BUB: AirSea Battle

The Marines have a nice reasonably-concise, if buzzword-heavy, Air-Sea Battle concept summary

The Air-Sea Battle Concept centers on networked, integrated, attack-in-depth to disrupt, destroy and defeat (NIA-D3) A2/AD threats. This approach exploits and improves upon the advantage U.S. forces have across the air, maritime, land, space and cyberspace domains, and is essential to defeat increasingly capable intelligence gathering systems and sophisticated weapons systems used by adversaries employing A2/AD systems. Offensive and defensive tasks in Air-Sea Battle are tightly coordinated in real time by networks able to command and control air and naval forces in a contested environment. The air and naval forces are organized by mission and networked to conduct integrated operations across all domains.

The concept organizes these integrated tasks into three lines of effort, wherein air and naval forces attack-in-depth to disrupt the adversary's intelligence collection and command and control used to employ A2/AD weapons systems; destroy or neutralize A2/AD weapons systems within effective range of U.S. forces; and defeat an adversary's employed weapons to preserve essential U.S. Joint forces and their enablers. Through NIA-D3, air and naval forces achieve integrated effects across multiple domains, using multiple paths to increase the resilience, agility, speed and effectiveness of the force.

Air-Sea Battle is a limited operational concept designed to address an adversary's A2/AD capabilities. It is not a concept aimed at any particular potential adversary, nor a campaign plan designed to accomplish a specific national objective. Instead, it is a concept that will spark innovation and development of the means to support future operations. The Air-Sea Battle Concept identifies the actions needed to defeat A2/AD threats and the materiel and non-materiel solutions required to execute those actions.

AOLDefense asks the important question: "what do you do once you're in the area where access was denied?"

In the budget wars between the services, "hybrid threats" and "AirSea Battle" have become rallying buzzwords of two opposing camps.

On one side, Army leaders talk of hybrid threats, whose blend of guerrilla tactics and high-tech weapons pose the greatest plausible threat on land, now that Soviet-style tank armies are extinct and the nation has largely sworn off large-scale counterinsurgency. On the other, Air Force and Navy leaders speak of AirSea Battle as a way to coordinate their expensive hardware in a high-tech war with regional powers like China or Iran.

[Since there has to be a middle way, of course, there is also the threat posed to ships by land-based missiles, such as those Hamas used against the Israeli ship Hanit in 2006. A Chinese-built missile is believed to have heavily damaged the ship and killed four sailors.]

While the services tend to use these concepts to justify their budgets, one of the fathers of the hybrid war idea, retired Marine Frank Hoffman, tells AOL Defense they are less contradictory than complementary, especially in a potential conflict with Iran.

AirSea Battle and hybrid war theory address two parts of the same strategic problem, Hoffman said: how to project American power around the globe when potential adversaries from militia groups to the Middle Kingdom are developing new tactics and new weaponry to stop us. (The painfully awkward term of art for such an enemy strategy is "anti-access/area denial"). "AirSea Battle is basically the outer half of the problem: how do you get into a region," he said. "The inner half [is] once you get inside a region, how can you operate" in the face of hybrid threats.

In the meantime, others are wondering if AirSea Battle is already obsolete?

But it’s also clear that the United States should develop its own symmetrical and asymmetric strategies to counter such threats. A joint operational concept of AirSea Battle combined with a strong cyber component could damage, deter, and destroy any Chinese A2/AD capabilities and ensure U.S. maritime access. A newly reconstituted “AirSeaCyber” operational concept would give U.S. forces the best chance to defeat Chinese or any other nations’ A2/AD forces now and in the future.

Of course, the present Joint Operational Access Concept does make strong mention of cyber operations. However, an even stronger emphasis on cyber warfare is needed beyond present day convention. In short, AirSea Battle as an operational concept might already be obsolete.

By: Brant

BUB: A Quick Tour Around the CENTCOM

Here's a quick look around the CENTCOM AOR.

Syria is sending the army into a town where some disputed fighting happened earlier this week.

A restive Syrian town awaited a threatened military crackdown on Tuesday after bloody events in which state media say over 120 security personnel were killed.
Exactly what happened in the northwestern town of Jisr al-Shughour at the weekend is unclear, but it seems to have been one of the bloodiest episodes in nearly 12 weeks of popular protests against President Bashar al-Assad's 11-year rule.
Residents said a column of Armored vehicles and troops, apparently heading for Jisr al-Shughour, had reached the town of Ariha, 25 km (16 miles) to the east, a day after Interior Minister Mohammad Ibrahim al-Shaar said the army would carry out its "national duty to restore security."
Official accounts say gunmen roaming the town and setting fire to government buildings had inflicted the extremely high death toll on security men, said to have been killed in an ambush and attacks on a post office and a security post.
Residents and activists dispute this, saying the casualties followed a mutiny among forces sent to quell civilian protests.
Syria has barred most foreign media from the country, making it hard to verify events. It has released no video footage to back its account of the Jisr al-Shughour bloodshed.

The BBC also talks about the preparations in the town.

The northern Syrian town of Jisr al-Shughour is bracing for an assault by the military after the government said 120 security forces personnel had been killed there by 'armed gangs'.
The government says it will act 'with force' to restore control.
Activists say the source of the violence is unclear, possibly involving a military mutiny.
Residents have posted messages on Facebook saying they fear a slaughter and appealing for help from outside.
Activists insist the uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad is peaceful and scorn the government's talk of armed gangs.
Dozens of Syrians who crossed the northern border into Turkey are being treated in hospitals in the south-east of the country for wounds they say they received in clashes with Syrian forces, Turkish officials say.
One man who crossed the border in a serious condition died from gunshot wounds, a Turkish diplomat has told the AFP news agency.

Al Qaeda has taken a city in Yemen as the country starts to fall apart.

Fighting flared on Tuesday in a southern Yemen city seized by al Qaeda and other Islamist militants, killing at least 15 people, after Washington urged President Ali Abdullah Saleh to hand over power peacefully.
Saleh left for Saudi Arabia at the weekend for surgery on wounds suffered in an attack on his palace in Sanaa -- an absence that could be an opportunity to ease him out of office after nearly 33 years ruling the impoverished Arab nation.
Global powers worry that chaos would make it easier for the Yemen-based wing of al Qaeda to operate and multiply risks for neighboring Saudi Arabia and other Gulf oil producers.

The Marines are out in California learning to farm before their next Afghanistan deployment.

At a university farm in California's crop-abundant Central Valley, a group of U.S. Marines trudged through muddy fields on Monday to learn how to tend pomegranate trees, a crop popular in war-torn Afghanistan where they will soon deploy.
The training at California State University, Fresno is part of the U.S. war effort, and the lessons learned could help Marines engage with wary Afghan civilians, a large majority of whom rely on farming to survive.
"We're building Afghans' capacity to make money for themselves," said 1st Lt. Karl Kadon with the Marines Civil Affairs Detachment, who participated in the training last spring and has used the information he learned in Helmand province.
The training, Kadon said, armed him with the understanding of agriculture and gave him the ability to ask questions and assist Afghan farmers with problems. It was so helpful, he said, that his 11th Marine Regiment Civil Affairs Detachment returned to Fresno State. The regiment helps military commanders by working with civil authorities and civilian populations.
During this week's training, Marines will learn first-hand and in the classroom about irrigation practices, soil salinity, plant recognition and livestock care, among other topics. Kadon helped create the training after doing intelligence work in Iraq and after working in civil affairs in Afghanistan.
Military officials chose Fresno State because of its expertise in agriculture and because crops such as almonds and pomegranates in the Central Valley are similar to those in Helmand.

The Iranians are pushing submarines into the Red Sea.

Iran has sent submarines to the Red Sea, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Tuesday, citing an unidentified source, in a move that could anger Israel.
"Iranian military submarines entered the Red Sea waters with the goal of collecting information and identifying other countries' combat vessels," Fars said.
It did not specify the number or type of vessels involved but said they were sailing alongside warships of the Navy's 14th fleet.
State-run Press TV said in May the 14th fleet, comprised of two vessels, the Bandar Abbas warship and Shahid Naqdi destroyer, had been sent to combat piracy in the Gulf of Aden.
"The fleet entered the Gulf of Aden region in May and has now entered the Red Sea in the continuation of its mission," Fars said.
Two Iranian warships passed through the Suez Canal in February, the first such move since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, en route to Syria. Tehran said the mission was one of "peace and friendship" but Israel called it a "provocation."
Iran announced last August it had expanded its fleet of domestically built 120-tonne Ghadir-class submarines to 11 which it said would be used to patrol the Gulf and the Sea of Oman.

Meanwhile in Libya (yes, we know it's not CENTCOM) there are more explosions in Tripoli and the rebels are still "advancing".

Loud explosions shook Tripoli on Tuesday in what appeared to be stepped up NATO air strikes on the Libyan capital, a day after rebels seized a town in the west, driving out Muammar Gaddafi's forces.
Several huge explosions shook the area around Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound in central Tripoli, sending columns of grey smoke into the sky.
The blasts, shortly before noon, appeared to be a rare daytime attack by NATO on the compound. It has been struck several times in recent weeks, usually at night.
The smoke could be seen from a hotel near the compound where Reuters and other foreign journalists are based.

By: Brant

BUB: OBL, One More Time

Looks like the CIA has had the compound under close surveillance for months - further violating Pakistan's "sovereignty." And the Paks are still in a snit about it.

Pakistan's army, facing rare criticism at home over the U.S. operation, warned the United States it would risk this cooperation if it conducted another assault.
Chief of Staff General Ashfaq Kayani "made it clear that any similar action violating the sovereignty of Pakistan will warrant a review on the level of military/intelligence cooperation with the United States", the army said.

I wonder if the warranted "review on the level of military/intelligence cooperation with the United States" will include reviewing how much money they're getting from us to accomplish jack-noodley.


OBL is now sleeping with the fishes. But what happens to the jihadidiots of AQ who made him their role model?

U.S. intelligence officials believe al-Qaida will have a hard time recovering from the death of its murderous leader, Osama bin Laden.
After all, his heir apparent, Ayman al-Zawahri, is a harsh, divisive figure who lacks the charisma and mystique that bin Laden used to hold together al-Qaida's various factions. Without bin Laden's iconic figure running al-Qaida, intelligence officials believe the group could splinter and weaken.
But if there is one thing al-Qaida has proved it is able to do, it is adapt to adversity. Its foot soldiers learned to stay off their cellphones to avoid U.S. wiretaps. Their technical wizards cooked up cutting edge encryption software that flummoxed American code-breakers. And a would-be bomber managed to defeat billions of dollars in airline security upgrades with explosives tucked in his underwear.
Bin Laden's death, by an American bullet to the head in a raid on his fortified Pakistani hideout early Monday, came 15 years after he declared war on the United States and nearly a decade after he carried out the worst attacks on U.S. soil. But the al-Qaida network he leaves behind is far different from the one behind the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.
Today, al-Qaida's core in Pakistan is constantly on the run, hiding from U.S. Predator drones. Communication is slow. The ability to plan, finance and carry out attacks has been greatly reduced. Al-Qaida franchises have sprung up in Yemen, Iraq and Algeria, where terrorists fight local grievances under the global banner of jihad.

And The Guardian has a quick rundown of the 10 key myths about Osama bin Laden. And no, it's not written by SailorSaturn.

By: Brant

BUB: Conflicts-A-Go-Go

Channelling his inner Iraqi Information Minister, the head of Pakistan's army says they've broken the back of the insurgency.

Pakistan's military has broken the back of militants linked to al Qaeda and Taliban, the country's powerful head of the army said in a speech on Saturday that followed criticism from the United States that it wasn't doing enough to fight militancy.
Washington, struggling to put down a 10-year insurgency in Afghanistan, said this month that Pakistan lacked a robust plan to defeat militants, and its intelligence agents were maintaining links with Afghan Taliban militants.
Without making any reference to Washington's concerns, army General Ashfaq chief Kayani said Pakistan army was fully aware of the internal and external threats faced by the country.
"In the war against terrorism, our officers and soldiers have made great sacrifices and have achieved tremendous success," he said in a speech to army cadets at Kakul military academy, north of Islamabad, broadcast by state television.
"The terrorists' backbone has been broken and Inshallah (God willing) we will soon prevail."

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More after the jump (assuming the formatting worked right!)
Click the post title for the rest.

BUB: Deploying A Drone to Libya, and UAVs, too

The US is deploying UAVs to Libya.

Armed US Predator drones are to carry out missions over Libya, Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said.

Mr Gates said their use had been authorised by President Barack Obama and would give "precision capability" to the military operation.

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And we're also sending in a drone.

U.S. Sen. John McCain, one of the strongest proponents in Congress of the American military intervention in Libya, said Friday that Libyan rebels fighting Moammar Gadhafi's troops are his heroes.

-- snip --

McCain said he was in Benghazi "to get an on the ground assessment of the situation" and planned to meet with the rebel National Transition Council, the de-facto government in the eastern half of the country, and members of the rebel military.

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I mean, someone has to get on-the-ground confirmation that we've "degraded" Libyan forces "by up to 40 percent"... by whatever metric they're using.

Coalition air strikes have degraded Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's main ground forces by 30 to 40 percent, but the battle appears to be heading to a stalemate, the top U.S. military officer said on Friday.
"It's certainly moving toward a stalemate," said Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. military's joint chiefs of staff, addressing U.S. troops during a visit to Baghdad.
"At the same time we've attrited somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of his main ground forces, his ground force capabilities. Those will continue to go away over time."

By: Brant

The Arab Spring? Getting Muddy...

Is the Assad regime in Syria serious about talks, or stalling?

Syrian opposition groups leading anti- government protests based in the country on Tuesday said authorities have offered to meet with them.
"High-level security figures gave the green light for mediators to set dates for separate meetings with opposition figures inside the country," an opposition source told the German Press Agency DPA.
Activists said they were ready to take up the offer for talks, provided "it is serious, and not to buy time."
But some activists, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the offer could be a ploy by security forces to find out more about the various opposition groups coordinating the protests.
Opposition groups were holding a series public rallies in honor of those killed in recent crackdowns on demonstrations calling for reform.

Mediation in Yemen? Or is the opposition too skeptical of a government that keeps shooting its citizens?

Yemen accepted an invitation by Gulf Arab states on Tuesday to talks on its weeks-old political crisis as pressure mounted on President Ali Abdullah Saleh to accept a power transition that would end his 32-year rule.
The Gulf Cooperation Council invited government and opposition representatives to talks in Saudi Arabia, at a date yet to be set, as the United States pressed Saleh to negotiate with his opponents.
The initiative may do little to satisfy tens of thousands of protesters who have camped out in cities across Yemen for weeks to demand Saleh's ouster. They have grown increasingly frustrated after initial talks stalled and security forces cracked down on them with escalating violence.
At least 21 people were killed on Monday when security forces and armed men in civilian clothes fired on protesters in Taiz, south of capital Sanaa, and the Red Sea port of Hudaida.
Abubakr al-Qirbi, acting foreign minister after Saleh sacked his government two weeks ago, said the government would agree to talks in Riyadh. Saleh had ignored a proposed power transition plan pitched by the opposition on Saturday.

An airstrike hits a Libyan military convoy racing to fit the rebels.

An airstrike hit a convoy of Libyan military vehicles moving toward rebel lines outside the eastern oil port of Brega on Tuesday, rebels said as they regrouped outside the city. The regime, meanwhile, insisted Moammar Gadhafi won't step down but said it is ready to discuss changes in how the country is governed.
Backed by an international air campaign, the rebels have made inroads in recent days in eastern Libya. They advanced under artillery fire Monday and took part of Brega, an oil town that has changed hands several times since the fighting began last month.
Rebel officer Abdel-Bast Abibi said the two sides battled inside the city until nightfall, then the rebels moved back to the outskirts. It was a quiet night, but an airstrike struck early Tuesday as a convoy of eight Libyan military vehicles advancing toward the rebel positions, he said.
The strike hit two of the vehicles, prompting the others to turn around and race back into the city, carrying the bodies of slain pro-Gadhafi troops, Abibi said, citing surveillance teams. The report could not be independently confirmed.

Can Libya find peace with Gaddafi/Kaddafi/Qaddafi still in charge?

The Libyan government has said it is open to political reform, but Muammar Gaddafi must stay in power to avoid a Somalia- or Iraq-style power vacuum.
Spokesman Moussa Ibrahim described Colonel Gaddafi as a "unifying figure", and insisted his forces only targeted armed rebels, not civilians.
Libyan state TV has showed video of Col Gaddafi rallying supporters in Tripoli.
Meanwhile, his son told the BBC that Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa had not betrayed Libya by leaving for the UK.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi told the BBC's world affairs editor John Simpson that Mr Koussa had travelled to Britain for health reasons and was being pressured into making allegations about Libya's government in an effort to secure immunity from prosecution.
Mr Gaddafi said Moussa Koussa was allowed to leave Libya, and denied that he knew incriminating details about the Lockerbie bombing or other atrocities.

By: Brant

Today's Libyanities

How's the Libyan intervention playing in France, who championed the idea in the first place? It depends on who you ask.

In the eyes of French public opinion, Sarkozy is looking fairly good at the moment. The deeply unpopular President has experienced a small boost of approval at home and abroad due to his role in rallying risk-averse allies into staging air intervention to prevent what would have been a massacre of opponents and civilians at the hands of advancing Gaddafi troops. Sarkozy's hawkishness on Libya "is winning him applause in France today due to the universal hostility towards Gaddafi," says Karim Emile Bitar, a Middle East specialist for the Institution of International and Strategic Relations in Paris, "but that could prove short-lived for several reasons, and come back to haunt him." That's because French public opinion could quickly develop mission fatigue especially with Paris already imposing a whole array of austerities to battle the domestic budget deficit. The moral imperative to help the Libyan rebels may bog down when the French people figure the money involved is better spent at home.

A senior intelligence official in Libya has defected, and the Brits are wondering what to do with him.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said Mr Koussa had resigned and the Gaddafi regime was "crumbling from within".
British officials are questioning Mr Koussa, a former head of intelligence who was close to Col Gaddafi.
The development comes as Libyan rebels continue to retreat from recently captured towns along the eastern coast.
{--snip--}
On Thursday Mr Hague said Mr Koussa had flown to the UK of his own free will late on Wednesday.
"His resignation shows that Gaddafi's regime, which has already seen significant defections to the opposition, is fragmented, under pressure and crumbling from within," he told reporters.
"Gaddafi must be asking himself who will be the next to abandon him."
Mr Hague urged others close to Col Gaddafi to "embrace the better future for Libya".

When you say there are no "ground troops" in Libya, what exactly do you mean by "ground troops".

While the White House debates whether to arm rebels battling Moammar Gadhafi's troops, U.S. officials have acknowledged that the CIA has sent small teams of operatives into Libya and helped rescue a crew member of a U.S. fighter jet that crashed.
Battlefield setbacks are hardening the U.S. view that the poorly equipped opposition probably is incapable of prevailing without decisive Western intervention, a senior U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press.
Still, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday: "No decision has been made about providing arms to the opposition or to any groups in Libya. We're not ruling it out or ruling it in."
The CIA's precise role in Libya is not clear. Intelligence experts said the CIA would have sent officials to make contact with the opposition and assess the strength and needs of the rebel forces in the event President Barack Obama decided to arm them.
An American official and a former U.S. intelligence officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, told the AP about the CIA's involvement in Libya after the agency was forced to close its station in Tripoli, the capital.
They said CIA helped safely recover the F-15E Strike Eagle's weapons specialist, who was first picked up by rebels after the crash March 21. The pilot was rescued by Marines.

Anyone else having flashbacks to Jack Ryan's testimony about Colombia in Clear and Present Danger?


And the Navy's latest contribution? Sending the Littoral Combat Ships to... wait for it... wait for it... San Diego! (h/t Danger Room)

With a war taking place along the Libyan coast, the newest ships the U.S. Navy has for coastline warfare are maxing and relaxing. One of the new Littoral Combat Ships, the U.S.S. Freedom, is sitting in port at San Diego, while the other, the U.S.S. Independence, is continuing its long maiden voyage to the same port, where it’ll also sit out the war. How come?

The official answer is speed. Adm. Samuel Locklear, the commander of Operation Odyssey Dawn, made the call to use naval assets he had close by, and neither the Independence or Freedom was anywhere near, says Lt. Cmdr. Justin Cole, a Navy spokesman. That meant the primary Navy weapons on hand were the expensive, tricked-out Tomahawk missiles, fired from subs and destroyers, not the LCS’ MK-110 guns, which can fire on opponents from 9 miles away.

But that just begs the real question: is the Navy’s LCS missing out on the kind of war that it was all but created to fight? The Libya mission doesn’t just involve the destruction of coastal air defenses, its arms embargo requires swift ships like the LCS (speed: 50 knots) to keep smuggled weapons out of the hands of Moammar Gadhafi’s forces.

For years, the Navy argued that it needed better capabilities for fighting close to the shore as more of the world’s population shifted to the “urban littorals,” bringing conflict with it. The $645 million Freedom arrived in the fleet in late 2008; the Navy commissioned its $704 million cousin Independence in January 2010. They’re the first of 20 more LCSs that will cost the Navy at least $450 million per ship through 2015, ahead of a total fleet of 55 speedy ships that can operate in water as shallow as 20 feet.

By: Brant

BUB: Afghanistan Updates

Some updates from the War in Afghanistan

So here's a question: based on the "reasons" we invaded Afghanistan, have we failed?

The ten year mark will bring the conflict dangerously close to the point where it will have been going on for longer than the First and Second World Wars combined. With the conflict lasting as long as it has done and with few prospects for victory in sight one can't help but wonder if the whole thing has been a failure on its own terms.

This is not a comfortable thought and one does not like to consider it now that hundreds of British soldiers have died fighting this war, along with around 2,000 (mostly American) international troops and countless Afghans of various persuasions.

Just as in the 1914-18 war, when the current war began the consensus seemed to be that it would be pretty much over, if not by Christmas, then certainly very quickly. And indeed it proved to be the case that the military might of the West quickly deposed the Taliban regime as it would later depose Saddam Hussein in a matter of weeks.
By this fact alone we might say that the war in Afghanistan has been a success, despite the continuing presence of the Taliban in significant parts of the country.

However deposing the Taliban was not the reason we invaded Afghanistan.

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Given the skepticism of the war policies, is there going to be anything any hope on the horizon for success, enabled by NATO?

While all this was going on, a debate emerged in policy circles and among policy-makers about what NATO can reasonably hope to achieve in Afghanistan, and what it should be trying to achieve. While training initiatives for Afghan troops and police continue, a look at how that training is being resourced is disheartening. According to NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan’s own year-end review, of the 2,800 trainer billets identified as critical, only 900 are filled, with 900 “pledged” but not yet present. That leaves another 1,000 billets empty, with no plans to fill them. A full 58% of the police and 52% of army training slots remain unfilled at year’s end. Despite this, NATO clings to its scenario of training enough soldiers and cops by 2014 to begin the drawdown of its forces.

Jack Segal, former chief political advisor to the commander of the NATO Joint Force Command in Afghanistan, says that the problems in Afghanistan go deeper, starting with the country’s constitution. The West imposed a strong central government in 2001, ignoring local governance, which is where the country needs it most. “The Afghan constitution needs to come on the table at some point,” Segal says. An element of this discussion must revolve around a critical security shortcoming: the local police. “If the regions—and particularly the larger tribal structures—had some say over their police, they might have more confidence in the security structure,” Segal says.

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Foreign Affairs is asking What's "Plan B in Afghanistan"?

The United States and its allies are not on course to defeating the Taliban militarily. There are now about 150,000 U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops in Afghanistan. This is 30,000 more troops than the Soviet Union deployed in the 1980s, but less than half the number required to have some chance of pacifying the country, according to standard counterinsurgency doctrine.

Nor, with an occupying army largely ignorant of local history, tribal structures, languages, customs, politics, and values, will the alliance win over large numbers of the Afghan Pashtuns, as counterinsurgency doctrine demands. In Sebastian Junger's phrase, the United States will not capture the "human terrain" of southern and eastern Afghanistan. In November, Afghan President Hamid Karzai told The Washington Post that he wanted U.S. troops off the roads and out of Afghan homes and that the long-term presence of so many foreign soldiers would only worsen the war. "The time has come to reduce military operations," Karzai said. "The time has come to reduce the presence of, you know, boots in Afghanistan . . . to reduce the intrusiveness into the daily Afghan life." Such attitudes are common -- and profoundly inconsistent with the counterinsurgency strategy of deploying soldiers in local communities.

The quality of governance emanating from Karzai's deeply corrupt government will not significantly improve, and without a comprehensive reform of the Afghan government, U.S. success is virtually impossible. As the counterinsurgency expert David Kilcullen stresses, "You are only as good as the government you are supporting." In that context, Dexter Filkins noted in The New York Times that "Afghanistan is now widely recognized as one of the world's premier gangster-states. Out of 180 countries, Transparency International ranks it, in terms of corruption, 179th, better only than Somalia."

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ADM Mullen is warning that it's going to get worse before it gets better.

"As difficult as it may be to accept, we must prepare ourselves for more violence and more casualties in coming months," Adm Mullen told reporters in Washington on Wednesday.

"The violence will be worse in 2011 than it was in 2010 in many parts of Afghanistan," he added.

Adm Mullen said that things were likely to get harder before they got any easier.

"Now is not the time to rest on our laurels, it's the time to press on our advantages and to redouble our efforts."

Last year saw a massive surge in violence in Afghanistan with more than 700 Nato troops killed.

US President Barack Obama has said US forces would begin pulling out of Afghanistan in July 2011.

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Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is proposing permanent bases in Afghanistan.

A leading GOP lawmaker on U.S. military policy says he wants American officials to consider establishing permanent military bases in Afghanistan.

Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina says that having a few U.S. air bases in Afghanistan would be a benefit to the region and would give Afghan security forces an edge against the Taliban.

Graham tells NBC's "Meet the Press" that he wants to see the U.S. have "an enduring relationship" with Afghanistan to ensure that it never falls back into the hands of terrorists.

The Taliban are unimpressed.

The Taliban responded Wednesday to Graham's notion.

The Taliban rebuffed Graham in a statement issued by "the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," the title under which they ruled the nation from 1996 until the October 2001 invasion toppled the regime after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"His remarks definitely lift the curtain from the colonialist motives of America, which the Islamic Emirate has been trying in the past decade to draw to the attention of the people of the world," the Taliban said.

"In fact, the invading America wants to establish her dominance over the region and the world under the so-called war on terror," the group said.

The Taliban said they'd never accept permanent U.S. military bases in Afghanistan.

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The US has canned the IG for Afghanistan war under pressure from lawmakers.

The head of the office charged with investigating corruption in the multibillion-dollar effort to rebuild Afghanistan has resigned, the White House said Monday, following congressional demands that the White House replace him.

Arnold Fields, a retired Marine major general, was named special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction in 2008, when the office was first established along the lines of a similar effort that has uncovered hundreds of millions of dollars of waste and fraud in Iraq. Fields's resignation comes a week after he fired his two deputies, saying the organization needed "new blood."

"The President and the American people owe him a debt of gratitude for his courage, leadership, and selfless service to our nation," the White House said in a statement announcing Fields's resignation.

Fields said he intended "to use the next month to ensure a smooth transition," but no immediate replacement was named.

A bipartisan group of senators, led by Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), asked President Obama in September to "begin the process of removing" Fields based on concerns they had raised repeatedly since early 2009.

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Want an alternative perspective? Here's what the Tehran Times has to say.

The West's war in Afghanistan and Pakistan is currently the longest, largest and deadliest in the world. Fatalities among U.S. troops, non-U.S. NATO and allied forces, Afghan National Army soldiers and anti-government fighters reached a record high last year: 498, 213, 800 and an unknown number (by U.S. and NATO accounts well into the thousands), respectively. The United Nations estimated 2,400 Afghan civilians were killed in the first ten months of last year, a 20 percent increase over the same period in the preceding year. Approximately a thousand people were killed by U.S. drone missile strikes in Pakistan.

It says something discouraging about a world of almost 200 nations that perhaps no more than half a dozen countries - so-called rogue states (alternatively Condoleezza Rice's ""outposts of tyranny"") - have voiced opposition to the war.

Washington's self-designated global war on terror (sometimes capitalized), in recent years more politely and antiseptically called overseas contingency operations, has not diminished in intensity but rather escalated in breadth and aggressiveness from West Africa to East Asia and against targets not remotely related to al-Qaeda, which has proven as nebulous and evasive as the West portrays it being ubiquitous.

From 2001 to the present the U.S. has engaged in and supported military operations against Marxist guerrillas in Colombia and the Philippines, ethnic Tuaregs in Mali, nominally Christian insurgents in Uganda and Shiite Houthi militia in northern Yemen in the name of combating...al-Qaeda. The Wahhabist school of extremism that characterizes al-Qaeda and analogous groups derives its doctrinal inspiration and material support from Saudi Arabia, yet last October Washington announced a $63 billion arms package with the kingdom, the largest foreign weapons deal in American history.

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And Combat Barbie, Miss Katrina Hodge (former Miss England and lingerie model), is headed to Afghanistan... in uniform.

"Combat Barbie" is headed back to the brigade.

Katrina Hodge, a former Miss England who became the first British Army soldier to win the beauty crown in 2009, is trading ballrooms for battlefields and heading to war-torn Afghanistan.

Hodge, who is a corporal in her majesty's forces and has already served in Iraq, joined a new regiment in the fall after spending a year touring some of the world's swankest hotels and exotic locales on the U.K. pageant's dime.

"At the end of the day, it's my job," Hodge told Agence France-Presse. "If that's what I've got to do, then that's what I've got to do," she said.
...
The brunette bombshell was originally runner-up in the 2009 contest, but was awarded the crown after pageant officials stripped the original winner of her title for slugging another beauty queen at a Manchester nightclub.

By: Brant

BUB: US DoD Contracts

Taking a quick look at a few contracting bits and pieces out there...

DARPA has another cute acronym out there, this one is SCENICC: Soldier Centric Imaging via Computational Cameras

The Soldier Centric Imaging via Computational Cameras (SCENICC) Broad Agency Announcement seeks proposals that fully exploit the computational imaging paradigm and associated emerging technologies to yield ultra-low size, weight, and power (SWaP) persistent/multi-functional soldier-scale Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) systems that greatly enhance warfighter awareness, capability, security, and survivability.

Anyone want to take a swag as to what this actually means? And is SCENICC any worse of an acronym than "GUARD DOG" (Graph Understanding and Analysis for Rapid Detection - Deployed on the Ground)

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What does TACOM's new Ground Combat Vehicle RFP look like?

The GCV IFV Program's intent is to develop and deliver an affordable and effective infantry fighting vehicle in seven years by utilizing mature technologies and focusing on system design that integrates all subsystems and components.
It is the Government's intent for contractors to utilize mature, low-risk technologies. To this end, offerors need to identify their approaches to maximize the inclusion of mature technologies selected, giving consideration to any modifications necessary for effective integration. Offerors may non-developmental, modified non-developmental or developmental solutions. The specific evaluation criteria are described in Section M of this RFP.
The GCV IFV Program is driven to achieve four primary imperatives referred to as the "Big Four". These imperatives have been decomposed into the Tier One (1) GCV IFV Performance Specification requirements.
These "Big Four" imperatives are defined as follows:
-Force Protection is achieving a threshold level of protection for all occupants against the threats identified in the classified annex of the GCV IFV Performance Specification.
-Capacity is a vehicle crew and a fully-equipped nine soldier Infantry squad.
-Full Spectrum is a versatile platform able to adapt and/or enhance capabilities through configuration changes of armor and network while providing for growth over time in terms of size, weight, power and cooling.
-Timing is the delivery and acceptance of the first production GCV IFV vehicle within seven years of the TD phase contract award.

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And the Navy is cutting 2 different contracts for the Littoral Combat Ship contract.

The Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin Corp. and Austal USA each a fixed-price incentive contract for the design and construction of a 10 ship block-buy, for a total of 20 littoral combat ships from fiscal 2010 through fiscal 2015.

The amount awarded to Lockheed Martin Corp. for fiscal 2010 littoral combat ships is $436,852,639. The amount awarded to Austal USA for the fiscal 2010 littoral combat ships is $432,069,883. Both contracts also include line items for nine additional ships, subject to Congressional appropriation of each year’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Program requirements. When all 10 ships of each block buy are awarded, the value of the ship construction portion of the two contracts would be $3,620,625,192 for Lockheed Martin Corp., and $3,518,156,851 for Austal USA. The average cost of both variants including government-furnished equipment and margin for potential cost growth across the five year period is $440 million per ship. The pricing for these ships falls well below the escalated average Congressional cost cap of $538 million.

“The awards represent a unique and valuable opportunity to lock in the benefits of competition and provide needed ships to our fleet in a timely and extraordinarily cost effective manner,” said Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus.

This award is a unique opportunity to maximize the buying power on the LCS Program by leveraging the highly effective competition between the bidders. Each contractor’s 10-ship bids reflect mature designs, investments made to improve performance, stable production, and continuous labor learning at their respective shipyards. The award was based on limited competition between teams led by Lockheed Martin and Austal USA. Under these contracts, both shipbuilders will also deliver a technical data package as part of the dual award, allowing the government a wide range of viable alternatives for effective future competition.

By: Brant

GrogNews Daily Headlines

The Norks are readying their missiles as the U.S.-South Korea exercises steam ahead and the Chinese are threatening everyone with... talks!.

Maybe their threat of talks is a distraction from their vessels snooping into disputed waters near Japan.

Are the troops really OK with ending DADT?

And a near-redux yesterday's headlines :

WikiLeaks has another upcoming document release.

The FBI picked up a kid in Oregon for wanting to set off a bomb.

And Rio police invaded a favela and claimed success.... a, well, raiding a favela.

By: Brant

GrogNews Daily Headlines

How effective is the TSA? Well, they're letting loaded guns & ammo get onto the tarmac, and it's completely legal...

As the South Korean defense chief resigns, they are also making moves toreinforce the island against another attack by Pyongyang. Still no word about what "provoked" the attack.

The Dutch are hoping for the arrest of Nazi Klaas-Carel Faber, living in Bavaria.

There's been an attack on a base in Sudan.

What's in the next threatened Wikileaks release that has the US worried?

The Canadians are seeing progress in the Afghan army, but would like some more support.

By: Brant

GrogNews Weekend Headlines

Man, the USAF just can't get the tanker deal right, can they? Now it looks like they sent details of the bids to the opposing competitors...

As Krazi Karzai meets with NATO to discuss exit strategy, NATO vows they won't abandon Afghanistan. This as the new bicycle-borne IED threat kills 4 and wounds 31 in Afghanistan. Hey Jason, what's the map symbol for a BMXBIED?


By: Brant

GrogNews Daily Headlines, Bonus Edition

There's just a lot of news today...


As the US is now following the lead of the Canadians and sending M1-series tanks to Afghanistan it's amazing what we are still learning about the Afghans. Turns out most of them have no idea about 9-11 or why we're at war there. In fairness, there's probably a lot of Americans that are pretty ill-informed, too.

While the US and Israel are having a hard time hammering out a settlement pact the People's Republic of Jihadistan in Gaza launched a long-range Grad rocket at their neighbors. Religion of Peace, indeed.

How was the cybersabotage of Iran's nuke plant supposed to work? By overloading commands to the centrifuge.

With capsizing safely off the table as a danger for the military relocation to Guam, lawsuits have taken center stage, as a live-fire range is apparently too close to some endangered sand or something.

Lockheed is going to shut down a plant in Minnesota, and probably blame Congress for it.

The US is trying to cut off access to drug money for the Norks, and hopes that sanctioning some of their "commercial" entities will keep other nations from working with them as well.

By: Brant

GrogNews Daily Headlines

DOCTRINE MAN makes it into the mainstream media! Woohoo!

Updates from Afghanistan
NATO countries will be talking a lot about Afghanistan at the upcoming Lisbon summit, and most pressing is the issue of scheduling the handover. All this while Hamid Karzai is acting increasingly bat-shit crazy (hell, the Brits just want to know which side he's on)...
As the pace of Afghan operations increases, there are two views on military operations in the 'Stan: On one hand, increasing military operations may be the only way to bring the Taliban to negotiations; on the other hand, more and more people are saying that Afghanistan has "no military solution".
Either way, the Brits are withdrawing combat troops from Afghanistan by 2014 as they mourn the 100th British servicemember killed in Afghanistan.
The NATO summit comes as the alliance is struggling with the all-important post-Cole War question: Now what?
And the Defense Logistics Agency is going to make sure that no one misses their Thanksgiving dinner.

In Other News
The President is still pushing for the START treaty, and it looks like this will be his first serious fight with the new Congress.

If you were trying to get into a bar, and got frisked the way the TSA is frisking people, you'd think it was sexual assault. And in fact, one prominent blogger has claimed exactly that. And while the TSA is backpedaling - even releasing an article about "myths and facts" of the screening process, the bottom line still stands: Americans don't want this level of invasiveness.

A small civilian plane crashed in Florida while supporting a military exercise.

By: Brant

GrogNews Daily Headlines

There's been a suspected bomb found in teh cargo hold of a Germany-bound plane. As a result, Germany has raised their security alert level.

The first Gitmo terror suspect tried in civilian court has been found guilty of only one charge. Without knowing more details about how the trial panned out (did they have evidence that they couldn't use? was there a problem with the defense?) it's tough to form an opinion, but it's likely the spin on this
will make it even harder for President Obama to close Gitmo.

The Air Force is warning troops to be careful about geolocation tools for social networking.

The President is still pushing to get the START treaty ratified.

The missing F22 in Alaska was a crash, and the search for the pilot continues.

Julian ASSange is in trouble in Sweden again, after they've re-opened the rape case against him.

The South Koreans are saying that their "Sunshine Policy" has failed to change North Korea and are looking to evolve away from it.

By: Brant

GrogNews Daily Headlines

The Taliban are ramping up attacks in Afghanistan and some of them are the worst in six months. And despite the troubles in Afghanistan, NATO are stressing a "global role" for their future.

Let's put this one to bed: the explosion in Cancun was not a terror attack.

More Norks are heading south... as in "defecting."

The DoD is not happy with leaks over the DADT working group.

By: Brant

GrogNews Weekend Headlines

Al Qaeda is denying they've plotted to target Muslim pilgrims, but given their track record for causing Muslim deaths - and their overall trustworthiness - you kinda have to consider it.

Somali pirates have freed a British couple held for over a year after the seizure of their private yacht.

A bomb in Afghanistan killed 3 Afghan policemen.

By: Brant

GrogNews Weekend Headlines

On the heels of reports of the Chinese trying to bury a report on Nork arms dealings comes a report that the Chinese are also pissed off about a Darfur arms report that claims their arms are heading out of Khartoum and into Darfur.

The Supremes are not going to review DADT, leaving it to Congress and the lower courts. No one can claim that it's an 'activist court' this time.

A series of Taliban attacks in Afghanistan included an on a NATO base.

By: Brant

GrogNews Daily Headlines

The US military is increasing its cooperation with the Mexican military in their counterinsurgency against the drug cartels.

I'm sure there's someone at Vandenberg AFB chuckling about it right now, and that the someone in the military knows exactly what the "mystery missile" vapor trail off the California coast really is. But for whatever reason, they're still investigating.

How long will we be in Iraq? Secretary Gates says we're open to keeping troops in Iraq after 2011, if the Iraqis invite us.

Iran is pressing on with their nukes, and insisting they won't discuss it with the "big six".

Will START ever, uh... "start"?

By: Brant

GrogNews Daily Headlines

Delayed by the endlessly-rebooting laptop... grrrr....

It looks like the express-post industry would hate to have cargo screening - and flight safety - interfere with corporate profits.

If the US sits on the new START treaty, they may pay for it in lack of cooperation from Russia elsewhere.

A Republican defending the cost of the President's trip to India? Oh, and it's not $200 million/day. Hell, the war in Afghanistan is only $180 mil/day.

And for that price, we ought to know whether or not we're succeeding in Khandahar.

The Israelis sure no how to dial down the tension, huh? Like announcing they plan to build a crapload of homes in Arab East Jersusalem.

Is China trying to spike a UN report about Nork nuke dealings?

By: Brant