THIS WEEK in the War of 1812 (November 30-December 6, 1814)

Jackson Returns.

Major General Andrew Jackson
(Photo: U.S. Marshals Service)

December 1

U.S. Major General Andrew Jackson arrives in New Orleans after a hasty march from New Orleans. The arrival of Jackson and his “army” of less than 2,000 troops calms the uneasy populace of the Crescent City.

Even though New Orleans is the major seaport of the western United States, President James Madison’s administration has done next-to-nothing to secure the important port other than sending three under strength regiments to regulars south to aid in defending the city.

Although sick with dysentery, still weakened from arm wounds sustained in a duel the year before and exhausted from marching from New Orleans to Pensacola in Spanish Florida and back again over the past few months, Jackson plunges into preparing the defenses of New Orleans.

Only a few small units of wealthy creoles and free black men (free men of color, as they were called then), have been mustered for the city’s defense. Complicating matters, most of the city’s squabbling inhabitants speak French or Spanish and many speak no English at all. To assist him, Jackson appoints an influential American lawyer, politician and longtime New Orleans resident, Edward Livingston, as his personal aide and private secretary. Livingston translates Jackson’s speech to the nervous locals in which he pledges “to drive their enemies into the sea, or perish in the effort.”

He sends small units of his troops and engineers to assess the fortifications East, North and South of the city and reinforce them where necessary.

British Advance on New Orleas
(Map: U.S. Military Academy, Department of History)

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Cockburn remains

Rear Admiral Sir George Cockburn

December 6

Meanwhile, far to the north, Virginia militia drive off a British raiding party in a skirmish at Farnham Church, up the Rappahannock River from Chesapeake Bay. The British forces are commanded by Rear Admiral Sir George Cockburn, the man who burned Washington and had been raiding up and down the bay since 1813.

Bullet and shell holes from the Royal Navy’s bombardment, remain in the walls of the old church to this day.

FRIDAY FOTO (November 28, 2014)

Underwater Exercise.

U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Corporal Devon Tindle

U.S. Marines retrieve their fins and weight belts from the bottom of a 13-foot pool during a diver course on Camp Schwab in Japan, Nov. 18, 2014. This training prepares Marines for the Marine Corps Combatant Diver Course. an incredibly demanding program based at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center in Panama City, Florida.

These Marines are assigned to the 3rd Marine Division’s 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force.

TECHNOLOGY/SPECIAL OPERATIONS: Paralyzed Special Ops Marine Walks to Medal Ceremony with Robotic Exoskeleton [UPDATE]

Special Marine, Special Machine.

Captain Derek Herrera, of the 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion, walks with the aid of a powered exoskeleton, at his medical retirement ceremony, where he received the Bronze Star medal for heroism. Herrerra was paralyzed by a sniper bullet in Afghanistan in 2012.
(Marine Corp photo by Corporal Ricardo Hurtado)

UPDATES with links to two videos of ceremony.

In the November 17 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology, we wrote about U.S. Special Operations Command’s quest for a lightweight, ballistic protective suit equipped with sensors that could monitor the wearer’s vital signs, signal for help if they were injured, add support allowing soldiers to carry heavy loads more easily — and maybe even jump higher or run faster. Regular readers will remember we’ve blogged about the Tactical Assault Light Operators Suit (TALOS) several times since February.

In the latest story (subscription required) we noted that SOCOM says it will share these technology developments with the other armed services and that it could also have applications “for the Homeland Security Department, local first responders and even seriously injured veterans.”

When we wrote that, we thought “that will be a great benefit to wounded warriors and civilian paraplegics when it happens someday in the future.” But the news coming out of a small military ceremony in California last Friday (November 21) indicates someday is here already. Captain Derek Herrera of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC) walked to the ceremony at Camp Pendleton to receive the Bronze Star medal with “V” for valor device for heroic leadership under fire in Afghanistan. While his combat award was certainly notable, the really remarkable thing about the event was that Herrera — paralyzed from the chest down since he was struck by a sniper’s bullet in June 2012 — was able to walk up and receive his decoration.

The captain walked with the assistance of a robotic exoskeleton that moves his legs. Known as the “ReWalk,” the technology consists of leg braces, a computer and batteries-equipped backpack, a watch-like controller and crutches.  The system, manufactured by Israel-based ReWalk Robotics Ltd., is the first powered exoskeleton approved by the Food and Drug Administration for sale in the United States rehabilitate people suffering paraplegia due to spinal cord injury. And Herrera is one of the first people to acquire the system. The MARSOC Foundation, a charitable fund for MARSOC Marines, raised the money for Herrera to buy the $69,500 device, according to the Associated Press.

While ReWalk is not among the companies SOCOM lists as participants in the TALOS development project, its technology shows that powered exoskeletons are here and like computers and robots have a wide array of potential uses.

Captain Derek Herrera, (right), a special operations officer with 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion, is presented the Bronze Star Medal during a retirement ceremony at Camp Pendleton, California. Herrera was awarded the medal with Valor device for his actions in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
(Marine Corps photo by Corporal Ricardo Hurtado)

Herrera also received the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation medal. The ceremony also marked Herrera’s retirement for medical reasons from the Marines, reported Marine Corps Times, noting that Herrera has remained active despite his injuries: participating in 10 kilometer road races and triathlons, working toward a business degree and renovating his house. The 2006 Naval Academy graduate had vowed that he would retire standing on his own — the same as he did when he joined the Marine Corps.

Click here to see a short Defense Department video report of Herrera using the ReWalk robotic braces at his retirement ceremony.

Click here to see a longer Marine Corps video without narration where you can hear the exoskeleton in action.

THIS WEEK in the War of 1812 (November 23-November 29, 1814)

A World In Motion.

November 25

Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane
(National Galleries, Scotland)

The British invasion fleet that has been building up in the Caribbean since early fall sets sail from Negril Bay, Jamaica for Louisiana.

The Royal Navy’s Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane commands a small armada of more than 60 warships, ranging from frigates and bomb ships to sloops, gunboats and troop transports. Some 4,000 soldiers, many of them veterans of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe under the Duke of Wellington, form the land force of this invasion. Cochrane, who oversaw the failed attack on Fort McHenry outside Baltimore in September,  is the overall commander. The ground troops were to be commanded by Major General  Robert Ross, but he was killed at the battle of North Point outside of Baltimore. The new commander, Lieutenant General Sir Edward Pakenham, Wellington’s brother-in-law, is still in Europe and will take weeks to catch up to Cochrane’s fleet.

Meanwhile Major General Andrew Jackson is making his way with an “army” of less than 2,000 regulars and militia from Mobile to New Orleans. Jackson has sent word to President Madison and the governors of Kentucky and Tennessee to send more troops to help him defend New Orleans.

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November 27

The chief negotiators at Ghent, Britain’s Fleet Admiral Lord James Gambier (left) and the United States’ John Quincy Adams (right).
Detail from a painting in the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

In the Flemish city of Ghent, where U.S. and British officials are trying to negotiate a peace treaty to end the war, the British change course.

Flush with the news of the routing of U.S. troops at Bladensburg, Maryland and the subsequent burning of most public buildings in Washington in August, the British thought victory was at hand and offered to end hostilities with both sides keeping the territory seized during the war. That would leave the British in control of a big chunk of Maine and most of the Upper Mississippi Valley — as well as a key fort (Mackinac) where lakes Michigan and Superior meet. Since the Americans have abandoned their footholds on Canadian soil opposite Detroit in the West and across from Buffalo, New York in the East, they have everything to lose and nothing to gain. Not surprisingly, they rejected the British offer in October.

But now word has reached London — and Ghent — of the simultaneous British failures to take Plattsburgh — and strategic Lake Champlain — in northern New York and Baltimore, Maryland on the Atlantic Coast. In just two days in September, British arms suffered two strategic setbacks — although the third part of the three-pronged assault on America in late 1814 (through Louisiana) has just begun.

No longer holding the winning hand they thought they had, the British government shifts its treaty demands from “we keep captured territory that we hold now” (the concept know as “utis posseditis”) to “let’s go back to the way things were before the shooting started in June 1812.” It’s a diplomatic/legal concept known as  “status quo ante bellum.” The stalled negotiations pick up again with this development.

FRIDAY FOTO (November 21, 2014)

Night Moves.

U.S. Army photo by Sergeant Steven Young.
(Click on the photo to enlarge image)

An Army Green Beret has his parachute harness inspected by a jumpmaster before conducting a night jump on Eglin Air Base, Florida on November 4, 2014.

As we’ve said in recent weeks, it isn’t often we get to see Special Operations Forces training up close and personal. And you can click here to see all the photos of this training scenario. There are other, more informative photos on the Defense Department website, but we’ve decided to focus this week on the photo above. It’s subject matter isn’t all that unusual: men in work clothes performing a task in the dying light of sunset. But it captures the light between sunset and dusk. It reminds us of paintings by the Dutch masters or Frederic Remington that sought to convey what the light was like at that time.

But these men are going to jump out of a large helicopter at night, in Alaska, in winter.  Tough stuff.

The Green Berets are assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group, Airborne, and jumped from a CH-47 Chinook helicopter with combat equipment to maintain proficiency in airborne operations.

AROUND AFRICA: Nigeria bombing, Jet Deal Imperiled?

Nigeria: More Violence.

Nigeria
(CIA World factbook)

Dozens of people have been killed in an attack by suspected Boko Haram militants in northeastern Nigeria. Gunmen rampaged through the village of Azaya Kura in the Mafa area in Borno state, killing at least 45 people, according to the BBC.

The village is about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Maiduguri, capital of Borno state. Boko Haram has taken control of a series of towns and villages in northeastern Nigeria in recent weeks.

Authorities have struggled to defeat the militant Islamist group, which has been waging an insurgency in Nigeria since 2009. In May 2013, President Goodluck Jonathan imposed a state of emergency in the northern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, vowing to crush the Islamist insurgency.

New York-based Human Rights Watch says Boko Haram has killed more than 2,000 civilians just this year.

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Nigeria Jets

The Nigerian Air Force wants to acquire more fighter jets to battle the Boko Haram Islamist militant group.

But Nigerian officials are concerned that their attempt to buy new combat aircraft from Textron and AirLand Enterprises may be blocked because of the West African nation’s human rights record, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Textron AirLand’s Scorpion ISR-Strike aircraft
(Photo courtesy Textron)

A senior Nigerian air force officer expressed concern a deal could be blocked on human rights grounds after an earlier effort to acquire combat helicopters was blocked over the issue. The Nigeria air force currently relies on a fleet of older jets, including Chinese-made F-7 planes and European Alpha Jets.

Textron, the largest maker of business aircraft, and AirLand have been marketing the Scorpion military jet as a low-cost option for many nations that can’t afford more traditional and expensive designs.

 

 

 

 

THIS WEEK in the War of 1812 (November 16-November 22, 1814)

A Race to New Orleans.

The Southern Frontier 1812-1815
(Map: U.S. Army Office of Military History)

Major General Andrew Jackson, back from capturing Pensacola in Spanish Florida, receives a letter in Mobile (now Alabama/ back then, West Florida) from Washington advising him not to do what he has just done. Whoopsie. President James Madison and Secretary of War James Monroe (who is also serving as Secretary of State) are worried that such a rash act could lead to war with neutral Spain. [Click on he map above to enlarge image.]

Luckily, it doesn’t come to that. Anyway Jackson’s network of spies throughout the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea inform him that British troops are setting sail from Jamaica directly to New Orleans. It doesn’t make sense, Jackson believes. To his way of thinking, Mobile would be the perfect port and jumping off place for an overland march on New Orleans. But feeling he can’t take chances with the security of the Lower Mississippi Valley, he marches out heading west on November 22. But he leaves about 2,000 troops behind in Mobile — in case the spies are wrong, or lying.

Jackson only has about 2,000 men with him, regulars, volunteers from Tennessee and some Indians — mostly Cherokees and some Creeks. About 2,000 fresh British troops have been sent from Britain to rendezvous with the army-navy task force that burned Washington and failed to take Baltimore. The British will number between 4,000 and 6,000 before they reach Louisiana.

Madison has promised to send more troops — from Tennessee, Kentucky and Georgia, plus friendly Indians — to defend New Orleans, a city of 25,000 along a bend of the river about 120 miles above the mouth of the Mississippi.

Jackson doesn’t know if the reinforcements will arrive in time and how willing the natives of New Orleans, a predominantly French-speaking city, are to shed their blood for the United States of America, which purchased Louisiana from Napoleonic France in 1803 — just 11 years earlier.

Then here are the pirates — robbers, smugglers and slave traders — based in the bayous south and west of the city in a freebooting place called Barataria and ruled by Jean Lafitte and his brothers, Alexandre and Pierre.

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SPECIAL OPERATIONS/TECHNOLOGY: Special Ops Command’s Pursuit of ‘Iron Man’ Suit

Future Trooper

Revision Military’s Prowler Human Augmentation System, which distributes a soldier’s combat load, is among the technologies USSOCOM is studying for its ballistic protection suit project.
(Photo courtesy Revision Military.

Your 4GWAR editor’s story on U.S. Special Operations Command’s quest to develop a light weight armored suit that will help commandos and other assault  troops run faster, longer and carry heavy loads without excessive fatigue is in the latest issue (November 17) of Aviation Week & Space Technology’s Defense Technology International edition:

It will not enable users to fly like “Iron Man” does in the movies, but planners of a ballistic protective suit for special operations want it to do almost everything else the superhero’s iconic outfit does.

The Tactical Assault Light Operators Suit (TALOS) will provide ballistic protection with lightweight armor, along with sensors to monitor a wearer’s vital signs. Some developers believe it could also supply emergency oxygen and control bleeding if the operator is wounded.

To read more of this story, visit AVIATION WEEK (subscription required). Below is another view of one of the technologies being studied by USSOCOM for the Tactical Assault Light Operators Suit (TALOS).

Last month’s Defense Technology International edition is on line, you can see it here. That issue includes two stories by your 4GWAR editor on the U.S. Army’s efforts to shift to a regionally aligned force and SOCOM’s search for more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capability using very small drones.

Other topics in the October 13 issue range from Saab’s new M4 recoilless rifle; how Russia’s adventurism in Ukraine is driving another neighbor, Poland, to start buying more defense hardware like helicopters and missiles; air and ground robotics developments by British, U.S. and Israeli companies; and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s work on protecting ground vehicles from attack.

Photo courtesy of Revision Military

FRIDAY FOTO (November 14, 2014) RESENDING

Light up the Night.

Marine Corps Photo by Corporal Jonathan R. Waldman

U.S. Marines fire at fixed targets from Light Armored Vehicles (LAV-25s) during training in D’Arta Plage, Djibouti in East Africa.  Note that despite the bright light thrown off by tracer bullets, you can still see the stars in the sky if you click on the photo to enlarge it.

The LAV-25s are assigned to Charlie Company, 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance detachment, Battalion Landing Team, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU).

They were participating in a combined arms engagement range during sustainment training. The 11th MEU is deployed as a reserve and crisis response force throughout U.S. Central Command and the 5th Fleet area of responsibility.

WHOOPS!

We created today’s Friday Foto in the wee hours after midnight, but apparently we neglected to click the all important PUBLISH button after editing this post.

We apologize for the error — and the delay in discovering it until a few minutes ago.

The Editor.

 

 

UNMANNED SYSTEMS: Armed Services Describe Their Needs and Funding Limitations

What They Want and Can Afford

VIPs watch a convoy of driverless trucks at the Autonomous Mobility Applique System demonstration from roof at the Urban Terrain training site at Fort Hood, Texas.
(U.S. Army photo)

TYSON’S CORNER, Virginia – Money is tight while national security threats keep evolving, so the Defense Department plans to be careful about what robots, droids and drones it can buy in the future.

That was the overall message from Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps leaders over three days this month at the Unmanned Systems 2014 Program Review, a government robotics conference hosted by the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI).

Even though they expect funds for robots and drones to be limited, they say demand will grow for unmanned vehicles – especially ones that can get into small or unsafe spaces like tunnels or denied airspace — to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) information for troops in the field.

All of the services are looking for unmanned systems that share common controllers and other hardware/software. And they want them interoperable so troops on the ground, in the air or at sea – no matter which service – will be able to communicate with all unmanned systems and coordinate their activities.

So here’s a look at some of the capabilities the armed services are looking for.

The Defense Department’s Joint Staff is developing a Joint Concept for Robotic and Autonomous Systems, expected in the summer of 2018, according to Army Col. Charles Bowery of the Joint Staff Robotic and Autonomous Systems Team (JRAST). He said the concept report targets the 2025-2030 time frame and will reflect improved ways for “developing, deploying and acquiring those technologies.” Chartered in 2014, the JRAST seeks to synchronize Robotic and Autonomous Systems development, acquisition, and employment across the Defense Department.

Army

The Army is not buying any new UAS in the near future but it isn’t getting rid of any either. Army plans call for pairing the MQ- 1 Gray Eagle and smaller RQ-7 Shadow UAS with AH-64 Apache attack helicopters to perform the scouting mission once performed by the OH-58 Kiowa manned scout helicopter, which is being retired.

“All of my portfolios are essentially looking at what is the amount of financing or money that is available to meet the requirements,” said Army Major General Robert Dyess, director of Force Development in the financial management (G-8) section of the Army Staff.

On ground vehicles, he told conference attendees, the Amy had just completed joint testing of the Autonomous Mobility Applique System which showed the ability to “essentially, I believe, turn any vehicle in the motor pool – at the commander’s assessment – into a vehicle that has either a semi-autonomous or autonomous type of capability.”

Navy

The Navy has only one program of record for unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), the Advanced Explosive Ordnance Disposal Robotic System (AEODRS), a family of robotic systems ranging from a 35-pound robot that can be carried in a backpack to a vehicle-towed unit weighing about 750 pounds.

Tom Dee, deputy assistant of the Navy for Expeditionary Program and Logistics Management, said the Navy is looking for UGVs that not only replace humans in dangerous situations, but can be force enablers.

“We want to make them team mates with our squads, to be able to assist us, not just to replace us doing things that we’re concerned about doing” like bomb disposal, Dee said. .” He added that AEODRS would be built using open architecture and modular design that would allow the Navy to “plug and play” new developments in sensors, cameras or robotic arms onto a common platform.

Daniel Sternlicht, head of the Sensing Sciences Division at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, said the Navy is looking to improve sensor capabilities as it transitions from a time and manpower intensive method for detecting, identifying and neutralizing explosive mines in the shallows near shore to an unmanned, sensor-driven one.

Among the capabilities sought in this eventual shift is the ability to neutralize a target mine in a single pass or sortie by an unmanned underwater vehicle rather than multiple passes by manned aircraft or surface vessels, said Sternlicht.

The Office of Naval Research is developing a compact modular sensor package that can be mounted on an MQ-8 Fire Scout unmanned helicopter and detect and classify targets in real time. The Compact Modular Sensor Suite could also speed up the process by eliminating the need for post-mission analysis by a manned aircraft.