Institute of Land Warfare. Recent ILW & Torchbearer Publications The Emergence of Feral and Criminal Cities: U.S. Military Implications in a Time of Austerityby Robert J. Bunker (Land Warfare Paper 99W, April 2014) This Land Warfare Paper considers the nature of the emerging global security environment. With the spread of economic liberalism that gained foothold after the conclusion of the Cold War, one might think that the 21st century is the perfect time for the modern democratic state to be a ubiquitous institution. However, between power vacuums developing in formerly autocratic states and economic troubles becoming more prevalent, the atmosphere of the world is increasingly toxic to the values upheld in Western democracy.
With that being the case, nation building, and even city building, is presently beyond the scope of the diminishing resources and capabilities of the American military. Cyberspace as a Weapon System(Landpower Essay 14-1, March 2014) U.S. The U.S. Naval Technology. Brain Wars. Army Study Finds Troops Suffer Concussions in Training by Joaquin Sapien, ProPublica, and Daniel Zwerdling, NPR Aug. 24, 2012, 9 a.m. Brain specialists say Army's training may make soldiers more vulnerable to head injuries on the battlefield. Aftershock: The Blast That Shook Psycho Platoon by T. Five soldiers injured in the same 2009 bomb blast are a case study in a new epidemic among America's troops, who are grappling with a combination of concussion and post-traumatic stress disorder. One Soldier’s Progress Against Traumatic Brain Injury by Joaquin Sapien, ProPublica, and Daniel Zwerdling, NPR Jan. 30, 2012, 1:24 p.m.
With the help of virtual-reality machines and a bevy of specialists, Sgt. New Technologies in the Works to Detect Brain Injuries by Lena Groeger ProPublica, Jan. 5, 2012, 10:48 a.m. Handheld devices and blood tests that could give medical personnel quick, reliable ways to test for concussions in the field are advancing, but remain a few years away. Sen. Rep.
By T. By T. By T. Disposable Army. Iraq War Contractor Fined for Late Reports of 30 Casualties by T. Christian Miller ProPublica, Feb. 7, 2013, 8 a.m. The Sandi Group was fined $75,000 after delaying reports to the U.S. government that more than 30 of its workers had died or been injured. Bill Introduced to Reform Workers’ Comp for Military Contractors by Cora Currier ProPublica, June 6, 2012, 3:40 p.m. A proposed update to the Defense Base Act would provide a federal program for workers' compensation for military contractors killed or injured on the job. U.S. By T. Chicago-based CNA Financial Corp. faces possible investigation after failing to pay death benefits to survivors of Iraqi translators working to help the U.S. mission in Iraq. This Year, Contractor Deaths Exceed Military Ones in Iraq and Afghanistan by T. More contractors than soldiers died in Iraq and Afghanistan in the first six months of 2010, the first time that contractor deaths have exceeded military ones. by T.
Foreign Interpreters Hurt in Battle Find U.S. Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments | CSBA. Proceedings Magazine. Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) | US Army War College. Mobile | Headline News. In These Deserts: War Stories From Afghanistan: Column 20: Bombs and the Boy. I wrote this a few days after it happened. I should feel different about it by now, but I don’t. Nothing has changed. Most friends don’t ask me about the war. Some have asked what my best memory was, or what my proudest moment was, and I can explain those pretty well. I often tell Abdulhaq’s story, or the story from when we brought Khan’s kids over for dinner. A few others, either fecklessly or in the depths of heroic drinking binges, have asked me what was the worst thing that ever happened there. For that, too, I have an answer. The blast caught us on a cold Friday morning as we were drinking coffee in my room, my friend and I.
My guys and I lived out with the Afghans and took advantage of slow Fridays. Within minutes of us arriving nearby the police began to shoot wildly, and the whipcracks near to our heads convinced me that we would do no good as a four-man team in a wounded, recoiling town. We left. We asked questions and started to prepare an information sheet. On Point - The United States Army in Operation Iraqi Freedom. US Air Force: 2006readinglistbro. Defense Tech | The future of the Military, Law Enforcement and N. U.S. military leaders have approved funding to develop a hybrid, stealth motorcycle to be driven by special operations teams in the not too distant future. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has issued a grant to integrate a multiple fuel, hybrid-electric power plant into a dirt bike built by BRD Motorcycles.
The hybrid electric engine will be built by Logos Technologies. DARPA leaders forsee an electric bike that can drive for an extended range while producing nearly zero engine noise. [Continue reading…] Tagged as: DARPA, motorcycle The Littoral Combat Ship program was one of the leading topics at the Sea Air Space Exposition outside Washington D.C. last week as Navy leaders continued to protect it from critics who said the ship is not built for the correct mission sets.
The Navy’s director of surface warfare, Rear Adm. Tagged as: Littoral Combat Ship, Navy The 44-foot long submarine-launched missiles have been serving on Ohio-class submarines for 25 years, Vice Adm. Top 10 Lessons of the Iraq War - By Stephen M. Walt. This month marks the ninth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Regardless of your views on the wisdom of that decision, it's fair to say that the results were not what most Americans expected. Now that the war is officially over and most U.S. forces have withdrawn, what lessons should Americans (and others) draw from the experience? There are many lessons that one might learn, of course, but here are my Top 10 Lessons from the Iraq War. Lesson #1: The United States lost. The first and most important lesson of Iraq war is that we didn't win in any meaningful sense of that term. This lesson is important because supporters of the war are already marketing a revisionist version. The danger of this false narrative is obvious: If Americans come to see the war as a success -- which it clearly wasn't -- they may continue to listen to the advice of its advocates and be more inclined to repeat similar mistakes in the future.
Lesson #5: Don't listen to ambitious exiles. Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense. Military Industrial Complex - United States Military Contracts and Defense Spending. SSI Publications - Military Strategy, National Security, and Regional Security. Richard Dawkins on militant atheism.
ARMED FORCES JOURNAL. Budgeting for a new military vision. By CNN's Larry Shaughnessy Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta unveiled details of a budget plan that slices half a trillion dollars in spending increases over the next 10 years and serves as a blueprint for the administration's vision of how America's military needs to change. The savings would begin in October, the start of fiscal year 2013. Panetta, speaking Thursday at the Pentagon, said he will request a total budget that is $33 billion smaller than the current one. All told, his plan meets Congress's mandate to reduce Pentagon spending by $487 billion in the next 10 years. To accomplish that, Panetta said, a new strategy was developed for the military force of the future: "The military will be smaller and leaner, but it will be agile, flexible, rapidly deployable and technologically advanced.
It will be a cutting-edge force. " For example, he said, the Army will save money by pulling two of its four brigades out of permanent bases in Europe to bases in the United States. Gen. Special Ops' burden of success. By Adam Levine If there was any question that the Obama administration sees the shadowy world of special operations as an instrumental element in their vision for the military's future, the drama around the State of the Union and the speech itself removed any such doubt. That point will be driven home further on Thursday when Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta reveals the first details of its budget decisions to deal with half a trillion dollar in cuts over the next 10 years. It was the heroics of the Navy SEAL team's killing of Osama bin Laden that Obama used to open and close his State of the Union speech.
But a few hours later, the world would learn that even as Obama headed to the floor of Congress to speak, a Special Operations team was just finishing up a raid to rescue two hostages, including an American, in Somalia. The teams are hard to generate given their skills and the support staff needed to make the operations possible. "With an annual budget of $10.5 billion, [U.S. U.S. special forces rescue Somalia aid workers. U.S. State Department was in close contact with Denmark about the raidRescued American's father was "flabbergasted" when Obama called him with the newsPrime Minister Raila Odinga of neighboring Kenya says he backs more U.S. action in SomaliaJessica Buchanan and Poul Thisted were kidnapped in October in Somalia Washington (CNN) -- U.S.
Special Forces parachuted overnight into Somalia from fixed-wing planes, then advanced on foot to a compound holding two kidnapped international aid workers and freed them, U.S. officials said Wednesday. The nine gunmen holding the hostages -- an American and a Dane -- were killed, the officials said. Jessica Buchanan, 32, and Poul Thisted, 60, had been held since October 25, when they were abducted in Galkayo, central Somalia, after they visited humanitarian projects, said the Danish Refugee Council, the agency for which they worked.
Neither was harmed, the aid group said. Obama to Panetta: 'Good job' on rescue Navy SEALs strike again Capt. Special Forces | Delta Force | SEALs | Rangers. Federal agents arrest man who allegedly planned to bomb U.S. Capitol. The gun and vest were provided not by al-Qaeda, as Khalifi had been told, but by undercover FBI agents who rendered them inoperable, authorities said. They said Khalifi had been the subject of a lengthy investigation and never posed a threat to the public. On Friday afternoon, he made an initial court appearance in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, where he was charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction against federal property. He faces life in prison if convicted. Khalifi “allegedly believed he was working with al-Qaeda,” said Neil H.
In several recent terrorism sting operations, critics have accused federal investigators of provoking suspects and, in some cases, suggesting possible targets or tactics. “You want to be very sure that the narrative is not substantially provided by the government,” said Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law School, who studies terrorism sting operations.