The U.S. Air Force Has Lots of Options for Smashing Iran’s Nuclear Facilities
Uncategorized April 26, 2015
Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told CNN the United States military has the capability to “shut down, set back and destroy” Iran’s nuclear program. The highly-publicized yet classified weapon Carter was referring to is the Massive Ordnance Penetrator — a behemoth, 30,000-pound bunker bomb introduced specifically to... Read more
So many that stocks are running low by JAMES DREW Weapons-manufacturer Boeing started developing the 250-pound Small Diameter Bomb back in 2003, and the U.S. Air Force purchased about 12,000 of them for $40,000 a piece. Despite possessing such a large stockpile of the smart glide-bombs, the flying branch dropped only a... Read more
The U.S. Air Force has been turning old cruise missiles into computer-destroying weapons of mass disruption. It’s known as CHAMP, or the Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project. Designed to conduct non-lethal electronic attacks on cities, the device can fly over densely populated areas and hit targets with powerful,... Read more
The history of the mighty U-2 Dragon Lady surveillance plane, and its future, is so tightly intertwined with drones that the death of one has often meant the survival of the other. In fact, today’s modern U-2 fleet was born of a dead drone project in the 1970s called... Read more
An odd-looking “perching” drone is back — almost eight years after the Army cut it adrift from the now-defunct Future Combat Systems program. It’s called the GoldenEye, and as the name suggests, the ducted-fan unmanned aerial vehicle has a history steeped in 007-type spying, sabotage and clandestine operations. We... Read more
Much like the husky A-10 Warthog, the Air Force’s combat-chiseled AC-130 gunships can claim legendary status among soldiers, aviators, historians and politicians. Steady-flying turboprop aircraft like the Spectre, Spooky and Stinger II gunships are continually on patrol around the globe, ready to rain down fiery spit and fury at... Read more
America Readies Its New ‘Smart’ Nuke
Uncategorized February 26, 2015
The U.S. Air Force is on the cusp of flight testing a new tail-kit assembly that will upend the old way of conducting tactical nuclear combat, should the United States ever enter a shooting match with a nuclear-armed state like Russia or China. We’re talking about an upgrade to... Read more
This year, lawmakers must decide whether to approve the Obama administration’s plan to spend billions of dollars on new nuclear weapons, including a stealthy cruise missile. The Pentagon calls it the Long-Range Standoff Weapon, or LRSO for short, and it would replace the outdated Air-Launched Cruise Missile your grandfather’s... Read more
The U.S. Air Force is winnowing down its fleet of EC-130H Compass Call electronic attack planes. The 15 high-tech jammers belong to the 55th Electronic Combat Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. But if the flying branch has its way, it will retire seven at the turn... Read more
America Has a Very Expensive Plan to Replace Very Old Nukes
Uncategorized January 26, 2015
The U.S. Air Force has announced its strategy for replacing America’s Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles—which have stood alert, awaiting Armageddon, for nearly five decades. Making nukes is hard. But squeezing another multi-billion-dollar project into the Air Force’s already bulging budget is perhaps the bigger challenge. We’re talking about... Read more
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