Norway's new CV-90 in action via TU.NO

Many thanks to Nidar for the link!

Turn on your Google Translate and check out the story here.


Sidenote:  This was a nicely done video.  But I want to circle back to the cross country mobility of the vehicles.  What you're seeing is reality!  Driving at 50 mph over terrain isn't something that you'll actually do.  What will happen?  You might see tanks dash from firing position to firing position probably not doing more than 25 mph during their bounding movements.  You might see APC/IFV doing the same but with a better eye toward concealment if not cover.  This is reality, not the fantasy of advertising.

India's Light Combat Helicopter does hot & high testing...via LiveFist

Read it here.

The European "immigrant" problem is going to spiral...

via CNN.

Migrants streamed into Budapest's Keleti train station on Thursday, breaking a deadlock with authorities outside. Trains are running, but the borders with Austria and Slovakia are closed, a rail official said, limiting where the refugees can travel.

First you will see migrants battle police.  Then after the media slams the governments for attempting to control the situation and they back off, you will see battles between immigrants and the local populations.

This is going to spiral.

Pass the popcorn cause this is gonna get good.

China's Military Hardware Infographic...via AFP.

Still impressed with that 300K troop cut?  Especially when you consider that "security" forces are going to be immune....the dragon's teeth grow longer and sharper.

F-35's latest budget victim? The US Army's Future Fighting Vehicle.

via Defense Aerospace.

The U.S. Army has revealed that its Future Fighting Vehicle program is being pushed back due to a lack of funding. An executive summary of the service's FY17-FY21 Program Objective Memorandum, obtained by InsideDefense, said a planned FY21 Milestone A for the FFV will now take place in FY29.

"Given more resources, we would not have delayed the FFV program, but we will mitigate some of the risk by supporting prototyping efforts that could help us accelerate the program in the future if resources become available or technological breakthroughs occur," the summary reads.

FFV is a follow-on to the defunct Ground Combat Vehicle, which was terminated in the FY15 budget. GCV was intended to replace a portion of the Bradley fleet.

Here.

Fiscal Year 2029.

They might as well be honest and say its scrapped.  F-35 supporters should be happy...as should the Air Power Mafia.

You're eviscerating your nations ground combat forces to pay for an airplane that YOU KNOW is a flying piece of camel dung.

FNSS Tiger-20 (Kaplan) Hi-Rez Pics...

Note:  All eyes are on China's military parade, but Turkey is also throwing a "victory" party.  You can see a video of the event here.  But curiosity about the latest military developments led me to check out FNSS' website and I saw the pics below.  I really don't quite get what's going on in some of these countries.  We're seeing multiple armored vehicle programs going on at the same time to fulfill the same requirements.  Sometimes we're even seeing multiple vehicle designs within the SAME company!  Everyone except the US seems to be working on new Infantry Fighting Vehicles.

Think Defence on Ship to Shore Logistics...

Think Defence has completed a long run series on ship to shore logistics. Read it all here...be warned its long!.  Why is it linked from here?  Well the USMC has a problem.  The weight gain in vehicles is about to be dramatic.  The MTVR is bigger than the 5-ton it replaced, the JLTV than the Humvee, the ACV than the AAV...there was no combat engineer vehicle but we now have the ABV, the M1A1 is a beast, the M88 isn't light....you get the point.

When national policy makers fall out of love with chasing terrorists and leadership gets over its infatuation with providing perimeter security for SOCOM, we're going to have to finally work on ship to shore.

Doomsday scenario. What if the US deployed troops to Europe to protect "refugees"?

Imagine.

European Union leadership is behind the power curve when it comes to dealing with the immigration problem that Europe is currently facing.  Suddenly Neo-Nazi groups go on a rampage attacking immigrants.

I'm not talking about the usual hooligan violence that you see after soccer games but knock down, drag out, skull crushing fights that end up with people dead and seriously injured.

Playing this out further, instead of being outraged by these attacks, the European people start cheering them on.  EU leadership would be between a rock and a hard place.

Do they crack down on their own people or do they round up refugees and send them back?

Then what?  I can imagine that those that refuse to bow to the wishes of the people could see their governments toppled and the same happening.

Under those conditions would it be outside the realm of possibilities for the US to land Marines/Soldiers to protect refugees?  I can't recall where I read it but it was outlined as a possible consequence of this unchecked immigration awhile ago.  What if it comes true?

Slovakia is buying Polish AMV's for 1.1 mil each?

Thanks to Jonathan for the link!

via Strategy Page.

In mid-2015 Slovakia ordered 30 Rosomak Wheeled Armored Vehicles from a Polish firm. These vehicles will cost about $1.1 million each and are the first export sale. Rosomak is a Polish design that began as a licensed variant of Finnish AMV (Armored Modular Vehicle). Rosomak is not just a license built AMV but a Polish variant that is, unlike the AMV, amphibious and air transportable by C-130 transports. Moreover Rosomak has extensive and successful combat with Polish troops in Afghanistan and peacekeepers in Chad and Central African Republic.
Rosomak is available as 8x8 or 6x6 wheeled vehicles weighing 16-26 tons, depending on configuration (like armor, weapons, or engine). In particular, the vehicle is built to accept several degrees of armor enhancements.
Poland is the largest foreign customer for the AMV, and Rosomaks are assembled in Poland using a lot of Polish components along with a lot of Polish modifications. The basic infantry version has a 30mm Bushmaster II autocannon in a turret, along with a 7.62mm machine-gun. This version has a crew of three and carries 8-12 passengers. The Rosomaks in Afghanistan were mostly on the heavy side because of increased use of armor. There were several models in Afghanistan (infantry carriers, ambulance, command, and surveillance). There was even a surveillance model equipped with an Israeli surveillance package. This included a radar, thermal sensor, motion sensor, and a small UAV. One of these vehicles can move to some high ground and detect activity over a wide area (out to ten kilometers, night or day, and in any weather).

Wait.

So tiny Slovakia is getting a better price on armored fighting vehicles than the USMC can get?  Is Poland giving them a hometown discount or are they actually selling 1st tier IFVs at discount prices?

At this price point you could skip buying THREE F-35's and satisfy the Marine Corps ACV requirement in one fiscal year!

Europe is getting crushed by illegal immigration...

via The Telegraph...

Fears are growing that cross-Channel services will again be plunged into chaos this week after groups of migrants renewed their attempts to board freight trains to Britain, prompting further delays and cancellation.
Around 150 migrants tried to storm the Eurotunnel terminal in Calais on Friday night in an effort to climb onto the trains heading to the UK.
French riot police intervened to prevent the migrants breaking or cutting their way into waiting lorries, but the authorities and freight operators are braced for further problems over the coming days.
Eurotunnel said that several of its freight services were delayed and cancelled after groups of migrants attempted to get into restricted areas on the French side. It said that the incident only affected freight traffic only, with passenger services continuing to run to a full timetable.

Here.

I am continuously amazed.

The perfect storm for a major domestic incident is lining up for Europe and the EU bureaucrats are taking a business as normal approach to the problem.  They're meeting on the 14th (I believe its the 14th) of this month to deal with the problem....but the problem is spiraling out of control now!

Want to know what one European country is doing?

Hungary is building a fence!

A weak economy.  Poor employment prospects for citizens.  A generous social welfare net that is going to be strained by the new flood of people.....and note we haven't even mentioned the possibility of ISIS 'agents' being mixed in.

We're not talking about a civil war, but I do expect major violence in European cities soon.  They better hope winter comes quick.

Silver or chocolate....

Thanks to Modern Survival Blog for the vid!



Have you wondered how a nation can go from prosperous to debt ridden?  Ever wondered why people would be more interested in the Kardashians than in the economy?

The above video give the answer.

People are stupid.

USNI Blog is continuing the agenda...and this female Gunny just pointed out the danger of females in the infantry (in a backwards way)...

You know how I feel about USNI Blog.

Can't stand them.  If they got curb stomped I'd cheer.  Probably throw a party.  More to the point I'm having trouble understanding why so many aren't speaking out.  EVEN MORE CONFUSING is the fact that so many male writers haven't protested or called them out on this bullshit.

Let me state again.  They asked for female writers so when do Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, Indian, Muslim, Neo-Nazi, Atheist, Satanist, Catholic, Baptist...whatever get the cattle call from USNI Blog to write?

It would only be fair.  But I guess the days of "we're all Marines, maybe different shades...maybe different genders" is over.

What has me punching walls tonight?  Check this out....

When I checked into my first duty station, the majority of the female Marines were just as junior as I was (and struggling to survive), with a few female Sergeants who were ‘queen bees’. They would belittle you in a heartbeat in front of God, Corps, Country, and Chesty Puller and not think twice about it. If you told them something personal, they would run off and gossip to the entire shop. What you thought was a mentoring session was actually solicitation for personal information they could use to humiliate you in front of others. It was horrible.
The good, the bad, and the ugly were rolled up into one scoop and served on the chow line…cold! To top it off, there weren’t any women (like my Drill Instructors) that I could go to for advice. It wasn’t until my next duty station, in Okinawa, Japan, that I finally received some mentorship. It happened to be from a female Staff Non Commissioned Officer (SNCO). Female SNCOs at that time were rare; the last time I had seen one was in boot camp. I was intimidated, but she turned out to be my very first mentor in the operating forces.
When I arrived, she made it a point to talk to me. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be “blasted” for something that I didn’t even know I had done. Instead, she asked me questions like: Are you settled into the barracks? Have there been any creepy male Marines that have tried to befriend you? Have you contacted your family to let them know that you arrived in Japan? I was in shock. She was firm and professional, yet she had a nurturing side. She reminded me of my Senior Drill Instructor.

Are you reading that shit?  ARE YOU READING THAT SHIT!

She didn't receive mentoring until she had her first female SNCO?  Really?  So if she received mentoring from a male SNCO that didn't count.  It had to be from a female?  She had to receive advice from women?  Her male leadership was inadequate due to gender?

AND THEN WHEN SHE DOES GET "MENTORED" ONE OF THE QUESTIONS IS IF A CREEPY MALE MARINE TRIED TO BEFRIEND HER?

How can a male succeed leading female Marines with this type of attitude?

You do see where this is going right?  Females in combat arms and then its not going to be enough.  You're going to have to have females in LEADERSHIP positions so that the female Marines feel comfortable.  Considering statements made by the current SecDef we can see how this is all going to work out.

I feel sorry for bastards that are about to get hit between the eyes with this.  You should have spoken up earlier.

Old Corps, New Corps there isn't a bit of difference?  Sorry Chesty you were wrong.  This new Corps is going to fill body bags and lose battles just for the sake of social engineering.

NOTE:  I don't usually do this but I've got to call out two contributors over there.  Not much is expected from that crowd but I am a fan of UltimateRatioReg and Cmdr Salamander.  They're usually outspoken but have been beyond silent on this debate.  Not good.