Posted on 03/25/2009 11:34:12 AM PDT by Freeport
America’s 21 B-2A Spirit stealth bombers have been leaders in stealth technology and weapon support arrangements. Now, they’re a leader in a less desirable category. DTI’s Bill Sweetman reports that during a 2008 bandwidth auction, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission inadvertently sold the operating frequency band of the B-2 bomber’s Raytheon AN/APQ-181 radar to an obscure firm headed by a Russian-educated citizen of Mali. Installing new radar arrays on the 20 surviving jets will reportedly cost “well over $1 billion.”
Sweetman notes that this is just one side effect of spectrum allocation problems, and greater civilian appetites for its use. Patriot PAC-3 missiles that are critical to Japan’s missile defense system have problems there, because the radios used to link all the scattered firing units use frequencies assigned to the Japanese cell phone industry. The JTIDS predecessor to modern Link-16 MIDS-LVTs is currently the only way to get AWACS targeting data to an F-22, but it has “limited supportability outside the continental U.S.” because it was developed in an occupied band. Even flight testing and telemetry is beginning to have these problems.
(Excerpt) Read more at defenseindustrydaily.com ...
inadvertently my A$$
Response: I sincerely doubt the sale was inadvertent.
reminds me of Clinton, Loral and missle targeting intelligence.
TRAITORS!!!!!!!
Inadvertently?
Sure. I'm willing to believe that.
And I'm sure that the Russian-educated citizen of Mali, INADVERTENTLY made the purchase.
>> during a 2008 bandwidth auction, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission inadvertently sold the operating frequency band of the B-2 bomber’s Raytheon AN/APQ-181 radar to an obscure firm headed by a Russian-educated citizen of Mali.
Well, if I were in charge, first of all I would go to this “russian educated citizen of Mali” (yeah. right.), tell him I was taking my bandwidth back, here’s his money back. With interest. Any questions? We’ll send a B-2 bomber over to discuss it. Yeah, that’s harsh. Tough.
Second of all, I would find the lazy incompetent morons in the FCC that were responsible for this, and hang them in public with piano wire. Just as an example to the others. That’s harsh too. I’m just a harsh kind of guy.
Wasn’t the head of the FCC, Colin Powell’s son?
Michael Powell quit in 2005. Brendan Fayles was chairman in 2008. The position is currently unfilled with Michael Copps serving as acting chairman.
This sounds like a problem with the ITU, not the FCC.
Every country allocates their band space differently. For international allocations you need to go through the ITU, don’t you? Not sure how defense is handled.
If the guy causes any trouble, jam the hell out of all of his equipment. (I am interested in why he needs the frequencies anyway, and what kind of equipment he will be using).
When the USAF inadvertently sold some controlled items couple of decades ago (jet engines, I think), they were seized back at the point of a gun.
This is National Security for goodness sake!
If they can threaten to revoke a radio station's license for playing Rush Limbaugh, they certainly call this sale back!
This sale had to be illegal and it should be stopped.
LLS
Bomb any transmission on this frequency... problem solved.
LLS
If the guy causes any trouble, jam the hell out of all of his equipment. (I am interested in why he needs the frequencies anyway, and what kind of equipment he will be using).
When the USAF inadvertently sold some controlled items couple of decades ago (jet engines, I think), they were seized back at the point of a gun.
This is National Security for goodness sake!
If they can threaten to revoke a radio station's license for playing Rush Limbaugh, they certainly call this sale back!
Sorry for the duplicate post. Computer locked up.
But it was worth saying twice!
Harsh, effective, and great style.
Well, if the Mali dood can figure how to stop the B-2 from using that frequency band he’s welcome to try.
Well, you certainly won't have any repeat offenders that way.
It was intentional, in order to further their globalist aims.
No nationalist would have done this.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.