pmaidhof

Received via email direct from L. Bond. "Pete, AFAIK the APG-65 and upgraded APG-73 can engage only one target at a time. But AMRAAM has a launch and leave capability, which allows a plane to launch one missile every 15 seconds (two missiles per 30-second move phase), and each missile can be sent against a different target. Once in the air, the missiles would receive updates from the radar, and as stated in High Tide, the guidance system can handle 8 airborne missiles at once. I hope this helps. Let me know how the scenario goes. Larry" Boy this may change the dynamic!

Citadel to put locks on all barracks rooms The Associated Press Posted : Monday Apr 23, 2007 10:23:59 EDT CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Citadel will install locks on all cadet rooms by next semester, a break with tradition that stems from concerns about safety in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings. Male cadets have no locks on their barracks doors in keeping with the school’s honor code. Female cadets can lock their doors from the inside. Now, all cadets will get keys to lock their doors from the outside. “This decision in no way compromises the honor system. The personal standards that a cadet does not lie, cheat or steal nor tolerate those who do remains the centerpiece of The Citadel experience,” said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. John Rosa, president of the state military college. The idea had been discussed before the Virginia Tech shootings. But a review after that incident shows “times have changed and society has changed” and locks are needed, Rosa said. “My job is the safety of every student,” he added. The Citadel’s Board of Visitors approved the change at a weekend meeting. The college’s commandant of cadets, Greg Stone, said locks will mean “a new way of operating” but won’t change the way cadets interact. College attorney Mark Brandenburg said the locks will help safeguard the college from legal liability. But he said it is about more than lawsuits. “We weren’t at the standard of care we wanted to be,” he said. Installing the locks will cost about $125,000. I received an email from the BOV about this over the weekend. I can't begin to tell you all how much The Citadel has changed since I graduated in '88. So it went - The Citadel, a great place to be from,a terrible place to be.

So each of the four F/A-18C's can fire, for example, one, or two AIM-120 at a single specific or designated target, then in the next fire phase, can launch a second AIM-120 at a different oncoming target. Thanks Brad.

Awesome Brad. For identifying potential "victims", are you provided with identification charts, are a WWII naval buff, or is it by identifying the flag on the ships mast?

In coordination with my own testing of the New Trilogy Air Rules, I went beyond simple dogfights and cobbled together a old soviet-style attack on a battle group. In this case a squadron of 12x MiG-29 (4x R-77, 2x R-73) is attempting to sweep away opposition for a squadron of 12x Su-34, in the ASuW role. I made a number of assumptions: that the carrier's E-2C (high altitude) APS-138 would detect the "small" incoming MiG's (high altitude) @ 130nm. that at least 4x F/A-18C would be vectored in to intercept. that with the guidance of the E-2C, the F/A-18C's would get the "long range drop" on the MiG's with 1x AIM-120 per F/A-18C being launched first, at relative maximum range of at/close to 40nm. that the MiG's would only detect the F/A-18's and their missiles in the next detection phase, everyone would move again (2nd Movement Phase), then the MiG's would let loose a salvo of R-77's, for arguments sake - 8x R-77. While, per H4.1 Annex B, F-14's "can engage six different targets at once with AIM-54 Phoenix. Launch limited to two missiles per phase", I do not see any such explicit capability for the F/A-18C/APG-73/AIM-120 combo. Now here comes the question; does/would the F/A-18C have the ability to engage multiple targets as the Tomcat could? Thanks

Here is an image of the extremely late stages of a homebrewed scenario that I have concocked to help me relearn some of the finer points of Decisive Action. In this photo a US Close Air Support mission is being run on some bitter enders located in the Siberian town of Interkol' Pervyy. OPFOR 2nd Tank Bde is the last remaining on map unit. It is surrounded by US mech and armored battalions. Division is rushing additional artillery units to US 2nd Bde, in whose zone this situation is taking place. Edit: battalions, not brigades.

Report: Navy can’t afford proposed fleet By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer Posted : Sunday Apr 22, 2007 12:46:10 EDT An April 10 research report to Congress on assembling the modern fleet says the Navy’s latest shipbuilding plan cannot achieve its intent of a 313-ship future fleet, up from today’s 275-ship force. “The Navy’s 30-year shipbuilding plan does not include enough ships to fully support all the elements of the 313-ship fleet consistently over the long run,” according to the report entitled “Navy Force Structure and Shipbuilding Plans: Background and Issues for Congress,” produced by the Congressional Research Service. The Navy has estimated that it needs about $13.5 billion per year into the foreseeable future to build the required fleet. But according to the analysis by Ron O’Rourke, naval analyst at CRS, it’s not enough. “If the Navy cannot meet its goals regarding overall level funding, non-shipbuilding expenditures and shipbuilding costs, the Navy’s shipbuilding plans may become difficult or impossible to execute, particularly after [2011],” he wrote. Intended as accessible research for lawmakers, the report comes at a time when the Navy has several major problems with the ships of the future fleet. Most notably, the third Littoral Combat Ship in a proposed 55-ship fleet of fast, modern, shallow-water combat ships was terminated by Navy Secretary Donald Winter on April 12 because of differences with contractor Lockheed Martin over cost increases. Now a program in serious trouble, the LCS had been the assumed cornerstone of the Navy’s future fleet. Also in recent weeks, the first of the Navy’s new and increasingly expensive amphibious warfare ships has come under increased scrutiny after a top-to-bottom inspection. A Board of Inspection and Survey team’s visit to the amphibious transport dock San Antonio produced a scathing 20-page list of deficiencies, from faulty wiring to steering system breakdowns. Meanwhile, outside-the-box options for the future fleet sit nearby. On April 9, CRS released a collection of three previously completed studies on alternative force structures that offer fresh perspectives on how the future Navy might be configured. One study, completed by the now disbanded Office of Force Transformation at the Defense Department, proposed a very different type of fleet, using less expensive hulls for “missile and rocket” ships, a “mother ship” to support a flotilla of small surface combatants, and a downsized catamaran flattop to carry an air detachment of Ospreys, Joint Strike Fighters and unmanned aircraft. Another alternative force structure study, written by Robert Work, a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, overturns current fleet configurations in the interest of taking a realistic approach amid rising ship costs. Among ideas it proposes are converting the aging aircraft carrier Enterprise into an “afloat forward staging base” for special operations forces with embarked joint air wings. He also proposed converting four more Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines into multimission guided missile subs, for a force of eight SSGNs. The CSBA study identifies a “Joint Expeditionary Era” in which the Navy will be responsible for contributions to the war on terrorism, must be ready for the nuclear-armed adversaries in certain regions and must maintain a “hedge against the possibility of a disruptive maritime competition with China.” Work said that while the Navy has remained steadfast that the 313-ship plan is realistic and affordable, “there’s widespread skepticism outside the Navy that the plan is executable.” Work noted, for example, the ever-diminishing profile of the Navy’s destroyer of the future, DDG 1000. The Navy’s earlier desire for 32 such ships has been whittled down to seven as cost estimates have climbed past $3 billion per ship. An earlier design with 128 vertical launch missile tubes now has 80 — fewer than current Arleigh Burke destroyers, he said. Likewise, gun magazines with desired capacity for 1,500 rounds of 155mm ammunition have been reduced to 600 rounds. The capabilities have not been removed to make the ship more lethal, he noted, just more affordable. “As the cost of the ships has gone up, the Navy has been able to afford fewer and fewer of them,” he said. “You lower the chance you’ll be able to have the ships you really want.” The force structure alternatives have not been getting much attention in recent years because of ongoing land wars in the Middle East. “This is an issue that may be readdressed when and if we pull out of Iraq,” Work said. Find article here.

PT boat officers hold last reunion By Mary Foster - The Associated Press Posted : Sunday Apr 22, 2007 11:04:51 EDT NEW ORLEANS (AP) — It was the end of the line for the battered hulk of a PT boat at New Orleans’ National World War II museum, and an appropriate setting for the final reunion of a group of veterans who served on such vessels. The 16 elderly survivors — down from 21 last year — of Peter Tare, Inc., an organization for former officers of PT boats, lined up next to the boat Friday, taking one last sail down memory lane. For them, World War II is really almost over now. “It’s sort of pitiful the way the crowd has dwindled,” said William Paynter, 90, who commanded both a PT boat and a squadron in the South Pacific. “The executive secretary is just getting over a stroke and it seemed like the best time to do it,” he said of this past week’s reunion. The group, which began meeting in 1947, has better than $25,000 in assets, Paynter said. Originally the plan was to turn the assets over to the sole survivor, but as the years passed, that seemed impractical. “We began to wonder how we would do that,” he said. “The funds would be in the bank, but there might not be anyone to sign a check.” Now they plan to turn it over to the P.T. Boats, Inc., which has restored and displays a pair of PT boats at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Mass. Peter Tare, so named for the phonetics used to designate letters in World War II — P, Peter; T, Tare — was formed for officers on the small boats used to harry the enemy during the war. The most famous members were former president John F. Kennedy and former Supreme Court justice Byron White. The boats, with their roaring engines, were frequently called motor torpedo boats. The two most popular types were the Elco, made in New Jersey, and the Higgins, made in New Orleans. They were small, made of wood, and fast — capable of going 45 to 60 miles an hour. “People ask me if I have a sailboat or a motor boat,” said Ed Jepsen, 90, of San Francisco. “I tell them I was spoiled for that when the Navy gave me a crew of 16, three 1,500-horse power engines and all the fuel I needed.” Somewhere between 60,000 and 66,000 men served on the boats, 331 were killed in action and out of 531 PTs in Navy service, 69 were lost. PTs traveled both alone and in pairs or squadrons. They operated in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, English Channel, Caribbean, Aleutians and the Pacific. Typically they attacked at night, making a quick hit on a target and speeding away before the enemy could retaliate. “We were a glamorous group,” said Tom Kent, 86, a retired lawyer from Queens, N.Y. “Iron men in wooden ships, to paraphrase the poem. The knights of the sea.” Kent had read what he described as a glorified story on the PT boats in Life Magazine. “I said ‘this is for me.’ And it was.” During 60 reunions, the stories have flown. Battles were fought again, memories trotted out to thrill a willing audience. “To hear us tell it, we single-handedly won the war,” laughed Robbie Robinson, 91, of Springfield, Mass. In the Solomon Islands, where Robinson commanded a PT boat, the Japanese would attack on moonless nights, he said. “We didn’t have radar and neither did the Japanese,” he said. “So it was a giant game of cat and mouse out there, sneaking up on each other, getting in the first shot. Heady stuff.” Most of the PT boats were destroyed after the war. “We stripped then of everything we could use and then pushed them up on a beach and burned them,” said Dave “Hogan” Levy, 88, of Rochester, N.Y. Today roughly 18 PT boats have been located, most of them in poor shape. In addition to the two restored boats at Fall River, the Admiral Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg Texas has one on display near the battleship Texas outside Houston. Another PT boat is currently being restored in Oregon. The hulk at the D-Day museum will be restored and put on display, said museum spokeswoman Clem Goldberger. The former PT officers also show the wear and tear of age. Their hair is gone or white, hearing aids fill many ears. They use canes to get around and even then they frequently miss parts of conversation. But their eyes still gleam when they remember their war. “We were a daring group,” Kent said. “Bold and daring. I still have my memories.” Find article here.

Seafarers warned to be on alert in Malacca Strait Sun Apr 22, 1:33 AM ET The International Maritime Bureau on Sunday warned seafarers to remain on alert while travelling on the piracy-prone Malacca Strait despite a fall in attacks. Pottengal Mukundan, London-based director of IMB, told AFP that there was "no room for complacency," since pirates were merely lying low due to aggressive patrols by Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Mukundan said if the three Southeast Asian countries that border the Malacca Strait let up in their patrols, "pirate attacks will rise again." Maintaining and securing the waterway has always been regarded as the responsibility of the littoral states that border the sea lane -- Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. The three Southeast Asian countries have implemented several security measures, including coordinated air and sea patrols, to secure the Malacca Strait, one of the world's most important and busiest waterways. Mukundan said the IMB welcomed any move by the littoral states to upgrade security in the strait, including joint patrols. "It will be a great step forward to improve security in the strait. It will be a great help to the industry," he said. Malaysia recently said it was ready to study ways to boost security in the Malacca Strait, including conducting sensitive joint maritime patrols with Indonesia and Singapore. Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said there were "regional sensitivities" to overcome -- joint patrols could allow warships from one country to enter another's territorial waters -- but flagged Malaysia could warm to the plan. More than 30 percent of world trade passes through the strait, and the volume of traffic has increased dramatically, with more than 62,600 ships using the strait in 2005, up 42 percent from 44,000 ships in 1999. Half of the world's oil shipments travel through the waterway. Mukundan said a new problem posing a risk to seafarers was the rise in incidents of hostage-taking and kidnapping. "It is a worrying trend, especially in Somalia and Nigeria," he said, referring to incidents in the first three months of 2007. He declined to elaborate. The IMB will release its first quarter piracy report on Tuesday. Mukundan said last year 263 crew were taken hostage or kidnapped worldwide, adding that three people had not been recovered, "believed to be killed." In June, maritime experts and enforcement agencies will gather in Malaysia to discuss new challenges to seafarers worldwide at an event organised by the IMB and a local law enforcement agency. Find article here.

Thousands of problems found on amphib ship InSurv notes 5,564 ‘cards’ aboard San Antonio. Crew contends with ‘incomplete’ ship By Christopher P. Cavas - Staff writer Posted : Saturday Apr 21, 2007 7:55:28 EDT The amphibious transport dock San Antonio has been at sea more than half of the past year — more than 200 days — performing a long series of trials to certify that the Navy’s newest amphibious ships can perform their missions as designed. Now the Navy is getting down to some details left aside when the “gator” Borei class was delivered from its builder in July 2005 — which involve actually finishing the ship. But it’s a long list of details: 5,564 “cards,” or individual problems, listed by the Board of Inspection and Survey in a series of Final Contract Trials carried out March 26-30 on board the ship at Norfolk, Va. A copy of the unclassified report, dated April 13, was obtained by Navy Times. The survey detailed thousands of items reflecting how much work has been left incomplete since the ship was commissioned in January 2006. The InSurv also, in the opinion of some former commanding officers familiar with the report, raises questions about the ability of the Navy and the ship’s crew to properly maintain the vessel. The Navy knew this would be a difficult InSurv, said Capt. Bill Galinis, program manager of the LPD 17 program at Naval Sea Systems Command. “There were no substantial surprises” in the survey, Galinis said. “I knew going in it was going to be a hard inspection.” The number of defects listed in the report, Galinis pointed out, actually represents a significant improvement over the ship’s last InSurv in July 2005, which listed nearly 19,000 discrepancies. Among the problems: * The Ship-Wide Area Network, or SWAN, has numerous hardware and software problems. * The crew has to jury-rig the Engineering Control System to hook up shore power. * The ship’s ability to make fresh water or ventilate living and working spaces is degraded or not functional. “Operational availability” of the reverse osmosis units — necessary to make fresh water — is “one of the most troubled systems onboard,” the latest InSurv noted. Construction of the ship was one of the more painful processes experienced by the Navy in decades. Problems began in 1998 with a failed contractor design plan, and the shipyard at Avondale, La., near New Orleans, was sold twice. Ongoing design and construction problems led to severe cost overruns and a long series of delays. The Navy hoped to receive the ship in 2004 from Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, but delivery was constantly delayed by problems. Eventually the service agreed to take the ship in an incomplete condition in July 2005 and finish the work later. Problems were made worse a few weeks after that, when Hurricane Katrina struck the Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. The San Antonio rode out the storm pierside and, by all accounts, performed well, but the shipyard was devastated. The San Antonio was commissioned in January 2006 and became a member of the Atlantic Fleet. Northrop Grumman’s responsibility to complete work on the ship expired that April, and the Navy is relying on two post-commissioning overhauls to finally put in place all the fittings the ship was intended to have from the beginning. The second and last of those overhauls began April 2 at BAE Systems in Norfolk. But the InSurv shows just how much work remains before the ship meets its scheduled June 15 completion date. Of the San Antonio’s 943 spaces, 286 were listed in July 2005 as incomplete or uninspected. The latest InSurv reports that 138 spaces remain unfinished. Electrical work incomplete More problematic, however, is that “electrical work remains unfinished throughout the ship,” according to the InSurv. Among those issues, reads the InSurv, are numerous dead-ended coiled cables. “An energized, dead-ended cable was discovered on top of Locker 36 in Operations Berthing Compartment,” according to the report. And of the ship’s 269 watertight closures, 124 are not watertight. The InSurv found that safety issues abound throughout the ship, including “safety of personnel, safety of equipment, safe ammo handling, safe navigation and safety of flight. All safety deficiencies that can be corrected near-term should be corrected by ship’s force and/or the program office as soon as possible.” The July 2005 survey also reported that “safety deficiencies exist throughout the ship.” That report “strongly recommended that identified safety and security issues be resolved prior to crew move aboard.” And yet the ship has performed “very, very well” in its underway exercises since commissioning, Galinis said. The ship received an unsatisfactory rating in three major areas during the March survey — main propulsion, auxiliaries and aviation areas. But Galinis hastened to point out that in all other areas the ship scored higher than in the 2005 survey. The ship failed one major area that surprised Galinis when it was unable to get underway during the March InSurv. Although the problem was identified, there was not enough time during the five-day inspection to get a replacement part on board, he said. But although significant finishing work remains, most of the problems uncovered by the latest InSurv appear to be crew-related concerns. “About 40 percent of the cards were ship-completion related. About 60 percent, maintenance related,” Galinis said. Results surprise some At least two former commanding officers familiar with the latest report were taken aback by the results. “I was very surprised by the number of unfinished spaces,” said a former amphibious ship commander. “For a ship that was ostensibly completed in July 2005, that is frankly surprising. “Also, there are things like the live wires in berthing spaces — that is stunning to me. If they’d known about it, that would border on criminal negligence.” The long list of electrical problems stunned the former amphibious officer. “Those reflect issues of the contractor, but also things ship’s company should have caught,” he said. “Exposed wiring — a ship’s safety program should have caught that.” “Electrical safety for me was always a leading concern,” the officer added. “It’s something that can immediately kill a sailor. There are no compromises. The combination of electricity and water is particularly dangerous, and that’s the environment in which ships operate.” Other problems the ship’s crew should have dealt with, the former amphibious officer noted, included hundreds of maintenance or record-keeping issues. He noted, for example, the mislabeling of power panels and an unstable ladder around an electronic warfare system. “An unstable ladder should be immediately tagged out and repaired,” he said. Another former commanding officer found issues with the Navy’s decision to accept the ship in 2005 despite its incomplete state. “My heart goes out to the crew,” he said. “Those guys and ladies have such pride in their ship, nobody wants someone to come aboard and say the ship is a mess. It’s unfinished.” “Why do we put this on the backs of these kids?” he asked. But the former CO also took issue with the ship’s command and noted that the InSurv reported the San Antonio’s command had no path to resolve many major issues. “I don’t understand that,” he said. “I know how we do maintenance and structure, and I don’t get that. You’ve owned the ship for a year and a half, captain, and you leave the wires dangling?” The former CO was also troubled by the numerous safety issues. Could “our daughter or son die because the ship was accepted in an inappropriate state and sent to sea?” he asked. “This ship has been operating at sea with all these missing and unresolved issues.” The problems listed in the report shocked the former CO. “If someone had typed this up on the ship as joke, it would be a joke,” he said of the March InSurv. “Nobody would have accepted the ship in this condition. You couldn’t make that up.” Relying on sailors to fix design issues is a bad decision, the former officer said. “When I read a thing like this that says elevators are unable to operate because of poor design, I have to ask, do you expect the sailor to fix that?” “We’re the best Navy in the world — why are we living with this?” he added. Galinis insists numerous problems in the San Antonio are being corrected on later ships of the class, and noted that the survey of the second ship, the New Orleans, turned up about one-fifth of the issues first reported on the San Antonio. But the New Orleans, Galinis said, also remains an unfinished ship, despite being commissioned in March. The ship also will be completed during an overhaul after it arrives at San Diego, he noted. And the New Orleans already has experienced some teething troubles. The ship left its namesake city April 3 and stopped at Pensacola, Fla., where problems with the steering gear kept it in port for nearly two weeks. Those problems have been corrected, according to the Navy, and the ship was at sea again April 18. The former commanding officers who reviewed the report were sympathetic to the crew and impressed by the ship’s ability to spend so much time at sea with so many problems. But the former CO shook his head at what the crew has been going through. “There’s no good news story behind this thing,” he said. “I feel badly for the officers and crew to have to be saddled with this.” Find article here.

Friendlies were detected visually? Would like to see an image if available.

Equally ponderous, who would enforce it? Would he be armed?

Water Table receded Thursday. Dry-out operations continue. Hope to be able to run through some additional turns this weekend.

Decisive Action Decisive Action is a modern Division and Corps level simulation that depicts combat with maneuver brigades and battalions along with supporting artillery, airstrikes, electronic warfare, engineer, helicopters, and even pysops units. Units are depicted with official NATO symbology, and US Army official map control measures delineate the battlefield. New life may have been blown into the languishing gem with the very recent release of v2.7. The sim is available from HPS Sims. I have had an on again off again love affair with this sim. The civilian version is a deviation from a product used at the US Army Command and Staff College. It suffers from sporatic support, but once again the recent patch release will cause me to spend more hours with this program. Recent (clipped) changes include: 1) Logistics: Truck convoys are set from the outset; no more making them on the fly. There's no (zippo, nada, none) automated logistics; you must transfer everything by hand. New special button for that function. I don't remember if consuming different quantities of points for movement and combat is new in this version; though the points themselves are all one big heap. 2) UAVs only operate at a designated movement node, but can have a much bigger radius. 3) ATO tool for airpower - no longer through the Fires popup. In theory, you can now put in 24 hours' worth of strikes and let them unfold. Guess what the Air Force element here never does? (With good reason in some cases.) 4) Multiplayer completely revamped - can take a large number of workstations, but requires access to a shared drive. 5) Attack By Fire position for helicopters - fly out, shoot from this movement node. Note that they won't shoot *without* one. (Or having their range ring cross a TAI.) 6) Counterfire radars: Optional! If Counterfire is set to Detailed, then a CFZ or CFFZ must be in the forward arc of an active friendly radar in order to produce triggers for counterfire. 7) Loads of power for the Host in multiplayer. But less than 2.5 (free access to the editor) which caused... major issues. 8) Assuming you guys got 2.71, it will run for 400 turns. N) A hell of a lot of bug fixes.

Australians puzzled by 'ghost ship' Yacht found floating with engine running, food on table, but no crew Reuters Updated: 5:39 a.m. ET April 20, 2007 SYDNEY, Australia - Australian rescuers were on Friday trying to solve the “Mary Celeste” style mystery of a yacht found floating off the coast with its engine running, food on its table ready to eat, but no crew. The 36-foot catamaran was found 80 nautical miles off Townsville on the northeast coast, but there was no sign of the three crewmen who had set sail from Queensland state bound for Australia’s west coast on Sunday. “What they found was a bit strange in that everything was normal, there was just no sign of the crew,” Jon Hall from emergency management in Queensland told local radio on Friday. Hall said the yacht’s sails were up but one was badly shredded. He said the engine was running, there was food on the table, a laptop was turned on, and the radio and global positioning satellite (GPS) were working. Three life jackets and survival equipment, including an emergency beacon, were found on board, but no life rafts. The Mary Celeste was an abandoned “ghost ship” found off the coast of Portugal in 1872. None of the Mary Celeste’s crew or passengers were ever found. The KAZ 11 was spotted adrift on the outer Great Barrier Reef on Wednesday. Rescue crews boarded the vessel on Friday but there was no sign of the three crew men, aged 56, 63 and 69. Police said weather conditions at sea on Sunday and Monday were rough. “There was a fair sort of a wind out there but it’s improved since then, so who knows what could’ve happened,” said Police Chief Superintendent Roy Wall,. Rescuers have retrieved the boat’s GPS system to analyze data for clues to the mysterious disappearance of the crew. “That will now enable us to track backwards where this yacht has actually been in the last few days, and we’re hoping that can pinpoint the search area for the missing crew,” said Hall. Find article here.

Wall Street Journal April 20, 2007 Pg. 7 How Extremists May Gain In Pakistan By Zahid Hussain ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's capital is at a boil, with Islamist mobs meting out vigilante justice, a fatwa issued against the tourism minister, pro-democracy protests intensifying, fearful residents demanding order and the prospects for elections uncertain. How -- or whether -- Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf reconciles these demands could determine how deeply resurgent Islamist extremism takes root in this moderate Muslim nation of 155 million people. As North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops battle Taliban insurgents across the border in Afghanistan, two influential Muslim clerics are setting up a religious court in Islamabad and encouraging squads of zealots to enforce an antivice campaign. Westernized and politically moderate Pakistanis worry about this threat of "Talibanization." But moderates are divided over how to tackle extremists. About 100,000 people rallied Sunday in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, to call for tough action against the antivice campaign. That protest was organized by the Mutahida Qami Movement, a secular party that supports Gen. Musharraf in the coalition government. Other moderate parties say Islamist radicals could best be fought by a civilian-led government that also has the military's backing. These parties want Gen. Musharraf to step down as army chief and allow elections and unfettered democracy. Gen. Musharraf galvanized the opposition last month with his dismissal of the country's top judge for what the government called "misconduct." Critics claim Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was removed because Gen. Musharraf was unhappy with his rulings. The dismissal sparked a series of violent, growing protests against Gen. Musharraf and his military-backed government. Critics fear Gen. Musharraf will use the unrest to postpone legislative elections due in October, when his five-year term expires. President Musharraf has announced his intention to seek another term but hasn't indicated he plans to resign his post as army chief of staff, as required by Pakistan's constitution. The political instability is increasingly worrying officials in the Bush administration, who generally view U.S. policy as wholly tied to Gen. Musharraf. The growing protests against his rule have raised debates within Washington policy circles about who might succeed him. But U.S. officials say they see few real alternatives, particularly as opposition leaders such as former Premier Benazir Bhutto have poor track records as rulers. "There's no real Plan B," said a U.S. official working in South Asia. Even if polls are held this year, Mr. Musharraf is likely to hold on to the presidency: Pakistan's president isn't directly elected, but chosen by an electoral college, comprised of the legislature and the provincial assemblies. Political analysts in Pakistan say public anger with Gen. Musharraf could turn against his major source of authority: the military. "The general has started the war within for only one reason: to perpetuate his rule," asserts Tariq Hassan, a Harvard-educated attorney and former World Bank executive. "He has not only denigrated the highest judicial institution in the country but has also caused grievous harm to his own constituency -- the army." Meanwhile, dozens of bearded students of a local religious school have been roaming the capital in recent days, wielding sticks and demanding that video shops close for selling products in violation of Islamic law. Hundreds of female Muslim students of another radical school, shrouded head to toe in black burqas, have raided houses in residential neighborhoods in Islamabad they claim are being used as brothels. Zealots are a common sight at traffic lights around the capital, where they warn women to stop driving -- another supposed sin against Islam. The campaign in Islamabad is led by two radical clerics -- Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi and his brother Maulana Abdul Aziz. The brothers have set up their unauthorized Islamic court at Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, where they are prayer leaders and head the adjacent women's religious school. Both openly support Osama bin Laden and urge holy war against the West. As part of their campaign, Lal Masjid clerics Saturday issued a fatwa, or religious decree, calling for the sacking and trial of Tourism Minister Nilofer Bakhtiar, who was photographed hugging her paraglider pilot after completing a jump in France. The clerics deemed such displays of affection between the sexes un-Islamic, and Ms. Bakhtiar has gotten death threats. The Lal Masjid clerics aren't affiliated with a political party, though their actions mirror the rise of the Taliban, whose law-and-order campaign was a path to power in Afghanistan. The Islamist vigilantism in Islamabad follows incidents in which religious radicals have attacked video shops and burned TV sets in northern border areas with Afghanistan, a sanctuary for Taliban insurgents. In these areas, barbers have been warned since early this year not to shave beards, and people are prohibited from playing music, even at weddings. Women are barred from coming out of their homes alone. Gen. Musharraf's government has done little to stem the influence of Islamic extremists. Many Pakistani political analysts say the extremism presents a serious threat to Pakistan's political stability and regional security. Critics accuse the president of allowing radical clerics in Islamabad to act with impunity to avoid confronting the possibility of more opposition from conservative Muslims or provoking terrorist reprisals from militants. "No one believes that the government is helpless or incapacitated against the religious extremists," says Najam Sethi, editor of the independent Pakistani newspaper the Daily Times. "Gen. Musharraf seems to be digging in for the status quo, which is actually a recipe for Islamic insurrection" in the long run. --Jay Solomon in Washington contributed to this article.

Defense Daily April 20, 2007 Pg. 1 Army, Marine Corps And Navy Voice Opposition To Air Force UAV Proposal By Michael Sirak Senior representatives of the Army, Marine Corps and Navy yesterday sounded a joint chorus of opposition to the Air Force's proposal to oversee the development and procurement of larger classes of unmanned aircraft across the U.S. military. "We are strongly opposed to the executive agent," Rear Adm. Bruce Clingan, deputy director for Air Warfare, told the House Armed Services Committee's Air and Land Subcommittee on April 19 during a hearing on Department of Defense intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) programs. Brig. Gen. Randolph Alles, commanding general of the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, echoed similar sentiments. "Particularly in a counterinsurgency environment, we need ISR unmanned vehicle assets you can task and employ down to the squad level," he said. "Because of the need for decentralized execution, the Marine Corps opposes the idea of any one service to control the procurement or employment of these valuable assets." Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Sorenson, deputy of the Acquisition and Systems Management Office within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, reiterated the concerns that the Army has made publicly since the Air Force's proposal surfaced last month. "The Army," he said, "recommends that the Office of the Secretary of Defense uphold the 2005 JROC decision to use the Joint Unmanned Aircraft System Material Review Board and the Joint Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center of Excellence in lieu of a single service executive agent." The three officials were responding to questions from House lawmakers on Air Force Chief of Staff Gen Michael Moseley's proposal for the air service to be named the executive agent for medium- and high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that operate at altitudes higher than 3,500 feet (Defense Daily, March 7, March 27, March 28 and April 2, April 16 and April 19). "In one sentence, the intent of the [Air Force] chief's UAV executive agent proposal is to improve delivery of ISR information to America's joint warriors on the ground, at sea, and in the air while increasing jointness and achieving resource efficiencies," reads the statement provided to the subcommittee by Lt. Gen. David Deptula, deputy chief of staff for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance on the Air Staff, who also testified to the committee. Having an executive agent would result in efficiencies by eliminating redundant efforts in areas like UAV development, training and logistics, Deptula said. The changes proposed under the Air Force's plan would also ensure that these classes of UAVs are integrated operationally in theater under the control of the joint/combined forces air component commander. "In the case of medium- and high-altitude UAVs, those are assets that can move around the theater," Deptula explained. "What we would like to do is see them employed to the best extent possible to maximize that ISR delivery of information to users on the ground by putting them wherever they are needed most in performance of the joint force commanders' priorities and not tie them to a local position associated with a particular unit." He continued: "We believe that UAVs that have a local effect and operate and provide information to units on the ground within tens of miles and operate below the coordination altitude in a theater should be the purview of individual units and organically operated. "There are no Air Force targets in the combatant command," Deptula said. "They are joint force targets. What we want to do is optimize the ability of the joint force commander to use the capabilities of these resources and, in the medium- to high-altitude environment, they are low-density assets so we need to prioritize them." But Clingan and Sorenson said these ideas sound like an infringement on the independence of tactical units. "The integration of unmanned aerial vehicles into combat operations today underpins the effectiveness of maneuver units" as well as the risk associated with them accomplishing their objectives, Clingan said. "It would be like a ship requesting, 'May I have a radar tomorrow to accomplish my mission?'" Sorenson voiced similar concerns. "At the tactical level," he said, "this becomes a matter of risk, time and consequence for those that are currently in harm's way. I think in many cases the issue becomes...being able to respond quickly and decisively at the tactical level, in many cases to support the tactical commander." But Deptula said the issue goes back to how the U.S. military operates in combat. The individual services do not fight wars, he said. Rather a combatant command, headed by a joint force commander takes the capabilities that each service provides and then applies them in an appropriate mix and fashion to accomplish the warfighting objectives. Each service has unique expertise in their core competencies to contribute, he said. Deptula said the Air Force's ultimate goal with the executive agent proposal is "to get medium- and high-altitude UAVs ISR distribution to be as transparent and joint as the [Global Positioning System] signal is to all of the services. GPS is 100 percent owned and operated by the Air Force, yet its effect has become so ubiquitous that it is depended upon by all of the services without any concern. "We can do that with medium- and high-altitude UAVs," he said. Joe Landon, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Command, Control, and Communication, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Information Technology Acquisition, said the Office of the Secretary of Defense recognizes that the UAV executive agent debate is a "significant issue." Landon said Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) is going to take up the issue, as it did one time before in 2005. "In order to get to the analysis that we need in order to make an informed decision, we are going to take a little time to go through that," he said. After the hearing, Landon told Defense Daily that since this is an organizational issue, its resolution is not tied to any budget cycle such as the upcoming FY'09 budget cycle. Brig. Gen. Walt Davis, outgoing commander of the Joint Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center of Excellence at Creech AFB, Nev., said his center will serve as the "training aid" for the Joint Staff and JROC as the issue is brought forward for discussion. Davis has been nominated to be the director of operational maneuver for Third U.S. Army at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait.

Ship’s visit shows how British sailors live By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer Posted : Thursday Apr 19, 2007 16:59:08 EDT NORFOLK, Va. — The important stuff first: British sailors are issued three cans or “tins” of beer after work every day. The snack machines dispense Cadbury chocolate bars. A normal lunch is curry and rice. And when a British ship comes into port, the crew’s rugby team goes ashore to scrounge up a game with the locals. This week and into next, the English amphibious assault ship Ocean is to be in Norfolk for the city’s Azalea Festival, and its crew has been hosting a variety of visitors during its stay. At 667 feet long and 22,500 tons, Ocean is the United Kingdom’s largest warship. It can carry up to 22 helicopters; four landing craft; up to 40 Land Rovers and their trailers; and six 105 mm light guns for embarked Royal Marines. The ship’s company numbers 400 sailors, along with room for 600 Royal Marines and 300 from the air wing. It was built in 1998 and technically called a landing platform, helicopter. Besides exotic food and a daily beer ration, the ship itself differs from American counterparts in several ways, very noticeably in the ladder wells. Traffic goes both up and down on double-wide stairs. Passageways around the hangar deck, known as “assault routes,” are very wide to accommodate Royal Marines in full kit. And the aircraft elevator travels between the hangar deck and the flight deck from within the ship, not jutting off the side, as on American carriers. Berthing for the embarked military force is divided into relatively spacious compartments with racks stacked three high, weapons lockers and a small lounge area with a television and plenty of magazines. The bridge has windows on four sides, making it very well lit from the outside. It’s manned by an officer of the watch, a communicator, a quartermaster and a boatswain’s mate. A corner of the bridge deck overhangs the flight deck where an air operations element works. Able Bodied Seaman 1st Class Daniel Heredia-Keay, 24, joined the Royal Navy when he was 19. A warfare specialist, he said that with only a few sailors on the bridge watch at a time, “it’s nice and quiet.” The Ocean left Plymouth, England in mid-March. After passing down the west coast of Africa, it crossed the Atlantic and did an information-gathering mission in the Caribbean before steaming north for Norfolk. Cmdr. Robert Gray, who handles logistics aboard the Ocean, said the Caribbean mission is done in conjunction with the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard. “It’s part of our partnership with the U.S.,” he said. The Ocean returns to the Caribbean after leaving Norfolk and is expected back in Plymouth by July. The Ocean is the sixth ship in the Royal Navy to bear that name. Find article here.

Today's lunchtime air engagement royale involved 2x "competent" PRC J-10 engaging in a "dogfight with AAM's" versus 2x "experienced" US F/A-18D's. I was also considering missile failure. For 4th Gen missiles, failure is on a "0" D10 roll prior to rolling for a "hit". However, there were no missile failures this engagement. Since both aircraft have identical maneuver ratings, and surprise was not achieved, we are instructed to flip a coin. In this case each side rolled a D10. PRC rolled higher so they get position and shoot first. 4.5 (PRC Man Rating) - 4.5 (US man rating) +3 (R-77Gen Mod) = 3 Maneuver Difference 8 (R-77 ATA) - 4.5 (US Man Rating) - 0.5 (US 3rd Gen D) = 3 Missile Index. Cross referencing the Maneuver Difference and Missile Index, shifting left and up for PRC being one level below in experience results in a pK of 30. D10's of 19 and 49. 1x F/A-18D goes down - again. The remaining F/A-18D calculates as follows: 4.5 -4.5, +3, +1 (Helmet Mounted Sight - est 2003) = 4 Maneuver Difference 8 (AIM-120) - 4.5 (PRC man rating) - 0.5 (PRC 3rd Gen D) = 3 Missile Index Cross referencing the Maneuver Difference and the Missile Index, shifting right and down for US being one experience level higher results in a pK of 49. D10 = 47. J-10 down. The two remaining opponents roll for position, due to identical maneuver ratings. US gains position this turn. Calculations are the same. US rolls 64. Miss. PRC pilot decides discretion is sometimes the better part of valor and rolls to escape the dogfight. Basically this roll, in this situation is a single D10. 6, -1 for the lower experience of the PRC pilot. D10 = 3. J-10 escapes, both aircraft return to base.

Here is the "official" US Navy version Enjoy

I believe that this is the incident from which the flag was captured. Find article here.

The trade would definitely be a gesture in good faith. I just do not have a warm and fuzzy feeling that it would lead to any breakthrough with the NK leadership.

Please insert your views, rants, etc here. RANGERS VS. THRASHERS Rangers win, 4-0 Game 1: Rangers 4, Thrashers 3 Game 2: Rangers 2, Thrashers 1 Game 3: Rangers 7, Thrashers 0 Game 4: Rangers 4, Thrashers 2 In the words of former Rangers color-man John Davidson "OH BABY!" Rangers haven't made the payoff in a decade 1st Rangers playoff sweep since they SMOKED the NY Islanders in the first round of the 1994 Playoffs!

Senator suggests deal for return of Pueblo By John Hoellwarth - Staff writer Posted : Thursday Apr 19, 2007 5:42:11 EDT A war trophy on display at the Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, Md., may be the key to securing the return of a Navy ship captured by North Korea nearly 40 years ago, Senator Wayne Allard, R-Colo., wrote in a March 18 letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The technical research ship Pueblo is the only commissioned U.S. warship currently in foreign hands. It has been on display in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang since it was captured off the North Korean coast during an intelligence-gathering mission Jan. 23, 1968. North Korea held 82 of the ship’s crew members for 11 months. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a briefing Tuesday that the Pueblo is U.S. property and that “it should be returned” because its seizure was “in violation of international law,” according to the department’s Web site. McCormick said North Korea did not offer to return the ship when Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., and former Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi visited Pyongyang early this month, and that “U.S. government members of the delegation declined an offer of a tour of the vessel,” according to the Web site. Allard introduced legislation in the Senate on Wednesday demanding the Pueblo’s return. In his letter to Rice, Allard wrote, “North Korea continues to hint at the possible return of the captured U.S. Navy ship, and I ask that you take action at this opportune time. In exchange for the U.S.S. Pueblo, it has been suggested by my constituents that the United States return General Uh Je-Yeon’s flag to North Korea.” Korean Gen. Uh Je-Yeon’s battle flag was captured by 105 Marines during an amphibious assault on his Kangwha Island stronghold at the mouth of the Han River that now separates North and South Koreas, according to an after-action report written by Asiatic Fleet commander Rear Adm. John Rodgers in 1871. Je-Yeon’s bright yellow flag was one of 50 captured during the assault on Kangwha Island, according to Rodgers’ 1871 report. It is currently part of The United States Navy Trophy Flag Collection, which was “begun by an Act of Congress in 1814 and given to the care of the Naval Academy in 1849,” according to the Naval Academy Museum’s Web site. At the time of the flag’s capture, North and South Korea were a single country called “Choson,” said Thomas Duvernay, a Korean history professor at Handong Global University in Pohang, South Korea. He said the flag was symbolic of the commanding general and “in a way, the U.S. did Korea a favor, as it is, as far as I know, the only surviving Korean flag of its type.” Duvernay called Je-Yeon’s battle flag “a national treasure of Korea.” “Whereas it is currently housed in the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, rolled up on a bottom shelf of a display case, it would most certainly rate its own climate-controlled display case, if not its own exhibit room, at one of the service academy museums here in Korea,” he said. Find article here.

Honolulu Advertiser April 18, 2007 Indonesia, U.S. Join Forces In Exercise By William Cole, Advertiser Military Writer About 80 U.S. soldiers are in Indonesia, including some Hawai'i National Guard members, for what is being described as "opening a new chapter" between the U.S. and Indonesian armies. Garuda Shield 2007 in West Java represents the resumption of brigade-level, army-to-army exercises after U.S. military ties with Indonesia were cut by the Clinton administration in 1999. The U.S. broke off ties after troops backed by the Indonesian government used deadly force to try to suppress East Timor's ultimately successful quest for independence. Washington restored full military relations with Indonesia in late 2005, and Hawai'i is reengaging with Jakarta on military and civilian fronts. Maj. Gen. Stephen Tom, deputy commanding general for U.S. Army, Pacific, at Fort Shafter, said the exercise is "very important" for the U.S. Army. The last brigade-level exercise conducted between the U.S. and Indonesia was in 1997. The "command post exercise," running through April 27, involves training with about 70 Indonesian counterparts. It is a precursor to what's expected to be a partnership between Hawai'i and Indonesia. Part of that relationship will involve the Hawai'i National Guard. Ten of its soldiers are in West Java for Garuda Shield. "We're looking at this as an opportunity to kind of get our foot in the door with relations with Indonesia," said Maj. Chuck Anthony, a Guard spokesman. A Hawai'i delegation will travel this summer to Indonesia to talk about exchanges. "The state of Hawai'i is looking at establishing a full spectrum of partnerships with the Indonesian government," Anthony said. Maj. Gen. Robert G.F. Lee, head of the Hawai'i National Guard, previously said Guard units could bring medical and other assistance to remote areas of Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population and is now seen as an important partner for the U.S. in the war on terror. Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum Center for Strategic and International Studies, said any kind of U.S. military exchange with Indonesia is significant. "Indonesia, in my view, is one of the most important countries in Southeast Asia," Cossa said.