WAR 09-08-2018-to-09-14-2018___****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****

[Housecarl]

Sorry folks, I "went out" last night....


(337) 08-18-2018-to-08-24-2018___****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...8-24-2018___****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****

(338) 08-25-2018-to-08-31-2018___****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...8-31-2018___****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****

(339) 09-01-2018-to-09-07-2018___****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...9-07-2018___****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****

---------


For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
https://www.stripes.com/news/army-to-create-new-air-defense-rocket-units-in-germany-1.546457

Army to create new air defense, rocket units in Germany

By MARTIN EGNASH AND JOHN VANDIVER | STARS AND STRIPES
Published: September 7, 2018

GRAFENWOEHR, Germany — The U.S. Army announced a plan Friday to add more firepower in Germany by creating new short-range air defense and rocket artillery units, in one of the largest troop boosts in Europe since the end of the Cold War.
The unit activations will begin this year and will result in about 1,500 more soldiers on the continent as well as their families by 2020.

The plan is to stand up a new field artillery brigade headquarters, two Multiple Launch Rocket System battalions, and additional supporting units in the Grafenwoehr Training Area; a short-range air defense battalion and additional supporting units in nearby U.S. Army Garrison Ansbach; and various supporting units at the Hohenfels Training Area and at the Army’s garrison in Baumholder.

The overseas force structure change is a result of the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, which directs the Army to increase its numbers, service officials said. A significant portion of the expected growth will occur in Europe to counter a more aggressive Russia.

“The addition of these forces increases U.S. Army readiness in Europe and ensures we are better able to respond to any crisis,” U.S. Army Europe said in a statement.
The Army has yet to designate names for the new units, which will result from new activations rather than relocating forces from the United States.

Besides activating new units, the Army plans on relocating the following units in Europe to make space for the incoming troops:

• 1st Inland Cargo Truck Company – Grafenwoehr to Kaiserslautern
• 18th Military Police Brigade – Grafenwoehr to Vilseck
• 44th Expeditionary Signal Battalion – Grafenwoehr to Baumholder
• 51st Truck Company – Baumholder to Grafenwoehr
• 709th Military Police Battalion – Grafenwoehr to Vilseck

Most of the forces coming to Europe over the past four years have been on rotational missions rather than permanently assigned to U.S. European Command’s area of responsibility.

EUCOM and USAREUR had expressed concern about a lack of short-range fires capability on the Continent.

In March, EUCOM chief Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti told Congress he needed an Army fires brigade added to the permanent force structure in Europe. A month later, the National Guard’s South Carolina-based 678th Air Defense Artillery Brigade was deployed to Germany on a rotational basis.

Earlier this year, the Army in Europe, for the first time in 15 years, began training on the FIM-92 Stinger Man-Portable system in Hohenfels.

egnash.martin@stripes.com
Twitter: @Marty_Stripes
vandiver.john@stripes.com
Twitter: @john_vandiver

 

[Shacknasty Shagrat]

There is a bit of a terror wind in Paris.
SS

' Intel Doge Retweeted
PM Breaking News
‏ @PMBreakingNews
5m5 minutes ago

Breaking: At least 7 people injured after a knife attack at the MK2 cinema in Paris, France. Four victims are in serious condition. The attacker is in custody and is reportedly of Afghan nationality. (Via @LeParisien_75)

https://twitter.com/IntelDoge

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/09/pentagon-revamp-egypt-war-games.html

Pentagon revamps Egypt war games in trust-building exercise

Jack Detsch
September 7, 2018

The Pentagon kicks off war games in Egypt on Saturday for the second year in a row, an unusual step signaling the Donald Trump administration’s support for President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi despite lingering human rights concerns.

US-led Operation Bright Star, meant to hone Cairo’s ability to fend off militant groups such as the Islamic State in the Sinai Desert, had been held on a year-on, year-off basis for more than 30 years, from 1980 until the 2011 Arab Spring. Holding the exercises with 200 American troops for a second straight year — just weeks after the State Department released $195 million in military aid frozen under former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson — is widely seen as a strong signal that the US administration will continue the $1.3 billion military relationship.

The Egyptians, a former US official told Al-Monitor, “are now free to act as they wanted to all along.”

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has been leading the push for normalization, the former official said, in spite of the State Department’s concerns over the detention of two Americans, Egypt's close ties with North Korea, and the Sisi government’s crackdown on nongovernmental organizations.

“Mattis was one of the major proponents for lifting the hold on assistance and was fairly aggressive on getting [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo to lift the hold,” the former US official said. “He views Sisi as a major ally of the US.”

Pompeo, by contrast, doesn’t seem to have a strong view on the matter. “I don’t think he views it as a priority to reach out and build a relationship with the Egyptians,” the source said.

Central Command did not respond in time for publication to Al-Monitor’s inquiry about whether the exercise would take place annually.

A tighter US-Egypt relationship still may not get Sisi the high-tech American military gadgets he’s asked for, including armed drones. A State Department official told Al-Monitor that the agency will continue to focus Egypt’s annual $1.3 billion Foreign Military Financing (FMF) allowance on counterterrorism, border security, the terror fight in Sinai, maritime security and sustaining the weapons systems Cairo has already purchased. The policy is a continuation of Barack Obama-era rules put in place after the United States re-established ties with Sisi in 2015, a year after the former defense minister took power in a military coup.

The Trump administration also has not restored cash flow financing to Egypt, which was discontinued in 2015, that would allow Egypt to buy US military equipment on credit.

Despite the Pentagon’s efforts to improve the relationship, experts told Al-Monitor that Egypt since 2016 has blocked the US military from accessing Sinai to make sure US weapons aren’t used to commit human rights violations, as called for under US aid law. Inspectors haven’t been allowed into the northeast region of the desert, where the fight against the Islamic State is taking place.

Those incidents — and reports of human rights violations by the Egyptian military in the yearslong conflict against the terror group — have raised concerns that Cairo could give lip service to American conditions on military aid.

“There is a belief that this money is needed to maintain a good working relationship with Egypt,” said Zack Gold, an associate research analyst at the CNA defense think tank. “In many ways, it has created a dependency, an expectation of assistance.”

The administration’s confidence isn’t unanimously shared by Congress, where some lawmakers fear that Egypt is moving in the wrong direction when it comes to human rights.

“We’re about where we have always been,” said an aide to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. “The secretary of state made a calculation to waive the democracy and human rights conditions and release $195 million in 2017 FMF. Even though President al-Sisi is an autocrat and the armed forces are unaccountable, the White House has other priorities.” He said top House lawmakers on the panel support the State Department’s ability to waive the conditions on military aid.

The aide said Sen. Leahy is holding up $105 million in 2017 FMF. He has called for reparations for an American citizen grievously injured in an Egyptian military attack, fair public trials for prisoners, access to Sinai to investigate the use of US military equipment, and resolution of the 2015 NGO convictions and subsequent law.

Lawmakers believe little, if any, progress has been made. “The administration can’t make a credible case that the Egyptians have met the conditions in US law,” the aide said. “President al-Sisi is taking the country in a different direction.”

 

[Housecarl]

There is a bit of a terror wind in Paris.
SS

' Intel Doge Retweeted
PM Breaking News
þ @PMBreakingNews
5m5 minutes ago

Breaking: At least 7 people injured after a knife attack at the MK2 cinema in Paris, France. Four victims are in serious condition. The attacker is in custody and is reportedly of Afghan nationality. (Via @LeParisien_75)

https://twitter.com/IntelDoge

If it walks like a duck....

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...ife-attack-sources/ar-BBN6D9U?ocid=spartanntp

7 wounded including 2 British tourists in Paris knife attack: sources

1 hr ago

Seven people including two British tourists were wounded Sunday in Paris after they were attacked by a man armed with a knife and an iron bar, according to police and other sources.

A source close to the inquiry said the suspect has been arrested and is believed to be an Afghan national.

"Nothing at this stage shows signs of a terrorist nature in these assaults," the sources said, adding that the attacker had targeted "strangers in the street".

Of the seven wounded, four are in a critical condition, police said.

The incident took place just after 11:00pm (2100 GMT) on the banks of a canal in the northeast of the capital.

A security guard at one of two cinemas on either side of the Canal de l'Ourcq said he saw a man who had already assaulted people being chased by two other men who tried to stop him.

"He had an iron bar in his hand which he threw at the men chasing him, then he took out a knife," he told AFP.

A police investigation has been launched for attempted murder, according to a judicial source.

 

[Housecarl]

Whack-a-mole....

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/09/world/africa/cia-drones-africa-military.html

C.I.A. Drone Mission, Curtailed by Obama, Is Expanded in Africa Under Trump

Video

Officials from the U.S. and Niger have confirmed the location of a new C.I.A. drone base to The New York Times. We’ve analyzed its construction and location.
Published On Sept. 9, 2018

By Joe Penney, Eric Schmitt, Rukmini Callimachi and Christoph Koettl
Sept. 9, 2018
Comments 66

DIRKOU, Niger — The C.I.A. is poised to conduct secret drone strikes against Qaeda and Islamic State insurgents from a newly expanded air base deep in the Sahara, making aggressive use of powers that were scaled back during the Obama administration and restored by President Trump.

Late in his presidency, Barack Obama sought to put the military in charge of drone attacks after a backlash arose over a series of highly visible strikes, some of which killed civilians. The move was intended, in part, to bring greater transparency to attacks that the United States often refused to acknowledge its role in.

But now the C.I.A. is broadening its drone operations, moving aircraft to northeastern Niger to hunt Islamist militants in southern Libya. The expansion adds to the agency’s limited covert missions in eastern Afghanistan for strikes in Pakistan, and in southern Saudi Arabia for attacks in Yemen.

Nigerien and American officials said the C.I.A. had been flying drones on surveillance missions for several months from a corner of a small commercial airport in Dirkou. Satellite imagery shows that the airport has grown significantly since February to include a new taxiway, walls and security posts.

One American official said the drones had not yet been used in lethal missions, but would almost certainly be in the near future, given the growing threat in southern Libya. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the secretive operations.

A C.I.A. spokesman, Timothy Barrett, declined to comment. A Defense Department spokeswoman, Maj. Sheryll Klinkel, said the military had maintained a base at the Dirkou airfield for several months but did not fly drone missions from there.

The drones take off from Dirkou at night — typically between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. — buzzing in the clear, starlit desert sky. A New York Times reporter saw the gray aircraft — about the size of Predator drones, which are 27 feet long — flying at least three times over six days in early August. Unlike small passenger planes that land occasionally at the airport, the drones have no blinking lights signaling their presence.

“All I know is they’re American,” Niger’s interior minister, Mohamed Bazoum, said in an interview. He offered few other details about the drones.

Dirkou’s mayor, Boubakar Jerome, said the drones had helped improve the town’s security. “It’s always good. If people see things like that, they’ll be scared,” Mr. Jerome said.

Mr. Obama had curtailed the C.I.A.’s lethal role by limiting its drone flights, notably in Yemen. Some strikes in Pakistan and elsewhere that accidentally killed civilians, stirring outrage among foreign diplomats and military officials, were shielded because of the C.I.A.’s secrecy.

As part of the shift, the Pentagon was given the unambiguous lead for such operations. The move sought, in part, to end an often awkward charade in which the United States would not concede its responsibility for strikes that were abundantly covered by news organizations and tallied by watchdog groups. However, the C.I.A. program was not fully shut down worldwide, as the agency and its supporters in Congress balked.

The drone policy was changed last year, after Mike Pompeo, the C.I.A. director at the time, made a forceful case to President Trump that the agency’s broader counterterrorism efforts were being needlessly constrained. The Dirkou base was already up and running by the time Mr. Pompeo stepped down as head of the C.I.A. in April to become Mr. Trump’s secretary of state.

The Pentagon’s Africa Command has carried out five drone strikes against Qaeda and Islamic State militants in Libya this year, including one two weeks ago. The military launches its MQ-9 Reaper drones from bases in Sicily and in Niamey, Niger’s capital, 800 miles southwest of Dirkou.

But the C.I.A. base is hundreds of miles closer to southwestern Libya, a notorious haven for Al Qaeda and other extremist groups that also operate in the Sahel region of Niger, Chad, Mali and Algeria. It is also closer to southern Libya than a new $110 million drone base in Agadez, Niger, 350 miles west of Dirkou, where the Pentagon plans to operate armed Reaper drone missions by early next year.

Another American official said the C.I.A. began setting up the base in January to improve surveillance of the region, partly in response to an ambush last fall in another part of Niger that killed four American troops. The Dirkou airfield was labeled a United States Air Force base as a cover, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential operational matters.

The C.I.A. operation in Dirkou is burdened by few, if any, of the political sensitivities that the United States military confronts at its locations, said one former American official involved with the project.

Even so, security analysts said, it is not clear why the United States needs both military and C.I.A. drone operations in the same general vicinity to combat insurgents in Libya. France also flies Reaper drones from Niamey, but only on unarmed reconnaissance missions.

“I would be surprised that the C.I.A. would open its own base,” said Bill Roggio, editor of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Long War Journal, which tracks military strikes against militant groups.

Despite American denials, a Nigerien security official said he had concluded that the C.I.A. launched an armed drone from the Dirkou base to strike a target in Ubari, in southern Libya, on July 25. The Nigerien security official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the classified program.

A spokesman for the Africa Command, Maj. Karl Wiest, said the military did not carry out the Ubari strike.

Ubari is in the same region where the American military in March launched its first-ever drone attack against Qaeda militants in southern Libya. It is at the intersection of the powerful criminal and jihadist currents that have washed across Libya in recent years. Roughly equidistant from Libya’s borders with Niger, Chad and Algeria, the area’s seminomadic residents are heavily involved in the smuggling of weapons, drugs and migrants through the lawless deserts of southern Libya.

Some of the residents have allied with Islamist militias, including Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which operates across Algeria, Mali, Niger and Libya.

Dirkou, in northeast Niger, is an oasis town of a few thousand people in the open desert, bordered by a small mountain range. For centuries, it has been a key transit point for travelers crossing the Sahara. It helped facilitate the rise of Islam in West Africa in the 9th century, and welcomed salt caravans from the neighboring town of Bilma.

The town has a handful of narrow, sandy roads. Small trees dot the horizon. Date and neem trees line the streets, providing shelter for people escaping the oppressive midday heat. There is a small market, where goods for sale include spaghetti imported from Libya. Gasoline is also imported from Libya and is cheaper than elsewhere in the country.

The drones based in Dirkou are loud, and their humming and buzzing drowns out the bleats of goats and crows of roosters.

“It stops me from sleeping,” said Ajimi Koddo, 45, a former migrant smuggler. “They need to go. They go in our village, and it annoys us too much.”

Satellite imagery shows that construction started in February on a new compound at the Dirkou airstrip. Since then, the facility has been extended to include a larger paved taxiway and a clamshell tent connected to the airstrip — all features that are consistent with the deployment of small aircraft, possibly drones.

Five defensive positions were set up around the airport, and there appear to be new security gates and checkpoints both to the compound and the broader airport.

It’s not the first time that Washington has eyed with interest Dirkou’s tiny base. In the late 1980s, the United States spent $3.2 million renovating the airstrip in an effort to bolster Niger’s government against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, then the leader of Libya.

Compared with other parts of Africa, the C.I.A.’s presence in the continent’s northwest is relatively light, according to a former State Department official who served in the region. In this part of Niger, the C.I.A. is also providing training and sharing intelligence, according to a Nigerien military intelligence document reviewed by The Times.

The Nigerien security official said about a dozen American Green Berets were stationed earlier this year in Dirkou — in a base separate from the C.I.A.’s — to train a special counterterrorism battalion of local forces. Those trainers left about three months ago, the official said.

It is unlikely that they will return anytime soon. The Pentagon is considering withdrawing nearly all American commandos from Niger in the wake of the deadly October ambush that killed four United States soldiers.


Joe Penney reported from Dirkou, Niger, Eric Schmitt from Washington and Rukmini Callimachi and Christoph Koettl from New York. Omar Hama Saley contributed reporting from Agadez, Niger, Dionne Searcey from Dakar, Senegal, and Helene Cooper from Washington.

Related Coverage

C.I.A. Wants Authority to Conduct Drone Strikes in Afghanistan for the First Time
Sept. 15, 2017
Image

Deep Support in Washington for C.I.A.’s Drone Missions
April 25, 2015
Image

Drone Strikes Reveal Uncomfortable Truth: U.S. Is Often Unsure About Who Will Die
April 23, 2015
Image

Delays in Effort to Refocus C.I.A. From Drone War
April 5, 2014
Image

 

[Housecarl]

Hummm…..

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
https://www.voanews.com/a/north-korea-mounts-military-parade-/4563652.html

East Asia

Trump Praises North Korea Parade Without Nuclear-Capable Missiles

Last Updated: September 09, 2018 4:45 PM
VOA News

U.S. President Donald Trump said it was "a big and very positive statement" that North Korea staged its latest military parade without its usual display of missiles capable of striking the U.S.

"Thank you To Chairman Kim," Trump tweeted after Sunday's 70th anniversary parade celebrating the country's founding.

"We will both prove everyone wrong!" Trump said of stalled negotiations over denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. "There is nothing like good dialogue from two people that like each other! Much better than before I took office."

The parade included many familiar sights, including goose-stepping soldiers, tanks, grenade launchers, and a whole range of missiles.

But missing were the intercontinental ballistic missiles that the North has said are capable of carrying nuclear warheads to U.S. territory.

Trump, echoing North Korean commentary on the parade, said the "theme was peace and economic development." The president favorably quoted commentary from his favorite Fox News network, saying that "Experts believe that North Korea cut out the nuclear missiles to show President Trump its commitment to denuclearize."

Kim presided over the parade but did not address the crowd assembled in Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung Square.

The military parade happened at a particularly sensitive time for North Korea. The North is attempting to ease tensions with the U.S., following the June summit between Kim and Trump in Singapore.

Kim pledged at the summit to abandon his country's nuclear arsenal, but the agreement did not lay out how and when that might occur. Last week Kim said he hopes to denuclearize the country by the end of Trump's first term in the White House in early January 2021.

Within a day of leaving the summit, Trump declared, "There is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea."

However, more recently, Trump, despite his praise for Kim, has been irked at the slow pace of talks between the two countries. Last month, he ordered Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to not go to Pyongyang for more discussions.

Both Kim and Trump want agreements made before beginning a new round of talks. Washington wants North Korea to commit specifically to denuclearization, while Pyongyang is demanding security assurances and other concessions in advance of dismantling its nuclear arsenal.

 

[danielboon]

Tasnim: Iran's Shamkhani says Tehran will respond to any hostile action
Reuters|Published: 09.10.18 , 13:24
A senior Iranian security official said Tehran will respond to any hostile action against the country and said the era of "hit and run" was over, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Monday.



"The era of hit and run is over in the world and any hostile measure against our country will be responded to by Tehran 10-fold. We are capable to protect ourselves in every field," Tasnim quoted Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security council as saying. https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5346846,00.html

 

[danielboon]

Iranian official: Iran is willing to aid Syria to fight against US
Daniel Salami|Published: 09.10.18 , 13:53
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's advisor said that "If Syria wants to fight against American forces in the eastern Euphrates and asks for our help, Teheran would military support it.


However, in an interview with RT Khamenei's advisor said, "We are not saying we'll fight the US. The terrorists (undermining the Syrian regime-ed) should be removed from the country." https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5346885,00.html

 

[danielboon]

Lucas Tomlinson
‏
Verified account

@LucasFoxNews
Follow Follow @LucasFoxNews
More
Aircraft carriers Abraham Lincoln and George H.W. Bush among warships heading to sea from Norfolk, Va. ahead of Hurricane Florence making landfall

 

[danielboon]

US State Department confirms closure of PLO mission in Washington
Ynet|Published: 09.10.18 , 18:53
The US State Department confirmed on Monday it will close the Palestinian Liberation Organization's mission in Washington.

 

[Housecarl]

Meanwhile in another Middle East conflict zone....

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
https://www.yahoo.com/news/84-dead-fighting-yemens-hodeida-talks-fail-145136843.html

World

84 dead in fighting in Yemen's Hodeida after talks fail

AFP Sun, Sep 9 8:21 AM PDT


Khokha (Yemen) (AFP) - Clashes and air strikes have left 84 people dead around Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeida since the collapse of UN-brokered peace talks, hospital sources said Sunday.

The sources in Hodeida province, controlled by Huthi rebels, said 11 soldiers and 73 insurgents had been killed since the talks were abandoned on Saturday.

Dozens of rebels and at least 17 soldiers had been wounded.

The pro-government coalition, which includes Saudi and UAE air forces, has been pushing to close in on Hodeida, the entry point for some 70 percent of Yemen's imports including food and aid, since June.

The coalition on Sunday was positioned to attempt to seize the main road linking Sanaa, the rebel-held capital, to the port city, a military official told AFP.

The road is a key supply route for the Huthis.

In July, the coalition announced a temporary ceasefire in Hodeida to give a chance to UN-brokered peace talks.

But UN attempts to hold peace talks between Yemen's Saudi-backed government and the Huthis, linked to Saudi Arabia's archrival Iran, were abandoned on Saturday, sparking fears of an escalation in the conflict.

The rebels refused to leave Yemen for Geneva, saying the UN had not met their demands -- including a plane to transport their wounded to nearby Oman and a guarantee their delegation would be allowed to return to Sanaa.

In 2014, the Huthis seized control of a string of Red Sea ports and the capital, driving the government out of Sanaa and the president into exile.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in the conflict to bolster President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, recognised by the UN as Yemen's president. They now control Yemen's airspace.

Nearly 10,000 people have since been killed and the country now stands at the brink of famine.

 

[danielboon]

EndGameWW3
@EndGameShowWW3
United States issues fresh warning to airlines about using Iranian airspace | Article [AMP] | Reuters

United States issues fresh warning to airlines about using Iranian...
reuters.com
2:01 AM · Sep 11, 2018. https://t.co/gkne2P018K?amp=1

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
https://breakingdefense.com/2018/09/army-seeks-1000-mile-missiles-vs-russia-china/

acquisition, Air, Land

Army Seeks 1,000-Mile Missiles Vs. Russia, China

One Army weapon would be a hypersonic missile, tearing through missile defenses at Mach 5-plus to kill critical hardened targets such as command bunkers. The other would use a gun barrel to launch cheaper, slower missiles at larger numbers of softer targets like radars and missile launchers.

By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
on September 10, 2018 at 5:09 PM
24 Comments

WASHINGTON: For the first time since the Soviet Union fell, the Army is developing weapons with a thousand-mile range. That’s roughly five times the range of anything the Army fields today and three times the range of previously announced programs. The payoff in a future war with Russia or China could be dramatic – but the technological, financial and even legal problems are daunting.

The ambition? Develop not one but two types of ultra-long-range missiles to help blow holes in advanced air defenses:

• One Army weapon, not yet officially named, would be a high-performance hypersonic missile, tearing through missile defenses at Mach 5-plus to kill critical hardened targets such as command bunkers.
• The other, the Strategic Long-Range Cannon (SLRC), would use a gun barrel to launch cheaper, slower missiles at larger numbers of softer targets like radars, missile launchers and mobile command posts.

Together with comparable weapons launched from jets, ships, and submarines, these ground-launched “strategic fires” would blast a path for attacking aircraft, from Army helicopters to Air Force bombers. That kind of mutual support – formally known as Multi-Domain Operations – would transform the Army’s role from a consumer of the other services’ support to a full partner in providing long-range firepower.

The Hard Part(s)

The problems? For a start, the Army, with its 20-year-track record of cancelled programs, is now tackling cutting-edge technologies, although it has done key work on hypersonics in the past. The Army is also creating a new category of weapon with no existing cadre of trained personnel or established budget share – both of which must come at existing constituencies’ expense. Army leaders are already cutting other efforts to fund their top six priorities, of which Long Range Precision Fires is No. 1, but as the Big Six grow, so will resistance.

What’s more, the Army has no experience finding targets, planning and executing strikes at 1,000-mile ranges, as the Air Force and Navy do. The service has created a new Army Multi-Domain Targeting center to train soldiers in joint targeting. But there’s a delicate balance here, The Army must learn from the other services how to work together better – vital to Multi-Domain ops against Russia and China – without poaching their missions and budgets thus starting a turf war within the Pentagon.

Army engineers are working closely with the Air Force Research Laboratory, Naval Research Laboratory, and NASA, among others, on an upcoming technical demonstration, Col. John Rafferty assured me in an interview. Soon to be a brigadier general, Rafferty leads the Army’s Long-Range Precision Fires Cross-Functional Team (LRPF CFT), giving him direct and regular access to the service’s top four leaders.

“I’ve heard the Army senior leaders say several times that we aren’t entering the strategic fires arena for the Army’s sake,” Rafferty told me. “We’re doing this for the joint force,” as part of multi-domain operations against Chinese and Russian-style Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) defenses.

“It’s well supported by senior leaders in the Department of Defense,” he added.

There’s one last catch, however. If the Army can overcome all these technical, institutional, and financial challenges to make ground-launched strategic fires work, deploying them would almost certainly be the fatal blow for the 1987 Intermediate Range-Nuclear Forces treaty (INF), an arms control pact already battered by Russian violations and which China never signed.

Army leaders have hinted for months they’d like something in the 500 to 5,000 kilometer (312.5 to 3,125 miles) range banned by the treaty, and there’ve been multiple reports the Army was working on 1,000-mile-plus weapons, but there’s been no official confirmation.

So, I asked Rafferty, how long a range are we talking about? Is roughly 1,000 miles correct?

“I don’t want to be more specific,” he answered, but that figure “was accurate at the time” it was published – just over a month ago.

Translation: Yes.

Precision & Mass

Why is Army developing two kinds of ultra-long-range weapons? “You need a mix of some precision and some mass,” Rafferty told me.

The precision killer will be hypersonic. That means a missile capable of traveling more than five times the speed of sound in the atmosphere, able to not just move fast but to maneuver to avoid enemy defenses. (Ballistic missiles are even faster but go through space and can’t maneuver much).

At such speeds, the sheer force of impact – if applied precisely to the target – can be as damaging as a conventional explosive blast. So the hypersonic weapon will be reserved for the hardest, most important targets, such as command bunkers.

The hypersonic missiles will be “exquisite munitions,” Rafferty told me, “very expensive but incredibly capable systems that fly very, very fast, are highly maneuverable, and impact with incredible kinetic energy (on) strategic infrastructure.”

A single hardened bunker might oversee dozens of radars, missile launchers, and command posts, some static but others mounted on trucks or tracked vehicles. With modern networking technology, those systems can keep fighting when the big fixed sites are gone, albeit less efficiently. You don’t need, and can’t afford, enough exquisite munitions to kill all of them.

That’s why the Strategic Long-Range Cannon will fire larger numbers of more affordable projectiles. As the name says, it’ll launch missiles from a cannon barrel – probably a new design, not the standard 155 mm howitzer – which allows a smaller and cheaper rocket motor on the projectile itself. It’s still a supersonic, maneuverable precision weapon that has to survive an explosive launch with its electronics intact, but it’s not as hard as hypersonics.

“It’s evolutionary in some ways,” Rafferty told me. “We have rocket-assisted projectiles right now that are cannon-launched. “So it’s not that big a leap to imagine you could do that at longer ranges with a larger cannon.” How much larger? It won’t be huge like John Bull’s infamous supergun, he said, but something that can fit on a road-mobile vehicle, both to deploy and to take cover from enemy fire.

Why Army?

Why does the Army need these weapons in the first place? After all, Navy Tomahawks fired from cruisers, destroyers, and submarines have been striking targets a thousand miles away for decades. The Air Force has a variety of missiles launched from planes. And both services are developing more.

“It’s not just another arrow in the quiver,” Rafferty told me. “It’s a special arrow in the quiver that can overcome some of our competitors’ most sophisticated defenses.”

The Air Force and Navy are also developing new weapons of their own to counter those sophisticated defenses, with a rapidly increasing investment in hypersonics. It’s not essential for the Army to do so too.

There’s another advantage, however, that is inherent to ground forces as opposed to airplanes and surface ships: the ability to hide.

The US learned this the hard way in 1991, when it struggled to hunt down SCUD launchers in the flat Iraqi desert. In settled areas, ground vehicles can hide from detection and destruction underground in garages or tunnels.

Even stealth aircraft, by contrast, show up on certain kinds of radar, while the surface of the sea offers no cover. There are always submarines, the ultimate stealth platform, but these cost billions, can’t reload their launchers without returning to port, and can be hunted down by sonar. Ground-based weapons, even expensive ones, can go on trucks and drive into highway tunnels free. They’re no substitute for subs, but they might not be a bad Plan B.

“It creates a dilemma for the enemy,” Rafferty told me, “another dimension to the problem.”

 

[danielboon]

EndGameWW3
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@EndGameShowWW3
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From Bob Woodward's book: “Russia had privately warned Mattis that if there was a war in the Baltics, Russia would not hesitate to use tactical nuclear weapons against NATO,”

 

[danielboon]

Xi, Putin meet as Russia kicks off biggest ever war gamesRussia launched its largest war games since the Cold War on Tuesday with hundreds of thousands of troops, including Chinese soldiers taking part for the first time, in eastern Siberia.

The massive military manoeuvres come as tensions between the West and Russia have intensified to the highest level since the days of the Soviet Union. The drills have been condemned by NATO as a rehearsal for a "large-scale conflict".

Dubbed Vostok-2018, the war games involve more than 300,000 troops, 36,000 tanks, 1,000 aircraft and 80 warships and support vessels, according to Russia's defence ministry.It broadcast images of military trucks being transported on trains, columns of tanks, armoured vehicles and naval vessels on the move, and combat helicopters and fighter aircraft taking off.

Watched attentivelyThe main aim was to check the military's readiness to move troops large distances, to test how closely infantry and naval forces cooperated, and to perfect command and control procedures, the ministry said. Later stages will involve rehearsals of both defensive and offensive scenarios.

Russia said 24 helicopters and six jets belonging to the Chinese air force had moved to Russian air bases for the exercise.

Beijing has said 3,200 members of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) will join in the operations, about 5,000km east of Moscow.

NATO has said it will monitor the exercise closely as will the United States, which has a strong military presence in the Asia-Pacific region. It is likely to be watched attentively by Japan and North and South Korea.'Sends a message'
The start of Vostok-2018 coincided with a meeting between Russia's President Vladimir Putin who met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.

Putin said Moscow has a "trusting relationship" with Beijing "in politics, security and defence", while Xi said both countries would continue to "make joint efforts to … push the China-Russia relationship up to a new height".

The three-day meeting in Vladivostok brings together the leaders of Russia, China, Japan and South Korea, as well 5,000 delegates from 60 countries.

It is the two leaders' third meeting and comes amid an escalating US-China trade war and US-led sanctions against Russia over the conflict in Ukraine.Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs, said the coming together of Moscow and Beijing was a direct response to moves by the United States.

"Clearly we can see a growing rapprochement between Russia and China because of the very assertive line against both countries by the United States. And in this regard we can say that Donald Trump is the major patron of the Russian-Chinese closer relationship," said Lukyanov.

Dmitri Trenin, a former Russian army colonel and director of the Carnegie Moscow Center think-tank, agreed.

"With its Vostok 2018 exercise Russia sends a message that it regards the US as a potential enemy and China as a potential ally," wrote Trenin.

Wednesday will see war games featuring anti-aircraft technology, while the main event will be on Thursday.

The Russian army compared the show of force to the USSR's 1981 war games that saw between 100,000 and 150,000 Warsaw Pact soldiers take part in Zapad-81 - the largest military exercises of the Soviet era.

But Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu noted these exercises were far larger.

"Imagine 36,000 military vehicles moving at the same time: tanks, armoured personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles - and all of this, of course, in conditions as close to a combat situation as possible," Shoigu said.https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018...-kicks-biggest-war-games-180911071926817.html

 

[danielboon]

U.S. warns Iran it will respond to attacks by Tehran 'proxies' in Iraq
reuters.com
https://t.co/8BfQZS0k14?amp=1

 

[China Connection]

I do not think Russia will take on the U.S. in Syria. A direct attack on the U.S. mainland is another matter.

 

[danielboon]

EndGameWW3 Retweeted
ELINT News
ELINT News
@ELINTNews
#BREAKING
: Two Russian Tu-95 ‘bear’ bombers and two Russian Su-35 warplanes intercepted by US F-22 Raptor fighter jets after entering Alaskan Air Defence Identification Zone yesterday evening at 10pm
5:48 PM · Sep 12, 2018
ELINT News
ELINT News
@ELINTNews
·
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3h
#UPDATE
: The four Russian warplanes remained in international airspace
Ka Kiu Chan
Ka Kiu Chan
@ryankakiuchan
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1h
Replying to
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(link: https://www.facebook.com/mod.mil.rus/videos/1943128569317580/) facebook.com/mod.mil.rus/vi…

Russia MOD released this video, so may be the same one?