Have you heard about Estes?

via Heavy.com

A 46-year-old man is facing federal charges accusing him of leaving a jar filled with explosives at a North Carolina airport as part of a war he pledged to fight on U.S. soil.

Michael Christopher Estes was arrested October 7 and charged with attempted malicious use of explosive materials and unlawful possession of explosive materials in an airport, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday.

The improvised explosive device, or IED, was found inside a jar at the Asheville Regional Airport about 7 a.m. on October 6, the FBI said in the complaint. Bomb technicians from the Asheville Police Department rendered the device safe. The baggage claim and lobby area of the airport were evacuated and shut down for about 2 hours. No one was injured.

Story here. 

What's hot on the internet today?  Not the war in Syria.  Not the fighting in Afghanistan.  Not the news of UN Peacekeepers drugging and raping women.

No, what's hot on the internet today is a YouTube (or some social media) "accidentally" broadcasting her having sex.

What's being ignored?

All of the above AND the news that some idiot pledged allegiance to ISIS and planted explosives at a US Airport.

We live in an interesting age.

Triviality is considered important, serious issues are being ignored and the news media is chasing their own agenda. 

Meanwhile, ISIS somehow is able to recruit 46 year old dummies to do idiotic stuff on their behalf.

Warhammer News. U.S. forces in South Korea to conduct evacuation drill

via UPI

 The U.S. military in South Korea is preparing to hold evacuation drills for military families and other civilians, weeks after President Donald Trump pledged to "totally destroy" North Korea if he is forced to defend the United States and allies.

Stars and Stripes reported Thursday that U.S. Forces Korea would hold the drills in late October.

The exercise, Courageous Channel, will simulate the evacuation of U.S. civilians. It was also conducted about a year ago.

Story here. 

This is an ongoing thing and nothing unusual.  I just wonder why would a guy take his family to a country in the past couple of years with all this going on?

I seriously don't understand the thinking of the servicemen and the Pentagon.

If crazy across the border decides to send up the balloon then your loved ones are gonna be caught in the middle of chaos and you'll probably be caught fighting for your life.

Mattis is smarter than this.

S. Korea should have become unaccompanied as soon as he took office.

Lockheed Martin's ATACMS Successful in Flight Test

via Press Release.

Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) conducted another successful Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) modernization flight test recently at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. All test objectives were achieved.

Launched from a Soldier-manned High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launcher, the ATACMS missile flew approximately 140 kilometers and demonstrated a proximity sensor height-of-burst detonation over the target area. This is a new ATACMS feature that allows battlefield commanders to address imprecisely located or area targets.

"This was our seventh consecutive successful test in the ATACMS modernization program," said Matt Berger, Precision Fires program manager at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "ATACMS is extremely accurate, affordable and mission-flexible, and is a missile our warfighters can rely upon when performance is most needed."

This flight was a system-level test conducted in conjunction with the U.S. Army's Precision Fires Rocket & Missile Systems (PFRMS) Program Management Office. Other test objectives included confirming the missile's performance range and accuracy from launch to warhead event, and validating the interface with the HIMARS launcher, as well as testing system software performance.

TACMS is the U.S. Army's only tactical long-range precision-strike surface-to-surface weapon system, and it provides combatant commanders with critical deep-strike capability to service high-value targets in all weather conditions. It can be fired from the entire family of Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) launchers.

The first production contract for Modernized ATACMS missiles for the U.S. Army was signed in August 2017, and called for the modernization of 150 missiles. As part of the U.S. Army's ATACMS Service Life Extension Program, the modernization process disassembles and demilitarizes ATACMS Block 1 and 1A submunition warheads, replacing them with new unitary warheads and bringing them into compliance with Department of Defense policy on cluster munitions. The modernization process also resets the missile's 10+ year shelf life.

More than 600 TACMS missiles have been fired in combat, and the system has demonstrated extremely high rates of accuracy and reliability while in theater. Each ATACMS missile is packaged in a Guided Missile Launch Assembly pod, and is fired from the MLRS family of launchers.

Two things stood out to me in this article.  The first is that I didn't know that 600 had been fired in combat.  If you asked me to guess it would have been south of 300.  I'd sure like to know what they were targeting with those launches. 

The second is the range.  140 kilometers or in real talk 87 miles?  I thought they were working on range extension.  As things stand that is hardly impressive and is lacking when compared to peer weapons.

We talk alot on these pages about the armor gap.  We talk about how we're losing air superiority but we sometimes forget that in artillery and rocket artillery we're also behind the eight ball. 

Aussie company hacked for F-35/P-8 secrets.

via UPI

The hack, which came to light in a threat report from the Australian Cyber Security Center, infiltrated the unidentified company's computer network in July 2016. It was not discovered and reported to the government until November.

About 30 gigabytes of information was purloined. The reported hacking was confirmed on Tuesday by Dan Tehan, the Australian government's minister in charge of cyber security, but he offered no specific details.

Mitchell Clark, response manager of the Australian Signals Directorate, told a conference Wednesday in Sydney, Australia, the targeted company was a small "mum and dad type business" -- an aerospace engineering company with about 50 employees.

"The compromise was extensive and extreme," he said at the Australian Information Security Association national conference. "It included information on the [F-35] Joint Strike Fighter, C130 [Hercules aircraft], the P-8 Poseidon [surveillance aircraft], joint direct attack munition [JDAM smart bomb kits], and a few naval vessels."

Story here. 

This is another part of the F-35 story that no one talks about.  The parts supply network is so jacked up, so convoluted and so spread out over so many countries that its another built in vulnerability.

Warhammer News. N. Korean hackers probed US energy companies...

via CNBC

North Korean hackers used fake emails to try to infiltrate U.S. electric companies, according to a report released Tuesday.

Cybersecurity firm FireEye detected and stopped the so-called spear-phishing attack — when attackers send emails containing malicious links. When a person clicks the link, it could open the doors for hackers to enter an organization's network.

NBC News, which first obtained the report, said Tuesday that emails using fake invitations to fundraisers were used to target victims. FireEye made clear that the spear-phishing campaign did not compromise or manipulate any of the industrial control systems that regulate the supply of power. The researchers found no evidence that North Korean-linked actors have the capability at this time. Instead, it was likely a intelligence gathering exercise.

"This activity was early-stage reconnaissance, and not necessarily indicative of an imminent, disruptive cyber attack that might take months to prepare if it went undetected," FireEye said in a report.

Story here. 

This is interesting.

Could this mean that if N. Korea is attacked kinetically, even in a limited strike then they'll respond in the cyber realm?

If so then this raises the stakes tremendously.

Let me hit you with a hypothetical.

What if the US gets a green light from China and Russia for a limited strike against N. Korea.  What if that green light comes with assurances that we won't decapitate the govt and in return China will not allow the N. Koreans to launch nuclear missiles or an artillery barrage against S. Korea/Japan.

But what happens if they do go cyber against Los Angeles and/or San Diego? What if those cities are in the dark for weeks?

How would we retaliate?

Could an attack of this type on major US cities justify nuclear retaliation? How about a massive conventional attack?

Last question.

Is the Pentagon adding this tidbit to their list of possible enemy reactions?

Canada takes first official step to buying used fighter jets from Australia

Thanks to Darren for the link!

via National Post.

Canada has taken the first official step to purchasing used fighter jets from Australia as its dispute with Boeing continues unresolved.

The Canadian government has now submitted a formal expression of interest to Australia to acquire the aircraft, Public Services and Procurement Canada confirmed.

Canada began discussions in late August with the Australian government to assess the potential purchase of used F/A-18 fighter aircraft from that country.

“On Sept. 29, 2017, Canada submitted an expression of interest, formally marking Canada’s interest in the Australian equipment,” Public Services and Procurement Canada announced in a new statement. “Canada expects to receive a response by the end of this year that will provide details regarding the availability and cost of the aircraft and associated parts that Canada is considering.”

The Australian jets are being considered as interim fighters. They would supplement Canada’s existing CF-18 fleet until a new aircraft could be acquired.

The move to try to acquire fighter jets from Australia coincides with the U.S. government’s decision, based on a Boeing complaint, to hit Bombardier with almost 300 per cent duties on its CSeries civilian passenger jet.

Story here. 

I can't quite figure out what Boeing is doing.  My guess is that they've concluded from previous deals that selling military equipment to Canada isn't worth the loss of revenue from the issues with Bombardier.

As far as Canada buying Australian jets?

Weird move. 

Why?

They're old, crusty and worn out.  It's not like the Aussies aren't flying the wings off the things!  Even worse though is that if they think they're pressuring Trump this won't cut it.

I saw the body language at the meeting he had with Trudeau and I can tell you one thing.  Trump sees Trudeau as being pure pussy and Trudeau views Trump as being an unrefined caveman.

They won't solve a thing.

I think Canada isn't playing this hand well.  Trump won't back down in this dispute because he has to be seen as supporting US business.  Buying Australian jets is a poor bandaid on a terrible situation and in the end they still have the same old problem.  Will they buy the F-35 or another jet.

My prediction?

At the end of the day they'll opt for the Gripen.

Russia accuses the US of pretending to fight ISIS in Syria...

Thanks to Rogerio for the link!

via Ynet.

Russia accused the United States on Tuesday of pretending to fight Islamic State and of deliberately reducing its air strikes in Iraq to allow the group’s militants to stream into Syria to slow the Russian-backed advance of the Syrian army.

Story here. 

Read the WHOLE story for yourself but consider this.  We aren't seeing as many strikes as we have in the past.

By my reckoning and I don't know cause I ain't there, but it looks like from my chair that this should have been in the mop up stage long ago.

What am I saying?

That there is no way an organization like ISIS could stand up to persistent US airstrikes much less the power of the US, Iraq, Russia and Syria.

If ISIS was the only target that everyone agrees on then ISIS should be an afterthought IF they were the max effort objective that so many claim.

Are the Russians right?

On this I would say yes. 

Are there other objectives that I don't know?

Undoubtedly yes!

I'll believe this till my dying day.  There is literally no way ISIS should take this long to defeat.  No way at all.

General Dynamics Flyer 72 @AUSA...

Thanks to Matt for the pics!

Wow.  GD has really worked on this vehicle made it much much better than it was when it first came out but they're hit with a slow procurement system.

While GD and others were working on candidates for the internally carried vehicle solicitation, the services were all climbing aboard the SOCOM solution of using off the shelf farm/hunting/rec vehicles to fill the role.

Now?

Now these guys are faced with a much cheaper solution being all but formally adopted while they engineered a solution following the system laid out by the Pentagon.

Something is gonna have to give or manufacturers will get to the point of feeling burned. 

This is why the industry/pentagon partnership will not work.  The Pentagon might want to formalize the relationship and make industry more responsive but troops will always gravitate to what works and works now.

The solution is inside the Pentagon itself, not industry.  Requirements writers should be forced to scour the internet to find products that fill a need without having to be "invented" before they make a request to industry.

Russian Il-76 Heavy Vehicle Airborne Drop...

Pics via Enrique 262 Tumblr Page.

Open Comment Post. Oct 11, 2017