- 2 days ago
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Live fire exercises in the Caribbean. What we know about the Marines mission there.
00:05Plus Anduril opens a ghost shark factory. What this new facility down under could mean for the
00:12U.S. military. And a low-tech solution to a high-tech problem. How Ukrainians are
00:18slowing down the drone threats from Russia. Hello and welcome to Weapons and Warfare.
00:28From your morning coffee stop to the dinner table, our goal is to give you the ability to have an
00:34informed conversation about what's happening with our nation's military. For Straight Arrow News,
00:38I'm your host, Ryan Robertson, and we start this week with the future leaders of the U.S. Army,
00:44the cadets at the U.S. Military Academy. Every summer, for two weeks, the seniors at West Point
00:50head out to the field for an exercise called Cadet Leadership Development Training, or CLDT. It's there
00:58where they get their first taste of what it's like to operate in the field.
01:05From the day they take the oath of allegiance as freshmen,
01:08that I will maintain and defend the sovereignty of the United States,
01:19to the day they graduate as commissioned officers,
01:22the U.S. Military Academy. All roads at West Point lead to this.
01:41CLDT, Cadet Leadership Development Training. A two-week program that represents the peak of a
01:48cadets military training. This is where cadets assume leadership positions in realistic situations
01:54to improve and evaluate their tactical leadership and decision-making abilities.
02:01It's the last real tactical development you're going to get before you go into the army,
02:05and so it's both kind of a reality check to know where you're at physically, mentally,
02:11and that's also a good training exercise. This is where cadets begin to build their skills as
02:16warriors and leaders, as warriors and leaders, giving them the opportunity to lead teams, squads,
02:21and platoons in scenarios that replicate combat. CLDT is
02:26one of the first details where everything you're doing depends on someone else. Your grade and how you
02:37perform is wholly dependent on what they're doing. If they're doing their job right, if they're
02:44keeping security, if they're working hard or giving their best performance, everything depends on
02:50somebody else. And that's truly unique because it doesn't really happen often. During the two weeks
02:57of CLDT, cadets engage in an array of activities. So things like land navigation, rifle marksmanship,
03:04and first aid, just to name a few. I think for me the toughest part of CLDT is learning how to navigate
03:10all your tasks with only a few hours of sleep. The physical aspect, you can always train physically,
03:16but most of the time you're giving your body proper rest and nutrition. We'll take all that aspect
03:21out and it's a little bit more difficult to be able to think clearly. The training also serves
03:27as a crucial evaluation of a cadet's leadership readiness, assessing their ability to make rapid
03:33decisions and convey orders effectively, all while under physical duress. There's a lot of emphasis on
03:40kind of the physical aspect of it, of carrying heavy weight and going long distances, but it's really the
03:46the mental kind of fortitude that you build from those experiences that really stays with you. So
03:52I think that that is what builds our lethality, right? When you're physically degraded, when you're
03:57carrying heavy gear and when you still have to perform a mission set that you can have the mental
04:01clarity to actually succeed and focus on what you have to do. And I think CLDT does that to a T.
04:07Every scenario the cadets are put through is designed to mimic a real world threat. Challenging the
04:14cadet's ability to adapt and overcome obstacles while under stress.
04:19Everyone here has been challenged on this detail in ways that we never have before. We've had to
04:25find things, mechanisms, other people to help us through it. And so those shared experiences build
04:31that bond and it builds that morale over time. For these young men and women, CLDT is an essential
04:39part of equipping them with the skills necessary to become effective organizational leaders and
04:45commissioned officers in the U.S. Army. West Point has put us through a 47 month experience of
04:54trials and tribulations that have cultivated to making us better people, better leaders, better people of
05:01characters. And this experience has just taught me that I'm capable of whatever I put my mind to.
05:11All right, folks, we are joined now by Air Force veteran and super producer Brett Baker for some
05:15headlines you may have missed. Brett, we just said that story about the cadets going through the
05:20leadership training. What's the Air Force equivalent of that?
05:23So the Army's is C or the West Point Academy is CLDT at the Air Force Academy at CCLD, the Center for
05:32Character and Leadership Development. It's not quite as field heavy as the Army's. They've got seminars,
05:39they do some shadowing of drill instructors and basic training, and they also get a lot of field
05:45experience out at actual Air Force bases with units that are in operation. So it's not quite the same
05:51thing. But again, the Army and the Air Force aren't quite the same. So yeah, so they approach it from
05:56different angles. That makes sense. All right, let's get to those headlines.
06:02Late last month, U.S. Southern Command released a video reportedly showing Marines during a live
06:08fire boat operation in the Caribbean Sea. According to those involved, the Marine presence aims to
06:14disrupt illicit drug trafficking. There were at least 10 strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific since
06:21early September in a campaign that has raised U.S. tensions with both Venezuela and Colombia. The
06:27Pentagon provided little information about any of the strikes, including the quantity of drugs the
06:33boats allegedly were carrying and the identities of those killed. Brett, I've covered this story quite
06:40a bit for Straight Arrow News, and it's really kind of a legal quagmire. If the cartels are unlawful
06:47combatants and these guys are cartel members, then the strikes are legal. But there is some uncertainty
06:54over whether these guys are, in fact, cartel members. And the admiral overseeing Southern Command
06:59is actually retiring at the end of the year, just a year into the job. So the optics aren't exactly rosy,
07:07let's say. Yeah, it's definitely a weird situation. It's a semi, at least as far as my lifetime,
07:14it's unprecedented. I don't, I mean, I know that certain operations get carried out in different
07:20parts of the world for different reasons, and we'll probably never hear about many of them. I think the
07:25thing that makes this different is when you have leadership blasting it out on social media, you know,
07:32black and white video of demolition of a boat, and as it turns out, some lives. And without clear
07:43guidance on who those folks are, where they were coming from, what they had, it is very murky. I
07:48don't know that it's a path that the U.S. should be going down, but here we are. Here we are. And there
07:55has been some effort in Congress to kind of rein in these presidential powers. Those efforts thus far
08:03have not really gone anywhere. So until Congress decides to act, really, then the president is
08:12within his legal rights, according to the laws that they're citing to do these things. But time will
08:19tell to your point, Brett, on whether or not this is the right path for the U.S. to take.
08:25Defense Wunderkind Anderl Industries has opened a new manufacturing facility in Sydney, Australia,
08:32to produce their line of undersea drones known as Ghost Sharks. It's part of an effort to deliver
08:39on its $1.1 billion supply contract with Australia's Royal Navy. Now, according to Anderl,
08:45the nearly 80,000 square foot facility will ramp up to full scale manufacturing in 2026.
08:52When you combine Australia's defense expertise with Anderl's rapid
08:58engineering and innovation model and culture, you create something that is greater than the sum of
09:04its parts. Ghost Shark is living proof of that. We must never allow bureaucracy, no matter how well
09:12intentioned, to stand in the way of delivering capability to the warfighter.
09:17Schools of Ghost Sharks will be made in Sydney and could then be exported to the United States and
09:23other nations, subject to Australian government approval. Brett, we've covered Ghost Sharks pretty
09:28extensively, and when paired with the Copperhead autonomous underwater vehicle slash
09:34torpedo that Anderl also makes, you got quite the packaged deal.
09:39For sure. And it's just another sign of Anderl's growth. We knew this was coming,
09:46but to have it open and operating and I think, you know, ultimately it's going to be a huge benefit
09:51for everyone who is in AUKUS because that's going to get everybody kind of on the same page on those
09:57kind of platforms. And it's just, yeah, it's just, Anderl's just doing a lot of amazing things
10:04at the speed of which I don't know that we've probably seen in a defense company since maybe
10:08World War II.
10:10Right. Right. And the DOD is trying to also change its procurement process to be able to
10:16purchase and integrate these things quickly and then update them quickly as necessary.
10:22And the Ghost Shark, the Copperhead, when we're talking about these things, I'm reminded of,
10:29I think it was Navy League that we were at, and they had that Sea Sentry, I think that was the name
10:35of it, basically like underwater cell towers, for lack of a better word, to be able to connect all of
10:41these things and network all of these things together because communication underwater doesn't
10:46exactly work the same as above the water. But yeah, to your point, Anderl really moving fast,
10:52creating things that, you know, solutions for problems I didn't even know existed.
10:59And finally, a simple solution to a serious problem. This is video out of Ukraine of soldiers
11:05from the 1st Corps of the Ukrainian Armed Forces installing anti-drone nets along a frontline road
11:12near Donetsk, an industrial city in southeastern Ukraine. Now, this is not exactly a necessarily
11:18new tactic and it's not entirely foolproof, but the idea is to protect vulnerable supply routes from
11:25Russian drone attacks. Brett, these anti-drone nets are sort of the latest 21st century iteration of
11:32the Coke cage and really displays the dominance of drones on modern battlefields.
11:38What's the saying? Necessity is the mother of invention. And, you know, it's just another kind
11:43of example of low dollar means of addressing a low dollar problem, like in terms of the hardware,
11:52but obviously a high dollar problem when it comes to equipment and lives and troop movements.
12:00Yeah, it's just kind of, it's kind of wild, the stuff that you're seeing out of Ukraine.
12:05And I know, I know these things, the Russians have found a way around some of them, but the fact that they
12:11have to spend time dealing with it in the first place is obviously to the Ukrainians' advantage.
12:18But yeah, Ukrainians never cease to surprise when it comes to finding an answer to a problem.
12:27Right, right. And it's, you know, both sides are learning from each other. So as one side finds a
12:33solution, the other side is quick to copy that. You know, we've seen this with not just the
12:40these nets, but also the fiber optic cable drones. Those proved to be, you know, unjammable,
12:46pretty effective. And now the solution sometimes is to just run along behind it and cut it with
12:51scissors. We've seen that. Yeah. So the cat and mouse game continues. Hopefully this war ends sooner
12:58than later. And you and I have kind of joked a little bit of gallows humor, but you know, the
13:03the money to be made when the war is over of gathering all of those fiber optic cables strewn
13:09about in fields all over Ukraine. So. Add netting to that list as well. Right. All right,
13:15Brett, I really appreciate you joining us this week. We'll see you next time. See you next time.
13:20Practice as you play, train as you fight, whatever idiom you want to use. Training for real world
13:29scenario is absolutely critical to stopping enemy drones, UGVs, enemy forces from coming in at you.
13:36Whatever the case may be, you need to practice first. And right here, I have a Browning machine
13:41gun set up with an Oculus system to help train Ukrainian fighters how to take down Shehed drones.
13:46So let's go ahead and try it out. All right. So I see a field, see some trees. Are you ready?
13:53I'm ready. Let's go.
14:02All right. So I got two down.
14:10Oh, I'm not going to get it. I'm not going to get it. Oh no, I missed one.
14:16Oh no. Is that it? Oh man. There was four? I only saw three.
14:26Well, that was pretty fun. And it just kind of goes to show you how hard it really is
14:29to shoot a Shehed drone out of the sky.
14:35All right, folks, for Comp's Check this week, we are getting an update on the Scorpion
14:38mobile mortar system. Got it all out. Here to talk more about that is Peter Hernandez with Global
14:44Ordnance. Peter, thank you so much for joining us today. Absolutely. Thanks for joining us.
14:47So we kind of talked about the Scorpion earlier this year at SoftWeek. We have the Scorpion again.
14:52This one's a little bit different. Kind of talk about, you know, this system and how it compares
14:58to what we've talked about earlier. Yeah, absolutely. So there's our 120 millimeter more system. We said
15:02the 81 as you saw at SoftWeek. It's slightly different, obviously bigger round, bigger barrel,
15:07but mainly the biggest difference is just bigger. The other difference is this is pneumatically powered
15:11instead of the manual one you saw before, just because it's a heavier load, but the same system
15:17all together, same idea, goes on any vehicle, whatever you need, whatever size. And that vehicle
15:22agnostic part is, you know, really important. Recently, you just did the test fire up at Quantico.
15:30There's the transformation and contacts 2.0 coming up at the Army. Walk me through how that live fire went,
15:36and then what are we learning to, or what do we hope to learn from the transformation and contact
15:41exercise? Yeah, so the Quantico live fire went very well. It was a great opportunity to show off the
15:46vehicle's capabilities, the shoot and scoot ability to stow, drop, fire, and then get out of there as
15:52quickly as possible. With the TIC 2.0, we're hoping to see, just get into the hands of a lot of soldiers,
15:58get their experience on it. Hopefully they'll be able to learn the system. Hopefully they'll like it.
16:02We've had good feedback so far, so I want to keep that going. And how important is it to have,
16:08you know, the soldier feedback? Because like you said, you know, you had your own guys operating
16:12the system, demonstrating the system, but when you have actual end users being able to get their hands
16:17on the thing and do the thing, how important is that from a company perspective? Well, that's the
16:23most important. They're going to be the ones that end up using it. If they don't like it, they're going
16:26to have a rough time, and they're not going to want to use it. So we want to make sure that the system's
16:30going to work exactly how they want it, and always open to feedback on how we can make it better,
16:35how they'd like it better. So that's the most important part of the whole project, really.
16:40All right, man. Peter, really appreciate your time. Thanks for joining us today.
16:45All opinions expressed in this segment are solely the opinions of the contributors.
16:50All right, folks, this episode of Weapons and Warfare is almost at its end, but before we dip out,
16:55I wanted to spend a few minutes talking about mental health in the veterans community. So let me walk
17:00you through my thought process just a little bit before I make my point. Last week was Veterans Day.
17:06My social media was filled with posts from people thanking the men and women in their lives who
17:11served. Great to see. Also last week, Netflix released a new documentary called In Waves and War,
17:19which follows the journeys four former US service members are taking to find help dealing with the
17:25mental and emotional trauma they suffered while serving. These men could not get the help they
17:31needed through normal means, though, and turned to psychedelic treatments in Mexico instead, specifically
17:38Ibogaine and DMT. While watching the documentary, which I encourage you all to do, I was reminded of
17:45the conversation I had with Matt Wiz Buckley a while back. Wiz is a former naval aviator who is now
17:52spearheading a movement to get psychedelic treatments like Ibogaine approved for veterans here in the
17:59United States. He says Ibogaine saved his life and it's done the same for dozens of other veterans he
18:06knows. So on the one hand, my social media feed was full of folks expressing gratitude to veterans.
18:14On the other hand, there's yet another compelling piece of evidence that America is failing those very
18:21same people to whom we're giving that thanks and gratitude. When I talked to Wiz, he was extremely
18:27critical of then President Biden and his administration for failing to deliver on this.
18:33We're almost a year into a new presidency and the life-saving psychedelic treatments still aren't being
18:40implemented in the United States. If we want to show our veterans just how grateful we are to have them,
18:46we need to press our elected leaders to give those veterans access to any treatment that could improve
18:54their mental health, making life livable. We owe them that because of what they paid for us.
19:02That's going to do it for us this week on Weapons and Warfare. As always,
19:05if you like what we are putting out, go ahead and follow us on social media and download the
19:10Straight Arrow News app today. For senior producer Brett Baker, video editor Brian Spencer, and motion
19:16artist Dakota Patio, I'm Ryan Robertson for Straight Arrow News, signing off.
Recommended
25:31
|
Up next
Be the first to comment