The U.S. military is scaling back DEFENDER-Europe 20, an exercise the Army has spent years building. Initially, the training exercise called for 20,000 troops, but on Wednesday, March 11, the U.S. European Command announced that the number was being cut back. The 60-day DOD travel ban to level 3 countries went into effect on March 13. Military.com writes: DEFENDER-Europe 20 was set to be the biggest deployment for an exercise in 25 years, , with 20,000 soldiers deploying from the U.S. and training with 17,000 allies. "In light of the current coronavirus outbreak, we will modify the … [Read more...]
Was Downing of U.S. Air Force’s E-11A “WiFi in the Sky” in Retaliation for Soleimani Strike?
US Air Force spokesman Colonel Sonny Leggett has confirmed that one of the service’s four E-11A’s (11-9358) has crashed in the Afghanistan province of Ghazni. The E-11A BACN is described as a “WiFI in the sky” aircraft and is instrumental in bridging airspace and ground communications to warfighters in communications-challenged environments. The BACN fleet is comprised of four E-11A manned systems and four EQ-4B Block 20 Global Hawk UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles). They provide lifesaving communications to soldiers on the ground and are instrumental in thousands of airstrikes. BACN’s first … [Read more...]
Key Figures in U.S. Airstrike that Killed Soleimani
The key figures in the January 3 U.S. airstrike that killed Qassem Soleimani have been identified, most notably Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and commander of Kataeb Hezbollah. Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was listed as a terrorist in the United Arab Emirates and the United States. Some security experts are divided on whether Muhandis was specifically targeted or if he was a bonus kill. Iranian and Iraqi officials have so far confirmed the U.S. attack killed ten people in addition to Soleimani. Rikar Hussein and Mehdi Jedinia of Voice of … [Read more...]
MQ-9 Reaper: The Drone that Killed Soleimani
By now many Americans, including those on Wall Street, have heard the news of a major escalation in tensions with Iran that occurred yesterday. In a drone strike ordered by President Trump, Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani was killed outside Baghdad. The drone used for the mission was the MQ-9 Reaper. The drone was proposed by the Air Force in 2003. Here's a description of the drone and its mission from the Air Force: Mission The MQ-9 Reaper is an armed, multi-mission, medium-altitude, long-endurance remotely piloted aircraft that is employed primarily against dynamic execution targets and … [Read more...]
Your Survival Guy’s 10 Most Popular Advanced Weapons Systems of 2019
You’ve read Your Survival Guy's 10 Most Popular Survival Posts of 2019, and Your Survival Guy's 10 Most Popular Money Posts of 2019. Here are Your Survival Guy's 10 Most Popular Advanced Weapons Systems of 2019. Secretly Closing the Gap in the Air-to-Air Missile Race New Secret Weapon is Like Dropping Anvils on Terrorists Heads The IRS is Coming after Your IRA with this Hidden Tax The Rich and Famous: How to Invest Like Jay Leno Russia’s Next Generation Stealth Bomber May Never Take Flight CHAMP: The Microwave Bomb that can Win a Battle With No Casualties What Happens … [Read more...]
New Secret Weapon is Like Dropping Anvils on Terrorists Heads
UPDATE: After Steve Schneider brought you this information on the Hellfire R9X back in May, the CIA ramped up its usage of these bombs developed to avoid civilian casualties. Since then it has taken on the nickname, the "Flying Ginsu." According to Popular Mechanics, the bomb has been used at least 8 times. The most recent known use was against members of Ahrar al-Sham in the first week of December. - E.J. Smith This is a variant of the Hellfire missile called the R9X. The secret missile has no warhead and is used by the U.S. to reduce civilian casualties by using kinetic energy. A regular … [Read more...]
U.S. Looks to Address its Rare Earth Mineral Choke Point
The U.S. once dominated rare-earth mining and production during what is known as the “Mountain Pass era” from 1960-1980. In recent decades China has become the largest producer, now controlling 90% to 95% of the world’s rare-earth mineral mining and production. Rare earth elements are crucial to modern U.S. military aerospace technology. They are used in everything from high-powered lasers to missile guidance systems, radars, sonar systems, and more. China has the ability and has shown its willingness to manipulate the supply of materials and technologies deemed strategic … [Read more...]
DARPA’s New Urban Warfare Program Takes Flight
In a recent test, DARPA’s experimental Offensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) program, teams practiced complex urban warfare missions while the autonomous air and ground robots of the OFFSET program maintained situational awareness of the surrounding area. As more conflicts have been fought in cities and densely populated areas like Mosul, Aleppo, Mogadishu, Gaza, Basra, and Sadr City, hard lessons have been learned by the U.S. military about urban warfare. DARPA hopes its OFFSET program will give military units the upper hand with real time overall situational awareness. During the … [Read more...]
F-35 Performance Falling Short of Warfighter Requirements
Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II is expected to fall short of former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ year-end 80% mission-capable rate. Lee Hudson of Aerospace & Defense Report tells readers that the main contributor to the delay is supply shortages for the F-35’s, most notably the transparency canopy. And it’s only going to get worse as worldwide fleet growth is expected to more than double by 2023. Lee Hudson goes on to write (abridged): The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is not expected to meet the Pentagon’s goal of an 80% mission-capable rate by the end of the fiscal year due to … [Read more...]
S-97 Raider Shows off its Maneuverability in Flight Test
Test pilots pushed Sikorsky’s S-97 Raider to the limits as it performed moves no ordinary helicopter could. The S-97 Raider flew sideways, nose-down, backwards, and even in stealth mode. The flight test proves that a software problem blamed for a setback in 2017 has been fixed. Eric Adams of Vertical details how the S-97 handled like a sports car (abridged): During a 20-minute test flight of the prototype S-97 Raider at Sikorsky’s West Palm Beach, Florida, facility — conducted in front of four journalists in the first such public demonstration — the unconventional coaxial-rotor aircraft … [Read more...]