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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Strategy Page Round up |
| 2003-09-17 |
| Edited for brevity. New and Improved MREsNow with fresh lemon scent! There are some new MREs, and less popular ones are being dropped. The American MRE (Meals, Ready to Eat) field rations have actually gotten better over the last twenty years. This has been because the army has regularly surveyed the troops about how much they liked each of the 24 different MREs available. Every few years, the three least popular are dropped, and three new ones are added. The new MREs are selected from troops suggestions, and testing (with the troops) of proposed new items. The three MREs being dropped are Jamaican pork chops, pasta with Alfredo sauce and beef with mushrooms. The new ones are; pot roast with vegetables, barbecue pork ribs and vegetable manicotti. Canadian "Coyote" stalks Taliban The Canadian Coyote electronic reconnaissance vehicle has gone to Afghanistan and proved enormously useful by doing long range surveillance of Taliban and al Qaeda suspects. The Coyote is an 8x8 LAV (wheeled armored vehicle) mounting a 25mm Bushmaster cannon and a nine meter (30 foot) telescoping mast that contains a Doppler radar, laser rangefinder, thermal imaging sensor and video camera. The mast mounted sensors can see clearly out to 15 kilometers and identify targets (day or night) for artillery or air attack. The radar can spot targets out to 24 kilometers, but can only distinguish vehicle types (wheeled, tracked) beginning at about 12 kilometers. Tear Gas Back in the Arsenal Last February, the Department of Defense announced that it was asking the president to authorize the use of tear gas in combat situations. Since 1975, American troops have only been allowed to use tear gas for controlling civilian mobs. If the civilians have guns, you can’t use tear gas on them as that could be considered a "military use of an incapacitating gas." To be on the safe side, in 1975 American troops were forbidden to use tear gas in combat. The army and marines protested this, as experience in Vietnam had shown tear gas to be an effective way to save American (and enemy) lives in combat. But on April 2nd, it was announced that president Bush had authorized troops to use tear gas. |
| Posted by:Dar |