Military & War News and Discussions

weatheriscool
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Senate OKs enhanced benefits for vets exposed to burn pits
Source: AP

By KEVIN FREKING

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Thursday approved a sweeping expansion of health care and disability benefits for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in response to concerns about their exposure to toxic burn pits.

Passage of the bill by a vote of 84-14 sets a course that could help millions who served after Sept. 11, 2001, and caps years of advocacy work by veterans groups and others who liken burn pits to the Agent Orange herbicide that Vietnam era veterans were exposed to in Southeast Asia.

The bill is projected to increase federal spending by about $283 billion over 10 years and does not include offsetting spending cuts or tax increases to help pay for it. The House in March approved similar legislation that would have cost more than $320 billion over 10 years.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said after Senate passage that the House would “move swiftly” to take up the legislation and send it to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. Biden has encouraged the effort. In a statement after the vote, Biden said the bill “makes good on our sacred obligation to care for veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors.” He urged the House to act quickly “so I can sign it into law right away.”


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan- ... d1c5aaf187
weatheriscool
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China says it successfully intercepted a missile in flight
Source: AP
BEIJING (AP) — China says it has successfully intercepted a missile in flight, in a test of an anti-ballistic missile system that could improve its defenses as it presses its territorial claims.

A brief statement from the Defense Ministry late Sunday gave no details, but said the test was purely defensive in nature and was not aimed at any foreign nations.

Missiles are a major component of China’s defense and are the backbone of its space program, which has launched astronauts and components to the nation’s orbiting space station.

The missile interception test comes as China has been escalating threats against the self-governing island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory to be annexed by military force if necessary. A conflict over Taiwan would likely bring in the U.S., which is the island’s main source of weaponry and is legally bound to regard threats to it as a matter of “grave concern.”
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/politics-tai ... 5e6a3a429a
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caltrek
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I didn’t even read the whole article posted below on a count of I am not trying to become an expert in military technology. Still, I know there are a lot of you out there that are fascinated with the subject. Information is information, and can result in constructive outcomes

Robots, Marines and the Ultimate Battle with Bureaucracy
by Hope Hodge Seck
June 23, 2022

Introduction:
(Politico) n July 2008, a year before President Barack Obama surged 33,000 ground troops into Afghanistan, a Marine Corps officer at Camp Pendleton, California, sent an urgent memo up his chain of command acknowledging an embarrassing truth: Marines, famous for their marksmanship flair, weren’t very good at hitting their targets in a war zone.

In combat, troops needed to neutralize a moving enemy, Maj. Eric Dougherty noted. But the Corps, using static target practice that hadn’t changed much since the Revolutionary War, had “no systems or ranges” that could prepare them for the task. He pleaded for resources and, in particular, a way to teach Marines to hit a target that moved unpredictably and as fast as a man could run.

“Failure to respond to this need will mean the continued degrading of critical marksmanship skills required to succeed in an asymmetric environment,” he wrote.

It took a few years, but in June 2011, a new military training tool rolled onto a firing range at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. It was a fleet of autonomous robotic targets that were human-sized and mounted on moving platforms, made by an Australian company called Marathon and available for evaluation through a Pentagon testing program. (Dougherty’s memo about the Marines’ struggles eventually made its way to a Marathon source, who provided it to POLITICO.) The beige humanoid torsos looked a bit crude with their pasted-on paper faces and costume clothes, and their Segway bases struggled at times to navigate grassy and uneven terrain. But the shooters — an array of elite Marine weapons specialists, SEALs and Army special operators — were astonished. When the targets started moving, they started missing, despite their expert marksmanship badges. Engaging these machines felt different, too. When the robots lurched toward them, cortisol levels spiked and even seasoned fighters were left shaky and on edge.
Read more here: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine ... 00041091
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Nanotechandmorefuture
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Post by Nanotechandmorefuture »

caltrek wrote: Fri Jun 24, 2022 4:29 pm I didn’t even read the whole article posted below on a count of I am not trying to become an expert in military technology. Still, I know there are a lot of you out there that are fascinated with the subject. Information is information, and can result in constructive outcomes

Robots, Marines and the Ultimate Battle with Bureaucracy
by Hope Hodge Seck
June 23, 2022

Introduction:
(Politico) n July 2008, a year before President Barack Obama surged 33,000 ground troops into Afghanistan, a Marine Corps officer at Camp Pendleton, California, sent an urgent memo up his chain of command acknowledging an embarrassing truth: Marines, famous for their marksmanship flair, weren’t very good at hitting their targets in a war zone.

In combat, troops needed to neutralize a moving enemy, Maj. Eric Dougherty noted. But the Corps, using static target practice that hadn’t changed much since the Revolutionary War, had “no systems or ranges” that could prepare them for the task. He pleaded for resources and, in particular, a way to teach Marines to hit a target that moved unpredictably and as fast as a man could run.

“Failure to respond to this need will mean the continued degrading of critical marksmanship skills required to succeed in an asymmetric environment,” he wrote.

It took a few years, but in June 2011, a new military training tool rolled onto a firing range at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. It was a fleet of autonomous robotic targets that were human-sized and mounted on moving platforms, made by an Australian company called Marathon and available for evaluation through a Pentagon testing program. (Dougherty’s memo about the Marines’ struggles eventually made its way to a Marathon source, who provided it to POLITICO.) The beige humanoid torsos looked a bit crude with their pasted-on paper faces and costume clothes, and their Segway bases struggled at times to navigate grassy and uneven terrain. But the shooters — an array of elite Marine weapons specialists, SEALs and Army special operators — were astonished. When the targets started moving, they started missing, despite their expert marksmanship badges. Engaging these machines felt different, too. When the robots lurched toward them, cortisol levels spiked and even seasoned fighters were left shaky and on edge.
Read more here: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine ... 00041091
All in preparation for the eventual all out war somewhere where men and women will fight. I foolishly used to get upset for years why they dropped the standards for men in the infantry to make it easier for women for years. What a waste of time on my part. I should have been paying attention to the focus on some sort of 'Great War' in the future as seen in films in these past 20 years such as Tomorrow War and more. The trimming down of non essential gear and units along with a differ focus also says something is up.

Whatever it is when even the poorest branch of service that is the Marine Corps is going to get high tech training like this for everyone you know something big is going to go down in the future. Word online is that they are going to issue silencers to all Marines regardless of position in infantry, maybe even non infantry, so if they dropped the standards for even that it is more of a reason to be aware.
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Sudan’s military strikes disputed region bordering Ethiopia
29 Jun 2022

Sudan’s armed forces fired heavy artillery during clashes in the disputed eastern region of al-Fashaqa bordering Ethiopia, an Ethiopian official said, the latest salvo in a long-running feud over their shared border.

Sudan was able to capture Jabal Kala al-Laban, an area near the contested border, on Tuesday following an artillery barrage and an air raid, according to an anonymous Sudanese military source speaking to Reuters news agency.

On Monday, Ethiopia denied Sudan’s accusation that its army had captured and executed seven Sudanese soldiers and a civilian, instead blaming the killings on a local fighter group.

Sudanese government sources said Sudan had filed a formal complaint with the United Nations Security Council over the killings.

Sudan’s army fired long-distance artillery from Monday morning until Tuesday afternoon, but nobody was injured, said Assefa Ashege, a senior security official in Ethiopia’s Amhara region.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/6/2 ... g-ethiopia
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Latvia to reinstate compulsory military service as Russia tensions rise
Wed 6 Jul 2022

Latvia is to reinstate compulsory military service amid growing tension with Russia in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The current military system of Latvia has reached its limit. Meanwhile, we have no reason to think that Russia will change its behaviour,” the Latvian defence minister, Artis Pabriks, told reporters on Tuesday.

Latvia had scrapped mandatory service a few years after joining the Nato military alliance. Since 2007, the EU member’s military has consisted of career soldiers along with national guard volunteers who serve in the infantry part-time at weekends.

The country of fewer than 2 million people, which borders Belarus and Russia, has only 7,500 active-duty soldiers and national guard members, backed by 1,500 Nato troops.

Pabriks said the mandatory military service requirement would apply only to men and would come into effect next year, with several options available.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... sions-rise
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caltrek
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Lee, Pocan File Amendment to Slash $100 Billion From US Military Budget
by Jake Johnson
July 7, 2022

Introduction:
(Common Dreams) Reps. Barbara Lee and Mark Pocan led a group of House Democrats this week in filing amendments that would slash current U.S. military spending by $100 billion and reverse recent efforts to add more money to President Joe Biden's historically high Pentagon budget request for the coming fiscal year.

The proposed amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2023 were introduced days after lawmakers on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees—both controlled by Democrats—voted to pile $37 billion and $45 billion, respectively, onto Biden's March request for $813 billion in military spending.

One of more than 1,000 amendments filed for the House version of the NDAA, the Lee-Pocan proposal to cut $100 billion from the current U.S. military spending topline of $782 billion points to a recent Congressional Budget Office study outlining several ways in which Congress could reasonably slice $1 trillion—or 14%—from the Pentagon budget over the next decade.

Lee and Pocan, the co-chairs of the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus, have repeatedly attempted to rein in U.S. military spending in recent years, but their efforts have been blocked by Republicans and members of their own party—some of whom are financed by weapons makers.

Last month, the pair introduced legislation that would take $100 billion from the U.S. military budget and redirect the funds to pressing domestic needs such as housing and healthcare.
Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022 ... -budget
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Ukraine war forcing China to rethink ‘how and when’ it may invade Taiwan, CIA chief says
Thu 21 Jul 2022 03.56 BST

Russia’s experience in Ukraine is affecting China’s calculations on how and when it may decide to invade Taiwan, the head of the CIA said on Wednesday.

Appearing at the Aspen Security Forum, Central Intelligence Agency director Bill Burns played down speculation that Chinese president Xi Jinping could move on Taiwan after a key Communist party meeting later this year.

“The risks of that become higher, it seems to us, the further into this decade that you get,” Burns said, adding: “I wouldn’t underestimate President Xi’s determination to assert China’s control” over self-ruling Taiwan.

Burns said that China was “unsettled” when looking at Russia’s five-month-old war in Ukraine, which he characterised as a “strategic failure” for president Vladimir Putin as he had hoped to topple the Kyiv government within a week.

“Our sense is that it probably affects less the question of whether the Chinese leadership might choose some years down the road to use force to control Taiwan, but how and when they would do it,” Burns said.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... chief-says
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weatheriscool
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Milley: China more aggressive, dangerous to US, allies
Source: AP

By LOLITA C. BALDOR

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The Chinese military has become significantly more aggressive and dangerous over the past five years, the top U.S. military officer said during a trip to the Indo-Pacific that included a stop Sunday in Indonesia.

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the number of intercepts by Chinese aircraft and ships in the Pacific region with U.S. and other partner forces has increased significantly over that time, and the number of unsafe interactions has risen by similar proportions.

“The message is the Chinese military, in the air and at sea, have become significantly more and noticeably more aggressive in this particular region,” said Milley, who recently asked his staff to compile details about interactions between China and the U.S. and others in the region.

His comments came as the U.S. redoubles its efforts to strengthen its relationships with Pacific nations as a counterbalance to China, which is trying to expand its presence and influence in the region. The Biden administration considers China its “pacing threat” and America’s primary long-term security challenge.


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/nato-china-i ... 175a984c91
Xyls
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China showing it's true colours. Economic engagement with China since 1972 has been a massive mistake. This is why companies should not be able to outsource business/manufacturing to undemocratic states.
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