Infantry: Speeding Towards Success

 

Since the 2006 war in Lebanon, Israel has implemented many military reforms. One of the less noted areas of change is what happened to the infantry. Lots of little things, that all contributed to making the infantry faster, both for moving, planning and fighting. This process starts close to the skin, with new uniforms that are more comfortable in hot weather. Israel had been noting all this kind of stuff being developed for American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was pretty easy to pick the most suitable items and issue them to Israeli troops. Next to the uniform there's a new, lighter, protective vest, designed to more comfortably hang all the weapons and gear infantry normally have hanging off them. An Israeli army supplier also came up with an ingenious way to cope with the enormous weights of gear infantry troops sometimes have to carry. It's a frame that can go on the back, but if its carrying a lot of weight (up to 80 kg/176 pounds), you take it off, snap into position a rugged wheel, and then pull the frame and load behind you. This requires a lot less effort than having it on your back.

There are also new weapons, like the 8.6mm HTR 2000 sniper rifle (effective at over 1,000 meters), the Negev Commando light machine-gun and Matador shoulder fired anti-structure rocket. There are new communications and navigation devices. Other changes are simpler. For example, the infantry can now carry small explosives, for blowing open doors, or through walls. Formerly, only the combat engineers could use this stuff. But there is also something else that's new, the way of thinking of these light infantry operations against foes like Hamas and Hezbollah. No army in the region wants to take on the Israeli army, but these Islamic radical groups are all pumped up and think they have a chance.

Because of all these reforms, Israeli military commanders are anxious to go back into Gaza, feeling that they have new tactics and equipment that enable them to tear Hamas apart without losing many troops. During the 22 day campaign in 2008-9, the Israelis only suffered four dead from fighting Hamas (plus ten friendly fire fatalities). Meanwhile, Hamas lost over 500 of their fighters. There is a sense of urgency to get back in, because Hamas is working on techniques to nullify the Israeli tactics. The more time Hamas has, the more useful ideas they will come up with to increase Israeli losses, and reduce their own.

The Israelis learned much from the U.S. experience in Iraq. American and Israeli commanders have long exchanged ideas, and the U.S. depended a lot on Israeli tactics developed during over a decade of battling Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank and Gaza. But the Americans saw a lot more combat in Iraq, and developed techniques that the Israelis borrowed.

Infantry: Speeding Towards Success

Weekly Standard: Iraq/al-Qaeda Connection Confirmed, Again

A former Guantanamo detainee “was identified as an Iraqi intelligence officer who relocated to Afghanistan (AF) in 1998 where he served as a senior Taliban Intelligence Directorate officer in Mazar-E-Sharif,” according to a recently leaked assessment written by American intelligence analysts. The former detainee, an Iraqi named Jawad Jabber Sadkhan, “admittedly forged official documents and reportedly provided liaison between the governments of Afghanistan and Iraq.”


Sadkhan’s al Qaeda ties reached all the way to Osama bin Laden, according to the intelligence assessment. He reportedly received money from Osama bin Laden both before and after the September 11 attacks.

Sorry for the light posting

Seems the Mississippi Guard continues the restrictions on Blogs and social media, like Facebook, that Big Army has since rescinded. Until deployment or finding a suitable (not prohibitively expensive) means of independent Internet access, posts will be via phone and thus, infrequent.

Counter-Terrorism: We Don't Need No Stinking Infidel Technology

 

Recently, a British Moslem (Rajib Karim) was sentenced to 30 years for attempting to use his job at British Airways to help plan, coordinate and carry out terrorist attacks. One reason Karim was caught was the refusal of his terrorist cohorts in Yemen and Bangladesh to use modern cryptography for their communications. The reason was that the modern stuff was all invented by infidels (non-Moslems). Instead the group was forced to use ancient (over 2,000 year old) single letter substitution codes. The group's implementation of this was accomplished using a spreadsheet. Unlike modern ciphers, like PGP and AES, the ancient substitution methods are easy to crack with modern decryption techniques.

A major shortcoming of Islamic radicalism is its disdain for modern, particularly non-Moslem (Western) technology. This often causes problems, like the one Karim (a computer specialist with British Airways) had with his less educated fellow terrorists in Yemen and Bangladesh. But what Karim encountered was another major problem for Islamic radicals, the fact that these groups tend to attract a disproportionate number of poorly educated recruits. The Islamic world, in general, is less educated and literate than the West, thus giving Islamic radical groups a poorly educated pool of potential recruits to begin with.

Despite this, Islamic radicals will use modern technology, but often reluctantly, with a sense of guilt, and none too effectively. Often, the Western tech is seen as a guilty pleasure. Cell phones are one example of this. Weapons, on the other hand, are more eagerly embraced. But, overall, technology, and tech knowledge, is not used by terrorists nearly as effectively as it could be.

Counter-Terrorism: We Don't Need No Stinking Infidel Technology

Information Warfare: When Facebook Is Not Your Friend

 

Social networking sites, especially Facebook and Twitter, have been touted as catalysts for revolution and social change. While that's true, these sites have also been a big help to intelligence and police organizations. This can have fatal consequences in dictatorships, where the police and intel groups can use data gathering and analysis tools (developed for marketing via the Internet) to find people who are protesting or rebelling against the government. Even if these Facebook users are using codes and pseudonyms to remain hidden, the scanning and analysis tools can often uncover them. Twitter traffic can also be analyzed for useful information on who is doing what, and where they are.

Social networking sites are thus a double edged sword. They can be used to organize, inform and mobilize large groups. But in doing this, you provide the secret police a lot of information you would rather not share with them. Islamic terror groups advise their members to avoid social networking sites, but that has proved hard to enforce. Social networking was designed to be alluring, as well as useful, especially to the young. For young revolutionaries, this can be a fatal attraction.

Information Warfare: When Facebook Is Not Your Friend

Attrition: Ballistic Underwear Conquers Afghanistan

 

U.S. Marines in Afghanistan are awaiting the first shipments of "ballistic underwear." They learned about the value of this stuff from British troops, who began receiving the "ballistic boxers." These Kevlar underpants have several layers of Kevlar around the groin and thigh area. This protects troops from genital damage, and projectiles that might sever the femoral arteries (which run down each leg, close to the inner thigh.) Bleeding from the femoral artery is a major cause of combat deaths, as it is very difficult to stop the flow of blood.

The "blast boxers" sell for about $100 a pair, and the idea was suggested by the troops themselves, and the medics that treat many of these wounds. The increased number of groin injuries come largely from the growing use of roadside bombs and mines by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

It was thought that many troops might not want to use the Kevlar undershorts. For one thing, they restrict movement a bit, and are hot when worn during warm weather. The mobility issue discouraged U.S. Marines from using a Kevlar flap that was added to their protective vest, to prevent groin injuries, but the blast boxers were seen as less of a bother. .

It turned out that there were a lot of troops who found these two issues as non-problems. These are the guys who drive the roads of Afghanistan, delivering supplies, or aid to Afghans, or just searching for roadside bombs. Mobility on foot or heat is not what these vehicle bound troops are concerned with, but the impact of roadside bombs or ambusher's bullets is.

The blast boxers proved popular with most British users, who received over 15,000 of the sturdy boxer shorts. The American marines have 120,000 pairs on order or on the way. Each marine will receive four pair of blast boxers, and wear them with confidence.

Attrition: Ballistic Underwear Conquers Afghanistan

Leadership: The Afghan Syndrome Comes To Libya

 

The Libyan rebels are complaining that the NATO air support is inadequate. While there were over a hundred fighters and bombers sent into action, by 17 nations (14 of 28 NATO members plus the UAE, Qatar and Sweden), most of the contributing nations have restrictions on how their aircraft could be used. As a result, six of the nations (mostly Britain and France) provide nearly all the actual bombing support to the rebels on the ground. The other nations restrict their aircraft to recon missions, or patrolling in search of the now non-existent Libyan Air Force.

This sort of behavior is nothing new for NATO. In Afghanistan, many nations restrict the use of their aircraft in combat. Opening fire is usually only allowed in emergencies and only with permission from higher commanders. The primary mission of many NATO warplanes in Afghanistan is reconnaissance and surveillance.

This sort of thing can get worse. Some nations are not allowed to leave their bases, and other simply have lots of restrictions on how they can use their weapons. For nearly a decade, NATO commanders in Afghanistan have been frustrated by all the strings attached to their authority by politicians back home. The ROE (Rules of Engagement) for NATO troops contain dozens of restrictions on how the NATO commander may use troops assigned to him. Most of these have to do with where national contingents can be moved, and how much they can be exposed to danger, and even what weapons can be used. These restrictions render nearly half the NATO troops in Afghanistan useless for combat, but they are there because their governments promised to send troops to Afghanistan to fight Islamic terrorism.

Leadership: The Afghan Syndrome Comes To Libya

Morale: Protecting The Rights Of Terrorists

 

Since Obama replaced Bush as president two years ago, the U.S. has greatly reduced the interrogation of captured terrorists. Since then, these interrogations only get done, if at all, in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. no longer captures Islamic terrorists in other countries, much less interrogates them. Instead, the U.S. has increased its use of missiles to kill Islamic terrorists wherever they are found. Other countries still capture major terrorists (often with the help of multimillion dollar U.S. rewards, which are still good) and torture useful information out of the bad guys. The U.S. quietly takes advantage of this information, although it's the official U.S. position that torture does not work. The historical record says otherwise, but that's an issue that is simply not discussed in the U.S. anymore.

All this is because Obama got elected, in part, by criticizing the Bush policy of using intense interrogation (called torture by Obama supporters), and Obama ordered that there be no more of that sort of thing. To further make the point, the U.S. government continues an investigation aimed at identifying CIA personnel who could be prosecuted for torture during the Bush years. Thus American intelligence personnel are reluctant to use torture unless they have written orders from very senior people to do so.

In addition, Afghanistan was ordered to take over the interrogation and prosecution of Islamic terrorists captured by American troops in Afghanistan. The rule was that these captured terrorists were now a police matter that the Afghan judicial system could handle. The Afghans have 96 hours to either indict and take custody of the suspect, or the suspect was set loose by the Americans. The U.S. had the option to take custody after 96 hours, but that meant sending the terrorists to an American prison at Baghram, and this was discouraged by the U.S. government except in extreme cases. Thus even a Taliban suicide bomber, captured after his bomb vest failed to go off, got cut loose after 96 hours. The basic problem is that the Afghan judicial system is very thin on the ground, and prosecutors and jailors are easily bribed or intimidated. This sort of thing has been bad for morale in Afghanistan, especially since troops are discouraged from just killing terrorists caught in the act, if there is any chance of taking them alive.

When questioned on these policies, U.S. government officials promise changes and insist they are monitoring the situation.

Morale: Protecting The Rights Of Terrorists

Libya: Disunited We Stall

 

Several NATO nations have intel operatives on the ground in Libya, and the information coming back about the rebels is not encouraging. While most Libyans want Kaddafi gone, there is little unity beyond that. There are dozens of armed factions, and no unifying higher command. The good news is that the Islamic radical groups are a small part of the resistance groups. The bad news is that the Islamic radical groups (including some openly allied with al Qaeda) are in play at all. But Islamic radicals were always among those who continually resisted Kaddafi's tyranny. The worse news is that there is slow progress on rebel formation of a unified military (or political) command. This greatly complicates any efforts to supply weapons or training. Some of the rebel factions are for this, others oppose it. How do you decide who (among the willing groups) gets the weapons and training? Meanwhile, politicians of NATO countries are divided over how much aid to give the rebels. This makes NATO efforts along these lines difficult. NATO is an organization that only acts when there is a lot of consensus. Right now, there is not a lot of consensus within NATO about how far to go in supporting the Libyan rebels. At this point, it looks like individual NATO nations are likely to supply and train the more likely (to be successful) rebel factions. Since no good deeds go unpunished in this area, this support will be followed by accusations of favoritism and unwarranted intervention in Libyan affairs. But the only alternative is a long (perhaps years) of bloody stalemate between Kaddafi and the rebels. That would be accompanied by lots of stories about very bad behavior by Kaddafi's secret police, and accusations that NATO nations could have done more to aid the rebels.

Libya: Disunited We Stall

Murphy's Law: Back To The Breakers

 

The U.S. Navy is going back to the breakers (where ships are broken up for scrap). Four retired aircraft carriers (USS Constellation, USS Forrestal, USS Independence and USS Saratoga) are to be scrapped instead of sunk, or simply allowed to rust away while tied up. These ships were taken out of service between 1993-2003, and have been waiting since then while a decision was made on their disposition.

For over a decade, sending warships to the scrap yard was not considered a viable alternative. It's all about pollution, bad press and cost.

For thousands of years, unneeded ships were "sent to the breakers" (a shipyard that broke the ship up for scrap and reusable parts). However, this is now considered environmentally harmful if done the old fashioned way (as it is still done in countries like India), and too expensive if it is done in an environmentally (and politically) acceptable way. In other words, it could cost more scrap warships than you would recover from the value of the recycled metals.

Another use for retired ships is as museum ships. Two years ago, the U.S. Navy retired its last non-nuclear aircraft carrier, the USS John F. Kennedy. The navy offered the ship to any government or non-profit organization that wants to maintain it as a museum ship. The navy is still waiting for a response. Entering service in 1968, the Kennedy is 321 meters (1052 feet) long and displaces 82,000 tons. It would be the largest museum ship ever. The ship is currently docked in Philadelphia, and there is much enthusiasm in Boston for taking the carrier, named after a native son, and establishing a museum ship. The big problem, for whoever takes the ship, is money. Lots of money. Hundreds of millions to outfit the ship as a museum and maintain it.

Murphy's Law: Back To The Breakers

Global network will redefine how the Army fights, vice chief says - Nextgov

 

General Dynamics is developing JTRS handheld and manpack radios and Brown asked Chiarelli if this would give the company an advantage in future competitions. Chiarelli answered that since the government owned the software, this would allow the Army to run a competition for the "cheapest box." Brown deflected Chiarelli's reply, and said he believed JTRS developers will have a competitive advantage in future competitions.

In his prepared testimony, Chiarelli said the service's battlefield intelligence system, or Distributed Common Ground System-Army, was installed last month in Afghanistan, pulling data from a cloud architecture.

He also said the Army is developing the Joint Battle Command-Platforms system -- the next generation of the Force Battle Command Brigade and Below system, which tracks hostile and friendly forces on the battlefield. The new system will provide a "tenfold increase in data throughput," he said.

Chiarelli said the Army plans to field 31 sets of its battlefield backbone communications network in 2011 and 25 sets next year. The Warfighter Information Network-Tactical is equipped with Ka-band satellite receivers and will allow tactical units to transmit and receive over the Defense-owned wideband global satellite constellation rather than leased commercial satellites.

The Army's global network is the service's top modernization priority, Chiarelli said, an assertion he has made repeatedly

Global network will redefine how the Army fights, vice chief says - Nextgov

Darpa’s Hologram Goggles Will Unleash Drone Hell | Danger Room | Wired.com

 

The Pentagon’s mad-science arm wants robotic death-from-above, on demand. And the key to getting it done just might be holograms.

Let me explain. Right now, authorizing and targeting air strikes is a process that’s sometimes bureaucratic, and sometimes dangerous as hell. Bureaucratic as in the Stanley McChrystal phase of the Afghanistan war, when it took a gaggle of lawyers, intelligence analysts, air controllers, and commanders at multiple layers to put steel on target.

The result was fewer civilian casualties — but more U.S. troops, locked in firefights without air support. Dangerous as hell as in the Libya war, where NATO jets are accidentally offing Libyan rebels with such alarming regularity that the opposition forces are now painting their vehicles’ roofs pink, to distinguish them from Gadhafi’s rides.

Darpa believes there might be a single technological fix to both problems: Give a single guy on the ground a direct data link to the drone (or manned plane) circling above. That would eliminate the multilayered, bureaucratic approach, in which information is often passed through IM windows and static-ridden radio connections. That same lone “Joint Terminal Attack Controller,” or JTAC, might be low-profile enough to slip into a situation like Libya without causing too much of an international ruckus.

The program to make this all happen is called Persistent Close Air Support, or PCAS. And the goal is to give that controller the ability to “request and control near-instantaneous airborne fire support.”

Darpa and the Air Force Research Lab recently handed out big contracts to the usual suspects — Northrop Grumman and Raytheon — for the next phase of the PCAS project.

But the military also gave a million bucks to the relatively tiny Vuzix Corp. of Rochester, New York. Which is a little odd, at first blush, because Vuzix is an eyewear company, specializing in augmented reality specs.

But a little augmented reality may be just what a JTAC needs, in order to call in those airstrikes on his own. Rather than staring down at a bunch of maps and computer screens — and calling up intelligence analysts at headquarters for more info — it’d be better (and faster, and less prone to error) if he could get all of that data right on his augmented reality goggles. Oh, and if there was an integrated head-tracker, so the attached computer could basically see what the JTAC sees.

“It is all about speeding up the CAS [close air support] mission and eliminating friendly fire issues that can occur if the user on the ground may not have the whole picture of what is around them,” Vuzix executive Stephen Glaser tells Danger Room.

“The head tracker knows where the user is looking, so the information the user is seeing changes as he moves or turns his head. Theoretically you could look up in the sky and a little green triangle would appear telling you, you have an F-16 30 miles out at 21,000 feet. It could also tell you what type of ordnance the plane was carrying, so you could make a quick decision if that plane would be appropriate for the mission.”

Some of this can be done today with pilots’ heads-up displays. But those require so much power and light, a JTAC would need to lug around an extra 8 pounds of batteries to make it work. (And it still wouldn’t work in direct sunlight.) That’s where the holograms come in.

Vuzix’s setup uses a more-or-less traditional microdisplay, then mates that up to a flat piece of glass called an optical waveguide. The light from the display travels down the glass and bounces around inside the glass parallel flats. Those beams are directed to holographic film, which bounces the image to the eye.

If the plan works, the system will be tiny — just 3 mm thick. And when the display is off, it’ll be totally see-through. Glaser notes: “This will ultimately allow us to design the display right into a pair of sunglasses, so no one will know you are even wearing a display.” Which could make the goggles good for civilians, as well as troops ordering in a robotic, lethal hail.

Darpa’s Hologram Goggles Will Unleash Drone Hell | Danger Room | Wired.com

“This deal is a historic scam…”

Someone linked something yesterday, that, it turned out, wasn’t worth my time to read (except that I now get to refer to it), that complained that there was plenty of blame to go around on the budget mess.

Okay.  So NOW, I agree.

Intelligence: The Bird Was Lost Then Found

 

A Philippines citizen was arrested in the U.S. last February, as he sought to complete the sale of a U.S. Army RQ-11 Raven UAV. The seller, Henson Chua, had offered the Raven on eBay nearly a year ago, and U.S. officials noted it. Chua was seeking $13,000 for the Raven. It was not revealed where Chua got the Raven, or if it included the controller. The Raven is low-tech, but having one, and being able to examine the way it is put together, could be useful in designing a similar aircraft. Chua violated the Arms Export Control Act, and faces up to 20 years in jail if convicted.

Intelligence: The Bird Was Lost Then Found

BREAKING: “Obama threatens to veto GOP budget extension plan”

 

…the Democrats, who controlled all phases of the government before November and who were tasked with introducing a budget, didn’t put forth a budget at all — and now, when asked to cut 2% of a budget that would introduce $1.65 trillion in deficit spending, they are willing to withhold the pay of active duty military if doing so means they can blackmail the GOP into approving irresponsible spending in spite of a clear mandate of the American people demanding the government restore fiscal sanity.

Obama has contempt for you. The press has contempt for you.

And you know what? If you don’t fight back forcefully, you deserve it.

BREAKING: “Obama threatens to veto GOP budget extension plan”

US atom smasher may have found new force of nature: report - Yahoo! News

 

US physicists are to announce Wednesday that data from a major atom smasher lab may have revealed a new elementary particle, or potentially a new force of nature, the New York Times reported.

A spokeswoman from the US Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, which operates the powerful particle accelerator Tevatron, said the results would be released at 2100 GMT but offered no further details.

"Nobody knows what this is," said Christopher Hill, a theorist at Fermilab who was not part of the team, according to the New York Times.

"If it is real, it would be the most significant discovery in physics in half a century."

The Times report said the findings relate to a "suspicious bump" in the physicists' data and could involve "a new and unexpected version of the long-sought Higgs-boson."

Sometimes called the "God Particle," the Higgs-boson has long eluded physicists who believe it could explain why particles have mass and its discovery is one of the most sought-after in all of physics.

US atom smasher may have found new force of nature: report - Yahoo! News

Infantry: Frostbite Is Your Friend

 

One of the generally unpublicized "secret weapons" American troops have in Afghanistan is much better Winter clothing. This often proves critical, especially in the hilly areas of Afghanistan, where it gets extremely cold. So cold, that the Taliban cannot handle it, while the better equipped Americans can.

The Afghans don't normally have cold weather clothing for this sort of thing. There traditional solution, during these days, or weeks, of very cold weather, is to stay inside as much as possible, and try to keep the fires going. But when the Americans come out to fight in the Cold Weather, the Taliban gunmen have a choice between staying home and possibly getting arrested, or going out to the hills and getting frostbite, or worse. Some U.S. commanders pray for really cold weather when Taliban are being sought. That's because the Taliban can stay hidden, up in the hills, for a while. But if it get cold enough, they either have to come down to the village (and risk capture or death), or stay up there, and endure cold injuries, or worse.

American Army cold weather gear has been getting better for decades. But it was about two years ago that it was realized that the latest stuff (the "Generation III" set) was really outstanding. It kept you warm, even if you were running around in freezing weather and working up a sweat. And it wasn't bulky or itchy. It was good, no great, stuff.

Infantry: Frostbite Is Your Friend

Iraq: This Is The End

 

While the terrorist violence is still down 90 percent from its 2007 peaks, there has not been much additional reduction. Each month, 200-300 people die from terrorist activity. Most of this mayhem is from Sunni Arab nationalists (both secular and religious), who are determined to return Sunni Arabs to power, or die trying. So the dying will continue until these fanatics are all dead. This could take years. It's mainly a generational thing. The few older terrorists left have access to enough money, and younger sons and nephews (who tend to be uneducated and unemployed) that they can get bombs made and placed. Suicide bombers are harder to come by, which is the main reason there are fewer attacks. There is also less and less cash for this stuff. Corrupt terrorist leaders stole a lot of that money (part of the billions Saddam and his cronies stole from Iraq's oil revenue over the years) and there's simply been less and less of it each year.  What there has been more and more of each year are trials, convictions and executions of senior terrorist leaders. There are also more incidents of terrorist leaders being found, refusing to surrender, and dying in the ensuing gun battle. All this sends a message, that this is the end. According to police interrogations, this had been bad for terrorist morale.

Iraq: This Is The End

Path to Prosperity: America's Two Futures

Information Warfare: Sweet Honey In The Rock

 

Cyber War is becoming less and less about nations planning to bring down each other via Internet based attacks, and more about growing efforts to steal valuable information. Most of the action here appears to be carried out by professional hackers, seeking information they can resell. Not just credit card data and personal information for identity theft, but commercial information that other companies, or governments, will pay for. The thieves try to avoid detection while sneaking in and stealing data, both to avoid getting tracked down and prosecuted, and to make it easier to go back and get more goodies. But more and more of these thieves are being found out, and one of the primary tools for collecting information on these hackers is the Honey pot. These devices have come of age in the last decade. A Honey pot is an Internet server (PC a Website is running on) that looks real, and an attractive target, but is carefully monitored to record everything an attacking hacker does. This way, computer security researchers can collect information on the Internet criminals and have a better chance of hunting them down. It's not practical to put the monitoring software on every site. Bank and high-security government servers have substantial defenses that monitor any (well nearly any) penetration and shut down if any unauthorized entry is detected. This doesn't help to identify attacking hackers, but all these sites want to do is remain secure, not play cop.

Meanwhile, the Internet has become a battlefield between evil hackers (the black hats) and their equally determined opponents the good hackers (the white hats, who work for the government, large companies and computer security firms). The battle often involves military sites, and national security. That's no accident. The Internet was designed so that it would be invulnerable in nuclear war. The net software was put together in the open, often by volunteers. Few of the net's authors thought their creation would become a worldwide electronic superhighway with more than a billion users.

Information Warfare: Sweet Honey In The Rock

Artillery: 120mm Magic Arrives

 

The U.S. Army finally got its new GPS guided, 120mm mortar shells to Afghanistan. Development and production delays kept this from happening for years. But some pressure from the top (in response to lots of pressure from the bottom) made it happen. It turned out that the new shell performed better than its specifications (the shell falls within a 10 meter/31 foot radius at least half the time.) That was good news, because Afghanistan is a place where 120mm mortars are very useful, and a GPS guided 120mm mortar shell was seen as very helpful for avoiding civilian casualties and reducing the amount of ammo you have to truck in.

The troops have become used to GPS guided ammunition, and the 120mm mortar has just enough explosives to take out most targets, if the shell is GPS guided. Moreover, each infantry battalion has 4-8 of these weapons, giving battalion commanders his own GPS guided weapons. This is a big deal. Precision weapons like smart bombs and GPS guided rockets and shells gives the user an enormous combat advantage, and saves the lives of many nearby civilians.

Artillery: 120mm Magic Arrives

March Madness: U.S. Gov't Spent More Than Eight Times Its Monthly Revenue | CNSnews.com

 

The U.S. Treasury has released a final statement for the month of March that demonstrates that financial madness has gripped the federal government.

During the month, according to the Treasury, the federal government grossed $194 billion in tax revenue and paid out $65.898 billion in tax refunds (including $62.011 to individuals and $3.887 to businesses) thus netting $128.179 billion in tax revenue for March.

At the same, the Treasury paid out a total of $1.1187 trillion. When the $65.898 billion in tax refunds is deducted from that, the Treasury paid a net of $1.0528 trillion in federal expenses for March.

That $1.0528 trillion in spending for March equaled 8.2 times the $128.179 in net federal tax revenue for the month.

For some historical perspective, the total federal spending amount for the entire year of 1988 was $1.06 trillion.  The total debt of the US in 1982 was $1.1 trillion.

March Madness: U.S. Gov't Spent More Than Eight Times Its Monthly Revenue | CNSnews.com

Information Warfare: Planning In 3-D And At Light Speed

 

The U.S. Department of Defense has developed a holographic 3-D map display system  called UPSD (Urban Phototonic Sandtable Display). This system does not require special glasses, and replaces the current 3-D system which is presented on large flat screen displays in 2-D. This new 3-D tech is yet another aspect of an ongoing revolution in how combat headquarters are equipped, organized and operate.

These innovations began over a decade ago, but took its current form seven years ago when the 1st Cavalry division went to Iraq with fifty special PC systems, each equipped with three flat screen displays and wired so that the fifty PCs can communicate with each other over an encrypted network powerful enough to handle VOIP (telephone calls via the Internet). The use of three displays enables each user to view what they are working on now, a battle map and a screen full of information from another member of the network. Half of these PC "work stations" went to the division headquarters. The other 25 went to eight brigade level command posts (combat brigades and support commands) in the area the division is operating in (the Baghdad vicinity.)

Local networks like this are popular in corporations, enabling people who work together a lot, but are dispersed in many different locations, to constantly stay in touch. The software they use has come to be called "groupware" and has special features that makes it easier to share data and collaborate on projects. The army "groupware" project (officially, "The Command Post of the Future") had been in limbo for several years, as no one wanted to pay to have it installed in their combat division for a real life workout. But in 2004 there was a war on, and the commander of the 1st Cavalry division heard about it, saw a demo and liked it enough to take it on. One thing the 1st Cav officers quickly realized was that with this groupware setup, they could eliminate a lot of face-to-face meetings, and the need to travel through dangerous areas of Baghdad to get to the meetings.

But there was a more fundamental reason for going with "The Command Post of the Future". The current generation of senior officers (Colonel and above) grew up with PCs, and had access to the Internet in college, before the Internet went commercial and evolved into a mass media as the World Wide Web. These officers understand what you can do with networked PCs, and have been using laptops in the field for years. "Groupware" and other "collaborative software" is all the rage right now both inside and outside the armed forces. Actually, the Internet is basically groupware, but the idea for groupware was around before the World Wide Web (which is little more than using the Internet via a browser) came along in the early 1990s. Most senior officers accept the fact that the future of warfare is going to be with networked command and control systems.

Information Warfare: Planning In 3-D And At Light Speed

Leadership: Weighing Combat Experience

 

After a decade of war, the U.S. Army has recognized the value of combat experience in promoting junior NCOs. Thus the promotion system is being changed to deemphasize some online professional development courses, and put more weight on how much time candidates have spent in combat, and any recognition these troops have received for extraordinary performance under fire. In addition, more weight will be given to military skills. Less emphasis is put on the commander's recommendation, as this was found to be almost always automatic, because company commanders did not know the candidates well enough to give an accurate assessment.

These changes are actually part of a trend that began before September 11, 2001. Back in 2000, the army changed the promotion process to assign more points (out of 800, which come from several sources) to actual accomplishments by the candidates. This included ranger and Special Forces training courses, as well as more weight to physical fitness and weapons proficiency, as well as college courses (which troops take at night, at army expense.) Combat experience was not a big factor back then, but that all changed after September 11, 2001.

Leadership: Weighing Combat Experience

Morale: Girls With Guns Got The Blues

 

Two decades ago, female American troops in Saudi Arabia were pressured to keep their sleeves rolled down and wear headscarves when off duty. This caused a stir back home, and hurt morale in the military. The unofficial policy (of ordering women in Saudi Arabia to dress as modestly as possible) continued until a decade ago, when some military women sued the Department of Defense, and Congress banned such dress codes for American military women in Saudi Arabia.

But at the same time this was happening, the same kinds of rules were being applied in Afghanistan. While some female soldiers and marines appreciate the possible "hearts and minds" angle when they accompany patrols into villages so they can speak with the local women (something male soldiers cannot do, at least not without angering the local men), many see scarves under their helmets as foolish and craven. The Afghans know the Americans have female troops, who are armed and can fight. Why try to pretend that these women are anything like the women in the villages being visited. The Afghan women, especially the young girls, admire these foreign warrior women just as they are.

For now, the headscarf policy is still applied in some areas, and the female troops put up with it. But it does little for morale, and is not certain to have the desired effect on male, or female, Afghans.

Morale: Girls With Guns Got The Blues

New Bill Makes Military Pay Shutdown Proof | Military Advantage Blog | Military.com

 

For weeks now ser­vice­mem­bers and their fam­i­lies have been con­cerned about the effect a full-blown gov­ern­ment shut­down would have on their monthly pay.  It appears that Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) may be able to offer some relief  in the form of new leg­is­la­tion. Known as the ‘Ensur­ing Pay for Our Mil­i­tary Act’ Gohmert’s bill would effec­tively guar­an­tee mil­i­tary pay will con­tinue, in the in the event of a gov­ern­ment shut­down on April 8.

The fol­low­ing is an excerpt from the orig­i­nal press release:

This leg­is­la­tion ensures that mem­bers of the United States Mil­i­tary get their pay­check on time in the event that Con­gress can­not pass a bud­get.

This bill will appro­pri­ate nec­es­sary funds to ensure that mem­bers of the mil­i­tary, includ­ing reserve com­po­nents, con­tinue to receive pay and allowances for their ser­vice when a fund­ing gap occurs. That could be caused by the fail­ure to enact interim or full-year appro­pri­a­tions for the Depart­ment of Defense, which results in many mem­bers serv­ing with­out a pay­check until the shut­down is over. It is not enough for the mil­i­tary to know they will receive back pay after the shut­down is over. They need to know that their pay­check will arrive on time.

This is wel­come news, but this bill must be passed and signed quick enough to ensure ser­vice­mem­bers don’t miss their pay on April 15. One way to help is to con­tact your elected offi­cials and tell them to sup­port Gohmert’s ‘Ensur­ing Pay for Our Mil­i­tary Act.’

New Bill Makes Military Pay Shutdown Proof | Military Advantage Blog | Military.com