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‘You Will Wind Up Dead’: Inside a Combat Drone School in Russia

How do you learn to fly a kamikaze drone? In Russia, one answer lies inside a secretive training program run by Octagon, a drone school linked to remnants of the Wagner Group. Though Wagner technically no longer exists, Octagon claimed to continue running combat drone courses in Russia, even after Wagner …

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Shotguns vs. Drones: A Clay Shooter’s Guide to Defeating Enemy Swarms

by Austin Lee In the escalating drone wars, where fiber optic and First-Person View (FPV) drones threaten soldiers and civilians alike, one man is turning the art of clay shooting into a battlefield advantage.  Lieutenant Marco Angelelli, an Italian Air Force reserve officer and Italian Clay Pigeon Shooting Federation (FITAV) …

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‘Our Business Now is North’: British Army Col. Tim Collins’ Eve-of-Battle Speech in Iraq

“Be ferocious in battle and magnanimous in victory.” The British Army’s Col. Tim Collins gave this eve-of-battle speech to 1 Batt., Royal Irish Regiment, on 19 March 2003, immediately before they went to war in Iraq. Men who were there say they never will forget it. “There may be people …

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We Test the RAD Propulsion Electric Drive System Aboard a Zodiac Boat

by Friedrich Seiltgen I was invited to take control of the boat… During Special Operations Week in Tampa, Florida, Soldier of Fortune publisher Susan Katz Keating arranged a test demonstration with RAD Propulsion of their RAD 40 extended-range pack electric drive system, mounted on a Zodiac Milpro MK 5 inflatable …

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The Neighborhood Recluse Had a Secret: He Was a War Hero

by Mitch “Taco” Bell Sometimes you never know who your neighbors are and I don’t mean that in the ax murderer scenario way, but in the sense that you have true heros hiding out in plain sight. Take Tommy King, for instance. One weekend we had a giant wind storm and …

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Inside the Circle of Death, We Got Hit by An IED – And Garrison Bullshit From ‘Old Stinkeye’

by Greg Chabot Note from the author: The following is all from my perspective and how I remember it. Any inaccuracies are on me. Overview I often get asked, “What was the most dangerous mission you went on?” My reply: “Logpack to FOB Warhorse.”  Baqubah in 2004-05 was not a …

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How I Saved My Unit From Death-by-Trackers

On this particular day, I was feeling quite fed up with all the fucking trackers. I went on a rant. And then… by Cliff Wade Back in Garrison, 2015 The Army is big on trackers. They track unit’s training requirements, numerous administrative actions, leave dates, fire extinguisher expiration dates, duty exemptions, …

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Deadly Assault on Special Forces in Vietnam Left ‘Drag Marks and Blood Trails Throughout the Camp’

by Gene Pugh One of the darkest days in Special Forces history occurred on a summer morning in 1968 in Vietnam. In the early hours of Aug. 23, the Da Nang MACVSOG camp known as FOB4 was attacked by approximately 167 soldiers from the combined units of the 22nd VC …

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Texas Floods: We Searched for Survivors When Tropical Storm Charley Battered Del Rio

by Martin Kufus Author Martin Kufus was a volunteer firefighter in Texas, and participated in disaster ops there. He embarked on a tense mission in 1998, after flash floods wreaked havoc along the southern border. The following is based on a chapter from his book, Plow the Dirt but Watch the …

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Plastic Paramilitaries: Irish Insurgents Print Their Own 3D Guns

by James Parker Northern Ireland’s paramilitary underworld is learning to fight with the tools of the digital age, and these tools are becoming more sophisticated and accessible.  As a crowd gathered in Belfast to commemorate Ireland’s 1916 Easter Rising, something new made an appearance in the arsenal of Northern Ireland’s …

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