••• One man’s artillery exchange is another man’s new vacation home.
The much-maligned combat helmet worn by U.S. soldiers and Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan sustained another blow Monday as engineers from MIT reported that the headgear, as currently designed, did little to protect troops from blast-related brain injury.
••• These companies make the helmets: Mine Safety Appliances Co., Gentex Corp. and Specialty Defense Systems Inc. (now owned by BAE Systems).
Other reports included a £95,000 bill for flag-flying…
••• That’s $151,000. A small price to pay, perhaps.
NATO is a “military mafia,” the war in Afghanistan is “genocidal” and US President Barack Obama deserves the prize for the “best snake charmer” who ever lived…
••• The view from Havana.
Under the reforms, which will transform the Bundeswehr into a fully professional defence force by July 2011, the size of the existing military and its inefficient bureaucratic apparatus will be considerably reduced as part of a cost-cutting exercise aimed at shaving about €8bn (£6.8bn) from the defence spending budget.
••• Germany creates new opportunities for mercenaries.
Alain Juppé, the new defence minister, received a 14-month suspended sentence for corruption over a party-funding scandal in 2004 and was barred from holding elected office for a year. But history is history.
••• France shrugs.
According to the prosecutors’ letter, the Pentagon contractor, which has not been identified, provides system management for military transport and other “highly-sensitive military operations.”
••• Malaysian hacker strikes “major” US Defense Department logistics contractor.
The [Iraqi] division commanders do not send their broken vehicles for repair, nor do they report those that are destroyed, because fuel is supplied based on the quantity and types of vehicles on their books. …
In another issue, defense investigators found that Iraqi army commanders are also reluctant to send vehicles, such as armored personnel carriers, to repair facilities for fear that they won’t be returned for a year or more, and then that they may not be working or may be stripped of parts.
••• Surely, the tank-repair facilities in Afghanistan must be in better shape, right?