Cold War: Approximately 1947 (due to U.S. President Harry Truman’s Truman Doctrine) to 1991 (Operation Desert Storm, collapse of Soviet Union).
From U.S. Army Graphic Training Aid, Armored Vehicle Recognition, 1987.
Depending on your source of information, France has been using the AMX-10RC since 1979 or 1981. One source says development began in 1970, with the first French unit getting its AMX-10RCs between 1981 and 1982.
From U.S. Army Graphic Training Aid, Armored Vehicle Recognition, 1987.
I think it is strange that information on this armored car is so conflicting, and it is strange that I cannot find any images of in-service AMX-10RCs prior to Operation Desert Storm.
The RC stands for Roues-Canon, in English it means Wheeled-Cannon. It was made by a company called GIAT Industries (now called Nexter Systems).
French invasion of Chad, I mean peacekeeping operations, 1984.
Somewhere in Saudi Arabia, French AMX-10RC reconnaissance vehicles during a parade of coalition armor after Desert Storm. U.S. Air Force photo by Technical Sergeant H. H. Deffner, 14MAY1992.
SFor (Stabilisation Force) AMX-10RC in Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1998.
Beginning in 2005, France began upgrading their AMX-10RCs, changing the name to AMX-10RCR, the extra R stands for Renove, meaning renovated in English.
Qatari AMX-10RC, 28APR2013. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Corporal Juanenrique Owings.
On Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, 27OCT2017. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Corporal Damarko Bones.
On Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, 27OCT2017. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Corporal Damarko Bones.
Ukraine Crisis: February 2014 (NATO backed coup) to present.
French recon unit, Arta Training Range, Djibouti. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sergeant Steve H. Lopez, 06OCT2015.
Moroccan AMX-10RC, 2018.
Moroccan AMX-10RC during U.S./NATO wargame African Lion, June 2021.
Moroccan AMX-10RC during U.S./NATO wargame African Lion, June 2021.
Djiboutian Range Complex, Djibouti, 11AUG2021. U.S. Army Photo by Staff Sergeant Amanda Stock.
Djiboutian Range Complex, Djibouti, 11AUG2021. U.S. Army Photo by Staff Sergeant Amanda Stock.
NATO video of Ukrainian An-124 delivering French AMX-10RCR to NATO-Romania, 03MAR2022:
Moroccan AMX-10RC during U.S./NATO wargame African Lion, June 2022.
Djibouti, Horn of Africa, 10NOV2022. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Destani K. Matheny.
On 04JAN2023, President of France Emmanuel Macron announced that French taxpayers will give some AMX-10RCRs to Ukraine.
08 January 2023 (23:21-UTC-07 Tango 06) 18 Dey 1401/15 Jumada t-Tania 1444/17 Xin-Chou 4720/08 январь 2023 года
“…melioidosis is considered a high-priority potential biological threat agent; its close relative Burkholderia mallei was used as a bioweapon during World War I. Research on this pathogen requires high-containment laboratories (biosafety level 3, or BSL-3). There is no vaccine, and treatment with antibiotics is lengthy and difficult because of the bacterium’s inherent antibiotic resistance—it is ‘impervious to all but a few antibiotics.'”–Melioidosis Modeling: Research to Support Countermeasures for a Tricky Pathogen, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
The bacteria is called Burkholderia Pseudomallei, it causes something called Melioidosis (aka Whitmore’s Disease) in both animals and humans. Up until now, it was mainly found in northern Australia and South East Asia.
The American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, along with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), are claiming that six cases have popped-up in the United States as a result of monkeys being imported from the South East Asian country of Cambodia: “…animals infected with B. pseudomallei may appear healthy for months to years before showing signs of illness, during which time they can shed the organism into the environment. Melioidosis presents diagnostic challenges because it causes nonspecific clinical signs, serologic screening can produce unreliable results, and culture isolates are often misidentified on rapid commercial testing systems. Here, we present a case of melioidosis in a cynomolgus macaque (Macaca fascicularis) that developed a subcutaneous abscess after importation from Cambodia to the United States.”–Melioidosis in Cynomolgus Macaques ( Macaca Fascicularis ) Imported to the United States from Cambodia
Burkholderia Pseudomallei ( aka B-Pseudomallei, or Pseudomonas Pseudomallei) is a bacteria found in soil or water. Only in 2006 did scientist begin to understand the virulence of the Melioidosis disease it causes: “…and the study of host–pathogen interactions has shed some light on pathogenic mechanisms, but many key questions await investigation…”-Melioidosis: insights into the pathogenicity of Burkholderia pseudomallei
08 January 2023 (22:28-UTC-07 Tango 06) 18 Dey 1401/15 Jumada t-Tania 1444/17 Xin-Chou 4720/08 январь 2023 года
Scientists working in the African country of Uganda have discovered that a tick-borne hemorrhagic fever, that normally affects farm animals, has made the jump to humans! The study, published 07JAN2023, was spurred by the death of a cattle seller.
Basically, the scientists are warning that sporadic cases of fatal human hemorrhagic fever in Uganda are caused by what used to be a disease that was associated with livestock. They found antibodies to CCHF in both livestock and humans. They are asking government administrators to establish CCHF monitoring specifically around farms, and cattle/goat herding routes.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), CCHF can be found on the African continent, The Middle East (South West Asia), and Central Asia.
07 January 2023 (00:06-UTC-07 Tango 06) 17 Dey 1401/14 Jumada t-Tania 1444/16 Xin-Chou 4720/07 январь 2023 года
Anybody who spends some time on social media knows there are plenty of free advice/video posts about how to preserve food at home, yet the University of Idaho apparently thinks they can make money off food preservation classes.
The University of Idaho is based in northern Idaho’s Moscow (don’t confuse with Idaho State University based in Pocatello), but is offering home-food-preservation classes in eastern Idaho’s City of Rigby, and southeast Idaho’s City of Pocatello, for a price!
If you don’t like social media, then you can always checkout the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension’s National Center for Home Food Preservation, yes it is free! The state and federal taxpayer funded National Center for Home Food Preservation has instructions for canning, drying, freezing, smoking/curing, fermenting, pickling, jams/jellys, and storage (whew)!
06 January 2023 (14:49-UTC-07 Tango 06) 16 Dey 1401/13 Jumada t-Tania 1444/15 Xin-Chou 4720/06 январь 2023 года
For the second time, the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) ordered railroad logistics company Union Pacific (UP) to deliver feed to the Foster Farms operations in Livingston, California. Millions of chickens and hundreds of cattle are in danger of starving to death, due to ongoing logistics problems with deliveries of feed!
The first time UP was ordered to make the deliveries it blamed lack of employees, now it blames climate change! UP claims snowy weather, in December 2022, disrupted deliveries to 20 western states.
05 January 2023 (20:42-UTC-07 Tango 06) 15 Dey 1401/12 Jumada t-Tania 1444/14 Xin-Chou 4720/05 январь 2023 года
The United States has the underutilized Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). In the United Kingdom it is officially called Yellow Card, because when the program was started people had to manually fill out yellow cards to report their adverse reaction to a vaccine. Both the U.S. and U.K.’s voluntary system relies mainly on the victim to file the report, but healthcare providers can also file reports.
The U.K.’s Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has published the latest numbers (23NOV2022, published on 21DEC2022) regarding adverse reactions. Notice below that the number of voluntarily reported reactions add up to more than 400-thousand!
Table 4: Number of reports
Country
COVID-19 Pfizer/ BioNTech Vaccine (monovalent and bivalent)
COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca
COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna (monovalent and bivalent)
Brand unspecified
England
138,610
203,063
37,408
1,214
Wales
8,628
10,922
2,841
114
Northern Ireland
3,087
3,020
202
27
Scotland
13,254
17,608
3,891
239
The MHRA report also goes into detail about the reactions, including deadly reactions, and the demographics of the people affected.
Table 11: Number of UK reports with a fatal outcome received for COVID-19 Vaccines by patient age up to and including 23 November 2022
05 January 2023 (09:46-UTC-07 Tango 06) 15 Dey 1401/12 Jumada t-Tania 1444/14 Xin-Chou 4720/05 январь 2023 года
Maybe I’m reading these studies wrong, but it seems like they are burying some important data within their text.
A study, published on 02JAN2023 in Nature Microbiology, gave some conflicting statements, recommending a third dose of mRNA vaccine, yet their own data shows what to me is a high rate of infection for U.S. veterans after the third dose! The researchers looked at medical records of tens of thousands of U.S. veterans, with a median age of 70, the overwhelming majority men, who got a third vaccination from 20OCT2021 to 08FEB2022.
BNT162b2 = Pfizer
mRNA-1273 = Moderna
Under the heading Comparative effectiveness, the study said that after a third dose of mRNA vaccines, veterans had an “estimated” risk factor of 95% for infection (353.9 ‘events’ per 10-thousand veterans for Pfizer, 308.5 ‘events’ per 10-thousand veterans for Moderna). Many got hospitalized and some even died: “As expected, we found a nearly identical risk pattern in the two vaccine groups in the evaluations of two negative outcome controls: symptomatic COVID-19 during the first 7 d after the third vaccine dose…and death from causes other than COVID-19 during follow-up.”-Comparative effectiveness of third doses of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines in US veterans
In the graphic below, the solid black line represents Pfizer, while the broken beige line is Moderna. It shows ‘documented’ infections, ‘symptomatic’ meaning infection with visible symptoms, hospitalizations, Intensive Care (ICU), and deaths, over a four months (16 weeks) period after the individuals got their third mRNA immunization.
“Over a 16-week-follow-up, 2,994 SARS-CoV-2 infections were documented, of which 200 were detected as symptomatic COVID-19 within the VA healthcare system, 194 required hospitalization, 52 required ICU admission and 22 resulted in death.”
A secondary 9 week analysis was done, between January and March 2022, with different veterans, with similar results.
Interestingly the study concludes by saying a third dose is highly effective and that “either vaccine is strongly recommended to any individual. This study provides evidence of clear and comparable benefits of these vaccines…” but then admits “Further evaluation of the comparative effectiveness and safety of additional doses of these vaccines is needed.” Is a 95% risk of infection now considered low risk?
04 January 2023 (16:54-UTC-07 Tango 06) 14 Dey 1401/11 Jumada t-Tania 1444/13 Xin-Chou 4720/04 январь 2023 года
“The strengths of our study include its large sample size, and its conduct in a healthcare system where a very early recognition of the critical importance of maintaining an effective workforce during the pandemic led to devotion of resources to have an accurate accounting of who had COVID-19, when COVID-19 was diagnosed, who received a COVID-19 vaccine, and when. The study methodology, treating bivalent vaccination as a time-dependent covariate, allowed for determining vaccine effectiveness in real time.”–Effectiveness of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Bivalent Vaccine
In a ‘pre-print’ not yet peer reviewed study (released on 19DEC2022), a massively huge tracking of vaccinated versus not vaccinated people (51-thousand-11 people in total, that is big) by the Cleveland Clinic, in the U.S. state of Ohio, implied that if you want to avoid CoViD, then to have your best chances you need to avoid immunizations!
The intro of the study appears to be slightly pro-vaccine, claiming boosters are weak at only 30% effectiveness (at best). However, it is when you read the details of the study that it becomes painfully obvious that the study directly blames high rates of continued infections on the mRNA vaccines themselves!
Buried in the study is a section titled Risk of COVID-19 based on prior infection and vaccination history. The accompanying chart shows that those who are vaccinated have the highest risk of infection!
This chart clearly shows that people with zero mRNA vaccinations have the lowest risk of infection, while the people with the most vaccinations/boosters have the highest risk of infection! Again, this was buried in the study, just a quick glance over the study would make you think it was pro-booster.
While the authors continue to state that Bivalent boosters are 30% effective, they admit that their study showed having the booster, on top of the original immunizations, also increases your risk of infection by as much as “3.5 times”!
The study concludes that boosters are only moderately effective, and that “The effect of multiple COVID-19 vaccine doses on future risk of COVID-19 needs further study.”
04 January 2023 (00:20-UTC-07 Tango 06) 14 Dey 1401/11 Jumada t-Tania 1444/13 Xin-Chou 4720/04 январь 2023 года
New York Army National Guard photo by First Lieutenant Lauren Warner, 27MAY2022.
By the end of Gregorian calendar year 2022, it was estimated that New York National Guard’s Honor Guard personnel conducted at least 9-thousand-825 veteran funerals in The Empire State. That is not the record, the record was set in 2021 with 10-thousand-431 veteran funerals! And remember, not all families of veterans use the optional Honor Guard funeral service.
To put that in perspective, the United States (U.S.) Department of Veterans Affairs says that New York’s veteran population is fifth largest in the nation. Fifth largest veteran population, but still leading the nation in veteran funerals.
Ronald Thomas, with Veterans Affairs (VA), reported that for the fiscal year (which begins and ends at the end of September) there were 105-thousand-241 Army National Guard Honor Guard conducted funerals across the U.S. These numbers do not represent Active Duty Honor Guard funerals!
California Army National Guard photo by Private First Class Yancy Mendoza, 26JUL2022.
California came in second place with 6-thousand-346 National Guard Honor Guard conducted veteran funerals.
The Air National Guard Honor Guard covers funerals for Air National Guard and Air Force veterans, and the Army National Guard Honor Guard covers the Army National Guard and Regular Army, in each U.S. state.
The New York Air National Guard has at least 20 full-time Honor Guard Airman, and 68 on standby.
According to Sergeant First Class (SFC) Charles Gabriel the Third, the New York Army National Guard has 39 Soldiers on full-time Honor Guard duty, and another 60 Honor Guard Soldiers on standby. SFC Gabriel admits he does not know why New York has more veteran funerals than states with larger veteran populations, but also admits that the New York Army Guard also ‘sells itself’ to local funeral directors who help families arrange for military funerals: “We attend a conference with them every year, and put a good pitch out. I am working on making that contact system smoother for them to reach us.”
This leads to an obvious question; who is paying for state National Guard Honor Guard funeral services? It varies state by states. Most states used state-level taxpayer funding augmented with federal taxpayer funding. A few states rely 100% on federal funding. Several states allow private veteran organizations to act as Honor Guards, which are paid/reimbursed with state funding, the amount varies from state to state. Other states allow private donations to augment state/federal Honor Guard funding.
Somewhere off the coast of California, date not known.
The U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) had an impressive, and expensive, replacement for its outdated Cold War era Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAV). It demonstrated incredible abilities for speed, range and firepower, and then was suddenly canceled in favor of a British empire (BAE Systems) offering that is lacking in performance.
In the mid-1990s, General Dynamics set about to create what the USMC always wanted (officially since 1985), a true ‘kick-ass’ AAV, one that could not only match the M1 Abrams performance on land, but set new standards for performance in water. They called it the Advanced AAV (AAAV).
In this USMC photo (date not known) from Camp Pendleton, you can see that the EFV is still referred to as the AAAV.
High speed run on Camp Pendleton, California. USMC photo, date not known.
In 2003, the name was changed to Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV). Even though each phase of development was successful, there were many delays (as many as 14 years worth), and costs only skyrocketed (estimated at $22.3-million per EFV, in 2007).
2003 promotional video about the EFV. The EFV had hit water speeds of 25-knots, it was able to do this by hydroplaning. To achieve hydroplaning, the roadwheels are raised and special skirts are used (among other tricks):
This photo, date not known, shows you how crazy fast the EFV/AAAV is on water.
Crazy fast!
Loading onto a High Speed Vessel Swift, date not known.
Testing on the U.S. Army’s Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia, date not known.
A land speed of 45-miles-per-hour could be obtained.
Testing on the U.S. Army’s Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia, date not known.
EFV testing in Del Mar Boat Base, Camp Pendleton, California. U.S. Navy photo by Journalist Second Class Zack Baddorf, 05DEC2005.
Shock testing the armor. USN/USMC photo, date and location unknown.
Ballistic protection can defeat rounds up to 14.5mm, or fragments from exploding 155mm artillery projectiles.
From a photo of a demonstration for the Secretary of the Navy, Camp Pendleton, California, 08MAY2006. USN photo by Journalist Chief Petty Officer Craig P. Strawser.
U.S. Secretary of the Navy, Donald C. Winter, checks out the EFV’s extended bow. USN photo by Journalist Chief Petty Officer Craig P. Strawser, 08MAY2006.
In 2007, the USMC reported that it was delaying production due to suspension reliability problems. Those problems were remedied, but also in 2007, a Congressional subcommittee required the addition of armor protection against ‘roadside bombs’ (IED).
EFV gets loaded aboard a hovercraft, on Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, 30OCT2009. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sergeant Danielle Bolton.
Random USMC video (by Staff Sergeant Sean McCollum) of EFV hovercraft/landing ship loading operations, 30OCT2009:
Emerging from the turret of the EFV. USMC photo by Gunnery Sergeant Bryce Piper, 30OCT2009.
In May 2010, USMC Colonel Keith Moore stated that the EFV could “generate never-before-realized operational tempo across warfighting functions” and that it is “the most capable infantry fighting vehicle that will exist in the U.S. inventory at the time it will get fielded. It is a very robust, survivable infantry fighting vehicle that has to meet the Marines’ unique requirements.”
By June2010, the EFV was handed to the USMC for ‘real-world’ testing.
Notice the ‘skirt’ lifted to reveal a raised roadwheel. Camp Pendleton, California. USMC photo by Sergeant Marcy Sanchez, 12JUL2010.
However, then U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates had already made hints (before the the USMC began EFV testing) that he was going to cancel the project. Another problem is that the U.S. Navy was considering new amphibious landing ‘rules’ which basically required zero military opposition from the enemy, of course rendering the need for a super amphibious tank unnecessary.
This is a video interview by California newspaper The Orange County Register (OCR), released in August 2010:
Even after impressive USMC testing results, in January 2011 the DoD cancelled the EFV, and the 35th Commandant of the Marine Corps, General James F. Amos, supported the decision.
The decision to cancel the EFV was blamed mainly on placating several taxpayer organization calling for an end to spending on long-running development programs, that included the F-35 Lightning-2 and V-22 Osprey. Leadership within the Department of Defense seemed more intent on keeping the aircraft, thus sacrificing the EFV on the alter for concerned taxpayers.
However, cancelling the EFV did not result in saving money for taxpayers as the rest of the EFV funding went to upgrading the aged AAV7s, which benefited United Kingdom based BAE Systems as BAE took control of the AAV7’s manufacturer United Defense, and on buying a new ‘AAV’ of much less capability, which also just happened to be created by the company BAE Systems. It is called the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV).
H-A-W-K, HOMING ALL-THE WAY KILLER
M1117, GUARDIAN OF SECURITY OR A FRANKENSTEIN? Originating with Viet-Nam era V100, now being given away to Ukraine!
