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| Back when men didn't need safe spaces or worried about micro aggressions. To the men and women who served mankind on one beachhead, or another, thank you. |
Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force:
You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months.
The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.
In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.
Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.
But this is the year 1944. Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned. The free men of the world are marching together to victory.
I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory.
Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.
Dwight D Eisenhower
General, U. S. Army
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USA
The first drone warship just joined the Navy and now nearly every element of it is classified
The first warship to traverse open waters without a single crew member recently joined the U.S. Navy's fleet after eight years of development and testing.
And now nearly every element of the vehicle, known as the Sea Hunter, has become classified.
"About all I can tell you is that it has transitioned from [the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] to the Navy, and that's a success in the world of science and technology," said Rear Adm. Nevin Carr. "And that's a good thing, because that means that there's a there there."
Carr talked to CNBC about the vessel's status shift during the Sea-Air-Space conference, the largest maritime expo in the United States. He is uniquely familiar with Sea Hunter since he oversaw its testing as chief of the Office of Naval Research and its current development as Leidos vice president and Navy strategic account executive.
Leidos is the sole defense contractor helping to engineer the vessel.
The product of 'mad science'
The concept for the unmanned vessel was born in 2010 out of the Pentagon's so-called mad science wing, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.
The Pentagon's request from DARPA was colossal: Develop a drone warship capable of hunting submarines, detecting torpedoes and avoiding objects at sea while traveling at a top speed of 27 knots, or 31 mph.
Six years later, the crewless, 140-ton, 132-foot-long robotic ship, was christened as Sea Hunter on the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon...
U.S. Army Scoping Out Potential Future Apache
PHOENIX—The U.S. Army is gathering potential requirements for another evolution of the Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, which is now expected to remain in service into the 2040s and possibly the 2060s.
The possible improvements are being grouped into two categories of engineering change proposal (ECP): upgrades that could be incorporated relatively easily into the current AH-64E, and major changes that would require helicopters to return to the depot, says Rich Tyler, the Army’s Apache deputy program manager.
Topping the list of major changes is re-engining with the 3,000-shp Improved Turbine Engine, but the array of potential upgrades includes adding a propulsor and compounding wing to increase the helicopter’s performance. Also listed are sensor and survivability upgrades and an advanced cockpit and flight controls.
The requirements-gathering exercise is aimed at both upgrades to the AH-64E in fiscal 2019-2024 and a notional “Future Apache” that could be developed in fiscal 2021-25 and produced in fiscal 2025-2035. But there is not yet any formal requirement or program for an improved Apache, cautions Tyler, speaking on the sidelines of AHS International’s Forum 74 convention here on May 15...
A-29, AT-6 Face Off For Light Attack Experiment Part II
Sierra Nevada/Embraer’s A-29 Super Tucano and Textron Aviation’s AT-6B Wolverine are facing off over the sands of Holloman AFB, New Mexico, for the second phase of the U.S. Air Force’s Light Attack Experiment.
Over the next three months, pilots will fly the Super Tucano and AT-6B in a second evaluation designed to gather additional information about the aircraft’s capabilities in a light attack role, as well as interoperability with partner nations, the Air Force says. The event kicked off May 7.
The first phase took place in August 2017 at Holloman AFB, with four models of light attack aircraft, including the A-29 and AT-6 as well as Textron’s Scorpion jet and L-3-Air Tractor’s AT-802L Longsword. The goal of the high-profile experiment was to evaluate the four off-the-shelf aircraft for the light-attack counterterrorism mission ahead of a potential procurement.
Now the Air Force is taking the next step toward possibly buying a fleet of 100 aircraft or more to fight terrorists in the Middle East...
USAF prepares for rapid demo of high-energy laser weapon
The US Air Force has started preparing to rapidly stage a demonstration of a highly mature laser weapon system (LWS) for an unspecified “airborne vehicle”, with the potential for a follow-on production programme.
The plans for the near-term demonstration of a “High Energy Laser (HEL) Flexible Prototype” programme are revealed in an 11 May notice to potential suppliers from the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC).
The notice outlines a plan to pay a supplier to deliver a HEL prototype and perform a system level ground verification test of an LWS within 12 months of contract award.
AFRICA
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT
ASIA
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT
EUROPE
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT
LATIN/SOUTH AMERICA
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT
AFGHANISTAN
Taliban militants besiege Farah provincial capital in Afghsanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Taliban insurgents launched attacks from multiple directions on the capital of Farah province in western Afghanistan near the border with Iran early Tuesday, killing and wounding "dozens" of security forces, a local official said. Fared Bakhtawer, head of the provincial council, said several security checkpoints in the city of Farah were overrun by Taliban fighters and that an intense gun battle was ongoing.
Bakhtawer said casualties were high among security forces, but couldn't provide a precise number.
"Security checkpoints around the city have collapsed in the hands of the Taliban, causing high casualties among security forces," he said.O REPORT
CHINA
China Enlists U.N. to Promote Its Belt and Road Project
Top United Nations officials are helping sell Xi Jinping’s signature foreign-policy initiative.
Speaking at an African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, last July, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed suggested a way for African leaders to boost their economies and end decades of strife: sign up to participate in China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a plan to invest a trillion dollars or more into the construction of ports, roads, and railways across dozens of countries from East Asia to East Africa.
“We must work to take advantage of one of the world’s largest infrastructure initiatives,” Mohammed urged at the summit’s opening ceremony. “This is an opportunity not just to provide alternatives to silencing the guns for our people but one that will keep our assets both human and natural on the continent building our tomorrow today.”
The promotion highlighted the U.N.’s curious role in China’s public relations campaign to sell the Belt and Road to the developing world. In speech after speech, top U.N. officials, including Secretary-General António Guterres, have sung its praises in terms that echo Chinese government talking points, portraying the Belt and Road Initiative as a vital pillar in a U.N.-sponsored plan to tackle poverty around the world by the year 2030.
The Chinese initiative, Guterres said in a speech before the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing in May 2017, holds “immense potential” and promises greater market access for “countries yearning to become more integrated with the global economy.”
U.N. support for the Chinese project comes just as Beijing is facing growing criticism for imposing unsustainable debt burdens on poor countries and feeding suspicions that the program is a cover for projecting China’s economic and military interests.
In March, then-U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned that Chinese “predatory loan practices” were encouraging dependency in African nations and “undercut[ting] their sovereignty.” European Union officials and European leaders have sounded the alarm about the political implications of greater Chinese investment, especially in Southern Europe. And China’s Asian neighbors are increasingly alarmed by Beijing’s checkbook diplomacy that threatens to upend the military balance across the Indo-Pacific region.
The United Nations, in contrast, has embraced the Belt and Road, which offers the prospect of trillions of dollars in desperately needed infrastructure investment at a time when the United States is cutting back foreign assistance.
“It’s an international stamp of approval to the Belt and Road Initiative at a time when it is under fire,” says Elizabeth Economy, a China scholar with the Council on Foreign Relations and author of The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State...
China tests bombers on South China Sea island
A July 2016 file photo shows a Chinese H-6K bomber patrolling islands and reefs, including Huangyan Island in the South China Sea.
(CNN) — China says it has landed long-range bombers for the first time on an island in the South China Sea, the latest in a series of maneuvers putting Beijing at odds with its neighbors and Washington over China's growing military presence around disputed islands.
The People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) announced on Friday it successfully organized the takeoff and landing of several bombers, including the nuclear-capable H-6K, on an unspecified island. The PLA claimed the mission was a part of China's aim to achieve a broader regional reach, quicker mobilization, and greater strike capabilities.
A military expert, Wang Mingliang, was quoted in the statement as saying the training will hone the Chinese air force's war-preparation skills and its ability to respond to various security threats in the region, where China claims large swathes of territory...
...Over the past few years China has been rapidly transforming various reefs and inlets into artificial islands to install military infrastructure. Some experts have called them "unsinkable aircraft carriers..."
...The move is a strategic accomplishment for China to further reinforce its military and political power in the disputed waters.
Upgrading capabilities
The H-6K is a considerable upgrade from the fighter jets believed to have previously landed on the islands. China's top-of-the-line bomber is capable of reaching a nearly 1,900-nautical-mile (3,500-kilometer) radius. Flying the twin-engine bombers out of Woody Island would mean the entirety of Southeast Asia is within combat flight range, experts say.
"The H-6K is significant because it provides Beijing with longer-ranging bomber capabilities that can drop precision-guided munitions on both ground and sea targets," Rand Corp. defense analyst Derek Grossman said in an email to CNN.
"Moreover, landing the bomber on Woody Island provides an opportunity for Chinese pilots to train under realistic circumstances," Grossman said.
While Woody Island sits in the central South China Sea, the AMTI says satellite imagery indicates China has built near identical operational runways at its three main outposts in the Spratly Islands known as Mischief, Subi and Fiery Cross Reef, which sit near the southern extent of the sea...
IRAN
Iran's Strategy for Surviving U.S. Sanctions
Highlights
Now that the United States is piling on sanctions, Iran's government is preparing for an inevitable economic decline.
Iran's political factions are in relative agreement about how to handle the economic pressure, at least over the next several months.
Tehran's goal will be to keep its head above water long enough to outlast the current U.S. administration. It will try to increase non-oil exports to make up for the loss of oil sales, implement financial reforms and slow the depreciation of its currency.
Iran's key priorities while it is coping with sanctions will be to keep prices for food and other goods down, minimize protests against the government, and make foreign exchange reserves last as long as possible.
One big question is how long Iran's discouraged population will trust the government's survival strategies before they start to protest against inflation and increasing wealth inequality
Iran is preparing for major economic and financial challenges now that the United States is ready to implement tough oil-specific sanctions in November. The government in Tehran is unwilling to heed Washington's demands, which include halting its missile program and ending its support for regional militias, because it considers these basic components of the country's defense strategy. So Iran is managing its economy for the long haul, hoping it can insulate itself against the effects of sanctions long enough to outlast the current U.S. administration...
IRAQ
Once Hated by U.S. and Tied to Iran, Is Sadr Now ‘Face of Reform’ in Iraq?
The Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr on his way to vote in the parliamentary election in Najaf, Iraq, on May 12.Alaa Al-Marjani/Reuters
BAGHDAD — Iraqis are still haunted by memories of black-clad death squads roaming Baghdad neighborhoods a decade ago, cleansing them of Sunnis as the country was convulsed by sectarian violence.
Many of the mass killings in the capital were done in the name of Moktada al-Sadr, a cleric best remembered by Americans for fiery sermons declaring it a holy duty among his Shiite faithful to attack United States forces.
The militia he led was armed with Iranian-supplied weapons, and Mr. Sadr cultivated a strong alliance with leaders in Tehran, who were eager to supplant the American presence in Iraq and play the dominant role in shaping the country’s future.
Now, the man once demonized by the United States as one of the greatest threats to peace and stability in Iraq has come out as the surprise winner of this month’s tight elections, after a startling reinvention into a populist, anticorruption campaigner whose “Iraq First” message appealed to voters across sectarian divides...
ISRAEL
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT
KOREAN PENINSULA
North Korea Signals Intent To Resolve Overflight Concerns
North Korea has committed to taking steps to improve its airspace safety, which could open the way for airlines to resume using North Korean airspace for overflights.
ICAO officials traveled to North Korea to hold talks with the reclusive nation’s civil aviation authorities.
During these meetings, North Korean aviation officials "made an unqualified pledge that no further unscheduled, unannounced missile testing or other activities hazardous to civil aviation will occur" over the country, ICAO said.
Concerns regarding missiles have been a major reason why foreign airlines do not overfly North Korea, even when such routes would be more efficient.
The ICAO mission included the agency’s air navigation bureau director Stephen Creamer and ICAO director Asia-Pacific office Arun Mishra. They met with North Korea’s General Administration of Civil Aviation (GACA) deputy director general Ri Yong Son.
GACA said there will be no more launches of ICBM missiles because of a government resolution, and North Korean officials remarked that the country’s nuclear arms program is complete, according to an ICAO summary of the meetings. GACA said it has procedures in place to ensure communication between military and civilian aviation authorities, and can "fully comply" with notification requirements.
North Korea expressed its "interest in opening new routes through [its] airspace for overflight traffic," ICAO said. The country’s aviation authorities have previously sent a request to ICAO to establish a new air traffic service route between North Korea’s Pyongyang flight information region (FIR) and the Incheon FIR, which is controlled by South Korea. ICAO has forwarded this proposal to South Korea...
North Korea replaces three top military leaders, Yonhap news agency reports
Three of North Korea’s top military officials have been replaced, a South Korean news agency reported Monday, marking an apparent shake-up in leader Kim Jong Un’s inner circle before next week’s planned summit with President Trump.
The report by the Yonhap news agency, citing an intelligence source, could not be independently verified.
But, if confirmed, the moves suggest another step in Kim’s ongoing reorganization in military leadership — this time bringing in younger military overseers to replace older ranks possibly at odds with his outreach to the United States and its ally South Korea, experts said...
RUSSIA
Russia hints at a nuclear armed drone submarine for 2027: The Poseidon drone submarine, should it be built, will be both nuclear powered and nuclear armed, a dangerous package inside an autonomous body.
Poseidon is an unsubtle name for a robot. So when a country decides to name a category of vessel after the god of the ocean, it suggests a gravitas, a significance that no lesser name would convey. This week, Russian media floated a new machine, an underwater uninhabited robot program, tentatively aimed at at 2027 release, which earns its divine moniker in the least subtle of ways: it’s built to carry and use nukes.
We first saw a glimpse of Poseidon or a Poseidon-like craft in the draft of the Pentagon’s nuclear posture review released this January, though it didn’t have that moniker then. That document referred to an “autonomous underwater vehicle” dubbed Kanyon by the Pentagon and formally labeled Ocean Multipurpose System Status-6. This vehicle would operate from another submarine, though it’s own speed and depth ranges fall within the capabilities listed this week for the Poseidon drone.
As reported by Russian state-owned media agency TASS, Poseidon is designed to be armed with a “two megatonne warhead,” primarily aimed at destroying hardened naval bases accessible from the sea. To get to those targets, the Poseidon will travel at depths of over 3,000 feet below the surface and with a top speed of around 80 mph. In addition to potentially carrying a nuclear warhead, the Poseidon will run on a nuclear powerplant...
MIDDLE EAST GENERAL
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT
CYBER ISSUES
Hacker Breaches Securus, the Company That Helps Cops Track Phones Across the US
A hacker has provided Motherboard with the login details for a company that buys phone location data from major telecom companies and then sells it to law enforcement.
A hacker has broken into the servers of Securus, a company that allows law enforcement to easily track nearly any phone across the country, and which a US Senator has exhorted federal authorities to investigate. The hacker has provided some of the stolen data to Motherboard, including usernames and poorly secured passwords for thousands of Securus’ law enforcement customers.
Although it’s not clear how many of these customers are using Securus’s phone geolocation service, the news still signals the incredibly lax security of a company that is granting law enforcement exceptional power to surveill individuals...
TERRORISM
Prison: A Training Ground for Terrorists
By Scott Stewart
VP of Tactical Analysis, Stratfor
Highlights
Hundreds of convicted jihadists are scheduled to be released from prison in the next few years, and their numbers will be bolstered by those prisoners who have embraced extremism while behind bars.
Prisons can serve as universities of crime for grassroots jihadists who lack terrorist tradecraft, and career criminals who convert will already possess skills useful in attacks.
The released extremists will add to the caseload for overburdened government forces working to counter the jihadist threat...
MISC
China Has Already Won the Drone Wars
Chinese companies are proving that America is not first in the UAV export market. Can Trump roll that back?
Jordan’s Chinese CH-4 drone on display at this year’s SOFEX arms show. (Sharon Weinberger/Foreign Policy)
AMMAN, Jordan — At a military airfield on the outskirts of the Jordanian capital, three American businessmen stood admiring the star exhibit, which looked eerily familiar: a large drone, armed with weapons under its wings, with a domed front.
“They brought the Predator here,” said one, in reference to the ubiquitous U.S. drone used in wars from Bosnia to Iraq.
“That is not a Predator,” another countered.
The drone on display was, in fact, a Chinese unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) called the Rainbow CH-4, which has quickly spread around the world. Jordan bought the drone in 2015 but displayed it publicly for the first time this year at the Special Operations Forces Exhibition and Conference, known as SOFEX, a biennial event where companies market their latest wares.
Once upon a time, the sight would have been unthinkable: The MQ-1 Predator and its successor, the more lethal MQ-9 Reaper, were for more than a decade synonymous with armed drones. But that now is changing, not because Beijing has built a better drone but because it has been willing to sell them to countries where the United States wouldn’t.
For years, advocates of U.S. arms sales bemoaned tight export restrictions on armed drones, which has allowed China to move in on a lucrative market while depriving American companies of valuable business. Jordan had originally requested to buy the Reaper, made by San Diego-based General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, but was turned down. When Beijing subsequently secured the deal, Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter lamented in late 2015 that “China is seizing the opportunity.”
More than two years later, China’s growing share of the armed drone market is on display. To date, only the United Kingdom, France, and Italy have bought an armed version of the MQ-9 Reaper, while other U.S. allies, including Jordan, are flying Chinese drones, such as the CH-4.
The United States now belatedly is trying to recapture the armed drone market. For years, U.S. companies were restricted from such sales, in part as a result of the Missile Technology Control Regime, an international pact that aims to curb the export of certain long-range cruise missiles and drones. (China is not a signatory to the agreement.)...
...The CH-4, whose resemblance to the iconic Predator is no accident, follows a long tradition of Chinese technology manufacturing, whether in cars or smartphones: Make it look like a name-brand Western equivalent, but build it cheaper and good enough to get the job done. (Amusingly, a video at the show advertising the CH-4 called it “one of the best” UAVs in the world, as in, not the best.) Analysts have even suggested, albeit without proof, that China pilfered U.S. technical information for its drone program....
Uber Seeks International ‘Pilot’ City For UberAIR Trial
May 10, 2018 Guy Norris and Graham Warwick | Aerospace Daily & Defense Report
LOS ANGELES—Ride-hailing operator Uber has issued an open call to cities around the world to bid to become the first international test site of the company’s proposed uberAIR aerial rideshare program.
The chosen community will join Dallas and Los Angeles, which have already been selected by Uber as U.S. launch cities for the pioneering urban air mobility initiative. Uber aims to begin demonstration flights in 2020 and initial commercial services in 2023.
The call for proposals, which must be submitted by July 1, is directed at cities with a greater metropolitan area population of more than 2 million and a density of more than 2,000 people per square mile. Uber says populations of this size will be able to support “pooled ridesharing services and thus benefit the most from an uberAIR network...”
Turbojet Runs Precursor to Hypersonic Engine Heat Exchanger Tests
Advanced propulsion developer Reaction Engines is nearing its first step toward validating its novel air-breathing hybrid rocket design at hypersonic conditions by firing up a vintage General Electric J79 turbojet to act as a heat source for testing, expected later this month.
The ex-military engine, formerly used in a McDonnell Douglas F-4, is a central element of Reaction’s specially developed high-temperature airflow test site, which will soon be commissioned at Front Range Airport, near Watkins, Colorado. The J79 will provide heated gas flow in excess of 1,000C (1,800F) which, together with conditioned ambient air, will be mixed to replicate inlet conditions representative of flight speeds up to and including Mach 5.
The flow will verify the operability and performance of the pre-cooler heat exchanger (HTX), which is at the core of Reaction’s Sabre (synergistic air-breathing rocket engine). It is also key to extracting oxygen from the atmosphere to enable acceleration to hypersonic speed from a standing start. The HTX will chill airflow to minus 150C in less than 1/20th of a second, and pass it through a turbo-compressor and into the rocket combustion chamber where it will be burned with sub-cooled liquid hydrogen (LH) fuel. Beyond Mach 5, and at an altitude approaching 100,000 ft. the inlet will be closed and the engine will continue to operate as a closed-cycle rocket engine fueled by onboard liquid oxygen and LH.
Full heat exchanger testing expected to begin in third quarter
Reaction Engine sees potential early roles for heat exchanger in turbofans and hypersonic systems
“The facility will be undergoing characterization throughout June,” says Adam Dissel, president of Reaction Engines Inc. “By mixing the flow we can control the ramp up and down, and it allows us to dial in the appropriate conditions so the pre-cooler will see an environment analogous to what it would see in a flight vehicle over a flight time line. If your vehicle took off from a runway and accelerated to Mach 5 over the next 4-5 min. we can dial in the temperatures, pressures and mass flows corresponding to that ascent. The whole set up allows us to do flight-like tests,” he adds...
Pentagon to Take Over Security Clearance Checks: The Defense Department is poised to take over background investigations for the federal government.
WASHINGTON — The Defense Department is poised to take over background investigations for the federal government, using increased automation and high-tech analysis to tighten controls and tackle an enormous backlog of workers waiting for security clearances, according to U.S. officials.
The change aims to fix a system whose weaknesses were exposed by the case of a Navy contractor who gunned down a dozen people at Washington's Navy Yard in 2013. He was able to maintain a security clearance despite concerns about his mental health and an arrest that investigators never reviewed.
Problems had earlier surfaced with former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who now lives in Russia to avoid charges for disclosing classified material, and Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning, who went to prison for leaking classified documents, triggering calls to update the antiquated system to include more frequent criminal and financial checks of workers who have security clearances.
Another problem has been delays: a backlog of about 700,000 people, including high-ranking federal officials waiting as much as a year to get clearances. President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, for example, received his permanent clearance just a few weeks ago, more than 16 months after Trump took office. The delay, his lawyer said, was caused by the backlog in the new administration and Kushner's extensive financial wealth, which required lengthy review...
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