Quote Originally Posted by Ryan Ruck View Post
I'd noticed it in other pictures as well as those above...

Anyone know what the window chalk markings on the Federal vehicles above mean? The markings like C4K, C6, ME4, D3. It's clearly some form of ID.
Offhand I don't know those markings. We used them in the WH motorcades to mark vehicles. We had Follow Up, Staff Car/Van, RR or RoadRunner which was one of our comm vehicles, and there were usually about 6-10 others depending on the size of the motorcade. We also had police vehicles, other US Secret Service vehicles which had their own designations.

So you're right, they are IDs of some kind, just don't know what they are right off hand.

Some other observations...

I'm sure I'm not the only one taking note of all the soft-skin, wheeled vehicles being used. I'd imagine fire and flat tires could be very bad for those. I'm also noting how they like to bunch up their vehicles and groups of personnel. That doesn't seem too sound tactically.
They didn't bring in tanks and armored carriers for several (likely)reasons: 1) They don't HAVE them available to the BLM at the moment (wait, that will change), 2) They assumed the SWAT would bring them and they didn't, 3) They didn't want it to look like an invasion (too late) or 4) they "didn't think of that" (incompetence runs deep.)

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Weapon-wise I don't see anything I'm particularly scared of. Some carbines, rifles, and pistols. Most all of which seem run of the mill with mostly EOTechs, a couple Aimpoints, some MOE handguards and MOE stubby foregrips, a few white lights, some PMAGs. Color me unimpressed. Looks like a couple "less lethal" options like pepper ball guns and some grenade launchers (can't tell if they're 37mm or 40mm I'm not too well versed on them) which I'm sure are loaded with CS.
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To quote the left, "Guns kill...." LOL

I'd also mention that I think I can count on one hand the number of guys with provisions for using helmet mounted NV gear. None of which even appear to have any carried on them (maybe because of time of day and planned duration of ops?). Notably the one's that do have NV mounting provisions don't appear to have any IR laser sighting equipment on their rifles. So, even if they did have NV gear I question how useful it would be to them. Certainly no thermal equipment.
They expected the cowboys to stand down. Quite simply, the cowboys I saw were armed with side arms (against a rifle squad????) with a few rifles on their horses - at least on some of the images I saw. There were the militia guys showing up with ARs, AKs and a few other weapons (I think I saw some long range 30.06 rifles with a few of them). What that means is a whole lot of unarmored, under-armed guys in the forefront on horse back and a whole lot of overwatch. The Feds did NOT expect such a response.

Most all of the helmets appear to be ACH which are supposed to be Level 3 rifle resistant, either standard cut or high cut. One guy looked to just have a regular, non-ballistic bump helmet with an NV mount. I suspect their plate carriers have Level 3 and possibly Level 4 plates. Take note, I could be wrong, but I don't see any wearing side plates.

I'm going to say this in public... But I feel fairly confident in saying I'm better equipped than they are. I know there are also many, many other equipped as well and in a lot of cases better, than I am. I'll mention I can also outfit several people to at least their level and others a little bit below.

As an aside, the police helo pictured above is an MD369FF owned by the LVMPD. I'm guessing that is some sort of FLIR/optics pod underneath.

Just a couple things I noticed looking those above pics over...
I suspect a lot of patriots are more well-equiped than are the feds. The difference being, they can get it if they need it. They can call on military forces. They can requisition equipment from other agencies. Most of us don't have that particular luxury.