Election Day (at last!); Moving toward Raqqa; Army sends huge ammo shipment to Europe; Navy cancels ammo for newest warship; and a bit more...
It’s Election Day, and Military Times has a handy guide to “four close congressional contests that could impact troops and vets.” They include the Missouri Senate, where Republican incumbent Sen. Roy Blunt faces off against Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander, “a former Army captain who served in Afghanistan, [and who] has touted his military experience on the campaign trail, and drew national headlines for an ad where he talks about gun control while assembling an AR-15 blindfolded.”
There’s also former A-10 pilot and Republican incumbent, Rep. Martha McSally, who faces Democratic challenger Matt Heinz in a tight race for Arizona’s 2nd House district. Colorado’s Iraq vet and Republican incumbent Rep. Mike Coffman is pitted against Democratic State Sen. Morgan Carroll, "an influential player on the House Armed Services Committee and the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, where he has attacked Department of Veterans Affairs leaders repeatedly for inefficiency and incompetence."
And Florida’s 18th House district is a tightly-contested race between “Democratic hopeful Randy Perkins, a businessman largely self-funding his bid, [and] Army veteran Brian Mast, a former bomb technician who lost both legs attempting to defuse an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan in 2010.” More here.
The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have retaken nearly a dozen villages as they push south toward the ISIS-held city of Raqqa, AP reports this morning. Coalition aircraft pitched in with 15 airstrikes in the vicinity of Ayn Isa, some 35 miles north of Raqqa, taking out bridges, “supply routes,” fighters and vehicles; coalition jets hit just two other positions elsewhere in Syria on Monday, according to CENTCOM.
Turkish resistance to the SDF offensive is subsiding somewhat, AP writes: “Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that during U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joe Dunford’s weekend visit (photo here) to Ankara, Cavusoglu was told the Syrian Kurdish fighters ‘will only have a role in encircling Raqqa and will absolutely not enter the city. We hope that this will be the case and we expect that our partners keep their promises.’”
Here are a few photos of the Raqqa-bound element from AFP photographer Delil Souleiman.
We go to the east, briefly, where the Turkish military reportedly started an hour-long exchange of artillery with Kurdish YPG positions in northeastern Syria’s Hasakah governorate on Monday. Similar Turkish-YPG attacks in that corner of the country have reportedly occurred nearly two dozen times. More here.
And back westward to Aleppo, Syrian government troops secured some of their biggest gains in weeks fighting the renewed rebel offensive on the regime-controlled western half of the city. “The 1070 Apartments district is located on the southwestern outskirts of Aleppo and lies alongside the government's corridor into the parts of the city that it controls...A Syrian military source said the army and allied forces were in complete control of the area and surrounding hills. They have made repeated efforts to oust rebels from the 1070 Apartments area since the summer.” That tug-o-war update, here.
Russia’s naval flotilla, led by the carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, is nearing its presumed destination east of the island of Cyprus. So what will the Kuznetsov battle group change? The common believe, writes Washington Post, is that it will bring a “renewed bombing campaign on the besieged city of Aleppo.”
But the short answer, WaPo says, is that it won’t really change anything. Read on for specs and a little more, here.
Then check out this superb graphic on the Kuznetsov’s recent journey from Sevoromorsk, Russia, to the Mediterranean—part of a longer look at the capabilities the Kuz brings, here.
From Defense One
We’re 9 days out from the Defense One Summit! USAF Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein tweets that you should come on Thurs., Nov. 17, in Washington, D.C. Also joining us will be Army Secretary Eric Fanning, White House counterterrorism advisor Lisa Monaco, DARPA chief Arati Prabhakar, and many other national-security leaders Register here.
Trump’s Foreign Policy Could Change the Entire International System // The Atlantic’s Uri Friedman: A scholar of U.S. foreign policy explains why the 2016 race could be the most consequential election—anywhere—since the 1930s.
The Most Militarily Decisive Use of Autonomy You Won’t See // Christopher Meissner and Linton Wells: Drones and robots get the headlines, but autonomous cyber weapons will be key to future warfare.
Welcome to this Election Day edition of The D Brief by Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston. On this day in 2016, you should go out and vote. (Send your friends this link: http://get.defenseone.com/d-brief/. And let us know your news: the-d-brief@defenseone.com.
Iraqi troops advancing on Mosul have found mass graves, AP and Buzzfeed’s Mike Giglio reports. For Giglio, “It was just one grave — a hole in a field of dirt — but people from this tiny village knew of many more.” His report, here.
At least 100 bodies were found, many of them decapitated, about 19 miles south of Mosul, AP adds. “Associated Press footage from the site shows bones and decomposed bodies among scraps of clothing and plastic bags dug out of the ground by a bulldozer after Iraqi troops noticed the strong smell while advancing into the town of Hamam al-Alil on Monday.”
Found near the piles of bodies: a child’s stuffed toy, AP notes.
ISIS has reportedly “abducted 295 former Iraqi Security Forces members near the militant stronghold of Mosul and also forced 1,500 families to retreat with them from Hammam al Alil town,” the UN said this morning.
It happened last week, officials said, when “About 100 of the former ISF officers were taken at around midnight on Nov. 3 from Mawaly village, which is about 20 km (12 miles) west of Mosul. A further 195 were abducted between Nov. 1 and Nov. 4 from villages in Tal Afar district. The abducted families were being taken from their town to Mosul airport.” More here.
Check out this improvised playground—a sulphur spring that has become “all the rage again in a town retaken from ISIS,” AFP reports in a short photo spread.
More sleeper cell fighters were reportedly rounded up in Kirkuk, the town where ISIS carried out a deadly counter-attack on October 21, shortly after the Mosul offensive began, Kurdish Rudaw news reports.
Elsewhere in ISIS-claimed territory, the group’s foot soldiers are “fighting to the death” in Libya, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said Monday off news of the White House extending its authorization for airstrikes against the ISIS in Sirte.
Army Times: “The mission there, known as Operation Odyssey Dawn, was expected to last only weeks when it began in early August. But after more than three months and at least 367 airstrikes, about 200 ISIS fighters continue to control a neighborhood in the city of Sirte.” More here.
Speaking of Libya, it looks like an American from Ohio tried to follow ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s recent advice to travel to Libya. “Aaron Travis Daniels, also known as Harun Muhammad and Abu Yusef, was arrested at an airport in Columbus, Ohio yesterday before he could fly to Trinidad,” The Long War Journal reports. “Daniels’ final, intended destination was Libya, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). But instead of making his way to North Africa, Daniels was arrested and charged with attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State.” Details here.
How to conduct a show of force in Europe: with the U.S. Army’s biggest ammo shipment in 20 years. “More than 600 shipping containers, providing supplies for both the Army and Air Force, arrived at Germany’s port in Nordenham Oct. 29 before being sent on to a depot in Miesau and other locations in Europe,” Stars and Stripes reports.
A little context: “The delivery comes as the military builds up in Europe, where a U.S.-based tank brigade is scheduled to deploy in early 2017. The Fort Carson-based 3rd Armored Brigade, 4th Infantry Division will arrive in Germany in January and be dispatched to Poland and other positions up and down NATO’s eastern flank. In addition, an Army combat air brigade from the 10th Mountain Division will rotate through Europe next year, with helicopter units spread across Poland and the Baltics.”
On the fiscal side, “The moves are part of the $3.4 billion European Reassurance Initiative, which aims to showcase solidarity with NATO allies in Europe’s east as well as send a signal of deterrence to Russia.”
To be clear: “This is about deterrence,” U.S. Army Europe commander Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges said in an Army news release. “We could have 1,000 tanks over here, but if we didn’t have the ammunition for them they would not have any deterrent effect. It’s another example of the commitment of the United States to security and stability in Europe.”
Meanwhile, the Navy just cancelled the program to make shells for its newest destroyer. The USS Zumwalt’s twin 155mm guns were supposed to fire an advanced, rocket-propelled projectile called the LRLAP, for Long Range Land-Attack Projectile, but the projected $800,000 cost per shot was finally just too much to swallow, Defense News Chris Cavas reports. For now, the destroyer’s guns will remain for show only, while the Navy evaluates four other options that may one day fill its automated magazines. Read on, here.
The U.S. Army has begun testing its new combat truck at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, The Baltimore Sun’s Ian Duncan reported Monday. “Col. Morris Bodrick, commander of the Aberdeen Test Center, said Monday the [Joint Light Tactical Vehicle] will be tested for performance and reliability over the next year on the 50-odd miles of test track that wind around the Army installation in Harford County.”
Officials are hoping to iron out as many wrinkles as they can since, “the Army and Marines plan to buy some 55,000 JLTVs over the next two decades, “Duncan writes. More here.
Another F-35 caught fire mid-air during a training flight late last month, Military.com reported Monday. “The incident happened Oct. 27 at Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501, a fleet replacement squadron for the Marine Corps consisting of 20 F-35B aircraft. One of the aircraft experienced a fire in the weapons bay while conducting a training mission over Beaufort,” 1st Lt. John Roberts, a spokesman for 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, said.
He said the F-35 landed safely and the pilot was uninjured. However, Military.com’s Hope Hodge Seck writes, “The incident was listed by the Naval Safety Center as a Class A mishap, meaning damage totalled $2 million or more on the $100 million aircraft.” More here.
The U.S. military has been testing electrical brain stimulation for its troops, and it likes what it’s seeing so far, The Guardian reports. The thinking behind the study: to allow “personnel such as drone operators to have electrical pulses sent into their brains to improve effectiveness in high pressure situations.”
What happened: “The scientists had men and women at the base take a test developed by Nasa to assess multitasking skills. The test requires people to keep a crosshair inside a moving circle on a computer screen, while constantly monitoring and responding to three other tasks on the screen. To investigate whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) boosted people’s scores, half of the volunteers had a constant two milliamp current beamed into the brain for the 36-minute-long test. The other half formed a control group and had only 30 seconds of stimulation at the start of the test.”
The findings: “The brain stimulation group started to perform better than the control group four minutes into the test.” (emphasis added)
Reason for skepticism: there are no current studies available to track the long-term effects of tDCS. Full story, here.
Finally today: “To Free the Oppressed”—Take a moment to consider that America’s Green Berets lost six of their “warrior diplomat” brothers in just three days, Army Times reported Monday. “Two were killed in an Afghanistan firefight, three while entering a Jordanian military base and another off the Florida coast in a dive training accident, according to Defense Department releases.”
And zooming out further, “Last week’s incidents bring the total deaths to eight in just over a month, underscoring how many of these special operations troops remain in harm’s way as the military continues to rely heavily on its special operators for missions all around the world.”
Read more on each soldier, here; then take a few minutes to listen to this Green Beret staple, played at every memorial ceremony for the U.S. Army’s fallen special operators.