The war crimes case of Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher just got more complicated as the Navy is expanding its investigation to SEAL Team 6 operators. According to warrant documents and emails leaked to the Navy Times, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service… [Read more…]
Chief Gallagher’s war crimes case expands to SEAL Team 6 operators
The war crimes case of Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher just got more complicated as the Navy is expanding its investigation to SEAL Team 6 operators. According to warrant documents and emails leaked to the Navy Times, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) is trying to determine if Chief Gallagher colluded with SEALs from the Naval Special Warfare … [Read more…]
Take a look at the Delta Force and SEAL Team 6 wishlist for 2019: Target Engagement, Breaching and other classified projects
In the never-ending quest to remain technologically ahead of current and future rivals, the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) has assembled two documents containing lists of capabilities and technologies that will enable its special operators to dominate the battlefield. More specifically, the JSOC documents, which are titled Special Operations Forces (SOF) Capability … [Read more…]
Niger ambush review: Senior leadership accountability debacle or just burying the facts?
During a U.S. House Armed Services Committee hearing last Tuesday, Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan told lawmakers the long-awaited Niger ambush report will go through yet another review. The report concerns the botched Niger operation that took place in October 2017 and cost the lives of four Americans. Justifying his decision, Shanahan said his predecessor, … [Read more…]
US mainland missile defense system successfully intercepts intercontinental ballistic missile in test
The United States' Ground-based Midcourse Defense System has had its ups and downs over the years, but finally just showed it has what it takes to defend the country from an inbound nuclear missile launched from a nation like North Korea or Iran. In a first for the system, a salvo of two ground-based interceptors (GBIs) were launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in … [Read more…]
Beards and axes: Canadian Army reactivates elite Assault Pioneers unit
The Canadian Army has decided to reactivate the Assault Pioneers in an attempt to increase the lethality of its infantry units. Known for their specialized training, different grooming standards (they are allowed to wear well-groomed beards), and their axes, Assault Pioneers are a mix of an infantryman and a combat engineer. Aside from the normal infantry tasks, they are … [Read more…]
US special operators and Marines take top spots in international sniper competition
Last week, elite sniper teams from all over the world met at the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center on Fort Bragg, North Carolina to compete in a series of events aimed at assessing tactical skills ranging from long-distance weapons accuracy to reconnaissance. Teams from the U.S. Special Operations Command took the top two spots with a U.S. Marine Corps team … [Read more…]
Private companies attempt to buy their way out of military housing scandal
For at least a decade, military families have battled so-called Public/Private Ventures (PPVs) on Department of Defense installations which allowed private real estate firms to build housing for soldiers and their dependents, then collect rent directly from the U.S. Department of the Treasury in the form of the soldiers' basic housing allowance. It was a low-risk, guaranteed … [Read more…]
Why do the Pentagon’s reasons for buying new F-15s keep shifting?
Even among fans of Boeing's F-15EX initiative, you won't find anyone who will contend that the F-15 is a superior aircraft to Lockheed Martin's Joint Strike Fighter. On paper, a new F-15 does offer a number of advantages over the stealth F-35—higher top speed, lower operating costs, larger payload capacity, and greater operational range—but in a fight, the F-35's low … [Read more…]
China claims to have developed ‘anti-stealth’ radar that doesn’t seem physically possible
Although Russia's defense program marketing efforts may be among the most robust in the world, China is no slouch when it comes to making lofty claims about military capabilities through state-owned media outlets with global reach. China's latest claim pertains to a new radar system that, according to reports, might render stealth technology obsolete. In February, Chinese … [Read more…]
The Maltz Challenge: How special operators honor a fallen brother
Military bonds forged in the adversity of training and the rigors of combat are hard to break. When a warrior falls, his memory lives forever with his brothers in arms. Since 9/11, a popular way to commemorate fallen warriors has been to organize physically and mentally demanding events that resonate with the fallen warrior’s background. Meet the Maltz Challenge. Named … [Read more…]
Watch: The first flight of what could be the US military’s future long-range assault aircraft
The Sikorsky-Boeing joint helicopter initiative known as the SB-1 Defiant made its first flight last week, gingerly leaving the ground and hovering around the airfield at a Sikorsky facility in West Palm Beach, Florida. This test comes more than 15 months after the helicopter's competition for the Army's Future Long Range Assault Aircraft contract, the Bell V-280 Valor, first … [Read more…]
Russia’s nuclear-powered cruise missile has the same crucial weakness as its stealth fighter
For a time, it seemed Russia was steaming toward fielding real fifth-generation stealth fighters, a development with serious security implications, based on the nation's aggressive posture toward NATO and America's reliance on air power in its style of warfare. As time wore on, however, cracks in Russia's advanced fighter program began to show, culminating in India backing out … [Read more…]