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From the Long War Journal: Mapping the Rising Violence in Afghanistan
The modern day Fighting 69th, New York: carrying on the tradition.
Well, don't ever say that you miss the headlines from Iraq. The NYT is beginning their usual job on Afghanistan with an admiring headline for the Taliban: Ragtag Taliban Show Tenacity in Afghanistan.
Hey, maybe the next headline will call them "freedom fighters"?
Al Qaeda's Nuclear Strategy: to Nuke or not to Nuke, that is the question. That someone sits around all day and thinks about.
Another Iranian Magical Weapon:
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Big Tobacco, with another view into leadership:
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Imagine what we could do to the pirates if we could figure out how to take task groups like this and patrol pirate waters...
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Snerk! Over at Stop the ACLU, Jay *continues to drill Speaker Pelosi, only to find it's a dry hole. Behave yourselves. I went far enough... -the Armorer
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On the subject of the first link of this section, Harry Reid says:
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Well, when it comes to pirate waters, Armorer, Canada's finally doing something deliberate about it (as opposed to accidental, as a side benefit of another mission):
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From the Long War Journal: Mapping the Rising Violence in Afghanistan
The modern day Fighting 69th, New York: carrying on the tradition.
The U.S. soldiers who came here are firefighters, paramedics, police officers, civil engineers and information technology consultants, most from New York City. They were seasoned by years in the National Guard and a tour in Iraq. Many of them had walked through the rubble left by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in Lower Manhattan. Now, this tightknit crew of New Yorkers is in Afghanistan as part of what its members consider a very personal war.Flip flop in Pakistan? ISI will NOT be rolled under the Ministry of Interior to strengthen civilian control. Nobody has the guts to take it on apparently. And, you thought OUR intelligence agency was "rogue".
Well, don't ever say that you miss the headlines from Iraq. The NYT is beginning their usual job on Afghanistan with an admiring headline for the Taliban: Ragtag Taliban Show Tenacity in Afghanistan.
Hey, maybe the next headline will call them "freedom fighters"?
Al Qaeda's Nuclear Strategy: to Nuke or not to Nuke, that is the question. That someone sits around all day and thinks about.
Another Iranian Magical Weapon:
Monday's report gave no details on when or where the new weapon was tested. Its range indicates it could be a type of torpedo, but state radio called it a missile.Probably something like those fake air planes and those not so new missiles that didn't all make it off the ground. - Kat
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Big Tobacco, with another view into leadership:
Will I Lead if you follow? Will you Follow If I Lead?That's how it starts. It ends like this: I'm confident that I did the right thing but I'm still awake. Go read The War on Big Tobacco to see why. -the Armorer
I wrote this while smoking a La Gloria Cubana Wavel.
I planned the operation weeks in advance. The proper pieces of the puzzle dropped into place. The right paperwork completed. The right people notified slowly, getting them used to the idea. The end result was a sergeant who was fired and left with the feeling that it was his idea all along.
That's right. I fired one of my E5 team leaders today and replaced him with an E4 corporal. If I did the right thing, why do I feel less like Machiavelli and more like a dirtbag?
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Imagine what we could do to the pirates if we could figure out how to take task groups like this and patrol pirate waters...
U.S., Canadian and Japanese navy ships transit the Pacific Ocean during a group exercise off the coast of Hawaii in support of Rim of the Pacific, RIMPAC, July 28, 2008. RIMPAC is a biennial exercise hosted by U.S. Pacific Fleet that brings together military forces from Australia, Canada, Chile, Peru, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Korea. U.S. Navy photo by Pety Officer 3rd Class Kyle D. GahlauOh, I know, it's never that simple, is it? -the Armorer
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Snerk! Over at Stop the ACLU, Jay *continues to drill Speaker Pelosi, only to find it's a dry hole. Behave yourselves. I went far enough... -the Armorer
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On the subject of the first link of this section, Harry Reid says:
After 9/11, we spent a little time here and left. It would have been better if we'd spent more resources here. We didn't, and that can't be undone. But we are in a better position now... I feel we're in pretty good shape."He goes on to say that what we've learned in Iraq can be successfully applied to Afghanistan. Once again, I'm left nearly speechless. Allahpundit has a far kinder interpretation of Reid's comments than I do. I swear, it's come to the point where the only possible interpretations of statements like this reflect poorly on either the speaker's sanity, integrity, intelligence/seriousness, or patriotism. Which one it is, I'm afraid to find out. - FbL
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Well, when it comes to pirate waters, Armorer, Canada's finally doing something deliberate about it (as opposed to accidental, as a side benefit of another mission):
Defence Minister Peter MacKay confirmed Wednesday that Canada is sending a Halifax-based frigate to waters off the horn of Africa to stop pirates from attacking food shipments bound for Somalia.The ship's motto is Don de Dieu feray valoir - which translates to "I will put God's gift to good use." I have no doubt that they'll do just that. - Damian
The navy has diverted HMCS Ville de Quebec, which left Halifax last month for a 5½-month NATO mission to the Mediterranean and Black seas.
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*A term of art from the artillery. Harassment and Interdiction Fires. Back in the day, when you could just kill people and break things without a note from a lawyer, they were pre-planned, but to the enemy, random, fires at known gathering points, road junctions, Main Supply Routes, assembly areas, etc - to keep the bad guy nervous that the world around him might start exploding at any minute. Not really relevant to today's operating environment, right? But, it *is. The UAVs we fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for targets of opportunity are a form of H&I fires, if you really want to parse it finely. We just have better sensors and fire control now. Of course, now I have to call them UAS's, because someone got a Legion of Merit for the name change.Anyway, I call the post H&I Fires because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to that particular topic. Another term of art that might be appropriate is Free Fire Zone.
Ummmm, guys? Al-Q *is* an apocalyptic terrorist group -- its *apocalyptic vision* is its long-term, strategic goal.
*sigh*
Pundits...
Yet, there's stuff there to worry about. The 'sunburn' (forget the non-NATO designation) is problematic. They also seem to have a 'cavitating' torpedo---which is like a missile that runs in the water based on its speed. Last I heard from an old ME hand I know they were taking old HAWK SAM missiles and mating them to F14s. He wasn't sure what the purpose was. Could be a poor man's BVR AAM, or could be a poor mans anti-ship missile. He wasn't sure. Then he retired from the service and became a lawyer so he's dried up on me.
I'm sure some of our claims, written by industry types that sound more like commercials, ring as hollow to non-US audiences. Not saying that everything coming out of Iran is true, but be careful you don't wind up in the same boat as Prof Juan Cole who claims that speed boats pose absolutely zero threat to USN assets in Hormuz. They do pose a threat. Depends on what they carry and whether they carry openly. A fusilade of RPG at the waterline is not going to do a destroyer any favors. She proll'y won't sink, but she can be mission incapable. Worse for one of the few remaining FFG we've got. I don't wanna think about what'd do to an LH(X)---since there I'm talking more about people than machine. Nor does Prof COle take into consideration the ability to lay nautical mines.
Don't buy the hype, but don't lull yourself into a false sense of invulnerability either. The Iranians can and will do damage if it comes to blows.
Nope, it's not like a missile based on it's speed (although it's a zippy little thing), it's like a missile because it's guided -- it homes on the cavitation sound emitted by the target ship's screws.
Which is WWII technology.
I'm getting pretty sick of it, frankly.
On a different subject ...
What the heck is that farthest ship in the photo of the US/Japanese naval unit? It's clearly a flattop, but it doesn't look anything like a fleet carrier, and I didn't think the IJN had carriers of any kind. And why are most of the ships not showing any wake?
Nope, what you're talking about is a 'wake homing' torpedo--which also follows some pressure differntials as well as screw noise(not the same thing, though they can be in certain contexts). THe USN used something called Nixe and other stuff to spoof those.
What I'm talking about is something they're supposed(not much more than RumInt, but it's persistent) have bought from the Russians that uses a series of gas nozzels along the nose and body to to create a 'pocket' of very low pressure and resistance. It's dumb as a rock(or me) but well over 50knots(never seen a prcise figure, but I've not looked that hard. SFAIK nobody has ever used one in a war shot test, not that I've looked that hard.). There's better links out there than the everything.com one. I just can't spend 20 minutes trying to get thru GlobSec's archives for a decent one right now. Gotta go, gotta go, gotta get the resume all set to send to Dayton, OH.
Here's a very good article (or at least, it seems to be) about the Russian Shkval supercavitating torpedo and the concept behind it. Iran claimed to have tested a derivative of the Shkval about two years ago.
Wolfwalker - I believe the far ship is a Wasp-class LHD, can't read a hull number.
As for the apparently-missing wakes - I suspect that's an artifact of the waves. The view of some wakes are blocked my "hills" of water, or whatever the proper nautical term is.
Nope, what I'm talking about is an acoustical homing torpedo that tracks by the cavitation noise of a ship's propeller. They were called "cavitation-homing" torps until somebody got an MSM for re-naming them "acoustic" torpedoes.
A wake-homing torpedo works strictly with pressure differentials.
But the insider stories from the survivors of the Japanese carriers was every bit as interesting as the techincal analysis of flight deck and hangar ops.
Which takes nothing away from the American side.
It's also worth noting that the German Navy was reading British naval codes for a large chunk of the Battle of the Atlantic.
Cryptography helps, but it's not a panacea.
I don't think that it was a tactical advantage to be able to know ahead of time that the Japanese would attack Midway, unless they were using such codes during the battle to encrypt orders to move.
The American task force still had to find the Japanese fleet, after all, even if they knew they would be around the area somewhere.
What cultural issues are you refering to, John?
The only ones I know about were the Japanese tendency to go for land war at sea strategies with these "flanking" armies like NOrth, Central, Southern force at Leyte Gulf. That's pretty much insane for a Navy because commands cannot be passed and obeyed as quickly at sea as it can be on land when the forces are only a few miles apart.
Then there's that facet with how the individual Japanese soldier was very enamored of attacking, but the strategic masterminds behind the overall shindig was very conservative and cautious and would never take a risky gamble even if the rewards warranted it.
After all the losses they took at Leyte Gulf, they made the decision to withdraw. Man, if you were going to do that, might as well have done that at the beginning before you lost all your ships.
The authors of Shattered Sword spent many pages on exploring the reasons behind Japan's loss at Midway, and I'm not sure I can summarize their conclusions in a blog-comment. They develop several examples of the 'cultural' aspect to the battle. The most telling one (assuming that the authors are right) is that in the old Japanese culture, commanders tended to love order and avoid improvisation. They approved strongly of following orders and disliked taking personal initiative, for fear that if things went wrong they'd be singled out for blame and dishonored. This led to a situation where Japanese commanders would go to enormous lengths to develop their battle plan, then stick to that battle plan even after things started going seriously wrong. You can see this in the way Hiryu stayed to counterstrike the American carriers. Realistically, losing three of four carriers meant the Japanese operation had already failed. An American admiral, having lost three-quarters of his fighting strength, probably would have retreated in order to save what he had left. Then there's also the way the Japanese always sought to settle the war in a single decisive battle -- which in a modern war, with a battlefield the size of the Pacific and combatant forces the size of the US and Japanese navies, is effectively impossible.
don't pack away your Cold Warrior gear just yet...
http://www.stratfor.com/geopolitical_diary/geopolitical_diary_decision_time_south_ossetia#top
SovietRussian aircraft attacking Georgian positions.This could get interesting.