CHINA TO SEND NUCLEAR -ARMED SUBMARINE INTO PACIFIC TO AMID TENSIONS WITH USA.

China's Navy submarine which was longed for 3 decades

The Chinese military is poised to send submarines armed with nuclear missiles into the Pacific Ocean for the first time, arguing that new US weapons systems have so undermined Beijing’s existing deterrent force that it has been left with no alternative.
Chinese military officials are not commenting on the timing of a maiden patrol, but insist the move is inevitable.
They point to plans unveiled in March to station the US Thaad anti-ballistic system in South Korea, and the development of hypersonic glide missiles potentially capable of hitting China less than an hour after launch, as huge threats to the effectives of its land-based deterrent force.
A recent Pentagon report to Congress predicted that “China will probably conduct its first nuclear deterrence patrol sometime in 2016”, though top US officers have made such predictions before.
China has been working on ballistic missile submarine technology for more than three decades, but actual deployment has been put off by technical failures, institutional rivalry and policy decisions.
Until now, Beijing has pursued a cautious deterrence policy, declaring it would never be the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict and storing its warheads and its missiles separately, both strictly under the control of the top leadership.
Deploying nuclear-armed submarines would have far-reaching implications.
Warheads and missiles would be put together and handed over to the navy, allowing a nuclear weapon to be launched much faster if such a decision was taken. The start of Chinese missile patrols could further destabilise the already tense strategic standoff with the US in the South China Sea.
Last Tuesday, a US spy plane and two Chinese fighter jets came close to colliding 50 miles of Hainan island, where China’s four Jin-Class ballistic missile submarines are based. A fifth is under construction.
The two countries’ navies have also come uncomfortably close around disputed islands in the same region, and the chance of a clash will be heightened by cat-and-mouse submarine operations, according to Wu Riqiang, an associate professor at the School of International Studies at the Renmin University in Beijing.
“Because China’s SSBNs [nuclear missile submarines] are in the South China Sea, the US navy will try to send spy ships in there and get close to the SSBNs. China’s navy hates that and will try to push them away,” Wu said.
The primary reason Chinese military officials give for the move towards a sea-based deterrent is the expansion of US missile defence, which Moscow also claims is disturbing the global strategic balance and potentially stoking a new arms race.
The decision to deploy Thaad anti-ballistic interceptors in South Korea was taken after North Korea’s fourth nuclear test, and the stated mission of the truck-launched interceptors is to shield the south from missile attack.
But Beijing says the Thaad system’s range extends across much of China and contributes to the undermining of its nuclear deterrent. It has warned Seoul that relations between the two countries could be “destroyed in an instant” if the Thaad deployment goes ahead.
“No harm shall be done to China’s strategic security interests,” the foreign ministry declared.
Behind the ominous warnings is growing concern in the People’s Liberation army that China’s relatively small nuclear arsenal (estimated at 260 warheads compared with 7,000 each for the US and Russia), made up mostly of land-based missiles, is increasingly vulnerable to a devastating first strike, by either nuclear or conventional weapons.
Missile defence is not their only worry. They are anxious about a new hypersonic glide missile being developed under the US Prompt Global Strike programme, aimed at getting a precision-guided missile to targets anywhere in the world within an hour.
China is developing a similar missile but officials in Beijing fear that the Chinese nuclear arsenal is so small it could be almost completely wiped out without notice, with the few missiles launched in reprisal being destroyed in mid-air by US missile defences.
Without that capability to respond with a “second strike”, China would have no meaningful deterrent at all. The government of President Xi Jinping insists the country has no plans to abandon its “no first use” principle but military officials argue US weapon developments give it no choice but to upgrade and expand its arsenal in order to maintain a credible deterrent.
There seems to have been some discussion of moving to a “launch on warning” policy, to fire Chinese weapons before incoming missiles land and destroy them. That appears to be a minority view, however.
The dominant approach is to stick with the current deterrent posture, which relies on hitting back in a devastating manner once China has been attacked. The core aim is to have a second strike capacity that is “survivable” and “penetrative”. Submarines, on patrol in the ocean depths, fulfil the first requirement, they say.
It has tested a missile, the Ju Lang (Giant Wave) 2, for that purpose, and each Jin submarine can carry up to 12 of them. Partly to help penetrate US missile defences, China has in recent months also started putting multiple warheads on its largest missile, the DF-5, another development that has set alarm bells ringing in the Pentagon, where some analysts view it as the first step towards a massive nuclear armament drive aimed at obliterating the US arsenal.

THE GENERAL ATOMICS RQ1 - MQ1 PREDATOR

The General Atomic MQ-1 Predator is an American unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) built by General Atomics and used primarily by the United States Air Force (USAF) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Initially conceived in the early 1990s for aerial reconnaissance and forward observation roles, the Predator carries cameras and other sensors but has been modified and upgraded to carry and fire two AGM-114 Hellfire missiles or other munitions. The aircraft, in use since 1995, has seen combat in war in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the NATO intervention in Bosnia, Serbia, Iraq War, Yemen, Libyan civil war, the intervention in Syria, and Somalia.

MQ1 predator

Each Predator air vehicle can be disassembled into six main components and loaded into a container nicknamed "the coffin." This enables all system components and support equipment to be rapidly deployed worldwide. The largest component is the ground control station and it is designed to roll into a C-130 Hercules. The Predator primary satellite link consists of a 6.1 meter (20 ft) satellite dish and associated support equipment. The satellite link provides communications between the ground station and the aircraft when it is beyond line-of-sight and is a link to networks that disseminate secondary intelligence. The RQ-1A system needs 1,500 by 40 meters (5,000 by 125 ft) of hard surface runway with clear line-of-sight to each end from the ground control station to the air vehicles. Initially, all components needed to be located on the same airfield.

Hellfire missile

 The RQ1 is reinforced with ammunition Hellfire missile. The RQ-1 conducted its first firing of a Hellfire anti-tank missile on 16 February 2001; over a bombing range near Indian Springs Air Force Station north of Las Vegas, Nevada, an inert AGM-114C successfully hit a tank target. This led to a series of tests on 21 February 2001 in which the Predator fired three Hellfire missiles, scoring hits on a stationary tank with all three missiles. Following the February tests, the decision was made to move immediately to increment two of the testing phase, which involved more complex tests to hunt for simulated moving targets from greater altitudes with the more advanced AGM-114K version. The scheme was put into service, with the armed Predators given the new designation of MQ-1A. The Predator gives little warning of attack; it is relatively quiet and the Hellfire is supersonic, so it strikes before it is heard by the target.

MQ1 firing the Hellfire missile.

 On 16 February 2001 at Nellis Air Force Base, a Predator successfully fired three Hellfire AGM-114C missiles into a target. The newly armed Predators were given the designation of MQ-1A. In the first week of June 2001, a Hellfire missile was successfully launched on a replica of bin Laden's Afghanistan Tarnak residence built at a Nevada testing site. A missile launched from a Predator exploded inside one of the replica's       rooms; it was concluded that any people in the room would have been killed.

• In February 2002, armed Predators are thought to have been used to destroy a sport utility vehicle belonging to suspected Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and mistakenly killed Afghan scrap metal collectors near Zhawar Kili because one of them resembled Osama bin Laden.
•  
• Mohammed Omar and mistakenly killed Afghan scrap metal collectors near Zhawar Kili because one of them resembled Osama bin Laden.
• On 4 March 2002, a CIA-operated Predator fired a Hellfire missile into a reinforced Taliban machine gun bunker that had pinned down an Army Ranger team whose CH-47 Chinook had crashed on the top of Takur Ghar Mountain in Afghanistan. Previous attempts by flights of F-15 and F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft were unable to destroy the bunker. This action took place during what has become known as the "Battle of Roberts Ridge", a part of Operation Anaconda. This appears to be the first use of such a weapon in a close air support role.
• On 6 April 2011, the Predator had its first friendly fire incident when observers at a remote location did not relay their doubts about the target to the operators at Creech Air Force Base.
• On 5 May 2013, an MQ-1 Predator surpassed 20,000 flight hours over Afghanistan by a single Predator. Predator P107 achieved the milestone while flying a 21-hour combat mission; P107 was first delivered in October 2004.

  

  THE RQ1 PREDATOR..

                                         Information from the GENERAL ATOMICS  SITE.

US MILITARY SIZE COMPARISON

The two minute video lines up US Military weapons from the smallest to the largest.The clip starts at the small end with a .45-caliber bullet, which measures just 3.2 centimeters long, or about an inch and a quarter. Then things get bigger, through grenades and guns, through drones and tanks, through fighters and bombers until it reaches the macro end of the military, the 1,100-ft. Gerald R. Ford class of aircraft carriers.

The best way to appreciate the size difference between objects is just to lay 'em all out in a row and behold. That's what this two-minute video does with the weaponry of the U.S. military.

THREATS FROM RUSSIAN AND CHINA WARPLANES MOUNTS

A Chinese SU-27 fighter plane shown.

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

    
WASHINGTON — Chinese and Russian warplanes have been increasingly aggressive intercepting U.S. military aircraft and patrolling near America’s West Coast, prompting the Air Force’s top combat officer to label their provocations one of his top worries.

Air Force Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle, who leads Air Combat Command, said in an interview with USA TODAY that meeting the challenge from the Russian and Chinese to flights in international airspace is essential but dangerous.

“Our concern is a resurgent Russia and a very, very aggressive China,” Carlisle said.
Both countries are intent on expanding their spheres of influence — Russia in eastern Europe and the Pacific with China focusing much of its effort over the disputed South China Sea.

“Their intent is to get us not to be there,” Carlisle said. “So that the influence in those international spaces is controlled only by them. My belief is that we cannot allow that to happen. We have to continue to operate legally in international airspace and international waterways. We have to continue to call them out when they are being aggressive and unsafe.”

The stakes are high. Aggressive intercepts of U.S. patrol planes run the risk of mid-air collisions that would escalate tensions among nuclear powers.
“Any accident that occurs while the U.S. military is playing cat and mouse with Russian or Chinese forces could escalate into a real fight,” said Loren Thompson, a defense industry consultant and military analyst at the Lexington Institute. “If it does, American victory is not assured, because U.S. forces are operating thousands of miles from home and the other side is near its main bases. Small confrontations can turn into big wars, and Russian military doctrine embraces the use of nuclear weapons to win local conflicts."

An increasing number have occurred in recent months, Carlisle said, with fighters from Russia and China buzzing perilously close to American military aircraft.

The Pentagon has denounced the hazardous intercepts for more than a year, although condemnation hasn’t halted the practice. On May 17, two Chinese fighter jets flew dangerously close to a U.S. Navy patrol plane over the South China Sea. China has been on a campaign to assert its sovereignty over the busy waterways, building artificial islands on reefs in the sea and establishing military bases. In late April, a Russian fighter pilot performed a “barrel roll” over the top of an Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance plane, Carlisle said, above the Black Sea.

There has also been an uptick in long-range bomber activity from the Russians in Eastern Europe and extending to flights off the U.S. West Coast, Carlisle said.
“We have seen an increase,” Carlisle said. “All the way down to the California coast. The number and frequency has increased.”

For China, the goal appears to be establishing control of the international airspace over the South China Sea. There are conflicting territorial claims among countries in the region with China upping the ante by establishing a military bases on artificial islands around the Paracel and Spratley Islands chains.
Carlisle expects that the Chinese will institute an Air Defense Identification Zone over a large portion of the South China Sea. Zones like these extend beyond a country’s borders in its national security interests. Aircraft entering such a zone are required them to identify and locate themselves. The United States has established them after consulting with neighboring countries.

The Chinese unilaterally set up an identification zone in the East China Sea in 2013. Carlisle expects a similar action soon in the South China Sea.
“Their expansion into the Paracels and the Spratleys is so they can declare it and then have the capability to enforce it, where they can do intercepts,” Carlisle said. “They are doing it outside of what could be consider the norms.”
Maintaining communication with the Russian and Chinese military is key to avoiding mishaps, Carlisle said. Training pilots to deal with intercepts will continue.
“As they become more aggressive, you run the risk of miscalculation,” he said. “You don’t know where that’s going to lead, or end.”

OBAMA LIFTS ARMS BAN HIS FIRST VISIT IN VIETNAM

Obama shaking hands with the Vietnam's president.

HANOI,Vietnam  U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday lifted a decades-old arms export embargo for Vietnam during his first visit to the communist country, looking to bolster a government seen as a crucial, though flawed partner even as he pushes for better human rights from the one-party state.
Obama announced the full removal of the embargo at a news conference, saying the move was intended to step toward normalizing relations with the former war enemy and to eliminate a "lingering vestige of the Cold War."
"At this stage both sides have developed a level of trust and cooperation," Obama said, adding that he expected deepening cooperation between the two nation's militaries.
Obama is seeking to strike this balance with Vietnam amid Chinese efforts to strengthen claims to disputed territory in the South China Sea, one of the world's most important waterways.
Lifting the arms embargo will be a psychological boost for Vietnam's leaders as they look to counter an increasingly aggressive China, but there may not be a big jump in sales. Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang thanked Obama for lifting the embargo.
U.S. lawmakers and activists had urged the president to press the communist leadership for greater freedoms before granting it. Vietnam holds about 100 political prisoners and there have been more detentions this year.
The United States partially lifted the embargo in 2014, but Vietnam wanted full access as it tries to deal with China's assertive land reclamation and military construction in nearby seas.

Obama lifted decades-old ban on the sales of military equipment to the Southeast-Asian country. (Pictured) Obama (3rd from right), along with Secretary of State John Kerry (4th from right) and National Security Advisor Susan Rice (2nd from right), during a meeting with the Vietnamese president.

Vietnam has not bought anything, but removing the remaining restrictions shows relations are fully normalized and opens the way to deeper security cooperation.
After three days in Vietnam, Obama heads to Japan for an international summit and a visit to Hiroshima, where he will be the first sitting president to visit the site of the first atomic bomb attack.
He arrived in Hanoi, the capital, late Sunday, making him the third sitting president to visit the country since the end of the war. Four decades after the fall of Saigon, now called Ho Chi Minh City, and two decades after President Bill Clinton restored relations with the nation, Obama is eager to upgrade relations with an emerging power whose rapidly expanding middle class beckons as a promising market for U.S. goods and an offset to China's growing strength.
Obama was greeted Monday by Quang at the Presidential Palace. Obama congratulated Vietnam for making "extraordinary progress." He said he hopes the visit will show a continued interest in strengthening ties in the years to come.
Obama will make the case for stronger commercial and security ties, including approval of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Trade agreement that is stalled in Congress and facing strong opposition from the 2016 presidential candidates.
The United States is eager to boost trade with a fast-growing middle class in Vietnam that is expected to double by 2020. That would mean knocking down auto, food and machine tariffs to get more U.S. products into Vietnam.
In Japan, Obama will attend a summit of the Group of Seven industrialized nations, where the uncertain global economy will be a top concern. They'll also grapple with a full array of world challenges, including the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria and the refugee crisis in Europe.
Obama will finish his trip in Hiroshima, where the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb that killed 140,000 people, ushering in the nuclear age seven decades ago. Another bomb killed 70,000 in Nagasaki three days later.

Russia's Putting Hypersonic Missiles on Its Battlecruisers

The blisteringly fast Zircon missile will give old battlecruisers new striking power

 

 The Russian Navy will start sending so-called hypersonic missiles to sea as early as 2022. Capable of flying five to six times the speed of sound, the missiles will be carried by both aging battlecruisers and brand-new submarines, giving each the ability to quickly kill enemy ships.

Currently in advanced stages of development, the Zircon anti-ship missile is capable of flying at hypersonic speeds, between 3,800 to 4,600 miles an hour. That's fast enough to travel from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. in just over thirty minutes.

According to Moscow's state press, Zircon is undergoing land-based testing and and is planned to enter production in 2018. Zircon almost certainly builds upon Russian know-how in hypersonics, learned during the the joint development of the Russian-Indian BrahMos hypersonic anti-ship missile. Brahmos has a maximum speed of Mach 2.8 and a range of about 180 miles. 

Supersonic missiles

The extreme speed of the Zircon will make it very tough for navies to defend against. At 4,600 miles an hour, the Russian hypersonic missile will be traveling faster than a mile a second. Even if a defending ship were to detect an incoming Zircon at 100 miles, that leaves the ship just over one minute to shoot the missile down. 

Zircon's striking range and warhead size are both currently unknown.  Space inside every missile is at a premium, with the high explosive warhead, guidance system, engine and fuel all competing for room. The missile is meant to fit inside the new 3S-14 shipboard missile silo system, which can also fit Onyx and Kalibur anti-ship missiles.

The Little Tank Robot That Carries a Glock

THE DOGO

The Dogo from General Robotics is a portable, tactical combat robot. We've seen that before. The big difference is that the Dogo is armed with a 9mm Glock pistol.

Dogo weighs 26 pounds and can to climb stairs and other obstacles. It trundles along at 2.5 miles an hour for at least two hours on one battery charge. The operator gets a 360-degree view of the surroundings via six video cameras, while another two cameras are sighted along the pistol barrel.
 
  The Dogo can fire five rounds in two seconds. One advantage of having a robot of this size is that it is not thrown out by the recoil. It can accept a magazine with up to fourteen rounds, and the operator display shows how many shots are remaining. General Robotics claims the machine is so intuitive that a soldier can operate the robot after just a few minutes of training.

Some additional features have been added for police use. One is full two-way audio communication via microphone and speakers for conducting negotiations remotely. In addition to the Glock, the Dogo can also carry non-lethal weapons which are fitted in a standard Picatinny rail—pepper spray and a dazzler module are mentioned.

The Dogo is likely to be popular for exploring tunnels and other confined spaces. In more open situations it's at a tactical disadvantage since humans on two legs may be able to outmanuver the small, vulnerable bot. This is probably the reasoning behind sending more than one Dogo at a time, as you see in the video, so the second robot can cover the first.SEE THE VIDEO ON HOW IT WORKS AND OPERATES.

 

 From PM.

MODERN RUSSIAN MILITARY VEHICLES THAT USA ADMITS TO RESPECT.

1) IMR-3M Obstacle-Clearing Vehicle

 

A vehicle built for heavy engineering in tough environments, it's hard not to respect this road-clearing (or -creating) monster. The two-man crew inside the vehicle can breach tree entanglements, blaze an 8-mile trail in an hour and lift 2 tons with a telescoping arm that extends 10 yards. It's also prepared to survive a fight, with thick armor, masking smoke and a machine-gun turret. Best of all, it's mounted on the chassis of a T-90 main battle tank. It can also survive blasts from explosives—the plow can clear pressure and magnetic-fuse mines—making the vehicle an all-purpose brute.

 

9A52-4 Multiple Launch Rocket System

                         


One hero of Russian history is the Katyusha, a wheeled vehicle from World War II that rained rockets on German troops and tanks. This modern version, a very lightweight rocket launcher mounted on a truck chassis, has a simple design but packs a wallop—the crew inside the cab fires 300-mm rockets with warheads that include incendiary, fuel-air explosive, cluster munitions or antitank mines. The one on display here features six reusable launch tubes, which can be reloaded by a separate vehicle, using a crane, within 8 minutes. While the four-axle truck it's mounted on is not ideal off-road driving, these systems are masters of the shoot-and-scoot; by the time counterbattery fires rain down, they have driven away. This air-transportable version of the popular Smerch rocket system was introduced in 2007 but still awaits an international customer.

 

Kasta 2E Radar

             

The Kasta is a great all-purpose radar system that can be used to track helicopters, cruise missiles and airplanes. Set this up for remote operation, and you've got a movable defense screen for virtually anything in the air or an air-traffic-control radar that can operate in any weather for up to 20 days. The radar here can cover about 90 miles, depending on the height of the antenna it is mounted on, and can be set up for action in 20 minutes. The Kasta is said to be resistant to enemy jamming. A newer version of this radar is a popular item on the international market and guards Iranian nuclear sites. The diesel engine fires up with a whine, and the old-school mechanical radar dishes spin, unlike newer electronic radar arrays.                 

1V13 Artillery Fire Command Vehicle

                             


Even the most modern artillery shell or missile is useless without knowing where targets are located. This scrappy recon vehicle is made to operate, day or night, in the most miserable conditions possible to provide guidance to indirect fire coming from large and small formations, from the platoon to the battalion level. The 1V13s are studded with radios, laser rangefinders, navigation equipment and an aiming circle that provides the angle needed to correctly place a round. Once in position, the crew of six can set up to direct volleys of heavy fire within 15 minutes. The low profile and telescoping antenna are meant to protect the crew members as they sneak into position. The guys inside these things need to be close to the enemy to do their jobs—that takes bravery and good hardware, especially since they are favored targets of the enemies. Like almost all Russian military equipment, the vehicle was designed during the Soviet era and has been sold internationally and sporadically upgraded.

 

9A39 Launch/Reload Vehicle for the BUK M1-2

                             

The BUK M1-2 Self-Propelled Launch System (called the SA-11 Gadfly by NATO) is tailor-made to spot and destroy aircraft and inbound cruise missiles. In this photo is an oft-forgotten part of the medium-range system—the reloader. The crane, bent in the front, hoists missiles onto nearby Gadflys. The system can't see for itself—it relies on other nearby vehicles carrying radar for targeting—but it can shoot and reload on its own. The missiles are radar guided and can reach Mach 3. These vehicles are sold all over the world, including in Pakistan, Egypt, North Korea, Syria, China and (arriving soon) Venezuela.

 

MIK-MKS Mobile Communications System

 

 

It takes a half-hour for the 100-foot mast of this vehicle to reach its full height. But once it does, the MIK-MKS provides wireless broadband access for 200 users using the four antennas atop the mast. Micran, the company that makes the system in the Siberian city of Tomsk, can tailor it for a variety of other communications uses, but the main purpose of the system is for a single vehicle to connect a slew of dispersed units. It's designed to be hardened against jamming interference from enemies and rough conditions of  Mother Nature, especially high winds.

TILTROTOR REPLACING THE BLACK HAWK HELICOPTER.

The Army's Black Hawk helicopters lead a hard life. Over the next decade or so the Pentagon will need to begin replacing the ubiquitous UH-60 medium-lift helos, and when it does, it will require vertical lift with similar cargo carrying capability to what it has now. And beyond that, what the Army really wants is speed.

So what's fast and can takeoff and land like a helicopter?

 

 A tiltrotor. Bell Helicopter is building a tiltrotor aircraft called the V-280 Valor for the Army's Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator project, hoping to win the contract for the Black Hawk's successor. Bell will pit the Valor tiltrotor against the Sikorsky/Boeing-built SB-1 Defiant coaxial rigid-rotor helicopter that features two rotors, one placed atop the other.

 The Valor achieves that speed and range via a tiltrotor design that departs from the V-22 most notably at the wing. Instead of the complex, forward-swept dihedral wing found on the Osprey, the Valor will use a straight wing without dihedral. As with the Osprey, the wing is made of carbon fiber but rather than being constructed using a time-consuming carbon-fiber tape-strip layup, the Valor's wing is made using swaths of carbon fiber. Vince Tobin says the difference is akin to having a tailor made suit starting with thread only versus starting with bolts of cloth

V 280 Valor production

 Bell envisions a real production version of the Valor having an aerial refueling capability, but has given the plane the ability to carry fuel bladders in its fuselage. Like the Black Hawk, the Valor will be unpressurized, typically operating up to altitudes of 10,000 feet in cruise.

DOZENS OF A -10s AND F-16s ROLL OUT FOR AN "ELEPHANT WALK"

To flex some military muscle in the Pacific region, the U.S. Air Force rolled out the fighter planes en masse

 Earlier this week, the U.S. Air Force rolled out dozens of A-10s and F-16s in an "elephant walk"—a military demonstration that involves taxing entire squadrons of aircraft down the runway to train for the type of en masse takeoffs that would be necessary in wartime. An elephant walk also serves as a reminder to surrounding nations of the United States' military capabilities.

USA Army.

 The U.S. Air Force recently decided that the A-10 Thunderbolt II, affectionately nicknamed the Warthog, is just too useful to be retired. Originally designed to take out Soviet tanks, the armored attack plane continues to prove its worth. Likewise, the F-16 Fighting Falcon, referred to as the Viper by many airmen, has proven its competence in battle, and with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program lagging, it's safe to say the Viper isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

USA Airforce.

It's no secret that tensions are high between the United States and China in the Pacific region, particularly in the South China Sea where China is building airstrips on atolls that they claim are for civilian research, but look suspiciously like military facilities. China claims sovereignty for 12 nautical miles around these manmade islands. The United States doesn't recognize that sovereignty. 

Who knows if these A-10s and F-16s will be needed, but the U.S. wants the entire Pacific region to know that they are "ready to fly tonight." AS it was reported....

LARGEST SUPERSONIC PLANE AND VARIABLE WING PLANE.

Russian call it White swan ,Americans call it black knave

FROM: English Russia site

 

It is warm, the sky is blue, soft rumbling is heard from the most powerful turboprop engines in the world... The world supersonic plane that was once a top secret plane from  Russian Military seen right at  the russian Base in Engel's. You could never think you can see these photos before. During USSR this was a  top top secret stuff. But not anymore thanks to brave Russian bloggers who have visited this place and took their cameras with them.

NASA is using balloons to study space

Earlier this week, the US space agency sent a high-pressure balloon skyward from Wanaka, New Zealand, with inflated hopes that it will stay up there and circumnavigate the globe for 100 days or more—a flight time that’s about twice the current record. Along for the ride is the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI), a gamma-ray telescope developed by scientists at UC Berkeley.

Staying aloft for 100 days is a pretty big deal. Previous balloons relied on sunlight to keep the gas inside thermally expanded—hot enough to float. The problem with that is the sun goes down. There are work-arounds, like launching from Antarctica during its summer when the sunlight is constant, but infrastructure issues alone mean that the southernmost continent is never going to be the ideal place to set up shop.

THE PICTURE SHOWING THE TESTED BALLOON.From MSN News

  It was reported that if you create a closed, pressurized system, the balloon isn’t beholden to solar energy to give it lift, which gave NASA more launch sites to choose from. If all goes well, the Wanaka flight will prove that the super pressure balloon technology is capable of the consistent, long-duration flights that scientific instruments need if they’re going to collect meaningful data.

 Balloons are cheap. Even really big balloons, filled with rarer-by-the-day helium. Way cheaper than a satellite. And balloons are easier to build, which, combined with low cost, makes them a great democratizer of space science. Plus, launching a balloon requires a lot less red tape than firing a rocket, shaving years off the prep time required for each mission

MICROSOFT HAS DEVELOPED A MIRROR THAT CAN READ YOUR EMOTIONS

source;MSN(CNBC)

Microsoft's smart mirror, called Magic Mirror, and showcased at the InnovFest Unbound 2016, a digital technology conference in Singapore, has a facial recognition feature and can tell the weather, date, time and location.

 

You can be smart and good-looking. That's the message from Microsoft's Magic Mirror - a so-called smart mirror that can recognize and greet users, read their emotions and display the weather, time and other information. All the while looking just like a regular mirror.Imagine when you wake up in the morning, you're able to use the mirror to style your hair, do your make up, and while doing that, you can also view the weather

.

 The Magic Mirror has a hidden facial-recognition camera that can detect eight human emotions, including anger, happiness and surprise. Microsoft plans to expand the mirror's features, allowing it to show app-fed news as well as Facebook and Twitter feeds in a display panel. On the monitor of the mirror, you're able to play an advertisement. And you have a camera that can snap a photo of the users that are viewing the advertisement.The mirror's facial-recognition features could then provide real-time information to advertisers on how viewers reacted to the advertisement.The mirror is still in demonstrations before its release.

EGYPT AIRPLANE HAS GONE MISSING WITH 66 ON BOARD AS IT WAS FLYING FROM PARIS TO CAIRO

Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail announced a search was under way for the missing Airbus A320 but it was too early to rule out any explanation, including an attack like the one blamed for bringing down a Russian airliner over Egypt's Sinai peninsula last year.

The lost egytian airplane AIRBUS A320.

Officials with the airline and the Egyptian civil aviation department told Reuters they believed the Airbus had crashed into the Mediterranean between Greece and Egypt.

In Athens, Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos said the Airbus had first swerved 90 degrees to the left, then spun through 360 degrees to the right. After plunging from 37,000 feet to 15,000, it vanished from Greek radar screens.

Greece deployed aircraft and a frigate to the area to help with the search. A defense ministry source said authorities were also investigating an account from the captain of a merchant ship who reported a 'flame in the sky' about 130 nautical miles south of the island of Karpathos.

According to Greece's civil aviation chief, calls from Greek air traffic controllers to the jet went unanswered just before it left the country's airspace, and it disappeared from radar screens soon afterwards.The aircraft  had 56 passengers with one child,two infacts and ten crew members.The weather was reported to be clear at the time of dissppearance according to the aviation center report.The dissappearance is also associated with terrorist threats as there are many incidents projected by terrorists though its not yet proved.

Routine taken by the airbus A320 playback. From MSN.