An ongoing story in Europe as 4 US soldiers have gone missing during a training exercise being carried out in Pabradė, a town near the border between Lithuania and the Belorussian border. The four were all apart of 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division and based at Fort Stewart, Georgia.
A comment from the commanding general
“I would like to personally thank the Lithuanian Armed Forces and first responders who quickly came to our aid in our search operations,” said Lt. Gen. Charles Costanza, the V Corps commanding general. “It’s this kind of teamwork and support that exemplifies the importance of our partnership and our humanity regardless of what flags we wear on our shoulders.”
The army later put out a statement that the crews M88 Hercules armored vehicle they had last been seen in had been found submerged in a body of water and that recovery efforts were ongoing. Members of the U.S. army as well as the Lithuanian army are working to recover the vehicle with the help of civilian agencies.
It’s very likely that the crew was in the vehicle when it was submerged as they probably would have showed up by now. The army would understandably want to notify the families and recover the body’s before any announcement is made.
Our thoughts are with the families and those who knew them.
The U.S. Department of Defense has ordered the USS Carl Vinson(CVN-70) to the Middle East after its current deployment ends. All this is with the backdrop of a nonstop U.S. offensive on Iranian backed Houthi terrorist in Western Yemen,ongoing for over a week.
USS Carl Vinson Transitions the Philippines Sea Jan. 2 2022.
Currently the USS Carl Vinson along with her CSG have been assigned to the 7th fleet in the East Asia region but will leave for the Middle East soon. The CSG is expected to take two-three weeks to arrive when it will join the USS Harry S. Truman already in the region. The Truman has been carrying out daily strikes on Houthi targets. Truman’s deployment was scheduled to end soon but was extended at least a month, possibly longer.
Recent footage showing operations from the USS Harry S Truman Strike group as they carry out strikes against the Houthis.
The USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group is at last sighting made up of Ticonderoga-Class Guided missile cruiser USS Princeton (CG 59)as well as the Arleigh Burke-Class Guided Missile Destroyers USS Sterett (DDG 104) and USS Ralph Johnson (DDG 114).
Makeup of the Carl Vinsons Air Wing.
The USS Carl Vinson was the Navy’s test bed for integrating 5th generation fighter jets into the Carrier Air wing. Specifically adding F-35C’s Lightning II which are capable of being launched from the Carrier. The F-35’s are a great addition to the fleet, adding an impressive Multi-Mission capable airframe to an already dominant group of war fighting planes. The officers of the Carl Vinson noted that the F-35 paired really well with the electronic attack capabilities of the EA-18G Growler. Using them together in combined operations made for a hard to beat team, heavy jamming and EW mixed with the amazing stealth of the F-35.
Last night the U.S. launched a wave of airstrikes across Houthi controlled territory in Yemen. Videos released by US Central Command social media showed F/A-18 Super Hornets launched from the USS Harry S. Truman carrying a number of munitions, mostly Joint Standoff Weapons or JSOW’s, a glide bomb capable of being launched outside of the range of standard air defenses. Also involved in the attack on Houthi positions was the USS Gettysburg (CG-64), a Ticonderoga-Class Guided missile cruiser and apart of the USS Harry S Truman Carrier Strike Group. An unidentified destroyer also took part in the attack.
The Houthis, showing solidarity with Hamas during their war with Israel started attacking any shipping in the Red Sea with connections to the US, Israel or their allies. While the U.S. navy was sent to defend Freedom of Navigation in the Red Sea, two ships were sunk and more received damage with over a hundred ships being targeted. Hundreds of drones and missiles were shot down and 2 sailers were killed. These attacks stopped once the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel has been signed but the Houthis threatened to start again, earlier this week.
Video shows the USS Gettysburg (CG-64) and an unidentified Arleigh Burke Guided Missile Destroyer launching a TLAM (Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missile) during last nights attack. Right now there are 3 Arleigh Burke’s in the CENTCOM area and it could be any of the 3. The USS Jason Dunham (DDG-109), the USS Stout (DDG-55), and the USS Sullivan (DDG-68).
The U.S. and UK previously struck Yemen during the last U.S. administration, however this strike was carried out by the U.S. military alone. It is the Trump Administrations first strike against the Houthis. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made sure to point out that these strikes were not one off retaliation strikes as carried out by the last administration.
We’re not going to have these people controlling which ships can go through and which ones cannot, and so your question is, How long will this go on? It will go on until they no longer have the capacity to do that.
Secretaey of State Marco Rubio.
Video shows a strike on a target in Houthi territory.
Last nights attacks were reported to have struck neighborhoods in Sanaa’s northern Shouab district and at least 4 strikes on the Eastern Geraf neighborhood that holds the Houthi headquarters for its political bureau as well as other military facilities.
Other strikes were reported in the southwestern Dhamar providence and the capital of the area, also called Dhamar. No specific target is known in that region.
Irans response to the strikes was a statement from foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, who posted on Twitter and urged the U.S. tj stop its airstrikes, and said that Washington could not dictate Iran’s foreign policy. An Iranian General, Hossein Salami denied that Iran was backing the rebel group. Iranian weapons shipments have been coming into Yemen for sometime, the Houthis would not survive without financial and military help from Iran.
After reaching out to The Navy as well as CENTCOM’s press office the only response I received so far was from the navy who referred me to several social media post and directed me to contact CENTCOM, who has yet to respond to my inquiries. This was the response even the larger media company’s were receiving so no surprise there. Mainly I’m interested in post strike assessment as well as what was targeted specifically. I assume missile and drone production and storage but there is really no way to know as the Houthis aren’t saying. When I know more, so will you.
The U.S. has launch a wave of airstrikes on the Houthi sites in Yemen with confirmation that at least some of the strikes struck in Sanaa.
“Our brave Warfighters are right now carrying out aerial attacks on the terrorists’ bases, leaders, and missile defenses to protect American shipping, air, and naval assets, and to restore Navigational Freedom,”
US President Donald Trump during the strike. He also said,
“Funded by Iran, the Houthi thugs have fired missiles at US aircraft, and targeted our troops and Allies. ”
And..
“No terrorist force will stop American commercial and naval vessels from freely sailing the Waterways of the World.”
While Houthi attacks in international shipping had stopped since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas todays attack is in response to a statement put out by the Houthis two days ago saying that any Israeli or U.S. linked ship that came close to Yemen would be attacked in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Bab al-Mandeb Strait. Houthi spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Sare’e said on Twitter that the Houthi threat to attack these ships would be in place until Israel resumed Gaza crossings, as well as aid delivery’s into the region.
Houthi militants had spent over a year, since the Hamas attack on Israel in October 7th, 2023 attacking any ship with (and some without) any link to Israel and the U.S. with several ships being damaged by anti-ship ballistic missile or drone attacks. The U.S., in response, deployed several CSG’s (Carrier Strike Groups) into the region to counter this Houthi threat. US carrier aircraft conducted a number of strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen. Currently the Harry S. Truman is deployed to the area, having resumed her deployment after some repairs from an accident that occurred in the Suez.
A Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile. The Houthis were the first to fire an ASBM in anger.
This video shows the strikers launching from the USS Harry S. Truman. A mix of F/A-18 Super Hornets for air cover as well as for the actual strike task. These are accompanied by growlers who will cover all electronic warfare and jamming.
Cue up “Danger Zone”
This short video shows the strike on Sanaa. Houthi sources claim 13 killed and another 9 wounded. They also report an additional strike north of Sanaa near the border near Saudi Arabia.
U.S. President Trump issued a direct warning to Iran for their support to the Houthis, promising to hold them “fully accountable” for the actions of the Houthis, Irans proxy. This comes two weeks after a letter was sent from the U.S. to Iran offering a path to restarting bilateral talks.
A video, taken by Chinese beach goers shows one of Chinas new invasion ships.
Several weeks ago, satellite imagery was taken of a number of Chinese PLA Navy harbor ships being in various states of being built and near complete. These ships have large bridges that can be deployed from the front as well as a system for raising the ships out of the rough waters making loading and unloading of equipment quick.
This image released by Allsource analysis shows the shipyard where the harbor ships are being built. 4 are shown here with more being expected to be built. Image from Navel News shows a diagram of how the ships operate. The “Mulberry harbor” pulls up to the beach and deploys its stabilizers and bridge, other ships holding troops and vehicles pull up to the rear of the ship and unload straight through to the beach.
These ships would allow China’s Navy to attempt to quickly land a sizable ground force at whatever point of an island as they wanted to. In a Taiwan invasion scenario these could be used to overwhelm defenders by spreading out the insertion points all across the island. China would also be able to quickly deploy such a large ground force that the U.S. would have little hope of managing to get them all off of the island without a long,drown-out confrontation that even if they could carry out would leave much of the island in ruin.
There is little to these ships making the build time very quick.
I reached out to PACOM but I’m still waiting on a statement. I’ll update if I get a response.
Most amateur analysts seem to believe that these ships would make easy targets and wouldn’t last more than a few minutes under fire. However. These ships are ment to be deployed into any sort of direct combat, and would also have the cover of the missile defense of the Chinese PLA Navy. These ships would be deployed after the bulk of any resistance was taken care of.
A US Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawk operated by the 1st Battalion, 228th Aviation Regiment under Joint Task Force-Bravo crashed in Honduras on Wednesday.
I reached out to US SOUTHCOM for any info they could give me and received this via email.
Pilots flying a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter made a precautionary emergency landing approximately five miles east of Soto Cano Air Base at 9:34 a.m. Wednesday. All five crew members were evaluated by medical personnel, and no significant injuries have been reported. The aircrew was performing routine training in the area. An investigation is being conducted to determine the cause of the incident. The aircraft and aircrew are assigned to 1-228th Aviation Regiment out of Soto Cano Air Base near Comayagua, Honduras.
Steven Mcloud (SOUTHCOM Media relations officer)
The crashed Sikorsky Uh-60 Blackhawk.
The Blackhawk received significant damage on impact appearing to have snapped its tail off. The fuselage appears mostly intact, likely saving the crews life, although injuries were initially reported. Those injuries haven’t been confirmed but were reported by other outlets who spoke with Carlos Padilla, head of Air Navigation at the Honduran Civil Aeronautics Agency (AHAC).
Before the crash the crew had declared an emergency Mayday distress signal according to AHAC.
Video of the aftermath of the crash.
The military will conduct its investigation and depending on the findings will release its report sometime in the future. Whether this crash was mechanical or pilot error is yet to be determined.
On February 23rd US Central Command (US- CENTCOM) forces carried out a targeted airstrike on an automobile driven by Muhammed Yusuf Ziya Talay, a military leader of the terrorist organization Hurras al-Din (HaD), an Al-Qaeda affiliate operating in Northern Syria.
Video shows the airstrike on a vehicular claimed to be occupied by Muhammed Yusuf Ziya Talay.
The airstrike took place in Northern Syria on February 23rd while the video was not released until yesterday. The attack was carried out with a Hellfire AGM-114 R9X “Flying Ginsu” or “knife missile”. The AGM-114 R9X is a regular hellfire missile with the
AGM-114R9X
As we have said in the past, we will continue to relentlessly pursue these terrorists in order to defend our homeland, and U.S., allied, and partner personnel in the region,”
Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, commander, U.S. Central Command
The strike was the 3rd strike in February that targeted a member of one of the groups located in Northern Syria and the 4th strike of this nature since U.S. President Trump took office. During the Biden administration the group, made up of about 2,500 soldiers at best estimate, was given the designation as a terrorist outfit and strikes were carried out periodically that would target upper leadership. The group made a standby after the fall of Assad that they would be disbanding however US surveillance drone flights have increased in the northern Syria and Idlib region to make sure that the groups members don’t migrate to other theaters of conflict.
Global Conflict Reporting 
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