General Casey is claiming that the service is not broken, but that it will take 3-4 years for it to recover from Iraq.
Well duh!!!
It’s actually going to take longer. When you consider the amount that the army has had to drop it’s standards for recruits, the people held in by stop loss orders and inactive ready reserve (aka backdoor draft), and the people who are staying only because they don’t want to leave their buddies while the fight is still going on, it’s going to be a lot longer.
The US Marines are suggesting that they be redeployed from Iraq to Afghanistan.
With about 25,000 Marines in Iraq, and about 26,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, this would seem a relatively straightforward swap, though the obvious question is, “why?”
I think that it is because the Marines as a group recognize that Iraq as a lie, and while they are willing to fight, they find that fighting for a lie is disheartening.
There is some push back on this, particularly from the USAF, because the Marines bring their own air capability, one that would probably seriously outperform the USAF, since a Marine air wing is more focused on the ground, with every pilot being a trained rifleman, which would mean less civilian casualties, and better coordination with ground troops.
It’s clear that Israel felt that there was some sort of threat, but they are not talking. That being said, if there is a faceoff between those who are completely batsh$# insane and always wrong and those who are sometimes insane, and usually wrong, I’ll go with the latter.
Syria has no background in nuclear weapons technology, but I could see them getting improved chem/bio warheads from the DPRK, as they do have active programs there, at least on the chem side.
One more instability in the region, the motto of Bush and His Evil Minions&trade must be Chaos is Job One.
Over 1100 members of the Minnesota National Guard were deployed to Iraq for 22 months.
Their orders had them deployed for 229 days, more than any other unit. However, if they had been deployed for 730 days, they would have gotten more than three times the educational benefits under the new GI Bill.
This is about two tings, the Bush Admin and the Pentagon wanting to run the war on the cheap, and the general disdain that the regular army has for the guard and reserves.
It’s penny wise and pound foolish. Their retention rate on these soldiers will be a lot less than it would have been.
It’s interesting that Russia is dusting off a 30 year old missile design (the 3M-25 Meteorit, pics are at the end, the first picture is a testbed) that was canceled 30 years ago.
Part of this, when justaposed with the hypersonic testbed, is to show Russian capabilities, but I believe that there is a more direct market that they are addressing, a missile that can credibly threaten a US Carrier Battle Group, particularly the Carrier itself.
With a weight of over 10 tons, and speed and altitude in excess of mach 3 and 20,000 meters, even a few of these, if launched, could inflict serious damage on any ship out there.
Given technological advances, and the fact that a 4000km range would not be needed for attacking carrier battle groups off a country’s shores, I could see a derivative coming in at less than 5 tons.
Russia Rekindles High-speed Cruise Weapons Interest (Paid Subscription Required)
Aviation Week & Space Technology
10/08/2007, page 60Douglas Barrie
LondonPrinted headline: Speed Metal
Russia dusted off and declassified an almost 30-year-old missile design for display—the 3M-25 Meteorit supersonic strategic cruise missile—at the recent Moscow air show (MAKS). But why present a program canceled in the early 1990s?
NPO Mashinostroenia’s Meteorit (Meteorite) program had been intended to develop a “universal” cruise missile for air, surface and submarine launch. The turbojet-powered weapon would cruise at 75,000 ft. beyond Mach 3.
…
On display as well at MAKS was a mock-up of the Central Aero-hydrodynamics Institute’s (TsAGI) GLL-AP-02 hypersonic “flying testbed” (shown). This is a notional Mach 6 air vehicle, to fly at 70,000 ft., powered by a Central Institute of Aviation Motors scramjet. TsAGI is looking at potential weapon applications of hypersonic air vehicles.
Here are the pics of the Meteorit
His analysis is that the Israelis used an electronic warfare system equivalent to BAE Systems SUTER to invade the Syrian air defense network, and misdirect it.
Honestly, I think that it was something more basic. They determined where the air defense sites were, when shifts changed, and things like that, and then they launched the attack to take advantage of this.
The high tech solution is sexier, but you have to remember that basic mission planning is more than 90% of the game. That F-117 was shot down in Yugoslavia because it ran the same route, at the same time, for 3 days straight.
Based on the photograph, this chopper appears to be of the Cobra/Mangusta size, as opposed to the far larger Apache/Havoc size.
Given that the volume of avionics required for their function has shrunk since the AH-64 hit the scene over 30 years ago, the larger, and more expensive helos don’t make as much sense.
Iran’s parliament votes to label CIA, U.S. Army ‘terrorist’ groups.
Considering the fact that the US Senate has done the same with units of the Iranian military, this is unsurprising.
Of course, this means that Iran does not feel bound by the requirements of POW status, and they could set up their own little Gitmo for our troops, which is, of course, the implicit threat here.
The worst kept secret in the Middle East is that US special forces, and possibly CIA operatives are operating in Iran, and by our actions, we have given the Iranians license to abuse them.
This is bloody awful.
Burma: Thousands dead in massacre of the monks dumped in the jungle
By MARCUS OSCARSSON – More by this author » Last updated at 15:04pm on 1st October 2007
Comments Comments (69)
Thousands of protesters are dead and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle, a former intelligence officer for Burma’s ruling junta has revealed.The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: “Many more people have been killed in recent days than you’ve heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand.”
Mr Win, who spoke out as a Swedish diplomat predicted that the revolt has failed, said he fled when he was ordered to take part in a massacre of holy men. He has now reached the border with Thailand.
….
Accordiong to Raw Story, the Israeli airstrike two weeks ago did not target a nuclear weapons facility, but was insteaddirected at a short range ballistic missile (SCUD type) missile depot. It was apparently brought on by a weapons handling accident in which chemical weapons were released, killing around 50 people.
It was thought to be an attempt to place chemical warheads on the missile.
Considering the paucity of the Syrian nuclear effort, one small research reactor that produces medical isotopes, one wonders who was spreading the rumor of nuclear weapons activity.
The Ar Force is currently deploying bombs with greatly reduced shrapnel effects.
This is identical in concept with the “paper bomb” in Tom Clancy’s Clear and Present Danger, though as an old Bullwinkle fan, I tend to think of the silent explosive that was a major part of one of their story lines.
I like the way that the Majority leader of the Senate puts that:
“In blocking this bipartisan bill, Republicans have once again demonstrated that they are more committed to protecting the President than protecting our troops. They have shown they will allow President Bush’s flawed war strategy to continue to strain our military rather than allow the availability of troops to dictate our operations. And they believe it is in our national security interest to push our brave troops and their families beyond their breaking point.
“Democrats disagree. We care deeply about rebuilding our badly overextended military and ensuring our troops have the time to properly train, prepare for and recover from battle. And Democrats remain committed to repaying in some small measure the sacrifices our brave troops are making every day.”
Once again, an a junior officer who knows enough to rat out more senior officers scates.
Capt. Lucas M. McConnell of Napa was granted immunity and ordered to cooperate with officials looking into the November 2005 killings, the Marines said in a press release.
….
Lt. Gen. James Mattis dismissed dereliction of duty charges against McConnell on Sept. 12. and determined that “administrative measures” were an appropriate punishment, the Marines said.
Seriously.
A sergeant gets jail, but a captain, who would be in a position to finger a colonel, who might in turn finger generals…nothing.
This is an excercise in ass covering.
Truth be told, I could see these entering civil aviation as weather radars too, and with a bit of software, you could put it on a cruise missile, and you could follow terrain, and jam radars searching for you.
The PicoSar(Shown below) weighs less than 25 pounds and is about the size of a toaster.
It has a range of about 12 miles and can track ground targets, and it appears to run cool enough that it does not need liquid cooling.
With some decent software, you could probably gang a bunch of these together for better resolution, or use it for stealthy radar antenna.
I’m waiting for someone to apply a low performance (cheap) version of this technology to satellite TV receivers. It could adjust to gusts in fractions of a second.
Good news, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England has told the Air Force to Sod off.
The Airforce wanted to manage all UAVs that operated over 3500 feet. That’s right all of them, Army, Navy, Marines, etc.
They wanted to run the contracts, for basically anything larger than a hand launched short range system.
The army, quite logically said that the USAF does a piss-poor job supporting people on the ground. They just don’t give a damn, hence the inanity of the USAF drawing up its own counterinsurgency manual, which basically says, bomb everything that moves*.
While there are some economies gained from merging programs, Congress has pressured the DoD to merge USAF Predator and Army Warrior unmanned aerial system (UAS) programs for this reason, absent real duplication, and positive proof that the USAF if the ONLY service that can efficiently manage the system, any mergers should cut against the fly boys from Colorado Springs.
*Come to think of it, that’s pretty much their answer to everything.
Well, it appears that Retired Lt. General Thomas McInerney, in a bid to talk about large US munitions, has revealed that he has feeling of inadequacy about his small penis.
Specifically, when talking about the recent Russian demonstration of their massive fuel air/thermobaric bomb recently:
…
McInerney said the U.S. has “a new massive ordnance penetrator that’s 30,000 pounds, that really penetrates … Ahmadinejad has nothing in Iran that we can’t penetrate.”
He also said the new Russian bomb was not a “Penetrator.”
To quote Shreck, “Do you think maybe he’s compensating for something?” In the future, we should call our weapons “Anal Intruders” to remove any doubt
Then again, this guy is so batsh&% insane, that he makes Curtis LeMay look like the Dali Lama:
He said that bombing would be launched by 65-70 stealth bombers and 400 bombers of other types.
“Forty-eight hours duration, hitting 2500 aimed points to take out their [Iranian] nuclear facilities, their air defense facilities, their air force, their navy, their Shahab-3 retaliatory missiles, and finally their command and control. And then let the Iranian people take their country back,” the general said describing the campaign, adding it would be “easy.”
So, in addition to being crazy, he is just plain stupid.
Any US attack will cement the rule of the Mullas for at least another 20 years, just as Saddam’s attack on Iran secured their rule for the past 20 some odd years.
Moron.
U.S. Confirms Israeli Strikes Hit Syrian Target Last Week – New York Times.
Don’t know what was hit, or why, though my guess would be that it’s Hesbolla related. If anyone knows anything, contact me.
The DSEI show had someinteresting naval displays from BAE.
This is an 8000 ton (supercarriers are 75,000+ton) destroyer with a rear flight deck for dispatching UAVs. I’d call it more of a UAV tender than a Carrier.
This is a submarine propelled by 8 pumpjets mounted in the tail. It does away with the reduction gear of a direct drive system. If I recall correctly, the Seawolf and Virginia class boats use a single screw/pump with electric drive for much the same reason.
Those gears are heavy, very precise, and hence expensive, and (if anything goes wrong) noisy.
This is a mockup of an air independent propulsion system for submarines. As opposed to using a fuel cell, they are using a diesel generator, which promises to be cheaper.
Well, it appears that the folks at the Veteran’s Administration are lying about wait times for services for disabled vets.
6 times as many vets had to wait more than a month than they had claimed.
