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US Special Ops Troops Kill ISIS Leader in Syria Raid – Defense One
U.S. Special Operations troops killed a top leader of the Islamic State group during a covert raid in eastern Syria Friday night, according to American officials. The raid appears to be the first publicly revealed offensive U.S. military operation on Syrian soil in the coalition fight against ISIS.
The Army special operations team was attempting to capture Abu Sayyaf, whom the Pentagon said helped direct the group’s illicit oil, gas, and financial operations. The team flew into Syria from Iraq on Blackhawk helicopters and Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, a defense official said. They fought a close-quarters firefight that included hand-to-hand combat. They killed a dozen enemy fighters, some of whom were using women and children as human shields.
via US Special Ops Troops Kill ISIS Leader in Syria Raid – Defense One.
Delta was trying to snatch him, but zapping him is good enough.
This kind of operation is highly dependent on good intelligence, and good operational security. You have to let enough people know what you’re doing to avoid the friction of war, but not so many people that the enemy hears about what is coming.
And of course, timeliness is critical as well. Having developed the intelligence to allow a raid, the authorization to go has to come before the information goes stale.
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Tempest
Good morning. Grab a cup of coffee, this is a long one. Over an hour.
The Supermarine Spitfire is THE iconic British fighter of World War II, but arguably, the series of fighters designed by Sir Sydney Camm for Hawker were, in the end, the more important contribution. Camm designed 52 aircraft for Hawker over his career. The pre-war design of the Hurricane would form the backbone of RAF Fighter Command in the early days of World War II, and bear the brunt of the Battle of Britain.
While the Hurricane was a solid design, it was limited by the (then) relatively low powered Rolls Royce Merlin engine. Camm looked to newer, more powerful engines for his next fighter design. The Hawker Typhoon was an all new design, but clearly an evolution of the Hurricane. Powered by the new, powerful, and very temperamental Napier Sabre engine. Designed as a fighter to replace the Hurricane, the Typhoon would instead find itself spending most of its career in the ground attack role.
Like the Hurricane, the Typhoon had a rather thick wing. That thick wing meant more drag, and also introduced British pilots and designers to the problems of compressibility in high speed regimes. Looking to the laminar flow wing of the North American Mustang, Camm saw an opportunity to design an update of the Typhoon that would be even better. With its much thinner wing, the Hawker Tempest would be the fasted British piston engined fighter of the war.
Camm always understood that the performance of a fighter was very closely tied to the state of the art in engine design, and was eager to incorporate ever more powerful engines into his designs. Indeed, the Typhoon was actually the Typhoon Mk V, with Marks I-V having various other engines as testbeds. The engine Camm really wanted was the Bristol Centaur, but a shortage of that engine meant it wasn’t until the very waning days of the war that enough were available to begin fielding the Tempest II. The Tempest II, with its radial engine was a rather radical departure from the Tenpest V’s H-block engine.
The final stage of evolution would be Britain’s last piston engined fighter, the Hawker Sea Fury. Generally similar to the Tempest II, the Sea Fury featured smaller wings, and was generally lighter overall. It would serve with distinction in the Korean War for the decks of British carriers, and even labor on in the Burmese Air Force until 1968!
Probably the last combat of the Sea Fury was during the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in April 1961. The Batista government had received a handful, and the Castro government struggled to keep them in operation. In spite of their advanced years, the Sea Furies in service with Castro’s regime proved highly effective in attacking the transports attempting to invade Cuba.
But back to the subject of our post, the Hawker Tempest.
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Hillary Clinton’s litmus test for Supreme Court nominees: a pledge to overturn Citizens United – The Washington Post
Hillary Clinton told a group of her top fundraisers Thursday that if she is elected president, her nominees to the Supreme Court will have to share her belief that the court’s 2010 Citizens United decision must be overturned, according to people who heard her remarks.
Clinton’s emphatic opposition to the ruling, which allowed corporations and unions to spend unlimited sums on independent political activity, garnered the strongest applause of the afternoon from the more than 200 party financiers gathered in Brooklyn for a closed-door briefing from the Democratic candidate and her senior aides, according to some of those present.
Might I remind you, dear reader, that Citizens United involved a non-profit organization that was prohibited from distributing a film critical of Hillary Clinton. Prior restraint of the worst sort. Political speech is the very speech that the 1st Amendment was most meant to protect. The Founding Fathers didn’t just have bright idea about free speech toss it in the Bill of Rights. It was a reaction to various edicts and acts of the British that curtailed the rights of Americans to participate in the politics that affected their lives.
And that is exactly what Citizens United was attempting to do- participate in the politics that affected their lives.
But the excruciatingly bad McCain-Feingold law allowed the Federal Elections Commission to haul CU before a district court, which held that the movie, Hillary- The Movie, was little more than a negative campaign ad, and thus could not be shown, nor advertisements for the movie, within certain dates of a primary or general election, as Citizens United was, as a 501(c)4 entity, a corporation.
Mind you, this is after Citizens United unsuccessfully pled to the FEC that Michael Moore’s Farenheight 9/11 similarly failed to withstand McCain-Feingold scrutiny. That is, it’s okay for Democrats to bash Republicans, but not okay for conservatives to bash Democrats.
The Solicitor General of the United States of America actually stood there before the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States and argued that not only was this perfectly acceptable, so too could the government ban any book that had so much as a single sentence that the FEC, in its sole discretion, felt called for the election of one candidate, or the defeat of another.
The Supreme Court ruled against the FEC, and in favor of Citizens United. That’s the good news. The bad news is, it was by the skin of its teeth in a 5-4 split.
Aside from the obvious free speech issue, it is also a free association issue. Corporations are just that, associations of people, who invest their money toward a common goal. The law treats corporations as artificial people because they do in fact stand in stead of real people who share ownership of the corporation. And to the end, the corporation’s free speech is a reflection of their own free speech.
In spite of an unending propaganda blitz to convince you otherwise, corporations are still prohibited from directly contributing to political candidate’s campaigns. But they are allowed, just like people, to contribute however much they wish to independent efforts to advertise for or against candidates.
But rather than cherishing the political speech at the very heart of the 1st Amendment, Hillary Clinton insists the most important ideological aspect of any Justice she might appoint is that they be willing to prohibit criticism of her.
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AIRSHOW NEWS: 2015 will be the final display season for Avro Vulcan XH558 : UK Airshow Information and Photography – Flightline UK
The Vulcan to the Sky Trust has today (Friday 15th May) announced that the 2015 Display Season will be the final one for Avro Vulcan XH558. The Trust plans a fitting farewell season displaying the aircraft to as big an audience as possible before retiring the aircraft in the Autumn.
Paul Johnson/Flightline UK reports. Photography as credited.
From the first ever airshow appearance by the Avro Vulcan at the 1952 Farnborough Air Show, the sight and sound of the mighty delta-winged V-Bomber has been etched onto the memory of airshow crowds. These memories continued long after the Vulcan had been retired from frontline service with the Vulcan Display Flight based at RAF Waddington continue to show off the impressive performance of the aircraft at shows around the UK.
All good things come to an end. We tip our cap to the VttS team, and thank them for the spectacular job they’ve done of restoring and presenting XH558 these past few years, and hope that this Vulcan will live a long life on display. We only regret we never had a chance to see her perform in person.
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Islamic State seizes capital of Iraq’s largest province – The Washington Post
BAGHDAD — Islamic State fighters took control of key sites in heart of Ramadi, capital of Iraq’s largest province, Iraqi officials said Friday, in what appeared to mark a significant blow to a U.S.-backed military campaign to retake territory from the militants.
The Islamic State offensive — which began with ambush-style attacks after sundown Thursday — also pointed to wider concerns about the ability of Iraqi ground forces to overcome the well-armed extremists on other fronts around the country.
It also could restore a major foothold for the Islamic State less than 70 miles west of Baghdad in the crucial Anbar Province, which has been the scene of bloodshed and seesaw battles since the U.S.-led invasion more than 12 years ago.
via Islamic State seizes capital of Iraq’s largest province – The Washington Post.
I eagerly await hearing Josh Earnest explain how this is a great victory for the Obama administration’s foreign policy.
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Group wants two-star court-martialed for speech
An Air Force two-star general is being blasted by a civil liberties group for speaking in uniform about how God has guided his career.
Video posted on YouTube shows Maj. Gen. Craig Olson speaking at a National Day of Prayer Task Force event May 7. In the speech, Olson refers to himself as a “redeemed believer in Christ,” who credits God for his accomplishments in the Air Force.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has called for Olson to be “aggressively and very visibly brought to justice for his unforgivable crimes and transgressions” by a court-martial, adding that any other service members who helped him should be investigated and punished “to the full extent of military law.”
via Group wants two-star court-martialed for speech.
This is pretty much a pure clickbait post.
Mikey Weinstein, CEO of the MRFF, is one of those loathesome puritanical atheists. It’s not enough that he be an atheist. To him, there’s always the deep, dark, abiding fear that someone, somewhere might be spiritually fulfilled.
Weinstein has particularly targeted the Air Force, it seems. He’s had some amount of success trolling various installation commanders, to the point where the office of the Chief of Staff of the Air Force has basically told installation commanders to simply refer all complaints to Air Force headquarters, and let them deal with it.
One suspects this is a response to that guidance. Mikey simply cannot abide the thought that someone would ignore him.
We do believe it is incumbent upon uniformed leadership to ensure they are not inadvertently endorsing a religion, or otherwise pressuring their subordinates to conform. But we also believe that simply being promoted to flag rank does not mean that someone should be forced to foreswear discussing one of the central aspects of their life, their personal character, their story.
One hopes the Air Force will see this for the stupid publicity stunt that it is, and remind Mikey that service members too enjoy 1st Amendment rights.
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Magic Carpet
Landing on a carrier is the defining difference between the Tailhook Navy and the Air Force. It’s incredibly challenging, and requires consummate airmanship, every time. The utmost precision flying is required, often under far from optimum conditions, simply to conduct routine operations.
Early jet operations at sea had astonishingly bad safety records. The combination of straight carrier decks, the old style flat approach, and underpowered engines with very slow response time meant carrier aviators that embarked on a career could easily expect to see as many as one in four of their peers die in an operational accident.
The introduction of the angled deck and the mirror (later, Fresnel lens) optical landing system, combined with better engine performance, and the constant descent/angle of attack carrier approach greatly improved the safety record of fast jet carrier aviation. Even so, operational accidents are far too common, as is the loss of life associated with them.
Non aviators think that the rate of descent for a jet is controlled by pulling or pushing on the control stick. Nope. The pilot controls the rate of descent with the throttle. Speed is controlled by pushing or pulling the nose up or down.*
This counterintuitive method of flying takes an extraordinary amount of practice to master.
Magic Carpet, a series of software improvements to the flight controls and the Heads Up Display symbology in the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aim to eliminate this. Spill did a great series of posts on fly by wire technology. The thing about fly-by-wire is not so much that the commands are sent to the actuators via electrical signal, so much as that the flight control computer on board takes the input from the pilot, and interprets it as to what the pilot wishes to accomplish, and sends the appropriate command to the controls.
Reducing pilot workload makes for increased safety, and greater operational effectiveness.
The F-35C will have a similar capability built in from the beginning.
*This is a very, very gross oversimplification of the complexities of the carrier approach.
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Rest in Peace, BB King
I’ll admit, I am not really a fan of the Blues, nor particularly of BB King. But I can still admire him and his contributions.
When I was recruiting in Indiana, one of my fellow recruiters was a guy from Mississippi. He was about as corn pone a guy I ever met in the Army. You know, with his slow drawl, it took about 10 minutes for him to say good morning. His unhurried, languid manner hid a razor sharp mind, and a lightning quick wit.
He bore more than a passing resemblance to a younger BB King. And indeed, he had picked up a knock-off of Lucille, King’s inseparable partner, the guitar of legend. And he was pretty good at picking at it.
Couldn’t sing worth a damn though.
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How not to care for your soldiers
Service members are entitled to 30 days of leave per year, accrued at a rate of 2.5 days of leave per calendar month. Leave is an entitlement, not a privilege.* Service members may accrue no more than 60 days of leave. Any leave accrued over 60 days is forfeit at the end of the year. Informally, any leave over 60 days is termed “use it or lose it.” Most commands closely track the leave accrued by individual members, and strongly encourage those with over 45 days on the books to take leave.
While service members are entitled to take leave, when they take leave is up to the discretion of the unit chain of command. For instance, you aren’t going to get two weeks of ordinary leave authorized right smack in the middle of your unit’s planned rotation to the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, or right as your aircraft carrier or destroyer is slated to deploy to the Western Pacific.
As a rule of thumb, units returning from a lengthy deployment authorize what is known as “block leave.” Ordinarily, units are only authorized to have a limited percentage of troops not available for duty, around 10%, as I recall. But block leave waives that requirement, and everyone is encouraged to take as much as 30 days of leave. Unit commanders may authorize 30 days of leave, even for those service members with less than 30 days leave accrued, provided they have sufficient time left on their enlistment to accrue the excess leave. Other types of leave include PCS leave, that is, time off taken in connection with a Permanent Change of Station; maternity leave; convalescent leave, not chargeable against their accrued leave, and terminal leave, taken in conjunction with ones separation from the service.
In the Army, leaves and passes** are requested and authorized via a form known as DA 31. A service members accrued leave is tracked on the Leave and Earnings Statement, or LES, the military equivalent of a pay stub. In the Army, requests for ordinary leave are (usually) approved at the battalion level, and tracked by the battalion S-1 (Personnel) shop, after approval by the company chain of command.
Here’s a scenario. Your humble scribe is a Sergeant stationed at Fort Carson, CO. With a balance of something like 45 days on the books, I decide to go visit the dear old folks in Washington. A quick look at the unit training calendar to ensure no major training rotations or other critical events are coming up, I pick a block of 30 days that should work. I pick a 30 day window that is about a month out. I chat with my squad leader and platoon sergeant, and see what they think of the dates in mind. I then fill out a DA 31, and attach a photocopy of my latest LES. I turn it in to my company First Sergeant, who in turn has it signed by the company commander. I then hand carry it across the street to the S-1 shop. Within two or three days, S-1 has the paperwork logged. Then, on the day I’m due to depart, I check with the battalion Staff Duty NCO desk, and sign out on leave in the log. A month later, I sign back in on the log. And go to work the next day. Easy peasy.
Take a look at DA 31.
So, why is it that some unit at Ft. Campbell, KY has decided to take something simple, an entitlement, one of the more important ones, a key factor in individual and unit moral, and make it a trial to be endured simply to request that which one is entitled to?
I’m sure the commander who issued this puerile policy has his or her reasons. I can generally understand the Privately Owned Vehicle inspection and vehicle registration. Lord knows, the chain of command doesn’t want some young solider setting off driving across country in a car that shouldn’t be on the road, and doesn’t have valid tags or insurance, driven by a troop with an expired or suspended license. But one begins to suspect that the commander doesn’t want this to happen not so much out of a deep concern for the well being of his charges, but rather because he wants to cover his own ass in the event something unfortunate should happen. PFC Smith died in a car accident on the way home? Well, here’s the paperwork that shows we mitigated that risk! Can’t blame me!
What the training qualifications have to do with authorizing leave is beyond me. The soldier is entitled to his leave. It’s the commander’s responsibility to ensure he is trained. Those qualifications listed are on the commander’s shoulders, not PFC Smith. If he’s not current, that’s the CO’s fault, not his.
The Army is struggling to keep quality people even as it downsizes. What it really, really doesn’t want to do is brightsize, where the best people get out while the getting is good, leaving behind only those that need instructions to put on their velcro sneakers.
Here’s a hint- 95% of your troops are bright, motivated people. They’re smarter than the national average, and guess what? You have trained them and are willing to take them to war and literally trust them with your life. Why not act like it? Trust them, trust their NCOs. You know who your problem children are. Do they deserve an enhanced level of scrutiny? Of course. There’s the old saying that you’ll always spend 80% of your time on 20% of your people. So why force the good ones to jump through hoops when you know, deep in your heart it is unnecessary, and frankly, insulting.
I cannot tell you how many great soldiers I knew that loved soldiering. Actually getting to do their job, with other great Americans doing theirs. Being challenged to do difficult things under difficult circumstances. And yet these same troops, because they were the competent, mature people the Army supposedly most cherished, were consistently treated as on a par with the lowest common denominator. If the Army wouldn’t unleash them to do great things, they’d unleash themselves from the Army.
We saw the same reaction to infantilization today from a letter from an Airman.
A fair amount of chickenshit in the Army, and the other services, is a matter of the old saw, the right way, the wrong way, and the Army way. There was often a real reason for sometimes seemingly nutty procedures. But simply piling more and more burdens on the back of a troop to cover every possible contingency is the worst sort of leadership. It shows the commander doesn’t trust his troops, his NCOs, or even his own judgment.
*with certain very specific exceptions.
**While technically service members who leave an installation after the duty day or are not on duty during the weekend are considered to be in a pass status, a DA 31 approved pass is generally not required, except in unusual circumstances, such as if a member plans to drive an unusual distance from his duty station. Passes, either verbal or on a DA 31, may not exceed 96 hours. That is, you can’t have more than a four day weekend. You have to have at least one complete duty day before you can take another pass. If you want more than four days off, put in for leave.
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Veterans Affairs improperly spent $6 billion annually, senior official says – The Washington Post
The Department of Veterans Affairs has been spending at least $6 billion a year in violation of federal contracting rules to pay for medical care and supplies, wasting taxpayer money and putting veterans at risk, according to an internal memo written by the agency’s senior official for procurement.
In a 35-page document addressed to VA Secretary Robert McDonald, the official accuses other agency leaders of “gross mismanagement” and making a “mockery” of federal acquisition laws that require competitive bidding and proper contracts.
Jan R. Frye, deputy assistant secretary for acquisition and logistics, describes a culture of “lawlessness and chaos” at the Veterans Health Administration, the massive health-care system for 8.7 million veterans.
via Veterans Affairs improperly spent $6 billion annually, senior official says – The Washington Post.
I’m gonna skip over the outrage phase of this and just note:
The normal, legally mandated contracting and purchasing methods for the federal government are so unwieldy and burdensome that little money, and no time would likely have been saved.
You find people buying pizzas and scotch on their purchasing card, sure, I’m livid
You find them buying prosthetics for an amputee in a timely manner?
That’s a little harder to be upset about.
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