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C.I.A. Is Said to Have Bought and Destroyed Iraqi Chemical Weapons – NYTimes.com.

Take a bow, URR.

And punch the next hippy that says Bush lied.

Russian officials still deny having troops on the ground in eastern Ukraine. But the encirclement of Debaltseve and the intensification of the battle immediately after President Vladimir Putin signed the peace agreement in Minsk has many people convinced that it is a Russian-led operation.

via Surrender or die: Ukrainians trapped in Debaltseve pocket as deadline looms – Telegraph.

China still maintains the million or so troops that surged into North Korea in 1950 were volunteers.

What would happen if U.S. nuclear attack submarines—some of the most sophisticated and expensive American weapons of war—suddenly became obsolete? Imagine a scenario where these important systems became the hunted instead of the hunter, or just as technologically backward as the massive battleships of years past. Think that sounds completely insane? If advances in big data and new detection methods fuse with the anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) ambitions of nations like China and Russia, naval planners around the world might have to go back to the drawing board.

via Are Submarines About to Become Obsolete? | The National Interest.

Short answer- No.

Either the author (and the underlying study) don’t understand submarine warfare, or this is clickbait on a slightly higher intellectual plane than Buzzfeed.

Any of the possible solutions to detecting, localizing, tracking, classifying and targeting a submarine apply equally or more so to surface ships.

Further, the assertion that future technologies will soon render subs visible has been making the rounds forever. And yet, it never comes to fruition. Someday, it probably will. But at what cost? For a given area of ocean (say, the South China Sea) how many sensor platforms equipped with expensive sensors would be required to reliably target a given submarine? Can our potential enemies afford those platforms and sensors? What opportunity costs would these technologies impose on the threat nations? After all, yuan spent on hunting subs is yuan not available for some other program.

Further, the same advances in detection and targeting would apply just about evenly to their own forces, rending them vulnerable to our own counters, be they sub based or via some other method.

And in that lies one of our traditional strengths. The US has long embraced combined arms. While that’s traditionally thought of in Army terms, from the integration of infantry and artillery up to more complex scenarios, the fact is, the US has for a very long time excelled the rest of the world in leveraging the whole of its military capabilities in a synergistic system of systems that yield an effectiveness that outstrips our opponents.

For instance, in World War II, the US operated fast carrier task forces, amphibious forces and submarine forces, all supported by a submarine campaign, in parallel, with each facet reinforcing the effects of the others.

It is a mistake all to many defense observers make to look at one platform, one weapon, in isolation, and ignore that the platform, the weapon is merely part of a much larger methodology of war.

American pilots call it “going Winchester,” when a warplane drops every bomb on board, and air crews for the B-1 bomber told AFP it was not uncommon in the battle for the Syrian town of Kobane, recaptured by Kurdish forces last month.

The airmen, recently returned from a six-month stint flying combat missions over Syria and Iraq, recounted how American aircraft relentlessly pounded Islamic State jihadists fighting the Kurds in Kobane.

The heavy bombing, not seen since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, helped the Kurds hold and eventually recapture the northern border town last month, a symbolic blow to the extremists who appeared on the verge of seizing Kobane in October.

“When you went to Kobane, you could almost guarantee you were going to release a weapon that day,” said Captain Todd Saksa, a B-1 weapons systems officer.

via In battle for Kobane, US crews recount heavy bombing.

One has a sneaking suspicion an Air Force PAO set this up as a quiet way of suggesting the plan to retire the A-10 won’t be the disaster some folks are claiming it will be.

On the other hand, the B-1 really does have the attributes claimed- awesome payload, and great endurance. How many 2000# JDAMs can you fit on an A-10? Or, for that matter, an F-15E Strike Eagle? Not as many, I can assure you.

By now you’re well aware of the slow motion invasion of Ukraine by Russia. And the recent upswing both in Islamic attacks and anti-Semitism in western Europe. You probably also realize Russia is working to intimidate the Baltic states with a possible eye to bringing them back into the fold.

You know, if we time this just right, the next American Expeditionary Forces could land in Europe on the 100th anniversary of the first.

I want to joke about the Marines forcing their Navy Corpsmen to be miserable, but hypothermia is a very real problem for deployed forces.

Often times, unless you’re specifically looking for symptoms in your fellow troop, you can miss early stages. And it often occurs at temperatures much higher than you’d think.  I’ve seen people who were sweat soaked dip into mild hypothermia with temperature in the 60s. The combination of wet clothes and a fair breeze led to evaporative cooling. Troops who had been safe minutes before because of the heavy exertion of moving with a full combat load were quickly rendered ineffective.

Indeed, back in 1995, the US Army Ranger School had four students die from hypothermia The students were in chest deep water in the Florida swamps. The 60-ish weather, and water temps in the low 50s led to 8 soldiers being evacuated, four of whom succumbed to hypothermia.

For you civilians out there, hypothermia, or exposure as its often called, is the single biggest cause of death during outdoor activities. Always, always have a backup plan for bad weather, and spare dry clothes.

SAN DIEGO, CALIF. – As missions go, this one was easy: Fly an MH-60S Knighthawk across San Diego Bay so the helicopter could be displayed at the WEST 2015 conference.

Naval Aircrewman (Helicopter) (AW) Thomas Fint was one of four crew members Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 8 (HSC-8) tasked with the Feb. 7 mission to deliver the MH-60S from North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado to the San Diego Convention Center.

The rescue swimmer realized he could turn the short mission into a major milestone: Asking his girlfriend to marry him.

via Love is in the Air, MH-60S Delivers Surprise Engagement – USNI News.

What a cute story. Pics and video at the link.