06/23/2015: U.S. Marines assigned to Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 461 and 3rd Marine Special Operations Battalion (MSOB) conduct parachute operations over Marine Corps Auxiliary Landing Field Bogue, N.C., on April 1, 2015.
HMH-461 supported the Marines of 3rd MSOB by providing transport in CH-53 Super Stallions enabling them to successfully complete their assigned training.
Credit:2nd Marine Aircraft Wing Combat Camera:4/1/15
06/22/2015: For 200 years now, men from Nepal have been serving as Gurkhas within the British army.
Their numbers currently stand at around three and a half thousand.
The 2nd Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles are currently on exercise in Latvia.
They’re taking part in Saber Strike which involves 6000 military personnel from 13 nations.
The footage includes soundbites from Corporal Kusmal Raj Rai and Major Ed Oldfield, Officer Commanding, C Company.
The GVs show the Gurkhas running through woods and across open land, firing weapons and carrying out reconnaissance.
Credit: Natochannel:6/10/15
06/21/2015: According to an article by Cheryl Pellerin on the DoD website:
WASHINGTON, June 18, 2015 – U.S. and Spanish officials yesterday signed an amendment to the nations’ defense agreement that will change the deployment of the U.S. crisis response force at Moron Air Base from temporary to permanent, defense officials said today.
In the State Department’s Treaty Room, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Spanish Deputy Foreign Minister Ignacio Ybanez signed the Third Protocol of Amendment to the U.S.-Spanish Agreement for Defense and Cooperation.
The amendment, when the Spanish parliament approves it, will make permanent the temporary deployment of the Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force for Crisis Response at Moron Air Base.
The crisis response task force protects U.S. diplomatic personnel and facilities in Africa and supports efforts to stabilize an area of shared concern, defense officials said.
The United States bases nearly 4,000 personnel in Spain at Naval Station Rota and at Moron Air Base.
“We are very grateful to our Spanish allies and partners and friends for this agreement. You’ve hosted the United States military for more than 60 years now, and every day this partnership, this relationship, grows stronger,” Blinken said.
On behalf of the U.S. government, the deputy secretary expressed gratitude for the long years of military cooperation and anticipation of many more years of strong partnership.
Blinken also presented Ybanez with a letter from Secretary of State John Kerry, who is recovering from a recent bike accident that kept him from signing the amendment in Madrid as planned.
“Secretary Kerry … very much wished he could be here to do this today,” Blinken said. “We now have him back in Washington. We’re going to get him back in the building very soon, but he asked me to convey this to you and to the foreign minister on his behalf.”
The amendment allows for a maximum long-term U.S. military presence at the base of 2,200 military personnel, 500 U.S. Defense Department civilian employees and 21 aircraft.
After U.S. consultations with the Spanish government, a surge capability was included in the amendment of another 800 dedicated military crisis-response task force personnel and 14 aircraft at Moron, for a total of 3,500 U.S. military and civilian personnel and 35 aircraft.
The surge capability would temporarily bolster crisis response capabilities, defense officials said.
The presence of the crisis response task force in Spain has increased joint training opportunities, with more than 52 joint exercises in the past two years, an increase of more than 50 percent, the officials added.
Long-term basing and increased joint training will benefit NATO interoperability, they said.
The amendment comes three years after the second protocol of amendment to the defense and cooperation agreement, which gave the United States permission to homeport four ballistic-missile defense-capable ships in Rota as Spain’s contribution to NATO’s ballistic missile defense.
Three ships have arrived, and the fourth is due in September, defense officials said.
The video shows Deputy Secretary Anthony Blinken, signing of the U.S.-Spain Amendment to the Agreement in Defense cooperation with Spanish Deputy Foreign Minister Ybanez.
Credit: US Department of State: 6/17/15
06/21/2015: Australia’s Air Task Group (ATG) as part of Operation OKRA comprises six RAAF F/A-18A Hornets, an E-7A Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft and a KC-30A Multi-Role Tanker Transport aircraft.
Nearly 400 personnel have deployed to the Middle East as part of, or in direct support of the ATG. Operation OKRA is the Australian Defence Force’s contribution to the international effort to combat the Daesh terrorist threat in Iraq.
Australia’s contribution is being closely coordinated with the Iraqi government, Gulf nations and a broad coalition of international partners.
Transcript:
My name is Flight Lieutenant Tom William.
I’m the air engineering officer for this location.
Our role here is to provide engineering support to the Air Task Group, and the camp maintenance function we also have to perform.
Our main project here is to deliver a semi-permanent building solution which will transition us from our temporary tented solutions which we are currently occupying.
We’re improving the reliability of all the facilities and infrastructure we have here, and we’re improving the quality of life as well.
So an example of what we’ve done is we’re moving into a more semi-permanent working accommodation, which will improve the quality of life at work.
And also we have a recreation facility which will improve quality of life when off duty.
We have long work hours, but we mitigate that through breaks during the day. We start work early and we work later into the night.
It’s the only way we can achieve what we need to do with the pending heat.
Credit: Australian Ministry of Defence:June 17, 2015
06/20/2015: U.S. Marine Corps MV-22B Ospreys begin flight operations on the USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6), off of the coast of South Korea, April 2, 2015.
The aircraft is with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 262 (Reinforced), 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit.
The 31st MEU is the Marine Corps’ only continuously forward-deployed expeditionary unit and is prepared to respond to a wide range of military operations ranging from humanitarian assistance missions to limited combat operations
Credit:31st Marine Expeditionary Unit:4/2/15
06/19/2015: U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Ospreys with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 262 (Reinforced), 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), take off carrying noncombatant role-players during a Noncombatant Evacuation Operation as part of Certification Exercise (CERTEX), on Camp Hansen, Okinawa, Japan, March 22, 2014.
CERTEX is the culminating event of the MEU’s annual Spring Patrol of the Asian-Pacific region.
Credit:31st MEU:3/22/15
06/18/2015: MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 262 (Reinforced), and AV-8B Harrier jets, assigned to Marine Attack Squadron (VMA) 231, take off and land on the flight deck of the forward-deployed amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6).
Credit: Navy Media Content Services:3/19/15
06/15/2015: NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (June 8, 2015)
Pre-Commissioning Unit Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) moored pierside at Newport News Shipbuilding as work on the ship continues.
Credit: Navy Media Content Services:6/8/15
For a look at CVN-78 and a comparison with the two other Western large deck carriers see the following:
http://sldinfo.wpstage.net/the-uss-ford-in-the-u-s-navys-future-enabling-the-distributed-force/