Austal Lays Keel for Future USNS Trenton

Wikipedia photo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USNS_Trenton_(JHSV-5)

A ceremony celebrating the laying and authentication of the keel of the future USNS Trenton (JHSV 5) was held at the Austal USA shipyard, yesterday.

USNS Trenton (JHSV-5) will be a Spearhead-class joint high speed vessel. Spearhead-class ships are used to support overseas operations, conduct humanitarian aid, disaster relief, and support special operations forces. These type of vessels also have an aviation flight deck and can operate in shallow waters.

The JHSV is capable of interface with roll-on/roll-off discharge facilities, features an off-load ramp and a flight deck, and has a shallow draft of less than 15 feet. Its speed and ability to access austere port environments, as well as the size and versatility of its cargo capabilities, makes the JHSV an extremely flexible asset for support of a wide range of operations.The fourth ship to be named after New Jersey’s capital city, JHSV 5 honors the values and the men and women of the city as well as the state of New Jersey. USNS Trenton will be owned and operated by Military Sealift Command (MSC), operating within MSC’s Sealift program. She will be manned by a crew of 22 civil service mariners with military mission personnel embarking as required.

Chinese PLAAF No. 2011 J-20 fighter - up close and personal

Some photos seem to be Computer Generated, but good enuf to find out the detailed features of this stealth aircraft that will prowl the skies.


What is the yellow fan like thing just above the engine?

Belly weapons bay

What Radar is in that nose cone ?

Pilot Cockpit - Single seater.
Weapon bay just beside the pilot

Another weapon bay under the canards.

With Afterburners. What is the yellow fan like thing?

With Afterburners.What is the yellow fan like thing?

Tail Section

Weapons bay. Will investige on what missile goes in there.

Ukrainian-made 3D radar 36D6-M for S-300 missile system delivered to Vietnamese Army at the port of Saigon

Internet pictures released yesterday shows the delivery of Ukrainian-made 3D search radar ST68UM (36D6-M) in the port of Saigon, Vietnam.

The S-300PMU1 mobile multichannel air defence missile system can defeat modern and future aircrafts, strategic cruise missiles, tactical battlefield ballistic missiles and other targets with a reflection surface up to 0.02 sq. m. flying at speeds up to 2.800 m/s in massive enemy air raids and heavy clutter and severe ECM environments.

Chinese media has reported extensively on the up gradation and modernization of Vietnamese Armed Forces and the political, military, security, and economic relations Vietnam is developing with Russians, Americans, Japanese ,Indians , Australians and the Philippines.

This radar can be used with anti-aircraft missile complexes, as the Russian made S-300 surface-to-air defense missile system.Vietnamese government had ordered two batteries of S-300PMU1 to Russia, including a total of 12 launchers and 72 missiles in 2003 under a bilateral agreement.

The S300PMU1 is an advanced version of the first variant of the S-300 family air defense missile.The S-300PMU1 air defense missile system can simultaneously engage up to 36 air targets by 72 missiles.
The 36D6-M mobile radar system is designed to detect air targets and to perform the friend-or-foe identification. The radar system is able to provide targeting and bearing of active jamming, integrated computer-aided systems of control and guidance of antiaircraft guided missile complexes.

The 36D6-M can detect flying targets to a maximum range of 115 km at flight altitude of 1,000m.In November 2013, Vietnam and Russia signed 17 agreements aimed at boosting political, military and trade ties while increasing cooperation in the energy sector.Russia's exports to Vietnam are dominated by oil products, machinery and weapons. Among the latter are fighter planes and six Kilo-class, cruise missile-equipped submarines, the first of which is due to be delivered to the Vietnamese navy early next year under a $2 billion deal signed in 2009. Two more of the Kilo-Class submarines will be delivered in 2014, Vietnamese state media has reported.

European Union - Battle Group live firing training exercises training camp Grafenwoehr Germany

World Navies Intensify Search for Malaysia Airlines plane lost in 'unprecedented mystery'

Search intensified for the Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, which lost radar signal in the early hours of Saturday, when it was flying over the Ho Chi Minh air  traffic control area in Vietnam.

Chinese warship Mianyang has arrived in the waters suspected to be the crash site.The Australian Navy has sent two RAAF AP-3C Orion aircraft to Malaysia which were also joined by US Navy - USS Pinckney (DDG 91) and USNS John Ericsson (T-AO-194). Vietnam, Malaysia and Thai navy ships have already been searching for the wreckage of the missing aircraft.

A senior Malaysian investigator involved in preliminary investigations in Malaysia said the failure to find any debris indicated the plane may have broken up mid-flight, which could disperse wreckage over a very wide area.

China to deliver Myanmar strategic HQ-12 missiles by June 2014

Myanmar armed forces has signed a contract last year to buy 4 system of air defense missile midrange KaiShan 1A (also known as KS-1A), export variant of the Hongqi-10 (HQ-12) of China, to equip a regiment of air defence.

With this agreement, Myanmar has become the first foreign country to use anti-aircraft missile system KS-1A.The missile delivery lot is expected to be delivered to Myanmar in June this year.

Soviet TU-95 Bomber Aircraft For Sale on eBay, Ad disappears after some time

The eBay ad, before it disappeared . Seems to be a fallout of the confusion currently in Ukraine.

A Soviet-era bomber aircraft "in very good condition" has been put up for sale on the internet auction site eBay, with a starting price of only $3m (£1.8m).The Tupolev TU-95MS has flown for just over 454 hours of the 5,000 hours it is capable of, according to the posting, and bears the insignia of both the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian air force.


Wikipedia refence says Ukraine has one Tu-95
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-95

 Ukraine

• 1 Tu-95MS in museum.^[32]
• Ukrainian Air Force: Retired from military service.

We could trace back the plane to be auctioned to this museum:

http://www.doroga.ua/poi/Poltavskaya/Poltava/Muzej_daljnej_aviacii/1304

Is this the same plane that is up for Auction?

http://www.doroga.ua/Handlers/ContentImageHandler.ashx?CatalogPOIContentImageID=5624&Size=Big

http://www.doroga.ua/Handlers/ContentImageHandler.ashx?CatalogPOIContentImageID=5622&Size=Big

DARPA conducts Successful EXCALIBUR Test of Compact High Energy Lasers

 Target at a distance of 7 kilometers (4.3 miles of US readers) precisely hit with Compact High Energy Lasers.

The Optical Phased Array (OPA) used in these experiments consisted of three identical clusters of seven tightly packed fiber lasers, each cluster measures only 10 centimeters across.

According to Joseph Mangano, DARPA program manager, the agency is planning to scale up the design over the next three years, ultimately transmitting up to 100 kilowatts of power – levels otherwise difficult to achieve in such a small package.The successful demonstration helps advance Excalibur’s goal of a 100-kilowatt-class laser system in a scalable, ultra-low SWaP OPA configuration compatible with existing weapon system platforms. Continued development and testing of Excalibur fiber optic laser arrays may one day lead to multi-100 kilowatt-class High-energy lasers (HEL) in a package 10 times lighter and more compact than legacy high-power laser systems.

More details about the project:
http://www.darpa.mil/Our_Work/MTO/Programs/EXCALIBUR.aspx