Free Republic

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE BASRA, Iraq, Dec. 3, 2009 – The adage “Send in the cavalry” once referred to soldiers on horseback, riding to the aid of embattled comrades. Today, that same call for backup can be made a lot quicker and with much more devastating effect through the Army’s joint operations. A soldier tries to guide an air weapons team to a target verbally, without marking the target, during training near Contingency Operating Base Basra, Iraq, Nov. 20, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Maurice A. Galloway  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Twelve soldiers from 1st Battalion, 377th Field...

WASHINGTON, D.C. November 13, 2009 -- A group of researchers at the City College of New York is developing a new way to generate power for planes and automobiles based on materials known as piezoelectrics, which convert the kinetic energy of motion into electricity. They will present their concept later this month at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society's (APS) Division of Fluid Dynamics will take place from November 22-24 at the Minneapolis Convention Center. About a half-inch by one inch in size, these devices might be mounted on the roof or tail of a car or...

Travellers to Europe face being treated like drug smugglers as security chiefs are expected to recommend new intrusive security measures. French anti-terror chiefs are expected to propose the new measures, such as full body X-rays or handing in all electronic devices, after a terrorist tried to kill a Saudi prince with a bomb he had inserted into his body. Al Qaeda's latest ploy was first pioneered by Abdullah Hassan al Asiri, who blew himself apart in Jeddah in late August in an attack on Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the Saudi anti-terrorism chief. The 23-year-old terrorist blew himself into 70 pieces...

Iraq has a major problem. Iraq’s air defense is the US Forces in Iraq and those forces are gone at the end of 2011. That region is too dangerous to go without air cover. The earliest that new fighters could start delivering is 2014. Then there is two to three years of training. Iraq cannot afford more than one squadron of fighters per year. It takes a minimum of five squadrons provide Iraq with a basic credible air defense. That means the earliest Iraq could have a basic air defense using new aircraft is after 2020. There are all sorts...

This Iraqi Security Force Update provides a summary of changes to the ISF during August 2009. The Iraqi Security Force Order of Battle as of 31 August 2009 is published at Montrose Toast. Peshmerga Prime Minister Maliki has apparently reached an agreement with Kurdish leaders regarding the status of the Kurdish Regional Guard. According to Member of Parliment Firyad Rawandouzi, from the Kurdistani Alliance, Maliki agreed to absorb the Peshmerga into the “national defense apparatus”. The agreement would facilitate the transfer and commissioning of two new divisions (15th and 16th). The remaining Peshmerga members would either be absorbed into the...

Ladies and Gentlemen, please remain in your seats until Captain Braveheart and his magnificent crew have brought the aircraft to a screeching halt against the gate. And, once the tire smoke has cleared and the warning bells are silenced, we will open the door and you can pick your way through the wreckage to the terminal. Allegedly the German air controllers at Frankfurt Airport are renowned as a short-tempered lot. They, it is alleged, not only expect one to know one's gate parking location, but how to get there without any assistance from them. So it was with some amusement...

Q As you say, the complexity of this training effort, particularly with the Iraqi air force -- again, do you think that some trainers, U.S. trainers and mentors, will be needed after 2011? GEN. HELMICK: Well, I guess it depends on how we identify air sovereignty for the Iraqi air force. There will be a team that comes here from Washington, D.C., in the next week or so, to kind of refine where the Iraqi air force is and where they think the Iraqi air force should be, based on the current glide path, if you will, on procurement of...

Rushing out of a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, Iraqi Soldiers hit the ground and take up security positions during a training exercise in Baghdad, Aug. 18. Photo by Sgt. Travis Zielinski, 1st Cavalry Division. BAGHDAD — American servicemembers here continue to train the Iraqi Army (IA) using the same methods available to U.S. military forces. Starting off with the basic steps and procedures, a crawl, walk then run approach helps the Iraqis attain professional military standards. The 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad, teamed up with 150th Armed Reconnaissance Squadron, 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team,...

Meanwhile, millions more Americans are out of work as Congress jets! In March, we learned how ravenous the travel appetite is for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats in Congress. The documents which show the frequency of trips to exotic destinations would be a crushing scandal if Republicans were in charge of Congress. But since Dems are in charge, few will say a negative word about this: House Orders Up Three Elite Jets By Paul Singer Roll Call August 5, 2009 Last year, lawmakers excoriated the CEOs of the Big Three automakers for traveling to Washington, D.C., by...

July 29, 2009: Saudi Arabia has ordered another three Airbus A330 tankers, for aerial refueling and carrying cargo. The Airbus MRTT is based on the twin engine Airbus 330-300, which normally sells for $160 million each. The 233 ton MRTT carries 111 tons of fuel, plus 43 tons of cargo (26 pallets).

(AP Photo/Don Ryan)Karen McNutt of Women & Guns has a warning for travelers. You could be traveling by airline with a declared and checked-in gun in your baggage, all perfectly legal, and think you've done everything required of you. Then say something compels you to claim your luggage at a layover airport: perhaps your flight was rerouted, or perhaps there was a delay and they're going to shuttle you to a hotel or an alternate terminal... Don't assume it's safe to claim your suitcase. That could put you in a world of hurt. I came across McNutt's article--one I missed...

Cement plants being asked to sacrifice for clean airWeb Posted: 07/12/2009 12:00 CDT By Colin McDonald - Express-News Burning at a minimum of 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit, the fire inside the kiln at Capitol Cement is hot enough to melt steel. Flashing orange and white as they soar through a rotating tunnel the size of two semi-trucks, the flames change the chemical structure of the crushed limestone inside and vaporize almost everything else. Fueled by a mix of coal, petroleum coke and sometimes tires, the operation never stops unless something goes wrong. “If that’s running, then we have a chance at...

WASHINGTON – Millions of people living in nearly 600 neighborhoods across the country are breathing concentrations of toxic air pollutants that put them at a much greater risk of contracting cancer, according to new data from the Environmental Protection Agency. The levels of 80 cancer-causing substances released by automobiles, factories and other sources in these areas exceed a 100 in 1 million cancer risk. That means that if 1 million people breathed air with similar concentrations over their lifetime, about 100 additional people would be expected to develop cancer because of their exposure to the pollution. The average cancer risk...

WASHINGTON, June 24, 2009 – The Kyrgyz parliament is expected to vote in the coming days on agreements reached between the United States and Kyrgyzstan governments to extend U.S. access to Manas Air Base, a logistics hub that supplies troops in Afghanistan, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell confirmed today. While emphasizing that the United States is “not counting our chickens before they are hatched,” Morrell expressed hope that the deal will go through. If ratified, the agreements would provide for a transit center at Manas International Airport, operated by the United States, to provide logistical support to coalition forces in...

I just finished listening to a podcast where an avionics engineer goes over the final messages sent by the Air France Flight 447 plane before it crashed. The error messages sent by the plane show that multiple computer failures happened simultaneously, starting at 02:10 GMT, when a series of 14 warnings and failures emerged at once. Addison Schonland, president of Innovation Analysis Group, and Michael Ciasullo, IAG's managing director of consulting services, led the podcast discussion. The engineer, who went only by Darryl, and his interviewers were careful not speculate. Darryl is introduced as an engineer familiar with the the...

Want to join the Air Force? Look at the picture above. How about now? Still no? Well damn, the Air Force is gonna be pissed -- this was supposed to be a powerful recruitment tool. The Challenger Vapor features radar-absorbing stealth-black paint, not unlike what is used to mask stealth bombers. The Vapor is set to run almost silently, thanks to "stealth exhaust" - whatever that means. Reminds us of when KITT used to go "Silent Mode" on Knight Rider. You need biometric verification to enter the cockpit via gull wing doors. The driver can view night/thermal vision projections on...

Sniff the air in Barcelona or Madrid, scientists say, and you’ll inhale not only carbon dioxide but possibly cocaine too. Pollution plagues Spanish cities, but a new study reports the air in those two is also laced with drugs notably cocaine. The Superior Council of Scientific Investigations, a government institute, says on its website on Thursday that it also found traces of amphetamines, opiates, cannabinoids and lysergic acid, a relative of LSD, wafting through those cities. But they said there’s no reason for alarm. “Not even if we lived for a thousand years would we consume the equivalent of a...

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The pilots of the Continental Connection turboprop that crashed in February near Buffalo N.Y., rushed through mandatory checklists in a matter of seconds, but spent almost the entire 59-minute flight from Newark, N.J., bantering about personal issues, job goals and the theoretical hazards of ice accumulation during winter flying, according to the cockpit recorder transcript released Tuesday by federal investigators.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force on Monday endorsed the Pentagon in its plan to end production of Lockheed Martin Corp's top-of-the-line F-22 fighter jets after having pushed to buy more for years. "This is the time to make the transition from F-22 to F-35 production," Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and General Norton Schwartz, the service's top uniformed officer, wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Post.

Donald Harmon's attempt to save a few bucks on his heating bill could cost him $850 — more than half his monthly Social Security — because he picked the wrong fuel. The 82-year-old retiree was hit with a hefty fine in January for burning wood to take away the chill in his kitchen and the living area in his North Seattle home. The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency had declared a burn ban that day. While Harmon was feeding broken-up pallets into his woodstove, an agency inspector was outside taking notes and photos as the smoke rose from the chimney....