Last month a Washington D.C. think tank released a paper about what a strike on Iran's nuclear facility could look like, and to follow it up another report predicts how many Iranian casualties would follow a U.S. led air strike.

The Ayatollah’s Nuclear Gamble written by Khosrow B. Semnani, and published by the Hinckley Institute of Politics, University of Utah and Omid for Iran concludes a strike would include four sites and irradiate up to 100,000 Iranian citizens and soldiers.

The four locations include:

• Isfahan: The Nuclear Technology/Research Center in Esfahan (ENTC) is supposed to be the main location of the Iranian  nuclear weapons program. Semnani predicts 1,000 workers here will be killed, and up to 70,000 casualties in the surrounding areas from toxic plumes: 71,000

• Natanz: One-hundred miles north of Isfhahan, this location has been in use for about 12 years and is said to be responsible for production of plutonium and enriched uranium. With a high probability of attack, Semnani projects 1,000 worker casualties and up to 7,000 collateral injuries within the surrounding area: 7,100

• Arak: A heavy water production plant in existence since 2006, Semnani projects 500 workers here will be killed in the first instants of a strike. If the heavy water is actually in production the author goes on to project an additional 3,600 causalities from radiation exposure: 4,100

• Bushehr: Iran's first operational nuclear power plant has been online since November 2011 following a string of delays. Built to Russian designed specifications at a cost of nearly $1 billion, Bushehr is southeast of a city with a population of 240,000 that enjoys a strong wind blowing Northwest from the power plant. Semnani projects 3,000 instant deaths at the site and up to 12,000 deaths in the city if only 1 to 5 percent of the population is exposed: 15,000

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When Navy SEAL LT Michael P. Murphy was killed fighting in Afghanistan in 2005 he became the first person awarded the Medal of Honor during the War in Afghanistan, which means he perished under exceptional circumstances.

Murphy led Operation Red Wings, a group of four SEALs sent into the Afghan mountains June 28, 2005 to neutralize senior Taliban leader Ahmad Shah. While making their way to Shah's location, Murphy and his team were stumbled upon by a group of local goat herders.

Murphy offered a vote among the SEALs on what to do next. One man voted to kill the herders and another abstained, prompting Murphy to say he'd vote with the final man who said the herders should be set free.

It was likely those herders, and that act of compassion, which tipped off up to 200 local Taliban forces to the SEALs location, surrounding them.

Murphy called in a MH-47 Chinook helicopter loaded with reinforcements to assist, and the Taliban brought  it down with an RPG, killing all 16 personnel onboard; eight Navy SEALs, and eight soldiers from the Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR).

It was the largest loss of SEALs in battle, at that point, since the Vietnam War.

LT Murphy was shot repeatedly when he left cover to call in the Chinook, but returned to his position and continued fighting before succumbing to his wounds.

Today the Navy bestowed an additional honor upon Murphy's legacy by christening its newest ship, an Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer, the USS Michael Murphy at a commissioning ceremony held at Pier 88 in New York Saturday at 10:00 a.m. 

Now: Take a tour of the USS Michael Murphy >

Watch below to hear the ship's commander and crew describe the USS Michael Murphy:

Produced by Daniel Goodman 

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Hezbollah has emerged as the prime suspect in Saturday's Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) flight over Israel that was cut short by one of the country's F-16s.

Ron Ben-Yishai at YNet reports the drone was likely made in Iran, and launched with Tehran's approval by Hezbollah in Lebanon.

If correct, this flight would upend long held beliefs about Hezbollah's military capabilities and signify a sophistication they'd not been thought by Israel to posses.

The drone would have had to fly more than a hundred miles and been controlled either by GPS or piloted remotely.

Speculation about the drone's destination continues, but Israel says if left unchecked its path would have taken it directly over the nuclear reactor in Dimona, and that Iran is clearly testing Israel's capabilities.

In response Israel flew warplanes over south Lebanese villages in a show of force Sunday, that sent sonic booms echoing among the hills.

While Hezbollah has not claimed responsibility, Iran's state-owned FARS news agency says the drone's flight shows that Israel's Iron Dome missile system is inefficient, and that "The Zionist regime ... has abundant weaknesses."

In reality, the drone's slow flight within an area already populated by Israeli drones was picked up quickly and dispatched by the F-16s once it was determined to be carrying no explosives.  All told, an indicator of Israel's capabilities not its weaknesses.

The IDF released the video of the drone being shot down and has since pulled the footage from YouTube, but the following clip remains on YNet.

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While the U.S. officially denies it believes in UFOs it apparently thought enough of "flying saucer" technology to commission a Canadian firm to develop a craft for the Air Force in the 1950s. While video of the craft has been out for some time, the specifics have been classified until recently.

Benjamin Plackett at Danger Room found a piece of a document innocuously titled "Project 1794, Final Development Summary Report" on the National Archives site that outlines the Pentagon's specific intentions.

The craft was intended to fly nearly four times the speed of sound at altitudes of about 100,000 feet, but limited to a distance of 1,000 miles. Even with a budget that translates to about $26.6 million in 2012 dollars, the effort reportedly never accomplished its goals, languished for a few years and was scrapped in 1960.

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We received a phone call Thursday afternoon from a "15-year veteran" of the Army infantry and "close friend" to Ted Daniels, the actual soldier in the helmet-cam video that's gone viral achieving more than 21 million YouTube hits.

The caller offered Daniels' identity and said if there was anyone Daniels talks to, it should be us.

The infantry soldier said Daniels was part of Ft. Carson's 4th Infantry Division, and that we should call the Public Affairs Officer (PAO) there and try to arrange an interview.

He said Daniels had in fact been hit a total of four times, but that his worst injury came from the fall (recorded early in the video), in which he sustained a severely broken ankle. Daniels has since been awarded the Purple Heart.

He said that Daniels never expected the video to go viral, and that the Army public affairs officers (PAOs) "were quite aware" of the national media interest in Daniels' story. "CNN, NBC, all the big ones" were contacting the Army, requesting the identity and interviews with Daniels.

We called the PAOs on Carson and received no reply, but we did find Daniels' Facebook page. We contacted him via Facebook and he got back to us, saying he hadn't been cleared to talk to the press yet.

We initially didn't publish his name because we first wanted to be able to interview him, but since then other news outlets have published his name and unit.

In the meantime check out the numerous and insightful pictures of Daniels on Facebook. They offer a glimpse into who the man behind the heroic actions truly is.

And take solace in the fact that regardless of how badly injured Daniels was, he's well enough to accept friend requests and respond to Facebook messages.

Here's the video that started it all:

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Turkey and Syria have now been exchanging mortar fire for six consecutive days as Syria's civil war spills over the 550-mile long border it shares with Turkey. 

The Turkish military has been preparing for this.

In June, after Syria shot down a Turkish fighter jet, Turkey sent a convoy of more than 30 military vehicles carrying missile batteries, rocket launchers, anti-aircraft artillery, anti-aircraft guns, military ambulances as well as troops to the Syrian border. It's unclear what variety of weapons the Turks are using, but those links offer examples of each.

In late September Turkey's private Dogan news agency reported that a six-vehicle convoy moved three Howitzers and an anti-aircraft gun to the border as shells from Syria began landing in Turkish towns near the border.

A Howitzer is a large gun that fires heavy shells, relatively short distances, at pretty steep angles. Howitzer shells come in many different varieties, but are most commonly high explosive.

Turkey's state-run Anatolia news agency reports that the military deployed additional tanks and missile defense systems to the Syrian border on Sunday. Last week Turkey's parliament authorized sending troops across the border. 

Bloomberg reports that Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told state-run television on Oct. 6 that the five civilian deaths in a Turkish border town on Oct. 3 were caused by a D30 type, 122mm artillery shell, which is used by the Syrian army.

To give you an idea of what goes into firing these things, here's the Afghan National Army firing a 122mm Howitzer.

And to provide an idea of what this type of shell can do, here's a video of U.S. combat engineers destroying a 122 mm artillery round in Iraq—the shrapnel actually hits their Humvee:

A Turkish newspaper Milliyet speculated that Turkish F-16 warplanes may strike Syrian artillery batteries with if Syrian shells cause new casualties, according to Bloomberg.

SEE ALSO: These Are The Weapons Facing Any Country That Intervenes In Syria >

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The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is a deadly and complex scene, riddled with incoming aircraft, snapping steel cables and the ever present risk of calamity and death.

Flight Deck Control (FDC) is where the deck scene is coordinated and during flight operations it's one of the busiest places on the ship, with everyone working on the flight deck constantly in and out tracking aircraft and information.

Click here to see pictures of Flight Deck Control >

FDC is festooned with computer screens and video displays of all that's occurring outside on deck, but it's also home to one of the more arcane pieces of equipment in the Navy.

The Ouija board is a waist-high replica of the flight deck at 1/16 scale to the foot that has all the markings of the flight deck, as well as its full compliment of aircraft — all in cutouts, and all tagged with items like thumbtacks and bolts to designate their status.

While objects can mean different things on every carrier, purple generally designates fuel, and the Eisenhower uses a purple hex nut to signify when an aircraft is being refueled.

A green thumbtack can mean an aircraft is first to go; orange can mean an aircraft must be parked with its tail hanging over the lip of the deck.

Every color has a meaning, just like every line on the deck designates space with its own set of rules. When I was on the Ike's flight deck one reporter stepped over a yellow line after a flight and was hauled back by his guide. Rules on the flight deck are not to be ignored.

The Ouija board offers an immediate glimpse of the deck in real time and allows the Air Boss in charge the ability to make quick decisions, should the need arise.

The board has been in use since World War II and won't be going away anytime soon. 

It doesn't take much time on a Navy ship to see that all important functions are done electronically, but also done manually. Like navigation. Right next to a state-of-the art GPS/radar station will be a drafting table like podium with ruler holding sailor, tracking pencil lines across a nautical map — just in case.

It's widely understood that the first round of damage to a ship will likely take out the electronics; so to ensure the ship remains functional in battle, everything possible has a mechanical backup.

But there's nothing quite as colorful as the Ouija board.

The Ouija board is stainless steel and covered in Plexiglas — the objects mean various things but the purple hex nut generally denotes fueling

The Air Boss is in charge of Flight Deck Control and has many tools at his disposal, but none as valuable as the Ouija board

Green shirts on a flight deck are generally maintenance — but these two are helping the Air Boss keep track of what's happening on deck

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It's no secret Apple Maps is leaving many people people frustrated, but perhaps none so much as the Taiwanese defense ministry who claim Apple is guilty of revealing its secret military sites.

PhysOrg reports ministry officials claim "secretive" military sites on the island are clearly visible in the iO6 map app and are asking Apple to lower the resolution of their satellite images, like Google did in the past.

Apple has yet to formally receive the request, however, so an official response from the company has yet to appear. 

Apparently the defense ministry acted in response to a picture in the Liberty Times newspaper showing a top-secret radar base in the northern county of Hsinchu.

From PhyOrg:

The Hsinchu base houses a cutting-edge long-range radar procured from the United States in 2003. Construction of the radar is expected to be completed by the end of the year. The ultra-high-frequency radar, supplied by US defence group Raytheon, is capable of detecting missiles launched as far away as Xinjiang in China's northwest, military officials say.

They say the radar, which cost Tw$36 billion ($1.23 billion), is designed to give Taiwan minutes of extra warning in case of a Chinese missile attack.

Local officials estimate China has more than 1,500 ballistic missiles aimed at the island and radar stations like Hsinchu are what will protect Taiwan in case of attack.

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As the presidential election draws closer the specifics of each candidate's platform are rising to the surface. 

Politifact scrutinized a statement by Obama regarding Romney's potential military spending and concluded the President was spot on when he said the GOP candidate wants to spend $2 trillion on the military, over the next decade, that it hasn't asked for.

From Politifact:

"Gov. Romney's central economic plan calls for a $5 trillion tax cut," Obama said. "On top of the extension of the Bush tax cuts -- that's another trillion dollars -- and $2 trillion in additional military spending that the military hasn't asked for."

Romney said, "We have a responsibility to protect the lives and liberties of our people, and that means a military second to none. I do not believe in cutting our military. I believe in maintaining the strength of America's military." With both candidates seeking to rein in deficit spending, we thought we should examine whether the governor does want to add $2 trillion in defense spending.

The Pulitzer Prize winning website claims there may be some undisclosed flexibility in Romney's position, but the fact, it says, is full blown truth.

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As Turkey and Syria continue to lob ordnance back-and-forth across their shared border for the eighth straight day, news has emerged that Turkey is upping the ante.

David Cenciotti at The Aviationist reports that Turkey is sending 25 F-16 fighter jets close to the Syrian border.

As Cenciotti points out the planes are multi-purpose, capable of leading strikes into Syria or running down any Syrian jets getting too close to Turkey.

In addition to the F-16s, Turkey is deploying four F-4 Phantoms very much like the reconnaissance model shot down over Syria in June.

The F-16s are merely the final installment in a pretty comprehensive defense system that we outlined in a post put up a couple of days ago:

In June, after Syria shot down a Turkish fighter jet, Turkey sent a convoy of more than 30 military vehicles carrying missile batteries, rocket launchers, anti-aircraft artillery, anti-aircraft guns, military ambulances as well as troops to the Syrian border. (It's unclear what variety of weapons the Turks are using, but those links offer examples of each.)

In late September Turkey's private Dogan news agency reported that a six-vehicle convoy moved three Howitzers and an anti-aircraft gun to the border as shells from Syria began landing in Turkish towns near the border.

A Howitzer is a large gun that fires heavy shells, relatively short distances, at pretty steep angles. Howitzer shells come in many different varieties, but are commonly highly explosive.

Turkey's state-run Anatolia news agency reports that the military deployed additional tanks and missile defense systems to the Syrian border on Sunday. Last week Turkey's parliament authorized sending troops across the border. 

Bloomberg reports that Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told state-run television on Oct. 6 that the five civilian deaths in a Turkish border town on Oct. 3 were caused by a D30 type, 122mm artillery shell, which is used by the Syrian army. (A Turkish newspaper reported that it was a NATO mortar.)

To give you an idea of what goes into firing these things, here's the Afghan National Army firing a 122mm Howitzer.

And to provide an idea of what this type of shell can do, here's a video of U.S. combat engineers destroying a 122 mm artillery round in Iraq—the shrapnel actually hits their Humvee:

A Turkish newspaper Milliyet speculated that Turkish F-16 warplanes may strike Syrian artillery batteries if Syrian shells cause new casualties, according to Bloomberg.

SEE ALSO: These Are The Weapons Facing Any Country That Intervenes In Syria >

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Specialist Devin Hagar had been in Afghanistan only long enough to go out on his first patrol when his platoon came under heavy fire and his squad took evasive measures.

India's Jagran Post reports Hagar's squad leader started to guide his men across a river, when Hagar was directly targeted by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG).

"I turned and put one foot up on the riverbank and that's when I saw the back-blast of the RPG and the guy's silhouette and a silver thing with a red tip coming at me," Hagar says.

"I just looked at it and thought, 'What's that?' Then it hit me in the leg. I looked down and just thought, 'Awesome, my leg is still here'. It was like a big dude hitting you in the leg with a baseball bat. It was a pretty good thump."

One of the soldier's nearby saw the RPG bounce off Hagar's leg and explode in the dirt, while the struck specialist made his way to cover.

Using his rifle as a crutch he made it to a helicopter Medevac with another guy who'd been shot and spent a few days in the hospital where the wound bruised and scarred, but that was it.

"It was pretty surreal, like it wasn't happening," he says. "I couldn't stop smiling, I was laughing the whole time, thinking 'That was awesome'. I'm just glad I wasn't blown into a hundred pieces."

Now: Check out the SEAL app that the government hates >

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Whether you've heard about it or not, sequestration is a big deal to a lot of people and is directly tied to the economy.

When the subcommittee failed to agree on $1.2 trillion in budget cuts last November, it agreed to take it all from defense if nothing was worked out by Jan 1, 2013.

Surprising no one apparently except members of Congress, no other solutions have been offered, and the Pentagon looks to face 10 percent cuts across the board for the next decade come New Year's.

That's a lot of jobs, and has become a big talking point on the issue of national defense and military readiness. Whether sequestration falls remains to be seen, but these are the 25 largest defense companies in America that will feel those cuts the most.

The data is by SIPRI based on numbers from 2010 and rank in terms of sales.

#25 CACI International

Arms sales: $2.3 billion

Total profit: $107 million

Employees: 13,100 people

While CACI International doesn't make weapons, they supply the U.S. Army with an information lifeline.

The TROJAN satellite communication systems provide the Army with a global network of shared mission-critical intelligence.

Source: SIPRI

#24 Goodrich

Arms sales: $2.2 billion

Total profit: $579 million

Employees: 16,300 people

Goodrich is yet another company to get a piece of the F-35 Lightning II cake. They work on the fighter aircraft's landing system. 

The U.S. Air Force trusts Goodrich with making their ejection seat of choice, the ACES II. It is most widely used ejection seat today and is credited with saving more than 600 lives.

#23 DynCorp International

Arms sales: $2.4 billion

Total profit: $9 million

Employees: 23,000 people

DynCorp International provides logistical support to the U.S. government defense programs. 

In Afghanistan, they are engaged in removing and destroying landmines and light weapons.

They are also involved with supporting air operations and have big contracts with the Department of Defense to maintain rotary and fixed-wing aircraft for all U.S. military branches.  

Source: SIPRI

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Canadian naval intelligence officer has pleaded guilty to spying for Russia over four-and-a-half years, Steven Chase and Jane Taber of The Globe and Mail report.

Sub-Lieutenant Jeffrey Delisle, 41, pleaded guilty to criminal charges of  “communicating with a foreign entity” and "breach of trust" for funneling top military secrets from his post at the ultra-secure Trinity naval intelligence center in Halifax to Russia for about $3,000 a month.

A prosecutor at the bail hearings cited intelligence sources who feared the scandal could throw Canada’s relations with allied intelligence organizations“back to the Stone Age.”

Delisle also had access to reports on organized crime, political players and senior defense officials as well as personal information regarding members of the intelligence community. But what international officials are most outraged about is perhaps Deslisle's compromising of a system called the "Stone Ghost".

The Stone Ghost links intelligence networks between the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada — the "Five Eyes". 

So while Delisle searched Canadian databases for the term “Russia" he was not only scouring Canadian intelligence but that of the Five Eyes aas well. Once he located what he was looking for, the Canadian officer sent the information to a USB memory stick before dropping it into the body of an email and saving it to the draft folder.

His Russian handler would then log into the same account, take the information and save a draft message in response.

In mid-2007 the Canadian Forces member walked into the Russian embassy in Ottawa as his decade-long marriage was unraveling and offered his services for “ideological reasons,” The Globe and Mail reports.

Russia and Delisle even set up an escape plan: he could walk into a Russian embassy and inform them he was “Alex Campbell." The Russians would then ask him “Did I meet you at a junk show in Austria?” And he would reply: “No, it was in Ottawa.”

SEE ALSO: Russian 'Spies' Arrested Over $50 Million Military Electronics Smuggling Network >

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September 10 was a normal day in Benghazi for Ambassador Chris Stevens.

He showed up at work, ran around town conducting business and in consideration of September 11 the following day, he spent the night at the consulate.

The following is the State Department's version of what actually happened: Stevens never left the consulate compound on the eleventh, preferring to conduct meetings within the nine-foot walls topped by barbed wire, rather than venture out and risk any hostilities on the anniversary of 9/11.

Much has been made of Stevens' request for additional security, but he actually got four local militia in addition to his five security officers assigned to the consulate that day.

By 8:30 p.m. the crew had spent an uneventful day within the walls and likely thought they were home free.

It was then that Stevens walked a Turkish official outside the compound's main entrance, noticed all was quiet and went inside to retire for the night.

Within about an hour of the official's departure, guards hear gunfire, explosions and a general uproar outside the front gate. They run to the cameras and see a massive group of armed men pouring into the compound before sounding the alarm, calling the Tripoli embassy, Washington officials, Libyan authorities, and a local US quick response team about a mile away.

Then the guards break from the monitors and the phones grabbing weapons on their way to sweep Stevens and IT specialist Sean Smith to the consulate's safe room.

One agent takes the pair inside while the rest gear up with rifles, body armor and everything they'll need for battle.

The safe room is well-fortified and contains water, medical supplies and windows that open from the inside. What it doesn't have is a proper ventilation system to prevent the fire ripping through the building's furnishings, from filling the room with smoke.

While the attackers can't get into the safe room, they manage to kill Stevens and the IT specialist with the smoke and drive the agent out a window. Despite repeated dives back into the safe room, the guard can't find the other men and clambers to the roof of the compound where he calls in reinforcements.

The four remaining American agents rush to Stevens' building in an armored vehicle to find the collapsed agent and set up a perimeter. Finally, after taking turns going into the safe room on hands and knees the guards find Stevens and his companion dead on the floor.

As they're getting the bodies into the armored vehicle, the response team shows up with about five dozen Libyan militiamen who attempt to secure the perimeter. They can't, and decide to all retreat to the response team's compound.

Carrying the two bodies in the armored vehicle, agents leave the consulate traveling a leisurely 15 mph to avoid drawing attention. Not far from where they started, a team of men urgently signal them inside an enclosed area, but sensing an attack agents hurry off drawing AK-47 fire from as close as two feet away.

Hand grenades are thrown at and beneath the vehicle taking out two of its tires, so agents respond by crossing a median, and driving into traffic to make their escape.

Once inside the response team's compound, the team takes up positions and draws gunfire and rocket propelled grenade attacks well into the morning.

While that had been going on, a team of reinforcements from the US Embassy in Tripoli had arrived at the Benghazi airport to assist. They join the fight, but it's not enough and two more agents are killed by a mortar attack.

It's become a full blown battle and at about 4 a.m. the decision is made to get the hell out. The hours until daylight are filled with assembling a convoy capable of carrying everyone from the city to safety.

The group and the deceased finally arrive at the airport on the twelfth and evacuate on two flights.

None of this takes into account Steven's body with the locals, or any other of the several details leaked to the press, but it does wrap the attack up in one neat package.

The perpetrators of the attack are still at large.

Now: See why all US aircraft carriers have a Ouija board >

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Exoskeletons with hydraulic arms and piston powered legs are nothing terribly new — Raytheon's got a new version it showed off this summer.

But this Warrior Web program proposed by DARPA is a first.

The Web is actually a suit that'll be worn under a servicemember's uniform intended to provide a host of physiological benefits.

The $2.6 million contract went to the Wyss Institute at Harvard and they hope to create something like a wetsuit that will not only protect injury prone areas, reinforce joints, assist in carrying 100 pound loads and reduce injuries. It will log all that data and refer it back to command.

It will also offer internal prompts to the wearer, likely letting him know, for example, when a joint is bent poorly and to modify the angle.

Hopefully the suit will reduce injuries, fatigue and allow troops to better spend their energy on staying alive.

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The Navies of the world have long known how effective the sonar of dolphins and sea lions can be at locating small underwater objects.

The U.S. Navy has a marine mammal program that's been teaching underwater mammals how to locate marine mines, detonate, and even prevent explosions since the 1950s. But this is the first time we've heard of anything like the following story from the Ukraine.

Russia's state-owned news agency Ria Novosti says the Ukrainian navy is "bring[ing] back killer dolphins," by training them to attack swimmers, but that's not the unique part.

An unnamed source told Novosti that the Ukraine is now training 10 dolphins for underwater attacks against swimmers by using knives and guns.

From Ria Novosti:

The killer-dolphins will be trained to attack enemy combat swimmers using special knives or pistols fixed to their heads, the source said. "We are now planning training exercises for counter-combat swimmer tasks in order to defend ships in port and on raids," he said.

The Navy actively used underwater mammals in Vietnam and to support Bahrain missions in 1986 and points out the U.S. has given 32 Dicken Medals in the course of its history honoring animals in war.

Now: See why all US aircraft carriers have a Ouija board >

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The Marine Corps sent two female Lieutenants to Marine Corps Infantry Officers Course in Quantico on Sept. 24 for the first time ever.

Click here to see what they face >

These women are in for quite a challenge, as none of the training has been changed, or altered — In enlisted boot camp, as well as in the fleet Marine Corps, women have different physical fitness standards than men.

So we talked a few Marine Corps Infantry Officers to get a feel for what these Marines are in for. The consensus was, not so much that they didn't want females fighting beside them — more often than not, we heard, "as long as they don't change the training, more power to them" — but that the course was "one of the most rigorous the Marine Corps has to offer."

Finally, the Marine Corps Training And Education Command has decided that these two ladies are essentially just a "test." If they pass, the will not earn the Infantry Officer designation.

They're going through the training for no other reason than to do it, to prove what they're made of.

Communication — The first challenge is breaking through into a man's world

Women have never served in an infantry training unit.

The Marines world is totally dominated by men. Yes, women have a foot in the door, but the first obstacle they have is to break through socially with the men.

"Shoot, move, communicate," as Marines say. Communication is key.

The obstacles will not be altered in any way

In enlisted boot camp, most of the obstacles are different for women — bars are a little lower, walls a little shorter.

The female IOC Marines will have to surmount the exact same obstacles as the men.

Everyone will go through the early morning indoctrination test

"They drop you off in the woods, zero five in the morning, hand you a envelope, and say 'Go!" One officer tells me.

This is the indoctrination test.

Day 2, initial test, just to see if you have what it takes to do the training. The test consists of about 15 to 20 miles of land navigation, carrying a rifle and military "deuce gear," which is what carries ammunition and water.

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When the Russian submarine K-141 Kursk slipped into the Barents Sea on a fine August day just over a decade ago, its crew were no doubt in high spirits.

The 118 men were manning the largest nuclear attack submarine ever built, one of the jewels of Russia's Northern Fleet, and they were about to show what it could do under torpedo firing exercises against an old battlecruiser.

But nothing on that trip went as planned.

While one of the gunners was loading a round in the tube, it's believed salt water came in contact with the torpedo's hydrogen peroxide propellant causing an explosion that sent the Kursk to the bottom of the sea.

Despite detonations that registered well into the Richter scale, many crew sat on the sea floor for days before  they finally died.

The Kursk sat only in about 300 feet of water, but it's a depth impossible for a man to rise from and survive without mechanical assistance — at the time nothing was available to send.

For years the Kremlin pretended the men died swiftly, but they did not; and today the U.S. Navy has something in its fleet to ensure a tragedy like the Kursk's never happens again.

Should a Disabled Submarine (DISSUB) message ever sound out in the world, the Navy today will send the Submarine Rescue Diving and Re-compression System (SRDRS) to the rescue.

The Oceaneering Technologies submersible includes four separate parts, weighs just under 200 tons and can be flown from San Diego to anywhere in the world within 72 hours.

When that call comes in the SRDRS will sail out over the downed sub and drop a rescue module that will attach itself to the subs escape hatch. Up to 155 submariners can then crawl into the safety of the rescue pod and be rushed to the surface.

The pod carries a crew, but is actually remote controlled and through a sophisticated relay of pressurized, and de-pressurizing chambers; the system enables rescuers to reach depths of 2,000 feet and shuttle disabled crew to the surface 16 at a time.

This new system replaced a design around since 1970 that had to be strapped to another submarine and could carry only 24 passengers at once. Called the Mystic, that submersible could descend to 5,000 feet but was never called on to perform a rescue.

So, while the U.S. may never need to rescue 150 men on the sea floor, there's no doubt the SRDRS is a huge comfort to the men and women in today's submarine fleet. 

Now: See why all US aircraft carriers have a Ouija board > 

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In 2010 Egypt discussed taking military action in cooperation with Sudan against Ethiopia to protect their stake in Nile River, according to internal emails from the U.S. private-security firm Stratfor.

Egypt and Sudan get 90 percent of the river’s water under colonial-era accords while upstream countries including Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia have been clamoring for a new deal during more than a decade of talks.

The Nile flows south to north, making it one of only a handful of rivers in the world to do so and one of only two in Africa.

So, rather than Cairo sitting at the mouth of the massive water supply, it sits dead last—subject to all the whims and fancies of each upstream nation. With several factional governments upstream and the premium on fresh water, diplomacy only goes so far.

A dispatch from May 26, 2010, that cited information from a Egyptian diplomatic source points to the country's frustration:

Sudanese president Umar al-Bashir has agreed to allow the Egyptians to build an a small airbase in Kusti to accommodate Egyptian commandos who might be sent to Ethiopia to destroy water facilities on the Blue Nile... It will be their option if everything else fails

The Blue Nile, which begins in Ethiopia, contributes about 85 percent of the flow that passes through Egypt to the Mediterranean.

Ethiopia became an even bigger threat a month after the Egyptian Revolution toppled President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011 when they announced new details about the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

In April of this year Bradley Hope of the The National reported that construction had begun and that the massive project "could destabilize Egypt in a way that would make the last year of political upheaval look minuscule."

"It would lead to political, economic and social instability,"  Mohamed Nasr El Din Allam, Egypt's minister of water and irrigation until early last year, told Hope. "Millions of people would go hungry. There would be water shortages everywhere. It's huge."

Ethiopia is also currently struggling to fund the dam, which would need foreign aid to be completed. Egypt and Sudan have lobbied foreign donors to refrain from funding the project while they try to find a diplomatic solution to the increasingly dire water situation.

A dispatch from June 1, 2010, that cited a "high-level Egyptian security/intel source, in regular direct contact with Mubarak and [then-intelligence head Omar] Suleiman" said:

The only country that is not cooperating is Ethiopia. We are continuing to talk to them, using the diplomatic approach. Yes, we are discussing military cooperation with Sudan. ... If it comes to a crisis, we will send a jet to bomb the dam and come back in one day, simple as that. Or we can send our special forces in to block/sabotage the dam... Look back to an operation Egypt did in the mid-late 1970s, i think 1976, when Ethiopia was trying to build a large dam. We blew up the equipment while it was traveling by sea to Ethiopia.

A dispatch from July 29, 2010, that cited the Egyptian ambassador to Lebanon said that Egypt and leaders of the soon-to-be independent southern region of Sudan "agreed on developing strategic relations between their two countries," including Egypt training the South Sudan military, and noted that "the horizons for Egyptian-southern Sudanese cooperation are limitless since the south needs everything."

In 1979 Anwar Sadat, Egypt’s second president, said: “The only matter that could take Egypt to war again is water."

The government of current Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi described the Stratfor emails as hearsay “designed to disturb Egyptian-Ethiopian relations.”

WikiLeaks has published 53,860 out of what it says is a cache of 5 million internal Stratfor emails (dated between July 2004 and December 2011) obtained by the hacker collective Anonymous around Christmas. Check out our coverage here.

SEE ALSO: The Global Water Crisis Will Shake Humanity To Its Core [Charts] >

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Syria banned Turkish passenger flights from its airspace from Sunday in a retaliatory move after Turkey confiscated a cargo of what Russia said was radar equipment en route from Moscow to Damascus last week.

The reprisal, just weeks before the annual hajj when thousands of Turkish pilgrims head to the Muslim holy places in Saudi Arabia on a route that would normally take them through Syrian airspace, came despite a flurry of diplomacy on Saturday intended to calm soaring tensions between the neighbours.

Syria accuses Turkey of channeling arms from Gulf Arab states to rebels fighting its troops, who have been under mounting pressure across large swathes of the north, including second city Aleppo.

The flight ban went into force from midnight (2100 GMT Saturday) "in accordance with the principle of reciprocity", SANA state news agency said, although Turkey has said its airspace remains open to Syrian civilian flights.

Since last Wednesday, Turkey had warned its airlines to avoid Syrian airspace for fear of retaliation for that day's interception of the Syrian Air flight by Turkish jets on the allegation it was carrying military equipment.

The United States backed its NATO ally's confiscation of what Russia said was radar spare parts, saying they constituted "serious military equipment".

Russia, traditional ally of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, insisted the cargo broke no international rules.

Turkey has taken an increasingly strident line towards its southern neighbour since a shell fired from the Syrian side of the border killed five of its nationals on October 3.

It has since repeatedly retaliated for cross-border fire, prompting growing UN concern and a flurry of diplomatic contacts.

After talks with his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle on Saturday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu reiterated that Ankara would not tolerate any further border incidents.

"We will hit back without hesitation if we believe Turkey's national security is in danger," he said.

Westerwelle renewed Germany's support for its NATO ally while at the same time appealing for restraint. "We are on Turkey's side but we also call on Turkey to show moderation," he said.

Peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, a veteran Algerian diplomat who is the envoy of the United Nations and the Arab League, headed to Iran, the Syria government's closest ally, after holding talks in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, the leading backers of the opposition.

Brahimi is on his second tour of the region after taking up his post at the beginning of September, replacing former UN chief Kofi Annan who quit complaining that he had not received sufficient support from the major powers to see through his abortive April peace plan.

On the ground, fierce fighting raged between the army and rebel fighters on the main highway between Damascus and Aleppo.

The rebels' capture of the strategic crossroads town of Maaret al-Numan last Tuesday has threatened the army's ability to reinforce its beleaguered troops in the northern metropolis.

One rebel fighter was killed and 18 wounded as fighting raged for a second day around the nearby Wadi Daif base, which remains in government hands, the Syrian Observatory for Human Right said.

Air strikes targeted the rebels in the village of Marshurin and in Hish in the same region, the Britain-based watchdog added.

The clashes came after fierce fighting in the heart of Aleppo on Saturday which saw rebels attack army positions inside the city's landmark Umayyad Mosque for the second time in a week.

The commercial capital has been the key battleground of the 19-month conflict since mid-July.

Its ancient covered market or souk has also been damaged in the fighting as rebels and troops have exchanged mortar and grenade fire in the UNESCO-listed Old City.

Rebels entered the mosque complex by planting an explosive device at the southern entrance,

Nationwide at least 181 people were killed on Saturday -- 71 civilians, 63 soldiers and 47 rebels, according to the Observatory's figures.

More than 33,000 people have now been killed since the uprising against Assad's rule erupted in March last year, the watchdog says.

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