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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is planning to cut 50 percent of the budget for aerial surveillance along the U.S.-Mexico border, agents revealed at a congressional hearing Thursday. In an effort to understand why DHS is cutting funding, Texas's Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, wrote a bi-partisan letter to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson. "Any decrease in aerial observation is not only imprudent, but contradicts the very mission of border security enforcement," the letter states. The lawmakers' letter also asks for detailed information about the reduction aerial-based border security, also known as Operation Phalanx. Abbott and...

Here are the top five aerial weapons that one day could change the face of modern warfare. Relying on the most advanced technology in the world, these hyper-advanced projectiles may outmaneuver, outrun, and outmatch America’s foes around the globe, whenever the need arises. 1) The Mach-5 Cruise Missile If a cruise-missile at supersonic speed is a full-throttle Ford Mustang, then a missile that hits Mach 5 is a Formula 1 racer going all out. The problem is, that hypersonic Mach 5 pace — clocking in at five times the speed of sound– has yet to be reached by munitions. Until...

3/11/2010 - CAMP TAJI, Iraq (AFNS) -- Most U.S. Airmen know the "sound of freedom" when they hear the unmistakable sound of a fighter jet soaring above. Now Iraqi air force airmen have cause to feel that same pride when they hear their helicopters. The Iraqi air force, founded in 1931 and once considered one of the largest air forces in the region, has come a long way, and due in part to the training and advisory mission of the 721st Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron staff here. The Iraqis are on their way to an independent air force capable of...

2000 x 1330 pixels, 3005 x 2000 pixels, 4256 x 2832 pixels  2000 x 1330 pixels, 3005 x 2000 pixels, 4256 x 2832 pixels  Photographer  Petty Officer 2nd Class Sondra-Kay Kneen, United States Coast Guard Via http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-201001.htm (#1, #2)

The Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) ray-cannon, mounted in a specially-equipped Hercules transport plane flying above New Mexico, has now succeeded in "putting a hole in the fender" of a ground vehicle driving along beneath it. The not particularly awesome result was announced by Boeing, maker of the ATL, yesterday. "In this test, a directed energy weapon successfully demonstrated direct attack on a moving target," said Gary Fitzmire, Boeing raygun veep. Though that is nothing new; Boeing's Humvee-mounted "Laser Avenger" ray-turret shot down a small flying robot earlier this year

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The vision of airplanes rumbling slowly over San Francisco, spraying a pesticide mist on parks and playgrounds, has now mobilized one of the most effective lobbying groups in the world. Moms. The California Department of Food and Agriculture's plan to eradicate the light brown apple moth with aerial spraying over the city this summer was already in an uphill fight. But when 100 or so mothers and kids showed up at City Hall on Monday afternoon with signs like "Keep Your Spray Off My Baby," it was clear that the battle had entered a new phase. "Nothing gets people more...

Iran's Mix-and-Match Air Force Still May Have Bite Aviation Week & Space Technology 09/11/2006 Authors: Douglas Barrie and Andy Nativi Israel's 1981 strike against Iraq's Osirak nuclear site was achieved without loss of any aircraft. But it is far from guaranteed that an attack intended to degrade any Iranian nuclear weapons program would have the same outcome. The Iranian air force inventory is a mix of Western, Russian and Chinese combat aircraft--most of them obsolescent. Any spares for Western aircraft will have to be bought surreptitiously, or be work-arounds found using local technology because an arms embargo remains in place....

BAGHDAD, June 15, 2006 – The attack that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi demonstrates the flexibility that air assets give commanders, officials here said today. Air Force Brig. Gen. Stephen Hoog, an air planner with Multinational Force Iraq, gave a timeline of the operation that resulted in the death of the most wanted terrorist in Iraq June 7. An F-16 Fighting Falcon jet dropped two precision bombs on a safe house near Baqubah, killing Zarqawi and his spiritual adviser. Nothing indicated this day would be different from any other for Air Force pilots over the country, Hoog said. A flight of...

TIKRIT, Iraq, May 29, 2006 – Operation Barnstormer, part of the Iraqi Agriculture Ministry's program to protect key staple crops from insect damage, wrapped up yesterday with a final day of aerial spraying in the northern Iraqi province of Dahuk, Task Force Band of Brothers officials reported. Flying low to the ground, an airplane sprays pesticide on wheat crops in the northern Iraqi province of Dahuk. The spraying was part of the Ministry of Agriculture's Operation Barnstormer. U.S. Army photo   The operation began May 16 and covered most of the major agricultural areas in the Iraqi provinces of Karbala,...

4/14/2006 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- Unmanned aerial vehicles are successfully transforming the way the Air Force does business, and the service is committed to supporting and developing more of them. Innovative UAV tactics have transformed the battle space as witnessed in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Maj. Gen. Stanley Gorenc, Air Force deputy chief of staff for air and space operations, at testimony before the House Armed Services Committee subcommittee on tactical air and land forces April 6. "UAVs are transforming the way Air Force and the joint team fight, and are a critical component of the future joint force," the...

ELGIN ¡ª The federal government took to the air to kill 200 coyotes in Southeast Arizona over the past three weeks, in response to ranchers' concerns they were eating calves. Wildlife Services, a federal program formerly known as Animal Damage Control, wrapped up aerial gunning Friday. It hunted on private and public land, including national forest land, used by 10 to 15 ranchers in Cochise and Santa Cruz counties, said a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the program. A rancher from the Elgin area said every calf lost to a coyote ultimately costs him $500 to...

US helicopters in Iraq face menace of 'aerial bombs' By Francis Harris in Washington (Filed: 18/01/2006) American helicopters in Iraq are facing a new threat from so-called aerial bombs, which are fired into the air from the ground and explode close to passing aircraft. The new home-made weapons, known to the Americans as "aerial improvised explosive devices" have been used on numerous occasions. US troops clear up after an unexplained helicopter crash "The enemy is adaptive. They makes changes in the way they fight, they respond to new flying tactics," Brig Edward Sinclair, a US army aviation commander, told Defense...

11/23/2005 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- The U.S. Central Command Air Forces aerial port control center here makes it easier to move troops and cargo through this region each day. That includes tons of cargo and thousands of troops and is a process that takes a lot planning and coordination, officials said. The center cuts a step out of the process. The center, located in the air mobility division of the combined air operations center here, eliminates the need for theater aerial ports to coordinate travel with ports in the United States. Instead, aerial ports, terminal units and customers in...

Sgt. Richard Skinner, Tactical Micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicle project trainer, Fort Belvoir, Va., launches the TACMAV by hand. The newest UAV is the smallest in the UAV family with a body length and wing span of 21 inches. U.S. Marine Corps photo Mini-plane Newest Addition to Unmanned Family The Tactical Micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicle can be stored in a 22-inch long, five-inch diameter tube and placed on a soldier’s backpack. By Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Bernadette L. Ainsworth / Multinational Corps Public Affairs Office CAMP VICTORY, Iraq, Oct. 17, 2005 – The Army recently began using an unmanned aerial...

DUKE FIELD, Fla. (AFPN) -- The Air Force Reserve continues to save lives in Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath by conducting the first of many aerial spray missions that began Sept. 12 over Louisiana in an attempt to reduce mosquito and filth fly populations. The Department of Defense’s only fixed-wing aerial spray unit, the 910th Airlift Wing, and its C-130 Hercules were requested by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to spray until the threat of disease subsides. FEMA officials are assessing how many acres need to be sprayed as a result of Katrina. “The...

LONDON (Reuters) - More than five million detailed aerial photographs from World War II go onto the Internet from Monday, giving the public their first views of some of the most dramatic and grisly moments of the conflict. From the smoke billowing from the incinerator of the Auschwitz concentration camp in which millions of Jews were murdered by the Nazis, to the U.S. landings on Omaha beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944, the pictures tell dramatic stories. "These images allow us to see the real war at first hand," project head Allan William said. "It is like a live action...