Archive for December, 2008

DoD Release:

The Department of Defense has updated the Unified Command Plan (UCP), a key strategic document that establishes the missions, responsibilities, and geographic areas of responsibility for commanders of combatant commands. Most importantly, UCP 2008, signed by President Bush on Dec. 17, codifies U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) and assigns several new missions to the combatant commanders.

Every two years, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is required by law to review the missions, responsibilities, and geographical boundaries of each combatant command in the U.S. military and recommend to the President, through the secretary of defense, any changes that may be necessary.

As in past years, the 2008 review process included the combatant commanders, service chiefs, and DoD leadership.

Significant changes made by UCP 2008 include:

• Codifying USAFRICOM as a geographic combatant command through assignment of specific missions, responsibilities, and geographic boundaries; the command became fully operation capable Oct. 1, 2008.
• Codifying influenza.
• Updating “cyberspace operations” responsibilities assigned to U.S. Strategic Command.
• Assigning all combatant commanders responsibility for planning and conducting military support to stability, security, transition, and reconstruction operations, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief.
• Realigning the USNORTHCOM and U.S. Southern Command areas of responsibility (AOR) by placing the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Turks and Caicos Islands in the USNORTHCOM AOR.

The UCP 2008 continues to support the U.S. defense security commitment around the world while improving military responses to the struggle against violent extremists.

A map of the combatant commanders’ AOR can be found at http://www.defenselink.mil/news/map12-08.pdf.

Here’s a shot of the map:
Read the rest of this entry »

Maj. Rick Wageman operates the virtual cockpit of an MQ-1 Predator Oct. 25 at a base in southern Afghanistan. The remote nature of the control allows the Predator to stay airborne for longer periods of time, changing pilots periodically to reduce stress and fatigue which can lead to mission failure. Major Wageman is a 62nd Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron pilot deployed from Cannon Air Force Base, N.M. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Samuel Morse)

As is usually the case, click for a bigger image.

This is for the existing tankers, not the KC-X: $1.1B to Boeing for KC-135 Tanker Maintenance Overturned by Court

Tankers are about as non-sexy as it gets, but doom will fall upon us if they aren’t where they need to be when they need to be.

Special ops ‘surge’ sparks debate

the proposal sparked a fierce high-level debate, with special operations officers charging that [War Czar Lt Gen. Doug] Lute and his colleagues were trying to micromanage the movement of individual Special Forces A-teams from inside the Beltway, and countercharges that Special Forces has strayed from its traditional mission of raising and training indigenous forces and become too focused on direct-action missions to kill or capture enemies.

You really should go read the whole thing. On the surface, it really appears that the Special Forces (across the spectrum) should have started “ramping up” on the afternoon of September 11, 2001.

One of the big complaints is that there isn’t enough airlift and other “enabling” elements to allow the SF guys to do what they need to do already, let alone if more are “surged” into the country.

Maybe this is related: 82nd CAB heading to Afghanistan

The 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade has received orders to deploy to Afghanistan in the spring, just slightly more than 12 months after its 2,800 soldiers redeployed from their last rotation in Afghanistan.

Former Military Blogger charged with tackling Pats linebacker Junior Seau

Todd Kobus, who used to blog at lostiniraq.com, was arrested for tackling Junior Seau during the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game. Not only did Todd leap over a seven foot wall, but he tackled one of the toughest NFL players in the league. If you ask me, Todd is pretty hardcore but not the sharpest tool in the box.

Last S-3 squadron arrives home

Sea Control Squadron 22 is back from Iraq and the Viking is being put out to pasture.

As I wrote in early 2007,

I’ve never really thought that this move makes much sense.

Questions linger in deadly F/A-18 crash

The cause of the fiery Dec. 8 crash is still being investigated. Military officials have depicted a chain of events in which first one engine failed on the F/A18D Hornet — and then the second quit while the pilot was attempting to reach a landing spot.

Apparently not a single engine landing drill as I had read in I think only one place. Still practically no information available, though.

Instapundit points out an article about a family that ditched their satellite TV: You don’t need satellite TV when times get tough

After a few Google searches, James said she found a wealth of legitimate sources for TV programming online. Sites such as Hulu, Fancast, Joost, YouTube, and most major TV networks’ Web sites offer TV shows and other video content for free. Using an existing rooftop antenna, James plugged her TV into the hook-up to get more than 50 high-definition TV channels over-the-air. The cost for these HD channels: zero.

And instead of spending an extra $20 a month for HBO or any other premium movie channels, James subscribed to a $17-a-month Netflix service, which allows her to rent three movies at a time and download some movies right to her computer.

They took the exact same route that Murdoc’s family did last spring when we ditched our satellite service for six months.

We actually watched a lot of programming during the summer, including DVDs and video on demand from Netflix (which we already subscribed to), Hulu (which a commenter pointed out for us) and the online offerings at the television network web sites. We watched the Olympics online, and I think I watched more coverage than I ever have before, while also watching only events that I was interested in. How often can you score a quality+quantity double for free? However, our attempt to follow our Detroit Tigers via MLB.TV was an utter failure.

We’ve always watched a lot less television than most people we know. Cutting back even further didn’t really bother us all that much. Sure, we missed a few things that we would have liked to have seen, but overall we saved money and still watched plenty tube.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

One other thing I forgot to mention was that we also make good use of our public library’s DVD collection. Some libraries charge rental fees for DVDs, though ours doesn’t. We’ve watched a lot of documentaries and classic movies, plus old television series, this way. It’s worth checking out. (Pun unintentional but so bad I left it in…)

Tim’s unable to do a full write up this week (I think it might be weather-related power issues) but here’s a photo I happened across:

Capt. Schwartz (The Sharpshooter). 39th N. Y. Vol. (Garibaldi Guard)

Plan would take pirate fight into Somalia
Potential to chase pirates into Somali waters or even onto land?

RC Helicopter with mounted .45 1911
Video and more at The Firearm Blog.

Disarming Ourselves
A new report warns Obama about our aging nuclear weapons.

“Once You Go Black …”
Don’t worry. I guess this kind of racism is okay.

Texas Gun Owners Association
New board.

Satellite Link For Submerged Boats
Deep Siren “tactical paging system.”

Dissent is the highest form of patriotism: No longer
We need a big, hot, steaming cup of shut your yap. Patriots bite their tongues, I guess.

North Dakota Ethanol Producers are at Risk as Fund Dries Up
Out of government money? Now that oil prices are down, are alternative energy bailouts far away?

Nuclear Power Plant Simulator
Apparently, you don’t want Murdoc running your local power plant.

Air Force Flies CV-22s to Africa and Back
Lots of teething problems, but the V-22 has shown flashes already.

NASA will give away old Shuttles for free
Budding supervillains planning to establish secret launch sites under volcanoes and such and use the secondhand spaceships to visit private orbital habitat lairs take note. You will have to do a lot of paperwork.