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Archive for 2011

Oct 3rd Raid

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

Today is the 18th Anniversary of the Oct 3rd Raid during which elements of TF Ranger, deployed to Mogadishu, Somalia conducted an operation on that city’s Olympic Hotel in order to capture key leaders of the Aidid Militia.

Unfortunately, during the exfil portion of the raid a battle ensued that claimed the lives of 18 Americans and wounded another 73. Additionally, CW3 Michael Durant was captured by the militia.

For those of you unfamiliar, one of the best accounts is contained in the book, “Blackhawk Down” by author Mark Bowden. Much of the information was serialized prior to the book’s publication in the Philadelphia Enquirer. Later this was made into a movie bearing the same name.

Please take a moment to remember these men and their sacrifice.

Posted in Admin | 4 Comments »

Army Combat Pant Prototype

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

This is Propper International’s version of the Army Combat Pant. It is made from 3 different TenCate FR fabrics including a heavier duty seat reinforcement as well as the stretch panels around the knees and above the seat. One distinct difference we know that the Propper version has from Crye’s offering is a zippered fly rather buttons. Additionally, the button at closure at the top is located on the front flap rather than the rear and buttons into a fully enclosed hole.

Here you can see the reinforced rear.

The Propper pant utilizes Cry’s proprietary kneepad design.

The kneepad is removable and and the pant features an internal flap that plugs the hole from the inside when the kneepad is not worn.

The pant leg incorporates several cloth adjustable take up tabs.

The height of the kneepad is also adjustable via an internal shockcord that is held in place via a barrel lock contained in the external upperthigh pockets.

Here you can see the low profile take up tabs on the sides of the nonpadded waist band.

Word is that Crye Precision, Massif and Propper International will face off for the final contract for the Army Combat Pant.

Tags: Crye Precision, Massif, Propper International, TenCate
Posted in Clothing, FR | 14 Comments »

Tactical NAV 2.5 Just Released

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

Rev 2.5 of the popular Tactical NAV app was recently released with increased GPS accuracy as well as the ability to turn the crosshairs off. Once iOS 5 hits, there will be another minor update.

Additionally, the brains behind the app, Army CPT Jonathan Springer informed us that he has begun to work on an Android version of the software which will include all of the functionality of the iOS app. Development will take 60-90 days due to the complexity of the code. This is huge news considering that the Army is investigating the Android platform as their answer to the Nett Warrior program. Unfortunately, the Army won’t help support the development so CPT Springer is having to fund the project out of pocket.

Regardless, both apps will be able to work together seamlessly to share waypoint as well as other data.

To get the iOS app visit iTunes.

Tags: Android, iOS, iTunes, Nett Warrior, Tactical NAV
Posted in Digitization | 3 Comments »

AlphaDog

Sunday, October 2nd, 2011

Meet AlphaDog, Boston Dynamics’ latest load carrying quadrupedal robot. This nightmarish fusion of machinery and the souls of abandoned canines can carry a payload of up to 400 lbs on 20-mile missions in rough terrain. It’s also extremely good at reorienting itself, looking as pissed as something without a face can as it does so, and the kicks that threw its predecessor, BigDog, for a loop are completely ineffective; shoving still works, thankfully. While it still looks like a monster from Silent Hill, at least this model doesn’t sound like a swarm of evil bees. Also, it kinda looks like an ATAT, which is always cool.

http://www.bostondynamics.com/

This story originally appeared at Tactical Fanboy

Tags: AlphaDog
Posted in Robotics, TFB | 2 Comments »

SOG Knives & Tools – What are THEY Thinking

Sunday, October 2nd, 2011

We love SOG Specialty Knives & Tools. However, we don’t love questionable practices in light of military ethics codes. It seems Sergeant Joshua C. Holubz, US Army (Ret) was the winner of the SOG Knives “Friday Faceoff” making him last week’s Face of SOG. Truth be told, his story is harrowing. But that doesn’t justify using his image in uniform to sell knives.

DoD 5500.7R is the Joint Ethics Regulation. Para’s 2-304 and 3-209 cover this issue. Read it and make your own conclusion.

“2-304. Use of Military Title by Retirees or Reserves. Retired military members and members of Reserve Components, not on active duty, may use military titles in connection with commercial enterprises, provided they clearly indicate their retired or inactive Reserve status. However, any use of military titles is prohibited if it in any way casts discredit on DoD or gives the appearance of sponsorship, sanction, endorsement, or approval by DoD. In addition, in overseas areas, commanders may further restrict the use of titles by retired military members and members of Reserve Components.”

“3-209. Endorsement. Endorsement of a non Federal entity, event, product, service, or enterprise may be neither stated nor implied by DoD or DoD employees in their official capacities and titles, positions, or organization names may not be used to suggest official endorsement or preferential treatment of any non Federal entity except those listed in subsection 3 210., below.”

When we saw this photo posted on SOG’s Facebook page, we posted a comment that this looked like an ethics violation. SOG didn’t take the photo down. Instead, they deleted our comment.

So, what do you think? Was SOG right or wrong? Would it have been better to use a photo if he was out of uniform?

Unfortunately, SOG will probably never have anything to do with us again after bringing this to light. If so, we can live with that. If you are a servicemember (active or retired), make sure you know what you are doing when you involve yourself with commercial entities. If you are a company, please don’t put our servicemembers in this situation.

If you want to know more about ethics rules here are some resources:
Office of Government Ethics
U.S. Department of Defense Standards of Conduct Office
Office of General Counsel, Department of the Army
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Judge Advocate General, Ethics and Fraud Remedies
Department of the Navy Ethics Program

Tags: SOG Specialty Knives & Tools
Posted in Admin | 17 Comments »

Wear Some Red Friday

Sunday, October 2nd, 2011

You may be aware of the trend to honor public service professionals by wearing red on Fridays. We’re talking LE, Public Safety, Fire/EMS as well as military. You may see folks out wearing red shoe laces, a hat, or even just a ribbon. It doesn’t really matter, so long as you take the time to remember. The Wear Some Red website has some cool posters (like this one) you can download to help raise awareness.

Created by Travis Getz, an artist who does a lot of work in support of military Family Support Groups, he wanted to so something to more inclusively honor all of those who sacrifice to keep America safe.

www.wearsomeredfriday.org

Tags: Wear Some Red Friday
Posted in Morale | 2 Comments »

Congrats Nike and The US Naval Academy

Sunday, October 2nd, 2011

Nothing like dishonoring the term “Warrior” by equating it with a child’s game. I’m pretty much sick of people playing games that last an hour or two equating it combat and being warriors. It gets even better when they use terms like “honor” and “sacrifice.” It’s hard to believe that the Naval Academy played right into the hands of Nike. They should know better, both Nike and the Navy. But don’t feel bad Navy, Nike did it with USMA as well. Let Nike take that crap to schools that don’t produce real Warriors and they sit around and tell each other how tough it is to play at it.

Don’t know what I’m referring to? Nike’s “Pro Combat System of Dress.” It’s not made for the battlefield. Nope, instead, it’s built for a game, and they’re using the good name of our most respected institutions to sell it.

I guess the only redeeming factor in this is that Air Force beat Navy yesterday in “combat.”

Tags: Nike, rantgasm
Posted in Industry | 43 Comments »

Threads

Saturday, October 1st, 2011

“Threads” is a clothing and equipment newsletter published by the Australian Department of Defence for industry. It is a great resource for keeping up with the latest in Australian initiatives. One interesting article confirms that the Australians are going to domestically manufacture their recently adopted Operational Combat Uniforms consisting of consists of four different garments: Field Shirt, Field Pants, Combat Shirt and Combat Pants designed by Crye Precision. The article also verifies that these will be printed in a new Australian variant of the MultiCam pattern. Hopefully, these will be manufactured from the latest version of TenCate’s FR Defender-M fabric rather than going back to the non-FR twill that some in Australia’s opposition political party have called for after some durability issues were noted with an older version of Defender-M. This new fabric adopted last year by the USMC and recently by the US Army features twice the tear strength of the version used in the last round of OCUs.

Threads No19

For the access to full library visit www.defence.gov.au/dmo/news/threads/.

Tags: Australia, Crye Precision, TenCate, Threads
Posted in Foreign, FR, Industry, Materials, Multicam | Comments Off on Threads