Veterans Zone Current Status of World Power

Greywolf · Mar 16, 2017

More news: The USA has been working a deal to open five new bases in the PI since last year -

http://www.militarytimes.com/story/...lans-use-five-new-bases-philippines/82072138/

RexB · Mar 16, 2017

Is that still current after President Duterte took power and said he was cancelling the agreement?

F350-6 · Mar 16, 2017

Greywolf said: ↑

.... and there is another aspect of Chinese housing that I've been looking for a video I saw about - that they don't care about upkeep

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They've built their entire wealth on cheaply made products that have made most items in todays society disposable. With that mindset, why would you expect them to take care of anything? Why maintain when you can just replace with something else new and improved for not much money? That is until it catches up with your whole country and that little infrastructure things rears it's ugly head.

RexB · Mar 21, 2017

Good news under the last budget, more Army troops, and junior officers, in 28:1 ratio. i've got to find reliable stats on the overall ratio of enlisted to officer.

Army is hiring, increasing end strength by 28,000 soldiers under programmed hikes Mar 16, 2017
http://www.globalsecurity.org/milit...20-army01.htm?_m=3n.002a.1969.yf0ao07u16.1t7w

WASHINGTON, D.C. (US Army on GS.org) -- The Department of the Army will add 28,000 soldiers to its ranks by Sept. 30, 2017, officials announced today. The troop increase was directed by the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2017.

"The Army is hiring. The added end strength will allow the Army to increase manning in its tactical units, enhancing overall readiness," said Maj. Gen. Jason T. Evans, Director, Military Personnel Management. "The increased manning also provides additional promotion opportunities and retention incentives for our existing Soldiers and more opportunities for those who are fit, resilient and possess character who want to join the Army."

Army Increases To 476,000, Army National Guard To 343,000

Across the force, the active component end-strength authorization increased by 16,000 to 476,000; the Army National Guard increased by 8,000 to 343,000, and the Army Reserve increased by 4,000 to 199,000. This 28,000 increase means the total Army will number 1,018,000 Soldiers.

The Army will conduct a responsible increase with a focus on quality; Soldiers who are resilient, fit and have character. The Army will use a variety of personnel management tools to meet the troop strength requirement, including enlisted accessions, recruitment, training, and retention along with officer accessions and retention. For example, the Army will raise its enlisted accessions mission to 68,500, an increase of 6,000 soldiers in the Active Component from the original mission through FY 17. Additionally, the Army will increase the enlisted retention mission to 17,500, an increase of 9,000 Soldiers in the Active Component from the original mission through FY 17.

Army Increasing Officer Strength By 1,000

With respect to officers, the Army will create additional accession and retention opportunities to increase officer strength by 1,000. And the Army will continue to leverage internal controls to increase retention of quality officers. The increased manning of the Army will enable it to better meet the challenges of an ever-uncertain security environment, Evans said. "We see a strong Army as a key factor in maintaining the security of the nation," he said.
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Bad news. China keeps pressing Taiwan and our other allies in Westpac.

China deploys new DF-16 ballistic missiles against Taiwan, Japan, Philippines Mar 20, 2017
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/l...320-cna01.htm?_m=3n.002a.1969.yf0ao07u16.1t81

TAIPEI (ROC Central News Agency, by Hsieh Chia-chen and Evelyn Kao) -- Defense Minister Feng Shih-kuan on Monday confirmed the growing military threat from China, which he said has been deploying a new type of medium-range ballistic missiles capable of hitting Taiwan.

Since 2016, China has been pushing military reform, including streamlining its armed forces to improve joint combat capabilities, Feng said in a report to the Legislature on Taiwan's responses to the changing situation in East Asia since U.S. President Donald Trump took office.

In a report last year, the U.S. Pentagon said that the DF-16, with a range of 800-1,000 km, coupled with the already deployed conventional land-attack and anti-ship variants of the CSS-5 (DF-21C/D) medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM), would improve China's ability to strike not only Taiwan, but other regional targets.

The DF-16 represents an increased threat to Taiwan because it is difficult to intercept with anti-ballistic missiles systems such as the MIM-104 Patriot PAC-3, according to U.S. media reports. Currently, at least 12-16 DF-16 missiles are in service and judging from the fact that they are deployed in southern China's Guangdong Province, they are likely targeted at Taiwan, Forbes quoted U.S. defense expert Mark Stokes as saying in February.

Forbes said in a report on its website that the DF-16's range gives it the capability to strike targets along the first island chain -- the physical island features that sit between the Chinese coast and the Western Pacific, including the main islands of Japan, the Ryukyu chain, Taiwan, and the Philippines.

However, Feng said Taiwan has advanced surveillance systems that can detect any unusual movements by Chinese forces around the island and has weapons capable of fending off any DF-16 missile attacks from outside its borders with the U.S.-made PAC-3 system.

New Fighter Jets

In recent years, China's air and naval forces have built main and auxiliary combat ships and produced the J-10, J-11 and J-15 fighter jets, bought Russian Su-35 fighter jets and unveiled their most advanced stealth J-20 fighter jets, Feng said.

Over the past few months, he said, China's air and naval forces have conducted six drills and training sessions near Taiwan and in the Western Pacific Ocean. During one such exercise last December, China's only aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, cruised into the Western Pacific Ocean for the first time via the waterway between Okinawa and Miyakojima Island, Feng said.

In addition, China's retired military officers have been exaggerating the potential for military conflict across the Taiwan Strait in an apparent intimidation effort to force Taiwan into accepting Beijing's plans for closer relations between the two sides, Feng said. Turning to the situation in East Asia, Feng said the U.S. is likely to adjust its security policy in the Asia Pacific in line with its ambition to dominate affairs in the region.

On the issue of Taiwan's response to any regional instability, Feng said Taiwan will improve its early warning systems and hone its combat forces to display its defense capabilities, while maintaining its role as a peacemaker to expand cooperation with other countries in the region. The hotspots include the Korean Peninsula, the Diaoyutai Islands in the East China Sea, and the South China Sea area, he said.
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captchas · Mar 23, 2017

one hip hip from me.
https://www.dodbuzz.com/2017/03/20/coast-guard-avoids-proposed-budget-cut/
the coast guard isn't loosing that 1.4 billion after all. i'm giving every service member active or former from every branch a big thank you for writing .phoning.emailing their government official saying no way, they to much with to little to old already
baling wire and duct tape isn't working any more

captchas · Mar 23, 2017

http://www.military.com/daily-news/...aft-carrier-trump-presidency-enters-gulf.html
the BUSH is in the gulf,

Seabiscuit · Mar 23, 2017

They were probably trying to figure out if the new Sheriff in town remembered to load his six shooter or if he was just a bag of cold air like his predecessor.
It would be interesting to know what type of "warning" action the Bush CTG took.

RexB · Mar 23, 2017

Good that we have a carrier back in the Gulf, it's been gapped since December for the first time in years. The French aircraft carrier was there for a while to fill in, they've got a good Navy. They just aren't used to sea time longer than a couple of weeks lol.

The last Nimitz carrier *sigh*...i was on the second one, USS Eisenhower, and Dutch was on two different ones i think. This'll be the 3rd aircraft carrier class I've served on and seen the end of production. Getting old or something.

Our allies Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, UAE are in the Gulf, we have right of passage. The IRGC is hardcore militants itching for a fight. I just hope to hell that when we shoot back at them that we are prepared to go in heavy and long. We've got lots of Air Force on Qatar/UAE and Marines amphib group there now. It will be bad news, but if they don't allow freedom of navigation then we can either fight or whimper. Iran has many Russian SSM's and SAM's on their coastline, we'll likely lose a few ships and many aircraft.

captchas · Mar 23, 2017

Seabiscuit said: ↑

They were probably trying to figure out if the new Sheriff in town remembered to load his six shooter or if he was just a bag of cold air like his predecessor.
It would be interesting to know what type of "warning" action the Bush CTG took.
Click to expand...

article states she left Norfolk on jan 21's which means her orders came from the past potus
crazy Iranians right away tried going after her.

Seabiscuit · Mar 23, 2017

She's had enough time to sail twice around the globe.....The new Sheriff is calling the "shots" now and I suspect there is a whole new set of ROE in effect. The question is how far will they go to test the new ROE and the Op Sec of the CTG, or any US ship for that matter.

Greywolf · Mar 23, 2017

The GULCH of OMAN - black stinky water, sand blowing out from shore almost a hundred miles away. Giant venomous sea snakes, and extreme humidity. One of the tech issues is dealing with condensation - a lot of the electronics/avionics are sealed and filled with dry nitrogen to prevent crispy critterization, especially in waveguides. At altitude everything exposed to the heat and humidity on deck has condensation on it - if you take a camera out of your shop to shoot pictures from the rail you have to wait twenty or thirty minutes for the lens to stay clear.

~And now it sounds like things are heating up in the worst way. Thank you very little President Urkel...

RexB · Mar 26, 2017

Not only heat humidity and sea snakes. Remember the smells... sailing out of sight of land in the Indian Ocean, we hit a cesspool. A hundred miles later the stench got worse as we passed Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and the southern tip of India to the starboard. Heading on to Hormuz we passed Oman and Karachi Pakistan. Phew. I don't understand how civilizations 3,000 years old let themselves fail in sanitation like that. Overcrowding and corruption i guess. They are far beyond Detroit.

In other forgotten places we have soldiers fighting in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya. Sinai. Drones and airstrikes in Somalia and Yemen. Drone and supply bases in central Africa. Three troops in Afghanistan were shot by another Taliban wearing an Afghan army uniform. The Pentagon wants more troops in Libya to help clean up against ISIS - we and the Brits and half of the Libyan governments have helped decimate the guesstimated numbers of Daesh fighters from about 7,000 to a few hundred. Or they went off to fight the French in Mali.

I hardly see mentions of this on the TV news. BBC and France24 carry a bit of it . Some good news is our Marines, Army Rangers, USAF, the original Syrian rebels, Kurds and Iraqis have surrounded Mosul and reached the big dam near Raqqa.

Senators want Sinai Peninsula reclassified as a war zone for 725 troops there Mar 25, 2017
http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/senators-sinai-peninsula-war-zone

Syrian militia backed by U.S. fights to Tabqa dam near IS-held Raqqa Mar 24, 2017
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-dam-idUSKBN16V1QW

Pentagon wants to keep ground troops in Libya and go on offense in Somalia Mar 24, 2017
http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/russians-libya-islamic-state

Taliban offensive expels Afghan and US forces from Helmand District HQ, opium trade route Mar 23, 2017
http://www.globalsecurity.org/milit...323-voa04.htm?_m=3n.002a.1972.yf0ao07u16.1tbm

3 US Soldiers Shot in Afghanistan by Afghan soldier; 8,400 U.S. troops remain Mar 19, 2017
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/03/19/3-us-soldiers-shot-afghanistan-insider-attack.html

Trump Sends 400 More Troops to Syria Against Islamic State; 2,500 reinforcements to Kuwait Mar 9, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/09/world/middleeast/us-troops-syria.html

Greywolf · Nov 28, 2017

I'm guessing the chips are flying again right now, who's got odds on Japan's response to the missile NK just splashed into their waters?

That fat kid over there is out of his Kimchee sucking mind!!!

F350-6 · Nov 28, 2017

And I always thought the next nuke would be a first strike from Israel against Iran.

Now we've got to wonder if it will be a strike from DPRK, or one from Japan or South Korea fired on the North. Although I don't see why the DPRK government couldn't be taken out or crippled without nukes. The only thing that really needs to be handled is China's response. They threw a wrench in things last time we were there.

Greywolf · Nov 29, 2017

The response from China I haven't heard any hard detail on so far - a year ago they were in the USA's face with their South China Sea crap, but now NK is the bad guy...

Veterans Zone Current Status of World Power

Greywolf Vet Zone Staff Alumni Founding Member

RexB Vet Zone Founding Member

F350-6 Vet Zone Texas Chapter Founding Member

RexB Vet Zone Founding Member

captchas

captchas

Seabiscuit Volunteer Moderator Vet Zone Vet Zone Leader Oregon Chapter Founding Member

RexB Vet Zone Founding Member

captchas

Seabiscuit Volunteer Moderator Vet Zone Vet Zone Leader Oregon Chapter Founding Member

Greywolf Vet Zone Staff Alumni Founding Member

RexB Vet Zone Founding Member

Greywolf Vet Zone Staff Alumni Founding Member

F350-6 Vet Zone Texas Chapter Founding Member

Greywolf Vet Zone Staff Alumni Founding Member

Veterans Zone Current Status of World Power

Greywolf Vet Zone Staff Alumni Founding Member

RexB Vet Zone Founding Member

F350-6 Vet Zone Texas Chapter Founding Member

RexB Vet Zone Founding Member

captchas

captchas

Seabiscuit Volunteer Moderator Vet Zone Vet Zone Leader Oregon Chapter Founding Member

RexB Vet Zone Founding Member

captchas

Seabiscuit Volunteer Moderator Vet Zone Vet Zone Leader Oregon Chapter Founding Member

Greywolf Vet Zone Staff Alumni Founding Member

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