Navy Seals open Great Lakes prep school

The Ottawa Citizen reports that the US Navy Seals are opening a "preparatory school" on the Great Lakes. The school is to help prepare candidates for the grueling BUD/S selection course.

As the U.S. Navy SEALs pushes to expand from 1,800 enlisted personnel to 2,500 over the next four years it’s laying the groundwork so those recruiting targets can be met.

French Special Forces in Kandahar

The Toronto Star has an article about French Special Forces who have been operating in Kandahar.

They had big black beards, big warm smiles. They had a dozen young Afghan army trainees in tow, each with a grin to match. They didn't even have flak jackets, let alone a speck of armour on the two brown pickup trucks that kept their show on the road.

They were French special forces, in an especially dodgy part of Afghanistan, where the French supposedly don't go. And they'd been there a while.

US Navy Robotics

Wired has a photo gallery of armed robots at the US Navy's Space and Naval Warfare System Command in San Diego.

Canada's Military Prison

The Winnipeg Sun has an article about Canada's military prison. The prison, which is in Edmonton and has an extremely strict code of discipline, only admitted 39 new prisoners last year.

Last German WWI Veteran Has Died

The Associated Press reports that the last German veteran of the First World War has died. Erich Kaestner joined the army in 1918 and didn't get to the front before the end of the war. His death has gone largely unreported in Germany.

Communicating with Submarines

The blog The Stupid Shall Be Punished has a post about a new technology that will allow messages to be sent to patrolling submarines deep underwater. The system uses disposable buoys that relay the messages acoustically. The sub has to be within 175 nautical miles of the buoy so the presence of the buoys won't give away too much.

US Army Drone Unit

Danger Room has an article about a US Army unit called Task Force ODIN. The unit links feeds from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles with other units in an effort to combat bomb planting insurgents in Iraq.

a hundred-man Army unit is using an array of drones, manned surveillance planes, helicopters, and video downlinks to kill 2,400 bomb-planters and capture 141 more.

Scientists hope to reduce ship movement

The Halifax Chronicle Herald has an article about a new effort by scientists to reduce the roll of warships in high seas.

US deployment figures

Slate has a blog post quoting some figures from the Stars and Strips newspaper on deployments of US Army personnel.

According to US Army Human Resources Command there are 515,000 Active Duty Soldiers:

• 200,000 have one combat tour.
• 70,000 have two combat tours.
• 15,000 have three or more tours.

Four million bullets

The Telegraph reports that the British fired 4 million bullets last year in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

Royal Marines learn parkour

The Times has an article about the Royal Marines learning the extreme sport of parkour or "free running". Parkour is the art of moving rapidly through urban terrain and is often seen in television commercials.

SEALS to get new boats

The Miami Herald reports the US Navy SEALS will be getting new boats. The goal is to reduce the impacts suffered by the SEALS as their boats travel through waves at speeds greater than 50 knots.

Around Africa

The Torch has a post summarising HMCS Toronto's recent trip around Africa. The author interviewed the ship's executive officer and the article has numerous links and some video clips.

Paralysed UK soldier back on duty

The Telegraph has an article about a British soldier who was paralysed in Afghanistan. Even though he is now confined to a wheelchair he has returned to duty.

New device to check submarine hulls

The Halifax Chronicle Herald has an article about a new device being used by the Canadian Navy. Having fixed a dent in HMCS Victoria the navy is going to use the new 'sub mouse' to check the integrity of the hull.

Canadians and Ghurkas in Afghanistan

Canada.com has an article about British Ghurka troops who are serving near Canadian troops in Khandahar. The Canadians have gone on operations with the Ghurkas several times and seem impressed with them.

"The Gurkhas are a very remarkable organization. They have very good fighters," said Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche, commander of the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan. "We want to keep on working with them as long as we can."

Shooting around corners

Danger Room has an article about the "Corner Shot". This is an Israeli weapon that lets the user fire around corners. A pistol mounts to the front end of the device and a lever lets the operator turn the pistol to either side. A small LCD screen shows the operator what the weapon is aimed at. There is a video on the site that shows the device in use.

Open Source Intelligence

Danger Room has an article about Open Source Intelligence (ie intelligence gathered from publicly available information) and how it is often overlooked by the intelligence community.

Steele showed up with:

• The names of the top 10 journalists covering Burundi (ripe for debriefing)
• The names of the top 10 academics covering Burundi (ripe for debriefing)
• 20 two-page executive-level political-military summaries on Burundi
• Burundi order-of-battle information down to the tribal level.
• 1:50 maps of the country
• 1:50 cloud-free imagery of the country that was less than 3 years old.

The CIA showed up with a PowerPoint chart of nominal value and a regional – not country-specific – economic study. You could pretty much conduct a non-combat operation in Burundi with Steele's info; you wouldn't send your worst enemy to Burundi based on what the CIA provided.

The Networks are Social

Wired has an article that implies that the problem the Americans are having in Iraq is that they have relied too much on electronic networks rather than social ones. I'm not sure I buy their argument but the article is interesting nonetheless. The brief section on the US Army psych ops sergeant was very interesting:

Colabuno's early efforts to persuade the population were just as subtle. He shows me a collection of his early posters, tabloid-sized pages laid on a table. Against a flaming background, a terrorist holds a child. The text asks why the parents of Fallujah would let insurgents harm their kids. Wrong move. This is a culture based on shame and honor; now you've just called the parents inadequate. Plus, the piece is just too on the nose, too blatant. The best propaganda is sneaky.

History: WWI Ship Camouflage

Dark Roasted Blend has a blog posting with plenty of pictures about the vibrant camouflage schemes used on ships during the First World War. Some of them seem like they'd make the ships much easier to spot but I can see how they would make it harder to do rangefinding or determine the ship's heading.