US Army's Next Gen Combat Vehicle to sport 50mm Cannon!

Special Thanks to my "inside" source for this!


Note:  Below are PDF conversions to JPG for posting on the blog...still viewable and can be enlarged by clicking on the pic.  The original is going up on the Google Hangout later today....

Are you freaking seeing that????  The Army is going for a 50mm cannon on this beast!

Award by end of this fiscal year???  Army is cooking with gas!  They really want their new ride and lethality upgrade!

Three things stood out....

1.  Mobility is getting its just due.  They want a 1000 Horsepower engine???This puppy should move!

2.  Protection isn't being sacrificed...yet.  I want to see how they accomplish this part.  They want lighter weight but better protection than the Bradley/Stryker?  How can that be done?  The USMC tried an underbody blast kit on the EFV when IEDs changed the view of the Pentagon to get that vehicle "up to spec".  Will the Army succeed?

3.  Up Gunning is now the rage.  The Army dawgs are seeking to maintain parity with the Russians.  A 50mm cannon?  That's intense.  IFV guns are making leaps ahead in lethality.  The Brits thought that everyone would standardize on the work they did with the 40mm but that seems to be a nonstarter out the box.  I wonder how long it takes for IMI to rebirth the 60mm HyperVelocity Gun they built so many years ago?

Boeing T-X Instagram Page...

#NewBoeingTX

USMC HIMARS doing work...pics Cpl. AaronJames B. Vinculado

Modest proposal.  Insert Air Defense Artillery into our Artillery Battalions so that they're fully integrated with the GCE and no longer a stepchild.  It's past time for Marine Air to give up ground based air defense and a changing battlefield now demands it.

Marines conduct FARP operations at WTI ...pics by Cpl. Harley Robinson

Note:  Everyone does this but no one practices security for it.  I wonder why?  During the Cold War almost every book I've ever read talks about the threat of Soviet Spetsnaz, Paratroopers and Naval Infantry operating behind the forward edge of battle.  Is this another forgot lesson of the past?  Regardless it doesn't apply to this training evolution (WTI maintains standards and "trains the trainers").  I was just wondering out loud.

Open Comment Post. April 21, 2017

Jimmy van Drunen...Great Aviation Photographer from The Netherlands....

Check him out here and here....

Russia's FSB got lucky....

Thanks to Drinas for the link!

🆘‼️😯🔥 The moment when the #Russia'n FSB arrest the brother of the organizer of St. Petersburg subway suicide bombing. Watch out for his bag! pic.twitter.com/V6kFCdhclr

— Onlinemagazin (@OnlineMagazin) April 20, 2017

Am I seeing things or did this terrorist try and reach for his grenade?  The FSB has the "jump out boys" (that's what they call police street narcotics teams in the "hood") technique down pat....still....they went in light.  Only 3 or 4 guys to take down a suspected terrorist? Plain clothes with only sidearms and bulletproof vests?  Russian FSB got lucky or they trust the FUCK outta their training.  One missed arm control and they would be dead right there...

That's either ballsy, crazy or both!

Massive protests in Venezuela....a failed state in the Southern hemisphere?

via USA Today.

Venezuela’s opposition is looking to keep up pressure on President Nicolas Maduro by taking to the streets again Thursday hours after at least two people were killed and hundreds arrested in the biggest anti-government demonstrations in years.

Billed as "the mother of all protests," tens of thousands of protesters demanding elections and denouncing what they consider increasingly dictatorial government were met by a curtain of tear gas and rubber bullets as they attempted to march to downtown Caracas on Wednesday. Dozens even had to slide down a concrete embankment and into the Guaire River to escape the noxious fumes.

Across the country the clashes were intense. Pro-government militias, some of whose members were armed, were blamed for the two deaths, including that of a teenager in Caracas who was heading to a soccer game with friends. In several cities, protesters described being terrorized by militia members, some of them armed and circling the protesters in motorcycles.

Story here. 

If I didn't know better I'd think this has the flavor of the "color" revolutions that we saw during the Arab Spring.  But surely this isn't being caused by outside forces...God knows the current govt has done absolutely everything wrong when it comes to that country's economy.

But forgetting that nonsense, the reality is stark.  We could be looking at a failed state in the Southern hemisphere and mass migration to all quadrants of the map.

USMC CH-47's...it looks right!

The pics above are from a movie but they look right.  A CH-47 in USMC service makes too much sense on too many levels.

More to the point, the cost of the CH-53K is insane.

Cut the buy of CH-53Ks from 200 to 100 and make up the difference by buying 200 CH-47s!  I have yet to hear the rationale for the CH-53K.  I hear the talking points of it being the most advanced helicopter in service anywhere in the world when it reaches IOC.  I hear the talking point that it can lift x amount of weight, etc... What I haven't heard is why the CH-53K is absolutely essential to Marine Corps operations and why the CH-47 is unsuitable.  Take that a step further and tell me what percentage of CH-53K missions that the CH-47 is incapable of performing.  If it's over 5% I'd be surprised.

As things stand I like the CH-53K but unless we're given the "why" then the buy should be truncated and CH-47's bought instead.

This is why women in combat units will fail...

Check this out via Navy Matters Blog (make sure to read the whole thing).

Well, you knew this would happen.  The scared sheep of Navy/Marine leadership have opted to make the male portion of the nude photo sharing incident a criminal act under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and have done nothing about the female portion, the actual posing for nude photos (1).  This kind of man-hating misandry (meaning, strongly prejudiced against men;  the counterpart word to misogyny) has been demonstrated by shallow minded, timid, PC-cowed Navy/Marine leaders before but this incident has raised the phenomenon to new levels.  The actual posing and generation of nude photos/pornography, no matter how reprehensible, is allowed because it is done by women but the sharing of the photos has been criminalized because it is done by men.

Does this seem like a common sense solution?

Do you think that criminalizing the sharing of photos of women (some of them stripping in uniform) is the only crime and to punish the women who took the pictures is punishing the victim?

If you believe the above then you're part of the problem.

If you believe the above then you're why women in combat units will utterly fail.

The issue is that for better or worse, men believe that women get special shakes in the military.  For better or worse men believe that women use their sexuality as weapons for special treatment.  Am I saying that they're sleeping around?  No.  I am saying that the perception is real.

The best thing that leadership can do is to do everything possible to ensure that everyone is getting hammered in this deal.  This isn't just about revenge porn.  Much of this has to do with a culture of sending "selfies" in all types of undress.

As things stand now this issue will simply go underground.  The rules will be circumvented and the perpetrators will find ways to degrade fellow female service members in new ways.

YOU MUST TREAT EVERYONE THE SAME OR THIS WILL BE A PROBLEM FOR GENERATIONS!

Coalition Forces (including US & Australian troops) come under chemical attack in Mosul?

Thanks to Overwatch DVA for the link!

via Southfront.org

An Iraqi army unit with US and Australian advisers came u nder an ISIS chemica attack in the western part of the Iraqi city of Mosul on Sunday.
According to CBS News national security correspondent David Martin, the alleged mustard agent attack resulted in injuring 25 Iraqi soldiers. No American or Australian troops were injured by the toxic agent.
However, no official identification of the agent used in the attack has been released.
The ISIS chemical attack in western Mosul was the second in a row. Earlier, reports appeared that ISIS used a toxic gas against Iraqi troops in the al-Abar neighborhood in western Mosul.
It’s important to note that the ISIS reportedly uses self-made chemical weapons in Iraq.
Meanwhile, Washington denies that any militant group could make chemical weapons in Syria and de-facto argues that the only Syrian government could be responsible for any chemical attacks.

Damn.

How do you respond to this?  As far as making home made chemicals?  I've done it by accident and almost killed myself breathing in fumes from common household cleaners.

The response to this incident will be interesting.

Open Comment Post. April 20, 2017.