Category: Military

Anti Sniper Technology

Soldiers In Iraq And Afghanistan To Get Life Saving Anti-Sniper Device, (London Daily Telegraph)…Richard Alleyne, Nov 22, 2008.

British and American forces fighting the guerilla insurgence in Iraq and Afghanistan could soon be protected by an anti-sniper device that can pinpoint the position of the shooter within a fraction of a second.

The palm-sized device designed by Qinetiq, the British defence firm that was once the government research laboratories, is pinned to the uniform and uses acoustic technology to calculate the exact position of the rifle fire.

Budget Politics

Dogfight Over F-22 Requirement Reveals DOD Schisms, (Aerospace Daily & Defense Report)…David A. Fulghum, Nov 18, 2008.

The battle over how many F-22 Raptors the U.S. Air Force requires is revealing some nasty infighting as the White House administration change nears. The Defense Secretary staff has told Air Force planners not to talk to congressional staffers and to work only through the offices of Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England and acquisition chief John Young.

A new study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies — whose CEO, John Hamre, has been mentioned as a possible candidate for President-elect Barack Obama’s defense secretary — contends that war costs, manpower costs, underfunded operations and procurement crises in every service will force the new administration to reshape almost every aspect of current defense plans, programs and budgets.

National Guard Chief Gets 4th Star

History Made As Guard Chief Gets 4th Star, (ArmyTimes.com)…William H. McMichael, Nov 17, 2008.

Hearty cheers filled the Pentagon auditorium Monday afternoon as history was made when a fourth star was pinned on the shoulders of the new chief of the National Guard Bureau — for the first time in its almost four centuries of existence.

Soft Power: Prevention

U.S. Shows That Soft Power Can Work In A Hard War (Washington Times)…Gary Schaub Jr. Nov 12, 2008.
Soft power is about to come to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) – America’s military command in the Middle East – in a big way. 

By winning friends and influencing people, the idea goes, the United States can defuse potential conflicts before they start and achieve America’s goals without firing a shot.

If the next president is patient and trusts Gen. Petraeus’ judgment, the success of the surge can be replicated across the Middle East and Central Asia, and soft-power approaches will permeate American foreign policy for a generation to come.

Gary Schaub Jr. is an assistant professor in the Leadership and Strategy Department of the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, in Montgomery, Ala.

Military Recruiting – Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart, Army Reserve Link For Recruiting, Hiring, (Boston Globe)…Associated Press, Nov 12, 2008.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has signed on to an Army Reserve program in which the company and the Army will work together to recruit and train people interested in serving in the military and working for the giant retailer.

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest private employer, has more than 1.4 million US employees.

An agreement signed yesterday obligates Wal-Mart to interview and consider all qualified, participating soldiers for employment after they complete military occupational specialty training.

When a reserve soldier who works at Wal-Mart is called to service, the company can draw on 1 million or so citizen soldiers to help identify a qualified replacement to work in the soldier’s place.

The arrangement is expected to lower costs of recruiting and training for Wal-Mart.

Unmanned Vehicles (Robots)

Aberdeen Starts Work On Robot Test Track, (Baltimore Sun)…David Wood, Nov 14, 2008

With U.S. and allied military convoys under increasing attack in Afghanistan, the Army began work yesterday on a new test track at Harford County’s Aberdeen Proving Ground that will be critical in developing high-speed unmanned, or robot, vehicles for convoy duty.

Robotic vehicles also will be tested for basic performance but also with different sets of sensors that are currently under development, Rooney said.

For example, the Army has been working on ground-penetrating radar to detect one form of bomb common in Afghanistan: a plastic bucket of explosives buried beneath the road surface, detonated by a simple pressure-activated switch.

The problem is that the current radars can see only a short distance ahead, and as a convoy gathers speed, it quickly outruns the distance the radar can see, according to Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, commander of the Joint IED Defeat Organization, the Pentagon command with responsibility for protecting troops from roadside bombs.
“Logistics convoys would like to have a radar that looks 100 meters out in front of them,” Metz said in an interview.

First Female Four Star General

Dunwoody To Be First Female Four-Star General, (Washingtonpost.com)…Robert Burns, Associated Press, Nov 14, 2008.

The recognition makes her a little bit uncomfortable from the standpoint of the gender aspect–that we’re making a big deal (that) she is the first female general officer,” Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said Thursday in announcing that Defense Secretary Robert Gates would attend her promotion ceremony.

Iraq: New IEDs

Militants Turn To Small Bombs In Iraq Attacks, (New York Times)…Katherine Zoepf and Mudhafer al-Husaini, Nov 14, 2008 pg1.

…And as security in Baghdad has improved, the small and furtive bomb — though less lethal than entire cars or even thick suicide belts packed with explosive — is fast becoming the device of choice for a range of insurgent groups. They are also contributing, in the midst of an uptick in violence, to a growing feeling of unease in the capital.

Light, portable and easy to lay, sticky bombs are tucked quickly under the bumper of a car or into a chink in a blast wall. Since they are detonated remotely, they rarely harm the person who lays them. And as security in Baghdad has improved, the small and furtive bomb — though less lethal than entire cars or even thick suicide belts packed with explosive — is fast becoming the device of choice for a range of insurgent groups.

 “You take a bit of C4 or some other type of compound,” said Lt. Col. Steven Stover, a spokesman for the United States military in Baghdad. “You can go into a hardware store, take the explosive and combine it with an accelerant, put some glass or marble or bits of metal in front of it and you’ve basically got a homemade Claymore,” a common antipersonnel mine.

Administration Orders for Military Raids Against Al Qaeda

Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda In Many Countries, (New York Times)…Eric Schmitt and Mark Mazzetti, Nov 10, 2008.

The United States military since 2004 has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior American officials.

These military raids, typically carried out by Special Operations forces, were authorized by a classified order that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed in the spring of 2004 with the approval of President Bush, the officials said. The secret order gave the military new authority to attack the Qaeda terrorist network anywhere in the world, and a more sweeping mandate to conduct operations in countries not at war with the United States.