American Mercenary has a must read on women attending Ranger school...

American Mercenary's latest is a must read.

He takes on the issue of women attending Ranger school and I must admit his attitude is more liberal than my own but makes sense.  Check it out here, but a tidbit...

I earned my tab. I got a yeast infection. I got cellulitis. I smelled like a corpse and looked like the walking dead. I took a double recycle to stay in the course so that my 62 day training event stretched out to 117 days. But ten years and one day after I signed my first enlistment contract my wife pinned a black and gold tab to my left shoulder.

So bring it on. If there are any women out there who volunteer to meet the Ranger standard, go for it. I'm convinced there will be women who can make it. But I'm also convinced that the women who could make it are smart enough to avoid it.

Yeah.

You have to read this one! 

China's MBT-3000. New details about the vehicle!

via Janes

The latest version of the MBT-3000, which is also known as the VT-4, has composite armour over the frontal arc. Officials have also revealed that the side skirts are made of rigid composite armour to which explosive reactive armour (ERA) can be added.
When first revealed, the MBT-3000 was fitted with a simple roof-mounted 12.7 mm machine gun. The latest version is fitted with a new low profile roof-mounted remote weapon station (RWS), again armed with a 12.7 mm MG. This is operated by the tank commander and as well as having an anti-aircraft capability, could prove useful in urban operations.
Chinese sources have also said that the MBT-3000 can be fitted with an active defence system - designated the GL5 - but it has not been confirmed if this is a hard kill or a soft kill ADS.
Officials have also confirmed that the gun control equipment (GCE) is all electric, and images broadcast by Chinese state television show that the stabilised 125 mm smooth bore gun is fed by a horizontal automatic loader that loads the projectile first and then the charge.
The MBT-3000 made its international debut in June 2012 at the Eurosatory defence exhibition in Paris. As well as the MBT-3000, Norinco now offers the MBT-2000 - which has a combat weight of 48 tonnes - and the VT2, which has a combat weight of 42 tonnes.
At Eurosatory Norinco officials described the MBT-3000 as the company's most advanced MBT offered on the export market to date, pointing to the fact that it is fully digitised, air conditioned, and fitted with an over-pressure NBC system and an inertial navigation/global positioning system.

Interesting.

This puts Marine Armor in an uncomfortable position.  Do we upgrade the M1A1 to Army standard or do we attempt to leap ahead?

Oh and once you answer that, then riddle me this.  Where are we gonna get the fucking money?

Sidenote:  I wonder how much info they stole to produce this hybrid M1/Leopard look alike?

The Ranger Tab becomes worthless.

via Army Times.

The Army is looking for female soldiers who want to volunteer to attend Ranger school.
The call-out is part of the Army’s ongoing effort to determine whether and how to open combat arms military occupational specialties to women.
Senior Army leaders are expected to decide in January if they want to move forward with this one-time, integrated Ranger school assessment. If the assessment moves forward, it likely will take place in the spring, and the Army will need volunteers already in place and ready to go, officials said Friday.
If the assessment takes place, it will be a first for the storied Ranger school, which until now has been open only to men.
“Right now we’re going through the deliberate planning process, identifying volunteers, and selecting them over the next few months,” said Lt. Col. Alayne Conway, an Army spokeswoman. “In January, we’ll determine the feasibility of conducting an assessment of the Ranger course in the spring of 2015.”

Consider this a done deal.

I find it funny that no one is coming forward and talking about the recruiting difficulties that the services are facing now.

I've gotten too many e-mails from Marines on the trail that tell me about the troubles that they're running into making mission.  They blame former, retired and vets being pissed at the President and Amos...second come the message that males are getting burned by disgruntled females for chickenshit reasons...and last is the lowered standards/push for women in combat arms.

This move by the  Army won't help things.

Being blunt.  I only have respect for only a few Army outfits.  I only respect a few of their schools.

One of them WAS the Ranger course.  After this?  No more.  Ranger school will do as ordered and some female will be wearing a Ranger tab she didn't earn.

Awesome.  Just don't expect me to respect it anymore.  Those days are over.

Sidenote:  Isn't it strange?  On one hand we have men that assault women being charged with not only assault but domestic violence (if they know them) and yet on the other those same people are pushing to have women in combat arms!

Has the war against Police begun? UPDATE!

via ABC News.

A late-night ambush outside a state police barracks in Pennsylvania's rural northeastern corner left one trooper dead and another critically wounded, and authorities scoured the densely wooded countryside and beyond on Saturday looking for the shooter or shooters.
State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan said a "very dangerous, armed criminal" eluded quick capture.
"This attack was an ambush. Our troopers were ... shot without warning and really had no chance to defend themselves," Noonan told reporters Saturday afternoon. "It's a cowardly attack. It's an attack upon all of us in society."

NOTE:  Read the comments over at The BLAZE!...this is a right wing news site and the comments are all negative towards police.  Something has happened and the public no longer supports them.  One bad move and Sovereign Citizens and other anti-police groups will be cheered in their attacks.

Interesting.  An ambush by definition, if conducted properly, doesn't give the target a chance to defend themselves.

I also find it interesting that the Commissioner says that this is an attack against all of society.  How?  Unfortunately for police, those that target them hardly ever go after the rest of society.  Even the most rabid of them...the Sovereign Citizens...rarely go after other members of society.

Many mistook my stance on the issues in Ferguson.  Everyone wanted to focus on whether or not the police shooting was legit or not.  I never did.  Not enough information was available AND we were immediately hit with propaganda from both sides (to include the Police Chief withholding information & releasing selective info that supported his side).

WHAT DID alarm me was the military tactics/militarization of police that we saw when County Police showed up to assist in crowd control.

What should alarm Police Officials AND US citizens is that the distance between law enforcement and the people they're working for is greater than ever.

I seriously wonder if the war on Police has begun.

Russians coming home in body bags from Ukraine.

Thanks for the link Jason!

via Yahoo

Late last month Yelena Tumanova was handed the body of her son in a coffin at her home in Russia's Western Volga region. Anton Tumanov was 20 and a soldier serving in the Russian army in the North Caucasus region of Chechnya.
The documents Yelena Tumanova was given with the body raised more questions than they answered - questions about how her son died and about the Russian government’s denials that its troops are in Ukraine. The records do not show Anton Tumanov’s place of death, said human rights activists who spoke to his mother after she got in touch with them.
"Medical documents said there were shrapnel wounds, that is he died from a loss of blood, but how it happened and where were not indicated,” said Sergei Krivenko, who heads a commission on military affairs on Russia’s presidential human rights council.
Yelena Tumanova could not be reached for comment and Reuters was unable to review the documents. But more than 10 soldiers in her dead son’s unit told Krivenko and Ella Polyakova, another member of the presidential human rights council, that Anton Tumanov died in an Aug. 13 battle near the Ukrainian town of Snizhnye. The battle, the soldiers said, killed more than 100 Russian soldiers serving in the 18th motorized rifle brigade of military unit 27777, which is based outside the Chechen capital of Grozny..

I just don't know.

We have entered a world of shadows and greys.

Up is down, down is up and we're being subjected to intensive information warfare from both sides.  American Mercenary wrote a great primer on propaganda ops and I recommend you read it.  We're being bombed on all sides and all open source information on conflicts is suspect.  I think the source of the information tells more than the information itself.

ISIS murders a Brit Aid Worker.

via CNN

British aid worker David Haines appears to have been executed by ISIS militants, according to a video posted Saturday to a website associated with the group, making him the third Western captive to be killed by the Islamist extremist group in recent weeks.
The ISIS video post showing Haines' apparent beheading called his execution "a message to the allies of America."
It is produced very similarly to the videos that showed the executions of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, the last of which included Haines and the threat that he'd be killed next.
The new video pictures a masked ISIS militant placing his hand on another captive, whom he identified as Alan Henning, a British citizen.

Wow.

I wonder if all these Westerners that are falling into the hands of ISIS are part of the Global Citizen movement.

I mean seriously.  How STUPID do you have to be to travel to a war zone as a civilian?  Why wouldn't your common sense kick and say "this is a really bad idea"?  Why would you put yourself in that kind of jeopardy?

But a bigger question is why would a country go to war...engage in a long slog...because its citizens were stupid enough to travel to dangerous lands to either "help" or "report" on events?  Its lunacy.  An individual has a responsibility to look after their own safety, if they ignore that, then why should the state step in?

Russia's Armata Main Battle Tank to be displayed.

photo via Immortal Today.com

via ITAR-TASS

BAKU, September 12. /ITAR-TASS/. A family of new combat vehicles based on the universal platform Armata will be displayed at a Victory Parade in 2015, Oleg Siyenko, General Director of the Uralvagonzavod (UVZ) research and production corporation, told ITAR-TASS in an exclusive interview at the ADEX-2014 international exhibition of armaments.
"All works are proceeding according to schedule. A whole family of armored vehicles based on the Armata platform will be displayed in a Victory Parade next year," Siyenko said.

Interesting.

I thought this thing was pure vapor ware.  I'll be keeping an eye on this.  Hopefully someone that reads this blog will be able to get some pics of the thing so we can get a look at its armor, layout, weapons fit etc...