11th MEU. Battalion Landing Team 3/1 Heavy Guns live fire.

Photos by Cpl. Tommy Huynh

Marines with Battalion Landing Team 3/1 fire M240B machine guns during live-fire training April 24 aboard USS Pearl Harbor here. The team serves as the ground combat element for the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is deployed as part of the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group, currently a U.S. Central Command theater reserve force. The group is providing support for maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet area of responsibility.

Lance Cpl. Anthony Acosta fires a M240B machine gun during live-fire training April 24 aboard USS Pearl Harbor here. The 22-year-old Phoenix native serves s as a mortarman for Battalion Landing Team 3/1, the ground combat element for the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit. The unit is deployed as part of the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group, currently a U.S. Central Command theater reserve force. The group is providing support for maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet area of responsibility.

24th MEU in Spain. Grappling and the Obstacle Course.

All photos by Sgt. Richard Blumenstein

Cpl. Julian Valdez, a squad leader for 2nd Platoon, Charlie Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, grapples with other members of his squad here, April 19, 2012, during a supervised Marine Corps Martial Arts Program squad vs. squad grappling match. The Marines spent the day engaging in a variety of training events before enjoying a much needed day off in Spain. The 24th MEU, partnered with the Navy's Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, is currently deployed as a theater reserve and crisis response force capable of a variety of missions from full-scale combat operations to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

Lance Cpl. Kyle Scales, a fire team leader, grapples Lance Cpl. James Rounds, a rifleman, while other Marines from Charlie Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, pin Rounds' arms and legs here, April 19, 2012, during a squad vs. squad Marine Corps Martial Arts Program grappling exercise. The Marines spent the day engaging in a variety of training events before enjoying a much needed day off in Spain. The 24th MEU, partnered with the Navy's Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, is currently deployed as a theater reserve and crisis response force capable of a variety of missions from full-scale combat operations to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

Marines with Charlie Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, run an obstacle course here, April 19, 2012, during a day of training before enjoying time off in Spain. The 24th MEU, partnered with the Navy's Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, is currently deployed as a theater reserve and crisis response force capable of a variety of missions from full-scale combat operations to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

Pfc. Ekrem Uysaler, a machine gunner with Charlie Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, leaps over a wall on an obstacle course here, April 19, 2012, during a day of training before enjoying time off in Spain. The 24th MEU, partnered with the Navy's Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, is currently deployed as a theater reserve and crisis response force capable of a variety of missions from full-scale combat operations to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

Marines with Charlie Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, overcome the last obstacle on the obstacle course here, April 19, 2012, during a day of training before enjoying time off in Spain. The 24th MEU, partnered with the Navy's Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, is currently deployed as a theater reserve and crisis response force capable of a variety of missions from full-scale combat operations to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

Cpl. Jesse Buhler, an assaultman with Charlie Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, makes his way across a horizontal bar on an obstacle course here, April 19, 2012, during a day of training before enjoying time off in Spain. The 24th MEU, partnered with the Navy's Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, is currently deployed as a theater reserve and crisis response force capable of a variety of missions from full-scale combat operations to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

A Marine with Charlie Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, fast ropes from a rappel tower here, April 19, 2012, during a day of routine training before enjoying time off in Spain. The 24th MEU, partnered with the Navy's Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, is currently deployed as a theater reserve and crisis response force capable of a variety of missions from full-scale combat operations to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

Wow. Yon takes it to a new level.

I've been trolled here.  Huron Serenity has made it his purpose in life to troll my site just to pump up his standings with his leaders in Air Power Australia and their allies Bill Sweetman and Bob Cox.

Cool.

I can take it and besides....I love scaring the little punk.

I've been to websites where I've watched the conversations...participated....had my fill and cussed the guys out and left.

Its the raging madman in me.  I make no apologizes.

But this latest from Michael Yon against Uncle Jimbo is a new low.

Trust me.  When I say wow, its usually for dramatic effect.  Its an easy attention grabber for headlines.

This fucking time I mean it.  WOW.  Yon has jumped the shark, baracuda, piranha and every other deep sea animal.  This shit is over the top.  Check it out here.

Syrians are dying. And its still not our business.

The predicted drumbeat for Western involvement in Syria is picking up steam.  Also noticeable is a certain French President, desperate to hold onto power is now stating that we need to get in the middle of the mess.

I disagree.

We were warned by our fore-fathers to avoid foreign entanglements and its way past time for us to listen to our elders.

I'm sorry Syrians are dying but its not our business.

"Training for our new marine corps was uniquely Australian."---Cartoon of the day.

Special Boat Squadron's Stealth Boat and its mothership!.

The 29-strong fleet also includes SD Victoria, the “Worldwide Support Vessel” which is the largest of the 29 new vessels ordered by Serco Marine Services from Damen. via UKArmedForcesCommentary Blog.

Built in Romania, the 83m training and support vessel replaced SD Newton as a platform for Special Forces operations, for which she is equipped with classrooms, briefing and operations rooms, workshops, extensive storage areas of various kinds, a helicopter winching deck, and provision to carry and operate Rigid Inflatable Boats. She has accommodation for 88, can do 15 knots and has 46 days endurance. The side-launching davit can deploy an 8 tons boat in Sea State 4 and the main deck crane is 25 tons rated and has an (harbor) reach of 17 meters, which goes down to 12 in operations at sea in SS4. The exact activity of the vessel is not known, but she’s most likely a cherished part of the Special Boat Service toolkit, as in this other photo she is carrying their ‘StealthBoat’, a 2007-procured vessel reportedly capable of 60 knots.  

I was surfing the web looking for info on the Falklands Campaign to get a little info to refute a guest blogger on Think Defence when I ran across this info.

Seems like the SBS has been some busy boys!

A StealthBoat (to my knowledge it still hasn't received an official, publicly released designation) and a Worldwide Support Vessel.

Sounds to me like the Royal Navy and Royal Marines SBS have teamed up and found themselves a mothership and high speed infiltrator/interceptor.

I like.

Helicopter shoot down in Afghanistan. The enemy is inside our decision making cycle

The image above is an emergency responders decision making loop.

It takes into account the action that a well trained emergency responder will take upon arrival at the scene of the incident.

Now...this via Stars and Stripes.  Read the whole thing at their site.

The Black Hawk helicopter that crashed last week, killing all four U.S. soldiers aboard, was likely shot down by insurgents, according to sources with knowledge of the crash.
The armed UH-60L Black Hawk went down in Helmand province around 9:40 p.m. Thursday while supporting a medevac chopper on a mission to pick up Afghan policemen wounded by a bomb. There were thunderstorms and low visibility in the area of the crash that day and it’s unclear whether that bad weather also played a role.
The Taliban claimed to have used a “rocket,” which they sometimes use as shorthand for a rocket-propelled grenade. Such weapons have been used repeatedly against helicopters in Afghanistan.
In the wake of the crash, U.S. military officials said enemy fire was unlikely. On Sunday, the International Security Assistance Force’s press desk responded to a Stars and Stripes query by saying it was “considered very unlikely that the crash was the result of enemy activity.”
But two sources with direct knowledge of the crash and the investigation have since told Stars and Stripes that it now looks more likely that the helicopter was shot down by enemy fire. The sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
When asked again Tuesday about the possibility of enemy fire, an ISAF Joint Command spokesman sounded a more cautious tone.
“Investigators are looking at all of the variables, but at this time it would be getting out in front of that to say more,” Capt. Justin Brockhoff said.

Gentlemen.

I contend that the enemy is inside our decision making cycle.

I didn't print it, but I've recieved e-mails that there is suppose to be a dramatic increase in US forces this summer and that the buildup is suppose to set the stage for at the very least...credible peace talks.

But as the "Old Corps" Marines like to say...the enemy gets a vote too.

And they've voted.

We had what pretty much amounts to a Tet Offensive and its been occuring for at least the past 6 months...since the end of OCT all the way up to MAR.  The assasination of US and allied trainers by those Afghans that we were suppose to be training was the first sign that they were inside our heads.

Instead of responding vigourously to the attrocities that were happening, leadership down played the incidents and even had the audacity to tell the troops to suck it up and show discipline.

The next vote that the enemy cast was the country wide assault...most dramatically in the city of Kabaul.  The response was again tepid.  A few press releases and conferences that sought to tell the same tired lie.  The war is well in hand and this type of activity was expected.

Now we have a helicopter shootdown.  Again.  A tepid response, an investigation and no statements to the allied countries peoples that the military leadership is aware of the problem and is taking steps to make sure that the enemy isn't capable of doing this again...at least without having to pay a steep price.

The enemy is voting and I personally don't like what the early returns are telling me.

31st MEU Endurance Course Vid.

Dirk Jan de Ridder. Another photographer's work you should check out.

Dirk's another one of those aviation photographers that's at the top of my list of guys who get it.  Check out his work at either his  Scramble or Flickr pages.

The Australian Navy gears up.

via News.com.au.

THE Royal Australian Navy has produced a secret $4 billion "wish list" that includes an aircraft carrier, an extra air warfare destroyer and long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles for its submarine fleet.
The RAN wants a third 26,000 tonne amphibious ship equipped with vertical take-off jet fighters, a fourth $2 billion air warfare destroyer and cruise missiles that could strike targets thousands of kilometres away.
The list comes at a time when the RAN can barely find enough sailors to crew its existing fleet.
It also coincides with a Federal Government push to save $1 billion a year in defence costs as well as a government-ordered White Paper which will set the spending priorities for the next two decades.
According to insiders, the Government was unimpressed by the RAN's push for more firepower at a time when the Government is aiming to slash spending.
"The navy is out of control," one defence source said.
It is understood that the wish list was the final straw in the tense relationship between the Government and Chief of Navy Vice-Admiral Russ Shalders - who will be replaced in July by Rear Admiral Russell Crane.
Admiral Shalders last year also pushed hard for an expensive US-designed destroyer, but lost out to the cheaper, Spanish option.
Taxpayers will spend more than $11 billion to provide the RAN with the two 26,000-tonne amphibious ships and three air-warfare destroyers equipped with 48 vertical launch missiles.
The two big ships, known as Landing Helicopter Docks, are designed for amphibious assaults and will be fitted with helicopters and be capable of carrying more than 1000 troops and heavy vehicles such as tanks and trucks.

The RAN wants a third ship to carry vertical take-off fighter jets.

Its last aircraft carrier, HMAS Melbourne, was decommissioned in 1982 before being sold for scrap.

The latest ships are 10m longer and 8m wider than the Melbourne and will be built in Spain and fitted out at the Tenix shipyard in Melbourne.

The Spanish navy will carry 30 Harrier jump jets aboard its similar ships.

They will each cost more than $1.7 billion. The fighters would cost about $100 million each. The destroyers will cost about $2 billion each, taking the total cost to more than $4 billion.
Tomahawk cruise missiles cost about $1 million each and can carry a 450kg conventional or 200 kiloton nuclear warhead more than 2500km.
In the past Australia has stayed away from long-range strike missiles for fear of triggering a regional arms race.
The wish list is what the RAN would like to see make up part of the White Paper process which will later this year provide a strategic blueprint for the defence of the nation for the next 20 years.
That process will direct new spending worth more than $50 billion over the next 10 years.

Lets read between the lines on this.

First there is no reason why the RAN can't operate F-35B's off their current ships.  Perhaps not as many as would be ideal but they will be able to.

Second, there is a definite trend going on here.  I've said it before (Aussie Digger disagreed) but I'll say it again.  The Australian Navy is inches away from creating a Marine Corps.

Last, this move to station Marines in the Northern Territories just adds to future interoperability.  The more the Aussies train, observe and work with US Marines the more obvious it will be that this is the glaring hole in their force capabilities.

But more than just a need for F-35's and a Marine Corps the Aussies are finally coming to grips with the cold hard facts that warfare in the Pacific demands a Navy and Marine team.  If you are to actually engage in expeditionary warfare over the vast distances that is the Pacific then you need ships, planes, Marines and subs.

Much to the chagrin of the Royal Australian Air Force, the Royal Australian Navy is starting to put it together...and unlike the Europeans, the Australians realize that they have a potential foe that is a peer --- not some backwater Middle Eastern or African dictator.

NOTE:
What was left off the list is the fact that the Pacific is seeing an alarming build up in military power.  The traditional powers...Japan, S.Korea and China are starting to see the minor power arm up rapidly.  Singapore is the Israel of the Pacific and might have the most technologically advanced force in the region.  Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines all see China and each other as threats---and left unsaid are the ancient animosities that course throughout the region.  The Pacific is a future powder keg.