• Bell’s V-280 Valor light tiltrotor aircraft has flown in level flight with its tiltrotors in the horizontal/cruise mode for the first time this week.
• The V-280 Valor is a medium, tactical tiltrotor aircraft designed for the U.S. Army Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator program, and may replace the UH-60 Blackhawk utility helicopter and the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.
•  It has a maximum speed of 300 Knots or 350 MPH and can carry up to 14 troops.

Bell’s V-280 Valor light tiltrotor aircraft has flown in level flight with its tiltrotors in the horizontal/cruise mode for the first time this week. The aircraft reached 190 knots (218 MPH) during the flight.

The new Bell V-280 Valor is a medium, tactical tiltrotor aircraft designed for the U.S. Army Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR-TD) program. The JMR-TD program is a precursor for the Army’s overall Future Vertical Lift (FVL) co-development and evaluation of possible replacements for existing rotorwing aircraft in five different roles. The V-280 Valor is a proposed candidate for a new JMR-Medium utility and attack helicopter to potentially replace the UH-60 Blackhawk utility helicopter and the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.

The Bell V-280 is reportedly capable of a maximum speed of 300 Knots or 350 MPH. That is significantly faster than the U.S. Army’s existing UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters’ max speed of 222 MPH and even faster than the existing MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor at a top speed at sea-level of 316 MPH.

The V-280 Valor is intended to carry up to 14 troops in a tactical personnel transport configuration with a crew of four including two flight crew and two gunner/loadmasters. It may also be developed with the capability to be an attack helicopter with various weapons onboard as depicted early in the program in a concept video showing an animated assault on a high altitude insurgent camp during hot weather. High altitude/hot weather flight conditions, called “High and Hot”, are challenging for most existing rotor wing aircraft. The V-280 will be optimized for high and hot operations.

While similar in visual configuration to the existing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor in service with the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Marines, the V-280’s engines remain in a fixed position on the wing while only the tiltrotors change geometry from vertical flight to horizontal flight. One advantage to this system is that both tiltrotors on the V-280 can operate off a single engine. On the V-22 Osprey both of the entire engine nacelles rotate during the transition from vertical to horizontal flight and the engine drive systems are fully segregated from each other, but joined by a complex gear box so the aircraft can operate on one engine.

Another unique feature of the V-280 Valor is the one-piece carbon fiber composite wing section. The one-piece composite wing uses Large Cell Carbon Core technology, reducing costs by over 30% compared to the construction of the V-22 Osprey wing. The one-piece wing is also integral to the ability of the twin tiltrotors to operate off power from only one engine if needed.

The Bell V-280 Valor competes with the Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 Defiant aircraft in the JMR-TD program. The SB-1 Defiant uses two contra-rotating rotors and a “pusher” style tail rotor in a more traditional helicopter configuration as compared to the Bell V-280 tiltrotor design.

As the V-280 program advances through flight testing the aircraft has now flown 27 hours with approximately 90 hours of time turning the rotors in ground and flight tests. The aircraft has demonstrated its ground taxi and hover capability as well as low-altitude maneuvers including 360-degree pedal turns and forward/aft/lateral repositions along with 60 knot roll-on landings.

The next phase of flight operations for the V-280 will include maximum speed flights scheduled for some time within the next 90 days according to Bell. “During the summer, we plan on reaching most of the required performance parameters that were part of the test program,” said Jeffrey Schloesser, Bell’s executive vice president of strategic pursuits, during an interview last month with Aviation Week.

An interesting part of the advancements in the test program is that now the Bell V-280 is accompanied during test flights by an Aero L-39 jet chase plane because of the V-280’s increasing speed in testing.

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• Sgt. Tracy McKithern found a small stray dog wandering around her army base and began caring for her.
• A crowdfunding campaign through Puppy Rescue Mission raised enough money to bring the dog, named Erby, home.
• McKithern was deployed again before Erby arrived, but they recently reunited.

For Army Reserve Sgt. Tracy McKithern, it was love at first sight.

While stationed at the Kurdistan Training Coordination Center, the combat photographer took notice of a small, white, stray female dog wandering around the base, according to an Army report.

"She is the sweetest little soul," McKithern said. "She came up to me immediately — probably hungry, but gentle. I think she was looking for love more than anything else."

Other soldiers on the base began caring for and feeding the dog, naming her "Erby" after the Iraqi city of Irbil. Erby started waiting for them to come back and sleeping outside of McKithern's quarters.

As McKithern prepared to return home, she reached out to Puppy Rescue Mission to see it it would be possible to take Erby with her. The organization set up a crowdfunding campaign to pay for the necessary vaccinations, paperwork, and travel arrangements, which reached its goal of $4,500 with most contributions coming from "complete strangers," McKithern said.

McKithern went back home to Tampa, Florida, but was deployed again a month later while awaiting Erby's arrival. Her husband picked up the dog in New York and drove her back to Florida. When McKithern returned home again for their long-awaited reunion, Erby immediately recognized her.

"Hi, do you remember me?" McKithern asked Erby when they finally met again.

In reply, Erby jumped on top of her and began licking her face.

You can watch a video of their reunion as reported by ABC Action News below.

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• Business Insider spoke to Mike Martin, a former British Army officer and conflict expert.
• Martin's new book Why We Fight is about the evolutionary psychology of warfare. 
• He told us about the two reasons that people fight in wars.

Read the full transcript below:

Mike Martin: Hi, my name is Dr Mike Martin. I'm a former British Army officer and an expert on conflict and I've just written a book called Why We Fight about the evolutionary psychology of warfare.

The real question is, how have we evolved as individuals to fight for our groups? When you dig into it and you look at the data, there's only two things that are worth risking yourself in war for, as an individual. The first thing is an increase in social status. And the reason why that's worth risking yourself for is as you rise up the status hierarchy, particularly as a man, and men do most of the fighting, you get more mates, more sexual mates. When you have more mates, you have more children. That's a reason to risk fighting in war.

But there's another reason why people fight in war. That's to ensure that they have membership of an in-group. This in-group could be a tribe or a nation-state. It's the same mechanism, it's the thing that causes us as humans to feel belonging. It's the thing that makes you feel homesick. It's the thing that sends shivers down your spine when you're at a political rally, or a football match, or you're singing in a choir in church. These are the mechanisms in your brain causing you to seek to belong.

In evolutionary terms, we need to belong to groups because they're safe. The main reason that groups exist in evolutionary terms is because they protect us from other humans who are trying to kill us. We fight for status and we fight for belonging. We've got these ideas that these two things, status and belonging, and humans seeking those things are what cause individuals to fight in wars.

Actually, this makes sense. Look around the world. We've got two global level politicians and the idea of them seeking status and having status disputes with each other is very obvious in their behaviour. Leaders seek to dominate their own groups and that's what they do. Running for the presidency of the United States is a massive status contest, it's gruelling.

These people are driven to succeed and they're driven to achieve high status. The mechanism that guides this seeking status is basically testosterone. The way it works is that the more testosterone you get, the more you seek status, but it's a feedback loop. It's a positive feedback loop.

When you get to the top of your group, i.e. you become the leader of your country or perhaps you become the head of your tribe, it depends what scale we're looking at, you then seek to dominate other leaders who are the leaders of other groups. This is where we see wars at a product of a status disputes between leaders playing out.

Belonging comes into play when those who aren't leaders seek to take part in wars. We can see this played out and the rise of identity politics at the moment, particularly in the States, but also across Europe. If why we fight is correct and war is driven by status and belonging, we're entering a very dangerous period of history."

Produced by Charlie Floyd.

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• Both the Army and Marine Corps are checking their M4 carbines and M16 rifles for a malfunction with the selector switch that causes the weapons to fire without soldiers or Marines pulling the trigger.
• U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command has found the malfunction in 6 percent of 52,000 weapons tested so far, but no Marine Corps weapons have accidentally fired due to the selector switch malfunction.
  
• The Army will test a total of 903,000 rifles and carbines over the next 6 months and it expects repairs will take an additional 12 to 18 months.
  

Both the Army and Marine Corps are checking their M4 carbines and M16 rifles for a malfunction with the selector switch that causes the weapons to fire without soldiers or Marines pulling the trigger.

The Army first issued a safety message about the issue on March 29 following an incident at Fort Knox, Kentucky, where a soldier’s M4A1 carbine went off unexpectedly during troubleshooting, said R. Slade Walters, a spokesman for U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command.

The weapon initially failed to fire when the soldier pulled the trigger because the selector switch was in between “semi” and “auto,” Walters said. When the selector switch was clicked back into place, the weapon fired.

“There have been no injuries reported as a result of this issue,” Walters told Task & Purpose on Friday. “The unintended discharge occurred on an M4A1 carbine that had recently been converted as part of a Product Improvement Program. The incident was investigated and another [safety message] was released on April 18, 2018 to address all of the M4 and M16 family of weapons.  The investigation and inspections are ongoing.”

TACOM has found the malfunction in 6 percent of 52,000 weapons tested so far, Walters said. The Army will test a total of 903,000 rifles and carbines over the next 6 months and it expects repairs will take an additional 12 to 18 months.

On May 24, the Marine Corps issued its own safety message telling armorers to perform additional function checks during pre-fire inspections of M16A4 rifles and M4A1 and M4 carbines, Marine Corps Systems Command officials told Task & Purpose.

So far, no Marine Corps weapons have accidentally fired due to the selector switch malfunction, said Monique Randolph, a spokeswoman for MARCORSYSCOM.

“The additional function check is a precautionary action taken by the Marine Corps in response to the malfunction identified by the Army,” Randolph said.

SEE ALSO: Here's every weapon the US Army gives to its soldiers

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Marine Corps M16 rifles and M4 carbines are passing a new safety check designed to catch a potentially dangerous glitch in the selector switch that has surfaced in Army weapons.

The Army's weapons to date have suffered a 6% failure rate out of 52,000 inspected weapons.

The Army sent out safety-of-use messages in March and April, advising all services to perform a new functions check on M16s and M4s after a soldier's weapon fired when the selector switch became stuck between the semi and auto settings.

Officials with the Army's Tank-automotive and Armaments Command said they have received reports that approximately 52,000 weapons have been tested so far. Of those, about 3,155 failed to pass the updated functions check, Slade Walters, a spokesman for TACOM, said June 14.

But the Marine Corps' weapons have fared better.

"The Marine Corps has not received any reports of weapons that have failed the new functions check outlined in the messages," Barbara Hamby, a spokeswoman for Marine Corps Systems Command, told Military.com. The Marine Corps has not responded to a request to provide the numbers of weapon it has inspected.

TACOM provided a breakdown of the M4s and M16s that have been inspected as of June 1.

Of the Army weapons checked thus far, most failures occurred in M4A1s. The M4A1s that had been converted from M4s suffered 2,070 failures out of 23,000 inspected — a 9% failure rate.

About 16,000 original M4A1s have been inspected, with failures occurring in 960 of those weapons — a 6% failure rate.

The M4A1 has been in use by special operations forces for about two decades. It features a full-automatic setting instead of the three-round burst setting on the M4, as well as a heavier barrel. The Army is in the process of converting all of its M4s to M4A1s through the M4 Product Improvement Program.

The results also showed that less than 1% of the 4,000 M4s checked failed the updated functions check. And less than 1% of the 8,500 M16A2s checked failed the test.

About 500 M16A4s were also checked, but no failures were reported.

The problem started in late March when a Fort Knox soldier's M4A1 selector switch became stuck between the semi and auto detents. When the soldier pulled the trigger, the weapon failed to fire. The soldier then moved the selector switch and the weapon fired, the TACOM message states.

TACOM officials stress that it is early in the process, and about Army 900,000 weapons still must be checked.

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• The Army has a new non-lethal weapon to help soldiers in Afghanistan "irritate and deter" potential adversaries, Army Times reports. 
• The weapon fires paintball-like projectiles filled with a hot pepper solution.
• The projectiles have a range of around 50 yards and leave a "debilitating cloud," impacting the eyes, nose and respiratory system.
• Weapons like this can help soldiers in urban settings as well as riot-control situations. 

The Army has a new non-lethal weapon to help soldiers in Afghanistan "irritate and deter" potential adversaries with pepper-filled balls, Army Times reports. 

The non-lethal launcher, known as the Variable Kinetic System (VKS), is made by PepperBall Technologies. It fires projectiles much like paintballs containing a hot pepper solution.

"We are truly honored the US Army has selected PepperBall’s VKS to use as its non-lethal protection in its mission to defending the United States," Ron Johnson, CEO of United Tactical Systems, which owns PepperBall, said in a statement.

"Our VKS platform was the only non-lethal source that was capable of complying to the US Army’s standards," Johnson added. 

The projectiles have a range of around 50 yards and leave a "debilitating cloud," impacting the eyes, nose and respiratory system. The irritant, which is 5% pelargonic acid vanillylamide (PAVA) and a synthetic version of pepper spray, is released when the projectile makes contact. 

The weapon is built like a paintball gun and can carry up to 180 rounds when it's in "hopper mode" and 10 or 15 rounds when it's in "magazine mode." 

The Army awarded a $650,000 contract for the weapons, which reportedly have the same controls and ergonomics of the M4/M16 weapons system, which many soldiers already carry. In other words, it will not be tough for most soldiers to transition into using these non-lethal launchers. 

In total, the Army reportedly purchased 267 of the weapons, which are currently being used in training. 

Weapons like this can help soldiers in high-intensity, urban settings and especially during crowd control situations. 

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• A bomb-sniffing military dog named Mally was finally reunited with her former handler in Afghanistan after seven years apart.
• After US Marine Nick Montez was honorably discharged in 2013, he stayed in touch with the Air Force base to find out when Mally could be adopted.
• The pair finally reunited stateside, and Montez plans to treat Mally like a princess.

After seven years apart, a US Marine was finally reunited with his former partner in Afghanistan: a dog named Mally.

While in Afghanistan, Nick Montez and Mally were responsible for finding improvised explosive devices together.

Nick Montez told KREM 2 News that he made sure to take great care of her while the two were on duty. "I'd give her IV's before we'd go out on patrol if it was a hot day, just to make sure she was hydrated." He would also "clip her toenails, massage her pads, clean her ears every week. Work with her, train with her."

Before Montez even knew adoption was a future possibility, he got a tattoo in honor of Mally that depicts her name, a paw print, and her military identification number.

The two had a special bond.

Montez shared that once the pair's tour of duty eventually ended and Mally was reassigned to a new mission, "It was pretty rough, the separation. I wasn't ready for it. It was pretty sudden."

They had worked together for over a year.

After he was honorably discharged in 2013, Montez continued to check in on Mally to see if he could adopt her, but she was still needed in the armed forces. According to The Lewiston Tribune, Montez was communicating with the Air Force base to stay updated about Mally's status. Finally, he received a letter from Idaho Senator Mike Crapo, informing him that Mally was finished with her service and ready to be brought home.

Montez flew to Texas to pick her up, as she had just finished serving with the Air Force base there. KREM 2 News reports that a non-profit called Mission K9 Rescue, which focuses on service dogs, paid for his flights. Montez received many other donations to help with Mally's transition, which Montez will give back to the Lewis-Clark Animal Shelter, as well as Mission K9 Rescue.

On Tuesday, Montez and Mally returned safely to his hometown in Lewiston, Idaho. Montez shared with The Lewiston Tribune that he's excited to get into a normal routine with Mally, and he's "surprised our story has affected so many people. That's a pleasant feeling."

You can watch the heartwarming interview with Nick Montez reported by KREM 2 News here:

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People like to talk about the best tanks, rifles, and tactical gear. It's a great discussion — there are many sophisticated pieces of tech in the military world, each with various strengths and weaknesses. That said, we rarely talk about the flip side of this coin: What are some of the worst pieces of gear out there?

There are some weapon systems out there whose sole purpose in existence is to act as an example of what not to do. So, let's dive in, without restraint, and take a look at the very worst the world has to offer across several gear categories.

SEE ALSO: Here are all the standard issue weapons given to US Marines

Worst Rifle: Heckler and Koch G36

Heckler and Koch usually makes good guns. The MP5 is a classic submachine gun that's still in service around the world. The G3 rifle was second only to the FN FAL. But then there's the G36.

Intended to replace the G3, the G36 was to be Germany's new service rifle in the 5.56mm NATO caliber. Well, the gun had many problems. First and most importantly, the gun was horribly inaccurate when hot. In temperatures above 86 degrees Fahrenheit or after firing many rounds, the gun was liable to miss a target 500 meters away by as many as 6 meters. Spray and pray is not a tactic known to successfully defeat an enemy.

Worst Machine Gun: Heckler and Koch MG5

Heckler and Koch has the dubious distinction of owning two items on this list. H&K made the under-appreciated G8, which could serve as anything from a designated marksman rifle to a light machine gun in 7.62 NATO. The company's MG4 is a solid 5.56mm belt-fed machine gun — again, the company knows how to make good weapons. Unfortunately, they also made the MG5.

This is a gun that can't shoot straight. Granted, when you're using a machine gun, the task usually involves laying down suppressive fire, but it'd probably help to hit the bad guys occasionally.

Worst Tank: T-72

Two words: Desert Storm. This tank's poor performance speaks volumes. When it fired its main gun at a M1A1 Abrams tank from 400 yards, the round bounced off. Read that again: The. Round. Bounced. Off.

You can't get worse than that. In general, the best anti-tank weapon is another tank, but the T-72 is simply useless. Any crew you send out in this vehicle should be immediately considered lost.

• A U.S. Army artillery unit is pounding Islamic State fighters inside Syria from a remote desert camp just inside Iraq.
• About 150 Marines and soldiers appear to be stationed at the base, in addition to Iraqi forces.
• Little has been made public in recent months about the U.S. military's use of temporary fire bases to continue the ISIS fight.

A U.S. Army artillery unit is pounding Islamic State fighters inside Syria from a remote desert camp just inside Iraq.

Soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment artillery unit have been operating alongside Iraqi artillery units at a temporary fire support base in northwest Iraq near the Syrian border for the past several weeks, according to a recent Defense Department news release.

U.S. soldiers, Marines and sailors helped Iraqi forces build the camp by as part of Operation Inherent Resolve's support of Operation Roundup, a major offensive by Syrian Democratic Forces aimed at clearing the middle Euphrates River Valley of entrenched, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria fighters.

The U.S. military previously made use of rapidly built fire bases to insert artillery power earlier in the campaign against ISIS. In 2016, a detachment of Marines departed the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group to establish such a location, Fire Base Bell, in northern Iraq. The position, which was later renamed and manned by Army forces, helped U.S. troops intensify the assault on the ISIS stronghold of Mosul.

It would come under enemy attack soon after its establishment, resulting in the death of Marine Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin, the first Marine to die in combat against ISIS.

Little has been made public in recent months about the U.S. military's use of temporary fire bases to continue the ISIS fight. But NPR published a brief report Monday about a "remote outpost" on the border of Iraq and Syria that seems to be the one described in the recent Defense Department release.

Some 150 Marines and soldiers are stationed there, NPR reported, in addition to Iraqi forces.

In the release, troops stationed at the fire base described the satisfaction of working side-by-side with Iraqi units.

"The most satisfying moment in the mission, so far, was when all three artillery units, two Iraqi and one U.S., executed simultaneous fires on a single target location," said Maj. Kurt Cheeseman, Task Force Steel operations officer and ground force commander at the fire support base, in the release.

Language barriers forced U.S. and Iraqi artillery units to develop a common technical language to coordinate fire missions that involved both American and Iraqi artillery pieces.

"This mission required the use of multiple communications systems and the translation of fire commands, at the firing point, directing the Iraqi Army guns to prepare for the mission, load and report, and ultimately fire," 1st Lt. Andrea Ortiz Chevres, Task Force Steel fire direction officer, said in the release.

The Iraqi howitzer unit used different procedures to calculate the firing data needed to determine the correct flight path to put rounds on target.

"In order to execute coalition fire missions, we had to develop a calculation process to translate their firing data into our mission data to validate fires prior to execution," Cheeseman said in the release.

Sgt. 1st Class Isaac Hawthorne, Task Force Steel master gunner, added that Iraqi forces are "eager to work with the American M777 howitzer and fire direction crews and share artillery knowledge and procedures," according to the release.

It’s not clear from the release when the base was created or how long it has been active. With little infrastructure and no permanent buildings, troops face temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the desert.

"They are enduring harsh weather conditions and a lack of luxuries but, unlike previous deployments for many, each element is performing their core function in a combat environment," Cheeseman said in the release. "The fire support base is a perfect example of joint and coalition execution that capitalizes on the strengths of each organization to deliver lethal fires, protect our force and sustain operations across an extended operational reach."

Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force units provided planners, personnel and equipment to create the austere base, built on a bare patch of desert and raised by hand. Coalition partners from several different nations participated in the planning and coordination of the complex movement of supplies.

"Supplies were delivered from both air and ground by the Army, Air Force and Marines, and include delivery platforms such as medium tactical vehicles, UH-60 Black Hawks, CH-47 Chinooks, CV-22 Ospreys, C-130 Hercules and a C-17 Globemaster," 1st Lt. Ashton Woodard, a troop executive officer in Task Force Longknife, said in the release. "We receive resupply air drops that include food, water, fuel, and general supplies."

One of the most vital missions involved setting up a security perimeter to provide stand-off and protection for the U.S. and Iraqi artillery units.

"Following 10 days of around-the-clock labor in intense environmental conditions, the most satisfying moment was seeing the completion of the physical security perimeter," said one Marine working security at the fire base, according to the release.

SEE ALSO: This is the huge M777 howitzer that US Marines burned out while fighting ISIS in Syria

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Two US Army soldiers were killed in an Apache helicopter crash late Friday during routine training at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the Army announced Saturday morning.

The two soldiers were members of the 101st Airborne Division's 101st Combat Aviation Brigade. They were training in a AH-64E Apache helicopter.

Their names are being withheld by the Army until the families have been notified.

"This is a day of sadness for Fort Campbell and the 101st Airborne," said Brig. Gen. Todd Royar, acting senior commander of the 101st Airborne Division and Fort Campbell. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the Families during this difficult time."

The Apache crash follows a week of tragic military aviation accidents. Earlier this week, the military experienced three crashes in two days, with five deaths.

The Pentagon said Thursday that while the recent crashes are "not normal," the military is not considering it a "crisis."

"Certainly, that's not normal and our response to it is not normal," but "I'm not prepared to say right now that it is some kind of crisis," Marine Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, director of the Joint Staff, said at a Pentagon briefing Thursday.

SEE ALSO: After 5 deaths in 2 days, US military aviation could be facing a looming struggle

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An Army Magazine article from 1956 that made the rounds on Twitter predicted what the soldier of the future would look like.

In many ways, it was surprisingly accurate.

The author, Lt. Col. Robert R. Rigg, prophesized that these advancements — from night vision goggles, to helicopter warfare, to drone strikes — would come after 1974. While he was technically correct, many came later than he foresaw.

Here are 10 pieces of gear the "soldier of the future" has — right now.

SEE ALSO: Here's every weapon the US Army gives to its soldiers

Radios that offer constant communication with fellow soldiers.

"The FutureArmy soldier ... will gain independence and action from an ultra-small radio transmitter and receiver," Rigg wrote. "This transceiver will ... place the individual soldier in communication with all other members of his fighting team."

Most radios aren't built into helmets, but many soldiers are in constant communication with their squad mates through the use of intra-squad radios. Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, for example, are typically carrying around small, lightweight radios that offer secure communications.

Some, like special operations forces, use throat microphones (as the magazine also predicted) that transmit when the operator speaks. 

Night vision goggles that help troops own the night.

"The soldier will be able to ... change darkness into day with one flick of a wrist on the infrared dial and switch."

Night vision was developed in the 1940s, but was not fielded in goggle form until 1977. 

Night optical/observation devices, or NODs as soldiers call them, are standard issue for most troops in the field these days. However, even Rigg couldn't predict the rise of even better gear, such as thermal devices that can pick up on the human body's heat signature.

Automatic carbine rifles to give troops more firepower against the AK-47.

"The individual weapon of the Futurarmy soldier will be an automatic carbine which will replace at least four of today's weapons: the M1 rifle, the carbine, the AR, and the submachine gun."

The automatic carbine, known as the M16, was first put into service in 1964, and was standard issue by 1969 — five years before Rigg predicted. Though the M16A1 gave soldiers in Vietnam plenty of problems, it's been continuously updated and improved.

Many soldiers and Marines carry the M4 carbine — a shorter and lighter version of the M-16 — though most are no longer fully-automatic.

• The Trump administration is reportedly lobbying for an Arab army to replace US troops in Syria.
• Officials are said to have spoken to Egypt, Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia about it.
• President Trump has asked several Gulf states to pay up to stabilize the region in the wake of ISIS's defeat.
• In April, the US reportedly began drafting plans to increase its military presence in Syria.
• This is despite President Trump pledging that the US would "be coming out of Syria like very soon." 

The Trump administration reportedly wants to build an Arab army to replace US troops in Syria. 

US officials told the Wall Street Journal that the Arab personnel will help stabilize the northeastern parts of Syria once Islamic State militants are defeated. 

According to the Journal, administration officials have spoken to Egypt about the plan, and have considered involving Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Officials told the Journal the president's new national security advisor, John Bolton, recently called his Egyptian counterpart to see whether Egypt would back the initiative. 

A spokesman for the National Security Council declined to comment on reports of the call, according to the report.

However other officials told the Journal that "Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE have all been approached with respect to financial support and more broadly to contribute." 

Last month, President Trump reportedly called Saudi Arabia's King Salman to ask for $4 billion to help rebuild and maintain order in parts of Syria recently freed from Islamic State control.

According to the Washington Post, the US's goal is to prevent Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies from creeping into newly-liberated areas and establishing control while the US continues to battle the remaining dissidents. 

The US announced in February that it had pledged $200 million to stabilize the region.

President Trump has previously criticized the amount US allies were prepared to spend on regional security efforts.

He previously said he was prepared to walk away from supporting the conflict in Syria if countries like Japan, Saudi Arabia and Germany don't increase their financial contribution.

The request follows US-led "precision strikes" on Syria in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack in Douma earlier this month.

President Trump hinted at global efforts in Syria in his Friday announcement, saying: "We have asked our partners to take greater responsibility for securing their home region, including contributing larger amounts of money."

In April, CNN reported that the US was drafting plans to increase its military units in Syria, despite President Trump pledging that the US would "be coming out of Syria like very soon."

SEE ALSO: US, Britain, and France hammer Syria with missile strikes in response to suspected chemical weapons attack

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Fighting in the dark has always been a difficult task in warfare, but soldiers, sailors, and airmen today can conduct their operations at night almost as well as they can during the day thanks to the invention of night vision.

Whether on the decks of an aircraft carrier or destroyer, in the deserts of the Middle East and Afghanistan, or in the skies above it all, warfighting doesn't stop at night.

Photos captured while the US military performs nighttime training provide viewers with a unique look into the world of war. Military equipment, as well as the troops themselves, takes on distinct colors when seen outside the light of day.

Here are 26 striking photos of the US military operating at night:

The US Navy guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey fires a Tomahawk land-attack missile.

A C-130 Hercules from the 36th Airlift Squadron conducts a night flight mission over Yokota Air Base in Japan.

Aircraft land aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise during nighttime flight operations in the Arabian Sea.

• The Alabama National Guard recently posted a picture of a snake slithering over a sniper's rifle as he remains perfectly still. 
• The Alabama National Guard is even using the photo, which has gone viral, as a recruiting tool. 

The Alabama National Guard recently posted a photo of a sniper remaining still as a non-poisonous southern black racer snake slithers across his rifle.

The picture of Pfc. William Snyder practicing "woodlawn stalking" was taken in early April during a 1-173 infantry training exercise at Eglin Air Force Base.

"Our snipers are trained to remain perfectly still for hours on end when in position and remain invisible to enemies and even wildlife," the Alabama National Guard wrote in the caption of the photo on Facebook. Here's just how close the snake got:

“It’s by far our best-performing post,” Maj. Andrew Richardson, a public affairs officer for the Alabama National Guard, told the Northwest Florida Daily News. 

The Alabama Guard is even using the picture as a recruiting tool, the Northwest Florida Daily News reported. 

You can check more of the photos from that day here. 

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They're one of the most elite fighting groups in the world. They silently slip into hostile countries to train and lead guerilla forces. 

The US Army's Special Forces are known to the public as Green Berets — but they call themselves the quiet professionals.

They work in 12-man teams, known as an "A-Team," with each member having a specific job. 

The ranking officer is the team leader, the weapons sergeant knows just about every weapon in the world, the communications sergeant tees up ordnance or extract, and the medics can take lives as quickly as saving them.

Here's what they do:

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The US Army Special Forces are known for their exceptional skill and professionalism in modern war.

Alongside the CIA, they were the first Americans on the ground in Afghanistan only one month after 9/11.

There they linked up with the Northern Alliance and brought Hamid Karzai into Kabul.

• America's oldest World War II veteran, and the oldest man in America, turned 112 years old on Friday.
• Richard Overton is an Army veteran who served in the South Pacific, including Guam and Iwo Jima. 
• Overton still smokes 12 cigars, drinks multiple cups of coffee and even whiskey and coke every day. 

He smokes cigars, drinks coffee, whiskey, and even Dr. Pepper — and he just turned 112 years old. 

Richard Overton, America's oldest World War II veteran, as well as the oldest man in America, turned 112 years old on Friday, according to the Dallas Morning News. 

Born in Austin, Texas, in 1906, Overton is an Army veteran who served in the South Pacific from 1940-1945, including Guam and Iwo Jima, according to USA Today. 

After his discharge, he sold furniture in Austin, and later worked in the state Treasurer's Office.

"I feel fine every day," Overton said on Thursday, according to the KSN, the local NBC affiliate. "No pain and no aches."

Every day, he smokes 12 Tampa Sweet cigars, drinks multiple cups of coffee and Dr. Pepper, the Dallas Morning News reported. He also eats waffles, pancakes, cinnamon rolls, ice cream, peach cobbler, and other sweet foods. 

He even drinks whiskey and coke. 

"I may drink a little in the evening too with some soda water, but that's it," Overton previously told Fox News. "Whiskey's a good medicine. It keeps your muscles tender."

In 2017, Overton's family set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for his in-home care, which has raised more than $234,000.

When comedian Steve Harvey asked Overton in 2012 how he has lived so long, Overton said: "Just keep living, don’t die."

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• Business Insider spoke to Mike Martin, a former British Army Officer and conflict expert.
• Martin's new book Why We Fight is about the evolutionary psychology of warfare. 
• He told us about the two reasons that people fight in wars.

Read the full transcript below:

Mike Martin: Hi, my name's Dr. Mike Martin, I'm a former British Army Officer and an expert on conflict, and I've just written a book called Why We Fight, about the evolutionary psychology of warfare. Why is war part of human nature? Well, I think there are a number of reasons for that.

Firstly, and this is the most obvious one, everybody practices warfare. Every society throughout history, almost up to including the current day, practices warfare. Another key reason why war is part of human nature is that humans are part of the animal kingdom and in the animal kingdom, individual animals of every species compete against all the other individuals in that species. And they compete for mates, and for food, and for territory, and for social status.

Humans are just the same, the only difference is that we, as part of the primates, and primates with slightly bigger brains, have got the ability to generate larger social groups. So all that war is is the individual competition that we see throughout the animal kingdom timesed up by our ability to build bigger groups.

So when we're looking at how to free the world of war, particularly when we've argued that it's part of human nature, you have to look right across human history, so you go back 200,000 years and you come right up to the present day.

Now, if you look across human history at that scale, there are two big trends that come out. One is a massive decline of violence.So from the stone age through to the present day, in some cases violence has fallen up to 500-fold. Today is the safest time, without fail, to be alive.

The other macro trend over that period of history is ever-increasing group size. When one group is fighting another in a war, effectively it's the outsides of those groups that are fighting, and the bigger the group the larger the peaceful interior of the group.

So, relatively speaking, the levels of death ie violence, are lower when the groups are bigger, when those groups are fighting a war or having inter-group conflict. But the other reason is this strange statistical relationship that was discovered in the sixties, and that relationship is this: that groups tend to go to war with each other, human groups tend to go to war with each other at the same rate, no matter what the size.

And if groups are part of security structures, like NATO, that counts as a group, but it effectively means that conflict is minimized, 'cause if you have larger groups, you have less groups by definition. Now, these two trends, ever-decreasing violence and ever-increasing group size, correlate.

If we want to rid the world of violence then we need to focus on building the biggest social groups possible. And of course that means a global polity.

Produced by Charlie Floyd.

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• The US Air Force is adopting the Army's Operational Camouflage Pattern as its new combat uniform.
• It will begin incrementally phasing it in beginning October 1, and expects all airmen will wear it by April 2021.
• The OCP's colors vary by location — desert vs. forest, for example. It generally has a four-to-six color palette incorporating greens, beiges, browns, tans and greys.
•  Maj. Gen. Robert LaBrutta said the Air Force will benefit in terms of readiness and joint integration.

The US Air Force is adopting the Army's Operational Camouflage Pattern as its new combat uniform and will begin incrementally phasing it in beginning October 1.

The service will ditch the Airman Battle Uniform, known as the ABU, for the OCP over the next three years, with the expectation that all airmen will be wearing the OCP by April 2021, said Maj. Gen. Robert LaBrutta, Air Force director of military force management policy, and deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel and services.

"Enhancing our readiness, the OCP is a uniform for form, fit and function," LaBrutta told reporters May 9. "It is the best-of-breed of utility uniform that we believe is in the inventory."

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein agreed. "The uniform works in all climates -- from Minot to Manbij -- and across the spectrum of missions we perform,” he said in a service release. "It's suitable for our airmen working on a flight line in Northern Tier states and for those conducting patrols in the Middle East."

The breakdown

The OCP's colors vary by location -- desert vs. forest, for example. It generally has a four-to-six color palette incorporating greens, beiges, browns, tans and greys.

Those airmen who are already authorized to wear the uniform can currently sport desert sand or tan boots, but the service will transition completely to the coyote tan boots sometime in 2020, LaBrutta said.

The Air Force will differ from the Army in velcro patches, name tape and insignia by using a "spice brown" color, he added.

First lieutenants and lieutenant colonels will have black rank insignia and patches to differentiate them from second lieutenants and majors, LaBrutta said.

Airmen will have the option to sew on their name tape, service tape or both. Officers will have their rank on their patrol caps. Both officers and enlisted airmen will have their last names on the back of the cap.

Patches used for commands down to the squadron level will be reworked to incorporate the spice brown color in some way, LaBrutta said.

"Everything on the configuration is the same as the Army wears the uniform; we're just going to make some small color variations," he said.

Airmen will also wear tan undershirts and "DLA green" socks, which are actually more of a tan color.

There will be a standard, adjustable unisex version, but also a secondary female-only uniform, LaBrutta said.

"The Army is transitioning into that right now, and we're excited we're right in the part of that transition. When we field this uniform, we believe that that's going to be a better fit for the women that wear the OCPs," he said.

The timeline

The three-year transition will cost the service about $237 million, LaBrutta said, but added the Air Force will "break even" in the end.

"We've done the cost analysis, and I know we're going to have some upfront costs to this … and then we're going to have cost avoidance because as we transition into the OCPs, instead of having to have both ABUs and OCPs, we'll realize some cost avoidance there … because we will no longer be purchasing an extra uniform," he said.

Airmen who already own an OCP can begin wearing it Oct. 1, LaBrutta said, following a new memorandum on how to properly wear the uniform. The new guidance should be delivered to airmen sometime in July, he said.

"We drew the Oct. 1, 2018, date to give production capacity an opportunity to build inventory so that we could outfit some [Army and Air Force Exchange Service] locations, but it's going to take some time to field this across the US Air Force," LaBrutta said.

At that time, airmen at Aviano Air Base, Italy; MacDill Air Force Base, Florida; and Shaw Air Force Base and Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, will be the first see the uniform on sale at base stores.

Enlisted airmen will get a clothing bag allowance increase since the OCP is about $20 more expensive than the ABU, the general said.

"Many of our airmen already have this uniform from their numerous deployments, so they will be able to make the transition easily," said Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Kaleth O. Wright.

"For other airmen, we must provide enough time for their clothing allowance to fund the items to avoid out-of-pocket expenses," he said.

LaBrutta said there will be no buyback or trade-ins for the ABU and airmen should not expect to be reimbursed. A guidance on how to properly dispose of them will be unveiled along with the guidance memorandum.

The service is weighing providing excess uniform gear associated with the ABU to junior ROTC programs across the country, he said.

Depending on the Defense Logistics Agency's production rate, the service anticipates more AAFES locations to start selling OCP by April 1, 2019, LaBrutta said.

The Air Force will not start handing out the uniform to new recruits in Basic Training, ROTC or Officer Training School until October 2019.

Promoting jointness

LaBrutta said the uniform also promotes joint integration. Since 2012, nearly 100,000 airmen have worn the uniform when deployed overseas in places like Afghanistan or while operating outside the wire.

Roughly 20,000 airmen already wear it day-to-day at Air Force Special Operations Command, as well as some security forces airmen at Air Force Global Strike Command.

Airmen and pilots operating downrange wear the Army Aircrew Combat Uniform, known as the A2CU, which has OCP-patterned fabric and the same fire-retardant properties as a flight suit.

Some airmen also wear a two-piece, OCP-pattern camo utility pattern that does not have the same fire retardant material. It does have different pocket placement and velcro closures, among other characteristics.

Just like their Army counterparts, airmen who go outside the wire in a deployed location will receive the fire retardant OCPs, which is standard now, LaBrutta said.

"This celebrates joint warfighting excellence as OCPs will become the joint combat uniform for  airmen and soldiers while patches and nametapes will identify our respective services,” Goldfein said. "We'll maintain our distinctive Air Force uniforms in blues, service dress, mess dress, and PT gear.”

Airman feedback played a big role in the decision, officials said.

Service members have asked about the uniform at almost every town hall, said Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson.

"The focus has been, 'How do we make it easier [and] what works for airmen,' " she said May 4.

The uniform must be right "for both men and women. From a cost perspective, but also from a functional perspective," Wilson said.

Reiterating feedback from airmen during a trip to Hurlburt Field, Florida, last week, she added, "[A] uniform isn't only a uniform, it's a piece of equipment. And that's not a bad way to think about it. How do we give our airmen the equipment that they need to be lethal and do their job?"

LaBrutta added, "The benefit that we're going to get out of this, in readiness, joint integration and of course the airmen demand signal that's out there are the reasons why we're doing this."

"[They're] very worthwhile," he said.

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• The Army has ordered aviation techs to widen their search for a broken part that can send Apache helicopter rotors catastrophically ripping loose mid-flight.
• The Pentagon stopped accepting deliveries of AH-64E ‘Echo’ Apaches months ago over safety issues concerning strap pack nuts, which keep the rotor blades from separating from frame, and now all Apache models in "severe coastal" areas are being inspected.
• But the Army is still flying the Apaches, "accepting the risk, knowing the issue, and using increased inspections and distilled water rinses to mitigate the risk,” according to one Apache pilot. 

The Army has ordered aviation techs to widen their search for a broken part that can send Apache helicopter rotors catastrophically ripping loose mid-flight, according to documents obtained by Task & Purpose, a terrifying defect that has resulted in recent deadly Apache mishaps.

In April, Defense News reported the Pentagon ceased accepting deliveries of the AH-64E ‘Echo’ Apache months earlier due to a “critical” safety issue over the copter’s strap pack nut, the component that keeps the rotor blades from separating from the airframe. But a February Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) guidance goes even further by explicitly expanding new inspections from Army aircraft flown in “severe coastal” areas to include “all AH-64 aircraft, regardless of location.”

The Safety of Flight guidance, dated February 18 and framed as an addendum to earlier inspection guidelines issued on October 23, 2017, also lays out new pre- and post-flight inspection routines. But many Apache pilots believe the Army is recklessly passing on this risk to its aircrews without actually fixing the systemic problem.

“The Army is continuing to fly the fleet of AH-64s, accepting the risk, knowing the issue, and using increased inspections and distilled water rinses to mitigate the risk,” one Apache aviator, who asked for anonymity out of concern for their career, told Task & Purpose. “The pilots aren’t a fan of that tactic.”

The threat of corrosion is a constant enemy of airframe integrity for aviators operating in coastal areas. Indeed, the failure of the strap pack nut was responsible for the in-flight rotor separation and crash of an Apache AH-64D in Galveston, Texas on December 28, 2016, killing both soldiers on board. The Pentagon’s halting of Apache Echo variants in April triggered yet another update to the guidance regarding inspections.

“The Army has issued ‘Safety of Flight’ messages requiring units to increase standard maintenance inspections of the strap packs,” AMCOM confirmed to Task & Purpose in a May 15 statement. “As part of that process, the units are also executing daily borescope inspections of the main rotor strap pack retention nuts for all Apache models.”

The new procedures for assessing the faulty component are primarily focused on increasing the frequency of inspections, according to AMCOM, a major problem facing airframes across an increasingly strained aviation fleet. They include visual borescope inspections of all airframe strap packs prior to every Apache flight, and, according to the Army aviator, “distilled water rinses of the strap pack nut after the last flight of the day.”

When taken in the context of the Pentagon’s halted Echo deliveries, AMCOM’s broad expansion of strap pack inspections implies renewed concerns over the Apache itself. Indeed, strap pack issues plagued the airframe following a deadly crash of the newly-adopted airframe in 1987; a subsequent investigation revealed several cracked rotor hub retention nuts, according to 1992 report from AMCOM predecessor Army Aviation Systems Command.

The active-duty aviator claimed that Army engineers have identified “over a dozen” cracked strap pack nuts on Apache airframes since the new inspection procedures were implemented in February, as well as dozens more strap packs that were “replaced or removed due to unsatisfactory condition or evidence of corrosion.”

AMCOM could not provide information regarding how many Apache aircraft had been designated non-mission capable as a result of the additional inspections, citing the branch’s PEO Aviation office as the primary release authority.

“These inspections, some which occur daily, look for corrosion, sealant errors and/or strap pack nut cracks,” AMCOM said. “This is an additional requirement for our soldiers and crews, but this is how we are currently working to mitigate risk and keep the fleet safe to fly.”

SEE ALSO: We climbed into an Apache helicopter's cockpit and saw why it's one of the most difficult aircraft to fly

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• Bell’s V-280 Valor light tiltrotor aircraft has flown in level flight with its tiltrotors in the horizontal/cruise mode for the first time this week.
• The V-280 Valor is a medium, tactical tiltrotor aircraft designed for the U.S. Army Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator program, and may replace the UH-60 Blackhawk utility helicopter and the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.
•  It has a maximum speed of 300 Knots or 350 MPH and can carry up to 14 troops.

Bell’s V-280 Valor light tiltrotor aircraft has flown in level flight with its tiltrotors in the horizontal/cruise mode for the first time this week. The aircraft reached 190 knots (218 MPH) during the flight.

The new Bell V-280 Valor is a medium, tactical tiltrotor aircraft designed for the U.S. Army Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR-TD) program. The JMR-TD program is a precursor for the Army’s overall Future Vertical Lift (FVL) co-development and evaluation of possible replacements for existing rotorwing aircraft in five different roles. The V-280 Valor is a proposed candidate for a new JMR-Medium utility and attack helicopter to potentially replace the UH-60 Blackhawk utility helicopter and the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.

The Bell V-280 is reportedly capable of a maximum speed of 300 Knots or 350 MPH. That is significantly faster than the U.S. Army’s existing UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters’ max speed of 222 MPH and even faster than the existing MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor at a top speed at sea-level of 316 MPH.

The V-280 Valor is intended to carry up to 14 troops in a tactical personnel transport configuration with a crew of four including two flight crew and two gunner/loadmasters. It may also be developed with the capability to be an attack helicopter with various weapons onboard as depicted early in the program in a concept video showing an animated assault on a high altitude insurgent camp during hot weather. High altitude/hot weather flight conditions, called “High and Hot”, are challenging for most existing rotor wing aircraft. The V-280 will be optimized for high and hot operations.

While similar in visual configuration to the existing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor in service with the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Marines, the V-280’s engines remain in a fixed position on the wing while only the tiltrotors change geometry from vertical flight to horizontal flight. One advantage to this system is that both tiltrotors on the V-280 can operate off a single engine. On the V-22 Osprey both of the entire engine nacelles rotate during the transition from vertical to horizontal flight and the engine drive systems are fully segregated from each other, but joined by a complex gear box so the aircraft can operate on one engine.

Another unique feature of the V-280 Valor is the one-piece carbon fiber composite wing section. The one-piece composite wing uses Large Cell Carbon Core technology, reducing costs by over 30% compared to the construction of the V-22 Osprey wing. The one-piece wing is also integral to the ability of the twin tiltrotors to operate off power from only one engine if needed.

The Bell V-280 Valor competes with the Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 Defiant aircraft in the JMR-TD program. The SB-1 Defiant uses two contra-rotating rotors and a “pusher” style tail rotor in a more traditional helicopter configuration as compared to the Bell V-280 tiltrotor design.

As the V-280 program advances through flight testing the aircraft has now flown 27 hours with approximately 90 hours of time turning the rotors in ground and flight tests. The aircraft has demonstrated its ground taxi and hover capability as well as low-altitude maneuvers including 360-degree pedal turns and forward/aft/lateral repositions along with 60 knot roll-on landings.

The next phase of flight operations for the V-280 will include maximum speed flights scheduled for some time within the next 90 days according to Bell. “During the summer, we plan on reaching most of the required performance parameters that were part of the test program,” said Jeffrey Schloesser, Bell’s executive vice president of strategic pursuits, during an interview last month with Aviation Week.

An interesting part of the advancements in the test program is that now the Bell V-280 is accompanied during test flights by an Aero L-39 jet chase plane because of the V-280’s increasing speed in testing.

SEE ALSO: We climbed into an Apache helicopter's cockpit and saw why it's one of the most difficult aircraft to fly

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