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Travis Mills and Gary Sinise Foundation on Wreaths Across America Radio RoundTable

October 2nd, 2022

This discussion, focused on veteran healing through stories of resilience, purpose and success, will be heard exclusively on Wreaths Across America Radio!

COLUMBIA FALLS, Maine — Sept. 28, 2021 — Wreaths Across America Radio is proud to announce the next episode in its series of roundtable discussions focused on veteran healing through sharing stories of resilience, purpose, and success. This discussion will take place on Thursday, October 13, 2022, at 12 PM ET, and can be heard exclusively on Wreaths Across America Radio.

The roundtable will focus on the recalibrated warrior, and how finding purpose can benefit not only in your own journey of resilience but help connect with others working to overcome similar challenges. Guest panelists – listed below – will be interviewed by Wreaths Across America’s Executive Director Karen Worcester and Director of Military and Veteran Outreach, Joe Regan, United States Army Veteran.

Guest Panelists Include:

Travis Mills, Founder and President of the Board for the Travis Mills Foundation. United States Army Staff Sergeant (ret.) Travis Mills of the 82nd Airborne is a recalibrated veteran, a motivational speaker, actor, author, and advocate for veterans and amputees. He is one of only five quadruple amputees from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to survive.

On April 10, 2021, Travis was critically injured by an improvised explosive device (IED) during a routine patrol in Afghanistan and spent 19 months at Walter Reed. After his recovery, Travis attended an adaptive sports camp in Colorado and realized the need for a such a place where a veteran, and their entire family could relax, reconnect, and find strength. Born out of this idea, the Travis Mills Foundation Veterans’ Retreat was founded.

Ginger Gilbert Ravella, Author, Military Wife, and Ambassador for the Gary Sinise Foundation. Ginger Gilbert Ravella is a military wife, Gold Star (widow), mother of five and stepmother of two. Her personal mission is to encourage anyone who seeks reconciliation and peace when life hurts the most and to continue to serve a nation by serving others.

Ginger works tirelessly to support and raise funds to help fallen and disabled veterans and their families. She is an international speaker and author devoted to her God, her family, and her country. She is remarried to another widower and USAF fighter pilot, Colonel (Ret) Jim Ravella, who lost his wife to breast cancer. Ginger currently resides in Nashville, Tenn., with her family.

The goal of the roundtable series is to help reduce barriers for veterans by:

• Supporting generational bonds between service veterans through stories of service and success;

• Destigmatizing issues faced by veterans and asking for help;

• Combating inaccurate perceptions of veterans by discussing the diverse experiences, challenges, and success of service members, veterans, and their families; and

• Connecting veterans with valuable resources.

“I know this is going to be a meaningful discussion,” said Karen Worcester, Executive Director, Wreaths Across America. “As everyone involved has a synergy of mission and a deep understanding of veterans’ needs and the needs of their families. We look forward to this opportunity to share these stories and the importance in addressing veterans’ healing.”

You can listen to Wreaths Across America Radio’s 24/7 internet stream anytime and anywhere on the iHeart Radio app, Audacy app, TuneIn app, or at www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/radio.

This is the seventh broadcast in this series, RoundTable discussions are broadcast on Wreaths Across America Radio at least once per quarter.

Learn more at: www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/pages/19520/News/823

Posted in Charity, Press Release | Comments Off on Travis Mills and Gary Sinise Foundation on Wreaths Across America Radio RoundTable

Marine Officer Leads Joint-Service Team of Hackers in an IT Competition

October 2nd, 2022

LANGLEY AFB, Va. —

During the week of July 18-22, 2022, U.S. Marine Corps 1st Lt. Anthony Rosa, an unmanned-aerial surveillance electronic warfare officer with Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 2, and his team competed in the BRAVO Hackathon. The BRAVO Hackathon was an event to help the Department of Defense by combining the information-technology knowledge of civilians and service members. Rosa’s team won first place for “Most Tactically Relevant for Maintenance Data,” and second place for “Most Tactically Relevant for Cyber Operations” with their program.

When attending the BRAVO Hackathon, Rosa and his team of U.S. Airmen and Guardians all had the same mission in mind.

“The premise is we have all this classified data,” said Rosa. “Nobody knows how to properly manipulate the data. In our minds all of that is pretty retroactive. What is more effective is to understand data that’s coming out of present systems.”

“When you build something useful, and then you see somebody’s life improved by it, that’s good and positive feedback from that experience. That makes you want to build more things.”

1st Lt. Anthony Rosa, an unmanned-aerial surveillance electronic warfare officer

Rosa and his team made a program that safely and efficiently compresses and sends classified documents and data. The program creates and processes electronic messaging in seconds as opposed to upwards of a week.

“This is a way to press down data so that you can send a lot of information at once,” said Rosa. “If you’re trying to send a classified document right now, we have to use couriers. We might use FedEx or [U.S. Postal Service] and they’ll bring the letter by hand. Our program can send all the information in less than a minute using the smart contract we wrote.”

Rosa has been interested in programing since high school.

“I taught myself how to program when I was in high school, then got a job with website development,” said Rosa. “I continued to work in in tech fields, and even after I went into the Marine Corps, I continued to do it.”

Rosa spends his free time working on his programming skills. He plans on continuing his work in the future.

“I understood that this was going to be a high-income skill,” said Rosa. “When you see people using , you understand exactly how it’s helping them. When you build something useful, and then you see somebody’s life improved by it, that’s good and positive feedback from that experience. That makes you want to build more things.”

Rosa plans on continuing to program and finding new ways to help people with it. His program was made from thousands of lines of code and took the hard work of his entire team. Their program is currently being looked at by multiple companies and organizations.

“They are maybe going to move the application over to the National Security Agency,” said Rosa. “They have a program for integrating technology. When it gets operationally used, then I’ll feel that satisfaction. You could build something amazing, but if nobody uses it, then it doesn’t matter.”

LCpl Anakin Smith

2nd Marine Aircraft Wing

Posted in Guest Post, Information Warfare, Press Release | Comments Off on Marine Officer Leads Joint-Service Team of Hackers in an IT Competition

34,000 Posts

October 1st, 2022

We recently passed the milestone of 34,000 live posts on the site. That’s an accomplishment of posting every day since May of 2008 and multiple times per day since 2009. I don’t want to break my arm patting myself on the back but that’s not bad for a one-man band.

Posted in Admin | 14 Comments »

Blast From The Past – Scorpion

October 1st, 2022

Here’s an image of the tag in the original Scorpion uniforms by Crye Associates, now known as Crye Precision.

Posted in Advertiser, Camo | 4 Comments »

Australian Defence Force Signs Up for Next Generation of Weapons

October 1st, 2022

30 September 2022

The Federal Government has signed a multi-million dollar agreement with a Queensland company to start acquiring and supplying the next generation of small arms for the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

The contract is part of a $500 million plus commitment to provide Australia’s soldiers, sailors and aviators with enhanced lethality weapon systems.

Head Land Systems, Major General Andrew Bottrell today announced the awarding of the Lethality System Project (LAND 159) Tranche 1 contract to Queensland-based company NIOA, in the lead-up to the Land Forces 2022 Exposition in Brisbane.

Between now and the mid-2020s, NIOA will use a range of sub-contractors to supply new sniper rifles, pistols, shotguns, personal defence weapons, fighting knives, and an assault breaching system to the ADF, with many of the new weapons to be on display at Land Forces.

Major General Bottrell said the contract would include munitions and ancillary equipment including optical and laser systems, torches and suppressors for the new generation of small arms.

“Under the contract, NIOA will be the prime contractor, working with local and international suppliers and weapon manufacturers on the acquisition, integration, delivery and ongoing support of the new weapon systems from 2023.”

“This is a bold step into modern weaponry to quickly improve Australia’s defence preparedness.”

Major General Bottrell said early engagement with industry had proven very successful.

“NIOA has demonstrated a long?term commitment, private investment, and a focus on growing sovereign industrial capability to support Australia’s war fighters.”

“The collaboration between Defence and industry means we will acquire the best available weapon systems for our troops.”

Defence will seek to maximise Australian industry involvement throughout the life of the Lethality System Project, and ensure continuous engagement with industry partners.

New weapons systems to be acquired include:

• Australian manufacturer ZU Bladeworx’s Double-Edged Fighting Knife – selected as the basis of the ADF’s new Hand-to-Hand Fighting System. The black, double-edged fighting knife has a 100mm blade, is machined from a solid billet of A2 steel and features a non-slip handle and retention ring.

• The SIG Sauer P320 XCarry Pro – selected as the platform for the Sidearm Weapon System, which will replace the venerable Browning Mk3 pistol. It will be complemented with reflex sights, and a white light illuminator.

• The Benelli M3A1 – selected as the platform for the Combat Shotgun System. Operable in semi-automatic or pump-action mode, it is complemented with a red dot sight and white light illuminator.

• The SIG Sauer MCX, in .300 Blackout calibre – selected as the platform for the Personal Defence Weapon System, to provide dismounted combatants with a light, modular, and compact weapon system that can be rapidly optimised for specialised roles.

• The Accuracy International AX-SR – selected as the platform for the Long Range Sniper Capability. It will be introduced into ADF service as a multi-calibre system capable of delivering in .338 Lapua Magnum, .300 Norma Magnum and 7.62mm NATO calibres.

• The Sniper Surveillance Capability – selected to provide ADF snipers with a day and night capability utilising the Safran JIM Compact multispectral surveillance device and Steiner laser range-finding binoculars.

• The M107A1 rifle, manufactured by Barrett Firearms Manufacturing Incorporated, – selected as the platform for the Anti-Material Sniper Capability. The M107A1 is a lighter, modernised and suppressed derivative of the in-service weapon, and is complemented with precision optics, night vision, and ranger-finding devices.

Posted in Contracts, International, Press Release, weapons | 29 Comments »

Two 3rd SFAB Battalions Case Their Colors at Fort Hood

October 1st, 2022

FORT HOOD, Texas – The 1st and 5th battalions of 3rd Security Force Assistance Brigade cased their colors before their upcoming deployment to United States Central Command in front of the brigade’s headquarters here, Sept. 19.

The advisors will deploy to USCENTCOM for six months. The Soldiers will advise, support, liaise and assist nations within their area of responsibility, which includes 21 different countries. The goal is to support and assist allies in the region so they can build capacity and maintain stability.

Security advisor teams increase interoperability and achieve strategic goals by providing experienced leaders from the maneuver, combat engineer, signal support, intelligence, medical and logistics career fields.

“The advisors, of Force Package 23-1 are about as ready as it could possibly be,” said Col. Zachary Miller 3rd SFAB commander. “They’ve trained intensively on individual and collective skills that make them ready to partner in any environment. They built teams where everyone looks out for each other and pushes their fellow advisors to be their best.”

In his remarks to the Soldiers and families gathered for the ceremony, Miller spoke about the 3rd SFAB being a new type of formation in today’s Army and how its mission of enabling combatant commanders to accomplish theater security objectives by training, advising, assisting, accompanying, and enabling allied and partnered security forces. Miller explained that the unit provides an essential capability for the Army and fills a critical need in today’s operational environment.

“Our advisors’ presence matters in Iraq because we are enabling the Iraqi security forces to contain and defeat ISIS without external assistance,” Miller said. “We deter Iran … (which has) for more than 40 years, aggressively supported terrorism or terrorist organizations,” Miller said. “Our advisor’s presence matters, because it helps deter Iran and its proxies from continuing activities that destabilize not only that region, but global security and commerce.”

With advisors already deployed and present in theater, this force-package deployment of SFAB teams to the CENTCOM area is significant because it will be the first time this many advisors will deploy to the region, Lt. Col. Patrick Caukin, 1st Bn., 3rd SFAB commander, said.

“This is our first deployment as a dual battalion headquarter package with the 1st Battalion and 5th Battalion going out as a team to CENTCOM,” Caukin said. “You know, the teams that are over there, 3rd Squadron, they’ve really set the tone, and the groundwork for us to come in and continue the advising efforts to broaden the U.S. is mission there.”

Miller finished his speech with a quote from Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, who said, “Presence buys you influence, which is built on trust. You can’t surge trust.”

By Eric Franklin, Fort Hood Public Affairs

Posted in Army, Forces Focus, Guest Post | Comments Off on Two 3rd SFAB Battalions Case Their Colors at Fort Hood

Apollo Military Offers Maritime Operators Highest Performance UBA with Open Safety Incursion CMR

September 30th, 2022

OT&E of Incursion CMR SCR with Apollo BioMask FFM and Patriot JetBootsIn use with a number of countries naval Special Forces and undergoing Test & Evaluation globally with Tier 1 units. The Open Safety Incursion CMR is a Compact Military Rebreather (CMR) that exceeds all NATO, CE and NEDU performance benchmarks and enables a wide range of missions with a single unit system: as either an O2 CCR, SCR, O2+SCR Switchable unit, Front or Back mount. Its professionally engineered clean sheet design, offering the lowest documented rebreather Work of Breathing (WOB) and long scrubber duration. This enables operators to do the same work, with less effort expended, and provides substantial OH&S benefits: inclusive mitigation of caustic cocktail risk to operators through use of American manufactured 2.2kg 5” solid state Micropore ExtendAir® CO2 technology. Enabling the unique ability to also recover the loop from flood; whilst submerged. Of course, the Incursion CMR can also be operated with 2.6kg of conventional granular absorbent and achieve the same submerged duration.

Incursion CMR O2/SCR Switch for Combat Swimming, VSW MCM or SDV ops.Features include:

• State of the art military rebreather supporting O2-CCR and SCR operating modes, both dedicated and underwater switchable. Fail-safe gas switch. Offboard SDV or EBS supplied gas whip OSEL lockable Quick-Connect compatible.

• Front or back-mount, with the same unit; compatible with diveable armour vests incorporating front, back and side plates.

• CE, NORSOK and NEDU standards compliant & certified.

• Functional Safety audited and certified to EN61508 SIL 3: with full disclosure of safety case, all test data, FMECA, HAZOPs etc.

• Rugged with exceptional availability, backed by lifetime warranty on design, parts, materials and safety – significantly reducing whole of life cycle costs to operate.

-Low maintenance, with all servicing and repairs able to be performed in-country: technician courses available.

-Includes a unique whole of life safety warranty where if the Functional Safety performance of the Incursion CMR is found to be lacking or can be improved upon; Open Safety will re-engineer the required component and supply it at their cost.

• Light: 10.3kg to 17.4kg depending on configuration, ready to dive including trim weights, scrubber and gas.

• Compact semi-rigid satchel style (35 x 41 x 16cm) including integral oxygen cylinder

-Non-mag 2L 300bar 904L SS carbon wrapped cylinders; avionic (vacuum) tested for HALO use

• Internal protected counterlungs for HALO deployment or high waterflow DPV use

• Flood tolerant and uniquely flood recoverable whilst dived

• 4+ hour scrubber duration, >6 hour gas duration (CCR/SCR modes)

• Rated for use from 0m through to 100m

• Lowest Work of Breathing in industry at

-0.35 J/L at 10m on Oxygen, 62.5 lpm RMV,

-0.6 J/L at 40m on Air, 40 lpm RMV,

-1.44 J/L at 40msw on Air, 75lpm RMV,

-0.9 J/L at 100msw on Heliox, 75lpm RMV

• Low-Mag as standard and Non-Mag options (to NATO STANAG 2897 Class A, static and dynamic tests)

• Low acoustic signature to NATO STANAG 1158

• FFM compatible

• UW comms compatible (DSV adapter)

• Integrated Bail Out Valve for immediate Open Circuit bailout an option; Open Safety ALVBOV replaces DSV

• Proven with Naval and Special Forces around the world from arctic to tropics

• Manufactured in Scotland, United Kingdom and deliberately NOT BERRY compliant.

Open Safety Incursion CMR O2 CCR shown with PPO2 Monitoring through Open Safety HUD offering full dive data display inclusive depth, dive time, compass, decompression and PPO2.Developed out of the British and Norwegian rebreather safety initiative for commercial North Sea divers, a 200 man-year project, the Incursion UBA systems are believed to be the safest and highest performance military rebreather that can be engineered today. The Open Safety Incursion CMR is supplied with Functional Safety certification – to the Gold Standard – IEC EN 61508, and at the most onerous level (SIL3) including all mechanics, electronics and software options.

Evaluating new rebreathers can be time consuming, expensive and labour intensive. To minimise that overhead, the Incursion rebreather has been the subject of one the most stringent testing regimes ever. The Open Safety Incursion system are the only military rebreather on the market whose full test results, failure analysis, performance measurements and compliance matrices are audited and published for critique by prospective purchasers to validate their procurement requirements.

The Incursion CMR is distributed throughout South East Asia and Oceania by Apollo Military, whom are also a very successful sales agent, for a number of disparate and supporting, maritime tactical products. Apollo Military are an ISO Certified company whom have been in the industry since 1988 and are now one of the premier and most respected maritime tactical operations equipment suppliers in the South East Asian region.

Apollo Military in addition to supplying the best maritime tactical equipment that we can source for our clients; also inhouse design, test and have manufactured to our specification Australian manufactured Titanium COBRA boarding ladders and JEYCO manufactured Fast Ropes; both in service with numerous Tier 1 units globally.

Apollo Military supplied Australian manufactured JEYCO Fast Rope and Titanium COBRA boarding ladder

www.apollomilitary.com

www.facebook.com/Military.Gear.Marine

www.facebook.com/OpenSafetyEquipment

Posted in International, Maritime, Press Release | Comments Off on Apollo Military Offers Maritime Operators Highest Performance UBA with Open Safety Incursion CMR

DSEI 2023: UK Ministry of Defence to Focus on ‘Achieving an Integrated Force’

September 30th, 2022

“It is important to highlight the work towards Achieving an Integrated Force as we continue to drive for a stronger, more competitive industry, procuring the right equipment for our people at the right price and at the right time – promoting collaboration between allies and partners as well as supporting British industry to thrive in the international exports market” – Minister for Defence Procurement, The Rt Hon Alec Shelbrooke MP

The overarching theme for the DSEI 2023 event has been announced as ‘Achieving an Integrated Force’. The UK Ministry of Defence and the British Army, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force, UK Space Command, UK Strategic Command, and UK Defence and Security Exports are working to integrate at all levels and across five operational domains of Air, Cyber and Electromagnetic Activities (CEMA), Land, Sea and Space.

Building on the DSEI 2021 theme of ‘Integrated Response to Future Threats’, it is evident that an integrated force can only occur through culture, a trained workforce, data and technology. In UK Strategic Command, the Digital Backbone strategy seeks to provide the authority and capacity to act as Defence’s integrator and enable multi-domain and multi-nation integration.

To achieve an integrated force, supply-chains need to be understood and strengthened, thus creating an unbreakable cohesion between military and industry. This can be accomplished by utilising the expert knowledge of the civil and private sectors to take full advantage of cutting-edge technology and skills. All of this, combined, will lead to a strategic defence force that can transition from large, centralised, unhardened infrastructure to smaller, dispersed, resilient and adaptive modules that can include both passive and active defences.

The current and future operating environment will be characterised by increasing challenges below the threshold of traditional warfare. Changing battle narratives and the increasing use of non-lethal means to influence or secure objectives mean that coercive warfare has come of age. It is a new era where challenge will be in the real, virtual and cognitive worlds; partners and allies must be prepared.

Speaking to this theme, a video exclusive featuring the highest levels of MOD and military stakeholders has been launched.

Listen here to General Patrick Sanders (Chief of the General Staff, British Army) Air Marshal Sir Richard Knighton (Deputy Commander Capability, RAF) Vice Admiral Martin Connell (Second Sea Lord, Royal Navy), Lieutenant General Tom Copinger-Symes (Deputy Commander, UK Strategic Command).

Minister for Defence Procurement, The Rt Hon Alec Shelbrooke MP, said:

“In an age of increasing global competition, DSEI 2023 will bring the key players together to ensure that we’re constantly moving forward alongside our Armed Forces and industry partners.

Grant Burgham, DSEI Director, said:

“Having the theme announced for DSEI 2023 is a significant step as we look forward to the show only twelve months away. DSEI is the premier event of its kind and is crucial in bringing together the UK Government, armed forces and industry.

“For 2023, we fully expect to be back at pre-pandemic levels of attendees, with contribution from over 2,800 DSEI & DSEI Connect defence and security suppliers, and 31 international pavilions across the exhibition space. We are immensely proud of the platform we provide the international defence and security industry, enabling it to demonstrate its expertise and capabilities across a live and digital audience.”

Held biennially, DSEI connects governments, national armed forces, industry thought leaders and the global defence and security supply chain on an unrivalled scale. The event is curated to consistently support both the prime contractors as well as small and medium-sized enterprises while, crucially, giving UK exports a significant boost.

DSEI will take place at ExCeL London 12-15 September 2023.

Posted in DSEi, Press Release | Comments Off on DSEI 2023: UK Ministry of Defence to Focus on ‘Achieving an Integrated Force’