Posts tagged ‘UAV’
COUNTER TERRORISM: Obama’s Plan, London Attack, Marathon Bombing-Related Shooting
A reset for America’s counter terrorism strategy was announced by President Obama Thursday (May 23) … authorities in London are collecting evidence a day after the brutal slaying of an off-duty British soldier by two men allegedly protesting the treatment of Muslims … meanwhile a man in Florida said to have links to one of the Boston Marathon bombers is slain after an altercation with the FBI.
(White House photo by Pete Souza)
Recalibrating War on Terror
President Obama today (May 23) outlined his revised plan for countering terrorism and ending the global war on terror.
Speaking at the National Defense University in Virginia, Obama pledged to continue “our systematic effort to dismantle terrorist organizations” but, he added, “this war, like all wars, must end. That’s what history advises. That’s what our democracy demands.”
The president layed out a series of policy changes and clarifications as well as calling for Congress to allow the closing of detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba where 166 alleged terrorists – many now conducting a hunger strike – have been held for years without trial.
Obama also said he was setting new guidelines for when U.S. citizens and foreign nationals can be targeted for death by missile-armed unmanned aircraft, the so-called drones. He defended the use of drone attacks in the past but said the threat has changed in Afghanistan and elsewhere and only when targets pose a “continuing, imminent threat” to the United States and only when avoiding civilian casualties is a “near-certainty,” the Washington Post reported.
His remarks came a day after the White House revealed that four U.S. Citizens have been killed in drone strikes since 2009. For an outline of the plan, click here.
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Horror in London
An off-duty British soldier was run over by a car and then hacked to death May 22 by two men believed to have ties to radical Islamist groups. Both of the alledged attackers were shot and wounded by London police responding to 9-1-1 calls. One of the suspects men held up a bloody knife and meat cleaver in hands red with blood as he ranted to passersby about his reasons for the attack.
The soldier was identified as Lee Rigby, 25, a drummer with the 2nd Battalion, of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, according to CBS. Rigby, who served in Afghanistan, leaves a wife and two-year-old son. He was not in uniform at the time of the attack which took place near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, a section of Southeast London.
The man waving the bloody blades and justifying his attack to passersby who filmed him with their cell phones, was identified as 28-year-old Michael Adebolajo, a British-born convert to Islam of Nigerian descent. The second suspect, also hospitalized with gunshot wounds, was not identified.
Authorities in Britain took two other people into custody on conspiracy charges today (May 23) and government investigators were looking into whether the alleged attackers were “lone wolves” or part of a larger terrorist organization.
Rigby is the first person to have died on British soil in an apparent attack by Muslim extremists since the 2005 suicide bombings on London’s transit system, in which 52 people were killed, the Los Angeles Times reported. An additional 1,200 police officers were out patrolling London May 23.
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Marathon Bombing Mystery
There’s been a new wrinkle in the investigation of last month’s bombing of the Boston Marathon.
A man identified as a friend of one of the two alleged bombers was shot to death in Orlando, Florida May 22 after allegedly attacking an FBI agent who has questioning him, the Associated Press reported.
Ibragim Todashev, a friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was himself slain in a gunbattle with police just days after the bombing, was shot after attacking the FBI agent who did not suffer life-threatening injuries. Todashev, a mixed martial arts fighter from Russia, had lived in the Boston area before moving to Orlando, Fla., over the past couple of years.
Tsarnaev’s younger brother, Dzhokhar, was captured and charged in the bombing.
The FBI gave no details on why it was interested in Todashev except to say that he was being questioned as part of the Boston investigation. But some of Todashev’s former roommates said that he knew Tsarnaev from athletic circles in Boston and that the two Russian immigrants might have trained together, the AP reported.
And officials are looking to see if there are any links between Tsarnaev and a triple muder in Boston a year-and-a-half ago.
FRIDAY FOTO (May 3, 2013)
Big Boat, With Friend
Defense Dept. photo by Lt. Cmdr. Corey Barker, U.S. Navy
The High-Speed Vessel Swift (HSV-2) got underway in Key West, Florida recently (April 24) with a tethered Aerostat balloon. The crew of the Swift will conduct a series of capabilities tests to determine if the aerostat, TIF-25K — a lighter than air unmanned air vehicle– could participate in U.S. Southern Command’s Operation Martillo.
Aerostats are like blimps but instead of cruising in the air, they are tethered to one spot. They can be used for persistent coastal surveillance when equipped with up to 420 pounds of sensors and other surveillance equipment.
That is a joint, interagency and multinational effort to block transnational criminal organizations from using air or maritime access to the littoral (coastal) regions of the Central America.
NAVAL WARFARE: What’s to See at Sea-Air-Space Expo
Navy League’s Expo
X-47B unmanned aircraft on board the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman. (U.S. Navy photo courtesy of Northrop Grumman by Alan Radecki)
Your intrepid 4GWAR editor is at the Navy League’s 2013 Sea-Air-Space Expo at the Gaylord National Convention Center, National Harbor, Maryland (it’s across the Potomac from Alexandria, Virginia).
The annual gathering brings together Navy and Coast Guard officials from all over — including many foreign countries — as well as defense contractors — large and small — and scribes like your editor to find out what’s the Navy’s up to and where it thinks it’s going in the future.
We’re helping the folks at Seapower, the Navy League’s magazine, cover the scores of briefings by Navy and Coast Guard commanders, government officials, big defense contractors and organizations dedicated to the sea services.
On Monday we wrote about the Navy’s plans for unmanned aircraft on nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, the successes of the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft and what Naval Air Systems Command is doing to integrate new systems into the fleet while making them interoperable with existing systems and platforms.
You can see all three stories among lots of others written by the staff of Seapower by clicking here.
SHAKO-Drone/Cyber Security Medal Revisited
Medal Muddle
Distinguished Warfare Medal
Last month we told you that then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had approved a new medal to cite the contributions of troops working behind the lines – like drone pilots and cyber warfare operators – to combat operations.
Now current Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, has asked the military’s top uniformed leader, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to head a review of the award..
The new Distinguished Warfare Medal (DWM) was intended to recognize members of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps “whose extraordinary achievements, regardless of their distance to the traditional combat theater, deserve distinct department-wide recognition.”
In short, the award was to be given to uniformed personnel to recognize actions with direct effects on combat.
But in the hierarchy of military awards, the DWM was slated to rank just below the Distinguished Flying Cross and above the Bronze Star medal. But that decision sparked protests from veterans’ groups like the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, who said the new medal’s status diminishes older military decorations like the Purple Heart which is awarded to those wounded in battle – including Hagel, who served as a combat infantryman in Vietnam.
“He’s heard the concerns of others, and he believes that it’s prudent to take into account those concerns and conduct this review,” Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said earlier in March.
Hagel asked Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs, to conduct the review and report back in 30 days. Meanwhile, Little said production of the medal has stopped and no one has been nominated for the award.
Several members of Congress, including the chairman and top Republican of the Senate Armed Services Committee have written Hagel expressing concern about the new medal’s precedence.
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SHAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, billed headgear worn by many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress or parade uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.
AFRICA: U.S. Troops in Niger to Aid French in Mali
White House Informs Congress
Map of Niger
(CIA World Factbook)
U.S. troops have been deployed to the North African nation of Niger to aid French military operations against Islamist militants in neighboring Mali.
In a letter to congressional leaders today (Feb. 22) President Barack Obama said approximately 40 military personnel entered Niger two days earlier — with Niger government approval — bringing the U.S. contingent in the desert nation to 100.
Obama said the U.S. troops were in Niger to “provide support for intelligence collection” and “facilitate intelligence sharing with French forces conducting operations in Mali.
The announcement confirms previous news reports that the U.S. was setting up an airfield in Niger to accommodate unarmed surveillance drones to monitor the situation in Mali and elsewhere in the region.
The Pentagon’s news service reported that most of the U.S. contingent were Air Force specialists. U.S. Africa Command recommended placing unarmed drones in Niger “to support a range of regional security missions and engagements with partner nations,” the American Forces Press Service reported.
Last month, the United States and Niger signed an agreement on the status of American forces in Niger.
Niamey, Niger’s capital, where the drone base will be located.
(Photo via wikipedia)
French forces began an airstrike campaign last month — at the request of Mali’s president — against insurgents who were threatening the West African nation’s capital, Bamako. The U.S. Air Force began airlifting French troops into Mali shortly after the French began their counter insurgency campaign.
Mali has been in turmoil since a March 22 military coup emboldened Tuareg separatists to sweep down from the north and take control of more than half of Mali. The largely secular Tuaregs nationalists were shouldered aside by hardcore Islamist militants shortly after their battlefield successes against Mali’s army. The extreme Islamists, like Ansar Dine which has linked to al Qaeda and other terror groups, introduced strict Muslim religious law in the captured territory, and meted out harsh punishments like limb amputations and floggings.
Obama notified House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Sen. Patrick Leahy, the president pro tempore of the Senate, that he was sending in the troops “in furtherance of U.S. national security interests.”
Ancient home in Zinder [see map]
(Photo by dotlavi from Milano via wikipedia)
SHAKO: New Medal for Drone Pilots and Cyber Warriors Sparks Controversy
Medal Mishigas *
The Defense Warfare Medal (Defense Dept. photo)
You’ve probably heard by now that the Defense Department has created a new commendation medal for members of the military who do extraordinary things off the battlefield. The pilots of unmanned aircraft and cybersecurity/cyberwarfare operators come to mind.
At his last official press briefing at the Pentagon on Feb. 13, retiring Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced the creation of the new Defense Warfare Medal, saying it “recognizes the reality of the kind of technological warfare that we are engaged in, in the 21st century.”
“I’ve seen firsthand how modern tools, like remotely piloted platforms and cyber systems, have changed the way wars are fought. And they’ve given our men and women the ability to engage the enemy and change the course of battle, even from afar,” Panetta said.
Now the DWM will provide “distinct department-wide recognition for the extraordinary achievements that directly impact on combat operations, but that do not involve acts of valor or physical risk that combat entails,” he added.
According to the Defense Department, the Distinguished Warfare Medal will be awarded to members of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps “whose extraordinary achievements, regardless of their distance to the traditional combat theater, deserve distinct department-wide recognition.”
In the hierarchy of military awards, the DWM is slated to rank just below the Distinguished Flying Cross and above the Bronze Star medal. Both of those medals may be awarded for acts of heroism or acts of merit. When awarded for heroism, the medal is awarded with a “V” for valor device.
But that hierarchical placement has veterans groups like the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars — up in arms. Many of their members feel the new medal’s standing diminishes older medals like the Purple Heart, the decoration given to those wounded in battle.
Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the criteria for the award “will be highly selective and reflect high standards.”
But critics say a medal for singular service far behind the lines should not take precedence over a valor medal like the Bronze Star.
But at a blogger’s roundtable this week (Feb. 20), a Pentagon official tried to set the record straight.
Juliet Beyler, acting director of Officer and Enlisted Personnel Management, noted that only about 2 percent of the Bronze Stars awarded since 9/11 came with the “V” device. “So by far the vast majority of Bronze Stars are not issued with the “V” device,” said Beyler, a retired Marine Corps combat engineer officer who served two tours in Iraq. She added that there are have been several medals “far lower in precedence that are also eligible to have a ‘V’ device.”
There are only three medals awarded solely for valor: the Medal of Honor; the services crosses (Distinguished Service Cross, Navy Cross and Air Force Cross); and the Silver Star medal. There are other medals like the Legion of Merit which are higher in precedence than the Bronze Star but they are for meritorious service over a period of time like 24 months, she said.
A blogger from the American Legion wondered why the new medal was created instead of awarding non-combat zone troops an existing decoration like the Meritorius Service Medal.
SHAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, billed headgear worn by many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress or parade uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.
UNMANNED SYSTEMS: Navy Working on a “Family” of Bomb Disposal Robots
Developing AEODRS
ARLINGTON, Va. – Navy researchers are working on a project to develop three classes of robotic bomb disposal ground vehicles using a common open architecture.
A prototype of the AEODRS bomb disposal robot.
(Photo courtesy of AUVSI)
The Advanced Explosive Ordnance Disposal Robotic System program, known as AEODRS, is working on a family of ground robots ranging from a 35-pound ‘bot that a sailor or Marine could carry in a backpack to one weighing several hundred pounds that, when mounted on a vehicle, could respond to explosives threats at airfields and bases. A third version, or increment, would be a 160-pound unmanned ground vehicle.
Brian Brezina, technical project manager of AEODRS, explained the expected cost savings the program could produce Tuesday (Feb. 12) at an unmanned systems conference. The three-day review of government programs for ground, air and maritime systems is sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), a robotics industry trade group.
To see the rest of my story, visit the Navy League/Seapower magazine website.
UNMANNED AIRCRAFT: First Pilotless Carrier Jet Comes Aboard UPDATE
Meet the Future
Defense Dept. photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Lorenzo J. Burleson, U.S. Navy.
U.S. Navy sailors assist with the on-load of the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System demonstrator (UCAS-D) aboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) late last month in Norfolk, Virginia.
This tailless, unmanned strike fighter aircraft is one of two built by Northrop Grumman for testing by the Navy in a carrier environment. Three days after this UCAS-D was delivered by barge to the Truman (Nov. 26), the other UCAS-D was beinglaunched from a steam-powered catapult — another Navy first — at Patuxent Naval Air Station in Maryland (Nov. 29).
“We are working toward the future integration of unmanned aircraft on the carrier deck, something we didn’t envision 60 years ago when the steam catapult was first built here,” said Vice Admiral David Dunaway, commander of Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR)
The Navy will conduct X-47B carrier deck handling tests aboard the Truman, the first aircraft carrier to host test operations for an unmanned aircraft. Sea trials, set to begin later this month, will gauge the difficulty of integrating an unmanned aircraft into the confined space of a carrier flight deck. But no test flights off the carrier are scheduled until next summer, according to NAVAIR.
Both X-47Bs are test aircraft designed and built to prove an unmanned jet aircraft can operate off an aircraft carrier at sea. We’ve written more on this for Smithsonian Air & Space magazine’s website here.
For more photos, click here.
FRIDAY FOTO (November 23, 2012)
Go Get ‘em
Defense Dept. photo by U.S. Army Sgt. Hillary Rustine
U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Tacket, launches an RQ-20 Puma, a Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) during training at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.
Small drones like the Puma are in high demand in Afghanistan, especially with Army and Marine Corps ground forces. The Marine Corps placed a $5.5 million order with the manufacturer, AeroVironment, in April. The Marines want the 13-pound, hand-launched UAV to help spot roadside bombs (known as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs), Marine Times reported.
In March, the U.S. Army placed a $20.4 million order with Monrovia, California-based Aerovironment for the RQ-20A AE, the latest version. Called the “all environment” it can fly in all weather, day or night, according to the manufacturer.
The RQ-20A AE is equipped with an electro-optical and infrared video camera that rotates on a gimbal. The Puma is battery-powered and can stay aloft for two hours.
In 2008, U.S. Special Operations Command picked the Puma for its All Environment Capable Variant (AECV) program.
Tacket is assigned to Headquarters Company, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.
A LOOK AHEAD: Air and Space Conference Outside Washington, DC
Air Power/Missile Defense
Top U.S. Air Force and Pentagon leaders will be speaking this week at the Air Force Association’s 2012 Air & Space Conference and Technology Exposition.
(U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jim Araos)
Speakers at the three-day event scheduled to begin Monday (Sept. 17) at National Harbor in Maryland include Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, the new Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey.
Topics will range from academics and think tank scholars speaking about China, Russia, Africa, Latin America and the Arab Spring to panel discussions with military and industry leaders about energy, air commandos, the role of intercontinental ballistic missiles in the 21st Century and projecting power and influence in the Pacific.
Expect the recent violent demonstrations across the Muslim world, the threat of drastic defense cuts, the rise of China and the place of Latin America, Africa and the Pacific region in U.S. defense and foreign policy to be discusion topics over the three-day event.
It all starts at 9 a.m. Monday at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center at National Harbor.
