The nation’s first stealth plane took off from Nagoya airfield in central Japan around 8:50 a.m., Defense Ministry Program Manager Hirofumi Doi said by phone. The jet landed safely at Gifu Air Base in Gifu Prefecture at 9:13 a.m., Doi said.
Is that a typo? or cost of each plane?The 14-meter-long (46-foot-long) X-2 is equipped with engines from IHI Corp. and cost about 40 billion yen ($366 million) to develop, according to the ministry.
No its the cost to develop a sub-scale tech demonstrator which the Shin Shin is.Is that a typo? or cost of each plane?
The Bell X-1, piloted by U.S. Air Force Capt. Chuck Yeager, reached 700 mph on Oct. 14, 1947. At Mach 1.06, it was the first airplane to fly faster than the speed of sound. But at speeds greater than Mach 1, air pressure disturbances around airplanes merge to form shock waves that create sonic booms, heard and felt 30 miles away.
In the 1950s and ‘60s, Americans filed some 40,000 claims against the Air Force, whose supersonic jets were making a ruckus over land. Then in 1973, the FAA banned overland supersonic commercial flights because of sonic booms—a prohibition that remains in effect today.
NASA and a team led by Lockheed Martin are making advances that bring the goal of quiet supersonic commercial travel over land closer to reality. On Feb. 29, NASA announced it had awarded a $20 million contract to Lockheed’s team to design a low-sonic-boom X-plane that would support efforts to replace the current prohibition with a new standard that would allow acceptable en-route supersonic noise.
The job of the Lockheed team over the next 17 months will be to come up with baseline requirements, specifications and a preliminary design for a demonstration aircraft.
Michael Buonanno, chief engineer for NASA’s Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST) X-plane program, said the foundation was laid from 2010 to 2013 with the N+2 Supersonic Validations Program.
“We worked with NASA to develop the necessary design tools and experimental techniques to accurately shape the vehicle so that its sonic-boom signature will be perceived as a sonic heartbeat sound rather than the typical loud double-bang that today’s supersonic aircraft produce,” Buonanno said.
The QueSST jet would fly at speeds of Mach 1.4, about 1,100 mph, twice the speed of today’s commercial airliners and nearly as fast as the Concorde. Buonanno said boom-reduction shaping tools have been validated by analysis, wind-tunnel testing and flight experiments.
The X-plane’s promise hinges on its streamlined design, resembling the paper airplanes we let sail in our youth. Its futuristic look includes a long, slender fuselage, a highly swept delta wing and multiple control surfaces to tailor the distribution of pressure and lift around the vehicle.
“In order to have low sonic boom, you need to specifically design to have it,” Buonanno said. “It’s a nuanced and detail-oriented task to set up the shape of the vehicle so that the shock waves that result from supersonic flight don’t coalesce and result in that loud double-bang.”
In the airline industry’s current tube-and-wings model, shock waves largely roll off and then meld into a sonic boom. The aerodynamic X-plane, however, is designed to scatter multiple shock waves and minimize their cumulative effect, producing only a rumble or soft thump.
“You try to minimize the strength of the shock, so you have a very sharp nose on the aircraft, but you have to extend it a long way past the fuselage,” said Thomas Corke, professor of engineering at the University of Notre Dame.
Corke, director of Notre Dame’s Institute for Flow Physics and Control, conducted hypersonic Mach 6 experiments at the Air Force Academy in Colorado—at a speed more than four times faster than the X-plane’s.
“The idea is that there is no way to avoid a shock wave supersonically,” Corke said. “The [X-plane] design doesn’t eliminate shock, it just minimizes it, so what’s perceived on the ground is almost imperceptible.”
Lockheed will support the NASA led team to gauge community response to the sonic boom thump. NASA’s intention is to fly the QueSST aircraft demonstrator over communities across the country and collect data from civilians on noise acceptability levels, Buonanno said.
The demonstrator, at 90 feet long, will be smaller than future civil supersonic aircraft. The goal is to eventually have commercial supersonic transportation. The Concorde’s sound at cruising altitude was about 105 decibels, but Buonanno said that based on tests, the X-plane would generate 70 to 80 decibels of noise. Quick and quiet are the buzz words.
Buonanno and Corke are buoyed by advances that may help overturn the 43-year ban on overland supersonic flight, a goal spelled out by NASA, Buonanno said.
“NASA stated this is a mission for themselves,” Buonanno said. “They think they need to lead the efforts to change the regulations.”
Corke said it’s fitting that NASA, in partnership with Lockheed Martin’s team, is the one moving forward with this compelling X-plane model. The government agency better known for facilitating outer space exploration for nearly 60 years has long sought quick, quiet travel closer to Earth.
“It was originally developed at NASA—first in the early 1990s,” Corke said. “So it’s been in development for a long time.”
The Marines are the US Navy's Army. Wait till you hear about the Airforce that the US Navy's Army has.nits wrote:Gurus - Novice question... i tried searching online but not of much help. Why US maintain 4 Forces - Air, Army, Navy and Marines... How Marines is different from Air \ Navy and what different they do that there counterpart does not ?
wow!.. like crowd funding eh! (feedbacks)NASA Moves to Begin Historic New Era of X-Plane Research
http://www.nasa.gov/aero/nasa-moves-to- ... e-research
“We’re going to let the marketplace and the community help us inform our decisions on the direction we want to go,” Waggoner said. “But we’re really excited about all of the things we might demonstrate.”
A report in RT has claimed that it has tested a new “hypersonic glide vehicle” which can blast past missile defences a fire nuclear warheads at its enemies. The new technology will make it impossible its enemies’ defences to calculate the warhead’s trajectory before it is too late.
According to the media site, the test of the hypersonic cruise vehicle was a success after launching a UR-100N strategic ballistic missile near the Kazakhstan border.
The new RS-28 missile that military experts hope to arm the vehicle with is reportedly capable of carrying a ten ton payload, which can strike in any direction once it is launched.
The test of the hypersonic cruise vehicle was reportedly carried out using a strategic ballistic missile in Orenburg, near the border to Kazakhstan, on Tuesday.
FLIGHT VS14 – A SUCCESSFUL ARIANESPACE LAUNCH, WITH SO-YUZ, SUPPORTING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, FUNDAMENTAL PHYSICS AND PROMOTING SPACE CAREERS
Arianespace successfully launched the Sentinel-1B satellite for the Copernicus program on behalf of the European Commission, under a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA). It also orbited on this mission, the French CNES space agency’s Microscope satellite, and three CubeSats for the ESA Education and Knowledge Management Office’s Fly Your Satellite! program. The Soyuz launcher lifted off on April 25, 2016 at 6:02 pm (local time) from the Guiana Space Center (CSG) in French Guiana.
Arianespace’s third launch of the year was dedicated to European space initiatives for sustainable development, fundamental physics and promoting science and space careers among young Europeans. It clearly confirmed Arianespace’s commitment to its primary mission, namely guaranteeing reliable and independent access to space for Europe.
The United States Air Force (USAF) 846th Test Squadron, based at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico on 14 April exceeded the Maglev (magnetically levitated) rocket sled speed record by 161 km/h (100 mph) - from 826 km/h (513 mph) to 1,019 km/h (633 mph) - the fastest Maglev sled speed recorded to date.
The development of the maglev sled is thought to result from the need for ever faster high-speed sled testing and the problems encountered when using the current rail-running systems.
In 1998 USAF initiated the Hypersonic Upgrade Program (HUP) at Holloman AFB to provide the US Department of Defense (DoD) with a facility that could accelerate far heavier payloads to hypersonic (above Mach 5.0, 6,125 km/h at sea level) speeds. The payloads are presumed to represent the impactor (hit-to-kill vehicle) of an anti-ballistic missile (ABM) that impacts a static representative ballistic missile re-entry vehicle (RV) target. The culmination of the HUP programme was the test of the four-stage rocket sled, the last two stages powered by Super Roadrunner (SRR) rocket motors in April 2003. The sled system accelerated the 87.1 kg (192 lb) payload to a speed of 10,385 km/h (6,453 mph).
It has been known since the mid-1960s that speeds on rails above 5,400 km/h (3,355 mph) results in a phenomenon known as gouging. Slight imperfections in the alignment of the rails and potentially aerodynamic forces on the sled result in it moving vertically, horizontally, or both. At such high speeds as the sled slider then returns to the surface of the rail, gouging occurs. At best this results in damage to the rail and slider, and at worst shock, vibration and even debris (ex-rail and slider) are projected at and damage the payload. The result is at best costly maintenance and repair of the rail system and at worst the failure of a very expensive trial.
Although mechanisms were developed to minimise these problems, they ultimately still occur. As a means to overcome these limitations and to further increase the sleds maximum speed to a figure of at least Mach 10.0 at sea level (12,250 km/h, 7,610 mph), USAF initiated development of the maglev system.
First tests of the maglev sled started in May 2004, with two 'shots' down a 60 m test track. Test 1 used one 127 mm (5 inch) High Velocity Aircraft Rocket (HVAR) rocket motor and Test 2 two rockets. The latter test achieving a speed of 219 km/h (136 mph), the first speed was undisclosed. A third test, which achieved 394 km/h (245 mph) by using three HVAR rockets and a 350 m test track, occurred in April 2005. For post analysis of the vertical and horizontal motion of the sled during the third test, a laser measuring system was installed.
The testing history until 2013 years is unknown, but in February 2013 a maglev sled was again tested, this time accelerated to 820 km/h (510 mph) by six 127 mm Zuni rocket motors. The next two tests would not occur until 2016, the first thought to have been undertaken on 30 March, again achieved 826 km/h (513 mph); the second was the record-breaking 1,019 km/h (633 mph) on 14 April.
The current maglev sled runs between two vertical rail-slots cast within the massive adjustable concrete rail structure. Mounted near the top and either side of the two slots and running the entire length of the track, are two permanent magnet strips. The sled itself has frame attached to its base, from which two arms extend out and into the rail slots. Running along the bottom of the sides of the arms are banks of super conducting magnets. Before use these required cooling by liquid helium to a temperature of 4° Kelvin (-269°C, -452°F). To maintain cooling of the magnets when in motion, a small liquid helium cooling supply is housed in the sled. With eight Zuni rocket motors and its onboard cooling supply, the sled weighs 900 kg (2,000 lb) prior to launch.If the programme is successful, the development of the maglev rocket sled will allow the USAF, US DoD and other parties to undertake lower-cost and more frequent hypersonic ground tests of large weapon systems at the Holloman Air Force Base.
The use of maglev technology would also allow the higher speed sled runs that are essential to emulate the effects experienced in ABM encounters; this without the potential failures caused by the detrimental effects of rail running sleds.
Make a New Note
The new Protector unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to be fielded by the United Kingdom has been revealed as the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc (GA-ASI) Certifiable Predator B (CPB), a Ministry of Defence (MoD) contract notification has shown.According to a justification for a sole-source award notification published on 24 April, the MoD has given GA-ASI a GBP415 million (USD605 million) contract for the CPB UAV that is set to run from 30 September 2016 to 31 October 2023. While the award did not disclose numbers, the UK government has previously said 20 such vehicles will be procured.
"The Unmanned Air Systems Team … of the UK Ministry of Defence intends to acquire the Protector unmanned aerial system through a government-government Foreign Military Sales contract with the US Department of Defense (DoD). The MoD has conducted a thorough Assessment Phase that has concluded that the CPB is the only system capable of achieving UK Military Type Certification and delivering the Protector requirement within the required timescales. The only means of acquiring the CPB is through a contract with the US DoD," the MoD said.
Company literature gives the GA-ASI CPB a maximum operating altitude of 45,000 ft (compared with 50,000 ft for the Reaper), a maximum endurance of more than 40 hours (compared with 27 hours for the Reaper), and a maximum air speed of 200 kt (compared with 240 kt for the Reaper). It would appear from these specifications that the United Kingdom is prioritising increased endurance and persistence. The CPB also has nine external stories stations, compared with five for the Reaper.
The still-developmental CPB builds on the Reaper and is capable of carrying multiple-mission payloads that include a detect-and-avoid (DAA) system. This DAA system features space, weight, and power provisions to enable the retrofitting of an airborne due-regard radar for operation in segregated airspace. The CPB is expected to meet European airworthiness initial certification standards in 2017, with US certification following after that.
The MoD has previously told IHS Jane's that the 20 Protector UAVs are expected to begin entering service in the 2018-19 timeframe to coincide with the retirement of the Royal Air Force's 10 Reapers.This contract announcement is the first official confirmation from the MoD that the new Protector medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV to replace the current MQ-9 Reaper will be the CPB. When the UK government made its initial Protector procurement announcement in October 2015, it caused some confusion as to the platform's identity as there was no UAV with that name either in service or known to be in development.
It later transpired that the Protector was a rebranding of the United Kingdom's previous Scavenger project to develop an indigenous UAV for fielding towards the end of the decade. This effort has been running for more than five years to find a long-term replacement for the Reaper, which was purchased with urgent operational requirement funding during the Afghanistan war.
Only six months ago, the MoD said a competition to select the winning system would be held, but this intention was clearly dropped with a sole-source acquisition going ahead instead.
Ah, like the People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force. One of my friends suggested they reaise an affiliated military police unit as well. They'd be called the People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force Policesudeepj wrote:The Marines are the US Navy's Army. Wait till you hear about the Airforce that the US Navy's Army has.
One can argue that all the things they do contribute to the "support the troops" mission. Just ask an infantry officer deployed half-way across the word on how his tactics, and threat would change if there was no assured air-superiority, Space Situational Awareness, and Space based Communication, navigation and weapons systems were denied, and the Air Force led strike on the enemy C2C weren't an option. Air Superiority is the enabler for all that, and this is increasingly true for Space based assets as well. The ability to deny the enemy control of the air has tremendous effect on the way the ground troops operate.Tradition. the US Air Force used to be called the US Army Air Force. .......after ww2 they changed the name to US Air Force. Number one job is air and space supremacy, strategic and tactical strike, air and space reconn, and,,,*and* support the troops. sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't.
The tech firm Deep Space Industries (DSI) is headquartered on the second story of an aging office building at the edge of NASA’s Ames Research Center, not far from the town of Mountain View, California. Established in 1939 as a laboratory for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, a predecessor to NASA, Ames is now part government research site, part industrial park, and part open-air museum — visitors pass rows of decommissioned rockets and the hulking skeleton of Hangar One, where the Navy once parked its experimental blimps in the 1930s. Shimmering nearby in the Pacific coast sun lies the sprawling aerospace facility owned by Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page.“The first time I came to Ames, I had the feeling I was standing between the history of spaceflight and its future,” Sagi Kfir, an aviation attorney, told me when I visited earlier this year. “You’ve got NASA labs here, but at the same time you’re in Silicon Valley,” he said. “Hard to think of a more exciting place to be.”To evangelists of asteroid mining, the heavens are not just a frontier but a vast and resource-rich place teeming with opportunity. According to NASA, there are potentially 100,000 near-Earth objects — including asteroids and comets — in the neighborhood of our planet. Some of these NEOs, as they’re called, are small. Others are substantial and potentially packed full of water and various important minerals, such as nickel, cobalt, and iron. One day, advocates believe, those objects will be tapped by variations on the equipment used in the coal mines of Kentucky or in the diamond mines of Africa. And for immense gain: According to industry experts, the contents of a single asteroid could be worth trillions of dollars.Kfir pitched me on the long-term plan. First, a fleet of satellites will be dispatched to outer space, fitted with probes that can measure the quality and quantity of water and minerals in nearby asteroids and comets. Later, armed with that information, mining companies like DSI will send out vessels to mechanically remove and refine the material extracted. In some cases, the take will be returned to Earth. But most of the time, it will be processed in space — for instance, to produce rocket fuel — and stored in container vessels that will serve as the equivalent of gas stations for outbound spacecraft.
This possibility isn’t so unrealistic, Kfir said. Consider the recent and seismic growth of the space industry, he suggested, as we climbed the stairs to DSI’s second-floor suite. Every year, the private spaceflight sector grows larger, and every year the goals become grander. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and the space exploration company Blue Origin, has spoken of the day “when millions of people are living and working in space”; Elon Musk’s SpaceX is expected to reveal a Mars colonization plan this year.“But how are they going to sustain this new space economy?” Kfir asked rhetorically. He nudged open DSI’s office door. “Easy: by mining asteroids.” Bezos, Musk, and the other billionaires who plan to be cruising around space in the near future won’t be able to do so without celestial pit stops.
In his book, Asteroid Mining 101: Wealth for the New Space Economy, John S. Lewis, professor emeritus of Cosmochemistry and Planetary Atmospheres at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and DSI’s chief scientist, envisions a future where “ever more remote and ever more massive reservoirs of resources” take astronauts farther and farther from our planet. “First to the Near Earth Asteroids and the moons of Mars, then to the asteroid belt, then to…[the] Trojan asteroids and the outer moons of Jupiter, then to the Saturn system and the Centaurs,” and so on, to infinity.
For the 12-person team at DSI, and the 50-person team at Planetary Resources, however, asteroid mining isn’t just a dream. It’s the future — one in which all those deep-pocketed private spaceflight companies (to say nothing of NASA) will be eager to pay by the bucket load for access to space’s riches. DSI and Planetary Resources, both of which are determined to profit from a 21st-century extraterrestrial gold rush, might be the equivalent of the mining barons of yore.But first, they have to get to the rocks.
Of course, but you csn say that also about a host of other factors such as the navy providing overseas logistics, the economy providing the basic where withal for the military, the nation's r&d efforts that give tech dominance, etc. It all adds up.brar_w wrote:One can argue that all the things they do contribute to the "support the troops" mission. Just ask an infantry officer deployed half-way across the word on how his tactics, and threat would change if there was no assured air-superiority, Space Situational Awareness, and Space based Communication, navigation and weapons systems were denied, and the Air Force led strike on the enemy C2C weren't an option. Air Superiority is the enabler for all that, and this is increasingly true for Space based assets as well. The ability to deny the enemy control of the air has tremendous effect on the way the ground troops operate.Tradition. the US Air Force used to be called the US Army Air Force. .......after ww2 they changed the name to US Air Force. Number one job is air and space supremacy, strategic and tactical strike, air and space reconn, and,,,*and* support the troops. sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't.
intercepts Khan's Poseidon
The Air Force's $82.7 million launch services award to SpaceX this week cost 40 percent less than estimated, according to one of the service's top space acquisition officials.
The service awarded SpaceX the contract to launch the second next-generation Global Positioning System satellite on April 27, marking the first National Security Space launch contract in 10 years not awarded to the United Launch Alliance. Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves told reporters April 28 that while the launch cost is significantly lower than what the service projected based on past missions, it will not necessarily serve as a cost baseline by which to measure future launches.
"It will not be the floor because each solicitation is independent of one another," Greaves said.
The Air Force plans to award a total of nine competitive launches through 2018. The SpaceX award, which will cover launch services for a GPS III launch scheduled in spring 2018, will provide a case study for future competition, Greaves said. In fact, he noted, the service purposely staggered the release of the early launch services requests for proposals in order to create space to incorporate lessons learned.
"We're gathering those lessons learned and making recommendations to the milestone decision authority," he said. "It was a conscious decision to do this one at a time, to gain lessons learned and feedback from industry before we proceeded on further with the competitive missions."
The service is eyeing the release of its second competitive launch services request for proposals in May or June. Greaves noted he will meet with Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall in the next few weeks to solidify the service's acquisition strategy for the next solicitation.
The SpaceX award decision was made using a "best value" model, but Greaves said that strategy will likely change based on the needs of individual launches and missions. He said the service is considering "a range of options" for the next RFP.
The Air Force had hoped for both SpaceX and ULA to bid for the award, however ULA declined to submit a proposal for the launch last November, attributing its decision, in part, to an inadequate supply of Russian-made RD-180 rocket engines, which power its Atlas V launch vehicle.
SpaceX and ULA are the only providers with launchers certified to fly Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle-class missions; as such, they are the only two companies eligible to win a launch services contract for those missions. However, this requirement does not restrict would-be bidders from submitting proposals.
The Air Force said it received two bids for the GPS III-2 launch, but refused to identify the company that submitted the second proposal. ULA is the only other provider eligible to win a contract, and spokeswoman Jessica Rye confirmed to Inside the Air Force April 28 the company did not submit a bid after the solicitation window closed. Orbital ATK is in the very early stages of moving its still-in-development, next-generation launch vehicle through the new entrant certification process, but spokeswoman Jennifer Bowman confirmed the company had not submitted a bid. The company is the only potential bidder besides SpaceX and ULA that is moving or has previously moved through the certification process.
Another possibility is that SpaceX submitted two proposals, each with different configurations. Although he wouldn't confirm this, Greaves said "there is nothing precluding any company from making more than one bid." SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment by press time (April 28).
ULA said its choice to bid last November was made based on several factors, including a 2015 law that limits the company's ability to purchase a sufficient quantity of Russian-made RD-180 engines to power its Atlas V launch vehicle. The company also believes the first RFP's emphasis on low-cost offerings could override ULA's demonstrated reliability, capability and past performance, making it hard for the company to compete with newcomer SpaceX.
Given ULA's no-bid decision and the possibility the company might not bid for the next string of competitive missions, some have speculated the Air Force may not see a truly competitive launch environment for some time. However, Greaves said he is optimistic about the prospects for future competition.
"I'm very optimistic that based on our emphasis on assured access to space and opportunities out there, we will have more than one provider," he said.
He also stressed that the GPS III-2 award was made in a competitive environment. Again, he would not confirm whether that competition was between two different companies or between two separate SpaceX bids.
@SpaceX wrote:Landing confirmed. Second stage continuing to carry JCSAT-14 to a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit.
I recommend reading the entire article carefully.Kadena Air Base hosts the biggest combat wing in the USAF -- the 18th Wing -- and, during the past seven decades, the installation has served as an important launch pad for wars in Korea, Vietnam and Iraq. Given the long history of Kadena Air Base and its city-sized scale, it is easy to understand why the USAF calls it "The Keystone of the Pacific." ....
In Japan, there are 130 US bases -- 32 of which are located on Okinawa -- but the Americans who serve upon them and local residents know nothing of the dangers these installations pose to human health or the environment.
At the root of the problem lies the Japan-US Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) which makes no allowances for Japanese officials to conduct pollution checks within US bases -- nor does it hold the military responsible for cleaning up land returned to civilian usage ....
Since SOFA absolves the US of all financial responsibility to clean up contaminated land, the costs are borne by Japanese tax-payers. The financial burden of military contamination is particularly heavy on Okinawa, Japan's poorest prefecture, where US bases take up roughly 20% of Okinawa's main island but contribute only 5% to the prefecture's economy ....
In January, the USAF released 8725 pages of accident reports, environmental investigations and emails related to contamination at Kadena Air Base. Dated from the mid-1990s to August 2015, the documents are believed to be the first time such recent information detailing pollution on an active US base in Japan has been made public.
The documents catalogue approximately 415 environmental incidents between 1998 and 2015; 245 of these occurred since 2010. Incidents range from small leaks which stayed within the base to large spills discharging tens of thousands of liters of fuel and raw sewage into local rivers.
During the 1998-2015 period, leaks totaled almost 40,000 liters of jet fuel, 13,000 liters of diesel and 480,000 liters of sewage. Of the 206 incidents noted between 2010 and 2014, 51 were blamed on accidents or human error; only 23 were reported to the Japanese authorities.
The year 2014 saw the highest number of accidents: 59 -- only two of which were reported to Tokyo.
Because large parts of the documents have been redacted and there are no reports for the 2004-2007 period, the actual statistics are likely much higher ....
Meanwhile, in November 2009, service members dumped 17 liters of liquid fog solution into storm drains despite manufacturers' instructions not to release the substance into sewer systems. Likewise, in July 2014, service members dumped hundreds of liters of medical waste -- described as "expired shelf-life injectable fluids" -- into on-base drains. "It's very unlikely that anything will be seen or reported but if the milky solution reached the Hija river we will have a very upset public," stated the report. Neither the 2009 nor the 2014 incident was reported to the Japanese government ....
One of Okinawa's most serious environmental incidents in recent memory is the discovery of 108 barrels of toxic waste between 2013 and 2015 on land that was once part of Kadena Air Base. The FOIA-released documents shed new light on the military's role in the incident and USAF attempts to downplay its severity to parents whose children attend the adjacent Bob Hope Primary School and Amelia Earhart Intermediate School.
Piecing together a timeline of the incident from the reports, it appears that around 1964, the military dumped barrels containing mixed hazardous waste into ravines on the outskirts of Kadena Air Base. Around 1980, the two schools were built in the vicinity and then in 1987, some nearby land was returned to civilian control. In 1996, local authorities constructed a soccer pitch on the site.
In June 2013, workers renovating the pitch unearthed dozens of the buried barrels -- some of which contained high levels of dioxin. Although the discovery was within meters of the school playing fields, USAF officials did not inform teachers or parents. No dust control screens were erected to prevent the possible spread of contamination and, as excavation work went on nearby, American students were allowed to continue playing outdoors.
When military families finally learned about the toxic waste six months later, they were furious. In response, base officials conducted their first checks of the school grounds on December 31. However they only tested surface soil and did not conduct magnetic tests to ascertain whether any barrels lay buried beneath the school fields. In February 2014, USAF officials declared the school grounds safe but the laboratory test results -- totaling 107 pages -- have been entirely redacted from the FOIA documents.
Exacerbating suspicions of a cover-up was another announcement in February assuring service members that dioxin only caused the skin disease, chloracne, but "No other human health effects have been proven." This contradicts EPA data that dioxin "can cause cancer, reproductive and developmental problems, damage to the immune system, and can interfere with hormones." ....
Paula Davidson and her family lived on Kadena Air Base in the 1980s. During this time, her two children developed illnesses that were later diagnosed as cancer. A third child, conceived on Okinawa and born in the US, fell sick with cancer of the brain. "I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that being exposed to toxic chemicals on Okinawa caused his illness."
Two of her children died in their thirties. "Now that they have gone, I guess they have just become another statistic," said Davidson.
COPENHAGEN, May 11 (Reuters) - The Danish government will recommend the purchase of 27 F-35 stealth fighter jets built by U.S. weapons maker Lockheed Martin Corp, three sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
Denmark would be the 11th country to buy the radar-evading fighter jets, joining the United States, Britain, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Israel, South Korea and Japan, which have already placed orders.
The Danish prime minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen called a press briefing for Thursday at 0800 GMT on the issue, but the government declined to comment on what he would say.
The recommendation, first reported by Denmark's TV2 News, will be followed by a public comment period of 30 days, said one source, who was not authorised to speak publicly.
Lockheed said it had not received an official notification from the Danish government, while Boeing was not immediately available for comment. The Pentagon's F-35 program office had no immediate comment.
Denmark's decision has been closely watched, as several other nations also have to decide whether to replace their aged warplanes with Lockheed Martin's brand new F-35 or choose cheaper, older-generation planes such as Super Hornets.
If confirmed, the recommendation would make the F-35 the likely pick, although the decision process has sparked a heated debate in Denmark about how much money should be spent. The F-35 is the most expensive of the three planes being considered.
Denmark is one of eight original partners that helped fund development of the F-35 and flies Lockheed F-16 jets alongside Belgium, Norway and the Netherlands.
If confirmed, the decision marks a victory for Lockheed, which is still chasing orders in Canada and several other countries.
It would also mark a setback for Boeing Co, another U.S. weapons maker that mounted an expensive last-ditch marketing effort for its older F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, and the Eurofighter consortium that includes Airbus Group SE.
(Reporting by Copenhagen newsroom and Tim Hepher in Paris; Editing by Alexander Smith)
Eh? By "building" he means both design and construct.Building the planes is easy. Making them autonomous, and constructing airborne communications networks, is not
Sorry, found that cute.But the next crop of planes will fly in coordinated groups, with more autonomy. They’ll tackle jobs such as attacking enemy air defenses, identifying new targets, and releasing precision bombs. “The long-range vision is that the president will wake up some day and decide he doesn’t like the cut of someone’s jib and send thither infinite numbers of myrmidons – robotic warriors – and that we could wage a war in which we wouldn’t put at risk our precious skins” is how John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a leading defense policy website, puts it.
Well, someone did not get the memo.Like the F-22, the Northrop fighter will almost certainly be able to cruise above the speed of sound. But don't expect it to be a dogfighter: The plane's size will almost certainly mean it will use long-range missiles and radar to destroy opponents before they can get within dogfighting range. The plane will likely use speed, stealth, and advanced networked sensors {Hmmmmmmmm} to detect enemy aircraft first, gain a positional advantage, then attack.
The Northrop sixth-generation fighter will be the first incorporate a laser weapon from the start. The concept drawing shows the fighter destroying incoming air-to-air missiles. It could also be used in the place of an actual gun such as the M61 Vulcan 20-millimeter gatling gunmounted on the F-15 and F-22.
Popular mechanics is hardly an accurate source but there are plenty of design choices that would have plenty of maneuverability data points checked off. Boeing has a very detailed trade study paper that their engineering team published many years ago, and they had quite a bit of designs that had high end maneuverability. Other designs teams actively setting themselves up will also have a similar trade space. We'll know more over the next 5 years when the X-plane prototypes fly and conclude. It may not reflect what some think of maneuverability int he traditional sense, but it will definitely address that.Like the F-22, the Northrop fighter will almost certainly be able to cruise above the speed of sound. But don't expect it to be a dogfighter:
