That’s right, kick off this long weekend by watching this amazing high-def video of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter ops out of Edwards Air Force Base in Calif.
Enough said.
Click through the jump for the video.
Continuing it’s tradition of reverse engineering and fabricating its stockpile of 40-year old American weaponry, Iran annoucned that it is about to unviel its first ever domestically produced Cobra attack choppers.
Yup, nearly 50-years after the U.S. introduced the Cobra, Iran has figured out how to make its own. Kinda reminds me of Iran’s Saeqeh fighter jet — a Northrop F-5 knock of featuring some Iranian modifications and a paint job that resembles the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels’ color scheme. The Iranian army flies American-made AH-1J Sea Cobras — some of which have been rebuilt in Iran as the Panha 2091 — that were delivered before the 1979 revolution.
Iran’s locally-grown Cobras will be armed with “different types of home-made caliber guns, rockets and missiles,” according to Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency. Yup, “different types of home-made” weapons. Apparently, these home-made weapons and other modifications to the Cobra design will make it “preferable to Apache Choppers (sic).” I’m shaking.
Here’s more from a rather amusing press release, er news article, put out by FARS on the new choppers. Pay attention to the last sentence, it says Iran’s military is purely defensive and shouldn’t be seen as a threat to anyone. This might be a small sign that Tehran is trying to slowly cool down the big nuclear-weapons related imbroglio it’s in with the U.S. and Israel.
TEHRAN (FNA)- The Iranian Army plans to unveil and put into operation Iran’s first home-made Cobra chopper in special wargames of the Army’s Airborne unit in the near future, a senior commander announced on Wednesday.
Speaking to FNA, Lieutenant Commander of the Army’s Ground Force Brigadier General Kioumars Heidari said that the unit would unveil the national military chopper in the special airborne exercises to be held in the near future.
As regards the capabilities of the national chopper, the commander stated, “The chopper is an advanced generation of Model 209, or Cobra, choppers which is also equipped with different types of home-made caliber guns, rockets and missiles.”
“All the phases of designing and manufacturing of the chopper have been done inside the country and the helicopter enjoys some capabilities which make it preferable to Apache Choppers,” Heidari said.
The commander further announced that different types of anti-chopper and anti-armor weapons will be tested in the wargames.
Iran has taken wide strides in designing and manufacturing different types of light, semi-heavy and heavy weapons, military tools and equipment. Tehran launched an arms development program during the 1980–88 Iraqi imposed war on Iran to compensate for a US weapons embargo. Since 1992, Iran has produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles and fighter planes.
Yet, Iranian officials have always stressed that the country’s military and arms programs serve defensive purposes and should not be perceived as a threat to any other country.
Thanks to 4FingerofBourbon for the tip.
Let’s celebrate Memorial Day weekend a little bit early with this incredible late afternoon picture of a 14-mile wide crater on Mars that was just beamed back to NASA by the Mars Rover, Opportunity — which has been on Mars for a loooooong time; like, since 2004. That’s nearly 3,000 Martian-days, according to NASA. Yes, Martian days. They’re officially called sols, FYI.
Here’s what NASA has to say:
The rover used the panoramic camera (Pancam) between about 4:30 and 5:00 p.m. local Mars time to record images taken through different filters and combined into this mosaic view.
Most of the component images were recorded during the 2,888th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity’s work on Mars (March 9, 2012). At that time, Opportunity was spending low-solar-energy weeks of the Martian winter at the Greeley Haven outcrop on the Cape York segment of Endeavour’s western rim. In order to give the mosaic a rectangular aspect, some small parts of the edges of the mosaic and sky were filled in with parts of an image acquired earlier as part of a 360-degree panorama from the same location.
Opportunity has been studying the western rim of Endeavour Crater since arriving there in August 2011. This crater spans 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter, or about the same area as the city of Seattle. This is more than 20 times wider than Victoria Crater, the largest impact crater that Opportunity had previously examined. The interior basin of Endeavour is in the upper half of this view.
The mosaic combines about a dozen images taken through Pancam filters centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers (near infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet). The view is presented in false color to make some differences between materials easier to see, such as the dark sandy ripples and dunes on the crater’s distant floor.
That’s right. A fire burned for 10-hours last night aboard the nuclear-powered Los Angeles class attack submarine, USS Miami, while she was in drydock at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Me.
All we know now is that seven people were hurt fighting the fire and that the blaze was contained to her forward spaces while the aft engineering spaces were sealed off and unaffected by the fire. Fire departments from tiny towns around the base responded but eventually, a foam truck from Boston’s Logan Airport — more than an hour away — had to be called in to extinguish the blaze.
From Portsmouth Patch:
The fire was reported at 5:41 p.m. Wednesday,and was extinguished about 10 hours later at 3:48 a.m. on Thursday, according to the shipyard. The nuclear propulsion spaces were physically isolated early in the event from the forward compartment fire and remained safe and stable throughout the event.
Capt. Bryant Fuller, the shipyard’s commander, said there were no weapons on board, and all personnel were accounted for.
Seven people were injured in the blaze, according to the shipyard, including three shipyard firefighters, two ship’s force crew members, and two civilian firefighters providing support. All seven were treated and released and were said to be doing well.
Fuller said firefighters from numerous Seacoast communities, including Portsmouth, Kittery, York and South Berwick, provided mutual aid. An engine and foam truck were requested from Logan Airport in Boston. State, local and federal authorities were also notified.
It’ll be interesting to see what that repair bill looks like.
The Miami, an improved LA class boat commissioned in 1990, arrived at the yard on March 1 for maintenance work. We’ll let you know if we hear anything about the cause of the fire.
UPDATE: Here’s the Navy’s official statement on the incident:
Statement from Rear Admiral Rick Breckenridge, Commander, of Submarine Group Two in Groton, Connecticut:“Late yesterday afternoon, USS MIAMI experienced a fire in the submarine’s forward compartment.“Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Fire Department and Ship’s force, along with mutual assistance from several other area fire departments, immediately responded and successfully extinguished the fire on USS MIAMI. I repeat, the fire is out.“The fire and subsequent damage was limited to the forward compartment spaces only which includes crew living and command and control spaces. The nuclear propulsion spaces were physically isolated from the Forward Compartment early during initial response.
“The ship’s reactor has been shut down for over 2 months and remained in a safe and stable condition throughout the event. The propulsion spaces remained habitable and were continuously manned through the night.
“There were no weapons on board in the torpedo room.
The fire spread to spaces within the submarine that were difficult to access. The heat and smoke contained in these confined spaces made it challenging for fire-fighters to combat the blaze.“I want to emphasize that the heroic actions of the firefighting teams averted what could have been a much more severe situation. As a result of their quick and effective response, the fire was contained and brought under control.
“We greatly appreciate the strong support received from our state and local partners who assisted us throughout this event.
“All of USS MIAMI’s crew and the personnel supporting work and recovery efforts on the submarine are accounted for.
“Seven people were injured during the fire-fighting response. However, their injuries were minor in nature. The injured personnel included three Portsmouth Naval Shipyard fire-fighters; two ships force crew members; and two civilian fire-fighters providing support. These personnel were either treated on-scene or transported to a local medical facility for further treatment and all have been released. So all injured personnel have been released and are in good shape. There were no casualties in this fire.
“Again, the response of the shipyard and the community fire-fighters has been exceptional. Their efforts clearly minimized the severity of the event. They immediately took actions to stabilize the situation, protect the public, and limit the impact to the environment.
“So we are now moving forward with recovery actions.
The shipyard remains open for normal business and the workforce will report to work as scheduled.
A full investigation has begun to determine the cause of the fire. We will continue to provide updates later today as more information becomes available.
For now I need to get back to my responsibilities in the command center.”
Here you have it, the Marine Corps’ first training variant (well, kinda) F-35B Joint Strike Fighter taking off on its maiden flight from the F-35 schoolhouse at Eglin Air Force Base, Fl., yesterday.
Keep in mind that the Marines were supposed to be flying their short take-off and vertical landing F-35Bs operationally by this year. However, production delays, redesigns and cost overruns mean that the Marines, along with everyone else who is buying F-35s, aren’t likely to be flying their jets operationally until the latter half of this decade.
Click here for the F-35 programs most recent flight test update.
