Open Comment Post. 16 May 25

 

Balikatan 25: Counter-Landing Live-Fire event reel...Video by Cpl. Malia Sparks

 

U.S. Marines with 3d Littoral Combat Team, 3d Marine Littoral Regiment, 3d Marine Division, conduct the counter-landing live-fire event during Exercise Balikatan 25 in Aparri, Philippines, May 3, 2025. This training was conducted alongside U.S. Soldiers with 25th Infantry Division, Philippine Marines with Marine Battalion Landing Team 10, and Philippine Soldiers with Army Artillery Regiment and the Philippine Army Armored Division. Balikatan is a longstanding annual exercise between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and U.S. military designed to strengthen our ironclad alliance, improve our capable combined force, and demonstrate our commitment to regional security and stability. (U.S. Marine Corps video by Cpl. Malia Sparks)

4th Evolution of Vertical Envelopment...Video by Sgt. 1st Class Joshua Joyner

Video highlighting the evolution of vertical envelopment, starting with paratroopers in World War II, UH-1 Iroquois in Vietnam, Air Assault in Desert Storm to the Large Scale, Long Range Air Assault of today which is capable of moving a brigade's worth of combat power over 500 miles in one period of darkness. The future of Air Assaults will include the use of drones to disrupt and destroy enemy positions and capabilities, allowing the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) to infiltrate and engage with the enemy. (Video by Sgt. 1st Class Josh Joyner, 101st DIV PAO)

101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) conduct an air assault and sling load delivery of supplies and technology at Fort Johnson, La.

A pit maneuver with boats? I never knew...

A Russian man led police in Florida on a dramatic marine chase for over an hour, after stealing a luxury yacht worth $2.5m. The man boarded the 68-foot vessel on Monday afternoon, before attempting the daring escape from the marina. Officers from Martin County ground and marine… pic.twitter.com/0l0yR9fNvb

— Bart 🌊⚓️ (@BartGonnissen) May 13, 2025

1st Mobile Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), execute a Large Scale, Long Range Air Assault (L2A2) mission to the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC)

B-roll of helicopters assigned to the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) transported Soldiers and equipment, including Infantry Squad Vehicles (ISV), during Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) 25-07

Good shoot. Risky as hell but good. Definitely gonna have some explaining to do...

 

Wasted 💀 pic.twitter.com/77UUquGixc

— Vicious Videos (@ViciousVideos_) May 11, 2025

Maneuver Warfare is More Than Rapid Movement

 

This one might be worth skipping. I swear to the good Lord above. Marine Officers no longer speak plainly. It's like they all get hit with the same damn virus at the same damn time. Next this bubba is talking philosophy. Are you shitting me! This is a quote from his article.

Maneuver warfare is by no means dead. Its critics have missed the point that maneuver warfare is a philosophy, not a doctrine. Maneuver transcends the other forms of warfare. It centers on defeating the fighting spirit of the opponent through a unique combination of methods designed for the situation at hand.

So we no longer defeat the enemy by fire and maneuver.  NO!  We defeat the enemy's spirit by maneuver.

These are the people and the thinking that will defeat the Chinese?  God save us! 

FM 3-0 was updated

IAG RILA 8x8 IFV

Open Comment Post. 11 May 25

Well it appears that a few of Europe's leaders are dope dawgs...

 

🇫🇷🇬🇧🇩🇪 BUSTED: The coalition of the willing was doing a Zelensky party, that’s why they’re in such a great mood?

A bit much nose candy? pic.twitter.com/A40NpGkLld

— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) May 11, 2025

They love their cocaine don't they? Powdered cocaine is still the drug of choice for the elite. I thought they would have switched to some designer shit by now.

China is destroying its ghost cities...

 

🇨🇳IF YOU BUILD IT…AND GO BANKRUPT, CHINA WILL BLOW IT UP

Sunshine City II was supposed to be a luxury residential complex - until the money dried up in 2013 and the skyscrapers turned into concrete skeletons.

After years of failed attempts to revive the project, China finally… https://t.co/kNHkqOa1K2 pic.twitter.com/77Hrv9S57a

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) May 10, 2025

Interesting.

China is a closed society so we don't know much about whats going on inside but open source says that many young and middle aged people are dying suddenly (covid vaccines).  Additionally there is a brain drain going on.  They're restricting passports because so many are leaving.  Now this.

Things are bad for the dragon.

We're winning the tariff war with China but we've pushed them into a corner...

 

 

Watch the whole vid if you can but to summarize? Xi is in trouble and facing factions within the CCP that want him gone. The Chinese people have reverted to their traditional "low consumption" ways. Chinese factories/businesses are closing without paying workers. Layoffs are widespread. The housing market is getting crushed and people are losing big on homes that bought just a few years ago. Youth unemployment is crazy high, college kids are graduating to unemployment. Middle aged people (didn't know this about China) are locked out of jobs because they're over 35. Many are worried about societal breakdown. "Left over women" are worried about their futures and think that they'll never have a family. The list goes on.

China's leadership is in a rough spot because of their own past behaviors.  Manufacturers are running to Vietnam, Mexico and other lands.  Chinese leadership is trying to save face by demanding that the US lower tariffs but they have a track record of delaying negotiations till a new President is elected (happened in the first Trump term....he knows better now).

My worry?

They typical.

Internal problems at home mean that you want the focus outside at an enemy everyone can rally around.

That means activity around Taiwan ramps up dangerously or worse they actually make a run at the island NOW.  Not much more we can do to damage their country (except block the straits but they would probably consider that almost a direct attack on their homeland which would further starve their economy and MIGHT lead to a limited nuclear confrontation) so why not?

Forget Chinese propaganda.  We're winning but we might have acted too late which might lead to unintended consequences of the kinetic kind.

If "payloads over platforms" is real then the days of the single seat fighter are over...

 Everyone here has read about the shoot down of the French Rafale being operated by the Indian Air Force in the furball with Pakistani fighters.  Many are trying to rethink how they view the Rafale & J-10.  

I think that's incorrect.

What I believe everyone should be looking at is the fight itself.  Yeah the platforms are important but I think the payloads are the real stars of this fight.

Think about it.

Everyone believes this was a fight between the Rafale and J-10.  I think it was a battle between the AIM-120 and the PL-15.

We don't know alot about the fight so I'm ahead of my skis on this but apparently the PL-15 won.

What can we speculate on...What do we know?

1.  Both sides are saying it was a beyond visual range fight.

2.  We can guess that AWACS or maybe even ground radars assisted in the fight.

3.  We can guess that both sides were ripple firing missiles at range.

4.  We know that the planes involved should have been using their AESA style radars.

5.  We guess that full electronic countermeasures were used by both sides.

My point.  We need bigger, longer ranged missiles that are NOT confined to the size of single/twin seat fighters.  We need bigger AESA arrays that give longer range and can identify/target more hostiles.  We need longer range so that we reduce our reliance on tanker support.  Lastly we need the capability in this new platform to go supersonic so that it can both add energy to its missiles, get out of dodge if necessary and possibly power energy weapons that might come online.

What am I really calling for?  The B-1R!

Fill the nose cone with a huge honking AESA array.  24 AIM-260 missiles.  It can fly at distance.  It can loiter in its patrol area.  It can do the job of a whole squadron of F-35s with much less support.  Partner this plane with a "scout" UAV to detect enemy fighters at distance and the threat envelope goes way down.  Make those UAVs stealthy and they might even remain undetected while the enemy is dodging (trying to dodge) incoming missiles.

A pair of B-1Rs along with a half dozen stealthy scout UAVs (similarly equipped with AESAs) could take on a regiment of enemy aircraft and probably come out on top.

Dedicate a few B-21s to act as penetration "fighters" and you can pick off the stragglers that avoid the main clash because they can get closer to make those kills.

Regardless I believe that once we get the full tick tock of the furball between India and Pakistan it will show that fighter combat has evolved to a point where it SHOULD look different from what we're doing right now.

The fighter mafia as we know it should be disbanded.

ROK Army nighttime artillery live fire exercise

Open Comment Post. 10 May 25

Wahash Korkut Air Defence Gun

Vehicle info here

Open Comment Post. 8 May 25