St Barbara wept

[dapaterson]

The US DoD just tweeted:

Ready to roll out the big guns! The tanks of the @UTNationalGuard  are lined up and ready to participate in #AfricanLion20, #AFRICOM’s largest multinational exercise spearheaded by @USArmyAfrica  & hosted by the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces!! #KnowYourMil

...with a picture of M109 Paladins...

https://twitter.com/DeptofDefense/status/1235973419797078018

 

[FJAG]

The US DoD just tweeted:

Ready to roll out the big guns! The tanks of the @UTNationalGuard  are lined up and ready to participate in #AfricanLion20, #AFRICOM’s largest multinational exercise spearheaded by @USArmyAfrica  & hosted by the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces!! #KnowYourMil

...with a picture of M109 Paladins...

https://twitter.com/DeptofDefense/status/1235973419797078018

On the one hand I like all the comments;

on the other hand - Utah National Guard - 65th Field Artillery Brigade - Paladins - HIMARS - National Guard - Drool!

Why can't we have pretty things? Oh, yeah. Liberals and Hillier.

:brickwall:

 

[dapaterson]

Why can't we have pretty things? Oh, yeah. Liberals and Hillier.

Still waiting for the nuclear subs Mulroney promised... no Canadian federal party is a particular friend of the military.

 

[FJAG]

Still waiting for the nuclear subs Mulroney promised... no Canadian federal party is a particular friend of the military.

So very true. Unfortunately I lived through Hellyer and Trudeau and that somewhat coloured my viewpoint from then forward. I joined just when the Army was at its peak. After that everything went downhill. (although I do think the personal gear these days is infinitely better than 51 Pattern and 64 Pattern webbing. I even like the M777 when it's used right - but it ain't no M109 - there's something about the smell of diesel in a pre-dawn gun park)

:cheers:

 

[dapaterson]

And the knowledge that you have some level of survivability and rapid mobility in the event of counter battery.

 

[FJAG]

And the knowledge that you have some level of survivability and rapid mobility in the event of counter battery.

Counter battery is not an "if" thing; it's a "when" thing.

I really haven't been able to understand our weapons buyers for two decades now. If the Dutch could get PzH 2000 to Afghanistan ...

:cheers:

 

[medicineman]

Counter battery is not an "if" thing; it's a "when" thing.

I really haven't been able to understand our weapons buyers for two decades now. If the Dutch could get PzH 2000 to Afghanistan ...

:cheers:

I remember a US Marine looking at our 113's down in 29 Palms on fine day with disgust and looked at me "I thought y'all built our LAV 25's - why don't you have them?"  I said "Because your government is willing to pay for them; our's not so much"

MM

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Counter battery is not an "if" thing; it's a "when" thing.

I really haven't been able to understand our weapons buyers for two decades now. If the Dutch could get PzH 2000 to Afghanistan ...

:cheers:

South Korea has something like 1600 105mm M1A1 in reserve stock, we could replace the whole fleet of reserve artillery with those and keep the C3 for deployment . The US has a large number of M109 variants in Reserve, we could lease a battery or two from them.

 

[Remius]

I joined just when the Army was at its peak. After that everything went downhill.

:cheers:

Don’t be so hard on yourself.  I’m sure it wasn’t all you. 

 

[LittleBlackDevil]

On the one hand I like all the comments;

on the other hand - Utah National Guard - 65th Field Artillery Brigade - Paladins - HIMARS - National Guard - Drool!

Why can't we have pretty things? Oh, yeah. Liberals and Hillier.

:brickwall:

The comments were quite enjoyable. Massive "fail" on the part of whoever runs that twitter account, though.  :facepalm:

The comments that neither party has been a particular friend of the military is well taken, but it's a fact that Trudeau the First was the one who really started the process of gutting our Armed Forces. I was looking at a graph the other day that showed Canada's military budget was 4.19% of GDP in 1960. During the Trudeau the First years it dropped down to 1.7% then stayed roughly the same until the early 90s then during Chretien's tenure it slowly dropped down to 1.11%. The spending amount in dollars went up a lot during Harper's years (for example in his first year, 2006, it went from $14.81 billion up to $17.42B) but the GDP was growing too, so as a percentage it only went up very slightly. We're currently at 1.25% of GDP

EDITED TO ADD: Source for the above-listed figures: https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/CAN/canada/military-spending-defense-budget

 

[FJAG]

Much to my everlasting regret I actually voted for Trudeau in my first election. It was also the one and only time I ever voted Liberal. I might not have been too bright but at least I learned from my mistakes.

:cheers:

 

[Colin Parkinson]

To be fair to you FJAG, the CPC was working hard to piss people off at that point, and screwed up what otherwise could have been a sound re-election.

 

[a_majoor]

Trudeau just gutted the Cold War military. Don't forget there were just over 3000 members of the "Permanent Militia" in the years prior to WWII....

 

[Old Sweat]

When I joined way back when, the plan was to deploy a division to the nuclear battlefield in Europe in time of crisis. Over the years thinking (?) led to a single battle group with a very few guns. The thinking seemed to be that air-delivered guided weapons made guns obsolete (see Gen Harris's book re Medusa) and we are stuck with not much more that a scattering of tubes.

 

[FJAG]

...(see Gen Harris's book re Medusa) ...

Which book? Which Harris?

???

 

[Old Sweat]

Been FRASER, who commanded in Kandahar in 2006. I forget the name of the book, and I am 4000km from my library in Arizona. In anywise, he described artillery fire as ineffective, which is one of his reasons for ordering LCol Lavoie to attack prematurely on 3 Sep.

I just sat straight up and said "Fraser." Brain Fart Mk One.