Caught during a bus tour of the AMARC disposal yard in late August.

What appears to be four Grumman F-14 Tomcat’s still intact and waiting to be recycled to prevent their parts from making it to the Iranians (to help them maintain their fleet)

This weekend (Sat, 9/17), the NRO will be showing off its newly declassified HEXAGON (KH-9) for one day only at the National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center in Dulles, VA.

After it is shown at UHC, it will be taken to the US Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH to go on permanent display there.

Related links;

- NASM Press release – http://www.nasm.si.edu/events/pressroom/releaseDetail.cfm?releaseID=268

- Space review article on the upcoming declassification of this and another spy sat (useful for the scale drawing of different sat’s) – http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1927/1

Update – 9/19….

Here is a link to the SpaceflightNow story of the Hexagon display.  Includes a picture of a Hexagon being prepared for flight testing.

With last week’s announcement that Boeing has won the latest round of the KC-X tanker contract – the Air Force may finally be on its way to replacing the aging and overworked KC-135 fleet.

This contract has been up for debate for almost 10 years, when Boeing originally proposed to lease new 767-based tankers to the Air Force at what would be a dramatic markup over buying the aircraft outright. When the Congressional outrage and indictments died down, the Air Force had to start over, and the competition was between Boeing (US) and Airbus (Europe).

The original contract was awarded to a partnership of Northrup-Grumman and Airbus in 2008, but Boeing challenged that award and the GAO forced the bidding to be restarted in 2009.

Airbus said all of the right things. Their plan was to build their existing A330 Multi Role Tanker at a new plant outside of Mobile, AL. They were already building this same aircraft for Australia (even though there have been some hiccups in the testing – notably part of the refueling boom falling off during testing in Europe). But when the decision was announced, it turned out that Boeing had beat Airbus’ price by 10%. Which in today’s tough economic times, may have been the only thing considered.

The Air Force – in an attempt to derail any possible challenges to this latest ruling, spent an extra day debriefing Airbus on why the decision went the way it did. And so on Saturday, the word has come out that EADS (Airbus parent company) will not challenge the latest result in this contract battle.

[It should be noted, that the Boeing offering changed from what had originally been proposed back in 2001/2002, so the prototype that Boeing modified - dubbed the Frankentanker - will not be resurrected for use under the latest contract award]

Sunday’s New York Times will have an article on the Front Page that strongly suggests that the Stuxnet worm was an Infowar attack by the Israeli’s against the Iranian Nuclear program. It goes on to suggest that the US assisted and supported the development of this worm as a way to slow down the Iranian attempt to create a nuclear bomb.

This program has seemed to work – and Israeli and US intelligence seem to think this has added 3 years to the timetable for the Iranian’s to have a usable nuclear device.

Time will tell – if this has had the desired effect – or shown others a new way to attack their enemies.

Some are worried that their little fiefdoms will be exposed – and a memo supposedly went out warning Contractor’s to confirm nothing once the article came out.

Apparently there was concern about the map that is part of the web site – and besides the fact that you can’t go closer than city (and in some places that is still enough to pin point a location) – but you have to realize that any airport that has TSA and/or Custom Border Protection – will be marked on a map (and counted in the statistics).

You can argue the merits of this article either way;
- the public has a right to know how it money is being spent/wasted in this bureaucracy
- this article provides insight to our enemies that there are gaps that could be exploited
- the fact the current administration hasn’t curtailed the growth shows that they feel the need for this continued level of security (but don’t have a better way of doing it)

One way or another – it will be worth it to keep an eye on this series to see what plays out (and if any thing gets fixed after it all is brought to light).

In a move that almost sounds like it is out of an Action Adventure thriller, the US Navy quietly deployed 3 Ohio-class SSGN’s in and around the Pacific early last week, and had the boats all surface on the same day (Monday, June 28th) – where they would be noticed;

• U.S.S. Ohio in the Philippines’ Subic Bay
• U.S.S. Michigan in Pusan, South Korea
• U.S.S. Florida at Diego Garcia

Why is just 3 submarines such a big deal? Because of their payload. Each Ohio SSGN carries almost 150 Tomahawk cruise missiles, capable of hitting a target over 1,000 miles away with a conventional warhead. So over 400 missiles just showed up within range of North Korea (whining about being caught sinking a S Korean warship) and China (who was on the verge of testing their new Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile over the 4th of July weekend – 2nd article down) without any warning.

And it was done quietly. So as not to inflame the situation.

I would have loved to be a fly on the wall in either Beijing or Pyongyang when this was noticed.

Read the whole story at Time.

It is always fun to see what stories are published on a slow summer Friday – that fly completely under the radar.

Take for example this story published by The Times on Saturday – that claims the Israeli’s have Saudi permission to overfly Saudi airspace on the way to attack Iran.

The fact that the story appears no where else – makes you wonder if it was just an early ‘test leak’ to gauge public opinion, or else just put pressure on the Iranian government to comply w/ UN Arms control directives.

As fewer and fewer World War 2 era airplanes are still flying – it is good to see that some ‘newer’ planes are being restored and flown on a regular basis (more than just at airshows).

This Mig is owned by a pilot in the Tucson (AZ) area and was leaving an area airport (where the Collings Foundation was visiting w/ their B-17, B-24 and P-51) under full afterburner.

(to see the other pictures of its departure – click here)

I quickly walked through the hangers and around the grounds, keeping half an eye on the air over Davis-Monthan across the street (so I wouldn’t miss too much of the Heritage flights.

If it was something that had changed since January 2009, the new picture appears on the left – and the old picture on the right. If it was something brand new, there will only be a single picture on the left. Click on any picture to go to my Flickr account for more detail on these and other pictures of these aircraft. The Lockheed YO-3 Quiet Star has moved out of Restoration and is now hanging from the ceiling near the Blackbird. It seems to be naturally camouflaged against the ceiling.

It was almost ready to go on display when I last saw it in Restoration. And also the Snow cropduster is done – parked out on the grounds w/ the cockpit sealed up. NEW – A German Kreigsmarine (Naval Strike) Tornado IDS has been put out on display;   NEW – The Restoration area has seen some new arrivals as well. A Mig-23 Flogger is waiting outside to be reassembled and put on display;   NEW – As well as a MH-53 Pave Low (combat rescue helicopter).   I have to get down to Tucson more often. Maybe this fall once work eases off. ]]> http://www.threataxis.us/2010/04/11/quick-pima-update/feed/ 0 http://www.threataxis.us/2010/04/07/russian-inflatable-decoys/ http://www.threataxis.us/2010/04/07/russian-inflatable-decoys/#comments Wed, 07 Apr 2010 23:08:17 +0000 Threat Watcher http://www.threataxis.us/?p=565 HERE is a Gallery of pictures of different Russian military hardware decoys.

I like the claim on the 7th slide that says the decoys appear to be real even to thermal or IR sensors.

Leap-Frogs-6432

Originally uploaded by rob-the-org

While the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels are two of the best known Military demonstration teams, there are others teams that travel the country and show off their skills as well.

During this past weekend – the US Navy Leap Frogs parachute demonstration team jumped into selected Major League Baseball Spring Training games in the Phoenix Metro area.

The Leap Frogs are made up of SEAL’s and other Naval Special Warfare operators, and this is just another assignment/normal tour of duty.

Click here to view selected pictures from their demonstration at the Cleveland Indians game in Goodyear, AZ.

Douglas AIR-2 Genie

Originally uploaded by rob-the-org

a. Douglas AIR-2 Genie (its an unguided rocket, not a missile)
b. Air to Air, designed to shoot down incoming bomber formations
c. 1.5 kiloton nuclear warhead (how else were you expecting one rocket to take out multiple bombers)

The blue body denotes an inert/training body.

Early each Spring – the US Air Force demo teams gather at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, AZ to plan out how the flights will be flown, then rehearsal their routines and to actually practice the Heritage Flight formations. Heritage Flights are where front line Air Force fighters (F-15, F-16, F-22 and A-10′s) will fly formation with historic aircraft (P-51 Mustangs, P-40 Warhawk, A-1 Skyraider, F-4 Phantom).

The advantage to being at this event – is you get to see more than just one Heritage Flight formation.  I saw a P-51 Mustang, flying with two F-4 Phantom’s, and a F-16 Viper.  And then later on – it was a P-51, a F-4, a F-16 and a F-22 Raptor.

All of the pictures are available through the link to the Slideshow below.

I love wandering the aircraft museum’s to see where some curator has stashed a hidden gem. Walking along the rows of fighters on Saturday morning – I came across this one sitting on its trailer – already to be mounted to an aircraft.

Can you tell me;

a) Name/Designation?
b) What was it used for?
c) What was its payload/warhead?

I *think* I saw one of these yesterday afternoon.

I was waiting to board my return flight to Phoenix at Orlando (MCO), and I thought I saw one of these parked on the cargo ramp (the satcom hump on the top of the fuselage is the giveaway). Since boarding was about to start – and it was a full flight – I didn’t stop and get my camera out to snap even a crappy picture of it.

I actually had a window seat – so once I got seated I got my camera out and waiting for the plane to push back. Once we did – and I got a view of the cargo ramp – it was gone.

Let me explain a little about the E-6 Mercury. This is considered a strategic asset – in that it is responsible for relaying orders to the US Ballistic Missile Submarine fleet. Even though it is Boeing 707 airframe – it has a modern glass cockpit from the 737 next generation, and was only delivered to the Navy between 1989 and 1992.

There are 16 of these aircraft total – and at least one (and more likely two) are airborne at any time. So if you happen to see one of these outside of Offutt Air Force Base (in NE), stop what you are doing and take a picture of it.

In the video below, a timecode that could be used to evaluate how long the laser was on target before its destruction – is noticeably missing.

The Airborne Laser is a chemically charged laser mounted in a modified Boeing 747-400 Freighter. This was originally planned to go into Operational use, but due to cost and schedule overruns, (Defense) Secretary Gates decided last year to downgrade the project to a R&D project. Whether this successful test will change the Pentagon’s plans for this system – has yet to be seen.

It is unknown how long this test has been planned, but what is interesting is that the results of this test were publicized, while another successful test earlier this month was not (last sentence in press release). It is possible that publicizing this test was meant to show an uncooperative Middle East state that continued nuclear enrichment is not a good idea.

I have been trying for it seems weeks to write a post to do this picture (and the Blackbird) justice, but I just haven’t had the time.

The picture dates from 1990 just after the Air Force had decided to retire the Blackbird from active service.

The current Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine included this same picture in their article about Lockheed’s famed designer Kelly Johnson where they also discussed the development of the Blackbird (but if you are a fan of the Blackbird, then you know that lots of books have already been written about its development and past glories).

Northrup B-2 Stealth Bomber

Originally uploaded by rob-the-org

I came across two articles on-line from the week before last this morning. Both were written by a British journalist who got permission to visit Whiteman AFB – the home of the B-2 ‘Spirit’ Stealth Bomber.

Here is the article that got published – Daily Mail [http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1241116/Britains-new-bomber-command-The-2bn-aircraft-aiming-world-peace.html] and the overflow material that was published in the journalist’s blog [http://www.angusbatey.com/index.html?id=578&category=blog].

Both articles are worth reading. One of the highlights of the Daily Mail article was the too small picture of the cockpit (which basically looks like the glass cockpit in any modern airliner). The 2nd story was a closer look at the people who are involved with the B-2, including two RAF exchange pilots (one who is just joining the squadron, and one about to rotate out – and the justification for allowing a British journalist to come onto the base).