Terminator Times #59

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Drones):

Iran shot down an American MQ-4C Global Hawk/Triton UAV.  The US claimed the drone was in international waters.  This crisis rapidly escalated.  Trump didn't think Iran would have intentionally shot down the drone.  How to react to the Iranian attack is no small or simple thing.  The Iranians claim they warned the drone multiple times before opening fire.  The US was 10 minutes from launching an attack when Trump called it off.  This was the first successful shoot down of a Global Hawk or its derivatives.  This was the second drone shot down after several attempts.

The USAF is buying its COTS quad copters from Parrot, a French company.  is that the same as PSI?

A drone airbase in Niger built by the US is finished, but no flights have begun due to security concerns.

The US Air Force claims Iran tried to shoot down an American Reaper drone.

A USAF Reaper shot down by Yemen Houthi rebels with Iranian help.

Another Reaper was shot at by a MANPADS during the tanker attacks.

USAF Reapers participated in Red Flag for the first time.

The USAF AFL stated the XQ-58A Valkyrie has flown for a second time.

The USAF wants to buy 20 to 30 Kratos Valkyries.

The US Navy awarded Northrop another $66M contract for the BAMS-D program.

The US Navy awarded General Atomics $36.5M contract for services related to the Reaper.

Belarus is pursuing armed multirotor UAVs.

France awarded a $39M contract to BAe for a sensor pod for its Reapers.

France is qualing the SDT Patroller UAV.

Israel is losing market share when it comes to UAVs.

Jordan is selling its 6 Chinese-made CH-4B UAVs.

Malaysia will deploy its ScanEagles with its Navy.

Philippines is close to finalizing a $180M deal to buy Elbit drones.

The Russian Ohhotnik-B supposed did a high speed run with a hop, leaving the ground, but not truly flying.  First flight is supposed to be July or August.

A Russian firm has made a drone with a blinding/dazzling laser for security forces.

Did Russia spoof GPS lately to protect Putin from drones?

Russia is concerned about US drones being deployed to Poland.

Saudi Arabia may have been attacked again by drones.  The Houthi rebels claimed attacks on the Jizan and Abha airports.  And the Saudis are saying there was another attack.  The Saudis said the Abha attack was beaten back and 5 drones were shot down.  The Abha and Jizan airports were attacked again.  The drone attacks are almost daily now.

The Syrian army claims to have downed a drone near the Hama airport.

Taiwan has obtained Honeywell engines for its Teng Yun UAV.

Taiwan is going to spend $2.5 billion developing suicide drones.

The UAE has been cleared to buy the RQ-21A.

Ukraine's upgraded Spectator UAV has entered service.

AeroVironment bought Pulse Aerospace.

Collins Aerospace worked with Sikorsky to develop a triply redundant fly by wire autonomous flight solution.

IAI has launched the Tactical Heron UAV product.

Insitu got a contract from the US DOD to provide 34 ScanEagle UAVs to Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam

General Atomics has integrated a new EO/IR imaging system with the SkyGuardian UAV.

Kratos has ten different jet powered UAV projects underway.

InstantEye has launched its extended range Mark 3 drone.

Leonardo is launching a new drone to compete with the Predator and launching ISR as a service.

Lockheed has unveiled the Condor UAV.

Mikoyan is developing a Loyal Wingman.

Schiebel is tackling icy conditions on its S-100 camcopter.

Sikorsky has unveiled it tested the Optionally Piloted Vehicle technology on the UH-60A Blackhawk.

UVision unveiled new HERO suicide drones.

Unmanned Ground Vehicles (Bolos, Ogres and Terminators, oh my!):

The US Army has is planning on the ATLAS automated turret being tested soon.

The US Army is looking at a 30mm cannon in the turret of the Robotic Combat Vehicle - Medium.

Watch this armed Israeli bot shoot on a target range.

Milrem's Themis gets exercised in an armed fashion.

Unmanned Surface Vehicles (Ro-boats):

The Zumwalt class destroyers will be tasked as part of an experimental squadron to test out USVs.

Can the US Navy handle unmanned ships?

The US Navy sent a report to Congress on the USVs.  The purpose of those systems (and UUVs) is to tackle China.

Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (robo subs):

BAE is buying the technology of a US UUV company.

Hunting Ingalls is helping build the unmanned ships and subs of the future, including the Orca.

Exoskeletons:

The US Special Forces is shutting down the Talos powered armor program and spinning out individual components.  The parts being kept are transitioning to the HEO effort.

3d Printing:

GE has 3d printed parts for the General Dynamics entrant for the Ground Combat Vehicle competition.

Software Bots:

Thales has bought an American "AI" company.

A software bot is helping with V-22 maintenance.

META:

The US Army is exploring manned-umanned teaming.

The US Army is buying over 9,000 drones and moving ahead with supply carrying UGVs.

NASA IG has Concerns About the Europa Missions

Despite early-stage robust funding, NASA is facing serious management and schedule challenges in its ambitious Europa Clipper program that will send an orbiter and lander to Jupiter’s ice covered moon beginning in 2023.

“Specifically, NASA’s aggressive development schedule, a stringent conflict of interest process during instrument selection, and an insufficient evaluation of cost and schedule estimates has increased project integration challenges and led the Agency to accept instrument cost proposals subsequently found to be far too optimistic,” the audit found.

“Moreover, Clipper has had to compete with at least four other major JPL-managed projects for critical personnel resources, causing concern that the project may not have a sufficient workforce with the required skills at critical periods in its development cycle,” the report said.

The audit also noted that the Europa program’s biggest backer, John Culberson, no longer chairs the House appropriations subcommittee. The Republican Congressman from Texas was defeated in his reelection bid last year.

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US House of Rep Armed Services Committee Voted to Create US Space Corps Within the USAF

The House Armed Services Committee voted to establish a United States Space Corps within the Department of the Air Force. The vote came in the overnight hours Thursday. The committee began its markup of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act Wednesday morning. After a nearly 21-hour session, the committee passed the NDAA 33-24.

The Space Corps amendment was offered by the HASC Strategic Forces subcommittee leaders Chairman Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) and Ranking Member Mike Rogers (R-Ala.). The proposal is similar to what the committee proposed in the 2018 NDAA, including the name of the new space service, U.S. Space Corps, rather than the Trump administration’s preferred name, U.S. Space Force.

Like the Marine Corps, the Space Corps would be led by a four-star Commandant who would be a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

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Paleolithic Papers #30

Genus Homo:

Using archaeomegnetism to investigate Late Paleolithic cave occupation in Israel.

Residents of the Qesem Cave in Israel from 400,000 years ago recycled stone tools.

The characteristics of the Manot Cave in Israel gets examined.

H. sapiens:

Ancient alcohol was found in Israel from before the end of the Pleistocene.

How diverse were the cultures of the Upper Paleolithic in the Zagros Mountains of Iran?

There appears to have been an unknown population in modern day Oman during the Pleistocene.

What was the environment like in southern Levant during the last glacial cycle?

Modern humans may have dispersed through Asia in the Late Pleistocene through multiple routes.

A new population of ancient siberians from 31kya has been found.

H. neanderthalensis:

Neandertals seem to have split from modern humans further back in time than the genes suggest.

The ancestors of Neandertals and Denisovans interbred with yet another ancient hominin population before they mixed it up with modern humans.

A jaw from a Neandertal from Regourdou, France shows the individual ate what appears to be typical foods for human hunter gatherers in a temperate forest based on the microwear analysis.

An odd preprint paper questions whether or not the introgression of Neandertals into modern humans was as much as previously thought.

H. erectus:

A new site at Madigou in China dates from 1.2 million years ago and contains stone tools.

Genus Australopithecus:

A. anamensis:

The verbatral morphology of A. anamensis appears to be more derived than A. afarensis.

A. afarensis:

The comparison of diets of pigs from Africa and australopithecines is examined and conclusions hominin diet diversification had not happened by the end of A. afarensis.

META:

The first metacarpal gets compared between different hominins and Great Apes.

Did our ancestor's ability to ingest alcohol lead to the evolution of people?  So wonders the Drunken Monkey Hypothesis.

A gene has been found that helps humans deal with high sugar diets.

Modern humans might be unique in our hearing capabilities.

Western Galilee's environment from the Late Middle and Upper Pleistocene gets examined.

NASA Gives an Update on its Gateway Station Habitat Module Prototyping

Even as NASA’s plans for the Lunar Gateway evolve, the space agency is continuing work on developing a habitat for the crew that will use the facility as an orbiting base for the study of the Moon.

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Does India Need its own Space Force?

India is setting up a military space agency called the Defence Space agency (DSA) that’s expected to command of all the space assets of India’s army, navy and air force.

For nearly the last decade, a debate has taken place in India highlighting the need to establish a Space Command to address military needs. For all these years, India has had a Military Space Cell, a tri-service organization under the aegis of the Integrated Defence Services, or IDS. Formation of this organization was announced on June 10 2008, by the then-defense minister.

The idea of DSA was mooted a few years back, possibly with a view to make an incremental increase in the space-related defense infrastructure. Hence, instead of having a Space Command headed by a three-star general, it was thought suitable to create a DSA headed by a two-star general. All these structures had a relevance when India was not a military power with anti-satellite (ASAT) capability. However, now that India successfully conducted its March 27 ASAT, can DSA take India’s military space agenda further, or there is a need to establish a separate ecosystem for this?

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Pondering the Precambrian #28

Proterozoic:

NeoProterozoic:

Ediacaran:

A cyanobacteria normally associated with the Phanerozoic has been found in Ediacaran deposits in China.

There was a significant shift in what the limiting nutrients were across the Ediacaran/Cambrian boundary.

How did the black shales form across the Ediacaran/Cambrian boundary?

Was the Sao Francisco Basin a restricted basin during the Ediacaran?

A section in China appears to be a record of the late Ediacaran glaciations, showing a cold, dry climate.

The Cathayasian block was attached to Gondwana since 630 million years ago.

The fate of an inland sea from during the Neoproterozoic gets discussed.

Evidence of the Milkanovich cycles is preserved in Ediacaran deposits.

Tubular fossils from the Weng'an Biota are algae, not metazoans.

Weng'an Biota also provides examples of preserved encysting of eukaryotes.

Cryogenian:

Could the banded iron formations of the Cryogenian be related to ocean acidification?

There is evidence of a less than complete snowball earth from China during the Marinoan Glaciation.

Cryogenian Period deposits of Datangpo Formation of China from the interglacial period between the Sturtian and Marinoan glaciations show a very stratified ocean.

The majority of the time, the NeoProterozoic oceans were anoxic and were supersaturated with dolomite.

Tonian:

Fungus fossils appear to have been found in Tonian (neoproterozoic) or Stenian (mesoproterozoic) deposits in Canada.

There appears to have been a paleorifting event during the Tonian of the Sao Francisco-Congo continent.

The Sognefjel complex appears to have formed in the Asgardian Sea during the early Tonian.

Did the Paleo-South China Ocean close during the Tonian?

MesoProterozoic:

The Eastern European Craton has a Mesoproterozoic signal.

The southern Grenville formation dates from Mesoproterozoic and is from purely Laurentian sources.

Reported stromatolites from a Stenian lake cannot be proven to be biogenic.

Paleoproterozoic:

600 million years of sedimentation is examined from the Paleoproterozoic of Lapland.

Statherian Period evolution of the Oolongbuluke terraine is explained.

In Brazil, the Sobreiro Formation appears to be from the Orosirian/Statherian boundary.

Archean:

There is evidence of retreating oceanic slab subduction from the NeoArchean of China.

Evidence from India suggests there was significant local variation in Archean ocean conditions.

The Caozhuang basin appears to be a case of sagduction.

Fossils from paleoarchean South Africa show bacteria dividing and they appear to be very similar to cyanobacteria Pleurocapsales.

Eoarchean stromatolites get examined.

Hadean:

Was the Earth covered in a lava ocean before Theia impacted and created the moon?

META:

What are the implications of a hotter mantle, but colder subduction during the Precambrian?

China Remains on Course for 2020 Launch of Mars Missions

China remains on schedule to ready its first independent mission to Mars in time for a short launch window in mid-2020, according to a leading space official.

“Mars 2020 mission spacecraft is undergoing integration,” Wang Chi, director of the National Space Science Center (NSSC) in Beijing, told SpaceNews in a rare update on the mission.

Ambitiously, the mission consists of both an orbiter and a rover, with a total of 13 science payloads. The NSSC will be involved in integration of the instruments with the spacecraft.

The orbiter will be equipped with a high-resolution camera comparable to HiRise on board NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a medium-resolution camera, subsurface radar, minearology spectrometer, neutral and energetic particle analyzers and a magnetometer.

The 240-kilogram solar-powered rover, nearly twice the mass of China’s Yutu lunar rovers, will carry a ground-penetrating radar, multispectral camera, a Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy instrument and payloads for detecting the climate and magnetic environment.

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Robopocalypse Report #116

Drones:

The US government went after Huwei and is now going after drone maker DJI warning the Chinese gov may have the data from the drones.

Alphabet (*cough*Google*cough*) will start offering drone deliveries in Helsinki starting next month.

Students at Ben-Gurion University in Israel have developed a drone that can land and drive like a car.

Caltech's Neural Lander can smoothly land quadcopters.

DJI drones will detect aircraft soon.

Drones are being sent into tornadoes to study them.

Japan is about to make drunk droning, flying a drone while intoxicated, illegal.

Purdue developing a hovering hummingbird drone.

USC has created Bee+, a four winged nano UAV.

This is the Volgi VTOL UAV.

Self Driving Cars:

Self driving cars will do more than drive you around.

In a bad sign for traffic improvements with self driving cars, Uber and Lyft are making traffic worse in San Francisco.  A study by Cambridge disputes my assertion though.

There is a robot race car club in northern California.

Aurora, the self driving car startup, bought lidar sensor company Blackmore.

Einride has started doing deliveries in Sweden with its self driving truck.

GM's Cruise division just got a $1 billion investment.

An MIT paper calls into question some of the assumptions of self driving car economics.

MIT is teaching self driving cars to navigate using just maps and signs, just like people do.

Nissan has a different opinion of lidar than does Musk.

Self driving wheel chairs are being tested.

A Tesla that was involved in a fatal crash had its autopilot engaged.  The safety of Tesla's Autopilot is being challenged.

Problems are mounting for Tesla.  Apple tried to buy Tesla is 2013 and with things looking grim at Tesla, may try again.

Betting on Uber is a bet on self driving cars.  It is the only way for them to be profitable.

USPS is experimenting with using self driving trucks.

Waymo's self driving cars are now available to pick you up in Phoenix via the Lyft app and hundreds have already used them.

3d Printing:

An Australian man has a 3d printed titanium replacement sternum.

The world's first 3d printed village is coming to Central America courtesy of Icon.

Bioprinting for bone regeneration with nanofibers.

3d printed guns are back and on the darkweb.

3d printed bathrooms...in a day.

Robots:

The Aqua2 robot is a amphibious spin off of a joint university development.

Brown University taught a robot to copy art and hand writing.

Columbia came up with a material so robots can use water?

Meet Eve r3.

Inside Facebook's new robotics lab.

Ford is using a self driving robot in its factories to free up workers' time.

Ford also wants to use a robot in conjunction with self driving vehicles to make deliveries.

Introducing the Heron USV.

Watch the HyQReal robot tow a passenger plane.

Meet Laikago.

MIT's Roboraise learns to lift objects by watching a persn.

NASA Langley is working on soft robots.

Watch the leech bot climb a wall.  Yeech.

A new micro robot has been developed that changes shape while swimming in a patient's circulatory system.

Put googly eyes on robots to make them less scary.

Soft robots can be made of warm, nice materials to make homes...cozy.

Stanford students built a robo dog and shared the code.

Software Bots:

The US gov is backing international standards on AI principles.

China ramped up the censor bots with the anniversary of Tiananmen Square.

CMU is trying to make AI seem less intrusive, even if it is really powerful.

Facebook's AI is being accused of generating terrorist content by a whistleblower.  It makes you wonder how instrumental they were in influencing things.

Facebook is categorizing your private posts using a software bot.

Facebook is using software bots to build disease prevention maps.

Google's Geoff Hinton explains the evolution of neural networks.

Google is training its speech recognition bots to be able to work with people with speech impediments.  

Google trained its software bot to predict lung cancer.

Many Google Duplex calls are really people.  This is starting to sound like a scam.

Microsoft's Cortana will eventually sound like a person.

Microsoft is also using software bots to improve your writing in Word.

Microsoft wants to use software bots to improve the application development cycle.

Microsoft trains bots to have realistic speech with minimal training.

MIT has a new software bot that is significantly better at IDing breast cancer from mammograms.

Nvidia's software bots are set to start chewing on UK medical scans.

Can all optical networks be used for neural networks?

ObEN is a company working on AI avatars.

Samsung's software bot can make Deep Fakes from single pictures, including the Mona Lisa.

A new software bot generates people from scratch, clothes, bodies, faces and all.

Software bots may be the entertainers of the future.

Software bots attempted to name race horses...

Software bot mistakes for imagine recognition might be due to human error than the bots making mistakes.

A software bot driven Salvador Dali is now live at a Florida museum.

Software bots are selecting scientific paper reviewers in China.

A new software bot can hack and take over wayward drones.

Software bots can predict the properties of porous materials.

Software bots used for psychiatry raise ethical questions.

Using software bots to study proteins.

Software bots vastly upscale Alzheimer's studies.

Software bots are being used in cyber defense.

Who is liable when a software bot loses a fortune?

Software bots meet Citizen Science.

Software bot translations helped Ebay boost sales by 10%.

A software bot may be "deciding" who gets suicide prevention...yikes.

Software bots can be used to customize training for people.

Software bots have found mutations in noncoding DNA apparently tied to autism.

Automata:

San Francisco has banned cashless stores like Amazon Go.

In the $2 trillion infrastructure bill in Congress, some are recommending investing in robots.

Amazon is using robots to replace workers in its warehouses.  They are not laying off workers, but replacing them through attrition.

Boeing is going to replace human inspectors with technology.

As factories are automated, the workers become coders.

The quest to develop sensors that can smell.

META:

Does universal basic income not work?

Tech companies are trying to shape the rules associated with "AI."

True AI may be rooted in the technologies of today.

Sensors inspired by spiders might help drones, self driving vehicles and robots in the future.

Can Inspector Gadget help us resist the temptation of transhumanism.

NASA Awards Contract for First Component of Gateway Station

In a talk at the Florida Institute of Technology on Thursday, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine announced that Maxar Technologies will build the first stage of NASA’s planned Lunar Gateway.

The Gateway, part of NASA’s larger Artemis program to return to the moon, is meant to be a waystation of sorts placed in a long orbit around the moon. It will provide a habitat for astronauts while they prepare to embark on longer missions, including moon landings, and serve as a place to assemble the components of rockets and other equipment in space.

The first element to be built and tested is a propulsion system, to move it between orbits and make sure it doesn’t drift away. Maxar (a new company formed from several veteran space industry players) is being awarded up to $375 million to build the system, which will convert solar power to electrical energy to power the Gateway, as well as provide propulsion, communication, and docking capabilities.

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Maxar won because of the cost different (almost $200M) and willingness to accept NASA T&Cs on the contract without further negotiation on the matter.

Almost One Third of Chinese Cities are Shrinking

The perception that China’s urbanisation is still in full swing is untrue for nearly one-third of Chinese cities, whose populations are shrinking, according to new findings by a Chinese university.

A research team from Tsinghua University used satellite imagery to monitor the intensity of night lights in more than 3,300 cities and towns between 2013 and 2016. In 28 per cent of cases, the lights had dimmed.

China now has 938 shrinking cities, according to Long Ying, an urban planning expert at China’s Tsinghua University, who founded and led the research group, Beijing City Lab. This is more than any other nation on Earth.

The findings are indicative of declining populations and economic activity across almost one-third of the cities monitored, at a time when official economic data also shows that China is facing significant economic and demographic challenges.

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Stealth Saga #48

Sixth Generation Fighters:

The USAF successfully shot down multiple missiles using a laser meant for self defense of fighters at WSMR.

The US Navy next generation fighter may not be 6th gen and will DEFINITELY not be developed with the USAF.

Lockheed thinks the 6th gen may have lasers as weapons.

Airbus expects the Franco-German FCAS to be delayed due to export issues.

The Swedes are negotiating to join the British Tempest jet project.

F-3:

Lockheed and the US gov has offered Japan the source code to the F-35 avionics as part of the F-3 deal with Lockheed.  The tech transfer offer is pretty deep, actually.

MAGMA:

The flapless UAV has flown.

Hunter-B/Ohotnik-B:

The Hunter-B was present for Putin and to be seen by the US.

Supposedly, the Ohotnik-B's first flight has been delayed a year, but it is a rumor rather than citable.

OTOH, Tass claims the Ohotnik-B did a 'hop.'

Su-57:

The Russians are claiming the engine for the Su-57 has entered serial production.

Russia is willing to offer Turkey the Su-57 if the F-35 deal falls through.

Putin was escorted by 6 Su-57s on the way to Astrakhan.

Putin says Russia will buy 76 Su-57 by 2028.

J-XY:

The engine for China's new carrier aircraft under development apparently has been completed.

J-20:

The Chinese are in the midst of their own budgetary wars: the J-11 and J-20 programs are apparently fighting over funding.

The J-20 may have FOC declared this year.

Model 401:

Could the Model 401 be used as a (partial) A-10 replacement?

B-21:

There has been a big burst of construction at the facility at Edwards AFB where the B-21 will soon start testing.

B-2:

The cockpit of a B-2 was filmed and here are some callouts.

Watch a B-2 drop the MOAB.

F-22:

F-22s intercepted Russian nuclear bombers off the coast of Alaska multiple days in a row.

The 24 F-22 elephant walk was only doable because of a checklist change.

F-22 shots at an airshow are impressive.

Watch from inside an F-22 cockpit.

Lockheed won an $18.5M contract for the F-22.

F-35:

The US House of Representatives appropriation committee added 12 F-35As to the budget.  The SASC bill wants another 2 35Bs and 2 35Cs on top of that.

The F-35 AGCAS has been cleared for introduction.

Parts problems are delaying F-35 production.

The GAO has released a report on the F-35 sustainment: the low F-35 mission readiness is due to a lack of spare parts.

The Lot 12 production contract is expected to be final this summer.

The Pentagon is looking for replacement parts for those made in Turkey.

USAF F-35As have deployed to the Middle East for the first time.

USAF F-35As have conducted air strikes for the first time.  They did so with radar reflectors and external missiles mounted to increase their RCS.

USAF F-35As participated in a prolonged air defense exercise.

The 65th Aggressor Squadron will be stood up at Nellis AFB and use the earliest F-35s.

The standup of the 5th F-35A wing at Luke AFB has been delayed by 18 months.

A USAF F-35A was spotted in the Middle East with a single missile on a wing.  An odd configuration.

The F-35A will probably go to the Paris airshow.

USAF F-35As have deployed to Aviano in Italy.

USAF F-35As in the Middle East are shown deployed in 'beast mode.'

The USS Essex acted as a mini carrier with its load of F-35Bs.

The USS America (LHA-6) will forward deploy to Japan alongside the USS Essex.

The USMC Commandant talks about the 'lightning carrier' concept, using the LHD and LHAs as light carriers.

The USMC is folding the F-35B into its island hopping strategies.

The USMC has conducted its first elephant walk with 20 F-35Bs.

A USMC F-35B suffered a bird strike in Japan.

US Navy F-35Cs are finding new roles.

The USN's new anti radiation missile is making good progress and the USAF F-35As will also get the weapon.

The US Navy has deactivated the VFA-101 Grim Reapers.

British F-35Bs will fly at the Yeovilton airshow.

British F-35Bs deployed to Cyprus for their first overseas training.

Because Canada is already a partner in the F-35, their requirements for workshare for their CF-18 replacement may exclude the F-35 from the competition: Canada wants more local industry participation in the new fighter, but the agreement for who gets what work share in the F-35 is not renegotiatable.  Canada may bend the rules for the F-35.

Greece is considering the F-35 to replace the F-16.

Israel will "share" its operational experience with the F-35 with Britain and the US.

Japan is reassuring the US they will continue buying the F-35.

Japan stated its F-35s made 7 precautionary landings prior to the loss of its fighter.

The US Navy's blackbox hunter has joined the search for the downed Japanese F-35A.  The US and Japan are confident the F-35 lost will not be recovered by China or Russia.  The US military walked back the claim the F-35A wreckage had been found.  The canopy and the blackbox were found.  The US Navy has stopped looking for the wreckage.

The Japanese Izumo and Kaga are being converted to being F-35B aircraft carriers.  Some oppose this.

There has been no further word on the F-35A Japan lost.  A sub rescue ship and a USAF U-2 joined the search when it was happening.

The F-35 program has been coming under fire in South Korea over the offset portion and induction of the first F-35 has been delayed as a result.

Turkey is claiming if they will not participate in the F-35 program, the program will collapse.  Turkey is eying its options if it does lose the F-35 and have announced they are starting to jointly develop aircraft with the Russians.  The US House of Representatives has an early spending bill barring Turkey from buying the F-35.  The crisis is deepening because Turkey is supposed to take delivery of their first S-400 missiles by July.  Erdogan claims Turkey will eventually get the F-35.  the US Senate bill will ban Turkey from getting the F-35 ever if they receive the S-400.  Turkey had claimed they thought the negotiations were getting better.

Turkey's TCG Andalou, an amphibious ship intended to carry F-35Bs, has had a fire in its bow on April 29.

Lockheed has developed a new missile rack to allow the F-35 A and C models to carry 6 AMRAAM missiles internally compared to the four now.

Lockheed is hoping that new suppliers for the F-35A will help reduce the aircraft price significantly.

Lockheed saw its bottom line increase in large part due to the F-35.

Lockheed got a $117 million contract for spare parts for the F-35.

Lockheed has received a $1.1 billion contract from the US Navy for the F-35.

Lockheed is pitching F-35Cs armed with hypersonic missiles.

Northrop has benefited from the increased F-35 work.

Pratt & Whitney got a $200M contract for long lead items for the F-35 engines and another contract for another $53M.

Bezos Unveils Lunar Lander, Moon Plans and Vision Beyond

The richest man in the world also unveiled the new BE-7 engine, which is set to undergo testing this summer.

The event was clearly designed to re-introduce Blue Moon to the public and policy makers, and to position Blue Origin for NASA contracts to deliver astronauts and supplies to the lunar south pole.

During the presentation, Bezos took several shots at rival billionaire Elon Musk’s plans to settle Mars. It will be interesting to see of the SpaceX founder responds in some way to Bezos’ taunts.

The Red Planet is too far away to serve as a “Planet B” if Earth’s environment continues to decline. Mining the moon for resources and constructing floating space colonies will allow humanity to continue to grow and preserve Earth’s environment, Bezos said.

Blue Origin had earlier tweeted a photo of Ernest Shackleton’s ship, Endurance, which the famed British explorer used on one of his expeditions to Antarctica. This had fed speculation that Bezos would announce a mission to a crater named after Shackleton at the lunar south pole.

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China Expected to Establish Overseas Military Bases (more than just Myanmar, Sudan and Djibouti)

The US Defence Department expects China to add military bases around the world to protect its investments in its ambitious One Belt One Road global infrastructure programme, according to an official report released on Thursday (May 2).

Beijing currently has just one overseas military base, in Djibouti, but is believed to be planning others, including possibly Pakistan, as it seeks to project itself as a global superpower.

“China’s advancement of projects such as the ‘One Belt, One Road’ Initiative (OBOR) will probably drive military overseas basing through a perceived need to provide security for OBOR projects,” the Pentagon said in its annual report to Congress on Chinese military and security developments.

“China will seek to establish additional military bases in countries with which it has a longstanding friendly relationship and similar strategic interests, such as Pakistan, and in which there is a precedent for hosting foreign militaries,” the report said.

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Terminator Times #58

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones):

The CIA and US military are using a new missile that does not explode.  Instead, it releases blades to minimize civilian damage.

DARPA wants to teach UAVs to dogfight.

DARPA has cancelled the Lockheed Ares UAV due to costs.

The US military is pushing ahead with its suicide drones.

The US Army is trying, again, to procure a rucksack portable drone.

The USAF wants an unmanned air taxi to recover its downed pilots.

The USMC is still trying to sort out what it wants the MUX drone to do, but still wants it to fly in 2026.

The USMC is adding autonomous landing to its AH-1Z and UH-1Ys.

The USMC is working on a recon drone launchable from the V-22.

The US Navy's Triton UAV costs are growing according to the GAO.

The US Navy will soon use unmanned logistics elements.

U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division has completed the first training course for the BQM-177.

US SOCOM has ordered a VTOL version of the long endurance Vanilla 001.

Algeria conducted its first drone strikes using a El Djazair 54 UAV.

Australia is expecting to release the RFP for the Shadow replacement soon.

The British MAGMA drone demonstrated flap-free flight.

China claims to have developed a UAV launching armored vehicle.

Italy is buying drones to keep Piaggio in business even though the Italian air force does not want them.

In Libya, a Russian UAV was recovered.

Will the Russian army buy UAVs with hydrogen fuel cells?

Russia's Ohotnik-B/Hunter-B was on display for Putin and to send a message.

Saudi Arabia stated two suicide drones attacked its oil pumping station in Riyadh and the Saudis called it a war crime.  The Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia by drone are stepping up.

Turkey's Aksungur UAV has made its first trade show debut.

Turkey is delivering loitering munitions to its allies in Syria.

UAE owned, Chinese made Wing Loongs are making air strikes in Libya.

AeroVironment is demonstrating its Quantix drone in possible military roles.

Boeing's MQ-25 demonstrator was trucked to MidAmerica airport to prepare for flight testing. That testing could start in a month.   The Phantom Works developed a new type of electronically steerable antenna to be first used on the MQ-25.

Flyability has launched its Elios 2 UAV.

Hood Tech Mechanical has developed a VTOL launch and recovery system.

Boeing's Insitu won a $23M contract.

Kratos has teamed up with Aerovironment to test deploying smaller drones from drones.

LaFlamme Aero has developed a tandem rotor VTOL UAV.

Lockheed Martin added a tether to its Indago 3 quadcopter.

Northrop will be outsourcing much of its Firebird optionally manned aircraft production.  The tech for the Firebird is rapidly maturing.

Roketstan has developed a small missile for UAVs.

Silent Falcon is seeking more Pentagon work for its solar powered UAVs.

TAI is planning its Goksungur supersonic UAV.

Threod is developing a direction finder for its VTOL UAV.

UAVOS is testing a helicopter UCAV.

The military UAV industry is working to purge hobbyist parts from its supply chain.

Unmanned Ground Vehicles (Ogres and Bolos):

The US Army tested UGVs for breaching defenses such as mines, obstacles and trenches.

Estonia has deployed a THEMIS UGV to Mali with its soldiers.

Pratt Miller has debuted its Light Flexible Robotic Platform UGV.

Two versions of Pratt Miller EMAVs were evaluated by the US Army.

Unmanned Surface Vehicles (roboats):

The US Navy is moving forward with its unmanned future.

The US Navy is planning an aggressive unmanned warship prototyping effort.

The Sea Hunter continues its testing at NAVSEA.

When will the US Navy be able to autonomously destroy mines?

Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (robo subs):

DARPA has laid out its goals for the Manta Ray autonomous UUV.

The US Naval Research Lab developed the Flying Sea Glider, a UUV that flies to its deployment area and then becomes a sea glider.

The US Navy's Virginia Block VI SSN will carry UUVs.

Software Bots:

The US Army is trying to fold its AI research into its forces.

The USMC is pushing ahead with experimenting and integrating into AI.

The Su-25SM3 will utilize a software bot for targeting.

3d Printing:

The aluminum runway mat from the Vietnam era is getting replaced by a 3d printed one.

META:

Can the Pentagon convince Silicon Valley its AI will be ethical in war?

The US Navy wants a common control system for its unmanned vehicles.  Raytheon may have that interface.

The US Navy has been working on a algorithm to allow drones and missiles to coordinate a swarming attack.

The US & Croatia have been working on teaming USVs and UUVs.

SpaceX Crew Dragon Failed a Parachute Test

A test of parachutes for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft did not go as planned last month, NASA and SpaceX confirmed May 8.

During a hearing of the House Science Committee’s space subcommittee on NASA’s exploration plans, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) quizzed agency officials on the testing of parachutes for commercial crew vehicles, zeroing in on a specific, previously undisclosed test in April.

“Did SpaceX conduct, in April of 2019, a parachute test in Delamar Dry Lake, Nevada?” he asked. “What happened in that test?”

“The test was not satisfactory,” responded Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations and one of the witnesses at the hearing. “We did not get the results we wanted, but we learned some information that’s going to affect, potentially, future parachute designs.”

In that test, one of the four parachutes was “proactively failed” to demonstrate the “single-out” capability of the overall system. However, he said, “the three remaining chutes did not operate properly.” That caused a test sled to hit the ground faster than expected, damaging it.

link.

China, Russia are FAR Ahead of the US for Modernizing Their Nuclear Weapons

China and Russia had their money on winning asymmetric advantages in conventional and nuclear forces in the last decade, and now the United States is playing catch-up in modernizing its sea, air and land nuclear forces, the Pentagon’s top policy official said Wednesday.

David Trachtenberg, the Pentagon’s deputy undersecretary for policy, said the United States put off modernizing the three legs of its nuclear deterrent for almost 20 years, he told USNI News following a presentation at the Brookings Institution.

“In the 2000s, we skipped a generation” in modernizing the triad – ballistic missile submarines, bombers and ballistic missiles. He added that the United Kingdom and France, both nuclear powers and NATO allies, reduced their weapons stockpiles while continuing to modernize their nuclear forces during that same time. The United Kingdom has sea-based ballistic missile submarines; France has both submarines and aircraft capable of delivery of nuclear weapons.

link.