Pentagon successfully tests hypersonic flying bomb

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AFP - The Pentagon on Thursday held a successful test flight of a flying bomb that travels faster than the speed of sound and will give military planners the ability to strike targets anywhere in the world in less than a hour. Launched by rocket from Hawaii at 1130 GMT, the "Advanced Hypersonic Weapon," or AHW, glided through the upper atmosphere over the Pacific "at hypersonic speed" before hitting its target on the Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands, a Pentagon statement said. Kwajalein is about 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) southwest of Hawaii. The US Army's AHW project is part of the "Prompt Global Strike" program which seeks to give the US military the means to deliver conventional weapons anywhere in the world within an hour.

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Pentagon Receives Massive Bunker-Busting Bombs, Denies Targeting Iran

Pentagon officials are speaking publicly about the military's new 30,000-pound massive ordnance penetrator, or MOP, known now as the biggest "bunker-busting bomb" in the world.

"It gives us a far greater capability to reach and destroy an enemy's weapons of mass destruction that are located in well protected underground facilities... to a magnitude far greater than we have now," Pentagon Spokesman Capt. John Kirby said at a briefing Wednesday.

It has been widely reported that Iran has buried it's nuclear weapon production facilities at least 90 meters underground at locations in Natanz and Qom. This new bomb is ideal for addressing that threat.

According to Boeing’s website the MOP includes a GPS navigation system and more than 5,300 pounds of explosives. It measures 20 feet long and is “designed specifically to attack hardened concrete bunkers and tunnel facilities.”

Pentagon Spokesman George Little says the MOP is far more powerful than its predecessor, the BLU-190. Some estimate it’s as much as 10 times more powerful.

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Army rolls out new Apache Block III aircraft

The Apache Block III is the next evolution of the Army's premier attack helicopter and is the only rotorcraft with the ability to operate at 6,000 feet and 95 degrees at an out-of-ground effect hover with a full mission payload. The new Apaches will be stronger, faster and less constrained in extreme combat conditions.

Besides the increase in top speed, it will turn faster and tighter, making it almost impossible for the enemy to hide. It will have a combat speed of approximately 164 knots, about 20 knots faster than those currently in service. The Block III aircraft brings back the performance of the early model and adds significant capabilities for today's fight. Some of the key upgrades to the Apache Block III include a more powerful engine and drive train, and composite rotor blades that provide more lift and will allow the aircraft to fly over any mountain in austere places like Afghanistan.

"The Block III brings back the power margins that crews had at roughly 3,000 or 4,000 pounds lighter gross weight than the Block II model," said Lt. Col. Dan Bailey, Apache Block III Product Manager. The aircraft had become heavier over the years when the Army added upgrades to the subsystems, making the pilot power margins more limited.

"Now we'll be able to go to all those places where the enemy tends to hide from us," said Bailey.

11/11/11 Veterans Day

Today is Nov. 11, 2011, or 11/11/11, a turn of the calendar that won't come again for 100 years.

Veterans Day started on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

Actually, the holiday was first called Armistice Day, declared to mark the end of World War I hostilities at 11 a.m., Nov. 11, 1918 .Congress gave it that name in 1926, though it didn’t become a national holiday for a dozen more years.

In 1954, the holiday became known as Veterans Day when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation making it so in order to honor veterans of all U.S. wars.

Veterans Day was moved to the fourth Monday in October in 1968 by Congress, but that was reversed in 1978 when it became obvious that Americans wanted the holiday celebrated Nov. 11.

Veterans Day is often confused with Memorial Day because they are similar in intent, but not identical. Memorial Day honors America’s war dead, while Veterans Day honors all American veterans, living and dead, and has a special emphasis on thanking living veterans for their service to the country.

Gaddafi sodomized: Video shows abuse frame by frame (GRAPHIC)

An analysis appears to confirm that a rebel fighter sodomized Gaddafi with a knife.

Act of Valor

Swift Emergency Landing: A Pelican Flock Hits an Israeli Air Force F-15D

Dambusters hero Guy Gibson ‘killed by the RAF’

New research shows the RAF hid the truth of the famous bomber pilot's death. Gibson won the VC leading 617 Squadron's epic raid that smashed giant German dams in May 1943 — but died mysteriously in September 1944, aged 26.

It is thought he got lost flying a Mosquito over Germany and crashed while following Lancaster bombers home. Now a secret tape reveals a Lancaster gunner mistook Gibson's plane for a similar German Junkers 88 night-fighter and thought he was under attack.


Bernard McCormack recalls he opened fire and the Mosquito went down near a Dutch town — the spot where Gibson crashed. Racked by guilt, he taped the confession before he died in 1992.


No account of the shooting down is in RAF war records. But the tape and the Lancaster crew's combat report were discovered during research for a remake of 1955 movie The Dambusters. Researcher James Cutler, 62, said: "It could only have been Gibson's plane. The RAF killed one of its greatest heroes."