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US Army Digital Exercise
johndeerejedi writes: "The 4th Infantry Division (US Army)is conducting an exercise called the Division Capstone Exercise. The official website can be found here. There are lots of videos and photos for those with the bandwidth and/or the patience. We're using the latest digital goodies to give us the edge in this fight. Stuff like the M1A2 SEP tank, FBCB2, and a host of other cool stuff. One thing I thought you might all be interested in is that the FBCB2 and several other command and control systems appear to use a version of Solaris. FBCB2 and many of the other systems our here are used to enhance situational awareness and command and control via a tactical intranet." The combat computer looks pretty cool - automatically tracks its own location with GPS and reports to headquarters...
How long before the army starts inserting colons and smileys in their acronyms?
oh yea, Hmm let me think about that first big slow prop plane vs two fast highly manuverable jets from a millitary base with DOCUMENTED brazen buzzing of US aircraft in INTERNATIONAL waters. They have reportedly gotten so close before that one of the pilots actually flashed his e-mail address to the US plane. These types of flights are done by nearly ALL of the super-powers on a daily basis around the world and some top-gun got too close and fucked up TOO BAD it's not the US's fault he wanted to be a macho prick.
I personally wrote and debugged the original SIMNET protocol implementation for BBN (in turn, for DARPA) back in the mid 1980s. Boy, was that a lot of fun -- the DARPA program manager, USAF Col. Jack Thorpe, PhD, was quite the guy to work for. There are also lots of stories about his right hand man, the late USA Col. Gary Bloedorn. SIMNET was (in practise or so I recall -- it's been quite a while) about 144 bytes per second per vehicle (plus 14 byte Ethernet MAC or so). The successor, DIS, was about 160 bytes per vehicle per second (plus 20 bytes IP plus 8 bytes UDP plus any MAC). The bandwidth for DIS' successor, HLA, is harder to quantify due to lack of an "on the wire" standard (can be much higher, can be much lower). However, digital audio tends to take a lot of bandwidth, too (although SIMNET used at one point -- still uses? -- analog CB radios). Anybody know?
- A.P.
--
Forget Napster. Why not really break the law?
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
- A.P.
--
Forget Napster. Why not really break the law?
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
Posted by Kewlhandtek:
the army does have computers that are running linux, redhat 4.2 they are kinda cool lunchbox pc's http://fieldgo.com
It is always odd how little the "official" top speed of vehicles (in this case, tanks) is compared to the actual one. On the data sheet linked to in the story, the top speed of that brand new tank is supposed to be 42 mph. Come on... these babies certainly make 60+ mph when needed. :-)
Some other cool fact was that they take almost any fuel for their engines, it just has to burn
I remember back in 94, a unit that I worked for replaced WWMCCS (World Wide Military Command and Control System, pronounced "wimmics") with GCCS (Global Command and Control System, pronounced "geeks"), which was a bunch of Sun Sparc20's with a bunch of special software on them...
Japan took three islands in the Aleutians in WW2.
They also took Guam, Wake, the Phillipines. Which are/were US soil.
But no one has been on the Contiental US since 1814. Well, there were British forces up in Washington state before the boarder was decided in the 1840s...but that wasn't really a war.
There were some German agents landed on the East Coast in WW2, Japanese aircraft, Subs and Ballons did attack the West Coast in WW2, and alot of ships were sunk off the East Coast and Gulf Coast in WW2 as well.
Australia/Asia's freedoms that exsist today are because of the United States Navy, Marine Corps, Army and Air Corps (Air Force today), as well as the Royal Navy, British Army, Royal Air Force, Royal Dutch forces and the Free French. The US took the brunt of the fighting simply becuase the other United Nations forces were more involved in Europe.
Yes...it was nearly 50 years ago, but it's because of the sacrifices of those men against an oppresive Imperal Japanese military that Australia and Asia have the freedoms that they enjoy today.
War isn't cool, but it has been and will be a part of foreign policy of all nations. It's been that way in one form or another since Man formed communities.
Not our fault that the Chinese don't have the ability to project power. The Russians do still fly surveillance flights off the coast of the Western US.
If the Chinese wanted to, they could buy some Tu-95s or Tu-22s and fly Elint flights off the US coast and see what professional interception looks like.
I do wireless networking, so I know about this. ;-) It's really cool tech. :)
"We have the right to believe at our own risk any hypothesis that is live enough to tempt our will."
http://gabrielcain.com/
Hopefully they don't try the next BIND exploit in desert storm II.... ;-)
--
Care about electronic freedom? Consider donating to the EFF!
Yeah, I have to admit, when I joined the Army Reserves I was thinking "boy, I'm glad they gave me this C7, I really want to defend my Prime Minister, but not the civilians I know, boy oh boy, you know, I sure hope I get the chance to stop a bullet for the PM!" Please. Just because members of armed forces in your country and mine choose a dangerous profession, doesn't make them as all-out stupid as some Hollywood movies and some activists would have you believe.
That's right, Max Factor, Maybelline, and the other organs of capitalist aggression must be destroyed.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Direct sequence spread spectrum with a high chip rate is difficult to intercept. The transmitter's power is spread over a wide range of frequencies. If you look at it on a spectrum analyzer, you can't even tell that a signal is present. The signal can be at a lower amplitude than the noise. Military and commercial systems are designed with different goals. The military wants low probability of intercept, resistance to jamming and communications security. Commercial systems are designed for low cost, throughput and band sharing.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
greetings
cool but is it just me or these thing represent more genoicide against people from other countries.
It would be nice to be able to see these videos.
Anyone know of a way to view Quicktime stuff on Linux??
..........FULL STOP.
They do get the real firepower, after this phase. This part of the DCX is called force-on-force, whic means large simulated tanks battles. Simulated as in laser tag type stuff, not virtual whatever. After a week of training, the unit moves on to a live fire week, where they really get to blow shit up .....
Like most organizations, the Army is made up of independent little cells. I am in the the Army, web page's etc. etc., and I use mpegs for my videos. It depends on who did the site.
....
Just because some guy copped out and used QT doesn't mean that everyone in the Army is forcing QT down your throat
this "cool stuff" you speak of is designed to justify the federal government in taking your money, and to kill people.
Yeah, well, if it prevents incidents like the Chinese holding 24 of our soldiers captive, I'm all for it. In case you didn't notice, everybody's got nukes now, and we need a different edge. Our economy won't be bulletproof forever, and we need to do this kind of R&D work while the money is available.
What's your damage, Heather?
US Army: "We have the latest digital equipment, remote tracking, computerized targeting, and enough ammo to wipe your ass out!"
Geek with a HERF gun: "Buh-bye."
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
That bugs the crap out of me
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A mind is a terrible thing to taste.
"A mind is a terrible thing to taste."
Let me explain: You've posted this to a Linux oriented website. There are some people here who really only use Windows and just like to hang out, and some who use Macs. But _most_ of this Linux audience CAN'T ACCESS QUICKTIME VIDEOS!
What makes you think that the poster is a member of the US Army? How in the hell is it the posters fault?
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A mind is a terrible thing to taste.
"A mind is a terrible thing to taste."
--
You think being a MIB is all voodoo mind control? You should see the paperwork!
A man who wants nothing is invincible
You also have to train the support units. You have to be sure that the supply units can provide adequate food for the troops and fuel for the vehicles...
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You think being a MIB is all voodoo mind control? You should see the paperwork!
A man who wants nothing is invincible
--
You think being a MIB is all voodoo mind control? You should see the paperwork!
A man who wants nothing is invincible
I thought it was pretty sad that when a disturbed person took a few whacks at the "Liberty Bell" (liberty for Whites that is, as Blacks were still property back then) most Americans were more concerned about an inanimate piece of metal than a living, breathing human being obviously having mental problems.
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You think being a MIB is all voodoo mind control? You should see the paperwork!
A man who wants nothing is invincible
.. the US Army could buy some books about foreign cultures so they could understand them better. That way, when there's an accident and they have to land on Chinese territory, they don't have to make all the beginner mistakes and act all "i-want-it-all-and-i-want-it-now" and *demand* back their soldiers *now*.
Anyone who knows even a little bit about Chinese culture understands that that's the last thing you should do. The Chinese have a 5000 year old culture. Their culture isn't "fast" in the sense that the US fast food culture is. Things happen slowly and a 24h waiting when absolutely nothing at all happens in cases like this is perfectly normal. Added to that the fact that Chinese fear losing face, you can't just jump in their face and *demand* things - especially with a time limit of *now*. What happens then is that they have to refuse if only so they wouldn't look like they were walked over. It's no wonder the American pilots are still there. It's much to the fault of the clumsy behavior of the US side of the "negotiations". Frankly, I'm pretty amazed over how badly it had been handled so far.
That said, it's pretty clear that the Americans aren't at fault for the accident. The only reason I can see would be if the Chinese would have come so close that the US pilot would have lost his temper and did some kind of of "get off my skin" move, which the Chinese pilot didn't notice before it was too late. Who knows.. maybe he was looking at a map or something. I'm just saying that the diplomacy is very clumsy.
Agree with all your points except the conclusion. There is no chance that the US will declare war on china to get these guys back - not even if the Chinese slowly disembowel them on live television (CNN would carry that btw).
A far more likely path to war IMHO is that the US puts its tail between its legs and backs down - over the next few months/years China tests the waters more and more by increasing its aggression - the US continues to look the other way - China invades Taiwan - US looks the other way - China sees how easy it is to expand, how much the industrial capability of Taiwan helps their economy, and how happy and proud their people are the whole thing - eventually, a much stronger China than we see today invades a country sufficiently important enough that the other nations of the world (US included I would hope) have no choice but to go to war.
If this doesn't sound familiar review your history books of the 1930's. The world looked the other way when Hitler became increasingly aggressive. The big difference today is that a World War is likely to erupt into a nuclear war - and then it's adios muchachos
So what should we do? Well, try this on for size: We park a couple of carrier battle groups off their coast and since they've already demonstrated that they cannot be trusted to avoid ramming us, we proceed to shoot down anything that looks like a MiG 21. You know, just in case. Then Bush calls them up and says "hey, wanna go back to the way things were?"
Sigh - it'll never happen but it's fun to dream.
Shall I take this to mean that you do not consider Army personnel in grades below Corporal, or who happen to be officers, to be soldiers?
Yes, that would have been correct.
I don't disagree that we should keep an eye on china, but one point bares mentioning: a trade deficit does not necessarily mean that china is making more money from the relationship. This depends on the profit margin of the goods involved.
Trade deficits are a non-problem that have been cooked into a problem by the media.
Automatic Position Reporting Systems are easily available. just check out
Aprs.Org
Personally, I find the very idea of getting excited about new, efficient, computer technologies being used in warfare, the most useless and inefficent aspect of mankind, pathetically ironic.
Pardon my lack of enthusiasm. I'll go find a little flag to wave or something and forget that there shouldn't be any borders to defend in the first place.
--Brogdon
This tagline is umop apisdn.
Those tanks better use an encrypted transmission...
On second thought, the enemy just has to use a directional antenna to find them.
"We have the latest technology to coordinate our tank assaults. "
The tanks' radio transmitters are basically screaming:
"I'm over here! Lock onto the source of this transmission and blow me up!"
I think it's quite incredible that the United States Army put's all of this stuff Online for the world to see, once apon a time the enemy had to send in spies for years to find out about this sort of stuff now any gov't in the world can find out exactly what the U.S. Army is up to just by watching television specials, CNN, or visiting the local U.S. Military Web Site.
...
Regardless of the technology, I think it's quite nieve to put all of this information out in to the mass media arena, and expect that no one will capitalise on it.
Just my two cents
I bet they don't have any of those genetically engineered kangaroos that launch stinger missiles...
http://www.loeschfamily.net/home/kangaroo.html
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Does "Military Personnel" cover it?
---- Sigs are bad for your health ----
Give a hand, not a hand-out.
1. Most of the things military ever shows to the public are old and soon-to-be-out-of-production. New technologies are classified.
;-)
2. In the history of the last few hundred years, did _ANYONE_ ever intruded the borders of USA? I mean sereosly. And I know about Pearl Harbor
Leonid Mamtchenkov
It pisses me off when I hear stories about military cut-backs causing training to be done *without* real firepower!
For God's sake - we're the USA! We should be able to kick any other country's ass! :-)
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I wonder what the atmosphere would be if the Americans had downed a Chinese surveillance plane flying off the coast of California?
Do the Chinese fly surveillance flights this close to USA?
If not, can the Americans blame the Chinese for being a bit upset?
Soldier, however, in addition to its precise definition of being a noncom in the army, can also be used as a blanket term for all those in the armed forces. Just like how "man" can be used for all people (a la "mankind"), but its more precise definition just refers to adult males.
The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
Point of fact 0: You should already know this, and I dearly hope it was just a typo, but the plane was not shot down, collided with a Chinese fighter jet. Point of fact 1: The collision occured in international airspace.
Point of fact 2: The US had expressed concern numerous times in the past few months about how close the Chinese were flying to our planes (ever see Top Gun? Pilots pull this kind of shit all the time)
Point of fact 3: The propeller-driven E3 is far less manuverable than the Chinese jet fighters, and could not possibly have hit them even if it had tried were they to keep a safe distance.
Point of fact 4: Flying spy planes off the coast of other nations is a well established practice that occured throughout the Cold War, and the Russians did it all the time to America and most of Europe, including, I believe, you Brits, without anyone crashing into anyone, and without the taking of hostages.
Finally, in conclusion, you better hope to whatever power you believe in that America gets those pilots back SOON, because any war between China and America will almost certainly go nuclear. America does not have the ground forces to conquer China (not only would it be a land war in Asia, but it would be a land war against a country with some 6-7x the population of America), and China does not have the air or naval power to reach America with anything other than cruise missiles. Maybe nuclear winter will make the arrogant British less likely to make stupid statements about things they know nothing of.
The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
this "cool stuff" you speak of is designed to justify the federal government in taking your money, and to kill people. referring to it as cool is almost as hypocrtical as anti-mpaa posts to /. from dvd player owners.
just a friendly dose of realism.
-=tonyt=-
Almost everything in the U.S. military is shielded. That's why avionics that civilian aircraft that weigh about 5 lbs tend to go somewhere near 20 lbs in a military aircraft. It's also why it costs a zillion times more.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
UNIX - Not just for Vestal Virgins anymore
Whoops, how about civilian avionics (radios) that weigh about 5 lbs....
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
UNIX - Not just for Vestal Virgins anymore
We've been using SimNet for years. Flying an OH-58D from Ft Bragg, inside a flight of six, none of whom are on the same installation. Airforce assets, ground units, etc all there and if you look around in your unit, you see them accurately and in position where they are supposed to be (if they are where they are supposed to be.)
I'm glad that they are actually allowing civilians to see some of this stuff. It's neat as all hell. You think that streaming media eats bandwidth? Try SimNet with a whole division.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
UNIX - Not just for Vestal Virgins anymore
I may be wrong, but I don't think the Army posted this to Slashdot. More likely is that johndeerejedi posted this to Slashdot, and johndeerejedi doesn't control the Army website, nor does johndeerejedi make video encoding decisions for the Army.
Good point though. It would be nice if everyone could watch the videos.
:)
Yeah, Michael, how about you SHUT THE FUCK UP? Maybe let the other posters have a chance at the front page, post nazi. I'd complain about Taco being off spending his VA stock, but he probably doesn't have any cash left.
He-Man
Master of the universe
So I wonder how smart it is to have sites like this available to the public and unpassworded, or not verified as coming from a .MIL domain or something.
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
A company called Exponent got the project after Raytheon lost it.
Evidentally, the initial solution made the soldiers look like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and, once the fell down, they couldn't get up.
/tma
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big deal my cadillac does that
i could live a little longer in this prison
Exercise? Doesn't that invlove running? What kind of site do you think this is?
I am not a communist, just an individual concerned about the lofty ideals our institutions were created with, and the wordly whoring of said institute. I'm also not a big conspiracy buff, but I do believe that there are many concealed motives in the today's politics... too many to guess the connections.
I Browse at +4 Flamebait
Open Source Sysadmin
It took me a few hours before I could reply to this. The link to the tradoc.army.mil made me sick. I'm quite sure that a similar looking (lots of garish pix and jingoism) link to, oh say a Middle East site would have been ridiculed by the slashdot community in general. Do you realise that "looks pretty cool" refers to instruments of death. Its a kind of religion, to pretend that (technology) and the sweet USA are not some of the most destructive and negative forces on this planet at the moment. Please ppl, use some of that wonderful intelligence and empathy that you show producing free (as in freedom) software towards imagining what it would be like to be on the other end of that "cool" .mil
"<i>civilian aircraft that weigh about 5 lbs</i>"
<br><br>
what practical civilian aircraft weighs 5 lbs?
samrolken
it appears the army's experiencing the /. effect
Photos.
Where do you think Egypt is?
I'm impressed. First appropriate use of goatse.cx I've ever seen.
2. Heavy brigades are well and good and look real pretty. Given that log support a heavy brigade needs, and the time to deply, how many times is this going to be used in the real world?
3. Those new berets the army doggies are wearing look pretty damn stuipid.
Display some adaptability.
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You sure got a purty mouth...
I am a contractor that works with CECOM (Communications Electronic Command) and its affiliates. Anyway, there is a whole Digital Division project going on where the Army is trying to implement ABCS (Army Battlefield Control System) distance learning in a virtual battalion TOC (Tactical Operations Center). Basically, hook up 10 different classrooms across the country, 1 for each system, and play war! And I got to do the technical network analysis...ick.
.mil domain. Beyond that is NIPRNet access only, and classified networks can only be accessed through SIPRNet.
Yes, these systems run on a special version of Solaris. And for you hacker types out there, some of my teammates use Linux boxes to red team (run attacks against) these military systems.
As for some websites, try Army Distance Learning, or Digital Training Facilities.
As for access to secret websites, some are password restricted but the higher up ones need to be accessed from a
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
So s390 sez:
"I use LINUX (wank wank wank) I can't see QuickTime (wank wank wank) The army sux 'cause they don't use Linux (wank wank wank)"
And the Universe cares about this horrible affront to your Human Rights and DIginity because...?
The Army is using Windows and Macs because of arcane and byzantine purchasing requirements.
OK, you can't see QT on your Linux box. Buy a c++ compiler and get to hacking code.
I mean, that IS the Linux way, isn't it?
Guaranteed! This comment 100% Anthrax free!
Wow! That's great stuff! I can't wait until they miniturize those lame computers until they are being installed as implants. Maybe by that time, some of that cool technology will have made its way down to our level. Maybe nanobots will be available by then.
Just think, they can start programming us from birth to become perfect warriors. This is great stuff!
All buzzed from this cool technology- signing off!
Racists are funny. They live in trailors and go ont he Jerry Springer show and blame the black people for their sorry lives. Fear is a funny thing, it makes some people work hard to improve themselves, it makes weaker people look for other people to blame. Anyone who thinks they can judge a person based on their race is silly. By the way, I cannot think of a single redneck philosopher, architect, doctor or anyone else who has contributed to society. Looks like you racist rednecks are even worse than the black people you fear so much!! Ignorance is bliss and "First Nigga" is one happy guy.
Armand28
"-LINUX was a good OS, before it became a religion."
You have a good point. Linux users cant see these videos. What about me? I don't have a monitor. They should really make it so I can see the movies too.
If there are any spelling errors in the post above it is simply because I don't have a monitor. Not becuase I can't spell.
There are a whole lot of reasons for us to keep an eye on China. Do some reasearch and you will find quotes in US papers from Chinese officials about how they are building up their military to be able to take on the US. If you think it is all about money you've got quite a bit to learn about things. Now, this kind of thing is done all the time and there informal rules of engagement. The faster plane stays out of the way of the smaller plane. Yes, you can try to shake them up but you don't get in their way. The US was in international airspace at the time and even the Chinese don't really dispute that. There is no way that the US plane could have hit that F8 on purpose. If the Chinese pilot was semi-competent he could easily have out manuevered it. However it is quite possible for a hotdog fighter pilot to get too close to one of the wings and interrupt airflow causing the bigger plane to lose lift and veer abrubtly to the side and down. Which is a much more likely cause for the incident? We have been performing overflights like this against Russia and China since long before there was any hope of peaceful trade with either. We have an 89 billion dollar trade deficit with China. WE are not making money by trading there. But they are using that deficit to purchase spies, technology, and military equipment to eventually use against us. Read Sun Tsu, it is still required reading for anyone who wants too be anybody in China's ruling class. If it doesn't make you sit up and re-evaluate everything you think about China then you are too stupid and unimaginative to have an opinion that matters anyway. The one thing that you will get out of that book is you can never trust anyone who follows its philosophy. Not, you need to keep an eye on them they might try to trick us, but never ever trust anything they say or do. If they mean it now it only applies for exactly as long as it serves their purpose. Most likely they will have already identified the ways to twist it to their purpose long before they agreed to it. We are at an extreme disadvantage in this regard we want to be considered honorable and will try to some extent to comply with agreements.
"If there is nothing you are willing to die for, then you are not really alive." Myself
And the military deliberately kept the levels of shielding at a lower level than necessary so that the USSR wouldn't have to use as many nukes to acheive the same results. Seriously, they kept the level of shielding down so that the Russians wouldn't be as tempted to use more nukes to get the job done.
"If there is nothing you are willing to die for, then you are not really alive." Myself
I didn't see anything on their site about LandWarrior. LandWarrior is the mobile computer unit that soldiers carry into battle and use to communicate, situational awareness, planning op orders and the like.
A "training system" is being coupled with its software and the gaming engine for Delta Force 2 to develop simulation software for the troops to use for (duh)training purposes.
"On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog!" - a dog
Since EMP from nuclear weapons has been a concern for a long time, I can pretty safely say that yes, this stuff is shielded against EMP.
hey monkey
r u a d00d?
i bet u r hot!!!