A U.S. soldier died of rabies after being bitten by a dog in Afghanistan, U.S. health authorities said on Thursday.
The 24-year-old male first complained in mid-August 2011 of symptoms including shoulder and neck pain, odd sensations in his hands and fainting, shortly after arriving at Fort Drum, N.Y., for a new military assignment.
"He was lucid and described having received a dog bite on the right hand during January 2011 while deployed to Afghanistan," said the report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Tests confirmed that the patient had a type of canine rabies associated with dogs in Afghanistan, the CDC report said.
The soldier's condition swiftly deteriorated after he was hospitalized on Aug. 19.
He suffered a severe brain hemorrhage and after consulting with doctors who said recovery was unlikely, the family withdrew life support. The soldier, whose name was withheld by the CDC, died on Aug. 31.
GENERAL VESSEL DESCRIPTION
Vessel type Fast Patrol Craft
Material Aluminium alloy
Hull form Monohull
Deadweight (max) 16 tonnes
PRINCIPAL DIMENSIONS
Length overall 30.0 metres
Length (waterline) 24.6 metres
Beam (moulded) 6.4 metres
Depth (moulded) 3.2 metres
Draft (approx.) 1.5 metres
PERSONNEL
Crew 11
PERFORMANCE
Range at 10 knots >1000nm
Speed 40 knots
PROPULSION
Main engines 2 x MTU 16V 2000 M92
2 x 1630kW @ 2450rpm
Propulsion 2 x Kamewa SIII waterjets
WEAPONS AND SENSORS
Standard 2 x 0.50 calibre general purpose machine gun mounts
1 x 20mm cannon
Retired USMC Lt Gen Emerson Gardner, a former principal deputy director of the Pentagon's Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE), says that there are lots of reasons to be sceptical about the USN's ability to fund the F/A-XX.Trust me on this one gents.
"It's not going to happen," Gardner says. "There's not going to be any money there."
Gardner says that the USN will probably not have any money for the programme in the fiscal year 2014 budget. Nor is it likely that the USN will ever come up with the $20 billion to $30 billion in research and development dollars to fund an F/A-XX development programme.
Gardner estimates the total cost of a new F/A-XX programme to be more than $40 billion and yield a maximum of 150 aircraft. The unit cost, he estimates, could be as much as $125 million per jet.
The USN simply does not have the money to pay for F/A-XX. With the USN's ship-building budgets squeezed, Gardner says that naval aviation accounts will likely end up being raided to help pay for submarines and surface ships.
The only place the money can come from is from within the F-35 programme, Gardner says. "There is a community over there that says 'let's just skip the F-35C, let's just keep buying F/A-18s and we'll go and develop this other airplane,'" he says.
"That's very dangerous for the carrier because it makes the carrier irrelevant. They are not going to have first-day capability. I'm absolutely convinced that if you do not have stealth by the year 2022 to 2025 you will be irrelevant."
Lt Gen George Trautman, a former USMC deputy commandant for aviation, concurs.
"It sort of validates the naval aviators' overall lack of commitment to the F-35," he says. "It shows how much they're in bed with Boeing to include a whole host of retired navy aviators who work for Boeing. And it shows, frankly, their lack of commitment to unmanned systems."
Gardner concurs that the USN's relationship with Boeing is playing a role in the service's push towards a new tactical fighter programme.
"I think it's Boeing. There is a huge Boeing lobby in the navy," Gardner says. "That has a lot to do with it."
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Congressional staffers from Capitol Hill
tour the inside of an Amphibious Assault Vehicle during a demonstration
of the Marine capabilities on Marine Day at Camp Barrett on April 27.
More than 440 congressional staffers were bused and flown in on V-22
Ospreys for the event.
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| Rachael McLachlan, a congressional staffer, receives instructions from a weapons instructor on how to operate the .50 caliber machine gun during a demonstration of the Marine capabilities on Marine Day at Camp Barrett on April 27. The .50 caliber machinegun was one of four weapons that the staffers got to test fire. |
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Michael Weinstein, a congressional staffer,
takes aim with the M 203 grenade launcher during a demonstration of the
Marine capabilities on Marine Day at Camp Barrett on April 27.
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| A paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team, pulls security during a combined U.S. – Afghan clearing operation April 28, 2012, in Ghazni province, Afghanistan. He is set up in the ruins of an old kalat, or mud-wall building. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod |
Russian paratroopers will meet up with American forces next month for an unprecedented military exercise in Colorado, according to RT News.If that isn't bad enough then check out this video.
It's the first time Russian service members will be invited into the United States for a joint drill.
A Russian airborne task force will "exercise with U.S. special service weapons," an announcement by Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Aleksandr Kucherenko revealed.
The official purpose of the joint training is to practice airborne tactics and anti-terror operations, such as dropping into a hostile area and conducting a "terrorist camp raid."
"Soldiers of the two countries will hold a tactical airborne operation, including reconnaissance of an imaginary terrorists' camp and a raid," said Kucherenko.
Russia’s most senior military officer said Thursday that Moscow would preemptively strike and destroy U.S.-led NATO missile defense sites in Eastern Europe if talks with Washington about the system continue to stall.
“A decision to use destructive force preemptively will be taken if the situation worsens,” Russian Chief of General Staff Nikolai Makarov said at an international missile defense conference in Moscow attended by senior U.S. and NATO officials.
The threat comes as talks about the missile defense system, which the U.S. and its allies insist is aimed at Iranian missiles, appear to have stalled.
“We have not been able to find mutually-acceptable solutions at this point and the situation is practically at a dead end,” Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said.
AVX Aircraft Company has announced that it has been granted its primary utility patent by the US Patent and Trade Office, covering all aspects of its unique technical functions and configuration, consisting of coaxial rotors and dual ducted fans, the relationship between the rotors and fans, which provide propulsion and directional control, as well as a number of internal controls and components. The company made the announcement 2 May, 2012.The patent is an important milestone for the company and its technology, AVX Aircraft Company said. ‘Since the main rotors are needed only for lift, the aircraft is able to fly level, similar to a fixed-wing aircraft, resulting in less drag than conventional rotorcraft. The rear fans act like propellers and provide 30%-50% greater speed than conventional rotorcraft, and also provide directional control which simplifies the function of the rotors.’
AVX believes its technology combines ‘proven technologies to achieve greater aerodynamic efficiency, speed, range, fuel efficiency, hover out of ground effect, ability to operate in hotter temperatures and at higher altitudes, and greater utility than conventional helicopters. AVX Technology is scalable to any size helicopter and is applicable to commercial and military aircraft.’
U.S. military leaders are planning an Army where conventional units will be deployed in tandem with Special Forces, officials say.This will render some SOCOM units totally ineffective.
Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, outlined the new military in an article published last week in Foreign Affairs. He suggested the military needs to build on the relationship between the conventional Army and Special Operations Forces developed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"The evolution of this partnership over the past decade has been extraordinary, and the ties can become even stronger as we continue to develop new operational concepts, enhance our training and invest in new capabilities," he wrote.
While the size of the Army is being cut, Special Forces are to grow from 32,000 to 35,000, The New York Times said.
The military's goal, as described by Odierno and other leaders, is an Army that can handle everything from working with local leaders to heavy combat in the same theater. That means rethinking conventional military training.
One plan is to assign units to a specific region of the world, allowing soldiers to be trained in local languages and customs.
The Daily Mail, a British tabloid, ran a story today about some “Marines” in Afghanistan sporting tight pink shirts with pop-star Justin Bieber on them. When I first saw the headline I thought why would any U.S. Marine — a hardened warrior — sport a tight Justin Bieber shirt?These are the same guys that have taken pride in showing US Marines in the most unflattering light possible, and now they want to act like they're defenders of the Globe and Eagle?
Last month I learned of an in-house US Navy test of several COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) helicopter retention lanyards. This test was not sanctioned but I met directly with my source who informed me that the TAG retention lanyard (an older model was used but it was still in inventory) had complete failure under a stress of only 300lbs. The test was conducted in a mock H-1 with a 300lb dummy thrown out of the cabin door. I saw the blown out stitching and put my hands on the lanyard personally, as an Army trained Rigger I could tell that the stitching and thread was below par and resulted in total failure under a relatively light load. The other complaint was that the TAG lanyard was not long enough to stand up while clipped into the floor.As they say, go to his place to read the rest. But the point is basically this.
Don't get me wrong. The MPC as a concept is awesome.Officials at the conference also assured contractors that the Corps intends to move forward with the procurement of a new amphibious personnel carrier to replace the recently terminated Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. Keith Moore, program manager for Marine Corps advanced amphibious assault, said the new ACV (amphibious combat vehicle) is key to moving Marines from ship to shore. It will need to carry 17 Marines plus a crew of three. The 70,000-pound vehicle should have a range of at least 200 miles. Cost estimates are still too high, said Moore. The currently projected unit cost of $10 million to $12 million “isn’t going to fly,” he said.The ACV design should congeal within the next calendar year, he said. In the meantime, the Corps plans to upgrade about 400 of its current amphibious assault vehicles so they can remain in service for at least another decade.Also on the wish list is a new armored personnel carrier. Officials said that, most likely, the Marine Corps will buy an existing vehicle rather than design a new one. It will have to be large enough to transport nine Marines and a crew of three, with a 300-mile range at a unit cost of around $4 million. Plans are to eventually purchase 579 MPCs.
