Kurdish Special Forces punishes ISIS...watch for the acrobatics!

FNSS Design Competition Winners!

This Is Awesome!

FNSS ran a design competition for professionals and students and below are a few of the designs that placed.  You can check out the video and gallery here. Its well worth your time.

China's Z-10 Attack & Anti-Air Helicopter. via Alert 5.

Fast forward to the 2:50 mark.  The Z-10 is shown taking out an aerial target.  The Russians and USMC have played with the concept.  It remains to be seen how far the Chinese go.  

Chinese Marine Amphibious Assault Ship Concept Art.

Thanks to Duke for the link.

Just concept art people!  Don't get it twisted....although we do know that the Chinese are working on a 50,000 ton LHD...and it appears they are working on some type of VTOL airplane to fly from it.

Question.  Has anyone heard anything about the Chinese V-22 they're suppose to be working on?

Engagement/Partnership Missions? The new "cool"..

via American Mercenary...

One of the lessons taken away from my recent two week trip to train is that the "Engagement" war fighting function is currently being trained as a euphemism for "stability operations."
The Army doesn't have a doctrinal reference for "engagement" at this time, just a TRADOC pamphlet describing in very broad terms the things that make up engagement. Foreign Internal Defence, Foreign Security Assistance, Civil Military Assistance, joint military training, etc.
If it sounds a lot like all the crap we've done before, well that is because it is. Just now we are doing it as part of the "Elements of Combat Power" if you follow the doctrine.
The problem with "stability" is that it is always going to be the bastard stepchild of "offence" and "defence" in the trinity of "unified land operations." The forces that are tailored to conduct stability operations such as Civil Affairs, Military Information Support Operations, Public Affairs, Foreign Area Officers, and the like are in short supply in the formations actually conducting "unified land operations."

Yeah.

They rebranded Counter Insurgency, put it in a sparkling new package and its the same old brew....SOCOM, element of the US Army & Marine Corps...in other words the COIN Mafia has won.  Considering the news in Ukraine and the thoughts about arming their forces we can expect "Engagement" to be a word tossed around to justify increased involvement.

Nation building forever (we should call it what it is...not small wars but nation building).

Read AM's take here. 

Sidenote:  Another word should grab everyone's attention now that I think about it.  "Shaping".  I don't know when psychology rose to prominence in the halls of the Pentagon but influencing behavior and thoughts seem to be more important to some than winning on the battlefield.  Its a fools errand though.  You can't make perpetual war popular unless you can show that its in a nations interests.  That is the problem with the US way of war lately.  We're fighting for others...not for ourselves.

Republic of Korea Army, 11th Mechanized Infantry Division on maneuver (pics)

US considering arming Ukraine.

via Houston Chronicle

Fueling the broader debate over policy is an independent report to be issued Monday by eight former senior U.S. officials, who are to urge the United States to send $3 billion in defensive arms and equipment to Ukraine, including anti-armor missiles, reconnaissance drones, armored Humvees and radars that can determine the location of enemy rocket and artillery fire.

Why does this seem so much like the buildup to the war in Vietnam?

Still think this won't spiral?  Still think that the power that be actually have a plan to deal with this?

The world is burning and leadership doesn't have a clue.

Sidenote:  What will be the Russian counter?  How will they respond?  I still get the impression that we're behind them in the decision making loop.

Winslow Wheeler is retiring. Things are about to get a bit boring.

via Politico...

And in the middle of it all was a man whose last day at work at the Project on Government Oversight, a non-profit determined to root out government waste, coincided with news that the Pentagon would ask for an increase of 19 F-35s in next year’s budget at $100 million or more apiece.
But Winslow Wheeler was not in a despairing mood. Emotional, yes, but still feisty.
Spinney and Sprey, he said, “have gotten me into lots of trouble — but no trouble I didn’t enjoy.” And he took several parting shots at the F-35 program.
“It keeps embarrassing itself,” he said. “At some point, the weight and momentum of all those problems and all those costs are going to pass a threshold in our political system.”

Love him or hate him, Wheeler made it fun and sparked debate.  And for that alone he should be missed by all.

Read the entire article here.

Slip bro! & This is gonna hurt! via Round Canopy Rigging Facebook Page.

That dude is in a world of hurt.

Chinese Marines conducting winter training.

Thanks to info-infanterie for the link...

I don't know the terrain, but does China have high altitude "plains"?  Of interest to me is how far afield the Chinese Marines are using their armor.  If this is near the Chinese-India Border then in the future we might get to see high altitude tank/IFV battles.  That would be something.