Raw Intel

A bit sensationalistic, but a very valid question under the circumstances. Jonn starts the discussion of the death of Jose Guerena and details the problems he saw at the start. Jose was a Marine, served two tours in Iraq, survived that, and came home to be killed by Sheriff Dupnik's (yes, that sheriff Dupnik) SWAT Team. The sheriff's office has changed it's stories multiple times since, finally admitting that he had not fired and that more than 70 rounds were fired by them in response to an accidental discharge by one of their own officers. Operator Dan follows up with yet more. Much more, and even more disturbing. Having warrants and records sealed after the f…

The Economist in the last six months published a series of interesting articles on the challenges of anti-submarine warfare. As long time readers may have figured out, I love - from a professional perspective - ASW. Neglected and unloved by most, but to me a passion. Though few really cared outside fellow fetishists, I was actually damn good at it - for an officer. It is all math and a little bit of instinct built by experience, but since I got too old to play tactical and was needed elsewhere - and then after leaving AD totally out of it - I've had to nibble what I can off of open source. For those of you who share this passion, one thing we are always looking for is …

In his day he was reviled in ways that George W. Bush could commiserate about. He was denigrated as just an actor, a lightweight, an extremist and many other insults. And yet now he is revered by most including many on the left. His crime at the time was an Unapologetically American attitude, and it served him, and us, quite well. He stood up to the most existential threat this planet has ever faced, nuclear Armageddon. It is hard to convey to kids who don't even know what the Soviet Union was that there was a serious concern that we could actually destroy the planet. Not in the wimpy Al Goreacle-d way they are whingeing about now, but actually snuff out the human race …

What is the view of the medium term future for the Navy? Join EagleOne and me on Sunday 14 NOV starting at 5pm EST as we discuss the way forward for the Navy in the coming decade with John Patch, CDR USN (Ret.), Associate Professor of Strategic Intelligence at the U.S. Army War College's Center for Strategic Leadership. We will touch on Counter-piracy vs. Antipiracy, the relevance of the Carrier, the Littoral Combat Ship, Naval Surface Fire Support, the relevance of Amphibious capability, and other topics that may come up. Join us live if you can, and pile in with the usual suspects in the chat room during the show where you can offer your own questions and …

Facepalm. Just facepalm. Eight days ago, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal ordered barges to begin vacuuming crude oil out of his state’s oil-soaked waters. Today, against the governor’s wishes, those barges sat idle, even as more oil flowed toward the Louisiana shore. “It’s the most frustrating thing,†the Republican governor said today in Buras, La. “Literally, yesterday morning we found out that they were halting all of these barges.â€â€¦ [T]he Coast Guard ordered the stoppage because of reasons that Jindal found frustrating. The Coast Guard needed to confirm that there were fire extinguishers and life vests on board, and then it had trouble conta…

In late May 1943, the B-24 carrying the 26-year-old Zamperini went down over the Pacific. For nearly seven weeks — longer, Hillenbrand believes, than any other such instance in recorded history — Zamperini and his pilot managed to survive on a fragile raft. They traveled 2,000 miles, only to land in a series of Japanese prison camps, where, for the next two years, Zamperini underwent a whole new set of tortures. His is one of the most spectacular odysseys of this or any other war, and “odyssey†is the right word, for with its tempests and furies and monsters, many of them human, Zamperini’s saga is something out of Greek mythology. For you sports minded folks, t…

Ukraine’s BlueBird Tech has developed a new close-range counter-drone device known as the Chipa net gun, designed to intercept first-person-view (FPV) attack drones at short distances on the battlefield. The system fires a specially designed net that opens in mid-air and entangles the drone’s propellers, stopping it before impact. The Ukrainian company said the device […]View the full article

This would stir thing up a bit. A leading defence expert has projected that China will attack India by 2012 to divert the attention of its own people from "unprecedented" internal dissent, growing unemployment and financial problems that are threatening the hold of Communists in that country. "China will launch an attack on India before 2012. There are multiple reasons for a desperate Beijing to teach India the final lesson, thereby ensuring Chinese supremacy in Asia in this century," Bharat Verma, editor of the Indian Defence Review, has said. Verma said the recession has "shut the Chinese exports shop", creating an "unprecedented internal social unrest" w…

There has been a lot of talk about weapons carry status for our troops in Afghanistan and whether they are being told to carry in amber status i.e. no round in the chamber. I asked ISAF HQ and got the following response. Jim, Headquarters ISAF, the ISAF Joint Command and the Regional Commands have not issued guidance to units instructing them to conduct patrols without rounds chambered. Force protection levels are dictated by the local threats and determined by commanders at the lowest possible tactical level, so without knowing the specific unit from which this report came I can't verify with absolute certainty that verbal or written guidance has not been issue…

Latest updates: Major article update. S-80 cutaway, labeled (click to view full) The CIM-2000 Scorpene class diesel-electric attack submarine partnership marked an important step for Spain’s Navantia, as it joined with France’s DCNS to enter the global submarine market. Scorpene is an advanced SSK design, and can be upgraded to AIM-2000 configuration by adding MESMA Air-Independent Propulsion (AIP) systems alongside their diesel-electric drives. Now Navantia is building on that base of expertise, to field its own S-80 Class for the Spanish Armada. Spain’s new submarines will be larger boats with AIP systems as standard gear, as well as other important modifications. Th…

The upkeep ain't worth it and you have bigger fish to fry. Iraqi officials have discovered that they may have a real air force, after all. The Defense Ministry revealed Sunday that it had recently learned that Iraq owns 19 MIG-21 and MIG-23 jet fighters, which are in storage in Serbia. Ministry officials are negotiating with the Serbs to restore and return the aircraft. I know someone who might take a '21 for the mid-five figures. View the full article

MC-12 arrives (click to view full) Despite all of the high-tech fighter hours flown in theater, Hawker Beechcraft’s twin-propeller King Air 350 continues to gain traction as an affordable, long-endurance option for light cargo delivery in remote areas – and effective manned battlefield surveillance and attack. Iraq’s Air Force was the first to order them, and an initial 6-plane UC-12W order from the US Marines/Navy followed in July 2008. Former US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates pushed hard to improve ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance) capabilities on the front lines, and one of those planned purchases involved about 30 King Air 350/ C-12 aircraft …

CBC News is reporting that the Harper Government is at least pondering the idea of cutting their losses with the Victoria class submarines and replacing them with nuclear submarines. The Victoria class submarines have been plagued with problems since being acquired from the UK, and despite being described as the "military bargain of the century" when purchased for $750 million in 1998, they have become anything but. The submarines are currently all out of service, with HMCS Victoria the soonest to potentially return to service by late next year. The article describes the issues. One of the subs, HMCS Chicoutimi, has been in active service of the Royal Canadian Na…

CF-18: which way? (click to see clearly) The F/A-18 Hornet is the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet‘s predecessor, with the first models introduced in the late 1970s as a spinoff of the USAF’s YF-17 lightweight fighter competitor. Hornets are currently flown by the US Marine Corps as their front-line fighter, by the US Navy as a second-tier fighter behind its larger F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets, and by 7 international customers: Australia, Canada, Finland, Kuwait, Malaysia, Spain, and Switzerland. The USA’s aircraft were expected to have a service life of 20 years, but that was based on 100 carrier landings per year. The US Navy and Marines have been rather busy during the Hornets’ s…

Is there a Fullbore attitude? Is there something about the game that can demonstrate an attitude that is hard to describe - but is essential to what makes an American an American? Perhaps. To understand the USA, you must understand football. Hat tip The Good Lt. View the full article

I'll let you guess which three. More than half the women quizzed (54%) said failure to put the seat down was their man's most irritating trait. Leaving wet towels on the bed was the second most frustrating habit (23%), followed by a propensity to leave dirty laundry on the floor (15%). Other annoyances cited included snoring, doing a bad job at a household chore for the fear of being asked to do it again, not replacing toilet roll, leaving toenail clippings and loose change around the home, drinking straight from the milk bottle and refusing to ask for directions when lost. View the full article

Here we go. From Admiral Harvey via WAVY; A few minutes ago, I permanently relieved Capt. Owen Honors of his duties as commanding officer of USS ENTERPRISE (CVN 65) for demonstrating exceptionally poor judgment while serving as executive officer of that ship, from 2006-2007. While Capt. Honors' performance as commanding officer of ENTERPRISE has been without incident, his profound lack of good judgment and professionalism while previously serving as executive officer in ENTERPRISE calls into question his character and undermines his credibility to continue to serve effectively in command.After personally reviewing the videos Capt. Honors created while serving as…

My kind of girl. View the full article

Note: I was originally planning on publishing a series of articles this week on the large-deck aircraft carrier's doctrinal roles, but I'm shifting that to next week as I need a little more time to make final edits. As a result, I'm moving up my series analyzing the DF-21 arsenal. Both series touch on my theme for the first part of this month: the implications of guided munitions inventory management and producibility. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Medium Range Ballistic Missile (MRBM) arsenal’s traditional primary role is supporting theater nuclear deterrence. China’s first generation DF-3 series (NATO Designation CSS-2) MRBMs were tasked with h…

While the consensus opinion is the DDG-1000 is going to be this impossibly expensive warship, Chris Cavas has an article up on Defense News noting that the first Zumwalt class destroyer is on cost and on schedule. It is still early, but apparently the Navy is willing to demonstrate some confidence regarding the ship, because from whatever quiet cubicle they have been hiding the DDG-1000 program manager, Captain James Syring, apparently he has been given permission to do an interview. As far as I know, at least the rumor on the street has been... Captain Syring has not allowed to give interviews since at least March of 2008, some 16+ months ago. There is no point i…