Military Ring Info

This is a good twist for a change and it goes to show that we have been keeping up with possible future military requirements. The military must by neccessity morph and change to adjust to the times if it is to be effective as a military.

The US Navy has apparently did this a while back and this is the first that I am hearing of it, but the navy has refitted at least four of its Ohio class nuclear capable submarines with Tomahawk cruise missiles. Now grasshopper you may ask me why is this so significant, and what does it mean? Well my most honorouble military ring customer it means this; In the past these subs were fitted only with Trident nuclear missiles. This was good but the subs were nuclear capable only. Now that they are fitted with Tomahawks they are more versatile and can be used in many more conventional applications. This makes them a whole different kind of threat.

Each cruise missile has a one thousand mile range which means that they can be transported close enough to strike just about anywhere in the world.

Those of you who follow this blog know that I have screaming for quite a while that we need to keep our eyes on the Chinese military. Well this shows that evidently our Navy ring customers have been doing just that.

The US Navy held its annual strategy forum last month in Newport Rhode Island. The topics discussed were no surprise to me when I heard them. They are in line with the headlines and that we have observed and line up perfectly with the posts that we have been making in this blog.

CNO Admiral Gary Roughhead brought up several of the issues which our Navy ring customers will have to deal with in the future. His topics of conversation were the free flow of commerce across the worlds waterways (which alludes to the problem of piracy), the protection of undersea cables and fiberoptics, expanding worldwide responsibilities, and a shrinking budget.

The navy is the smallest that it has ever been but the mission that it has to perform is larger than ever. It’s budget is shrinking and drastic budget cuts are in the future.

I think that the biggest problem that our navy will have to face is the Chinese naval buildup. The Chinese are adding offensive weapons to their arsenal and there is no doubt in my mind that they want to project worldwide naval power and not self defense as they claim. We must make wiser decisions with our strategy, technology, and budget decisions now and in the future or we will find ourselves in a serious mess.

The Marine Corps will begin replacing its current M249 squad automatic rifle with the new M27 Infantry Rifle. The rifle has been strenuously tested and it will be issued to about five Battalion sized units which will be deploying soon. The rifle will be tested in combat and improved upon as necessary. This testing will seek input from marines to determine how to make it more troop friendly.

The main thing that the corps is concerned about is the fact that the rifle is magazine fed rather than belt fed. What this translates into is that our marine corps ring customers who use it will have to stop firing more often to insert magazines. The belt fed rifle has 200 rounds per belt versus the 30 round magazine of the newer rifle. The newer automatic weapon is much lighter than the one which they currently use. The new weight is 7.9 pounds versus 17 pounds. Thats a major difference when you have to carry this rifle around all day. Personally I think that the lighter weight alone more than offsets the small loss of firepower that will be experienced. The new rifle is also much more accurate which I see as the icing on the cake. You won’t need a lot more bullets to do the same job.

The biggest thing is to let Marines use it in the field, and see what they have to say about it. Once the Corps determines that it is useful it will be issued to other units.

The Special Operations Command SOCOM which is the parent agency for all Spec Ops military ring customers from all branches of service has decided to scrap the continued fielding of the MK-16 Assault Rifle. This came as a major surprise because the MK=16 was being fielded specifically for SOCOM. It was the first rifle ever specifically designed for Special Operations Troops to use in battle.

I am not quite sure why the rifle was scrapped but the reason that SOCOM gives is that it dosen’t offer enough of an advantage over the carbines that they use at the present time. I guess it makes sense budget wise not to spend money on something that will not give you a notable advantage over what you presently use.

SOCOM has already purchased a number of the custom made rifles and will discontinue buying them. They may also require the units using the rifles now to turn them in.

The stopping power of the 5.56 round may be the issue but I don’t really know. I would imagine that they would have the rifles which are in use turned back in because to attempt to keep them would cause a number of different logistics problems.

SOCOM oversees Special Operations units which include Air Force and Marine units, Navy SEALS, and Army Special Forces Ring customers.

The President of South Korea is calling for stern action against North Korea for the sinking of the Cheonan. The thing is that he has been crying loud and long and hasn’t gotten any satisfaction yet, but he isn’t going to roll over and play dead. He will get some satisfaction.

He knows that he must make a stern response to save face. If he dosen’t, he knows that the North Koreans will not hesitate to take more provocative actions in the future. He knows that he can’t let this pass unpunished and he dosen’t intend to. He has fired his top General and about twenty four other high ranking Naval Officers. We have a large contingent of our Navy ring customers in the area and our military ring customers stationed in Korea are surely on alert.

He is in a very tricky position on this one because a mistake in diplomacy would be deadly. On the other hand he has to make a move. He has to be extremely careful how he deals with this incident.

I guess this is the first case of our tough but not crippling sanctions aainst Iran not working.

The Russian government has already decided to sell them SAM missiles despite the sanctions. This just goes to show you exactly wat I think of the UN’s sanctions against other countries (and what the Russians think also). They are not worth the paper that they are written on. I guess that this is a part of the process that the US has to go through before further military action can be taken.

The purpose of the Iranians purchase of the SAM’s seems to be to use as a defense against striking US or Israeli warplanes. They obviously believe that a preemptive air strike is very possible against their nuclear facilities. As long as the Iranians have oil there will always be countries and individuals out there who will be more than willing to help them out.

Our Air Force ring customers posses the technology necessary to pull off such a raid but any intelligence that they use will have to be deadly accurate. If they swing and miss it would open the door to all kinds of situations which would not be good.

The Chinese are frustrating US and South Korean governments with a noncommital altitude towards the North Korean sinking of the Cheonan.

Their stated reaction is to say that their goal is to safeguard peace and stability in the region. That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to me. I think what they are trying to say to the world my precious custom navy ring customers is that they aren’t going to do a darn thing.

This is not good for many reasons but the biggest is because the US and South Korea are attempting to drum up international support for sanctions against the North Koreans. It seems from the Chinese response to the incident that they will veto any sanctions that the UN would attempt to levy on North Korea.

If this happens I am not sure that the South Koreans will let the situation slide without taking further action.

The Russian President has proclaimed that the new Russian stealth bomber called the PAK-FAis a better bomber than the American made F-22 Raptor. Well I for one believe that he must have gotten a hold of some bad vodka. Are you crazy!! Whatever it is that you are on please let me have a little bit so that I can see life the same as you do.

The Russians have a history of making cheap knock offs of US equipment and there is not doubt that this is the same thing. There is no way that they have stolen or duplicated the technology of the F-22. He knows this but I guess that this was his propaganda opportunity. I wonder what the Russian pilot thought when the president told him this.

Mr Putin is obviously out of touch with reality because he also stated that the Russian plane would be as good as the Raptor but cost three times less. Bring it on bud. Do your thing with your plane and show us your stuff. I’m sure that my pilot’s ring customers who happen to fly the F-22 can get a big laugh from this one.

I don’t know exactly what to think of the fact that our Secretary of State has touted new “tough but not crippling” sanctions against Iran. What in the world kind of a game are they playing with the Iranians or us or whoever. Go ahead and cripple them. This is the fourth round of sanctions and the Iranians haven’t responded yet. As a matter of fact they are talking big smack about the new round of sanctions.

The Iranian UN Ambassador has said “that no amount of pressure will break Iran’s determination to produce nuclear energy,” so why don’t you want to cripple them? I just don’t get it. Either you go to catch fish or you don’t waste your time. These sanctions are not really worth the paper that they are written on. Maybe I’m the one with the problem but I don’t get it.

All of you custom military ring customers have seen the head games that they will play with you sometimes so maybe she is playing some sort of game with them. Whatever it is I don’t get it. This seems like a colossal waste of time to me. why would the Iranians want to stop what they are doing if we don’t want to cripple them?

The Naval War College held its 61st annual strategy forum at Newport Rhoad Island recently to discuss future strategy based on it’s projected future role in the defense of this nation. I wasn’t surprised by most of the projections but I have constantly overlooked the safeguarding and overseeing the flow of information through underwater cables and the fiberoptic cables used to transmit information through the ocean. This is an area of naval warfare that is absolutely necessary but never seems to enter the mind of those of us who do not have to deal with it on a daily basis. There are navy ring customers out there who are seldom thought about whose job it is to insure that these objectives are met.

CNO, Admiral Gary Roughhead also outlined the areas of insuring the free flow of commerce over the world’s waterways. On this one he is clearly referring to the task of fighting piracy.

He also mentioned the fact that we need to keep up with the growth of the Chinese Navy while at the same time working around budget shortfalls. Our naval ring customers definitely have a challenge ahead of them but I know that they will prevail.