Eleven months before the 9/11 attacks, suicide bombers sent by Osama bin Laden blew a huge hole in a U.S. Navy destroyer that had stopped to refuel in the Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen sailors died and 39 were wounded on the USS Cole on Oct. 12, 2000. Now, as the alleged mastermind behind the Cole attack faces a military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, retired Navy Cmdr. Kirk Lippold is telling his story in a new book, “Front Burner: Al Qaeda’s Attack on the USS Cole.”
Marines eye 2025 fielding of 3 new, mobile air defense systems
“We are on track from a programmatic standpoint — cost, schedule performance — but we’re always gonna be late to need,” said Col. Andrew Konicki, the program manager for Ground Based Air Defense (GBAD). “The threat is ever changing and ever evolving.”