US Special Ops is conducting "capture" raids in Syria???

via Washington Post.

U.S. Special Operations troops carried out a ground operation in eastern Syria aimed at capturing an Islamic State militant, U.S. officials said Monday.
The raid took place Sunday near a small town along the Euphrates River valley, in the vicinity of the city of Deir al-Zour and deep in the heart of Islamic State territory, according to the officials and Syrian activist groups.
The troops, who landed on helicopters, spent about 90 minutes in the area, then left carrying Islamic State captives and bodies, according to witnesses quoted by the website Deir al-Zour 24, which monitors Islamic State activity in that province.
According to U.S. defense officials in Washington, the U.S. forces intercepted a vehicle carrying an Islamic State militant whom the U.S. military hoped to capture and interrogate. One official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an operation whose details have not been publicly announced, said that a firefight broke out and the suspect, along with another person in the car, was killed. No Americans were injured.
Col. John Dorrian, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, confirmed that the raid had taken place but declined to provide details.
“The Coalition can confirm a U.S. operation in the vicinity of Deir al-Zour on Jan. 8. The U.S. and the entire counter-ISIL Coalition will continue to pursue ISIL leaders wherever they are to ensure the security and stability of the region and our homelands,” he said in an email. ISIL is another name for the Islamic State.
Officials said the operation was conducted by a “small number” of personnel from the Expeditionary Task Force, a team of elite troops based in Iraq that is charged with hunting down Islamic State leaders.
“We’ve done them before and we’ll do them again,” Capt. Jeff Davis, a U.S. miliary spokesman, said of the task force operation, speaking to reporters at the Pentagon.

Wow.  I'm all in favor of the public being informed but geez close the freaking playbook!

SOCOM is gonna get ate up one day broadcasting this stuff.  That old warhorse was right.  One day the terrorists are gonna be waiting and that's gonna be a bad day for our Special Ops Community.

What kills me is the bravado by the military spokesman.  “We’ve done them before and we’ll do them again.”  That's the type of thinking that will get you fucked up against the right person...organization...or terrorist group.  I hope this thinking hasn't infected the trigger pullers.

Sidenote.  All that work.  All that risk..... and the guy they were after ended up killed in the firefight.  Maybe they should have just droned him and not risked the lives of so many people.

Is it time to start thinking about a mixed fleet of AAV-SU's with 30mm RWS?

Is it time to stop bitching about the way that the ACV/AAV upgrade program is going and pivot to talking about the need to upgrade the firepower on these vehicles?

Considering the thinking at HQMC I won't propose giving everyone of these vehicles a 30mm RWS but perhaps one of three?  The Marine Corps and Army talk alot about the future battlefield.  In the Marine Corps you're hearing about the need for "tactical hackers" (still don't understand that...isn't hacking at its root more a strategic type weapon...it would seem that ground based electronic warfare would be a bigger priority but I'm just a blogger) but the need to increase the inherent lethality of our armored force is being ignored.

The cynic and F-35 hater in me would point to that program but lets give the benefit of the doubt here.  What if the need has simply been overlooked?

In my view that would be a bigger tragedy but lets push forward.  The Chinese have their EFV clone, tank destroyers based on APC's that mount 105mm cannons and their everyday IFV mounts 30mm guns.  The Russians almost double that amount of firepower across the board on their armored vehicles. We've seen ISIS and other hybrid terrorist groups that have turned into quasi-state type formations with MUCH increased firepower.

Its no longer a good idea to upgun our vehicles but a necessity.  A good place to start would be with the eventual ACV winner and at least a portion of the AAV-SU fleet.

What the hell is going on in Mexico???

via BBC

Cities across Mexico have seen days of rioting after the government announced a hike in the price of petrol.
Hundreds of shops were looted and the government says 1,500 people have been arrested.
Soldiers and police officers were sent in to deal with the riots, and some groups of people have armed themselves.
At least six people have died in the unrest.

Ok this is two days old and since I was occupied this weekend I had no visibility on this.  A gas hike got this type of response?  Check this out from CNN.

A hefty government gas price hike is fueling protests, looting and road blockades in Mexico.
Authorities arrested more than 250 people for robbery and acts of vandalism around the country this week, officials said.
Some protests have been peaceful.

The pics from this are ... wild ... correction they're typical rioting nonsense...

 What is my take?  I don't have one.  I note that they pay a metric (literally) shit ton for a litre of gas...it went from 12 to 14 pesos. I'm not gonna look up the exchange rate to see what that is in dollars but doesn't it matter...average folks are being paid in pesos so it gonna hurt I imagine.

What does have me spinning is the thought that Mexico is this fragile.  I know they have an ongoing Narco-terrorism problem but I didn't think that a 20% hike in gas prices would spark this type of reaction.

I WAS ONCE a doubter in the need for a Southern Command but not anymore.  S. America is a tinder box waiting to go off.  Unfortunately the solution isn't a military one...not even when it comes to terrorism/insurgents/drug traffickers...the problem is economic!

American NGOs need to quickly pivot from the Middle East nonsense that is more a European concern to S. America which will affect the homeland directly.

Mexico is the tip of the iceberg and if they go the way of Venezuela then we're gonna need to deploy a couple of divisions on the border...if Mexico goes under then that means a whole lot of other S. American countries have already sunk.

Anti-US Korean War Propaganda...so this is how they tried to make us look....

pics via FNHFAL Tumblr Page.

I despise the view that liberals have of the US.  I hate hearing from expats in the West that talk about how great their country of origin is, yet they live in other places.  I despise the usual media outlets in various countries that view the US as being the cause of all their problems.

But I DO find propaganda during war interesting...not today's propaganda that sings the "let's join hands" stuff that the Pentagon has been pumping out for the past 30 years but the old skool stuff that identified the enemy as the enemy and one that needed to be defeated.

The same applies for the propaganda that is anti-US.

I just want to know how they viewed us.

You think some of the US anti-Germany/Japan stuff is brutal?  Check out the stuff that they pumped out against us!  Things started taking a turn for US propaganda efforts after the Korean War...its as if the Pentagon had lost its way and was no longer seeking to put forward max efforts to rally public support for the wars that it fought, but for those we're fighting they didn't miss a beat.

Which brings me to this anti-US propaganda you see above.  I've never seen anything like it before which shows a massive hole in my understanding of the war.  The funny thing?  Propaganda would be even more effective today (if the Pentagon was able to properly harness the power of social media) but the efforts are so disjointed, so lacking in understanding of its target audience that they remain lost in the woods.

Spider gobbles snake...Brazil not Australia...

Story here.

Yeah.  I can wrap my mind around the idea of crocs, tigers, hippos and others either eating or crushing humans...but you just have to know that somewhere in deep space there are insects that treat us as delicacies.  Good luck with that future Space Marine...you can have your bug hunt!

Another fight at a fitness expo. Men's fitness is turning into a soap opera.

This is craziness.  The fitness industry has turned into a freaking soap opera!  What's the cause of the stupidity?  YouTube celebrities that need to get eyeballs to their page in order to drive views and revenue.  This isn't the first incident that's happened at one of the so called "fitness expos" either.

It isn't the first time that Rich Piana has been involved in some drama at one of these events either.  Last year Rich got into a situation where he slapped, hit or punched some retarded guy (what's the modern term for that) and ended up with a bunch of bad press about it.

The funny weird thing about this?  I didn't hear a thing about Piana and Trucc having any beef.

It doesn't matter though.  I'm almost to the point of shit canning the whole social media thing when it comes to lifting.  The drama queen/soap opera side of it is becoming too dominant and incidents like this are getting too many people "excited" instead of them asking what the fuck.

One last thing.  What is it with guys posturing for 5 minutes before throwing a punch.  Piana is saying "lets step outside"?  Many are saying that Trucc threw a sucker punch but once those words are uttered then its fights' on!

Monday Funny!

ST2 tracked 105 mm Tank Destroying Vehicle (TDV)

Thanks to Jonathan for the info (include the link so I'll know who to credit the article to please!).

via unknown

China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO) has expanded its armoured vehicle portfolio with the development of the ST2 tracked 105 mm Tank Destroying Vehicle (TDV), which is understood to have been developed specifically for the export market rather than the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
The hull is similar to that used on the earlier generation NORINCO YW534 (Type 89) armoured personnel carrier (APC) - which has not been manufactured for some years - but with six road wheel stations either side rather than five.
While new platforms could be built, it is possible that the ST2 could use refurbished and upgraded vehicles.
The forward part of the hull sides slope inwards but at the rear they are more vertical to enable the turret, with its larger ring, to be installed. The driver is seated front left with the diesel powerpack to the right.
The ST2 TDV consists of a fully tracked platform fitted with a welded steel three-person turret mounted in the middle. The 105 mm rifled gun has a muzzle brake, fume extractor, and thermal sleeve, but does not currently appear to be fitted with a muzzle reference system (MRS), which would enable the weapon to be bore sighted without the crew leaving the vehicle.

A total of 32 rounds of 105 mm ammunition are carried with the mix depending on the role the ST2 TDV is expected to undertake.

As well as firing the standard natures of 105 mm ammunition including armour-piercing fin-stabilised discarding sabot - tracer (APFSDS-T), high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT), high explosive (HE), and a recently developed bunker busting round, it can also fire a gun-launched guided projectile (GLGP), which NORINCO is marketing as the GP2.

The GLGP has a maximum range of up to 5,000 m and is fitted with a tandem HEAT warhead that is claimed to penetrate 650 mm of rolled homogeneous armour (RHA) protected by explosive reactive armour (ERA).

Unimpressive.  Fire support vehicle would be a better description and slapping a 105mm cannon on an underperforming, damn near obsolete vehicle is not the way to gain sales in any region except maybe Africa...and even there you would probably have to give them away.

Blast from the past....Armstrong Whitworth AW.681

pics and caption via Apostles of Mercy Blog.

The Armstrong Whitworth AW.681, also designated the Whitworth Gloster 681 or Hawker Siddeley HS.681 - due to industry mergers - was a pretty unique transport design from Britain’s 1960s aviation industry. Fulfilling a similar short takeoff and landing specification as Lockheed’s C-130, Armstrong Whitworth produced a solid contender in the AW.681, featuring vectored thrust nozzles, boundary layer control, blown flaps, leading edges and ailerons.

Then they took things a little further, trading the four Rolls-Royce RB.142 Medway engines for four Bristol Siddeley Pegasus turbofans, to obtain VTOL capability. These were the engines which went on to power the Harrier. It would have been an interesting sight. Thanks to the swept shoulder-mounted wings and high T-tail, it would have also resembled today’s C-17 and A400M.

The entire project was scrapped in 1964 when the moment’s Labour Government announced a defence spending review, opting instead to buy the American Lockheed C-130. As a result the company closed it’s Coventry factory, making 5000 redundant.

Open Comment Post. Jan. 9, 2017.

Your Uber Driver!

PGZ Polish Armaments Group

More than you want to know about APS Hard Kill Systems...

Below The Turret Ring Blog has a great article on APS Hard Kill Systems.  It is a MUST READ!

My take away?  Trophy isn't all its cracked up to be and being able to "reload the system" under armor will be essential...which is why Trophy isn't my favorite in the field.  Additionally I was surprised by the limited field of fire that most of these systems have.

APS might be all the rage but its far from being the mature system that I once thought.