This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Military issues

  • Poll: 1/3 of Americans support a coup

    In one of the most unscientific polls you’ll ever read about, YouGov asked a bunch of people on the internet if there was a situation in which they would support a coup in the United States. 43% of Republicans, supposedly, said that they would support the military toppling the civilian government, whereas, only 20% of Democrats and 30% of Independents said they would support a military coup.

    Yeah, well, you can probably put me in the category of never supporting a coup.

    YouGov’s latest research shows, however, that officers in the military are held in much greater esteem than their civilian superiors, and that they are widely viewed as having the best interests of the country in mind instead of their own selfish concerns. 70% of Americans believe that military officers generally want what is best for the country. When it comes to Congressmen, however, 71% of Americans believe that they want what is best for themselves, along with 59% for local politicians.

    The funny thing is that if we mistrust politicians so much, why aren’t we electing better people to office instead of sending back the same selfish dorks year-after-year?

  • Gravity takes it’s toll

    Gravity takes it’s toll

    Two military helicopters have had “hard landings” in the last few hours. A Blackhawk in Colorado and a CH-53E Super Stallion in North Carolina.

    The Colorado incident resulted in two injuries of soldiers of 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson. In North Carolina, one Marine died and nine others are being treated for their injuries. The birds were from the Heavy Helicopter Squadron 464, Marine Aircraft Group 29, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing.

    From the Colorado scene;

  • Two Cautions for Our Military Reservist Readers

    A number of our readers are current or former Reserve Component (RC) personnel. Some of those may be still serving in the Reserve Components while also approaching the age at which contingency service would allow early receipt of retired pay.

    For that likely small subset, I’d like to offer two points for consideration.

    First: early receipt of retired pay does not equate to all of the bennies of full military retirement. Specifically, RC personnel receiving early retired pay are NOT eligible for normal military retiree TRICARE coverage.  Full TRICARE entitlement for those who retire under RC rules does not happen until age 60, regardless of retired pay status. So even if you qualify for early receipt retired pay, you’ll need to plan on obtaining healthcare from other than TRICARE until you hit the big six-zero.

    Second:  if you’re a serving reservist, have recently been promoted, and are getting close to or are eligible for early retired pay – you might want to check time-in-grade requirements for your current grade before you apply for that early receipt of retired pay.  The ABCMR recently ruled that such a retirement is voluntary vice involuntary.  Thus, TIG requirements to retire at that grade are not waived; if you don’t have enough TIG to retire at that grade, you won’t.

    While the linked case is Army-specific, I’m also reasonably sure that that’s the case for all services.  Applying for retired pay – early or otherwise – under RC rules is a voluntary action.

    Everyone’s situation is different. In some cases the grade reduction might be worth it to receive retired pay earlier; in others, it won’t. Everyone has to make that decision on their own.

    Just be forewarned if you’re in that situation.

  • US: ISIS Used Chem Weapons Against Kurds

    US authorities have confirmed that ISIS used chemical weapons in an 11 August 2015 attack against Kurdish forces.

    After the attack, numerous Kurdish personnel became ill.  Kurdish forces obtained shell fragments from shells used by ISIS during the attack and provided them to the US for analysis.

    Preliminary analysis indicates that the shell fragments tested positive for agent HD – sulfur mustard.

    It is not known where ISIS obtained these agents.  Both Syrian and Iraqi stocks are a possibility, since ISIS has occupied large portions of each nation and both are reputed to have stockpiled chemical weapons in the past.

    But remember:  don’t worry, be happy.  Iraqi and Syrian WMDs don’t pose any threat – in fact, the former don’t even exist .  Nothing to see here; move along.

     

    (I trust the fact that the final paragraph above is sarcasm is quite obvious.)

  • US-South Korea Military Exercise Halted – Maybe

    In response to the DMZ incident yesterday, the US and South Korea reportedly halted their annual joint military exercise Ulchi Freedom Guardian.  This year’s exercise had begun on Monday, 17 August 2015 and was originally scheduled to end on Friday, 28 August 2015.

    It is not clear whether the exercise has resumed, might be resumed, or if the remainder has been cancelled outright.   Some reports indicate that the exercise has indeed been resumed.  Others only indicate it has been halted.

    The halt occurred after an exchange of artillery fire across the Korean DMZ.  US defense officials publicly announced the halt, while asserting that they were “monitoring the situation”.  Later claims were that it was a “planned halt” and a halt to consult with South Korea regarding the DMZ incident.

    Hmm.  I guess sabre-rattling – even with a needle-thin, weak, and unreliable tool like the one ND:tBF waves around publicly from time to time – can be effective if your opponent lacks both backbone and guts.  Gee, who’d a thunk it?

    Well done, Obama Administration.  You just caved, and gave the Dork of NorK – AKA Fatboy Kim – exactly what he wanted.

    Why in the hell do you think the DPRK chose this week to lob a few shells southwards?  North Korea has tried for years to get annual US-ROK exercises cancelled or halted; they’ve occasionally been successfu at doing that.  By making this halt public – and by appearing confused and uncertain about what you were doing – you just handed North Korea a major propaganda victory on that score.  That’s true even if the exercise was only halted temporarily.

    But don’t worry, folks; everything will be all right.  After all:  caving and giving a sabre-rattling despot exactly what he wanted worked perfectly well back in the 1930s, right?

  • More F-35 “Good News”

    Most TAH readers have heard about that new F-35 “Lightning II” that DoD insists will be ready for prime time “real soon now”.   (Yeah, I know the USMC has accepted it and declared it “operational” – but I won’t consider it truly “ready for prime time” until it can perform its Close Air Support [CAS] role too.  And as I’ll discuss below, right now the F-35 simply can’t do that.)

    Well, it seems that there’s another little minor issue with the platform that’s been made public.

    Jonn’s written previously about how the F-35 is less maneuverable in a dogfight than one of the aircraft it will replace, the F-16.  Others have written elsewhere about the fact that the F-35 will be far less effective at the Close Air Support (CAS) role than the A-10 – if for no other reason than the F-35 is only designed to carry between 15.5% (USAF model, 182 rounds) and 18.7% (USN/USMC model, 220 rounds) as much cannon ammunition as the A-10 can carry (1,174 rounds).

    But it will certainly be better air-to-air against the current aircraft it might face from Russia or China, right?  Well, in a word – no.

    Turns out that the F-35 will also likely be less maneuverable than the current aircraft from Russia and China it’s expected to face.  So it will likely be worse than those aircraft in an air-to-air role, too.

    Yeah, the analysis was done by a progressive think tank.  So?   Remember:  they are capable of telling the truth on occasion, too.  (smile)

    Gee, what a surprise. I mean, the program has been an unmitigated success so far, right?

    So, to recap: the F-35 is hugely expensive – several times more expensive than the aircraft it replaces.  It’s worse as a CAS platform – and, by the way, it won’t even be available for that role for at least 4 years, as performing that role isn’t possible until gun control software which is projected to be available in 2019 is delivered (and only then if that gun control software works correctly).  It is less maneuverable than the F16 it replaces in a dogfight.  And it’s also less maneuverable than the foreign aircraft it may have to face in air-to-air combat.

    So . . . what’s not to like?

    Folks, we’ve seen this “movie” once before.  Specifically, we saw it early in Vietnam – when US aircraft, designed not for maneuverability and depending solely on air-to-air missiles to take out enemy aircraft – got absolutely savaged by more maneuverable Soviet designs.  (The air-to-air loss ratio early during the Vietnam War was about 1-to-1.)  Plus, those aircraft kinda stunk when performing a CAS role, too.

    The “movie” absolutely sucked then.  There’s a damn good chance we’ll see a modern-day sequel if we continue down this path – and it will suck just as badly as the original.

    We learned from that earlier fiasco, though.  The result was a new generation of US military aircraft that took those lessons to heart.  Those aircraft were the F-15, F-16, F/A-18, and the A-10.

    The F-35 is a turkey.  We need to admit that fact, pull the plug on it, and go back to the drawing board.  Yesterday.

  • About That Clinton “Private Email” Server . . . .

    Well, this just keeps getting “better and better”.

    It turns out that the “private email server” that the former SECSTATE was using for work-related purposes wasn’t a stand-alone machine. Rather, it was apparently a server rented from an internet hosting company named “Platte River Networks”. The physical machinery was located in a data center in New Jersey; the precise ownership of that data center is unclear (hosting vendors sometimes lease physical hardware from other firms).

    And as the old Ronco TV ads said:  “But wait, there’s more!”  It also appears that when initially set up – e.g., for the first 2 to 3 months – the server had abysmally weak security overall, making it vulnerable to potential spoofing, monitoring, and unauthorized access.  And it also appears that the email stored on the server may never have been encrypted while in storage.

    Did I mention that Clinton traveled extensively during her first 3 months in office – including visits to Japan, Indonesia, Korea, China, Egypt, Israel, Belgium, Switzerland, and Turkey?

    The server was picked up by Federal agents on Wednesday of this week. But it seems there’s one last minor issue.

    That issue is that the server has been wiped clean – apparently professionally. There’s no useful information left on it, and the hosting company doesn’t have any backup copies of what it formerly contained.

    Hmm. Stonewall for months, then turn over a machine that has been professionally wiped. Yeah, that sounds completely innocent and aboveboard to me.

    Move along, folks. Nothing to see here.

  • About That Clinton “Private E-Mail” . . .

    . . . well, it appears that someone’s “got some s’plainin’ to do”.

    A former member of the Intel Community discusses what was allegedly found in that “private e-mail” here.  The article is IMO worthwhile reading.

    This one might be worth watching.  It appears extremely likely that a serious, deliberate mishandling of classified information occurred.  The key question will be whether DoJ decides to do anything meaningful.