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On St. Patrick’s Day, Get Your Alibis Straight … And Don’t Be on Camera

Ah, St. Patrick’s Day, a day for the celebration of all things Irish, “What’s the craic laddie?” even for those of us who aren’t from there…I used to tell my neighbors from Ireland that my family was from the southern part of Ireland…Sicily.

And there is arguably no place better to spend St. Patrick’s Day in the United States than in Savannah, “the Hostess City of the South.” Savannah is a great place any time of the year, but for St. Patrick’s Day, there is arguably no better place to be. They host one of the largest parades anywhere with at times as many as 300 marching bands, Clydesdale horses and of course the military.

One of the time-honored traditions has been women wearing bright red lipstick rushing out and kissing a Ranger from the 1st Bn as they march past. It wouldn’t uncommon for a baby faced Ranger to have a face full of lipstick by parade’s end. But the Army has no sense of humor and they have asked security people to prevent the women from kissing soldiers in the parade.

Back in the day, when I was in the 7th Special Forces Group, we used to do a big exercise with the Ranger Regiment at Hunter Army Airfield regularly right there in Savannah. We were working out of Saber Hall in a “working isolation” planning the missions, prior to our exercise while the Rangers from the 3rd Battalion were busy practicing their airfield seizures both day and night.

Cold Beer on the Drop Zone? You Betcha:

The trip down there was always an event. Once we flew down in a tanker and got to watch an in-flight refueling of F-16s that look like their coming right in the rear of the aircraft. But for this particular trip, we left Ft. Bragg early on a Saturday morning. While nearly everyone would be airlanded at Hunter, we’d have six people jump into Ft. Stewart so the Air Force would pick up the tab for the plane.

Conditions were perfect, six of us jumped out and we had two vans on the drop zone who whisked out to pick us up right beside the turn-in area, where we landed. We must have had a spot-on jumpmaster (wink). But the best part was, no sooner than you rolled up your chute, the van was there and two young guys, truck drivers from the 7th SFG Support Battalion, grabbed it, and threw it in the van. Then another guy handed you a cold beer and into the van we’d go. We cleared the drop zone in record time.

The best part was there was an Engineer unit from Ft. Stewart waiting to use the DZ for some road grading stuff once we cleared it. Having witnessed many drops I’m sure, they weren’t expecting to see a C-141 drop just six guys and have them get picked up with cold beer right at the landing spot. If all jumps were just like that, my how recruitment would have soared…

An Uneventful St. Patrick’s Day …Until:

Being in working isolation meant that during our time at Hunter AAF, we were able to partake in some of the wonderful nightlife that Savannah has to offer and a good time was had by all. My buddy Tim H. was a platoon sergeant in 1st Bn and after going over and meeting him and some of the guys who worked for him, they informed me of all the good places to go. We ran into some of them later, all great dudes.

Another good bud, Bob F. was a platoon sergeant in the 3rd Ranger Bn. the guys we were working with. They were locked down in tents at Saber Hall, but I made sure that I’d make a pogey run for his boys.

Anyway, St. Patrick’s Day arrives and despite our train up for the exercise, we were excited to partake in fine Irish revelry. I had the duty at Saber Hall that night until 11. There were two of us, a good guy Bill and myself were stuck until 11 but figured there would still be plenty of good times still to be had by then. Our relief, who we’ll call SSG A and SSG J. who was a Support Bn NCO were both with a group of guys who were renting a car, heading down to the beach and then back in Savannah before relieving us.

The day was boring, nothing was really going on, the commander basically shut everything down because of St. Patrick’s Day and was allowing as many guys out as possible. So we made busy work, watched local television and tried to stay awake.

Our Support Bn. had a mess section there and they would make a bunch of hamburgers and hotdogs around 8-9 p.m. for the guys working in isolation to give them an evening snack. They made the usual amount but since no one was really there, most were going to waste. So I asked the mess sergeant for a bunch of buns and he and I made a slew of burgers and dogs and wrapped them in tin foil but my buddy Bob’s Rangers. Fresh off a practice airfield seizure, they attacked those with reckless abandon. They were appreciative, but their company commander was not. He gave me a double ration of shit for interfering with his training…” yeah, yeah, Okay…we’ll never do it again.”

So as the clock is winding down, Bill and I are deciding where we want to go first. It is about 10:30 and we’re waiting for our two guys to be waltzing in at any minute and getting ready to take over. The old man joined us and we put the local news on and of course everything was about St. Patrick’s Day.

Bill and I are looking at each other, not saying a thing, but now we know we’re fucked. Because it is 11 and there is no sign of anyone. The old man turned to us and asked, “Hey aren’t guys supposed to be gone by now?” Not wanting to throw the other guys under the bus, we said that we were, but believed that they’d be along any minute.

The end of the newscast was just before 11:30 and the host said, “We’re going to go live down on River St. with Amy who is taking all of this in.” And they cut to a live shot of absolute chaos with this young woman yelling to be heard over the raucous partying going on…. And they showed two drunk guys, cavorting, dancing and making faces at the camera, right behind “Amy”.

“Isn’t that SSG A. and SSG J.” the old man asked? He started laughing, “Those two are going to have big heads in the morning,” he added. We just nodded, not saying a word. Then reality hit, the old man walked over to the duty sheet and looked at who was supposed to be our relief and came back and sat down.

“Well, let’s have some coffee and wait for them together,” he said. Uh oh… the old man wasn’t happy about that. So we sat and waited… and waited. Finally just before 2 a.m. a rental car full of inebriated 7th SFG guys, whips in the parking lot. Thankfully they had a designated driver, I say thankfully because they were an unsteady lot. When you’ve been drinking all day, you only THINK you’re being quiet as they made their way back to the area.

Here come our two guys, our relief, only about three hours late. When they saw the commander sitting with us they had a “go to Jesus” moment. You had to hand it to the old man, he was cool as a cucumber. “Hey guys, what happened, why are you so late?”

They had this elaborate BS story about driving the rental car on the beach at dusk and getting stuck and spending all night trying to dig it out. It was an awful story as BS stories go but at least they had their details down. The old man was sympathetic and asking all the questions and giving them the impression that he was feeling sorry for them.

When they were finished, he said, “Guys get changed and into uniform and don’t worry about it, those things can happen to anyone… but I have one more question.”

“It was going great and I believed your story 100 percent until I watched you both dancing on River St. and mugging for the t.v. cameras. So, don’t you think if you’re going to elaborate lengths to BS, everyone, you should make sure the next time, you DON’T allow yourselves to get filmed on television?…just asking.”

SSG J. looked at him and said, “Ah …sir, we…. Well I… Shit sir, we fucked up.”

The old man looked at them and said was mad that they screwed us out of having a little bit of fun that he worked into our schedule but more than that, he expected much better from them by not showing up on time and ready to work, which to him was inexcusable. With a wave of dismissal, he told them to get dressed. As they hurried off, the old man turned to us and apologized for us having to stay well beyond our time, like it was his fault. He put on another pot of coffee and told us to take off, he was going to stay with them the rest of the night and make sure that neither one got a minute of sleep until the morning shift came on.

He wasn’t going to hammer them, they were both good guys who just screwed up royally. That’s why he was such a good commander, he could have put the screws to them, which would have easily been within his rights to do so. But he was such a respected officer, just by him telling them he was disappointed in them, hit them much harder than any punishment would have.

Although we were pretty pissed at the time, we quickly got over it but ensured we reminded them of them mugging on television whenever it suited our purpose. In today’s world of Facebook Live, Instagram and whatever else, that crap would have been everywhere. But the lesson remains, everyone will screw up at one time or another. Just don’t be on camera.

“St. Patrick… one of the few saints whose feast day presents the opportunity to get determinedly whacked and make a fool of oneself all under the guise of acting Irish.” – Charles M. Madigan

Photo: Savannah River St. on St. Patrick’s Day – YouTube.com

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 3, Day 2

This Monday we’ll focus on some speed work with the sprints rather than a longer duration.

It will build up some explosion in your legs and improve your overall running. We’ll hit the exercises heavy this morning and build up some endurance. Focus on correct form and then worry about the speed. Especially with the pushups.

By now after the training program has been in effect for a while, your feet shouldn’t be bothering you too badly after the ruck march from Sunday.

UBRR Training:

More preparation for the UBRR

2 x 1-minute Pushups

2 x 1-minute Sit-ups

2 x 1-minute, Crunches

2 x 1-minute, V-ups

2 x Dips as many as possible to muscle failure

10 x 40-meter sprints (walk back to the start and begin again)

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 3, Day 1

A short warm-up and a good long Sunday morning rucksack march. Go as fast as you can without running. Go over varied terrain and learn to use the downslope of the hills to make time. It was a cold, windy morning today, after a spring-like thaw of 60 on Friday, we’re back in the 20s early this St. Patrick’s Day, which hardened the trail a bit, after being out yesterday in some muddy, soft spots, it was much easier going.

As always be sure to stay hydrated during the march. It should be a habit that will carry over to Selection and training afterward. Becoming dehydrated during a long training event such as a ruck march or long-range movement is a guarantee for bigger problems and failure, keep drinking water during the course.

Speaking of hydration, it is coffee time and then later, “hydrate” with your drink of choice. Moderation, guys, and gals….moderation.

UBRR Training:

Warm up

20 Pushups

20 Sit-ups

6-mile rucksack march over varied terrain. Try to keep your pace better than the standard, (90 minutes maximum). And mark your times in your workout log book.

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 2, Day 7

Back in the gym this morning before heading out for a run. We’ll break up the routine next week with some speed interval running, that will help to build up your short area quickness and speed. But for today it is back, shoulders and a run.

UBRR Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 12 Seated Rows

3 x 12 Lat Pulldowns, front

3 x 10 Seated Rows

3 x 10 Dumbbell Side Raises

3 x 10 Seated Bent-Over Delt Raise

3 x 10 Dumbbell Shoulder Press

3 x 10 Arnold Dumbbell Press

3-mile run (24 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Triple Frontier, An Action-Packed, Thriller About SOF Guys on the Edge

Art imitating life? The latest action film to come out on Netflix is a must-see, big-budget production directed by J.C. Chandor, who also co-wrote the script. It has a big name, an outstanding cast including Ben Affleck, Oscar Issac, Charlie Hunnam, Gareth Hedlund, Pedro Pascal, and Reynaldo Gallegos, and an intriguing story.

The story is about a bunch of disgruntled ex-Special Operations soldiers who decide to risk it all, using their hard-won talents to benefit themselves. They take down a drug lord’s home deep in the jungle of the lawless Triple Border region where Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina come together.

But getting the money and getting away with it are two entirely different things. When their survival is on the line, they’re tempted to turn on each other…hmm. That rings a bit close to the true events that we’ve seen in other news.

The action scenes in the film and this IS an action film are very well shot as well as very intense. That should please the fans of the action genre as well as the exquisite scenery. Parts of the film were done in Colombia and other parts in Hawaii.

These ex-Special Operations troops, experiencing a post-military life that isn’t treating them particularly well, something that has been a frequent issue with our Global War on Terror (GWOT) veterans. Affleck (Redfly), plays a bored unsuccessful real estate broker, selling seedy condos in Florida. He’s split from his wife and doesn’t have the greatest relationship with his daughter. He even drinks and drives while taking his daughter to school.

Hunnam (Ironhead) gives lectures to SOF troops nearing their ETS date, encouraging them to stay in the military with the enthusiasm of someone going to the dentist. Hedlund plays Hunnam’s brother who now competes in MMA fighting. The two are instantly believable as a brother tandem and their scenes together are superb.

Pascal plays “Catfish” a former pilot who lost his license for running coke. They’re all struggling in their own way after life in the military although they’re still all close. Enter Isaac, who plays Pope, the only member of the group who is still in the game. Isaac as most of our readers know, played the hotshot pilot “Poe” in the Star Wars, Last Jedi film.

The film starts with Pope in a helicopter, while listening to Metallica ( I can relate), on his way to raid a drug dealer’s lair in the middle of a town. Pope is an advisor to a host nation counter-narcotics police unit.

All hell breaks loose and the action takes off as they take it down, but hardly cleanly. Pope then appears back in the states and tries to recruit his friends to join him in taking down the main drug dealer’s lair where he has millions of dollars stashed because he ostensibly doesn’t trust banks or believe in laundering his money offshore…okay.

Pope is aided by his informant Yovanna, played by Adria Arjona. Her part is basically to be shown running around while looking insanely hot in every scene. But her character development, as well as the others, is lacking. We really don’t know her motivation to stick her neck out for Pope, although it is hinted that the two are romantically involved.

It is surprising, and perhaps shouldn’t be, easy for Pope to talk his former mates into betraying their ethos as Special Operators and conducting themselves outside the law this time. Granted there is a large amount of money involved, and we are to believe that the country hasn’t given our veterans here a fair shake, but the gray area where their former patriotism is cast aside seemed a bit too easy. But again… maybe it isn’t so believable these days.

Of course, all hell breaks loose once they decide to go thru with the operation and they begin the raid. Chandor tries to show the thorough planning and meticulous attention to detail that Special Operations are known for, resisting the typical Hollywood image of just knuckle-dragging brutes with automatic weapons.

The action scene at the drug lord’s house is actually fairly early in the film and was the highlight of the film, the action tense and expertly filmed. While the character development was lacking in this, it is at its heart an action film. The actors are all excellent in their own right and they make this film a fun ride to watch.

We’re going to give the filmmaker a pass on how easily they portray these Special Ops vets transitioning from patriotic pipe hitters to criminals, and just sit back and watch for the finale. This is kind of a Kelly’s Heroes morphs into the GWOT generation. It isn’t perfect, but it is nonetheless an enjoyable way to spend a night at home. Now crank up the Metallica again…

The trailer can be seen here:

Photo: Netflix

Dr. Strangelove? Russians Claim to Have “Doomsday” Submarine Weapon

Alex Hollings, on the main NEWSREP site, penned a very intriguing piece about the latest Russian weapon, which they’re calling a “doomsday” submarine. If you’re having flashbacks to Stanley Kubrick’s dark comedy masterpiece, “Dr. Strangelove”, then you’re not alone. Read on…

Russia’s struggling economy may not make for a particularly effective military, but the Kremlin’s ability to mold public perceptions remains among the nation’s most comprehensive and powerful skill sets. While some within the United States are still content to dispute the idea that Moscow uses a combination of state-run media outlets and social media outreach campaigns to shape the way the world perceives Russia (and ourselves), there are few better examples of this state-sanctioned chicanery than recent reactions to the “Poseidon” or Status 6 unmanned, submersible nuclear weapon.

Let there be no mistake, Russia’s Poseidon is both well within the nation’s technological capabilities to develop and promises to offer a never-before-seen level of destruction if ever detonated inside an American port. Yet, beyond the headline-grabbing 100-megaton yield and the promise of irradiated tsunamis laying waste to coastal communities for hundreds of miles, the Poseidon offers Russia truly little in terms of strategic value.
That may seem counter-intuitive. After all, with the largest nuclear warhead ever put into service secured inside a stealthy platform that, in all likelihood, could reach American shores undetected, one could be inclined to think the Poseidon poses perhaps the most pressing threat to American security since the Soviet Union first developed the atomic bomb. However, the truth is, the same nuclear deterrence strategies that defanged Russia’s previous “doomsday” weapons remain in effect whether the nuclear threat comes from the sky or beneath the waves.

Russia, in fact, already boasts nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles that are massively more powerful than the platforms housed in America’s ICBM arsenal. Russia also holds the title for most nuclear weapons on hand, making it the clear winner in both categories for most and biggest nukes.
Even with Aegis-equipped destroyers, THAAD missile defense systems, America’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense system and a constellation of early warning satellites, there is no debating it: if Russia decided to throw every nuke it had at the U.S. (or even just a large chunk of them), America would have absolutely no chance of stopping them all.

It’s that understanding that led to the development of the nuclear triad: a system based on the ability to offer prompt nuclear retaliation no matter how overwhelming a nuclear attack may be. America’s nuclear triad relies on air-launched platforms (often carried by the B-52), ground-launched ICBMs, and submarine-launched weapons, making it all but impossible to neuter America’s nuclear response and guaranteeing Russia’s destruction in any nuclear exchange. America knows it can’t stop Russia from raining nuclear hellfire down on its people, so it’s settled for the next best thing: guaranteeing the U.S. would respond in kind.

That staring contest has been dubbed “mutually assured destruction,” and the concept is really about as simple as geopolitics can get: American and Russian leaders both know that launching even one nuke in the other nation’s direction will lead to a large-scale exchange that would likely end the world. If everyone is dead, it’s tough to pick a winner.
And that brings us back to Russia’s latest headline-grabbing Bond-villain-esque Poseidon. At 100 megatons (sometimes reported in Russian media as 200 megatons), the Poseidon carries a warhead that’s twice as large as the largest nuclear detonation ever recorded, making it a formidable weapon. Still, in terms of mutually assured destruction, it truly offers nothing of particular note. While a single Poseidon detonation could indeed cause an unprecedented level of destruction, headlines the following day (if there were any) would likely be focused on the hundreds of nuclear strikes that followed and the collapse of the modern world. Nothing would be different than if Russia had opted to launch an ICBM strike, rather than a sneaky, submersible one.

To read the entire article click here:

Photo; Russian Ministry of Defense

Pentagon To Look Into General Officer’s Retaliation Against Special Forces NCOs?

In one of the most damning pieces of the story that has been on-going for upwards of two years, Kristina Wong of Breitbart News absolutely skewered MG Kurt Sontag of the US Army’s JFK SWC (Special Warfare Center and School) over the case of the now infamous “night letter.”

Many Special Forces NCOs who are assigned as cadre to the schoolhouse at the SWC have been concerned that the standards have been lowering for the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC) since Sontag took over command of SWC in May of 2017.

What transpired was a toxic command climate where NCOs who voiced concerns over the decreased standards of the SFQC were singled out for retribution. It began where candidates were given multiple chances to pass especially for not passing a physical standard or test. Before Sontag took command, failing to pass two separate times would have resulted in being relieved from the course. But to the consternation of the cadre members, candidates were being passed by a relief board or the training group commander after the cadre recommended relief from the course.

And when any NCOs spoke out about how they were losing their power to properly evaluate potential SF candidates. Wong quoted one SF cadre member as saying, “It’s like Game of Thrones around here,” he said. “Who’s going to be next?”

Why? Because if any of the Green Beret instructors spoke out about the lowering of standards either officially or thru the “town hall meetings” where there is supposed to be a free clearing of the air for instructors and the command, they were either ridiculed for speaking out or had their names marked down for retribution from Sontag himself.

Things reached a head in late 2017. A Green Beret instructor wrote a 6400-word scathing anonymous email that was addressed to the other soldiers in the command, that one Green Beret forwarded to NEWSREP where it was published.

We wrote our own piece on the standards flap here last fall where the charges by the Special Forces NCOs seemed to strike home. One SF sergeant major admitted that SWC had pushed substandard Green Berets onto the operational groups and that it was up to them (the SF Groups), to weed out the unfit.

“‘We push some of these issues forward [to the Regiment] because we believe that the Groups can succeed in fixing those problem graduates when they arrive. That is an amount of risk we willingly accept because after all, it’s much easier to get a tab removed at Group if he doesn’t pan out, than to risk relieving what’s basically a fully qualified student who might have been able to fix himself and become a solid Green Beret.’”

The resultant firestorm from the piece from Jack Murphy about the email had the opposite effect than to fix what was wrong. The SWC command, under Sontag, didn’t seek to remedy the situation but to find the authors of said email and retaliate against them. He did this even though he promised the command thru a letter that he’d look into the allegations brought forward and attempt to fix them.

Several days later, according to Wong, Sontag called a formation of SFQC instructors, both military and civilian and went off the rails.

According to several witnesses, he took off his Army combat uniform top and challenged those who disagreed with him to step forward and fight him.“He took his top off,” one witness said. “He said, ‘If anybody had any problem with me … my rank just came off, I will fight you guys one-on-one.’”

According to another witness, Sonntag also said the email author could be punishable by “death.”

Such actions are hardly the ones you would expect of a general officer.

After a fruitless search for the author, he began a general officer investigation. After dismissing all students and cadre one day at 1400 hrs, Green Berets watched as Army MPs went into the building and began to confiscate computers.

He narrowed down the search to seven possible suspects and had them all flagged for investigation which suspended their security clearances. What followed was a plethora of non-judicial punishments, administrative and reassignment moves and the move to revoke Special Forces tabs from those who, in his mind had crossed the line.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, before his resignation, was behind the cadre members in this flap which has damaged the school’s reputation. The Deputy Army Secretary made a visit to Ft. Bragg over this fiasco and spoke to the cadre of SWC but thus far, nothing more has been heard over this.

Morale is low at the schoolhouse with nearly 43 percent of the cadre saying they were dissatisfied with their job. Wong captured the climate of the schoolhouse with the following comments during her investigation.

One current instructor told Breitbart News that Sonntag was “one of the most toxic commanders I’ve ever had.”

“He keeps order by threats. He’s a hundred percent toxic. He leads by threats and intimidation. He’s ruining people’s careers because he can. He needs to retire out of this job,” the instructor said.

One former instructor said, “Guys — they’re getting out [of the Army] at eight, 10, 12 years. They’re like, ‘Screw this, I’m getting out.’ Why? Because they don’t care about us. And it shows.”

Several Green Beret NCOs and officers have had their careers ended in this purge over at SWC. And things aren’t getting any better it appears. The case of the standards being lowered is one that has been going on since Special Forces has begun its courses of instruction. But in this case, the command and instructors aren’t working together to solve the problem.

Again, what I wrote last year still applies, I don’t know whether what the charges that the NCOs wrote last year were absolutely true or not. I don’t work there anymore and haven’t been there for some time. But if so many of them feel that way, then I trust their judgment as fellow SF brothers that there was an issue that needed fixing.

They are guys on the ground doing the heavy lifting and see the students every day, unlike the command who looks at things from afar and are too occupied with meeting number quotas than turning out qualified Green Berets. The command shouldn’t ever punish those instructors who are only looking to maintain the high standards of the Regiment.

Photo: US Army

British Special Forces To Have Bigger Counter-Terror Role in Afghanistan

With the United States set to pull out most of their 14,000 troops in Afghanistan in the next three years, a bigger part of the ongoing counter-terrorism mission will fall to the British Special Forces. The SAS and the SBS are expected to be tasked to take on a bigger part of these operations during the time of the U.S. withdrawal.

With on-going peace talks with the Taliban still going nowhere, the Trump administration wants the majority of U.S. troops pulled out within three years and are planning accordingly. However, during negotiations with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, the United States was pushing for an orderly, 5-year withdrawal plan. The Taliban rejected it, insisting that the United States totally withdraw all troops within a year.

The Taliban refuses to engage the Afghan government of President Ashraf Ghani, insisting that he is just a puppet of the American government. In an ominous-sounding message, Sayed Akbar Agha, a former Taliban leader, who lives in Kabul said in an interview that the Taliban will talk with Ghani, only after an agreement is reached with the U.S.

American officials know well what happens when a foreign power just abruptly leaves. After the Soviet withdrawal, the president was dragged thru the streets and hanged publicly in a gruesome display.

Meanwhile, another 9000 troops from other members of the coalition will be asked to downsize as well in the three-year time window. The U.S. will continue to provide air cover and conduct air strikes as needed against Taliban or Islamic State fighters wherever the need arises.

With the US-led coalition in Syria also planning to downsize in the near future, this will allow, according to the plans, for the British to deploy more SAS and SBS commandos to Afghanistan to oversee counter-terror missions. The British, at their peak, had about 10,000 troops in Afghanistan, until the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) was ended by President Obama. British troop strength now numbers about 1000.

Afghans are ready for peace, but a power-sharing regime with the Taliban isn’t something that even the most confident of officials believe will work. The Taliban favor a very strict mode of Islam that is more akin to the 12th century than to modern times. And the women of the country will be the ones who suffer the most. Under the Taliban, women were forbidden to work, other than in the home or attending school. Many people were severely punished just for watching television.

Two groups “Time4RealPeace” and the “Afghan Women For Peace” don’t want to see a quick U.S. withdrawal or a return to the old ways of the Taliban rule. They are staffed by women who are afraid that under a return to Taliban rule, women will be denied basic human rights.

CIA Director Gina Haspel suggested to the Senate Intelligence Committee that a “robust, monitoring regime” would be necessary under any peace accord for it to work. “It’s very important that we maintain pressure on the terrorist groups” in Afghanistan and retain the ability to act against them, Haspel said. And the Taliban are upping the ante, by negotiating from a position of strength.

Last weekend, they used numerous suicide bombers and fighters with heavy weapons to attack a joint Afghan-American base where 22 Afghan government troops were killed. Since the ISAF pullout, the Taliban either controls or contests half of the country. No American casualties were reported.

Afghan government Special Forces units that have been trained, and advised by coalition nations SOF conducted an attack of their own that killed 27 Taliban and wounded nearly 20 more. The aim was to take back the government border outposts.

An Afghan army spokesman said, “Afghan Special Forces conducted an operation in Imam Sahib district of Kunduz to recapture Afghan Border Force checkpoints that had fallen to the Taliban days earlier. The Afghan Special Forces killed 27 Taliban fighters, wounded 16 and destroyed 2 IEDs.”

In addition to the British, the French also have had Special Operations units in Afghanistan, but due to their still having sizable SOF units on the ground in Syria as well as in the Sahel region of Sub-Sahara Africa, fighting Islamic extremists there, that they won’t have enough personnel to spare in the future.

As always with the British Ministry of Defence (MOD), they will not comment on any news concerning British Special Forces operations.

Photo: MOD

Mismanagement Plagues Air Force F-22 Raptor Program

Another excellent article from Alex Hollings over on our parent site NEWSREP was posted the other day on the trials and tribulations of the most lethal superiority fighter in the world, the F-22 Raptor. Hollings wrote that the biggest issues with the fighter have to do from within the U.S., not its enemies.

U.S. congressmen, not thinking forward, stopped funding the program, thinking that the U.S. didn’t need the fighter ten years ago. Now, with a renewed emphasis on a possible conflict with Russia or China on the horizon, those decisions could come back to haunt them. Read on…

America’s first fifth-generation fighter, the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, is widely considered to be the best air superiority fighter on the planet. The combination of its low observability and high performance makes it America’s heavyweight contender in the battle for air supremacy, even in the era of the data-fusing F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. While the F-35 was intended to serve as a jack-of-most-trades, with a heavy emphasis on air-to-ground power, the F-22 was built with one primary purpose in mind: to hunt down, close with, and destroy enemy fighters.
However, the pricey F-22 program soon saw retreating support among lawmakers that sought to reduce the cost of America’s defense apparatus without reducing the nation’s ongoing obligations in combat. With just 186 F-22s delivered to the U.S. Air Force, the program was cut short in 2009, a decision that has since been criticized as short-sighted. While the United States had no pressing need for an advanced air superiority fighter at the time, the nation now knows it was less than ten years away from a resurgence of concerns about nation-level threats posed by diplomatic competitors like China and Russia.
The Air Force, which also relies heavily on the F-15 for air superiority missions, has since tried its best to make do with its limited quantity of F-22s, which, it’s important to note, are notoriously difficult to maintain. The high cost and level of labor required to keep America’s Raptors operating tends to result in reduced availability for the airframe, but those problems, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), are seriously exacerbated by the branch’s poor management of F-22s and related assets.
According to the GAO report, it was the Air Force’s decision to organize its fleet of F-22s into smaller units than seen in traditional air wings. F-22s are flown out of 18-to-21-aircraft squadrons with only two squadrons per wing. Conversely, other fighters operate out of wings comprised of three squadrons with 24 aircraft in each. These units, the GAO contends, are able to field more fighters, more consistently, thanks to efficiencies created by sharing more equipment and resources in the larger wings.
Those issues are made worse by the Air Force’s habit of deploying F-22 Unit Type Codes (UTCs), or small contingents of jets, with only six or so of a squadron’s aircraft. These UTCs, however, deploy with around half of the squadron’s maintenance personnel and equipment, leaving the remaining jets understaffed and under-equipped when it comes time for maintenance operations. All of this results in drastically reduced aircraft availability rates, which are also worsened by the branch’s reliance on F-22s for domestic air defense missions, operations the GAO contends could easily be conducted using fourth-generation fighters like the F-15.
All of these issues combine for a perfect storm of reduced F-22 availability for combat operations, but potentially worse, reduced availability of these jets for essential training operations.

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Photo: US Air Force

US Airstrikes in Somalia Kill 35 al-Shabaab Fighters

On Monday, the Pentagon announced that a U.S. airstrike in Somalia targeted and killed 35 al-Shabaab fighters near the Ethiopian border. No civilian casualties were reported.

The U.S. was active with airstrikes over the weekend, conducting four against al-Shabaab targets alone, which reportedly killed two other fighters.

The U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) released a statement saying that the airstrike hit the targets “as they were transitioning between locations in a rural area,” this site is located approximately 23 miles east of Beledweyne, Hiran region.

“We continue to support our Somali partners, especially when their operations provide us opportunities to take the fight to Al Shabaab as an element of our partnered strategy,… “In the case of this strike, we interrupted an Al Shabaab attempt to mass their forces,” AFRICOM Director of Operations Maj. Gen. Gregg Olson said.

“Precision strikes eliminated a potential threat to our partners and to the people of Somalia well before the terrorists ever got themselves organized.”

According to the DOD, there is between 3000 to 7000 al-Shabaab fighters and up to 250 ISIS fighters in the region as of last summer. The head of AFRICOM, Marine Corps Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, told the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this month that the U.S. airstrikes alone will not defeat the militant group.

“At the end of the day, these strikes are not going to defeat al-Shabaab,” Waldhauser said.

But with the U.S. vowing to cut troop strength in Africa, especially the counterterrorism missions by about 10 percent, or roughly 720 of the 7,200 military forces serving in the command, the U.S. has stepped up airstrikes on the terrorists. It is one way of keeping the al-Shabaab fighters off-balance while they aid the Somali National Army to step up and take the lead role in securing their own borders.

They have a long, long way to go but they are making some progress, with the help of coalition airstrikes. Prior to 2017, the U.S. was only authorized to strike targets that were threatening U.S. advisors on the ground in a self-defense mode. But last year, the airstrikes were allowed to target al-Shabaab or ISIS elements wherever the opportunity arose. They carried out nearly 50 airstrikes a year ago.

So far, this year, the U.S. has conducted 20 airstrikes, including this latest this weekend where they “eliminated checkpoints and facilities used by al-Shabaab to collect illegal taxes to fund terrorist activities and to oppress” [Somali citizens], AFRICOM released in a different statement. Whenever and wherever the terrorists of al-Shabaab or ISIS begin to mass their forces, if U.S. intelligence spots them, then, they’re targeted.

Al-Shabaab (the Youth) began as the armed faction of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which later splintered into several smaller factions. This happened after al-Shabaab was defeated in 2006 by Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government.

In 2012, they announced their support for al-Qaeda. They believe in a very strict interpretation of sharia law. They ban most entertainment, such as films and music; the sale of khat, a narcotic plant that is often chewed, which is very popular in the area; smoking; and the shaving of beards. The punishment meted out is often of the stoning or amputation variety.

They try to block any humanitarian aid which forces the civilian populace to live in a near-starvation state and in fear. The U.S and many other countries have branded them a terrorist organization. Their recruitment is down due to defections, lack of pay for low-level fighters and airstrikes. However, due to large Somali faction living in the Minneapolis, MN area, they attracted dozens of recruits from there.

Al-Shabaab was responsible for a pair of bombings in Mogadishu that killed over 500 people in October 2017.

The terror organization wasn’t a big priority of the previous Obama administration and in 2016, the U.S. conducted just 16 airstrikes. Things began to change with the new Trump administration. Airstrikes more than doubled to 35 in 2017, including a large one that killed 100 fighters in October 2017 northwest of Mogadishu.

While the U.S. has waged mainly a proxy war against al-Shabaab, arming and training regional forces, the U.S. has 500 personnel in Somalia, which includes troops, civilians and contractors, mostly in an advisory role.

Photo: Wikipedia