National Defense

Military.com|by Christian Lowe

When the incoming Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway looked around the Corps, he didn't like what he saw.

No, it wasn't the Corps' aggressiveness, tactical savvy or combat acumen that worried him. Instead, it was the bulging gut, extra skin under the chin and the runaway waistlines that Leathernecks were squeezing into their cammies that got his dander up.

"Inspector General of the Marine Corps review of body composition programs indicates we still have Marines that fail to meet body composition standards," Conway wrote in an Aug. 11 Marine Corps-wide message. "This impacts combat efficiency and effectiveness and, unfortunately, is a clear indicator of some commanders' failure to enforce standards."

See for yourself. Check out the new Combat Fitness Test.

Poll: What do you think of the Marines Corps’ new fitness test?

Marines have been at war for seven years -- rotating in a near-constant seven-month cycle of workups and deployment that leaves little time for physical training and all-around fitness. Come home, work out, pass the PFT, deploy.

Now, that's all changed.

Early this month, the Corps introduced a new fitness test that goes way beyond the current PFT that measures pull ups, crunches and a timed, three-mile run. The new "combat fitness test" -- which will be administered in addition to the standard PFT -- is more representative of what Marines are doing on deployment.

Divided into three events, the new test includes a timed ammo can lift, an 880-yard "movement-to-contact" run and a so-called "maneuver under fire" event that covers 300 yards.

"It's not often that we have to do a hump across the desert, but we sure have to sprint like this in urban combat," said Sgt. Maj. Ronald Green, top enlisted advisor to the commander of Marines assigned to the Pentagon.

"This challenges that 'two block war,' " Green said, sweat pouring off his brow after running through the CFT himself.

Marines will be required to start taking the combat fitness test in October. For the first year, the CFT will be graded on a pass/fail basis, with those who fail entering a remedial fitness program to get them up to snuff. Officials with Training and Education Command, which developed the new test, said the PFT and CFT will not be administered on the same day.

Marines who watched a demonstration of the grueling test on Aug. 18 were excited about the new demands if not a little nervous.

"It wasn't impossible, but it was pretty challenging," said 21 year-old Cpl. Hudson Bull, an infantryman assigned to the ceremonial marching team in Washington. Bull has taken the test before.

"I like anything that breaks people off," said Staff Sgt. Richard DeBoy, a platoon leader with three Iraq tours under his belt, describing the crushing effect the CFT's various "short burst" movements can have on a Marine.

Leathernecks will have to take the CFT wearing combat boots and cammies. After the 880-yard run, Marines get a five minute break, then must lift a 30-pound ammo can from chin height straight above their head as many times as they can in two minutes.

Then the hard part begins.

The "maneuver under fire" portion of the test is a 300-yard muscle-burning combination of crawling, casualty dragging, fireman carry, grenade throw simulation ending with a slalom run to the finish line with two 30-pound ammo cans.

In order to pass the test, a male Marine aged 17 to 26, for example, will have to complete the movement to contact run in three minutes, forty-eight seconds or less, execute at least 45 ammo can lifts in two minutes and run the maneuver-under-fire portion in three minutes, 29 seconds or less.

While the first year of this test will be conducted as pass/fail, beginning Oct. 1, 2009, the Corps will count scored results of CFT toward promotions and cutting scores, officials said.

The test was developed in close collaboration with the Corps' internal fitness professionals, sports medicine experts and Leathernecks from the Marine Corps Martial Arts program. It "fills in some gaps left out by the PFT," Marine fitness experts say, and it'll force Marines to re-engineer their workouts.

No more body building, Marine, it's time to put together a "functional fitness program" that incorporates short bursts of high-intensity activity using lots of muscles.

"How often do you actually do the motion in a leg curl?" asked Lauren Baker, head athletic trainer for Marines based at the Pentagon. "Unless you're a soccer player, not much."

Preparing for the CFT will "change their workout routine," she added. "Now they can have a little more fun with it."
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From Telegraph.CO.UK
By Jon Swaine

Landmines releasing brain-altering chemicals, scanners reading soldiers' minds and devices boosting eyesight and hearing could all one figure in arsenals, suggests the study.

Sophisticated drugs, designed for dementia patients but also allowing troops to stay awake and alert for several days are expected to be developed, according to the report. It is thought that some US soldiers are already taking drugs prescribed for narcolepsy in an attempt to combat fatigue.

As well as those physically and mentally boosting one's own troops, substances could also be developed to deplete an opponents' forces, it says.

"How can we disrupt the enemy's motivation to fight?" It asks. "Is there a way to make the enemy obey our commands?" Research shows that "drugs can be utilized to achieve abnormal, diseased, or disordered psychology" among one's enemy, it concludes.

Research is particularly encouraging in the area of functional neuroimaging, or understanding the relationships between brain activity and actions, the report says, raising hopes that scanners able to read the intentions or memories of soldiers could soon be developed.

Some military chiefs and law enforcement officials hope that a new generation of polygraphs, or lie detectors, which spot lie-telling by observing changes in brain activity, can be built.

"Pharmacological landmines," which release drugs to incapacitate soldiers upon their contact with them, could also be developed, according to the report's authors.

The report, which was commissioned by the Defense Intelligence Agency, contained the work of scientists asked to examine how better understanding of how the human mind works was likely to affect the development of technology.

It finds that "great progress has been made" in neuroscience over the last decade, and that continuing advances offered the prospect of a dramatic impact on military equipment and the way in which wars are fought.

It also explains that the concept of torture could be transformed in the future. "It is possible that some day there could be a technique developed to extract information from a prisoner that does not have any lasting side effects," it states. One technique being developed involves the delivery of electrical pulses into a suspect's brain and delay their ability to lie by interfering with its neurons.

Research into "distributed human-machine systems", including robots and military hardware controlled by an operator's mind, is another particular area for optimism among researchers, according to the report. It says significant progress has already been made and that prospects for use of the field are "limited only by the creative imagination."

Jonathan Moreno, a bioethicist and the author of 'Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense', said "It's too early to know which, if any, of these technologies is going to be practical. But it's important for us to get ahead of the curve. Soldiers are always on the cutting edge of new technologies."

What Could It Mean for Warrantless Domestic Surveillance?

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WASHINGTON - The two men nominated to replace the ousted Air Force leadership say they'll work to restore trust and confidence in the beleaguered service, under fire for poor handling of its nuclear duties and other missteps.

In documents obtained by The Associated Press, Air Force Acting Secretary Michael Donley and chief of staff nominee Gen. Norton A. Schwartz also defended the branch's much-criticized purchasing system, saying it needs improvement but is "not fatally flawed."

Their comments were made in questionnaires each submitted to the Senate Armed Service Committee, which was to hold their confirmation hearing Tuesday.

Senators want to hear what Donley and Schwartz will do to take the Air Force in a new direction. But some are skeptical about whether the leadership change can solve systemic problems at the service, especially with only six months left in the Bush administration.

If confirmed, Donley and Schwartz would replace former secretary Michael Wynne and chief of staff Gen. Michael Moseley, fired together in June in an unprecedented decapitation of Air Force leadership that Defense Secretary Robert Gates said was to hold the men accountable for a decade-long decline in the way the service handles the nation's nuclear arsenal.

Gates said his decision was based mainly on the damning conclusions of an internal report on the mistaken shipment to Taiwan of four Air Force fusing devices for ballistic missile nuclear warheads. And he linked the underlying causes of that slip-up to the August incident in which a B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear warheads and flown across the nation without anyone realizing it.

Asked on the Senate questionnaire what challenges they'd face in their jobs, the first thing both nominees mentioned was the loss of confidence the service has suffered.

"The next chief of staff must restore the national trust and confidence in the U.S. Air Force to organize, train and equip forces" for peacetime and wartime, Schwartz answered.

"In order to accomplish this, we must reinvigorate our nuclear enterprise, refine and adapt our ways and means for winning today's irregular fight, take good care of Airmen and their families and prepare ... for an uncertain future," he said in 35 pages of questions and answers.

"Immediate challenges are to restore confidence in the Air Force ... build personal and institutional relationships with Congress and the national security community and undertake actions to address the issues - such as re-establishing focus on the nuclear enterprise - that brought us to this point," Donley said in his 44-page document.

Gates said the trigger that prompted him to call for Wynne's and Moseley's resignations was an investigation that found a declining trend in Air Force nuclear expertise and a drifting of the Air Force's focus away from its nuclear mission, which includes stewardship of the land-based missile component of the nation's nuclear arsenal, as well as missiles and bombs assigned for nuclear missions aboard B-52 and B-2 long-range bombers.

Gates said the report, which has not been released publicly, found that the Air Force's nuclear standards have been in a long decline, a "problem that has been identified but not effectively addressed for over a decade" by leadership.

In another investigation, the Government Accountability Office last month said the Air Force made "significant errors" in awarding a $35 billion contract for a new fleet of refueling tanker aircraft. The competing companies are making new offers and selection is being overseen by Gates' office, and not the Air Force.

In yet another case, the Pentagon inspector general this year said the 2005 contract to promote the Thunderbirds aerial stunt team was tainted by improper influence and preferential treatment. No criminal conduct was found. Moseley was linked to the scandal, though not blamed directly.

Many people have raised the specter of nuclear WMDs being sourced from nefarious sources-- from errant former Soviet states, from N. Korea, Iran or Pakistan> It may be that to those fears must be added the threat that American nuclear weapon technology may be circulating in the black market as well.

"According to some estimates, we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions." Donald Rumsfeld, 2002