Watch: C-130 Ops Behind the Scenes – Exercise Vigilant Shield 18

Soldiers and equipment arrive at White Sands missile Range for the exercise Vigilant Shield 18. Includes video of equipment arriving at Condron Army Airfield, and Soldiers arriving at the vacant, move-in-ready company area. – Defense Video A 10-day rapid deployment exercise designed to test the Army’s capacity to protect critical defense facilities kicked off here […]

Take an Inside Look at Nighttime F-22 Raptor Ops. Plus Night Air Refueling!

Take a look inside night operations with the F-22 Raptor at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida. Watch: An F-22 Raptor Refueling at Night. This is Very Cool! The F-22’s advanced software allows it to deliver precision air to ground weapons in day or night and all weather conditions. Did you know when the Raptor was […]

Wild West culture of drug use on operations permeates SEAL Teams

Sources within the Special Operations community have described a situation to SOFREP in which SEAL Team Six operators are routinely high on drugs while conducting highly dangerous direct action missions while deployed abroad.  Operators are known to abuse methamphetamine and other uppers on a regular basis during combat operations.  The use of cocaine and methamphetamine is […]

Understanding Jihadis: Lessons From the Al Qaeda Training Manual

If you’re looking for some light reading or to get on one of the NSA’s watch lists, this is your opportunity.  Below is a link to Al Qaeda’s renowned training manual, affectionately referred to as the “Manchester Documents,” for your reading pleasure.  While by no means a new document, the intent here is to have […]

U.S. intelligence challenges for our next Commander-in-Chief

Why is this important? The intelligence community deals with such a large amount of data, you can’t always assume people who have the “need to know,” and who should have access to the data, have seen all of the available information on any topic. The challenge of the intelligence professional is to rapidly sort through all of the data in order to develop usable intelligence analysis, enabling decision makers and warfighters to make informed decisions. Depending on the scenario, these decisions sometimes have to be made within minutes. Sometimes seconds.

Think of someone shoving you into a room filled with thousands of puzzle pieces, and then telling you to put it together in a few hours.

The revival of the counterspy, ‘Active Measures Working Group’ amid renewed Russian threats

The bill will require the U.S. President to “establish an interagency committee to counter Russian active measures,” according to Senate press release issued in May.

Citing an anonymous U.S. intelligence source, the new group would be modeled on the now defunct “Active Measures Working Group,” a Cold War-era committee erected in the 1980s to expose covert operations by the Soviet Union.

Ex-CIA director: EU ‘gets in way’ of security services

A former CIA director has said the European Union “in some ways gets in the way” of security services, as the debate continues over whether the UK would be safer in or out of the EU. Retired general Michael Hayden told the BBC the union was “not a natural contributor to national security”. Home Secretary Theresa May […]