Leopard Tanks for Brazil...

via Ares...

Brazilian Leopards

Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) announced today that it had handed over the first of 220 Leopard 1A5 main battle tanks to the Brazilian army yesterday at the company's site in Kassel, Germany. The tanks come from the reserve stocks of the German army, where they have been since they were decommissioned in 2003, and were bought by Brazil under an agreement with the German government.

Wow.  A couple of responses to the article point to...

• It being couple idiotic for the Brazilians to make this move because of the lack of an opposition with heavy armor and the natural defense caused by the Amazon Jungle...and...
• It being possible to use these vehicles for internal security for the upcoming Olympics...

Read the article for yourself but I have a different take on things.  The Brazilians get a couple of things out of this deal...all of them good...

1. It gets their heavy industry back into the armor game.  
2. It will provide additional firepower for the internal security mission.
3. It will provide an armored force to backup the countries aspirations to be a player on the international stage.

Everyone forgets that defense of the Amazon is a potential function of the Brazilian Armed Forces.  As natural resources dwindle, it is a no brainer to believe that this area will be searched and any potential resources plundered.  Even if Brazil is able to exploit those resources it must have the weaponry to defend them from predatory external powers.  Next you need armor to help clean up the slums.  As a poster stated, if the gangs are able to shoot down a helicopter, if personal vehicles are commonly uparmored, if the Olympics are coming soon then this clean up has to get started.  Finally we come to the national aspiration part.  The next purchase, if they already haven't done so, is going to be some type of amphibious assault ship.  It is the cheapest, quickest way to deploy forces overseas.  Brazil has long been a regional power, it now wants to be an international one.  If it is to make the move to big time status then its forces must be deployable...it needs the heavy armor of the Leopard tank to make sure that the force is not just a token one.

In short it makes sense for Brazil to acquire these vehicles.  Although why they didn't go for the Leopard 2's that have been flooding the market is beyond me!  I mean hell...even Singapore got some Leo 2's!

NATO clears German colonel for calling in F-15E strike in Afghanistan

via Alert5.com

Germany says NATO exonerates it on Afghan airstrike

BERLIN (Reuters) - German troops acted appropriately when they called in a deadly airstrike on two fuel trucks in Afghanistan according to a NATO investigation, a top German general said on Thursday.
The September 4 strike was the most deadly operation involving German troops since World War Two, killing 69 Taliban fighters and 30 civilians, the Afghan government has said.
The attack, carried out by a U.S. F-15 fighter jet, was condemned by several European foreign ministers. But Germany has said it was necessary to protect its troops from a possible suicide attack by Taliban fighters who had hijacked the trucks.
"In light of the results of the investigation, I have no reason to doubt that German soldiers acted appropriately in military terms given the difficult situation and on the basis of the United Nations mandate," Wolfgang Schneiderhan, general inspector of the German army, told reporters.

Well no shit!  If they had ruled any other way then it would have been "game over Man!".  I like to tease the Air Force and even harass them on occasion but in this war, bad stuff happens.  I'm sorry for the loss of innocent life but if you read the press reports after the incident then you could reasonably assume that the Taliban lured the innocents to the truck to precipitate this incident.  If anyone is to blame its the Taliban.

USAF considering doing away with mandatory PT!?!

Ok I could take one Air Force Drill Sgt. talking shit about how much tougher their basic training is compared to Marine Corps boot camp...he was obviously smoking crack.  But now the leadership is considering doing away with mandatory PT????  Wow....what are they thinking...follow the link for the whole story...

Air Force might eliminate mandatory PT

By Jennifer H. Svan and Mark Abramson, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, October 30, 2009

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — Even as the Air Force prepares to toughen physical fitness standards for airmen, it’s proposing to do away with mandatory physical training.
That means commanders no longer would have to provide airmen at least 270 minutes per week to exercise during duty hours. But airmen would still have to be prepared to pass more stringent PT tests twice a year.
If approved, the Air Force would be the first of the military services to eliminate mandatory PT.
An internal audit last year found the Air Force’s fitness program did not promote year-round fitness. Thirty-five percent of airmen tested at 13 bases worldwide gained weight and recorded significant increases in abdominal circumference measurements within 60 days of taking their PT test, auditors reported...

ps.  Don't get mad Army its just a joke...

Scum sucking Pirates at it again....

I really wanted to leave this story alone...I didn't want to broach the subject on this blog.  Events today however changed my mind.  Ya see this is the story of a pair of British Nationals...a husband and wife...sailing the waters off the coast of Somalia.  I imagine they thought that they were far enough off shore to be out of danger but as luck would have it, their ship was raided and they were taken hostage.  To be honest my fear was that the pair was killed after the pirates savaged the female (yes that might be caveman thinking but the rest of the world is not as progressive as we are in the West and brutality is a daily happening in most countries...civilized and uncivilized ones).  But as fate would have it, they are alive, not well and Fox News made contact with them.  Follow the link and read the story.  A couple of questions...

• Hello NSA!  I hope you're fixing the pirate location with all that fancy gear you have...
• Hello FBI!  I hope you have people ready to go...yes they're foreign nationals but they're British so we can definitely give intelligence if not physical assistance.
• Hello CENTCOM!  How about you dispatch that gang of Special Operators you have operating in country over there to dope out the location...
• Hello SBS!!  This is your environment...get working...
• Hello British Government...want to show strength then get your people back....even if you fail, you'll send a message!
• Lastly...WTF UN!!!!  How about a nice, steaming cup of WAKE THE FUCK UP!  You send inspectors to work on the unaffordable housing problem in New York City but you're impotent on this issue?????  Buy some Viagra and grow some balls...that is if you want to be relevant.