F-22 oxygen problem - may be the suit.

By Mike Mount CNN:

Air Force investigators believe a specialized flight suit could be partially responsible for some pilots experiencing a lack of oxygen while flying the F-22 fighter jet, according to a report by Air Force investigators.

Investigators are focusing on part of the suit, called the "Combat Edge," which hampers breathing and causes oxygen loss when combined with a physiological condition that collapses air sacs in the lungs, according to details of the report that were shared with Security Clearance.

The findings are expected to be part of the first monthly update by Air Force investigators to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to be delivered later this week or early next week, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

Last month, Panetta ordered the updates on the investigation after the Air Force could not identify the cause of the continued issues with pilots complaining about coming close to passing out while flying the plane, which the service called "hypoxia-like symptoms."

Combat Edge is a vest-like garment that expands and contracts on a pilot's torso to fight the effects of severe G-forces experienced while flying the F-22. The problem being looked at is that the garment may restrict the pilots' breathing beyond what is intended, according to sources familiar with the report.

Another possible problem for pilots, the report is expected to say, is a condition called acceleration atelectasis, which causes a pilot's lungs to not effectively deliver oxygen to the bloodstream. The condition for F-22 pilots is caused when extreme gravity and breathing almost pure oxygen in the F-22 cockpit partially collapse air sacs in the lungs, according to the sources.

Acceleration atelectasis causes a heavy cough, which F-22 pilots have called the "Raptor cough" after the nickname of the fighter, "Raptor."

Pilots have complained about the cough in connection with the hypoxia-like conditions as they fly the F-22, the most technologically advanced plane in history, often at altitudes much higher than regular aircraft fly. The pilots also perform maneuvers that put their bodies through extreme conditions.

In an e-mail response to questions by Security Clearance, Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. John Dorrian said, "Recent testing has identified some vulnerability and reliability issues in the upper pressure garment worn by F-22 pilots. Air Combat Command has directed pilots to remove the upper pressure garment during routine flight operations, and Air Force officials are developing a fix to overcome the identified issues."

The findings in the update report to be given to Panetta are not final, according to the sources. Air Force officials say investigators are narrowing down the cause of the problem, which has intermittently plagued the aircraft since 2008.The problem compounded in September 2011 as more pilots complained of experiencing the symptoms.

The Combat Edge problem does not explain why some mechanics have also suffered from hypoxia while working on the planes on the ground.

The fleet was grounded in May 2011 so the service could check the hypoxia reports, but the order was lifted in September under a "return to fly" plan, with equipment modifications and new rules including daily inspections of the life-support systems.

Investigators initially pointed to an onboard oxygen generating system that pilots used to breathe as a possible cause.

Lockheed Martin, the maker of the jet, was given a $19 million contract to install a backup oxygen system in the F-22 last week.

Last month, Panetta mandated that all F-22 flights "remain within the proximity of potential landing locations" to ensure the ability to recover and land should a pilot run into "unanticipated physiological conditions."

Osprey crashes in Florida

CV-22 Osprey crashes on Eglin Range

HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. (WALA) - Officials say five crew members aboard an Air Force CV-22 Osprey that crashed Wednesday evening on the Eglin Range, north of Navarre, Fla., were taken to local area hospitals.

Officials say two of the crew members were taken by ambulance, while the other three were transported by air.

The extent of their injuries is unknown at this time.

The Air Force CV-22 Osprey, assigned to the 1st Special Operations Wing, crashed at about 6:45 p.m. Wednesday.

Officials say the mishap occurred during a routine training mission, and first responders are currently on the scene.

A board of officials will convene to investigate the accident.

More information will be released as it becomes available.

Drone strike kills 9 Yemeni al Qaeda

AZZAN, Yemen -- A US drone strike Wednesday on a house and car in Yemen's restive southeastern Shabwa province killed nine people, believed to be al Qaeda militants, a tribal source said.

"A US drone struck a house where al Qaeda militants were meeting, and a car nearby," in the town of Azzan in Shabwa province, a tribal source said on condition of anonymity.

He said "nine people were killed in the explosions." A local medic confirmed the toll.

Several hundred al Qaeda militants are believed to have fled to Azzan in the hours before two al Qaeda strongholds in Yemen's southern Abyan province, Jaar and Zinjibar, were recaptured by the army Tuesday.

Al Qaeda gunmen were also believed to have fled to the town of Shuqra, east of the newly recaptured towns, where according to one local official, fierce clashes raged Wednesday between troops and jihadists.

"Al Qaeda is still resisting and there are battles in and around the city," where many of al Qaeda's leadership is known to be hiding, the official said on condition of anonymity.

He said the army has "surrounded the town from three sides."

In Azzan, a resident said dozens of people "have fled" since the early morning drone strike.

"The explosions were very strong ... they shook the whole town," said the resident who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The capture of Zinjibar and Jaar marked the first major victories of a month-long army offensive to destroy al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the name given to the network's Yemen branch.

The militants, taking advantage of a central government weakened by last year's Arab-Spring style uprisings, had overrun most of Abyan, taking full control of the capital, Zinjibar, as well as Jaar, Shuqra and several villages

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/us_drone_strike_against_al_qaeda_IkJNKhh8Zlv39flKPy5aMO#ixzz1xgVTlWmG

NAVY drone crashes off Maryland shore ...

A Naval drone aircraft crashed on Maryland's Eastern Shore on Monday without injuries or property damage on the ground, officials said.

The 44-foot plane on a routine training flight crashed around noon near Bloodsworth Island, across the Chesapeake Bay from the Patuxent River Naval Air Station, according to Jaime Cosgrove, a spokeswoman for the Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons program.

Aerial video from WBOC-TV showed a plane-shaped indentation surrounded by burning debris at the swampy crash site.

The cause is being investigated and the U.S. Coast Guard has set up a safety zone around the crash site, officials said.

The Northrop Grumman RQ-4A BAMS-D drones with a range of 10,500 nautical miles can reach 11 miles above the ground, which is above most weather, and stay in the air for more than 30 hours with speeds up to 391 mph, according to the Navy. It is operated by a crew of four on the ground.

The aircraft is one of five acquired from the Air Force Global Hawk program that support more than half of maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems. They have flown more than 5,500 hours in support of combat operations since 2008.

The maritime surveillance aircraft have been used in support of the 5th Fleet, which covers much of the Middle East, including the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and part of the east African coast.

The southern Maryland station at the mouth of the Patuxent River, 65 miles southeast of Washington, is home to the Navy's test pilot school, drone operations and principal research center for aircraft and support systems.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/11/coast-guard-unmanned-navy-aircraft-crashes-in-us/?test=latestnews#ixzz1xcGwVghz

Clinton: Russia arming Syria with attack choppers

NYTIMES:

Her accusation came as international cease-fire monitors in Syria aborted a fact-finding trip after they came under assault by an angry mob and gunfire, and the top United Nationspeacekeeping official said Syria was already in a state of civil war.

Those developments — coupled with a newly released United Nations report that accused the Syrian military of using Syrians as young as 8 as human shields for troops — overshadowed fresh diplomatic efforts by Kofi Annan, the special envoy to Syria, to advance a peace plan that that has basically been ignored since it was put into effect two months ago.

Secretary Clinton’s remarks, at a Washington forum, appeared likely to irritate Russia, the most important foreign backer of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, and seemed at odds with recent American efforts to forge a unified approach toward a resolution of the 16-month-old conflict that would push Mr. Assad out.

Russia has repeatedly denied sending any armaments to Mr. Assad that could be used to crush the uprising against him. But Mrs. Clinton said the United States was “concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on their way from Russia to Syria.” The shipments, she warned, “would escalate the conflict quite dramatically.”

In Syria, a team of cease-fire monitors deployed under the auspices of the United Nations were thwarted from entering Al Heffa, a besieged rebel-held enclave in the northwest part of the country, when hostile crowds struck their vehicles with stones and metal rods, a spokeswoman for the monitors said. As the monitors retreated, their vehicles came under attack by gunfire from an unspecified source, said the spokeswoman, Sausan Ghosheh.

Al Heffa, near Syria’s main port, Latakia, was among several flash points where new fighting was reported Tuesday.

At the United Nations, the under secretary general for peacekeeping operations, Hervé Ladsous, whose office is responsible for the monitor mission in Syria, said the Syrian conflict had become a civil war, an assertion that goes beyond what other senior diplomats at the United Nations have said in characterizing the conflict.

“Yes, I think one can say that,” Mr. Ladsous said in an interview with Reuters, which was later confirmed by Mr. Ladsous’s office. “And clearly what is happening is that the government of Syria lost some large chunks of territories and several cities to the opposition and wants to retake control of these areas. So now we have confirmed reports not only of the use of tanks and artillery, but also attack helicopters.”

The monitors uploaded a video from their observations on Monday of Homs, a center of resistance to President Assad that has defied months of military shelling and shooting, and the towns of Talbiseh and Al Rastan north of Homs, which have also been subjected to military attack. The video shows wafts of drifting smoke from buildings and homes hit by shelling, emptied roads, a wrecked bridge draped with a Syrian opposition flag, fresh blood on some home corridors and residents picking through the rubble, with one man shouting in English: “We are people! Not animals!”

Officials from the United Nations and Western countries including the United States have expressed fears of a massacre in Al Heffa. At least four other episodes of mass killings have taken place in Syria in the past few weeks, refocusing world attention on the increasingly brutal and sectarian tensions in the conflict, now in its 16th month.

Houran Al Hafawi, a member of the Local Coordination Committee of Al Heffa, an activist group, said in a telephone interview that he had been forced to flee to a neighboring village because his house had been bombed, but he remained in contact with his brothers and other civilians there. “The shelling has been continuous,” he said. “The Syrian Army is throwing missiles and rockets from helicopter and rocket launchers from the eastern and western entrances.”

He said Al Heffa activists had pleaded with the United Nations monitoring mission to check on Al Heffa, where at least 40 people have been killed over the past several days and more than 100 wounded, of which 40 were taken into Turkey. The claims were not possible to corroborate.

Asked about fears of a massacre in Al Heffa, he said: “If the Syrian Army gets in, yes; I do expect a massacre. It’s normal; it’s happening everywhere.

READ THE REST OF THE STORY AT NYTIMES