Centauro II turret on C1 Ariete hull.

Centauro II turret on C1 Ariete hull. Would this be a real alternative to the planned Ariete mid-life update? pic.twitter.com/MDXjVarDFB

— bttr (@bttr01438851) October 19, 2019

Don't know how practical this would be but it is a beauty.  I imagine it would be lightweight and extremely quick.

This intrigues me.

Challenger 2 Upgrade delayed till 2021...why don't the Brits simply fall in on the US Army and get upgraded M1 Abrams to the latest standard?

via Forces.net

A decision on how many of the Army’s Challenger 2 tanks will be upgraded will not be made until 2021.

Defence Minister Stuart Andrew said assessments were still being made but said he expects the order for the new mechanised infantry vehicles, the 'Boxer', will be put in by the Ministry of Defence by the end of this year.

He visited Telford for the launch of a new joint venture between the two defence companies that are hoping to deliver both programmes.

Story here. 

Just plain wow.

The British Army is tying themselves up in knots to upgrade the Challenger 2 when they can EASILY fall in on the US Army, acquire the number of M1's they need from our stockpile and get General Dynamics to upgrade them to the current US Army standard at a song.

But what about their industrial base?

It will exist.  They're building Boxers and the Ascod 2.  Tribal knowledge can be maintained thru our excellent relations and I'm sure the US Army won't object to having a Brit assigned to the development team (hopefully they won't leave classified documents inside a taxi again).

I don't understand it.

Maybe it's pride.

Maybe it's misplaced priorities.

Regardless this can be taken off their procurement plate with a quickness if they simply decide to make it happen.

Norwegian Army conducts Emergency Readiness Exercise

Note.  This is from the Norwegian Army Instagram Page.  Google did the translation for me and below is the translated caption applied to the pics.

Den siste uken har Hæren vært i Finnmark hvor man har samtrent med de andre forsvarsgrenene.
Øvelsen som var en uvarslet alarmøvelse skal teste å forflytte styrker på kort varsel.

And to English.

 The last week, the Army has been in Finnmark where they have been in contact with the other branches of defense.
The exercise, which was an unprecedented alarm exercise, will test to move forces at short notice.

Any original language speakers let me know the "actual" translation.

101st Airborne regains full Air Assault capability....36 additional CH-47's to be purchased to lift a full Brigade Combat Team...

via Military.com

U.S. Army aviation officials have launched an effort to restore full air assault capability to the 101st Airborne Division -- a capability the Screaming Eagles have been without since 2015.

As the Army's only air-assault division, the 101st has traditionally had two combat aviation brigades -- instead of one CAB like other divisions -- to allow the unit to lift a full brigade combat team into combat at one time.

But mandatory budget cuts under sequestration prompted the Army to take one of the 101st's CABs away.

The effort to re-equip the 101st with dozens of helicopters is one of the top aviation priorities the Army has identified as it races to be ready to conduct major combat operations across all warfare domains by 2028, Maj. Gen. David Francis, commander of the Army's Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Rucker, Alabama, said.

"Army aviation was required to reduce the number of combat aviation brigades in the active component, so we went from 13 combat aviation brigades down to 11," Francis said Wednesday at the 2019 Association of the United States Army's annual meeting.

"One of the combat aviation brigades that was inactivated was the 159th CAB, one of two that resided [in the 101st] at Fort Campbell."

The 159th CAB officially inactivated in December 2015, leaving the unit with the 101st CAB.

"The capacity that we lost was primarily on the lift side, so we are going to build additional lift capability into the 101st to enable that capability to reside back in that organization," Francis said.

Story here. 

AH-1Z on the attack @ KAMANDAG 3 ... pics by Lance Cpl. Ethan LeBlanc

Open Comment Post. 19 Oct 2019.

What I've been into...

Been up to my neck so much to my surprise and astonishment the blog e-mail is jam packed and I have to sort thru stuff you guys have sent.  Sorry bout that.  Anyway below is a new purchase and a project I'm working on...

Poor pic quality ... I KNOW ... but the rub of it is that I bought a Glock 43X as a CCW and Back Up.  Awesome gun.  Round count is not "ideal" but with a spare mag more than reasonable.  Cell phone to call for help while I extricate myself from the madness is what I'm looking for and this fills the need.  Side note to retired military, law enforcement, reserve law enforcement etc.  You can't beat Glocks Blue Label pricing.  My armory is standardized (to a large part) and I can even add to it with that program.  GREAT STUFF!

Again, poor pic quality!  But the rub is this.  Glock 19 is my "war gun" and I wanted to update/make it more effective.  Eye site taking a hit the solution is obvious.  I need a red dot to get me back to one shot one stop.

Above you see a Glock 19 slide milled for an RMR by Brownells.  I'm not made of money and after a bit of research I decided that the Brownells delivered what I wanted, has added slide serrations toward the front sight and has great reviews.

I'll build this out myself.  Just need a slide kit to get the guts in and then off to the range (once the RMR is mounted) to see if theory meets reality.

An additional benefit was that my original slide will be available as a back up if this doesn't perform as expected.

So besides work, this has been my play. 

As far as jumping on the red dot bandwagon.  What do you guys think?

Pentagon says decision on full-rate F-35 jet production possibly delayed until 2021

via Reuters.

The Pentagon’s decision to move into a full-rate production contract for the F-35 jet, made by Lockheed Martin (LMT.N), could be delayed until 2021 because of issues integrating the jet with its testing and training simulators, an official said on Friday.

Full-rate production contracts are more lucrative for defense companies than low rate production contracts, suggesting larger payments for F-35 deliveries to Lockheed from the U.S. government and its allies could be delayed by as much as a year.

Pentagon acquisition chief Ellen Lord told reporters she had signed off on a report that indicated the final decision on full-rate production could be delayed up to 13 months.

Story here. 

I was puzzled by this news till I realized that for all intents and purposes they're already in full rate production.

Lockheed Martin couldn't pump out more jets right now anyway and the air arms aren't setup to accept them.

My guess.

They're trying to give LM and the various air arms time to deal with Turkey being out of the program (at least for now) and a fucked up supply line.

I could be wrong but I'd bet body parts that's the real deal.

Tulsi Gabbard just went off on Hillary Clinton...

Note.  Can't stray into politics full throttle anymore but I will observe certain statements and let you guys go at it.  Check this entire thread out.  Gabbard went full tilt buggy, Attila the Hun, and Ugly American burning villages in this one!

Great! Thank you @HillaryClinton. You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long, have finally come out from behind the curtain. From the day I announced my candidacy, there has been a ...

— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) October 18, 2019

Northrop Grumman 50mm chain gun

The US Army has reset the Infantry Fighting Vehicle baseline.  No longer is a 30mm adequate.  No longer is the 35mm formidable and the 40mm consider powerful.

The Northrop Grumman 50mm chain gun is now the new gun against which everything else will be measured.

What's scary?

When this ammo gets the same treatment that the 30mm has gotten then we could potentially see this thing not only defeating every APC/IFV on the planet but also challenging a great many MBTs that are still in service.

The response will be even more armoring and soon 40 - 60 ton IFVs will be considered common.

Makes those analysts in the US Army that saw a need for an 80 ton GCV kinda prophetic huh?

It's Chinese so I guess a "Dragon" Mom gave this to her child...

Here is a special birthday cake for those who love to study! A cream cake full of math formulas designed by a Chinese baker has gone viral on Chinese social media. pic.twitter.com/hhAXYel7pD

— People's Daily, China (@PDChina) October 18, 2019

Even their birthday celebrations are hard....

The forces we have in theater are the forces that will fight...the enemy won't give us time to set up?

“Why would they give us a month and a half to set the theater? What force you have over there is the force you’re fighting with.” Powerful words from @CMC_MarineCorps during his visit to @MarineCorpsU. Is your brain ready to fight tonight, to adapt what you have at hand to win? pic.twitter.com/uKfuhnDvNZ

— The Krulak Center (@TheKrulakCenter) October 17, 2019

I get the thinking but I think it's wrong.

This gets back to the rapid deployment issue AND the forward deployment thing that is so rampant in the Pentagon.

Berger is asking everyone to challenge preconceived notions.  Well in the backdrop of this Tweet let me hit you with a few of my thoughts.

1.  Forward deployment as a deterrence is lunacy.  Small units will simply be speed bumps IF an enemy force decides to attack.  Therefore forward deployment makes no sense.  All it does is hazard our forces.

2.  Forward bases on allied lands that are within range of enemy artillery/rockets (conventional) is additional lunacy.  You could render entire squadrons combat incapable within a few minutes under the right scenarios.

3.  Forever wars make no sense.  Think about US force distribution currently.  If the big one was to happen in the Pacific then could we stop the onslaught?  I don't think so.  Of course this goes back to this tweet and the Commandant's thinking but it shouldn't be that way.  Under the current world situation if an even minor skirmish were to occur in the Pacific between Chinese and American warships we would probably immediately see fighting breakout in Africa, the Middle East (bigger) and Russia could even seize more land in Ukraine.  We're so spread out we're making ourselves VULNERABLE!

The answer?

In my mind its to tilt the script.

We need fewer overseas bases in the modern era and we need a return to Rapid Deployment Forces.

Expeditionary should disappear from the vocabulary of the US Army and Air Force.  Only the Navy and Marine Corps should cling to that verbiage.  The Army and Air Force should focus on being rapidly deployable to any region on the planet.  Snap exercises where units can go wheels up in 18 hours needs to be a standard again.

A new fleet of fast transports that can move an entire division should be a priority of Transportation Command.  A new C-17 Mega should be started and put into service.

Penny packets of forward deployed forces?

It should be a thing of the past.  In many locations they're not appreciated.  In others they really serve no purpose except as a drain on the treasury.

We're rapidly running out of money.

It's past time to get smart.