War Is Boring

Armed Predator over Illinois?

David Axe — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:35:09 +0000

by DAVID AXE

As pointed out by David Cenciotti, here’s a video apparently showing an ARMED MQ-1 Predator drone flying near Chicago. Could be real. Could be fake.

If real, is it part of security ops ahead of this month’s NATO summit? Who knows. But again, if real, this is a big, big deal. Armed Predators are the main weapon in the shadowy U.S. counter-terror campaigns in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen.

Fly them over government weapons ranges, sure. But they have no place over U.S. cities.

Danger Room: China Flies New Stealth Fighter as Problems Plague U.S. Jets

David Axe — Wed, 16 May 2012 20:04:07 +0000

China's second J-20 stealth fighter. Image: David Cenciotti and fyjs.cn

by DAVID AXE

The second copy of China’s stealth fighter prototype has just flown at a research facility in the city of Chengdu. The first flight of the J-20 Mighty Dragon with the nose number 2002 doubles Beijing’s stealth test fleet at a time when America’s latest jet fighters are hobbled by cost overruns, labor disputes and lethal design flaws. But it’s far from certain how much, and how fast, the new Chinese jet will alter the military balance.

The challenges for American stealth developers are clear. It has come to light that Lockheed’s F-22 Raptor — the first of the current generation of stealth fighters — is steadily poisoning its pilots owing to a faulty oxygen system. Meanwhile, the F-35 has been delayed by several years and the overall cost to design and build thousands of the new jets has risen by hundreds of billions of dollars. To make matters worse, workers at Lockheed’s F-35 factory have gone on strike, with no end in sight.

Read the rest at Danger Room.

The Diplomat: Americans Favor Military Cuts

David Axe — Wed, 16 May 2012 04:00:21 +0000

David Axe photo.

by DAVID AXE

An overwhelming majority of U.S. citizens want deep and immediate cuts in military spending, according to a new poll. The Center for Public Integrity, a Washington, D.C.-based investigative news service, in conjunction with two other groups asked more than 600 Americans from across the country about their perceptions regarding U.S. defense spending. The survey went on to ask whether the respondent favored increasing, holding steady or decreasing military spending.

Read the rest at The Diplomat.

Danger Room: Majority of Mexicans Want More U.S. Help in Drug War

Robert Beckhusen — Tue, 15 May 2012 21:11:11 +0000

A U.S. Army National Guardsman at his post along the U.S.-Mexico border near Nogales, Arizona. DoD photo.

by ROBERT BECKHUSEN

This summer, Mexicans will go to the polls to choose their country’s next commander-in-chief. But the new president will also have to deal with ominous developments in the drug war and the fact that few Mexicans believe the government’s strategy is working. He or she will also have to negotiate with the U.S. on the scope — and responsibilities — of America’s role in fighting the cartels.

The reason is stunning. More than half of Mexicans (52 percent) want an increased U.S. role in the drug war, and 28 percent want the U.S. military to intervene on Mexican soil, according to polling conducted by The Dallas Morning News, Mexico’s El Universal and Texas Spanish newspaper Al Día. Only 21 percent of Mexicans say the government’s strategy is working, though 64 percent think the military should continue “leading the fight” against the cartels. Ending the drug war through striking a deal with the gangsters is as popular as the current strategy: Only 21 percent think it’s a good idea.

“That tells you that Mexicans are really, really tired of this drug war, and they would rather see an end sooner than wait years fighting this by themselves,” Jorge Buendía, president of polling firm Buendía & Laredo, told The Dallas Morning News. Buendía added that because many Mexicans blame the U.S. in part for the drug war (with plenty of justification), many are becoming “more pragmatic and tolerant about alternatives.”

Read the rest at Danger Room.

Danger Room: Blogger Shines Light on U.S. Shadow War in East Africa

David Axe — Tue, 15 May 2012 17:19:04 +0000

An F-15E at an air show last year. Photo: Air Force

by DAVID AXE

An innocuous-seeming U.S. Air Force press release. A serendipitous satellite image in Google Earth. Snapshots from a photographer on assignment at a Spanish air base. The crash of an Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle fighter-bomber in the United Arab Emirates. These are some of the fragments of information that Italian aviation blogger David Cenciotti has assembled to reveal the best picture yet of the Pentagon’s secretive war in the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa.

In a series of blog posts over the past two weeks, Cenciotti has described in unprecedented detail the powerful aerial force helping wage Washington’s hush-hush campaign of air strikes, naval bombardments and commando raids along the western edge of the Indian Ocean, including terror hot spots Yemen and Somalia. Cenciotti outlined the deployment of eight F-15Es from their home base in Idaho to the international air and naval outpost at Camp Lemonnier, in Djibouti north of Somalia.

Over the years there have been hints of the F-15s’ presence in East Africa, but “their actual mission remains a (sort-of) mystery,” Cenciotti writes. Based on the evidence, he proposes the twin-seat fighter-bombers — one of the Air Force’s mainstay weapon systems in Afghanistan — are dropping bombs on Al Qaeda-affiliated militants in Yemen. If true, that means the U.S. intervention in the western Indian Ocean is far more forceful, and risky, than previously suggested.

Read the rest at Danger Room.

No related posts.

Matt Bors: The Big Speech

David Axe — Tue, 15 May 2012 06:50:41 +0000

by DAVID AXE

My comics editor and one-time collaborator Matt Bors wins a big prize … and gives a kickass speech at the Library of Congress.

Check it out.

Offiziere.ch: U.S. Hails Ugandan Forces as Top LRA Commander Captured

David Axe — Tue, 15 May 2012 06:38:25 +0000

LRA fighters. Twitter photo via @Johrune.

by DAVID AXE

Ugandan troops on Saturday captured a senior leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army rebel group. Self-styled “major general” Caesar Acellam, a 20-year veteran of the brutal Ugandan group, was grabbed near the border between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic.

A spokesman for U.S. Pres. Barack Obama called the capture “an important step forward.” Based on an earlier statement, the LRA probably considers the arrest yet another example of illegal U.S. hegemony in Central Africa.

While highly ranked within the rebel structure, Acellam is not one of the five LRA officers — including top leader Joseph Kony — who were indicted by the International Criminal Court in The Netherlands in 2005. At least two of the wanted men are now believed to be dead. Kony is at large along with some 200 hardcore LRA fighters and potentially hundreds of captives and camp followers.

In a statement to reporters, Acellam encouraged remaining LRA fighters to turn themselves in, fueling speculation that Acellam’s capture was, in fact, a defection.

Read the rest at Offiziere.ch.

ARMY OF GOD, Chapter Three

David Axe — Tue, 15 May 2012 04:00:10 +0000

Tim Hamilton art.

by DAVID AXE

This is the fourth installment of ARMY OF GOD, a non-fiction graphic novel about the Lord’s Resistance Army that has terrorized the Congo. This chapter examines the history of the infamous leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, Joseph Kony, who has long evaded capture. Over the last year, Kony has virtually become a household name and efforts to arrest him have been ramping up. Just yesterday, the Associated Press reported that Ugandan forces had captured one of his top commanders.

No related posts.

Pete’s Africa Round-Up

David Axe — Mon, 14 May 2012 04:00:58 +0000

Tuareg rebels. Flickr photo via Magharebia.

by PETER DOERRIE

Congo

A large-scale mutiny-come-rebellion rocks the eastern part of the Democratic Replublic of Congo since Easter. Never the most peaceful of places, the situation in the Kivu provinces bordering Rwanda escalated, when army general Bosco “The Terminator” Ntaganda decided to defect from his position.

Ntaganda is searched for by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity. (The ICC recently sentenced Ntaganda’s former superior Thomas Lubanga in a related case.) A military commander of a powerful rebel group, the CNDP, Ntaganda protected himself from prosecution by leading an internal coup against CNDP leader Laurent Nkunda and bringing the CNDP into the fold of the government. This deal — in which Rwanda played an important part — gave Ntaganda the highest army command in the Kivus and didn’t touch the CNDP structures, which persisted in parrallel to the normal chain of command.

But Ntaganda seemed to have worried that the government would bow to international pressure demanding his arrest. The resulting mutiny, which saw thousands of people flee into refugee camps and neighboring countries, first seemed like a dud when several important CNDP commanders did not follow Ntaganda’s orders and others were isolated quickly by loyalist forces. Then the situation reversed with the mutineers taking over several important towns in the region, just to be expelled from them by units being flown in from other countries.

Ntaganda and several of his commanders are now said to be in hiding in some of the Congo’s most inaccessible areas. The government has officially declared the mutiny to be over, but as long as the man himself is not accounted for, nothing should be taken for granted. There is talk of a new rebellion, build on the old CNDP structures, forming itself. This would be a bad development for the East Congo, which has taken baby steps into the direction of more security lately.

Guinea-Bissau

In a country where not a single president so far managed to complete his constitutional term, a coup interrupted presidential elections between the first and the second round. While this may not sound like the most interesting of developments, all Western governments would be well advised to finally start paying attention to the mess that this West African country presents.

While Guinea-Bissau is said to be a stunningly beautiful place, few people get to enjoy the country’s nature, as its islands and shoreline are primarily used by South American drug cartels to fly in cocaine shipments. The army is deeply complicit in this trade, facilitating the movement of the contraband to neighboring countries and on via Egypt and Turkey to Europe.

The current prime minister and most presumed next president has pledged to curb the budget and power of the army, a threat that the generals answered by shelling his house, taking him prisoner and announcing an “interim” government for a year.

ECOWAS, a regional organization, reacted promptly and threatened military intervention to restore the constitutional order. Talks are ongoing, but so far little indicates that Guinea-Bissau will be able to leave its troublesome past behind.

Mauritania

Again, a country few people have heard about, if they were not watching the rally Paris-Dakar before it moved to South America. This is particular astonishing, because Mauritania has seen large-scale regular protests for over a year now. The protests have flared up in the wake of the wider Arab Spring, but are also driven by factors unique to Mauritania, like the persistence of slavery and racial tensions.

The main reason for protest is — like in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya — the man ruling the country: President Mohamen Ould Abdel Asiz, who took power in a military coup and since went through the motions of getting himself “democratically” elected.

Protests have increasingly gained traction since a middle-aged businessman immolated himself in protest in front of the presidential palace in Nouakchott in February 2011. Now thousands of people from a wide range of protest movements stage weekly protests in the capital, with tactics varying from running battles with riot police to peaceful occupations and sit-ins on public places.

Mali

Around two thirds of Mali’s vast territory is currently outside the control of the government. A mixture of secessionist Tuareg rebels, Salafist groups and criminal gangs has chased the army from a sparsely populated area the size of France. Little reliable information is emerging from there and what is known doesn’t sound good: Salafist fighters from Pakistan are said to be arriving to support the local movements and looting, abductions and rape has escalated.

The rest of the country, its southern part, is nominally still under the government’s control. The only problem: there is no real government at the moment. After a coup d’etat in March, a counter-coup attempt last month and threats by ECOWAS to intervene militarily, an uncertain situation has evolved in the capital of Bamako. The military junta which chased president Touré from power just one month before elections formally transferred power to a civilian interim government. But military officers occupy several important ministerial posts in this government and junta leader Capt. Sanogo continues to retain control of the army. He has also made it clear that after the term of the interim president ends, he will be back in power.

The resulting overall situation seems to be pretty dire: A military intervention against rebels in the North would likely make only matters worse. These rebels are so divided that negotiating a peaceful settlement will be extremely hard though and this is even assuming that a government in Bamako exists who has the legitimacy to negotiate and is not to busy consolidating its own power.

No related posts.

Flashback to MIT’s ‘Flip Drone’

David Axe — Fri, 11 May 2012 20:27:16 +0000

by DAVID AXE

A reminder, relayed by reader Mike Pearson, that MIT tested a “flipping” vertical-takeoff drone five years before the Navy’s and Aerovel’s Flexrotor.

Danger Room: Poisoned Fighter Pilot Faces New Nightmare: Air Force Bureaucracy

David Axe — Fri, 11 May 2012 11:00:44 +0000

F-22 Raptor. Photo: Air Force

by DAVID AXE

The Air Force is continuing disciplinary action against one of the Air Force pilots who refused to fly the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter because the pricey jet’s faulty oxygen system was steadily poisoning him. Capt. Josh Wilson, from the Virginia Air National Guard, has been granted whistleblower protection under federal law — a status the Air Force has publicly acknowledged. But that hasn’t stopped the flying branch from beginning a process that may very well threaten to end the pilot’s career.

Wilson and Maj. Jeremy Gordon, also a Raptor pilot with the Virginia Guard, stopped flying the $400-million-per-copy F-22 after they and dozens of other pilots reported in-flight symptoms consistent with oxygen deprivation, including confusion and blackouts. The Air Force temporarily grounded some or all of its roughly 180 Lockheed Martin-made Raptors twice last year so it could study the jet’s onboard oxygen generator.

Read the rest at Danger Room.

Danger Room: Pentagon’s Newest Ballistic Missile-Blaster Shoots Down Its Target

Robert Beckhusen — Thu, 10 May 2012 18:40:25 +0000

by ROBERT BECKHUSEN

The Pentagon’s newest ballistic missile interceptor successfully destroyed a test missile off the coast of Hawaii late Wednesday. It’s a first for the latest upgrade to the America’s — and NATO’s — main defense against a missile attack from North Korea or Iran, assuming one ever comes.

According to the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency, the test involved a short-range target missile launched shortly after 8:00 p.m. Hawaiian time from the military’s Kauai-based Pacific Missile Range. The target missile then blasted out over the Pacific Ocean, where it was tracked by the Aegis cruiser U.S.S Lake Erie, and then destroyed in mid-flight with a “kinetic” interceptor launched from the ship, “using only the force of a direct impact,” the Pentagon’s statement read. That means the test missile was brought down by blunt-force trauma — termed “hit to kill” — by the interceptor.

“The [interceptor] does not have a warhead. It’s a kill vehicle, and it maneuvers into the path of the threat, and the threat is destroyed by the kinetic energy of the impact,” Wes Kremer, vice president of Air and Missile Defense Systems for Raytheon, told Danger Room. “So there’s no warhead, it can’t be a near miss, and then it blows up; so it’s literally a skin-to-skin contact between the kill vehicle and the target.”

Read the rest at Danger Room.