Category: Military

Afghanistan: Strategy

Afghanistan Doesn’t Need A ‘Surge’
(Wall Street Journal)…Ann Marlowe, July 22, 2008
Pg. 17

Afghanistan needs many things, but two more brigades of U.S. troops are not among them.

…. Is bringing in thousands of American troops the answer?

"No!" the official said. "It’s using Special Forces to get the bad guys who are infiltrating from Pakistan. Our enemy only attacks when they expect to win. If we have to go after them, we need the capacity to hunt them with stealth over trackless mountainsides for which our infantry, cavalry and airborne soldiers are not trained or equipped to operate." Defeating the enemy is best accomplished by highly trained fighters who travel light.

Counterinsurgency is not one-size-fits-all. While there are best practices, they must be applied in a nuanced way. In poorly governed countries where insurgencies are likely to arise, the solution may vary from valley to valley.

Ms. Marlowe is a New York-based writer. This year she completed her 10th trip to Afghanistan and her third embed with U.S. forces there.

Laser Technolology

Star Wars-Style Laser Technology To Reach Battlefield (London Daily Telegraph)…Thomas Harding, July 15, 2008

…After decades of delay and billions of pounds spent, it will be simple commercial lasers rather than the hugely expensive US Department of Defence technology that could be used to save hundreds of troops’ lives. In just 18 months the American defence firm Raytheon has turned a laser used in the car manufacturing industry into a weapon that can hit incoming rounds at the speed of light, melting the outer casing and detonating the explosive inside.

Laser beam technology is being rushed into service to combat the threat of insurgent missiles and mortars raining down on British and American military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Army: Learning System, Way Ahead

An Army That Learns
(Washington Post)…David Ignatius, July 13, 2008; Page B07

The U.S. Army has done something remarkable in its new history of the disastrous first 18 months of the American occupation of Iraq: It has conducted a rigorous self-critique of how bad decisions were made, so that the Army won’t make them again.

The study is blunt about how unprepared the Army was for the postwar challenges: “The DOD and the Army lacked a coherent plan to translate the rapid, narrow-front attack [on Baghdad] . . . into strategic success. Soldiers and commanders at nearly every level did not know what was expected of them once Saddam Hussein was deposed and his military forces destroyed.” The situation in spring 2003 “evoked the aphorism, ‘if you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.’ ”

On Point II  testifies to the Army’s strength as a learning organization. (This study covers May 2003 to January 2005. An earlier volume, “On Point,” chronicled the initial assault on Baghdad.)

Politicians repeat, ad nauseam, the maxim that “those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” The U.S. Army is that rare institution in American life that is actually putting this precept into practice.

The Army is just one component of the national security system, Optimizing all elements of national ower requires a new paradigm.  

Iraq IEDs – New Variant

New Flying IEDs Being Used In Iraq
(CNN)…Barbara Starr, July 10, 2008

Last month here in Baghdad’s Adamiyah neighborhood, 18 civilians were killed and 29 wounded when a large explosion rocked the neighborhood — one of the latest examples of yet another type of bomb being used by insurgents — improvised rocket assisted mortars or I-RAMs.

… With these, insurgents line the back of trucks with launch tubes. Using Iranian-made rocket charges, they propel cylinders full of explosives, like mortar and tank shells, sometimes over walls more than 20 feet high — the type surrounding U.S. bases.

Managing costs: U.S. Weapons Programs

Rising U.S. Weapon Costs May Force Cuts, Jonas Says
(Bloomberg.com)…Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg News, July 7, 2008

The next president will likely be forced to cut or delay U.S. weapons programs because their cost has almost doubled since 2000 to a projected $1.7 trillion, according to Pentagon Comptroller Tina Jonas.

“Some of this is just a matter of our own discipline — not changing the bells and whistles once we get going on something,”

Always the hunter …

New Training Hones Marines’ Visual Skills
(USA Today)…Jim Michaels, June 27, 2008, Pg. 10

Combat hunter program is ‘a great example of outside-the-box thinking to defeat an adaptive and wily enemy.’

Faced with an alarming increase in sniper attacks in Iraq, Marine commanders in late 2006 began looking for ways to turn the tables on an elusive enemy. Among the experts they consulted: a renowned African big game hunter and a former big city cop.

The result is the combat hunter program, an experiment in training Marines to fight insurgents by making the Marines as wily as the enemy they face. The training combines outdoor skills culled from hunting and tracking with the street smarts developed by police and Marines who grew up in cities.

"The motto we … try to instill in these guys is Marines are always the hunter, never the hunted," says Ivan Carter, the safari guide and hunter — born in Rhodesia, now known as Zimbabwe — who helped the Marines develop the program.

Army FCS: Accelerated Delivery

High-Tech Combat Equipment Expedited For Use In Iraq, (Washington Post)…Donna Borak, Associated Press, June 27, 2008, Pg. D4

The Army will deliver some key technologies to ground forces in war zones three years ahead of schedule as part of its $160 billion combat modernization program led by Boeing and SAIC.

Senior Army officials said Thursday that changes to the Future Combat Systems program will expedite the use of high-tech equipment, including unmanned sensors and robotics, to infantry brigades fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan by 2011.

Army: Support for FCS Restructure

Gates Believes FCS Restructure ‘Deserves Support’
(InsideDefense.com)…Daniel Wasserbly, June 26, 2008

The Army today announced its new plan for fielding the first iteration of Future Combat Systems equipment to infantry brigade combat teams, garnering support from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.

FCS is the Army’s premier modernization program — it encompasses various manned and unmanned platforms, sensors and battle-command and high-speed networking tools, which it will provide to soldiers through three technology insertions, or “spin outs.”