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A new X-ray study of the remains of an exploded star indicates that the supernova that disrupted the massive star may have turned it inside out in the process. Using long observations of Cassiopeia A (Cas A), a team of scientists has mapped the distribution elements in the supernova remnant in unprecedented detail. This information shows where the different layers of the pre-supernova star are located 300 years after the explosion, and provides insight into the nature of the supernova. The artist’s illustration shows a simplified picture of the inner layers of the star that formed Cas A just before...

Russia announced a new stealthy cruise missile for their heavy bombers and whatever emerges from the effort to develop something to compete with the American F-22 and F-35. The Russian announcement said little more, declaring that details of the new missile were classified. That was probably to avoid embarrassment, as the Russians have been having a hard time completing missile designs that were halted at the end of the Cold War (1991) because there was no more money. One of these missiles was the Kh-102, a stealthy development of the Cold War era Kh-55. The Kh-102 had been in development...

Azerbaijan angered its neighbor, Iran, when it recently purchased $1.6 billion in military equipment from Israel. Details of this purchase were never mentioned, but now the veil of secrecy is being lifted. Among the items ordered were Gabriel anti-ship missiles. These are 522 kg (1,150 pound) weapons with a range of 36 kilometers. Azerbaijan will use these to protect its Caspian Sea coast from the growing number of Iranian warships being introduced in the area. Also obtained were five Heron and five Searcher UAVs. The Israeli Heron TP is a 4.6 ton aircraft can operate at 14.g kilometers (45,000 feet)....

Even on military flights, regular manned aircraft need to stop regularly so the crew can rest, bathe and unwind. But an unmanned drone can keep flying until it runs low on fuel, so the U.S. military drew up plans for nuclear powered drones that could stay airborne for months at a time. The catch 22 is that while a manned aircraft can stay airborne for extended periods using mid-air refueling, this requires a skilled team on the plane making true long tern endurance impossible. Working in collaboration with Sandia National Labs, Northrup Grumman drew up plans for a drone powered...

The first F-35 Lightning II for The Netherlands rolled out of the F-35 production facility on April 1. This is the latest step in the production process leading to its eventual assignment to Eglin AFB, Fla., later this summer. The Netherlands will use the conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) jet, known as AN-1, for training and operational tests for pilots and maintainers. AN-1 will undergo functional fuel system checks before being transported to the flight line for ground and flight tests in the coming weeks. The Royal Netherlands Air Force continues to be at the forefront of flight testing and...

The first batch of the Patriot Advanced Capability-2 (PAC-2) missile launchers that Taiwan previously sent to the United States for upgrade has been secretly sent back to the country after being upgraded to the more advanced PAC-3 configuration, according to the United Evening News (UEN) report yesterday. The upgraded surface-to-air guided missile defense system is currently being deployed in Taipei's Nangang District (南港區) to meet the air defense need in the capital city, according to the report. The PAC-3 unit will be ready to use when necessary in response the scheduled North Korean rocket launch later this month, a issue...

Air Force leaders provided an update on the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board study into the F-22 Raptor life support systems and flight operations during a briefing in the Pentagon March 29. Retired Gen. Gregory Martin, an aviator and a former commander of two major commands, chaired the nine member SAB team which studied the aircrafts' on-board oxygen generation systems and briefed its findings and recommendations in trying to determine a root cause for pilots experiencing unexplained physiological events with the F-22 Raptor. "From April 2008 until May 2011, the Air Force experienced 14 physiological incidents with the fleet of...

A study led by a University of Utah astrophysicist found a new explanation for the growth of supermassive black holes in the center of most galaxies: They repeatedly capture and swallow single stars from pairs of stars that wander too close. Using new calculations and previous observations of our Milky Way and other galaxies, “We found black holes grow enormously as a result of sucking in captured binary star partners,” said Ben Bromley from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. “I believe this has got to be the dominant method for growing supermassive black holes,” he said. “There...

Boeing delivered the final two F-15K Slam Eagles to the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) on April 2 at Daegu Air Base. All ROKAF F-15Ks were delivered on cost and on schedule. "Boeing is proud to have worked with the ROKAF to ensure that their F-15Ks included all the capability and power necessary to defend their homeland through 2040 and beyond," said Roger Besancenez, F-15 Program vice president for Boeing. Boeing will continue to support the ROKAF fleet through the long-term, affordable Performance Based Logistics (PBL) sustainment contract the company received from the Republic of Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program...

The Civil War -- already considered the deadliest conflict in American history -- in fact took a toll far more severe than previously estimated. That's what a new analysis of census data by Binghamton University historian J. David Hacker reveals. Hacker says the war's dead numbered about 750,000, an estimate that's 20 percent higher than the commonly cited figure of 620,000. His findings will be published in December in the journal Civil War History. "The traditional estimate has become iconic," Hacker says. "It's been quoted for the last hundred years or more. If you go with that total for a...

The Anti-President is really so full of hot air it is amazing he doesn’t float away. Obama has in essence preemptively declared the Supreme Court to be an “unelected group of people” who will be guilty of “judicial activism” if they overturn either the individual mandate in Obamacare or the law in totality. He said to do so would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically-elected congress The man is either totally ignorant of history or deliberately lying to the American public as usual. Judicial Activism? What About...

President Barack Obama said during the visit of Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping in February that “we welcome China’s peaceful rise [and] we believe that a strong and prosperous China is one that can help bring stability and prosperity to the region and the world.” Few presidents have made statements so stunningly disingenuous as this. For as he was speaking, Obama was presiding over a shift in military doctrine whose central tenet is that China is, and will be, the main military threat to the United States for at least the next generation. Weeks earlier, in November 2011, the Pentagon...

A secret Israeli-Azerbaijan pact giving the Jewish state use of old Soviet air bases to attack Iran’s nuclear sites revealed by Foreign Policy magazine exposed a bold military option to the vexed problem of getting bomb-heavy warplanes to their distant targets. Or was the story all part of a complex and devious disinformation campaign by the Obama administration to box Israel in, or one targeted at the president? From a military standpoint, the strategy was simple, if audacious. Israeli warplanes would refuel in Azerbaijan before the final low-level dash across the Caspian to targets in Iran. Predictably, Israeli and Azeri...

FOR the last two months, senior government officials and private-sector experts have paraded before Congress and described in alarming terms a silent threat: cyberattacks carried out by foreign governments. Robert S. Mueller III, the director of the F.B.I., said cyberattacks would soon replace terrorism as the agency’s No. 1 concern as foreign hackers, particularly from China, penetrate American firms’ computers and steal huge amounts of valuable data and intellectual property. It’s not hard to imagine what happens when an American company pays for research and a Chinese firm gets the results free; it destroys our competitive edge. Shawn Henry, who...

As any high school senior staring down the SAT knows, when the stakes are high, some test-takers choke. A new study finds that activity in distinct parts of the brain can predict whether a person will remain cool or crumble under pressure. The results, presented April 1 at the annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, offer some great new clues that may help scientists understand how the brain copes with stressful situations, says psychologist Thomas Carr of Michigan State University in East Lansing. “Sometimes you come across a study you wish you'd done yourself,” he says “This is such...

Einstein is still the boss, say researchers with the BOSS project for measuring key properties of the universe. BOSS, for Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, has measured the distance to faraway galaxies more precisely than ever before, mapping the universe as it existed roughly 6 billion years ago, when it was only 63 percent of its current size. The findings suggest that the mysterious “dark energy” causing the universe to expand at an accelerating rate was foreseen by Einstein, the researchers reported April 1 at the American Physical Society meeting. To keep the universe in a static state, Einstein added a...

The Australian Government is moving ahead with the conversion of the Royal Australian Air Force's (RAAF) 12 Boeing-built F-18 Super Hornet fighter aircraft to the EA-18G model, dubbed Growlers, under a refit programme. Australia's Defence Minister Stephen Smith and Defence Materiel Minister Jason Clare said in a joint statement that more than $19m will be spent for the purchase of lead item electronic equipment. The long lead item electronic equipment for the conversion include electronic systems, antennas and high frequency modulation receivers that will be procured through the US Foreign Military Sales route. The Government has already formally delivered a...

In late 1969, a conspiracy was hatched in secret all-night meetings in Washington, D.C.-area hotel rooms that would have a profound impact on military aviation and Fort Worth. A handful of people were at the meetings: two rebel Air Force colonels, a Pentagon analyst and a General Dynamics engineer. Their goal was to create a fighter jet -- a relatively simple, inexpensive plane that could be sold by the hundreds. Fortunately, the conspirators succeeded, probably beyond any of their wildest dreams. On Tuesday, Lockheed Martin will celebrate delivery of the 4,500th F-16, the direct result of those late-night meetings. It's...

This year, the US Air Force started fielding the Increment 3.1 upgrade to its Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor fleet. The modifications add a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) capability to the fighter's Northrop Grumman APG-77 radar, plus electronic attack, better geo-location capabilities to find enemy radars and the ability to carry eight 113kg (250lb) small diameter bombs (SDBs), for use in pairs against four ground targets. Introduction of an SAR mode will assist during the manual targeting process, which is an improvement over the previous Increment 2 configuration's use of two 454kg Joint Direct Attack Munition satellite-corrected, inertially guided bombs against...

Pakistan recently demanded, again, that the United States halt the use of CIA UAVs to attack Islamic terrorists in the Pakistani tribal territories along the Afghan border. Pakistan, however, offered a compromise this time. If the Americans would tell Pakistan where U.S. intelligence had located terrorists, Pakistan would send one of its F-16s and use a smart bomb to do the deed. The U.S. turned this down for several reasons, the main one being that the Pakistanis would "miss" (or simply not be able to find) terrorists who were working for the Pakistani Army. The Pakistanis could also sell protection...