The U.S. Navy hopes to combine U.S. Navy orders and potential foreign demand for the V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft built by Boeing Co and Textron's Bell Helicopter in a third five-year agreement.
Marine Corps Colonel Dan Robinson, who runs the programme for the Navy, said on Tuesday the goal was to secure commitments from potential foreign buyers by June 2016 in order to get congressional approval for a multiyear, multibillion-dollar deal that could cut the plane's cost by 10 percent.
He said three or four countries had expressed strong interest in the aircraft, and estimated that the United States could sell 20 to 24 V-22 Ospreys to foreign countries in the near term.
Fat Residue and Use-Wear Found on Acheulian Biface and Scraper Associated with Butchered Elephant Remains at the Site of Revadim, Israel
Authors:
Solodenko et al
Abstract:
The archaeological record indicates that elephants must have played a significant role in early human diet and culture during Palaeolithic times in the Old World. However, the nature of interactions between early humans and elephants is still under discussion. Elephant remains are found in Palaeolithic sites, both open-air and cave sites, in Europe, Asia, the Levant, and Africa. In some cases elephant and mammoth remains indicate evidence for butchering and marrow extraction performed by humans. Revadim Quarry (Israel) is a Late Acheulian site where elephant remains were found in association with characteristic Lower Palaeolithic flint tools. In this paper we present results regarding the use of Palaeolithic tools in processing animal carcasses and rare identification of fat residue preserved on Lower Palaeolithic tools. Our results shed new light on the use of Palaeolithic stone tools and provide, for the first time, direct evidence (residue) of animal exploitation through the use of an Acheulian biface and a scraper. The association of an elephant rib bearing cut marks with these tools may reinforce the view suggesting the use of Palaeolithic stone tools in the consumption of large game.
Reports that Israel’s plan to buy a dozen V-22 Osprey tiltrotor troop transports is dead are — as Mark Twain said after reading his own incorrect obituary — greatly exaggerated. A U.S. Letter of Agreement offering a bargain price and early delivery of the first six of 12 Ospreys requested by Israel formally expired on Wednesday amid political turmoil in Tel Aviv and new elections scheduled for March 17. But a source close to the program said the Israeli Ministry of Defense sent a letter to the U.S. government this week asking that the U.S. offer be put on ice — not withdrawn — until a new Israeli government takes power in 2015.
“The requirement for the V-22 is strong from the point of view of the air force and the army and the special agencies,” this source said. “They all think it’s something the Israeli air force should have and provide services to all the customers with.” Built to carry 24 troops, the Osprey tilts two large wingtip rotors upward to take off and land like a helicopter and swivels them forward to fly like a turboprop airplane, giving it roughly twice the speed and five times the unrefueled range of conventional military helicopters.
Phinergy, an Israeli developer of metal-air energy systems, has demonstrated a new type of aluminum-air battery that is capable of providing enough energy to power an electric vehicle (EV) for up to 1000 miles at a time—with occasional stops to take on more water. The company claims they have developed new technology that prevents carbon dioxide from entering the system, which in the past, has led to breakdowns of the materials used in such batteries.
Jurassic flora of the Negev Desert: Plant taphonomy, palaeoecology and palaeogeographic inference
Authors:
1. Valentin Krassilov (a)
2. Alex Berner (b)
3. Sophia Barinova (a)
Affiliations:
a. Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa 31905, Israel
b. Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, 32000, Israel
Abstract:
Jurassic fossil plants of Makhtesh Ramon, the northern Negev, are collected from the Early Bajocian paralic Inmar Formation conformably overlain with the marine Mahmal Formation, which contains ammonite markers of the Middle–Upper Bajocian age. Plant remains occur in the thin ferruginous layers traceable all over the questa exposures, composed of re-deposited sand at the base and the fine-grained ferro-alumosilicate lamella on top. Plants are preserved as ferruginous molds of leafy shoots and reproductive material, buried by turbid run-over sand flows and embedded in the back-wash clayey deposits as calcified plant debris. On account of their peculiar taphonomy and elementary composition, the fossiliferous horizons are interpreted as tsunamites. The coastal plant assemblages are endemic at the syntaxonomic level, with Gondwana affinities extended to insular landmasses north of the Tethys. The abundance of bennettitalean plants and the inferred proximity of Araucaria-like brachyphylls gives the Bajocian Inmar flora a thermophilic paratropical aspect, while the Bathonian flora of Sinai is of a more temperate aspect, suggesting a major mid-Jurassic climate change.
The Israeli military is developing a large, classified unmanned air vehicle (UAV) with features consistent with stealthy aircraft designs, according to a knowledgable source.
The secret project involves a "fairly large" UAV in development by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), the maker of the non-stealthy Heron and Eitan (which is called the Heron TP for export) UAVs, the source says.
Israel has been openly involved with stealth and minimal-detection programmes. Experts familiar with Israeli industry profess little surprise in a low-observable aircraft capability.
"There have been rumours about it, and you see Israeli companies have rolled out an array of products across the spectrum," says a former US government official. "You would expect that stealth is something they'd be interested in, particularly in light of the threats they face."
Israel, a small nation surrounded by largely hostile neighbors, has long placed an emphasis on operating in denied areas with various means. Recent airstrikes thought to involve Israel include a 2007 strike that destroyed a nuclear plant in Syria, and two more recent strikes on targets deep in Sudanese territory. Operations over denied airspace, particularly airspace protected by sophisticated surface-to-air networks, require both stealth and endurance.
"I know that they were working on small and medium-size variants [of stealth aircraft] for some years now," says one industry analyst, who declined to comment on the record. According to the analyst, IAI has been working on stealth technologies since the mid-1990s or earlier.
