Archive for September, 2007
U.S.: Senior leader of al-Qaida in Iraq killed
The posting seems to be a temporary assignment.
Are the French Looking to Sling Lead for NATO?
French military back in NATO after over 40 years? What do you think?
Can’t Win With ‘Em, Can’t Go To War Without ‘Em (26-page .pdf)
PW Singer’s report for Brookings on private military contractors.
On Private Military Companies and Contractors
Grim at Blackfive comments on Singer’s paper.
Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry
Singer’s 2003 book on the industry. A must-read.
Blackwater faced bedlam, U.S. Embassy finds
Meanwhile, the details of the latest incident continue to trickle in.
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Yesterday I posted about the fact that non-stealthy Israeli aircraft apparently had no problems striking deep in Syria and that the Syrian air defenses could do nothing about it. I also noted that this wasn’t the first time that Syrian had been shown to be virtually impotent against Israeli aircraft.
Today, I’ve got what basically amounts to a guest post by two regular commenters on MO, Dfens and James. I’ve pulled large parts of what they’ve got to say on the subject. Very slight editing only.
At the time when we were facing the Warsaw Pact, the problem of penetrating enemy airspace was not the individual systems but the multiple overlapping dense placement of differing types of air defenses. Basically, we had a problem of two many enemy radar sets operating on different frequencies from multiple source points. Our jamming systems were incapable of suppressing the threats with a reasonable loss rate. Basically, every war game had us going nuclear within 7-10 days with most of air forces strike assets being rendered ineffective within 5 days. It was really grim. That lead to the development of stealth, the heavy investment in cruise missiles, anti-radiation munitions and some specialized space assets.
Syria has nothing like the defenses East Germany had. So you can bypass and neutralize the air defenses by attacking a few key choke points. By disrupting the communication systems, you force each site to operate on its own. Since the local radars are relatively short ranged, their effective reaction time will be limited and if you disrupt command and control, its very probable that the site will be unable to act effectively. If you know the location, frequency, operator habits, command and control lines associated with missile site, its pretty easy to suppress the site. The Russia missile systems specs and operating protocols are well known, and can be countered.
More, and a pic of our current attack aircraft, below.
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Unless the Blue Shirt is a manager, in which case you should switch from “Ignore” mode to “Actively Avoid” mode.
Best Buy may have good prices. And, if you’re lucky, they may even have what you want in stock, though it’s probably at the store across town. But never ever ever ask any employees anything.
And don’t believe anything you see on their website if you’re in the store. Because the website isn’t the website. But at least they’re being honest about lying to you, now.
I’d heard about this “secret intranet” site a while back but wasn’t sure if the story was true. Apparently it is.
Jerks.
Full Disclosure: Murdoc certainly shops at BB, and I’m not recommending that anyone else not shop at BB. Given the choices for such goods in this area, it truly does seem to be the best buy. But my policy is to not ever get information from the employees. My experiences with this have been astoundingly bad. Every so often I overrule myself and ask someone a question. I am always mad at myself later because the “help” I got was worse than worthless.
Silence in Syria, Panic in Iran
F-15INotice how far away Dayr az-Zawr is from Israel. An F15/16 attack there is not a tiptoe across the border, but a deep, deep penetration of Syrian airspace. And guess what happened with the Russian super-hyper-sophisticated cutting edge antiaircraft missile batteries when that penetration took place on September 6th.
Nothing.
El blanko. Silence. The systems didn’t even light up, gave no indication whatever of any detection of enemy aircraft invading Syrian airspace, zip, zero, nada. The Israelis (with a little techie assistance from us) blinded the Russkie antiaircraft systems so completely the Syrians didn’t even know they were blinded.
Now you see why the Syrians have been scared speechless. They thought they were protected – at enormous expense – only to discover they are defenseless. As in naked.
Thus the Great Iranian Freak-Out – for this means Iran is just as nakedly defenseless as Syria.
This isn’t the first time Israel has struck into Syrian airspace with nary a response. And I doubt it will be the last time.
I have previously stated that as we deactivate the F-117s, we should sell some of them to Israel. I still think that’s a good idea, but maybe they aren’t really needed.
Meanwhile, I’ve totally been waiting for someone to float the idea that US stealth planes actually conducted this raid (possibly from Iraq, whose border isn’t so far from Dayr az-Zawr, but I’ve been disappointed.
Though stealth is obviously a great advantage, this is just another demonstration that it isn’t the end-all beat-all when it comes to military aircraft.
(Via Wizbang)
Yesterday I linked to an excellent piece in the Danger Room about the Land Warrior gear currently in use in Iraq. Today I check back and see that the comments section has degenerated into a spitting match about calling Tarmiyah a “filthy little town” and the definition and political correctness of the term “Islamist”.
That’s always nice to see on a site primarily about defense technology.
I won’t even get into the whole debate over what “Islamist” means.
Another commenter responded to the “filthy little town” comment with:
I’ve been to Tarmiyah. It is little and also filthy (but then the trash tht litters Iraq makes a good deal of it filthy).
But what does he know? He was probably too busy being deployed to Iraq to take all of his nice little PC classes. (That’s what I tell my buddy who was part of the invasion of Iraq…What could he possibly know about what happened? He was with the Marines in the middle of the desert with no internet. Sheesh.)
I’m reminded of this bit, which I’ve noted several times, about Steven Vincent’s explanation of the general sanitation situation in most of Iraq:
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Just got this awesome book from DK Publishing: Lincoln: The Presidential Archives by Chuck Wills.
There is no better treatment for the life of the great President Abraham Lincoln than this interactive, “museum-in-a-book,” which includes accessible text, photography, and removable documents that, combined, provide an educational and entertaining reading experience for the whole family. This full biography covers Lincoln’s childhood, his early political career, the Civil War, and his traumatic assassination.
A writer, editor, and consultant specializing in American History, Chuck Will’s most recent books include America’s Presidents, Destination America, and Boom Times, Hard Times. He has written or contributed to numerous other works on American history, including Daily Life in Colonial America and a series of historical albums on the American states. In addition to his historical work, Wills has a sideline in popular culture, technology, and music, including co-authoring Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip. He lives in New York City.
- Includes removable replicas of notes, sketches, maps, and letters from the President’s collection
- Features family photographs, presidential portraits, and other photographic ephemera from the era
- Concludes with Lincoln’s place in history
- The Lincoln Bicentennial will be celebrated from 02/08 through 02/10
This is a top-notch book with fun (and well done) reproduction documents.
Noah Shachtman has a great article up about his encounter with Land Warrior-equipped troops in Iraq: Soldier of the Future Goes to War. It’s definitely worth a read.
They were supposed to be wearing the high-tech soldier suits of the future. But when the grunts of the 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment first started running around with a pile of gadgets on their backs and their helmets, they absolutely hated the gear…
I’ve just spent a week with Prior and the 4/9 (known as the “Manchus” since their assaults on China in 1901). And much to my surprise, a bunch of the soldiers in the unit are warming up to Land Warrior, especially now that the gizmo ensemble has been pared down and made more tactically relevant.
This is great news, and I’m reminded of what I wrote last spring about LW:
Part of the issue, of course, is getting troops used to using the gear, and another (big) part is working out the bugs and tweaking things as real-world experience teaches lessons. The troops on the ground will eventually think of ways to use some of this gear in ways never dreamed of by the designers…I expect that the useful stuff will be retained and the dead weight left behind in short order.
It’s when the boots hit the ground that the real testing and innovation takes place. One thing about electronics-based tech like most of the Land Warrior suite is that the gear will keep getting smaller and lighter and cheaper and better. What’s too bulky to carry today might be added to a wristwatch tomorrow, and feedback from the field in a combat zone should make all the difference.
Go read the whole thing, which includes digital chem lights, small kill teams, video feeds from small robots, and digital gun scopes left behind.
Rednecks and Bible bangers are mocked because they support George W. Bush, but it’s Castro and Mao and Che that seem to have big fan clubs and Hollywood spokespeople and T-shirts and everything.
Ahmadinejad appears on the verge of becoming the latest international political rock star: Smartest Man in the Room.
Now, in fairness, part of the article seems to argue that Ahmadinejad’s “savvy” is due more to the total lack of savvy possessed by others in the room than to his own savvy. I guess it’s hard to argue much with that.
But then the moral equivalence games commence:
The Iranian regime is as vulnerable with regards to its domestic policies as America is with regards to its foreign policy and war in Iraq. It is true that Iran has occasionally funded various groups that have been hostile to U.S. interests. But the United States has done the very same thing to Iran and much more.
As in, Yes, Iran is bad. But America is much worse.
An example given is the sale of weapons to Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. An example not given, of course, is the sale of weapons to Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. Under these playing rules, wouldn’t weapons delivered as part of what would become known as Iran-Contra be considered aid to Iran? But I digress.
Then, of course, comes the nuclear weapons issue.
There is no evidence that they are building a bomb, they are a member of the NPT, which gives them the right to enrich uranium, and their two main open enemies — Israel and America — both possess nuclear weapons, with the former not being a member of NPT and the latter breaking its rules by not moving toward the treaty’s ultimate goal: elimination of all nuclear weapons.
This is a case of Iran isn’t bad, but America (and Israel, of course) are very bad indeed.
Then, in the comments, a response by a reader to claims that Ahmadinejad is a bad person:
Yes. AJ is truly evil. Imagine, him reading e mails, listening to telephone conversations, lying to get into a war for oil, creating millions of refugees, spending money on weaponry and war instead of its own people or social programs, rendition, torture, abu gharib, corporate coroption, katrina, global warming, and promoting religeous views into their own political policies. What a silly little terrorist. Has Iran ever used a nuclear weapon or sold and then supported the use of chemical weapons ? How many wars has Iran got going on right now? Is Iran occupying any countries? Spend more time on Osama, in case you’ve forgotten, and just perhaps you might actually find him. These diversions are getting tired.
Clearly a case of I didn’t hear what you were saying because I Hate George Bush So Much.
This may all end with Ahmadinejad looking like a rock star. But if it does, it’s going to be because so many people worked so hard to make it happen.
U.S. Army Soldiers from Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment search a mountain for Taliban members and weapons caches in Waghez, Afghanistan, Sept. 19, 2007. DoD photo by Staff Sgt. Marcus J. Quarterman, U.S. Army.
Hard to believe Taliban fighters could find any cover or concealment in this open terrain.
