Unlike land borders that can be restricted due to geographical features (mountains, rivers, deserts) that can potentially be used as bottlenecks by law enforcement agencies, a sea border is much,much harder to police due to the fact that the sea is open and that intruders can literally go anywhere and make landfall anywhere they wish.

A porous sea border that people have traditionally ignored due to a shared culture between two countries is a particular nightmare. Close proximity to both countries also doesn't help. Sure you can spot a boat from far away by radar, but you can't possibly positively ID the intentions of its occupants by that alone. Between armed kidnappers or innocent fishermen, we can never know for certain which boat holds which unless you make a positive ID by checking the boat manually. And there is simply no way you can chase and canvass every single blip you can see on your radar screen.

You can check random boats to deter armed people, but beyond that is humanly impossible. I'm sure the authorities are doing all they can to combat these kinds of people with what they currently have, but to ask them for more is somewhat unrealistic unless major changes are employed.

Probably his solution would be to station 1 soldier for each 100 meters of sabah coastline. Then kidnapper sure cannot get here one.

The main problem is the long sea border and very close proximity of Sabah and South Philippines. Armed people up to no good can literally come here with speedboats and escape back to the border within an hour. You check this boat and at the same time you're doing that there are probably 3-4 more boats criss-crossing the border unchecked.

That's why I take offense in people unnecesarily saying Malaysian authorities tak buat kerja.

India agree to purchase $500 Million USD Russian light helicopter design after Putin Charm offensive


Hahaha cute chubby helicopter

Wreckage of misssing US Marine UH-1Y helicopter found near Chinese border



The wreckage of a US military helicopter that went missing with eight people on board while delivering aid in quake-hit Nepal has been found near the Chinese border, the Nepalese army said Friday.

Major General Binoj Basnet said the helicopter, which disappeared on Tuesday, had been spotted from the air in a remote forest around 70 kilometres (40 miles) northeast of Kathmandu.

"We don't know if there are any survivors, we have yet to confirm that," Basnet told AFP by telephone.

"We have sighted the wreckage from the air, we are now trying to land in the area and get more information."

The US military said earlier that the UH-1Y Huey was carrying six US Marines and two soldiers from the Nepalese army when it went missing during a relief flight in eastern Nepal.

Dedicated attack choppers with autocannons and missiles are overkill for these kinds of operations. Light helicopters with sniper & light weapons is much more appropriate. Disable engine/intimidate boat to stop by sniper/machine gun fire and then call in nearby surface units to search them.

Shooting to kill on boats with possible hostages in them is ridiculously irresponsible.



US Coast Guard HITRON units are an excellent example of a unit that specializes in these tactics.

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: May 15 2015, 09:46 PM

That's the point I'm making (dedicated attack choppers are overkill in ESSCOM situations), but some people apparently want to hurry up and use attack choppers to shoot every boat on sight with hellfire missiles.

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: May 15 2015, 10:37 PM

Doublepost

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: May 15 2015, 10:49 PM

Much better option than riddling the boat (and possibly everyone on board) with 30mm autocannon fire, IMHO. But that's just me.

Yemen 5-day truce ends without ceasefire deal, Arab coalition resumes airstrikes against Houthi positions



Saudi-led coalition airstrikes targeting Shiite rebels resumed early Monday in the southern port city of Aden after a five-day truce came to a close following talks on the war-torn country's future that were boycotted by the rebels.

Coalition airstrikes hit rebel positions and tanks in several neighborhoods of Aden after the cease-fire expired at 11 p.m. on Sunday, Yemeni security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Earlier Sunday, hundreds of Yemeni politicians and tribal leaders gathered in Saudi Arabia for three days of talks on Yemen's future, but the Houthis refused to participate.

The Shiite rebels reject the main aim of the talks — the restoration of Hadi, who fled the country in March in the face of rebel advances — and the location of the negotiations in Saudi Arabia, which is leading an air campaign against the Houthis and their allies.

The absence of the Houthis means the national dialogue is unlikely to end the violence.

Iranian aid supply ship enters Yemen waters, threatens direct Iran/saudi conflict


RSNF Frigate Al-Riyadh is among the Saudi Navy warships blockading the Yemeni coast

An Iranian ship said to be carrying humanitarian aid is approaching Yemen’s coastline, raising the risk of a showdown with the Saudi-led military coalition blockading Yemeni ports as it battles the country’s Shiite Houthi rebels.

The ship carrying food and medicine entered the Gulf of Aden on Sunday, according to Iranian media. Iran’s navy has vowed to protect the vessel, and the government said it won’t allow any country that’s part of Yemen’s war to inspect the cargo. If it carries on as scheduled, the vessel will arrive at Yemen’s Red Sea port of Hodeidah on May 21, according to a state TV reporter on board.

The voyage is a direct challenge to the Saudi-led blockade and comes as the two nations vie for regional dominance. A confrontation near the Suez Canal and key oil transit routes would further destabilize a region rocked by conflicts from Iraq to Syria and Libya. The Arab coalition suspects the ship is carrying weapons and military supplies to the Shiite Houthi rebels.

“There is the potential for this ship to push the conflict to another level,” Ibrahim Sharqieh, deputy director of the Brookings Doha Center, said by phone.

Exercise only? Stop by Port Klang la.... I would love to see these giant ships up close.

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: May 19 2015, 10:20 AM

Conflict in Iraq: Pro-Government militias rally in an attempt to retake Ramadi, IS death squads going door-to-door executing policemen and government workers & officials


IS militants stand beside the remains of an Iraqi Army M1 Abrams tank destroyed during their assault on Ramadi

Thousands of Shia militias and Sunni pro-government militias rally in an attempt to retake the city of Ramadi from the IS militants who captured the city yesterday. The Iraqi government sees the retaking of the city of 190,000 residents as immensely important and have issued a general call to arms after the elite Iraqi Army 'Golden Brigade' was utterly routed from the city by the force of an estimated 8,000 IS militants and dozens of car suicide bombs. Witnesses also claim that the Iraqi army left dozens of heavy equipment such as armored vehicles, artillery pieces and a few battle tanks, not to mention possibly a significant number of small arms such as assault rifles and grenade launchers.

Witnesses from the estimated civilians fleeing the city reported seeing corpses of hundreds of civilian and military personnel lying in the streets from the heavy fighting. Iran has offered military aid to the embattled Iraqi government, stating "we will help in any way possible", quoting an Iranian government official.

Meanwhile, inside Ramadi IS death squads are going door-to-door with lists containing the names of local police and government workers & officials. Unverified reports say the people on the list that have been captured by IS militants are given quick show trials in IS courts, executed and had their corpses thrown in the Euphrates river.

The most recent gains by the IS militants seems to have totally undermined Iraqi and US claims that IS is already on a defensive stance and on the run due to the US air campaign and Iraqi Army/militia offensive.

US & Arab coalition forces consider military option to stop Iran cargo ship approaching Yemen


The Iran Shahed cargo ship, seen here in port, is currently transporting what Iran calls 'humanitarian aid' to Yemen. The Arab coalition suspects the ship is carrying weapons and military supplies for the Houthi rebels

A U.S. warship, the USS Iwo Jima, has begun shadowing an Iranian cargo ship approaching the coast of Yemen with Iranian military escorts, raising concerns it could be delivering weapons for Houthi rebels in violation of a United Nations arms embargo, Defense Department officials said.

Iran says the cargo ship, "Iran Shahed," is carrying humanitarian relief to war-torn Yemen. It is being accompanied by a pair of Iranian warships, the missile frigates "Vosper" and "Bandar Abbas", which has joined up with the cargo ship on Tuesday.

The Iranian government has publicly announced that the cargo ship intends to deliver its shipment directly to Yemen and ignore U.N. demands that all relief shipments for Yemen first be delivered to a U.N. inspection station in nearby Djibouti.

But it's not yet certain whether the U.S. or other coalition warships will attempt to intercept the Iranian vessel. For the time being, the US Navy vessel is keeping its distance to the Iranian convoy. In the event that an attempt to board the cargo ship is authorized, the USS Iwo Jima can drop in US Navy SEAL commandos onto the ship via helicopters.

According to US officials, there's evidence that for "propaganda purposes" a number of "international observers" may be aboard the Iranian cargo ship prepared to document any attempt to board and search the Iranian vessel only to find no weapons on board.

On the other hand, to allow the ship free passage into Yemen without an inspection could set a "dangerous precedent" for future shipments.

Remains of missing Moroccan Air Force F-16 pilot found, returned home from Yemen


The coffin containing the remains of First Lieutenant Yassine Bahti is unloaded from an civilian airplane in Rabat, Morocco.

A Moroccan pilot missing since his plane crashed during a mission over Yemen has been found dead and his body returned home on Tuesday, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Tuesday.

First Lieutenant Yassine Bahti, 26, is the first airman to die since a Saudi-led coalition began bombing Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen on March 26.

His body was sent to Rabat. “Since the first moments of the crash, a team from the Saudi Defense Ministry, its Moroccan counterpart and (the International Committee of) the Red Cross was formed to locate the body of the martyr,” SPA said.

“Once the body was located, his family had requested it to be flown to Morocco and it was flown to Morocco through Djibouti.”

Deputy Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, second deputy premier and minister of defense, directed “that the Moroccan martyr be treated the same as a Saudi martyr, financially and morally.”

Doublepost

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: May 20 2015, 09:20 AM

For now its still unclear whether he died in the crash itself or he died later as of as yet unknown reasons. There were pictures some time ago where some tribesmen found some wreckage from the F-16 but no mention then of the pilot being retrieved alive or dead.


A piece of airplane with Moroccan insignia is found by tribesmen in the Saada mountains

An autopsy would probably give a clearer picture on cause of death, but no reports have been released to the press as of now.

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: May 20 2015, 10:51 AM

Arab coalition intensifiies airstikes on Yemen with an estimated 150 sorties launched in the last 72 hours


A UAE Air Force F-16 fighter/bomber armed with laser-guided bombs takes off from a Saudi Air Force base for a bombing mission over Yemen

Warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition carried out the most sustained bombardment of Yemen's capital Sanaa in nearly two months of air strikes on Tuesday night, residents of the city said, hitting army bases and weapons depots in an estimated 150 sorties in the last 72 hours.

It was the first time air strikes continued from morning until after midnight since the campaign began on March 26, residents said, and led to terrifying blasts across the city. Saudi jets also struck Sanaa airport's runway to stop an Iranian cargo plane, which Tehran said was carrying a Red Crescent aid shipment, from landing without having been inspected by it or the UN.

Yemen's exiled government in Riyadh, backed by the coalition, said on Tuesday it would not agree to talks with rebels until they withdrew from cities and surrendered weapons, meaning peace talks to end the civil war seem unlikely soon.

The coalition restarted airstrikes late on Sunday after a five-day humanitarian ceasefire, waving away pleas for an extension by the United Nations by pointing to what it said were repeated abuses of the ceasefire by rebels.

The rebels, an alliance of the Houthi militia and army forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, control most of the populated west of Yemen, and have been fighting local groups in the cities of Aden, Taiz, Marib and al-Dhala.

IS don't have those sort of advanced anti-tank weapons, it doesn't have an official sponsor country like Hezbollah(Iran) or various Syrian rebel groups (US/Saudi). From most videos it seems more of their anti-tank weapons consists of lower-grade weapons like RPG-7PVR, recoiless rifles or older ATGM like MILAN or Soviet AT-4 'Fagot' captured from moderate Syrian rebels.

Also, even monkey model M1 Abrams is probably better than many full-spec Russian tanks, just sayin'.

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: May 20 2015, 11:26 PM

Iran backs down, allows Yemen-bound cargo ship to be inspected by UN personnel in Djibouti


The Amphibious Assault ship USS Iwo Jima is currently shadowing the Iranian cargo ship and its Naval escorts

Iran will allow the United Nations to inspect a Yemen-bound aid ship at the regional U.N. hub in Djibouti, Tehran's deputy foreign minister was quoted as saying on Wednesday, offering a chance to avert a showdown with Saudi-led forces.

Earlier in the day, the Iran Shahed's captain had said the ship was due to enter the Bab al-Mandeb strait linking the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea, bypassing Djibouti on the Horn of Africa and heading for the Yemeni port of Hodaida.

"We have decided to dock our ship in Djibouti so the United Nations inspection protocol can take place," Hossein Amir Abdollahian was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

Iran backs the dominant Houthi militia in Yemen's civil war while Saudi Arabia, Tehran's regional arch-rival, sees the Houthis as a threat and is leading air strikes on them to try to roll back their advances and reinstate Yemen's exiled president.

Iran has said the ship is carrying humanitarian aid for Yemeni civilians. Hodaida's port is under Houthi control. The saudi-led coalition suspects the ship is carrying weapons and military supplies.

The Saudi-led coalition controls the waters around Yemen and has enforced inspections on all shipments entering the country. It was not clear whether Saudi forces would allow the Iran Shahed to dock in Yemen even after a U.N. inspection.