Month: January 2021

Navy

The Navy’s $13 billion supercarrier still can’t reliably launch aircraft

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It’s been more than three years since the Navy took delivery of the USS Gerald R. Ford, and the $13 billion aircraft carrier still can’t reliably generate sorties due to technical problems with its next-generation takeoff and landing systems, according to a new report.

The latest assessment of the Ford from the Defense Department’s operational testing and evaluation (OT&E) chief Robert Behler — obtained by Bloomberg News ahead of its formal distribution later this month — indicates that “poor or unknown reliability of new technology systems” like the aircraft carrier’s much-maligned electromagnetic launch system (EMALS) and advanced arresting gear (AAG)

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Air Force

DVIDS – News – Commentary: The U.S. Air Force’s ABU dances off

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MCGHEE TYSON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Tenn — U.S. Air Force Airmen will end the month of March this year, leaving behind a threadbare and faded slate-blue battle uniform with equally ragged conversations on its wear during the last decade: the ABU, or Airman Battle Uniform.

Only when leisure suit wearers were cool has an outfit been so disliked and oppositely loved.

Well, that’s exaggerating much for effect. But I recently asked Airmen at the training and education center in East Tennessee for their experiences with the ABU. One opponent compared its camouflage design to an over-patterned couch; another

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Army

Inside WallStreetBets, the Reddit army that’s rocking Wall Street

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Omar couldn’t believe what was happening.



diagram

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He should have been concentrating on the student he was tutoring in physics — a job he did during his free time while enrolled in a post-baccalaureate pre-med program — but Omar’s eyes kept darting back to the Robinhood app open on his phone.



a person sitting on a stage in front of a laptop computer

© Photo-Illustration: CNN/Shutterstock


 Omar had invested $6,000 in Beyond Meat options; in the days before that tutoring session he’d seen the value of that investment rocket up to almost $15,000. What he was witnessing now, though, felt like torture.





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 Down $2,000.

 Down

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Navy

Military flashpoints in Taiwan, Japan and South China Sea that could shape Biden’s entire China strategy

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Any suggestion that the departure of former US President Donald Trump from Washington would provide a temporary pause in US-China tensions has been swiftly dispelled.



a man riding a wave on a surfboard in the water: SOUTH CHINA SEA (Jan. 15, 2021) Sailors conduct "horseshoe maneuvers" in a rigid-hull inflatable boat prior to boarding the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG 56) during a visit, board, search and seizure drill. John S. McCain is assigned to Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15, the Navy's largest forward-deployed destroyer squadron and the U.S. 7th Fleet's principal surface force. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Markus Castaneda) 210115-N-WI365-2117

© Petty Officer 2nd Class Markus C/Navy Office of Information/U.S. Navy
SOUTH CHINA SEA (Jan. 15, 2021) Sailors conduct “horseshoe maneuvers” in a rigid-hull inflatable boat prior to boarding the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG 56) during a visit, board, search and seizure drill. John S. McCain is assigned to Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15, the Navy’s largest forward-deployed destroyer squadron and the U.S. 7th Fleet’s principal surface force. (U.S. Navy photo

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Air Force

US Air Force will let women wear longer braids, ponytails, and bangs

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JoAnne Bass et al. in uniform: MailOnline logo

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Women who enlist in the United States Air Force and Space Force will be able to sport longer hair including up to two braids, a single ponytail, and bangs that could touch the eyebrows, the military announced.

The changes were made after senior Air Force brass heard feedback from women enlistees who say that the tight hair buns which they were forced to wear often resulted in migraine headaches, hair loss, and breakage.

The previous policy required women to secure their hair or ponytails with no loose ends if the hair was longer

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Army

Sick soldiers drank compound found in antifreeze believing it was alcohol

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An investigation into what sickened 11 soldiers who ingested an unauthorized substance shows they drank an industrial compound found in antifreeze believing it was alcohol following a 10-day field training exercise at Fort Bliss in Texas, U.S. Army officials said Friday.



a sign on a pole

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Lt. Col. Allie Payne, public affairs officer for the 1st Armored Division and Fort Bliss, said during a press conference that initial laboratory reports indicate the soldiers consumed ethylene glycol, commonly found in automotive products including engine coolant and brake fluid.

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The 11 soldiers —including two who were in serious condition— were

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Navy

Russia Knows That the Norwegian Military is No Pushover

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Here’s What You Need to Remember: Norway’s new strategy does not alter the air force’s existing plan to acquire 52 F-35A stealth fighters to replace older F-16s plus five P-8 patrol planes to replace P-3Cs. Norway also is buying into NATO’s new fleet of up to nine A330 aerial tankers.

Norway’s got a new military strategy. To deter and, in the event of war, defeat Russian forces, Oslo is bolstering its northern garrison and investing in submarines, stealth fighters and surface-to-air missiles.

But the Norwegian government doesn’t plan to replace a navy frigate that ran aground and sank in

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Air Force

Why The U.S. Air Force Will Never Build Another F-35

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Here’s What You Need To Remember: The idea of having a variety of different aircraft rather than putting all of the eggs into one fighter-shaped basket has an intuitive appeal. But before we pine for the days of Super Sabres, Delta Daggers and Starfighters, we should take a clear-eyed look at the problems and shortfalls generated during that period.

Could a rethink of U.S. acquisition policies bring back the heady days of the “Century Series,” a time in which the Air Force could pick and choose between a variety of different fighters specialized in certain tasks? Could such an approach

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Navy

Why Military Veterans and Law Enforcement Joined the Capitol Insurrection

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An Air Force veteran from Southern California and ardent conspiracy theorist bent on war against the government. An Army psychological operations officer at Ft. Bragg, N.C. A decorated, retired Air Force officer of 18 years from Texas who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The deadly riot in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 attracted a variety of far-right extremists who shared a devotion to President Trump and his insistence on a false belief that the November election had been stolen from him through fraud.

Many rioters also had something else in common as they sought to upend the American government

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Navy

‘Grave military implications’: Iran making uranium metal alarms Europe | Iran nuclear deal

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European powers have voiced deep concern over Iran’s plans to produce uranium metal, warning that Tehran has “no credible civilian use” for the element.

“The production of uranium metal has potentially grave military implications,” the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany said in a joint statement on Saturday.

Iran had signed up to a 15-year ban on “producing or acquiring plutonium or uranium metals or their alloys” under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed in 2015 with world powers.

“We strongly urge Iran to halt this activity, and return to compliance with its JCPOA commitments without further

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