ARMY DEPOT DISCOVERS A .50 CALIBER M2 HEAVY MACHINE GUN THAT HAS BEEN IN THE ARSENAL FOR 94 YEARS: It’s still serviceable. Unfortunately, upgrading M2 serial number 324 will require changing the receiver.

While it may be possible to modify the nine-decades-old gun, it’s still easier to replace the receiver and scrap the veteran part. There is a glimmer of hope for M2 324. It’s possible that the Army will put the gun on display, celebrating the gun and its history. “I’d rather put this one on display than send it to the scrap yard,” said Clark.

Clark works at the Anniston Army Depot (Anniston, Alabama). This is a case where defense budgeteers got it right. Taxpayers got their money’s worth.

UPDATE: Sorry about the link issue. It worked for me when I tested it, but on the blog the link went to a blank page. Fixed!

KOREA UPDATE: A very long post but information-rich.

An excerpt:

Amidst all the news about peace in Korea one bit of news got overlooked. In April it became known that another senior North Korean official had defected, apparently to a NATO (European) country. The defection apparently took place in February when a North Korean counter-intelligence officer named Kang, while stationed in northeast China, slipped away and took a lot of top secret documents with him. The North Korean government responded by ordering seven agents into China with orders to find Kang and execute him immediately. These seven agents failed, apparently because they were unable to obtain sufficient assistance from their Chinese counterparts. Another three more experienced and better financed agents were then sent after Kang, wherever he was, with the same “execute on sight” orders. That details of this case have been leaked indicates the Kang has arrived in a nation willing to grant asylum and also protect Kang from the North Korean assassins (who will always be out there for a defector of Kang’s stature.) Unfortunately colonel Kang’s family was not so lucky.

The Kim regime is brittle.

The post’s analysis of CVID (Complete, Verifiable, Irreversible Denuclearization) is excellent background. I’ll be writing about that in a couple of weeks.

Scroll way way down to the TODAY (May 22) section discussing the meeting between President Trump and South Korean President Moon.

MIKE POMPEO WARNS IRAN:

“The sting of sanctions will be painful if the regime does not change its course from the unacceptable and unproductive path it has chosen to one that rejoins the league of nations,” Pompeo, shy of a full month on the job, said at The Heritage Foundation, warning Iran’s leaders that the “strongest sanctions in history” are coming…“The regime has been fighting all over the Middle East for years. After our sanctions come in force, it will be battling to keep its economy alive.”

Sounds like Maximum Pressure Iran — and it is!

UPDATE: The Battle Rial. In which the ayatollahs encounter more financial pressure. As my “maximum pressure” essay noted (previous link), in April the rial plunged in value. Iran already faces a currency crisis.

LONGBOW HELLFIRE AT SEA: The littoral combat ship (LCS) USS Milwaukee fires a modified Hellfire missile. The ship was participating in an exercise pitting it against a swarm of small boats (“fast inshore attack craft targets” in milspeak.)

INDO-PACOM?: The Pentagon may rename Pacific Command “Indo-Pacific Command.”

And why do that?

Congress is pushing for increased focus on China’s activities in the Indo-Pacific and the 2019 defense bill includes several provisions to counter Chinese influence there.

What’s in a name? A message to Beijing.

RELATED: China’s Strategic Strait In The South China Sea.

AUSTRALIA BANS USE OF “VIOLENT IMAGERY” BY COMBAT UNITS: It hasn’t gone over well with the troops.

This order was met with incredulousness and unprintable comments by Australian combat troops, especially combat veterans of the many wars and peacekeeping operations Australia has been involved in.

MORE:

The use of the now banned (in the Australian military) symbols arose spontaneously among troops in heavy combat (including peacekeeping or counter-terrorism operations) where the troops faced danger on a regular and sustained basis. Combat commanders (NCOs and junior officers) also getting shot at tended to allow the symbols to be used. Motivating combat troops and maintaining morale (and sanity) is very much a school of “whatever works.” But the further up the chain of command you go the less influence combat psychology has and the more concern is shown for what the politicians and voters are concerned about.

Alas, “…bans like this are part of a trend that began in the late 20th century with bans on aircraft “nose art”.”

Political correctness more than run amok. The politically correct doofs are undermining the armed forces that protect their silly excess. Read the whole post and weep.

IRAN’S DEATH TO AMERICA EMOJI: You know I’m not making this up. The emoji appears on a “domestically-produced mobile messaging app.”

I’m not making this up, either: Iran’s criminal ayatollah regime must never be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. But Obama’s so-called “nuclear deal” permitted just that. (bumped)

HERCULEAN ELEPHANT WALK: Bird’s eye view of a flock of C-130J Super Hercules on a runway at Yokota Air Base, Japan.

PREPARING TO LAUNCH A RAFALE: French naval aircraft continue to train on the carrier USS George H. W. Bush.

THE NEXT TARGET OF TRUMP ADMINISTRATION MAXIMUM PRESSURE: Iran. The ayatollahs deal in terror — and organized crime.

On April 17, three weeks before the Trump administration withdrew from the JCPOA, the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence held a hearing that addressed Iran’s global terrorism and crime networks.

Witnesses accused Tehran of directing organized criminal syndicates engaged in narcotics, weapons and human trafficking. One witness testified that its criminal syndicates operate in southwest Asia, eastern Europe, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa and that the regime launders money for narcotics traffickers in South America and Central America.

A committee member posed a critical question: Do these Iranian activities present a direct physical threat to the U.S.? A witness reminded the subcommittee that in 2011 an Iranian operative was arrested before he could assassinate a Saudi diplomat in a Washington, D.C. restaurant. The Iranian operative intended to murder the Saudi official using a large bomb that would have destroyed the restaurant and no doubt killed several dozen people in the building and on the street.

Obama was going to let the robed Capones get nukes. (bumped)

ANOTHER SIGN CHINA IS THINKING AHEAD, TO THE NEXT WAR: The Chinese Air Force reorganizes the 15th Airborne Corps.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Trump Administration maximum pressure targets Iran’s violent ayatollah regime. My latest Observer essay.

C-17 FLARE STORM: The jet transport can create a rather large one. Photo snapped in Qatar during a recent exercise.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Trump Administration maximum pressure targets Iran’s violent ayatollah regime. My latest Observer essay.

BAD NEWS FROM THE SOUTH CHINA SEA: China lands long-range bombers on artificial island in disputed zone.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION MAXIMUM PRESSURE TARGETS IRAN: My latest New York Observer column. (bumped)

NO, OCTOPUSES AREN’T ALIENS: Enough said.

BUFF TAKEOFF FROM GUAM: The “Continuous Bomber Presence” is still there and still prepared to visit Pyongyang.

TIME TO SQUEEZE IRAN’S VIOLENT AYATOLLAHS: Remember the Iranian opposition Green Movement protests that began in 2009, the ones Obama was slow to support?

In 2010, the Iranian regime brutally suppressed the Green Movement.

However, the quiet gripes and grim faces, the bitter jokes about robes and beards and theft, and the internet complaints of food prices—all tell-tale signs of deep dissatisfaction with the regime—never disappeared.

A bit more:

The Iranian regime faces increasingly grim prospects. American political and economic sanctions wounded Iran, and oil price warfare waged by Saudi Arabia, Arab states of the Persian Gulf, and U.S. frackers further increased Iranian pain. The resulting economic stresses have produced a currency crisis.

Trump ditched Obama’s “nuclear deal” at a ripe time. My latest Observer essay. Hope you’ll check it out.

NORTH KOREA’S TART OF THE DEAL: My latest Creators Syndicate column.

WW2 CLASH OF EGOS IN CHINA-BURMA-INDIA: Al Nofi reviews Stilwell and Mountbatten in Burma: Allies at War, 1943-1944. A short and insightful review of a book examining two key leaders in WW2’s neglected theater.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION MAXIMUM PRESSURE TARGETS IRAN: My latest New York Observer column. (bumped)

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TARGETS IRAN’S NUKES: What we should have done all along.

AN F-22 OPENS WIDE: During a flyover, an F-22 Raptor stealth fighter opens it weapons bay.

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TARGETS IRAN.