Witnesses say that Nidal Malik Hasan, apparently a lifelong Muslim and not a recent convert as initially reported, shouted “Allahu Akbar!” before opening fire yesterday. Although reportedly killed, he survived and is in custody.

Guess he was just giving a “shout-out” before getting things going.

Fort Hood commander Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said that they have not officially confirmed that Hasan made the opening remarks.

Cone said Hasan was hospitalized in stable condition and that investigators hope to interrogate him as soon as possible.

I’ll bet they do. They’re probably lined up around the block hoping for a chance to interrogate this guy.

The C-130 gunship lab at Robins AFB is updating fire control systems to allow targeting two weapons simultaneously:

“The way they described it is ‘We want to be able to shoot the ant hill, and then kill all the ants as they leave the ant hill,’” said Steve Pollard, the lead C-130 gunship test engineer.

After months of work and close contact with combat flight crews about how they wanted it to work, software engineers in the 402nd Software Maintenance Group did just that. After testing it successfully in the lab, the new capability was put to use.

I didn’t realize that only one gun could be targeted at a time. It’s also unclear whether this upgrade is for the AC-130H, the AC-130U, or both.

Reports of 7 dead and 20 wounded. Reports of at least one suspect in custody.

Reports that were another couple of shooters. So not some guy who “just lost it.”

UPDATE: Still developing, but it sounds like two shooters, not three. They were reportedly dressed as soldiers, but it’s Fort Hood. Could be a couple of soldiers who “went nuts.” Could be a couple of civilians with axes to grind. Could be enemy fighters like those guys who wanted to attack Ft. Dix.

Could be just about anything at this point.

UPDATE 2: Now I heard 9 or 12 dead. And that one shooter is dead plus two more in custody, all soldiers.

Gang-related?

UPDATE 3: The dead shooter was a major (!) named Malik Nadal Hasan. It’s currently unclear whether he was the only shooter, as some witnesses said that there was more than one. Maybe they were confused by guys shooting back?

Two others are in custody.

UPDATE 4: Incidentally, I was trying to watch some live coverage online of Obama’s press conference on the incident but all I saw was him giving a “shout-out” to some people in the crowd and talking about some conference. I figured it was taped from earlier so I turned it off. Now what I’m reading makes me think that that was live. What was that all about? Didn’t he know the cameras were on? Shout outs to supporters? [Update: He gave the shout out to Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom recently, not "a supporter."]

Or was that not actually live at the time? It was close to 5:00 PM eastern.

UPDATE 5: The shooter is still alive.

Soldiers fight 4-hour battle at Afghan village

AP story by David Guttenfelder:

The villagers said they just wanted to be left alone. They claimed they had asked the Taliban to stay away, and wished the Americans would do the same.

But now the Americans were back, determined to stop the Taliban from passing through the village to attack U.S. targets. And shortly afterward the gunfire from the hills above served notice that the Taliban had no intention of leaving.

Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division return fire after their patrol in the Pech Valley of Afghanistan's Kunar province was ambushed by Taliban fighters Nov. 3. David Guttenfelder/AP photo

Go read the whole thing at Army Times.

Last week I pointed out a story which claimed that the Prince of Wales, the second of two new British aircraft carriers, could be switched to a helicopter-only commando carrier.

British defence equipment and support minister Quentin Davies called the report “complete rubbish.”

He also noted that the British have no intention to cut back on the number of F-35s they plan to purchase. This had been the reason cited for the downgrading of the carrier.

Cross-posted from GunPundit.com

U.S. Army Spc. Peter Hurlock qualifying with the M16 in Korea. April 14, 2009. (U.S. photo by Staff Sgt. Christophe D. Paul/Released)

A couple of posts by C.J. Chivers:

How Reliable Is the M-16 Rifle?

and

The M-16 Argument Heats Up, Again

Good overall views of the issue, though the increasing use of 77-grain Mk 262 ammunition with the Special Forces and the poor showing in US Army dust chamber tests against a trio of piston guns were not mentioned.

Also, he writes about the M855 not “fragmenting” as well as the M193. Didn’t he probably mean “tumbling”? Though they do sometimes fragment, I thought that was not the design intent.

Anyway, it’s nice to see decent coverage of this issue where it might get a little more visibility.

Female Soviet WW2 Pilots near a US-built P-39 Airacobra

A reader sends a link to a BBC audio slideshow about the 588th Night Bomber Regiment (later called the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment) in the Soviet military, an all-female attack unit.

Despite the photo above and an IL-2 in the slideshow, the Night Witches actually flew Po-2 biplanes.

The graphic novel mentioned in the slideshow is available from Amazon.