Norinco Group Propaganda....

Thanks to Darkness 99 for the vid!

Norinco drives hard for AFV and artillery exports

Is this the ONLY REAL medium tank on the market? We should buy a few just to see what they're doing!

via Shepard.

Norinco, China’s giant conglomerate that produces AFVs for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), exhibited a wide array of vehicles at Airshow China 2018, and this article outlines most of the newcomers at the event in Zhuhai in November.

Prominent was the VN1-based 8x8 family of armoured vehicles (known as the Type 09 in PLA service). A plethora of variants for the PLA and for the international market already exist, but Norinco showed the VN1D, VE36 reconnaissance and command vehicle, and VE32A reconnaissance vehicle for the first time.

Because Norinco provided no vehicle specifications other than the nomenclature, it is difficult to provide details on each variant. However, the amphibious VN1D had a slightly raised roofline over the rear compartment as well as firing ports in the sidewalls, suggesting it is primarily a troop-carrying vehicle. It also had a one-man turret mounting a small-calibre cannon and a coaxial 7.62mm machine gun.

The VE36 has no turret, but rather a raised rear troop compartment. At the left rear is a telescopic mast bearing an EO and radar sensor suite that protrudes through the roof. The only armament is a heavy machine gun for self-defence. The VE32A, meanwhile, is described as a multipurpose reconnaissance vehicle, thus having an EO sensor suite mounted in the centre of the turret above the main armament of a 30mm cannon. The sensors are mounted on a hydraulically raised mast.

Impressive in Norinco’s exhibition hall was the SH11, an 8x8 version that mounts a 155mm howitzer in a large turret. Such an artillery vehicle would give mobile armoured units considerable indirect firepower.

Also present was an unnamed 8x8 variant fitted with Red Arrow 10 (HJ-10) antitank missiles. This features the same eight-cell launchers found on the AFT10 tracked vehicle used by the PLA. The 76kg HJ-10 non-line-of-sight missile has a 10km range and can penetrate 320mm of rolled homogenous armour at a 68º angle.

Norinco also showed scale models of other variants like the VN1 8x8 ambulance, VN1 fitted with a 122mm howitzer in a turret, SWS2 antiaircraft gun and VS27 recovery vehicle.

A smaller wheeled vehicle making its debut at Airshow China 2018 was the VN21 4x4 wheeled personnel carrier. However, no data is yet available on this vehicle.

Moving on to tracked vehicles, the VN11A, VN12 and VN17 are all tracked IFVs. The former is a development of the VN11, which is the export version of the ZBD04 IFV widely used by the PLA. However, the VN17, unveiled in August 2017, represents the latest generation of Chinese IFVs. It is armed with a 30mm cannon, coaxial 7.62mm machine gun and HJ-12 antitank missile launchers mounted either side of the turret.

Catering for the export market, the 30t VN17 is powered by a 605kW turbocharged diesel engine that offers a top road speed of 70km/h. Applique armour can provide STANAG Level 6 protection, according to Norinco.

The VT2B MBT was shown in 2018, but Norinco made no indication as to how it has been upgraded from the pre-existing and cost-effective VT2. It was originally thought that the fitting of an RWS containing a heavy machine gun marked a VT2B, but a regular air defence machine gun on the display tank belied this belief.

A VT2, plus examples of the VT4 MBT (also known as the MBT-3000) and the relatively new 36t VT5 light tank performed in the outdoor demonstration area. The VT5 operates with a crew of three and features a three-man crew. A 605kW engine offers a top speed of 70km/h.

Artillery systems were also prominent. The SR5 multiple rocket launcher (MRL) system was seen mounted on both a 6x6 truck and a Dongfeng 4x4 chassis. The latter is a lightweight MRL featuring 20 tubes and it is known to be in service with the PLA Air Force (PLAAF). The SR5 MRL can fire both 122mm and 220mm rockets.

The SH15 is a new truck-mounted artillery system mounted on a Shaanxi 6x6 chassis. At the front is an armoured four-door cab that accommodates the five-man crew, while the 155mm L/52 howitzer based on the AH2 is mounted on the rear. The weapon, which has a semiautomatic loading system, can fire standard NATO ammunition.

Two spades lower at the rear before firing to provide stabilisation for the SH15, while elevation and traverse are achieved hydraulically with manual backup. The howitzer’s firing range is listed as 20km with regular ammunition, rising to 40km with rocket-assisted projectiles. The SH15’s weight is estimated to be in the order of 22t.

Chinese weapons have gained significant traction in places like Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia.

Indeed, a Norinco official told the Global Times in an interview, ‘Norinco is collecting valuable data and information from real combat through exporting weapons to foreign clients, and then the enterprise will use these to promote their products.’

Finally, the Airborne Corps of the PLAAF displayed several vehicles alongside a Y-9 transport aircraft. These included two tracked vehicles that complement the 8t ZBD03 light IFV (export name VN10) that can be airdropped beneath parachutes. The latter features a 30mm cannon, but one of the new variants for the Airborne Corps features a turret mimicking the Bakhcha-U turret used on the Russian BMD-4M. It thus possesses a 100mm gun, 30mm cannon and 7.62mm machine gun.

Also new in this light tracked family is a variant boasting a 120mm howitzer/mortar. This is the same weapon used on the PPZ10 based on the tracked chassis of the ZBD04 and used by PLA ground forces. These two new tracked vehicles give Chinese paratroopers instant indirect firepower after landing by transport aircraft or being parachuted into a drop zone.


The PLAAF’s Airborne Corps also operates the 7t QL550 4x4 armoured reconnaissance vehicle, as used already by PLA ground forces. The paratrooper version has a Type 99 30mm cannon mounted in a turret. Such vehicles, each with a crew of four, were seen undergoing trials in Tibet last year.

While Norinco is clearly seeking to expand its AFV exports, the Zhuhai Air Show illustrated idiosyncrasies in its marketing methodology. In its indoor exhibition hall, there were no brochures or data specifications available on any of its products. Then, during the twice-daily outdoor demonstrations, all commentary was provided only in Mandarin, which did little to bring exposure or understanding to the wider international community.

Then again, the vast majority of the state-owned Norinco’s business will be done via government-to-government avenues, so in the end perhaps it does not need to put much effort into advertising its diverse and bewildering range of products to a general audience.

I hate our foreign aid.  In my opinion we spend too much in other countries when we have so many needs at home.  Additionally I hate our military foreign aid in the form of subsidized sales.

Having said that its apparent that we have to meet and beat China on this ground.

That means targeted foreign spending....perhaps we take a page out of the Chinese playbook and setup foreign aid based on employing US corporations building the infrastructure and link it to some type of commodity return (I guess what we did with the GCC in regards to oil).

As far as military aid, we need to attach some type of strings.  We send our Special Ops and conventional forces to help you with your terror problem then you're buying our gear.  Full stop.  No questions asked.  We'll give you a deal on it but if we bleed then the least you can do is buy  our stuff.

Once again the Chinese are eating our lunch and they're obviously trying to get market share.  We've got to beat them at their own game.

Hammerheads Over Norway...video by Lance Cpl. Cody Rowe

Note;  Another good one by Combat Camera!  It was short but the tone, the music and the visuals were awesome.  Nicely done LCpl Rowe!

Russia settles on 57mm cannons for its IFV/APCs....

via Army Recognition

The Russian Defense Ministry approved an armor development concept. All light armored vehicles (infantry fighting vehicles (IFV), armored personnel carriers (APC) and others) will have new maximum caliber of 57mm. The guns will be universal and will destroy tanks and down drones. The light armor with 57mm guns will have an edge against other combat vehicles of the class, the Izvestia daily writes.

The Defense Ministry told the newspaper the new armor concept was approved this year. It was preceded by R&D which confirmed the feasibility of arming the vehicles with 57mm guns. At present IFV and APC are armed with 30mm or 100mm launchers. The latest armed conflicts showed they are not always effective against high-speed and armored targets. The more powerful 57mm gun will help Russian light armor fight APC and IFV and any adversary tank. It will destroy sights, heat imagers and other outside equipment or destroy highly protected Abrams tank by a side hit.

Armed jeeps and drones frequently become the main targets rather than hostile APC or IFV at present. They have to be destroyed at maximum distance with a minimal number of shells. The infantry mounted on light vehicles shall be denied a chance of the first strike with antitank guided missiles, while drones shall be barred from transmitting information to the command post.

The Russian defense industry has designed hardware that meets the latest combat requirements. BMP-3 and BTR-82 can be armed with 57mm automatic remotely controlled Baikal AU-220M artillery module. It has a high rate of fire up to 120 rounds per minute. The same gun can be mounted on heavy tracked BMP T-15 platform created on Armata basis. Unmanned Kinzhal combat module has been designed for it. Its gun can fire to a distance of over 14 kilometers.

57mm guns are known as reliable antiaircraft weapons. The Soviet Union produced ZSU-57-2 self-propelled guns which were used in the war in Vietnam, Arab-Israeli and Iran-Iraq wars. ZSU had to destroy jets, but the absence of an automated radar decreased the effectiveness. The Russian defense industry coped with the problem. The prospective self-propelled Derivatsia-PVO with 57mm gun on BMP-3 undercarriage will be dangerous for helicopters and jets. A 57mm guided shell has been designed and is being tested to destroy low-signature and low-flying targets like tactical drones or MLRS projectiles, cruise missiles and other precision munitions.

The new guns will increase the firepower of the ground forces, expert Sergey Suvorov said. "He who rapidly fulfils the fire mission wins the modern war. 57mm caliber produces higher precision, destructive effect and armor-piercing capability than 30mm guns," he said. It has to ensure superiority of Russian hardware over foreign APC and IFV for years to come, the Izvestia writes.

Hmmm.

Honest question.

At what point does it no longer make sense to go bigger?  A 30mm gun can engage and defeat anything lighter than a MBT.  That includes the latest thinking on Medium Tanks.

If a 40mm or 50mm or 57mm delivers the same "basic" performance against vehicles then the difference would have to be against building, troops etc.

But even if that's the case then wouldn't mortars be a better option?

I just wonder if the drive to upgun IFV/APCs makes sense...Are we seeing the age old pistol debate but just taken to armored vehicles?  The FBI had a Miami shootout and abandoned the 9mm round.  The march of time and trying to upgun, along with better performing ammo has brought them full circle and they've readopted the 9mm for use.

Will we see the same after the latest craze subsides in the armored vehicle market?

 

24th MEU, 45 Commando complete TRAP mission during Exercise Trident Juncture 18....Video by Gunnery Sgt. Robert Durham

Note;  I guess I'm turning into a cheerleader for Combat Camera but I like the style of this vid too.  Nicely done Gunny Durham!



I see the Royal Marines are really embracing this new TRAP mission.  Personally can't wait to see what tweaks they bring to the table with regard to how its done.  Additionally I look forward to seeing an all Brit exercise to compare and contrast on what they're doing, what we need to steal from them to do it better and what things they might need to consider stealing from us.

DARPA wargames a cyber attack on the electric grid....

Background...

The Northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage throughout parts of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and the Canadian province of Ontario on August 14, 2003, just after 4:10 p.m. EDT.[1]

Some power was restored by 11 p.m. Most did not get their power back until two days later. In other areas, it took nearly a week or two for power to be restored.[2] At the time, it was the world's second most widespread blackout in history, after the 1999 Southern Brazil blackout.[3][4] The outage, which was much more widespread than the Northeast Blackout of 1965, affected an estimated 10 million people in Ontario and 45 million people in eight U.S. states.

The blackout's primary cause was a software bug in the alarm system at the control room of FirstEnergy Corporation, an Akron, Ohio–based company, causing operators to remain unaware of the need to re-distribute load after overloaded transmission lines drooped into foliage. What should have been a manageable local blackout cascaded into collapse of the entire electric grid.

The situation currently...

Many "preppers" consider a cyber attack on the power grid to be a major danger and something they prepare to face.  Unfortunately the majority of Americans don't view it as a possibility.  If memory serves it is stated that a power outage lasting 15 days in the Northeast corridor or on the West coast could cost the lives of thousands of people and COULD lead to outbreaks of unbelievable violence/crime.

The actual war game.  Via NexGov.com

The team of grid operators had spent days restoring power when a digital strike took out one of two operational utility stations. The other utility was also under attack.

A month had passed since all power in the region was taken down by a devastating cyberattack. It had been a grueling six days restoring power across two electrical utilities and to the building deemed a critical national asset by the Secretary of Energy.

The cyber strike hadn’t forced the team back to zero, but it wasn’t far from it.

Just moments ago, the two electric utilities had been working in concert, delivering reliable and redundant power to the critical asset. Now one utility was down for the count and the other was under attack.

The grid operators’ only chance to restore power to the asset would be to route it, substation by substation, from the utility that was still operating. The team of cybersecurity researchers assisting the grid operators would have to use every piece of technology and know-how they had to ensure that utility stayed powered up, trustworthy and malware-free.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency exercise, which took place from Nov. 1 to Nov. 7, was fictional, but it was designed to mimic all the hurdles and uncertainty of a real-world cyberattack that took out power across the nation for weeks on end–a scenario known as a “black start.”

To add realism, the exercise took place on Plum Island, a federal research facility off the north fork of Long Island, where DARPA researchers were able to segregate a portion of the island on its own electric grid.

Over the course of the seven-day exercise, more than 100 people gathered on the island, filling every necessary role to mimic an actual black start.

At the center of the exercise was a team of grid operators from electric utilities across the nation, which was in charge of restoring and sustaining power.

Story here. 

On a certain level I find this amusing.

I don't know why but the lack of "what if" and "we might need to be ready if x, y, and z happen" is so lacking in today's America that it's stunning.

On top of that the misplaced priorities are amazing.

There is so much real work to do.  Stuff like rebuilding our infrastructure from roads, highways, power plants, electric grid, airports, railroads, bridges...the list goes on.  The reality?  Everyone is caught up in the "feel good" instead of focusing on real stuff.

I don't get it.  Probably never will.

Open Comment Post. 15 Nov 2018

Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) in the skies above Lincolnshire.

Marine Corps looking for it's next Internally Transportable Light Vehicle...

via Marine Corps Times

Recon and infantry Marines only have been zooming around in the Corps’ Polaris MRZR all-terrain tactical vehicles for a couple years now, but the Marines already are on the hunt for a replacement.

According to a request for information posted by the Corps on Friday, the Marines want a new ultralight tactical vehicle with characteristics strikingly familiar to the MRZR.

The Corps wants a highly mobile all-terrain light tactical vehicle capable of whisking wounded Marines off the battlefield, easily configurable to support a host of missions like electronic warfare, and internally transportable by CH-53 and MV-22.

The Corps already has this capability in the Polaris MRZR. The Marines already have doled out nearly 248 of the all-terrain vehicles to infantry and recon Marines over the past couple years.

The first batch of MRZRs were issued to the grunts in early 2017.

But the life expectancy of the MRZR, or utility task vehicle, is only five years: “Therefore the Marine Corps is initiating research efforts to see what industry will have available that may meet the Corps' needs,” Manny Pacheco, a spokesman for PEO Land Systems, told Marine Corps Times in an emailed statement.

Story here. 

Don't quite get this.  The Marine Corps just got these vehicles into service and if there are any improvements that they need to make them perform the mission better than I'd bet Polaris would happily make them.

No need for a new solicitation, just sole source the thing and keep it moving.

Additionally I'm not sure the Marines have fully exploited the capabilities of the ride today.  Supply lines are setup, interoperability is there with the Army and Special Ops.

If it ain't broke don't fix it.  Just mod the thing for Marine Corps specific use and call it the Marine variant.  Hell I bet Polaris would love to sell the civilian version and I'd bet a bunch of farm boys would gobble it up.

USN/USMC look to missile up amphibious ships...everything a shooter on steroids...

via USNI News.

Particularly given that the Navy only has nine Wasp-class LHDs and America-class LHAs in the water today, Coffman acknowledged the difficulty in asking to take one out of service. But, he said, the first operations of the F-35B on USS Wasp (LHD-1) and USS Essex (LHD-2) this year have been “a reverse canary in a coal mine” situation in plainly highlighting a problem the Navy and Marine Corps already expected to face: the planes are too sophisticated for the ships, which cannot fully communicate with them and leverage the planes’ data.

“I don’t want to bring Marine Aviation down to third- and fourth-gen; I want to bring the rest of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force up to fifth-gen and exploit that technical expertise and have a fifth-gen MAGTF. The problem is, we’re having to embark a fifth-gen MAGTF on a third-gen ship, and we have to fix that. Time, now,” Coffman said.

On the San Antonio-clas LPDs, the focus of upgrades will be bringing them from Marine-carriers with a great command and control system to a lethal node in the Navy’s sea control web.

Coffman said that wargames and tabletop exercises have shown the LPD is just the right size to be highly effective in the Navy’s distributed lethality and distributed maritime operations concepts, if they were upgraded to include more lethal systems. He said “they really live in the world of the small boys” in terms of size, aviation detachment and other capabilities, but they are not tapped into the Navy’s kill web in the same way – a lost opportunity that Coffman intends to correct in this new upgrade plan.

“Making a bet on increased lethality … is absolutely essential” and worth the cost, he argued. He declined to say what weapon systems he was looking at putting on these amphibs, but he said the upgrades would allow the amphibs to join the rest of the black shoe navy in the fight for sea control once they put their MAGTF ashore.

“Why aren’t you contributing to air and missile defense? Why aren’t you contributing to anti-surface? Instead of having to be protected, why don’t you put something on offer to be part of the killers?” Coffman said of the possibilities of an upgraded LPD.
“The bulk of that will be Navy systems integrated into Navy weapons architecture.”

The general described a scenario of multiple LPDs fighting alongside cruisers and destroyers, and not only would the amphibs have a complement of sensors and weapons to contribute to the sea and air control fight, but they would also have a surprise mix of aircraft and surface connectors hidden in their well decks and flight decks to surprise an adversary closer in to shore.

The LPD midlife plan would ideally kick in in the mid-2020s, he said, and give the Navy and Marines a chance to “correct the failures of the past” with this ship class now that the amphibious community has learned so much about how the ships can be used and what investments are most desired.

Story here. 

First!!!!!

What the FUCK does a fifth gen MAGTF look like and what capabilities does it have that it doesn't today?

Second.

Amphibs operating alongside cruisers and destroyers contributing to air, missile and surface fight?

Does this mean that amphibs will sail without Marines (left on the pier) and sortie out as part of a surface action group?  Is this for activity after Marines have hit the beach?

Either way it does pose an interesting question.  We lose a destroyer and we lose an important asset to the air - sea fight.  We lose a San Antonio Class LPD we lose an important asset to the land fight.  In essence the Marines lose a ride.

Is this another indication that Air and Sea is taking precedence over land operations for the Marine Corps?

Ever since Amos the ground side of the Corps has been losing more and more influence and seems to have an increasingly smaller voice within the Marines.

But let's assume the concept is correct.

How do we afford to make LPDs into mini-Destroyers?