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Today: 80 articles and 211 comments as of 12:09.
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Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Opinion        Politix   
ISIS Fighters Claim Pakistan Funded Them
Today's Headlines
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Lynch confirms career DoJ attorneys involved in Hildebeest email probe
[FOX] Legal experts say the assignment of career Justice Department attorneys to the case shows the FBI probe has progressed beyond the initial referral, or "matured," giving agents access to the U.S. government's full investigative tool box, including subpoena power for individuals, business or phone records, as well as witnesses.

The Associated Press reported earlier this month that career lawyers were involved, but Lynch's comments are the most expansive to Congress.

"If the FBI makes the case that Hillary Clinton mishandled classified information and put America's security at risk, will you prosecute the case?" Republican Congressman John Carter asked Lynch during a budget hearing.

"Do you know of any efforts underway to undermine the FBI's investigation? And please look the American people in the eye and tell us what your position is as you are the chief prosecutor of the United States," Carter pressed.

Lynch replied, "...that matter is being handled by career independent law enforcement agents, FBI agents as well as the career independent attorneys in the Department of Justice. They follow the evidence, they look at the law and they'll make a recommendation to me when the time is appropriate."
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/25/2016 09:23 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No need to appoint an independent special prosecutor and make the process political, we'll handle everything here at DoJ and control the release of public information, the media and news leaks.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/25/2016 9:33 Comments || Top||

#2  They have special role of sand in the gears.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 02/25/2016 9:34 Comments || Top||

#3  The same career attorneys who squashed the Black Panther Voter Intimidation case in fact.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/25/2016 9:51 Comments || Top||

#4  Top men.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/25/2016 10:00 Comments || Top||

#5  ...that matter is being handled by career independent law enforcement agents, FBI agents as well as the career independent attorneys in the Department of Justice.

The multiple use of the phrase 'career independent' is quite telling. Something akin to a menu entry of....'Jumbo shrimp Jumbo'
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/25/2016 10:05 Comments || Top||

#6 
Posted by: regular joe || 02/25/2016 10:38 Comments || Top||

#7  Oopsie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIjZE4kcg_Q
Posted by: regular joe || 02/25/2016 10:39 Comments || Top||

#8  Is this the same Department of Justice career independent lawyers that, despite the Inspector General's recommendation to prosecute Humanity Abadi for embezzelment, refused to do so? Ain't gonna happen.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 02/25/2016 13:39 Comments || Top||

#9  What is "career"? They got tenure? Or are the rest now part time due to Obamacare somehow? Or they outsource a lot?
Posted by: KBK || 02/25/2016 17:21 Comments || Top||

#10  I am confident that considering the evidence already public that most DOJ attorneys are spending there time looking for legal reasons not to pursue Hillary or any of her cronies.
Posted by: Airandee || 02/25/2016 19:35 Comments || Top||


Failed St. Louis VA Chief Got Plush Job, Free House in Philippines
[DAILYCALLER] Rima Nelson disappeared from public view after the St. Louis Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital she managed potentially exposed 1,800 patients to HIV, was closed twice for serious medical safety issues and ranked dead last in patient satisfaction.

But Nelson wasn't fired. Her VA superiors hid her literally on the other side of the Earth in 2013 at the department's only foreign facility, a seldom-used clinic inside the palatial U.S. Embassy in the Philippines capital city of Manila.

She resides in a government-provided condo and gets the same $160,000 salary she made in St. Louis, which allows her to live like royalty in a country where the average person makes only $2,500 a year.

The Manila VA office provides outpatient care and disability checks to the few surviving Filipino World War II veterans who fought alongside Americans against the Japanese. The occasional American veteran who happens to be in the country can also get outpatient care in the Manila VA facility.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Napoleon died in exile on Saint Helena in the southern Atlantic Ocean. Just say'n.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/25/2016 6:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeah, remember the news and 49Pan's Philly hit squad report from yesterday.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/25/2016 10:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Look at the list of malefactors and what 'happened' to them. It isn't Civil Service or SES.

It's demographics.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/25/2016 20:43 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Army To Roll Out Better Body Armor, Combat Shirt In 2019
In 2019 the Army expects to roll out a new, lighter body armor system. The armor will provide at least as much protection as today's system, but with more comfort, and greater flexibility to adjust based on the mission, Army officials said.
Maybe it will be like the Aztec's armor and be made of feathers?
The Torso and Extremities Protection, or TEP, program cleared the engineering and development phases last summer, and will move into a few years of limited production and testing. During that time and beyond, technology advances may be integrated.

Already, improved ballistics materials have allowed the Army to cut the weight of TEP, when compared to the Army's current heavy-duty option, the Improved Outer Tactical Vest. The IOTV, when loaded with heavy plates, weighs about 31 pounds, while a comparable TEP system checks in at about 23 pounds, or 26 percent lighter.
OK, maybe lots of feathers.
"That's the main mantra of this program: to be the next generation of body armor at a lighter weight," said Lt. Col. Kathy Brown, the program manager for Soldier Protection and Individual Equipment at Program Executive Office Soldier.

Brown said the Army pushed with industry to reduce weight while meeting future threats. In addition, the ability to add and subtract different elements and plate inserts in the vest, is a real "highlight," Brown said. .In addition to TEP, the Army is developing new body armor plates and a new head protection system.

Soldier feedback has already played a major role in development of TEP, Brown said. Trials by soldiers at three different installation, as well as by Marines and special operations units, provided design advice and feedback. Brown said that ultimately helped produce a system earning a 95 percent positive feedback.

"One great aspect of the Soldier Protection System is we really listened to the voice of the customer, the soldier," Brown said. "Based on feedback from the soldier we were able to make design changes."
Posted by: gorb || 02/25/2016 13:21 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe it will be like the Aztec's armor and be made of feathers?

Feathers are just mutated scales and scales make dragons immune to everything up to AP rounds, so yeah - nano-scale composite feathers.

The important thing is they come in girl's sizes.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/25/2016 14:35 Comments || Top||

#2  The poster is more PR/PC than real.
They didn't label the built-in tourniquets.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/25/2016 16:24 Comments || Top||


Free to a good home: Horses who have served their country
[STRIPES] They have served in a role almost unique in the U.S. military, that of the caisson horse.

Caisson horses pull coffins to burials at Arlington, bringing former officers and service members killed in action in America's wars to their grave sites with haunting uniformity and precision.

The choreographed procession, led by a riderless horse, is one of the most solemn and stylized rituals in the nation.

Kennedy and Quincy performed it about eight times a day, every other week, in every sort of weather. But since they are now unsuitable - Quincy, an 11-year-old quarter horse, is having trouble with his feet because of navicular disease, and Kennedy, a 15-year-old Standardbred, acted out too many times - members of the public have the rare opportunity to adopt a caisson horse.

The horses will go free to two lucky new owners, but the vetting process is strict. Smith said that a herd manager from the Army will travel to prospective homes to make sure the horses find suitable places to spend the rest of their days.

Applicants can visit the horses on Tuesdays at Fort Myer, the Army installation adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery. The six-page application, available online, asks questions including, "How often do you think a horse should be wormed?" and "If you go on vacation, what would you do with this animal? If you had to move, what would you do with this animal?"
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Feed me, water and care for me,
and when the day's work is done,
provide me with a shelter,
a pasture large enough for me
to run, romp and play.
Talk to me, your voice often means
as much to me as the reins.
Pet me sometime that I may serve you
more gladly and learn to love you.
Never strike, beat, or kick me when I don't understand what you want,
but give me a chance to understand you.

And finally oh master,
when my youthful strength is gone,
do not turn me out to starve or freeze,
or sell me to some cruel owner
to be slowly tortured or stoned to death,
but do thou, my master,
take my life in the kindest way, and
your God will reward you here and hereafter.
You will not consider me irreverent
if I ask this in the name of Him who was born in a stable...

Amen...


Posted by: Slusort Unoluth4317 || 02/25/2016 0:23 Comments || Top||

#2  That was lovely, Slusort Unoluth4317. Thank you.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/25/2016 19:29 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Khurasan private university will provide free education to 120 students in Nangarhar
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Khurasan University (KU) which is a private educational institution will provide free education to 120 students in Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
KU President said during a presser on Wednesday that he has requested the education directorate of Nangarhar to identify outstanding boys and girls to him who graduated from 12th grade in the educational year 1394.

Ahmad Farouq Kamal added that these students would be granted admission to the engineering, economic and computer science faculties.

Kamal also offered a 50 percent discount for all girls who have graduated from 12th grade in the same year and desire to continue their studies.

Deputy Governor Mohammad Hanif Gardiwal who also attended the presser in Nangarhar Governor House Media and Information Office praised Khurasan University for its unique step for promoting education.

Gardiwal encouraged other private educational institutions to step forward and help those who are unable to proceed with their degrees for economic reasons or their marks did not match the areas of education they selected during the last Kankor 'university entry test' taken by the government.

Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
South Africa's economy 'in crisis'
h/t Gates of Vienna
The South African economy is 'in crisis' says the country's finance minister Pravin Gordhan.

The comments came ahead of his Budget speech, in which he cut the country's growth forecast for 2016 to 0.9%, down from 1.7%. He conceded the economy was struggling with shrinking growth, 25% unemployment, and widespread poverty.

The South African currency, the rand, which has halved over the past five years, fell after the speech. It dropped 2.25% to make one rand worth around $0.0639.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/25/2016 10:45 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gordham's solution sounds vaguely familiar. Senator Bernie Sanders to the white courtesy phone please, Bernie Sanders:

Pravin Gordhan, South Africa's finance minister, right, sits beside Jacob Zuma, South Africa's president, left, before delivering his 2016 budget speech to parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. Gordhan stuck to a pledge to bring down the budget deficit, targeting civil-servant jobs and increasing wealth taxes to stave off a credit-rating downgrade to junk.

Link
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/25/2016 11:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Moar SUBMARINES!
Posted by: SteveS || 02/25/2016 13:18 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Capriles: Recall vote or constitution amendment will stop social upheaval
[ELUNIVERSAL] During an interview with private TV news channel Globovisión, Miranda state governor Henrique Capriles said, "My proposal is a recall referendum or a constitutional amendment to avoid a social explosion or a coup," in reference to the current situation in Venezuela.
Recalling whom? The legislature or Maduro? Or both?
"The person who governs the country must be aware of the social reality and the needs of the population (...) We are not a middle-class nation. Most Venezuelans are poor," Capriles stressed.
That could be taken as a dig at Maduro...
Similarly, the governor noted that the country's social, economic and political "recovery" involves "a lot of effort and work."
It's getting a little late for "recovery" efforts. The first step is to round up all the Bolivarians. That isn't going to happen peacefully.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Careful. Sad Panda might take offense at your suggestion, Pink Mod
Posted by: Frank G || 02/25/2016 9:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Sad Panda is in the first cohort to go.

And it's salmon, dammit!
Posted by: Steve White || 02/25/2016 14:47 Comments || Top||


The Game Changed in Venezuela Last Night
– and the International Media Is Asleep At the Switch

Dear International Editor:

Listen and understand. The game changed in Venezuela last night. What had been a slow-motion unravelling that had stretched out over many years went kinetic all of a sudden.

What we have this morning is no longer the Venezuela story you thought you understood.

Throughout last night, panicked people told their stories of state-sponsored paramilitaries on motorcycles roaming middle class neighborhoods, shooting at people and storming into apartment buildings, shooting at anyone who seemed like he might be protesting.

People continue to be arrested merely for protesting, and a long established local Human Rights NGO makes an urgent plea for an investigation into widespread reports of torture of detainees. There are now dozens of serious human right abuses: National Guardsmen shooting tear gas canisters directly into residential buildings. We have videos of soldiers shooting civilians on the street.

And that’s just what came out in real time, over Twitter and YouTube, before any real investigation is carried out. Online media is next, a city of 645,000 inhabitants has been taken off the internet amid mounting repression, and this blog itself has been the object of a Facebook “block” campaign.

What we saw were not “street clashes”, what we saw is a state-hatched offensive to suppress and terrorize its opponents.

Here at Caracas Chronicles we’re doing what it can to document the crisis, but there’s only so much one tiny, zero-budget blog can do.

After the major crackdown on the streets of large (and small) Venezuelan cities last night, I expected some kind of response in the major international news outlets this morning. I understand that with an even bigger and more photogenic freakout ongoing in an even more strategically important country, we weren’t going to be front-page-above-the-fold, but I’m staggered this morning to wake up, scan the press and find…

Nothing.
Hat tip to a loyal Rantburg citizen on Facebook. Venezuela is about to crash and burn due to yet another failed attempt at socialism. Now that the Bolivarian Socialists have grabbed everything that can be looted (and now that Hugo's daughter is the richest person in South America), it's time for naked violence to keep the population down. A lot of innocent people are going to die.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/25/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And this is the state economic and social model that Bernie and his useful idiot supporters want to implement in the US.
Posted by: Lone Ranger || 02/25/2016 1:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Show this at the next bernie rally.
http://mobile.reuters.com/news/picture/venezuelas-crackdown-on-dissent?articleId=USRTR4SMY7
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/25/2016 2:43 Comments || Top||

#3  "Rule by Decree" Ain't Socialism grand?
Posted by: DepotGuy || 02/25/2016 2:46 Comments || Top||

#4  Gutted a country and its population for a few billion dollars.
Posted by: gorb || 02/25/2016 3:50 Comments || Top||

#5  this story on the original at the link is dated February 20, 2014

so it is 2 years old...

Thank you. Missed that. Aargh...
Posted by: anon1 || 02/25/2016 6:59 Comments || Top||

#6  Just remember Jimmy Carter 'certified' a fraud racked election. Virtue signalling on his part to avoid a potential civil war. The price has been paid for years now by the people of Venezuela and will continue to accrued interest.

That's the same Jimmy who didn't back the Shah of Iran, giving the world the resurgence of fundamental Islam, the hostages, the signal for the Russians to invade Afghanistan and the opening for Saddam to initiate the Iran-Iraq War, followed by the invasion of Kuwait. However, Jimmy was virtuous in not backing that strong man in Iran.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/25/2016 8:01 Comments || Top||

#7  The only thing Socialists concentrate on is perfecting a turd with another roach coach vendor with a license to Racketeer (RICO)

They take 90% of profit
Posted by: newc || 02/25/2016 8:02 Comments || Top||

#8  this story on the original at the link is dated February 20, 2014

so it is 2 years old...
Posted by anon1


Sir, Yes.
But the Lesson is Eternal.

There are two types of people: Those that use the law to enrich themselves, and those who are to pay for it.

If you Need Government, you lost any Moral Sovereign
Posted by: newc || 02/25/2016 8:14 Comments || Top||

#9  i agree with you. communism is evil. i do like public health care, being from australia we are used to it. also roads, fresh water, sanitation services and education.

plus police and military

but apart from that.... nothing should get funded. No public housing for a start. And no CGT tax - tax on inflation. No property taxes (if you buy it you own it, why should the govt charge you rent on what you own??)

However there is a point -- if you post stuff that is 2 years old, and it appears to be a crisis unfolding, maybe let the readers know the date so that they know it is not breaking news, of something happening right now.

otherwise people will be thinking Caracas is about to go up in flames ...
Posted by: anon1 || 02/25/2016 9:02 Comments || Top||

#10  There is no reason to treat 5% of an issue as 95% of the marketed bullshit. And eat everyone's money for a bullshit program that was bankrupt before it's start - MR $250 BRILLIANT in Un-funded Debt future. Time to ignore it and build a choooo chooooooo train to ignore this?
Posted by: newc || 02/25/2016 10:38 Comments || Top||

#11  That strategy worked on voters for the Affordable Care Act.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/25/2016 10:51 Comments || Top||

#12  No property taxes (if you buy it you own it, why should the govt charge you rent on what you own??)

Can't argue with that.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/25/2016 12:22 Comments || Top||

#13  But ACA is a cock up.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/25/2016 12:23 Comments || Top||

#14  There's lots of socialist water in Flint, Anon1, and lots of free education in LA, if you speak spanish.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/25/2016 12:59 Comments || Top||

#15  The fact the article is almost 2 years old is telling. It's just now getting out.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 02/25/2016 13:51 Comments || Top||

#16  Still screwed up:

Scroll down for English version of corruption chart
Posted by: KBK || 02/25/2016 17:37 Comments || Top||

#17  The If’s, When’s and How’s of Regime Change
Posted by: KBK || 02/25/2016 17:40 Comments || Top||

#18  I remember reading something like this, if not this article, possibly here at the 'Burg.

Seems like a couple weeks before that model was shot during protests

(looks it up)

Genesis Carmona, Feb 19, 2014.

Oh yeah, sort of like Neda in Iran, it was at the time a desperate attempt for any international recognition, in retrospect the last best chance.

Perhaps Sad Panda could enlighten me on dutiful reciprocity of action between two political groups not of the same moral obligations?

But yeah, it is remarkable so many sites, not just here, are just now seeing it for the first (remembered?) time.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/25/2016 18:39 Comments || Top||


Maduro accuses the US of launching a smear campaign in Bolivia
[ELUNIVERSAL] Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro accused the United States of waging a "smear campaign" against the President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, who might have lost a referendum which sought to extend his mandate.
Last I heard, he had lost...
Maduro stressed that Morales has won eight votes in the last 10 years with more than 60% of ballots. "This is the narrowest result ever," he asserted.

"A smear campaign was launched against Evo; he is the most honest leader America has even known, he is an upright leader who has been accused of nameless things. It has been an everyday campaign to destroy Evo and the project of the peoples," he added.

"Who is behind all of this? The empire (the US), which seeks to destroy all the independence processes," Maduro stated.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "He lost one round. Now we play best out of three"
Posted by: Frank G || 02/25/2016 9:13 Comments || Top||

#2  "A smear campaign was launched against Evo; he is the most honest leader America has even known"

Pure as the driven snow, he is. And if anyone was an expert on snow, it'd be Evo.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/25/2016 20:46 Comments || Top||


Economy
The Trickle of U.S. Oil Exports Is Already Shifting Global Power
It was a landmark moment for the beleaguered energy industry and one heavy with both symbolism and economic implications. The Theo T was ushering in a new era as it left the U.S. Gulf Coast bound for France.

The implications -- both financial and political -- for energy behemoths such as Saudi Arabia and Russia are staggering, according to Mark Mills, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute think tank and a former venture capitalist. "It's a game changer," he said.

For the Saudis and their OPEC cohorts, who collectively control 40 percent of the globe's oil supply, the specter of U.S. crude landing at European and Asian refineries further weakens their grip on world petroleum prices at a time they are already suffering from lower prices and stiffened competition. With Russia also seeing its influence over European energy buyers lessened, the two crude superpowers last week tentatively agreed to freeze oil output at near-record levels, the first such coordination in a decade and a half.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch,
U.S. LNG cargoes, in combination with a bevy of new gas projects in Australia, will probably add 15 billion cubic feet of daily supply to global markets in the next few years, Genscape's Michael said. That would be a 43 percent addition to the 35 billion currently bought and sold internationally.

"We will definitely replace Russia as the lowest-cost supplier," Fadel Gheit, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co., said of the U.S. expansion. "All of these things will have geopolitical and economic consequences. It's a win-win for the U.S. and the West."
In spite of 0bama. Who sez that America ain't still great? :-)
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/25/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Old World versus New World, North-SOuth Americas versus Eurasia, NORTH AMERICAN UNION [NAU]versus Darth Putin'S EURASIAN CUSTOMS UNION [EEU] ... ...

Espec to be the One-n-Only, World-acknowledged TRUE "MACKINDER'S WORLD ISLAND".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/25/2016 0:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Yet another 'game changer' would be the termination of the Champ regime's war on coal.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/25/2016 6:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Yet another 'game changer' would be the termination of the Champ regime's war on coal the US.

FIFY! ;-)
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 02/25/2016 9:02 Comments || Top||

#4  At this point, the Chinese are not buying the coal anyway. Shift all the money being put down the ethanol-wind-battery ratholes to clean coal and robotic mining research and reap the benefits in 10-20 years.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/25/2016 13:45 Comments || Top||

#5  The first LNG carrier left Texas yesterday.

Viva Fracking!
Posted by: Claising Flavimble5530 || 02/25/2016 18:39 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
This Is The Future Of The Us Navy's Aircraft Carriers
The Navy may consider alternative aircraft carrier configurations in coming years as it prepares for its new high-tech, next-generation carrier to become operational later this year, service officials have said.

The USS Gerald R. Ford is the first is a series of new Ford-class carriers designed with a host of emerging technologies to address anticipated future threats and bring the power-projecting platform into the next century.

Once its delivered, the new carrier will go through "shock trials" wherein its stability is testing in a variety of maritime conditions; the ship will also go through a pre-deployment process known as "post-shakedown availability" designed to further prepare the ship for deployment.

Navy leaders are now working on a special study launched last year to find ways to lower the costs of aircraft carriers and explore alternatives to the big-deck platforms.

The Navy study is expected to last about a year and will examine technologies and acquisition strategies for the long-term future of Navy big-deck aviation in light of a fast-changing global threat environment, service officials said.

Configurations and acquisition plans for the next three Ford-class carriers -- the USS Ford, USS Kennedy and USS Enterprise are not expected to change -- however the study could impact longer-term Navy plans for carrier designs and platforms beyond those three, service officials have said.

Although no particular plans have been solidified or announced, it seems possible that these future carriers could be engineered with greater high-tech sensors and ship defenses, greater speed and manueverability to avoid enemy fire and configurations which allow for more drones to launch from the deck of the ship.

They could be smaller and more manueverable with drones and longer-range precision weapons, analysts have speculated. At the same time, it is possible that the Ford-Class carrier could be adjusted to evolve as technologies mature, in order to accommodate some of the concerns about emerging enemy threats. Navy engineers have designed the Ford-Class platform with this ability to adapt in mind.

The service specifically engineered Ford-class carriers with a host of next-generation technologies designed to address future threat environments. These include a larger flight deck able to increase the sortie-generation rate by 33-percent, an electromagnetic catapult to replace the current steam system and much greater levels of automation or computer controls throughout the ship, among other things. The ship is also engineered to accommodate new sensors, software, weapons and combat systems as they emerge.

The ship's larger deck space is, by design, intended to accommodate a potential increase in use of carrier-launched technologies such as unmanned aircraft systems in the future.

The USS Ford is built with four 26-megawatt generators, bringing a total of 104 megawatts to the ship. This helps support the ship's developing systems such as its Electro-Magnetic Aircraft Launch System, or EMALS, and provides power for future systems such as lasers and rail-guns, many Navy senior leaders have explained. The USS Ford also needs sufficient electrical power to support its new electro-magnetic catapult, dual-band radar and Advanced Arresting Gear, among other electrical systems.

As technology evolves, laser weapons may eventually replace some of the missile systems on board aircraft carriers, Navy leaders have said.

"Lasers need to get up to about 300 kilowatts to start making them effective. The higher the power you get the more you can accomplish. I think there will be a combination of lasers and rail guns in the future. I do think at some point, lasers could replace some existing missile systems. Lasers will provide an overall higher rate of annihilation," Rear Adm. Thomas Moore, Program Manager for Carriers, said last year.

Should they be employed, laser weapons could offer carriers a high-tech, lower cost offensive and defensive weapon aboard the ship able to potential incinerate incoming enemy missiles in the sky.

The Ford-class ships are engineered with a redesigned island, slightly larger deck space and new weapons elevators in order to achieve a 33-percent increase in sortie-generation rate. The new platforms are built to launch more aircraft and more seamlessly support a high-op tempo.

The new weapons elevators allow for a much more efficient path to move and re-arm weapons systems for aircraft. The elevators can take weapons directly from their magazines to just below the flight deck, therefore greatly improving the sortie-generation rate by making it easier and faster to re-arm planes, service officials explained.

The next-generation technologies and increased automation on board the Ford-Class carriers are also designed to decrease the man-power needs or crew-size of the ship and, ultimately, save more than $4 billion over the life of the ships.

Also discussed:
Future Carriers, Emerging Threats, Future Carrier Air Wing.

See Steve, I figured out how to truncate an article! ;-)
Excellent, grasshopper...

Posted by: gorb || 02/25/2016 12:28 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, after authoring a lengthy piece with multiple URL references (which previewed fine but did not post!), I can only say: The Future of the US Navy's Aircraft Carriers is to be targets.
http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2014/03/21/why-is-iran-building-giant-mock-up-of-u-s-aircraft-carrier/comment-page-4/

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/07/asia/north-korea-rocket-launch-window/

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/feb/2/north-korea-getting-better-at-hiding-nuke-rocket-t/?page=all

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-southchinasea-china-radar-idUSKCN0VW092

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/exposed-iran-faked-sinking-mock-us-aircraft-carrier-12812

Prime Candidate Earth Targets for the Post-Launch Radiometric
Calibration of Space-Based Optical Imaging Instruments
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/25/2016 18:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Perhaps its better this way.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/25/2016 18:07 Comments || Top||

#3  ...Speaking of shock tests, has anyone asked the USN lately why the LCS has not yet been shock tested, and may never be...?

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 02/25/2016 18:16 Comments || Top||

#4  @#1: Agreed. They look nice up close, but are something of an expensive anachronism.

Drones, sats, ICBM's and esp. cyber will be the next tools of warfare.
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 || 02/25/2016 18:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Well they could always buy more F-35s and do away with the flight deck...
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 02/25/2016 23:58 Comments || Top||


Champ regime promises crackdown on sanctuary cities
[Wash Times] The Obama administration is preparing to crack down on sanctuary cities, Attorney General Loretta Lynch told Congress on Wednesday, saying she would try to stop federal grant money from going to jurisdictions that actively thwart agents seeking to deport illegal immigrants.

Her announcement marks a major policy reversal for the administration, which for years has opposed legislation that would have forced such a crackdown.

Ms. Lynch also said the federal Bureau of Prisons will no longer release illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities and instead will turn them over to immigration authorities to be deported. That is a response to last summer's killing of Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco.

"This is a very significant change, and we're deeply grateful to you," Rep. John Abney Culberson, Texas Republican, told Ms. Lynch at a hearing of the House Appropriations Committee.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/25/2016 05:38 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is it already time to start shaking down donors for the Obama Presidential Library?
Posted by: ed in texas || 02/25/2016 6:25 Comments || Top||

#2  ....saying she would try to stop federal grant money from going to jurisdictions that actively thwart agents seeking to deport illegal immigrants.

I remain skeptical.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/25/2016 6:25 Comments || Top||

#3 
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 02/25/2016 9:09 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Mizzou Fires The Click
The University of Missouri Board of Curators on Thursday fired a communications professor who was captured on video scrapping with a police officer and a student journalist during campus protests last year.

The board voted 4-2 in favor of firing Assistant Professor of Communication Melissa Click, who had been suspended with pay from the school since Jan. 27.

Click has the right to appeal the termination.

"The board respects Dr. Click's right to express her views and does not base this decision on her support for students engaged in protest or their views," said Chairwoman Pam Henrickson, who voted against Click's termination, in a statement viewed by The Columbia Tribune. "However, Dr. Click was not entitled to interfere with the rights of others, to confront members of law enforcement or to encourage potential physical intimidation against a student."
Posted by: Frank G || 02/25/2016 16:46 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  She's a nasty piece of work, who was clearly trying to be "too cool for school" by indulging her fantasies of still being a student activist.

Grow up, honey, and join the adult world - think of this firing an "an intervention" to try to extract you from your delusional world. You aren't "Joan of Arc."
Posted by: Lone Ranger || 02/25/2016 20:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Well said lone ranger.
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/25/2016 20:30 Comments || Top||

#3  You should read her CV
Posted by: Frank G || 02/25/2016 20:45 Comments || Top||

#4  The part I find amusing (other than the whole rest of it, I mean) is that when the going got tough, this proud feminist icon called for "some muscle", presumably meaning some big strong men to come to her aid.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/25/2016 21:04 Comments || Top||

#5  She didn't call them to come to her aid. She called them to beat up or otherwise intimidate people (gender and ethnicity not specified, could be white men, could be black women) she wanted intimidated.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/25/2016 21:15 Comments || Top||

#6  I believe the person she was trying to chase of was an Asian guy, a reporter for the student paper.

And to be totally fair, "some muscle' could been in reference to some beefy lesb1ans.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/25/2016 21:47 Comments || Top||



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Thu 2016-02-25
  ISIS Fighters Claim Pakistan Funded Them
Wed 2016-02-24
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Tue 2016-02-23
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Mon 2016-02-22
  Three Terrorist Attacks Target Sayyeda Zeinab Area in Rural Damascus, Kill 50
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Sat 2016-02-20
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Fri 2016-02-19
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Thu 2016-02-18
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Wed 2016-02-17
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Tue 2016-02-16
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Mon 2016-02-15
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Sun 2016-02-14
  Boko Haram kills at least 30 people in northeastern Nigeria
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