Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast

***Apologies; this episode appears to have some technical issues that I will address on return to my home studio; I am on the road right now.***

Fires synchronization is the effective coordination of sensors and effectors in near-real time or real time in a hostile non-permissive combat environment.

The West has no working system to coordinate its artillery, air and Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) assets in a peer or near-peer fight that works.

The Russians do.

The Russian Strike Reconnaissance Complex has come of age and the Russians have one of the most effective fires synchronization modalities on Earth. The system is now battle proven in the first near-peer and peer conflict of the 21st century.

Fires synchronization is the effective coordination of sensors and effectors in near-real time or real time in a hostile non-permissive combat environment to bring the metal on target.

"Quantity has a quality all of its own." - Thomas A. Callaghan Jr.

References:

The Russian Reconnaissance Fire Complex Comes of Age

Army Futures Command Concept for Fires 2028

Christian Brose The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare

Lester Grau & Charles K. Bartles The Russian Way of War: Force Structure, Tactics, and Modernization of the Russian Ground Forces

David Glantz Soviet Operational and Tactical Combat in Manchuria, 1945 (Soviet (Russian) Study of War)

David Glantz Soviet Military Operational Art: In Pursuit of Deep Battle (Soviet (Russian) Military Theory and Practice)

Georgii Samoilovich Isserson G.S. Isserson and the War of the Future: Key Writings of a Soviet Military Theorist

My Substack.

Email at [email protected].

I discuss the Fall 2020 war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the tiny sliver of Nagorno-Karabakh and why I would suggest that it was a glimpse into the future of warfare for the remainder of this century. the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) for the following reasons:

Robotics and drones are the new "low tech" answer to the First World's exquisite military platform that are over priced and have the same provenance of battleships planet-wide in January 1942.

The electronic emissions environment in future conflicts will be a two-way street that will put any active acquisition sensors and attached effectors in the hazards if they emit and remain in one place.

Autonomous targeting will become more and more relevant as the speed of munitions increases and the salvo competition costs are driven down.

The life of the light infantryman will change significantly since for the first time in human history, the cost of hunting individual soldiers and small groups of soldiers in an effective fashion has reached a cost in concert with technology [I will treat this with more detail in a future episode on the end of the legacy infantryman].

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has seen a remarkable increase in martial effectiveness since the Russians looked carefully at what happened in N-K, took notes and made changes to Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTP) in concert with the wholesale revamping of the Russian armed forces since 2008.

My Substack.

Email me at [email protected].

I discuss the slaughter of over 500 unarmed men, women and children in My Lai in March 1968 by American soldiers.

In concert with the Tet Offensive in 1968, this was the end of American arms in Vietnam.

The collision of barbarism, toxic leadership and moral injury make everyone of these pages bleed. One of the most searing indictments of American arms you will read. This book is an acquired taste because it may crush your soul.

I caution you before you listen to this that the telling of this tale is will haunt any decent human being forever.

References:

Howard Jones My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into Darkness

Karl Marlantes What It Is Like to Go to War

Bill Russel Edmonds God is Not Here: A Soldier's Struggle with Torture, Trauma, and the Moral Injuries of War

Clark Savage King of All Things: A Guide to Man's Martial Purpose

Dick Couch A Tactical Ethic: Moral Conduct in the Insurgent Battlespace

Andrew Bacevich Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out Against America's Misguided Wars

Shauna Springer WARRIOR: How to Support Those Who Protect Us

Jonathan Shay Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character

Jonathan Shay Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming

Another podcast:

Martyrmade: Anything That Moves - The My Lai Massacre (w/History on Fire)

My Substack

Email at [email protected].

I continue a rather technical treatment of developing and using Concepts of Operations (CONOPS).

This episode examines the finer points of getting baselines and expectations right for small and large projects alike.

If you take these simple concepts for building a CONOPS to include how to do decomposition in Product Breakdown Structures (PBS) and Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) as described in MILSTD 881F and apply it wherever you happen to work at a small or large company, everybody will be in awe of the black magic you perform and it a. guaranteed Return on Investment (ROI) in how much money you will save downstream.

References:

Special Forces Detachment Mission Planning Guide GTA 31-01-003 January 2020

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE STANDARD PRACTICE WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURES FOR DEFENSE MATERIEL ITEMS MILSTD 881F 13 May 2022

NASA Systems Engineering Handbook Rev 2

Cost of 13 NASA projects skyrocket due to improper reviews

The US Submarine Force is Sunk

James Hornfischer "The Fleet at Flood Tide"

My Substack

Email at [email protected]

I discuss a rather technical treatment of developing and using Concepts of Operations (CONOPS).

This episode examines the timeless and tedious process of getting baselines and expectations right for small and large projects alike.

References:

Special Forces Detachment Mission Planning Guide GTA 31-01-003 January 2020

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE STANDARD PRACTICE WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURES FOR DEFENSE MATERIEL ITEMS MILSTD 881F 13 May 2022

NASA Systems Engineering Handbook Rev 2

Cost of 13 NASA projects skyrocket due to improper reviews

My Substack

Email at [email protected]

My Storming America Series covers the gamut of what the spontaneous attack in the US will look like when terror cells launch a simultaneous attack on the US homeland.

I cover it further in Episodes 37, 41-42 and 49-50 of my Chasing Ghosts podcast.

I discuss the outcome of the probable jihadist invasion of America. America is in a unique position in history in which it has facilitated the unfettered invasion of its borders and a large swath of military age males have been granted asylum or gone undetected to link up with legacy underground Islamist and terrorist groups across the country.

This episodes examines the smoking ruins and speculate what the next stage of American civilization will look like.

References:

Howard Jones My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into Darkness

William Forstchen Day of Wrath

Kurt Schlichter The Attack

Karl Dahl

Faction

Faction: With the Crusaders

Matt Bracken:

Enemies Foreign and Domestic.

Foreign Enemies And Traitors.

Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista.

The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun.

Castigo Cay.

Eric Frank Russell The Wasp

Michael Z. Williamson The Weapon (and the entire Freehold series)

Ernest R. May Strange Victory: Hitler’s Conquest of France

Robert Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Robert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In History

My Substack

Email at [email protected]

My Storming America Series covers the gamut of what the spontaneous attack in the US will look like when terror cells launch a simultaneous attack on the US homeland.

I cover it further in Episodes 37, 41, 43 and 49-50 of my Chasing Ghosts podcast.

In this episode I discuss what the attack looks like in America.

This is not if, this is when.

The country is poised to experience this through a combination of neglect and the sheer hubris of meddling in the world without realize the unintended consequences.

I wish I had better news but you have been warned, it's on the horizon.

I talk about William Forstchen's "Day of Wrath" and Kurt Schlichter's "The Attack".

References:

William Forstchen Day of Wrath

Kurt Schlichter The Attack

Matt Bracken:

Enemies Foreign and Domestic.

Foreign Enemies And Traitors.

Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista.

The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun.

Castigo Cay.

Eric Frank Russell The Wasp

Michael Z. Williamson The Weapon (and the entire Freehold series)

Ernest R. May Strange Victory: Hitler’s Conquest of France

Robert Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Robert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In History

My Substack

Email at [email protected].

My Storming America Series covers the gamut of what the spontaneous attack in the US will look like when terror cells launch a simultaneous attack on the US homeland.

I cover it further in Episodes 37, 42-43 and 49-50 of my Chasing Ghosts podcast.

This is a continuation of my "Storming America Series" where I will tease out and describe why the inevitable internal attack on America by external forces will be made real.

In this episode, I will examine what intelligence looks like from a professional perspective and why America and the West consistently engage in existential chaos avalanches that make the world a worse place.

The bureaucratic impulse in the West has been a significant factor in making the intelligence community (IC), like the military community, a paper tiger that is a far greater danger to the inhabitants of the west than an ally. Until the IC is restructured and made more effective, it will consume roughly 100 billion a year to produce shoddy analysis, inform bad policy and a Keystone Kops foreign covert operations history that is a national shame.

Like 9/11 and its existential failures, the next attack on America will have them simply asking for more money and more power.

If you leveled the FBI, NSA and CIA tomorrow morning, made each of their budgets one dollar and fired all their employees, you would still be safe as a country.

References:

Richard J. Heuer The Psychology of Intelligence Analysis

David Talbot The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government

Mortimer Adler How to Read a Book

Tim Weiner Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA

John Prado The Ghosts of Langley: Into the CIA's Heart of Darkness

My Substack.

Contact me at [email protected].

This episode will be an addendum to my initial coverage in October 2023 of the Gaza-Israel conflict in Episode 027 and riffing off the domestic implications in Episode 037 of a similar attack on CONUS. If you wish to listen to those before you do this one, you may but I have crafted this so that isn’t necessary.

The clock is closer to midnight than it was in October 2023.

References:

William Forstchen Day of Wrath

Kurt Schlichter The Attack

Matt Bracken:

Enemies Foreign and Domestic.

Foreign Enemies And Traitors.

Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista.

The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun.

Castigo Cay.

Eric Frank Russell The Wasp

Michael Z. Williamson The Weapon (and the entire Freehold series)

Ernest R. May Strange Victory: Hitler’s Conquest of France

Robert Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Robert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In History

My Substack

Email me at [email protected].

I am reusing a previous episode I used in the now moribund Stoicism podcast I started, The Dash, which I ran out of steam on.

Applying Stoic values and discipline to the vocation and avocations we practice in life may be the hardest part outside of making a Stoic life a lived lifestyle. I find the management industry is a giant cargo cult that publishes books whose pages number in the hundreds but could simply be a page or two.

References:

James Clear Atomic Habits

Marcus Aurelius Meditations

Whitney J. Oakes (editor) The Stoic and Epicurean Philosophers: The Complete Extant Writings of Epicurus, Epictetus, Lucretius and Marcus Aurelius

My Substack

Email me at [email protected].