Nordbat 2.

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"the Swedish soldier is a very serious opponent - thoughtful, disciplined, physically strong and tough, well armed, well acquainted with the territory he will have to fight over, and well trained for action in such terrain." - - Suvorov.

See previous blog entry that type of Swedish military unit the personnel of which "thoughtful".

Swedish military leadership [officers and NCO's both] taught to be able to think for themselves and exercise initiative to accomplish mission objectives and goals without a whole lot of guidance or input from superior command. Micro-management eschewed. As was the case in Bosnia.

Thanks to the outstanding Internet web site isegoria.net for the tip.

"He would not respect rules and regulations that threatened to prevent him from achieving his mission objectives"

"The troops and officers from some of the least belligerent nations in the world — namely, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway [Nordbat 2] — turned out to be quite adept at both using force and playing the odds in the high-stakes political game played in Bosnia"

See also a previous blog entry as further relevant:

https://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-poster.html

"den starke den modige svensken"

coolbert.

Monash.

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Yet more thanks to our good friend Commander Salamander.

General Sir John Monash.

Best general officer on the Western front in Europe? World War One!

"Most Americans and others outside the Commonwealth may not know of General Sir John Monash, Australian Army. He passed away 90-yrs ago [8 October 1931] today. "

I daresay many "inside" of the Commonwealth also not knowing of General Sir John.

From that Commander Salamander Internet web site article;

"'a great bullock of a man... though his manners were pleasant and his behavior far from rough, I have seen few men who gave me such a sensation of force... a fit leader for the wild men he commanded' …  '…the best general on the western front in Europe' … 'the only general of creative originality produced by the First World War.'"

"bullock: noun - 1: a young bull"

Australia that nation as a result of participation in the First World War no longer merely regarded as a colony/dominion of the British Empire. Australia fully recognized by the international community as a peer among the nation-state world order system. 

AND LEADING THE WAY GENERAL SIR JOHN MONASH. THE BEST!

coolbert.

Kaga.

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From our good friend Commander Salamander and thanks to same.

See previous blog entries as are germane to topic:

https://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2021/10/ddh-f-35b.html

https://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2021/09/ddh-183.html

"Japan Back in the Carrier Game ..."

"Fresh from her modifications to fly F-35B, the Izumo is bringing the Japanese Navy back in the carrier business again … with some friends via United States Marine Corps F-35B."

"The Japanese will be buying 42 F-35B and maybe more, so soon we will see the Izumo and her sister ships with the first Japanese fixed wing airwing at sea since the end of the Second World War."

Watch the embedded video. Very well done VSTOL operation. Remarkable flying ability.

LET ME REINTERATE! The Japanese willing and able to put to sea a deep water navy with impressive fighting capability surely an indication of waning American military and political power. Global as well as regional!!

coolbert.

USMC HIMARS.

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Seems the idea of the arsenal ship is already here. An existing naval warship with a simple addition of a already-proven rocket artillery system becomes a modern battleship [almost].

See my previous blog entries [having additional embedded links] that topic the modern battleship [arsenal ship]:

https://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2020/07/arsenal-i.html

https://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2020/07/arsenal-ii.html

Long-range supporting fires now more than a possible. American Marines conducting an amphibious operation NOW have HIMARS. [first trial-run was of 2017]

"Marines Fire HIMARS From Ship in Sea Control Experiment With Navy"

Advanced gun system [AGS] 155 mm discarded. Railgun too. Marines lacking with conventional indirect fire support! Answer has been found! I hope so.

"ABOARD THE AMPHIBIOUS ASSAULT SHIP USS ESSEX – The daytime launch of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System on Sunday might have seemed like another training mission if the Marines hadn’t fired it from an amphibious ship operating at sea."

"A detachment of Marines with Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based 5th Battalion, 11th Marines, set up the vehicle-borne launch system on the flight deck of [the] amphibious transport dock USS Anchorage (LPD-23). Programmed with information about the objective – suspected enemy air defenses – on a nearby island, the HIMARS launcher fired off a rocket at a target 70 kilometers [44 miles] away."

The Swedish Archer artillery system also good to go to providing indirect fire support for marines as they storm ashore. Archer as with the HIMARS just brought to the deck and can engage targets with precision-guided artillery munitions in the jiffy.

Provide additionally just for grins those amphibious assault ships with Mk-32 torpedo tube launchers? Additional fire support on call anti-ship. Every ship a battleship?

coolbert.

Decimation.

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Do not think that the decimation of the top command of the Soviet Pacific fleet as described in the previous blog entry was a totally unique event. Far from it.

Here with other instances, airplane crash [or submarine sinking], many top military brass/civilian counterparts gone in an instant.

 

1. Egypt Air Flight 990.

"Egypt Air Flight 990 . . . was a regularly scheduled flight from Los Angeles International Airport to Cairo International Airport, with a stop at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City. On October 31, 1999, the Boeing 767-300ER operating the route crashed into the Atlantic Ocean about 60 miles (100 km) south of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, killing all 217 passengers and crew on board.

"The flight was carrying 203 passengers from seven countries . . . Included in the passenger manifest were 33 Egyptian military officers returning from a training exercise; among them were two brigadier generals, a colonel, a major, and four other air force officers. After the crash, newspapers in Cairo were prevented by censors from reporting the officers' presence on the flight."

The accepted consensus [?] being that Flight 990 deliberately flown into the ocean by a co-pilot, a terrorist action quite intentional. Targets the passengers of high Egyptian army rank.

2. Chinese nuclear submarine sinking.

The worst nuclear disaster in history. Exceeding perhaps by a considerable magnitude [?] the Chernobyl reactor meltdown calamity.

Chinese nuclear submarine colliding with a Soviet submarine during maneuvers in the Yellow Sea. Chinese submersible breaking apart and going to the bottom to a depth of 3,000 feet [a thousand meters]. Reactor breached with an enormous spew of radioactive mater spewing into the ocean.

ALL HANDS LOST! ADDITIONALLY FORTY SENIOR CIVILIAN PERSONNEL OF THE TOP CHINESE SUBMARINE DESIGN BUREAU ALSO ON BOARD AND PERISHING. ALONG FOR THE RIDE TO SEE "HOW THINGS ARE DONE".

3. "General Sikorski’s Fatal Plane Crash, Gibraltar: Accident or Sabotage?"

"The presence of Soviet secret agents in Gibraltar during the days leading up to a fatal plane crash on the Rock in 1943, which killed the then President in exile of Poland, General Sikorski, continues to raise questions to this day. Was it an accident or an assassination?" 

From the era of the Second World War the untimely death of the senior Polish military commander Sikorski still problematic. 

Airplane crash at the time [1943] and even now thought in some circles to have been NO accident.

That plane too overloaded and the cargo now properly stored more than likely a more rational explanation!

Also within context think the Smolensk air disaster as deemed. Senior civilian and military leadership the demise of so many top leaders all at once again in some quarters seen as suspicious.

coolbert.

Tu-104.

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Was never aware of any of this! Amazing stuff. The You Tube video a must see for all devoted readers to the blog and those merely perusing in a more casual manner.

Please REMEMBER during the era of the Cold War in the Soviet Union cars did not collide, ships did not sink, trains did not derail and PLANES did not fall out of the sky.

"When the Soviet Navy Lost 16 Admirals in a Single Accident: The Tu-104 Crash at Pushkin"

"The plane crash at Pushkin airfield on February 7, 1981 became the very last accident in the Tupolev Tu-104 history, after which they were permanently retired from service. But the main reason the disaster at Pushkin airfield went down in history was because this single crash had almost entirely beheaded the Soviet Pacific Fleet"

Understand fully well this air crash causing consternation in Soviet military circles. The loss of so many senior officers at one time most significant. Persons their training and experience of great value. Personnel at that level of command hard to replace. Further without question the crash due to the plane: 1. Overloaded. 2. Baggage improperly stowed. There was no nefarious plot or enemy special operations involved.

That initial Soviet response that a hostile nation by their secret services must have caused the plane to crash very typical too of Soviet paranoia during the Cold War.

coolbert.

DDH F-35B.

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From a previous blog entry:

"Izumo I recall when the vessel became operational it was said that jet warplanes of the VSTOL type [F-35] could not operate off the ship. The deck was not of adequate construction able to handle the hot jet exhausts as would be needed for a Lightning vertical take off or landing."

Further as extracted from an Internet web site Strategy Page article further details, the Japanese DDH Izumo class warship with modification able to F-35B VSTOL warplanes:

"Leadership: Allies Of Necessity"

"Ordering some F-35Bs makes it clear that Japan is going to experiment with some of these aircraft aboard the existing Japanese “helicopter carriers”. Since 2017 Japan has had operational two 27,000 ton “destroyers” (DDH type ships) that look exactly like an aircraft carrier. These Izumo class ships can carry up to 28 helicopters or up to ten vertical takeoff aircraft . . . The DDH have powerful engines capable of destroyer-like speeds of over fifty-four kilometers an hour [thirty-four miles per hour] . . . Izumo does have considerable cargo capacity which is intended for moving disaster relief supplies quickly to where they are needed. Apparently, some of these cargo spaces can be converted to berthing spaces for troops, disaster relief personnel, or people rescued from disasters, as well as additional weapons and equipment needed to support F-35B fighter-bombers. Izumo can carry and operate at least ten of the vertical take-off F-35B stealth fighters now that modifications were made to the flight deck to handle the extremely high temperatures the F-35B generates when taking off or landing vertically, like a helicopter. When the first DDH entered service in 2015 Japan made no mention of buying F-35Bs or modifying the LPH [landing platform helicopter] flight decks to handle the F-35B. The Izumo [class] already have an elevator (to the hangar deck under the flight deck) powerful enough to carry an F-35B fighter."

IT HAS BEEEN SUGGESTED THAT AN INDICATION OF WANING AMERICAN PRESTIGE AND MILITARY POWER ON THE WORLD STATE WILL BE THE JAPANESE NAVY ASSUMING A GREATER REGIONAL ROLE [WESTERN PACIFICE], A BLUE-WATER NAVAL FORCE OF SOME CAPABILITY TO INCLUDE AIRCRAFT CARRIERS!

coolbert.