More F-35s to Test?

More F-35s to Test?: "We could learn as early as this week what the Pentagon plans to do in a bid to prevent the F-35 development program going massively over budget and schedule. Acquisition chief Ashton Carter met with program officials over the weekend and the prevailing rumor going in was that the Pentagon would add money and aircraft in Fiscal 2011 to accelerate flight testing and get the program back on track to complete development in 2013.

Remember that two aircraft were removed from the flight-test program two years ago as part of a 'mid-course review' that increased reliance on integration labs and flying testbeds. The mission-system test aircraft were cut to replenish the management reserve within the program budget, which had been eroded by the SWAT redesign, assembly delays and other issues.

Even if the Pentagon adds money and aircraft to the test program, dont expect any sudden acceleration. Lockheed Martin still has to get all the test aircraft flying - and keep them flying, which has so far not proved that easy. No sooner had the first F-35B arrived at Pax River on Nov. 15 to begin STOVL flight testing when the aircraft went down for 10-12 days maintenance to remove and replace the time-expired transparency-removal detonation chord bonded to the canopy. The down time was anticipated, and the work planned for Pax, says Lockheed.


Canopy chord keeps BF-1 grounded. (Photo: JPO)

Diverting early production aircraft to the test program would seem likely to impact the build-up of the training unit at Elgin, which is scheduled to receive its first CTOL F-35As in July 2010. But one report suggests the additional test aircraft would be Navy carrier-capable F-35Cs, the final version to fly and last to enter service. That would add mission-system test aircraft only towards the end of the development program, but would avoid impacting training, which has to start in 2010 to meet the Marine Corps 2012 initial operational capability deadline."

(Via Ares.)

Return to sender: Russian General Refuses to Accept Russian UAVs

Russian General Refuses to Accept Russian UAVs: "Russia's air force is refusing to buy domestically-manufactured unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) because they do not meet performance specifications, General Alexander Zelin, commander in chief of the air force said on Thursday.

‘Unfortunately, we havent managed to make UAVs that meet the technical and tactical specifications that we need,’ he said.

The general added that the Russian-made UAVs were unsatisfactory both because of their speed and flight altitude, but also because of the quality of the observation equipment aboard.


‘To put such drones into service is simply a crime,’ he said. ‘I am, therefore, refusing to sign any acceptance papers.’

The Russian army currently has first generation UAVs which can fulfill reconnaissance missions.

Russia recently bought 12 UAVs from Israel in a deal worth $53 million. Zelin said the Israeli UAVs were better quality and performed better than the Russian-made ones but said he doubted Tel-Aviv would be willing to transfer its know-how in this field to Moscow to enable Russian manufacturers to build better UAVs themselves.
"

(Via Ares.)

New Airbus glitch causes concern

(CNN) -- An Airbus airplane was forced to turn back to New York 90 minutes into a flight to Paris, Air France said Monday.

The Air France A380 turned back due to a "minor incident," the airline said, refusing to say what the technical hitch was.

Airbus also declined to specify what caused the plane to turn back, saying the incident was an issue for the Air France maintenance team not the aircraft's manufacturer.

The pilots made the decision to turn back "in strict accordance with procedures and as a precautionary measure... following a minor technical problem in order to carry out ground checks," Air France said.

The plane landed at New York's John F. Kennedy International airport "without incident" at 10:17 p.m. ET on Friday, November 27, Air France said. The plane was serviced and later completed its transatlantic journey, the airline said.
Air France had begun flying the brand-new A380 across the Atlantic only days before, Airbus said.

Its inaugural commercial flight from Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport to JFK was on November 21.

Air France became the fourth airline to operate the superjumbo when it received its first A380 at the end of last month.

Dems: Bush botched hunt for UBL

Washington (CNN) -- President Obama got some political cover Sunday for his upcoming announcement on sending more troops to Afghanistan.

A report released by the Democratic staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee blamed the Bush administration for failing to capture or kill Osama bin Laden when the al Qaeda leader was cornered in Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountain region in December 2001. The report, released Sunday, said the situation in Afghanistan presented greater problems today because of the failure to nab bin Laden eight years ago.

Bin Laden had written his will, apparently sensing he was trapped, but the lack of sufficient forces to close in for the kill allowed him to escape to tribal areas in Pakistan, according to the report.

It said former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and top U.S. commander Gen. Tommy Franks held back the necessary forces for a "classic sweep-and-block maneuver" that could have prevented bin Laden's escape.

"It would have been a dangerous fight across treacherous terrain, and the injection of more U.S. troops and the resulting casualties would have contradicted the risk-averse, 'light footprint' model formulated by Rumsfeld and Franks," the report said.
When criticized later for not zeroing in on bin Laden, administration officials, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, responded that the al Qaeda leader's location was uncertain.

"But the review of existing literature, unclassified government records and interviews with central participants underlying this report removes any lingering doubts and makes it clear that Osama bin Laden was within our grasp at Tora Bora," the report said.

Removing the al Qaeda leader from the battlefield eight years ago would not have eliminated the worldwide extremist threat.

On Tuesday, Obama will travel to West Point, New York, to announce his decision on a request by his commanding general in Afghanistan for up to 40,000 additional troops.

Obama is expected to send more than 30,000 U.S. troops and seek further troop commitments from NATO allies as part of a counterinsurgency strategy to wipe out al Qaeda elements and stabilize the country while training Afghan forces.

By releasing the report Sunday, Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, focused attention on the past failure of the Bush administration to take out bin Laden, saying that had created a greater problem today.

"Our inability to finish the job in late 2001 has contributed to a conflict today that endangers not just our troops and those of our allies, but the stability of a volatile and vital region," Kerry, D-Massachusetts, wrote in a letter of transmittal for the report.

When Kerry was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, he argued that the Bush administration botched the pursuit of bin Laden and that then-President George W. Bush "took his eye off the ball" in Afghanistan to invade Iraq.

The accusations were hotly disputed by Bush supporters and Franks. However, Gary Berntsen, the CIA operative who led the pursuit of bin Laden at Tora Bora, said in 2005 that his request for up to 800 U.S. troops to cut off the al Qaeda leader's escape route was denied.

Sen. Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations committee, told CNN's "State of the Union" that the new report "does serve as a convenient way for, perhaps, Democrats to say once again, there's another failing of the past administration" and that "all the problems have accumulated."

"I think we have to accept that there were many failings," said Lugar, of Indiana. "But the problem right now is, what do we do presently? What will the president's plan be? How much confidence do we have in this president and this plan?"
Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, responding to Lugar's comment, told CNN that Obama faced "the culmination of decisions that were made eight years" earlier, which he said "made the situation much more difficult" today.

According to the report, "removing the al Qaeda leader from the battlefield eight years ago would not have eliminated the worldwide extremist threat."
"But the decisions that opened the door for his escape to Pakistan allowed bin Laden to emerge as a potent symbolic figure who continues to attract a steady flow of money and inspire fanatics worldwide," it said.

The report called bin Laden's escape "a lost opportunity that forever altered the course of the conflict in Afghanistan and the future of international terrorism, leaving the American people more vulnerable to terrorism, laying the foundation for today's protracted Afghan insurgency and inflaming the internal strife now endangering Pakistan."

The report also highlighted bin Laden's will, dated December 14, 2001, as an indication of the dire situation he faced.
"Bin Laden expected to die," it said, noting that a copy of the will that surfaced later is regarded as authentic.

"Allah commended to us that when death approaches any of us that we make a bequest to parents and next of kin and to Muslims as a whole," the report quoted bin Laden's will as saying, adding that he "instructed his wives not to remarry and apologized to his children for devoting himself to" holy war.

However, the report said, "fewer than 100 American commandos were on the scene with their Afghan allies and calls for reinforcements to launch an assault were rejected."
"Requests were also turned down for U.S. troops to block the mountain paths leading to sanctuary a few miles away in Pakistan," it continued. "The vast array of American military power, from sniper teams to the most mobile divisions of the Marine Corps and the Army, was kept on the sidelines. Instead, the U.S. command chose to rely on airstrikes and untrained Afghan militias to attack bin Laden and on Pakistan's loosely organized Frontier Corps to seal his escape routes.

"On or around December 16, two days after writing his will, bin Laden and an entourage of bodyguards walked unmolested out of Tora Bora and disappeared into Pakistan's unregulated tribal area. Most analysts say he is still there today."


Editors note: It is interesting that the Dems' report didn't mention former President Clinton's failure to kill UBL as cited in the 9-11 Commission Report. Killing UBL then would most assuredly prevented the 9-11 attacks.

Party Crashers Met Obama

Washington (CNN) -- A couple who allegedly crashed this week's state dinner at the White House met President Obama in a reception line at the event, a White House official told CNN on Friday.

A White House photograph taken Tuesday evening shows Michaele Salahi, wearing a gold-accented red sari, clasping her hands around Obama's right hand as her smiling husband, Tareq, looks on. The dinner was held for visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is smiling next to the president in the photo.
An investigation into Tareq and Michaele Salahi has found that Secret Service agents did not follow protocol at a security checkpoint, the Secret Service said.

"The Secret Service is deeply concerned and embarrassed by the circumstances surrounding the State Dinner on Tuesday," the agency said in a statement Friday. "The preliminary findings of our internal investigation have determined established protocols were not followed at an initial checkpoint, verifying that two individuals were on the guest list."

The Salahis, who are aspiring reality TV stars, made news when they showed up at Tuesday's state dinner.

The White House says the Salahis were not invited, but their lawyer, Paul W. Garner, "states emphatically that the Salahis did not 'crash' this event," according to a statement from the couple's publicist, Mahogany Jones.

The Secret Service's statement says that although the Salahis went through magnetometers and other levels of screening, "they should have been prohibited from entering the event entirely."

"That failing is ours," the statement said.
The investigation continues and "appropriate measures have been taken to ensure this is not repeated," the agency said.

Also Friday, two Secret Service agents visited a Virginia winery to say they wanted to question the couple, according to the winery's manager.

Diane Weiss, manager at the Oasis Winery in Hume, Virginia, said the agents wanted to speak with the Salahis. Weiss said she didn't know their whereabouts.

The Warren County Report, a local newspaper, quoted Weiss as saying the agents said they wanted to speak with the couple and not arrest them. It also quoted her as saying that the Salahis live in Linden, Virginia, but receive mail at the winery.
And the agents said it was "imperative" that investigators speak with the couple and that they would "take whatever action" is necessary if they did not, the paper quoted Weiss as saying.

Weiss told CNN that the newspaper quoted her accurately, but she declined to elaborate.

Meanwhile, court records have revealed a more complete picture of the Salahis, who have left an extensive paper trail in federal bankruptcy and state court filings.
They are named in at least 16 different civil suits in Fauquier County, Virginia, near Washington, sometimes as plaintiffs, sometimes as defendants. Family members have sued the county and each other. The family winery, Oasis Winery, has sued Michaele Salahi.

They did not respond to CNN requests for comment Thursday about their legal history or the White House dinner.
"At this time the Salahis will not make any formal comments regarding the rumors and media speculation surrounding the White House State Dinner," Jones, their publicist, said in a statement.

Tareq and Michaele Salahi were engaged in a long court battle with his parents over the winery. Tareq Salahi sued his mother, Corinne, court records show, and the suit was dismissed.

The mother sued Tareq Salahi and the case went to trial. The outcome is not clear
from a Virginia courts Web site. Tareq and Michaele Salahi won control of the winery in 2007, but it has run into debt since then.

Oasis Winery filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in February of this year, according to U.S. Bankruptcy Court records in the Eastern District of Virginia. Tareq Salahi is listed as company president in the filing. Listed creditors include the IRS, Fauquier County, the state of Virginia, several banks and American Express Corp., among others. The company claims about $335,000 in assets and $965,000 in liabilities.