US Africa Footprint Expanding

Niger has OK'ed the US for drone deployments on their territory. No word on whether we've got permission for all the airspace they'll be zipping around, or if we're just doing it anyway.

Niger has given permission for U.S. surveillance drones to be stationed on its territory to improve intelligence on al Qaeda-linked Islamist fighters in northern Mali and the wider Sahara, a senior government source said.
The U.S. ambassador to Niger, Bisa Williams, made the request at a meeting on Monday with President Mahamadou Issoufou, who immediately accepted it, the source said.
"Niger has given the green light to accepting American surveillance drones on its soil to improve the collection of intelligence on Islamist movements," said the source, who asked not to be identified.
The drones could be stationed in Niger's northern desert region of Agadez, which borders Mali, Algeria and Libya, the source said.
A spokesperson for the United States' African Command (AFRICOM) declined to comment.
The United States already has drones and surveillance aircraft stationed at several points around Africa. Its only permanent military base is in the small country of Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, more than 3,000 miles from Mali.

By: Brant

Drone War in AfPak Hurting the US?

UK's Telegraph has an interesting editorial about how the drone war in Afghanistan is destroying the West's reputation.
There's an extended article, but it wraps thus...

Meanwhile, America refuses to apologise for killing 24 Pakistani servicemen in a botched ISAF operation. This is election year and Mr Obama, having apologised already over Koran-burning, may be nervous about a second apology, and has therefore confined himself to an expression of “regret”.
I am told by a number of credible sources that this refusal to behave decently – allied to dismay at the use of drones as the weapon of default in tribal areas – is the reason for the unusual decision of the US ambassador in Islamabad, Cameron Munter, to step down after less than two years in his post. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – increasingly irrelevant and marginalised in an administration dominated by the partnership between Leon Panetta, the Secretary of Defence, and Petraeus – has protested but been ignored.
We need a serious public debate on drones. They are still in their infancy, but have already changed the nature of warfare. The new technology points the way, within just a few decades, to a battlefield where soldiers never die or even risk their lives, and only alleged enemies of the state, their family members, and civilians die in combat – a world straight out of the mouse’s tale in Alice in Wonderland: “ 'I’ll be judge, I’ll be jury’, said cunning old Fury. 'I’ll try the whole cause and condemn you to death.’ ” Justice as dealt out by drones cannot be reconciled with the rule of law which we say we wish to defend.
Supporters of drones – and they make up practically the entire respectable political establishment in Britain and the US – argue that they are indispensable in the fight against al-Qaeda. But plenty of very experienced voices have expressed profound qualms. The former army officer David Kilcullen, one of the architects of the 2007 Iraqi surge, has warned that drone attacks create more extremists than they eliminate. Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, Britain’s former special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, is equally adamant that drone attacks are horribly counter-productive because of the hatred they have started to generate: according to a recent poll, more than two thirds of Pakistanis regard the United States as an enemy. Britain used to be popular and respected in this part of the world for our wisdom and decency. Now, thanks to our refusal to challenge American military doctrine, we are hated, too.

By: Brant

Iran Admits Incompetence, Resorts to Plagiarism

Hmmmm... we're too stupid to put a high-res camera on a long-range remote control airplane, so we'll just copy the US drone that fell into our lap in a stroke of pure luck.

Iran's military has started to build a copy of a U.S. surveillance drone captured last year after breaking the software encryption, Iranian media reported on Sunday.
General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Revolutionary Guards aerospace division, said engineers were in the final stages of decoding data from the Sentinel aircraft, which came down in December near the Afghan border, Mehr news agency reported.
Iran said the unmanned aircraft was shot down, but Washington disputes that and says the security systems mean Iran is unlikely to get valuable information from the Lockheed Martin Corp drone.
"The Americans should be aware to what extent we have infiltrated the plane," Fars news agency quoted Hajizadeh as saying. "Our experts have full understanding of its components and programmes."
Iran's military regular announces defense and engineering developments, but some analysts are skeptical as to how reliable those reports are.

Want to know what's going on with the Reaper? Follow his Twitter feed!

By: Brant

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

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

Comedy in the Face of Adversity

Is the captured RQ170 drone really tweeting from Iran? Seriously, these are funny... whoever this is has a future in military-cockup-conspiracy humor.

RQ170 RQ-170 Sentinel
My main interrogator's name is Mansoor. It's distracting how much he looks like Bobby Jindal

RQ170 RQ-170 Sentinel
"Yeah, I violated your airspace. Just like I violated your m--" That's as far as I got before Mansoor slapped me.

RQ170 RQ-170 Sentinel
That's just hurtful, sir. @lawrencedo99 That downed US "#drone" the Iranians are showing off looks too much like a movie prop.

h/t Doctrine Man

FOLLOW-UP
There's actually a few other UAVs on Twitter, too... some are pretty funny
Drunk Predator Drone (drunkenpredator) on Twitter
Frat Reaper (partyreaper) on Twitter



By: Brant

"Airborne Geophysical Exploration Program" (?!) Launched in Afghanistan

So the DoD has launched a new program in Afghanistan...

The Pentagon’s Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO), in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey, announced today it will provide training and equipment specific to airborne geophysical exploration to the Afghan Geological Survey. This initiative is part of the U.S. Government’s continuing efforts to help the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan identify and develop its vast deposits of mineral resources in a transparent and responsible fashion.

A key component of the USGS’ new effort is to train Afghan geoscientists in collecting, processing and interpreting high-resolution geophysical data themselves. Utilizing airborne technology is essential to obtaining reliable, detailed information on mineral and rare earth element deposits.

“By working with the Afghan Geological Survey on an airborne geophysical exploration program, we are taking an important step in preparing the Afghan government to conduct their own mineral exploration efforts,” said Emily Scott, director of natural resource development for the Pentagon’s Task Force for Business and Stability Operations. “The goal of this training is to enable the Afghan government to give the best information possible to international investors.”

The TFBSO has already worked extensively with USGS to develop an ongoing survey of mineral resources and rare earth elements in Afghanistan, as well as creating an online and central repository for that data in Kabul. The new training is intended to augment and expand these earlier efforts. This earlier work identified at least $1 trillion in mineral resources, fossil fuels, and rare earth elements within Afghanistan, according to Pentagon estimates.

The USGS training includes the following aspects, each one related to the other and critical for proper handling of the airborne geophysical exploration programs necessary for development of mineral resources:

1. Introduction to theory of gravity, magnetic, electrical, and electromagnetic data;

2. Extensive training in use of geophysical data processing and interpretation software;

3. Management of contracts: writing survey contracts to extract the maximum data value and quality for the dollar;

4. Observation of data acquisition: gain appreciation for equipment and aircraft, and develop working relationship with contractor(s); and

5. Collection and processing of geophysical data on the ground, using some of the same airborne measurement equipment purchased for the Afghan Geological Survey by TFBSO. This equipment includes transmitters, magnetometers, gravimeters, and an advanced rover system that will allow the AGS to use GPS technology to accurately locate their data locations.

With this new training and hands-on experience with state-of-the-art equipment provided by the USGS, the Afghan Geological Survey will move closer to fully managing its own natural mineral resources.

I just want to know what the hell the "Task Force for Business and Stability Operations" is...

By: Brant

US-Born Yemeni Cleric Now Pushing up Daisies

Apparently, we've bagged another one.

In a significant and dramatic strike in the campaign against Al Qaeda, the Defense Ministry here said that American-born preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, a leading figure in the group’s outpost in Yemen, was killed on Friday morning. In Washington a senior official said Mr. Awlaki had been killed in an American attack by a drone aircraft firing a Hellfire missile.

Mr. Awlaki’s Internet lectures and sermons have been linked to more than a dozen terrorist investigations in the United States, Britain and Canada. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan had exchanged e-mails with Mr. Awlaki before the deadly shooting rampage on Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. Faisal Shahzad, who tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square in May, 2010, cited Mr. Awlaki as an inspiration.

By: Brant

USAction! Raven Launch

U.S. Army 1st Lt. Steven Rose launches an RQ-11 Raven unmanned aerial vehicle near a new highway bridge project along the Euphrates River north of Al Taqqadum, Iraq, on Oct. 9, 2009. Rose is assigned to Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division which is assisting Iraqi police in providing security for the work site. DoD photo by Spc. Michael J. MacLeod, U.S. Army. (Released)

Photo from US DoD

By: Brant

Naval Aviation Going Unmanned?

The success of UAVs in the GWOT has the US Navy looking into UAVs for carrier operations.

The U.S. is developing aircraft carrier-based drones that could provide a crucial edge as it tries to counter China's military rise.
American officials have been tightlipped about where the unmanned armed planes might be used, but a top Navy officer has told The Associated Press that some would likely be deployed in Asia.
"They will play an integral role in our future operations in this region," predicted Vice Adm. Scott Van Buskirk, commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet, which covers most of the Pacific and Indian oceans.
Land-based drones are in wide use in the war in Afghanistan, but sea-based versions will take several more years to develop. Northrop Grumman conducted a first-ever test flight — still on land — earlier this year.
Van Buskirk didn't mention China specifically, but military analysts agree the drones could offset some of China's recent advances, notably its work on a "carrier-killer" missile.
"Chinese military modernization is the major long-term threat that the U.S. must prepare for in the Asia-Pacific region, and robotic vehicles — aerial and subsurface — are increasingly critical to countering that potential threat," said Patrick Cronin, a senior analyst with the Washington-based Center for New American Security.

By: Brant

NEWS: BIN LADEN CONFIRMED DEAD BY US STRIKE

PRESIDENT OBAMA IS GOING TO MAKE A TELEVISED ANNOUNCEMENT SOON.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/42852646#42852646

http://www.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=stream1&hpt=C1
AND THERE WAS MUCH REJOICING

By: BRANT

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.

+++

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.

+++

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

UAV can see you breathing - I just hope it can't smell your breath.

Not entirely sure why this is better or worse than heat signatures

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20045941-1.html

The Phoenix40-A is a mini-UAV with six rotors that can detect motion and breathing when searching for hidden people.

I can see a lot of usefulness in the urban disaster scenario where you are trying to find the living among the fires, but it will be interesting to see how operational testing really goes.  The idea of listening for breath sounds among the rubble and chaos of disaster just seems really hard.


By: Thug 5

Iran Claims American UAVs Downed Outside Air Space

The Iranian government has changed its story regarding the American UAVs that it claims to have recently shot down. Apparently the drones were attacked outside of Iranian air space. If this is the case it would seem to be a deliberate act of aggression.

Iran said Sunday that the two U.S. pilotless spy planes that it claimed to have shot down were hit outside of Iran's air space, a local news agency reported.

The semi-official Fars news agency quoted Gen. Gholam Ali Rashid, acting chief of the country's armed forces as saying "the planes were shot down outside of Iran's airspace."

Gen. Rashid did not say why Iran targeted the planes even though they weren't in the country's air space. He did say Iran has the remains of the planes in its possession.

On Saturday, Iran said it had determined the two aircraft were operated by the U.S. after earlier this month announcing their downing.

The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, which is based in the Gulf, said at the time that it had no reports of any aircraft downed recently.

Iran originally said the planes were violating its air space. It's not clear when they were downed but Iranian officials have hinted that they deliberately didn't make an announcement at the time to avoid tensions with the U.S.

By: Shelldrake

Advanced UAVs On The Horizon

The next generation of military UAVs will be bigger, faster, and boast more firepower. Are we seeing the beginning of the end of manned fighters and bombers?

The massive Global Observer, built by AeroVironment of Monrovia, Calif., is capable of flying for days at a stratosphere-skimming 65,000 feet, out of range of most anti-aircraft missiles. The plane is built to survey 280,000 square miles — an area larger than Afghanistan — at a single glance. That would give the Pentagon an "unblinking eye" over the war zone and offer a cheaper, more effective alternative to spy satellites watching from outer space.

The estimated $30 million robotic aircraft is one of three revolutionary drones being tested in coming weeks at Edwards Air Force Base.

Another is the bat-winged X-47B drone, built by Northrop Grumman, which could carry laser-guided bombs and be launched from an aircraft carrier. The third is Boeing's Phantom Ray drone that could slip behind enemy lines to knock out radar installations, clearing the way for fighters and bombers.

These aircraft would represent a major technological advance over the Predator and Reaper drones that the Obama administration has deployed as a central element of the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan. Unlike most of the fleet of more than 7,000 drones, the new remotely piloted planes will have jet engines and the ability to evade enemy radar.

By: Shelldrake

Boeing's Phantom Ray UAV Debuts

Riding on the back of a 747 is at best a modest start for a new UAV that Boeing hopes will eventually replace manned aircraft in a variety of combat missions.

Boeing's best hope for growing its share of the burgeoning market for combat drones — capable of stalking and killing enemies without risking U.S. pilots — first took flight on Monday, looking like a giant sting ray strapped to the back of one of the company's signature 747s.

Taking a short trip over the region, the Phantom Ray left Lambert-St. Louis International Airport on top of the plane that NASA normally uses to transport the space shuttle orbiter.

The flight's brevity belied Boeing's grand ambition in developing an unmanned aircraft capable of a wide range of military missions: supporting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; suppressing enemy air defenses; electronic attack; aerial fueling; even fighting enemy jets. The prototype vehicle was carried aloft at 1:44 p.m. and returned 50 minutes later, to the applause and gloved high-fives of a couple of dozen Boeing and NASA employees on the tarmac.

By: Shelldrake

How Are New Weapons Impacting the "Law of War"?

David Ignatius makes some good points in a WaPo column

Consider the case of Turkey: For years, Ankara has sought U.S. technology to fight what it sees as an insurgency by Kurdish rebel groups, especially the "PKK" that hides in northern Iraq. Now, that high-tech help has arrived.

The United States has quietly created a joint "centralized command center" with Turkey for surveillance drones flying over northern Iraq. Turkish officers look over the shoulders of their U.S. counterparts at the imagery and are free to target suspicious activity when they see it. The United States doesn't pull the triggers; it just shows the pictures.

The fight against al-Qaeda in Yemen illustrates the complicated legal issues that intersect the use of technology. A year ago, U.S. Special Forces held back from using advanced technology to locate Anwar al-Aulaqi in Yemen; that's because he wasn't yet on a formal "capture or kill" list of terrorists who threatened the United States. He is now, so the Obama administration has decided to bring its Predator drones into the hunt over Yemen, with quiet endorsement from the Yemeni government.

These weapons are so good that they can become addictive. They make possible precise acts of war that, in another time, would be called "assassination." Other countries want to protect themselves from terrorist rebels just as much as the United States does. This means the demand for such weapons will grow.

The "laws of war" may sound like an antiquated concept in this age of robo-weapons. But, in truth, a clear international legal regime has never been more needed: It is a fact of modern life that people in conflict zones live in the perpetual cross hairs of deadly weapons. Rules are needed for targets and targeters alike.

By: Brant

GrogNews Daily Headlines

Finally, after a "Bout" of legal wrangling, arms dealer Viktor Bout is being extradited.

Another UAV strike in Pakistan kills 20. Was it the US, NATO, or did the Paks finally start shooting.

The UK is going to start paying off Gitmo ex-detainees? Seriously?

McCain thinks there are billions to be saved in defense budget, but it'll be interesting to see whose sacred cows are slain along the way.

Did UN peacekeepers start the cholera outbreak in Haiti? Rumors swirling through Haiti are claiming that, and the backlash is spawning anti-UN protests that are getting violent.

Iran is charging a German media crew with spying. Why, you ask? For interviewing the family of a stoning victim. Yep, journalists covering human rights cases in a medieval legal system are now apparently undermining national security.

By: Brant

GrogNews Morning Headlines Bonanza

Wow... here are a LOT of headlines to start your week.

Somali pirates have snatched another Philippine-crewed vessel.

How is al-Qaeda paying the bills? Apparently drug money is covering the costs for AQ, Hezbollah, and others.

The UK and the French are talking joint deployments, presumably somewhere other than the Suez, eh? And following the UK's massive budget cuts, they are looking for a buyer for their Harriers. Hey, the Bolivians were going to buy a bunch of aircraft from Iran, why not talk to them?

How seriously should we be taking WikiLeaks?

So is the CIA's role in Yemen still covert if the Wall Street Journal reports on it? And how's the future of the Army look
for special operations forces?
Speaking of the future of the US Army, it looks like the DADT opinions are pretty sharply divided along a generational fault line. So are we just waiting for the old guys to all retire/die off before DADT finally goes away?

The final body count in the Baghdad church siege is 52 dead, including the priest. That's much higher than the body count on the latest US missile attack in Pakistan; we only got 5 there.

By: Brant

Following Up Strike on "German Taliban"

There's been a flurry of activity since the drones strike that whacked some German citizens working with the Taliban.

The Taliban have removed the bodies of eight militants killed in a US drone attack in Pakistan, the BBC has been told.

Pakistani security officials say that four of the dead were German nationals.

They were killed by two missiles fired by a US drone at a house in North Waziristan. A number of people were said to have been wounded.

Security sources have closely linked the area to a reported al-Qaeda plot to attack European cities.

The attack destroyed the home of a tribal leader with close links to a local Taliban commander in a village 3km (2 miles) from the main town of Mir Ali.

The BBC has some nice analysis of how this ties in with recent terror alerts.

Intelligence sources in Berlin have been briefing in recent months about a group of militants who vanished from Hamburg in 2009.

They were all associated with a mosque in the city which has since been closed down. That mosque was linked to some of the people involved in the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

In July this year, one of the men who vanished the previous year, Ahmed Sidiqi, was arrested by the Americans in Afghanistan.

It is information from Sidiqi, a German citizen of Afghan origin, which is believed to have led to the warnings of an attack on targets in Germany and France.

If Germans have been killed in North Waziristan then you assume that some of the people who vanished from Hamburg more than a year ago may be among the victims.

According to German media, several Islamist militants disappeared from their homes in Hamburg in 2009 and were thought to have headed for North Waziristan.

The arrest of one of those militants, Ahmed Sidiqi, in Afghanistan in July is said to have yielded useful intelligence to investigators.

By: Brant

Israel Selling Gear to Russia

Look, we get it. There are a lot of Russian Jews, and the natural tendency might be to play nice with the motherland. But is the US really going to stand by and let Israel sell gear to the Russians that are going to end up in use against Georgia... again?

Russia is particularly interested in acquiring Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In 2009, Russia bought 12 drones from Israel Aerospace Industries, following its war with Georgia, during which Georgian military forces used Israeli Elbit Systems Hermes 450 UAVs.

The Russian army is training 50 soldiers to operate the 12 pilotless aircraft, Interfax reported.

Israel recently put plans to establish a joint venture with Russia to manufacture UAVs on hold, amid concerns regarding the transfer of sensitive technology.

On Monday, Serdyukov said, following his meeting with Barak, that it was important to borrow experience and know-how from the Israeli armed forces for the modernization of Russian armed forces.

By: Brant