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Russian Bomber Strikes get Iranian Tomcat Escort
The geopolitics here is scrambled more than a Grand Slam breakfast at Denny’s.
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LOL- Sea Wars
USS Eisenhower’s PR team has released a funny spoof of the Star Wars- The Force Awakens trailer.
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Attack on Hotel in Mali; 170 Hostages
Gunmen entered the hotel, which is popular with expat workers, shooting and shouting “God is great!” in Arabic.
A Malian army commander told the AP news agency that about 20 hostages had been freed.
Hostages able to recite verses of the Koran were being released, a security source has told Reuters news agency.
Very likely Boko Haram, or affiliated Islamist terrorists, are holding hostages in the US-owned Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako. 170 of them, at last count. No word on the fate of those who could not cite verses of the Koran. But if the pattern of past attacks by Islamist terrorists is followed, that fate will be violent death.
President Obama will continue to assiduously avoid using the term “Islamic”, as if the hostage takers are from the local Knights of Columbus. (If they were, of course, Obama would be screaming loudly about Catholic terrorism.)
Since there is no feminism component, I doubt we will see any of those inanely trite Michelle hashtags about bringing back “our” anybody. Even though there are likely Americans among the hostages.
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20 November 1943 Tarawa; Keep Moving
Originally posted 20 November 2009:
The buildings in the “regimental area” of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina are modest, post-war brick buildings that, to the visitor’s eye, look more or less alike. Yet, each of the Marine Regiments of the Second Marine Division has its own storied history and battle honors. As Captain J. W. Thomason wrote in his Great War masterpiece Fix Bayonets, these histories represent the “…traditions of things endured and things accomplished, such as Regiments hand down forever.”
There are symbols of these honors for one to see, if you know where to look. On a thousand trips past those symbols, there is one that never failed to make me pause and reflect. On the headquarters building for the 2d Marine Regiment hangs their unit crest. Aside from the unit name, the crest contains only three words. They are in English and not Latin, and they are not a catch phrase nor a bold proclamation of a warrior philosophy. They are simple and stark. Across the top of the unit crest is the word “TARAWA”. And at the bottom, the grim admonition, “KEEP MOVING”.
It was 66 years ago on this date that the Second Marine Division began the assault on Betio Island, in the Tarawa Atoll. The island, roughly two thirds of the size of my college’s small campus, was the most heavily fortified beach in the world. Of the Second Marine Division, the 2nd Marine Regiment (known as “Second Marines”) landed two battalions abreast on beaches Red 1 and Red 2. The assault began what was described as “seventy-six stark and bitter hours” of the most brutal combat of the Pacific War. More than 1,000 Marines and Sailors were killed, nearly 2,300 wounded, along with nearly 5,000 Japanese dead, in the maelstrom of heat, sand, fire, and smoke that was Betio.
Assault on Betio’s Northern beaches
Marine Dead on Beach Red 1
I will not detail the fighting for Betio here, as there are many other sources for that information. Nor will I debate whether the terrible price paid for Betio was too high. What cannot be debated is the extraordinary heroism of the Marines and Sailors who fought to secure the 1.1 square miles of baking sand and wrest it from the grasp of an entrenched, fortified, and determined enemy. The fighting was described as “utmost savagery”, and casualties among Marine officers and NCOs were extremely high. As one Marine stated, initiative and courage were absolute necessities. Corporals commanded platoons, and Staff Sergeants, companies.
Marines assault over coconut log wall on Beach Red 2
The book by the late Robert Sherrod, “Tarawa, The Story of a Battle”, is a magnificent read. Another is Eric Hammel’s “76 Hours”. Also “Utmost Savagery”, by Joe Alexander, who additionally produced the WWII commemorative “Across the Reef”, an excellent compilation of primary source material. For video, The History Channel produced a 50th anniversary documentary on the battle, titled “Death Tide at Tarawa”, in November 1993. I also highly recommend finding and watching this superb production. It is narrated by Edward Hermann, and interviews many of the battle’s veterans, including Robert Sherrod, MajGen Mike Ryan, and others, who provide chilling and inspiring commentary of the fighting and of the terrible carnage of those three days.
Master Sgt. James M. Fawcett, left and Capt. Kyle Corcoran salute Fawcett’s father’s ashes on Red Beach 1. MSgt Fawcett’s father landed on Red 1 on 20 Nov 1943.
Tarawa remains a proud and grim chapter in the battle histories of the units of the Second Marine Division. Each outfit, the 2nd, 6th, 8th, and 10th Marines, 2nd Tank Battalion, 2nd Tracks, and miscellaneous support units, fought superbly against frightful odds and a fearsome enemy. It is on the Unit Crest of the 2nd Marines, whose battalions paid the highest price for Betio, that the most poignant of those histories is remembered. Three simple words: “TARAWA; KEEP MOVING”.
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Sources Say Obama Could Name First Female Combatant Commander : The Two-Way : NPR
President Barack Obama could be close to nominating the first-ever woman to become the head of a military combatant command, Pentagon sources tell NPR.The U.S. military divides the world into areas of responsibility run by four-star generals and admirals, but none has ever been female. Obama wants to change that before the end of his term, Pentagon sources say, by naming a woman to take command of U.S. Northern Command, which also runs the well-known North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD.NORAD and NorthCom are charged with defending the U.S., including scrambling Air Force fighters to respond to the recent intrusions by Russian bombers near American airspace. There’s talk that its current commander, Navy Adm. Bill Gortney, could be retiring before his term is up at the end of next year, which would create the opportunity to make history with a female commander.Two names on the shortlist are Air Force Gen. Lori Robinson, who now commands U.S. Air Forces in the Pacific, and Adm. Michelle Howard, who today serves as the vice chief of the Navy.
Source: Sources Say Obama Could Name First Female Combatant Commander : The Two-Way : NPR
There’s nothing inherently wrong with choosing either of these flag officers to serve as NORTHCOM. But the Obama administration has placed such emphasis on promoting women, for the sake of promoting women, that should either be appointed, they will always carry an asterisk by their names as political affirmative action appointments, no matter how competent they may be.
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Center for Galactic Lessons Learned | The Angry Staff Officer
This past weekend, I spent some time re-watching Star Wars episodes IV, V, and VI, or as I call them, Star Wars. Watching them with a critical eye towards leader development, tactics, and strategy, I was struck by a number of critical flaws on both sides that could have been fixed with some basic organizational fixture for lessons learned. While some might call this type of analysis a “nerdgasm of epic proportions,” Star Wars is an ideal tool for professional development; because of its status in popular culture, most people tend to have a working knowledge of it, versus an obscure historical military campaign (I still love those, but it takes a while to teach Soldiers the background).So what are the lessons learned that can be distilled from Star Wars? If there was a Command and General Staff College for the Imperial Fleet or the Rebel Alliance, what could they pass on to students?
Source: Center for Galactic Lessons Learned | The Angry Staff Officer
Read the whole thing.
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Grumman TF-1Q
TF-1Qs 13785 (background) and 13788 (foreground) assigned to VAW-33 “Firebirds.” Note the dorsal antennae for the ECM equipment. Grumman’s Model G-96, known as the TF-1Q (later designated EC-1A Trader), is a little known variant of the C-1 Trader carrier onboard delivery (COD) aircraft (which itself is a version of the ubiqitious S-2 Tracker carrierborne antisubmarine aircraft. The TF-1Q was the first dedicated electonic warfare (EW) training platform.
The first TF-1Q was delivered in 1957 to VAW-33 in San Diego. The TF-1Q carried a crew of 5 total, including 2 pilots and 3 ECM operators. The TF-1Q shared the same airframe as the C-1A Trader and therefore a volumoius fuselage in which to carry a wide variety of ECM (electronic countermeasure) equipment including:
- 2 ALT-2 radar jammers (covering the C through I bands)
- 2 ALT-7 radar jammers (covering the A through B bands)
- ARC-1 VHF radio, with noise modulation for jamming
- ARC-27 UHF jammer
- Up to 4 MX 900 chaff dispensers (which could be carried under the wings)
Recievers for train operators on how to conduct electronic intelligence (ELINT) included:
- ALQ-2 radar warning reciever (E through I bands, with the antenna for the equipment mounted in the tail)
- AAR-5 ECM receiver (covering the A band)
- ALR-8 ECM recieving units, comprising of the APR-13 (covering the A and B bands) and the APR-9 (covering the B through I bands)
- APA–69A ECM direction finder
- APA-74 Pulse Analyzer
An APA-74 Pulse Analyzer The TF-1Q differed from the C-1 Trader in many ways. The compartive greater weight meant the TF-1Q did not operate from aircraft carriers. Also the TF-1Q was limited in range and altitude.
There were 4 total TF-1Qs. Provding bi-coastal EW training, coverage 2 TF-1Qs each were assigned to VAW-33 (later redesignated VAQ-33 “Firebirds”) then based at NAS Quonset Point, RI and the other 2 went to VAW-13 (later redesignated VAQ-130 “Zappers”) at then at NAS Alameda, CA. Additional tasking of these squadrons included providing EW “Red Air” for both east and west coast squadrons. These aircraft privided valuable realistic EW training for crews aboard ships.
As mentioned there were 4 TF-1Qs (listed bureau numbers follow):
- 136783: TF-1Q to EC-1A 1962. Was stored at Western International Aviation in Tuscon, AZ. Airframe scrapped.
- 136785: (fate unknown, probably scrapped.
- 136788: TF-1Q to EC-1A in 1962. She was converted back to C-1A Trader at some point. She was lost 2 April 1982 while on a COD flight from the USS Dwight D Eisenhower (CVN-69). All 11 aboard were killed.
- 13688: was FAA registered N788RR which was cancelled (and now belongs to a 2000 SOCATA SOCATA-TBM700) and reregisted as N6788 which expired June 2013.
Here are a few photos I found of some of the TF-1Qs 13788:
Sources:
http://www.joebaugher.com/navy_serials/thirdseries16.html
The History of U.S. Electronic Warfare Volume 2.
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Update: Sign featuring crusader-like knight removed
A sign outside an Army training center at Fort Shafter, Hawaii, that featured a knight with crosses on his breastplate and shield was taken down Monday afternoon, hours after the head of a religious-freedom advocacy group called for the image’s removal.The image represented the “Fighting Knights” of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 8th Special Troops Battalion. Members of the unit recently transformed an unused motor pool area into a warrior training center, 8th Theater Sustainment Command spokeswoman Sgt. 1st Class Mary Ferguson told Army Times. A news release detailing the offerings of the center went out Friday at Army.mil and other locations and included an image of the sign.
Source: Update: Sign featuring crusader-like knight removed
Usually Mickey Weinstein and his organization are simply insufferable gits.
But yeah, an explicit Christian cross on the crusader is outside the lines.
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Russia hits ISIS ‘capital’ of Raqqa hours after saying Egypt plane was bombed | Daily Mail Online
Russia has hit the ISIS ‘capital’ Raqqa with cruise missiles – just hours after saying the passenger jet brought down in Egypt had been bombed.The strikes come after it was revealed French jets had pounded targets in the terrorists’ Syrian stronghold, including a command centre and a recruitment base for jihadists.And tonight, Russian president Vladimir Putin they must work with France as ‘allies’ in their fight against Islamic State in Syria. He told the country’s state TV: ‘You need to establish direct contact with the French and work with them as allies.’Putin’s forces carried out 34 cruise missile strikes over Raqqa, which is seen as Islamic State’s capital city, Idlib and Aleppo. They also deployed long-range Tu-160, Tu-95 and Tu-22 bombers from Russian bases.
Source: Russia hits ISIS ‘capital’ of Raqqa hours after saying Egypt plane was bombed | Daily Mail Online
Well, that’s interesting. All three of Russia’s long range strike platforms in use at once.
The Tu-22M3 has been used in combat before, in Afghanistan, and elsewhere, dropping conventional dumb bombs. As far as I know, this is the combat debut of both the Tu-160 and the Tu-95MS cruise missile carriers.
This news also probably explains why this post from January of 2014 is getting hits today.
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M1 Tank Survivability
From this tweet, we find video of what purports to be an attack on a Saudi M1 Abrams tank in Yemen. It’s pretty poor quality video. It is actually hard to tell if it is indeed an Abrams. The roof doesn’t quite look right.
The missile is probably an 9M133 Kornet, which is quite the formidable weapon, and quite capable of destroying an M1.
But in this case, look closer.
We see a massive blast at missile impact. And we see what appears to be some sheet metal or similar flying off to the upper right. But as the fireball fades, what we don’t see is any secondary explosions or post impact fire. The second explosion is simply a replay of the initial impact. It’s quite possible the missile either simply missed the tank, or hit a non-vital part of it. Or if it did impact the crew compartment, the on board fire suppression system worked as advertised to immediately suppress any fire. The M1 tank wasn’t built to be indestructible. It was, instead, built to provide the greatest likelihood that the crew would survive an attack, even one that destroyed the tank.
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