to date, and expects to buy 978 vehicles by 2030, per Grandjean. Seventy vehicles are scheduled for delivery in 2022. The contract was finalized in January 2021, via the French military’s procurement agency Direction generale de l’armement (DGA).

French Defense Minister Florence Parly hailed the initial deliveries in a statement, saying that Serval production was moving “at a steady pace.” She first introduced the VBMR – and unveiled its feline name – at the 2018 Eurosatory conference in Paris, and said French forces were waiting “impatiently” for it to arrive.

“In a rapidly changing strategic environment, as war returns to the European continent, the modernization of key equipment is essential for the credibility of the French armed forces,” Parly said in the Thursday statement.

The VBMR is one of four next-generation vehicles being developed under France’s Scorpion program, alongside the larger, 24-ton Griffon armored personnel carrier and its mortar carrier variant MEPAC, as well as the Jaguar reconnaissance and combat vehicle. France expects to procure 1,872 Griffons (including 54 MEPAC variants), 978 Servals, and 300 Jaguars by 2030.

RCV-Pioneer Mobility, Counter-Mobility and Survivability on demand for Remote and Autonomous Vehicles

 

via Shepard Media

RCVs look set to take a prominent position in the configuration of military land forces in future conflict, progressively taking humans away from ‘dull, dangerous and dirty’ tasks, and affording skilled personnel the time and safety to outwit adversaries.

Regardless of mission, the fact remains, that these vehicles will need to move to places of their Commander’s choosing and in doing so, will need to defeat the wide range of natural and deliberate obstacles usually encountered on the battlefield. An RCV without protection may still be subject to enemy action, if not to injure soldiers, but to stop valuable assets in their tracks.

RCV-Pioneer – Scalable Battlefield Mobility

In response, Pearson Engineering has developed RCV-Pioneer, a new approach to the integration of mobility, counter-mobility and survivability equipment for robotic vehicles. Based on the same core principles of rapid interchangeability and agility, which are present throughout Pearson Engineering’s product range, RCV-Pioneer provides remotely controlled engineering capability to RCVs. This allows such vehicles to scale and optimize for the task at hand, whether to support its own mobility, or to provide an engineering effect for others.

It is a self-contained, pre-configured frame to which Pearson Engineering’s combat engineering equipment can be integrated to support specific missions. Such equipment is provided by palletized Mission Packs including capability for obstacle clearance, route proving, minefield breaching and assault gap crossing which can be rapidly swapped out in field conditions.

RCV-Pioneer uses an innovative self-lifting system to allow RCVs to rapidly maneuver underneath mission packs for rapid integration and removal. RCV-Pioneer mounts to the host platform using quick release fastenings, which require no tools to operate, allowing it to be rapidly fitted and removed from the RCV. The system design will allow two soldiers to fit or remove RCV-Pioneer from the RCV in approximately 30 minutes.

RCV-Pioneer does not require any hydraulic power from the host platform and comprises all the required hydraulic controls for its mission specific tools such as ploughs, dozer blades and excavator arms. It can either take electrical power from the host RCV platform or generate all required power using an integral diesel engine.

The RCV-Pioneer Mission Packs are remotely controlled using an intuitive Operator Control Unit (OCU) which includes joysticks and touch screen controls to manage all of its functions. The OCU displays video feeds from cameras mounted on RCV-Pioneer to give optimal situational awareness whilst performing engineering tasks.

Mission Packs – Pioneering Products, Proven on the Battlefield

For nearly 40 years, Pearson Engineering has provided equipment to help Armed Forces to defend, move and flight. Our products enable combat forces to breach minefields, to overcome explosive ordnance and to defeat and create obstacles. They are designed to provide armoured vehicles with the ability to rapidly adapt to their mission, to overcome challenges to mobility and to deny mobility and momentum to others.

The same approach has been applied to RCVs with mission packs optimized, in the same way as Front-End Equipment (FEE), to deliver against mobility, counter-mobility and survivability tasks.

Swiss Army to get GDELS Mowag Piranha IV engineering vehicles

 

via Army Recognition

The Swiss Defense Ministry has signed a contract with GDELS-Mowag for the delivery of 60 engineering variants of the Piranha IV for the Swiss Army, as a replacement for the M113s that have been serving with the engineers in this role since 1963, Defense Brief reports. Switzerland expects to use this vehicle in the engineering vehicle role well into the 2050s.

According to the Swiss Defense ministry, the contract is worth 360 million Swiss francs (approx. US$364M). The first vehicles will be delivered from 2026, as the M113 in engineering will reach the end of its service life in 2030. The Piranha IV engineering vehicles will be equipped with a weapon station, while various other systems to be procured will include 60 clearance shields, 24 manipulator arms and 12 minesweepers.

With this new procurement, the capabilities of the armored sappers will adapt to the current threats, in particular the changed conflict picture and the increasingly overbuilt terrain, the Defense Ministry said.

The Piranha IV is the fourth member of the Piranha family of armored vehicles and is being developed as a private venture by the Swiss MOWAG corporation (since 2003 part of General Dynamics European Land Combat Systems). BAE Systems Land Systems Weapons & Vehicles has also acquired a production license.

Compared with earlier Piranha vehicles, the Piranha IV boasts a number of significant advantages including greater internal volume (12m3), higher payload, and improved mobility. In addition, it has a higher level of armor protection because of its modular armor package, which can be tailored to meet specific user requirements.

Standard equipment for the Piranha IV includes a digitized vehicle information system, height-adjustable semi-active hydropneumatic suspension, a central tire inflation system with run-flat cores, an anti-lock braking system and power steering on the front four wheels. Unlike earlier Piranha vehicles, the latest Piranha IV is not amphibious.

UVision's Loitering Munition integrated to U.S Marines Combat Vehicles

 

UVision's Hero-120 OPF-M (Organic Precision Fire-Mounted) aerial loitering munition systems are integrated on U.S. Marine Corps armored marine vehicles - both Amphibious Combat Vehicles (ACV) and Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicles (ARV) - and other marine platform. This, according to a press release from the Israeli company ahead of the Modern Day Marine exhibition, currently held in Washington.

As reported in June 2021 on the IsraelDefense website (https://www.israeldefense.co.il/en/node/50425), UVision was awarded a multi-year contract, to supply the Hero-120 OPF-M systems to the United States Marine Corps (USMC), together with its multi-canister launcher, tailored to the specific requirements of the USMC and integrated onto armored vehicles and maritime platforms.