US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Bernard said:

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Jura said:

I just found out about Citadel Pacific 2014:

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but look here:

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the caption of the picture says "Sailors assigned to U.S. Navy Support Facility Diego Garcia Security Department pull into the support facility during Exercise Citadel Pacific" which confuses me as Diego Garcia is not located "exactly" in the Pacific, is it

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Jura said:

I just found out about Citadel

..the caption of the picture says "Sailors assigned to U.S. Navy Support Facility Diego Garcia Security Department pull into the support facility during Exercise Citadel Pacific" which confuses me as Diego Garcia is not located "exactly" in the Pacific, is it

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Jeff Head said:

I am not sure, Jura.

Either personnel from NSF Diego Garcia are participating in Citadel Pacific 2014 at another location in the Pacific, or the exercises are including Diego Garcia this year, or the pic is simply mis-labeled.

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Jura said:

no problem

I remember reading an article (mainly intended for the US Military Personnel
If Your Next Assignment Is In ... Diego Garcia
(I'm not completely sure about the title) and it described the climate (not bad), the beaches (great), but also kind of warned that location is really remote ... if after lunch you called somebody in the Continental US, you could wake him/her up in the middle of the night LOL

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World Maritime News said:

A U.S. Coast Guard vessel operating in international waters in the Arabian Gulf fired on an Iranian dhow in what U.S. military officials described as a defensive move after the crew of the Iranian vessel trained a machine gun on the Americans with hostile intent, the U.S. Department of Defence said.

A statement issued by the U.S Fifth Fleet in Bahrain said the incident occurred as the Coast Guard was conducting a routine maritime security operation.

The American vessel fired a single shot at the dhow, but military officials said they did not know whether it hit the Iranian boat, which left the scene and did not communicate with the American crew. No U.S. personnel were reported injured.
The inflatable Coast Guard boat had been dispatched from the USCG Patrol Boat Monomoy to query the Iranian dhow, a common approach in the Arabian Gulf intended to improve maritime security in the region.

U.S. military rules of engagement state that unit commanders always have the inherent right and obligation to exercise unit self-defense in response to a hostile act or demonstrated hostile intent.

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Raytheon Company delivered the first Block 2 variant of its Rolling Airframe Missile system to the U.S. Navy as part of the company's 2012 Low Rate Initial Production contract. RAM Block 2 is a significant performance upgrade featuring enhanced kinematics, an evolved radio frequency receiver, and an improved control system.

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ABC said:

DEERFIELD, Va. (WJLA/ABC News/AP) -- A Massachusetts Air National Guard F-15C jet crashed Wednesday along a mountainside in the George Washington National Forest of western Virginia, authorities said, but the fate of the pilot was unknown.

The crash occurred shortly after 9 a.m. west of Staunton in the rural community of Deerfield in Augusta County (about 135 miles northwest of Richmond). The area around Deerfield is filled with rocky, steep terrain.

Residents who live in the town of 130 people were shaken when they heard a series of explosions-like booms and then saw a pillar of heavy, black smoke coming from the crash site.

"It's the loudest noise I've ever heard," said 63-year-old Rebecca Shinaberry, who lives on a farm about two miles away. "(It) just shook the ground, and from my house we could just see a big plume of smoke."

Turkey farmer A.D. Shinaberry said that from the first two booms, he thought a plane had broken the sound barrier. But 10 seconds later he heard a third boom - the crash, he said.

Then, "it was like a mushroom, black smoke came up," Shinaberry said.

No injuries on the ground were reported. Virginia State Police launched a helicopter to search for the pilot, who may have ejected from the plane before impact. Witnesses reportedly saw an ejection chute.

"We are hopeful that the pilot is OK, and the pilot will be in our thoughts and prayers," said Col. James Keefe, commander of the Massachusetts Air National Guard.

State troopers and firefighters followed the smoke from Deerfield about five miles into the forest, where they found a deep crater and a large debris field among the hills and mountains.

Rescuers initially expressed concern about possible toxic fumes and radioactive materials, but Keefe said the plane had no munitions aboard - just fuel.

Guard officials confirmed to ABC7 News that communication with the jet had been lost prior to the crash; the pilot reported an "in-flight emergency" moments before radio contact ceased.

The plane was traveling at a high altitude, about 30,000 to 40,000 feet, when the "extremely experienced" pilot reported encountering a problem, officials said.

The jet was on a maintenance flight from Barnes Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts. which is home to the 104th Fighter Wing.

Base officials told ABC7 the crashed jet was an older aircraft due to receive a system upgrade upon arrival at its flight destination in New Orleans, Louisiana.

F-15s are maneuverable tactical fighters that can reach speeds up to 1,875 mph, according to the U.S. Air Force website. The F-15C Eagle entered the Air Force inventory in 1979 and costs nearly $30 million, the website says. The Air Force has nearly 250 of them.

A Massachusetts Guard spokesman said he "couldn't even remember the last time they had a mishap" with the F-15C model aircraft.

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Jeff Head said:

This morning's report from yesterday's F-15C crash. Fate of pilot still unknown. Not looking good, but prayer's up!

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Boeing received a $9 million contract from DARPA to continue developing its Phantom Swift X-Plane, an experimental future vertical lift platform.

The Phantom Swift has two downward facing fans that allow for vertical take-offs and landings. The forward propulsion for the aircraft comes from wingtip thrusters that propel the Phantom Swift after the lift fans are shutdown.

The Phantom Swift is Boeing’s submission for DARPA’s VTOL X-Plane competition that also includes Aurora Flight Sciences, Karem and Sikorsky. The competition started last year. The four competitors received Phase 1 contracts. The contract Boeing received is a Phase 1B contract. It’s unclear if the other three companies have also received Phase 1B contracts to continue developing their aircraft.

Boeing’s Phantom Swift will measure 13 meters nose to tail and 15 meters from wingtip to wingtip.

The eventual aircraft will be powered by an all-electric drive, but it’s demonstrator will be powered by a General Electric CT7-8 engine.

The goal of the VTOL X-Plane program is to develop an aircraft for the Defense Department that can both hover and still execute high-speed flight. What DARPA hopes to produce is an aircraft that can perform similar to an advanced Osprey.

Requirements for the program state that the X-Plane must achieve a top sustained flight speed of 300 kt to 400 kt.


Read more:

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Defense.org

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