Free Republic

Shelton Orders Shutdown of Space Fence By Mike Gruss | Aug. 6, 2013 A two-mile array that makes up a part of the U.S. Air Force Space Fence. Credit:Navy photo/SpaceNews artist's concept UPDATED 1:45 p.m. EDTWASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force is shutting down a key part of its network for tracking satellites and orbital debris, possibly as soon as Oct. 1, according to an Aug. 1 memo obtained by SpaceNews.Gen. William Shelton, commander of Air Force Space Command, “has directed that the Air Force Space Surveillance System be closed and all sites vacated” effective Oct. 1, the memo said. The...

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine by a Russian-made Buk missile, the Dutch Safety Board concluded on Tuesday in its final report on the crash in July 2014 that killed all 298 people on board, most of them Dutch. But the long-awaited findings of the board, which was not empowered to address questions of responsibility, did not point the finger at any group or party for launching the missile.

The question of how the Islamic State funds its sprawling caliphate has been discussed in the past: we first broke down the primary driver of ISIS revenue well over a year ago, in September 2014, when we explained that "ISIS uses oil wealth to help finance its terror operations." ... We wonder how long until someone finally asks the all important question regarding the Islamic State: who is the commodity trader breaching every known law of funding terrorism when buying ISIS crude, almost certainly with the tacit approval by various "western alliance" governments, and why is it that these governments...

‘Severodvinsk’ is too expensive for mass production It’s official. K-560 Severodvinsk, Moscow’s newest and most advanced nuclear attack submarine, has joined the Russian navy. That’s bad news for most countries that could conceivably face Russia in a conflict. The expensive, quiet, 13,800-ton Yasen-class submarine is arguably one of the most sophisticated in the world—and she’s just the first of her class. But the one country that doesn’t have much reason to worry is the United States, which has a significantly larger and more modern submarine force. The Yasen class is also an exception to the rule in Russia, where most...