The Military Thread

Honestly I would just consider loading them up with explosives and using the Firebees as decoys/cruise missiles to spam major static targets like naval bases and airfields. If nothing else, they'll serve to make the Anti-Air crews' lives more difficult as they have to deal with the Killer Bees in addition to the strike fighters and other stuff coming in.

AFP: This recent discussion led me to find out they did try that. They slapped camera kits on modified target drone versions and fitted them with a low altitude control system. They seemed to work out ok but it never got the funding to look into it more.

edited 26th Jul '16 12:53:31 PM by TuefelHundenIV

A documentary on the Iraqi Police Commandos during the American occupation, and their downright creepy advisor and spook Col. James Steele. Yes, it's a critical view, but also quite interesting. Was reminded of this when somebody mentioned El Salvador on the US thread, and that the refugees from there.

So I'm been brainstorming ideas about a hypothetical fanfic sequel to The Dark Knight Rises, which featured a very much criticized plot element of a ridiculously capable terrorist organization (the League of Shadows) managing to hold an entire Manhatten-esque city hostage under dirty bomb threat for a period of time. Batman and the Gotham City PD eventually retake the city, but at the cost of the Caped Crusader seemingly sacrificing himself to carry the undefusable dirty bomb to a safe distance from Gotham.

Anyways, I'm here to ask for a feasible way in which the US government would proceed to mop up and restore order once the climatic events of the film had passed. See, a major plot element would be that, although shattered and its leadership decapitated, defiant remnants of the League of Shadows and the followers it acquired during Bane's siege continue to wage an PIRA-style insurgency across Gotham in the months after Batman's "death". In response, the US military puts the city into martial law and executes urban COIN operations to flush out The Remnant of the League.

This being said, what would Commissioner Gordon and the GCPD's role be in said COIN operations? Would Gordon have any authority in the military's activities, or would he simply be reduced to a advisory role while military officers call all the shots?

Anti-drone rifle reportedly in Iraq to fight ISIS drones. The rifle is basically a radio jammer with an aimable atennae for dealing with commercial drones used in adhoc warfare.

The rifle can be seen here as part of training for West Point cadets. Dedicated military drones are a bit harder to deal with as even the small ones are increasingly using hardened and encrypted data links and partial automation to limit interference.

A brief description of how the NATO watch strap came to be known as that.

Unfortunately there don't appear to be adapters for the watches I'm looking at. Those Casio resin straps aren't cheap...

Flame Thrower in Slow Motion

Very cool.

War with China: Thinking Through the Unthinkable

A Rand corporation report on the subject.

We expect no bias.

From all military analysts RAND has been pretty spot on since the Cold War, when they discuss something you listen.

With a grain of salt. They are not free from political bias.

Also, their accuracy depends on the region. They sound almost naive when it comes to Pakistan, for example.

"Long Severe War"

lol, okay, what's with people thinking these kinds of wars would last anywhere close to "long"?

I'd give it six months before we'd seriously have to start rationing ordnance.

China Signals Resolve with Bomber Flight Over the South China Sea

They're actually talking about Pacific power projection. Might want a few carriers and complete those subs first.

[up War could still continue. Both sides have the means to carry out cyber attacks against each other's homelands, and it's not as if this would be the first war where ammo would be a problem.

Depends on whether you subscribe to the Red Storm Rising school of ammo consumption. How do US/Japan/South Korean ammo stocks look compared to that of NATO's for its forces deployed on the North German Plain/Fulda Gap?

That ammo consumption is going to be much higher than budgeted is one of the lessons out of almost every single modern war, Iraq 2003 not excepted.

An article about interference on different ham radio bands brings up some interesting tidbits, in particular the suspected presence of an Iranian over-the-horizon radar set

Hunting the Russian Woodpecker, anyone?

I've been reading Seth Folsom's The Highway War, his memoirs of being a USMC LAV-25 company commander in the 2003 invasion of Iraq; queued up next are the follow-ups, In the Gray Area, about his participation in the 2008-2009 Iraqi surge, and Where Youth and Laughter Go, commanding a battalion in Afghanistan, 2011. Also queued up, on heavy recommendation, is Matt Gallagher's Youngblood.

So, Iraq 2003. You are a crewman in a mortar LAV. This is a tin can on wheels stuffed with high explosive mortar bombs and very flammable propellant. It is late and you are hungry. You have a stove and some food. What do?

If your answer is "get out of the box stuffed with flammable stuff, then light up my stove and cook myself a meal", then congratulations, you have common sense.

If on the other hand your answer is "cook myself a meal with an open flame in the mortar carrier", then congrats, you may qualify to be a Marine.

(According to Folsom's memoirs, his jaw literally dropped open when he saw that. There was a few seconds and then he exploded with pure rage—and right after that, another Marine in that platoon managed to negligently discharge his SAW while cleaning it, slamfiring a handful of rounds into the radiator of his LAV and putting it out of action. That was not a very well-run platoon.)

Wow. The DD platoon at full strength.

Why walk, when you can ride?

The stupidest thing I'm aware of is people using boot polish as fuel for the stove. Brilliant plan as it burns very hot, but comes with the trade-off of melting the stove. Inside a tent.

One I heard of was "if surreptitiously cooking in a moving tin can, remember ventilation: carbon monoxide is not your friend". They were lucky that when they started driving erratically, somebody noticed and yelled at them...

Guy from PC World relating near disasters on tour.

edited 2nd Aug '16 11:23:48 PM by Euodiachloris

Flameless heaters in use should not be mixed with flames. They give off hydrogen gas.

The shoe polish trick of setting it on fire only requires it to be on fire for about three seconds not a full minute. At that point you have oil based fire that is like stain inducing napalm. Someone will inadvertently kick over one of these flaming oh fuck tins and spread the fire around until someone uses the ABC extinguisher on them. You are also supposed to set them alight outdoors and do not touch the painfully hot polish material.

Huh, And I'd only ever heard of folks lighting Kiwi on fire so they could hockey puck it into their buddies dorm rooms (Texas A&M Corps of Cadets: It's kind of like Basic Training if it were run by the most experienced recruits, combined with your typical college insanity).

The same school had a specific ban on "Trebuchets, Catapults, and other siege machinery" in the non-cadet dormitories, so yeah.

Speaking of the Russian Woodpecker, I also saw this on ARRL's Facebook feed the other day and forgot to post it here:

edited 3rd Aug '16 5:17:15 AM by AFP

And on a somewhat more sober note, your daily feels:

An article about a group of civilian volunteers who attend every military funeral at Arlington Cemetary. Which comes out to about 30 funerals each weekday.