Air Force // Current

Confirmed: Air Force Flunks Nuke Inspection

It's confirmed: The atomic missile team at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana "failed its nuclear surety inspection"... more

hsaleem
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Air Force aims to 'rewrite laws of cyberspace'

The Air Force is fed up with a seemingly endless barrage of attacks on its computer networks from stealthy adversaries whose... more

Pericles1978
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Plane door falls off mid flight

A military plane's door fell off mid flight. The incident occurred on the refuelling plane as it flew from Suffolk to... more

ClareW
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Nuke missile silo fire went undetected

A fire caused $1 million worth of damage at an unmanned underground nuclear launch site last spring, but the Air Force didn't find out about it until five days later, an Air Force official said Thursday.

The May 23 fire burned itself out after an hour or two, and multiple safety systems prevented any threat of an accidental launch of the Minuteman III missile, Maj. Laurie Arellano said. She said she was not allowed to say whether the missile was armed with a nuclear warhead at the time of the fire.

Arellano said the Air Force didn't know a fire had occurred until May 28, when a repair crew went to the launch site — about 40 miles east of Cheyenne, Wyo., and 100 miles northeast of Denver — because a trouble signal indicated a wiring problem.

She said the flames never entered the launch tube where the missile stood and there was no danger of a radiation release.

The fire, blamed on a faulty battery charger, burned a box of shotgun shells, a shotgun and a shotgun case that were kept in the room, Arellano said. A shotgun is a standard security weapon at missile silos.

Arellano said the battery chargers at all U.S. missile launch site have been replaced.

She said the incident wasn't reported sooner because of the complexity of the investigation.

The damage from the fire was estimated at $1 million, including the cost of replacing damaged equipment and cleanup.

An Air Force report of the incident released Thursday found flaws in the technical orders for assembling battery charger parts, inspection procedures and modifications of the launch complex ventilation system. It was also critical of the presence of flammable materials.

Cheyenne Mayor Jack Spiker, who said he learned of the incident when contacted by a reporter Thursday, said the fire doesn't undermine his confidence in the safety of the missile operations.

"It's rare that they have an accident, and the accidents have never really, that I know of, amounted to much because of the safety devices that are built into the system," he said.

The revelation was the latest in a string of embarrassing missteps involving the nation's nuclear arsenal. In 2006, four electrical fuses for ballistic missile warheads were mistakenly shipped to Taiwan, and in 2007, a B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear-tipped missiles when it flew between Air Force bases in North Dakota and Louisiana.

The Air Force announced last week it was setting up a new Global Strike Command to better manage its nuclear-capable bombers and missiles. A fire caused $1 million worth of damage at an unmanned underground nuclear launch site last spring, but the Air Force didn't... more

BuddyP
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15 responses

19 days ago

Local TV News: UFOs Over Texas!

Unidentified Flying Objects. Over a three-month period this summer there were 1,000 UFO sightings filed with the National UFO... more

CTC411dotcom
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1 response

19 days ago

US accidentally misplaces nuclear weapons and equipment

The US Air Force (USAF) is planning to set up a new Global Strike Command for its nuclear weapons as part of a re-organisation... more

InformedTexan
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29 responses

25 days ago

Japan Self-Defense Force Air Review 2008 (photos)

Photographs from the Japan Self-Defense Force Air Review 2008 on Sunday, October 19, 2008 in Hyakuri Air Base in Ibaraki, Japan.

ebindelglass
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29 days ago

Iraq Vets attacked at last debate

IVAW members arrested while attempting to present questions to Obama and McCain One hour before the final presidential debate... more

leoniDb
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12 responses

1 month ago

Cyber Command: US Air Force Digital Warrior Unit

The official website for Cyber Command : http://www.afcyber.af.mil/ " The US Air Force has decided to pursue forming Cyber... more

EddieStarr
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0 responses

1 month ago

Air Force Synthetic Fuel Test Flight - Video of Biofuels in Air Force

The airforce has green jet fuel on lock down. This has a video of the flight as well folks... check it out.

starr111
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0 responses

1 month ago

Bush to Withdraw 8,000 Troops in Iraq by February

The White House says President George Bush has decided to withdraw about 8.000 U.S. troops from Iraq by next February and that he... more

Moopak
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19 responses

2 months ago

USAF Laser - The New Napalm?

In science fiction, it's one zap of a laser gun, and you're dead. But real-life energy weapons likely won't work... more

SushiBandit
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1 response

2 months ago

F-15 flys mach 2 on alternative fuels

Last week the USAF tested one of their F-15 fighter jets with an alternative synthetic fuel for a cleaner ride. The fuel was a... more

mgreener
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22 responses

3 months ago

Laser Airship

Boeing has test fired an airborne laser gun that can fire with pinpoint accuracy. Welcome to the future, where chemical lasers... more

devo64
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3 months ago

US boasts of laser weapon's 'plausible deniability'

An airborne laser weapon dubbed the "long-range blowtorch" has the added benefit that the US could convincingly deny any involvement with the destruction it causes, say senior officials of the US Air Force (USAF).

The Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) is to be mounted on a Hercules military transport plane. Boeing announced the first test firing of the laser, from a plane on the ground, earlier this summer.

Cynthia Kaiser, chief engineer of the US Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate, used the phrase "plausible deniability" to describe the weapon's benefits in a briefing (powerpoint format) on laser weapons to the New Mexico Optics Industry Association in June.
Plausibly deniable

John Corley, director of USAF's Capabilities Integration Directorate, used the same phrase to describe the weapon's benefits at an Air Armament Symposium in Florida in October 2007.

As the term suggests, "plausible deniability" is used to describe situations where those responsible for an event could plausibly claim to have had no involvement in it.

Corley and Kaiser did not respond to requests from New Scientist to expand on their comments. But John Pike, analyst with defence think-tank Global Security, based in Virginia, says the implications are clear.

"The target would never know what hit them," says Pike. "Further, there would be no munition fragments that could be used to identify the source of the strike."
Silent strike

A laser beam is silent and invisible. An ATL can deliver the heat of a blowtorch with a range of 20 kilometres, depending on conditions. That range is great enough that the aircraft carrying it might not be seen, especially at night.

With no previous examples for comparison, it may be difficult to discern whether damage to a vehicle or person was the result of a laser strike.

The 5.5-tonne ATL combines chlorine and hydrogen peroxide molecules to release energy, which is used in turn to stimulate iodine into releasing intense infra-red light.

The US uses Hercules aircraft for accurate cannon strikes on moving vehicles. The ATL is touted as bringing a new level of accuracy to such attacks, for example being able to pinpoint a vehicle's tyres to disable it safely.

A second, larger version of the laser is also nearing initial testing. The much larger Airborne Laser is intended for missile defence and will be carried by a Boeing 747.An airborne laser weapon dubbed the "long-range blowtorch" has the added benefit that the US could convincingly deny any... more