LRRP_Ranger comments

First off, for the commenters displaying ingnorance, the F/A-18 has been in service since the 70s. The current aircraft in service are 1000's of hours beyond service life and parts are in short order for the old workhorse. It was supposed to be replaced by the JSF in 2006 but we all know what happened there.

This pilot was neither a soldier or enlisted. He was a Marine Officer commissioned into service.

Ash Carter... the greatest lame duck to serve as our SECDEF. A policy wonk that never served and is so disconnected to what the armed forces is and stands for. How his physics degree from oxford can possibly help him lead the military is a decision only one of the worst and most divisive POTUS's to serve could make.

Over 3 years after the sneak attack and 36 million lives later did Japan surrender its conquest rightfully so. Never forget the past but learn from it.

Interesting to see the aftershocks of his statements on our military bi-lateral ties. He has already cancelled all military exercises with the US from 2017 onward. All this progress made through many years to host forces into the PI on a rotational basis, shattered in months. So sad to see a madman in charge upend everything.

Nothing wrong with this. They just have to understand that its not just an uphill battle, it will be an up-sheer-cliff battle due to the US standard. This is not pomp but simple fact and reality that the bar is set by the US in terms of milspec tech. Japan will have to spend an enormous amount of capital to establish itself on the scene and needs to be aware of the reality of the ultimate cost-benefit factor, will it really be worth it in the end?

Smart move, a very capable aircraft that will increase japanese capabilities.

None of us in the USA have forgotten. 2,212,675 members of the US Armed Forces remember all the heros and those who came before us fighting in WWII against the Axis powers of Germany, Japan and Italy each and every Veterans Day celebrated in the USA. Not even counting the 100's of million civilian Americans who celebrate and remember our sacrifice. Does japan have any kind of Veterans Day?

Hoo Yah LCDR Langdell! Fair winds and following seas Sailor.

The jgsdf SOF guys have the potential, they dont lack for funding. Its just the thought of them going right into DA with no training or credibilityakes me cringe.

@samuraiblue Just wont let it go huh, ok let me break it down barney style for you. YS is a CPX (cmd post ex), my unit 75th Rangers out of Ft. Benning sent a white cell team to assist the tiger team with the OPFOR SOF scenario. I can assure you we werent installing comms. Im also sure there were lots of signals guys running all the comms and im pretty sure I Corps CG ( commanding general, a 3 star) was also not running comms. Of all the people there, i would guess only a signals battalion was doing all the comms (300 out of the 2k US personnel). The other portion as uou mentioned was run by I Corps infantry regiments and III MEF Marines doing combat manuevers, nothing I was involved in, but good try jumping to an uneducated assumption. You being a civilian i can forgive your general ignorance of military matters, no matter how much you like to google. But insulting people like me and 5 petals really should be beneath you. I dont like putting other peoples foot in their mouths but your doing a pretty good job of it on your own!

Well getting back on topic, what one of the commenters said is spot on, they are too insular and rigid in the training they conduct, its almost like a script thats been written from hundreds of years ago that has to be adhered too simply beacuse that is what they have been doing. For example when we met some of these guys during downtime, they wore their balaclavas even when it was just us and them, they citied "tradition" or something to that effect according to our translator, who could only speak about 10 japanese words. It was all pretty comical.

I went to some place in osaka in 07, i remember it was osaka because i saw that running guy on a bldg during PAUSEX,, was pretty neat. If its held elsewhere since then thats gtg, would love to get back to japan (mainland) someday.

And its Ranger, not ranger *wink

@ samuraiblue Sorry to make you angry but JCET was decommissioned after some incident in south america, we havent run one of those in almost 10 years. They are usuallu reserved for hotspot areas, i went to one of those as an observer in 05. And due to disclosure concerns we certainly water down a lot of the info given. Need anymore info?

@ samuraiblue There is a yearly exercise called YAMA SAKURA held in Osaka, they send these guys from somewhere in Tokyo and they demonstrate forced entry tactics to us, ( we certainly have the clearance, i cant imagine an SCI clearance is anything japan guys have access to) . Its all kind of amateurish but they certainly try hard.

@ samuraiblue We have never trained with other SOF, there is lots of interoperability, like working with adjacent units in a DA, but we certainly dont train with any of them, there is nothing to learn from others, we wrote the book on SOF TACSOP. We certainly wouldnt train with operators that have never operated, like the japan " SOF" guys, would be like teaching kids how to build a rocket.

As a Ranger who has observed japans "SOF" during several YAMA SAKURA exercises (never trained with, we dont train with other SOF) I can certainly say they are woefully unprepared to conduct any kind of DA. They have the kit but not the training, they are simply constrained by never being involved in a real world DA. We all agree that it would be disastrous if they engaged in any kind of DA.

As a Ranger I can say with 100% certainty that we absolutely do not train with other SOF units, in any way shape or form.. We wrote the book on SOF, there is no reason and nothing to learn from others, regardless of Tier 1, 2 or 3 (theres lots of interoperability in the field though with adjacent SOF). I am sure the Japanese guys (they are not SOF as they have never operated) have the potential since they can get their hands on the basic kit, but training in a passive environment and DA are 2 totally different things. Basically, I agree with the senior analyst, wouldn't trust these guys in a DA.