Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Towed artillery really is dead on the battlefield...

MLRS/HIMARS won't fill the void though. The obvious answer is artillery must be motorized/mechanized. Towed arty is just a sitting duck.

Bayraktar AKINCI UCAV departed from Çorlu, successfully completed its first firing test in Sinop offshore with KGK-SIHA-82 (Wing-Assisted Guidance Kit)

Australia's Land 400 Phase 3 IFV to be cut by a third!

Just plain wow.

Marine Air-Ground Task Force 7....what is its composition, what is its job?

U.S. Marine Corps Col. David J. Hart, the commanding officer of Marine Air-Ground Task Force 7 (MAGFT-7) “Ripper”, boards the amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD2) in the Pacific Ocean, June 17, 2022. MAGFT-7 is integrated with the U.S. Navy to strengthen international maritime partnership, enhance interoperability and promote a free and open Indo-Pacific. 

So its not a MEU, definitely not a MEB or MEF. It's also not SPMAGTF. So what is it? Is it new? What is it's composition? I'm assuming its job is sea denial so composition will be interesting.

Video of Russian Paratroop Air Assault on Ukrainian Airport (Early War)...from their perspective.

Note. I've been waiting breathlessly for the 18th Airborne Corps, 101st or even Marine Air to do an unclassified analysis on this assault. While they lacked (I believe) the amount of close air that we'd employ, they seemed to do it by the book (I could easily be wrong). 

What went right, what went wrong and what lessons are to be learned from this. I'm a bit surprised that we aren't seeing more discussion of the tactical aspects of this fight. The tech war seems to get all the attention. People are focused on drones, loitering munitions and anti-tank missiles....but when we see concepts employed that seem to follow our way of war and they fail, they don't seem to be raising any eyebrows (looking at Snake Island and the Marine Littoral Regiment!).

How/Why is Snake Island turning into a major battle? The island seems insignificant and lacks influence over the battle space!

I don't get this!

The Ukrainians tried to hold this island and got smoked.  The Russians moved in and are getting smoked.

Why?

The Russians can control the land from the sea without deploying troops to it.

The Ukrainians are able to assault any installation/troops from shore.

WHY ARE THE RUSSIANS SO DETERMINED TO HOLD IT?  I don't understand.  Educate me please!

The crazy thing?

If either side decided to use the appropriate missile that's available today, then neither Navy could operate in those waters.

The seat of power is on land, not the water....

The 2/30 Normandie-Niémen Hunting Regiment