Air Force

Air Force Chief Foresees Decades More of US Wars

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“We’ve been deploying now for 15 years, we’ve probably got 15, 20 years to go,”

And maybe in 15, 20 years the F-35 would be fully operational, were it not for planned WW3, which will prevent this from happening.

– Air Force Chief Foresees Decades More of US Wars:

air-force-chief-of-staff-gen-david-goldfein

In comments yesterday at a spouse and family forum, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein discussed the growing number of airmen being deployed abroad for longer periods of time, saying that this problem is going to continue for decades to come.

“We’ve been deploying now for 15 years, we’ve probably got 15, 20 years to go,” Gen. Goldfein warned.

This wasn’t just about the current wars, either, as the general laid out some of the new deployments against new enemies, citing a “resurgent Russia and China” as driving future deployments.

Read moreAir Force Chief Foresees Decades More of US Wars

“It’s Going To Take Years”: US Air Force Calls For Ground Troops To “Occupy And Govern” Iraq, Syria

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AirForce

– “It’s Going To Take Years”: US Air Force Calls For Ground Troops To “Occupy And Govern” Iraq, Syria:

 

One thing you might have noticed of late is that Washington seems to be preparing the US public for the possibility that the Pentagon is going to put “boots on the ground” in Syria and by “boots on the ground,” we mean more than 50 “advisors.”

Indeed, it’s the same story in Iraq and as we noted after the release of helmet cam footage depicting an ISIS prison raid in the northern Iraqi town of Huwija late last month, releasing battlefield GoPro shots is probably i) an effort to convince whatever partners the US has left in the Mid-East that Washington is still effective at “fighting” terror, and ii) a prelude to stepped up ground ops. 

Read more“It’s Going To Take Years”: US Air Force Calls For Ground Troops To “Occupy And Govern” Iraq, Syria

U.S. Air Force: HAARP No Longer Needed To Control Ionosphere

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– Air Force prepares to dismantle HAARP ahead of summer shutdown (Alaska Dispatch, May 14, 2014):

FAIRBANKS — The U.S. Air Force gave official notice to Congress Wednesday that it intends to dismantle the $300 million High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program in Gakona this summer.

The shutdown of HAARP, a project created by the late Sen. Ted Stevens when he wielded great control over the U.S. defense budget, will start after a final research experiment takes place in mid-June, the Air Force said in a letter to Congress Tuesday.

The University of Alaska has expressed interest in taking over the research site, which is off the Tok Cutoff in an area where black spruce was cleared a quarter-century ago for the Air Force backscatter radar project that was never completed. But the school has not volunteered to pay $5 million a year to run HAARP.

Responding to questions from Sen. Lisa Murkowski during a Senate hearing Wednesday, David Walker, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for science, technology and engineering, said this is“not an area that we have any need for in the future” and it would not be a good use of Air Force research funds to keep HAARP going. “We’re moving on to other ways of managing the ionosphere, which the HAARP was really designed to do,” he said. “To inject energy into the ionosphere to be able to actually control it. But that work has been completed.”

Read moreU.S. Air Force: HAARP No Longer Needed To Control Ionosphere

USAF Dismantling HAARP, Admits They Can Control Ionosphere (Video)

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– USAF Dismantling HAARP, Admits They Can Control Ionosphere (Video) (Before It’s News, May 15, 2014):

via ADN by Dermot Cole

The U.S. Air Force gave official notice to Congress Wednesday that it intends to dismantle the $300 million High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program in Gakona this summer.

The shutdown of HAARP, a project created by the late Sen. Ted Stevens when he wielded great control over the U.S. defense budget, will start after a final research experiment takes place in mid-June, the Air Force said in a letter to Congress Tuesday.

Responding to questions from Sen. Lisa Murkowski during a Senate hearing Wednesday, David Walker, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for science, technology and engineering, said this is “not an area that we have any need for in the future” and it would not be a good use of Air Force research funds to keep HAARP going. “We’re moving on to other ways of managing the ionosphere, which the HAARP was really designed to do,” he said. “To inject energy into the ionosphere to be able to actually control it. But that work has been completed.”

Read moreUSAF Dismantling HAARP, Admits They Can Control Ionosphere (Video)

Air Force Grounds Squadrons Of Fighter Jets, Drones Due To Shut Down

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– Air Force Grounds Squadrons Of Fighter Jets, Drones Due To Shut Down (ZeroHedge, Oct 2, 2013):

Hopefully Great Britain doesn’t get the idea of finally reclaiming its rebellious colonies lost over two hundred years ago, because the US certainly is making it easy. As part of the numerous non-essential services shut down in the current government funding crisis, Foreign Policy reports that the Air Force’s Air Combat Command (ACC) – home to the service’s fighter jets, B-1 bombers and most of its drones and spyplanes — has grounded squadrons that are not set to deploy abroad after January.

“If you’re on to the hook to deploy before January, we’re saying go ahead and train,” ACC spokesman Lt. Col. Tadd Sholtis told FP. However, if a unit is waiting until after that, its aircraft will remain on the ground. A striking example of this can be found at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. None of the 366th Fighter Wing’s squadrons of F-15E Strike Eagles are slated to deploy before January. This means the only fighters based at Mountain Home flying this fall are the F-15SGs of the Singaporean air force that are permanently stationed there. Interestingly, German and Canadian air force jets are also flying out of the Idaho base on training deployments of their own.

Read moreAir Force Grounds Squadrons Of Fighter Jets, Drones Due To Shut Down

Empty F-16 Jet tested By Boeing And US Air Force

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– Empty F-16 jet tested by Boeing and US Air Force (BBC News, Sep 24, 2013):

Boeing has revealed that it has retrofitted retired fighter jets to turn them into drones.

It said that one of the Lockheed Martin F-16 made a first flight with an empty cockpit last week.

Two US Air Force pilots controlled the plane from the ground as it flew from a Florida base to the Gulf of Mexico.

Read moreEmpty F-16 Jet tested By Boeing And US Air Force

F-22 Fighter Jet Program Produces Few Planes, Costs Are Exploding

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From the article:

“The system is totally broken and everybody knows it”
– Sherman Mullin, retired former Lockheed F-22 program chief

The F-35 is also a total disaster:

– Test Pilots: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Blind Spot Will Get It ‘Gunned Every Time’

– Pentagon Grounds F-35 Fighter Jet Fleet After Engine Crack Found

– F-35 (Ironically Known As ‘Lightning II’) Fatal Flaw: Lightning!

– Trillion-Dollar F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Jet Has Thirteen Expensive New Flaws

Delays, technical glitches and huge cost overruns in the Air Force’s F-22 fighter jet program highlight the Pentagon’s broken procurement process.


A Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor in flight during flight tests. (Lockheed Martin)

– F-22 program produces few planes, soaring costs (LA Times, June 16, 2013):

When the U.S. sought to assure Asian allies that it would defend them against potential aggression by North Korea this spring, the Pentagon deployed its top-of-the-line jet fighter, the F-22 Raptor.

But only two of the jets were sent screaming through the skies south of Seoul.

That token show of American force was a stark reminder that the U.S. may have few F-22s to spare. Alarmed by soaring costs, the Defense Department shut down production last year after spending $67.3 billion on just 188 planes — leaving the Air Force to rely mainly on its fleet of 30-year-old conventional fighters.

“People around the world aren’t dumb,” said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita). “They see what we have. They recognize that our forces have been severely depleted.”

Read moreF-22 Fighter Jet Program Produces Few Planes, Costs Are Exploding

U.S. Air Force One Step Closer To Global Strike Capability As Experimental Aircraft Exceeds Mach 5 (Video)

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– US Air Force one step closer to global strike capability as experimental aircraft exceeds Mach 5 (RT, May 3, 2013):

The US Air Force completed a nearly decade-long test program this week with the successful launch of an unmanned aircraft into hypersonic velocity, flying at more than five times the speed of sound.

Air Force officials announced Friday that the X-51A WaveRider flew for more than three minutes Wednesday, a one point hitting a speed of Mach 5.1, according to the Associated Press. The successful flight marked a turning point for the X-51A, which was designed with scramjet technology that’s capable of delivering weapons strikes around the world in only minutes.

The aircraft was designed to reach Mach 6 (six times the speed of sound) but the Air Force deemed Wednesday’s flight a success because the previous three attempts either ended in highly publicized failures or failed to reach the desired top speed.

Read moreU.S. Air Force One Step Closer To Global Strike Capability As Experimental Aircraft Exceeds Mach 5 (Video)

That’s No Train! U.S. Air Force Eyes Subway for Nuclear Missiles

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This subway tunnel in Japan carries commuters. The Air Force is eying one that carries nukes.

– That’s No Train! Air Force Eyes Subway for Nuclear Missiles (Wired, March 14, 2013):

The Air Force wants to upgrade its aging nuclear missiles and the hundreds of underground silos that hold them. One idea it’s exploring: the construction of a sprawling network of underground subway tunnels to shuttle the missiles around like a mobile doomsday train. As one does.

As first reported by Inside Defense, the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center will award several study contracts next month worth up to $3 million each to research the idea. A broad agency announcement from the Air Force describes the hair-raising concept, intended to keep the weapons secure through 2075, as a system of tunnels where nuclear missiles are shuttled around on rails or some undefined “trackless” system.

The advantage of the world’s deadliest subway: During an atomic holocaust, mobile missiles are harder for an adversary to target than a static silo. Missiles could be positioned at launch holes placed at “regular intervals” along the length of the tunnels.

Read moreThat’s No Train! U.S. Air Force Eyes Subway for Nuclear Missiles

U.S. Air Force Quietly Removes Drone Strike Statistics From Website

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– AF removes RPA airstrike number from summary (Air Force Times, March 8, 2013):

As scrutiny and debate over the use of remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) by the American military increased last month, the Air Force reversed a policy of sharing the number of airstrikes launched from RPAs in Afghanistan and quietly scrubbed those statistics from previous releases kept on their website.

Last October, Air Force Central Command started tallying weapons releases from RPAs, broken down into monthly updates. At the time, AFCENT spokeswoman Capt. Kim Bender said the numbers would be put out every month as part of a service effort to “provide more detailed information on RPA ops in Afghanistan.”

The Air Force maintained that policy for the statistics reports for November, December and January. But the February numbers, released March 7, contained empty space where the box of RPA statistics had previously been.

Additionally, monthly reports hosted on the Air Force website have had the RPA data removed — and recently.

Read moreU.S. Air Force Quietly Removes Drone Strike Statistics From Website

Air Force To Stealth Fighter Pilots: Get Used To Coughing Fits

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An F-22 takes off on a training flight last month. Photo: Air Force

– Air Force to Stealth Fighter Pilots: Get Used to Coughing Fits (Wired, Feb 25, 2013):

The Air Force has some bad news for the pilots of its F-22 Raptor stealth fighters: Your planes are going to make you feel crappy and there’s not much anyone can do about it. And the message to the maintainers of the radar-evading jet is even more depressing. Any illness they feel from working around the Raptor is apparently all in their heads, according to the Air Force.

Those admissions, buried in newly released Congressional records, represent the latest twist in the years-long saga of the F-22′s faulty oxygen system, which since at least 2008 has been choking pilots, leading to confusion, memory loss and blackouts — combined known as hypoxia — that may have contributed to at least one fatal crash. Ground crews have also reported growing sick while working around F-22s whose engines are running.

The Air Force claims its has a handle on the in-flight blackouts. All 180 or so F-22s are having faulty filters removed and new backup oxygen generators installed. There have also been changes to the G-suits pilots wear. But the Air Force says the alterations won’t do anything to fix the so-called “Raptor cough,” a chronic condition afflicting almost all F-22 pilots.

Read moreAir Force To Stealth Fighter Pilots: Get Used To Coughing Fits

U.S. Air Force Releases Terrifying Video Of Tiny Flybots That Can Hover, Stalk And Even Kill Targets

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– Death from a swarm of tiny drones: U.S. Air Force releases terrifying video of tiny flybots that can can hover, stalk and even kill targets (Daily Mail, Feb 20, 2013):

  • Air Vehicles Directorate at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, is already developing prototypes of tiny drones that can hover
  • The Micro Air Vehicles will work in swarms to provide complex surveillance of a battlefield
  • They can also be armed with incapacitating chemicals, combustible payloads or even explosives ‘for precision targeting capability’

The U.S. Air Force is developing tiny unmanned drones that will fly in swarms, hover like bees, crawl like spiders and even sneak up on unsuspecting targets and execute them with lethal precision.

The Air Vehicles Directorate, a research arm of the Air Force, has released a computer-animated video outlining the the future capabilities of Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs).

The project promises to revolutionize war by down-sizing the combatants.

‘MAVs will become a vital element in the ever-changing war-fighting environment and will help ensure success on the battlefield of the future,’ the narrator intones.

‘Unobtrusive, pervasive, lethal – Micro Air Vehicles, enhancing the capabilities of the future war fighter.’

Read moreU.S. Air Force Releases Terrifying Video Of Tiny Flybots That Can Hover, Stalk And Even Kill Targets

Air Force Launches Mysterious X-37B Space Plane … AGAIN

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– Air Force launches mysterious X-37B space plane … again (NBC News, Dec 11, 2012):

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — An Atlas 5 rocket sent the Air Force’s X-37B mini-shuttle on its first repeat flight on Tuesday, kicking off a months-long classified mission reportedly aimed at testing advanced spy satellite sensors.

Despite earlier concerns about the weather at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the launch went off on time, just after 1 p.m. ET.

One-fourth the size of the real space shuttle, the X-37B has captured the imaginations of everyone from amateur satellite trackers to potential military rivals. The X-37B can orbit Earth for months, then re-enter the atmosphere and land autonomously.

Read moreAir Force Launches Mysterious X-37B Space Plane … AGAIN

Newly Released Drone Records Reveal Extensive Military Flights in US

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– Newly Released Drone Records Reveal Extensive Military Flights in US (Electronic Frontier Foundation, Dec 5, 2012):

View EFF’s new Map of Domestic Drone Authorizations in a larger window.

Today EFF posted several thousand pages of new drone license records and a new map that tracks the location of drone flights across the United States.

These records, received as a result of EFF’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), come from state and local law enforcement agencies, universities and—for the first time—three branches of the U.S. military: the Air Force, Marine Corps, and DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency).

Read moreNewly Released Drone Records Reveal Extensive Military Flights in US

Former Health Minister Of Finnland Dr. Rauni Kilde: MIND CONTROL (Video)

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Start watching from 03:50 into the video.

For my German speaking readers: The translation is terrible, but still better than nothing.

Related info:

– Former Royal Navy Microwave Weapons Expert And UK Intelligence Services Agent Dr. Barrie Trower: Dangers And Lethality Of Microwave Technology (Video – 2:19:36)

– Former Royal Navy Microwave Weapons Expert: NWO TECHNOLOGY UPDATE – Deadly Mobile Phones & The Worst Genocide Ever Committed – The Dangers Of Wi-Fi To Women And Children (Video)


YouTube

CHAMP (Counter-Electronics High-Powered Advanced Missile Project) – Lights Out: ‘Today We Made Science Fiction Science Fact’ (Video)

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– CHAMP – lights out (Boeing, Oct 22, 2012):

Cruising fast over the Western Utah Desert, a lone missile makes history at the Utah Test and Training Range. The missile, known as CHAMP, or Counter-electronics High-powered Advanced Missile Project may one day change modern warfare, by defeating electronic targets with little or no collateral damage.

On Oct. 16th at 10:32 a.m. MST a Boeing Phantom Works team along with members from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Directed Energy Directorate team, and Raytheon Ktech, suppliers of the High Power Microwave source, huddled in a conference room at Hill Air Force Base and watched the history making test unfold on a television monitor.

Power is cut to a room of computers after being hit by a high-powered microwave pulse from a Counter-electronics High-powered Advanced Missile Project.

CHAMP approached its first target and fired a burst of High Power Microwaves at a two story building built on the test range. Inside rows of personal computers and electrical systems were turned on to gauge the effects of the powerful radio waves.

Read moreCHAMP (Counter-Electronics High-Powered Advanced Missile Project) – Lights Out: ‘Today We Made Science Fiction Science Fact’ (Video)

U.S. Air Force Sprays Pesticides In Florida

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(Source: US Air Force) This is the type of plane that will be used in the Miami-Dade Mosquito spraying.

– Low Flying Plane Is On A Mosquito Mission (CBS News, July 10, 2012):

MIAMI – Skeeters a problem? Lots of people think so, so Miami-Dade officials are calling in the cavalry;well, actually, the Air Force to kill the biting pests and their breeding grounds. However, the attack may come as a surprise because of how low the spraying planes fly.

Read moreU.S. Air Force Sprays Pesticides In Florida

The Drone Zone: U.S. Air Force Drone Pilots Train To Track Civilian Cars

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– The Drone Zone (New York Times, July 6, 2012):

Holloman Air Force Base, at the eastern edge of New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range, 200 miles south of Albuquerque, was once famous for the daredevil maneuvers of those who trained there. In 1954, Col. John Paul Stapp rode a rocket-propelled sled across the desert, reaching 632 miles per hour, in an attempt to figure out the maximum speed at which jet pilots could safely eject. He slammed on the brakes and was thrust forward with such force that he had to be hauled away on a stretcher, his eyes bleeding from burst capillaries. Six years later, Capt. Joseph Kittinger Jr., testing the height at which pilots could safely bail out, rode a helium-powered balloon up to 102,800 feet. He muttered, “Lord, take care of me now,” dropped for 13 minutes 45 seconds and broke the record for the highest parachute jump.

Today many of the pilots at Holloman never get off the ground. The base has been converted into the U.S. Air Force’s primary training center for drone operators, where pilots spend their days in sand-colored trailers near a runway from which their planes take off without them. Inside each trailer, a pilot flies his plane from a padded chair, using a joystick and throttle, as his partner, the “sensor operator,” focuses on the grainy images moving across a video screen, directing missiles to their targets with a laser.

Holloman sits on almost 60,000 acres of desert badlands, near jagged hills that are frosted with snow for several months of the year — a perfect training ground for pilots who will fly Predators and Reapers over the similarly hostile terrain of Afghanistan. When I visited the base earlier this year with a small group of reporters, we were taken into a command post where a large flat-screen television was broadcasting a video feed from a drone flying overhead. It took a few seconds to figure out exactly what we were looking at. A white S.U.V. traveling along a highway adjacent to the base came into the cross hairs in the center of the screen and was tracked as it headed south along the desert road. When the S.U.V. drove out of the picture, the drone began following another car.

“Wait, you guys practice tracking enemies by using civilian cars?” a reporter asked. One Air Force officer responded that this was only a training mission, and then the group was quickly hustled out of the room.

Read moreThe Drone Zone: U.S. Air Force Drone Pilots Train To Track Civilian Cars

Poisoned F-22 Raptor Stealth Fighter Pilots Face New Nightmare: Air Force Bureaucracy Attacks

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F-22 Raptor stealth fighter

– Poisoned Fighter Pilot Faces New Nightmare: Air Force Bureaucracy (Wired, May 11, 2012):

The Air Force is continuing disciplinary action against one of the Air Force pilots who refused to fly the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter because the pricey jet’s faulty oxygen system was steadily poisoning him. Capt. Josh Wilson, from the Virginia Air National Guard, has been granted whistleblower protection under federal law — a status the Air Force has publicly acknowledged. But that hasn’t stopped the flying branch from beginning a process that may very well threaten to end the pilot’s career.

Wilson and Maj. Jeremy Gordon, also a Raptor pilot with the Virginia Guard, stopped flying the $400-million-per-copy F-22 after they and dozens of other pilots reported in-flight symptoms consistent with oxygen deprivation, including confusion and blackouts. The Air Force temporarily grounded some or all of its roughly 180 Lockheed Martin-made Raptors twice last year so it could study the jet’s onboard oxygen generator.

When the flying branch failed to pinpoint the problem, as a stopgap measure it installed an extra carbon filter in the F-22′s oxygen system then ordered the pilots back in the air for an intensifying program of training exercises and deployments. But the carbon filter was faulty, too, and shed black dust into the pilots’ masks. F-22 fliers began coughing up black phlegm. Ground crews who spent time in the Raptor’s cockpit also reported symptoms. Air Force doctors advised the aviators to stand down.

Wilson and Gordon were the only pilots who refused to get back into the cockpit — that we know of. But in an interview broadcast Sunday the pilots told 60 Minutes that a “vast, silent majority” of the Air Force’s 200 or so Raptor fliers feared for their health or their lives. Gordon’s flight qualification soon expired. Wilson, the younger and less experienced of the two, faced a harsher punishment. The Air Force sent him a letter of reprimand that Frederick Morgan, the two pilots’ Ohio-based lawyer, says is just the first step in a potentially career-ending disciplinary process.

In addition to seeking legal counsel, Wilson and Gordon appealed to Rep. Adam Kinzinger, himself an Air Force pilot, for protection under the federal whistleblower law. Kinzinger and Sen. Mark Warner issued a letter Thursday urging the military not to mess with these pilots — or any others that bring up problems with the Raptor.

“We need to make sure there is a culture in which others feel safe coming forward,” Warner wrote.

Read morePoisoned F-22 Raptor Stealth Fighter Pilots Face New Nightmare: Air Force Bureaucracy Attacks

U.S. Air Force Drones Can Now ‘Accidentally’ Spy on You

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– Air Force Drones Can Now (Accidentally) Spy on You (Wired, May 8, 2012):

As long as the Air Force pinky-swears it didn’t mean to, its drone fleet can keep tabs on the movements of Americans, far from the battlefields of Afghanistan, Pakistan or Yemen. And it can hold data on them for 90 days — studying it to see if the people it accidentally spied upon are actually legitimate targets of domestic surveillance.

The Air Force, like the rest of the military and the CIA, isn’t supposed to conduct “nonconsensual surveillance” on Americans domestically, according to an Apr. 23 instruction from the flying service. But should the drones taking off over American soil accidentally keep their cameras rolling and their sensors engaged, well … that’s a different story.

“Collected imagery may incidentally include US persons or private property without consent,” reads the instruction (.pdf), unearthed by the secrecy scholar Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists. That kind of “incidental” spying won’t be immediately purged, however. The Air Force has “a period not to exceed 90 days” to get rid of it — while it determines “whether that information may be collected under the provisions” of a Pentagon directive that authorizes limited domestic spying.

In other words, if an Air Force drone accidentally spies on an American citizen, the Air Force will have three months to figure out if it was legally allowed to put that person under surveillance in the first place.

Read moreU.S. Air Force Drones Can Now ‘Accidentally’ Spy on You

U.S. Air Force Pilots Refuse To Fly F-22 Over Safety Fears

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– Air Force pilots refuse to fly F-22 over safety fears (AFP, May 5, 2012):

WASHINGTON — Two F-22 pilots say they have stopped flying the US Air Force’s most advanced fighter jet because of safety fears over the aircraft’s oxygen system, according to a CBS television “60 Minutes” report.

The F-22 Raptor was grounded last year after a spate of incidents with pilots suffering dizzy spells and blackouts in the air. The plane was cleared for flying in September 2011 but engineers are still trying to solve what appears to be a problem with the jet’s oxygen supply.

The pilots, Major Jeremy Gordon and Captain Josh Wilson, told the “60 Minutes” program they stopped flying in January, citing safety concerns over a lack of oxygen.

Asked if he believes the jet is safe, Gordon said: “I’m not comfortable answering that question. I’m not comfortable flying in the F-22 right now,” according to excerpts from the interview, due to be aired on Sunday.

“The onset of (hypoxia) is insidious. Some pilots will go the entire mission, land and not know anything went wrong,” Gordon is quoted as saying.

The two pilots, who both served in the Iraq war, have sought legal protection as “whistleblowers” from a Republican lawmaker from Illinois, Adam Kinzinger.

The pilots were from the Air National Guard, officials said.

Read moreU.S. Air Force Pilots Refuse To Fly F-22 Over Safety Fears

US Drone Crashes At Seychelles Airport … As US Draws Up Plans For Nuclear-Powered Drones

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See also:

–  US Draws Up Plans For Nuclear-Powered Drones

What could possibly go wrong?

– US drone crashes at Seychelles airport (Telegraph, Apr 5, 2012):

A US Air Force drone crash-landed at a Seychelles airport, the second remote-controlled aircraft to go down in the African island nation in four months.

A statement from the US Embassy said the unmanned, unarmed MQ-9 Reaper aircraft crashed near the Seychelles International Airport Runway on Wednesday, causing no injuries.

Read moreUS Drone Crashes At Seychelles Airport … As US Draws Up Plans For Nuclear-Powered Drones

Afghan Air Force (Established Largely With American Funds) Probed in Drug And Illegal Weapons Running

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See also:

– Afghanistan: Heroin Production Rose Between 2001 And 2011 From Just 185 Tons To A Staggering 5,800 Tons/Year

– War On Drugs Revealed As Total Hoax: US Military Admits To Guarding, Assisting Lucrative Opium Trade In Afghanistan:

But after 9/11, the US military-industrial complex quickly invaded Afghanistan and began facilitating the reinstatement of the country’s poppy industry. According to the United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP), opium cultivation increased by 657 percent in 2002 after the US military invaded the country under the direction of then-President George W. Bush

– CIA, Heroin Still Rule Day in Afghanistan

In other news:

– Investigation launched into claims Afghan Air Force used military aircraft to transport drugs and illegal weapons (Daily Mail, Mar 8, 2012)

– Afghan Air Force Probed in Drug Running (Wall Street Journal, Mar 10, 2012):

KABUL—The U.S. is investigating allegations that some officials in the Afghan Air Force, which was established largely with American funds, have been using aircraft to ferry narcotics and illegal weapons around the country, American officials told The Wall Street Journal.

Two probes of the Afghan Air Force, or AAF, are under way—one led by the U.S. military coalition and another by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, officials said.

“The nature of the allegations is fairly dramatic and indicated that [AAF officials] were transporting drugs on aircraft and transported weapons not owned by the government of Afghanistan for the use of private groups,” said U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Daniel Bolger, commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Training Mission-Afghanistan, the command that is establishing and financing Afghan security forces, including the AAF.

Gen. Bolger cautioned that the investigation was still preliminary and the allegations couldn’t be proved at this stage.

As part of the inquiry, the military also is looking into whether the alleged transporting of illegal drugs and weapons was linked to an April incident in which an AAF colonel gunned down eight U.S. Air Force officers at Kabul Airport. In a 436-page report released by the U.S. Air Force in January about the killings, several American officials are quoted as mentioning that the shooter, Col. Ahmed Gul, was likely involved in the transportation of illicit cargo and wanted to shut down a probe into it.

Read moreAfghan Air Force (Established Largely With American Funds) Probed in Drug And Illegal Weapons Running