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a day ago
- Politics
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Pentagon orders review of base moves, and more military news
TGIF! If you are a service member or a military family member, you are painfully aware of just how often troops are required to move. Now, the Pentagon is giving the military branches until Sept. 25 to come up with plans to limit the number of permanent change of station, or PCS moves, that are not absolutely essential. The military spends about $5 billion per year on PCS moves, but now wants to drastically cut that by 50% starting in fiscal year 2030. The toll taken on troops and families by constant moves has been an issue over the years. Project 2025, the policy blueprint produced by the Heritage Foundation think tank, recommended that the Defense Department evaluate 'the military family holistically when considering change-of-station moves.' More recently, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith said that Marines should be able to stay at their current duty stations if they want to, instead of being forced to move every few years. 'If you want to stay at Camp Pendleton, your spouse has good employment, you're happy in your home there, and you know the terrain and you know the training, why can't you stay there for nine, or 10 or 12 years?' Smith said on May 1 during the annual Modern Day Marine exhibition in Washington, D.C. 'I'm not saying you should stay there for your entire 30-year career, but we don't have to move you every three years.' Of course, there's more news. Here's your weekly rundown. Huge Somalia airstrikes. Planes from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman dropped 124,000 pounds of ordnance within two minutes during Feb. 1 airstrikes against the Islamic State group, or ISIS, in Somalia, a defense official told Task & Purpose. Within the past two years, ISIS-Somalia has grown from about 500 to roughly 1,500 members, of which an estimated 60% are foreign fighters, said Kelly Cahalan, a spokeswoman for U.S. Africa Command, which has conducted 33 airstrikes so far this year in Somalia against both ISIS and al-Shabab, a terrorist group that has pledged allegiance to al-Qaida. National Guard unit goes analog. The Missouri Air National Guard's 139th Operations Group conducted flight operations without computers or cell phones as part of an exercise that simulated a cyber attack. Airmen relied on other forms of communication, including sticky notes, dry erase boards, and smoke signals. Better late than never. After more than a decade of delays, the first Littoral Combat Ship equipped to neutralize sea mines has arrived in Bahrain, USNI News has reported. The Navy plans to eventually replace its Avenger-class minesweepers, which date back to the 1980s and have wooden hulls coated in fiberglass. Air Force sends message to China. The B-52H, B-1B, B-2, F-22. F-15C, F-16C, and A-10 flew together for the first time during a recent airshow in Miami. 'Did it send a signal to our nation's enemies, including China? Absolutely,' said retired Air Force Col. Mark Gunzinger, who previously served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for forces transformation and resources. Ukraine denies attacking Putin's helicopter. Ukrainian officials have denied a claim by a Russian commander that Ukrainian drones attacked Russian President Vladimir Putin's helicopter when he visited a nuclear power plant in the Kursk region on May 20. The commander, Maj. Gen. Yuri Dashkin, told Russian media, 'We simultaneously waged an anti-aircraft battle and ensured the safety of the president's helicopter in the air.' 'Loss of confidence' — North Korea-style. North Korea has arrested four officials after one of the country's newest warships capsized during its May 21 launch. North Korean state-run media claims the 5,000-ton vessel was not seriously damaged and attempts to right the ship are underway. Thank you all for reading! Jeff Schogol
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Yahoo
Army's next generation rifle designated M7 amid criticism over performance
The Army has officially designated its newest rifle and automatic rifle the M7 and M250, respectively. The move, which the service touted as a 'major program milestone,' comes weeks after the Army's new rifle came in for some heavy criticism from within its own ranks. Both weapons have now received their type classification that confirms they met 'the Army's stringent standards for operational performance, safety, and sustainment,' the service announced this week. But an Army captain has raised serious questions about the Next Generation Squad Rifle — previously known as the XM7 — including whether the weapon's 20-round magazine provides soldiers with enough ammunition for combat. (The War Zone was the first to report on the criticism, and you can read their deep dive here.) 'The XM7 is a tactically outdated service rifle that would be better classified as a designated marksman rifle, if that,' Army Capt. Braden Trent said during his presentation at the Modern Day Marine exhibition in Washington, D.C., in late April. 'This rifle is a mechanically unsound design that will not hold up to sustained combat on a peer-on-peer conflict.' Trent conducted his research into the rifle as part of his project for the Marine Corps' Expeditionary Warfare School. His views are not endorsed by the Defense Department, Army, or Marine Corps, according to his 52-page research paper on the subject. Sig Sauer, which has been awarded a contract to produce the rifle, pushed back on Trent's assertion that the M7 is 'unfit for use as a modern service rifle.' 'We have a very large staff of individuals that work daily on that rifle to ensure that every aspect of its performance is scrutinized, every aspect of its safety is criticized,' Jason St. John, the senior director of strategic products for Sig Sauer, told Task & Purpose for a previous story. 'We are highly confident that we have provided the U.S. Army soldier with a very robust weapon system that is not only safe, but it performs at the highest levels.' Still, questions remain about whether the rifle, which chambers a 6.8mm round, has enough magazine capacity. The M7 is expected to replace the M4A1, which has a 30-round magazine. Trent said he observed a live-fire exercise in which soldiers equipped with the XM7 burned through most of their ammunition within 15 minutes while trying to suppress a simulated enemy, even though they had borrowed spare magazines from radio operations, medics, and platoon leaders. Brig. Gen. Phil Kinniery, commandant for the Army's Infantry School and Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, Georgia, told Task & Purpose that commanding officers ultimately determine how much ammunition their units will carry into battle, and the traditional seven-magazine load could be adjusted. Kinniery also said that the Next Generation Squad Weapon rifle's larger round will give soldiers an advantage on the battlefield. 'From having been in several firefights throughout my career and deployments in Afghanistan and in Iraq, that [6.8mm round] round stops the enemy,' Kinniery said. 'What we're actually bringing to infantry soldiers or, really, the close combat force across the Army, is something that stops the enemy at one round versus having to shoot multiple rounds at the enemy to get them to stop.' Army to eliminate 2 Security Force Assistance Brigades, reassign experienced soldiers Why the Army's new XM7 rifle reignited a debate over volume of fire Air Force delay on separation and retirement orders isn't 'stop loss,' defense official says F-35's close call over Yemen raises questions about how it's used An Army unit's 'extreme use of profanity' was so bad, they made a rule about it
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
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Futuristic Grenade Launcher From Colt And Northrop Grumman Seen Being Fired For First Time
Northrop Grumman has released a brief video clip showing an individual shooting a new 25mm precision grenade launcher it has been working on together with gunmaker Colt. This appears to be the first time we've seen a working prototype of the weapon being fired. It is one of several designs being pitched to meet U.S. Army requirements for a highly computerized Precision Grenadier System (PGS) that soldiers could use to engage ground targets, including ones behind cover, as well as help shield themselves from the growing threats posed by drones. The footage of the grenade launcher being tested was included in a video montage, seen in the social media post below, that Northrop Grumman put out earlier this week to highlight 'the latest in Bushmaster Chain Gun technology, advanced ammunition and counter-uas [uncrewed aerial systems] solutions.' Inspired by innovation, perfected with with our teammates, we recently demonstrated the latest in Bushmaster® Chain Gun® technology, advanced ammunition and counter-uas live-fire scenarios highlighted the depth of our innovations – reliable,… — Northrop Grumman (@northropgrumman) May 13, 2025 In general, the new grenade launcher has the look of an oversized rifle. It is semi-automatic and feeds from a five-round box magazine. The barrel is between 14 and 15 inches long, and the overall weight is under 15 pounds, Colt has previously told Defense News. In the recently released video clip from Northrop Grumman, the gun is seen fitted with a Vortex Optics XM157 computerized optic, which the U.S. Army is already acquiring to go along with its new 6.8x51mm XM7 rifles and XM250 light machine guns. In April, at the Modern Day Marine exposition in Washington, D.C., Northrop Grumman representatives told TWZ's Howard Altman that the company has been focused primarily on developing a family of specialized ammunition to go along with the launcher. Colt has been leading the development of the weapon itself, a mockup of which was shown at the event. 'We're responsible for integration. We went to Colt to help design this [the grenade launcher],' Michael O'Hara, Senior Manager for Tactical Weapons Solutions & Strategy at Northrop Grumman, explained. 'These specialized rounds is [sic; are] all Northrop Grumman, and then we're working with different types of smart optics.' The mockup of the grenade launcher at Modern Day Marine was equipped with a SMASH-series computerized optic from Israeli firm Smartshooter. SMASH-series optics have been steadily gaining traction across the U.S. military and elsewhere globally in recent years, with a particular eye toward improving the ability of individual shooters to engage small drones. O'Hara also specifically mentioned Vortex Optics as another source of 'smart optics.' 'The program is focused primarily, currently, at surface-to-surface [targets]. So we're able to take out targets down-range that are hidden behind objects. That's the whole purpose of the weapon system,' O'Hara added. 'We are also taking that functionality and taking the prox[imity] capability of the ammo and going to go against UAS. So, for like squad-level/platoon-level protection, a rifleman would be able to utilize this [to] engage UAS, small UASs, for protection.' The U.S. Army has said its plan for the future Precision Grenadier System (PGS) envisions 'a Soldier portable, shoulder fired, semi-automatic, magazine fed, integrated armament system (weapon, ammunition, fire control) that enables rapid, precision engagements to destroy personnel targets in defilade and in the open with increased lethality and precision compared to legacy grenade launchers, while also not impacting Soldier mobility,' according to a contracting notice the service put out in February. 'The PGS is anticipated to be deployed as a Soldier's primary weapon system, providing organic, close-quarters combat, counter-defilade, and counter-UAS capabilities through a family of ammunition to ranges in concert with the rest of the squad's battlespace, and requiring minimal resupplies to support. This capability shall provide overmatch to comparable threat grenade launchers in near-peer formations in future operating environments to include urban, jungle, woodland, subterranean, and desert, in day, night, or obscured conditions.' Previous PGS contracting notices have also called for a weapon with an overall length of no more than 34 inches, a weight of 14.5 pounds or less, and an effective range of at least 1,640 feet (500 meters). The PGS also needs to be able to fire rounds along a relatively flat trajectory, with the goal of making it easier to engage targets accurately. The desired maximum range for the PGS is notably greater than that offered by the M203 and M320 grenade launchers currently in Army service, which also fire 40x46mm rounds along a more arced trajectory. Unlike the PGS, the M230 and M320 are both designed to be attached under the barrels of existing standard infantry rifles, though the Army also fields the latter in a stand-alone configuration. The Army wants a family of specialized ammunition to go along with the PGS that includes a so-called 'Counter Defilade Round' that can 'precisely and quickly defeat personnel targets' behind cover, which would be an air-bursting design. As Northrop Grumman's O'Hara noted, with the help of a proximity fuze, rounds designed for counter-defilade use could also be employed against drones. Armor-piercing, shotgun-like 'close quarters battle' anti-personnel canister, and training rounds are expected to go along with the PGS, as well. It is important to remember that the Army's current PGS effort follows the cancellation of work on a similarly advanced 25mm grenade launcher, designated the XM25 and nicknamed 'The Punisher,' back in 2018. Work on the XM25 began in the mid-2000s as an outgrowth of an abortive next-generation infantry weapons program called the Objective Infantry Combat Weapon (OICW) that started in the 1990s. Given the stated PGS weight requirement, it is interesting to note that the XM25's 14-pound weight was cited as contributing to its ultimate cancellation. The cost of the grenade launcher and its advanced programmable ammunition, as well as its physical bulk, were also factors. At least two other grenade launchers are being pitched to the Army now for PGS. These are the Squad Support Rifle System (SSRS) from Barrett Firearms and MARS, Inc., and FN America's PGS-001. The SSRS and the PGS-001 could have an additional leg up thanks to being the two finalists in the Army's xTechSoldier Lethality challenge that wrapped up in 2023. You can read more about what is known about those designs here. AUSA 23 – FN USA's PGS-001 Precision Grenadier System — Soldier Systems (@soldiersystems) October 10, 2023 What the Army's timeline now for settling on a PGS design and fielding it is unclear. The aforementioned contracting notice put in February was tied to PGS, but was specifically about a Prototype Project Opportunity described as 'a risk reduction effort separate from the Precision Grenadier Program of Record with the goal of developing technologies associated with the current capability gap.' The Army clearly still has an active interest in the capabilities that PGS could offer, now further spurred on by the ever-growing threats that drones present. Though the danger posed by drones is not new, it has been very pointedly observed in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, as well as other hotspots around the world in recent years. The recently released video shows that Northrop Grumman and Colt are continuing in their development of one grenade launcher design that could meet the Army's PGS needs. Howard Altman contributed to this story. Contact the author: joe@
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Army infantry officer calls new XM7 ‘unfit for use as a modern service rifle'
An Army infantry officer has made a series of criticisms of the Army's Next Generation Squad Weapon rifle, which is meant to replace the M4A1 carbine. The Army introduced the XM7 rifle and XM250 light machine gun — both of which chamber a 6.8mm round — partly due to concerns that modern body armor could stop the 5.56mm rounds fired by the M4A1 and M249. The bigger round is also meant to give the XM7 an increased range based on lessons from Afghanistan. But Army Capt. Braden Trent presented his research into the XM7 at the Modern Day Marine exhibition in Washington, D.C. — research he claims shows that the rifle is inferior to the M4A1. As part of his research, Trent said he visited the 1st Brigade Combat Team 'Bastogne,' 101st Airborne Division, which was the first active-duty Army unit to receive the XM7. Trent said he interviewed more than 150 soldiers and disassembled 23 XM7 rifles. His 52-page report on the subject, which included testing with experts, ballistic research, and input from soldiers, concluded that the XM7 is 'unfit for use as a modern service rifle,' Trent said on April 29 during his presentation at Modern Day Marine. Trent said his research has shown that soldiers equipped with the XM7 in a live-fire exercise quickly run out of ammunition because its magazine only holds 20 rounds. He also said that gouges and scratches can form in the barrel after firing more than 2,000 rounds, the rifle's weight makes it hard for soldiers to maneuver. Trent also said that soldiers told him that nearly all of their engagements in a military exercise were taking place within 300 meters, negating the XM7's advantage at longer ranges, he said. 'The XM7 is a tactically outdated service rifle that would be better classified as a designated marksman rifle, if that,' Trent said during his presentation. 'This rifle is a mechanically unsound design that will not hold up to sustained combat on a peer-on-peer conflict.' However, a representative of Sig Sauer, which the Army selected in 2022 to build the Next Generation Squad Weapon rifle and machine gun, disputed Trent's findings. 'We have a very large staff of individuals that work daily on that rifle to ensure that every aspect of its performance is scrutinized, every aspect of its safety is criticized,' said Jason St. John, the senior director of strategic products for Sig Sauer. 'We are highly confident that we have provided the U.S. Army soldier with a very robust weapon system that is not only safe, but it performs at the highest levels.' St. John said he did not want to issue a point-by-point rebuttal for all of Trent's conclusions 'because most of them are patently false.' David H. Patterson, Jr., a spokesman for Program Executive Office Soldier, also said that the Next Generation Squad Weapon is well suited for close combat. Specifically, the weapon 'provides greater effects within 300 meters,' he said. 'As the secretary of the Army and chief of staff highlighted in their Army Transformation Initiative memo to the force, 'Yesterday's weapons will not win tomorrow's wars,'' Patterson wrote in an email on Monday to Task & Purpose. 'The Next Generation Squad Weapons (NGSW) program provides unmatched lethality to our Close Combat Force (CCF). The Army is committed to accepting soldier feedback and enhancing weapons for optimal use.' Trent is currently a student at the Marine Corps' Expeditionary Warfare School and was presenting his personal views on the subject, and his research for the school's fellowship program is not sponsored or endorsed by the Army, Marine Corps, or Defense Department, according to his research paper, which was obtained by Task & Purpose. In a statement provided by a Marine Corps spokesman, Trent said he was selected by the Expeditionary Warfare School to conduct a fellowship project on small arms lethality that focused on the XM7. 'The project began as a fact-finding effort to evaluate how the XM7 enhances soldier lethality,' Trent said in the statement. 'The goal was to provide unclassified, accessible information to soldiers and leaders to support informed decision-making at the tactical, operational, and strategic levels when employing the new system to maximize lethality.' Trent is scheduled to graduate from the Expeditionary Warfare School on Thursday as a Distinguished Graduate, and he is also the recipient of the Yeosock Memorial Award for the best sister service writing project at Marine Corps University, according to the Marine Corps. The Modern Day Marine exhibition encourages collaboration and the sharing of ideas, especially among noncommissioned officers and company grade officers who use some weapons and systems showcased at the exhibition, said Marine Corps spokesman Lt. Col. Nick Mannweiler. 'While it remains solely his personal opinion, Capt. Trent's presentation exemplifies the type of dialogue and feedback we wanted with student presentations,' Mannweiler wrote in an email to Task & Purpose. 'This is what the profession of arms looks like.' In his research project, Trent wrote that his paper is 'in no way intended to disparage the United States Army, acquisitions personnel, or private contractors/manufacturers.' Trent also wrote that the Army can still 'rectify the decision to adopt the XM7,' adding that soldiers deserve to go into battle knowing they have been given the best weapons available. 'They deserve to be given a weapon that is safe and efficient to operate,' Trent wrote. 'They deserve a rifle capable of providing the fire superiority they need to close with and destroy the enemy. The men and women of the infantry have always fought at the fullest extent of their capabilities, willing to achieve victory at the price of 'the last full measure of devotion.' The Army must continue to provide them with weapons capable of matching that devotion.' The most serious problem Trent said he noticed was that some XM7 rifles developed a scratch or gouge in their barrel after firing more than 2,000 rounds, Trent said. 'This can lead to all kinds of problems with accuracy and safety, and I recommend a full investigation by those who are more qualified — engineers with bore scopes, etc, that I did not have available with me during my time at 1st Brigade,' Trent said. In his project paper, Trent wrote, 'Surface damage to the rifling was visible to the eye at the same location on rifles that had exceeded the 2,000 round count.' But St. John said Trent's findings on gouges and scratches in the XM7's rifle barrel were based on a superficial examination of the weapon. 'Capt. Trent looked down a barrel naked eye, didn't use a boroscope, didn't use any gauging to determine if there was any sort of erosive nature to that weapon system, is indistinct in his ability to say what he witnessed other than he believes by naked eye looking down a barrel with natural light that he witnessed some issues,' St. John said. According to St. John, the XM7 can fire more than 10,000 rounds before the barrel fails — twice the program's requirement. Patterson, the Army spokesperson, said the service fired more than 20,000 rounds per barrel while testing the XM7 and found that the rifle's performance and accuracy were not affected. Another issue raised by Trent is the 20-round capacity of the XM7's magazine, compared with the M4A1, which has a 30-round magazine. If soldiers armed with both weapons are expected to carry seven magazines into battle as part of their universal basic load, or UBL, soldiers with M4A1 carbines would carry 210 rounds while soldiers armed with the XM7 would have 140 rounds, Trent said at Modern Day Marine. 'Now again, a 70-round difference may not seem significant, but to the soldier in the fight, it absolutely is a difference, not to mention that every magazine added to the XM7 — each 20-round loaded magazine — adds another 1.25 pounds to the soldier's load, meaning that if troops equipped with the XM7 tried to match their old UBLs, they're going to have even more weight being carried,' Trent said. Indeed, during a company live-fire exercise that he observed, a platoon of soldiers armed with XM7s tasked with suppressing an objective while other soldiers could maneuver, burned through their ammunition quickly, Trent said. 'Within 10 minutes, the platoon I observed was almost completely out of ammunition after starting the engagement,' Trent said. 'And by 15 minutes, their ability to produce effective suppression had become almost zero. This is after having taken spare magazines for the XM7 from radio operators, medics, platoon leadership, etc.' When asked about the exercise in which soldiers ran out of ammunition, St. John said Sig Sauer has no opinion about how the Army uses the XM7. 'That's way outside of our realm,' St. John said. 'How the Army trains, how the Army utilizes it, what the Army's tactics, techniques, and procedures are, that's way beyond Sig Sauer's opinion level. We're in the delivering firearms business.' Patterson said the Army has conducted several different exercises that looked at how much ammunition soldiers armed with the XM7 use. 'Following the completion of the exercises, there was enough ammunition remaining to conduct a follow-on action,' Patterson said. Patterson also said there is no doctrine dictating a 'Universal Combat Load.' The Army's Training Publication for infantry platoons and squads says that a platoon's basic load depends on the mission and may be determined by the unit's leader or standard operating procedure. 'The unit basic load includes supplies kept by the platoon for use in combat,' the publication says. 'The quantity of most unit basic load supply items depends on how many days in combat the platoon might have to sustain itself without resupply. For Class V ammunition, the higher commander or [standard operating procedure] specifies the platoon's basic load.' UPDATE 1: 05/06/2025; this story was updated with information from the Army about exercises involving how much ammunition soldiers armed with the XM7 used and who determines how much ammunition platoons carry as part of their unit's basic load. UPDATE 2: 05/06/2025; this story was updated with a statement from Army Capt. Braden Trent provided by a Marine Corps spokesman. Commandant says Marines should have a say in whether they change duty stations Space Force Special Operations Command is on its way Army reverses course on banning fun and games for soldiers in Kuwait A meal card foul-up at Fort Johnson underscores a bigger Army problem Sailor wins $7,500 settlement after his car was towed and auctioned off while deployed
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hegseth orders sweeping force structure changes for the military
Happy Friday! You may have noticed there was no Pentagon Rundown last week. That's because I was at the Modern Day Marine exhibition in Washington, D.C., writing about various topics, including the Marine Corps' efforts to repair and refurbish its barracks. As always, it's been busy, and some of the biggest news has been Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's recent announcements about reshaping the military. On Monday, Hegseth announced that he had ordered a cut of at least 20% of active-duty four-star positions and National Guard general officers. The second phase of Hegseth's plan calls for an additional 10% reduction of general and flag officers throughout the Defense Department as part of changes to the Unified Command Plan, which assigns missions and responsibilities to the combatant commands, Hegseth said in a video posted on X on Monday. 'We're going to shift resources from bloated headquarters elements to our warfighters,' Hegseth said in the video. Reducing the number of general and flag officers was one of the recommendations in Project 2025, a policy blueprint released by the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, D.C., prior to last year's election. The project's chapter about the Defense Department says that although the military currently has more generals and admirals than during World War II, 'the actual battlefield experience of this officer corps is at an all-time low.' It also claimed that previous presidential administrations had promoted officers 'for reasons other than their warfighting prowess.' The Pentagon has implemented several other proposals in Project 2025, including reinstating troops who were separated for refusing to get vaccinated for COVID-19 with back pay, trying to separate transgender service members, and abolishing diversity equity and inclusion offices and staff. In a separate move, Hegseth has directed the Army to restructure itself, and that includes consolidating commands. The force structure changes that Hegseth ordered in an April 30 memo include merging U.S. Army North and U.S. Army South into a single headquarters, combining Army Futures Command and Training and Doctrine Command into a single entity, and divesting 'outdated formations, including select armor and aviation units.' The memo did not specify which units. In my nearly 20 years as a defense reporter, I've seen the military expand rapidly during the Iraq war, only to undergo draconian personnel and funding cuts as part of sequestration. Once again, the military is in a state of flux, this time as it prepares to deter and — if necessary — fight China. As things currently stand, change is the only constant, so it's a safe bet that more efforts to transform the military are coming. And on that note, here's your weekly rundown. Truman loses another Super Hornet. An F/A-18F Super Hornet crashed into the Red Sea on Tuesday after a failed attempt to land on the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman. Both aviators aboard were rescued after safely ejecting. This is the third Super Hornet from the carrier that has been lost since December. Yemen strikes on hold. President Donald Trump made a surprise announcement on Tuesday that the U.S. military would cease its air and missile strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen under a ceasefire agreement brokered by Oman. Between March 15 and April 29, U.S. forces struck more than 1,000 Houthi targets, according to the Pentagon. As of Thursday, the ceasefire appeared to be holding, but it was unclear for how long. Military daycares not telling parents about suspected abuse. A recent Defense Department Inspector General report found a lack of 'uniform requirements' across the military services for notifying parents and legal guardians about suspected abuse and neglect at military childcare centers. Task & Purpose reporter Patty Nieberg takes a look at the problem and what the Defense Department plans to do to fix it. Gaza pier injuries. A total of 62 service members were injured during efforts last year to deliver humanitarian supplies to Gaza using the Joint Logistics Over The Shore, or JLOTS system, which was only operational for roughly 20 days, a recent Defense Department Inspector General report found. 'Based on the information provided, we were not able to determine which of these 62 injuries occurred during the performance of duties or resulted off-duty or from pre-existing medical conditions,' according to the report, which found many problems that ultimately doomed the JLOTS effort. Army Sgt. Quandarius Davon Stanley died on Oct. 31, months after being injured while supporting the mission. Chechen strongman wants to step down. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has said publicly that he'd like to be relieved of his post, but that decision ultimately rests with Russian President Vladimir Putin. After meeting with Putin on Wednesday, it looks like Kadyrov is staying put, at least for now. Maybe he can make use of his remaining time in office to work on his push-up form. Thank you for reading and have a great weekend! Jeff Schogol
