Flyer Gen III GMV 1.1 Advanced LSV

A rant about Israel vs. Hamas press coverage.

I've been watching the news and reading some of the comments here and I'm becoming a bit irritated with Hamas supporters.

Consider this my list of annoyances...

*  Israel is being accused of war crimes because they accidentally injure/kill civilians.  The news media and Hamas apologists on this blog, not to mention the UN are all about investigating and prosecuting Israeli's.

No one says a word about Hamas purposely targeting civilians everytime they launch a rocket barrage toward one of the Israeli cities.

*  People are talking about proportionality in warfare.  This one is particularly annoying.  Let the USMC go into combat against an enemy and we have proportional casualties and I'll personally be traveling to Quantico to kick someone's ass.  if you're waging warfare correctly then you better be getting lopsided results on the battlefield.  If you have a small, high tech, mechanized force then by God you damn well NEED to make sure that the enemy is bleeding more than your forces.

The same applies to the IDF.  The proportionality idiots in the media need to seriously suck a dick.

*  The US State Dept.  These clowns are looking at a crisis in Europe that needs serious attention yet we have the Sec of State in the Middle East dealing with the conflict there.  You attack the most serious issues first and despite the attention that the cocktail set gives the Palestinian movement, its just not that important in the grand scheme of things.  Quite honestly I rank world issues in this order....

1.  Ukraine.
2.  Iraq-ISIS issue.
3.  Jordan refugee crisis.
4.  Syria.
5.  Boko Haram in Nigeria.
6.  Saudi Arabia/Qatar/UAE insurgency issues.
7.  Afghanistan....and then finally....
8.  Israel vs. Hamas.

Its ok for a blog to become focused on a conflict.  Because of my support for Israel and my watching the performance of their military, its captured my attention.

But make no mistake about it (yep, gonna repeat myself...again) the Ukraine crisis is the one that will wreck the global economy and plunge us all into a recession (well a deeper recession).

Breaking News. Russia openly supply rebels with tanks, massing troops.

via International Business Times.

More than 15,000 Russian troops have amassed along the border with Ukraine as the Pentagon said Friday it appears Moscow is about to transfer “heavy caliber multiple rocket systems” to pro-Russia separatists.
Reuters cited the U.S. ambassador to NATO in a tweet reporting that 15,000 Russian troops are on the Ukrainian border. The news wire service didn’t offer further details about the deployment.
The development came as the Pentagon said a transfer of “heavy caliber multiple rocket systems” from Russia to pro-Russia rebels in Ukraine was “imminent.”
Russia is also reportedly arming the rebels with tanks, armored vehicles and other high-powered weapons, according to U.S. officials who spoke to the New York Times. Andriy Lysenko, a Ukrainian military spokesman, also told the paper that government forces were taking more fire from the Russian side of the border. The spokesman said Ukraine responded by shooting down three Russian drones.

A division of troops massing on the border?  Supplying the rebels with tanks, IFV/APCs?

This is about to get nasty.

Diplomacy has failed.  People are grabbing their guns. 

The US Navy refuses additional USMC amphibious ship demands...

Check this out from AOL Defense.

But the Navy’s top acquisition official, Sean Stackley, made clear today the service dares not sign that contract until it’s confident that it will eventually get full funding to buy the ship, about $2 billion. Congress already voted “advanced funding” in fiscal year 2014, and House authorizers and Senate appropriators have proposed $800 million in “incremental funding” in fiscal year 2015. “We appreciate your support,” Assistant Secretary Stackleytold the House Seapower subcommittee this morning, but even if the full $800 million is approved, “we are still a billion-plus short.”
Especially with the prospect of sequestration cuts looming over budgets for 2016 and beyond, Stackley is far from sure that the missing billion-plus will ever materialize. If the Navy could find that much additional money, he said bluntly, “we have other bills that are frankly higher-priority, [e.g.] the refueling of the carrier” USS George Washington.
In fact, Stackley made clear to reporters after the hearing that the Navy would rather repurpose some of the LPD-28 funding to invest in cost-reduction efforts for future amphibious warships across the board. That would include not only LPDs but the “big-deck” LHA-8, a much larger and more expensive ship, and most importantly the as-yet-undesigned LX(R) series, meant to be less capable but more affordable.

I don't ever recall the US Navy getting funding from Congress for amphibious ships and stating flat out that they had other priorities.

I sense serious funding issues for the Dept of the Navy.

We've talked about the procurement train wreck for the Marine Corps and how it would have to stagger purchases of weapon systems.  I've railed about how the F-35 has made a bad situation worse in that respect but I didn't consider how that one program is destroying the entire budget for the department.

Ships before aircraft.  Carriers, ballistic subs and destroyers before amphibious ships.  Looks like the Marine Corps is about to get frugal again whether it wants to or not.

11 Luchtmobiele Brigade gets ready to step into the Ukrainian quagmire.

Cdr Salamander has the story and its a must read here (go there first and then come back).

Ok.  You're back.

Yes, I know they're only going to provide security for the crash site but this will predictably get messy.

All it will take is one undisciplined rebel and we're looking at the 3rd European war.  The one bright spot is that the 11th are probably a well trained force (I never heard of these guys so I'm assuming) and many of its members probably have experience in UN peacekeeping missions....so getting shot at and not being able to shoot back is something they're familiar with.

I still think this will end badly, and for little purpose.  The time to secure the site has long since passed.  Everyone knows that so this is something else entirely.  What?  I have no idea.

Peruvian Marines buying LAV-25's.

via Press Release.

LONDON, Ontario, July 24, 2014 -- The Peruvian Ministry of Defence has awarded a USD$67 million contract to General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada for 32 Light Armoured Vehicles (LAVs) for the Peruvian Marines. General Dynamics Land Systems, the Canadian company's parent corporation, is a business unit of General Dynamics.
The contract was signed through the Canadian Commercial Corporation, a Crown corporation of the Government of Canada.
Vehicles provided under this contract will be personnel carrier variants of the LAV II family of vehicles with amphibious capability. Included in the contract is a complete logistics support package. Deliveries will commence by mid-2015.
Danny Deep, vice-president of General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada, said, "We are proud to have been selected by the Peruvian Marines to meet their armoured vehicle requirement and look forward to establishing a long-term relationship with this very important customer."

Not surprising.

The USMC and Peruvian Marines are developing strong bonds.  I expect to see more of a USMC presence in that country going forward to counter Chinese attempts to gain influence in the region. 

Ukraine. A one sided proxy war and looming economic collapse.

The above video says that the Russians are not only firing across the border but they've also activated Motorized Infantry Battalions.  The Russians are fighting a proxy war and we're sending MRE's and radios.

US and EU foreign policy has completely failed and the sanctions are a sad joke.

But even more frightening is the current economic state of the Ukrainian government.  Russia doesn't need to do anything and I believe these moves are simply to spite President Obama.  What should scare everyone is that a failed state is about exist in the heart of Europe.  An economic recession is bound to hit Europe...they can't afford a full bailout and neither can we.  Even if we could Congress and the American people wouldn't stand for it.

The fighting in this country is now a sideshow to the looming economic misery.  Bosnia is going to look like the good ole' days before this is over.