UKRAINE BARS RUSSIAN MEN AGES 16-60 FROM ENTERING THE COUNTRY: It’s war in Europe.

Martial law has been imposed in 10 Ukrainian regions until 26 December.

The move came as Ukraine’s president expressed fears of a Russian invasion after Russian forces seized three Ukrainian boats and 24 sailors.

Ukraine said Sunday’s incident in the Black Sea was a flagrant violation of international law, while Russia says the vessels violated its territorial waters.

The Kerch Strait incident is very serious.

VERY RELATED: This post from yesterday (bumped): Russia’s War with Ukraine Goes to Sea –my latest Creators Syndicate column. For background, see this column from November 21, Russia’s pinprick war against Ukraine. For deep background read this column from 2012, about Barack Obama’s missile message to Vlad Putin. Recall that in September 2012 Putin put in a plug for Obama’s reelection.

VIKING CONVOY: U.S. Marines and British Royal Marines conduct vehicle checks on BvS 10 Viking vehicles. The convoy was moving through Sorreisa, Norway. Here’s some background on the Viking, which is an “articulated” all terrain vehicle. It’s also amphibious.

RUSSIA’S WAR WITH UKRAINE GOES TO SEA: My latest Creators Syndicate column. For background, see this column from November 21, Russia’s pinprick war against Ukraine. For deep background read this column from 2012, about Barack Obama’s missile message to Vlad Putin. Recall that in September 2012 Putin put in a plug for Obama’s reelection.

RUSSIA’S WAR WITH UKRAINE GOES TO SEA.

CHINA’S INTERNET ARMY: This post begins with a discussion of the October 2018 U.S. indictment of nine Chinese citizens on charges of “Internet-based espionage.” The nine worked with an Internet hacking operation based in China’s Jiansu Province. The group targeted “technical data on high-performance jet engines.” But the post also discusses the origins of China’s enormous “Internet Army.”

Internal and external espionage is one of the main reasons the Chinese government took an interest in the Internet back in the 1990s. This resulted in nearly two decades of effort to mobilize the Chinese people as an Internet army. It was in the late 1990s that the Chinese Defense Ministry established the “NET Force.” This was initially a research organization, which was to measure China’s vulnerability to attacks via the Internet. Soon this led to examining the vulnerability of other countries, especially the United States, Japan, and South Korea (all nations that were heavy Internet users). NET Force has continued to grow, aided by plenty of volunteers.

In 1999, NET Force organized an irregular civilian militia, the “Red Hackers Union” (RHU). These are several hundred thousand patriotic Chinese programmers and Internet engineers who wished to assist the motherland and put the hurt, via the Internet, on those who threaten or insult China.

Read the whole thing.

EXERCISE BLACK ORYX: A U.S. Army High Mobility Rocket Artillery System (HIMARS) fires a rocket during Exercise Black Oryx in Jordan. Here’s a 2011 post with background on HIMARS’ development and initial procurement. This second post (from November 24) discusses new ways the Army and Marines are employing HIMARS. USMC F-35Bs can “spot” targets for GPS-guided GMLRS rockets fired by HIMARS. The Army and Air Force are developing innovative tactics for quickly deploying HIMARS in a forcible entry mission. The acronym is HIRAIN (HIMARS Rapid Infiltration). As the post points out, “until HIMARS and GMLRS came along there was no easy to provide instant precision artillery support.”

CHINOOK OVER A BLEAK STRETCH OF EASTERN AFGHANISTAN: A CH-47 helicopter on an operation in eastern Afghanistan. Photo taken October 14, 2018.

PRE-DEPLOYMENT EXERCISE AT 29 PALMS: A USMC M1A1 Abrams maneuvers in the desert and fires its 120 mm main gun. The Marine unit is preparing to deploy in early 2019. (Date typo fixed.)

NAVY LIGHTNING OVER CALIFORNIA: Two Navy F-35C Lightning IIs fly in formation over the California desert. The F-35C is the “aircraft carrier” version (catapult launched) of the F-35 Lightning II.

TOMAHAWK LAUNCH PLUS RELOAD: The guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey conducts a Tomahawk missile flight test while underway in the western Pacific. This second photo shows a Tomahawk in its “tip over phase” after launch from a surface ship. This third photo shows a submarine tender loading a Tomahawk on an attack submarine. For some useful background information on the Tomahawk and its variants see this post from late 2017.

THE FINNISH MODEL: Foreign Affairs argues that other European armies should emulate the Finnish Defense Forces.

Finland has shown that the secret to making the armed forces popular is ensuring that the low-ranking soldiers and noncommissioned officers who make up most of the ranks are content.

That approach is working. In the most recent survey of graduating conscripts, conducted this fall, 80 percent supported maintaining conscription; 42 percent said that they would serve even if conscription were not mandatory; and 22 percent were neutral. Only 36 percent said they would not serve. If Finns forced to serve say they would have done so even if they did not have to, then the FDF has managed a feat from which other countries can learn. Charly Salonius-Pasternak, a security analyst at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (who also served as a conscript), argued that there is plenty that other countries can replicate. “Don’t oversell,” he said. “You can’t have cool videos of soldiers jumping out of airplanes if you can’t deliver. But equally, don’t undersell.” Once troops are enlisted, militaries must make their service worthwhile. “Keep them learning skills that they can also use elsewhere,” Salonius-Pasternak said…Armed forces elsewhere have commanders who treat their subordinates with respect, inspire them, and help them develop. Finland has excelled by systematizing those virtues.

It’s a thoughtful essay.

RUSSIA’S PINPRICK WAR IN UKRAINE CONTINUES: The pinpricks draw blood. The slow war has global implications mainstream media ignore. My latest Creators Syndicate column.

RELATED: “Twenty-First Century Russian Imperial Warfare,” Chapter 4 in my new book Cocktails from Hell: Five Complex Wars Shaping The Twenty-First Century. It will be published next month.

RHODE ISLAND RETURNS TO GEORGIA: The Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS Rhode Island returns to homeport at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Georgia. Good photo of a boomer.

RUSSIA’S PINPRICK WAR IN EASTERN UKRAINE HAS GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS

MARINE LAVS GO AIRBORNE: This post analyzes the recent decision by the U.S. Army to give the 82nd Airborne Division a light armored vehicle and why the Army decided to procure the LAV-25 instead of other vehicles.

U.S. Army is obtaining from the Marines some LAV (Light Armored Vehicle) 25A2 8×8 vehicles…At 13.4 tons the LAV 25 is light enough to be air dropped.

The post includes a discussion of the ill-fated M551 Sheridan “airborne tank.”

Here’s a photo from 2013 of a USMC LAV-25.

JAPANESE ZERO OVER HOMESTEAD: A Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero performs at an airshow held at Homestead Air Reserve Base, Florida. The caption doesn’t indicate if the plane is a WW2 Zero restored to flying condition — there are a handful left. Several T-6 Texans have been modified to look like Zeros and fly as Zero replicas.

A VERY BIG QUESTION: Will China’s economic slowdown lead to a major crisis?

PLOWING MINES: Tankers from the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division participate in a “mine plow” exercise at Rodriguez Live Fire Complex, South Korea. The two M1A2s in the picture have mine clearing blade attachments.

NOW THIS IS INTERESTING AND DANGEROUS: Russian history buffs find a WW II improvised minefield near a major road.

A group of Russian history buffs was surprised to find a reminder of Soviet resistance to the Nazi invasion in the form of an improvised minefield near a busy road.

Members of a club devoted to the history of the nearby Krasnaya Gorka military fort almost stumbled across the makeshift mines in a quiet stretch of woodland not far from St Petersburg, the local Kanal 5 TV channel reports.

Club chairman Alexander Senotrusov said Soviet forces stationed at Krasnaya Gorka had no mines with which to block German tanks on their way to Leningrad in 1941, so they improvised explosives from pre-revolutionary naval shells and laid them out in rows around the fort.

“One pound of pressure, and up you go,” he told Kanal 5.

So far, a good ending. So far.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: To deter China, India joins the “Nuclear Triad” Club. My latest Creators Syndicate column. My new book, Cocktails from Hell, has a chapter on China which includes a discussion of an emerging security quasi-alliance called “the Quad”: India, Australia, Japan and the U.S. The book will be published in December.

NIGHT MORTAR ACTION, SOMEWHERE IN IRAQ OR SYRIA: Marines from Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment fire 81mm mortars in support of night operations against Islamic State forces. Photo taken September 10, 2018.

HOIST TRAINING IN A CLOUD OF DEBRIS: USAF pararescue teams conduct hoist training from an Army Chinook helicopter. Photo taken Nov. 5, 2018 at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan.

BOOK REVIEW: The Grand Strategy of the Habsburg Empire. Yes, the Habsburgs had one. For several centuries the Austrian Habsburgs managed to create “a great European power out of a rather inchoate conglomeration of states and statelets.” A short review of an interesting book.

JAVELIN LIVE FIRE: 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment troopers in Iraq fire a Javelin anti-tank missile during a training exercise.