Military And Intelligence News Briefs -- December 2, 2009

How To Get Troops To Afghanistan In A Hurry -- The Danger Room

President Barack Obama is set to announce a troop surge to Afghanistan tonight — and if the latest reports are correct, the president’s plan will call for a rapid, six-month buildup.

And that asks the question: How does the U.S. military expect to get an additional 34,000 or so additional troops to Afghanistan in such short order? This is not Iraq, where the United States had the benefit of a massive staging area just over the border in Kuwait. As Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. general in the region recently put it, the lack of infrastructure in Afghanistan presents “major challenges.”

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MILITARY AND INTELLIGENCE NEWS BRIEFS

US Army Meets with Industry to Conceive a Ground Combat Vehicle -- www.Army.mil

In U.S., a 'Global War on Contractors'? -- Defense News

US Army Wants 120mm GPS-Guided Mortars to Fight Afghan Insurgents -- Defense Industry Daily

Second Russian Stealth Frigate In Works -- Aviation Week

Air Force Association’s short memory on the F-35 story -- ELP Defens(c)e Blog

Back to the Battleship Pt 1 and Pt 2 -- New Wars

Hydrogen-Powered Fuel Cell Unmanned Air Vehicle Sets 26-Hour Flight Endurance Record -- Science Daily

Kandahar's Loch Ness mystery plane returns -- The DEW Line/Flight Global

USS Freedom readying for deployment -- WVEC (Hat Tip: Naval Open Source INTelligence)

Soldier Sex In Afghanistan -- Strategy Page

On The Ground Report From Afghanistan

Marine Squad Three Five walk through a soon-to-be poppy field during a daily patrol. (Chuck Liddy/Raleigh News & Observer/MCT)

In Taliban Stronghold, U.S. Medics Win Friends For Marines -- McClatchy News

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HASSANABAD, Afghanistan — In the middle of a foot patrol Saturday through what may be the most dangerous part of the most dangerous province in Afghanistan for U.S. troops, Staff Sgt. John Nickerson peered through the scope of his assault rifle at a group of Afghan men who were rolling a wheelbarrow toward him.

Suddenly, he had to switch gears to the gentler form of counterinsurgency.

"Hold," Nickerson said into his hand-held radio, lowering his gun. "We've got some men with a kid in a wheelbarrow trying to get our attention. Where's Doc at?"

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My Comment: Besides providing medical attention .... providing educational tools and building schools .... even crude ones .... have a huge impact on the local population. Every parent wants the best for their children .... even some who work with the Taliban.

The Captain's Journal Looks At British ROE During The Iraq War

British soldiers stand on guard before the handover ceremony in Iraq's southern province of Basra, Dec. 16, 2007. British troops transferred responsibility for security in Basra to Iraqi forces on Sunday. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

Rules of Engagement: Letting the Enemy Go Free -- Captain's Journal

More than two years ago I outlined the calamity that British rules of engagement had caused to their campaign in Basra. The security situation began very well at the initiation of Operation Iraqi Freedom, but devolved into one in which the British were completely ineffective at fighting the insurgency and had evacuated their outposts and retreated to their largest base.

Due to leaked MoD papers we now know certain details directly from the British on just how hamstrung their troop were due to the ROE.

Despite fighting “the most sustained conflict since the Korean War”, the rules left troops with one hand tied behind their backs, the secret documents said. Ministers refused to change the rules although they caused “significant” casualties.

British soldiers were banned from opening fire unless the Iraqis were actually pointing their weapons at them.

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My Comment: I have to stop reading articles like this one .... my blood pressure always goes into the danger zone.

Northrop Might Not Bid On Pentagon's Tanker Contract

From The Wall Street Journal:

Northrop Grumman Corp. has told the Defense Department that it may not bid on a $40 billion Air Force refueling tanker contract, raising the prospect of Boeing Co. becoming the sole bidder on the Pentagon's most politically charged weapons program.

Northrop President and Chief Operating Officer Wes Bush wrote in a Dec. 1 letter to the Pentagon's top weapons buyer that unless major changes were made to how the Air Force was going to select a winner, "Northrop Grumman cannot proceed to submit a bid" to the Defense Department.

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More News On Northrop Quitting The Bidding Process For A New Air Force Tanker

Northrop threatens to boycott US tanker contest -- Reuters
Northrop pulls out of tanker contest; Pentagon shrugs -- Forbes/Reuters
Northrop may to drop out of tanker competition -- AP
Northrop may withdraw tanker bid -- Politico
Northrop Rejects Tanker Bid Under Draft RFP -- Aviation Week

Marine One (An Interview On The F-35 )

Major J.T. Bachmann pulls off the gloves and grins after an engine run in the F-35A.
(Lockheed Martin)

From Air And Space Smithsonian:

Meet J.T. Bachmann, the first USMC pilot to fly the Joint Strike Fighter.

Marine Corps test pilot Major J.T. Bachmann recently became the first U.S. Marine, the second military test pilot, and the fifth person overall, to fly the new F-35 Lightning II, or Joint Strike Fighter. Although his flight, at Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth, Texas factory, was in the Air Force F-35A, Bachmann will begin flying the F-35B, the Marine Corps variant, with a short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) capability, this summer at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland. Since his 80-minute flight on March 19, Bachmann has flown the JSF one other time; he answered a few questions from Air & Space Associate Editor Mike Klesius about the experience.

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DARPA's Latest Challenge: Locate These 10 Balloons

From CNET:

A new DARPA contest is using balloons to test our social-networking skills.

After kicking off the Internet 40 years ago, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is again tapping into the Net for a new challenge. The DARPA Network Challenge will award $40,000 to the first person who can identify the latitudes and longitudes of 10 red weather balloons positioned at different parts of the sky across the continental United States.

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My Comment: $40,000 prize is at stake .... may be worth the time to try and find these balloons.

The World's Financial Crisis Is Not Going Away (Two Articles To Read)

A model of the artificial archipelago The World in Dubai Photo: EPA

Where Dubai Leads, Britain Could Soon Follow -- The Telegraph

The sovereign debt crisis shows that we cannot always rely on states to ride to the rescue, says Tracy Corrigan.

A hundred years ago, countries which seemed insufficiently motivated to pay their debts were frequently encouraged to do so by military force. In 1902, Britain, Germany, and Italy imposed a naval blockade on Venezuela. Soon afterwards, the South American state struck a deal with foreign bondholders

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The Olympic flame in Athens, 2004 – the costliest ever games.
Photograph: Petros Giannakouris/AP

The New Iceland? Greece Fights To Rein In Debt -- The Guardian

Fears of default grow as years of profligacy come home to roost.

The likelihood of Greece becoming the next Iceland and plunging into bankruptcy looms over a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels today as the Greeks prepare to take another pasting from their colleagues.

After years of profligacy, hosting the costliest Olympic games ever in 2004 and failing to rein in its spiralling public debt, the country was on the brink of defaulting on loans, according to some seasoned commentators.

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