ARCTIC CHINOOK: A CH-47 Chinook lifts off from an ice field near Deadhorse, Alaska. The helicopter was participating in a simulated alert rescue operation as part of exercise Arctic Eagle 2020. Photo taken February 28, 2020. In this second photo a North Dakota Air National Guard CH-47 drops sandbags in an effort to protect a dam during a flood that occurred in April 2009.

RELATED: This post from 2013 has background information on the CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter. This post from 2018 discusses Britain’s decision to buy the MH-47G special operations variant.

BREACHER DELIVERY: Not to your doorstep, to a beach near Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. A U.S. Marine Corps M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicle (ABV) exits a U.S. Navy Landing Craft Utility. Good photo of the ABV. Here’s a photo from 2010 with an ABV sporting a plow attachment. This photo’s caption also explains what hides inside the “charge tubs.” This military technology update from 2009 explains why the Marines acquired the ABV. Finally, a photo of a U.S. Army ABV launching a mine clearing charge. When you need combat engineers, you need combat engineers. The problem is, there are never enough combat engineers when you need them.

GAIL HERIOT: You are one of my heroes. That said, I reccommend that all Californians stay put. Don’t move. Isolate. Extreme Californication-Isolationism-Gee, We’re Screwed. Californians hear me! Isolate. Remain hidden in place and imbibe (if you’ve the booze) on the dismal effects of the one-party leftist dictatorship y’all — well, self-selected. Please. Do not flee to Nevada or Texas. Please, avoid Texas, at all costs. It’s really hell here in Texas. Tarantulas. Effin tarantulas. Legs. Icky hairy legs. And the effers jump and bite. But it gets worse. We are over-run by feral hogs, mega-gators , armadillos with leprosy and –this is where tax refugees/internally displaced persons (IDPs) come in– aka Californians…They come to Travis County and the Hill Country…what a bring down…All right. Full disclosure. The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF to insiders) informs me most Californians coming to Texas are at least as conservative as Ed Driscoll, who left the Bay Area for Texas. TO CONTINUE: If TPPF’s stats are accurate, erudite Texas should welcome California refugees…But do California refugees truly understand the the Hell they fled?…I hope y’all do. If you do, there’s a national upside. If you do dig, you CALTEXREFS, this means media-created jerk political fops like Robert O’Rourke (pseudo-Beto, a racist appropriation, White House press corps condemn it now!) and Wendy Davis are dust in the dead bin of Marxist never-beens. (Aside to Stephen Green: this is how you do it, kid. Take notes.)

OK, fellow frustrated quarantined libertarians. I let it roll. Now you let it roll.

IN PRAISE OF CHLOROQUINE: For the drugs potential to help stop the COVID-19/Wuhan virus but mostly for the sensible Trump Administration decision to provide “regulatory relief for the use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine.” Powerline’s Scott Johnson summarizes the President’s statement and posts an embedded video of the press conference. America is over-regulated. Let me suggest a phrase that describes the Administration’s regulatory relief in terms even mainstream media twerps can understand: Compassionate De-Regulation! We’re doing it for the elderly, for the children! You read it here.

FISH LAUNCH IN THE PHILIPPINE SEA: The destroyer USS Mustin launches a torpedo during an anti-submarine exercise. Photo taken March 14, 2020. Torpedoes devastated Battleship Row in Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. In the 21st century torpedoes remain a threat — here’s a 2008 photo showing a USN cruiser practicing torpedo evasion maneuvers somewhere in the Indian Ocean. This post from 2013 discusses the Navy’s purchase of “upgraded” anti-submarine torpedoes. This second military technology post –from 2016– discusses defensive measures against wake-homing torpedoes. Both post are detailed– worth reading if you want to know something about modern war at sea.

VIRTUE SIGNALING THE VIRUS GOES VIRAL: Kung Flu Fighting –Powerline puns while linking to commentaries on the absolutely silly clique of idiots who object to calling the COVID-19 “Wuhan virus” or “a virus from China.” The post includes this link to Andrew McCarthy’s column on the moniker flu-haha.

Excerpt from McCarthy’s column:

Early this year, as the outbreak became manifest in China and began its relentless march through Southeast Asia and into Europe, the American press itself alluded incessantly to the Wuhan coronavirus. The sudden case of talking-head amnesia over this is being greeted in conservative media by hilarious video montages featuring the same scolds, who now decry the term, matter-of-factly invoking it back then.

“Scolds” is far too kind a description. I commented on the Chinese Communist Party agitation propaganda name blame schtick in my weekly Creators Syndicate column.

Here’s the name blame afterthought in a column that examines Dr. Fauci’s neo-isolationist strategy:

The virus’ name game has become an absurd example of manipulative identity politics. The virus first appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan. For two months, mainstream media called it Wuhan virus. Now China’s communist dictators, attempting to evade responsibility for initially denying the disease existed and, in doing so, spawning the global epidemic — contend the name “Wuhan virus” is racist. Absurd propaganda. Lyme disease? Remind Beijing it’s named for a town in Connecticut. I’ll stick with COVID-19/Wuhan, thank you.

Manipulative identity politics — a sick social disease infecting America.

HERC ON ICE: An LC-130 waits in the ski-landing area on sea ice near Deadhorse, Alaska. The aircraft and crew were participating in Exercise Arctic Eagle 2020. Photo taken March 3, 2020.

AMERICAN MICRO-EFFORTS AND MACRO-EFFORTS COMBAT THE COVID-19/WUHAN VIRUS EPIDEMIC:

From March 16 through March 31, the United States will conduct a calculated national experiment that leverages its residents’ personal responsibility to combat a strategic threat that has transnational dimensions, the COVID-19/Wuhan virus. Local to global is a cliche, but during this 15-day period, Trump administration medical advisers, among them the distinguished epidemiologist Dr. Anthony Fauci, plan to use very local actions to achieve aggregate national effects that will have global impact.

Read the entire essay.

FROM UNDER THE ICE: As in Arctic polar ice, not immigration and customs. With a crack the attack submarine USS Toledo arrives at Ice Camp Seadragon on the Arctic Ocean, kicking off Ice Exercise (ICEX) 2020. The photo was taken March 5.

DUTCH COURT PUTS KREMLIN FLIGHT MH17 LIES ON TRIAL: Justice is slow. Kremlin lies spread quickly.

But on March 9:

…a court in The Hague opened the trial of four men Dutch prosecutors accused of being responsible for destroying Malaysian Airlines Flight 17.

Three of the indicted are Russian; one is Ukrainian. All four men are members of Russian-led secessionist militias operating in eastern Ukraine. No, they are not present in the court. They are being tried in absentia.

Read the entire column.

RAPTOR MIST OVER SINGAPORE: Maj. Josh Gunderson, F-22 Demonstration Team pilot, performs during an aerial demonstration at the Singapore Airshow 2020 near the Changi Exhibition Center, Feb. 11, 2020.

WARTHOG IN STRIPES: Red, white and blue, with a 30 mm. The photo was taken at a Heritage Flight Training Course fly-by at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., Feb. 29, 2020.

THE EMPTY CHAIRS IN FRONT OF THE RUSSIAN EMBASSY IN THE NETHERLANDS: Survivors of the people killed when a Russian-made missile shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) in 2014 placed them there. The empty chairs, of course, represent their deceased loved ones.

Reuters:

Rows of white chairs were placed in front of Russia’s embassy in The Hague on Sunday in a quiet protest by families of those who were shot down with Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, on the eve of the trial – in absentia – of four men accused of murder for their involvement.

The trial starts tomorrow.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a press release today outlining the U.S. position. His statement is succinct but here’s a key point:

…All of those indicted are members of Russia-led forces in eastern Ukraine. We call upon all States to cooperate in efforts to establish accountability, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2166.

This trial is a critical moment in the search for justice for the families and friends of the 298 individuals who lost their lives on July 17, 2014.

Several media organizations reported last November that electronic intercepts (by Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency) confirmed officials in Moscow (including a deputy prime minister) were in contact with two of the men under indictment. This BBC report has the critical details and names names.

I wrote a column about the Flight MH17 disaster (published July 24, 2014).

MH17’s fatal interception has opened eyes. For several good reasons, to include photos of SA-11 mobile launchers departing Ukraine for Russia, numerous experts believe a Russian-made SA-11 surface-to-air missile shot down MH17.

The missile itself is only one component of a complex weapon system. Militiamen do not simply find an SA-11 launcher, functional missiles, control vans, radar and other communications equipment. The Kremlin had to authorize the delivery of the SA-11 system to its militia proxies.

That was my conclusion at the time — at a minimum Russia had to be providing logistical, maintenance and intelligence support to the separatist missile unit. Of course Kremlin propagandists claimed the incident was a CIA plot to discredit Russia and justify NATO expansion.

Follow this link to find technical and historical information on the SA-11 and its variants.

SUNRISE AT CHERRY POINT: U.S. Marine KC-130J Super Hercules aerial tankers sit staged on the flight line at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C. The photo was taken in 2015, but it seems appropriate for Daylight Savings Time Sunday.

IRAN FINDS SOMEONE WHO CLAIMS THE CORONAVIRUS IS PART OF AN AMERICAN INFO OP: And if you read what the guy says, he thinks it’s a covert operation. MSN News sources this to the Iran Daily. Who is Scott Bennett? You tell me.

Scott Bennett said that “this is a fabricated psychological operation that has been coordinated with an actual physical sickness to spread fear, panic and intimidation in the Chinese economic markets with the purpose of isolating China and disrupting the Chinese-Russian-Iranian economic, military alliance that we’ve seen in their patrols in the Persian Gulf, and their solidarity in the defense of Syria from the… regimes of Recep Erdogan and Turkey, Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, and Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli Zionist state, and the purpose was to create a disruption that would fracture this alliance for Western exploitation.”

What rhetoric. He doesn’t stop there, he even implicates Big Pharma. Everybody and the kitchen sink!

VERY RELATED: Iran’s ‘Death to America’ Ayatollahs in an Epidemic Bind. In Iran “Senior leaders themselves may be responsible for spreading the disease.” It’s my latest Creators Syndicate column.

ON THE GROUND: An Army paratrooper lands after jumping out of a C-160 over Alzey, Germany. The C-160 is a twin-engine transport built by Transall. The French and German air forces fly the C-160.

THE AYATOLLAHS’ EPIDEMIC: The Iranian government denied their country faced an epidemic and now infected Iranians have spread COVID-19 to other countries.

Senior leaders themselves may be responsible for spreading the disease. Iran’s Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi and vice president for Women and Family Affairs Masoumeh Ebtekar have COVID-19. An Iranian website reported Ebtekar met with President Hassan Rouhani and other ministers shortly before testing positive. One report says 23 members of parliament have the virus.

The Chinese Communist dictatorship’s lack of transparency delayed China’s response to the epidemic. Iran’s ayatollah despots repeated that mistake.

It’s my latest Creators Syndicate column (bumped).

MOROCCO BUYS ISRAELI: A StrategyPage “Procurement” update on Morocco’s purchase of French-made but Israeli-designed Harfang (Eagle) Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. The update discusses the Harfang, the Israeli Heron Shoval and several other UAVs, but it’s also a commentary on improving Israeli-Arab relations.

MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE CONGO, EBOLA FADES AND LOCUSTS ARRIVE: It’s StrategyPage’s latest Congo and Central Africa update. I wrote some of it. Some good news about the Ebola virus epidemic: “The number of new Ebola “cases per day” has dropped. From February 18 to 23, there was only one new confirmed case in North Kivu Province.”

But yet another plague:

The huge desert locust swarm sweeping across eastern Africa reached Congo’s Lake Albert region in late February. This is the first major locust swarm to strike Congo since 1944. Locust swarms are already ravaging neighboring Uganda. On February 11 the Ugandan government deployed around 2,000 Ugandan Army soldiers to fight the locusts.

Read the post to find out how a Ugandan Army counter-locust operation works.

IRAN’S “DEATH TO AMERICA” AYATOLLAHS IN AN EPIDEMIC BIND:

In the context of proliferating contagion and human suffering, the U.S. offer to Iran of aid and selective sanctions relief was an act of real generosity, despite the nations’ political antagonism.

Read the entire column.

LIGHTNINGS: As in a P-38 Lightning flying beside an F-35A Lightning II. The next photo is a static display shot of the P-38 and F-35 taken in 2006 at Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth, Texas facility. From the history vault, a 9th Air Force P-38 “warms up” for action during the Battle of the Bulge. Last but by no means least, a “decades of air power” heritage flight photo from 2009: An F-86 Sabre, a P-38, an F-4 Phantom and an A-10 Thunderbolt II overfly Nellis AFB, Nevada.

TESTING THE SPACE FENCE: Upgrading orbital safety.

POWERLINE: Abdi Nur pleads for help.

Scott Johnson’s intro:

The Ilhan Omar-inspired reign of terror continues in Minneapolis. Today my friend Abdi Osman Nur pleads for help as the news blackout continues. I am posting this at Abdi’s request on the understanding that the video is “dangerous to my LIFE,” as he explains…

Read Abdi Nur’s request. “The video” is a cyber bully threat to harm him.

GENTLE TOUCHDOWN: An F-35B Lightning II lands on the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS America. This post from December 2018 has some background on F-35 variants and their capabilities.

CHINOOK ON SKIS: A U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook flies over Fort Greely, Alaska during exercise Arctic Edge 2020. Photo taken Feb. 27, 2020,

RELATED: From 2013, a post on CH-47 procurement and modernization. The pull quote: “The CH-47 has proved to be a very successful design and none of the proposed replacements was dramatically better than an upgraded CH-47.” Here’s a photo of a Chinook lifting an Army Ground Mobility Vehicle.