#StateDepartment

In June of last year, we published a short post on the odd story behind the current Diplomatic Security Service’s qualification target known as the DSQ-1A, or colloquially as an “Izzy” target. The long and short of it was that the figure holding an AKMS in the post was a former DS Firearms Instructor whose image was made into a target. However, we got some details wrong in the initial post. One of the rumors was that it started out as an office joke or prank, some colleagues having fun and making a paper target of their buddy. Somehow higher-ups saw this and actually thought that this was actually a decent target for the service. The true story as it turns out is very far from this one. In fact, the “Izzy” target was very much a calculated process. It was picked from a number of potential target ideas.

The current US administration is looking to release many of the restrictions on weapons exports, according to a recent article at Reuters. Currently, International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) limit the ability for US arms companies to sell weapons overseas. However, the Trump administration is reportedly planning to change the jurisdiction for most arms exports from the State Department to the Commerce Department, which would likely make such exports substantially easier. The State Department’s focus is primarily on security and stability, which means they generally err on the side of less exports rather than more, but the Commerce Department is primarily focused on facilitating international trade. This strongly suggests that arms exports as handled by the Commerce Department would be facilitated by the agency, rather than obstructed, as the trend has been under the State Department.

Soldier Systems Daily first reported on the Aimpoint M5 powered by AAA batteries almost a year ago. Oddly enough, it was spotted by an avid reader of SSD that noticed an optic being shown at a Diplomatic Security Service information seminar in Washington D.C.