drone | DMZ Hawai'i/Aloha 'Aina

Secretary of the Army statements about Makua insults community

Post Date May 09, 2010

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Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Free Makua, Hawaiian Sovereignty, Land, Culture & Human Rights, War and Peace

So, the Secretary of the Army stops in Hawai’i, makes some remarks about the Army’s need to train in Makua and the military’s respect for Hawaiian culture and the environment.

He did not dare to have a public audience in Hawai’i. The Army canceled a reception with its hand-picked Native Hawaiian leaders because of the possibility that he would be embarrassed by the opposition to Army activities in Hawai’i.

It is outrageous that the Army is now contemplating using Makua to train unmanned aerial vehicles, the drones that have inflicted so much death and suffering on civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

McHugh says the Army wants to use Makua for “full spectrum training”, presumably to pursue the delusional doctrine of “full spectrum dominance”.

McHugh’s remarks illustrate the arrogance of the military in Hawai’i. It will only anger the community that has been working peacefully and productively for decades to have the land returned to peaceful and sustainable uses. As with many of the military occupied sites in Hawai’i, the Army took Makua valley during WWII with a promise to return the land 6 months after the war. It is long overdue that the military make good on its promise to clean up and return Makua.

Remaking the Army’s image to be greener and more friendly to the natives does not solve their problem. Their problem stems from the fact that the mission the U.S. military is training for is illegal and immoral – the invasion and occupation of other countries and the destructive means that pacify resistance as effectively as gasoline douses fire.

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http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20100509_Army_chief_cites_value_of_Makua_for_training.html

Army chief cites value of Makua for training

By Gregg K. Kakesako

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, May 09, 2010

New Army Secretary John McHugh supports the continued use of Makua Valley for military training, emphasizing that closing it would mean the 11,000 soldiers stationed here would have to spend more time away from their families preparing for wartime deployments.

McHugh toured a portion of the 4,000-acre Makua Military Reservation by helicopter and truck Friday morning with Lt. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of all Army troops in the Pacific and former commanding general of the 25th Infantry Division.

McHugh said retention of Makua allows the Army to offer the “full spectrum of training” here without having to send soldiers to southern California. “I think it’s in the interest of the soldiers, the Army and the United States of America to have these forces continuing to be in position to grow, to be fully trained as they are now to go forward to do the nation’s business.”

He added that the Army should continue “making every effort and expending those resources to protect the culture, the heritage and the very unique environmental challenges that exist here.”

McHugh said 25th Division soldiers now spend several months at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin in the Mojave Desert to complete their training for Iraq or Afghan combat missions.

“Coming out of Hawaii, that’s like another deployment,” McHugh added. “It impacts very significantly on the amount of time soldiers have to recover and spend with their families.”

Mixon said the Army plans an environmental study on converting the valley to “a non-live-fire training range” that would focus on programs dealing with the use of drones, helicopter laser and convoy operations and ways to defuse roadside and homemade bombs.

Since 2001 Earthjustice and Malama Makua, a Leeward Oahu group that believes the valley is scared to native Hawaiians, have been fighting the Army over the use of Makua. No live-fire infantry exercises have been held in the area since 2004 because of the court cases.

Both sides agree that more than 50 endangered plant and animal species and more than 100 archaeological features are found in the valley area.

McHugh said at a Friday news conference that the Army has spent $10 million a year to ensure the safety of the endangered plants and animals and provide access to cultural and historical sites. Proponents have argued that is not enough.

Earlier this year Mixon said the Army plans to spend $37 million to convert Makua Valley into a roadside-bomb and counter-insurgency training center.

“It’s obviously an incredible, beautiful part of the island,” McHugh told reporters after his first visit to the islands and Makua Valley. “My first impression visually was that the Army has done a more than credible job in preserving its historic nature and preserving its environmental nature.”

McHugh said he believes the military can share the valley with the community.

Mixon has said that over the next decade much traditional infantry and artillery training can be shifted to the Big Island’s Pohakuloa Training Area.

Makua Valley, with proper funding and support, could become a training center on gathering intelligence, Mixon has said. The center could provide training on homemade bombs used in all parts of the world, especially important given the growing threat in the Philippines, India and the rest of Asia. Soldiers from Pacific basin countries could also be sent here for such training at Makua.

He also said that Makua is a good place to train with unmanned aerial vehicles.

McHugh was in the islands on the last leg of a weeklong visit to Army bases in Japan, South Korea and Hawaii. The former Republican U.S. House member is the Army’s 21st civilian leader. He assumed the post in September.

Air Force Training More Pilots for Drones Than for Manned Planes

Post Date August 11, 2009

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Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category Militarization of Society

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/10/AR2009081002712_pf.html

Air Force Training More Pilots for Drones Than for Manned Planes

By Walter Pincus

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

The Air Force will train more pilots to fly unmanned aerial systems from ground operations centers this year than pilots to fly fighter or bomber aircraft, Gen. Stephen R. Lorenz, the commander of Air Education and Training Command, told an audience Friday.

Lorentz’s remark illustrates the major transformation occurring within that service. In a Pentagon session last month, Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Will Fraser told reporters that the unmanned systems are “delivering game-changing capabilities today, and ones that I’m confident will continue to be invaluable in the future.”

At that July 23 briefing, Air Force officers spelled out the growth of what they call the “ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] transformation” of their service.

Today, the Air Force is flying both Predators and the more capable Reapers over Iraq and Afghanistan in 35 simultaneous orbits, each of which is a combat mission that keeps an aircraft aloft 24 hours a day. The target is to have 50 orbits by 2011.

A Predator was used over Pakistan last week in an attack that apparently killed Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.

Right now there is basically one sensor in each Predator whose surveillance system provides 10 full motion video images simultaneously to forces on the ground, according to Lt. Gen. David Deptula, Air Force deputy chief of staff for ISR. Deptula also attended the July briefing. The newest version of the Reaper flies faster than the Predator, up to 250 miles per hour, carries more arms and will beam back to ground forces up to 30 video images. Troops on the ground, using new equipment called Rover (remote operations video enhanced receivers), literally see what the aircraft’s sensor and the ground-based Reaper pilot — thousands of miles away — see. Rover also allows ground troops to send queries up to the aircraft.

Where Reaper with its four sensors can cover over six square miles, a more advanced version with six sensors, scheduled to be available in 2013, will be able to cover over 20 square miles. It also will beam back 65 separate video images to the ground.

What these aircraft bring “to the table is the ability to stay in position or maneuver over large areas for a long period of time, and that’s where a person in an aircraft becomes a limitation,” Deptula said. Without individuals in the aircraft “you can maintain your position for a long period of time with the opportunity to either watch or strike.” Today one ground-based pilot flies one Predator, assisted by two analysts. By 2013 the Air Force expects technology to permit one pilot to fly three Reapers, and to fly four in a crisis.

Another advantage over manned aircraft is that there is always a fresh crew on the ground, “which enables any sort of persistence,” said Col. Eric Mathewson, director of the Air Force UAS Task Force, at the July briefing. There are 1,000 Air Force personnel flying these unmanned operations today and none is in harm’s way, according to charts at the briefing.

He added that an unmanned aircraft could be designed to stay airborne for five years, “and I can man it that entire five years with little fatigue.” In fact, the Defense Advanced Projects Agency has a project called Vulture that is trying to do just that.

While there are five launch and recovery units in the Iraq-Afghanistan-Pakistan theater, the global operations center is at Creech Air Force Base, Nev., with five other centers in North Dakota, upstate New York, Arizona, Texas and California.

The hasty push of unmanned systems into the Iraq-Afghanistan battle area has shown some vulnerabilities, however, including the need for a better sorting, processing and distribution of the massive amounts of intelligence collected. That problem will only get worse with the new sensors.

In addition, the House Armed Services Committee complained in its report on the fiscal 2010 defense authorization bill that money meant to fund the Predator portion of the planned fleet was redirected to the Reaper program, which doesn’t have enough aircraft in the pipeline to meet the 50-orbit goal.

A long-term issue for the unmanned systems such as the Predator and Reaper aircraft is how to protect them when they operate in an area where the enemy has sophisticated air defenses and the United States does not control the airspace. Deptula conceded survivability is a concern. He said the service is looking at countermeasures and “low observability,” which means stealth aircraft that fly fast — even at hypersonic speeds — and cannot be picked up on radar.

Will the unmanned aircraft ever completely replace either bombers or fighters? In delivering weapons on target, Deptula said, “Yes, you bet.” But when it comes to controlling airspace, flying against enemy fighters, the general said, the technology cannot yet achieve 360-degree awareness. A human brain is still superior in the assimilation of information and responding to it.

“Someday we might be able to, but until then, we’ll still have manned aircraft,” the general said.

Google Earth reveals secret history of US base in Pakistan

Post Date February 20, 2009

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Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category War and Peace

From The Times

February 19, 2009

Google Earth reveals secret history of US base in Pakistan

The Shamsi airbase in 2006 with three drones apparently visible

A recent image of the same base

Jeremy Page

Exclusive: secret CIA drone base | Graphic: 2006 image | Graphic: recent image

The US was secretly flying unmanned drones from the Shamsi airbase in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Baluchistan as early as 2006, according to an image of the base from Google Earth.

The image – that is no longer on the site but which was obtained by The News, Pakistan’s English language daily newspaper – shows what appear to be three Predator drones outside a hangar at the end of the runway. The Times also obtained a copy of the image, whose co-ordinates confirm that it is the Shamsi airfield, also known as Bandari, about 200 miles southwest of the Pakistani city of Quetta.

An investigation by The Times yesterday revealed that the CIA was secretly using Shamsi to launch the Predator drones that observe and attack al-Qaeda and Taleban militants around Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

US special forces used the airbase during the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, but the Pakistani Government said in 2006 that the Americans had left. Both sides have since denied repeatedly that Washington has used, or is using, Pakistani bases to launch drones. Pakistan has also demanded that the US cease drone attacks on its tribal area, which have increased over the last year, allegedly killing several “high-value” targets as well as many civilians.

The Google Earth image now suggests that the US began launching Predators from Shamsi – built by Arab sheiks for falconry trips – at least three years ago.

The advantage of Shamsi is that it provides a discreet launchpad within minutes of Quetta – a known Taleban staging post – as well as Taleban infiltration routes into Afghanistan and potential militant targets farther afield.

Google Earth’s current image of Shamsi – about 100 miles south of the Afghan border and 100 miles east of the Iranian one – undoubtedly shows the same airstrip as the image from 2006.

There are no visible drones, but it does show that several new buildings and other structures have been erected since 2006, including what appears to be a hangar large enough to fit three drones. Perimeter defences – apparently made from the same blast-proof barriers used at US and Nato bases in Afghanistan – have also been set up around the hangar.

A compound on the other side of the runway appears to have sufficient housing for several dozen people, as well as neatly tended lawns. Three military aviation experts shown the image said that the aircraft appeared to be MQ1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicles – the model used by the CIA to observe and strike militants on the Afghan border.

The MQ1 Predator carries two laser-guided Hellfire missiles, and can fly for up to 454 miles, at speed of up to 135mph, and at altitudes of up to 25,000ft, according to the US Air Force website www.af.mil

The News reported that the drones were Global Hawks – which are generally used only for reconnaissance, flying for up to 36 hours, at more than 400mph and an altitude of up to 60,000ft. Damian Kemp, an aviation editor with Jane’s Defence Weekly, said that the three drones in the image appeared to have wingspans of 48-50ft.

“The wingspan of an MQ1 Predator A model is 55ft. On this basis it is possible that these are Predator-As,” he said. “They are certainly not RQ-4A Global Hawks (which have a wingspan of 116ft 2in).”

Pakistan’s only drones are Italian Galileo Falcos, which were delivered in 2007, according to a report in last month’s Jane’s World Air Forces.

A military spokesman at the US Embassy in Islamabad declined to comment on the images – or the revelations in The Times yesterday.

Major-General Athar Abbas, Pakistan’s chief military spokesman, was not immediately available for comment. He admitted on Tuesday that US forces were using Shamsi, but only for logistics.

He also said that the Americans were using another air base in the city of Jacobabad for logistics and military operations. Pakistan gave the US permission to use Shamsi, Jacobabad and two other bases – Pasni and Dalbadin – for the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001.

The image of the US drones at Shamsi highlights the extraordinary power – and potential security risks – of Google Earth.

Several governments have asked it to remove or blur images of sensitive locations such as military bases, nuclear reactors and government buildings. Some have also accused the company of helping terrorists, as in 2007, when its images of British military bases were found in the homes of Iraqi insurgents.

Last year India said that the militants who attacked Mumbai in November had used Google Earth to familiarise themselves with their targets. Google Street View, which offers ground-level, 360-degree views, also ran into controversy last year when the Pentagon asked it to remove some online images of military bases in America.