Category: Military

I don’t have any idea if this is reliable or not, but it does appear;
“There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear”

Multiple US military whistleblowers reveal how a disc-shaped UFO intercepted nuclear missile and disabled it with ‘laser-beams’ in mid-air over California.

The US military is in possession of a video of a UFO apparently disabling a nuclear warhead during a routine test, according to multiple former officials.

They claim the video in question captured a saucer-shaped craft circling the unarmed, dummy warhead shortly after it detached from the Atlas missile booster, then shooting four beams of light at the warhead, disabling it.

Retired US Air Force officers Lieutenant Bob Jacobs and Major Florenze Mansmann claim to have viewed the recording of the 1964 encounter before the tape went missing.

The former officials were part of a team responsible for capturing video of missile test launches in California with telescopic photography and videography equipment.

Two days later, after they screened the video, they claim that two plain-clothed CIA agents confiscated the footage and swore them to secrecy.

The incredible account is part of a pattern that some UFO experts have identified, where UFOs seem to interfere with nuclear weapons.

Retired Air Force Major Florenze Mansmann claimed he saw a flying saucer disable a dummy nuclear warhead during a missile test. He was ordered not to breathe a word of what he had seen

Retired Air Force Major Florenze Mansmann claimed he saw a flying saucer disable a dummy nuclear warhead during a missile test. He was ordered not to breathe a word of what he had seen

The alleged incident occurred nearly six decades ago, on September 15, 1964, but it has more recently come into public knowledge due to author Robert Hastings investigating it.

Luis Elizondo acknowledged the existence of the video and claimed he has seen it, according to a February 10 post by Hastings on The UFO Chronicles website.

Elizondo says he was the former director of the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) program to study UFOs, and he has been involved in several high-profile leaks of military footage purporting to show UFOs.

Graphic re-creation of what happened in the 1964 video when a UFO allegedly intercepted the Atlas rocket over the Pacific Ocean

 Graphic re-creation of what happened in the 1964 video when a UFO allegedly intercepted the Atlas rocket over the Pacific Ocean

An unnamed source revealed to Hastings that Elizondo confirmed the details of the event in internal interviews.

Back in the 1960s, Jacobs was in charge of a military telescopic photography site in Big Sur, California, which captured the video as the missile traveled several thousand miles per hour in its planned flight path over the Pacific Ocean.

At the time, Mansmann was the chief photographic imagery analyst at Vandenberg Air Force Base – now called Vandenberg Space Force Base – in Santa Barbara County, California.

The Cold War was progressing apace, including lots of black ops programs testing sophisticated and secret military hardware. Some UFO skeptics have claimed that reports of UFOs provided cover for these programs.

Lieutenant Bob Jacobs, at the middle and bottom, pictured with his crew. Jacobs reported his sighting in the press in 1982 but was ridiculed and threatened for his claims

Lieutenant Bob Jacobs, at the middle and bottom, pictured with his crew. Jacobs reported his sighting in the press in 1982 but was ridiculed and threatened for his claims

The craft inadvertently caught on film was domed and disc-shaped, according to Jacobs and Mansmann.

It was a ‘classic disc, the center seemed to be a raised bubble…the entire lower saucer shape was glowing and seemed to be rotating slowly,’ according to a letter Mansmann wrote about the incident in 1983.

‘At the point of beam release…the object turned like an object required to be in a position to fire from a platform…but again this could be my own assumption from being in aerial combat.’

Forty years later, a US Senate investigator told Hastings that Elizondo had confirmed this description in an official interview last year.

‘During that briefing, the former AATIP director confirmed the existence of the video, the details regarding what it showed, and the location of a copy of it in AATIP’s workspaces,’ Hastings wrote in the new post.

Despite Mansmann telling Jacobs not to discuss what they had seen, Jacobs began to talk about the event in 1982, thinking enough time had passed since the event that he could speak freely about what he saw.

But his claims were dismissed by skeptics, and he was even subjected to harassment and anonymous death threats.

Hastings’ new report appears to match up with Elizondo’s recollection of the video.

Luis Elizondo, former director of the Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) told a Senate investigator that he had seen the 1964 video

Luis Elizondo, former director of the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) told a Senate investigator that he had seen the 1964 video

When investigators went to look for the DVD recording of the video, where Elizondo had told them it was, it was not there, Hastings reported.

And although the recording is missing and the story of Elizondo viewing the recording comes secondhand from an investigator, Hastings reported that he has additional evidence to support it:

‘On November 10, 2023, a highly-reliable source – who I am not at liberty to identify – told me that UAP [unidentified anomalous phenomena] whistleblower David Grusch has privately confirmed that Elizondo also told him about having screened the Big Sur film, and that it did indeed capture an amazing, UFO-related, dummy warhead-interference event.’

It seems that the video may have been lost when the Pentagon destroyed Elizondo’s files and emails, Hastings wrote. This would have occurred in 2017 after he resigned as AATIP director, which he claimed was in protest of the Pentagon covering up UFO matters.

‘This highly unusual move by the Pentagon is in direct violation of a legal Preservation Order that was mandated based on Elizondo’s other duties at the time,’ Hastings wrote. ‘The order requires all of Elizondo’s electronic and hard copy files to be preserved indefinitely, including email and correspondence.’

Beyond the video, there is some limited evidence supporting the story.

A declassified but unreleased set of radar data of the September 15, 1964 event apparently confirmed that an unidentified aerial object was observed near the dummy warhead during the missile test, a source told Hastings.

The analysis of the radar data at the time suggested that the unidentified object could have been debris. It’s also possible that it was ‘chaff,’ metallic objects meant to confuse radar to prevent enemies from pinpointing the exact location of a warhead.

‘So, perhaps the mysterious target tracked on radar near the warhead was merely the chaff,’ Hastings wrote. ‘On the other hand, it may have indeed been the actual UFO, whose presence the author of the radar data report would probably not have known about, given the incident’s Top Secret status.’

US retaliates after deadly drone attack on Jordan base

The U.S. on Friday began to carry out strikes against Iran-backed militants and Iranian military targets in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for a drone strike on an American base in Jordan last Sunday that killed three U.S. service members.

Dozens of other American troops were wounded in the drone attack on the Tower 22 base near Jordan’s border with Iraq and Syria. The U.S. says Iran is responsible for funding and arming the militants while Iran has denied involvement.

President Joe Biden had quickly warned that America would respond forcefully, escalating U.S. involvement in the Middle East after months of trying to contain tensions from boiling over into a broader war in the region.

Latest Developments
Feb 2, 6:45 PM
‘We believe that the strikes were successful’: Kirby
The Department of Defense is in the early stages of battle damage assessment “but we believe that the strikes were successful,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters in a call Friday.
“The initial indications are that we hit exactly what we meant to hit, with a number of secondary explosions associated with the ammunition and logistics locations,” Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, the director of the Joint Chiefs, said on the call.

Kirby said the strikes took place in the course of 30 minutes and involved over 125 precision-guided munitions. Of the seven total strike locations, three were in Iraq and four were in Syria, according to Sims.

Targeted facilities included command and control centers, intelligence centers, rocket missile and drone storage facilities, and logistics ammunition supply chain facilities, Kirby said.

Kirby noted the targets were chosen to avoid civilian casualties and because they were connected to enabling the attacks against the U.S. service members.

The administration does not know at this time if or how many militants may have been killed or wounded.

“We will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our forces, and our interests,” he concluded.

Texas Guard Flies ‘Come and Take It’ Flag Amid Dispute with Feds

The Texas Military Department posted a photo to its official X account Tuesday afternoon, showing the Gonzales flag flying above its headquarters in Austin.

The flag, which reads “Come and Take It” underneath an image of a cannon, is the best-known flag of the Texas Revolution and originated at the Battle of Gonzales, according to the Texas Historical Commission. In the post on X, it’s shown flying below the Texas flag at Camp Mabry.

No message was posted with the photo. The post had garnered more than 20,000 views about an hour after it went online.

The Texas Military Department could not be reached immediately for comment Tuesday afternoon. A spokesperson for the National Guard Bureau said he could not provide context about the post. The Texas Military Department is a state agency that supports the Texas Military Force, which includes the Texas National Guard. Both are led by the state adjutant general, Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer.

Continue reading “”

How an Escalation in Drone Warfare Cost Three U.S. Servicemen Their Lives

Sometimes you’ve got to hand it to the bad guys for being so murderously clever in ways few could imagine. Or worse, in ways that a few forward-thinkers did imagine but that those in power didn’t take seriously.

One of those just happened in Jordan over the weekend, as I’m sure you already know, when Iran’s proxies in Syria used a drone to kill three U.S. servicemen in neighboring Jordan and injure at least 34 more. But Sunday’s attack wasn’t just another run-of-the-mill kamikaze drone strike — the kind we’ve seen more than 150 of on our forces in the region since Hamas launched its terror invasion of southern Israel on October 7.

This one was far more clever, exposing a weakness in our defenses and a failure in our imaginations — and not for the first time.

American Army Air Corps pilot and airpower pioneer Billy Mitchell died almost six years before Imperial Japan’s naval aviators crippled our battleship fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, but he predicted exactly such a scenario decades in advance. In 1910 he warned, “That increasing friction between Japan and the U.S. will take place in the future there can be little doubt, and that this will lead to war sooner or later seems quite certain,” and that Japan would initiate hostilities with an aerial bombardment of ships at anchor in Pearl Harbor.

Our top brass and political leaders dismissed the Japanese with racist notions about how they “were supposedly physiologically incapable of being good aviators because they lacked a sense of balance and their eyes were not right.” Navy leadership also insisted that it would be impossible for Japanese carriers to sneak up on us.

Oops.

Flash forward to 1994 and Tom Clancy’s latest techno-thriller, “Debt of Honor.” The book’s unlikely plot centered on a group of Japanese businessmen who, like the Imperial military in the 1930s, co-opted the government for their own ends. In this case, crippling the U.S. military in the Pacific to establish an all-new Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. At the end, with the cabal defeated, one desperate Japanese ultranationalist steals a grounded JAL airliner and crashes it into the Capitol Building while Congress is fêting our victorious president, killing nearly everyone present.

Not even Clancy had imagination enough to predict such an act committed with multiple planes, each full of terrified civilians. But no one in Washington made any preparations at all, even for the all-too-realistic scenario Clancy wrote about seven years before 9/11.

While not a failure of imagination on anything like the scale of Pearl Harbor or 9/11, Iran’s proxies showed real imagination in plotting their Sunday attack. A Defense Department official, speaking anonymously, told Politico today that the Syrian militiamen saw “an opportunity” in our defenses and “exploited” it.

They flew their drone into Tower 22 undetected by tailgating one of our own drones returning from a surveillance mission. It then struck the living quarters at Tower 22, resulting in those terrible casualties.

“Check your six” is a reminder to look behind you and see if there’s a bad guy sneaking up. We either didn’t think to do that, or the drone operator was unable to do that, and the results were deadly.

Notice there’s nothing about diversity, equity, inclusion, or climate?
Or, as a comment notes:
I suspect that the pollsters have told the WH that DEI has become a losing issue especially among ethnic whites, and the word has gotten out to tone down the rhetoric during this election season. I think it would be best to judge the new CNO by what she does and not what she says.

The CNO Stated Her Priorities

 

The Secretary of Defense – and ONLY him, not some underling – by law is in the direct chain of command of the U.S. military from POTUS to the Combatant Commanders. This was blatant dereliction of duty what with a senile delusional dotard sitting in the oval office.

BLUF
Austin’s Department of Defense is a barking shambles. It is incompetent in action and not trustworthy. It not only lies to the people and to Congress, but to the White House and itself…okay, maybe that isn’t all that unusual. As the old saying goes, a fish rots from the head down. If Biden lets this slide by, he’s a much bigger imbecile than even I had considered possible.

SecDef Austin Did Not Tell Biden’s National Security Adviser He Was in the ICU

The Department of Defense didn’t notify the White House that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in the Walter Reed National Medical Center intensive care unit until Thursday. That’s it.

I’ve posted twice on the growing mystery of why the Defense Department failed to notify Congress that Secretary Austin was in the hospital. In the first episode, it was revealed in a Pentagon statement on Friday that Austin had been in the hospital since New Year’s Day due to “complications” from an “elective medical procedure.” This came as a shock to the Pentagon Press Corps and Congress.

BACKGROUND: Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin Has Been Hospitalized for a Week and Just Told Congress Today

The second act materialized earlier on Saturday with the report that Austin hadn’t just been in the hospital; he’d been in the intensive care unit from Monday to Friday evening. His deputy, Kathleen Hicks, was on vacation in Puerto Rico at the time. While he was incapacitated and she was sunning herself, the US ordered a drone strike on the leader of an Iranian militia; the US Navy was trying to make the Red Sea safe for commercial traffic without upsetting the Iranians or Houthis, a war raged between Israel and Hamas, and North Korea lobbed a couple of hundred artillery rounds into South Korean waters.

I ended that update with this note.

While we are focused on Congressional notification, no one has yet asked if the White House was told.

Now we have the answer to that question.

The Pentagon did not inform senior officials in the White House’s National Security Council of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospitalization until Thursday — three full days after he arrived at Walter Reed Medical Center, two U.S. officials said.

The news came as a shock to top staff, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan, as they were unaware the DOD chief was dealing with complications following an elective medical procedure, the officials said. NSC staffers were surprised it took the Pentagon so long to let them know of Austin’s condition. The Pentagon didn’t make the information public until Friday evening, notifying Congress about 15 minutes before releasing a public statement.

For three days, Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan, the National Security Council, and, it seems, a lot of senior Pentagon officials did not know where Austin was, nor did they miss him.

The Pentagon did not inform senior officials in the White House’s National Security Council of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospitalization until Thursday — three full days after he arrived at Walter Reed Medical Center, two U.S. officials said.

The news came as a shock to top staff, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan, as they were unaware the DOD chief was dealing with complications following an elective medical procedure, the officials said. NSC staffers were surprised it took the Pentagon so long to let them know of Austin’s condition. The Pentagon didn’t make the information public until Friday evening, notifying Congress about 15 minutes before releasing a public statement.

In what is probably a monument of understatement, one unidentified US official said, “This should not have happened this way.”

Ya think?

There is a Paul Harvey “Rest of the Story” angle that remains to be teased out. What possible elective surgery could Austin have had that he’d literally go AWOL for a week and put the Nation’s security at risk rather than discuss?

Still, there are apologists at work. Democrat apparatchik Brad Carson doesn’t see anything wrong.

There is no standard protocol for when to announce a defense secretary’s hospitalization or temporary inability to do the job, said Brad Carson, formerly under secretary and chief management officer of the Army, though he added it could depend on the severity of Austin’s condition. If Austin were incapacitated, Congress would surely want to know. But if he were still capable of making decisions, even under a doctor’s supervision, “I don’t think Congress has to be notified in such cases.”

This is bullsh**. It makes no sense to say Congress doesn’t need to know if the Secretary of Defense is in the ICU because that affects national security. It certainly makes no sense to imply the national security adviser doesn’t need to be told.

It’s childish and unprofessional to tell the leaders of both chambers of Congress to FOAD by not informing them you are incapacitated. It is dangerously disloyal not to let the Jake Sullivan, idiot that he is, know. It is a sure bet that if Sullivan didn’t know that Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines were also out of the loop.

Austin’s Department of Defense is a barking shambles. It is incompetent in action and not trustworthy. It not only lies to the people and to Congress, but to the White House and itself…okay, maybe that isn’t all that unusual. As the old saying goes, a fish rots from the head down. If Biden lets this slide by, he’s a much bigger imbecile than even I had considered possible.

US strike kills militia leader blamed for Iraq attacks, Pentagon says

BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. military launched a retaliatory strike in Baghdad on Thursday that killed a militia leader it blames for recent attacks on U.S. personnel, the Pentagon said, a move condemned by Iraq’s government.

The U.S. strike took place at about 0900 GMT and targeted Mushtaq Jawad Kazim al Jawari, the Pentagon said, adding he was a leader of Harakat al Nujaba who was involved in planning and carrying out attacks against American personnel.

“The strike also killed one other Harakat al Nujaba member,” said Major General Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesperson, describing it as a self-defense strike. “No civilians were harmed. No infrastructure or facilities were struck.”

Since the Israel-Hamas war began in October the U.S. military has come under attack at least 100 times in Iraq and Syria, usually with a mix of rockets and one-way attack drones.

The United States has 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in neighbouring Syria focused on preventing a resurgence of Islamic State militants.

Iraqi police sources and witnesses had earlier said a drone fired at least two rockets at the headquarters in eastern Baghdad of the Nujaba militia group.

Police and militia sources said the rockets hit a vehicle in the compound and killed four people, including a militia commander and one of his aides. Health sources confirmed the death toll.

Video published by pro-militia websites showed a destroyed vehicle in flames. Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the footage.

Iran-aligned militia groups in Iraq and Syria oppose Israel’s campaign in Gaza and hold the U.S. partly responsible.

In a statement, the military spokesperson for Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani denounced the strike on the group, calling it an “unjustified attack on an Iraqi security entity” that was operating with Sudani’s authorisation.

Sudani has limited control over some Iran-backed factions, whose support he needed to win power a year ago and who now form a powerful bloc in his governing coalition.

Asked whether the U.S. military struck a member of Iraq’s security forces, Ryder said the individual targeted was a leader of an Iranian proxy group responsible for attacks against U.S. personnel.

Iraq slams US after strikes on Iran-aligned forces
Iraqi militia commanders vowed to take revenge for Thursday’s strike.

“We will retaliate and make the Americans regret carrying out this aggression,” Abu Aqeel al-Moussawi, a local Iraqi militia commander, said.

Last month, the United States carried out retaliatory air strikes in Iraq after a drone attack by Iran-aligned militants that left one U.S. service member in critical condition and wounded two others.

IDF Eliminated Over 8,000 Gaza Terrorists Since October 7.

Amid reports that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has eliminated more than 8,000 terrorists after eleven weeks of campaign in Gaza, the military is closing in on Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, Israel’s defense minister said.

“One thing is clear – Yahya Sinwar now hears the IDF tractors above him, the Air Force bombs and the IDF’s actions. He will soon meet the barrels of our guns,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared Friday. Sinwar, who is regarded as the key architect of the October 7 massacre, is believed to be hiding in southern Gaza as Israeli ground troops bring most of the Hamas stronghold in the north under their control.

The Israeli news website Arutz Sheva reported defense minister’s remarks:

Speaking at the conclusion of a daily assessment of the situation with senior members of the defense establishment, Gallant said, “The activity of the IDF and the defense establishment continues. In the north of the Gaza Strip – the operation is gradually completing the goals we set: Disbanding the Hamas battalions and denying their underground capabilities. We also operate in the Khan Yunis area and the south of the Gaza Strip, and we will operate in other places in the future.”

“One thing is clear – Yahya Sinwar now hears the IDF tractors above him, the Air Force bombs and the IDF’s actions. He will soon meet the barrels of our guns,” the Defense Minister vowed.

“We will go and deepen our activity and complete all our goals – first of all, the elimination of the Hamas terrorist organization, the denial of its military and governmental capabilities, and the return of the hostages to Israel,” Gallant added. “The operation will be a drawn-out operation, requiring patience, but we will reach an achievement.”

Continue reading “”

Today in History, 22 December 1944, Bastogne Belgium

To the U.S.A. Commander of the encircled town of Bastogne.

The fortune of war is changing. This time the U.S.A. forces in and near Bastogne have been encircled by strong German armored units. More German armored units have crossed the river Our near Ortheuville, have taken Marche and reached St. Hubert by passing through Hompre-Sibret-Tillet. Libramont is in German hands.

There is only one possibility to save the encircled U.S.A. troops from total annihilation: that is the honourable surrender of the encircled town. In order to think it over a term of two hours will be granted beginning with the presentation of this note.

If this proposal should be rejected one German Artillery Corps and six heavy A. A. Battalions are ready to annihilate the U.S.A. troops in and near Bastogne. The order for firing will be given immediately after this two hours term.

All the serious civilian losses caused by this artillery fire would not correspond with the well-known American humanity.

The German Commander.

 

To the German Commander.

NUTS!

The American Commander.

That wasn’t a ‘mistake’, it was HAMAS intent to have that happen

IDF says it accidentally killed three Israeli hostages in Gaza after mistaking them for Hamas terrorists.

Following the incident, Israel's ground forces were given new protocols to help identify hostages to avoid more hostage deaths.

Three Israeli hostages were killed after the Israel Defense Forces mistook them for a “threat” during crossfire in Gaza Friday, leaving the military expressing “deep sorrow” for the deaths.

Yotam Haim, Samer Talalka and Alon Shamriz were killed when they were accidentally “targeted” in Shejaiya and shot dead by the IDF.

It believes the three hostages “fled or were abandoned by the terrorists who held them captive.”

Haim and Shamriz were abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7 in Kfar Aza, while Talalka was taken from Nir Am, according to the Times of Israel.

Haim, 28, was a heavy metal drummer in the band Persephore. He was taken from his home at the start of the war and his house was set on fire by Hamas fighters.

Talalka, who was in his early 20s, was taken from a hatchery, where he and his father worked. The young man often worked early weekend shifts in the henhouse, according to the outlet.

Shamriz was a 26-year-old computer engineering student whose parents are from Iran, the Times of Israel reported.

Continue reading “”

Pentagon Falls 41,000 Short of Reduced Military Recruitment Goals

The Pentagon came up short on its recruitment goals.

The Defense Department’s senior officials testified Wednesday about shortfalls in Army, Navy and Air Force recruiting in the fiscal year that ended in September at a hearing of the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee. The Marine Corps and Space Force made their recruiting goals.

Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Ashish Vazirani said that during fiscal year 2023, the military services together missed goals by about 41,000 recruits.

“That number understates the challenge before us as the services lowered [their] end-strength goals in recent years, in part because of the difficult recruiting environment,” he said. “The all-volunteer force faces one of its greatest challenges since inception.”

Vazirani cited multiple reasons for the recruitment shortfall, which he called “complex and multifaceted.”

Among the reasons: A strong economy that means more options for young people, a smaller eligible population, Generation Z’s generally low trust in institutions and fewer young people with family members who have served in the military.

In 1995, 40% of young people had a parent who served in the military, Vazirani said. By 2022, 12% had a parent who had served.

“This has led to a disconnect between the military and a large share of society,” he said.

In September, the U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a report on military housing. It detailed sewage backups and inoperable fire systems are among the safety hazards that U.S. service members living in barracks face. The report found such conditions undermine quality of life and military readiness.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office report found that the Pentagon’s assessments of conditions at barracks “are unreliable” and “observed barracks that pose potentially serious health and safety risks – such as broken windows and inoperable fire systems – and that do not meet minimum [U.S. Department of Defense] standards for privacy and configuration.”

Conditions were so bad in some places that service members sometimes took “drastic action, such as getting married, just to leave the barracks,” according to the report. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops live in barracks, which are for the most junior-ranking unmarried service members without children or other dependents.

US military grounds entire fleet of Osprey aircraft following a deadly crash off the coast of Japan.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The military announced late Wednesday it was grounding all of its Osprey V-22 helicopters, one week after eight Air Force Special Operations Command service members died in a crash off the coast of Japan.

The Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps took the extraordinary step of grounding hundreds of aircraft after a preliminary investigation of last week’s crash indicated that a materiel failure — that something went wrong with the aircraft — and not a mistake by the crew led to the deaths.

The crash raised new questions about the safety of the Osprey, which has been involved in multiple fatal accidents over its relatively short time in service. Japan grounded its fleet of 14 Ospreys after the crash.

Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind, head of Air Force Special Operations Command, directed the standdown “to mitigate risk while the investigation continues,” the command said in a statement. “Preliminary investigation information indicates a potential materiel failure caused the mishap, but the underlying cause of the failure is unknown at this time.”

In a separate notice, Naval Air Systems Command said it was grounding all Ospreys. The command is responsible for the Marine Corps and Navy variants of the aircraft.

Continue reading “”

This isn’t IronMan, or even Starship Troopers, but it is a nice thing that I wish I had available.

Back-saving exosuits may someday be standard-issue gear for troops.

Army exosuit SABERThe Army’s Pathfinder program, led by a collaborative team of Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and engineers at Vanderbilt University, brought about exoskeleton prototypes that augment lifting capabilities and reduce back strain for sustainment and logistics operations. (U.S. Army photo by Larry McCormack)

For years, military trade shows have featured intimidating “Iron Man” exosuit prototypes that would seem right at home in a Marvel movie. But the US military is now showing interest in a different kind of exosuit: one that won’t incorporate blast armor or a third machine-gun holding arm, but will save troops’ backs when they are loading artillery rounds. In an Army wear test of a back-worn exosuit about 90% of troops reported being able to do their lifting-intensive jobs better while wearing the three-pound suit; and all said they’d wear an improved version of the suit if it was made available to them.
The test was conducted with 101st Airborne Division soldiers at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.As the Army and Air Force move further with the Soldier Assistive Bionic Exosuit for Resupply, or SABER, as the exosuit is called, Karl Zelik, its lead researcher, says the concept and testing success illustrates how exosuits may soon be as commonplace as combat boots and covers.

Continue reading “”

Skynet smiles

Cyborg Dynamics Engineering’s WARFIGHTER UGV

120454339_1741496722670877_8803368625644869127_n.jpg

Add unto that:

In 2020 Cyborgs Dynamics Engineering with its Joint Venture partners Skyborne technologies spun out Athena Artificial Intelligence.
The company is a world first capability, providing AI decision support to military and first responder applications. The capability fuses multilayered neural networks, algorithmic decision support and optimized UX /UI design into a single package.
Athena now employs over 25 staff and has exports into the USA.

BLUF
Was that an intentional campaign to rid the military of critical thinkers?

The U.S. Army is ‘Begging’ Unvaccinated Soldiers to Return
Army forced to reverse course, as people refuse to enlist

Oh, how much the times have changed!

The United States Army is now begging COVID unvaccinated soldiers, who underwent involuntary discharge for their refusal to take the vaccine, to return to service and also permits them to correct their military records!

Just two years ago, in a shameful campaign, the Pentagon was gleefully discharging soldiers who refused to take Covid vaccines:

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2021/12/14/air-force-discharges-27-for-refusal-to-get-covid-vaccine/

We were assured that these discharges would “not affect military readiness.”

“I can tell you there are no operational impacts across the force for readiness,” Marine Corps Lt. Gen. David Ottignon told lawmakers. “There’s no one community that has signaled an instance where a [leader], an NCO or another enlisted Marine is not present because of that.”

The Marine Corps has, by far, kicked out the most service members: 1,968 total, 20% of whom received an honorable discharge. That amounts to just under 1% of the total force, which stands at about 215,000.

However, the readiness suffered: thousands of service members were dismissed, and potential recruits declined to enlist in the Armed Services, because, guess what, young healthy men loath COVID vaccines.

More than 17,000 service members balked at taking the shots, citing safety fears linked to the vaccine’s speedy development and spurred by misinformation about messenger ribonucleic acid technology, as well as concern over fetal cell lines used in formulation and testing. The more the controversy raged in the news, the more troops asked to skip the shots, Military Times reporting found.

The COVID vaccine mandate removed three times as many servicemembers (8,339, see above) compared to the 2,402 soldiers tragically killed in Afghanistan. The involuntarily terminated soldiers were, of course, the best, the brightest, the healthiest, and most conscientious, who cared the most about their health.

Thousands were given career-destroying reprimands:

Lt. Col. Terry Kelley, a spokesman for the Army, said that 2,767 soldiers have received “general officer written reprimands” — killing their opportunities for promotions or transfers within the military — and that two battalion commanders as well as four other officers have been relieved of their duties but remain enlisted in the military.

The leadership, sadly, stayed silent. (pictured here is Lloyd Austin)

As a result, the military is missing its recruitment goals by 25%:

Continue reading “”

The Laws of War
Critics of Israel’s actions in Gaza should keep in mind the principles of international humanitarian law–and hold Hamas to those same standards.

Each day brings new accounts of tragedy from Israel and Gaza. Reasonable people agree that the atrocities Hamas committed on October 7—deliberate, videotaped killings of innocent civilians; maiming in the most gruesome fashion of Israeli women and children; and taking Israelis as hostages into its warren of tunnels—stand as deeply disturbing violations of human rights and the laws of armed conflict. As President Joe Biden made clear, Israel possesses a right of self-defense that legally justifies the use of force against Hamas to prevent further atrocities and missile launches against its civilians. Those who argue Israel does not have a right of self defense make two claims: First, they argue that Israel’s “inherent right” is nullified because it is the “occupying power” of the Gaza Strip; and, second, they argue that the right of self-defense in Article 51 of the UN Charter applies only to force against other states, not non-state actors like Hamas.

Both arguments are unavailing. It is highly doubtful that Israel qualifies as an “occupying” power of the Gaza Strip because once it withdrew all military forces from Gaza in 2005, it has exercised no authority over the territory, which is a requirement under international law before assuming the responsibility of an occupying power. UN groups like the Human Rights Council counter that the status of “occupier” still applies because Israel has imposed stringent limits on travel to and trade with Gaza. And yet Egypt has (mostly) sealed off Gaza’s other border without being termed an occupying power.

In any event, even if Israel were an occupying power, that status would not justify Hamas’ intentional attacks on civilian targets in Israel or prevent Israel from using force to protect itself. For example, it was not considered illegal for the United States, as the occupying power of Iraq in the immediate aftermath of the 2003 Iraq War, to use force against Iraqis who were attacking U.S. forces within Iraq.

The second argument against Israel’s right of self-defense—that it cannot invoke this right against non-state actors like Hamas—is equally untenable. Article 51 of the UN Charter states that nothing shall “impair the inherent right” of self-defense possessed by all member states. In recent years, many governments, including the United States, have adopted the view that this right of self-defense applies against non-state actors like al-Qaeda and ISIS in situations where the government of the state in which the non-state actors are operating is “unwilling or unable” to prevent attacks by the non-state actor. The case of the Gaza conflict is much stronger for Israel than the “unwilling or unable” rationale; Israel is protecting against Hamas’ direct, indiscriminate killing, beheading, torture and hostage-taking of Israeli civilians. 

Of course, Israel must exercise its right of self-defense in conformity with international humanitarian law (IHL), also known as the laws of war or armed conflict. This body of customary international law, which was codified in the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their subsequent protocols, limits the use of force to the following situations: military necessity; where a distinction is made between combatants and non-combatants; and where the use of force is proportionate to the concrete military objective sought to be achieved.

Continue reading “”

Five US Service Members Dead After Military Aircraft Crash Over Mediterranean Sea

Although the United States has not formally entered the Israel-Hamas war, America nevertheless suffered our first casualties related to the conflict Saturday when five servicemembers perished in an aircraft crash over the eastern Mediterranean Sea during a routine training mission.

All five are presumed dead:

U.S. European Command (EUCOM) said the aircraft “suffered a mishap” and crashed into the sea during a routine air refueling mission. Search and rescue efforts began immediately, including nearby U.S. military aircraft and ships. All five service members on board the aircraft were determined to have died.

An investigation into the crash is underway, though military officials have said that there are no indications of any hostile activity involved.

The president weighed in:

“Our nation shares their grief,” Biden said of the family members of the fallen. “Our service members put their lives on the line for our country every day. They willingly take risks to keep the American people safe and secure. And their daily bravery and selflessness is an enduring testament to what is best in our nation.”

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said officials were still investigating the cause of the crash:

“While we continue to gather more information about this deadly crash, it is another stark reminder that the brave men and women who defend our great nation put their lives on the line each and every day to keep our country safe,” the statement said. “They represent the best of America. We will remember their service and their sacrifice.”

Although it’s unclear which military service the aircraft belonged to, the U.S. recently sent two aircraft carriers, the USS Gerald R. Ford and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, to the region as the war in the Middle East intensifies.

The identities of the five have not yet been released:

European Command said that out of respect for the families of the service members and in line with Department of Defense policy, the identities of the crew members are being withheld for 24 hours until the families of those killed have been notified.

EUCOM is responsible for U.S. military operations across Europe, portions of Asia and the Middle East, the Arctic, and the Atlantic Ocean:

The United States European Command is one of the eleven unified combatant commands of the United States military, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany. Its area of focus covers 21,000,000 square miles and 51 countries and territories, including Europe, The Caucasus, Russia and Greenland.