Girls With Guns

Intelligence: Girls With Guns Get It

June 29, 2009: In both Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Army and Marines found it useful to send a female soldier along on raids, as it was less disruptive to have a woman search the female civilians. There was no shortage of volunteers for this duty. The marines, as is their custom, saw more opportunities in this. Thus the marines began sending a team of women on such missions....

The marines also noticed that the female troops were better at picking up useful information in general. This is something Western police forces noted, in the last few decades, as women were allowed to work in all areas of police work, including detectives and crime scene investigators.

I find that very interesting. The aim of the women on these missions wasn't combat although they were trained for it if required. I have talked about my opinion on women in combat in my post "Women in the special forces?" that women can be used in other roles which don't require direct physical confrontation like they did during WW-II. I had cited the example of Israeli women soldiers and their failure to prove my point. But I agree with Burgess Laughlin who said in the comments section:

It would be a hasty generalization indeed to look at one historical instance--or even a number of them--and draw a universal conclusion. For example, to reach the universal conclusion one would have to show that the culture values of those men and women were objective. The culture of Israel was certainly not objective. It, like all cultures today and in the past, was steeped in some degree of mystically assigned roles for men and women in society in general.

A researcher would have to identify the widest differences--that is, the differences that apply to all men and women in all circumstances before drawing a universal conclusion that women cannot participate in combat effectively.

It is the first time I have heard of women soldiers being used not because of the political pressures or reasons unrelated to the pupose of the missions. I hope that the role assigned to women in the above case is based on valid reasons and overcomes what Mr. Laughlin described as the mystically assigned roles for men and women in society in general.

Apache blows up Taliban fighters

A feel good moment from LiveLeak:

Newly released video from Task Force-82. The video shows Afghan militants carrying automatic rifles, rocket propelled grenades, and a mortar fleeing the scene after they attacked an American outpost.
Gun camera view the Apache AH-64 shoots the militants. U.S. troops continue fighting the militants on the ground.The result, 15 militant forces killed.

[via Defensetech.org]

Chemical Combat laser

Boeing Advanced Tactical Laser Fires High-Power Laser in Flight
"During the test, ATL took off from Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., and fired its laser while flying over White Sands Missile Range, N.M., successfully hitting a target board located on the ground. ATL, which Boeing is developing for the U.S. Air Force, is a C-130H aircraft equipped with a chemical laser, a beam control system, sensors and weapon-system consoles."

See the video of how the ATL works and here is the factsheet.

Looking Good in Combat

(via Strategypage).

Check my very first post on this blog about Women in the special forces? It draws traffic from all over the world regularly.

Star Trek: A Military Analysis Danger Room Wired.com
"Twenty-third century warfare isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. You’d think that weapons and tactics would have progressed in 200 years. But the new Star Trek movie shows that the United Federation of Planets has a lot to learn about warfare."

Federation has a lot to learn about handrails (Mad Minerva's bad section in the movie review) and seat-belts (my comment) too apparently.