Most of the way to Afghanistan

The Whig Standard has an article about Camp Mirage, a Canadian base in a well known secret location near Afghanistan.

Staffed by about 300 people - 200 of whom are military -and with an annual budget of $19 million, the camp has dispatched nearly 5,000 missions since being established in 2001, carrying 150,000 passengers and 23 million kilograms of cargo.

Sailing on HMCS Fredericton

Te Daily Gleaner has a story written by one of their reporters who went on a trip on HMCS Fredericton. The article gives an idea of what it's like to live on a Canadian warship.

How hard was the shot?

Slate has an article about the difficult of the sniper shots made by US Navy SEALS when they shot 3 pirates holding a merchant ship captain in a lifeboat.

The short answer is: not very hard if you are a SEAL.

Followup: The Hampton-Roads Pilot has a related article about SEAL sniper training. It points out that today's SEALs are very experienced.

Batteries for the infantry

The Toronto Star has an article about the battery requirements of the Canadian infantry in Afghanistan and the efforts to develop a replacement.

The average infantry soldier on a three-day mission in Kandahar carries up to 40 spare AA batteries. That rises to more than 900 batteries for a platoon, 3,200 for a company and 6,500 for a full battle group of about 1,000 soldiers. The cost of equipping all the 2,800 Canadians soldiers in Afghanistan with enough juice to power their equipment for a standard six-month deployment, approximately 750,000 batteries weighing about 14 tonnes, can run up to $1 million.

CF to map Afghanistan

The Canadian Press reports that the Canadian Forces are to produce a digital map of southern Afghanistan. The Air Force will use Aurora reconnaissance aircraft which are normally used for maritime patrol.

The article includes these stats:

According to statistics provided Monday by Canada's air wing, during the first three months of this year its Chinooks and Griffons in Afghanistan flew nearly 4,000 passengers and about 90,000 kilograms of cargo.

The Hercules transports, which are normally based at Trenton, Ont., moved 38,000 passengers last year and lifted nearly five million kilograms of cargo.

CF to deply to Caribbean and Latin America

The Ottawa Citizen reports that 30 Canadian Forces medical personal will be deploying with the US Navy on a medical mission to Latin America and the Caribbean.