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The humanitarian mission has faced a number of problems since it first anchored off the coast of Gaza in May.
April 4, 2024 | International, Aerospace
LITENING 5 is used in the precision designation of targets through laser targeting and target tracking. FMV previously ordered this version of LDP for Gripen E, and are also now...
June 20, 2023 | International, Aerospace
Brussels won't get to make decisions about the program, but the partner nation will be kept in the know about key developments, French officials said.
August 6, 2018 | International, Land
By Matthew Cox Retired Marine infantry officer Joe L'Etoile remembers when training money for his unit was so short "every man got four blanks; then we made butta-butta-bang noises" and "threw dirt clods for grenades." Now, L'Etoile is director of the Defense Department's Close Combat Lethality Task Force and leading an effort to manage $2.5 billion worth of DoD investments into weapons, unmanned systems, body armor, training and promising new technology for a group that has typically ranked the lowest on the U.S. military's priority list: the grunts. But the task force's mission isn't just about funding high-tech new equipment for Army, Marine and special operations close-combat forces. It is also digging into deeply entrenched policies and making changes to improve unit cohesion, leadership and even the methods used for selecting individuals who serve in close-combat formations. Launched in February, the new joint task force is a top priority of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, a retired Marine Corps infantry officer himself. With this level of potent support, L'Etoile is able to navigate through the bureaucratic strongholds of the Pentagon that traditionally favor large weapons programs such as Air Force fighters and Navy ships. "This is a mechanism that resides at the OSD level, so it's fairly quick; we are fairly nimble," L'Etoile told Military.com on July 25. "And because this is the secretary's priority ... the bureaucracies respond well because the message is the secretary's." Before he's done, L'Etoile said, the task force will "reinvent the way the squad is perceived within the department." "I would like to see the squad viewed as a weapons platform and treated as such that its constituent parts matter," he said. "We would never put an aircraft onto the flight line that didn't have all of its parts, but a [Marine] squad that only has 10 out of 13? Yeah. Deploy it. Put it into combat. We need to take a look at what that costs us. And fundamentally, I believe down at my molecular level, we can do better." Full Article: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/08/04/inside-secdef-jim-mattis-25-billion-plan-make-infantry-deadlier.html