XBradTC

His fur is looking pretty fluffy.

An AC-130W Stinger II gunship and Airmen from the 73rd Special Operations Squadron fire the 30mm GAU-23/A cannon on ground targets during a close air support training exercise. The GAU-23/A is an upgraded version of the ATK Mk44 Bushmaster Automatic Cannon. Filmed on April 27, 2015.

It’s a fifty minute video.

the password is “hanoi” in lowercase.

Officials in Lithuania and Poland told Senate Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin they’re concerned enough about the threat posed by Russia that they want to host U.S. military bases.

The Illinois Democrat traveled to the two NATO member states, as well as to Ukraine, during the Memorial Day break, meeting with officials in the three countries. Durbin told reporters Friday he met in Lithuania with the country’s president and prime minister, as well as members of Parliament.

“They went so far to say they want the United States, if they will consider it, to put in a permanent military base in Lithuania, which I thought was an interesting request,” Durbin said.

At a subsequent stop in Poland, Durbin said he heard similar sentiments from officials there, including from representatives for Polish President-elect Andrzej Duda.

“They, too, expressed concern about Putin’s aggression and a desire to have the United States place permanent military facilities in their country,” Durbin said. “We have, I might say, in both Lithuania and in Poland, ongoing exercises, maneuvers and training between American forces and NATO forces, but clearly they want more.”

via New U.S. Bases in Poland and Lithuania to Counter Putin?.

The Poles are begging for US troops in significant numbers. At a minimum, a Brigade Combat Team.

Lithuania isn’t as exposed as Estonia and Latvia, but it’s still pretty exposed. And it has a very unhappy history of being occupied. It’s rather understandable they would wish for stronger security assistance from us.

I can’t help but take some pleasure in seeing the mainstream media, however belatedly, explain that the NSA defector Edward Snowden is a very useful tool for Vladimir Putin and his intelligence services in what I term their Special War against the West. I’ve been pointing this out, since it’s obvious to anybody actually acquainted with the ways of Russian intelligence, in considerable detail for a long time, so I welcome anybody who joins Team Reality, no matter how long it takes them to get there.

Putin is growing less subtle by the day, and in his latest rant about the FIFA scandal, which seems likely to expose some dirty Kremlin deals, he put in a good word about his boys Edward Snowden and Julian Assange (what exactly is the relationship between the Russians and Wikileaks? well, I told you that too). For a former KGB counterintelligence officer, this is pretty much showing your hand.

via I Told You So | The XX Committee.

Here’s your depressing read for the day. I can only excerpt so much, so go and read the whole thing.

I read it on Thursday, and haven’t cheered up since.

John is right- why should Putin back down from further confrontations with the West? Putin’s Russia is in a weakened, strategically vulnerable condition, and taking risks to change that. And so far, the gambles have paid off. The West in general, and the Obama administration in particular, have steadfastly refused to even acknowledge that Russia is fighting an actual, no kidding, shooting war against the West. Just because most of it is taking place in Ukraine doesn’t mean the goal isn’t to rebuild the Russian empire to challenge the West.

And if the West won’t even bother to respond to Putin, why should he continue to be subtle?

Nearly 650 vehicles will roll south from Colorado Springs next week in the biggest Army convoy seen in the Pikes Peak region in decades.

By some accounts, it’s the largest road convoy in Colorado since World War II. It will take more than 4,000 soldiers and more than 300 Stryker armored vehicles and other rigs from Fort Carson’s 1st Brigade Combat Team to its Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site east of Trinidad for combat training.

Hundreds of Fort Carson vehicles will hit the road starting May 26 in a massive convoy for a training exercise at Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site.

The rigs will be on southern Colorado roads through May 30. Exact routes haven’t been released.

But the road trip, which runs May 26-30, has its own reward.

“The move to Piñon Canyon is itself a training event,” said Col. David Hodne, the brigade’s commander.

via Something unusual – even for Colorado Springs – about to happen with Fort Carson.

#JadeHelm15 conspiracy theorists are going nuts, of course.

As the article notes, folks around Tacoma are pretty used to seeing convoys similar to this heading between Joint Base Lewis-McChord and Yakima Firing Center.

And as COL Hodne notes, simply moving the unit is a training event.

I recently read a paper on one of the first BCTs to restructure from a traditional heavy brigade, to both the BCT model, and the Stryker combat vehicles, through their first deployment in Iraq. One of their great strengths in theater was that the unit could rapidly shift hundreds of miles to a new base of operations, with a relatively small logistical effort, compared to that needed for a heavy unit.