Inside the Ring

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Night stalkers

One of the ways U.S. forces in Iraq prevent the placement of an improvised explosive device (IED) is to watch the roads.

For surveillance, they use several systems, including the slow-moving AC-130 gunship. The aircraft's cannons, machine guns and night-sight capability are the perfect systems for locating and killing IED-placing insurgents.

A video we've seen shows an AC-130 crew spotting two men who converge in their vehicles on a stretch of isolated road in Iraq. The two look around, and then one carries a weapon into a field, methodically walking off into the distance. It would appear he is calibrating how far to place the IED so our soldiers cannot see it, but close enough so the bomb kills them. The man in the second vehicle follows the same procedure.

In the meantime, the gunship's crew is describing what it sees and seeks permission to fire. A voice says, "Smoke 'em." Gunfire hits the first man, then the second. A third emerges from under one of the vehicles and is killed.

Commanders have said the best way to defeat IEDs is to prevent their placement in the first place. IEDs are responsible for 80 percent of Army casualties.

ASAT silence

Sen. Jon Kyl gave a speech to the Heritage Foundation earlier this week and discussed the fallout from China's Jan. 11 anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons test that killed a Chinese weather satellite using a kinetic missile warhead.

The Arizona Republican and veteran of the Senate intelligence committee said the Bush administration has the policy to conduct space defense of U.S. satellites but seems to lack the will.