The Red Diamond newsletter presents professional information but the views expressed herein are those of the authors, not the Department of Defense or its elements. The content does not necessarily reflect the official US Army position and does not change or superseded any information in other official US Army publications. Authors are responsible for the accuracy and source documentation of the material that they reference. The Red Diamond staff reserves the right to edit material. Appearance of external hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the US Army for information contained therein.
This issue of Red Diamond opens with the third article in a series of country UAV assessments. Iran conducts maritime surveillance in the Persian Gulf and harassment activities against the US Navy with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The country manufactures several UAV platforms and provides UAVs to multiple threat groups internationally. The wide variety of names, types, variants, and sub-variants of Iranian UAVs makes analysis complicated, requiring extra diligence. This article reviews specific Iranian UAVs along with their manufacture, use, and proliferation.
India is a rapidly increasing influence both economically and militarily on the global stage, yet remains a nation targeted by extremist groups and leading the Asia-Pacific region with explosive hazard incidents, compared with neighboring nations. The country has experienced increasing numbers of improvised explosive device (IED) events in recent years, many of which can be attributed to the group known as the Naxalites. An article examines the Naxalite organization, the techniques it uses, and how government forces are combatting this threat.
Military units deploying to the African continent need to take a close look at the use of child soldiers and how to prepare for potential interaction and possible conflict within this aspect of African society. Training for this is difficult based on US laws and regulations, but necessary to prepare commanders for requesting changes to the rules of engagement and preparing soldiers for different aspects of meeting children on the battlefield. The final article in this edition reviews the basics of this issue as manifested on the African continent, including what child soldiers are, where they are found, and who is using them.