In their September and October hard copy issues, Black Belt magazine will publish articles on Matt Larsen (US Army, Ret), who is considered the father of the Modern Army Combatives Program (MACP). While on active duty Larsen was the primary author of Field Manual 3-25.150 (Combatives) which spells out the program in great detail. Taking a page from Mixed Martial Arts, MACP works hand in hand with the physical fitness regime to make movements second nature. Additionally, MACP teaches Soldiers weapons retention skills and limited knife fighting.

Be sure to drop by Black Belt’s website and check out the videos featuring Matt Larsen.

In the April 2010 issue of Combat Shooting and Tactics newsletter, trainer Paul Howe has announced that he is canceling all on-the-road Tactical Team Leader classes due to complaints by potential students that the physical requirements are too demanding. He challenges potential students with a goal of running five miles in 50 minutes in order to ensure they are fit enough to safely negotiate the course’s graduation exercise. However, he does plan on offering the course again at his own facility as well as for specially vetted customers in the future.

It’s been almost a year and-a-half since we wrote about Optimal SWAT. Site owner Will Brink recently updated, radically changing the site’s content to include articles, blogs, and other information to focus on the performance, and fitness for tactical LE and or other groups (Military, PMC, etc) who may benefit from the information. There is also a forum to allow readers to interact with one another.

www.OptimalSWAT.com See you there!

The US Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment has updated their Ranger, Athlete, Warrior website with a great deal of new resources for their human performance initiative which goes far beyond a typical unit PT program. According to information provided by the website, they are on version 3.0 of the program and constantly monitor it to ensure they are getting the most for their troops.

Our friends over at EOTAC gave a us a heads up about the new Tier 1 Group offshoot High Caliber Training. They both share the same 780+ acre training facility located near Memphis. They also share many instructors but T1G maintains a military and law enforcement focus while the HCT concentrates more on civilian training. However, it isn’t all that HCT does, as they run several LE courses as well.

Neither T1G nor HCT are part of the Freedom Group as often reported but rather are owned by Cerberus who also owns the Freedom Group. You can definitely see that they are sister companies when you take a look at the course catalog which caters to the Remington, DPMS and Bushmaster brands.

Brought to you by authors Wallace and Melton, the same team who brought you “Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA’s Spytechs, from Communism to Al-Qaeda “, “The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception” delves into an interesting era in American espionage history. It was 1953, and the flames were just beginning to rise on the Cold War. Looking for any edge, the CIA turned to magician John Mulholland to adapt his techniques of stealth and misdirection to the craft of espionage. He produced two illustrated manuals featuring a range of tricks from placing pills into drinks to stealing documents and avoiding detection. The classified manuals were believed to have been destroyed in 1973, but the authors discovered a copy in 2007 among recently declassified CIA archives. For fans of espionage this is a major coup as basic tradecraft skills go out fashion long before they go out of date.

“The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception” is available from Amazon or your local book seller.

New from Zenith publishing comes “Special Ops, 1939 – 1945: A Manual of Covert Warfare and Training”. A reprint of several British Special Operations Executive and US Office of Strategic Services texts from WW II, the work features a forward by author Dr Stephen Bull giving an abbreviated history of the SOE and OSS. It is more than sufficient to prepare the reader for the information contained in the book.

Topics include tactics, hand-to-hand fighting, propaganda, disguise, and sabotage. In fact, the book gives quite a bit of insight into what lengths the allies went to help workers in Axis nations subvert their oppressors. Special products were sent behind the lines detailing ways innovative to malinger including a means to fake an injured arm. The work is excellent and goes to show that the west at one time was very adept at conducting insurgency.

To order visit Zenith Press.