Golan Heights clusterfuck. India, the Philippines & UN....UPDATED!

Thanks to Kristoffer for the links.

First read the story here, and here.

UPDATE!  Check out Weaponsman's Blog  take on the events here.  Its a GREAT "quick look" at what transpired!

UPDATE 1!  I wanted to give a day for people to weigh in before I offered my opinion.  The Filipino soldiers did the warrior thing.  You never surrender if you have the means to resist.  A commander that orders the surrender of a combat capable unit is issuing an unlawful order and it is to be ignored and if in the field, he is to be arrested/relieved of command.

Cliff Notes?  Syrian Rebels surrounded Philippine troops.  Philippine troops broke out, escaped, evaded...whatever...they made it to safety.  Indian General in charge calls them unprofessional because he was working on safe passage.  On this I'm a bit fuzzy.  Did the Rebels have other captives and they wanted to safeguard them too?  I'm not sure.

I'm not positive on the exact details although I had read that the UN had forces in trouble there....what I do know is this.  Any force that operates under the UN banner is going to be much less effective than if it operated under its nations colors.  This seems like a ton of bullshit stuffed in 8oz bottle.

Russian armored column advancing toward the port of Mariupol

via Fox News.

UNITED NATIONS – Ukraine's U.N. ambassador says a convoy of Russian tanks and armored vehicles has moved from the resort town of Novoazovsk toward the key port of Mariupol and was stopped by Ukrainian forces and civilians.
Yuriy Sergeyev told a news conference that the convoy started moving Thursday morning and "the fight is still going on right now."
He said the convoy from Novoazovsk, which was captured by heavily armed Russian-backed separatists last week, had four tanks, three armored vehicles and about 50 soldiers, and "most probably" was a reconnaissance mission to test Mariupol's military defenses.
Novoazovsk lies along the road linking Russia to Mariupol and onto Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed in March.
Sergeyev said Russia is "most probably" trying to build a land corridor to Crimea.

Again.   This is just a common sense move (if true) by the Russians to consolidate their positions before a harsh winter sets in.

This is probably the closing gambit before operations begin to clean up the battlefield, repair civilian infrastructure and formally put the region under Russian control.

NATO is meeting but in my opinion the endgame is already in motion. 

MSPO 2014 News via Military Technology Magazine.

All photos via Military Technology Magazine.

Above you see a new version of the Tiger helicopter and a newly developed RWS for the Rosomak (Patria AMV) which is aimed at replacing the BMP-1.

Military Technology is doing a great job of covering this event and you can read about these platforms here and here.

Royal Australian Airforce Hawk 127

11th MEU & Malaysian Forces @ MALUS AMPHEX 14...photos by Sgt. Melissa Wenger

Poland's WILK Fire Support Vehicle.

Thanks Galvars for the images!

I just can't help but think about the Marine Personnel Carrier and the word that I got that Lockheed Martin Ground was already developing a family of vehicles for the USMC.

If Dunford goes forward with the program then I think we might see an instant upgrade in the firepower available to our Infantry forces.  Tanks might not hit the beach until things are secured and won't be available until the push inland.  Putting direct fires on our APC's (just a few of them) would seem like a no brainer and a throw back to the LVTH-6 from years ago.

Monsters: Dark Continent