Military intercepts of aircraft decrease

Military intercepts of aircraft decrease: "WASHINGTON — The number of times military fighters have been ordered to intercept planes straying into restricted airspace has declined by about 50 percent during the past two years."

(Via Air Force Times - News.)

The Whoosh!

I shot these this morning while I was out trying to capture some sunrise photos from the balcony of my apartment complex in Amarillo. It was moving very fast and high. No sound or booms were heard and no radio traffic concerning what i called "the whoosh" were recorded.

Whatever it was it was a high fast mover. Enlargement shows a small dark non-cruciform object leaving the contrail.

Camera: Canon Pro-1 8 MP



Traveled from SE to NW across the horizon in about five minutes.

I'll post more images later.

-Steve Douglass


Images (C) Steve Douglass and require permission for reproduction.

UPDATE:

Another frame:



Enlargement - no enhancement:



Enhanced contrast:



Another photo I took with my Nikon D-70s 6.2MP and a wider lens showing relative scale and position in the sky.



Enhanced and enlarged frame:



Enhanced & enlarged color removed/contrast enhancement:



Comparison photo of jet contrail taken hours later from same viewpoint.
Note: According to my aircraft radio, this aircraft was identified as Southwest Airlines carrier flying at 33K.



(C) Steve Douglass

YouTube War

YouTube War: "

The Israel Defence Forces have taken to YouTube to bolster their claims that they are - as far as possible - targeting military objectives in Gaza, that they are serious about avoiding civilian casualties, and that Hamas has deliberately turned people into human shields by storing weapons in or under inhabited buildings.

This video shows people loading rocket-shaped devices on to a truck, apparently unaware of the reconnaissance platform overhead - a UAV, judging by the apparently tight turning radius.

We've been critical here of ground commanders' addiction to this kind of imagery, but what is's being used for here is operationally legitimate - the use of the target's behavior over time to confirm hostile intent. There is a common factor between this and the tunnel strike seen here:

That factor is that we are only seeing the end of a long and complex process. The sensors used here are not that good at detecting targets in a cluttered environment, which requires wide-area, long-term surveillance and other means, probably including human intelligence.

Also noteworthy is 'the sequence that starts about 55 sec into the second video, in which three weapons are seen to strike the same tunnel'less than two seconds'apart. Either there were several laser designators involved, or the weapons were using scene-matching electro-optical guidance.

"

(Via Ares.)

NASA looks for places to retire space shuttles

NASA looks for places to retire space shuttles: "If your organization has the right stuff, it could display one of the U.S. shuttles that NASA plans to retire from service in 2010.

"

(Via CNN.com - U.S..)

Chilling last minutes aboard the Columbia

Chilling last minutes aboard the Columbia: "A NASA report on the last minutes of Space Shuttle Columbia cited problems with the crew's helmets, spacesuits and restraints, which resulted in 'lethal trauma' to the seven astronauts aboard.

"

(Via CNN.com - U.S..)