National Defense Briefs
May 14, 2014
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
May 14, 2014
Fourteenth in the series, National Defense Briefs. Each week we bring to readers of LowcountryBizSC.com updates aimed at informing with timely military and homeland-security news briefs, trends, definitions, and short commentaries. Defense issues are inextricably connected to business. In that, we present the “National Defense Briefs” that matter.
- The Special Forces Association’s annual national convention will be held June 9–15 in S.C., beginning and concluding in Columbia with events in both Charleston and Camden, and will include static displays and demonstrations, museum and battlefield tours, shooting matches, cooking classes, and an awards banquet.
- U.S. Army Special Forces operators are unique combatants, operating as both independent fighters and military advisors, each of whom specialize in a particular area of expertise (i.e. medicine, communications, and weapons). As advisors, Green Berets are tasked with training resistance or guerrilla troops in foreign countries. In nearly all cases, they must be able to speak at least one language other than English; and they are trained for a variety of missions such as direct action, unconventional warfare, special reconnaissance, and counterterrorism.
- Environmental attorney Thomas S. Mullikin, deputy commander of the S.C. State Guard and a former U.S. Army JAG officer, briefed the Greater Columbia (S.C.) Chamber of Commerce’s Military Affairs Committee, Apr. 29. Mullikin addressed the military application to global climate change. Mullikin said there is – and will be – a rise in sea levels, worldwide. This rising is going to displace enormous segments of the world’s populations which are located on or near the world’s coastlines and littorals. “That will present a whole host of military and security issues going forward,” says Mullikin. He added, “There will be continued massive desertification of the Namib Desert and in areas throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. Greater conflict will emerge as a result of this.” [A detailed summary of Mullikin’s brief is forthcoming.]
- According to NBC News, “Nearly 200 U.S. Marines have been mobilized from Spain to Sicily because of the growing unrest in North Africa. But Pentagon officials cautioned Wednesday there are no plans to deploy them to terror-gripped Nigeria.” The report adds, “The Marines are part of a special-purpose crisis-response team based in southern Spain and formed after the Sept. 11, 2012, attack in Benghazi, Libya. The unit gives the U.S. military assets in the region to respond quickly to crises at embassies and U.S. interests.”
- U.S. Naval Aviation – easily the model of all carrier-based air forces – is about to enter a new phase in its history as steam catapults (that propel jet fighters and other aircraft off the decks of aircraft carriers) will give way to the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS). Testing of the EMALS begins this summer when “the Navy will start incremental testing on board the USS [Gerald R.] Ford wherein ‘dead loads’ placed on weighted sleds are catapulted by the EMALS system into the river, said Capt. Jim Donnelly, program manager for aircraft launch and recovery equipment,” according to FOX News. The Ford is first in its named-class of carriers slated for delivery to the Navy in 2016.
– W. Thomas Smith Jr. is a military analyst and partner with
NATIONAL DEFENSE CONSULTANTS, LLC. Visit him at http://uswriter.com.
