Free Republic

From time to time I write reports of interesting things I do where I work at SOCOM. One of the neat things I had the opportunity do in January/February of this year was go to Iraq (Baghdad, Falluja, and Balad) and Afghanistan (Baghram) to participate in a Knowledge Management assessment. But that is not what I want to discuss today. Today I had the opportunity to fire the FN SOF Combat Assault Rifle (FN SCAR) {Low Rate Initial Production}. See Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_SCAR The models in particular were the SCAR-L (Mk-16, 10 inch, 5.56x45mm, Close Quarters Combat variant) and SCAR-H (MK17,...

Imagine surgery that could be performed without general anaesthetic, requires hardly any recovery time, and leaves you with no visible scars. The catch: it may also leave a very unpleasant taste in your mouth – along with part of your spleen, prostate or perhaps your gall bladder.

July 21, 2005: SCAR (Special operations forces Combat Assault Rifle) has begun field testing with American commandoes. SOCOM (Special Operations Command) did not want to wait for the U.S. Army to finish work on their similar XM-8 rifle. SOCOM has the money, and authority to develop their own weapons. In this case, SOCOM wanted a weapon that did everything the XM-8 did, and a little more. Some 22 months ago, SOCOM asked rifle manufacturers to submit proposals, and FN (a Belgian firm) came up with the best ideas. One advantage FN has was it’s ability to quickly implement requests for...

NYC police on watch for Port courthouse bomber By Andy Smith and Stephanie Akin Staff writers New York City police are targeting a man who bombed Newburyport Superior Court 28 years ago, saying he poses a threat to next week's Republican National Convention. But an anti-war activist group has accused police of trying to "smear" their reputation by linking the group with the convicted radical who terrorized New England with a series of bombings in the 1970s. New York City police say Richard J. Picariello, 55, is among 50 activists whose criminal histories will earn them extra attention next week....