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The Royal Navy and coast guard authorities have been investigating why two Belgian naval ships have been allowed to sail close to the Welsh coast for the past 12 hours today. The colossal BNS Godetia, a command and logistical support ship that is 92 metres long and BNS Lobelia, a 51 metre long minehunter, have been mysteriously circling the coast since late last night. A Holyhead Coastguard spokesman confirmed the ships were sailing off Cilan Head near Abersoch but said they had 'absolutely no idea what they are up to'. The colossal ships are believed to have been involved in...

Why did Hillary Clinton lie about Benghazi? There is no doubt that she lied. It has been proven that she told two completely different stories. What exactly was the lie? She lied about the enemy's motive for attacking us at Benghazi. She told the American people that we were attacked at Benghazi by a disorganized mob because some Libyans were mad about a video they saw. She knew this explanation was a lie. She told her daughter, almost immediately, that the attack was an organized attack by our enemies. Why did she tell this particular lie? You lie to cover...

One of the first things you learn in the military is how to move and work with other people. The Sergeants taught me how to stand in line and how to turn without tripping the people I was with. The quickest and most efficient means of moving a large group of people is to put them in a formation and march them. This also sends a message to anyone watching that the people marching together are focused, disciplined and ready to fight. Let's say you need to move a bunch of people from a football field to a park. You...

Humvees failed airdrop Falling from the sky (Language Warning)

The U.S. Army has released its 2016 Weapons Systems Handbook, which is available at www.army.mil/e2/c/downloads/431298.pdf. For more on military equipment, including weapons, visit Military.com's Equipment Guide.

Time to reform the Pentagon’s award system There has been a jarring addition to U.S. military uniforms since the end of World War II. Seventy years ago, high-ranking officers wore relatively few ribbons or medals — and awards for valor were rare. Go back farther to the Civil War, and it was common for officers to not wear military decorations at all. But for the modern officer, it’s now possible to perform one’s duties without being a hero and still have a chest full of ribbons that are indecipherable to all but the most dedicated students of phaleristics. Most of all, the...

Daniel Torres was an undocumented immigrant when he used a false US birth certificate to join the marine corps. After serving in Iraq, he was found out and discharged. Eventually he returned to Tijuana, where he was born, though he said he was always homesick for the country he had fought for.

The Supreme Court Very interesting, but scary, view. A number of republican voters have threatened that they won't vote for the GOP candidate this November if the eventual nominee was not their personal choice in the primaries. I just want to put something into perspective: · Justice Scalia's seat is vacant. · Ginsberg is 82 years old, · Kennedy is 79, · Breyer is 77, and · Thomas is 67. Nowadays, the data shows that the average age of a Supreme Court retirement or death occurs after the age of 75. There are 5 vacancies that will likely come up...

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. – A North Carolina judge sent a retired Special Forces sergeant to jail for violating probation — then spent the night in the cell with him. News media outlets report Joe Serna, 41, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after three tours in Afghanistan, was diverted to Cumberland County Veterans Court after being charged with driving under the influence and other traffic offenses. The court is designed to help troubled veterans avoid jail time and get the help they need. Serna was told to stay sober and return to the court every two weeks. But when he appeared...

The Eidgenossen matter. The who? What? Why? OK, let me back up. Two weeks ago, while talking about the Battle of Crecy I mentioned the concept of a Revolution in Military Affairs. At that time I gave a fairly simple definition. A better, or perhaps just more complete definition of a Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) might go like this: “A fundamental change in the practice of warfare

1969–1974 Sunfish spent the period from April to August 1969 undergoing shakedown and in various exercises such as torpedo firing, sound trials, control drills, and casualty drills. A short dependents' cruise in late August 1969 was followed by post-shakedown repairs and alterations at Groton, Connecticut. The last two weeks of 1969 were devoted to a leave and recreation period for the crew.......

Eight years ago, two US Marines from two different walks of life who had literally just met were told to stand guard in front of their outpost's entry-control point. Minutes later, they were staring down a big blue truck packed with explosives. With this particular shred of hell bearing down on them, they stood their ground. Heck, they even leaned in.

It appears the U.S. Army was attempting to transport three of the armored vehicles to the Hohenfels Military Base in Germany when the Humvees were inadvertently dropped several hundred feet to the ground, where they crashed into a million pieces.

The USS Harry S. Truman is celebrating the work of its crew after setting the record for ordnance dropped on ISIS. The Truman launched over 1,118 ordinance pieces against terrorist targets over the past five months, surpassing the 1,085 dropped by the USS Theodore Roosevelt's pilots in 2015. The Truman’s Carrier Air Wing 7 flew 1,407 combat sorties and dropped over 580 tons of ordnance on the Islamic State. “Since our arrival in the Arabian Gulf, the Truman Strike Group has been conducting operations around the clock,” Capt. Ryan B. Scholl, Truman’s commanding officer, told a Navy journalist. “This deployment...

The Nazis attempted to broker a peace offering with Britain—if they were allowed a free path to attack the USSR, a new book has revealed. Rudolf Hess’s flight to Britain during World War Two to sign a peace deal ordered by Adolf Hitler has long been recorded as a bizarre one-man mission to try and reconcile warring West Europe and the Nazis. … But historian Peter Padfield has discovered evidence he claims proves that the deputy Führer held a detailed peace treaty. It proposed that the Nazis would withdraw from western Europe, in exchange for British neutrality over a planned...

The Russian M240 240-millimeter mortar, along with its vehicle-mounted counterpart the 2S4 Tyulpan or “Tulip,” is possibly the largest-caliber tube artillery, not including rockets, used in combat today. Its massive shells were intended to smash apart heavy military fortifications, but just as often they have been employed to rain devastation upon densely-populated urban areas.

The German and Dutch armies and navies are poised to “merge”, creating the nucleus of the European Union’s longed for pan-EU military force. Pointing to German ministerial statements spelling out the creation of an EU Army as the ultimate goal, critics say Britain’s military will not be able to avoid being sucked in if the country remains within the Union. The German government has revealed that Dutch and German land armies and navies are set to move towards “closer integration”, with two Dutch units already coming under German command. Last month the Dutch 43rd Mechanised Brigade was subsumed into the...

The Government has announced the tenderers and build locations for three shipbuilding programs, namely OPVs (Sea 1180), the Pacific Patrol Boat replacements (Sea 3036) and the future frigates (Sea 5000). Twelve Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) will be built initially in Adelaide until first steel is cut for the future frigates, also pre-determined for that city. Up to 21 Pacific Patrol Boats will be built by Austal in Henderson, WA. ''''As part of the Competitive Evaluation Process (CEP) three designers [for the OPV]have been shortlisted; Damen of the Netherlands, Fassmer of Germany, and Lürssen of Germany to refine their designs. This...

Most everyone has a pretty good idea of what an atomic explosion looks like. Through images and video, we know the flash, the fireball, the mushroom cloud. Seeing it all in person is quite different, however. One of the few firsthand accounts immortalized to paper comes courtesy of the inimitable Richard Feynman, who was present for the very first detonation of a nuclear weapon. The test, codenamed "Trinity" was carried out on July 16, 1945 in the Jornada del Muerto desert of New Mexico. The 20-kiloton blast was the culmination of years of work by the scientists of the Manhattan...