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Monday, August 3rd, 2020MATBOCK Monday – BLS
Monday, August 3rd, 2020Good Morning and Happy MATBOCK Monday!
The BLS is a joint project between MATBOCK and MAS Special Ops Training. It’s a patent pending Bench, Ladder, Stretcher designed for Wing and Zodiac inflatable boats. The BLS is sold as a pair (bottom and upper sections) and designed to deploy as a unit. For the inflatables, it sits across the side tubes and can be secured to the floor with either ratchet straps or line (not included in the kit), giving space for 4 operators to sit forward facing during transit. When reaching the landing site or ship to be boarded, the sections can be attached together to create a 12 foot ladder with integrated shepherds hooks and offset ladder rungs. Additionally, the ladder rungs are coated on the top surface with nonslip to help prevent falls due to wet surfaces. If there is a casualty, a single section can be used as a stretcher to evacuate the individual as well. Four handles protrude from the sides to aid in transport as well as for positioning the ladder.
Each section is 69” tall, 17.5” wide, weighs 20.5 lbs and is made of aluminum with welded connections throughout the system. Additionally, the BLS comes with grip feet on the lower section to help prevent the bottom from kicking out while being used as a ladder.
Don’t forget to tune in on Monday at 4:30 PM EST as we go live to demo our BLS system!
Special Tactics Airmen Integrate Combat Capabilities During Exercise Commando Crucible
Monday, August 3rd, 2020HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. (AFNS) —
Air Force special tactics teams provide a wide range of core responsibilities and combatant commands rely on ST operators to hone their skills long before arriving at a deployed location.
To meet the standards required for deployment, special tactics teams completed exercise Commando Crucible, from June 18-July 3, at Hurlburt Field and in Kinston, North Carolina.
“Despite logistical frustrations due to COVID-19 restrictions, the exercise allowed special tactics flights and attachments to conduct critical training on global access, precision strike, personnel recovery and foreign internal defense capabilities,” said a special tactics officer and lead planner for the exercise.
Special tactics operators led the training, which consisted of 253 participants and leveraged 40 aircraft from across Air Force Special Operations Command and Air Combat Command. One team of participants included members from the 53rd Air Traffic Control Squadron assigned to Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. The 53rd ATCS members played the role of a simulated host nation force and special tactics operators were responsible for training them on fundamental tactical skills and guiding them through a direct action training mission.
“The ST flights did a great job providing a plan of instruction in only three days to effectively integrate with the teams conducting the raids,” the special tactics officer said. “This is extremely realistic for a lot of the different partner forces we integrate with in deployed areas of operation.”
Col. Matt Allen, 24th Special Operations Wing commander, Col. Allison Black, the 24th SOW’s new vice commander and Chief Master Sgt. Jeff Guilmain, 24th SOW command chief, were present for portions of the exercise to observe the tactical units hitting their training objectives.
“We saw really well-rehearsed combat capability,” Guilmain said. “It was really valuable to watch how operators’ skills, both as individuals and as teams, have been refined over the months of training to provide incredible capability to the forward commanders. I’m glad we have that process in place where commanders can validate those capabilities and ensure readiness.”
Another critical readiness component teams were evaluated on was their ability to plan and carry out agile combat employment concepts. Special tactics forces have made this a priority in response to near-peer competition as well as AFSOC’s strategic guidance.
Special tactics operators traveled from Hurlburt Field to Kinston, N.C., to rapidly secure an airfield to use as a forward air refueling point, integrating combat Air Force assets such as F-15 Eagles, F-22 Raptors and AFSOC MC-130s.
“The ability for our aircraft to operate swiftly in contested areas improves U.S. Air Force lethality and presents strategic dilemmas for our adversaries. It also helps develop procedures to habitualize AFSOC and ACC units working together in support of the Air Superiority mission.” the special tactics officer said. “Overall, despite initial planning difficulties, the exercise execution went flawlessly and according to plan.”
Story by 1st Lt Alejandra Fontalvo , 24th Special Operations Wing
Photo by SSgt Rose Gudex
Quantum Chip Fabrication Paves Way for Scalable Processors, Producing the Largest Quantum Chip of its Type Using Diamond-Based Qubits and Quantum Photonics
Sunday, August 2nd, 2020
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — An Army-funded project marks a turning point in the field of scalable quantum processors, producing the largest quantum chip of its type using diamond-based qubits and quantum photonics.
Millions of quantum processors will be needed to build quantum computers, and new research at MIT and Sandia National Laboratories, funded and managed in part by the U.S. Army Combat Capability Development’s Command’s Army Research Laboratory’s Center for Distributed Quantum Information, demonstrates a viable way to scale-up processor production.
“Building large scale quantum devices will entail both the assembly of large numbers of high-quality qubits and the creation of reliable circuits for transmitting and manipulating quantum information between them,” said Dr. Fredrik Fatemi, Army researcher and CDQI co-manager. “Here, the research team has demonstrated exceptional progress toward reliably manufacturing complex quantum chips with both critical elements.”
Unlike classical computers, which process and store information using bits represented by either 0s and 1s, quantum computers operate using quantum bits, or qubits, which can represent 0, 1, or both at the same time. This strange property allows quantum computers to simultaneously perform multiple calculations, solving problems that would be intractable for classical computers.
The qubits in the new chip are artificial atoms made from defects in the diamond, which can be prodded with visible light and microwaves to emit photons that carry quantum information. The process, which the researchers describe in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, is a hybrid approach, in which carefully selected quantum micro-chiplets containing multiple diamond-based qubits are placed on an aluminum nitride photonic integrated circuit.
“In the past 20 years of quantum engineering, it has been the ultimate vision to manufacture such artificial qubit systems at volumes comparable to integrated electronics,” said Dirk Englund, an associate professor in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “Although there has been remarkable progress in this very active area of research, fabrication and materials complications have thus far yielded just two to three emitters per photonic system.”
Using their hybrid method, the researchers were able to build a 128-qubit system — the largest integrated artificial atom-photonics chip yet.
The artificial atoms in the chiplets consist of color centers in diamonds, defects in diamond’s carbon lattice where adjacent carbon atoms are missing, with their spaces either filled by a different element or left vacant. In the chiplets, the replacement elements are germanium and silicon. Each center functions as an atom-like emitter whose spin states can form a qubit. The artificial atoms emit colored particles of light, or photons, that carry the quantum information represented by the qubit.
Diamond color centers make good solid-state qubits, but “the bottleneck with this platform is actually building a system and device architecture that can scale to thousands and millions of qubits,” said Noel Wan, MIT research and the paper’s coauthor. “Artificial atoms are in a solid crystal, and unwanted contamination can affect important quantum properties such as coherence times. Furthermore, variations within the crystal can cause the qubits to be different from one another, and that makes it difficult to scale these systems.”
Instead of trying to build a large quantum chip entirely in diamond, the researchers decided to take a modular and hybrid approach.
“We use semiconductor fabrication techniques to make these small chiplets of diamond, from which we select only the highest quality qubit modules,” Wan said. “Then we integrate those chiplets piece-by-piece into another chip that wires the chiplets together into a larger device.”
The integration takes place on a photonic integrated circuit, which is analogous to an electronic integrated circuit but uses photons rather than electrons to carry information. Photonics provides the underlying architecture to route and switch photons between modules in the circuit with low loss. The circuit platform is aluminum nitride, rather than the traditional silicon of some integrated circuits.
Using this hybrid approach of photonic circuits and diamond chiplets, the researchers were able to connect 128 qubits on one platform. The qubits are stable and long-lived, and their emissions can be tuned within the circuit to produce spectrally indistinguishable photons, according to the researchers.
While the platform offers a scalable process to produce artificial atom-photonics chips, the next step will be to test its processing skills.
“This is a proof of concept that solid-state qubit emitters are very scalable quantum technologies,” Wan said. “In order to process quantum information, the next step would be to control these large numbers of qubits and also induce interactions between them.”
The qubits in this type of chip design wouldn’t necessarily have to be these particular diamond color centers. Other chip designers might choose other types of diamond color centers, atomic defects in other semiconductor crystals like silicon carbide, certain semiconductor quantum dots, or rare-earth ions in crystals.
“Because the integration technique is hybrid and modular, we can choose the best material suitable for each component, rather than relying on natural properties of only one material, thus allowing us to combine the best properties of each disparate material into one system,” said Tsung-Ju Lu, MIT researcher and the paper’s co-author.
Finding a way to automate the process and demonstrate further integration with optoelectronic components such as modulators and detectors will be necessary to build even bigger chips necessary for modular quantum computers and multichannel quantum repeaters that transport qubits over long distances, the researchers said.
“The team has made an incredible advance toward the large-scale integration of artificial atoms and photonics and, looking forward, we are very excited for increasingly complex testing of the devices,” said Dr. Sara Gamble, program manager at the Army Research Office, an element of CCDC ARL, and CDQI co-manager. “The modular approach so far successfully demonstrated by the team has enormous promise for the future quantum computers and quantum networks of high interest to the Army.”
By U.S. Army CCDC Army Research Laboratory Public Affairs
*Adapted with permission from an article by Becky Ham, MIT News.
SCUBAPRO Sunday – Draper Kaufman the Godfather of UDTs/SEALS
Sunday, August 2nd, 2020On August 4 we celebrate Rear Admiral (ret) Draper Laurence Kauffman birthday. Admiral Kauffman is credited with starting the Underwater Demolishing Teams and being the first U.S. frogman. He is called the father or Godfather of the SEALS teams.
He graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1933. But because he had bad eyesight, he was made a reserve officer. At the start of WWII, he volunteered for the America Volunteer Ambulance Corp in Paris. During the German blitz of London, he severed as a bomb disposal officer. One month before Pearl Harbor he returned to the U.S. and joined the Naval Reserve. He is credited with inventing Motivation week, better known as Hell Week in Basic Underwater Demolition / SEAL training (BUD/S). Just that last accomplishment is worthy of calling him the Godfather.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draper_Kauffman
huckberry.com/journal/posts/the-godfather-of-the-navy-seals
21st Special Tactics Squadron Recognized for Deployment Action in Fight Against Extremist Organizations
Saturday, August 1st, 2020HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. – The 21st Special Tactics Squadron assigned to Pope Field, North Carolina gathered with family and friends July 24, 2020 to watch the presentation of over 90 awards for the squadron’s most recent deployment in 2019, battling six extremist organizations across three areas of responsibility.
“The majority of you would rather receive a decoration in your team room, your office or at home maybe, and not in public, but it’s important,” said Lt. Col. Randall Harvey, former commander of the 21st STS and ceremony speaker. “It’s important for you, because you need to understand that we know what you do and what you sacrifice. It’s important for your families because they need to know your stories. It’s important for Americans out there to know what other Americans are doing on their behalf. Finally, it’s important for those who have come before us and those who are no longer with us. We owe it to them to be here and be standing strong.”
The presentations started by recognizing the members of the squadron who deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. The Special Tactics unit served as primary tactical planners for infiltration, exfiltration, fires, as well as Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance taskings in the execution of 241 direct-action raids during an especially “kinetic winter fighting season”. The team engaged in 235 firefights with hardened Taliban and ISIS-K fighters, controlled 4,985 aircraft, which conducted over 622 airstrikes on enemy targets, 235 of which were within “danger close” range. Their efforts removed 1,880 enemy personnel from the battlefield. Twelve Bronze Star Medals and four Bronze Star Medals with Valor were presented for actions contributed in this area of responsibility.
“In many ways it’s the greatest adventure to put yourself on the line… and step up when it counts the most,” said Harvey. “For some of you that line was a razor’s edge between life and death.”
In addition to the numerous precision strikes and direct action raids, the team made Special Tactics history by employing their leading global access capabilities. Specifically, one of the deployed teams single-handedly secured, established, controlled and commanded a mission support site during a 96-hour ST-organic and presidentially approved operation.
The squadron members deployed in support of Operation Inherent Resolve were also recognized for actions ranging from controlled fires, which put pressure on thousands of enemy fighters to surrender, to driving 190 joint and coalition missions and working with United Nations and Department of Defense partners to provide food and supplies to over 40,000 internally displaced citizens. Three additional Bronze Star Medals along with several Air Force and Army commendation medals were presented for OIR.
“You may not realize it, but you are the privileged ones,” said Harvey. “You are the privileged ones to have stepped into that arena and stepped on to the line when it mattered most. Many Americans will never know what that’s like.”
Lastly, a 12-person flight deployed to Africa was recognized for their integral role in building counter violent extremist capabilities with allied nations in Northwest and East Africa while navigating complex state and military systems to establish enduring Special Tactics-led foreign internal defense missions.
“In Africa, we partnered with key allies in Mali and Kenya, establishing new partnerships to integrate airpower into the ground scheme of maneuver… things no other [special operations force] can do out there,” said Harvey. “Our guys were on the ground day and night enhancing counterterrorism capabilities of these SOF units, while simultaneously reinforcing that the United States is the partner of choice in the region.”
The squadron’s Special Tactics leaders won approval from key Kenyan military leaders to craft and launch an air to ground integration training program for the Kenyan military, focused on improving tactics in the fight against Al Shabaab extremists. The program was deemed successful and sparked demand among Kenyan military and Air Force leaders for similar programs going forward.
“I want to say congratulations on a job well done,” said Harvey. “I’ll close with a quote from John F. Kennedy, he said ‘there are risks and costs to programs of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.’ Thank you for being men and women of action.”
Special Tactics is U.S. Special Operation Command’s tactical air and ground integration force, and the Air Force’s special operations ground force, leading Global Access, Precision Strike, Personnel Recovery and Battlefield Surgery operations on the battlefield. Since 9/11, Air Force Special Tactics operators have been involved in almost every major operation and have seen a significant amount of combat. It is the most highly decorated community in the Air Force since the end of the Vietnam War.
FirstSpear Friday Focus – OEM Partner Series, Tuff Possum Gear
Friday, July 31st, 2020Today we have another edition of the FirstSpear OEM Partner series taking a closer look at an all new company FirstSpear manufacturers private label equipment for. Introducing Tuff Possum Gear and the Shackleton EDC Satchel, 100% American Made by FirstSpear. Currently available in Coyote Brown, Ranger Green, and Black.
tuffpossumgear.com/product/shackleton-edc-satchel
How was Tuff Possum started?
I, Jayberry, grew up hiking, camping, fishing, hunting and just generally exploring like kids ought to be able to do. A fellow needs a way to carry those essentials for his adventure, right?
My mother was working as a part time private seamstress, so naturally I would bring requests for pouches and bags for my “kit”. These grew until, when I brought her a small pack design, she decided it was time for me to learn to sew.
That summer of 2012, a family friend gave 13 yr old me a little home sewing machine that she no longer needed and so it began. I only sewed projects for myself and friends for a few years.
But around age 15, in search of funding my own material purchasing, I started selling a few pieces on an online discussion forum and quickly realized there were customers to be had. People who took this gear out and used it hard.
Fast forward to November of 2017, I graduated highschool, quit my part time machining job of 3 years, and decided to launch this full time. Tuff Possum Gear was born!
We exist to bring trustworthy gear to people who go places and do things. Whether that means hiking to Machu Picchu, commuting in the heart of New York City, or camping along a riverbank in the Missouri Ozarks.
Why was the Shackleton Developed?
The Roman emperor and philosopher, Marcus Aurelius, once said, “Usefulness and happiness are largely found in the same soul.” The Shackleton EDC Satchel was really developed as a grab-and-go, everyday carry bag. Designed to easily carry the items I wanted to have on hand, no matter where I go. Namely: A water bottle, a battery pack and charger cords for my phone, a first aid kit to lend help around me, a pair of gloves, a multitool, 550 parachute cord, and the like.
If something isn’t easy to keep with you at all times, you are more likely to leave it behind. A single strap satchel is preferable, in my opinion, for easy access on the go. It has merit as well, when it comes to donning and doffing when entering and exiting motor vehicles.
Why did you choose FS manufacturing?
For for a small business like ours, scalability is hard. Producing gear at high enough quantities and maintaining a high standard of quality is the challenge of the day.
FirstSpear has the manufacturing capabilities, both in the pool of talent and the specialized equipment, to make that a smooth process. For a small business owner doing almost everything himself and bootstrapping a brand from nothing, this is a huge boon.
As part of this, this also meant we have the ability to take advantage of utilizing FirstSpear’s patented 6/12 material and their laser cutting abilities with other laminate components.
Why is American manufacturing important to Tuff Possum?
The answer is twofold.
The first is transparency and human connection. We place a lot of value on the ability to drive to whereever our products are made, talk to the people making them,see the machines they are being made on and know that the people value the things we value.
The second is gratitude. For the land and the country that has given us so much. Despite its flaws, it has stood as a bastion for freedom and righteousness in a world of darkness. And it is truly a land of opportunity. A land that has been fertile ground for generations of our forefathers. American manufacturing is important to us as a way of giving back. Of supporting the industry, the grit and tenacity, the people, and the families that compose this great country.
