GrogNews

Sound Off! Comments On Sounding Off!

2012-01-31T14:31:00.001Z

So we've got 52 of these-here "Sound Off!" thingees under our belt now.
What do y'all think? Do we keep "Sound Off!" going? Or is it time to punt it for something else new?

I like it! I love it! I want more of it!

It's old! It's tired! It's time to be retired!

Sound off below!

By: Brant

USAction! Khowst Province

2012-01-30T18:20:00.000Z

U.S. Army Pfc. Tyler Jennings conducts a combat patrol in Khowst province, Afghanistan, Jan. 25, 2012. Jennings is a cannon crew member assigned to 2nd Battalion, 377th Parachute Field Artillery Regiment. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jason Epperson - Download Hi-Res

By: Brant

UK In Action: Helicopter Traffic

2012-01-30T16:19:00.004Z

Photograph shows Royal Air Force Chinook Mk2 helicopters from 1310 Flight taking off from Camp Bastion airfield in Helmand, Afghanistan. The Joint Helicopter Force (AFGHANISTAN) or JHF (A) is a deployed tri-Service unit from the Joint Helicopter Command. Its primary purpose is to facilitate tactical mobility, reconnaissance and Aviation Fires support to the UK task force in Helmand Province and to the multi-national force of Regional Command (South).

img from UK MoD

By: Widow 6-7

Monday Video: Are You Ready?

2012-01-30T12:04:00.000Z

The Germans are ready, in this week's BANG

By: Brant

Syrian Fighting to Eject Rebels from Suburbs of the Capital

2012-01-29T13:08:00.000Z

The Syrians are fighting to retake the eastern 'burbs of Damascus from the anti-government rebels that have been there for a few weeks.

Thousands of Syrian soldiers moved into the suburbs of Damascus that have fallen under rebel control on Sunday, killing five civilians, activists said, a day after the Arab League suspended its monitoring mission in Syria because of mounting violence.
Around 2,000 soldiers in buses and armored personnel carriers, along with at least 50 tanks and armored vehicles, moved at dawn into the eastern Ghouta area on the edge of Damascus to reinforce troops surrounding the suburbs of Saqba, Hammouriya and Kfar Batna, activists said.
The army pushed into the heart of Kfar Batna and four tanks were in its central square, they said.
"Mosques that have turned into field hospitals are requesting blood. They cut off the electricity. Petrol stations are empty and the army is preventing people from leaving to get fuel for generators or heating," said Raid, an activist in Saqba who spoke briefly by satellite phone.
The deaths brought to 17 the number of people killed in the suburbs since Saturday when the army launched an offensive against rebels who seized them last week, activists and residents said.

View Larger Map

By: Brant

Pakistan Undercutting Themselves on OBL

2012-01-28T13:52:00.000Z

The BBC has an interesting report on a Pakistani doctor who provided intel in the OBL raid.

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has said he is "very concerned" about a Pakistani doctor arrested for providing intelligence for the US raid that killed Osama Bin Laden last year.

Dr Shikal Afridi is accused of running a CIA-run programme in Abbottabad where Bin Laden was killed. A Pakistan panel says he should be tried for treason.

Mr Panetta told the CBS TV network the arrest had been "a real mistake".

Dr Afridi provided "very helpful" information for the raid, he added.

He was arrested shortly after the operation, carried out by US special forces in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad on 2 May last year.

Pakistan was deeply embarrassed by the raid, and condemned it as a violation of sovereignty.

Tried for treason, eh? "Treason" is usually reserved for those who take up arms against the state, or are directly involved in actively damaging the state. If Pakistan is saying that giving up info in OBL is treason, then are they saying he was somehow a representative of the state of Pakistan? And if that's their argument, why aren't we bombing the shit out of them?

By: Brant

Random Friday Wargaming: Weapons of Mass Destruction

2012-01-27T16:30:00.010Z

Getting a little goofy this week... Flying Buffalo's Weapons of Mass Destruction is a stand-alone expansion for their infamous Nuclear War.

There's no CSW forum out there, but you can pick up your own copy over at Flying Buffalo's site.

Master links/images from Boardgamegeek.com; message boards linked to Consimworld. Other links to the actual game pages...

By: Brant

UK In Action: Household Cavalry

2012-01-26T16:00:00.003Z

Soldiers from the Royal Household Cavalry Regiment man a check point on a busy stretch of road in Helmand Province Afghanistan. One soldier waits to stop on coming traffic while he is covered by members of his unit in a Jackal, Mobility Weapon-Mounted Installation Kit. This image was a winner in the Army's Photographic Competition 2011.

img from UK MoD

By: Widow 6-7

GameTalk - Insurgents and Guerillas

2012-01-25T16:22:00.005Z

How do you model the propaganda value of a tactical defeat? How can you leverage tactical/operational actions to influence your reinforcement schedule for the next 10 turns? What are some systems that tie insurgent recruiting to game-board actions and propaganda/political victories to actions on the battlefield?

Your thoughts below!

By: Brant

US Raid in Somalia Rescues 2 Hostages

2012-01-25T12:28:00.001Z

A night time raid in Somalia has successfully freed 2 hostages.

U.S. Special Forces troops flew into Somalia on a nighttime helicopter raid early Wednesday, freed an American and a Danish hostage and killed nine of the kidnappers in a mission that President Barack Obama said he personally authorized.
The Danish Refugee Council confirmed that the two aid workers, American Jessica Buchanan and Dane Poul Hagen Thisted, were freed and "are on their way to be reunited with their families."
The raiders came in very quickly, catching the guards as they were sleeping after having chewed the narcotic leaf qat for much of the evening, a pirate who gave his name as Bile Hussein told The Associated Press by phone. Hussein said he was not present at the site but had spoken with other pirates who were, and that they told him nine pirates had been killed in the raid and three were missing.
A second pirate who gave his name as Ahmed Hashi said two helicopters attacked at about 2 a.m. about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the Somali town of Adado where the hostages were being held.

Woot!

UPDATE:
Here's Secretary Panetta's statement on the raid.

Last night U.S. Special Operations Forces conducted, by order of the President of the United States, a successful mission in Somalia to rescue two individuals taken hostage on October 25, 2011. Ms. Jessica Buchanan, an American citizen employed by the Danish Demining Group, and her Danish colleague, Mr. Poul Thisted, were kidnapped at gunpoint by criminal suspects near Galcayo, Somalia.

Ms. Buchanan and Mr. Thisted have been transported to a safe location where we will evaluate their health and make arrangements for them to return home.

This successful hostage rescue, undertaken in a hostile environment, is a testament to the superb skills of courageous service members who risked their lives to save others. I applaud their efforts, and I am pleased that Ms. Buchanan and Mr. Thisted were not harmed during the operation. This mission demonstrates our military's commitment to the safety of our fellow citizens wherever they may be around the world.

I am grateful to report that there was no loss of life or injuries to our personnel.

I express my deepest gratitude to all the military and civilian men and women who supported this operation. This was a team effort and required close coordination, especially between the Department of Defense and our colleagues in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They are heroes and continue to inspire all of us by their bravery and service to our nation.

By: Brant

Covert UK Ops on the Ground in Libya

2012-01-24T16:48:00.000Z

Mark Urban (no known relation to Keith) has a great article about the UK's covert actions on the ground during the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime.

The first significant involvement of British forces inside Libya was a rescue mission mounted just a couple of weeks after the rising against Gaddafi broke out. On 3 March, Royal Air Force C130 aircraft were sent to a desert airstrip at Zilla in the south of the country to rescue expatriate oil workers. Many had been threatened by gunmen and bandits.

This airlift of 150 foreigners, including about 20 Britons, to Valletta airport in Malta went smoothly, despite one of the aircraft being hit by ground fire soon after taking off.

Accompanying the flights were about two dozen men from C Squadron of the Special Boat Service (SBS), who helped secure the landing zone. It was a short-term and discreet intervention that saved the workers from risk of abduction or murder, and caused little debate in Whitehall.

OK, so not bad. But after another debacle (read the article - amazing these guys dorked up that bad) the straightjacket went on the ROE.

When half a dozen British officers arrived at a seaside hotel in Benghazi at the beginning of April, they were unarmed and their role was strictly limited. They had been told to help the NTC set up a nascent defence ministry, located in a commandeered factory on the outskirts of the city.

The first and most basic task of the advisory team was to get the various bands of Libyan fighters roaring around in armed pick-up trucks under some sort of central co-ordination. As reporters had discovered, most of these men had little idea of what they were doing, and soon panicked if they thought Col Gaddafi's forces were attacking or outflanking them.

There were a number of legal issues preventing them giving more help. Some Whitehall lawyers argued that any type of presence on the ground was problematic. Legal doubts were raised about arming the NTC or targeting Col Gaddafi.

Once the air operation was put on a proper Nato footing, these issues became even more vexed, insiders say, with the alliance saying it would not accept men on the ground "directing air strikes" in a way that some newspapers, even in late spring, were speculating was already happening.

The British government's desire to achieve the overthrow of Gaddafi while accommodating the legal sensitivities registered by various Whitehall departments led to some frustration among those who were meant to make the policy work.

This is the kind of news story you can see growing into a complete book, and an interesting one at that.

By: Brant

Sound Off! 4X Gaming

2012-01-24T13:54:00.005Z

4X games can be incredibly addictive. What are your favorites? Sound of below!

By: Brant

Dealing With Shit in Afghanistan

2012-01-23T16:50:00.000Z

Literally.

oh, and a follow-up

By: Brant

UK In Action: Tomahawk Away!

2012-01-23T16:00:00.004Z

Royal Navy Attack submarine HMS Astute fires a Tomahawk cruise missile during a testing mission near the USA. The Royal Navy’s newest submarine has blasted Tomahawk missiles far across the North American skies, as part of its first test firing mission. Pictures show the Tomahawk weapons, which rocketed from HMS Astute at up to 550 miles per hour (885kph) across the Gulf of Mexico. The 5.5-metre-long cruise missile weighs 1,300kg and has a range of more than 1,000 miles.

img from UK MoD

By: Widow 6-7

Monday Video: Armored Saint

2012-01-23T15:09:00.000Z

OK, this week's video takes a bit of explanation... I was listening to Armored Saint's "Dropping Like Flies" in the car and thinking "this would be an awesome tune for a military video". In fact, it was such a great idea that I couldn't believe no one had come up with it already, so I started looking through YouTube to see if one was already out there. I couldn't find anything tagged with "Dropping Like Flies" but I found a bunch of other Armored Saint tunes. With the band now stuck in my head, I felt like I just had to put up a Monday Video with them as the music bed, but I couldn't find a good, blood-pumping, adrenaline-inducing, dick-stiffening video, so we had to settle for this one.

They're basically asking the Obama administration if they can deliver on their promise to bring the troops home. I find it odd that they're using a song about blowjobs to do it, but what the heck, I'm sure someone will make a snarky comment about it.

As always, this is not an endorsement of the political sentiments of the video - it's just trying to get a good song/video combo, and being disappointed with the video options for the songs stuck in my head this week.

If anyone knows a good military video with an Armored Saint soundtrack, please post it below! And don't forget to nominate you're own Monday Videos in the comments, too.

By: Brant

US To Iran: Suck It

2012-01-23T12:49:00.001Z

Iran's big talk about US aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf turned out to be just that: big talk. We sailed the USS Abraham Lincoln right up their ass.

Amid heightened tensions with Iran, an American aircraft carrier has sailed through the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf. The Navy says it's a routine maneuver.
Cmdr. Amy Derrick-Frost said the USS Abraham Lincoln entered the Gulf on Sunday without incident to conduct scheduled maritime security operations. Derrick-Frost is a spokeswoman for the Navy's 5th Fleet, based in the Gulf state of Bahrain.
U.S. warships frequently operate in the Gulf. But when the carrier USS John Stennis departed the Gulf in late December, Iranian officials warned the U.S. not to return.

By: Brant

10 Myths About Afghanistan....

2012-01-21T07:27:00.000Z

The Guardian newspaper has an interesting list of 10 myths about Afghanistan. Here are the top 5.

1. Afghans have always beaten foreign armies, from Alexander the Great to modern times
2. The Soviet invasion led to a civil war and western aid for the Afghan resistance
3. The USSR suffered a massive military defeat in Afghanistan at the hands of the mujahideen
4. The CIA's supply of Stinger missiles to the mujahideen forced the Soviets out of Afghanistan
5. After the Soviets withdrew, the west walked away

Go check out the article for the other five, and the explanations of all ten. Some of them will make you go "hmmmm".

By: Brant

Random Friday Wargaming: Downtown: The Air War Over Hanoi, 1965-1972

2012-01-20T16:30:00.001Z

For this Friday's wargame, we're bringing you Lee Brimmicombe-Wood's Downtown: Air War Over Hanoi, 1965-1972. A highly-acclaimed air game, Downtown has no shortage of fans out there.

The ConsimWorld Forum is bloody huge, too.

You can try to order a copy, just not from GMT, where they're sold out.
Anyone out there got some thoughts they'd like to share on this one?

Master links/images from Boardgamegeek.com; message boards linked to Consimworld. Other links to the actual game pages...

By: Brant

Next Afghanistan Unit Announced

2012-01-20T12:31:00.000Z

The DoD has identified the next army units headed to Afghanistan

The Department of Defense today identified three major units to deploy as part of the upcoming rotation of forces operating in Afghanistan. The scheduled rotation will begin in Spring 2012.

This announcement involves one division headquarters totaling approximately 1,000 personnel and two brigade combat teams totaling approximately 5,800 personnel.

Headquarters units:
-- 3rd Infantry Division HQ, Fort Stewart, Ga.
Brigade Combat Teams:
-- 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82d Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C. (to deploy as a partial BCT).
-- 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82d Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.
DoD will continue to announce major deployments as they are approved.

By: Brant

Are Israelis Making Iranian Nukies Go "Boom"?

2012-01-19T19:12:00.000Z

According to The Daily Beast, the Israelis have "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" (not) admitted to killing Iranian nuclear scientists.

Six weeks ago in Washington, on the sidelines of a major U.S.-Israeli meeting known as the “strategic dialogue,” Israeli Mossad officers were quietly and obliquely bragging about the string of explosions in Iran. “They would say things like, ‘It’s not the best time to be working on Iranian missile design,’” one U.S. intelligence official at the December parley told The Daily Beast.

Those comments were a reference to a string of explosions at a missile-testing site outside Tehran on November 12. The explosions killed Maj. Gen. Hassan Moqqadam, the head of the country’s missile program. But the manner in which the message was delivered—informally and on the sidelines of an official discussion—also speaks to how Israel appears to seek to create the impression of responsibility for acts of violence and sabotage inside Iran without quite taking formal responsibility.

What do you think?

poll by twiigs.com

By: Brant

UK In Action: Night Flight

2012-01-19T16:00:00.006Z

Pictured is 215 Flight's Lynx helicopter from 815 Squadron attached to Type 23 frigate HMS Monmouth conducting a night time ground run in Plymouth Sound. The Flight will be embarked during her work up phase and also the forthcoming Deployment.

img from UK MoD

By: Widow 6-7

Looming US Naval Cuts

2012-01-19T15:13:00.001Z

As the Army tries to figure out how to reduce their footprint, the Navy is also making plans to scale back their force.

...Navy leaders claimed the reduction will not degrade the sailing branch’s ability to influence world events and deter rivals. At roughly 3 million tons displacement combined, today’s Navy is by far the largest in the world, exceeding the tonnage of the next dozen navies, combined. The Navy maintains around 2/3 of its forces in the Pacific and Indian Ocean regions.

Adm. Mark Ferguson, the Navy’s second-ranking officer, signaled a possible shift away from the 313-ship plan in a recent speech. He said a new shipbuilding plan could take three years to finalize.

Following up on Ferguson’s comments, Navy Undersecretary Robert Work said that even a slightly smaller fleet would still contain a preponderance of large, sophisticated warships capable of worldwide operations. “We [will] span the globe,” Work said, according to AOL Defense reporter Carlo Munoz.

By: Brant

Strategic Gaming Roundtable, NDU 1/18

2012-01-18T21:07:00.020Z

Stay tuned for the liveblog of today's NDU strategic wargaming roundtable.

Looks like we're starting now, after some tech connection issues.
Covering some admin bits:
- next roundtable will be Monday 19 March.
- Connections in late July

First presentation will be Bill Simpson from MCWL: Multi-Sided Gaming or Getting a Handle on Chaos

It grew out of a project on MAGTF Strategic Communication.
Game purpose: "to understand and apply the USMC Strategic Communication Concept across the strategic, operational, and tactical levels of war."

How to coordinate non/kinetic actions along the same message through the staff processes?
"How do you properly replicate the myriad interactions, assess the impacts, and adjudicate the outcomes?"
Had to be very simple b/c while there was time to train adjudicators/staff, there was not time to train the players.
Built off of Marine Corps Planning Process CoA wargaming paradigm.
Worked at multiple MAGTF levels: MEU, MEB, MEF

Process flow was a 17-step slide, and I'm not going to try to capture it all here. If I can snag it later, I will.

One of the first adjudications was situational awareness, and they let the players sort out (using their professional military judgment) who knew what at any given point in time. If the players couldn't agree, then the umpires stepped in to adjudicate. Kept the process flowing...

Follow the jump for the "more" - trying to get the length of this post on the main page under control

Situation brief included blue and red briefing the "locals": mayor, merchant, imam (not an adversary), media, general public.
First, red & blue brief COA briefs - entire plan in front of entire audience.
Then, red & blue reach their agreement on what each other can see of the other - all the non-kinetic details.
Next, blue & red action statements, followed by the "locals" stating their situational awareness and actions, with some specific details for the media.
Next, blue reactions.
Then, red reactions to locals... and red was frequently upset that the locals were reacting the way he wanted them to.
Local reactions went next, and included media attitudes, as well as other considerations.
Blue counteractions were programmed, but frequently glossed over b/c they were accounted for elsewhere.
Finally, the umpire summarizes the new situation and move the game forward to the next major interaction.

Some potential changes:
Allow multiple counter-actions instead of just blue.
First action taken by side who had the initiative in the actions, rather than a fixed rotation.
First counteraction also by side with initiative.

This wraps up the first brief. Q&A follows.

(as a side note - this roundtable is being 'broadcast' to some remote sites. The ambient mike looks a lot like the probe that the Empire used to interrogate Princess Leia on the Death Star)

First Q: Did red develop their own objectives?
A: No, red objectives were scripted by the wargame staff, but their plan and execution was up to them.

Q: What were experience levels of players in the game?
A: Junior officers and senior enlisted, with some gov civs and contractors. Most w/ experience in info ops, PR, cyberwar, etc.

Q: Simultaneous adjudication?
A: Although the participants briefed sequentially, the adjudication was simultaneous after the briefings were complete.

Quick break to fix audio...
(a note about the audio - apparently it's Brian out in Victoria that's screwing up the audio!)
edit: we found out, it was NOT Brian that was screwing up the outbound audio; he just couldn't hear all the heaping helpings of praise being piled on him by Ottenberg

Second presentation is on operational level irregular warfare, with Mike Ottenberg from OSD/CAPE
Talking about the approach: process, theory, and application

Basing the theory on Bard O'Neill's work on Insurgency and Terrorism
Looks at insurgency through its underlying political framework

Discussing the use of a system called "Algernon"
Derived from Brian Train's Algeria: The War for Independence 1954-1962

Need to look at insurgent strategic goals and purposes.
Some goal categories:
- anarchy
- egalitarian
- traditionalist
- pluralist
- secessionist
- reformist
- preservationist

What is the defeat mechanism the insurgents use to attain their goals? How do you incorporate that into the game?
- conspiracy (Lenin)
- protracted popular war (Mao)
- military focus (Che)
- urban (terror) strategy (went by too fast)

What sorts of external support can you provide? With different patrons, goals, support levels & mechanisms, etc?

Algernon uses resource costs and administrative points. Missions that units can execute and the costs for those missions.
Building the ORBAT on the military is reasonably easy, but what about NGOs, media, gov't, police, etc? What sorts of capabilities and attributes can/do they have and how to quantify them? What sorts of "missions" do you give these folks?

Briefing the "Ginger Junction" scenario - fictional island chain with geo regions as "areas".
There's waaaaaay too much detail for me to keep up with here. I don't know if I'll get my hands on this again later or not, so just suffice it to say it's the "game world."

Modular rules base that includes adjudication for
Terrain effects
Political Support Effects
Combat Results
Information Operations
Civilian Actions
and more that went by too fast to capture them all

Talking about determining techniques for building popular support (charismatic, legitimacy, etc)
Within Algernon, what actions have impacts on popular support to red, blue, green?
--- again, based on Brian's work - that guy is everywhere!

Basic game design stuff: prototypes, play testing, boundary testing, etc.

Got that infamous Afghanistan slide on irregular warfare up on the screen right now.

At least slightly dismayed that his list of other available games includes
Tupamaro
Nicaragua
Ici C'est la France
Operational Wrap-Around
COMPOEX
Karsten Englemann's Colombia (tho misspelled on the slide as "Columbia" - invading South Carolina!)

but managed to not include GEMSTONE despite its recent star turn in the cover story at Training and Simulation Journal.

Q&A is firing a little too quick right now... Though the one that got the chuckle was "the question that keeps game designers up late at night" - "Was your sponsor happy?"

There's now a more general Q&A / discussion going on now, and I'm signing off to go pay attention to it.

OK - I'm back just to throw out this bit: there was a throw-down about modeling and simulation vs gaming for exploring wicked hard problems. How do you explore the uncertainty space?

This is going to feed into our irregular-running series on games and sims that's going to continue to expand through GN. Watch the blog for more...

By: Brant

GameTalk - Divine Intervention

2012-01-18T16:22:00.007Z

What role can/should the "holy shit" moment play on the virtual battlefield? How do you account for the 'magic bullet' or the horseshoe that loses a nail or the perfect timing of the lunar eclipse? How many of these can/do you build into a game when a pre-set number of possible divine intervention moments would need to be developed for inclusion in the box/code/script?

Your thoughts below!

By: Brant

The Army's Struggle for Doctrinal Relevance

2012-01-18T00:40:00.000Z

The Army is having trouble envisioning how they fit into the country's long-term strategic plan. Really? You can't envision anywhere you'd need to fight? Or nowhere that you can politically admit to cough*Pakistan*cough?

"We're looking with a bit of envy at AirSea Battle," said one junior officer, Maj. David Williams, in a frank presentation to a panel of generals – all outranking him by at least three paygrades – on January 12th. And, Maj. Williams went on, many officers are "nostalgic" for AirSea Battle's inspiration, the Army's "AirLand Battle" concept published in 1982 to defeat the Soviet Union in Central Europe. Both visions offer the clarity of "a specific threat, a specific location, a simple narrative" to present "to the American Congress and the American people," Williams went on. By contrast, "if you take the national security priorities recently released...there's a bunch of things out there," he said. "We need to pick one, [and] the most important thing is focusing on the hybrid threats."

Hybrid is the buzzword for adversaries combining the tactics of guerrillas with the firepower of a state. Israel's humiliation by Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006 is the prime example of a hybrid war, but there are aspects of the phenomenon in America's own experience from Korea and Vietnam to Afghanistan and Iraq. One of the most influential advocates of the theory, RAND scholar and Army veteran David Johnson, argued at the conference that the U.S. could learn from the Israelis, who after 2006 focused on the hybrid threat – with significant success, as shown by their improved performance against Hamas in Gaza in 2008 – while remaining flexible enough to "build up" to a major state-on-state conflict or "build down" to irregular warfare.

From a public relations perspective, hybrid war gives the Army a scenario sufficiently scary and sufficiently probable to justify its budget. For internal audience, the attraction is a single, unifying mission that allows the Army to simultaneously draw on its decade of experience in counterinsurgency and revitalize its skills for larger-scale combat. One outspoken officer at the conference, Col. Wayne Grigsby of the Army's Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, advised the generals to drop the current doctrine's array of tasks in favor of a single Army "core competency" in "joint combined arms fire and maneuver" – i.e. fighting – while deemphasizing counterinsurgency-focused functions such as "wide area security."

But the top brass weren't so sure. "Decisionmakers don't want large-scale land campaigns today for a variety of reasons," said Lt. Gen. Richard Zahner, the Army's chief of intelligence (G-2). "They're going to come looking for you because you can offer them solutions they don't otherwise have, [and] no decision maker wants to have just a single option." Instead, Zahner said, the Army's pitch to policymakers bent on budget cuts should be pragmatic: "Listen folks, you may not want us, but we're the guys who are going to give us a whole range of new options when Plan A doesn't come out the way you anticipated."

By: Brant

JCS Releases Joint Operational Access Concept (JOAC)

2012-01-18T00:37:00.001Z

And as near as we can tell, the Joint Operational Access Concept (JOAC) is not pronounced "joke".

The President and Secretary of Defense’s strategic guidance for our Joint Force is clear – we will answer our nation’s call and sustain the trust of the American people amidst a rapidly changing security environment. As we shape the Joint Force of the future in this increasingly complex and competitive world, gaining access to the right place at the right time presents an ever more pressing challenge.

So today I released the Joint Operational Access Concept (JOAC). This framework describes how we will gain entry and maintain access anywhere and in any domain: land, air, space, sea, and cyber. No matter how formidable our forces, if we are unable to bring our capabilities to bear in any of these domains, we may not be able to complete the mission or meet our nation’s needs. Our adversaries know this as well.

Accordingly, the JOAC outlines how we will confront emerging Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) threats by state and non-state enemies across the globe. A2/AD is not new, but it is a defining characteristic of today’s operational environment. Confronting this challenge will require more integration—across all domains and at all echelons—than ever before.

Pull down the PDF here.

By: Brant

Anniversary: The Start of Gulf War I

2012-01-17T17:56:00.004Z

Today marks the anniversary of the start of the air campaign known as Operation Instant Thunder.

The Gulf War air campaign was broadcast across the world on CNN.

At 2:43 A.M. two EF-111 Ravens with terrain following radar led 22 F-15E Strike Eagles against assaults on airfields in Western Iraq. Minutes later, one of the EF-111 crews – Captain James Denton and Captain Brent Brandon – destroyed an Iraqi Dassault Mirage F-1, when their low altitude maneuvering led the F-1 to crash to the ground. It was not credited to the crew but an F-15E that was also involved in the manuevering.[6]

At 3 A.M., ten U.S. F-117 Nighthawk stealth bombers, under the protection of a three-ship formation of EF-111s, bombed Baghdad, the capital. The striking force came under fire from 3,000 Anti-Aircraft guns firing from rooftops in Baghdad.

Within hours of the start of the coalition air campaign, a P-3 Orion called Outlaw Hunter developed by the U.S. Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, which was testing a highly specialised over-the-horizon radar, detected a large number of Iraqi patrol boats and naval vessels attempting to make a run from Basra and Umm Qasr to Iranian waters. Outlaw Hunter vectored in strike elements, which attacked the Iraqi naval flotilla near Bubiyan Island destroying 11 vessels and damaging scores more.

Concurrently, U.S. Navy BGM-109 Tomahawk Cruise Missiles struck targets in Baghdad, and other coalition aircraft struck targets throughout Iraq. Government buildings, TV stations, airfields, presidential palaces, military installations, communication lines, supply bases, oil refineries, a Baghdad airport, electric powerplants and factories making Iraqi war machine equipment were all destroyed due to extensive massive aerial and missile attacks by the coalition forces.

Here's the broadcast most people remember

Where were you when it all went down?

By: Brant

Mission Accomplished! Oh, wait...

2012-01-17T16:16:00.000Z

Apparently, the Taliban has declared victory.

Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban’s one-eyed leader, seems to have taken a page from George W. Bush’s playbook.

Just as the former president declared “mission accomplished” in Iraq years before the war there ended, the Taliban made their own victory declaration this weekend, even though roughly 130,000 coalition troops were still fighting in Afghanistan — and keeping the Afghan government firmly in power.

No matter, suggested the Taliban, which calls itself the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, in a statement bluntly titled: “Formal Proclamation of Islamic Emirate’s Victory.” The American push to open talks is proof that the insurgents are winning, the Taliban reasoned.

“It is but sheer determination, religious and ideological adherence and unequalled sacrifices displayed by true Afghan Mujahid nation for the last decade that today regional and world powers are after to reach mutual understanding about the country,” the statement said in the Taliban’s typically fractured English.

Maybe we should start shooting more of them to test their "sheer determination", eh?

By: Brant

Another Great Shirt from RangerUp

2012-01-17T15:47:00.000Z

It's only a pre-order right now, but their Occupy Patrol Base T-Shirt is a riot. In a "good" riot kind of way...

h/t Longblade

By: Brant

Sound Off! Brown, Blue, or Green?

2012-01-17T13:54:00.006Z

For our squids out there...

What's the more important naval force?

... Blue-water navy, controlling the high seas?

... Brown-water navy, fighting in the littorals close to shore?

... Green-water navy, patrolling the rivers and ports?

Float your ideas below!

By: Brant

Drone Strike For The Win? Or Will This One Prove False, Too?

2012-01-17T00:18:00.000Z

Haven't we "killed" this guy about 10 times already?

The leader of the Pakistani Taliban, the militant movement that poses the gravest security threat to the country, is believed to have been killed by a U.S. drone strike, four Pakistan intelligence officials told Reuters on Sunday.
The officials said they intercepted wireless radio chatter between Taliban fighters detailing how Hakimullah Mehsud was killed while travelling in a convoy to a meeting in the North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border.
A senior military official told Reuters there was no official confirmation that the Pakistani state's deadliest enemy had been killed. The Pakistani Taliban issued a denial. U.S. officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, could not confirm his death.

By: Brant

Nice Analysis of Recent Game-Related Articles

2012-01-16T22:16:00.000Z

Rex Brynen, over at PaxSims, has a very good follow-up to Tom Ricks' recent article.

...part of the reason for the slower take-up of serious gaming and simulation in the diplomatic, development, and academic communities is that an awful lot of the serious foreign policy games out there just aren’t that good. Unfortunately, the serious gaming community (of which I would consider myself part) has some real problems with what might be termed ”hypertechnoludovangelism”— which is to say, uncritical acceptance of too much of its own hype about the transformative effects of (digital) gaming. Perhaps we PAXsims folks are a little curmudgeonly, but to date we’ve probably found more serious digital and online games that we didn’t like than ones that we did (even though we’re course instructors with whole rooms full of games at home, and enough computers to run a small space program).

In summary, asking “why aren’t more folks in the defence/diplomacy/development/policy/NGO/academic worlds using more games?” is a good one. Indeed, there are all sorts of organizational, cultural, generational, and other barriers to game adoption, and it would be worth exploring more fully what those are and how they might be overcome. However, at the same time we should also be asking the questions like “what might folks be doing that does not fall within digital gaming, narrowly understood?” and “why aren’t people making games that more practitioners find useful?” and “how should games and simulations be used to maximize their potential?”.

By: Brant

UK In Action: Welsh Silhouette

2012-01-16T16:00:00.005Z

A soldier from One Platoon, The Prince of Wales's Company, 1st Battalion Welsh Guards based at Patrol Base Argyll, Nad e Ali is pictured on returning from a patrol around the village of Zarghun Kalay, Afghanistan. Soldiers from The Prince of Wales's Company, 1st Battalion Welsh Guards based at Patrol Base Argyll, Nad e Ali, patrol in Nad e Ali District Centre and the surrounding area.

img from UK MoD

By: Widow 6-7

Monday Video: Crescendo

2012-01-16T14:04:00.000Z

This week's BANG takes some time to build up...

By: Brant

US-Israel Drill Delayed

2012-01-16T12:23:00.000Z

There was supposed to be a joint US-Israel drill starting this Spring, but they've delayed it 'til later in the year.

Israel and the United States opted to delay a major joint military exercise because of regional tensions and instability, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Monday.
"The entire world understands that we had to postpone this exercise because of political and regional uncertainties, as well as the tensions and instability prevailing in the region," Lieberman told public radio.

If the exercise was postposed for "political and regional uncertainties, as well as the tensions and instability" in the Middle East, one wonders how it was scheduled at all.

By: Brant

When Sanctions Aren't Enough

2012-01-15T12:47:00.000Z

Would the US really assassinate an Iranian scientist?

Iran said on Saturday it had evidence Washington was behind the latest killing of one of its nuclear scientists, state television reported, at a time when tensions over the country's nuclear program have escalated to their highest level ever.
In the fifth attack of its kind in two years, a magnetic bomb was attached to the door of 32-year-old Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan's car during the Wednesday morning rush-hour in the capital. His driver was also killed.
U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton denied responsibility and Israeli President Shimon Peres said Israel had no role in the attack, to the best of his knowledge.
"We have reliable documents and evidence that this terrorist act was planned, guided and supported by the CIA," the Iranian foreign ministry said in a letter handed to the Swiss ambassador in Tehran, state TV reported. The Swiss embassy represents U.S. interests in a country where Washington has no diplomatic ties.
The spokesman for Iran's Joint Armed Forces Staff, Massoud Jazayeri, said: "Our enemies, especially America , Britain and the Zionist regime (Israel), have to be held responsible for their actions."

By: Brant

The Rest of the World Is Paying Attention to (Video) Wargames

2012-01-15T04:22:00.000Z

Even Tom Ricks is talking about them.

Video games have somewhat of a bad reputation today: individuals have attacked games for their supposed contribution to obscenity and their debilitation of male virtue. Despite these fears, scientists have identified some benefits from gaming, ranging from improved self-worth to augmented surgical skills. In the foreign policy arena, video games can and should serve as a powerful tool for educating civilian and military personnel about war and foreign affairs.

Video games can serve to help bolster America's glaring deficiency in one crucial discipline: history. Video games focused on war and IR provide refreshing bursts of information about often-overlooked leaders and wars. These games can offer descriptive backgrounds of leaders or events (e.g. Age of Empires' description of Genghis Khan or the Crusades). These methods can sometimes provide a deeper and more-engaging understanding of history than just a textbook or lecture.

A subgenre of games, so-called "serious" games, goes further by explicitly trying to educate gamers about historical or political issues. For example, Niall Ferguson in 2007 played the World War II serious game Making History and played out some of his WWII counterfactual scenarios, such as war breaking out over German seizure of Czechoslovakia in 1938. His experience led him to conclude that his counterfactual historical scenarios "weren't as robust as [he] thought." As a result, Ferguson ended up advising this series. This episode, forcing critical re-examinations of events, anecdotally illustrates the range of useful educational experiences gleaned from games like Making History or other, current games such as Global Conflicts: Palestine or the future-themed Fate of the World: Tipping Point that can help civilians better understand history and policymaking, thereby making better choices when voting or arguing politics.

By: Brant

Navy Christens Littoral Combat Ship Coronado

2012-01-14T07:13:00.000Z

Today, navy Christens LCS Coronado

The Navy will christen the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Coronado, Saturday, Jan. 14, during a 10 a.m. CST ceremony in Mobile, Ala.

The Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development & Acquisition, Sean Stackley, will deliver the principal address at the ceremony. Susan Keith will serve as the ship’s sponsor. Additionally, Keith helped launch the Coronado Historical Association’s “Home of a Naval Aviator” sign project and grew up with her father and stepfather serving in the Navy. Vice Adm. Stanhope C. Ring, her father, was a pilot who commanded an aircraft carrier air group during the Battle of Midway during World War II. Her stepfather, Rear Adm. Aaron Putnam “Put” Storrs III, belonged to the Navy’s first aerial acrobatic team, which was the forerunner of the Blue Angels. The ceremony will be highlighted by Keith breaking a bottle of champagne across the bow to formally christen the ship, which is a time-honored maritime tradition.

The ship’s name recognizes the city of Coronado, Calif., and honors the city’s deep ties to the U.S. Navy. Coronado has been home to Naval Air Station North Island and Naval Amphibious Base, since 1917. Two previous ships have been named after this city: USS Coronado, a Tacoma-class patrol frigate, earned four battle stars for supporting landings in New Guinea and Leyte during World War II and the USS Coronado, an Austin-class amphibious transport dock later re-designated as an auxiliary command ship, served as flagship for the Third Fleet and was decommissioned in 2006.

Designated LCS 4, Coronado is an innovative surface combatant designed to operate in littoral seas and shallow water to counter mines, submarines and fast surface craft threats in coastal regions. The ship is capable of speeds in excess of 40 knots and can operate in water less than 20 feet deep. Coronado will address a critical capabilities gap in the littorals and conduct the Navy’s mission to enhance maritime security by deterring hostility, maintaining a forward presence, projecting power and maintaining sea control.

A fast, agile, and high-technology surface combatant, Coronado will be a platform for the launch and recovery of manned and unmanned vehicles. To meet increased demand for mission-tailored packages, its modular design will allow the ship to be reconfigured for antisubmarine warfare, mine countermeasures, or surface warfare missions on an as-needed basis. The LCS class ships have the ability to swap out mission packages in a matter of days - adapting as the tactical situation demands. The modular approach allows the Navy to incorporate new and improved systems into the fleet as advanced technologies mature, providing flexibility and evolving capability.

Coronado will be manned by two rotational crews, Blue and Gold, similar to the rotational crews assigned to large submarines. These core crews are augmented by one of the three types of mission package crews and an aviation detachment. The commanding officer of the Blue crew will be Cmdr. John Kochendorfer, from Dana Point, Calif. The commanding officer of the Gold crew will be Cmdr. Michael “Shawn” Johnston, from North Carolina. After commissioning, the ship will be homeported in San Diego, Calif.

Constructed by General Dynamics in the Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, Ala., Coronado is the second of the Independence-variant in the LCS class.

By: Brant

Random Friday Wargaming: What Are You Playing?

2012-01-13T16:00:00.002Z

What's the last wargame to hit your table?

What's the last one you actually played 'til someone hit the victory conditions?

What's the last wargame you fired up on your computer?

What's the last computer wargame you actually finished?

What are you dusting off to play this weekend?

By: Brant

How To Start A Tiger Tank

2012-01-13T15:50:00.001Z

By: Brant

Anniversary: Operation Hooper

2012-01-13T15:16:00.003Z

Part of the Battle of Cuito Canavale in Angola, Operation Hooper kicked off on this day back in '88.

Like much of the war in Angola in the '80s, it's tough to characterize.

Do you thank the SADF for turning back the tide of communism in southern Africa?
Or do you see it as another example of an oppressive apartheid regime suppressing a black liberation movement?
Given the chaos that ensued immediately after Zimbabwe's "liberation" can you blame the South Africans for their reactions to the happenings in Angola/Namibia? (This is even more understandable the further along you trace Zimbabwe's developments...)

Is it a victory for a Western-style maneuver-oriented military against a largely communist conscription force with Russian-based doctrine?
Or does it show the differences between a force that perceives itself to be fighting for the defense of 'their' homeland/continent against an invading force of outsiders/interlopers?

You thoughts and comments below...

By: Brant

US Army Bringing 2 Brigades Home From Europe

2012-01-13T11:45:00.001Z

The plan will be to rotate units rather than permanently station them in Europe.

Ground forces will remain important to the U.S. defense strategy, but the employment of the forces will change, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said today.
In an interview on his way to Fort Bliss, Texas, Panetta said that the Army will withdraw two brigade combat teams from Europe, while retaining a strong presence in the region via rotational units.
The change is part of a new, 10-year defense strategy announced by President Barack Obama last week that emphasizes air-sea doctrine to better allow the United States to confront more than one threat at a time, Panetta said. Still, ground forces will remain important, and soldiers and Marines will continue to deploy to Afghanistan and be on the Korean Peninsula and partnering with nations around the globe.
“We will continue to maintain our presence both in the Middle East and Asia,” the secretary said. “Yes, we’ll have the Navy and the Air Force, but in my experience, in any conflict you need to have the potential use of ground forces.”
Panetta said he is excited about the prospect of using Army units on a rotational basis, just as Special Forces and the Marine Corps do. “Getting the Army to deploy to areas conducting exercises providing, most of all, a partnership with countries in Latin America, Africa, other countries where we can show the flag” is important, he said.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno is particularly excited about the ability to develop that rotational capability, Panetta said. “It will keep the ground forces very meaningful in the future,” he said.
As the Army replaces the two brigade combat teams with rotational units, the Europeans actually will see more U.S. forces because the American forces in Europe have more often than not been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, Panetta said.
DOD officials have spoken to European leaders about the withdrawal and they understand why the change will be good for the U.S. military and NATO allies, senior defense officials traveling with the secretary said.

There's only 4 line brigades there now. So yes, that's half the available force, but it's not a lot of troops in raw numbers. One wonders (a) who is coming back, and (b) where are they going to put them - we're running out of space at some of our bases like Ft Bragg and Ft Stewart.

The Army Times has some info on who might be candidates to return.

Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, commanding general for the U.S. Army in Europe, said in December that he expected the Army to remove one brigade — but not two. He had proposed a brigade for removal, but was waiting for a decision on which brigade would be chosen.

“I have made an offer on which brigade that should be to the Department of the Army,” Hertling told Army Times. “I have also made an offer in terms of the timing of it, which could be sooner than they were asked for, 2015.”

The smart thing to do, Hertling told Army Times, would be to begin the drawdown process as the units come home from deployments. The 170th is in the process of redeploying and the 172nd will redeploy in late spring.

Hertling would not say which brigade he proposed removing, but all signs pointed to either the 170th or the 172nd. Both brigades were scheduled to begin conversion to the modular heavy brigade combat team upon redeployment. The DoD announcement make it likely that both the 170th and 172nd would be brought home.

Initially, both conversions were delayed. But in December, the Army announced that the 172nd would go ahead with conversion in 2013. The 170th conversion remains on hold.

By: Brant

Panetta: US Forces Smaller, More Agile

2012-01-13T01:59:00.001Z

Per this article from Defense.gov Secretary Panetta says the military will be smaller and more deployable.

To accomplish the new mission sets for the 21st century, the United States needs a smaller, quicker, more agile military, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said today.
That is the basis behind the recently released strategy review that will set the stage for the fiscal 2013 Defense Department budget request.
“Our budget is, basically, designed to reinforce the new missions we are talking about and that agile, deployable and ready force that has to move quickly,” Panetta said during an interview on his way to Fort Bliss, Texas.
Force structure will come down in the years to come, the secretary said, but the military will continue to be able to engage in the full range of conflicts even with spending $487 billion less over the next 10 years. The Army will get smaller, but the reduction will be slow and balanced as recommended by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, Panetta said.
The way the force will be used will change under the strategy, the secretary said. While there will remain forces in Asia and the Middle East – two areas of particular focus for the United States – other areas will not be uncovered. Rotational forces – the way Army Special Forces currently deploy – will expand to conventional forces. The rotational deployments mean the military “will be in a position to cover not only the area that will be a primary focus … but we will be able to cover the world,” he said.
The new air-sea battle doctrine will allow the military to handle more than one conflict at a time. “The example I’ve used is if we are in a land war in Korea and Iran does something in the Strait of Hormuz – to go after that and to deal with that threat is largely going to be the responsibility of the Air Force and Navy,” Panetta said. “Same if we are in Afghanistan and something breaks out in the Taiwan Straits or the South China Sea, … confronting that would largely be a naval and air capability.”
The secretary is adamant that the budget will not be reduced on the backs of service members. He specified there will be no changes to military retirement for those serving today.
“We are going to design the requirements for any commission that looks at retirement,” he said. “One of the requirements is that those already serving are fully grandfathered.”

Yep, lipstick on a pig...

By: Brant

What's Next for NATO?

2012-01-12T17:09:00.000Z

Stephen M. Walt has some ideas on the future of the alliance.

First, declare victory! Europe is experiencing unprecedented sustained peace. If there ever was a moment to take advantage of that climate, it is now. The risks of defense re-nationalization are next to zero and potential conventional threats far over the horizon. Meanwhile, austerity programs are incentivizing Europe to economize military spending via deeper integration -- as Britain and France commenced in 2010. The European security dilemmas that required a heavy American military presence have long been resolved. As but just one recent example, late in 2011, Polish Foreign Minister Radislaw Sikorski stated that: "I will probably be the first Polish foreign minister in history to say so, but here it is: I fear German power less than I am beginning to fear German inactivity."

There's an extended checklist of other ideas on the article's home page. Go check it out.

By: Brant

UK In Action: VIGO!

2012-01-12T16:00:00.005Z

A soldier is pictured with his Military Working Dog 'Vigo', during a training exercise in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan. Vigo is a protection dog and regularly patrols with soldiers in Helmand. This image was a runner up in the Army Photographic Competition 2011.

img from UK MoD

By: Widow 6-7

Even Idiots Have Money

2012-01-12T02:29:00.002Z

And can spend it in ridiculous ways.

Supporters of the Army private accused of providing a trove of U.S. government secrets to WikiLeaks have erected a billboard along New York Avenue NE in advance of an investigating officer’s recommendation on whether Manning should face a court-martial. “Free Bradley Manning,” reads the billboard, with a tagline: “Blowing the whistle on war crimes is not a crime.”

“The military would like to characterize Manning as someone who broke military regulations and should be jailed for the rest of his life for doing so,” said Jeff Paterson of the Bradley Manning Support Network, which paid for the billboard. “We obviously have a different opinion.”

By: Brant

GameTalk - White Cell

2012-01-11T16:22:00.006Z

So what sort of injects should the White Cell give you during a wargame? Do they provide distractors to see how well you focus? Additional resource challenges to force you to prioritize? Or are they simply throwing extra work at the teams that are moving faster to keep everyone on pace?

Your thoughts below!

By: Brant

USAction! USMC Overflight

2012-01-11T12:01:00.000Z

U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. William Cox provides security as an MV-22 Osprey aircraft lands in Zaranj in Afghanistan's Nimroz province, Dec. 30, 2011. Cox is an armorer assigned to the Joint Sustainment Academy Southwest. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Bryan Nygaard

By: Brant

Defense Cuts in Historical Perspective

2012-01-10T22:29:00.007Z

What does post-war shrinkage look like? And will post-GWOT shrinkage be any worse than historical post-war shrinkages? The CFR notes...

Last summer, defense spending was slashed by $487 billion over 10 years. Then, right before Thanksgiving, a special committee of Congress failed to agree on $1.2 trillion in alternative cuts, which opened the way to another $500 billion or so in defense cuts. Hundreds of billions more in so-called emergency funding will be gone as we wind down operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. In all, the defense budget could shrink by 31% over the next decade, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. That compares with cuts of 53% after the Korean War, 26% after the Vietnam War and 34% after the Cold War.

That doesn't sound too far off-line for recent history, but let's go back further...

After the American Revolution, the military plummeted from 35,000 men in 1778 to 10,000 by 1800. As a result, the nascent republic had to scramble to put down the Whiskey Rebellion, fight a quasi-war with France, repress the Barbary pirates and, most spectacularly, defend the new national capital from British attack in the War of 1812. The burning of the White House stands as melancholy testimony to our military unpreparedness.

Yet we made the same mistake after the Civil War. The armed forces fell from more than 1 million men in 1865 to merely 50,000 in 1870. Luckily we did not face a foreign attack in the postwar decades. But we did face the challenge of Reconstruction. Its failure was made inevitable by Washington's inability (or unwillingness) to station enough federal troops in the South to repress the Ku Klux Klan. By 1876, all federal troops were withdrawn and the era of Jim Crow had begun.

In fact, the raw numbers, as summarized by The Economist, look like this:

Revolutionary war: 71%
Civil war: 95%
First world war: 91%
Second world war: 88%
Korean war: 31%
Vietnam war: 43%
Cold war: 38%

So let's face it, comparatively, 31% might not be the worst thing to happen to US defense...

What do you guys think? Is 31% too much? Too little? How does 31% track with strategic requirements?

By: Brant

An American "Tourist" in Somalia

2012-01-10T18:36:00.000Z

A former US serviceman was caught allegedly trying to join a terrorist group in Somalia

A former U.S. Army soldier was charged Monday with attempting to travel to Somalia to join the terrorist group Al-Shabaab, according to the Justice Department.
Craig Benedict Baxam, 24, was arrested Friday at Baltimore-Washington International Airport as he returned from a failed effort to get to Somalia, authorities said.
The Maryland resident had an initial court appearance Monday afternoon on the charge of attempting to provide material support to a terrorist group.
The only time Baxam spoke during the hearing was to respond "Yes" when the judge asked if he understood the charge against him and the possible penalty.

By: Brant

Sound Off! Tactical, Operational, or Strategic

2012-01-10T13:54:00.006Z

Where is the war won?

... At the tactical level, the land of the NCO, the last 100 yards, where bullets fly and bodies drop?

... At the operational level, where resources are synchronized, multipliers are applied, and the XO loves it when a plan comes together?

... At the strategic level, where the politicians call the shots and the only rifles in use are on parade, where vehicles are bought by the hundreds, and nations are rallied to the cause?

Sound off with your thoughts in the comments below!

By: Brant

Guest Column: Games and Simulations, with Dr James Sterrett

2012-01-09T21:27:00.003Z

Following up on last week's GameTalk - "Games or Simulations" - we have a guest article written by Dr James Sterrett, an instructor at the US Army's Command and General Staff College. Please note that these are his ideas and are not reflective of official US Army policy, doctrine, canon, religion, or other official imprimatur.

+++++++
Brant and I have cheerfully sparred over the distinction between games and simulations over the years. What follows is my take, focused on training & education, in two different variants. The first is useful as a snappy comment, while the second works better analytically. In the end, both point to the objective of an activity as more important that the software (or paper rule set) being used, and neither variant is perfect.

(read the rest after the jump)

Variant 1: The only difference between a game and a simulation is the presence of a training objective.
You and I can sit down with JCATS, an official Army training simulation, and play it for the sheer fun of blowing up each others’ tanks – which sounds rather like a game. Or, we could use the exact same software to conduct a staff training exercise. We could also take Battlefield 2, a first-person shooter marketed as a game, and use it to conduct crawl-level training on basic techniques for an infantry squad. In each case, the tool is the same, while the objective is different.
This definition makes a decent amount of intuitive sense – games are fun, simulations are for training. It’s also a means of turning pointless complaints about an exercise driver - “we should use a simulation instead of a game” - turned into a fruitful discussion of what the exercise requires, regardless of the label attached to the driver. However, this variant is not a useful analytic tool.

Sid Meier said that a game is “a series of interesting choices”. That’s great design guidance, but not so useful as a definition. Greg Costikyan defined a game as “a form of art in which participants, termed players, make decisions in order to manage resources through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal.” Costikyan’s is a good definition of a game (as opposed to a sport); see http://www.costik.com/nowords.html for the full article explaining the statement. However, Costikyan’s definition doesn’t help us make the distinction from simulations – but Costikyan and Meier, both brilliant game designers, have a close focus on decision-making.
Both of their definitions imply that Candyland and the rest of the Snakes & Ladders genre are not games, because there are no decisions in them – though they can serve as good training on how to play a game: obey the rules, take your turn, good gamesmanship, and so on.
So Candyland isn’t a game, but it is a simulation. Of what? Candyland is a simplified variant of Snakes and Ladders, which originates from India, where it was a morality lesson on life, with the ladders being virtues, the snakes being vices, and the endpoint being Enlightenment. This brings us to…

Variant 2: A game is a simulation with decisions and goals.
Per the Defense Modeling and Simulations Office, a model is a mathematical description, and a simulation is a model iterated over time. Thus, I can have math that describes how a missile launches from an aircraft. As a single series of equations, it is a model. Translated into a series of iterated steps, it is a simulation.
Equally, Candyland simulates a particular model of life. Neither the missile simulation nor the Candyland simulation involve any decisions. Thus, per Costikyan, they are not games.

When we add decisions and goals to a simulation, it becomes a game.

That means that, not only is Candyland a simulation... and an NTC rotation is a game.

Oddly enough, we called such exercises “war games”, once upon a time.

By: James Sterrett

+++++++

So, what do you guys think? Where's the line between a "game" and a "simulation"? What's the difference and how should we distinguish them?

Off-Topic: WotC Announces New Edition of D&D Coming

2012-01-09T18:59:00.000Z

Look, we know there's a lot of other types of gaming out there, and RPGs aren't just things that insurgents shoot at people. We're not going to become a fantasy gaming blog, but we did want to take a minute and point people towards some good articles about the upcoming edition "revision" of the venerable Dungeons & Dragons franchise.

If you want to be a part of "Charting the Course for D&D", visit the Official Home Page at WotC.

The New York Times considered the news fit to print.
So did Forbes.

Critical hits has not one, but two good articles about it.

There's a nice long - and rambling, natch - thread over at ENWorld, the pseudo-sorta-unofficial RPG HQ online.

The Escapist magazine is always good source of gaming info, and I'm not just saying that because they know how to recognize true genius.

But hey, if CNN.com thinks it's important, who are we to argue?

By: Brant

UK In Action: Warthog Trials

2012-01-09T16:00:00.004Z

Seen here on trial at ATDU Bovington, the Warthog is an all terrain protected mobility vehicle that gives protection against current and emerging mine strike threats. Warthog is a modified and better protected version of the Singapore Army Bronco. It will be equipped with an upgraded cooling and filtration system, Bowman BCIP 5 communications fit, mine blast protection and Electronic Counter Measures (ECM). Warthog will provide Protected Mobility (PM) for the infantry with its protection, firepower and mobility. It will also operate in a Mounted Close Combat (MCC) role and provide support to Dismounted Close Combat (DCC). The vehicle is able to operate in a range of environments including the Green Zone and desert areas of Afghanistan. Warthog with its associated communications, ECM suite, mine blast protection, load carriage, crew served weapon system and increased tactical mobility & range will be a considerable enhancement to elements of ground manoeuvre capability in Afghanistan. All Warthogs are equipped with a crew served weapon system. This provides them with a protected weapon station from which the commander will be able to quickly deliver fire on either the 7.62mm General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) or 0.5 Calibre Heavy Machine Gun (HMG). The mount allows accurate, suppressive fire out to 1000m allowing for effective self defence or the provision of fire support when required.MobilityWarthog has been designed to be easily moved by air, sea, rail, road and landing craft. When operating it has the ability to cover some of the most demanding types of ground.Crew Front 3 and rear 8Overall length 8.9mHeight Front-2.95m Rear 2.32mMax Speed 60kph

img from UK MoD

By: Widow 6-7

Monday Video: Not Ready To Die... Or Are You?

2012-01-09T15:04:00.000Z

Starting this week with a BANG

By: Brant

Hastings is Still a Schmuck

2012-01-08T16:34:00.000Z

But the guy can write... here's a set of pretty good articles he wrote before he went on the anti-military warpath.

By: Brant

Still Deploying...

2012-01-07T16:35:00.000Z

Yes, they're bringing troops home. And yes, there are others still deploying.

Heading off to war seems so 2002, not 2012.

And yet, here we are.

"It's like all of America forgot that we're still going out there. My husband's going to Afghanistan. I have to tell people it's a whole different war," said Chaniqua Moore, 23, a Washington mother of two who was one of 80 families saying goodbye to their soldiers Thursday morning at the D.C. Armory.

Amira Ayala, 20, will spend the next year alone in her new Front Royal, Va., home with her 2-month-old daughter while her husband is deployed. "I keep thinking that maybe they'll just say it's canceled, and he'll come back," she said.

Ayala dated a Marine once and dealt with his deployment. But she married a National Guard soldier and hoped it would be different.

But it isn't, because America has relied on its National Guard volunteers in unprecedented numbers for its two wars. Hundreds of thousands of guardsmen have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan during the past decade.

By: Brant

US Navy to Iran: Good Thing We're in the Area, eh?

2012-01-07T13:05:00.000Z

Sailors from the US Navy's carrier battle group near the Strait of Hormuz rescued a boatload of Iranians from Somali pirates.

Just days after Iranian and American military officials traded warnings over a U.S. Navy vessel's departure from the Persian Gulf, the United States Navy has rescued 13 Iranian fishermen and their fishing dhow from Somali pirates in the north Arabian sea, the Pentagon said Friday. And in a side irony that punctuates the rare instance of Iranian-American co-operation, the rescue operation was carried out by a ship belonging to the very U.S. Navy aircraft carrier strike group that Iranian army officials had earlier boasted of evicting from Gulf waters.
"A boarding team from the guided-missile destroyer USS Kidd--part of the John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group--detained 15 suspected pirates aboard the fishing dhow, the Al Molai, according to a statement today from the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command Public Affairs Office," Bloomberg News' Tony Capaccio reported Friday. "The pirates didn't resist and surrendered quickly in the rescue" operation, which occurred on Thursday.
The Iranian fishermen "were held hostage, with limited rations, and we believe were forced against their will to assist the pirates with other piracy operations," Josh Schminky, a Navy Criminal Investigative Service agent aboard the Kidd, explained in the Navy statement, according to the Bloomberg report.

By: Brant

Cutting a Deal With the Taliban?

2012-01-07T12:02:00.000Z

Maybe. And Qatar might be in the middle.

The family of a U.S. soldier held captive by the Taliban for over two years said on Wednesday they were optimistic about the possibility of talks between the Afghan insurgent group and countries including the United States.
They expressed hope that Bowe Bergdahl would be freed "as soon as possible" in a statement issued a day after the Taliban said they had reached a preliminary agreement to set up a political office in the Gulf Arab country of Qatar.
"We are optimistic about the possibility of diplomatic discussions between Taliban officials and government officials from other nations, including the United States," the family said in a statement released through the Idaho National Guard.
"Our only son, Bowe Bergdahl, has been held captive for two and a half years. We hope he will be released as soon as possible. We know that serious discussions among diplomats are the most likely way to make this happen, and for Bowe to be returned safely to us, his family," it added.
Bergdahl, of Hailey, Idaho, was a member of the 1st Battalion of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment in Afghanistan when he went missing in June 2009. Three days later, the U.S. military declared him captured by the Taliban.

By: Brant

Anniversary: Battle of Ashdown

2012-01-07T09:48:00.001Z

Today marks the anniversary of the Battle of Ashdown in 871.

View Larger Map

A brief synopsis of the Battle of Ashdown from about.com

Riding to the top of Blowingstone Hill (Kingstone Lisle), Alfred made use of an ancient perforated sarsen stone. Known as the "Blowing Stone," it was capable of producing a loud, booming sound when blown into correctly. With the signal sent out across the downs, he rode to a hill-fort near Ashdown House to gather his men, while Ethelred's men rallied at nearby Hardwell Camp. Uniting their forces, Ethelred and Alfred learned that the Danes had encamped at nearby Uffington Castle. On the morning of January 8, 871, both forces marched out and formed for battle on the plain of Ashdown.

Though both armies were in place, neither appeared eager to open the battle. It was during this lull that Ethelred, against Alfred's wishes, departed the field to attend church services at nearby Aston. Unwilling to return until the service was finished, he left Alfred in command. Assessing the situation, Alfred realized that the Danes had occupied a superior position on higher ground. Seeing that they would have to attack first or be defeated, Alfred ordered the Saxons forward. Charging, the Saxon shield wall collided with the Danes and battle commenced.

Clashing near a lone, gnarled thorn tree, the two sides inflicted heavy casualties in the melee that ensued. Among those struck down was Bagsecg as well as five of his earls. With their losses mounting and one of their kings dead, the Danes fled the field and returned to Reading.

By: Brant

Pentagon Announces New Strategy, Follow-Up I

2012-01-06T22:05:00.000Z

Worried about the intel budget? Don't be.

"We will protect, and in some cases increase our investments in special operations forces, in new technologies like (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance), and unmanned systems, in space and particularly in cyberspace capabilities, and also capacity to quickly mobilize," Panetta told reporters at the Pentagon.

And the Congressional reactions are starting to pour in. You won't find any surprises.

“The current and emerging global threats to our national security are more complex than at any time that I can recall,” said Republican Sen. John McCain, ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Therefore, I will closely, carefully and thoroughly review the defense strategy that the president announced today and examine whether it meets our national security objectives.”

His counterpart in the House, Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, did not hesitate to criticize the new strategy.

While the Pentagon press conference was still underway, McKeon tweeted, “New defense strategy is a lead from behind for a left-behind America.”

In a statement issued soon afterward, he said, “The President has packaged our retreat from the world in the guise of a new strategy to mask his divestment of our military and national defense.”

By: Brant

Pentagon Announces New Military Strategy

2012-01-06T15:28:00.006Z

So 2MRC is dead. The question now is, "what's next"? There was an attempt at answering that yesterday, as President Obama and Secretary Panetta announced a new "strategy" yesterday that's focused on Asia and stresses 'cheap' stuff like drones and foreign engagement.

quotes, and more articles, after the jump...

President Barack Obama unveiled a defense strategy on Thursday that would expand the U.S. military presence in Asia but shrink the overall size of the force as the Pentagon seeks to slash spending by nearly half a trillion dollars after a decade of war.
The strategy, if carried out, would significantly reshape the world's most powerful military following the buildup that was a key part of President George W. Bush's "war on terrorism" in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Cyberwarfare and unmanned drones would continue to grow in priority, as would countering attempts by China and Iran to block U.S. power projection capabilities in areas like the South China Sea and the Strait of Hormuz.
But the size of the U.S. Army and Marines Corps would shrink. So too might the U.S. nuclear arsenal and the U.S. military footprint in Europe.
Troop- and time-intensive counter-insurgency operations, a staple of U.S. military strategy since the 2007 "surge" of extra troops to Iraq, would be far more limited.
"The tide of war is receding but the question that this strategy answers is what kind of military will we need long after the wars of the last decade are over," Obama told a Pentagon news conference alongside Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
The strategy drew varied reactions, with Republican Senator John McCain saying the United States could not afford a "budget-driven defense" and independent Senator Joe Lieberman warning it would "greatly increase the risk" that a U.S. adversary would underestimate the U.S. resolve to fight.

The scary part of this, of course, is the numbers...

Administration officials have said they expect Army and Marine Corp personnel levels to be reduced by 10 percent to 15 percent over the next decade as part of the reductions.
The Army's current strength is about 565,000 soldiers and there are 201,000 Marines, meaning an eventual loss of between 76,000 and 114,000 troops.
Panetta acknowledged the Pentagon's financial constraints would mean difficult choices and trade-offs that would require the United States to take on "some level of additional but acceptable risk in the budget plan we release next month."
Critics charged that the cuts were driven by budget woes rather than U.S. defense needs.
"The Pentagon is trying to put on a brave face that this is a pure strategy that has informed the 2013 defense budget," said Mackenzie Eaglen, a national security expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank.
"Everyone knows that the cart was before the horse on this and that Congress and the president picked a budget and this is a strategy to chase down those numbers," she said.
"This is a classic resource-driven strategy document," said Gordon Adams, an American University professor who worked on defense budgets in the Clinton administration White House.

The Economist has their own sobering take on the situation:

The contours of the new military strategy announced by Barack Obama at the Pentagon on January 5th have been fairly clear for some time. To talk of it as “new strategic guidance” is thus slightly misleading. Short of some cataclysmic event that reshapes the entire landscape, strategy should hardly ever be new, but continually evolving to secure national interests (which remain constant) in a dynamic environment (in which change occurs in unpredictable ways and at varying speeds). As it happens, that pretty much describes Mr Obama’s approach. It is realistic rather than new.

What sort of power projection is needed? And how are the competitors countering it?

The third is the implicit recognition that the long wars against Islamist fanatics distracted America from paying the kind of attention it should have to “the arc extending from the Western Pacific and East Asia into the Indian Ocean region and South Asia”. Consequently, the Pentagon is now promising that “of necessity” it will “rebalance toward the Asia-Pacific region”. In particular, there is a firm commitment to maintain America’s ability to project military power in the region despite the rapidly rising military prowess of China and, in particular, its investment in asymmetric “anti-access/area denial” capabilities designed to make it too dangerous for American carriers to venture into its neighbourhood. The next decade will be a test both of that commitment and the way in which the strategic relationship with China–the first potential “near peer” military competitor America has faced since the collapse of the Soviet Union–develops.

The DoD has released the official statments from
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin E. Dempsey and from Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta.

Much more on this later.

By: Brant

Random Friday Wargaming: Warsaw Pact

2012-01-06T14:57:00.000Z

From an old issue of Jadgpanther, Warsaw Pact includes scenarios from the 60s to the 80s, across all of Europe.

There's not just one, but two CSW forums here...

Master links/images from Boardgamegeek.com; message boards linked to Consimworld. Other links to the actual game pages...

By: Brant

New Iranian Maneuvers... More Saber-Rattling?

2012-01-06T14:56:00.000Z

February will bring a new round of maneuvers in the Hormuz Strait.

Iran announced plans on Friday to hold new naval exercises in the Strait of Hormuz next month, the latest in a series of forceful gestures in the world's most important oil shipping lane at a time when new sanctions threaten Tehran's exports.
Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, naval commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, said the exercises in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz in February would be different from previous exercises, but gave no further details, according to remarks reported by the semi-official Fars news agency.
"Today the Islamic Republic of Iran has full domination over the region and controls all movements within it," he said.
Iran held a 10-day drill which ended on Monday in the strait, which leads out of the Gulf and provides the main export route for the Middle East's oil.

By: Brant

UK In Action: ANA RPG

2012-01-05T16:00:00.005Z

A soldier with the Afghan National Army is pictured holding a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) launcher during a joint operation with 3 Parachute Regiment in Afghanistan. Thsi image was a runner up in the portfolio category of the Army Photographic Competition 2011.

img from UK MoD

By: Widow 6-7

Michael Hastings is NOT Looking Good After This

2012-01-05T15:05:00.001Z

A lot of military folks hated Hastings after his infamous hit piece on McChrystal. What comes out in the review of his new book The Operators over at the Wall Street Journal isn't going to make anyone like him any more.

In the Rolling Stone article, Mr. Hastings sketched a trip to Paris in April 2010, when the McChrystal team allegedly made the inflammatory comments, without attributing most quotes to specific individuals. In "The Operators," he names names. We now discover that the large majority of the incendiary statements came from a 33-year-old lieutenant commander. In "The Runaway General," Mr. Hastings attributed the lieutenant commander's assertions at various times to a "team member," an "aide" and an "adviser," leading readers to conclude that the statements emanated from a broad range of Gen. McChrystal's staff members. Moreover, an investigation by the Defense Department's Inspector General found insufficient evidence to attribute some of the offending quotes to team members and determined that other quotes had been taken out of context.

According to members of Gen. McChrystal's team, Mr. Hastings represented himself as a supporter of the Afghan war and the U.S. military upon meeting the team in Paris. When "The Runaway General" was published, he dismissed accusations that he was antiwar, explaining that his views of the war "are critical but that shouldn't be mistaken for hostile." In "The Operators," he states unabashedly: "I hated the war."

Most telling perhaps, is the final paragraph of the review. If Hastings hated the war, he sure found an excellent way to torpedo it.

Like David Halberstam and Neil Sheehan, Mr. Hastings ignores the harm that his reporting caused to America's overseas interests. The firing of Gen. McChrystal removed the one American who enjoyed the confidence of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and of Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, chief of staff of Pakistan's army. It also widened the gulf between Mr. Karzai and Washington. Mr. Karzai became convinced that the White House had removed Gen. McChrystal as another slap in his face for disregarding American lectures. To the Afghan president, it was inconceivable that the U.S. government would fire its top military officer because of unattributed quotes in a pop-culture magazine.

No doubt the Rolling Stoners will claim that they're more than a "pop culture" magazine. But if they are, then it's only to become a very strident and partisan voice on one side of the political spectrum, and not in a good way. Rolling Stone used to have some excellent reporting - even about national security topics - but since 9/11 has made a hard left turn into the culture wars and alienated a lot of readers who preferred their serious writing about entertainment topics and read other sources for serious writing about serious topics.

By: Brant

Navy Names First Three Mobile Landing Platform Ships

2012-01-05T12:34:00.000Z

The DoD has announced that the Navy has named the first three mobile landing platform ships.

The Department of the Navy’s three Mobile Landing Platform ships will be named the USNS Montford Point, the USNS John Glenn and the USNS Lewis B. Puller, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced today.

“I chose to name the department’s new MLPs Montford Point, John Glenn and Lewis B. Puller as a way to recognize these American pioneers and heroes both collectively and individually,” said Mabus. “The courage shown by these Marines helped forge the Corps into the most formidable expeditionary force in the world.”

The USNS Montford Point honors the approximately 20,000 African American Marine Corps recruits who trained at the North Carolina facility from 1942-1949. Their exceptional service prompted President Truman to sign an executive order in 1948 ending segregation in the U.S. military services. These 20,000 Marines were recently recognized with our nation’s highest civilian honor for distinguished achievement, the Congressional Gold Medal.

The USNS Montford Point will be the first-of-class ship. It is expected to deliver in fiscal 2013 and be operational in fiscal 2015.

The second MLP, the USNS John Glenn, honors Col. John Glenn, a decorated Marine Corps pilot, distinguished astronaut, Congressional Space Medal of Honor recipient and U.S. Senator. During his time with the Marine Corps, Glenn flew 59 combat missions during World War II and a combined 90 missions over the course of two tours in the Korean War.

The final auxiliary support ship, the USNS Lewis B. Puller, is named in honor of Lt. Gen. Lewis “Chesty” Puller, the most decorated Marine in history and the only one to be awarded five Navy Crosses.

The MLP is a flexible platform that will provide capability for large-scale logistics movements such as the transfer of vehicles and equipment from sea to shore. It will significantly reduce dependency on foreign ports and provide support in the absence of any port, making it especially useful during disaster response and for supporting Marines once they are ashore.

The MLP in its basic form possesses a core capability set that supports a vehicle staging area, sideport ramp, large mooring fenders and up to three landing craft air cushioned vessel (LCAC) lanes.

The three ships will be constructed by General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) in San Diego, Calif.

By: Brant

Good Questions from the Fairer Sex

2012-01-05T02:43:00.002Z

An anonymous female junior officer penned a column for Rick's blog, The Best Defense, and asks some pointed questions...

Because being a maneuver officer is a de facto requirement of strategic leadership, graduating three months of Ranger school increases one's chances of becoming a strategic leader far more than does five years of doctoral education.

A diversity of backgrounds in senior leadership would combat group-think and increase options for new leaders. It's too bad there's not a group of officers who've had the time to devote to strategic studies because they've been barred from maneuver branches.

But wait -- there is! Female officers tend to have spent disproportionate time on strategic issues, because they are excluded from most tactical jobs. In a post littered with generalizations, here's the biggest: female officers tend to be more interested in enhancing their strategic skills, because they know that their chances of making brigade command are slim, division command microscopic, and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff laughable. So why not do a stint as a speechwriter, get a PhD, or spend time in unconventional but challenging jobs?

What sayeth y'all? Should females be considered for senior leadership posts? The broader question really is, should non-maneuver/combat officers be consider for senior leadership posts? And if would such a process hamstring male officers in, say, the Ordnance corps, who have to compete against male maneuver guys as well as female support folks?

By: Brant

Good Questions from the Fairer Sex

2012-01-05T02:43:00.000Z

An anonymous female junior officer penned a column for Rick's blog, The Best Defense, and asks some pointed questions...

Because being a maneuver officer is a de facto requirement of strategic leadership, graduating three months of Ranger school increases one's chances of becoming a strategic leader far more than does five years of doctoral education.

A diversity of backgrounds in senior leadership would combat group-think and increase options for new leaders. It's too bad there's not a group of officers who've had the time to devote to strategic studies because they've been barred from maneuver branches.

But wait -- there is! Female officers tend to have spent disproportionate time on strategic issues, because they are excluded from most tactical jobs. In a post littered with generalizations, here's the biggest: female officers tend to be more interested in enhancing their strategic skills, because they know that their chances of making brigade command are slim, division command microscopic, and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff laughable. So why not do a stint as a speechwriter, get a PhD, or spend time in unconventional but challenging jobs?

The End of the 2MRC Strategy?

2012-01-04T19:18:00.001Z

It's been the cornerstone of US strategic thought since the end of the Cold War, but now the two major regional conflict strategy may be ending?

The United States should give up the capability to fight two major ground wars simultaneously, according to a Pentagon review that will be presented this week, a U.S. official said Wednesday.

The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said the strategic review presents priorities to guide the military into the future, but "they are proposals, not all of them set in stone."

The review sets forth potentially big changes in U.S. strategy, including, the official said, removing up to 4,000 troops from Europe and downsizing the overall ground forces even further. The 2012 budget request already called for cuts of 27,000 soldiers and 20,000 Marines in the next four years, and those numbers could increase.

The military would not maintain its ability to wage two large conflicts at the same time, such as it did in Iraq and Afghanistan, the official said.

So what do we replace it with? What makes sense as a way to shape US strategic thought for long-term defense planning? Based on what's on the horizon, how do you prepare for (and hopefully deter) unknown conflicts, without unwittingly triggering a different one through fear (on their part) or weakness (on ours)?

And how would our allies respond to fundamental shifts in our strategy? Not that they toe a party line with our existing plans or anything, but if we tell Korea "Tough. You're on your own." what does that do to our alliance with them? Or the Saudis, or the Europeans, or anyone else?

Sound off below!

By: Brant

GameTalk - Games or Simulations

2012-01-04T16:22:00.010Z

What is a "game" and what is a "simulation"? What are the differences? What impact do the differences have on training, modeling, and/or playing just for fun?

Your thoughts below!

Note - there's going to be a lot more on games/sims over the next few days, so stay tuned :)

By: Brant

Iran Says "Boo"; US Says "Uh, OK"

2012-01-03T23:33:00.000Z

Iran has threatened "action" if the US sends a carrier group back to the Gulf.

Iran will take action if a U.S. aircraft carrier which left the area because of Iranian naval exercises returns to the Gulf, the state news agency quoted army chief Ataollah Salehi as saying on Tuesday.
"Iran will not repeat its warning ... the enemy's carrier has been moved to the Sea of Oman because of our drill. I recommend and emphasize to the American carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf," Salehi told IRNA.
"I advise, recommend and warn them (the Americans) over the return of this carrier to the Persian Gulf because we are not in the habit of warning more than once," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Salehi as saying.
Salehi did not name the aircraft carrier or give details of the action Iran might take if it returned.
Iran completed 10 days of naval exercises in the Gulf on Monday, and said during the drills that if foreign powers imposed sanctions on its crude exports it could shut the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40 percent of the world's traded oil is shipped.
The U.S. Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain, said it would not allow shipping to be disrupted in the strait.

And by 'action' perhaps they will taunt us a second time...

By: Brant

Sound Off! Education or Training

2012-01-03T13:54:00.004Z

Which one is more important to developing your force, education or training?

Post your homework assignments below!

By: Brant

USAF Safety Beltitis

2012-01-03T12:16:00.001Z

Really, USAF? You need safety belts to ride in an airplane?!

As always, click to enlarge

By: Brant

Trouble In Nigeria

2012-01-03T00:17:00.000Z

So they've already for tanks patrolling the northeast...

Heavily armed troops and tanks patrolled the streets of Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria Sunday, witnesses said, after the president declared a state of emergency in parts of the north affected by an Islamist insurgency.
President Goodluck Jonathan imposed the state of emergency on the northeast, the conflict-prone central city of Jos, and part of Niger state near Abuja Saturday, and closed the borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger in the northeast.
Nearly a week after the radical sect Boko Haram set off a series of bombs across Nigeria on Christmas Day, including one at a church that killed at least 37 people and wounded 57, Jonathan told state television his aim was to restore security in troubled parts of the north.

... and now Nigeria is dealing with riots after a fuel subsidy ends.

Ordinary Nigerians and trade unionists have condemned the government for withdrawing a fuel price subsidy which has led petrol prices to more than double in many areas.
The BBC's Chris Ewokor in the capital, Abuja, says Nigerians are angry at the announcement, fearing the price of many other goods will also rise.
The main trade unions have called people to prepare for a strike.
Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer, but imports refined petrol.
Years of mismanagement and corruption mean it does not have the capacity to refine oil, turning it into petrol and other fuels.

By: Brant

UK In Action: Boarding the Chinook

2012-01-02T16:00:00.006Z

Photograph shows soldiers from 20 Armoured Brigade boarding a Royal Air Force Chinook Mk 2 helicopter from 1310 flight at Camp Bastion passenger handling facility. The Joint Helicopter Force (AFGHANISTAN) or JHF (A) is a deployed tri-Service unit from the Joint Helicopter Command. Its primary purpose is to facilitate tactical mobility, reconnaissance and Aviation Fires support to the UK task force in Helmand Province and to the multi-national force of Regional Command (South).

img from UK MoD

By: Widow 6-7

Monday Video: Let The Bodies...

2012-01-02T14:04:00.000Z

Look, it's a popular tune with a great set of 'revenge' lyrics, so it's a cliched BANG, but it's still a great BANG to start your week...

And try to ignore the apostrophe abuse...

By: Brant

MidEast Arms Sales and Elections

2012-01-02T12:15:00.001Z

Looks like we might have an answer for our poll last week... fighter sales to the Middle East could well be an economic issue tied to election campaigns.

Booming Middle East purchases of U.S. fighter jets will be a bright spot in what is expected to be a sluggish economy in 2012, possibly paying dividends for President Barack Obama's bid for a second term.
Beneficiaries include Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co, whose respective F-16 and F-15 production lines are being extended by U.S. government sales to Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Oman, among other rich arms deals announced in recent weeks.
The foreign sales will help offset expected cuts in big-ticket purchases by the Defense Department, which is set to lose at least $450 billion in previously projected funding through 2021 as part of a deficit-reduction push. Additional cuts totaling another $500 billion to $600 billion over the same period are scheduled to kick in next year unless a new deficit-reduction plan is adopted by Congress.
The sales of fighters, missiles and other advanced U.S. weapons will help provide jobs as the United States heads into an election campaign expected to focus on the domestic economy. It has been growing at only half the pace needed to get the jobless rate down from 8.6 percent, a problem for Obama as the incumbent.

By: Brant

Iran Rattling MIssile-Shaped Sabers

2012-01-02T12:11:00.001Z

Iran's recent naval maneuvers included test-firing long-range missiles.

Iran said on Monday it had successfully test-fired two long-range missiles during a naval exercise in the Gulf, flexing its military muscle to show it could hit Israel and U.S. bases in the region if attacked.
In response to mounting Western pressure over its nuclear ambitions, Iran started a naval drill in the Gulf last week and warned that it could shut the Strait of Hormuz if sanctions were imposed on its oil exports, the country's main revenue source.
The 10 days of naval wargames and the warning over the Strait, a narrow Gulf shipping lane through which 40 percent of world oil passes, have rattled oil markets and pushed up crude prices.
Analysts say Iran's increasingly strident rhetoric is aimed at sending a message to the West that it should think twice about the economic cost of putting further pressure on Tehran.
"We have successfully test-fired long-range shore-to-sea and surface-to-surface missiles, called Qader (capable) and Nour (Light) today," Deputy Navy Commander Mahmoud Mousavi told state television.

By: Brant

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T03:16:00.002Z

The Staff at GrogNews wishes all of you a very happy New Year!

And wishes the ACC would show up for bowl games just once....

By: The Staff

Kim Jong Un Collecting More Titles

2011-12-31T18:21:00.000Z

I mean really, what 28-year-old baby-faced brat doesn't want another title in running the country his father left him.

North Korea said Saturday that Kim Jong Un has been officially named supreme commander of the military, further strengthening his authority after the death of his father.
Officials and state media have bestowed on Kim Jong Un, who is in his late 20s, a string of titles as North Korea's elite rally around him after Kim Jong Il's death in mid-December after 17 years in power.
But the title Supreme Commander — and its formal proclamation by the powerful Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party — is a clear sign that Kim Jong Un is fast consolidating power over North Korea. It's also the latest step in a burgeoning personality cult around him.

Now, this bit from the article is funny...

"This is a historic event reflecting the unanimous will of the service persons and the people to defend the dignity of the country," the official Korean Central News Agency said.

Defend the dignity of the country?! Really? Dignity? Hell, I could defend the "dignity" of North Korea with a Nerf gun and flak jacket made of spaghetti.

By: Brant

A New Drug Problem

2011-12-31T13:08:00.000Z

Synthetic marijuana usage is growing in US forces.

U.S. troops are increasingly using an easy-to-get herbal mix called "Spice," which mimics a marijuana high, is hard to detect and can bring on hallucinations that last for days.
The abuse of the substance has so alarmed military officials that they've launched an aggressive testing program that this year has led to the investigation of more than 1,100 suspected users.
So-called "synthetic" pot is readily available on the Internet and has become popular nationwide in recent years, but its use among troops and sailors has raised concerns among the Pentagon brass.
"You can just imagine the work that we do in a military environment," said Mark Ridley, deputy director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, adding, "you need to be in your right mind when you do a job. That's why the Navy has always taken a zero tolerance policy toward drugs."
Two years ago, only 29 Marines and sailors were investigated for Spice. This year, the number topped 700, the investigative service said. Those found guilty of using Spice are kicked out, although the Navy does not track the overall number of dismissals.
The Air Force has punished 497 airmen so far this year, compared to last year's 380, according to figures provided by the Pentagon. The Army does not track Spice investigations but says it has medically treated 119 soldiers for the synthetic drug in total.
Military officials emphasize those caught represent a tiny fraction of all service members and note none was in a leadership position or believed high while on duty.
Spice is made up of exotic plants from Asia like Blue Lotus and Bay Bean. Their leaves are coated with chemicals that mimic the effects of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, but are five to 200 times more potent.

Great - 'cuz there's nothing better than people with heavy weaponry who are hallucinating in a war zone.

By: Brant

Boeing Keeps Missile Defense Work

2011-12-31T13:03:00.001Z

Hey, for $3.48 billion, you'd want the contract, too.

Boeing Co beat out Lockheed Martin to retain its position as the prime contractor for the U.S. long-range missile shield, the Pentagon said on Friday.
The U.S. Defense Department said it was awarding Boeing a $3.48 billion, seven-year contract to develop, test, engineer and manufacture missile defense systems.
A team led by Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Co had vied with Boeing to expand and maintain the Ground-based Midcourse Defense, or GMD, hub of layered antimissile protection.
Boeing partnered with Northrop Grumman Corp to retain the work.

By: Brant

The Norks Are Ever Defiant

2011-12-30T15:10:00.000Z

The change in power equals no change in policies.

North Korea sounded a bellicose note in its first communication with the outside world since the death of leader Kim Jong-il, saying its confrontational stance against South Korea would not change and labeling its opponents "foolish."
Since Kim Jong-il died on December 17, the outside world has been watching to see whether his son Kim Jong-un, aged in his 20s, would stick to its hardline "military first" policies that have seen the isolated nation move closer to nuclear weapons capacity.
"On this occasion, we solemnly declare with confidence that foolish politicians around the world, including the puppet forces in South Korea, should not expect any changes from us," a broadcaster on state television said on Friday.
She was reading a statement from the National Defense Commission, the top body in the militarized and impoverished state under Kim Jong-il.
In a break from the black mourning clothing worn since Kim Jong-il's death, the broadcaster wore dark red clothes and almost shouted her defiant message.

By: Brant

Random Friday Wargaming: Battle: The Game of Generals

2011-12-30T14:57:00.001Z

A poster-child for generic wargaming, Yaquinto's Battle: The Game of Generals was an early-80s release in their "album" series of games. Yes, I owned this one; bought it at the post exchange on what was then known as Fort Ord, CA. I thought it would be cool if I could play a ton of different genres in one package! And you sure could, as long as you didn't mind them all basically looking/feeling the same, or constantly checking the reference pages to see what the counter symbol meant for this particular scenario.

Anyone else out there give this one a run? It's barely more than "chess" with NATO symbols and some lookup tables. What'd y'all think?

Master links/images from Boardgamegeek.com; message boards linked to Consimworld. Other links to the actual game pages...

By: Brant

Huge US Deal to Sell F15s to Saudis

2011-12-30T11:50:00.002Z

What the heck, theSaudis probably have $30 billion laying around their couch cushions.

The Obama administration on Thursday hailed a new $30 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia as both a hedge against Iranian aggression in the Persian Gulf and an economic windfall that could create thousands of U.S. jobs over the next decade.

The agreement to sell 84 top-of-the line F-15SA fighter jets to the Saudi air force also provided a needed boost to U.S. relations with the oil-rich kingdom after months of strain over the White House’s response to the Arab Spring uprisings, U.S. officials and Middle East analysts said.

The deal, which was finalized after more than a year of negotiations, was announced during a week of increased tensions with Iran, which has renewed its threat to block ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz in response to international economic sanctions. The administration has pursued a policy of supplying advanced weapons systems to friendly Arab states to keep Iran’s regional ambitions in check.

“This sale will send a strong message to countries in the region that the United States is committed to stability in the gulf and broader Middle East,” Andrew Shapiro, assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, told reporters.

What do you think - good idea? Bad idea? Is this sale mainly a diplomatic move, a security move, or an economic move?

poll by twiigs.com

By: Brant

Anniversary: The Hanging of Saddam Hussein

2011-12-30T11:28:00.001Z

It was 8 years ago today that Saddam Hussein was hanged.

In March 2003, a coalition of countries led by the U.S. and U.K. invaded Iraq to depose Saddam, after U.S. President George W. Bush accused him of possessing weapons of mass destruction and having ties to al-Qaeda. Saddam's Ba'ath party was disbanded and the nation made a transition to a democratic system. Following his capture on 13 December 2003 (in Operation Red Dawn), the trial of Saddam took place under the Iraqi interim government. On 5 November 2006, he was convicted of charges related to the 1982 killing of 148 Iraqi Shi'ites and was sentenced to death by hanging. The execution of Saddam Hussein was carried out on 30 December 2006.

The video is in Arabic, and shows the execution order, and Saddam being prepped for the gallows.

By: Brant

UK MoD Wanting to Play Better Games

2011-12-29T16:36:00.001Z

The dominant discussion here is going to be how "the video game generation" is growing up and is bored by the simulators the miltiary is putting in front of them.
There's a deeper story here that's not being told correctly, though. All those mid- and late-career guys that are now in the programs, training development, and acquisitions business are the guys approaching their late-30s and early-40s, and who were playing video games as tweens in the early 80s. They grew up with video games, even if video games weren't present when today's officers were born. Those mid-career guys are the ones who understand that (video)game-based training is a value-add and are now in a position to actually execute on those ideas.
Are they catering to a younger crowd? No doubt. But is that why they're doing it? Not necessarily. The senior officers developing long-term training plans are integrating more games because that's what they grew up on, not just because that's what they're target audience grew up on.
It's just that the cost of civilian technological development has dropped so low that the commercial developers are running laps around the laborious pace of government-sponsored development, and so the 'cool' games aren't military-grade flight sims anymore, but rather commercially-available FPS games. And today's acquisitions guys understand that as long as the physics under the hood work, you can rewrite the scenarios all you want to focus on legitimate military training objectives instead of just racking up points for your gamertag.

The British military has had to radically improve some of its simulated training war games to keep the attention of recruits who have grown up in the Playstation and Xbox generation, a Ministry of Defence scientist has admitted.

Troops are so used to playing high-quality commercial games set in combat zones that they tend to lose concentration unless the MoD simulations look equally realistic. This has become an important issue at the MoD, which is increasingly turning to digital simulations to help prepare soldiers for duty.

Thousands of troops sent to Afghanistan have been trained on Virtual Battlespace2, a spin-off from a commercial game that can, for instance, test their responses when they come under mortar attack from insurgents.

Though the military stresses that these games only supplement traditional methods, it reflects the way technology is transforming military training. With budgets being squeezed across the MoD, simulations are also a comparatively cheap way of giving troops a "virtual'' taste of what they might come up against in a warzone.

Another idea involves issuing RAF trainee pilots with tablet computers such as iPads, to save the cost – and weight – of printing bulky flight manuals that need to be regularly updated and cost £1,000 a student.

The scientists and engineers at MoD's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory in Portsdown, Hampshire, are at the heart of the developments.

Andrew Poulter, the technical team leader, said the military was trying to keep up with the advances that have helped turned computer gaming into a hugely lucrative global industry. Bestsellers such as Battlefield 3, Killzone 3 and the Call of Duty series have taken this genre of video games, known as "first-person shooters'', to a new level.

"Back in the 1980s and 1990s, defence was far out in front in terms of quality of simulation," said Poulter. "Military-built simulators were state of the art. But now, for £50, you can buy a commercial game that will be far more realistic than the sorts of tools we were using. The truth is, the total spending on games development across the industry will be greater than spending on defence."

Poulter is in charge of Project Kite (knowledge information test environment), which has been tasked with putting the MoD back in the forefront of simulation training, in part by buying-in technology from the big gaming companies.

The key to successful virtual training is for the simulation to be realistic enough for people to be properly "immersed'' in what they are doing.

By: Brant

UK In Action: HMS Raider Patrol

2011-12-29T16:00:00.004Z

The P2000 Archer Class Patrol vessel HMS Raider is pictured at speed in the Solent. HMS Raider is one of two Batch 2 P2000 class coastal training vessels operated by the Royal Navy. Her primary tasking is in support of Bristol University Royal Naval Unit, providing the opportunity for students to spend time at sea, both on sea weekends, and longer deployments during university breaks.

img from UK MoD

By: Widow 6-7

Can Iran's Ass Cash the Checks Their Mouths Are Writing?

2011-12-29T14:31:00.001Z

They're threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz. Can Iran really do it?

Since it doesn't have nuclear weapons yet, Iran is playing the lone trump card in its hand: threatening to shut down the Strait of Hormuz through which Persian Gulf oil flows to fuel much of the world's economy. Iranian navy chief Admiral Habibollah Sayyari told state television Wednesday that it would be "very easy" for his forces to shut down the chokepoint. "Iran has comprehensive control over the strategic waterway," he said as his vessels continued a 10-day exercise near the strait.
But just how good a trump card is it?
"Iran has constructed a navy with considerable asymmetric and other capabilities designed specifically to be used in an integrated way to conduct area denial operations in the Persian Gulf and SoH, and they routinely exercise these capabilities and issue statements of intent to use them," Jonathan Schroden writes in a recent report for the Pentagon-funded Center for Naval Analyses. "This combination of capabilities and expressed intent does present a credible threat to international shipping in the Strait."
Not so fast, other experts maintain. "We believe that we would be able to maintain the strait," Marine General James Cartwright, then-vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress last year. "But it would be a question of time and impact and the implications from a global standpoint on the flow of energy, et cetera, [that] would have ramifications probably beyond the military actions that would go on."

By: Brant

GameTalk - Medic!

2011-12-28T13:12:00.003Z

When / where / how do you see medical support integrated into wargames?
Do you want medics running around your squad-level games?
Do you want to have to plane CASEVAC / MASCAL in your battalion- and brigade-level fights?
What about hospital ships and support vessels at sea?
Do you deal with CSAR in your dogfighting games?
What about the replacement throughput at division level and above?

Tell us what you've seen, what you liked, what you'd like to see more (or less) of...

By: Brant

Sobering Analysis of an Air War Over Taiwan

2011-12-27T19:04:00.001Z

Say we commit to defending Taiwan, and the Chinese take a whack at it anyway. There's a pretty detailed analysis about what that fight would look like, and Robert Haddick's synopsis at Foreign Policy is not a pleasant one.

In a Ph.D. dissertation written for the Pardee RAND Graduate School, Eric Stephen Gons provides an exhaustive analysis of a simulated battle between the U.S. and Chinese air forces for the airspace over Taiwan. Gons's analysis takes into account the air bases available to both sides, their aircraft parking capacity, air base vulnerability and hardening, air defense systems, sortie generation rates, aircraft maintenance requirements, crew fatigue, probable weapons effectiveness, time and distance considerations, and other factors.

Even though the U.S. Air Force's F-22 Raptor is far superior to its Chinese opponents, Gons concludes that the "tyranny of distance" will prevent the U.S. Air Force from winning a shootout over Taiwan. The Air Force's base on Guam, a three-hour flight to Taiwan, is the only viable U.S. base for the island's air defense. Although the U.S. has high quality air bases on Okinawa and Japan's home islands, these bases are very close to China and are thus vulnerable to China's massive arsenal of land-attack cruise and ballistic missiles. In addition, Gons asserts the Air Force would not operate its expensive and limited tanker and early warning support aircraft from these Japanese bases since they would be highly vulnerable to Chinese attack. This would preclude F-22 operations to Taiwan from these bases.

That leaves Andersen Air Base on Guam, which even when stuffed to capacity with F-22s and required support aircraft could only provide a continuous combat air patrol over Taiwan of just six fighters. The Chinese attackers, by contrast, operating from at least a dozen hardened and heavily defended air bases in southeast China, could sorties dozens or even hundreds of fighters over Taiwan at will. Six F-22s simply do not carry enough missiles to prevent Chinese fighters from breaking through and shooting down the Air Force tanker and early-warning aircraft supporting the F-22s east of Taiwan. In this case, the F-22s would be lost to fuel exhaustion and the United States would be forced to retreat, at least for the moment. Nor does Gons expect much help from the Navy. He estimates that the relatively short range of the Navy's aircraft carrier-based fighters, combined with the growing Chinese anti-ship missile threat, would dissuade the admirals from risking air operations over Taiwan.

Is it time for Larry Bond and the Persian Incursion crew to put together a Taiwan game?

By: Brant

Aussies Looking for Recruits

2011-12-27T14:59:00.001Z

The Australian Defence Force is looking overseas for new troops, and hoping to target some of the recently-released US, UK, and Canadian forces just back from overseas.

The Australian Defence force is trying to recruit laid-off soldiers, sailors and air crew from Britain, the US and other western countries in order to fill quotas.

The Australian reports the navy has sent a delegation to Britain to discover how many retrenched sailors, particularly engineers, are available.

A report on maintenance in Australia's navy suggested that as many as 200 engineers are needed to rebuild lost expertise.

The paper reports the department also is looking for defence specialists, such as fighter pilots, submarine crews and officers and are offering fast-tracked Australian citizenship as an incentive.

By: Brant

Sound Off! Sniper or Marksman?

2011-12-27T13:54:00.004Z

Would you rather have...

... one deadly sniper team that misses an occasional shot each year?
or
... a group of marksmen who are less deadly but more numerous?

Take aim with your comments below!

By: Brant

ISAF Placemat DEC 2011

2011-12-27T11:44:00.000Z

Troop Numbers & Contributions to ISAF

As always, click to enlarge.

By: Brant

UK In Action: Sniper

2011-12-26T16:01:00.007Z

A sniper serving in Afghanistan on Operation Herrick 10 with the Sniper Platoon, D (Fire Support) Company, 2nd Battalion, The Mercian Regiment, with his .338mm L115 A3 sniper rifle.

img from UK MoD

By: Widow 6-7

Monday Video: When We Say "BANG" We Mean It

2011-12-26T12:00:00.001Z

P.O.D. is the least-BANG thing about this video to start your week-between-the-holidays...

By: Brant

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T09:43:00.000Z

Now quit reading GrogNews and get back to Christmas!

By: Brant & The Staff

Iranian Navy Exercises in International Waters

2011-12-24T13:22:00.001Z

Hoping to improve of their performances since the Battle of Salamis, the Iranian navy is is holding exercises just outside the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran's navy has begun a 10-day drill in international waters beyond the strategic Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, the passageway for about a third of the world's oil tanker traffic.
The exercise could bring Iranian ships into proximity with U.S. Navy vessels in the area.
Navy chief Adm. Habibollah Sayyari says Iran is holding the war games to show off its prowess and defense capabilities. State TV broadcast his comments on Saturday.

By: Brant

NORAD's Santa Tracker

2011-12-24T12:47:00.001Z

Just like years past, we're posting the NORAD Santa Tracker. The big guy's already in the air over the eastern side of the Pacific rim, hitting New Zealand and parts of Russia on his way back south toward Japan.

By: Brant