Feral Jundi

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Weapons: Adcor Defense BEAR Elite– A Free Floating Barreled, One Piece Anti-tilt Bolt Carrier Piston AR

Filed under: Weapons — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 1:06 PM

This is a very interesting rifle. To be able to shoot sub-MOA after 6,000 rounds worth of testing at HP White is impressive for a piston AR. Not to mention the excellent durability and lack of malfunctions during the HP White testing. This rifle will be competing in the Army’s Improved Carbine competition, and it looks like a contender.

The thing about this rifle that grabbed my attention is the free floating barrel. To not have anything touching that barrel, is a radical departure from the norm. That equates to some excellent accuracy capability, and I would really like to see this rifle chambered in 7.62 or other interesting calibers. With nothing touching the barrel, then folks could experiment with different barrels and really explore the field of AR accuracy. But for a standard battle rifle, this is awesome. (it would be cool to see different offerings of barrels, with different twists like 1/8)

The one piece anti-tilt bolt carrier assembly is smart as well. With a recessed lug going into the carrier, that will only increase the strength and durability of the connection between the piston rod and bolt carrier. There is a lot of force in this particular area of the rifle, and anything to make that system more robust is good. Attaching the piston rod to the carrier just makes sense and you won’t see carrier tilt like you would with other systems that do not attach the piston rod to the bolt carrier.

The other really cool thing with this rifle is the regulator. Having the ability to regulate the piston operation is crucial to keeping it running good, or to operating the weapon with a suppressor. Although honestly I was not able to determine the full scope of this regulator, and it would be cool to hear Adcor expand further on this part of the weapon.

The non-reciprocating charging handle can be placed on either side of the weapon, which is cool too. It is just a more natural position for a charging handle than where it currently is located. You can still charge the weapon with the original charging handle though. It gives the shooter options, and I like that.

The dust wiper shield is another feature I am interested in, but really cannot make a judgement. If it is made out of polymer, then it will wear down I would think? Or polymer pieces might break off and fall into the operating system. So to me, I just don’t know about that part of the weapon.

Overall, I think it is pretty cool that Adcor went from designing and building intricate parts for missiles and aircraft, to designing a better piston gun. It is almost like a black swan event where a designer from a totally different discipline comes in, and changes the field of weapons design by making a different and highly accurate version of a piston gun. The free floating barrel and one piece piston rod/bolt carrier set up will please many shooters out there that have been looking for a good piston AR. So we will see what the Army thinks and what the shooting community thinks about the Adcor Defense BEAR Elite. –Matt

B.E.A.R.™ Elite: A world class automatic rifle from Adcor Defense
• Magpul MOE™ rifle stock
• Magpul MOE™ ergonomic rifle grip with aggressive texturing
• FN Manufacturing 1:7 twist, hammer-forged, chrome-lined barrel with M249 rifling profile for long life and exceptional accuracy
• Available with sights or optics ready
• Forward placed, reversible/ambidextrous charging handle
• Gas piston system with multi-position regulator
• Free-floating barrel
• Chambered for 5.56
• Ejection port dust wiper
• Two-piece keyed quad rail system
• Tool-less field strip design
• Aircraft-grade 7075-T6 aluminum alloy receivers and rail systems

A New Perspective on the Automatic Rifle: The B.E.A.R.™ combines design innovation and precision manufacturing built upon the tried and true M4/M16 rifle platform.
The Adcor Defense B.E.A.R.™ springs from the M4/M16 rifle platform but offers a completely new twist. Available in many configurations, it offers the operator many significant improvements:

A Revolutionary Gas Piston System (Patent # 065111.00128)
• Free-floating barrel and increased accuracy: A gas-driven piston incorporated into the upper half of the forward rail system never touches the barrel.
• No carrier tilt: The operating rod is connected to the bolt carrier by hex head bolts reinforced with industrial grade Loctite® 262™ high strength threadlocker. They are then drilled and pinned to prevent loosening under adverse conditions.  The operating rod then rides through a machined boss in the receiver rail system interface keeping the bolt carrier in a linear plane as it operates.
• No fouling of chamber and action: Hot gases and carbon particulates are prevented from entering the receiver. Because heat reaching the upper receiver is diminished, lubricant lasts longer and maintenance is simplified.
• Easily detached lower rail system: No special tools needed for quick cleaning and easy maintenance.
• Wear on critical parts is minimized: The operator can easily adjust the piston’s cyclical rate for a controlled rate of fire.
• No need for piston rings: Extremely close machine tolerances of the piston eliminate the need.

Exclusive Port Dust Wiper with Cover
• Prevents entry of dust, sand or debris: The spring-loaded dust shield mounted on the bolt carrier allows the bolt carrier’s return to ready position; the port dust wiper moves into the ejection port opening flush with the inside geometry of the upper receiver.
• Withstands temperature extremes because of the highly durable, self-lubricating polymer shield.

Ambidextrous Forward Placed Charging Handle: Simplicity is Beautiful.
• Simple design allows the operator to keep his or her strong hand on the firearm and use the other hand to clear the rifle.
• Ambidextrous handle detaches easily without special tools and returns to locked position once used. It folds forward, recessed, and easily swings back out in a single motion.
• Non-reciprocating handle only engages when the operator charges or clears.

Rail System ( 7075-T6 )
• Innovative, key locked, highly rigid rail system mounts seamlessly to the upper receiver: Design ensures proper alignment of the rail with a redesigned boss, spline and groove system.
• Upper and lower rail guards separate with the push of a button: No special tools necessary.
• Fully compatible with optical, image intensification or thermal sights; laser targeting systems; bipods; tactical lights and Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System (MILES).
Link to website here.

 

Friday, August 19, 2011

Quotes: Up To 80% Of Ship Owners Are In Favour Of Arming Their Vessels

Filed under: Maritime Security,Quotes — Tags: , , , — Matt @ 2:33 PM

“We took the decision three to four months ago that we could not defend our ships without contracting-in armed guards with light machine guns and who will shoot back,” said Per Gullestrup, CEO & Partner of Clipper Ferries/Ro-Ro.
“I hear that 60% to 80% of owners are in favour of arming their ships, which is a lot, and if you figure out that every time you do, it costs an owner between $30K and $50K to put armed guards on each passage then you are talking about a lot of money,” he said.

I had to post this, just because it is such a startling quote. And if the figures of $50,000 per passage is true, then anyone with any business sense will know that this is going to be one heck of a market.  I have mentioned this in the past, and will continue to say that the maritime security market is seeing some rapid growth right now and will only go up.

Of course this will only snowball on itself, just because no shipping company will want to be the ‘undefended low hanging fruit’ that could be easily taken by pirates. And believe me, there are plenty of ways for pirates to figure out what shipping companies are using armed security, and which ones are not. Pirate investment companies have elaborate intelligence collection operations going on, and they will find you if you are ‘easy money’.

The other thing I was wondering is that if PNC’s are making $50,000 per voyage, then how come we are not seeing salaries reflect this rate? These companies that are making this much money per trip, should definitely ensure that their contractors are getting paid well to put their lives on the line. For that fee, contractors should have the best equipment, weapons, and leadership on those voyages. We should also see health coverage as a mandatory benefit, just because there is no DBA out on the high seas. So if you get your leg blown off by an RPG round, I certainly hope that your company covers that? And if contractors are not able to receive these benefits because the rate is too low, then that $50,000 per voyage fee needs to go up.

I would also hope that companies are investing in good legal help, and offer their contractors full coverage if they happen to get caught up in some legal issues. There is so much that could happen out there, and there are no legal protections whatsoever. Please do not throw your contractors under the bus, and you have a responsibility to take care of them out there if they get into trouble. Especially if they are in ports of countries that have really shady laws.  There is no SOFA to protect or give guidance to these contractors out there, so a company really needs to be on the ball with this stuff.

Let’s talk about salaries. I believe salaries for maritime security should reflect the danger that those crews are up against. If pirates are using wolfpack tactics and heavy weaponry, then that ups the danger level tremendously. Not to mention that if pirates manage to sink a vessel, that the crew is now in danger of drowning. I make this point, because it is a requirement for most of these contractors to have STCW certifications. So contractors are expected to get this certification (on their own dime usually), so that if the vessel catches fire or sinks, that they will know how to survive. Why then are the salaries not reflecting this reality of sea life in pirate infested waters?

Not to mention that the value of the ship and it’s goods, and it’s safe delivery, is extremely important and vital to the world markets. Those armed guards are crucial to the safe delivery of those goods, and yet pay structures do not reflect this great responsibility? Stuff to think about, and I certainly hope that the companies remember who their most important asset is out there, and that is their contractors. –Matt

 

Up to 80% of owners want their ships armed

As many as 60% to 80% of ship owners are in favour of arming their vessels even though the cost can be as high as $50,000 per passage, a leading Danish ship owner has claimed.
“We took the decision three to four months ago that we could not defend our ships without contracting-in armed guards with light machine guns and who will shoot back,” said Per Gullestrup, CEO & Partner of Clipper Ferries/Ro-Ro.
“I hear that 60% to 80% of owners are in favour of arming their ships, which is a lot, and if you figure out that every time you do, it costs an owner between $30K and $50K to put armed guards on each passage then you are talking about a lot of money,” he said.

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Law Enforcement: William Bratton, The ‘General Petraeus’ Of Law Enforcement

Filed under: Industry Talk,Law Enforcement,United Kingdom — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 1:44 PM

This is pretty cool. William Bratton is looked at as a fixer or game changer in police departments around the US, and just look at his record? So it is cool to see him work as an independent contractor and consult in other parts of the world.

So what is his secret? Well I found a cool presentation he did last year at a GovSec Forum. (see below) William has also talked about predictive policing as another tool to use when he talked with Wired last year. He was also famous for implementing Broken Window theory in New York.

William is like the ‘Bar Rescue‘ of law enforcement, so it makes sense that the UK would be interested in his services. Oh, and did I mention that he works for Kroll? Not bad for a contractor. –Matt

 

Can American Supercop Bratton Clean Up London’s Streets?
By JAY NEWTON
Aug 15, 2011
Bill Bratton has made a career out of busting up gangs. Which is probably what makes the former top cop at police departments in Boston, New York City and Los Angeles an appealing source of advice for British Prime Minister David Cameron. Four days of looting and riots by unruly mobs in London last week left public trust shaken. And Cameron needs to restore that trust in the next 10 months, before London hosts the 2012 Summer Olympics.
That’s where Bratton comes in. “We should be looking beyond our shores to learn the lessons from others who have faced similar problems,” Cameron told a special session of Parliament, convened to address the riots, on Aug. 11. “That is why I will be discussing how we can go further in getting to grips with gangs with people like Bill Bratton.”
During his tenure heading three major American police departments – Boston from 1993 to ’94, New York City from 1994 to ’96 and Los Angeles from 2002 to ’09 – Bratton, 63, drastically reduced crime rates and won particular praise for his handling of gangs. It is in this area that he will try to help the British government in the coming months. “All these thugs and knuckleheads running wild in London this week, you can’t excuse away that behavior. I’m a progressive, but on crime I’m very tough,” Bratton tells TIME. His record speaks for itself.

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Thursday, August 18, 2011

Industry Talk: FBO News– Contractors Needed For The South Sudan And Libya!

Filed under: Industry Talk,Jobs,Libya,Sudan — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 3:10 PM

Wow, this has been an extremely under reported deal by the main stream media. Basically with both of these FBO solicitations, the US government is wanting to use contractors to set up shop in the newly formed South Sudan and in Libya.

The South Sudan is in dire need of all the help it can get. So if the money is there, there might be a lot of opportunity for this industry. Especially for the defense related stuff, and with that equipment and weapons, will require the trainers and mentors to get their military up to speed.

Libya is in the same boat. It is looking more and more like the rebels are whittling away at Ghaddafi’s war machine and the US is positioning itself. But no doubt that a new government there will need all the help they can get. So we will see how this goes, but it is interesting news to say the least. –Matt

Office of the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan and Bureau of African Affairs
South Sudan Armed Forces Transformation
Ministry Advisory and Training Team (MATT)
Statement of Work
During the last eight years, Sudan has been the highest-priority country in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of the highest U.S. priorities worldwide. The United States Government played a major role in brokering the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended the twenty-year civil war between the government in Khartoum (Government of Sudan) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), a southern Sudanese rebel movement. During his June 2005 visit to the United States, the SPLM Chairman John Garang appealed to administration and Congress for support to transform his guerrilla forces into a modern military.  Among other initiatives, the support outlined in this request for proposal addresses this appeal.
In January 2011, as stipulated in the CPA, citizens of Southern Sudan voted in a referendum for independence  from or unity with the North.  The overwhelming majority chose independence; on 9 July 2011, the South became the Republic of South Sudan (RoSS).  The Office of the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan (USSES), with the Bureau of African Affairs (AF) at the U.S. Department of State, plans to continue assisting in the transformation of the South Sudan Armed Forces (SSAF) from a largely guerrilla force to a military force operating under the RoSS’ Ministry of Defense (MoD).
The purpose of this Statement of Work (SoW) is to outline the requirements for advisors embedded in the South Sudan Minstry of Defense (MoD).  The advisors will be managed by the Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs, Office of the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan, and the U.S. Embassy in Juba. The purpose of the advisors is to provide support to the Minstry in the areas of policy planning, human resources, financial management, acquisition and procurement, military production, inspections, public affairs, and veterans affairs, or other functions as necessary, to enhance the Ministry’s ability to effectively manage the transformation of the South Sudan Armed Forces from a largely guerrilla force to a regular military operating under the MoD as the civilian authority within the RoSS.  As part of this assistance, the U.S. Department of State will support the Management Advisory and Training Team (MATT) in Juba, South Sudan to provide training and mentorship to MoD management staff and leadership.  The MATT will support the Ministry leadership, but will not be directly involved in the day to day decision making activities of the MoD.  Advisors will assist MoD senior management and staff at all levels, in their role as mentors and trainers, to perform key functions at appropriate standards.
The USG will work with Ministry of Defense to identify counterparts for each of the advisors listed in this Statement of Work. Contractors will report to the Minister or their ministry counterparts, but might also work with other South Sudan civilian agencies as required.
The overarching purpose of this initiative is to support the MoD with advisors in nine areas; 1 Defense Policy,  2 Human Resources (2); 3 Military Production; 4 Civil-Military and Public Affairs; 5 Inspections; 6 Finance and Budget; 7 Acquisition, Procurement and Logistics, and 8 Veterans Affairs. [Note that support to Human Resources will include two positions; one to focus on personnel readiness and management, and the second to focus on force planning and resource allocation.] To that end, this program will focus on enhancing the overall effectiveness of the MoD staff and leadership by addressing fundamental weaknesses in existing MoD staff procedures and planning efforts, and strengthening the MoD staff and leadership to effectively manage the transitioning guerilla force into a regular military through supporting effective staff policies and procedures.
Link to FBO here.
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The OTI program in Libya will support the larger objectives of the U.S. Government and as appropriate any future State Department and USAID presence in Libya… In close coordination with State Department representatives and other [U.S. Government, or USG] actors and with consideration of USG priorities, OTI’s rapid and targeted programs will address emerging issues and empower local partners potentially to include non-governmental organizations, civil society groups, media outlets, and local and national government offices to reduce or mitigate conflict, increase transparency and accountability, and foster positive political change.

USPSC – Country Representative – Libya
Solicitation Number: SOL-OTI-11-000042
Agency: Agency for International Development
Office: Washington D.C.
Location: USAID/Washington

USPSC-Deputy Country Representative – Libya.
Solicitation Number: SOL-OTI-11-000043
Agency: Agency for International Development
Office: Washington D.C.
Location: USAID/Washington

Building Snowmobiles: Predictive Policing… Predictive Warfighting?

Filed under: Building Snowmobiles,Law Enforcement,Technology — Tags: , , , , , , , — Matt @ 2:15 PM

In the program’s first three weeks, the model has proven to be 71 percent accurate in predicting the place and day where crimes have occurred, said Deputy Chief Steve Clark. In other words, 71 percent of the time the model told an officer to be at a location, a crime was in progress or was reported.
At least one person has been arrested because of a patrol check initiated by the system, he said.
Police recently gave eight years of crime reports for residential burglaries, vehicle burglaries and vehicle thefts to an applied mathematics professor at Santa Clara University. The system essentially maps the time, location and recurrence of past crimes to help police predict crime and tailor their patrols.–Santa Cruz police have success with predictive policing

For this building snowmobiles post, I wanted to draw upon a new crime fighting technology and explore the idea of it’s possible uses. The idea here is to use predictive analysis, much like what retailers use for product research or what researchers use for earthquake prediction, and use it to predict where crime is most likely to happen to get resources to efficiently cover those areas via patrols.

So the question I ask is if this actually works for crime, then why not apply it to warfighting? And especially COIN and today’s conflicts, where the war is long and there is time to collect statistics of attacks and instances that would be needed to build such a model? Or how about for anti-piracy or for the drug war down in Mexico?  The key is if you have statics over the course of several years, then a model could be made. And if war planners are wanting to use their resources more efficiently because they have less forces to use, or the host nation is limited in resources, then predictive warfighting might help with the more efficient use of manpower on the battlefield.

If anything, much like with policing, it will be the guy on the ground who patrols their areas daily that will have the intuition of where to go and how best to cover their AO’s.  But what about units that cycle in and out of the battlefields?  Where is their intuition coming from if they have never been to that AO?  So predictive analysis might help in the transition periods and help build that intuition of the new forces. This predictive analysis will also make it easier to make judgements about setting up patrols. You could combine human intuition/experience/orientation with this predictive analysis, and make a better plan of operations.

Predictive policing also helps the COIN forces by efficiently guiding the local police forces to areas they need to be. With places like Afghanistan, you might have officers who do not want to go in certain areas or dwell more in certain areas than they should, or are not trained enough to recognize patterns, or they come from other parts of the country.  They too could benefit from this predictive analysis to further reinforce their intuition. But it could also help determine if that police force is working efficiently.

The fear though is depending upon this predictive analysis entirely. To me it is an interesting tool that needs to be tested more to see where it can be most effective, or where it could fit in to the overall strategy for crime fighting or warfighting. Interesting stuff and definitely check out all of the articles and information posted below if you would like to read more about it.

On a final note, Santa Cruz and other police departments throughout the nation looked at this new system as a way to more efficiently use their police forces to deal with crime. But they were also looking at it because of economic reasons because there is less money available to fund police departments these days. So more and more departments will be looking at cost cutting measures, while still being able to ‘protect and serve’ their communities. So what say you? –Matt

#60: Fighting Crime With Mathematics
12.16.2010
By Daniel Lametti
One major problem in crime-fighting is that a police crackdown in one neighborhood may simply push criminal behavior into a nearby area. In March two mathematicians, working with an anthropologist and a criminologist, announced a way to quantify this reaction (pdf).
“Crimes tend to cluster together in space and time, forming hot spots,” says UCLA mathematician Martin Short, the study’s lead author. Drawing on real-world data, his team developed a model showing that hot spots come in two varieties. One type forms when an area experiences a large-scale crime increase, such as when a park is overrun by drug dealers. Another develops when a small number of criminals—say, a pair of burglars—go on a localized crime spree.
The model suggests that a focused police response can relatively easily extinguish larger hot spots because the criminals there scatter randomly, making it unlikely that they will resume coordinated unlawful activity nearby. But for smaller crime waves, crooks just migrate together into an adjacent neighborhood, where they are likely to start another spree. By analyzing police reports as they come in, Short hopes to determine which type of hot spot is forming so police can handle it more effectively.
Link to Discover article here.
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UC MaSC Project
Funded by the Human Social Dynamics Program at NSF, the UC MaSC Project centers on theoretical, methodological and empirical work to develop analytical and computational models of crime pattern formation. Crime mapping forms a key feature of current approaches to understanding offender behavior and is a tool used increasingly by police departments and policy makers for strategic crime prevention. However, despite the availability of sophisticated digital mapping and analysis tools there is a substantial gap in our understanding of how low-level behaviors of offenders lead to aggregate crime patterns such as crime hot spots. Thus, for example, we are unable to specify exactly why directed police action at crime hot spots sometimes leads to displacement of crime in space but, surprisingly, often can also lead to hot spot dissipation and a real reduction in crime incidences.

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