BattlelandTroops
Army Major Rusty Bradley was commanding a Special Forces unit in Afghanistan that served as Taliban bait during 2006’s Operation Medusa, the largest offensive in NATO’s history. In his new book, Lions of Kandahar (co-written with journalist Kevin Maurer), Bradley takes the reader into battle. His goal: a patch of high ground called …
BattlelandTerrorism
Here’s a paper detailing everything from the Under Fat Roll Bomb (“suffers from a lack of candidate personnel fulfilling the delivery criteria since very few terrorist operatives are that significantly overweight”) to the Rectum/Large Intestines (Lower Digestive Track) bomb pioneered by — who else — the CIA, with its non-exploding …
BattlelandTroops
Navy policies and programs work optimally under a retention rate of 55 to 60%. The Navy is currently operating at 71% retention. We have more people wanting to stay in the Navy than we presently have billets.
— Vice Admiral Mark Ferguson, chief of naval personnel
So why is the Navy paying bonuses like a drunken sailor?
BattlelandTerrorism
This Pentagon purchase caught my attention Wednesday night: the Army has awarded Science, Engineering and Technology Associates of Arlington, Va., a $48.2 million contract for “the procurement of the counter-bomber system to provided detection capability of suicide bombers approaching a controlled access site.” The company says “the …
BattlelandPentagon
So I’m reading the August-September issue of Reason magazine (a well-crafted periodical of libertarian bent) when I came across a fairly compelling piece on the threat, or lack thereof, posed by cyber-terrorism. Unfortunately, Reason’s latest issue isn’t on line, but I found the working paper on which it is based. It’s well worth a …
BattlelandWeapons
So the other day we mentioned the Navy’s woes with its latest boat buy, the 55-vessel, $37.4 billion, Littoral Combat Ship fleet. Two teams are each building their own version of the coastal corvette, and each has its own problem: the Lockheed team’s hull has cracked, and the Austal team’s hull is disintegrating in salt water. Austal …
BattlelandNational Security
Dueling items Thursday morning over the U.S.’s proper place in the world, and how much the nation should be willing to invest in maintaining it.
On Time’s Curious Capitalist blog, veteran Asia hand Michael Schuman wonders:
BattlelandVeterans
A federal appellate court has barred further enforcement of the U.S. military’s still-existing ban on openly gay men and women serving in uniform. Wednesday’s brief, two-page order from the California-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules it is unconstitutional to treat gay Americans differently than their straight compatriots. …
BattlelandWeapons
Hate to feature two aircraft-carriers photos in the same day — it might go to the Navy’s head — but this second one warrants it. On July 2, an airplane landed on a flattop with no human involvement (except a pilot aboard for safety):
The test, conducted on USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69), means the Navy is one step closer to
…
BattlelandTroops
President Obama and his national-security team have said will be no “U.S. boots on the ground” inside Libya. Yet 13 U.S. Navy commandos remain interred on Libyan soil. There’s a growing push to bring them home after more than 200 years on the shores of Tripoli. It’s a strange tale: the 13, led by Navy Master Commandant Richard …
BattlelandWeapons
BattlelandNational Security
Battlelander Ron Capps has won Press 53’s first prize in creative non-fiction for his piece entitled The French Lieutenant’s iPod. (Press 53 is a small, well-regarded publisher of literary fiction, poetry, and nonfiction in Winston-Salem, N.C.) We know Ron’s good — he writes for Battleland mostly about veterans, of which he is one …
BattlelandPentagon
…unless you’re interpreting for the Pentagon, apparently. Check out this list of contract awards made Tuesday by the Army:
