GEN McChrystal was a martial disaster. What wrong looks like… This is what happens when your architects fall in love with their processes so much they forget about the objective. Military students should really study why graduate-level white papers, PowerPoint slides, and endless Battle Update Brief (BUB) and Commander's Update Brief (CUB) "battle rhythm events" didn't beat a decentralized bunch of illiterate goat-herding Muslim jihadists. The Taliban is one of the most successful Islamic insurgencies since the 17th century. Steven Pressfield: “It’s the tribes, stupid.” "It was only Mao who...

One of four SLBMs are operational. One of two carriers is operational. Two of seven destroyers are operational. On and on. The Argentinians need to make a deal with Iran for oil, to keep the British busy in the Maldives; then they'll finally have the islands. Luxury beliefs will kill you. But then again, ships are obsolete. Only submarines will survive. Britain's navy is no more. It would be well for the government to face facts. What Britain should now focus on, is obtaining and maintaining a fleet of fully functional and modern small warships. Capital ships are obsolete. The era of the...

2 F-35 stealth fighters hit 4 F-15 Strike Eagles lost 7 KC-135 Stratotankers damaged (one lost) All of those aircraft are a big maybe; fratricide, friendly fire, we don’t know yet. To be fair, let’s suppose not a single aircraft suffered Iranian fire but 11 Reapers drones are confirmed hit. The after-action historical analysis will determine the air war losses, we simply don’t know. During the Iraq War in 1991, the US and coalition forces lost approx 41 aircraft. BUT Ten expensive radar systems taken out including lower-value assets like the AN/TPS-59 but also including the one billion...

"Tomorrow we attack the Germans" "Let me guess Sir, we climb out of our trenches and do a frontal assault" "Damn it, Blackadder, that's supposed to be a secret" "We've tried it 17 times before and always failed" "Ah, but they will never expect it an 18th time!" *** Please listen to Winston Marshall's discussion appended below. Presently, the UK would have a hard time projecting a brigade size element and support in a Continental expeditionary footprint. Shocking paragraph in Stringer’s assessment: “Put in stark terms - and this is largely hidden from the British electorate - not one...

What happens when billions of dollars of Western radars are shattered and decimated? Once fire direction can’t translate & collate Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) inputs to operable cueing and precise targeting for munitions, efficacy of fires falls off a cliff. You can have mountains of missiles and munitions but the tyranny of angles and location in a dynamic conflict demand precision targeting. These billion+ dollar radar architectures are complex with long lead times to completion. The cost means the templating geographic coverage does not have very much...

No urinals on the USS Ford. This is a feature and not a bug. The main issue is breakdowns with the ship’s Vacuum Collection, Holding and Transfer (VCHT) system, which controls its toilets and sewage collection. The system is split across ten independent zones and supports more than 600 toilets on the ship. Acid flushes can clear and restore the system, but according to that 2020 GAO report, each flush costs the Navy $400,000. Approx 15% of the crew are female. "Nine hot dogs for every bun" as my Navy colleague would mention. Don't look away when you see the video footage of the toilets...