UPDATE:

UPDATE 2: Switched to a different poll system. Will try to get previous results added.

UPDATE 3: Switched back. The new one didn’t work quite the way I wanted AND it’s invalid HTML.

Make sure to keep our men and women in uniform, many of whom cannot be with their families this Christmas, in your thoughts and prayers.

Seen in the mirrored helmet visor of astronaut Christopher Cassidy is astronaut Tom Marshburn on the STS-127 mission's fourth spacewalk. The two teamed up again on July 27 for the STS-127 crew's fifth and final spacewalk. Eleven astronauts and cosmonauts remained inside the International Space Station and the shuttle to which it was docked, while the two suited astronauts continued work on the orbital outpost. Image Credit: NASA

And here’s another:

Backdropped by a blue and white Earth, this image taken by the Expedition 20 crew shows Endeavour shortly after the shuttle and station began their post-undocking separation on July 28, 2009. Image Credit: NASA

Via Noah Shachtman at the Danger Room who writes:

I think I need a barf bag.

Filmed by Jimboking with a flip phone in 2007.

Related: While Murdoc was at a shooting range on NAS Oceana last week with Blackhawk, F-18s were taking turns flying by and performing all sorts of acrobatic maneuvers. Turns out they were pilots trying out for the Blue Angels.

Here’s a couple of photos taken that day by Duane Daiker:

2-ship F-18 Flyby at NAS Oceana - Duane Daiker Photo

F-18 Flyby at NAS Oceana - Duane Daiker Photo

Active Component.

Recruiting. All four active services met or exceeded their recruiting goals for May.

• Army – 4,044 accessions with a goal of 3,900; 104 percent
• Navy – 2,542 accessions with a goal of 2,542; 100 percent
• Marine Corps – 2,146 accessions with a goal of 1,516; 142 percent
• Air Force – 2,289 accessions with a goal of 2,279; 100 percent

Retention. Retention continues to be very strong as all four active component services met or exceeded their May retention goals. The Marine Corps has met its year-end first and subsequent goals and Army has met its year-end initial, mid-career and career goals.

Army National Guard, which is usually the tail-end Charlie in recruiting numbers, was only at 83%. The Marine Corps Reserves, meanwhile, had 212% of their goal.

After years of conjecture, details have begun to emerge of a “kill weapon” developed by the Chinese to target and destroy U.S. aircraft carriers.

First posted on a Chinese blog viewed as credible by military analysts and then translated by the naval affairs blog Information Dissemination, a recent report provides a description of an anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) that can strike carriers and other U.S. vessels at a range of 2000km.

The range of the modified Dong Feng 21 missile is significant in that it covers the areas that are likely hot zones for future confrontations between U.S. and Chinese surface forces.

The size of the missile enables it to carry a warhead big enough to inflict significant damage on a large vessel, providing the Chinese the capability of destroying a U.S. supercarrier in one strike.

Because the missile employs a complex guidance system, low radar signature and a maneuverability that makes its flight path unpredictable, the odds that it can evade tracking systems to reach its target are increased. It is estimated that the missile can travel at mach 10 and reach its maximum range of 2000km in less than 12 minutes.

While troubling, I don’t know that I’d get all upset over this report. Investigate it ? For sure. Work on ideas for defenses against this or similar threats? Absolutely. It could very well be real, and, if it is, it could very well work decently. They’d only have to hit once to change things in a major way.

At the same time, I’d be more worried about submarines and the threat of submarines.

Also, a recent Linkzookery pointed out that the anti-missile Aegis ships are going to be upgraded to allow them to use their SM-2 missiles against ballistic missiles. The SM-2 has a much shorter range than the SM-3, but the added flexibility to use the full load of Standard Missiles against ballistic missiles is a good deal. And the shorter range wouldn’t be such a limitation if used against these “kill weapons.” If the anti-missile SM-2 upgrade would allow engagement of these things, that’s probably the way to go.

I wonder what it would take to get that anti-missile SM-2 upgrade for all Aegis ships. That would create a whole fleet of carrier escorts equipped to deal with this threat and turn the SM-2 into a “Kill Weapon Killer.”

U.S. Army Soldiers of the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division patrol through Rashidiyah, Iraq, Oct. 6, 2007. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Russell Bassett)

Greyhawk points out the confirmation of something we were already pretty sure was going to happen:

Shifting one Stryker brigade slated for Iraq to Afghanistan just meant that a different Stryker brigade would have to deploy to Iraq to take its place.

But Greyhawk makes an observation that had not occurred to me:

Read the first entry in this series for details of the preparations made by the Stryker Brigade for an Iraq deployment – 10-month Arabic language schools being just part of the training rendered useless by a reassignment to a country where the locals don’t speak it.

Of course, “intensive, 10-month Arabic language training” and “exercises… where they had to help their commanders negotiate with native-speaker role players” were now useless – but if they were no longer needed in Iraq, so be it.

But they were needed in Iraq – just not as badly as the Obama administration needed to make it appear that troops initially slotted for Iraq were going to Afghanistan instead – seemingly making good on a key campaign promise. So with much fanfare the Iraq drawdown (consisting entirely of the Stryker Brigade)/Afghanistan surge (Strykers plus a Marine unit) was announced, and subsequent polls indicated Americans were wildly enthusiastic about the idea.

Let’s recall a previous Stryker brigade deployment moved up in the schedule: The latest “rush to war” in which the media fell over itself fretting about units being “surged” into Iraq by President Bush without having completed all of the planned training.

Which unit was that particular article about? Oh, it was the 4th Brigade, 2nd Division. The same brigade that is being sent to Iraq early to fill in for the brigade being shifted to Afghanistan. I wonder where all the hysterics over sending unprepared troops into the combat zone are this time around. (Not really.)

How the times have changed.