Rapid Fire Sept. 4, 2014: Senate Panel Rules Out Boots on the Ground in Syria

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* After hearing John Kerry and Chuck Hagel (see video below), the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee came up with a resolution [PDF] narrowing the scope of a possible military intervention against Syria by explicitly ruling out the presence of US troops “on the ground in Syria for the purpose of combat operations.” Kerry would […]

* After hearing John Kerry and Chuck Hagel (see video below), the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee came up with a resolution [PDF] narrowing the scope of a possible military intervention against Syria by explicitly ruling out the presence of US troops “on the ground in Syria for the purpose of combat operations.” Kerry would still like the President to have that option, were Syria to “implode.” A similar hearing is scheduled today with the House foreign affairs panel at 12pm ET. House leadership is lined up behind the president, which does not necessarily mean the rank and file will follow.

* India’s Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses published a column accusing the US of selective memory, and possibly double standard, on post-WWI use of chemical weapons. Some of the cited historical precedent is contentious.

* Huntington Ingalls Industries will close its Gulfport Composite Center of Excellence by May 2014, acknowledging they had little choice after the Navy decided to use steel on Zumwalt destroyers.

* AM General and Navistar are both filing GAO protests against USSOCOM’s award to General Dynamics for Ground Mobility Vehicle (GMV) 1.1, reports Defense News. Such protests are almost Standard Operating Procedure these days.

* The US Navy’s Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) has conducted joint helicopter crash tests in cooperation with NASA and the FAA.

* The Pentagon is backtracking from a milestone set 2 years ago by then-SecDef Leon Panetta that was meant to get the department closer to its deadline to finally be fully auditable by FY17.

* Teijin Aramid thinks they have a better spall-trap, using warp-knitting tech instead of woven structures in order to provide better resistance and lower-cost post-treatment.

* US Army Lt. Gen. Mark Milley, the ISAF’s deputy commander, told Stars & Stripes that “We have no indication whatsoever of a withdrawal completely from Afghanistan.”

* Some of the ammunition stocked by UK forces in Afghanistan is not worth bringing back home, nor can it be given to Afghan forces who use different weapons, so ammo is sometimes blasted on-site. Video:

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