The Chinese have Taken a Cue from US Drone Warfare

Posted May 22nd, 2013 by OldWarrior

300px-081131-F-7734Q-001 Determined to kill or capture a murderous Mekong River drug lord, China’s security forces considered a tactic they’d never tried before: calling a drone strike on his remote hideaway deep in the hills of Myanmar.

The attack didn’t happen — the man was later captured and brought to China for trial — but the fact that authorities were considering such an option cast new light on China’s unmanned aerial vehicle program, which has been quietly percolating for years and now appears to be moving into overdrive.

Every capable government is taking note of the success that the US has had in it’s drone campaign during the present war on terror.  Any military worth half it’s salt will study the tactics of other countries even if it is their adversary, see what worked for them, and apply the tactics to their own strategies.

This obviously isn’t lost on the Chinese.

Chinese aerospace firms have developed dozens of drones, known also as unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs. Many have appeared at air shows and military parades, including some that bear an uncanny resemblance to the Predator, Global Hawk and Reaper models used with deadly effect by the U.S. Air Force and CIA. Analysts say that although China still trails the U.S. and Israel, the industry leaders, its technology is maturing rapidly and on the cusp of widespread use for surveillance and combat strikes.

 

China’s move into large-scale drone deployment displays its military’s growing sophistication and could challenge U.S. military dominance in the Asia-Pacific. It also could elevate the threat to neighbors with territorial disputes with Beijing, including Vietnam, Japan, India and the Philippines. China says its drones are capable of carrying bombs and missiles as well as conducting reconnaissance, potentially turning them into offensive weapons in a border conflict.

They know what they are doing in terms of coming up with a military strategy in order to move fordard in offensive type military operations. They claim that the new technology is for defensive purposes but they will say whatever they have to in order to keep their weapons programs going.

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I Smell Religous Trouble on the Horizon

Posted May 22nd, 2013 by OldWarrior

US Private Timothy Goldsmith (C) from 1- It’s OK to evangelize. But it’s not OK to proselytize.

That’s what the Pentagon said Thursday, attempting to clarify its position on religious speech in uniform as controversy swirled up around press reports over possible prosecutions of troops for sharing their faith.

Now we are getting into a really sticky area when the government begins to regulate or attempt to regulate religion.

What it comes down to, officials said, is that discussing matters of faith and religious practice with a willing audience is allowed, but pushing religious beliefs on those who don’t want to hear it is a form of harassment forbidden under Defense Department policies.

Now my question here is how do you make the decision when evangelism has gone too far and what is the standard. This is a vague interpretation at best and is subject to the whims of any idiot who happens to be in a leadership position.

“Service members can share their faith (evangelize), but must not force unwanted, intrusive attempts to convert others of any faith or no faith to one’s beliefs (proselytization),” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen said in a written statement.

I think that what we are getting ready to witness is the beginning of religious persecution in the United States military.

The lead of a story that appeared on the Washington Times website Thursday concluded that the Pentagon meant that “Soldiers who promote their faith can be prosecuted under military law.”

Christians are already being persecuted for using the name “Jesus” in all oral communication and prayer. When you study the scriptures you will read in the Book of Acts how the same thing happened to the early church.

The strange thing is that there are no consequences for using the name of Allah or any other “god” that you serve.

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contraband at Coast Guard Base Miami Beach 600x400  The Coast Guard Cutter by the name of Gallatin and it’s crew seized 2,200 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated value of $27 million recently in the Caribbean. Believe it or not seizures of this size and type are fairly common for our Coast Guard. They don’t get all of the drugs that come here illegally but they definitely give smugglers something to worry about.

The fact that the shipments that they interdict are so large indicates to me that there is a lot more of the stuff that actually makes it’s way through and into the US. Drug cartels certainly seem to find it profitable to ship their wares in such large quantities because obviously they are able to sneak enough product through to more than make up for their losses.

This interdiction was carried out as part of Operation Martillo, one component in the United States government’s approach to countering the use of the Central American waters as transshipment routes for illicit drugs, weapons and cash. The operation is an international one, focused on sharing information and bringing together air, land and maritime assets from the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security and Western Hemisphere and European partner nation agencies to counter this illicit trafficking.

The value of the cocaine intercepted by the Gallatin was about 27 million dollars. This is just a small drop in the proverbial bucket. No one knows exactly how much of this illegal drug and all others actually get through each year.

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Celebrate Memorial Day

Posted May 22nd, 2013 by OldWarrior

  We always attempt to do a post on memorial day in order to remind you of the job that our military has to accomplish. Remember that as you read this there are troops overseas who are serving in conditions so filthy that you won’t be able to imagine.

They are not going to be able to enjoy the park or the beach this memorial day. Some of them may get to eat hamburgers, or barbecue but the majority won’t. Those on the front lines will only see this day as another in a string of miserable days that they are counting down until the time that they get to go home.

Some of them will get shot at and some may be killed or wounded  in some sort of skirmish.

I have always felt that military service should be mandatory for all of our young men because I really do believe that it will cause more of us to appreciate our freedoms.

When I was stationed in the Middle East prior to Operation Desert Storm we really got a laugh out of a news article that some prisoners in Arizona wrote because they had to live in tents. Many people sympathized with them because they had no air conditioning and lived out in tents.

These prisoners didn’t realize just how good they had it after all. I guess prison is a dangerous place but I believe that it is much less dangerous than being in a combat zone. We had to sleep in tents also. Dinner for me at that time was a MRE (meal refused by Ethiopians) and a bottle of hot water. (We couldn’t have any ice at that time.)

Troops in a combat zone don’t know just how long that they will have to be there but prisoners do. They don’t know if they will be alive or dead within the next few days but prisoners normally know their fate. Troops in a combat zone are not there because of something that they did wrong and they suffer a harsher discipline both leading up to and during the time of deployment.

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Is President Kim Headed Over the Cliff?

Posted May 21st, 2013 by OldWarrior

kim jung un  The new President of North Korea has been making waves lately with his propaganda and rhetoric. He has certainly caused a stir in the rest of the world but I am concerned that he may be going out too far on thin ice.

He has raised the threat of a nuclear exchange with the US by spending massive resources on developing nuclear weapons. He has threatened a first strike which we have to take seriously because we can’t afford to allow his threats to go unchecked.

In response the government of South Korea is asking for their own nuclear weapons because they don’t want to be left out in the cold. It seems that he has started an arms race in the area because of his actions. The US has recently moved additional aircraft to the area based on the rising instability that is being created by President Kim.

Is he serious? I don’t think so but he is certainly playing with fire. I think that his inexperience on the world wide political scene could cause some major problems for a lot of people, but in the end he will be on the bottom of the mud pile.

North Korea “will move closer” to its announced goal of being able to strike the U.S. with a nuclear-armed missile if it keeps investing in tests of nuclear and missile technology according to the Pentagon. President Kim needs to understand that the US can’t sit back and not react to his threats. All of this sounds good but he is setting the stage for a disaster.

Earlier this year, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a series of bellicose threats to attack South Korea, Japan or the United States with nuclear weapons, sparking tough rhetoric in return. In response, the Pentagon in April announced plans to beef up its missile defenses by deploying 14 additional missile interceptors at a military base in Alaska.

President Kim doesn’t seem to realize the seriousness of the situation that he is creating and he certainly is not equipped to finish any action that he may start.

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Drones will Become a Big Player in the Navy

Posted May 21st, 2013 by OldWarrior

This Navy photo shows two of four Northrop Grumman MQ-8B tactical unmanned aerial vehicles aboard USS Klakring last June. The Navy will soon stand up its first drone squadron.   Drones have certainly made a statement in Afghanistan in the war on terror and the military is beginning to capitalize on their usefulness. Their use has been expanded throughout the services and with the Department of Homeland Security and other federal and law enforcement agencies as well.

The Navy is inaugurating its first squadron with unmanned aircraft, formally adopting drone technology amid debate over its growing use in warfare.

Military officials launched the maritime strike squadron called “Magicians” at the Naval Air Station North Island base on Coronado.

The squadron will have eight manned helicopters and a still-to-be-determined number of the Fire Scout MQ-8 B, an unmanned helicopter that can fly 12 continuous hours, tracking targets.

As far as I am concerned the use of drones will give our Navy a leg up because they add so many options for the commander who has them on hand. they will be able to perform a myriad of tasks which will drastically increase operational efficiency and reduce the need for manpower.

I believe that the use of drones will increase drastically for the Navy in the future as it well should.

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The Navy Plans to Deploy more Carriers

Posted May 21st, 2013 by OldWarrior

gerald ford class aircraft carriers The face of our global commitments have changed in the last decade or so and the modern requirements placed on the Navy have been more demanding.

The Navy has to be able to deploy just about anywhere in the world at just about any time. There are so many potential and existing hot spots out there that they just don’t have the manpower as far as carrier groups go to everywhere that they need to be all of the time.

Under current operations, aircraft carrier crews spend months training for a single deployment that’s billed to last six to seven months. But global demands often extend those cruises to eight or nine months, said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Navy’s chief of information.

That wouldn’t be the case under the Navy’s Enhanced Carrier Presence Plan, Kirby said in an online video announcing the proposal.

Instead, crews would go through one pre-deployment workup period to prepare for two seven-month deployments, with seven months at home in between cruises.

Today, carrier strike groups deploy once every 32 months. Under the new plan, the ships and their air wings would deploy twice every 36 months.

The new plan would allow the service to respond to crises without extending deployments or forcing ships to deploy unexpectedly.

Budget cuts and manpower shortfalls are always problems but will be more problematic in the future. Hopefully the new plan would help to alleviate some of those problems until such a time that the US Navy has more room to work and move around.

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U.S. Army soldiers are silhouetted as they walk during a mission in the Maiwand district of Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan

One of the worst jobs in the world is being an enlisted troop in the US military. This is according to a web site called CareerCast.com. Personally I can’t agree with them more.

An enlisted troop is the third worst job overall in America according to them. I would probably give it the dubious distinction of being the worst. The only worst thing during peacetime is being an inmate in a jail but that isn’t a job.

It was also ranked at the top of the list of the ten most stressful jobs in the nation.

The people behind the site come up with these rankings based on factors like stress, danger, physical demands, promotion and salary increase potential and environment.

Now I have to agree with them in all of these areas but their rankings overlook the mindset of those who continue to serve in the military beyond their first tour.
I personally had some of the worst times of my life in the military, but I had some of the best times also. The peace time military is different from thew military in time of war, and some of the factors that they use vary widely depending on the job that you have while you serve in the military.
Combat troops normally relish the difficulties that they have to endure because they just have the mentality to serve and excel. Going through the difficult times is a badge of honor that they can be proud of. They seem to go through the most difficult times with a good attitude. They will moan and complain but yet they will do their jobs to the best of their ability.
They will endure freezing cold, blazing heat, and anything else that mother nature and the enemy can throw at them with sarcastic humor. Every person gets a nickname which is sarcastic, and every hated task gets its moniker. In the end they excel because they just have to. They form a tight bond and they get the job done.
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Mexican Smugglers are Leaving people Stranded at Sea?

Posted May 20th, 2013 by OldWarrior

 Human trafficking is a vicious violent business. Traffickers for the most part seem to have no regard whatsoever for human life and it shows in the way that some of them treat their customers.

The latest trend that seems to be coming from South of the Border is that the Mexican Navy has been finding evidence that traffickers are abandoning their cargo at sea. Most of the boatfuls of victims are being found off of the Baja coast.

 

They have been finding an average of 10 to 12 boats, with a total of about out 150 migrants per month. It did not say when the discoveries began, or why the smugglers might have adopted the tactic. However, smugglers sometimes demand payment for such trips up front, leaving them little incentive to get passengers all the way to the United States.

Boat captains have been telling their victims that the boats are having mechanical problems and that they would be back later to get them. I wonder how many have been abandoned and have not been found?

There is speculation that the abandoned immigrants may have been asked to pay up front and left for dead when it was discovered that they couldn’t pay. I just believe that they are low down enough to get the money and abandon their victims anyway.

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How does the Navy Key in to the Fight on Drugs?

Posted May 20th, 2013 by OldWarrior

  The Navy is testing two new  pieces of equipment which could possibly be used in the fight on drugs. In that battle smugglers are constantly coming up with new ways to avoid detection and they are doing a very good job of it.

One of the devices is a large, white balloon-like craft known as an aerostat, which is tethered up to 2,000 feet (600 meters) above the ship’s stern. The other tool is a type of drone that can be launched by hand from the deck of a ship.

Both are helpful because they are surveillance tools which greatly increase the distance that the Navy can see and remain undetected during surveillance. This is advantageous because it allows them to watch and gather information on the target. Being able to observe the target over time gives the Navy a much larger advantage. They will also be able to videotape smugglers over a period of time which will provide evidence to be used against them in court.

“Being able to see them and watch what they are doing even before we get there is going to give us an edge,” said Chief Chris Sinclair, assistant officer in charge of a law enforcement detachment on board the Swift, a private vessel leased to the Navy that is about to begin a month long deployment to the southwestern Caribbean, tracking the busy smuggling routes off Colombia and Honduras.

Crews practiced launching and operating both systems before a small contingent of media on board the Swift, managing to bring back video of vessels participating in a mock surveillance mission as well as radar and video images of the fishing charters and sailboats that dot the choppy seas separating Cuba from the U.S. mainland.

Both these pieces of equipment may be used in a synergistic relationship. The aerostat can be used to spot vessel from a distance and once a suspected target is located the drone can be sent to view it in more detail.

These pieces of equipment are not new technology but an example of how we can better utilize what we have on hand to meet our situational needs.

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