Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Video: NAF Conferance and Eric Prince of Blackwater Comments
Maritime Security: Major Shipping Company to Sail Around Africa to Avoid Gulf of Aden
I caught this little chunk of story, at the end of another story I was reading and thought it was interesting. So will other parts of Africa catch on, and just hijack these vessels on the other side of the block? Pirates operate off the West Coast of Africa too. We’ll see how it goes for them. –Head Jundi
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November 19,2008
By Sam Dolnick
……….On Tuesday, a major Norwegian shipping group, Odfjell SE, ordered its more than 90 tankers to sail around Africa rather than use the Suez Canal after the seizure of the Saudi tanker Saturday.
“We will no longer expose our crew to the risk of being hijacked and held for ransom by pirates in the Gulf of Aden,” said Terje Storeng, Odfjell’s president and chief executive.
Story Link Here
News: US Seeks New Supply Routes Into Afghanistan
New supply routes mean new convoy/logistics companies. So there might be an opportunity in the near future for other companies in the region for these supply contracts. Although I tend to think that thugs will just find a way to attack and rob those convoys as well. –Head Jundi
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U.S. Seeks New Supply Routes Into Afghanistan
Trucks From Pakistan Increasingly Attacked
By Candace Rondeaux and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, November 19, 2008; A01
TORKHAM, Afghanistan, Nov. 18 — A rise in Taliban attacks along the length of a vital NATO supply route that runs through this border town in the shadow of the Khyber Pass has U.S. officials seeking alternatives, including the prospect of beginning deliveries by a tortuous overland journey from Europe.
Supplying troops in landlocked Afghanistan has long been the Achilles’ heel of foreign armies here, most recently the Soviets, whose forces were nearly crippled by Islamist insurgent attacks on vulnerable supply lines.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Technology: New Honeycomb Tire is ‘Bulletproof’
I really like the concept of this tire. Getting a flat on the road, is definitely a bummer deal in a war zone. So ideas like this, are what I like to see. Hopefully the private industry will be able to hook into stuff like this. –Head Jundi
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November 17, 2008 6:10 AM PST
New honeycomb tire is ‘bulletproof’
Posted by Mark Rutherford
The University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Wausau, Wis., company have come up with a 37-inch, bullet and bomb-proof Humvee tire based on a polymeric web so cool looking there’s no need for hub caps.
Resilient Technologies and Wisconsin-Madison’s Polymer Engineering Center are creating a “non-pneumatic tire” (no air required) that will support the weight of add-on armor, survive an IED attack, and still make a 50 mph getaway. It’s basically a round honeycomb wrapped with a thick, black tread.
Maritime Security: Pirates Take Down a Super Tanker, Somalia
Thanks to Jeff for sending me this article. This is significant. These pirates took down a ‘super tanker’, at 450 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia! Those are two records–the biggest ever ship taken, and the furthest out to sea hijacking. They must be using a mother ship out there in order to do an operation like this.
The other interesting angle to this, is the shift of attacks further out to sea, mean a larger patrol area. A herculean task, and I think this will change the thinking about the way piracy will be dealt with. That security forces will have to escort each ship, or post a robust force on the ship itself in order to properly protect it. To just post a security ship in the general area is not going to work, if pirates are willing to go so far out to sea.
And with this subject, if you have been watching the show on History Channel called Shadow Force, the first two episodes have dealt with maritime operations. Although what they are doing is busting illegal fishing operations off the coast of Liberia. The cool thing about the operation, are the obstacles and challenges that they had to over come just to get up and running over there. They used a RIB, with a FLIR camera and an LRAD non-lethal sound weapon system. Cool show. –Head Jundi
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The MV Sirius Star super tanker.
Tanker taken to Somali pirate stronghold
U.S. and other naval forces decide — for now — against intervention
The Associated Press
updated 6:16 a.m. PT, Tues., Nov. 18, 2008
MOGADISHU, Somalia – Pirates who seized a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million in crude oil anchored the ship within sight of impoverished Somali fishing villages Tuesday, while the U.S. and other naval forces decided — for now — against intervention.