Archive for April, 2004

Military boosts deliveries of armored vehicles to Iraq

In the Seattle Times:

Responding to a request by field commanders, military leaders are increasing the delivery of armored vehicles to Iraq because deadly roadside bombings have not diminished as expected.

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said yesterday that a request for more heavy armored vehicles — Abrams M1A1 tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles — has been made by commanders in Iraq. The Pentagon is considering sending more tanks and is accelerating production of armored Humvee utility vehicles.

Forces now arriving in Iraq as part of a massive troop rotation were ordered to leave many of their heavily armored tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles behind, in the belief that since their mission was peacekeeping instead of fighting, heavy equipment would be unnecessary.

But the violence targeting U.S. troops has escalated, not diminished. “The reason this is significant is because over the last several months they have been shipping all the armor in the theater out because of this persistent view that Humvees and mounted infantry is really all that’s required,” said one high-ranking Army officer in Washington In a March 30 memo, Gen. Larry Ellis, the head of the Army’s Forces Command, told the Army chief of staff, “It is imperative that the Army accelerate the production of Stryker vehicles to support current operations.”

A Fort Lewis-based unit is built around the Stryker, which can carry 11 troops and has half-inch armor plating. The Stryker was deployed late last year for the first time in Iraq, despite a Pentagon study that found it may be vulnerable to rocket-propelled grenade attacks.

Between the shortage of armored vehicles to face the recent insurgency and the fact that the Humvees that have had armor added are breaking down too frequently, maybe we could use some of those M113s we keep hearing about? The anti-Stryker folks are happy to point out that we’ve got tons of the things sitting around unused. Maybe we could use some of them for patrols in tough areas, at least until armored Humvee production catches up with the requirements. Most soldiers must have at least a passing familiarity with the M113, so I think it would be able to be fielded rather quickly. Sure, the armor isn’t what we’d like, but it’s a hell of a lot better than a Humvee.

Of course, M113 success in Iraq might make the expensive Stryker look bad. By all accounts the Stryker is performing very well, though, and I’ve said before that there’s room in this Army for both.

Todd at Stryker Brigade News contacted me with more news on the recent test-firings of the LAV-3-based 105mm howitzer. (Mentioned here and here.)

According to DefenseLink, which I had seen but don’t have access to,

The cannon was designed for indirect fire at ranges between 4 kilometers
and 30 kilometers at a rate of eight shots per minute.

It can fire six types of ballistically compatible rounds, including a
bispectral smoke round, visual and infrared illumination rounds, a practice
round, a regular high-explosive round and a highly lethal pre-form fragment
(PFF) round.

The PFF technology, traditionally used in anti-missile weapons, has
“migrated” to 105mm ammunition to increase the lethality of the artillery,
Gyfford Fitchat, Denel executive manager of business development in the
United States, said during a cannon demonstration here April 16.

The PFF rounds contain 7,800 tungsten balls, which when fired “pretty much
wipes out a soccer field,” Jim Vickrey, director of artillery programs at
General Dynamics Land Systems, said at the same demonstration. “This is not
your father’s 105.”

Click the pic to go to the full write-up at Stryker Brigade News, including higher-resolution pictures in their gallery.

The Mystery Sniper of Najaf (April 28, 2004 entry)

On Strategy Page:

There is apparently an Iraqi sniper operating in Najaf, killing al Sadr gunmen one by one. This, not surprisingly, has unnerved the al Sadr gangs, and caused them to act brutally towards Iraqis in attempts to find the mysterious sniper.

This guy, if he really exists and is really just one guy, could be an emerging Iraqi hero. Allah knows they need one.

Defense Department Operational Briefing

Rumsfeld gave a press conference yesterday and noted the use of holy buildings and other “off limits” sites by insurgents:

To get a sense of the stark contrast between the good that coalition forces are doing in Iraq and the tactics that the enemy has used consistently, if one thinks back, they used hospitals, they used mosques, they used schools as weapons locations and fortresses to fight from throughout the time of the invasion. The photo of terrorists using a mosque in Najaf as a base for attacks against our forces is an example of what we’re finding. There have been additional attacks taken from mosques in Fallujah, and I believe there have been embedded reporters who have been able to — as well as combat camera — able to make some of that available to the American people.

There are two ways, I suppose, one could inform readers of the Geneva Convention stipulation against using places of worship to conduct military attacks. One might be to headline saying that Terrorists Attack Coalition Forces From Mosques. That would be one way to present the information.

Another might be to say: Mosques Targeted in Fallujah. That was the Los Angeles Times headline this morning.

Here’s the link to the LA Times story. The actual link title is “Mosque Targeted in Fallouja Fighting”. That was a known known, but I don’t think any misinformation was intended by Rummy when he misquoted the title. I don’t think the same can be said for the LA Times when they only headlined the al Jazeera version of events.

I’m waiting, like everyone else, to see how the Fallujah situation develops. I’m cautiously optimistic that we’re taking the right approach, but only time will tell if our restraint will pay off. (via Instapundit)

I received this email this morning:

Subject: JOBS JOBS jobs

Photographer needed in Kuwait
Must agree to censorship rules

Photographer Tami Silicio, working for an airline contractor in Kuwait, lost her job for giving a photo of caskets containing the remains of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq

I haven’t been commenting on this issue because I don’t really have strong feelings one way or another. I would almost certainly favor coverage of coffins if I trusted the media to do so in an even-handed, non-biased way. I don’t, so I’m not all that opposed to the current policies.

And for those that will argue that the media isn’t biased against Bush or the invasion of Iraq, watch the photos. How many pictures do we see of celebrating, defiant insurgents? How many pictures of tired, or demoralized-looking, or injured Americans? Then, how many pictures of demoralized or injured insurgents? How many pictures of Marines in high spirits or being greeted in a friendly way by Iraqi citizens?

That’s why I don’t trust the media with pictures of coffins. Not because I suspect that they might try to skew the image of what’s happening. Because they already are.

Being someone duty-bound to share my opinion, here’s my response to the message:

You can debate whether the censorship of the pictures is right or not, but the fact is that she broke the rules as they exist at this time. And this isn’t some draconian Bush/Cheney suppression of freedoms, either. These rules have existed for many years.

Journalists and others covering the military have very harsh, very clear rules about what can and cannot be done. I can even be fired from my job for publishing pictures of manufacturing technologies where I work. Someone at Coca-Cola could be fired for revealing the “secret” formula. Anyone anywhere will be fired and probably prosecuted by the SEC for sharing inside stock tips. It’s all a form of censorship, and none of it is unusual in the slightest way.

(Plus did you see that many of the pictures of Iraqi war dead are actually pictures of the COLUMBIA astronauts. Gee, maybe all those reporters aren’t as clever as they think they are…)

“Must agree to censorship rules”? She DID agree to censorship rules. She broke them. She’s fired.

Don’t just toss this out there as if it’s some sort of proof of wrong-doing or cover-up. That’s irresponsible.

Also, here’s a post from last October on showing coffins at Dover AFB. The comments section includes quite a bit of the debate.

A few weeks ago I noted a prototype Stryker LAV with a 105mm howitzer mounted on it. Recent comments on that post indicate that the initial testing went well. I can’t vouch for the authority of the commenters, but here’s what they had to say:

The howitzer recently completed a series of test firings at Eglin AFB and fired all top charges at from -4 to 70 degrees and from +30 to -30 deflection with absolutely no problems. Ranges were from 17 to 32 kilometers. It was then flown by C-130 to Fort Sill, OK where it rolled off the aircraft in 6 minutes and was firing on a range within 25 minutes.

and

The GDLS 105mm howitzer mounted on the Stryker is unlike anything in existance today. It has an extremely effective muzzle brake that actually has less recoil impulse than the 105mm MGS. The gun is designed to be fired without spades and yes, it can be fired over the side without rolling the vehicle. Max range is 30+ KM (not kidding). The rounds actually go supersonic when fired (fairly rare wehn talking artillery). The military has been offered the first battalion of 18 vehicles just 18 months after someone signs the contract. It fits within a C-130. In fact this vehicle was just last week flown to Fort Sill on a C-130 rolled off, live-fired, and then rolled back on and flown away. I’m not generally impressed by artillery, but this one has me thinking.

Sniper Tactics Dominate the Iraqi Battlefields (April 25, 2004 entry)

Today’s Strategy Page has an excellent post on the employment of snipers in Iraq. Among the best of it is:

The marines won’t release any numbers of sniper kills (except that the top scoring sniper in Fallujah has 24 kills so far), but it is known from emails coming back that the marines use snipers, and sniping tactics (for non-snipers), extensively. Part of this is to comply with the Rules of Engagement (ROE) that call for minimizing civilian casualties. Most often, the marines only use a lot of fire power when they are ambushed (there is no better way to deal with an ambush than to blast your way out of it). But most of the Iraqi gunmen are killed by single shots, usually by the trained snipers, after the snipers and their commanders had carefully set up sniper firing positions that covered areas they knew Iraqis liked to travel through. UAVs and lots of scouting, plus questioning of prisoners, reveals the Iraqi routes and makes them deadly to use. This has terrorized the Iraqis, which is exactly what it is intended to do. The army and marine snipers particularly like to work at night, when their night vision and thermal imaging equipment enables them to shoot accurately in the darkness. This further reduces the chance of civilian losses, and increases the terror.

24 kills so far for the top Marine sniper. Ooh rah.

Go read the whole thing.

Anti-Coalition Forces Take Token Steps Toward Peace Initiative

It seems that the insurgents in Fallujah aren’t cooperating with the agreement to turn in their weapons:

Weapons turned in to Marines around Fallujah Thursday were old, rusted and some were completely unusable. The number and condition of weapons turned in paled in comparison to those that Marines are capturing from enemy forces. Captured weapons appear in good-working order, are clean, oiled and ready for combat.

Weapons turned in to the Marines were in small amounts. There were no large caches of weapons, which is a drastic contrast to the weapons and ammunition Marines and soldiers found in the vicinity of Fallujah earlier this week.

Six machine guns turned in were broken beyond repair as were two SA-7 missile launchers. Seven rocket-propelled grenade launchers were turned in, but some were inoperable. About 21 RPG projectiles were handed in and labeled inert.

One sniper rifle and one flamethrower were brought in; however, neither was in a condition to be fired. Another 113 mortar rounds were collected, but upon inspection, they were found to be corroded and rusted beyond military use.

Either the insurgents are out of working weapons, which would be difficult to explain to Marines taking fire, or someone is trying to be tricky. I’m losing any hope that I might have had, and it wasn’t much to begin with, that this negotiated peace might work out to be the right thing to do.

Maybe the insurgents in Fallujah are trying to buy time so they can launch another round of attacks if/when we move into Najaf? Could be the same thing in other places, too. Waiting for us to commit to fighting in Najaf, then try to jump us in other places? Another attempt at a Tet Offensive payoff in the American media? Just a thought.

In the Line of Duty

The former Arizona Cardinal who turned down a multi-million dollar contract to become an Army Ranger after 9/11 has been killed in action in Afghanistan. (via Drudge via The Command Post)

My parents live in a rural area between Denver and Colorado Springs, CO. I just received this message:

This is 12 hours into a predicted 30 hour snow.

And this is the pic:

It’s hard to see in this pic, but the larger version he sent me shows that it’s coming down at a decent clip.

He owns a road grader. You know, one of those big orange ones. He decided that the road he lives on needed more work than the county was giving, so he bought one and parks it beside his driveway. That should keep them from getting snowed in if this keeps up. (Last year they also got dumped on late in the spring.)

I don’t know how cold it is, but it doesn’t really appear to be blowing too much. Just a nice, peaceful dumping.

UPDATE: I know you’re all wondering. It’s still snowing where my parents live in Colorado. Here’s a pic of him out on the road with his grader:

Click for a bigger pic.

Someone keep that guy away from eBay. For his own good.