French Griffon & Jaguar enter production

Thanks to Jonathan for the link!

via Defense Aerospace

In line with the development of the Jaguar and Griffon vehicles ordered in December 2014, the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) today awarded Nexter Systems, Renault Trucks Defense and Thales a contract for the first 319 Griffon and the first 20 Jaguar armored vehicles, as part of the Scorpion program for the renewal of the combat capabilities of the Army. This order also includes logistics and training support systems.

In accordance with Jean-Yves Le Drian's decision to modernize the armored component of the ground forces, the Military Programme Law provides for the delivery of the first Griffon in 2018 and of the first Jaguar in 2020. During the development phase, the workload of the Griffon-Jaguar projects supports nearly a thousand highly-skilled direct jobs. This will increase to more than 1,700 direct jobs during full production, starting in 2020.

Scorpion will renew the army’s first-line combat capabilities around two new armored vehicles, Griffon and Jaguar, and a unique information and communication system, SICS, which will allow the networking of all players in land combat. Scorpion also integrates the acquisition of light armored multi-role vehicles, the upgrade of the Leclerc tank and modern combat training systems using simulation and virtual reality.

Griffon is a multi-role armored vehicle (véhicule blindé multi-rôles, or VBMR) designed to replace the Véhicules de l’Avant Blindé (VAB). It is a 6x6 armored vehicle weighing approximately 25 tonnes and equipped with a remotely-controlled weapons station. It will be available in several versions (troop transport, command post, artillery spotter and medical evacuation).

Jaguar is a 6x6 armored reconnaissance and combat vehicle (engin blindé de reconnaissance et de combat, or EBRC) weighing about 25 tonnes intended to replace the AMX10RC and Sagaie wheeled light tanks as well as the VAB variant armed with HOT missiles (designated Mephisto—Ed.). It will be equipped with the 40mm automatic cannon with cased telescopic ammunition jointly developed by France and the UK, the MMP medium-range missile and a remotely-controlled weapon station.

In addition to Nexter Systems, Thales and Renault Trucks Defense, the program also involves Safran for optronics and, for the Jaguar’s weapons fit, CTA International for the 40mm gun and MBDA for the MMP medium range missile.

Nice....real nice....and they designed it, not bought it off the  shelf.

Assistant Squad Leader billet is now a thing....

via Inside Defense...

The Marine Corps will also add company-level operations centers (CLOC) and company-level intelligence centers (CLIC) to push capabilities down to lower echelons and "be able to operate more distributed, more dispersed in the future environment," according to Busby.
The squad, the smallest unit of organization, will also evolve with the addition of an "assistant to the squad leader," Busby said. The assistant will help the squad leader manage some new technologies the Marines want to use at the squad level, such as small quad-copters and computer tablets.
The idea was first tested out by 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment during the Marine Corps Air-Ground Task Force Integrated Experiment last August. The battalion has been named the Marine Corps "experimental unit" as part of the "Sea Dragon" experimentation portion of the Force 2025 effort and will deploy to Japan later this year using some non-traditional gear and concepts.
"That's an idea that starts to build upon a fifth generation squad in the future," Busby said of the assistant to the squad leader.

Behind a paywall but they're offering a free one month subscription...

Mixed feelings on this.  Have to  chew on it a bit...

General Conway vindicated over USMC IED countermeasure work...

via Free Beacon

Democrats in the Senate pounced on the story to attack then-President George W. Bush over Iraq. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, flanked by other Democratic leaders, went before news reporters the day the story came out waving the newspaper in front of cameras as proof the president was failing to take care of American troops in a war.
Much of the information for the story came from a Marine Corps scientist, Franz Gayl, who had been put in touch with the article's authors by Erin Logan, a staff member for then-senator Joe Biden (D., Del.).
Ten years later, documents and emails obtained by a former director of operations for the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab in Quantico present a contradictory picture. The documents and emails show the Democrat-driven public accounts accusing the Marines of failing to protect their troops by delaying requests for armored vehicles between February 2005 until September 2006 were false and misleading.
The facts presented by Steve Chill, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel who served in Iraq, reveal the Corps was already engaged in rapid development of needed armored vehicles for troops in Iraq.
But instead of buying off-the-shelf armored vehicles, the Marines instead chose an MRAP made from blast-hardened M1114 vehicles, known as up-armored Humvees.
The armored Humvee development program was already the highest priority for then-Marine Corps commandant Gen. James T. Conway, nearly a year before Gayl went public with his charges to Biden and the press.

Story here.

Maybe we've always had a 5th column in the Marine Corps but this scientist and the USNI Blog are something special....General Conway was working the problem but it got sensationalized instead...

Logistics is killing German Army vehicles in Mali...

via War Is Boring

Half of the German army’s armored vehicles in Mali—there as part of a multi-national peacekeeping mission—have broken down because of the West African country’s dust and extreme heat, according to Die Welt.

By land, the Bundeswehr relies on Wolf and Eagle jeeps, Fennek reconnaissance vehicles and TPz Fuchs armored personnel carriers to move around. But Mali’s heat—the country’s summer season lasts from March to May—has ruptured ties and damaged components, the newspaper reported.

The peacekeeping contingent’s four Eurocopter Tiger helicopters are not rated to fly during the most intense periods of Mali’s summer afternoon heat, so they sit on their pads. Small quadcopter drones, intended to be carried on the Fuchs’ rooftops, have also been rendered unusable because of melted batteries. German army regulations prohibit storing the drones inside the vehicles with soldiers.

The U.N. mission in Mali—or MINUSMA—is the most dangerous peacekeeping mission in the world, with peacekeepers in the middle of conflicts involving Tuareg separatists and Al Qaeda-affiliated Islamist insurgents. Germany has fewer than 400 troops in Mali as of February 2017, but that number could rise to around 1,000.

Heat and dust would be manageable problems, but the German army doesn’t have a reliable enough supply of spare parts.

To compound the problems, the German military’s drone operators are overworked due to ongoing commitments in Afghanistan and the war on the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, which involves Germany’s Panavia Tornado reconnaissance planes. The drone operators also analyze the Tornados’ imagery.

Heat making the best of armored vehicles before the enemy does is a long-running trend in Mali.

Logistics.  Something we never cover on SNAFU is wrecking some of the finest vehicles on the planet.  This requires further study.  I hope we have an S-4 exchange officer embedded with the Krauts.

Open Comment Post. April 24, 2017 (featuring Joe Copalman's pic)

Light blogging today...regular schedule tomorrow...

In Texas, even the cats are crazy...cat vs rattlesnake

via UPI

A Texas police department shared photos from the capture of a massive rattlesnake spotted by bird-watchers hanging out next to a "fearless cat."
The Laguna Vista Police Department said the Bay Area Birders of LV reported they were on a walking trail Thursday when they spotted the snake.
The department shared several photos from the capture, including one of the snake appearing to be in the strike position while a "fearless cat" watches it from mere feet away.
"We ask that you all use caution and are aware of your surroundings when walking on the walking trail or any other locations. Generally, rattlesnakes emerge from hibernation in March or April, or when the average daytime temperatures reach and remain about 60F and higher," the department said.
Experts said the snake appears to be about 4 feet long, but seems much longer in some of the police photos due to forced perspective.

Cats are cool.....

I messed up...but its corrected now!

Hey Tribe,

I messed up.  I posted a link to Google Docs on a TRADOC brochure regarding the Army's Future Bradley Replacement.

It was listed as private but is now open to everyone.

My bad but get over it.  Shit happens and when it does we reorient and keep moving forward.  

Mother Of All Bombs Infographic via USA Today...

Hmm.

Maybe this thing is more impressive than I thought.  Might need to reassess!

F-15 on afterburner down low...Glamour pic!

pic via EyesToTheSkies Tumblr Page.

57mm Valhalla Turret

Thanks to Checkers for the link!

That a BIG setup, but I'm assuming it doesn't penetrate into the cabin.  If that's true then we're seeing something nice.

Check out the Odin 570 here (note the caliber...that's a 57mm gun...naval artillery on a ground vehicle...if we went this way then engaging old tanks would be easy...even new ones could suffer damage)

Next Generation Combat Vehicle Prototype 1.0

As promised I posted the link to this PDF on my Google Docs page.  You can find it here.

Side note.  I absolutely hate this "me too-ism" that seems to sweep the pentagon.  "Leveraging the F-35", "Game Changer" for damn near every weapon system being considered and now this "1.0", "2.0" bullshit is almost too much to stand.

Mattis is right.  Powerpoints make people stupid.

Open Comment Post. April 23, 2017