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• MILES uses real weapons with blank rounds. The MILES laser transmitter clamps into the barrel, so if you do manage to load a live round, you destroy the transmitter and the weapon, but not your target. The "bang" of the blank round triggers the laser transmitter. So you have to lug ammo and magazines around. All the real-world problems of jams and misfires occur, too.
• If you're hit, it beeps. Loudly. Continously. And you can't turn it off. Only a referee can turn it off.
• If you're hit, you're dead. You're carried off to the "dead" pen. Often, becoming "dead" means an extra 20-mile march or some similar unpleasant detail.
• In the newer versions, beams are coded, and you can tell who hit whom. Soldiers who miss too much get sent to the rifle range for extra training.
• Scores affect your real-life Army career. Why send losers to war?

It's called the Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System, or MILES. It's been in use in the army since the 80's. They even make sensors for tanks and Humvees, as well as individual soldiers. The laser transmitter attaches to the barrel of an actual M-16, and is activated by the sound from the firing of blanks, so you approximate the noise and weapon kickback you would with firing an actual round.

Some links (the second with pictures):
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/miles.htm
http://www.peostri.army.mil/PRODUCTS/MILES/

Have you seen sites that have TheCounter on them?

See this

and this

and this

and this

and this

and this.

"Tracked by TheCounter.com" is the landmark of completely uninteresting content coupled with 10 year old web design techniques! (aka best suited for newbie Internet Explorer users ;)

I happen to work at a base where the US Army Communications Electronics Command (CECOM) is headquartered. I have a keyless entry. So do many of the thousands of other people who work there. Never heard of a keyless entry problem.

Weird.

Or did, at any rate. For a number of years the US Army used Mac OS 9 and Webstar to host www.army.mil. Looking at Netcraft now, they've moved to OS X but are still using Webstar, which has a much lower rate of vulnerabilities then Apache.

k. Use of "shareware" or "freeware" is prohibited unless specifically approved through IA personnel and by the DAA for a specific operational mission requirement and length of time when no approved IA product exists. Notify NETCOM RCIOs and the supporting RCERT/TNOSC of local software use approval.

Thus, unless the local designating approving authority (DAA) is willing to accept the risk of the software, and it is a mission requirement when no approved software exists (which SSL does), the DA won't be using it anytime soon. The biggest problem will be that the DAA's will not want to accept local risk when another product that will do the job, and is approved will work.

This regulation, while good intentioned, is really difficult to live with. Try finding a good non-freeware spyware remover. It's not easy.

Recently, with the war and all, I've taken more of an interest in military affairs. Lo and behold, the military publishes a lot of magazines and periodicals internally, and many of them are available free online! I like them because they don't have the macho posturing of rags like Soldier of Fortune and other right-wing civillian magazines, and read like professionals writing for other professionals on how to do their job better. Think Wired vs. Linux Journal.

List of DoD magazines
Soldiers - Official army magazine, with full PDF archive.
Airman - Official air force magazine
Marine - Official USMC magazine
Approach - Navael aviaton safety magazine
Ground Warrior - Marine training safety magazine
Infantry magazine - Army infantry magazine, article archive at findarticles.com
Parameters - The U.S. War College's periodical

Soldiers, Airman, and Marine are sort of PR-related publications, so they aren't as interesting. Approach, Ground Warrior and Infantry are written as advice and information sources for their respective professions, so they have more technical detail. I like how they give a view of day-to-day operations in the military, especially training mishaps and other mistakes you don't hear about often. Parameters is a more scholarly magazine that gives a view into what the high-level officers are thinking and planning right now, plus some military history.

They're your tax dollars at work, may as well read them. Better to be an informed citizen than an entertained consumer, especially with the war in Iraq going on.

Recently, with the war and all, I've taken more of an interest in military affairs. Lo and behold, the military publishes a lot of magazines and periodicals internally, and many of them are available free online! I like them because they don't have the macho posturing of rags like Soldier of Fortune and other right-wing civillian magazines, and read like professionals writing for other professionals on how to do their job better. Think Wired vs. Linux Journal.

List of DoD magazines
Soldiers - Official army magazine, with full PDF archive.
Airman - Official air force magazine
Marine - Official USMC magazine
Approach - Navael aviaton safety magazine
Ground Warrior - Marine training safety magazine
Infantry magazine - Army infantry magazine, article archive at findarticles.com
Parameters - The U.S. War College's periodical

Soldiers, Airman, and Marine are sort of PR-related publications, so they aren't as interesting. Approach, Ground Warrior and Infantry are written as advice and information sources for their respective professions, so they have more technical detail. I like how they give a view of day-to-day operations in the military, especially training mishaps and other mistakes you don't hear about often. Parameters is a more scholarly magazine that gives a view into what the high-level officers are thinking and planning right now, plus some military history.

They're your tax dollars at work, may as well read them. Better to be an informed citizen than an entertained consumer, especially with the war in Iraq going on.

This sounds very much like Marine DOOM which was a WAD (mod) for DOOM II that the US Marine Corps Modeling and Simulation Management Office developed as a tactical training tool for four-man fire teams.

The mod is described as follows: "The game teaches concepts such as mutual fire team support, protection of the automatic rifleman, proper sequencing of an attack, ammunition discipline and succession of command."

I also remember watching an interview with a Marine officer who explained that playing the multiplayer game replicated the confusion and changes in situational awareness that soldiers experience in combat -- known as the fog of war -- as well as friendly fire and other important concepts.

Remember that Full Spectrum Warrior grew out of a combat simulation. Marine DOOM was a modification of a game that also served as a proof-of-concept training tool, which eventually led to the military version of FSW -- and was probably the precursor to it.

Unfortunately the site isn't online any longer, but thanks to Internet Archive, you can see the original Marine DOOM Homepage.

For more background you can also read "Doom Goes to War" by Rob Riddell which was the cover story in the Wired April 1997 issue.

Also ... USASMDC Advanced Research Center

Also ... USASMDC Advanced Research Center

Not everything that flies in our military belongs to the Air Force. AMRDEC = Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering center. If it's aviation-related or missile-related, it gets researched, developed, or engineered there. Think about Patriot missiles, Blackhawk helicopters, UAV's and bombs. In today's joint force initiative, R,D, and E from AMRDEC gets shared around the US Military and eventually (in one way or the other) the world.

http://www.redstone.army.mil/amrdec/
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/12/28/rocket.ci ty/

Sorry. Didn't mean to imply that they only do flood control. I was just citing what, historically, has been their main contribution-- they "leveed up" the entire mississippi river, for example. As I stated in the above post, their main job is CONSTRUCTION. You know, bulldozers, concrete, backhoes, and the like. IT infrastructure is one thing they DON'T do. The United States Army Information Systems Engineering Command (USAISEC) does that.

I didn't say the CoE had only "easy" jobs, nor did I imply that they wouldn't be able to handle building IT infrastructure if they had the proper training and equipment. I'm merely pointing out that IT engineering isn't what the CoE does. The United States Army Information Systems Engineering Command (USAISEC), not the CoE, handles all the Army's IT needs. The point is, the military isn't really designed as a big public works department, so they're not particularly well suited to rebuilding things like country-wide communications networks. That's why they hire civilian contractors.

Instead of going as a contractor, go as a GS. Most GS positions specifically state that you will be wearing DCU's, have M16 or 6mm training and will probably wear your weapon and "battle rattle" while you're in a hostile area. Pay not be as good, but its well worth the extra security the GS positions allow.

These positions may be posted in Europe, but there are positions that get deployed and are hired specifically for deployment. I would do this if I didn't have a wife in the Army who has asked several times that I not do this type of thing. To her, its bad enough when one of us gets deployed. Check out the European Jobs Page for more info. Besides, on top of the combat pay, etc - you get at least a 3 year vacation in Europe for free.

Actually, in Iraq, the Corps is working to: restore oil production, restore electricity, dispose of enemy munitions, build bases for the US military, and build bases for the Iraqi military.

Only if you don't count places that were possessions of the USA but hadn't yet gained statehood.
Dutch Harbor and Fort Mears (Note the page title.)
Attu

I also liked the part where they took down Hanford for 3 days.

gewg_

Don't forget about Stryker! This is the direction the army is moving. It is a light, wheeled tank manufactured by General Dynamics (same company that makes the Abrams).

manufacture website

some news

The Stryker is at the centre of the transformation of America's military championed by Donald Rumsfeld (Subscription required)

The army doesn't work that way. Everyone is trained to be a soldier to some minimum degree (if you're in the Finance Corps, that tends to be a very minimum degree). Besides, do you really think a psycho would be a good cook? A good janitor? Better to send the psychos home to their mommies so they can play paintball and counterstrike and tell their friends that the army sent them home to be "civilian special forces" and do secret missions against terrorists occasionally on weekends*. Besides, there is no job of "janitor" in the army-- everyone is a janitor in the army (at least in the enlisted ranks).

* True story. Well, the story itself isn't true, but I definitely heard a jackass paintball guy tell it. That one went in my file of "chairborne warrior" stories, along with the one from the guy who claimed to have been a Tank Commander, a Sniper, and an Airborne Infantryman all within the same 3-year enlistment.

Pages 14 and 15 note methods "a, b, d, and m" sanitizing fixed drives, and continues:

"d. Overwrite all addressable locations with a character, its complement, then a random character and verify. THIS METHOD IS NOT APPROVED FOR SANITIZING MEDIA THAT CONTAINS TOP SECRET INFORMATION."

Note this applies to DOD contractors, and other rules probably apply to DOD, military, and the CIA/NSA/NRO/etc intelligence community.

The obvious implication is that the 3 verified passes are sufficient to render the information not worth recovering for Confidential and Secret, but that Top Secret info is still potentially recoverable within cost/benefit constraints for the opponent. Remember - for many things (except possibly some weapons systems info) you don't need to guarantee the opponent can't recover the information, you merely have to make the cost of recovery greater than the benefit they gain from the secret.

Oh, and the Canadian RCMP TSSIT OPS-II says: "Must first be checked for correct functioning and then have all storage areas overwritten once with the binary digit ONE, once with the binary digit ZERO and once with a single numeric, alphabetic or special character, " and again, not for Top Secret - for that, they recommend contacting somebody for special instructions/handling.

what's to stop you from bringing your own hard disk to work in your pocket, and switching it with the one to be destroyed when you disassemble the machine?

Men in green camoflauge utilities with loaded weapons who go through your bags when you enter and exit. That coupled with the big sign out front that reads "Use of deadly force authorized" are usually enough to convice people to NOT try such antics.

Oh... and a little piece of paper they make you sign. It mentions something about a hefty fine and an all expenses paid vacation at some place in Kansas.

Actually burning a worn-out flag is considered proper. At least by these folks. Not to mention many others.

"A lesser-known fact is that the proper way to dispose of an old and tattered flag is to burn it - something many citizens do not feel comfortable doing."

No you haven't, and no it doesn't. The stryker has wheels, since is based on the LAV platform.

See here.

Try to avoid talking out of your ass.

That is quite incorrect. The software wasn't Common Criteria certified up to that point, but you could run it.

The ability to run/not run software in a DoD environment is controlled mostly by mission - there are very few applications you 'can't' run. There is a person in every military organization called a DAA "Designated Accrediting Authority" who can issue an ATO "Authority to Operate" for anything he/she feels like doing. This person is usually the commander of an installation or organization, and will usually be of 0-6 or higher rank.

If you run something in the DoD without getting a DAA signoff, you are screwed. If the software is insecure, the DAA and the IA "Information Assurance" staff are the ones who are screwed.

The ultimate expression of the DAA's ATO is the DITSCAP. The DITSCAP is basically a huge document showing you did due diligence in security testing your software. You are supposed to list all threats in there, and make value judgements as to whether they are deal breakers or acceptable, and what steps you are taking to mitigate.

The DAA signature on ATO means that that commander read the DITSCAP, accepts the risks, and will run the software/system in question. No courts martial. No UCMJ at all.

As to your other assertion about Microsoft giving software away to the Army, realize that we (meaning Army installations) pay a tax each year out of our budgets to finance the Microsoft ELA with the Army, which is costing the Army precisely $151.00 each bundled desktop, which includes Office and the OS, plus a server CAL. Either way, that's a long way from $10.

There is a Powerpoint on the topic (opens up fine in OOO) located here. You can also go to the Army Small Computer Program site if you want to see how the ELA is implemented in real life.

Please stop lying to these people. Thank you.

WAKE UP!!!!!

Whether or not Popular Mechanics is right or not remains to be seen. Either way, the Groom Dry Lake Bed testing ground currently known as Area 51 has attracted too many visitors, and as such is likely to be or have been phased out of existance in the short term.

With all the nuclear testing (even if it isn't bomb testing these days), it wouldn't be too bright to get out of your car, live fire or not....

The system they are using is most likely the IRembass [sec.army.mil] system which is used in detecting movement.

Over at www.globalsecurity.org an article about the Future Force Warrior, the "FFW "restores to our infantry the same technological superiority that the rest of our military has".
And: "They have at least one idea, though. "Avoid the use of Microsoft Windows operating systems," a recent memo on the subject directed" because "Cleaner software needs less energy to run".
Now, the war between M$ and Linux isn't really fair. The war between the US Army and M$ however...
Not sure The US Army can win this though... And don't tear down Abu Ghraib yet!

The USACE does mostly civil engineering stuff: dams, rivers, flood control....that sort of stuff. While they may have some computer scientists on staff, that probably isn't their area of expertise.

If only there were some large organisations who'd stand up for Linux when this kind of crap came out. That's the trouble with having no shareholders - no-one to start litigation.

The human errors inherent in that diaster should be obvious.

This is true. Being that it's a diesel fueled heater, those dingbats should have pulled the breakers and shut the fuelcock. I just wanted to point out that not every '992 will go up in smoke if the crew merely leaves the heater on. Particularly not now, since they've replaced nearly every armored vehicle heater with the new A-20...

The human errors inherent in that diaster should be obvious.

This is true. Being that it's a diesel fueled heater, those dingbats should have pulled the breakers and shut the fuelcock. I just wanted to point out that not every '992 will go up in smoke if the crew merely leaves the heater on. Particularly not now, since they've replaced nearly every armored vehicle heater with the new A-20...

The US Army (and the rest of the military) is in fact going to this type of approach. Every soldier, for an ID card, is issued a card with a smart chip. This card, among other uses, is inserted into a smart card reader that is hooked up to every Army AIS (around here at least) to log on. The old user/pass method may also be used to log on, but I'm not sure how long that will last.

Brief overview may be found here: army.carlisle.mil

Ft Benning, 182,000 acres = 284 square miles
Ft Hood, TX = 339 square miles

Ft Benning
Ft Hood

What was your unit of measurement for 'largest'?

Ft Benning, 182,000 acres = 284 square miles
Ft Hood, TX = 339 square miles

Ft Benning
Ft Hood

What was your unit of measurement for 'largest'?

I haven't been to Trinity Site (yet...), but I'm told they gathered up as much of the trinitite/atomsite as possible and stored it in 50 gallon drums. That said, if you go to the White Sands Missle Range Museum you'll find a few pieces in a glass display case in a small room near the back. IIRC, the same room had parts from the bunkers too.

If you are EVER close enough to pay a visit, DO IT. The New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo and the National Atomic Museum in Albequerque are other "nearby" must-sees.

According to this page the museum on Kirtland AFB is being combined with the National Atomic Museum. I am pretty sure they were separate entities before, but both rocked. I'm sure they will only become better. I hope they keep the two B28 bombs from the Palomares, Spain collision on display.

The article stated that the impact was by a "fragment simulating particle", but it was not stated that the image was simulated. Indeed, looking at the larger version of the picture reveals that it's a photo, grid-like background notwithstanding. In particular note the softness of the photo and the wispy strands of kevlar hanging around the edges. I doubt that a computer generated graphic would have either of these characteristics.

This is straight off of Army News Service.
And they even have a picture!

the US Army is developing FAE rounds for deployment at the platoon level

A link is worth a thousand words (well, not quite, but 212 words in this case).

Since we're all friends now and trust former KGB officers turned quasi-dictators, how bout the Russians give us some of the advanced weapons they've developed since they decided to become friendly members of the world community.
For isntance, how about they give us the new Topol-M road mobile super accurate nuclear missiles that can wobble in flight to avoid ABM systems.
They could give us the supersonic sea skimming nuclear tipped Sunburn missile which does a maneuver before it hits so it can slam into the decks of carriers.
They could give us the docs on how they make their high-speed cavitating torpedoes work.
Or their new Tupelov supersonic bombers.
Or the new Russian Infantry carried fuel air weapons that they used so well in the war in Chechnya.

You forgot Fort Detrick Right between Washington D.C. and Baltimore.
USAMRIID has over 10,000 square feet of Biosafety Level 4 (BL4) and 50,000 square feet of Biosafety Level 3 (BL3)....

They wern't learning to shoot, they were learning teamwork and not to get shot.

From the army.mil website:

DESCRIPTION: Marine Doom is a project of the Marine Corps Modeling and Simulation Management Office (MCMSMO). MCMSMO adapted the game Doom II for training four-man fire teams. The game teaches concepts such as mutual fire team support, protection of the automatic rifleman, proper sequencing of an attack, ammunition discipline and succession of command.

We'll, the way the Army's Future Combat Systems web page puts it, one of the goals of their Unmanned Ground Vehicles program is to "Have fun in what we do and pride in the services we provide" (scroll down on the page).

We'll, the way the Army's Future Combat Systems web page puts it, one of the goals of their Unmanned Ground Vehicles program is to "Have fun in what we do and pride in the services we provide" (scroll down on the page).

You can apply too, they take civilians:

http://www.usarec.army.mil/hq/warrant/WOcivilian.h tml

Back in 2000, I started playing with the idea of eliminating swashplate, servos, pushrods and so on. I was actually successful in realizing this.

A patent was filed early 2001. The 'problem' is that soon after that, a company took a license on this technology, and required to keep confidentiality. This implies I can not show pictures, or give details or comments about the way this works. I even had to edit some of the pictures on this site to make sure this was respected. And off course there is a money side to it. I hope you understand.

Back in 2000, I started playing with the idea of eliminating swashplate, servos, pushrods and so on. I was actually successful in realizing this.

A patent was filed early 2001. The 'problem' is that soon after that, a company took a license on this technology, and required to keep confidentiality. This implies I can not show pictures, or give details or comments about the way this works. I even had to edit some of the pictures on this site to make sure this was respected. And off course there is a money side to it. I hope you understand.

Back in 2000, I started playing with the idea of eliminating swashplate, servos, pushrods and so on. I was actually successful in realizing this.

A patent was filed early 2001. The 'problem' is that soon after that, a company took a license on this technology, and required to keep confidentiality. This implies I can not show pictures, or give details or comments about the way this works. I even had to edit some of the pictures on this site to make sure this was respected. And off course there is a money side to it. I hope you understand.

The US should play no part in this overthrow. At best, it draws massive international scrutiny. At worst, it results in horrific warfare and thousdans of deaths, which will no doubt happen if the US went to war with China.

On the economic side, I'm really not in favor of embargoing the dictatorships. As you noted above, improved prosparity among the victims of dictators is a very good thing. Maslow's pyramid of needs strikes again. This, along with simple reasons of human decency, is why the US should have a policy of requiring its corporations to provide at least a living wage to its employees in dictatorships (and none of that "we don't do it, its the subcontractors fault" BS either). If we doubled the wages of the average Chinese employee of, say, Nike then they would be better able to satisfy their low end needs which leads naturally to a desire to satisfy higher level needs. As Maslow points out, a person who is worried about starving doesn't care too much about politics.

Requiring items manufactured in dictatorships to bear a "Made by Victims of a Dictator" label would assist the US citizens in allowing the magic of the market to do its job. The market, as you may recall from the non-religious economics classes you may have taken, can't function in an informational vacuum. It requires *INFORMED* consumers to function properly.