Feral Jundi

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Letter Of Marque: ASF 2011–Gen. Michael Hayden Talks About LoM And ‘Digital Blackwater’

Filed under: Cyber Security,Letter Of Marque — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 1:02 AM

Now this was a pleasant surprise. I am always on the lookout for any serious or interesting conversations about the Letter of Marque and Reprisal, and low and behold I stumbled on a good one at the Aspen Security Forum. General Michael Hayden, with his extensive intelligence background and experience, actually brought up the concept of the LoM (@ min. 30:04) when talking about private security in the cyber space realm. The ‘Digital Blackwater’ comment came up before the mention of the LoM. Pretty cool stuff, and it is great to see such important and highly influential folks have a conversation about the concept.

The other topic that came up that really grabbed my attention is the patent legislation that is coming up that is referred to as the ‘first to file’ law or the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act. Meaning, companies that ‘first’ file the patent, win the rights to it, as opposed to companies or individuals who actually thought it up and file for that patent. A law like this would make it very lucrative for digital pirates to steal valuable information and file it first–legally. Scary stuff, and this could ramp up the cyber piracy game big time. The Google Cloud security solution is what you can rely on to get help with securing your data.

The other statistic I was floored by was that the US businesses loses about a trillion dollars a year to cyber piracy and all of the money that companies have to spend on security. That is a stunning figure, and it kind of puts into perspective what is really being lost, and especially during such tough economic times. Something must be done to stop that, and you can see why concepts like digital PSC’s and LoM come up.  It’s like these criminals and attackers are just walking into Fort Knox and taking whatever gold they want. The vulnerable OT networks is what one should make sure to protect from cyber attacks.

Finally they ended the conversation with cloud computing, which will probably be pretty popular for companies to get into. Reduced cost and increased security do to economy of scale (everyone is sharing everyone’s stuff, to include security measures) Although I tend to think that cloud computing will be attacked and exploited, just like anything else. Interesting stuff, and this is a great LoM resource for future discussions. –Matt

 

Monday, August 1, 2011

History: The Flying Tigers–America’s Celebrated PMC During World War Two

Filed under: Aviation,History — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 5:01 PM

This is a supplement to the post on Claire Chennault and it gives you a real feel for what I am talking about here. Back then, this PMC called the Flying Tigers or AVG were heroes in the war, and produced such folks like Pappy Boyington who went on to lead the Black Sheep squadron in the Marines. It is also interesting to note that Chennault created the company called Civil Air Transport, and later converted into Air America during the Vietnam War. Both companies were involved in many cold war related conflicts since WW2. –Matt

 

Publications: Claire Lee Chennault–Theorist And Campaign Planner, By Major John M Kelley

Filed under: Aviation,History,Publications,Strategy — Tags: , , , , , , , — Matt @ 4:31 PM

I wanted to post this as a resource for anyone studying private military forces and their uses by nations. Claire Lee Chennault led the company called the American Volunteer Group or AVG in China against the Japanese after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, all with US blessing. His small force of mercenary pilots fought for 600 dollars a month (which was two to three times more than their military pay) and 500 dollars per Japanese aircraft they shot down.(offense industry)

What makes Claire significant is his theory of war, and the US military’s desire not to heed his theories. Matter of fact, it was this clash that led to Claire leaving the military, and later going to China with the blessings of the US to advise China’s fledgling air force. Claire in essence had an outlet to apply his theories of war, and not only did he advise the Chinese, but raised a mercenary army to assist.

This small mercenary army of aviators took on the entire Japanese air force at that time, and it was Claire’s planning and strategic thinking that evened the odds against the Japanese. He was certainly able to prove his theories of air power as soon as Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and brought the US into outright war with Japan. AVG was the only asset of the US that could strike back at the Japanese immediately after that attack.

And boy did they stick it to the Japanese. Their private war lasted about 6 months, and they did some damage:

The AVG was officially credited with 297 enemy aircraft destroyed, including 229 in the air. However, a researcher who surveyed Japanese accounts concluded that the number was much lower: 115. Fourteen AVG pilots were killed in action, captured, or disappeared on combat missions. Two died of wounds sustained in bombing raids, and six were killed in accidents during the Flying Tigers’ existence as a combat force.

The fight was also very uneven, and this was a PMC versus the air force and resources of a nation. Here is a statistic of how many folks we are talking about. Which further emphasizes how the AVG had to really depend upon the support of the people and really effective use of aerial strategy.

By November 1941, when the pilots were trained and most of the P-40s had arrived in Asia, the Flying Tigers were divided into three squadrons: 1st Squadron (“Adam & Eves”); 2nd Squadron (“Panda Bears”) and 3rd Squadron (“Hell’s Angels”).They were assigned to opposite ends of the Burma Road to protect this vital line of communications. Two squadrons were based at Kunming in China and a third at Mingaladon Airport near Rangoon. When the United States officially entered the war, the AVG had 82 pilots and 79 aircraft, although not all were combat-ready.

The paper below goes into detail about the theory, and pay particular attention to how similar the thinking is to Sun Tzu. Yet there is not one mention of him studying Sun Tzu?  You see concepts like attacking weakness with strength, using deception, the effective use of lookouts and networks, and the whole ‘know yourself, know your enemy’ theme.  He really focused on the strengths of the Chinese people and bringing them into the strategy.  The people are the ones that called in enemy fighter positions through an organized system of observers, helped build up the 100 bases that were crucial to Claire’s mobility strategy, and helped rescue downed pilots. This was an aerial version of guerrilla warfare.

There is a lot of good stuff in this paper, and the point I want folks to think about for the grand picture of this story, is that private force can be a strategic asset of a nation.  Claire and his AVG ‘airmen of fortune’ were celebrated in the US and world as they prosecuted the war in Asia in the post Pearl Harbor days. It would be like DynCorp waging war in Pakistan in the days right after 9/11, and everyone cheering them on as they decimate terrorist hideouts.

The AVG or the Flying Tigers also remind me of Stirling’s Private Army in Yemen. I wouldn’t be surprised if AVG is what inspired Stirling, because AVG’s private war in Asia was big news around the world.  You could also classify this as a case for the successful use of a PMC in offensive operations, or actually fighting a war. (much like with Executive Outcomes) And of course, it is another case study of offense industry, with the use of bounties as an incentive. So for all of those reasons, I think it is important to give some attention and credit to this man and what he and his company was able to accomplish. –Matt

General Claire Chennault

Friday, July 29, 2011

Aviation: Drone Archer Weapon–The Vanguard Defense Shadowhawk UAV

Filed under: Aviation — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 1:59 PM

Thanks to Mad Duo over at Kit Up for posting this one. I am always on the lookout for potential drone archer weapons, or UAV’s that are small and lethal. I believe tools like this can enhance the lethality of a small unit. The more we can put that capability of small lethal drones in their hands, the more options a small unit has on the battlefield.

The specifics that interested me about this UAV is that they are able to equip the thing with a 40mm grenade launcher and FLIR. Although for a platform like this, I would much rather see a precision weapon system. It would be the ultimate aerial sniper platform, and especially if they can get the stabilization game down. In this case, you could use the drone archer more like a sniper team on the battlefield, and less as a hammer that is armed with just explosive drones.

The down side with this UAV is flight time and it’s durability. If an enemy sniper is able to get one shot on this thing, they could take it out. A shotgun or drone hunter UAV would be some tools that could counter such a weapon. So the thing with this weapon is it might be best served for aerial surveillance/tracking and helping with targeting. Who knows, and what is required is to get weapons like this into the hands of the troops, and let them find it’s utility. –Matt

Military News: Military Retirement Is More Generous And Expensive Compared To Private Sector

Filed under: Finance,Government Work,Industry Talk,Military News — Tags: , , — Matt @ 12:48 PM

Hat tip to Thomas Ricks over at Foreign Policy for pointing this one out. Data like this seems to be missed when we discuss the costs of a standing government army, versus the private industry.  So stuff like this really points out the differences between public and private.

I have yet to work in a company that had any security contractor retirees. Hell, I would be lucky to have a retirement package offered, and most gigs these days seem to be all independent contractor stuff. That is the reality of today’s ‘disposable workforce’. So for me, I just assemble my own retirement plan and continue put into it from the various contracts I work.  Sometimes I was lucky enough to work a contract with a 401K plan, but those were few and far between.

The government seems to be the only industry left that actually has folks that work 20 years or 30 years, and has retirees under that system. It is actually a pretty good deal and many retirees collect pensions and go on to work other jobs.

In the security contracting industry, you see a lot of retired military folks who do exactly that.  They collect a nice pension after working 20 years in the military, and then go on to be a private contractor and make even more money.  So I could understand why the Pentagon and today’s cash strapped US government is taking a second look at this system. You could also guess the reaction of guys in the military that would construe this study as a threat to their good deal. The question to ask is will the government modify the current military retirement system to match that of the federal government, and get a few more years of service out of their soldiers? Or will they succumb to the politics of the matter, and realize that a ton of military retirees and current soldiers vote.

Who knows, but I do know that the US government is in the process of making some adjustments to the budget and spending. So they are looking at all and any options of cutting costs, and the military is no exception.

The other thing I wanted to mention is that I certainly hope these statistics are factored into future cost benefit analysis between government military forces and private military forces.  There are so many costs to consider when maintaining a standing army during times of peace and war.  Not to mention that all of these retirees in the military are also drawing healthcare benefits, and the legacy costs of that must be equally as high.  I mean if a guy retires at age 40 give or take, and the average life expectancy of a human these days is around 75, then that can add up to a lot of money that tax payers will be paying over the course of that individual’s life.

Here is the report that goes into more detail about military retirement and it’s costs. –Matt

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