Hey Marine Corps. Dump the V-22 and join the Army's buy of the 2nd gen tilt rotor...

 

A comment by Beowulf75...

For the corps, artillery should probably be wheeled. Towed is to slow, and tracked is to heavy. For the gun system get the Bookers the army is dumping while the line is hot and more can be produced. Not perfect, but available and tested. Go with the army on the v280, if it can be modified for sea. Marines did the long term vtol testing and army is getting the upgraded fruits of that labor.

The rest of his comment is worthy of debate but I want to highlight the highlighted section. 

The Marine Corps labored long and hard with the V-22.  It was first in class and as an introductory platform to a new concept it performed...OK.

But we're moving forward and putting more lipstick that is the pig of that airframe just don't make sense.

I don't believe in the sunk cost nonsense.  We spent the money to fix it.  We couldn't.  Time to move on.

Piggyback off the Army's purchase, modify it for naval use and get us a new bird.

31st MEU | ACVs conduct Amphibious Operations...Photos by Cpl. Angel Diaz Montes De Oca

Atlantic Alliance 25 Amphibious Landing Rehearsal...Photos by Cpl. Alexander Lesko

Note. You do realize that this photo thread illustrates that the USMC has devolved into a pre-WW1 state. Naval Infantry with limited ground combat capability and metphorically fighting against ships. Even before the 20th century the Marine Corps was conducting landings MOSTLY in support of sailors (check your history...Sailors once conducted ground operations on the regular). Now? We're back to that except the sailors are Navy SEALs. Force Design 2030 is an evolutionary dead end with the possibility of destroying the Corps.

 

What were the other aircraft used in the B-2 raid against Iran?

A quick one here.

Everyone is talking about the B-2 raid and the accuracy of the bunker busters but no one says a thing about the other aircraft in the raid.  Why?  What were they?  Did the B-2's once again need support from electronic attack aircraft?  Were they escorted by F-22's?  How many tankers were used in this effort?

I just want a few answers on a question everyone is ignoring.

Is the Commandant signalling a return to crisis response with his writing contest?

via Marine Corps Association

Marines Come From the Sea—What Comes Next?

For generations, Marines have launched from the sea to fight and win our Nation’s battles. Whether delivering crisis response, deterring aggression, or projecting combat power, the Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), embarked on an Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), has stood as the Corps’ most agile and lethal forward-deployed force.

Now it’s your turn to shape the future.

Announcing the Commandant’s Rapid Response Essay Contest – MEU 2035

What should the MEU of 2035 look like? Given a shipbuilding baseline that sustains three continuously deployed, three-ship ARG/MEUs, how should the MEU be task-organized, equipped, and what mission essential tasks should they be capable of accomplishing to meet the demands of Geographic Combatant Commanders across the globe?

This is your opportunity to influence the future force. Submissions need to offer realistic, feasible proposals that leverage near-term capabilities, emerging technologies, and creative applications of non-standard platforms to deter and win in the future environment.  For this contest, proposals are constrained to no more than a three-ship ARG/MEU construct which can include one big-deck.

Whether you’re a warfighter, planner, or innovator—bring your best ideas forward.

Contest Runs: May 22 – August 31 

Length: 2000-3000 words 

Submit essays as MS Word documents to Gazette@mca-marines.org​

Remember when the "new" MEU organization came out? I called it weak.  Weak as water.

It shows just how dramatic the shift to the "stand in force" has been.  How dramatic the shift toward a "sensing" unit the Marine Corps was being beaten into.

What I didn't fully realize is how big a step back this whole idea is.  The actions over Iran fully showed it though.

Marine Corps leadership was attempting to tie it to naval task forces.  

It ignored the needs of Combatant Commanders and instead linked itself to Navy missions worldwide.

What they forgot was that the Navy is an independent service with its own prioritizes.  Its own demands.  Its own missions.

In its rush to focus ONLY on the Chinese in the first island chain, Marine Corps leadership ignored the rest of the world.

This is the first crack in the devotion to Force Design 2030.

Berger and Smith destroyed the MAGTF.  Now they're belatedly trying to build it back.

Simply pathetic.  A carpenter knows to measure twice and cut once.  Those fucks sliced up the ground combat component with no care in the world.

Now?

Now my beloved Marine Corps is knocking on the door of irrelevancy.

Not from outside forces but from internal stupidity.

What mistakes were made and how does the Marine Corps fix things?

1.  Rebuild cannon artillery.

2.  Focus on seizing advanced bases, out of area operations and small wars against medium sized and lower forces that have advanced weaponry.

3.  Get our amphib numbers UP!

4.  Establish an electronic attack squadron or three.

5.  Acquire A-10's from the USAF.

6.  Buy CV-90120s to regain a mobile gun system and reestablish our tank battalions.

7.  Provide every vehicle with anti-drone devices.

8.  Increase the size of the Marine Corps from a programmed 172K back to 180K.

9.  Dump specialized gear where possible and piggyback off Army buys where possible (with modification).

That's off the top of my head.  There are more I'm sure.  But make no mistake.  The missteps by the supposedly smartest people in the room have endangered the continued existence of the Marine Corps.

Why do I say that?

Think about it.  The 82nd Airborne is already heavier and has more ground combat power than the 1st Marine Division.  A FREAKING AIRBORNE UNIT!  We arrive by ship and they're even heavier than we are!

Open Comment Post. 27 Jun 25

Another Latina suffers from a horrible illness...

 

Called it. https://t.co/clltBNoagL pic.twitter.com/SGjcCXCZBq

— John Slaughter, Esq. (@JSlaughterEsq) June 24, 2025

Marines being Marines or something more intense?

 

Is this our military 🤷‍♂️#grindfacetv pic.twitter.com/rkheAIzCrl

— GrindFace TV (Entertainment) (@grindfacetv) June 23, 2025

Been looking for more info on this ruckus. Wonder what it was about.

LSU baseball. NATIONAL CHAMPS!

 

THE TIGERS ARE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS pic.twitter.com/0sk6iV8gRc

— LSU Baseball (@LSUbaseball) June 22, 2025

Mike Pence says the nuke strikes were the right call. That means the Neo-Cons are advising the administration...

 

President Trump Made the Right Call to deploy American Forces to strike nuclear sites in Iran and he should be commended for his decisive leadership. Iran could never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. Thanks to the resolve of our Commander in Chief and the courage and…

— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) June 22, 2025

For Trump and his supporters this should be ominous.

Mike Pence says the strikes against Iran were the right call.  You know what  that means right?  It means the Neo-Cons are advising the administration.  Oh and it includes Fox News which is doing a full court press to spread the propaganda that this was the thing to do.

I remain unconvinced.  I asked for someone to show me their work.  Explain the shifting dates for Iran getting the bomb.  Show me the intel that led to assessment that it was now or never.

We're not getting it. 

What are we getting?

Platitudes.

"These strike make the world a safer place."

"We conducted these strikes for American security not Israel's."

I support Israel and continue to support the state, but they have a devil as a leader.  His blood lust has no off switch.  Gaza is leveled.  He's struck Syria, Lebanon and the Houthis, not to mention the latest strikes against Iran.  The Jewish state has been in a constant state of war since the Oct 7 attacks and the damage being done to his economy is severe.  We don't even need to discuss the damage being done to the IDF.

I'll wait and see but confidence is not high.

Open Comment Post. 22 Jun 25

 

DAMN IT TRUMP! How could you let Netanyahu play you like this....US strikes Irans nuke facilities...

pic.twitter.com/wu9mMkxtUg

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 21, 2025

I'm raging folks.

Raging bad.

Trump promised no more needless wars.  No forever wars.  So what does he do?  He gets yanked back into the tar baby that is the FUCKING MIDDLE EAST!

What doesn't he get.

Those fuckers will be fighting each other till the end of time.

I'm not making any sense cause my emotions are high on this one but congrats America.  Global terrorism is back on the menu.  SOCOM must be popping corks right now.

Dudes that work are slower than street thugs...

Federal agent pursues and tackles a suspected illegal immigrant attempting to flee an ICE raid at a Home Depot in Hollywood, California. pic.twitter.com/BO7JPVmKDE

— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) June 19, 2025

When you watch the vid you see ICE doing good work. I get that. But I note something else too. If that was a "normal" street thug that ICE Agent would have gotten smoked. The dudes they're chasing are slow. Your only saving grace when chasing one of the street guys is that they like to sag their pants. Kinda hard to run when your pants are halfway down your ass and you're having to hold them up to evade.

Stunning security lapse at UK airbase

Here's the footage from the recent incident at RAF Brize Norton in which two Voyager aircraft were damaged by spray paint and crowbars by Palestine Action members. These aircraft, despite claims made by the group, aren't involved in Israeli operations. pic.twitter.com/7OnnedZBoV

— UK Defence Journal (@UKDefJournal) June 20, 2025

These fucks made it onto the flight line to damage aircraft? I really gave the RAF security forces much more credit than that. To think that they just used crowbars and spray paint is almost funny but the implications are horrible. What if they were more sophisticated? What if they wanted to actually destroy the aircraft or worse sabotage them so they would crash inflight? We should reconsider forward basing in the UK if improvements aren't made.

Open Comment Post. 20 Jun 25

31st MEU | Boat Company...Video by Cpl. Alora Finigan

31st MEU | ACVs onload onto USS Rushmore......Video by Cpl. Angel Diaz Montes De Oca

 

LSU back to the College World Series Finals...

 

Netanyahu is playing chess on Trump's base and he has us paused up...

 I don't trust Netanyahu one bit.

I think the dude is doing serious damage to the state of Israel and I don't like how he's trying to drag us into his war.

But I got to give the fucker credit.

He's playing chess on us (Trump's base) and he has us paused up (me included).

Let me repeat.

I DO NOT TRUST NETANYAHU.

But the fucker is brilliant.  

What has he done?  He linked the Oct 7 attacks to the current war with Iran.  What makes it easy is that Iran has been such a bad actor in the region for so long that I can't lie...I have an innate desire to see them taken down more than a few notches.

So with Netanyahu linking the Oct 7 attacks to an old enemy of the President's base he is in a way "nullifying" our anti-war instincts.

Next the pied piper himself (Trump) is signalling a desire to continue negotiations with Iran WHILE AT THE SAME TIME signalling that he is willing to engage in military action (hopefully VERY LIMITED because I believe we're gonna see B-2s bombing that Iranian nuke site).

So where does that leave his supporters?

In a state of serious fucked up ass confusion.

If you're like me then your instincts are yelling no.  Those instincts to say no are amplified by the propaganda we're seeing on FOX NEWS that seem to be cheering for a strike.

At the sametime we're hoping that the strike is limited to just an attack on the mountain nuke facility and we can get out clean.

And that's the rub.

We all know that there is no such thing as getting out clean in a war.  Something always unexpected happens.  You always end up getting bloodied.

That's just the way things work.

Oh and remember we have about 40K troops on the ground in the Middle East just waiting to get attacked by terrorists/missiles/rockets (FORWARD BASING OF GROUND TROOPS IS BULLSHIT IN A BASKET).

If I was president what would I do?  

I think I would sit this one out.  

The idea of being rid of Iran's nukes is a beautiful thing, but just like that sexy ass female at the end of the bar there is a reason why she's sitting alone...there is always a catch in the best laid plans.

Open Comment Post. 18 Jun 25