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Which, it looks like great fun. But in truth, its a flaming pain to operate tracks on packed snow or ice. Fun going downhill, but almost impossible to get back uphill.  Tanks and other tracked vehicles have heavy steel tracks, of course, but in reality, they ride upon heavy, hard rubber track pads bolted to the track shoes. And these rubber pads provide absolutely no traction at all on ice. 

As you watch the video, you'll see a brief snippet of the crew working on the tracks. What they're doing is removing every fourth track pad or so. That gives much better traction on snow and ice, and still keeps most of the track from getting beat up, or tearing up any roadbeds. On the other hand, removing every fourth track shoe is time consuming, and physically demanding work. 

Go on over to CDR Salamander's and just read the whole thing. While the Air Force and Naval Aviation get a lot of credit for pounding the heck out of North Vietnam during Linebacker II, the surface fleet pulled its own weight. Not only did they provide essential escort to the carriers, they shot the heck out of the coastline of North Vietnam. 

One neat little bit in that story- The North Vietnamese used radar directed coast artillery guns to defend against these surface raids. And so the USN quickly came up with a countermeasure. The ASROC launcher was modified to carry the AGM-45 Shrike anti-radiation missile. The ship's Electronic Support Measures (ESM) would give a good indication of the bearing to the shore based fire control radar, and some fair estimate of range. The ship could then simply turn the ASROC to the relative bearing, elevate the launcher cells, and loft  a Shrike at it, with a fair chance of success.  

The Army is on the eve of rolling out new MOS-specific, gender-neutral fitness tests, and new details have begun to emerge.

The tests “should be good to go by June,” said Patrick Murphy, acting Army secretary, in a Tuesday interview with Army Times. That plan, and others related to adding women into previously closed military occupational specialties, is contingent on Defense Department approval.

While no final decisions have been made, it’s unlikely every MOS will get its own fitness test, owing to the impracticality of creating and conducting one for each specialty, Army test-developers said. One solution could involve implementing a single test and creating a tiered scoring system — soldiers with high marks could serve in the most physically demanding jobs, while those who eked out passing grades would have their MOS options restricted.

via www.armytimes.com

One reason the Army hasn't introduced such a test previously is that there is strong institutional pressure to simply keep the current Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT). The concern is that any new tests will be in addition to, and not a substitute for, the APFT. And given the lack of training time available, additional training requirements are always met with resistance.

And one reason the APFT is popular is that it really requires no equipment. The only equipment needed is a stopwatch. And it can be conducted just about anywhere, any time.

Having said that, everyone knows that some jobs in the military are more physically demanding than others. The dental tech working in the clinic simply doesn't face the strains of a young mortarman humping a baseplate through the Hindu Kush. Maybe it is time to measure the readiness of an individual to perform that mission.

The Armor Corps in the American Army is gone, it is no more.

The Army has become decidedly infantry centric. This wouldn’t be so bad if it was a fighting kind of infantry centered army.  But instead it is an infantry centric Army grounded in the principles of population centric counterinsurgency and Rupert Smith’s view of war in the future as “wars amongst the people.”

To be sure the American Army will be told to do lots of things from winning hearts and minds in the Hindu Kush, to passing out humanitarian relief in the troubled spots around the world, to nation building in Iraq.  But first and foremost it must be an Army grounded in combined arms competencies.  This must come first, and not second or third after fuzzy concepts as “whole of government approach” and building emotional relationships with local populations.  The latter may of course be important, depending on the mission, but those kinds of competencies must be premised on combined arms and not the other way around.

via usdefensewatch.com

I know Esli and others are striving mightily to return the full spectrum combined arms combat capability and mentality to our forces.

But I also recognize they are greatly hampered by a severe shortage of funds for unit training, and a shortage of units, for that matter.

You saw URR’s post on the decorated Marine veteran who was brutally attacked outside a Washington, D.C. McDonalds?

There’s video released by the DC police in an attempt to identify the attackers.

And this particular McDonalds is located at 911 E street NW. Go look it up in Google street view. I’ll wait.

And then turn around. See that big grey drab building?

That’s the headquarters of the FBI.

Seriously. People getting mugged in front of the FBI.

Sergeant Major of the Army Dan Dailey has made some big moves in his first year as the service’s top enlisted soldier, and he’s just getting started.

Coming into the job in January 2015 at age 42 — making him the youngest SMA in Army history — Dailey already had a long to-do list, focusing on professional military education, readiness, robust training, physical fitness, and helping soldiers transition smoothly into civilian life.He's made advances on all these subjects, but in an interview with Army Times he outlines his new priorities sure to affect soldier lives and careers.

via www.armytimes.com

The first five are good, sound initiatives. The sixth… well, NCOs implement policy. If the Army is forced to have women in combat arms, the NCO corps better make it as successful (or at least as little damaging) as possible.

As a rule of thumb, we think most Sergeant Major positions above the Brigade level do little beyond generating reams of additional paperwork.

Having said that, we've been consistently impressed with Dailey.

CNN and other outlets are reporting that the Chinese have deployed surface to air missile batteries on the disputed Paracel islands in the South China Sea.

China has deployed surface-to-air missiles on a disputed island in the South China Sea, according to Taiwan and U.S. officials, in a move that has alarmed the country’s Asian neighbors.

Chinese state media said defenses had been in place on Woody Island, part of the Paracel chain in the hotly disputed sea, for years, and denied it was militarizing the island.

Chinese doublespeak and word salad aside, of course China is militarizing the region, and strengthening its claims of sovereignty. It is also attempting to establish precedent for further forays into the Spratley Islands. To be fair, China’s claims to the Paracels are fairly strong. Stronger than their claims to the Spratleys, at least.

Of course, the Obama administration will issue a statement and  do nothing, in spite of all its hype about a Pacific pivot.

Mind you, this isn’t that hard. The correct response is a simple one. Just have a P-8A Poseidon orbit directly over Woody Island on a regular basis. The Chinese will be faced with a shoot/don’t shoot dilemma.

They can either shoot down the P-8, with the assurance that a retaliatory strike will be forthcoming almost instantaneously. Or if they don’t shoot, it weakens their claim to  sovereignty. 

Mind you, this is all about legitimacy in times of peace. The islands are fixed, vulnerable installations that in a shooting war can and will be quickly neutralized by stand off weapons.

A little birdy tipped me to this piece at USNI Daily News.

The People’s Liberation Army is building a South China Sea helicopter base that could be a key node in a Chinese anti-submarine warfare (ASW) network across the region, according to new satellite images and analysis shared with USNI News on Friday.

The imagery — first published on news site The Diplomat — show what appears to be extensive reclamation work to build could easily be an ASW helicopter base on Duncan Island, about 200 miles from the coast of Vietnam in the disputed Paracel Islands.

A key US element of defeating China’s Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2AD) strategy in the Pacific is the use of our nuclear attack submarines as anti-surface warfare platforms. The large number of small Chinese surface combatants makes it a target rich environment.

But helicopters can be a very potent ASW asset. The People’s Liberation Army Navy, however, has only a limited number of shipboard helicopters, and those are limited in capability.

The Z-18F, however, basically a copy of the French Super Frelon, has a formidable capability as an ASW platform, with good endurance, sensors, and weapons. But it is too large for most shipborne operations.

But China’s production of a series of lily pad bases in the South China Sea gives them a network of basings that will make US submarine operations in the region more difficult.

On the flip side, these island bases are static targets, and US submarines (and other platforms) will have little trouble targeting them with Tomahawk missiles or other offensive weapons.

Still, the primary lesson here is that China is increasingly asserting sovreignity over what have always been considered international waters, and the US is showing little pushback against such action.

Were XBradTC the Commander in Chief, there would be a P-8A circling directly over one of these artificial islands continuously. You can protest, bitch, threaten, whatever. But the second you take offensive action, you catch a barrage in the face. Disproportionate response.