Singapore Next Generation Infantry Fighting Vehicle (vid)...Just Plain Sexy!!!!

Many thanks to Benjamin (you've given me great stuff bro..keep it up) for the link!



This vehicle just looks right!  It's just plain sexy!

Trump was right about being under surveillance...expect the news to be buried. UPDATED!

Many thanks to Moebius 2249 for the link!!!

via Fox News.

Members of the intelligence community collected "incidental" communications of the Trump transition team during legal surveillance operations of foreign targets, a top Republican lawmaker said Wednesday afternoon.
House Intelligence Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said this produced "dozens" of reports which eventually unmasked several individuals’ identities and were "widely disseminated."
He said none of the reports he had read mentioned Russia or Russians and he was unsure whether the surveillance occurred at Trump Tower -- as President Trump has suggested. Nunes also was unsure if then President-elect Trump was captured by the surveillance, which occurred in November, December and January.
“I recently confirmed on numerous occasions the intelligence community incidentally collected intelligence,” Nunes said.
The revelations could at least partially back up some allegations made by Trump earlier this month, in which he tweeted that former President Barack Obama had "wiretapped" him, though top lawmakers have sharply disputed those claims. 
Nunes said he told House Speaker Paul Ryan earlier Wednesday and was set to tell Trump and the White House later in the afternoon.
"There’s a lot of questions that need to get asked," White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said.

The slow rollback begins, but they'll never admit that Trump was right.

The left is gonna be deflated when the truth comes out.  Maxine Waters is talking about Trump being impeached over espionage but the reality is stark. The news media led the public by the nose and the liberals/sheeple bit like sharks at a feeding frenzy.

UPDATE!  This is huge!  The House Majority Leader and the House Intel Chairman are going to brief the President.  New reports are that this was done legally but where does this lead?  Why would the House Majority Leader and House Intel Chairman go to the White House personally?  Why aren't we hearing ANY pushback from the Dems on the Committee?  Last but not least, why would the FBI Director and NSA Chief lie during testimony????

We're looking at a conspiracy folks.  Call me tinfoil hattish if you like but these moves indicate a bit of drama ahead.

UPDATE 2!  READ THE FUCKING ARTICLE!  I'm really getting tired of all you liberals, democrats and idiots debating things that aren't even on the table!
A.  The House Intel Chairman said that the capture of conversations HAD NOTHING to do with the Russians.
B.  Despite it having NOTHING to do with the Russians, the names of people involved were unmasked.
C.  The Chairman also said that these documents were floating around Washington.
D.  This is obviously a concerted campaign by the INTEL COMMUNITY (read that to mean the deep state) to discredit the Trump admin.
E.  Why is this so freaking hard to understand!  READ THE ARTICLE!
F.  Don't think for a minute you can tell me what rates or doesn't rate ALL CAPS!

US Marines conduct an air assault into Syria?

C-Low and another reader (forgive me for dumping the mail before I got your name) are noting that several Middle Eastern websites state that US Marines have conducted an air assault into Syria.

More to come, but I really need to verify this.  MARSOC?  Marines from the Battalion Landing Team hovering offshore?  The SPMAGTF-CR that is in the area?  A misidentification (US Marines are rock stars in the Middle East...we're credited with actions done by SOCOM)?

We'll find out soon enough I guess.

Open Comment Post. March 22, 2017.

The situation in Venezuela is still bad...SouthCom better be watching!

How is water delivered to the citizens of Venezuela?  By water truck to a central location and then it flows thru the water system.  

Another "oh shit that's really a thing" moment came when Enrique stated that every house has a water tank.  Not to HEAT water but to store water for potable use.  I can't speak for you but I find this rather stunning.  When was the last time each house had to have its own stored water because it did not flow thru our pipes from a treatment center?  I dare say that except for a few locations today this is a pre-WW2 type thing.

How bad is the infrastructure in Venezuela?  With the new deliveries of water there is a downside.  The pipes are leaky and that causes the streets to flood.  He talks about the water covering potholes and wrecked cars!

Enrique 262 Tumblr Page originates in Venezuela.  Besides posting pics of tanks, planes and ships that he finds interesting (to include I believe his games on War Thunder), he also blogs about the situation in his homeland.

To say that its bad is an understatement.  Go here to read it for yourself.

My point?  SouthCom better keep an eye on the situation in Venezuela.  The Border Patrol better gear up for the possibility of a mass migration of people to our borders and the public should prepare to hear horror stories with the meme being pushed that these are "economic" refugees.

The situation in Venezuela is bad and I don't see anyone leaning into the problem to prevent their troubles from washing up on our borders.

Side note.  I've talked about prepping and the main driver for me was the chaos of Katrina.  Seeking refuge in the Superdome or begging for help on the rooftop of  house instead of being able to fend for myself is too much to bear. People talk about losing faith in govt?  I didn't lose faith, but I realized that depending on govt to safeguard me and mine was a non-starter.  I won't even touch on the stories that I heard of the idiocy that went on in that place (I've talked to Katrina survivors and it was bad...real bad).  An economic collapse in the US? A great depression part 2?  How do you really prep for that?  I need to chew on that a bit.

Podcast Update!

Hey a quick podcast update.  By the time you read this me and ELP should have touched base by phone and setup a run thru/test drive for Weds.

If everything goes right (and even if it goes wrong) we will be going live Thurs!  Time to be determined but you will be kept in the loop.  I'll also give a list of issues that we'll be talking about and taking recommendations for other stuff that we should touch on in future broadcasts.

If this takes off the way that me and ELP hope then not only will we touch on military matters, but also firearms, politics, fitness etc.  Consider this the last redoubt for manliness!  So saddle up boys.  It might be a rough ride but a bad ride is better than a good walk!

US Army training to drink every other service's milkshake...

via Defense News.

The Army is creating an experimental combat unit to develop new tactics for lethally fast-paced future battlefields. The Multi-Domain Task Force will be “a relatively small organization…1,500 or so troops,” the Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, told the Future of Warfare conference here this morning. While small, it will have capabilities not found in the building block of today’s Army, the 4,000-strong brigade. “That organization will be capable of space, cyber, maritime, air, and ground warfare,” he said, extending its reach into all domains of military operations to support the Air Force, Navy, and Marines.

“It’s got a bunch of capabilities, and that’s what we’re going to play with to figure out what’s the right mix,” Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson, the deputy chief of staff for operations (G-3/5/7), told reporters at last week’s Association of the US Army conference. “It’s got some aviation. It’s got some maneuver. It’s got signal. It’s got cyber.” In English, that means it has helicopters, infantry and/or tanks, communications troops, and technical troops to protect (and perhaps attack) computer networks. By contrast, a typical Army brigade today, a much larger formation, has maneuver and signal, but no helicopters or hackers.

Story here.

Make no mistake about it boys and girls.  That's not a supporting force they're talking about building.  That's a replacement force for Marines and something that will quickly evolve into a supported force.

Make no mistake about it.

By the time the Army is finished tinkering with this thing what you're gonna see is their version of the MEU.  While we're playing with this Distributed Operations and small unit silliness, the Army is gonna reinvent the MEU, maybe go with my idea of making it Enhanced (Reinforced if you like) and they're gonna offer it to Combatant Commanders.

When we offer Expeditionary Rifle Squads the Army is gonna have a "Multi-Spectrum Combined Arms Team" ready to go.  They'll holler about needing transport and suddenly our Gators will be retasked to transporting Army Dawgs to a hotspot to do OUR FUCKING MISSION SET!

WAKE UP HQMC!

The Army is about to drink our milkshake!

Pic of the day...Ben Allen Photography's Vulcan Bomber!

Politics Talk. Trump thrives in chaos.

Growing up as a devil pup, I remember always being told...it was damn near a mantra and anyone with stripes or shiny shit on their collars said over and over...Marines MUST thrive in chaos.  It's what we do.  It's part of our ethos. The bigger the drama, the more chaotic things become, the more professional..more determined...more focused on mission accomplishment we must be.

Looking back over the past couple of months of the Trump administration, the enemies (I would call them the opposition but their actions have gone beyond simply being political opponents) actions indicate that they wanted to stun them into paralysis.

They wanted to throw so much shit at him that he froze in fright.  The funny thing?  With a normal politician it would have worked.  An establishment administration would be in a fetal position right now.

But Trump seems to at worst continue to march forward.  At best?  The bastard seems to thrive!  Did you notice the signing ceremony today for the NASA budget?  Dude seemed totally unfazed.

That's a good thing.  He's taking frontals all day and night but still remains on task and on mission.  The controversies are a bit disturbing (even if I realize that most of it is manufactured) but I'm pumped up by him still moving forward.

The Dems are quickly coming to the point of being spent.  When that happens is when the Trump agenda will pick up speed.  Now isn't the time.  But after the summer recess?  Then we will see stuff happen.  The Democrat resistance is going to lose.  We and he (Trump) just need to continue to hang tough.

China attacks/conquers the Philippines. Could it happen?

My buddy Miguel over at 21st Century Asian Arms Race Blog has an interesting article that explores how China could attack/conquer the Philippines on the cheap.

He lists 7 actions that could be taken that would result in a humiliating defeat for the Philippine govt and because its a variation on the Russian "little green men" and cyber would probably leave us in a state of "paralysis by analysis" (an affliction suffered by those that seek the perfect plan instead of realizing that NOT actng is an action itself!)while the Think Tanks try and come up with a course of action.

Read it here.

Taifun-Airborne APC. Is it really this freaking tough?

The article from Sputnik was standard fare and showed the usual testing of a new armored vehicle. Read it here.  What captured my attention and wondered if the editors over there had ingested crack or if the Russians had cracked the code was this portion.

A direct hit by an artillery shell or a landmine have always been a major problem for any types of armored vehicles.
Here too the Taifun escaped largely unscathed with a direct hit by a blast-fragmentation shell causing a tiny crack on the porthole, cracking a back view mirror and doing other, equally insignificant, damage.
During one test a Taifun withstood some 15 direct hits, including by a self-made bulk explosive device. The amount of explosive was enough to blow a Gazelle mini-truck to bits, but the Taifun remained roadworthy and its engine kept running even if the hood was blown off.

A direct hit by an artillery shell?  I'm not sure what they're talking about when it comes to a self made bulk explosive but I was taught how to make an explosively formed penetrator as a devil pup.  That can shred most things up to a MBT.  Could they be saying that this vehicle withstood that?

Let's hope the editors are smoking crack or just talking mad, crazy shit!  If this is real then they have a wonder vehicle.

The 155mm Advanced Gun System-Lite (AGS-L) (PDF)

PDF here, JPG conversion below.