Four Pilots Rescued After Navy Jets Collide Off North Carolina Coast (Video)
http://ktla.com/2016/05/26/four-pilots-recovered-after-navy-jets-collide-off-north-carolina-coast/
Four pilots in two Navy jets have been recovered after both planes crashed midair Thursday.
The U.S. Coast Guard responded about 25 miles off the North Carolina shore after receiving reports of a collision between the two planes.
According to the Coast Guard,
the incident involved two F/A-18 jets, KTLA sister station WTKR in Norfolk, Va. reported. An initial investigation indicates there were two pilots in each jet and all four were recovered.
The incident was reported around 10:30 a.m. and a Coast Guard helicopter was dispatched from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City to investigate.
There was no word on the condition of the pilots involved in the crash.
OREGON INLET, N.C. - Two Navy fighters collided off the North Carolina Coast on Thursday and a fishing boat rescued all four crew members, officials said.
Four pilots rescued after Navy jet collision off North Carolina coast
http://wtvr.com/2016/05/26/four-pilots-recovered-after-navy-jet-collision-off-north-carolina-coast/
The two F/A-18F Super Hornets "were involved in a flight mishap" about 10:40 a.m., said Ensign Mark Rockwellpate, a Navy spokesperson.
A commercial fishing crew plucked four aviators, two from each aircraft, from the Atlantic Ocean about 25 miles east of Oregon Inlet, the Coast Guard said.
The survivors were hoisted into a HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and flown to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in Virginia. No information was immediately available regarding injuries, Rockwellpate said.
The crews were participating in a routine training mission off Cape Hatteras, the Navy said.
CNN affiliate WTKR in Norfolk reported that two of the crew members were able to walk to the hospital from the helicopter while the others were able to move themselves to awaiting stretchers.
The fighters are assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 211, nicknamed the "Fighting Checkmates," based at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach.
Despite the ongoing risks that the Lockheed Martin fighter jets will crash to the earth, the Pentagon plans to spend an additional $16 billion on another batch of F-35s.
Pentagon Delays F-35 Tests as Software Glitch Shuts Down Jets Mid-Flight
http://sputniknews.com/military/20160525/1040252715/pentagon-fighter-jet-f35-obama.html
On Tuesday, the Pentagon finally acknowledged that the beleaguered F-35 fighter jet will not be ready for its final test phase until 2018 at the earliest, the latest in a series of setbacks for the expensive next-generation aircraft.
The last major test period before full-rate production, the initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) examines whether an aircraft possesses the requisite combat specifics, and ensures that a jet can fly operational missions as intended.
Due to software problems in the F-35, Pentagon officials have postponed the test date for six months past the August 2017 target date, out of an abundance of concern that the jet will not be ready. This is the second major delay in flight-readiness testing, placing the fighter jet an entire year behind schedule.
We believe that in order to get all 23 airplanes for the operational test fleet to a full 3F production-representative configuration, it is going to take us longer than anticipated," said Lt. Gen Christopher Bogdan, chief of the Joint Program Office (JPO). "That is merely a function of trying to get those older airplanes fully set to a complete 3F hardware and software capability so they can do IOT&E with production-representative aircraft."
Bogdan confirmed that the jets have also faced a series of ongoing software glitches that cause systems to shut down in midair, requiring a complete reboot, but said that the delays were traced to software upgrades and compatibility patches, rather than to defects in the F-35’s computer system.
Officials at Edwards Air Force Base challenged Bogdan’s assessment, in an interview with Defense News, saying that glitches in the F-35’s 3i software substantially delayed earlier testing rounds, "eating up a majority of the team’s schedule margin for beginning IOT&E."
The US military’s Joint Program Office continues negotiations with Lockheed Martin on the long-delayed ninth and tenth batches of F-35s, valued at about $16 billion, despite ongoing software-system issues that may prevent the jet from ever getting off the ground in a combat capacity.
The expansion of American arms exports leaves the military-industrial complex at risk of being overtaken by countries who scooped up defense secrets without the cost of research and development.
US Arms Industry Dead: World Bought American Weapons, Stole the Technology
http://sputniknews.com/news/20160526/1040261112/obama-lockheed-boeing-defense-trade.html
On Tuesday, US defense industry analysts offered a report claiming that American military contractors will be overtaken in coming years by defense contractors in Israel, South Korea, and Brazil, marking an end to Western dominance over war profiteering.
The report, "Dynamics of International Military Modernization 2016," authored by Daniel Yoon and Doug Berenson from Beltway consultants Avascent blamed American military exports for the market threat, as countries buy arms at a cut rate to back-engineer US weapons technology.
"In many cases, these emerging players developed through diffused technology via prior export arrangements with Western suppliers, often through offset requirements and domestic industry participation," stated the report. In layman’s terms, foreign countries purchase US arms to steal American know-how, avoiding the burdensome taxpayer-subsidized cost of research and development.
The development occurs as the US military-industrial complex has shifted its focus toward exporting weapons to tyrannical regimes throughout the world, as a means to offset reductions in the size of the American war machine following the drawdown in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the report, "in 2010, only 17% of defense equipment manufactured in the US was exported; by 2015, that number jumped dramatically to 34%."
US weapons-manufacturing expertise has been suggested as being in decline primarily due to Washington’s reticence to engage in war, opting instead to be the Walmart of weapon retailers for the world.
The situation is exacerbated by the Obama Administration’s trigger-happy approach to sell arms, often including troubling "offset requirements" making it easier for the nascent domestic defense industries of countries to "absorb suppliers' technical expertise."
In addition to the rapid growth of weapons manufacturing expertise in Israel, South Korea, and Brazil, the US contends with other leading arms exporters, including Russia and China, who offer high-end military technology. Analysts also suggest that the American military-industrial complex will soon forfeit market share to other nations, including Japan and India.
The report claimed that Israel may soon become the world’s premier supplier of radar, missile, and drone technology, noting that the country’s unmanned aerial vehicles are competitive with US hardware.
Brazil, by contrast, looked to occupy the lower-tech echelons of the market, at a cut-rate price exploiting a niche in light attack aircraft thanks to a partnership with Saab to produce the Gripen fighter.
American military superiority is thought to be endangered by the growing export of defense technology throughout the world, leading some analysts to worry about the future of the US weapons industry, and the safety and security of the country.
Military tensions heightened between China and the United States as the Obama Administration looks to clamp down on Beijing’s influence along the Pacific Rim.
Beijing Tells America to Leave South China Sea After Intercepting Spy Plane
http://sputniknews.com/news/20160526/1040320967/beijing-washington-obama-spy-intercept.html
On Thursday, China’s defense ministry asserted that it acted within the rules of engagement after American officials criticized Beijing for a "provocative” and “unsafe" intercept of a US surveillance aircraft over the South China Sea last week.
A Pentagon spokesperson alleged that two Chinese fighter jets undertook an illegal intercept of an American spy plane during "a routine US patrol" over international airspace, heightening the risk of military miscalculation in the hotly contested region.
The Chinese J-11 fighter jets flew within 50 feet (15 meters) of the US EP-3 aircraft, just east of Hainan Island.
Chinese defense ministry spokesman Yang Yujan took exception to the recounting of events, telling a monthly news briefing that the Chinese fighter pilots acted professionally and in line with international rules.
The encounter was triggered when a US Navy ship sailed close to a disputed reef, causing Beijing to scramble fighter jets to prevent an encroachment.
This is not the first time that Chinese jets have intercepted American spy planes. In 2014, a Chinese fighter pilot flew acrobatic rings around a US surveillance aircraft to usher it away from China’s waters.
Unlike the 2014 incident, last week’s intercept of an American plane comes during a critical breakdown in US-Chinese relations, with the Obama Administration attempting to contain the Chinese as well as facing an ongoing international dispute over the Spratly and Paracel archipelagos.
On Monday, US President Barack Obama began a weeklong Asian tour with a stop in Vietnam, confirming to President Tran Dai Quang the end of a five-decade arms embargo. The visit to Hanoi was followed by three days in Japan that will conclude Friday with the first visit by an American head of state to Hiroshima, the city that was destroyed by a US atomic bomb in 1945.
In addition to exploring a policy of China containment by strengthening Pacific Rim alliances, the Obama Administration seeks to dispatch anti-missile systems to South Korea under the guise of preventing a threat from North Korea, but with a consequence of rendering Beijing’s regional nuclear deterrent ineffective.
The moves to contain China’s regional influence come amid accusations by Washington that Beijing is militarizing the South China Sea by installing military aircraft hangars in the Spratly and Paracel Islands. China claims most of the South China Sea territorial waters, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes annually, over competing claims by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brunei.
Russian Geographical Society (RGS) member Alexey Pochernikov said that the expedition in Russia’s Bolshoi Tyuters island in the Gulf of Finland discovered parts of the plane coincide with the technical description for the Soviet Pe-2 bomber.
Expedition Identifies Crashed WWII Soviet Plane on Bolshoi Tyuters
http://sputniknews.com/russia/20160526/1040314326/russia-bolshoi-tyuters-expedition.html
The crashed World War II-era Soviet plane located on Russia’s Bolshoi Tyuters island in the Gulf of Finland, found by a Russian Geographical Society (RGS) expedition, is a Petlyakov Pe-2 bomber, RGS member Alexey Pochernikov told Sputnik on Thursday.
The expedition is the fourth to be carried out by the RGS to several Gulf of Finland islands, and is sponsored by the Russian Defense Ministry and the Leningrad Region administration. Some 100 Russian servicemen and 20 units of military equipment are taking part in the expedition alongside volunteers and Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency journalists.
On Wednesday, the RGS expedition on Bolshoi Tyuters located the site of the wreckage. An expedition member cautioned that finding the remains of all of the plane's crew members is unlikely.
The Pe-2 was a mass-produced Soviet light bomber that played an important role World War II. The plane was used as a heavy fighter, a reconnaissance aircraft and a night fighter. Its first flight was conducted in 1939, and it entered into service in 1941.
Bolshoi Tyuters was occupied for three years by Nazi forces and detachments equipped with autocannons were stationed across the island.
An international Russian-German expedition has also been exploring the islands of Bolshoi Tyuters and Gogland, seeking to find the remains of fallen Soviet and German World War II soldiers, and exhume them before reburying on the mainland. The remains of over 120 German soldiers are estimated to be on the islands, according to the German War Graves Commission.
India is working on robot soldiers who can replace humans in the battlefield, but there are a number of ethical issues which need to be overcome first.
India Working on Own Version of Battlefield Terminators
http://sputniknews.com/asia/20160526/1040313292/india-battlefield-terminators.html
Research on Artificial Intelligence in India is largely under the control of the government R&D establishments, and they target three strategic areas.
The Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR) run by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is the central agency working on AI in India. It focuses on using AI based robots for nuclear, biological and chemical environments (NBC), advanced battlefield warfare and ‘big data’ analysis.
As Dr VS Mahalingam, a former CAIR director says, “Data analytics part is the main task now.” He points out that while it is correct to say that data analysis is all about having higher computational power, he also holds that AI-based robots will be able to ‘sense’ and interpret their own data locally.
In a hazardous environment, AI robots are the best option for providing damage assessment, collecting samples of contamination, and even evacuating survivors.
CAIR is working on robot soldiers who can replace humans on the battlefield, but India is still struggling with the ethical issues involved. Is it right to give guns to highly developed robots? What will be the impact of such decision-making by robots in the heat of combat?
According to Dr Mahalingam, fielding robots in highly sensitive environments like battlefields is still about two decades away. But in the meanwhile, areas of data analytics for ‘Big’ data, data mining and such other functions are already being taken over by AI.
Its application in areas like healthcare, assembly line manufacturing are only going to rise. And as an area of evolving technology there will be ever more break-throughs with newer applications.
