Purple

Yes, Purple. That is the topic today. It is a color and in the military it stands for JOINT. Not the smoking kind, but the very cool world of Joint Operations.

Joint Operations are simply operations involving all the services (Army, Navy, AF and USMC), some of them, other Government agencies (say DOD, DOS, ATF, DEA, CIA, or FBI or any combination there of), and other countries (the Superfriends: Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, or others such as South Korea, Japan and other NATO types). While this may not sound like a major thing (hey that is how we always do things right?) it is actually a fairly new development.

Sort of.

We (the US military) have been working as a team for quite a while. Earliest examples are the Mexican War and several impressive operations in the US Civil War (see Grant's Western Campaigns along the Mississippi). But these were not doctrine, they were usually ad hoc and much depended on how well the CO's got along or what the orders from Washington said. But in the late 1980's Congress passed a neat law known as the Goldwater-Nichols Act. This act forced the services to actually work as a team by law.

For example: instead of having a fleet, an air force, and a army in an area of the world working through their branches in the rear, you had a defined theater in which their was one boss. You could have an Army General commanding Navy and AF units, or Navy commanding the same or AF (even a Marine in theory). This commander reported directly back to the SECDEF and not through the parent services. This mean you had truly one team. And to make sure everyone worked together the DOD put out Joint Doctrine to get everyone "speaking" the same language.

All of this may sound "duh", but it is a unique development in the world of warfighting. The US (and the Superfriends) are really the only countries that do this. And it shows, the US has been running Joint Operations since Panama and has had pretty much major successes in just about every one. Panama, Desert Storm, OIF all successes (yes OIF is pretty much a done deal and we have won, someone tell MSNBC). Somalia not so much, but that could be argued as a break in method (Clinton set up two task forces, not one unified command). OEF is ongoing so we will see.

Purple is the color code of all Joint Doctrine and I have been attending JOFEC (Joint Operations Fires Effects Coordinator) these last two weeks and we talk nothing but Joint. It is extremely interesting, and also a major challenge. Getting everyone synched is huge challenge and it is a complex process. We are still working the kinks out of it. But kinks or not, this makes for a incredibly successful military as well as other elements. Please note we include civilian agencies in this so we usually get a full up team effort or this with everyone more or less pulling together. It also makes the movies about the army running off and doing craziness on its own rather funny for anyone who knows about this (if you have to work together for everything how do you do things without someone else finding out and diming you out?).

As military history goes this is an exciting time to be in the military.

We Win

Just in case you missed it (and since it certainly didn't make MSM I am sure you did). Yesterday the USMC pulled out its final unit in Iraq and handed it's areas of responsiblity over the the US Army and Iraq Military.

Area of Responsibility? Anbar, part of the Sunni Triangle and most heavily fought over area in Iraq (aside from some areas in Baghdad). No explosions, no attacks, no nothing bugged the ceremony. Which was unlike the one we had for FOB Danger, when we had a rocket attack during the handover (missed of course, but a PR coup for the insurgents).

No more Marines in Iraq and the Army will be down to 50,000 troops by summer's end. Hmmm, sounds like victory to me.

Winning the war against Car Bombs

Check out the link: http://www.popsci.com/bown/2009/video/video-bombproof-wallpaper-vs-wrecking-ball

A Popular Science article that discusses a new Bomb-proof Wallpaper. No I am not making that up. Its a type of flexible, stretchable wallpaper that will flex and then snap back when his with kinetic force (wrecking ball, bomb blast). Helps the wall mantain its structual integrity and also prevents splinters from blasting into the room or the other side of the wall.

This is VERY cool. It probably won't stop a huge truck bomb, but it will certainly reduce damage and this thing has the potential to vastly reduce the effectiveness of all types of explosives against buildings. A hardening of the infrastructure. A major science breakthrough in the counter-terror art.

And for the people who made this Holiday possible...

HAPPY VETERAN'S DAY!

The 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month.

Education

This last week we bid goodbye to 4 "Snowbird" Lieutenants. A Snowbird is a soldier (officer, enlisted or NCO) who has to wait at some location for several months (usually not more than 4) until their next assignment is ready for them. We had four LTs who had been comissioned but their OBC date was not until November. So we got to use them for about 3 months.

We were glad to have them as we are usually short on officers, and they did a great job for the short time they were here. The one thing I very much enjoyed was our OPD (Officer Professional Development) sessions. We had (and still do) have one a week when we do a short battle analysis. The idea is to see what we can learn from a certain battle so that we don't repeat the problem later on. The books I used are "The Bear Went Over The Mountian" and "The Other Side Of The Mountain", both about the Soviet/Afghan War in the 1980's. We focused on the Soviet side and I tried to zero in on things that we are doing now over there (Convoys, raids, ambushes, etc.). The concept is to figure out what both sides did right and wrong, and what would we do as Americans (our TTPs are different so many times our solutions to the same problem are different).

We all learned a lot. I can tell you this much: my estimation of the Soviet Military machine dropped considerably after this study. I knew that the Soviets didn't have much focus on NCOs, but our studies brought home the difference in a huge way (example: for a squad sized ambush would YOU put a MAJOR in charge? In the US, that is the job of a corporal or a buck sergeant, but they Soviets used Majors and even higher several times). But this was all lead up.

Our Capstone study was an analysis of the Battle of Wanat. This was a US action fought last year, 8 US troops died and over 20 were wounded. A COP (Combat Patrol Base) was almost overrun by Taliban. We held them off, and inflicted heavy losses. But the point was I wanted my LTs to see that many simple lessons we thought were absolute in the US Army were not so absolute. I told them this was the "hard look in the mirror" and to not slant their views because these were US troops involved. It was not a pleasant discussion, especially considering these guys were also paratroops and part of a unit considered to be elite by many in the US. But it was a great learning experience. It really hammered home to the LTs that the military is a profession, and in professions you must study and apply what you learn. Lots of folks miss the difference, but I think I have got the point across.

Now we are going to study the Afghan side. Should also be useful.

Suspected flag burner pilloried -- Page 1 -- Times Union - Albany NY:1884:

Suspected flag burner pilloried -- Page 1 -- Times Union - Albany NY:1884:

I am testing the link thing. It looks like it will work so if not, hit the old Bing.com for searching (I am trying not to use Google anymore).

I just LOVE this article. It would be so much better if this happened to a anti-war protestor instead of someone who was kicked out of the VFW bar for failing to produce an ID to buy a drink, but its still great.

Simple point here, your right to protest is equally matched by others rights. If your protest involved messing with their property or something they REALLY care about, you could rapidly end up in world of hurt (as in being given the chance to have your butt whipped by a war vet which was choice B in this incident).

I have to think this is why you never see anarchists targeting the American Legion Convention to stick it to the man, or ALF trying to attack a biker rally over the leather jackets. Even the truely dense understand that there are things you don't do and places you don't go when protesting. This truth spans the spectrum of right to left (you never see KKK at a Black Panther rally, or PETA in Deep woods West Virginia on the opening day of hunting season).

XM-326 Dragon Fire II

New toy for us artillery types in the works. Called the XM-326 Dragon Fire II (I can't get a picture to download right now, sorry), this is the rather belated arrival of wheeled self propelled artillery. And technically its not really artillery but an improved rifled 120mm heavy mortar.

The brain-child of the USMC, this baby has a range of 8.2 Kms (an increase of 1 Km over current 120mms) and is mounted on a wheeled 6400 mil capable baseplate. You can tow it OR you can mount it in a modified LAV (the eight wheeled armored car the stryker is based on) for a SP gun. This thing is semi-auto, so its rate of fire is pretty good (sorry, no unclassified numbers for this). Its a heavy mortar, but its loaded by prepackaged shells so no "hanging" of mortar rounds (quick item, the USMC considers heavy mortars to be "artillery" versus the lighter mortars (81mm and less) that are "Infantry" weapons).

And the most cool aspect of this baby is that it is able to shoot while on the move (you have to slow down some though). That right there brings down the artillery house if they can make it continually work without issue. Right now this baby is in experimental stages, but prototypes are already existing and the USMC (and the Strykers in the Army) are VERY interested. For the Army, this would be a near perfect SP weapon for the medium/stryker BCTs in existance. And I would be happy that the US Military has finally figured out you can actuall have wheeled SP artillery (which the Czechs proved in 1990, but we didn't buy into).

Progress

I was working on my personal set of tactical gear this week. I have what the army gives me, I have what I have been given or acquired over the years (the army paperwork will gradually give you stuff over time) and I have what I have personally purchased for my own use. Usually ammo pouches for gear or ammo (I do use this stuff for hunting and camping), but I also purchased a lot of stuff when I shipped over to Iraq as the stuff they gave us didn't quite work for me (I needed some regular pouches for a small set of binos, language phrase books and some other stuff). And of course it didn't help that the Army has gone through 3 different camo sets since this war started and we can't mix and match.

So I have a bunch of gear. One item I was finishing out was my personal first aid kit. I had what the army has given me and I have some stuff I have picked up. But I had also just purchased something called an IFAK. IFAK: Individual First Aid Kit. These are the new first aid kits that have come out due to the war.

I have to admit, nothing pushes progress in certain areas like war. This kit is a great example. WHen I first joined, your first aid kit was a sealed field dressing in a small pouch. Anything else you provided on your own. Now you could do a lot with this thing, tourniques, pressure bandages, regular bandages, seal sucking chest wounds. But still, all you had was a large bandage and that was it.

When I deployed we got this plus a new quick release tournique which was all the rage. So an improvement, but still not exactly amazing. But after much research the army realized two things.

One: every soldier coming out of basic training is Combat LifeSaver Qualified (think of this as one step below a medic, 40 hour course taught by medics).

Two: these same soldiers can actually use all kinds of first aid gear.

So why not give it to them? Result: IFAK.

This thing is really advanced. It has pressure bandages, quick release tourniques, some of those QuikClot bandages, a lung depressurizer (for lung shots), a special air passage kit for CPR and for clearing breathing passages (you can also do a quick and dirty trac with it). This kit is designed to treat the 6 most common and life-threatening wounds on the battlefield with the most advanced first aid gear in existance. It is designed to allow anyone with a modicum of first aid training (such as a combat lifesaver) to be able to the simple things that can keep people alive until a medic can get there.

I have to wonder about why it took the army so long to get to this point. I remember when I was a Platoon Leader, the requirement was one combat life-saver per platoon (in MLRS which is a small unit, usually it was one per squad). Now it is EVERYONE. The 10th Mountain was the first unit to do this right as they entered Afghanistan in 2002 and everyone took notice with the results. But still you would think that this would be common sense.

But progress is progress. I wonder if they will keep it up once the war is over with. IFAKs are pretty expensive ($80 plus), and in peace time you know what happens. But for now its good progress.

Foamy Cartoon

Folks, if you have not seen the latest Foamy cartoon at http://www.illwillpress.com (titled "Zip Codes") you need to see it NOW.

BOOM!

Today I got to have fun. US Weapons with a Artillery Live Fire right over our heads. And they PAY me for this...

Update: Photo from the other day, I couldn't get it to download via the BB. This is the Middle Impact Area on Fort Sill. To your right at a greater distance is a hill called "Blockhouse Signal Mountain". The little dot on the top is the blockhouse. This is the world famous location known to all artillerymen (urm, Western ones anyway). The big cloud of dirt is an impact from a 155mm shot from behind us by a M777 battery. Way behind us...

I love my job...

As I am still working on the linking thing (and this article couldn't link), I just copied it whole from New Scientist. The comments I left off as they took a severe left turn about why waste money and resourses when babies are starving, etc. I will couple this with the fact that I was at the Fires Center of Excellence Fires Seminar this last week and got to walk through the displays of new stuff. But first read the article.

New Army Rifle Fires Laser-Guided Smart Bullets With Onboard Targeting Chips
New rifles with explosive rounds can be told where to detonate
By Dan Smith Posted 06.05.2009 at 5:09 pm 10 Comments

Smart Rifle: You won't see the rifle or the bullet until it's too late
It would be hard to describe a bullet as smart, but what if that bullet was laser-guided, radio-controlled, and carried an onboard targeting CPU? The US Army has announced the creation of the XM25 rifle, which can fire a new type of explosive round that fit that exact description. Imagine the implications: hitting targets inside buildings or hiding around walls. Whoa.
First, the scope on the rifle has a laser that gauges the distance to the target. The soldier can set exactly where the 25-millimeter bullet will detonate by adding or subtracting 3 meters from that point. Then, the scope will send a radio signal to a chip inside the bullet telling it how far it should travel before exploding.
Now, here’s where things get truly nuts: Each bullet has a small magnetic transducer that interacts with the Earth’s magnetic field, generating a tiny alternating current every time it spins as it speeds toward the target. Measured against the gun's specially calibrated rifling, this means the bullet can keep track of how far it has traveled in real time. Whoa, again.

Smart Bullets In Action: Trenches are no longer a safe place to hide The Army has proposed the uses can range from hitting enemies hidden in trenches (as pictured above), or even hitting a sniper hiding in a building by setting the range about a meter beyond the window. They are also proposed as a smarter alternative to grenade launchers, which can serve the same purpose but be less accurate and have limited range, making them more prone to collateral damage.
The Army will begin field tests with the XM25 system soon, with hopes of deploying it into regular duty by 2012.[New Scientist]

Neat stuff. Sci-Fi gear in real world. That goes double for the stuff at the seminar. M777s (the new howitzer), the new ADA systems, the NLOS system (think a Javelin type missile fired from the bed of a truck, but with a range of 80 kms and guided by satellites). The proof that I had "grown up" in terms of neat stuff was the Command and Control Vehicles they had come up with. A Bradley M3 IFV that was completely redone and had 4 computer systems and radios. You could run a battalion CP while driving on the road and not miss a beat. And it looks exactly like every other M3 Bradley so there is no "SHOOT HERE" sign because of too many radio antennas.

Tech rocks.