NATO Official: Slow Progress on Missile Defense Cooperation with Russia

BRUSSELS — NATO’s deputy secretary general, Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, admitted Thursday at a Security and Defence Agenda event at the European Parliament that “not much progress” had been made in terms of cooperating with Russia on missile defense.
He said that Russian objections to the missile defense system are not grounded on facts, but cooperation “could be a game changer in relations with Russia.”
“We will continue to seek closer cooperation with Russia,” he said. However, he warned that, “irrespective of progress, we will push ahead with missile defense capability as planned.”
Bob Bell, who is the defense adviser to the U.S. ambassador to NATO, said that as of May, the system has what he called “operationally significant capability,” meaning it is in place and can function, but is short of “initial operating capability,” which means it can actually be deployed.

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The next wave in US robotic war: drones on their own

The US military's current fleet of drones will soon be overtaken by a new wave of robots that will be faster, stealthier and smarter -- operating virtually without human intervention, experts say.
The Pentagon is investing heavily in "autonomy" for robotic weapons, with researchers anticipating squadrons of drones in the air, land or sea that would work in tandem with manned machines -- often with a minimum of supervision.
"Before they were blind, deaf and dumb. Now we're beginning to make them to see, hear and sense," Mark Maybury, chief scientist for the US Air Force, told AFP.
Unmanned aircraft are now overseen by "pilots" on the ground but as the drones become more sophisticated, the role of remote operators will be more hands-off.

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General Dynamics Awarded $395 Million to Begin Development for Abrams Modernization

Army’s leading MBT to see major systems improvements by 2017.

Army plans to begin production of tanks with ECP1 upgrades in 2017
07:56 GMT, September 28, 2012 STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. | The U.S. Army TACOM Contracting Command has awarded General Dynamics Land Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics, an eight-year, $395 million contract for research, development and testing in preparation for the Abrams main battle tank Engineering Change Proposal 1 (ECP1) production. The contract has an initial value of $80 million over 12 months. There is no tank production work associated with this award.

The Abrams ECP1 program is an engineering-development effort focused on integrating a group of system improvements into a single upgrade program for the M1A2SEPv2 baseline tank. The objective of this research-and-development effort is to prepare the Abrams tank to accept additional Army-directed requirements in the future without impacting current vehicle performance. The Army plans to begin low rate initial production of tanks with ECP1 upgrades in 2017.

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Iran unveils the new home-made 14.5mm Sniper rifle Shaher at Research Center of Iranian Army

The new sniper rifle Shaher 14.5mm caliber is unveiled to the Commander of the Iranian Army's Ground Force Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan at the Research and Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organization of the Iranian Army.

The Iranian Army Ground Force on Saturday, September 29, 2012 unveiled a new sniper rifle 14.5mm caliber called Shaher during a ceremony at the Research and Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organization of the Iranian Army.

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Army suicides down in August

WASHINGTON — Army officials saw a drop in suicide cases in August, but remain on pace for another grim record this year.
Army officials said 25 soldiers – 16 of them active-duty troops – are believed to have killed themselves last month. That’s down from July, when the figure hit an all-time high of 38 suicides among the active and reserve forces.
For the year, the Army has already seen 131 potential active-duty suicide cases and another 80 guardsmen and reservists believed to have taken their own lives. That puts the service on pace to surpass 2010 – the deadliest year for suicides in the service – when 305 servicemembers killed themselves.

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About That Red Team Report…

Michael Gordon's attempt to represent the August 2005 Red Team report as a missed opportunity to shorten the war is wishful thinking and not supported by the realities we were wrestling with in Iraq at that time. 

 The report was one of many Red Team reports chartered by me, and by the U.S. ambassadors and me, to provide us alternative views and to cause the U.S. civilian and military leadership in Iraq to come to grips with the difficult issues confronting the mission. These reports were one of many inputs the ambassador and I used to build our understanding of the environment and to shape our guidance to the U.S. Mission and Multinational Force. We used this particular report to help us shape a December 2005 joint statement of our mission for 2006, and to prepare a joint campaign plan that we issued in April 2006. We also used it as the impetus to implement a joint planning and assessment process that significantly improved our ability to integrate our efforts in 2006 and beyond. The idea that it was "ignored by generals" is not true. I didn't agree with all of it, but I did not ignore it. 

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Iranian Army Research Center presents the new Neinava 4x4 light tactical truck vehicle

The new Iranian-made Neinava 4x4 light tactical vehicle.

Commander of the Iranian Army's Ground Force Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan unveiled the new Neinava 4x4 light tactical vehicle in a ceremony at the Research and Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organization of the Iranian Army, Saturday, September 29, 2012.

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