Archive for October, 2009
The amphibious assault ship Pre-Commissioning Unit Makin Island conducts builder's trials in the Gulf of Mexico.
Makin Island is the final Wasp-class ship, but she incorporates a number of changes. The most significant is the switch to gas turbine engines and electric drive.
She was commissioned last weekend.
UPDATE: Video about the commissioning below.
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Jonathon Johnson, an air interdiction agent for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, pilots a Predator B unmanned air vehicle (UAV), April 3, 2009 at the Grand Forks Air Force Base, N.D. The Predator B has been flying and observing flood dangers along the Red River.(DoD photo by Senior Master Sgt. David H. Lipp, U.S Air Force/Released)
Daily transition between battle, home takes a toll on drone operators
Call it combat as shift work, a new paradigm of commuter warfare that is blurring the historical understanding of what it means to go off to battle. And the strain of the daily whiplash transition between bombs and bedtime stories, coupled with the fast-increasing workload to meet relentlessly expanding demand, is leading to fatigue and burnout for the ground-based controllers who drive the drones.
“We have 5,000 years of one type of warfare and only a couple of years of this new kind,” said P.W. Singer, author of “Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century.” “These guys are simultaneously at home and at war. It may be that human psychology isn’t designed for that. We don’t know yet.”
With all due respect (and Murdoc’s got a TON of respect for our guys in uniform), I’m not sure if I’m really buying the “war during the day, home at night” description because the “war during the day” part is nothing like the war that soldiers have fought for the past 5,000 years. Isn’t UAV operation more like air traffic control than infantry?
“It can be very surreal,” Capt. Zeb Krantz, a former C-130 pilot, said about stepping into the ground control station and entering the battle space. “You think: ‘I was just at home this morning.’ ”
What I find surreal are some of the examples:
“The family pressures don’t go away, they heighten,” Singer said. “You’ve just been on a combat mission and half an hour later your spouse is mad at you because you’re late to soccer practice.”
and
For those stationed at Creech, there seems to be an ever-receding finish line. The Air Force hits one target of production only to see it get bumped higher.
and
“It’s hard to forge that esprit de corps, that tribe mentality when you can’t all go to the bar after work and decompress together,” Mathewson said.
and
Overall, Predator and Reaper crews tend to be “tired, disgruntled and disillusioned,” Kent said.
Not to minimize the stress issues, and I have no personal experience to compare it with, but I’m guessing that a lot of troops deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan would be happy to deal with the issues facing drone operators.
(I’m sure I’ve pissed off people here. That wasn’t my intent. What do you guys think?)
Operation Champion Sword, in Khowst province, Afghanistan, Aug. 2, 2009. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Matthew Freire/ Released)
Popular Mechaincs: A deadly day of helicopter accidents in Afghanistan highlights the risks rotorcraft crews face in and out of combat. Is the ride worth the risks?
Helicopters are powerful, fragile machines. They are used heavily every day in Afghanistan, and they stay in the war zone when troops rotate home. Mechanics do their best to keep them in good shape, but the tempo of operations and the conditions make crashes nearly inevitable. In a place like Afghanistan, the terrain is as deadly a foe as the armed enemy.
Helicopters provide some great advantages, but they are vulnerable. I’ve written before about The danger of helicopters:
The same vulnerabilities that attack choppers face make support choppers vulnerable. But despite these problems, the advantages that helicopters provide far outweigh the danger. Air transport has cut down on enemy opportunities to bomb roadways, making our supply lines far more secure. The ability to patrol (and pursue) from the air has undoubtedly contributed to our effort to limit insurgent attacks.
But helicopters remain fragile. And their operating environment and the severity of consequence that mishaps bring make them more than a little dangerous at times.
On that post, a commenter added:
I hate to point this out, but Murdoc, you need to stress one word in this article with a little more emphasis. That word is FRAGILE.
In Afghanistan, many of the risks helicopters bring are accentuated due to the environment.
This is something I meant to post on several weeks back when I first heard of it, but I didn’t get to it. Now Stars & Stripes has a story:
Army to phase in tan-colored Stryker vehicles
More than six years after sending the first Stryker armored vehicles into desert combat, the Army has decided that it’s probably a good idea to start painting them tan so they will blend in with the environments in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“Safeguarding soldiers is the primary purpose for this color change,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Peter Butts, commander of the 1st Battalion, 401st Army Field Support Brigade, who announced the change in a news release from Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar, earlier this month. “Strykers will blend into surroundings better. They’re less likely to stand out like silhouettes.”
Since 2003, Stryker units deploying to Iraq have done so with their vehicles painted in deep green, while most other units deployed with tan vehicles.
I’ve often wondered about this, but even now no meaningful reason for the delay is to be found. Given the red tape this probably had to go through, I guess we should consider it lucky that the vehicle itself wasn’t cleared to be painted tan but the slat armor had to stay green.
Something that just seems to make this worse is that now, even though the official decision to go desert tan has been made, it can only be done when the Strykers are in “authorized facilities” in Qatar. No immediate changes for deployed units unless their vehicles are sent back for repair.
Here are some photos of the new colors from earlier this month:
Dar Barker, a General Dynamics Land Systems retrofit chief from Puyallup, Wa., directs an armored combat vehicle outside the Stryker battle damage repair facility at Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar, Oct. 5. The Stryker infantry carrier vehicle had been restored after deterioration during enemy engagement in Iraq. It's the first vehicle to adopt a new desert tan color in Southwest Asia, in preparation for a planned phase out of the Stryker's current deep green color. Photo by Dustin Senger
Royal Navy could be forced to build aircraft carrier which doesn’t carry planes
Prince of Wales may go from carrier to commando ship if budget cuts cancel F-35 buys.
It is too late for the Navy to cancel the contract, but the carrier may have to be downgraded to a commando ship, with only helicopters on board to carry troops.
The move would save about £8.2billion from the defence budget.
They’re thinking that when the only fixed-wing capable carrier is in for refit that they’ll borrow a carrier from France.
This seems crazy.
UPDATE: A British official has called this report “complete rubbish.”
TDRS-1
NASA Retires Pioneering Tracking And Data Relay Satellite
After a rocky start and then a stellar 26-year performance, NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite – 1 (TDRS-1) is scheduled for decommissioning on October 28.
Communications equipment that links TDRS-1 to the ground has failed and without this capability it can no longer relay science data and spacecraft telemetry to ground stations located at the White Sands Complex in Las Cruces, N.M., and on Guam.
Insecurity in Space
Space once was ours. Then came the space junk, collisions, and dangerous interlopers.
The recent expedition of space shuttle Atlantis on a major Hubble repair mission illustrated the dangers also.
Traveling up to the Hubble telescope’s altitude required transit through a major debris field. As Palowitch described it, the worst debris in LEO is right in the Hubble’s band. The known debris put Atlantis “at a one-in-200 chance of being totally destroyed by impact in flight,” he said. When it landed, Atlantis was pockmarked with more debris hits than any other shuttle in history.
Several factors contributed to the pummeling. First was the transit through debris fields. Then, once in position, the complex repairs required Atlantis to spend more time in the junk-strewn orbit.
More space blogging below!
Without “prudent worrying,” we run a greater risk of a nasty military surprise
When war comes, US leaders must fight with the forces in hand.
British nuclear expert dies in 40-metre plunge
Police are investigating after a British nuclear energy expert involved in negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme fell 40 metres to his death from a UN building in Vienna.
Survival Knife Bayonet
For Your Handgun.
Star Wars The Clone Wars: The Complete Season One
I haven’t watched any of these, but I really liked the original series. This series (and the movie that kicked it off) are different, but my kids have enjoyed what they’ve seen.
Cheney’s Speech
Countering all the claims that the Bush administration left no plans in place for Afghanistan. Obama’s new plan is just like the old plan.
Combat’s positive effects examined
Post-Traumatic Growth. Don’t hear much about that.
How lean manning saps morale, puts sailors at risk
“Lean manning at sea means one thing: sleep deprivation.”
Much more Linkzookery below!
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Yesterday I implied that the only good terrorist was a dead terrorist, but some people apparently disagree:
Amherst mulls resolution welcoming Guantanamo detainees
The western Massachusetts university town of Amherst is mulling a resolution urging the Congress to release cleared Guantanamo Bay detainees into the United States and calling for the town to welcome those detainees into the community.
The town’s Select Board voted 2-1 Monday night to endorse a warrant article titled, “Resolution to Assist in the Safe Resettlement of Cleared Guantanamo Detainees.”
“The United States has a long history of being a place of refuge and asylum for persecuted people. There’s nothing new about this,” said Gerry Weiss, one of the two selectmen supporting the resolution. “This is the tradition of the United States.”
The resolution was submitted by Ruth Hooke, a Town Meeting member and a member of Pioneer Valley No More Guantanamos.
You have to read it to believe it. And even then you won’t believe it.
Weiss said he wasn’t concerned that the cleared detainees could be a danger. “I think they were wrongly imprisoned,” he said. “I don’t believe they want revenge. I think they would be very grateful to any people that show them some kindness. They may harbor some ill will toward the US government, but that would be a lot of people.”
What an idiot.
I thought the people who wanted to transfer Guantanamo detainees to maximum security prisons inside the US were dumb, but this guy want to LET THEM GO inside the US.
Via WSJ’s Best of the Web, which notes:
Very longtime readers of this column will remember that we’ve mentioned Amherst before. In October 2001, we wrote about the decision of the Amherst Board of Selectmen to ban the American flag from the city’s Main Street. Jennie Traschen, at the time an associate professor of physics at the University of Massachusetts’ Amherst campus, spoke against the flag, which she described as “a symbol of tyranny and fear and destruction and terrorism.”
The meeting and the vote took place on Sept. 10, 2001.
Here’s a photo of Dr. Werner Dahm from the Airman Magazine story Good, Clean Science: Top Scientist Directs Research to Save Money and the Environment:
Because science is so crucial to the Air Force, the service created the position of Chief Scientist in 1950. Dr. Werner Dahm is the current chief scientist and is the primary science adviser to senior Air Force leaders. With a background in aeronautical engineering, he also directs which programs the $2 billion budget is spent on. (U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Stan Parker)
Get a load of that painting of the XB-70. Click photo for a better look.
Sweet.
Meanwhile,
Recently, Dr. Dahm and members of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board showed striking impacts on fuel economy that can be obtained by flying aircraft in formation to take advantage of the vortex produced from each wing tip through flight.
He said by having as few as two aircraft fly in formation, a 14 percent improvement in fuel efficiency could be realized. What’s even more impressive is that it isn’t just the trailing aircraft that reaps the benefits, both aircraft benefit.
“If the trailing aircraft can fly in the ‘sweet spot’ produced from the lead plane it decreases the drag on both,” he said. “The main challenge is that sweet spot is constantly shifting, so pilot fatigue increases if they have to stay in that spot manually. Technology can solve that by relatively simple software that automatically uses trim adjustments find the sweet spot and stay in it.”
Dr. Dahm said the aircraft can be separated by a considerable distance and still see most of the benefit and that even dissimilar aircraft benefit from flying in formation.
“The benefit small aircraft see when they fly in formation with large aircraft can be so large that the fuel savings can actually equal the fuel those small aircraft would need flying solo.”
No bump drafting allowed, though.
Another former Gitmo detainee killed in a shootout
On Oct. 13, a former Guantanamo detainee named Yousef Mohammed al Shihri was killed in a shootout at a checkpoint along the Saudi-Yemeni border. Al Shihri and his accomplices were stopped by Saudi security forces after their suspicious behavior drew attention.
Two of the travelers, including al Shihri, were reportedly dressed as women. Saudi security personnel decided to search the al Qaeda car and its passengers, but al Shihri and the others opened fire. Al Shihri and one other al Qaeda member were killed in the shootout, while a third was arrested. One Saudi security officer was also killed. [emphasis Murdoc's]
What a coward.
He was repatriated to Saudi Arabia in November 2007. It’s not clear to Murdoc exactly why, but fortunately things worked out in the end.
Via Powerline, which writes:
Instead of investigating those who extracted information from captured terrorists who had been unwilling to provide any, perhaps the Obama administration should investigate those who caused terrorists like al Shihri to be released so they resume their jihad.
Seems the Saudis, who lost a man in this shootout, would also want to know.
