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Kill Bin Laden: UPDATE So, after I posted the last thread, I went over to a forum that's populated with no-joke special operations forces troops and looked at the discussion on the KBL/ Dalton Fury imbroglio. Man is it hot in there. Apparently, Dalton Fury's real name is Maj. Thomas Greer. I was wrong in thinking he was Pete Blaber, though it does turn out from the discussion that Blaber has a book of his own coming out called "The Mission, The Men, and Me: Lessons from a Former Delta Force Commander" that's supposed to be available in December. These operators at the forum are none too kind to a guy who's attempting to "profit" from revealing covert operations covered under top secret non disclosure agreements. They skewer him and smoke his body over a pit of coals. But none of them disputes who he is, what he's done or how the mission went down. There's little comment about the actual 60 Minutes broadcast, though it would have been helpful if the reporters had mentioned the controversy Fury has caused and held fast on calling him by his real name (I did a search and his name comes up as a faculty member... Plan to Kill bin Laden Rejected I saw this program last night on 60 Minutes and I thought I'd explore it with you all. It's a segment on a former Delta officer who lead a team tasked with killing or capturing bin Laden in Afghanistan. Calling himself Dalton Fury, the former officer (a major at the time) has written a book on his experiences artfully titled "Kill bin Laden: A Delta Force Commander's Account of the Hunt for the World's Most Wanted Man" (in case we couldn't understand the title itself)... I know nothing about the book, though I have requested a review copy from the publisher and I'll peel it open for you when I get it. But the premise of the report is that Fury was frustrated by higher headquarters' management of the hunt, denying his plan to A.) attack bin Laden in Tora Bora from the rear -- aka from Pakistan...and B.) lay landmines in the approaches to bin Laden's Tora Bora lair so that one one went off, Delta could target the al Qaeda troops with Specters and Spookies. After being denied on both, they decided on a frontal assault with Afghan allies of questionable loyalties and motivations, eventually allowing bin Laden... Offshore and Cyber Security The 'Offshore' IT services market has grown extraordinarily fast in the global market in the past few years. Since the 1980's, offshore outsourcing has become a major facet of the business world. An increasing number of organizations have turned to offshore outsourcing of application development and maintenance as a means to reduce the cost of information technology. Definition: Offshore IT outsourcing is the practice of sub-contracting to a third-party company the performance of certain application development, maintenance and support function to a country other than the one where the primary organization resides. In a report issued by Datamonitor, the current market is estimated at more than $10 billion USD annually. Some industry analyst estimate worldwide spending on IT services delivered by offshore companies will exceed $75 billion USD within three to five years. According to Gartner, the leading offshore outsourcing countries by region are listed below. Americas: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico and Uruguay Asia/Pacific: Australia, China, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Vietnam Europe, the Middle East and Africa: The Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Northern Ireland, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey and Ukraine Large organizations see this... The Sunday Paper No doubt, this flick rocks: But there's something as cool about this version too: -- Ward... One Heck of a Sim It was one of the more popular booths at the Modern Day Marine show this week. A huge screen with little computerized Russians running around and a couple Marines plinking them off like a warm sunny day on the Fulda Gap. That's the Virtual Battlespace Trainer and it's about as close to real life as a video game can get. Except it's much more than that. According to Dale Pruna, Range Systems Manager for Laser Shot, the simulator has a full ballistics calculation capability and can track and map where shooters shoot and how badly they miss. The scenarios are totally programmable, so if you have an HVT mission with specific intel on the house layout and where targets are, you can run through it with full diagnostics. The system also has target shooting programs that work on marksmanship skills against running targets and there's a module for shoot-no-shoot scenarios using live video images rather than computerized footage. Pruna also said the services are looking at the company's live fire version of the simulator which uses a reusable rubber screen that can absorb everything from 5.56 to 7.62 rounds. I gave it a whirl and it was fun as heck.... Osprey Fire Docs Here is some supporting documentation from the JAGMAN I obtained. I have only scanned a few pages, including the Opinions and Recommendations, testimony of the command pilot, the airframe change notice and some pictures of the aircraft. Nov Osprey Fire JAGMAN - Upload a Document to Scribd -- Christian... Hydraulic Failure Caused Osprey Fire A catastrophic fire that nearly engulfed a Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey late last year was sparked by a leaking hydraulic line in the left-side engine nacelle, investigators found. The fire broke out about half way through a nearly five-hour training mission, when fluid from a key hydraulic system that powers landing gear, opens the rear door and helps filter the air inlets to the Osprey's engines poured out of the lines after spikes in pressure fractured the thin-walled tubes. The fluid drained onto the infrared suppressor section of the nacelle -- where hot exhaust from the engine is cooled to cut down on the plane's heat signature -- sparking the mid-air fire which caused more than $16 million in damage to the aircraft, according to the Judge Advocate General Manual Investigation report obtained by Military.com. Both pilots and three crew members who were aboard the MV-22 for the Nov. 6 night vision goggle training flight survived the incident after landing the aircraft in Landing Zone Phoenix at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The aircraft has not been repaired and returned to flight status, the Corps said. The fire occurred about seven months after the service admitted another blaze in the same... How the Osprey Gun Works... [Sorry for the delay, folks. Had an interview with Obama's top defense advisor, former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig this AM...More to follow on that later.] At the Modern Day Marine Expo, Adamiak explained that the crew chief will use an X-Box-like controller to move and shoot the gun. The GAU-17 (GAU-2 for the SOCOM version) Gatling gun is slaved to a sensor that rolls down out of the Osprey belly when the gun deploys -- housing a CCD camera, IR camera and laser range finder. The gun can track 360 degress, but there is a software-driven safety zone that makes sure rounds don't blow the rotors off. If the Osprey has to maneuver away from the target and the crew chief can't hold the gun on the bad guys manually, the system slaves the gun to the point of the last shot, slewing it as the plane moves. The fire control computer compensates for range and angle as well. There is no capability for the pilot to control the gun, but there's an auto feature than swings the gun to the barrel forward position, 10 degrees down so the pilot can steer the Osprey onto target. But he can't fire... The Osprey Gun Went to the 2008 Modern Day Marine expo today down at Quantico and got a ton of good material I'll be shooting your way over the next couple days. First, I attended a breakfast meeting with the folks from BAE Systems. There was an interesting brief on the Remote Guardian System, that underbelly Gatling gun the company is developing for the MV and CV-22. I've posted a video of Biz Dev director Dave Adamiak explaining the components and I'll post another soon after that shows the system in use on a simulator. I did press Dave on the issue of the Corps' reluctance to use powered defensive weapons on their rotorcraft for fear that a loss of power would leave the aircraft vulnerable. That's why for years the Corps had rejected rotary cannon on their helos in favor of the trusted, Marine-proof "Ma Deuce." Dave, rightly I think, admitted the Corps was leery but explained that there is no better solution based on the Osprey's design. The tail gun will probably stay, he said, since the Guardian has to be retracted when the V-22 lands. He said BAE has flown the Guardian on an AFSOC CV-22 and all is going... Gripen Delivers Fighters To South Africa This article first appeared in Aerospace Daily & Defense Report. The South Africa Air Force (SAAF) has taken delivery of the first four of 26 Gripen NG advanced fighter aircraft ordered at the biennial Africa Aerospace and Defense show in Cape Town, South Africa. [Av Week Online Editor Sean Meade corrects: South Africa has accepted the first four fighters under an order for 26 Gripen C/Ds. An Aerospace Daily & Defense Report article Sept. 30 incorrectly identified the type of those four Gripens. (thanks DT reader Logan Hartke for the catch!)] Nine of the fighters are two-seaters and 17 single-seaters. Deliveries are scheduled through 2012. Armaments Currently the fighters are said to be armed with only a 27mm Mauser cannon. The short-range IRIS-T air-to-air missile is on order from Diehl BGT and additional weapons are under development. The first class of six instructors are now in training at Makhado. Denel SAAB Aerostructures (DSA) has delivered 220 pylons for Gripen aircraft, with 80 more contracted. The South African company is set to receive another follow-on contract to make 80 more pylons through a modified design, bringing the total to 380. Modification kits for the earlier pylons will also be produced under... Iraq's Slippery Slope...to Peace? The Pentagon just released the latest Measuring Security and Stability in Iraq report. Here are some pull-outs from the Executive Summary. You can read the entire document HERE. My question is how will the MSM portray this report and what negatives will they focus on? It will also be interesting to see if the major papers and networks ignore the update. We'll see... ...The overall security situation in Iraq has greatly improved this reporting period. Security incidents have remained at levels last seen in early 2004 for nearly three consecutive months, while civilian deaths across Iraq have declined to a level 77% lower than the same period in 2007. The surge in Coalition forces, the growth of more capable Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), the contributions of the Sons of Iraq (SoI), the ability of forces to secure the population, operations against Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and other extremist elements, and the increased willingness of the people and the Government of Iraq (GoI) to confront extremists are important factors that have contributed to the improved security environment. Periodic high-profile car and suicide vest bombings have occurred, but the number of these attacks and the resulting casualties have decreased dramatically.... Find the Cyberweapons Complex Many countries have now assessed their vulnerability and overall risk of being the target of a cyber attack. Inside sources have leaked information to the media stating the heightened state of concern they now have after being briefed on the results of the vulnerability and risk assessments. These results have put pressure on the military and intelligence leaders to address the growing threat. Military and intelligence leaders around the world are struggling with the new reality of cyber warfare. While there are a few hot spots where conventional conflict might erupt, there is growing concern among this group about the new reality of cyber war. One foreign Intelligence analyst told me that "we face only a remote chance of major conventional military threat involving his country through 2025." She went on to say "Asymmetric capabilities like cyber warfare might threaten the security we have gained over the past two decades." The cyber intelligence challenge for Intel agencies manifests themselves in the fundamental characteristics of cyber weapons. A cruise missile costs between $1 and $2 million and requires a large manufacturing facility and a substantial amount of infrastructure. A cyber weapon on the other hand costs between a few hundred... Potential Russian Launch Base in Cuba Even as a Russian naval task force enters the Caribbean for joint exercises with Venezuelan forces, and a pair of Russian Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers fly from a base in the Kola Peninsula to Venezuela, the Russian government is discussing the possibility of a satellite launch facility in Cuba. Revelation of the interest in Cuba came from Anatoly Perminov, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, in a September statement. This may be the latest move by Russian prime minister (and former president) Vladimir Putin to reestablish Russia as a key "player" on the world political-military scene. The Russian interest in the Caribbean-South America region is reflected in the high-level Russian delegation visiting the area, led by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin. Perminov is part of the Sechin delegation. (Sechin had visited Cuba on 30-31 July of this year for talks with Raul Castro and, possibly, the ailing Fidel Castro.Putin followed up Sechin's visit with a 5 August announcement that Russia should "restore [its] position in Cuba and other countries.") The Soviet Union-Russia was the principal political and economic supporter of Cuba from the early 1960s through the demise of the USSR in December 1991. Indeed, Soviet attempts... Developing: Hydraulic Failure Caused Nov. Osprey Fire I've gotten my hands on an investigation report into the fire that nearly destroyed an MV-22 back in November during an NVG training flight near New River, N.C. [NOTE: Picture is a scan from one provided in the investigation report] Turns out, the fire sparked after the #3 hydraulic system ruptured due to pressure spikes from the engine air particle separator which filters inlet air before it is ingested by the engine. The hydraulic fluid spilled all over the IR suppression system, igniting the left nacelle into a ball of flame. The pilots and crew landed safely but the nacelle was a melted, twisted hulk. It caused $16 million in damages. The crazy part is that this is a known problem. Our friend Bob Cox of the Ft. Worth Star Telegram has reported this same rupture before and his sources in the maintenance community indicate to him the problem is much worse than the Corps admits. In fact, the report shows a Airframe Change notice (#88) that calls for the installation of thicker hydraulic tubing in the EAPS system because of known pressure spikes that can cause a "catastrophic failure." That notice came out in August, three months before... The Next Generation of Drone Pilots I just couldn't resist... -- Christian...