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CENTRAL COMMAND THEATER OF OPERATION (July 11, 2006) -- Marines serving with Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable), trained with the X-63 “Dragon-Eye” unmanned aerial vehicle June 11, as part of a training exercise in the Central Command theater of operation. The bungee-cord-launched “Dragon-Eye” provides organic aerial reconnaissance and surveillance at the small-unit level, giving Marine units the opportunity to observe real-time enemy movements beyond their traditional capacity. Whisper-quiet and weighing less than five pounds, the “Dragon-Eye” is able to navigate pre-assigned waypoints via a global positioning system while transmitting data...

MARINE CORPS AIR GROUND COMBAT CENTER TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. (June 2, 2006) -- Marines fighting the ongoing war on terrorism face enemies that are adaptive, decentralized and elusive. According to Headquarters Marine Corps, the enemy will continue to develop new tactics designed to exploit perceived seams in Marine Corps capabilities, having recognized the overwhelming conventional superiority of U.S. forces. In order to maintain dominance on the battlefield, it is essential to the Corps that the methods of war-fighting change continuously, and Marines continue to adapt to new methods while remaining a flexible, combined-arms force. The Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory in...

CENTRAL PERSIAN GULF, April 28, 2006 – Civilian opinion leaders who visited the USS Ronald Reagan today got a taste of what it's like to be the biggest, toughest guy on the block - one whose presence brings comfort to his friends but fear in his enemies. Participants in the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference watch stand on the USS Ronald Reagan's flight deck and watch F-18 Hornets take off for missions supporting ground troops in Iraq. Photo by Donna Miles  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The business, civic, organizational and academic leaders, all participants in the Joint Civilian...

The bomb’s small size increases the number of weapons an aircraft can carry, therefore raising the amount of targets it can kill in one sortie. By Staff Sgt. Ryan Hansen / Air Armament Center Public Affairs EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla., March 24, 2006 – There's an old saying that goes, "good things come in small packages." That saying rings true for the warfighter when looking at the capabilities of the small diameter bomb, the Air Force's newest precision guided munition.At just 5.9 feet long and 285 pounds, the bomb’s small size increases the number of weapons an aircraft...

WASHINGTON, March 21, 2006 – The commander of the Army unit that played a key role in routing terrorists from Tal Afar, Iraq, last fall agreed today with President Bush's assertion that headway in the city represents a concrete example of progress taking place in Iraq. Army Col. H.R. McMaster, commander of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and senior U.S. officer during "Operation Restoring Rights," said during television news interviews today the effort helped win over Iraqis who might have doubted the coalition's intentions. It also demonstrated that Iraqi security forces are gaining in capabilities and proving themselves as partners...

WASHINGTON, March 15, 2006 – The first Quadrennial Defense Review undertaken during a time of war provides the military more options and more capabilities, a senior defense official said here today. A large portion of those options and capabilities come in the form of special operations forces, Ryan Henry, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, told the audience assembled for the 17th Annual National Defense Industrial Association Special Operations/Low-intensity Conflict Symposium and Exhibition. "QDR, I think, represents not something new in a shift toward the emphasis of special operations, but a continued realization of how that has to be...

WASHINGTON, March 9, 2006 – The conventional "Trident" missile program the Pentagon will ask Congress to fund is part of a larger strategy to better address diverse threats facing the United States and will further the country's defense goals, a Defense Department spokesman said here today. The Conventional Trident Modification program, which will cost about $503 million, was developed based on a 2001 comprehensive review of America's deterrence policy, the spokesman said, speaking on background. The study, he said, recognized that a deterrence strategy that relies primarily on nuclear weapons does not address the diverse threats the United States faces,...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 27, 2006 – The Defense Department is taking more steps to address the threat that terrorists are seeking weapons of mass destruction to use against U.S. forces and the homeland, a senior DoD official told reporters here today. "If you look at what we've done to date, we've nearly doubled our investments in chemical and biological defenses," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. "We've implemented any number of important organizational changes to address the challenges that are posed by WMD more effectively." The U.S. military must have the capability to protect itself against chemical, nuclear and biological weapons, as...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2006 – Building military capabilities is the heart of countering threats, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said during a Pentagon news conference today. Rumsfeld and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reported on the senior defense leaders meeting held here this week in which senior Pentagon civilian and military leaders met with unified and combatant commanders. The leaders discussed the upcoming Quadrennial Defense Review. Rumsfeld used the example of the Higgins boat as an example of why capabilities are so important. The Navy and Marine Corps began looking at the problems of...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29, 2005 – The 3rd Iraqi Army Battalion working with U.S. troops from 1st Brigade Combat Team of Multinational Division Central South carried out a raid one kilometer south of Mashru, Iraq, Aug. 28. Twelve suspects were detained during the cordon-and-search operation. Iraqi soldiers also confiscated eight AK-47 assault rifles and 10 hand grenades. The raid was conducted in response to a small-arms attack earlier in the day against an Iraqi Army patrol. There were no injuries from the attack. This success demonstrates the Iraqi Army's growing capability to quickly respond to insurgent violence, according to officials, and...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29, 2005 – The National Guard's solid response to Hurricane Katrina demonstrates that the Guard is still fully capable of responding to stateside emergencies while supporting the war in terror overseas, the chief of the National Guard Bureau told the American Forces Press Service today. Army Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum described the thousands of Army and Air National Guard troops called to active duty in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and other states to support hurricane operations as a testament to the Guard's ability to carry out its federal and state missions simultaneously. Guard members along the Gulf...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17, 2005 – Once used only for remote reconnaissance, unmanned aircraft technology has rapidly evolved in recent years. Such systems now feature strike capabilities and are being used for force-protection and signals-collection missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unmanned aerial systems "have helped reduce the complexity and time lag in the 'sensor-to-shooter chain' for acting on 'actionable intelligence,'" according to a document released earlier this month. The Unmanned Aircraft Systems Roadmap 2005-2030, released Aug. 4 with more than 200 pages, explains these diverse systems range from "micro air vehicles, weighing less than a pound, to massive aircraft weighing more...

On March 29, 2005 the London Arab daily Al-Hayat published a report on Iran’s current preparedness for an American or Israeli attack. The report was translated by www.memri.org (Middle East Media Research Institute). MEMRI introduced the report as follows: “In recent months, commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and armed forces have announced their complete preparedness for a possible military attack on Iran’s nuclear installations and other sensitive sites. Iranian spokesmen have declared that Iran’s response would be formidable.” The interview indicates the hostility, confidence, determination and intractability of the Iranian leadership. Following are excerpts from that article: “Iranian military sources...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld warned March 9 here that progress toward democracy in Iraq should not be interpreted as a sign that the terrorist threat is under control and that the military can now endure budget cuts. Rumsfeld told reporters at a Pentagon briefing that despite this week's signing of an interim constitution in Iraq, the terrorist threat in that country and elsewhere continues, and America must ensure its military is capable of responding to that threat. "The violence in Iraq last week is another reminder that even as the Iraqis take hold of their country, the war on...

TEL AVIV, Israel -- Israel’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) is overseeing development and production of four separate satellites, all of which are planned for completion by 2008, along with technologies and subsystems for a constellation of small, modular spacecraft capable of working as a team to satisfy multiple mission requirements. According to the MoD roadmap, an unclassified portion of which was provided to Space News, Israel will complete its Ofeq-6 imaging satellite -- a follow-on to the Ofeq-5 electro-optical system launched in May 2002 -- in late 2004 or early 2005. By 2008, MoD expects to complete the Ofeq-7 satellite,...

Note: 4GW = Fourth Generation Warfare Every operation tells us something. This operation tells us a lot, or at least enables us to draw some useful conclusions. For starters, Al-Qaeda truly does not appear to have prepared for a series of attacks post 9/11. Muhajir was in Pakistan and the Mideast since 1998, and could easily have been slipped back into the US ahead of September 11, 2001. Instead, he is arrested coming into the country on May 8, 2002. From Ashcroft's own statement: "Subsequent to his release from prison, he traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan. On several occasions in...