BattlelandNavy
Young boys of a couple of generations ago loved to get dizzy, flying their yellow Cox PT-19 with its buzzing .049 Babe Bee engine in endless circles. The “pilot” was connected to the plane via a pair of control lines that allowed the model planes to climb and dive…and occasionally crash.
That’s why the X-47B is so exciting. …
BattlelandIntelligence
Now that we’re out of Iraq, the CIA has come clean on how it came to be bamboozled about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) ferrets over at the National Security Archive (NSA) …
BattlelandWar Story
Army Colonel Brian Copes and the Indiana Army National Guard headed off to war with a pitchfork, not a rifle. As commander of the 1-19th Agribusiness Development Team in Afghanistan in 2009, Copes’ team deployed to Khost …
BattlelandWeapons
When helicopter pilots deftly hug the earth at treetop level, it’s called nap-of-the-earth – NOE – flying. It’s a technique designed to avoid enemy detection – flying under the radar, as it’s sometimes called.
It’s altogether something else to do it in a Navy F-18 jet fighter as in this video, anonymously posted on …
BattlelandAfghanistan
There’s been a flurry of stories, largely out of Washington, about what the Pentagon is doing to try to cut down on the rash of insider attacks in Afghanistan. Here’s Time’s John Wendle reporting on them from Kabul, where …
BattlelandMilitary Families
The Air Force just opened an Airman and Family Readiness Center for the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing somewhere in southwest Asia. But it won’t get any more specific about where it’s based, apparently because the host nation …
BattlelandAfghanistan
A couple of incoming email rounds over the Labor Day Weekend wonder why something called the Creative Arts Dance Team helped the 82nd Airborne Division celebrate Women’s Equality Day Aug. 24 at Bagram air base.
You know Bagram …
BattlelandAfghanistan
The U.S. is eager to rebuild the Salang Pass tunnel in Afghanistan. It’s a vital conduit linking Kabul to everything north of the capital. Just how important is it?
The site is located at high altitude and is a critical part of the infrastructure of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA); and as such shall
…
BattlelandAfghanistan
The headline in Sunday’s Washington Post was pretty stark:
Afghan Recruit Training Halted
…it said.
A quick read of the article offered the reader no clue that the halt affects only about 3% of the entire U.S.-led Afghan …
BattlelandTroops
They say war is long stretches of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror – or maybe excitement. Two recent military photos illustrate the point. In one, a lonely soldier awaits attack by the enemy. In the second, …
BattlelandMilitary Spending
Gosh, we started this countdown five months ago, and darned if the nation’s “leaders” have made absolutely no progress toward dealing with the country’s fiscal mess. As you may recall, last year’s Budget Control Act set …
BattlelandPolitics
We were perplexed following Wednesday’s supposed “foreign policy night” at the Republican convention that scant mention was made of the nation’s wars and those who have fought, and are fighting, them: “It is amazing …
BattlelandMilitary Spending
The Air Force has just announced its intent “to Award a Sole Source Contract for U.S. Air Force Advertising with the Carolina Hurricanes.” The ‘Canes are an NHL hockey team based in Raleigh, N.C.
Of course, there are 30 NHL teams – 23 in the U.S., the rest in Canada, of course – so we were curious why the Air Force wants …
