Much of the doctrinal literature concerning Army special operations is restricted from public disclosure, often for good reasons and sometimes for reasons that are hard to understand.
But one new special operations manual has been approved for unrestricted public disclosure.
As the title indicates, “Airdrop of Supplies and Equipment: Rigging Loads for Special Operations” (FM 4.20-142, September 2007) deals with the proper packaging of military supplies for aerial delivery via parachute. A copy is available here (in a very large 28 MB PDF file).
Also on the subject of new military publications, the Congressional Research Service updated its report “Defense: FY2008 Authorization and Appropriations” on September 28, 2007.
The human cost is measured in deaths. The financial cost is measured in the $52 billion taxpayers pay annually end stage renal disease – double NASA’s budget.
Gilman Louie, Longest Serving Board Chair of the Federation of American Scientists, Named Chair Emeritus
The proposed Office will resurrect the long-closed Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), the archive of which has been maintained by FAS for decades at https://ota.fas.org/.
If Congress needs help understanding the risks and rewards of a piece of technology, they shouldn’t have to rely solely on the sparknotes from a salesman. The rub is much simpler: Congress needs nerds.