Archive for December, 2021
FRIDAY FOTO (December 31, 2021)
LUNAR MARINE.
(U.S. Air Force photo by Yasuo Osakabe) Pleas Click on image to enlarge.
No, the Marines’ latest landing wasn’t on the Moon — it just looks that way.
This Marine, assigned to the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, was participating in a high altitude, low opening (HALO) parachute jump over Yokota Air Base, Japan on December 13, 2021. The Marine jumped from an Air Force C-130J Super Hercules assigned to the 36th Airlift Squadron.
U.S. Marines and an Air Force Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) specialist conducted week-long jump training using Air Force and Navy aircraft. The training supports the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s dynamic force employment (DFE) concept through agile combat employment (ACE), an effort to conduct training with joint partners while maintaining global peace and security.
This is the last FRIDAY FOTO of 2021. We hope you found them entertaining and informative. Here at 4GWAR Blog, we wish you a safe, prosperous and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
See you in 2022!
FRIDAY FOTO: Christmas Edition (December 24, 2021)
SEASONS GREETINGS!
For the Christmas version of the FRIDAY FOTO, we thought we show a range of holiday activities among the troops around the world. Please click on each photo to enlarge the image — and have a happy, safe holiday whichever way you celebrate the season!
The Santa Cause
For one thing, Santa Claus — or one of his lookalike helpers — seems to show up in some of the strangest places this time of year, like the wing of a fighter jet.
(U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Jacob Wood)
Santa waves to onlookers during the 48th Fighter Wing Children’s Holiday Party at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, on December 11, 2021. Santa made his grand entrance in an F-15E Strike Eagle assigned to the 494th Fighter Squadron.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Corporal Antonino Mazzamuto)
A UH-1Y Huey assigned to Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 167 (HMLA-167) transports Santa Claus to Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina, for a squadron party on December 16, 2021.
(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Brandon Roberson)
Attired in a Santa suit, Lieutenant Commander Rob Nelson, assigned to the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), launches a T-45C Goshawk aircraft assigned to Training Air Wing (TW) 1, on December 18, 2021.
The Chief of Naval Air Training is conducting a carrier qualification detachment aboard the carrier. It’s the first opportunity for student naval aviators from Training Air Wings 1 and 2 to launch from and land on an aircraft carrier at sea.
Sedate Santas
(U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Brianna K. Green)
Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus and Jingle the Elf appear with the U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa Brass Quintet Band during a holiday-themed community relations event in Naples, Italy on December 17, 2021.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Kelsey Dornfeld)
U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant Joshua Purrington of the 4th Law Enforcement Battalion talks with a child who just got her present at a Toys for Tots event in McGrath, Alaska, on December 3, 2021. Marines and Airmen traveled to remote villages of Alaska’s Kuskokwim Valley to support the Marine Corps Reserve’s Toys for Tots program.
Speaking of Gift Giving
Soldiers from the U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys Religious Support Office check their lists twice as they load gifts for military and South Korean children into a delivery vehicle for Operation Happy Holidays on December 20, 2021.
(Photo courtesy of Chaplain (Maj.) Christian Bang) (Photo Credit: U.S. Army)
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Corporal Samwel Tabancay)
Lieutenant General David G. Bellon, commander of Marine Forces Reserve and Marine Forces South, joins a Toys for Tots distribution in New Orleans on December 18, 2021. MARFORRES Marines and Sailors assisted in the distribution of toys to approximately 2,000 families as a part of the annual Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program.
Making Merry
(U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Miranda Mahoney)
Air Commandos gather around the tree during the annual tree lighting ceremony at Hurlburt Field, a U.S. Air Force facility in Florida on December 3, 2021. The ceremony was virtual in 2020, but due to declining COVID-19 numbers, the event was held in-person again this year.
FRIDAY FOTO (December 17, 2021)
FREE FALL:
(U.S. Air Force photo by Technical Sergeant Michael Cossaboom)
A U.S. Pararescumen, assigned to the 82nd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron, jump from a KC-130 Hercules cargo aircraft during airborne operations over East Africa, on November 12, 2021.
Pararescuemen have to maintain their jump proficiency to enable them to complete their mission, which include, the rapid recovery of U.S. and allied personnel from battle zone and behind enemy lines. They also provide secure, reliable, flexible combat search and rescue capabilities. They can also rapidly deploy to austere locations to support U.S. and partner forces within the Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa area of responsibility.
Since 9/11, these elite warriors have executed over 12,000 life-saving, combat rescue missions, according to the Air Force. They’ve also eliminated and captured numerous enemy combatants during the execution of these missions. Additionally, because of their unique capabilities, they have been called upon to rescue over 5,000 civilians worldwide during catastrophic natural disasters and other responses.
When one looks at this photo for the first time, it wouldn’t be unheard of to think: Where’s the plane they jumped from, or are they all X-Men? The low-key caption (below), the Pentagon placed on this photo anticipate that question, — sort of — but in answering, it raises additional questions.
Airmen jump from a KC-130 Hercules, not pictured, during airborne operations over East Africa, Nov. 25, 2021.
SHAKO: Happy Birthday National Guard
Happy 385th Birthday!
If you thought the creation of the U.S. National Guard dates back to the rebels who stood against tyranny at Lexington and Concord, you’d be wrong by more than 130 years.
The Minuteman statute by Daniel Chester French (photo via Wikipedia)
According to the National Guard (and who would know better?) the official birth date of the Army National Guard is December 13, 1636. That’s when the Massachusetts colonial legislature directed the colony’s existing militia companies to be organized into three regiments.
National Guardsmen and a Coast Guardsman monitor Hurricane Ida response efforts in the Houma Navigation Canal in Houma, Louisiana, Sept. 13, 2021. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Vincent Moreno)
A crew from the California National Guard fights the Dixie Fire in northern California, Aug. 16, 2021. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by 1st Sgt. Harley Ramirez)
The Puerto Rican National Guard assisted aid-relief efforts in hurricane-battered Haiti since August 2021. Here they help with treatment of a woman from the La Flandre community on Aug.22, 2021. (Puerto Rico National Guard photo by Sgt. Agustin Montanez)
Alabama National Guard Soldiers vaccinate Covington County citizens at Jaycee Park in Livingston Alabama on March 23, 2021. (Army National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. William Frye).
A pilot from the 55th Fighter Squadron performs pre-flight procedures inside an F-16 Fighting Falcon at Hulman Field Air National Guard Base, Indiana., Aug. 19, 2021. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by 2nd Lt. Jonathan W. Padish)
The official birth date of the Air National Guard as a reserve component of the Air Force is September 18, 1947. On that date, the first Secretary of the Air Force was sworn in under provisions of the National Security Act of 1947, the authorizing legislation for the United States Air Force and the Air National Guard. Soon afterwards, National Guard Army Air Forces units began to be transferred to the Air National Guard as a reserve component of the Air Force.
Illustration depicting the first muster of Massachusetts Bay Colony militia in the spring of 1637. (U.S. Army)
FRIDAY FOTO (On Saturday, December 11, 2021)
Impressionistic View.
(U.S. Air Force photo by 1st Lieutenant Katie Tamesis)
Some of the best photos are taken out the back of a military helicopter.
Whatever the Air Force photographer did with her field of focus, it made the view of Fall foliage in Georgia look like the work of a French impressionist.
What we actually have here is a Marine Corps CH-53 “Sea Stallion” helicopter crew member overlooking the Bemiss Drop Zone at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia on November 16, 2021.
Airmen along with Georgia Army National Guard soldiers and Marine Corps helicopter crew members conducted airborne operations training to exchange tactics, techniques and procedures from across three branches of the military and to strengthen joint agile combat employment mission capabilities.
BALTIC-2-BLACK: Tensions Grow on Ukraine-Russia Border; Moscow Eyes Svalbard Presence in Hybrid-Strategy
UKRAINE:
Biden Reassures Ukrainian President.
President Joe Biden has reassured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of U.S. support for Ukraine’s sovereignty, as the country steels itself for a potential Russian invasion on its eastern frontier.
According to a White House readout of the December 9 call, “President Biden voiced the deep concerns of the United States and our European Allies about Russia’s aggressive actions towards Ukraine and made clear that the U.S. and our Allies would respond with strong economic and other measures in the event of a further military intervention.”
Biden also told Zelenskyy that the United States and its allies were “committed to the principle of ‘no decisions or discussions about Ukraine without Ukraine,’” reiterating his calls for Russia to de-escalate tensions and choose diplomacy, POLITICO reported.
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(Black Sea region map Norman Einstein via wikipedia)
Seeking Help from Parners, Allies.
Biden also held a separate call December 9 with the “Bucharest Nine,” a group of NATO members on Europe’s eastern edge close to Russia — including the Baltics and Poland — that are particularly sensitive to aggressive moves by Moscow, the Washington Post reported.
“That is not on the table,” Biden told reporters December 8 at the White House. “The idea that the United States is going to unilaterally use force to confront Russia invading Ukraine is not on, in the cards right now,” Defense One repored.
Ukraine is not a member of NATO and does not enjoy the collective protection of Article 5, which calls every alliance member to arms when one is attacked. Ukraine seeks to join NATO but Russia opposes its entry into the alliance.
In an exclusive interview for Defense One’s Outlook 2022, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Biden emphasized in his phone call with Putin that if Russia moves against Ukraine, the United States would levy economic consequences; provide more military gear to Kiev; and deploy an “increased U.S. troop presence and increased capabilities in countries like Poland, the Baltics, [and] Romania.”
But Sullivan reiterated that the U.S. does not intend to send more troops to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the final elements of a $60 million security systems package to Ukraine — initially announced in August — will ship this week, a Pentagon spokesman said December 9.
U.S. Marines, assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2d Marine Division, cut through barbed wire during the Exercise Sea Breeze 2021 in Oleshky Sands, Ukraine, July 2, 2021. The multinational maritime exercise cohosted by U.S. Sixth Fleet and the Ukrainian Navy in the Black Sea since 1997, is designed to enhance interoperability of participating nations and strengthen maritime security and peace in the region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Trey Fowler)
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told reporters that the last portions of the existing security package, which includes small arms and ammunition, is shipping now. Other parts of that security assistance package, meant to help Ukrainians defend their sovereignty against Russian aggression, included the Javelin missile system, which is already in the hands of Ukrainian servicemembers.
The $60 million package previously included 30 Javelin Command Launch Units and 180 missiles. The Javelins were delivered to Ukraine on October 23. “The United States has committed more than $450 million in security assistance to Ukraine in 2021, and this is part of our ongoing commitment to supporting Ukraine’s ability to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Anton Semelroth, a Defense Department spokesman said in an email to reporters.
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Putin’s No-Ukraine-in-NATO Demand.
On December 1, Vladimir Putin demanded ‘‘legal guarantees’’ that NATO would never expand eastward, ratcheting up the stakes as the West scrambled to respond to Russia’s military buildup near Ukraine, the New York Times reported.
Putin, who sees Ukraine’s deepening military partnership with the United States and other NATO countries as an existential threat, wants to start talks with the West to reach an agreement that would block the alliance’s expansion. He spoke in the midst of what Western officials describe as a growing threat of military action by tens of thousands of Russian troops massing close to the border with Ukraine — a former Soviet nation that seeks to join NATO.
‘‘The threat on our western borders is, indeed, rising, as we have said multiple times,’’ Putin said at a ceremony for ambassadors at the Kremlin December, according to the Times. ‘‘In our dialogue with the United States and its allies, we will insist on developing concrete agreements prohibiting any further eastward expansion of NATO and the placement there of weapons systems in the immediate vicinity of Russian territory.’’
Putin’s demand is a nonstarter for NATO. ‘‘It’s only Ukraine and 30 NATO allies that decide when Ukraine is ready to join NATO,’’ Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general told reporters in Riga, Latvia. ‘‘Russia has no veto, Russia has no say, and Russia has no right to establish a sphere of influence trying to control their neighbors.’’
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ARCTIC:
From the Barents Sea to the Baltic to the Black Sea
An expert on Polar geopolitics warns that Russia to enhance its presence in Svalbard, a Norwegian-controlled archipelago in the Arctic, the Independent Barents Observer reports.
In an interview with the Norwegian-based Arctic news site, Dr. Elizabeth Buchanan, says “a hybrid-strategy is underway in which Russia bolsters its legitimate presence in Svalbard on one hand while raising tensions in the maritime space on the other hand.” A lecturer in strategic studies at Australia’s Deakin University, says Moscow “isn’t about to annex Svalbard, Russia doesn’t want such a fight.”
Instead, she says Russia will try to assert its rights under a 1920 Treaty that gave Norway sovereignty over the islands, but Russia coal limited mining and other economic and scientific rights.
In recent years, the islands have risen in strategic importance as they reside just north of the intersection of the Barents, Greenland and Norwegian seas (see map above) . Whomever controls Svalbard is also likely to control the important gateway from the shallow Barents Sea to the deeper North Atlantic. For Russia’s Northern Fleet, the so-called Bear Island Gap between mainland Norway and the archipelago’s southernmost island is key to conducting sea denial operations in and over the maritime areas further south, potentially threatening NATO’s transatlantic sea lines of communication, according to the Observer.
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BALTIC-2-BLACK is an occasional 4GWAR posting on the rising tensions between Russia and the West in the regions of the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, where former Russian satellite nations like Poland and Romania border against Russian territory. Both NATO, and the United States in particular, have stepped up their presence in the region since Russia began throwing its weight around after annexing Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014. Since then, some Scandinavian countries have been boosting defense budgets even restoring a military draft as Russian aircraft and naval vessels have acted more aggressively in the region.
SHAKO: Date of Infamy, Date of Remembrance
Dec. 7, 80 Years On
On December 7, 1941, 80 years ago, aircraft of the Japanese Imperial Navy attacked the U.S. Naval Base Pearl Harbor, on the island of Oahu, in what was then the U.S. territory of Hawaii.
In the wake of the attack, three stricken U.S. battleships struggle to survive. From left to right: USS West Virginia (severely damaged), USS Tennessee (damaged), and the USS Arizona (sunk). (Photo from National Archives)
Also hit during the 75-minute air raid was Hickham Army Air Forces Field and what was then Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay. More than 2,400 military personnel and civilians were killed that day, 1,178 more were wounded. The attack by Japanese fighters, bombers and torpedo planes also sank or damaged 20 Navy vessels and destroyed more than 180 Army, Navy and Marine Corps aircraft.
Fortunately, three planned targets — the aircraft carriers USS Enterprise, Lexington and Saratoga — were away from Pearl Harbor that day. They played a key role at the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway, as well as other operations in the Pacific Theater. Japanese airmen also failed to attack key infrastructure at Pearl Harbor, including the power station, dry dock, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building — which also housed the intelligence section.
For a detailed account of events during the attack, and developments leading up to war in the Pacific, click here.
After defeating Japan in late summer 1945, United States forces occupied the island nation and began rebuilding its shattered economy and creating a democratic form of government. The United States still maintains air and naval bases in Japanese territory and Japan is considered a staunch partner and ally in the Asia-Pacific region.
Each December, a dwindling number of Pearl Harbor survivors visit Oahu for commemorative ceremonies and remembering their lost comrades and shipmates.
In the photo below, one of those grizzled veterans, Gil Nadeau, pays his respect to fallen service members at the USS Arizona Memorial during a harbor tour as part of the 80th Anniversary Pearl Harbor Remembrance. To the left of the Arizona Memorial, one can see the battleship USS Missouri, on which the surrender ceremonies in Tokyo Bay took place on September 2, 1945,
The U.S. military, State of Hawaii and National Park Service hosted a series of remembrance events throughout the week to honor the courage and sacrifices of those who served throughout the Pacific Theater. Today, the U.S.-Japan Alliance is a cornerstone of peace and security in a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Sean La Marr)
SHAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, billed headgear worn by many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress or parade uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.
FRIDAY FOTO (December 3, 2021)
Footloose.
(U.S. Army photo by Staff Sergeant Michael Eaddy)
First reaction to this photo: Wait, what?
Second reaction: What IS that? A holiday clothing drive gone wrong?
Third reaction: Oh, like Soylent Green it’s … People! (Click on photo to enlarge image)
By our count, there are 12 separate feet in the photo, so six Soldiers bunched together?
The caption the Defense Department sent with this photo reads simply: “Soldiers conduct special patrol intersection extraction system training at Fort Campbell, Tenn., Nov. 14, 2021.” It doesn’t explain why these soldiers are tangled together like a bunch of eels.
Apparently, the angle of this photo creates an optical illusion, because the photo below shows what special patrol intersection extraction system (SPIES) training looks like from a distance.
This photo shows Soldiers from 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) perform Special Patrol Insertion/Extraction System (SPIES) training during Operation Lethal Eagle — the first division sized field training exercise for the 101st in over 20 years — on November 7, 2021 at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
Oh, before anyone complains that the first photo was taken at Fort Campbell, KENTUCKY — not Tennessee — it should be noted the huge (164-square miles) fort straddles the border between the Bluegrass State and the Volunteer State.
ROBOTS, DROIDS & DRONES: Rethinking the MQ-9 Reaper; Drone Attack on Iraqi PM
DEFENSE.
Reaper Madness
An MQ-9 Reaper sits on the flight line at sunset at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, November 20, 2019. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class William Rio Rosado)
An aerospace analyst at a Washington area think tank has come up with a list of missions to keep the MQ-9 Reaper, a surveillance and attack drone, flying — even though the U.S. Air Force wants to retire the venerable unmanned aircraft.
The Air Force is feeling pressure from two directions. On the one hand, it needs to fund a lot of new aircraft like the B-21 long range strike bomber and the KC-46 aerial refueling tanker, to deal with the rising threat of great power competitors Russia and China.
On the other hand, the Air Force budget is already tight and expected to get tighter. So, to come up with some money to fund expensive modernization programs, Air Force planners consider retiring legacy aircraft they believe cannot survive in a high-end fight, like the General Atomics intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR) and targeting drone.
But retired Air Force Major General Lawrence Stutzriem, of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, says the Reaper — sought for numerous assignments by U.S. combatant commands like AFRICOM and NORTHCOM, still has a lot it can do. Rather than send its entire 280-Reaper fleet to the boneyard by 2035, the Air Force should upgrade it for a list of new missions like air and missile defense, and communications relays, Stutzriem writes in a paper “Reimagining the MQ-9 Reaper.”
Some of those like maintaining maritime domain awareness in the Arctic, already pose a challenge for the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, your 4GWAQR editor writes in an article for the SEAPOWER website.
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Drone Attack on Iraq Leader.
The committee investigating the November 7 attempt to kill Iraq’s prime minister, has released video footage of the incident, but has yet to identify the attackers.
Mustafa al-Kadhimi escaped the attack on his Baghdad home unhurt.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Three people believed to be associated with the attack were reportedly arrested, although details of the arrests and the suspects’ identities have not been disclosed, according to al Jazeera.
National security adviser Qasim al-Araji told a November 29 news conference that the committee has not accused any specific person or entity but called for collaboration among different parties to further the investigation.
The drone attack targeted al-Kadhimi’s house inside the fortified Green Zone and came at a politically sensitive time. A government is in the process of being formed following the parliamentary elections.
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INDUSTRY.
Egyptian Drones.
Two locally produced drones made their debut at the Egypt Defence Expo last week.
The Nut drone — named for the ancient Egyptian goddess of the sky, was co-produced by the Arab Organization for Industrialization and the Military Technical College. It can perform tactical reconnaissance missions during the day and night using electro-optical technology, according to Defense News.
The Nut has a maximum mission payload of 50 kilograms and an endurance of 10 hours.
Also on display was the EJune-30 SW drone. Made by Industrial Complex Engineering Robots in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Military Production, it is 8.9 meters long with a wingspan of 12 meters. It has a maximum takeoff weight of 1,400 kilograms, a maximum speed of 260 kph, an endurance of 24 hours, and a maximum operating altitude of 7,000 meters.
EDEX 2021 ran from November 29 to December 2 with pavilions from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, France, the United States and South Korea.
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AeroVironment DoD Contract.
The Puma 3 AE and Wasp AE systems combine hand-launch capabilities with a deep-stall landing for operations in confined areas on land or water. (Image: AeroVironment, Inc.)
Multi-domain robotic systems-maker AeroVironment announced December 1 it received a $4,151,320 firm-fixed-price U.S. Defense Department Foreign Military Sales (FMS) contract award to provide Puma 3 AE and Wasp AE small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to an unidentified allied nation. The contract includes initial spares packages, training and support. Delivery is anticipated by September 2022.
4GWAR 