Friday, March 14, 2014

Russians conduct administrative landing in Crimea...



Definitions via Joint Doctrine for Landing Force Operations.
administrative landing. An unopposed landing involving
debarkation from vehicles which have been administratively
loaded. (JCS Pub 1- 02)
 administrative loading. A loading system which gives primary
consideration to achieving maximum utilization of troop and
cargo space without regard to tactical considerations.
Equipment and supplies must be unloaded and sorted before they
can be used. (JCS Pub 1-02)
Story via Chicago Tribune...
SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) - A Russian warship unloaded trucks, troops and at least one armored personnel carrier at a bay near Sevastopol in Crimea on Friday morning, as Moscow continued to build up its forces on the Ukrainian peninsula.
A Reuters journalist saw trucks driving off the Yamal 156, a large landing ship, at Kazachaya Bay near Sevastopol. One flatbed truck was carrying an armored personnel carrier (APC).
The vehicles drove off a landing ramp on to a low shoreline of open ground near an oil storage terminal from the ship, which is capable of carrying over 300 troops and up to a dozen APCs.
On Monday, a Reuters journalist saw a column of at least 100 Russian vehicles, including trucks, APCs and artillery on a road in the same area. It is Ukrainian territory, some 15 km (10 miles) from the port at Sevastopol which Moscow leases from Kiev to station its Black Sea Fleet.
This is starting to turn into a total mess on the international stage.  US and European leaders have been found wanting.  Leadership across the board is nowhere to be found.

However.

From a military standpoint this is a golden opportunity.  We're getting a small glimpse at Russian amphibious assault doctrine, where it fits in their overall planning and how effective they are at the art form.

One LST debarking troops and vehicles at a Crimean port might not seem like a big deal.  To an observer of the Russian Naval Infantry, its huge.

I'm still digesting the info from this recently announced activity but one thing becomes apparent.

The French gave the Russians the keys to the amphibious assault kingdom when they sold them Mistrals.  Before we would see small actions from the sea...at best.  With just Mistral class LHD in service they now are capable of putting a Battalion sized force ashore with one ship.  For a Navy that specializes in single ship operations this is huge.  We should have protested that sale harder.

38 comments :

  1. Let's get something clear. Of course that was not a Russian ship and those trucks and armored vehicles were only a Crimea self defense forces. Those kind of equipment can be bought in every shop with survival gear. Whole world know that there is absolutely no Russian soldiers on Crimea even Black Fleet soldiers are not there because there is not even ONE Russian soldiers there. If you think otherwise you are under western capitalist, fascist, nationalistic and even alien propaganda that target peace loving, democratic Russian.

    And this pic is a photoshop that was made in training camps in Poland, Latvia and Moon.

    ... sarcasm off.

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    1. i'm just taking this in waiting for Putin to make an ass of my President and other leaders in the EU. funny thing is that they're talking about sanctions! amazing! China is already suffering an economic slowdown and you want to add sanctions against Russia? what about all the money in Greek banks, and the gas flowing to western europe! this thing is a mess.

      but tell me this. what is being said in Poland about this whole thing. the Poles have faced the russian bear before so whats the word on the street?

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    2. People are nervous, they try to live and work as always but you can see that they are disturbed. Ukraine is not the first country they invade and occupy, Poland was under Russians occupation for many years. Couple of times in our history Russians "liberate" us from our lives, our freedom, our land... they almost fracture the spirit of my nation. You can NEVER trust Russians, they understand only one argument, force. Strong, brutal force. If they know only force then you can speak with them with more force. Russians are simple people, easy to subjugate by strong leader. They have the old saying "Good Tsar, bad Tsar", they are a band of sheep's that need to lead by lion.

      We know them well, we are the strongest enemy of Russian in EU. We ask for action, something, anything more then words, words, words... we learn that you don't speak with Russians, you take them by throat and hit the face with fist some many times that they bleed and lie under your feet. Then you can speak to them.

      We are afraid Sol, afraid that Russia get back to it's imperialistic dream of great empire. We afraid of new war, we saw that... last time we saw exactly the same thing the dude was named Adolf Hitler and he want to "liberate" oppressed Germans minority in Czechoslovakia and then in Poland. We don't want to see in Kerry next Chamberlain.

      In other hand we are happy that Germans show us the support, even if in words they are supporting. That whole word condemn this invasion and even, this is very, VERY important Sol, China stand opposed to Russia. First time, they don't speak one voice, this is very important thing. Those additional F-16 ( even if older gen then our own ) and NATO AWACS is also warm sight, more for morale then real military support but still. Maybe this time we will be not alone against aggression of Soviets.

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    3. Crimea remain russian until kroutchev give it to Ukraine in 1953, for administrative reason in URSS... People in these countries are not pacifist : it's not a bad idea to prevent the starting of a civil war by putting foreign soldiers there.

      The ukraine story is complicated, even more since the US ONG / CIA / Orange revolution...
      People in France have no opinion for now, on this. We don't believe that a war will occur.

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    4. USSR is not existing any more, if you will walk this road England will ask that you give back Normandy because some time ago it was part of Kingdom of England. Of course they are not pacifist, this if region where great powers fight for generation, but they want to be free.

      French as always, don't want to die for anyone... as history teach us, even for France.

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    6. nope. not on my blog. this is not a democracy and your comments were out of line. don't like it? i don't care.

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    7. YES, YOU'RE RIGHT, FRENCH SOLDIER DON'T WANT TO DIE FOR ANYONE...Except for :

      -Yougoslavia
      -Kosovo
      -lebanon
      -afghanistan
      -Tchad
      -Mali
      -Ivory Coast
      -RCA
      -Congo
      -Rwanda
      ...

      The normandy thing is out : It was a kingdom which broke into 3 : borders weren't defined before, they even didn't spoke the same language in England, France and Normandy.

      Please think and study history before writing such things !
      Less than a century ago, crimea was russian, with an unity of language and culture.

      Plus, I'm not sure that my country is a better democraty than russia or Ukraine : Corruption is everywhere, it's just hided in our contries by media.

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    9. My comment was out of the line, why ? But sha's rant against other countries and servicemen are ? ...that's funny.
      Don't worry I could care less, at least Shas has to ''remember'' some things.

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    10. Maybe my comment was also a little bit harsh, I delete just to be fair.

      fabsther:
      I own you a apologies, some old prejudices speak thru me.

      But how much time is need to someone say that this is still his land ? Normandy was part of England long time ago, but it was. Canada or part of it was French, Crimea was for some time part of Russian Empire but before that was strong part of Ottoman Empire. Poland my homeland was under generations long occupation of Russian Empire... what if France will say that they want Canada again under French rule or Russians that land of Poland under theirs because some time ago they rule it ? Where is that thin red line that say this is not ours anymore ?

      Yes corruption on Ukraine is major problem, yes corruption in Russia is also a problem. Corruption is everywhere as you said.

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    11. Apparently there are no Russian soldiers there but there are Russian Marines there.
      Yes, even among Russian's Marines are Marines and soldiers are Army.

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    12. Hang in there Shas our Polish Buddy.

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    13. blogging is fun.

      dealing with the twisted ideas of people that come to your blog isn't.

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    14. To be clear : I don't approve Russia on Crimea invasion. It's illegal and in theory, Un Should defend it.

      But after what we did in Libya, in Kosovo, in afghanistan and in Irak, we lost this legitimity.
      We simply can't act or tomorrow, we will pay for that an higher price

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    15. The problem is that Russia is in UN and after the Korean War they will not miss a single one voting on anything, anytime. True, there is much of hypocrisy in many political statements but at least it was a clear in many ways. When Yanks invade with coalition of forces Iraq they had reasons to do that, even with all those WMD circus they don't hide. American and other nations go to Iraq, done. Russians send troops to Crimea and say nooooo... those are not our soldiers, those are some self defense dudes. This is pissing me off the most, they act like... frak, I have no words for that. Like 5 years old amateurs, they play idiots.

      Indeed, we must act this time, enough is enough. This must be that red line that western world will not retreat. This is the test, the test if Putin can do what he want and grab every piece of former USSR in to new empire. If we step back, UN will be another League of Nations and in next years the Europe will again burn if fires of war.

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  2. Watching 300 rise of an empire, I remembered how powerful democracy can be. What scares the Russians is not just brutal force but the power that comes from freedom of speech and inventive. What Europe needs is to be free from the Euro-mess money and recover their powerful association of independent nationalities and economies, each one at their own speed. The other thing they need is to recover their energy independence with more Nuclear generators, pretty much like France did.

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  3. Well Kerry speak with Ɓawrow, they agree that they don't agree. End of meeting.

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    1. Well Hell Shas, Even I don't agree with that turd John kerry.

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  4. It's ironic that Russia uses 'democratic' means to legitimize its occupation. Did they bother with a referendum in Chechnya? Ingushetia? Dagestan? If Obama and Kerry had a brain between them, they would come out and propose that there should be referendum's throughout Russia. It would undercut any legitimacy of the Crimean referendum because Russia would have to defend why it was proper for the Crimea, but not for Chechnya, etc.

    Russia can't go war to without totally fucking itself over economically. All of the billions they spent on Sochi to rehab their image abroad is down the tubes.

    The primary Russian motive is security, security, security. They are obsessed to the point of paranoia about security and will do anything to secure it even to the point of provoking others and making themselves less secure. That is psychosis. Apart from the failed Afghanistan experiment AND Mali, etc., NATO hasn't had any real purpose other than integrating Eastern European nations back into mainstream Europe. There was no real urgent need for Ukraine or Georgia to join NATO. This Crimean crisis, however, has created the need for Ukraine to seek NATO membership and stirred a lot of concerns about whether can even be seen as a partner.

    But the Russians are obsessed with threats to the West i.e. NATO. NATO/Europe/EU doesn't give two shits about what Russia has. China, on the other hand, does care what Russia has because in their minds, Russia stole Siberia from them. If Russia wants real security, it needs to finally make peace in the West so it can pay attention to the East where the real threat is.

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    1. True, this one idiotic move give new life in to NATO idea.

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    2. On the other side of the coin, our good ole US of A should allow all 50 states to have referendums on whether or not to remain in the union. Hmm...

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    3. I'm fine with states having referendums. They would have some fairly crushing economic consequences from leaving though and I doubt that any state would actually want to leave at this point.

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  5. Looks like the Russians don't like our drones....

    http://news.yahoo.com/russia-says-intercepted-us-drone-over-crimea-arms-180430584.html

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    1. You believe yahoo?

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    2. Why not? Is it so unbelievable that Russia would spoof/decoy or take out a US drone? They dazzled a drone just the other day. What makes our drone so special?

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  6. Personally Sol, don't think the US has a leg to stand on if it starts protesting arms sales, the Russians and the Chinese can play the same game back with even greater effect since US sales are many times theirs. If you want to shoot them, fine, but at least watch out for the backblast. Or that the same round doesn't hit you back.

    And democracy is overrated. :) New boss, same as the old boss. Cloths horses all of them. That is what you get when elections are simply a popularity contest, a fashion show.

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    1. i'll play. what are you talking about.

      the French sold the Mistral to Russia. we protested. i stated we should have protested more loudly. i don't get what you're saying. explain.

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    2. Exactly what I am saying. The Russians and China can then protest about US arms sales to Australia, Taiwan, Japan, Canada, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia etc etc and demand reciprocal arms sales embargos on the pains of economic sanctions. And remember, the US big weapons suppliers need the business to survive, supplying only the US is not a viable proposition with their overhead costs.

      On a scale as big as that, a single small LPD is too small potatoes to rock the boat over.

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  8. As I said on ELP blog, Vlad has pretty much Crimea, looks like he will get his hands on Eastern Ukraine really soon. USA and allies gets Finland, Poland, Romania, Turkey and most of the -stans.

    We should be able to get bilateral economic and military treaty/sales from just about any country that has a border with Russia. We will see increase sales of F16s, used M1s,artillery, support, training with US Army, maybe basing rights and trainings grounds opening up real soon.

    Don't tell me we have nothing to offer up.....

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  9. Nothing to be learned that has not been observed ad nauseam in the Baltic:
    - Ship heading to beach.
    - Ship on beach.
    - Tanks, APCs, Infantry roll to shore.
    Done.

    I am waiting for a Tartar with a grievance to stick an RPG up those bows and into the bridge...
    Now there'd be the end of those LST-shenanigans,
    Putin has 9 LSTS in the black Sea.
    Will we see the Tartars Spring 'Turkey'-Shoot on the Crimea' beaches ??
    Nine Vietcong-era RPGs might do it...

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    1. And the two MISTRALs will be stationed in the Far East...where they'd be fat targets as well.

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  10. I have a couple of books on Stalin and recall that Stalin rated Tatars just below Chechens in how much they hated Russians (Soviet Union at the time) and how well they fought. Vlad might be OK now but he sure will piss off somebody in Crimea and then he has an Muslim insurrection on his hands with people that hate Russia.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_Tatars

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    1. Yeah, no shit. Chechnya is about the size of Connecticut and had a population in 1990 of less than 2 million, but look at how much trouble they gave the Russians. What will the Crimean Tatars be like? I would have thought somebody high-up would have pointed this out to the Russians.

      Maybe in a few years, Moldavia and Ukraine should divy up Trans-Dniester in compensation for Crimea. Sell some old Russian houses to some pissed off Crimean Tatars. I bet Ukraine's new National Guard would find some good recruits among the Tatars.

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    2. Especially in the USA, we have no real historic knowledge and little care for what ever happened even last week but that not the case in other parts of the world. Crimean Tatars have been persecuted in the past and they haven't forgotten. Plus, the Muslim angle is relatively new compared to the past, this time you could have a lot more motivated, not to say fanatical opponents with military training that you can get in a bunch of areas in the region. Finding financing isn't that difficult anymore and the region has plenty of expertise in weapons, smuggling, sea access,etc...could turn into a nightmare real fast for Vlad.

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    3. So, will we see a smoking LST, stranded for good, ready to be gutted for scrap-metal ?

      I call upon Sol to run a betting-pool here on how soon and how many...

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  11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7ASHvWEXbc

    Some news about what happends : We are in total blur on this situation

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