US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Hundreds of trucks carrying US personnel were observed by CNN gathering near Hasakah, Syria, en route east to the border with Iraq.

A US official confirmed the ground move, the largest the US has made in Syria so far, marks the symbolic end of the major US presence in the region.

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has said the withdrawal would take weeks. Sunday's move from US positions in Kobani, forms a substantial part of the overall withdrawal.

Speaking to reporters Saturday aboard a US military aircraft en route to a refueling stop before heading to Afghanistan, Esper said those troops would be withdrawing via helicopters, fixed wing aircraft, and ground convoys.

Esper said the 1,000 troops are being deployed to two missions, “one is to help defend Iraq and two is to perform a counter-ISIS mission as we sort through the next steps.”

A senior US official later clarified that the location of the 1,000 troops is fluid, indicating it’s possible that not all 1,000 would be relocated to western Iraq. Any relocation out of Syria will be done in conjunction with host country governments, the official added.

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Jura said:

with a large delay I've now noticed (through the latest issue of a Czech military journal) about what's described last year
A potential mobile artillery dynamic duo for the Army: ‘Hawkeye’ and ‘Brutus’

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plus, oops, hadn't heard of forward-recoiling howitzers before

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TerraN_EmpirE said:

It’s fairly novel, and complicated.the Idea has been around a while but it’s just so much easier to make a traditional howitzer.
In a tradition howitzer the crew loads the shell and bag and fires. The gun slides backwards in its mount to help absorb recoil but much of the energy is transferred into the ground and or the chassis of the vehicle. On a truck mounted system this means you need a heavy duty suspension because it’s going to smack the truck like King Kong.
Rather than bore (See what I did there;Hehe...) us with my own attempt at describing how it works I have a handy dandy Movie!! Ladies and @Jura The XM204 Soft recoiling 105mm!!

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Of course as you should be able to tell that is a very vintage film. Problems were in the timing cycle. If the mechanism didn’t go boom when the assembly was forward it caused issues. By 75 the XM204 was scrapped. Of course like all good ideas someone came about to look at it again.

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The US Air Force has delivered airstrikes on the Al-Qulaib military base in the north-eastern Syrian province of Al-Hasakah, which American forces themselves occupied not long ago, Syria’s

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. The base had a runway that was used to receive military shipments from cargo planes and helicopters.

The base had just recently been

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amid a Turkish offensive in northern Syria, which has already resulted in an incident where American soldiers nearly got shelled by their Turkish NATO allies.

While the US Defence Department has not commented on the news, the reported bombing of the abandoned base could be part of measures that are being taken to prevent equipment remaining there from being seized by Russian or Syrian forces. Previously, US troops destroyed a radar in the same Al-Hasakah province that they apparently couldn't pack together in time, and what's left of a military camp in Dadat near the Syrian city of Manbij.

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Jura said:

inside

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noticed this, ehm, coincidence:

"The United States and Turkey over the summer had established a so-called “security mechanism,” designed to address Turkish concerns about the SDF and prevent an attack. ... As part of that security deal, the SDF had complied with U.S. requests to pull back its own defensive fortifications — leaving them vulnerable when Turkey attacked."

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Jura said:

please tell me those up the chain of command know what they're doing:
US may now keep some troops in Syria to guard oil fields

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at first I thought Oct 14, 2019

they just set up Kurds, but after now talking "to secure oil fields", well, I don't know if they know what they're doing

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TerraN_EmpirE said:

It’s a complicated situation to be sure. People have been using the term Kurds or Kurdish yet that’s a catch all it doesn’t break down who we are talking about as Kurdish nationalists have there own political factions. Turkey has been embroiled in a conflict with one faction of such the PKK. Who are recognized as a terrorist group not just in Turkey but also by the US, a number of European countries and Japan. PKK is mixed into the Kurdish forces that make up the SDF. But they also have a long time grudge with the Turkish President and Government. So the Ghost of World war 1 pops up.
the US supported PKK forces against IS as they were willing to aid other ethnic minority groups Under siege by ISIl. But it’s a harder issue if the PKK now start pushing against Turkey.

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U.S. forces that crossed into Iraq as part of a pull-out from Syria do not have permission to stay and can only be there in transit, the Iraqi military said on Tuesday.

The Iraqi statement contradicts the Pentagon’s announcement that all of the nearly 1,000 troops withdrawing from northern Syria are expected to move to western Iraq to continue the campaign against Islamic State militants and “to help defend Iraq”.

A senior U.S. defense official later clarified that the situation was still fluid and plans could change.

“All U.S. forces that withdrew from Syria received approval to enter the Kurdistan Region so that they may be transported outside Iraq. There is no permission granted for these forces to stay inside Iraq,” the Iraqi military said in a statement.

It is unclear whether the U.S. troops will use Iraq as a base to launch ground raids into Syria and carry out air strikes against Islamic State militants.

The additional U.S. troops would add to the more than 5,000 American troops already based in the country, training Iraqi forces and helping to ensure that Islamic State militants do not make a comeback.

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Jura said:

please tell me those up the chain of command know what they're doing ...

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