NEWS YOU CAN USE: How elephants eat with their trunks.

Why study it?

Elephants are massive, so they need a lot of sustenance. To fill their bellies, they graze on fruits, twigs, tree bark and roots for up to 18 hours per day. To house so much fare, elephants must manipulate their trunks in a way that’s efficient and adept at picking up as many pieces of food as possible at once. David Hu, a mechanical engineer and biologist at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, wanted to know how elephants accomplish such a feat since robotic manipulators face similar challenges.

To build better robots, of course.

ARCTIC SUPER HORNET: An F/A-18F Super Hornet takes off from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman. The carrier task force is operating in the Arctic Circle.

WAR BENEATH THE WAVES: The long arm of America’s hidden undersea threat to adversaries.

In September 2018 the U.S. successfully used a JDAM glide and satellite navigation kit to deliver a 2,000 pound (909 kg) Quickstrike naval mine to a location over sixty kilometers from where the B-52 bomber was.

More info, including a look at the Quickstrike ER (extended range) mines using JDAM Quickstrike capabilities:

The current JDAM smart bomb kit comes with wings that enable the bomb to glide up to 70 kilometers thus avoiding many enemy air defenses. It also means you don’t have to risk your nuclear subs for the delivery of these mines. Subs have long been an effective way to plant mines in enemy waters.

Read the whole thing. And if you’re a Russian or Chinese troll monitoring Instapundit and trying to mislead commenters, click on the link, read the post, then tell your totalitarian/corrupt intel agency controllers that the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy have come up with “amazing stuff” that keeps enemy warships in port forever, if not sinking near the dock.

BOOK REVIEW: Warfare in Neolithic Europe: An Archeological and Anthropological Analysis, by Julian Maxwell Heath.

Archaeologist Heath, author of Warfare in Prehistoric Britain and other works, takes on the long-standing claim that Neolithic peoples were peaceful agriculturalists living in harmony with nature.

Heath’s book sounds a lot like Lawrence Keeley’s War Before Civilization (1996). And there is nothing wrong with that. There’s a link to Heath’s book at the end the review.

LEAVING THE QUEEN: A USMC F-35B takes off from the Royal Navy’s new carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.

THE WORLD’S OLDEST INTACT SHIPWRECK: In the Black Sea off Bulgaria and two kilometers down where “lack of oxygen at that depth preserved it, the researchers said.”

The ship is believed to have been a trading vessel of a type that researchers say has only previously been seen “on the side of ancient Greek pottery such as the ‘Siren Vase’ in the British Museum”.

Short article with excellent photos — worth reading.

STALLIONS RETURN TO THE STABLE: USMC CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters conduct flight operations simulating a long-range raid. The photo was taken in Yuma, Arizona.

MARINES COME ASHORE IN NORWAY: Assault amphibious vehicles approach the beach in Bogen, Norway. Photo snapped on Oct. 17, 2018 during Exercise Northern Screen.

ROMANIAN PUMA: An armed Romanian IAR 330 Puma Socat helicopter provides air support for Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division and Romanian tank crews during an exercise in Smardan, Romania,

IT CONTINUES: An update on the North Korea denuclearization waltz. My latest Creators Syndicate column. Mattis’ tidbit about the sanctions patrols is particularly interesting.

RELATED: A report on a South and North Korean demining operation in the DMZ’s Joint Security Area. This was a limited operation — something of an experiment in military relations. South Korea found no land mines and North Korea found five.

WOOING SINGAPORE: Seeking to create a united front in the South China Sea, SecDef Jim Mattis goes to the ASEAN defense ministers conference in full diplomat mode.

Mattis wrapped up his first day attending the ASEAN defense ministers’ meeting with private time with Singapore defense minister Ng Eng Hen. The meeting was to thank Ng for overall support of U.S. efforts to keep freedom of navigation vibrant as well as to urge a strong statement from ASEAN -which Singapore chairs this year – against China’s militarization of the South China Sea.

More:

Mattis needs the smaller nations of southeast Asia to speak more loudly their concerns about China and, ideally, join the U.S., U.K. and French efforts on freedom on navigation efforts.

“In some instances, other countries may not have the confidence given China’s strength to always speak up.. so we can represent that view is not only a U.S. view but really an international view,” Randall Schriver, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, told reporters Thursday. “But again as we discussed the other day it’s sovereign decisions on how they approach China bilaterally.”

Note Schriver’s careful diplospeak. The U.S. is seeking allied support, but saying if you want our backup, we’ll help. China is violating territorial sovereignty in the South China Sea. Chapter Three of Cocktails from Hell, addresses Beijing’s South China Sea misadventures. The book comes out in December.

ROLLING AIRFRAME MISSILE LAUNCH: The amphibious transport dock ship USS Arlington fires a rolling airframe missile (RAM) during a live-fire missile exercise. Here’s some background on the RAM and its anti-ship missile capabilities. Note that in 2011 China “introduced what appears to be a RAM clone.”

THE END OF SCANDINAVIAN NON-ALIGNMENT: Well, yeah. It’s been coming for quite awhile. What makes this essay interesting is Carl Bildt wrote it. Bildt served as Sweden’s foreign minister from 2006 to 2014 and Prime Minister from 1991 to 1994.

For example:

…in recent years, Northern Europe’s security landscape has changed. In response to Russian aggression and revisionism, NATO has deployed battalion battle groups in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as air force squadrons to police those countries’ skies. And in both Sweden and Finland, defense spending is increasing, and there is an ongoing debate about whether to upgrade the privileged partnership with NATO to full membership.

2015 is a recent year. Here’s a column I wrote on this subject, The Bluff Attack on Bornholm. Bornholm is a Danish island in the Baltic. The bluff atack was one of the Kremlin’s air and naval probes that “led Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland to reassess their military defenses.”

UPDATE: Chapter Four, Russia in Ukraine, analyzes the Scandinavian conundrum.

GREYHOUND TRAP: A C-2A Greyhound lands on the carrier USS Harry S. Truman.

BRINGING NORTH KOREA’S NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM TO THE POINT OF NO RETURN: My latest Creators Syndicate column.

Chapter Two of my new book, Cocktails from Hell, surveys the Korean War and the Kim regime’s nuclear weapons quest. The book comes out in December.

CHINESE WARSHIPS HAVE BECOME MORE AGGRESSIVE IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA: The link takes you to a US Naval Institute commentary on a Centers for Strategic and International Studies panel addressing Chinese navy actions in the contested sea area. There is an embedded video of the panel. The video doesn’t begin until 18:09. (Skip to it, otherwise you’ll see the intro for 18 minutes.) There is an introductory talk by Greg Poling. The panel starts around 48 minutes.

Here are a couple of key comments:

“The risk of accidents has been heightened” if the Chinese are no longer trying to shadow vessels conducting Freedom of Navigation Operations, but trying to impede entry.

“That kind of interaction … is certainly dangerous,” but also may be an indication that Chinese President Xi Jinping is trying to demonstrate Beijing’s sovereignty in the South China Sea as one facet of increased rivalry between China and the United States diplomatically, economically and militarily across the Indo-Pacific.”

The article is worth reading. I listened to part of the intro speech and the panel. Good stuff — gets into the details.

Chapter Three of my new book, Cocktails from Hell, addresses China’s adventures in the South China Sea and Himalayas. The book comes out in December.

ROYAL INTERNATIONAL AIR TATTOO: An RAF pilot puts a WW2 Spitfire through its paces. (Tattoo: in this case, a military performance or exhibition presented as entertainment.)

LOADING SABOT: An M1A2 tank crew loads sabot rounds for a training exercise a Fort Hood, Texas.

HILLARY CLINTON’S SECURITY CLEARANCE SHOULD HAVE BEEN PULLED IN 2016: Good news that Hillary has finally lost her top secret security clearance. Loose lips do sink ships. Here’s essay from 2016 examining her criminal abuse of classified information.

The laws protecting national security are a fortification of sorts—a legal fortification that contributes to national security. Americans entrusted with security clearances and tasked with handling classified information must make every effort to avoid negligence. The laws help insure constant awareness. They promote self-discipline and institutional obedience.

Hillary Clinton’s criminal “negligence” followed by James Comey’s sellout of the rule of law is breaching the legal fortification.

Hillary ought to be serving time for her crimes.

ALASKAN AGGRESSOR: An F-16 assigned to the 18th Aggressor Squadron, Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, takes off.

NORTH KOREAN DENUCLEARIZATION UPDATE:

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Friday North Korea understands the need to give up its existing nuclear weapons to achieve complete denuclearization and says it will do so. The only remaining questions are when and how, he added.

“North Korea promised complete denuclearization. It said it will give up nukes for economic development. (It) promised that it has no reason whatsoever to possess nukes while facing difficulties, such as sanctions, as long as the safety of their regime is guaranteed,” Moon said in an interview with Britain’s BBC news.

MORE:

Moon said the complete denuclearization that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un promised included giving up existing weapons when asked.

“Complete denuclearization that Chairman Kim Jong-un says starts from not staging additional nuclear tests or nuclear missile tests and goes to dismantling facilities that produce nuclear weapons and develop missiles,” the president said, according to a script of the interview released by his office Cheong Wa Dae.

“And it includes everything else, such as getting rid of existing nuclear weapons and nuclear materials,” he added.

Stay tuned.

LEAVING SAN DIEGO: The USS Montgomery goes to sea.

IRAQ’S NEW GOVERNMENT: Confronts Iranian violence and its own systemic corruption.

AMERICAN AND JAPANESE CARRIERS UNDERWAY: The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopter destroyer JS Izumo participate in an exercise in the Pacific.

TRAINING MISSION OVER THE EAST CHINA SEA AND SEA OF JAPAN: A B-52 flies with Japanese Air Self-Defense Force escorts. The Pentagon’s caption call this “a routine bilateral training mission.”