Did the British Army take a break, or not? No one can say! “”The British Army has been ordered to take an extended 25-day Christmas holiday or ‘work from home’ in an attempt to cut its gas and electricity bills,” reports a British newspaper. This reminds me of George Marshall as a Depression-era garrison commander encouraging his married troops to take time to plant vegetables. Not so, Joe, responds the Ministry of Defence’s blog. “To suggest the Christmas leave plan is a cost-cutting measure is not true. In recognition of the exceptionally busy year the Army has had, both on operations and at home — including vital support to the London 2012 Olympics, fuel tanker drivers’ strike and the Diamond Jubilee — the usual Christmas leave period has been extended.”
Roger Ailes, founder of Fox News and its current chairman, had some advice last year for then-Gen. David H. Petraeus: run for President.
ON THE FIGHT
The White House and its allies are weighing military options to secure Syria’s chemical and biological weapons, after U.S. intelligence reports show the Syrian regime may be readying those weapons and may be desperate enough to use them.
A former State Department officer asks: “How, as a special CIA listening post for radical militias and al Qaida not yet re-designated as a consulate, the large Agency cohort in Benghazi was totally blind-sided by the 9/11 attack?”
Boeing has successfully employed the Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project, or (CHAMP), during a flight over the Utah Test and Training Range.
An Algerian-born jihadist who heads one of the most powerful and feared cells of al-Qaida’s North African branch has decided to leave the al-Qaida franchise in order to create a movement spanning the entire Sahara desert, said one of his close associates and a local official who had been briefed on the matter on Monday. Moktar Belmoktar, formerly the head of a cell of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, is one of the most prolific kidnappers operating in Mali’s lawless north. He is linked to the abduction of a group of tourists in 2003 in southern Algeria, as well as the top United Nations diplomat in Niger, Robert Fowler, who was grabbed on the side of a road in 2008.
ON THE FORCE
The Pentagon wants Gen. David Rodriguez to get his confirmation hearing and full Senate approval to be the next Africa Command commander by the close of the lame duck Congress, sources tell the E-Ring. It’s been known for months that President Obama wanted Rodriguez, the former No. 2 commander of the Afghanistan war, to take the helm at Africom. But his confirmation, many felt, may have been slowed or derailed because of the investigation into the current war commander, Gen. John Allen. Allen, due to pass the war reins already, was nominated to become the next supreme allied commander of NATO and all U.S. forces in Europe. That nomination is on hold pending a Defense Department Inspector General investigation into his email exchanges with Jill Kelley, of Tampa. The scuttle has been that if Allen’s career is abruptly halted, then perhaps Gen. Carter Ham, the current Africom commander, who is already based in Europe, could get the NATO job. The timing of that switch, in this scenario, would dictate Rodriguez’s fate in the Senate.
The Marine Corps Gazette asks, “Does the Marine Corps need Red Teams?”
On one sortie they may be airdropping food, ammo and fuel to Special Operations troops at a remote forward operating base. On the next, they might transport troops to or from an austere location, move prisoners to a secure facility, provide airlift to Afghan National Army allies, perform aeromedical evacuation, or transport distinguished visitors — completing many of these tasks on the same day. For aircrews with the 772nd Expeditionary Airlift Squadron here, every day brings a unique and challenging mission.
The Navy talks about its drone helicopter the way Apple geeks gushed over the first-generation iPhone in 2007. The MQ-8 Fire Scout does it all, from hunting for drugs at sea to spotting insurgents over the battlefields of Afghanistan. But like that early iPhone, the Fire Scout is seriously buggy — so much so that the Defense Department has conceded it will be forced to seriously delay buying all the robocopters it wants.
AviationWeek takes you inside a secretive Air Force program office, dedicated to resourcing and supporting emergent platforms, including the X-37.
A former ambassador, on what he terms are dangerous cuts to the U.S. presence in Azerbaijan.
U.S. Special Operations Command is expanding its logistical footprint at Hunter Army Airfield, in Georgia.
Meanwhile, SOCOM commander Adm. William McRaven wants more control over his commandos once they leave the United States. As it stands now, once spec ops forces deploy to one of the combatant commands, they lose any connection to SOCOM, which no longer controls where they go or what they do, as they become a tool of the combatant commander. “[McRaven] is looking for the freedom to move forces where he needs them when he needs them,” SOCOM deputy commander Lt. Gen. John Mulholland said.
FLASHBACK
“The development of the elite units, which has extended the military’s traditional concept of special forces, has raised concern in Congress, some lawmakers say. They say the worry is that the units might become a uniformed version of the Central Intelligence Agency and be used to circumvent Congressional restrictions and reporting requirements on intelligence activities and the use of American forces in combat operations.”
ON TECH
A Huffington Post contributor is convinced President Obama is a robot president.
NPR, on the so-called Robot Wars.
ON SECRECY – OR LACK THEREOF
Iran claimed that the naval unit of its Revolutionary Guards Corp had shot down a U.S. drone allegedly spying over Iranian airspace in the Persian Gulf. Iran’s English news channel Press TV showed 11-minute footage of two Iranian military officials inspecting a drone. It identified the drone as a ScanEagle, manufactured by Boeing. The drone appeared fully intact as the camera zoomed on it from different angles. But Cmdr. Jason Salata, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain, said that ScanEagles operated by the Navy “have been lost into the water” over the years, but there is no “record of that occurring most recently,” according to the Associated Press.
As his first term ends, President Obama has expanded the Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Defense drone fleets, conducted over 300 drone attacks in six countries and killed perhaps more than 2,000 suspected terrorists by drone strikes. Many people in the United States, Europe and the Middle East are troubled by that record.
CONTRACT WATCH
“The Department of State (DoS) Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), Office of Aviation (INL/A) is initiating these market research activities associated with the continuing requirement for global aviation services. Chief among the myriad requirements to be contracted is the operation and maintenance of fixed wing and rotary aircraft at multiple sites in 8 or more countries in permissive and non-permissive environments and in direct support of US Government activities.”
