Saturday - February 11, 2012

The End Of The Line

The ‘Pompeii’ of the Western Front: Archaeologists find the bodies of 21 tragic World War One German soldiers in perfectly preserved trenches where they were buried alive by an Allied shell

Engineers find trench network 18ft beneath the surface near town of Carspach while excavating for a new road

The men were part of a larger group of 34 who were buried alive when a huge Allied shell exploded above the tunnel in 1918, causing it to cave in.

Thirteen bodies were recovered from the underground shelter, but the remaining men had to be left under a mountain of mud as it was too dangerous to retrieve them. Nearly a century later, French archaeologists stumbled upon the mass grave on the former Western Front in eastern France during excavation work for a road building project. Many of the skeletal remains were found in the same positions the men had been in at the time of the collapse, prompting experts to liken the scene to Pompeii. A number of the soldiers were discovered sitting upright on a bench, one was lying in his bed and another was in the foetal position having been thrown down a flight of stairs.

As well as the bodies, poignant personal effects such as boots, helmets, weapons, wine bottles, spectacles, wallets, pipes, cigarette cases and pocket books were also found. Even the skeleton of a goat was found, assumed to be a source of fresh milk for the soldiers.

Archaeologists believe the items have been so well-preserved because hardly any air, water or lights had penetrated the trench. The 300ft-long tunnel was located 18ft beneath the surface near the small town of Carspach in the Alsace region of France.

Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t recall anything about WWI in the Alsace-Lorraine region. Almost nothing happened there. Although this is the area where the fighting started, several days before the war actually began, that horrible conflict quickly moved north and stayed there for the entire war. Very little is known about the southern end of the Western Front; Carspach is so far south that it’s off the bottom of most maps of the conflict. The town is about 10 miles south of the French highway A36 which runs between Belfort and Mulhouse, which are generally considered the southern outposts on either side of the Line, even though France held a small city located between them, called Dennemarie, as a military headquarters for most of the war. Carspach is south of there too, and only about 8 miles north of the border town of Pfetterhouse along the Swiss border. From what I can gather, the trenches down there were separated by the Largue River, and both France and Germany kept the sector quiet so that no shells would inadvertently fall into neutral Switzerland. So from August of 1914 until the last great offense and counter-offense in the Spring of 1918, this was the part of the Western Front that truly was All Quiet.

The dead soldiers were part of the 6th Company, 94th Reserve Infantry Regiment.

Their names are all known - they include Musketeer Martin Heidrich, 20, Private Harry Bierkamp, 22, and Lieutenant August Hutten, 37, whose names are inscribed on a memorial in the nearby German war cemetery of Illfurth.

The bodies have been handed over to the German War Graves Commission but unless relatives can be found and they request the remains to be repatriated, it is planned that the men will be buried at Illfurth.

The underground tunnel was big enough to shelter 500 men and had 16 exits. It would have been equipped with heating, telephone connections, electricity, beds and a pipe to pump out water.

The French attacked the shelter on March 18, 1918 with aerial mines that penetrated the ground and blasted in the side wall of the shelter in two points.

It is estimated that over 165,000 Commonwealth soldiers are still unaccounted for on the Western Front.

the real end of the line: French Poilu guard the border crossing at Pfeffenhaus with their Swiss counterparts, 1914
this is an actual color photograph; Lumière invented the autochrome process in 1907

Individual war casualties are still frequently found during construction work on the former Western front battlefields of France and Belgium, but the discovery of so many soldiers in one location is rare.

The tomb, poignant and grisly, sheds light on the lives of the soldiers who died in explosions from heavy shells that penetrated the tunnel.
...
The tunnel, six meters underground and 1.80 meters high, was built with German thoroughness, equipped with heating, telephone connections, electricity, beds and a pipe to pump out water. It had 16 exits and was big enough to hold up to 500 men in an emergency. The archaeologists have uncovered the sides, floors and stairways, all made from heavy timber. The intended permanence of the structure shows how static the fighting was for most of the war, in which both sides built vast trench systems that stretched 440 miles from the Swiss border to the North Sea.

Boots, helmets and weapons, a wine bottle and a mustard jar have been found along with personal items including dog tags, wallets, pipes, cigarette cases, spectacles and pocket books. A rosary was also found, with a French bullet threaded in among the prayer beads, evidently fashioned as a souvenir.

In Britain, the discovery of such a mass grave would be front-page news. Journalists would track down the descendants of the dead soldiers and tell the stories of the Tommies who made the ultimate sacrifice in the horrific conflict that shaped the 20th century.

That was what happened in 2009, when mass graves containing 250 Australian and British soldiers were unearthed near the village of Fromelles, close to the city of Lille. A program was launched to identify the remains through DNA matching, and 110 have been identified by name after over 2,000 relatives responded to calls for DNA samples.

In Germany, it’s a very different story. The find has only made the inside pages of a handful of newspapers. In the nation’s memory, the war is eclipsed by World War II, the Holocaust and the collective guilt that weighs on Germany to this day. Both conflicts have imbued Germany with a deep streak of pacifism.

“Britain, France and Belgium still refer to it as the Great War, but our memory of it is totally buried by World War II with the Holocaust, the expulsion from the east, the Allied bombardment,” Fritz Kirchmeier, spokesman for the German War Graves Commission, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “World War I plays only a minor role in the German national memory.”

The Commission is holding out little hope that it will be able to track down the families of the dead.

“The French attacked the shelter with aerial mines with delayed-action fuses that penetrated the ground and blasted in the side wall of the shelter in two points,” said Ehret.

The French bombardment lasted six hours and the special mines, fired up almost vertical in a high arc, proved too much for the supposedly bomb-proof Killian dugout. The French attack followed a three-hour German artillery barrage with shells containing mustard gas.

Loads more pictures, only one that shows any bones at these links:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2099187/Bodies-21-German-soldiers-buried-alive-WW1-trench-perfectly-preserved-94-years-later.html
http://www.thejournal.ie/preserved-remains-of-21-german-wwi-soldiers-found-in-france-352590-Feb2012/
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/discovered-by-chance-94-years-on-681078
http://battlefieldseurope.co.uk/swissfrontier.aspx
http://landships.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=63528&p=3&topicID=12239539
http://landships.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=63528&p=3&topicID=11841622
http://www.battlefield-tours.com/Western_Front_stagnation.jpg

A bit of trivia: The Alsace-Lorraine Sundgau region has belonged to both France and Germany several times, although it was an on again-off again Austrian principality until 1648. Then the Swedes killed everyone and France took it. The Germans took it as a war prize when they beat France in 1871. Half the towns have French names, half have German names, both keep alternate spellings around just in case, and the locals are probably bi-lingual and just want to be left alone. When WWI erupted, the French immediately took the region back, and held onto most of it for the entire war. Thus, while everyone thinks of WWI as the Germans occupying a good chunk of France, the France were holding a little piece of Germany the whole time. It was a big propaganda victory for France, as this is where Riesling wine comes from. New vineyards for free? Tres oui!! The Nazis took it all back in about 45 minutes a generation later, and gave the locals a pretty rough time. After WWII France took it all back and then some; now the border is along the Rhine River 25 miles or so to the east. And these days Hugel wine (yum!) is made in France, even though their buildings haven’t moved since 1639.

France on the left, Germany on the right, Switzerland on the bottom:
the approximate location of the very southern end of the Western Front in blue
Belfort is in the top left corner, DanneMarie along the top, Mulhouse up above the upper right corner
Pfettenhouse is the circled area in the middle; the Swiss border is in green.

Posted by Drew458     on 02/11/2012 at 03:38 PM   
Filed Under: • Military •  
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   Tuesday - February 07, 2012

A POLITICALLY CORRECT MILITARY ?

This article shows you what a politically correct culture will lead to.

Living here as I do, and with an army training base hidden behind many trees and high hedges and a chain link fence just at the end of our road, and often seeing young fellows (and some not so young) running up a steep hill in the summer in full uniform, sometimes with packs on their backs, and having read Brit history and still do, and having military news in our papers all the time, it might be fair to say that I am quite pro military and always have been impressed with their history.

What I see happening here as you will read below, is I am sure taking place in the USA as well.  Damn shame that. 
And no Thatcher or Churchill to save the day.  No Truman to authorize the use of the bomb.  No Teddy wielding a large stick or a Reagan to unite most of us.

Tell the truth.

Do any of you see things getting any better in your lifetime?

Hero Para faces £250,000 court martial for punching Taliban PoW as he fled

Legal experts believe there is no chance of conviction
Friends of unidentified soldier slam case as ‘absurd’
‘Waste of time’ says Tory MP Patrick Mercer

By IAN DRURY

A paratrooper with an unblemished service record is being hauled through the military courts for punching a Taliban member who was trying to escape.

Astonishingly, the case is going ahead even though the Afghan captive has refused to make a formal complaint, and there are no other witnesses to the incident.

The case is estimated to have cost the taxpayer £250,000 already and threatens to plunge the Forces into a new row over political correctness.

The soldier, known for legal reasons as Corporal C, hit the insurgent once in the face believing he was trying to flee during a firefight in the badlands of Helmand Province.

British military prosecutors admit that the captive, Ahmed Wali, has provided evidence that is ‘unreliable’.

But the Service Prosecuting Authority refuses to drop the case and has charged Cpl C – described as a man of ‘impeccable character’ – with assault. He is due to appear at a court martial later this month.

But his legal team has made an application to the High Court for judicial review of the decision to prosecute him in an attempt to have the case thrown out.

Last year three judges, who were asked to review the evidence at the Court Martial Appeal Court in London, expressed concern about the case and branded it ‘unfortunate’ saying it was a ‘large hammer [to deal] with a relatively minor matter’.

Legal experts believe there is no realistic chance of Cpl C, 31, from Glasgow being convicted because of holes in the SPA’s case.

The soldier risked his life serving with distinction in Iraq and Afghanistan with the elite Parachute Regiment.

His name is being kept secret because he served alongside special forces.

Cpl C, who quit the forces in disgust at his treatment, was a qualified tactical questioner with the Paras when the incident happened in March 2010.

He was commanding a joint British and Afghan patrol which set up a vehicle checkpoint in Nahr-e Saraj, a Taliban stronghold strewn with deadly roadside bombs.

The patrol stopped a motorbike carrying two Afghan men who were acting suspiciously.

As an Afghan National Army soldier approached the men, the rider pulled out a pistol and pointed it at him. The gun-wielding insurgent was shot dead, while his pillion passenger, Wali, was taken to a nearby compound.

Cpl C began to interrogate Wali – who denied he was a Taliban member – despite the ‘real threat by small arms and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to the patrol’.

MORE OF THE STORY AND SOME GOOD PHOTOS HERE

Posted by peiper     on 02/07/2012 at 07:43 AM   
Filed Under: • Military • Politically Correct B.S. • Terrorists • UK •  
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   Sunday - January 29, 2012

America, You Suck

Not even found on a network news page, but hidden down a side column on Drudge ...

St. Louis parade on Iraq War’s end draws thousands

ST. LOUIS (AP)—Looking around at the tens of thousands of people waving American flags and cheering, Army Maj. Rich Radford was moved that so many braved a cold January wind Saturday in St. Louis to honor people like him: Iraq War veterans.

The parade, borne out of a simple conversation between two St. Louis friends a month ago, was the nation’s first big welcome-home for veterans of the war since the last troops were withdrawn from Iraq in December.

“It’s not necessarily overdue, it’s just the right thing,” said Radford, a 23-year Army veteran who walked in the parade alongside his 8-year-old daughter, Aimee, and 12-year-old son, Warren.

Radford was among about 600 veterans, many dressed in camouflage, who walked along downtown streets lined with rows of people clapping and holding signs with messages including “Welcome Home” and “Thanks to our Service Men and Women.” Some of the war-tested troops wiped away tears as they acknowledged the support from a crowd that organizers estimated reached 100,000 people.

Fire trucks with aerial ladders hoisted huge American flags in three different places along the route, with politicians, marching bands - even the Budweiser Clydesdales - joining in. But the large crowd was clearly there to salute men and women in the military, and people cheered wildly as groups of veterans walked by.

That was the hope of organizers Craig Schneider and Tom Appelbaum. Neither man has served in the military but came up with the idea after noticing there had been little fanfare for returning Iraq War veterans aside from gatherings at airports and military bases. No ticker-tape parades or large public celebrations.

And this was the coverage photograph. FULL SIZE:

Even the headline was lame.
“One Hundred Thousand Cheer First Iraq Veteran’s Parade”
would have been a lot better.

Don Lange, 60, of nearby Sullivan, held his granddaughter along the parade route. His daughter was a military interrogator in Iraq.

“This is something everyplace should do,” Lange said as he watched the parade.

Several veterans of the Vietnam War turned out to show support for the younger troops. Among them was Don Jackson, 63, of Edwardsville, Ill., who said he was thrilled to see the parade honoring Iraq War veterans like his son, Kevin, who joined him at the parade. The 33-year-old Air Force staff sergeant said he’d lost track of how many times he had been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan as a flying mechanic.

“I hope this snowballs,” he said of the parade. “I hope it goes all across the country. I only wish my friends who I served with were here to see this.”

Looking at all the people around him in camouflage, 29-year-old veteran Matt Wood said he felt honored. He served a year in Iraq with the Illinois National Guard.

“It’s extremely humbling, it’s amazing, to be part of something like this with all of these people who served their country with such honor,” he said.

Let’s just hope this is merely the first of many to come. But honestly? Don’t expect a ticker tape march down Broadway, or in any of the big cities. When these parades happen, they’ll be small town, small city events. The rabid leftists in the major metropolises were at best bored by the whole war, more probably quietly against it, with some extreme elements violently against it ...

... meanwhile, douchenozzle mayor Bloomberg takes a tip from his master Obama and blames someone else for opting out:

Mayor Bloomberg: No NYC parade for Iraq War vets

NEW YORK (AP)—New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says there will be no city parade for Iraq War veterans in the foreseeable future because of objections voiced by military officials.

...

Bloomberg says Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin Dempsey and other Army officials “made it clear” to the city “they do not think a parade is appropriate now.”

A Pentagon spokesman in December said the nation’s largest city had yet to make a formal proposal for a parade. He said officials were grateful communities were finding ways to recognize the sacrifices of troops and their families.

Lying out his tyrannical little ass as usual.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/29/2012 at 06:46 PM   
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   Wednesday - January 25, 2012

Must Be An Election Year

U.S. military forces helicoptered into Somalia in a nighttime raid Wednesday and freed two hostages, an American and a Dane, while killing nine pirates., U.S. officials confirm.

The Danish Refugee Council also confirmed the two aid workers, American Jessica Buchanan and Dane Poul Hagan Thisted, were freed “during an operation in Somalia.”

Buchanan, 32, and Thisted, 60, had been working with a de-mining unit of the Danish Refugee Council when they were kidnapped in October.

President Obama confirmed the operation and rescue early Wednesday in a statement. He said the operation serves as yet another message to the world that the U.S. “will stand strongly against any threats to our people.”

The two aid workers appear to have been kidnapped by criminals, sometimes referred to as pirates, and not by Somalia’s Al Qaeda-linked militant group al-Shabab. As large ships at sea have increased their defenses against pirate attacks, gangs have looked for other money making opportunities like land-based kidnappings.

A pirate who gave his name as Bile Hussein said he had spoken to pirates at the scene of the raid and they reported that nine pirates had been killed. A second pirate who gave his name as Ahmed Hashi said two helicopters attacked at about 2 a.m. at the site where the hostages were being held about 12 miles north of the Somali town of Adado.

Both Buchanan and Thisted were in Somalia as part of an international effort to remove land mines from former conflict zones; they were there risking their own lives for the benefit of the local population, and the pirates/gansters kidnapped them anyway. Low hanging fruit I guess.

Please, let’s make sure that Joe Biden doesn’t find out the names and units of the soldiers involved this time, and nobody let them all get on a helicopter together with an unidentified local. That kind of sell-out is just a little too blatant to have to swallow twice.

UPDATE: More details and pictures at the UK Daily Mail (warning: contains one explicit photo of Mooch. But to be fair and balanced, not only does she look slim in it, she looks pretty darn good. And less than angry. Amazing.) All the pictures are stock other than the 2 of the captives, but this article says that 5 pirates were also captured.

from CNN:

The special forces troops took fire as they fought their way into a compound where the hostages were held, the official said, adding the troops believed that the kidnappers were shooting. The official is not authorized to speak to the media and asked not to be named.

Nine heavily armed gunmen were killed in the strike, Little said, adding that they had explosives nearby. There were no known survivors among the kidnappers, he added.

The American assault team did not suffer any injuries, the Pentagon said.
...
The U.S. raid comes nearly three years after Navy snipers killed three pirates who had taken hostage the captain of the Maersk Alabama off Somalia.

U.S. forces did not coordinate the raid with local officials, but residents welcomed the outcome as a warning to other groups to cease the kidnapping of foreigners, said Abdirahman Mohamud Farole, president of Puntland, a semiautonomous region of Somalia.

Thisted, the rescued Dane, is a senior aid worker who had been in Somalia for some time, said Olsen of the Danish Refugee Council.

Dahl said Olsen told reporters she had tried to work with local people to get the hostages released but had not succeeded.
...
Local authorities gave conflicting casualty figures after the raid. Some officials said seven gunmen were killed, but Mohamed Ahmed Aalin, president of Galmudug state, said nine were killed and five others detained by U.S. forces.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/25/2012 at 08:35 AM   
Filed Under: • Military • Pirates, aarrgh! •  
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   Friday - January 06, 2012

Stick that in your hookah and smoke it

U.S. sailors from a carrier strike group whose recent presence in the Persian Gulf drew the ire of Iranian military officials have rescued 13 of the Middle Eastern country’s sailors from a hijacked fishing boat, a military spokesman said Friday.

The destroyer USS Kidd came to the aid of the ship Thursday in the North Arabian sea, near the crucial Strait of Hormuz, according to the Navy.

“Their presence does nothing but create mayhem, and we never wanted them to be present in the Persian Gulf,” [Iranian Admiral] Vahidi said [last week].

According to the Navy, a helicopter from the Kidd spotted a suspect pirate boat alongside the Iranian vessel. At the same time, the Kidd received a distress call from the captain of ship, the Al Molai, saying he and his crew were being held captive by pirates.

A team from the Kidd boarded the Al Molai, took 15 suspected pirates into custody and freed 13 Iranian hostages, the Navy said.

The suspected pirates, mostly Somalis, were taken to the Stennis to be held until a decision is made about prosecution, Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby said Friday.

Pirates hijacked the Al Molai 40 to 45 days ago, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said in a statement.

A month and a half? And they’ve been right there, right off the friggin’ coast of Iran, in a sea barely 80 miles wide ever since??

The crew was “held hostage, with limited rations and we believe were forced against their will to assist the pirates with other piracy operations,” according to the statement.

The Navy reports that the Iranian boat had been pirated and used as a “mother ship” for pirate operations throughout the Persian Gulf, according to members of the Iranian vessel’s crew.

Oh sure. I think I smell something ... kinda stinks like 6 week old fish, you know? Makes me doubt the fisherman’s story a wee bit.

The Navy team provided food, water and medical care to both the suspected pirates and the crew of the Al Molai after securing the ship and ensuring everyone was safe, Schminky said.

The crew had “been though a lot,” he said.  “We went out of our way to treat the fishing crew with kindness and respect,” he said.

Oh snap.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/06/2012 at 04:35 PM   
Filed Under: • Iran • Military • Pirates, aarrgh! •  
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   Saturday - December 31, 2011

Only In Russia

Only in Russia would the outside of a submarine catch on fire. At least this one was docked. And being worked on via wooden scaffolding. No word on whether toxic fumes are being drawn inside the boat through it’s screen doors.

A number of crew members of a Russian nuclear submarine that continued to burn overnight at a drydock are reportedly trapped inside the smouldering vessel.

The Yekaterinburg, one of Russia’s largest nuclear subs, was undergoing repairs in the northern Murmansk region when the blaze broke out late on Thursday.

It quickly spread from the shipyard’s wooden scaffold to the 11,740-tonne vessel’s outer hull, with footage of the incident showing the submarine engulfed in flames.

On Friday morning, fire crews were still struggling to put out the blaze at the Arctic drydock, which is located close to the border with Norway.

It would take “a few more hours” to fully extinguish the smouldering outer rubber shell, which minimises radar tracing, according to emergency situations minister Sergei Shoigu.

The Delta IV class submarine, which was commissioned by the former Soviet Union in 1985, can carry up to 16 intercontinental ballistic missiles and is one of six in a class which form the backbone of its sea-based nuclear defences.

The Interfax news agency reported that the damage from the fire could be so extensive that the submarine would need to be scrapped.

However, deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is in charge of the nation’s military industries, said the vessel would rejoin the navy after repairs.

UPDATE: they got the fire out finally ... by dragging the sub out of the dry dock and putting it under the water. Genius solution!

MOSCOW — Firefighters extinguished a massive fire aboard a docked Russian nuclear submarine Friday as some crew members remained inside, officials said, giving assurances that there was no radiation leak and the vessel’s nuclear-tipped missiles were not on board.

Military prosecutors have launched an investigation into whether safety regulations were breached. President Dmitry Medvedev summoned top Cabinet officials to report on the situation and demanded punishment for anyone found responsible.

Daily Mail has a real good cover of the story here, with plenty of pics and sidebar info.

Posted by Drew458     on 12/31/2011 at 05:40 PM   
Filed Under: • Commies • Military •  
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   Friday - December 16, 2011

Have Some Leftovers

But that isn’t exactly the case here. As the last of our troops board the big planes to exit sandland, what they’re leaving behind is much more than just refuse ...

Troops are leaving a bounty of leftovers as they exit the country this month, abandoning dining-hall tables and chairs, tents, air conditioners and old vehicles.  Unlike a traditional American yard sale, the military bric-a-brac is free.
...
The State Department, which inherits the lead U.S. role in Iraq on Jan. 1, also is accepting hand-me-downs, such as armored vehicles and surveillance electronics to protect its turf.

“We’ve gone through a very extensive review process to determine what we need to take back to the United States, what gets reconditioned, what we can afford to transfer to the State Department, or to state and local governments back in the United States, or to the Iraqi government,” said ArmyMaj. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq.

“It’s really the leftover things we’ve transferred to the Iraq government.”

The command estimates that it has bequeathed to the Iraqi government more than 4 million pieces of this and that, valued at $580 million. However, the military is saving more than $1 billion in shipping costs.

It’s not all free. Iraq is going to pay for the 140 M-1 tanks we’re leaving, but we’re keeping some of the spy gear and 60 of the MRAPs (armored vehicles) are going to the State Department.

Still, it must seem like a yard sale over there. I’d say Christmas in December, but not only would that be redundant, it might offend their prickly little muslim feewings.

Let’s not forget all the schools, hospitals, roads, and other infrastructure staying there too, that our troops built when they weren’t being shot at.

Posted by Drew458     on 12/16/2011 at 02:37 PM   
Filed Under: • Iraq • Military •  
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   Thursday - December 15, 2011

Blurring The Line

As the military scrambles to deal with a U.S. spy drone lost in Iran, it was revealed that the U.S. Air Force has bought a cutting edge, jet-powered stealth drone—and plans its immediate deployment in Afghanistan.

But the brand new drone—an armed model from General Atomics designed for strike as well as reconnaissance—was ordered months ago, well before the crash of the stealthy Lockheed-made RQ-170 Sentinel that remains in Iran, the USAF said in a statement to aviation website FlightGlobal.

“This aircraft will be used as a test asset and will provide a significantly increased weapons and sensors payload capacity on an aircraft that will be able to fly to targets much more rapidly than the MQ-9 [Reaper] UAS,” the USAF said.

Developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the Avenger—also known as the Predator C—is the upgraded successor to the Predator and Reaper drones with significantly greater firepower, speed and sensor capabilities.

It also has an internal weapons bay and is capable of carrying 2,000-pound missiles.

December 15, 2011: The U.S. Air Force recently announced that they were sending an Avenger UAV to Afghanistan. This jet powered aircraft was initially known as “Predator C” and took its first flight in early 2009. The air force has been working on buying an Avenger and getting it to Afghanistan for the last five months.

Development of the Avenger began nearly a decade ago. The first flight was supposed to have been four years ago, but there were technical problems that kept coming up. Apparently it was worth the wait, as the U.S. Navy was impressed and particularly interested in using Avenger to replace the soon-to-be-retired EA-6Bs in their most dangerous attack missions. The air force likes the ability to arm Avenger with a smart bomb, including the 900 kg (2,000 pound) GBU-34 penetrator version.

Avenger is 13.2 meters (41 feet) long, with a 20.1 meter (66 foot) wingspan and built to be stealthy. The V shaped tail and smooth lines of the swept wing aircraft will make it difficult to detect by radar. There is a humpbacked structure on top of the aircraft, for the engine air intake. There is an internal bomb bay to hold about a ton of weapons, or additional fuel to provide another two hours of flying time (in addition to the standard 20 hours endurance). Avenger appears to be a larger, jet powered version of the five ton Reaper (Predator B). The 4,800 pound thrust engine is designed to minimize the heat signature that sensors can pick up. Total payload is 1.36 tons (3,000 pounds) and total weight of the aircraft is nine tons. Cruising speed is 740 kilometers an hour [460mph]. Each Avenger costs about $15 million.

These drones keep right on growing in size, power, speed, capability, and cost. This latest one - latest that we’re being told about, at any rate - is the size of a jet fighter, flies faster than any WWII era fighter plane, and has a a considerable ordnance load. 3,000 pounds is a whole lot of Hellfire missiles - more than 2 dozen, including mounting racks and wiring. Plus it can stay up in the sky all day and all night.

Think this is big? There is another one waiting in the wings that’s several times larger. The Global Hawk looks very much like an Avenger C, but it has the wingspan of a 737-900. A “spy drone” the size of an airliner! That one can fly at 500mph at twice the altitude of a commercial jet, and go from coast to coast more than 5 times on one tank of fuel.  This is not a paper daydream; the Global Hawk exists and is already flying. The thing has already flown non-stop from California to Australia; it can stay up for more than 30 hours at a time. God only knows what kind of bomb load that one could carry. Cost? 10 times more than you’ll ever earn in your entire lifetime, but what’s money to the military? The sky’s the limit, and these drones can fly really, really up there. $40 million each, plus as much in avionics gear as you can dream of; easily another $40 million per drone.

I’m starting to wonder if we even need an Air Force any longer. Or pilots. Maybe all the Blue Shirts will be replaced by legions of video game junkies sitting in darkened rooms somewhere, plugged in to their consoles and joysticks. They’ll get all the big jobs, the spooky stuff and the alpha strikes, and actual human pilots will be relegated to flying cheap little propjet planes for mop-up missions. Is this a good thing or not? I’m not really sure. Is “no risk warfare” the drone wave of the future? We’re not the only country doing drones. Everybody is, even Turkey. We will start seeing anti-drone drones soon? Mega-drones and micro-drones? Is this a whole new way for the militarys of the world to waste money, another “dreadnought race” up high in the sky?

The Avenger, unlike the larger Global Hawk, can operate from carriers. The Avenger uses landing gear from the F-5, [Vietnam era fighter plane] an aircraft of the same weight class. The naval version is now called the Sea Avenger.

The Avenger is expected to deliver about 85 percent of the performance of the Global Hawk, at less than half the price. To compete with this, there is a “Global Hawk Lite” in development. The Avenger is designed to fly high (up to 20,000 meters/60,000 feet) and cross oceans. Until 2009, the Avenger didn’t, officially, exist, and was a “black” (secret) program.

How soon before the local police have them? That’s the new, post-911 rather militarized police, mind you. Your neighborhood cops with their assault weapons, body armor, and armored vehicles. The guys portrayed on all the TV cop dramas as having instant access to all your personal data and to every security camera in the country, of which there has been an infinite proliferation thereof. The Border Patrol is using drones already, and they are probably armed ones. The answer to that How soon question is quite frightening, because the answer is “it’s already happening”, for crimes as major as 6 stolen cows. There’s a humorous YouTube video out there somewhere, showing a road with a No Speeding sign ... some car zooms by and drone pops up and blasts him. Aside from the use of excessive force, that isn’t really all that far fetched at this point.

No risk warfare is a kind of ultimate power, and we all know what happens when you give someone ultimate power. Especially if they were already pretty damn corrupt to begin with, or at least traveled in a world where such levels of corruption were very commonplace.

Have we gone too far?

Posted by Drew458     on 12/15/2011 at 12:12 PM   
Filed Under: • Military •  
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   Tuesday - December 13, 2011

The Greening Of The Fleet

Or should I have called this post “The Fleecing of the Green”?

A California company has been hired to provide 450,000 gallons of advanced biofuels to the U.S. Navy – the “single largest purchase of biofuel in government history,” according to the Navy – at $15 per gallon, or about four times the market price of conventional jet fuel.

And gosh, you’d better sit down for this one: Solazyme, the company that got the contract, not only is the recipient of $21.8 million in Obama’s Green Stimulus deal, on the company’s board sits T.J Galuthier, Clinton’s Deputy Secretary and Chief Operations Officer of the Department of Energy from 1999 to 2001, who also served on President Obama’s White House Transition Team, where he worked on the energy provisions of the stimulus package. A triple coincidence, imagine that. The guy who wrote the green stimulus is now in charge of a company that got a big fat green stimulus handout.

[Secretary of the Navy] Mabus notes that this 450,000-gallon buy — while comparatively large for military biofuels — is still tiny compared to the amount of fuel the Navy and the commercial airline industries consume. He’s promised that as the Navy buys more fuel, economies of scale will kick in, and prices will drop. But an MIT study of alternative jet fuels, conducted in association with the Navy, found that even under optimal conditions — with dozens of refineries up and running — the price of bio jet fuel would still be twice as high as the cost of the traditionally made stuff.

Read all about it here. And here. And here.

It ain’t easy goin’ green. Especially when we have enough regular oil right here in our own country, to run the military for the next couple of centuries. And I do hope that this algae derived fuel they’re buying works a whole lot better than the recycled french fry oil bio-fuel that’s out there. That stuff tends to clog the heck of diesel injectors on tractors and bulldozers and stuff whenever it gets cold. Oops.

I gather the whole carrier group is going to use this fuel on a test trip across the Pacific. I wonder how big the Navy’s fleet of tow trucks tow ships is?

Posted by Drew458     on 12/13/2011 at 02:24 PM   
Filed Under: • Military • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •  
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   Monday - December 12, 2011

In the Navy

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus: another far left Obama shill.

He’s off the deep end of the dry dock with his ideas for naming ships. Bad enough that we got the John P. Murtha; now we’ve got the Cesar Chavez too.  What’s next,

The responsibility for naming U.S. warships has traditionally been left to the secretary of the Navy. That needs to change. President Obama’s Navy secretary, Ray Mabus, has politicized the christening process to the point where some form of oversight is needed.
...
announcement last spring that the newest supply ship in the Navy’s inventory would be named after labor leader Cesar Chavez.
...
On Mr. Mabus‘ watch, the namings have taken a decidedly political turn. In 2009, the Navy announced the naming of the USNS Medgar Evars after the civil-rights leader. Sen. Barbara Boxer, California Democrat, defended the practice as part of the Navy’s “rich tradition,” but naming ships after political activists began with the Obama administration.

Mr. Mabus was also wrong to name the amphibious ship LPD-26 after the late Rep. John P. Murtha, breaking with the tradition of naming San Antonio class ships after U.S. cities.
...
America and our sea services deserve better.

You’re barking up the wrong tree there Admiral. Labor leaders, turncoat soldiers, pinkos, and revolutionaries ARE the heroes that the left looks up to. They will not see your complaint as any sort of problem at all.  I’m expecting a USS Senator Kerry and a USS Occupy Wall Street to soon come down the ways myself.

Posted by Drew458     on 12/12/2011 at 01:25 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Military •  
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   Thursday - December 08, 2011

Old News Is New News, Again

Gee, didn’t the New Digital Media figure this out in excruciating detail more than a year and a half ago?

Yeah, and water can’t cure dehydration. Numbnuts.

Sen. Susan Collins on Wednesday blasted the Defense Department for classifying the Fort Hood massacre as workplace violence and suggested political correctness is being placed above the security of the nation’s Armed Forces at home.

During a joint session of the Senate and House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday, the Maine Republican referenced a letter from the Defense Department depicting the Fort Hood shootings as workplace violence. She criticized the Obama administration for failing to identify the threat as radical Islam.

Thirteen people were killed and dozens more wounded at Fort Hood in 2009, and the number of alleged plots targeting the military has grown significantly since then. Lawmakers said there have been 33 plots against the U.S. military since Sept. 11, 2001, and 70 percent of those threats have been since mid-2009.  Major Nidal Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, who is being held for the attacks, allegedly was inspired by radical U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in late September. The two men exchanged as many as 20 emails, according to U.S. officials, and Awlaki declared Hasan a hero.

Pretty damn pathetic if you ask me. I think that “workplace violence” label falls under the “nice try asswipe” and “you can fool some of the people NONE of the time” categories. It wasn’t “human-caused disaster” either, or whatever the proper pansy-ass euphemism is. It was straight up terrorism executed by a jihadist who used the ninny-britches military’s kowtowing to political correctness to his advantage to work his evil. Take the bastard out and shoot him. And don’t call it anything else. Period. Next?

Posted by Drew458     on 12/08/2011 at 09:11 AM   
Filed Under: • Government • Military • Politically Correct B.S. • RoPMA •  
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can it get any sillier? US Marines told not to piss in the direction of mecca. AAAaagggghhhhhh

People, honest.  I’m not certain if I wanna laugh or cry. Maybe both?  Or laugh till tears fall.

Now I should be honest about this and admit I haven’t checked it out fully.  OK, really not at all. But since she’s quoting a Marine media source ,, ?

Look, the world is so damn crazy now, even crazier then past generations thought about themselves. It’s so nuts that now I tend toward believing the unbelievable
cos the unbelievable is now the believable. 
Don’t believe that?  Fine.  Then read this.

Latrine directive another step on path to Islamification

By DIANA WEST
The Register-Mail

HAVING WRITTEN COUNTLESS COLUMNS AND BLOG POSTS arguing that the see-no-Islam counterinsurgency strategy (COIN) has led to failure in two wars in the umma (Muslim world) and the dhimmification of the U.S. military, it’s almost funny to see the debate more or less officially joined over my recent column on what appears to be simply the gross-out, PG-13 movie topic of peeing toward Mecca. Or, rather, not peeing toward Mecca.

The latter is the lesson that an Afghan Muslim contractor has been teaching Marines before they deploy to Afghanistan, in accordance with an Islamic canonical hadith called “The Prohibition of Facing the Qiblah When Relieving Oneself.” But maybe the debate had to take this excretory turn with the Pentagon awash in the phony fundamentals of Greg Mortenson’s discredited “Three Cups of Tea.”

Scatological or not, what we are talking about here is an untenable invasion of privacy of American citizens in uniform via religious dictate as taught by the U.S. Marine Corps.

The Nov. 28 print edition of Marine Corps Times carries both an article and a lead editorial on what the paper is politely calling “excretory etiquette” regarding Marines and Mecca—which, incidentally, is about 2,000 miles from Afghanistan. But this isn’t just about etiquette. Given its Islamic religious derivation, the Marines’ excretory instruction strikes me as a violation of religious freedom. Who is the U.S. Marine Corps to instruct American citizens to bring their personal hygiene practices into accord with Islamic law? The Corps in this case is acting as a vehicle of Islamic law, which comprehensively rules on all manner of personal habits, as well as on civil and legal affairs.

Needless to say, the Marine Corps doesn’t see it that way. Its spokesmen have contended narrowly that this lesson taught by a contractor (hired by the Corps) isn’t “formal Marine Corps doctrine,” as the Marine Corps Times editorial puts it. Formal or not, the editors also don’t think this Marine Shariah (Islamic law) is a bad idea. Headlined “Respect differences,” the editorial states: “Thing is, there’s value to this sort of insight.” Perhaps in the name of respecting “differences”?

Heavens, no. This is all about respecting Islam, not “differences.” After all, if it were about “differences,” the respect in question would extend to the non-Islamic belief that not all bodily functions taking place on planet Earth must key off the location of a town in Saudi Arabia. To each his own.

That’s not the editorial’s subject. The value, it says, comes “in light of the tense conditions under which both groups must coexist.”

Tense conditions—as in border firefights? Roadside bombs? No, again. The editorial refers to tensions between Muslims and infidels (BEGIN ITALS)inside the wire(END ITALS). “Consider that in the last four years,” the editorial continues, “nearly 60 coalition troops have been killed by their Afghan counterparts.”

So “respecting differences” here means pee straight or die. That’s the lesson the military wants to teach young Americans heading into the war zone—again, inside the wire. The only way it knows to increase their safety while on their own bases or when “partnering” with Afghans is to school them in the practice of Islamic law. In effect, then, collaboration with the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan requires the United States of America to Islamify its infidel forces, just a little, just to keep those religious crazies in the Afghan ranks from popping off.

More guidelines for U.S. forces: “If you must pass a man praying, pass at a respectful distance. Do not walk between a man praying and Mecca—always walk behind him. ... Do not touch Qurans or prayer rugs.” To be fair to the Marines, those rules come from the Center for Army Lessons Learned. But it’s all of a Pentagon piece. And guess where such “safety” education—the dhimmi rules of Shariah—will be taught next?

I bet it would surprise the brass at the Pentagon to learn that Islam means “submission,” and that the age-old choice Islam has offered infidels is to submit or die. Still, they seem to have learned, as the editorial puts it, that “certain behavior that wouldn’t get a second look stateside could lead to problems at a patrol base in Helmand province.”

“Problems.” What a way to invoke shootings of our people by Afghan forces—the spurting, flaring jihad none dares name. “Counseling Marines to aim east ultimately may head off trouble,” the editorial concludes. Submission always does.

galesburg.com

Posted by peiper     on 12/08/2011 at 07:17 AM   
Filed Under: • Military • muslims • USA •  
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   Saturday - November 26, 2011

is the russian army kissing off the new kalashnikov?

Well finally, I’m able to get to what I originally started on.
New on the ‘new’ Kalashnikov.

I am not even close in any way to the knowledgeable folks at bmews, starting with Drew, on things that go bang. I appreciate them, I’m pro gun, but haven’t the technical savvy to carry on a discussion or offer advice.  However, once in awhile I find something gun related I stumble across, and think others will be as interested as I am. With that understanding I offer the following.

Kalashnikov manufacturer targets Russian army with new rifle

By Shaun Walker

The latest model of the legendary Kalashnikov rifle is due to be unveiled in December, with leaked reports in the Russian press suggesting that its key feature will be that all major functions can be performed with one arm.

Other details about the rifle are sketchy. The owners of the factory in the Urals that produces the guns hope the new model will meet approval from the Russian army, which earlier this year said it would stop buying the rifles. But there are already mutterings that the military is not impressed.

The first weapon in the series was designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov, a Red Army tank commander during the Second World War, and entered mass production in 1949. Mr Kalashnikov is still alive and lives in the city of Izhevsk, where the rifles are still be produced.

A newer version, the AK-74, was introduced in the 1970s, followed by a number of updated versions. More rifles based on Mr Kalashnikov’s design have been produced than any other gun in military history and it has been copied by factories around the world.

Earlier this year, the Russian army said it would no longer order Kalashnikov rifles until the plant developed a new model. Nikolai Makarov, Chief of the General Staff, said the army already had too many of the guns stockpiled complained that the technology was out of date.

At the time, members of the designer’s family said they were not telling Mr Kalashnikov about the decision for fear of upsetting him. “It might kill him,” said one.

There may not be better news to give the weapon’s inventor. A source in the Russian General Staff told the newspaper Izvestia the new version is unlikely to impress the military. “From the models we’ve seen, there is nothing principally new there,” he said. He added that the rifle would have the same kickback, which meant it moved from side to side after the first shot, reducing accuracy.

Immediately after the announcement in September, the manufacturer Izhmash announced it was designing a brand-new, “fifth-generation” Kalashnikov, which it hoped to have ready by the end of the year. The rifle will be given to the Russian army for testing in the coming weeks. Izvestia said the new gun will have a unique feature allowing the user to flick the safety catch, pull the trigger, and even change the magazine using one arm, meaning fighters can continue to shoot even if injured.

What the weapon will look like and whether it will feature other upgrades from the AK-74 remains uncertain.
But the newspaper said the weapon would be “recognisable”.

SOURCE

You would think I found this article in one of our two somewhat conservative papers today. But no.  I found it in, of all the unlikely places, in a lefty (by and large) liberal (not so by and large) newspaper. 

Hey .... at least I’m not reading the Guardian.

Posted by peiper     on 11/26/2011 at 12:22 PM   
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control • Military •  
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   Sunday - October 30, 2011

Now, way over here in this corner, we have …

The first Navy airship commissioned in 50 years had its public presentation Wednesday inside Hangar 1 in Lakehurst, the scene of so much history in lighter-than-air flight — and a center for its potential renaissance.

The MZ-3A is the Navy’s scientific test platform for surveillance cameras, radars and other sensors, and won’t be deployed outside the United States. But it’s very significant as a return to an older technology, and there have been two years of testing “to prove LTA (lighter-than-air) has a place in our military construct,” said Cmdr. Jay Steingold, the commanding officer of Scientific Development Squadron One.

The airship is a modified A-170 built by the American Blimp Corp., capable of flying at up to 10,000 feet and cruising at around 50 mph. The Navy began the project in 2006 “to use it as a flying laboratory. The airship is a good platform because it’s very stable, and easy to take things on and off,” Huett said. “A lot of times you want to go slow.”
...
“Airships bring affordability to the game. You can operate an airship for 40 percent of the cost of fixed-wing or helicopters,” said Huett

After 47 years, the U.S. Navy effectively terminated Lighter-Than-Air (LTA) operations, August 31, 1962, with the final flight of a ZPG-2 airship at Naval Air Station Lakehurst. Emblazoned with red, white and blue stripes on her rudders acknowledging the Navy’s Centennial of Flight and earliest days of Navy airship operations, the MZ-3A boasts a proud heritage and now serves as the only manned airship in the United States Navy’s inventory.

Built by American Blimp Corporation, the MZ-3A is propeller-driven by two 180 horsepower Lycoming engines producing a top speed just under 50 knots with an operational payload capability of up to 2,500 pounds.

The manned 178-foot LTA craft can remain aloft and nearly stationary for more than twelve hours, performing various missions in support of technology development for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) concepts.

“Airships offer extreme utility in C4ISR roles and patrol missions where persistent stare and reliable communications are often more important than speed,” said Bert Race, MZ-3A Government Flight Representative and Project Manager. “Our MZ-3A has proven that an airship is a very effective platform for mission system research and development.”

The MZ-3A is government-owned and contractor-operated. The contractor, Integrated Systems Solutions, Inc., employs highly qualified commercial blimp pilots whom the Navy has approved to command the airship.

Scientific Development Squadron ONE (VXS-1), stationed at the Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Md., is the U.S. Navy’s sole Science & Technology research squadron. Commissioned, December 2004, VXS-1 employs NP-3D Orions, RC-12 Guardrails, Scan Eagle UAS, and most recently, the MZ-3A in its support of NRL-priority airborne research efforts. Since its transfer to VXS-1 in 2009, the MZ-3A has accumulated more than 1,000 mishap-free flight hours in support of the Naval Research Enterprise and recently provided assistance during the tragic Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill in 2010.

The A-170 is the largest blimp model built by ABC. The next generation of Goodyear blimps will be rigid internal framed airships; “real" Zeppelins, built in cooperation with the Zeppelin company. Their first one, an NT model, is due in 2013, and will be half again as long as this Navy blimp, with double the gas volume. Even so, the Navy’s MZ-3A and all the airships Goodyear owns, including the 3 new ones they’re building, could fit with ease inside Hanger One, a building so large that it is said to have it’s own weather inside.

Posted by Drew458     on 10/30/2011 at 12:29 PM   
Filed Under: • Military • planes, trains, tanks, ships, big machinery, and automobiles •  
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