US military chiefs defend diplomacy in face of Trump cuts

US military chiefs defend diplomacy in face of Trump cuts Washington (AFP) March 23, 2017 - President Donald Trump's proposed gutting of the State Department budget and other "soft power" agencies could hamper long-term security goals and make the military's job tougher, US generals are warning. Trump wants to slash federal spending across an array of agencies and foreign aid programs, and eliminate other organizations to pay for a boost in Pentagon spending, including by lopping 2 ... more

Germany blocks defense exports to Turkey Washington (UPI) Mar 23, 2017 - German government officials are blocking planned weapon deliveries to NATO partner Turkey over concerns the equipment could be misused. As a NATO partner state, blocked arms exports are rare for Turkey. The country's armed forces are engaging several radical militant factions within its borders including the Kurdistan Workers' Party and the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL and Da ... more

SES and Intersat to provide internet connectivity across Africa Luxembourg (SPX) Mar 23, 2017 - SES and Intersat have signed a multi-year agreement to deliver internet services across Africa. Intersat, one of the largest providers of internet solutions on the African continent, will be providing broadband connectivity to businesses and consumers via SES's NSS-12 satellite, located at 57 degrees East. The latest agreement with SES includes a new C-band capacity lease, infrastructure s ... more

Russia, China could cooperate on developing reusable rockets Moscow (Sputnik) Mar 23, 2017 - South China Morning Post reported that China is developing a rocket whose first stage will be designed to be reusable. Such a rocket will be capable of competing with the rocket designed by Elon Musks's SpaceX. Russian military expert Vasily Kashin spoke to Sputnik China about this development. China has not yet decided on the basic design of its returning rocket. What is known is that the ... more

India gets indigenously built hypersonic wind tunnel New Delhi (Sputnik) Mar 23, 2017 - The Indian Space Research Organisation on Monday commissioned the world's third-largest hypersonic wind tunnel in Thiruvananthapuram. It will be put to use in optimizing the design and development of space transportation systems. Dedicated to the memory of noted scientist Satish Dhawan, the two facilities, a 1-meter Hypersonic Wind Tunnel and a 1-meter Shock Tunnel, will be used to study t ... more

Rocket Lab raises $75M in funding for scaling up production of electron rocket Huntington Beach CA (SPX) Mar 23, 2017 - Rocket Lab has announced closing a Series D financing round of $75 million (USD). The round was led by Data Collective, with additional investment from Promus Ventures and an undisclosed investor, and with renewed participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures and K1W1. The closure of the round brings the total funding Rocket Lab has received to date to $148 million, with the comp ... more

NASA selects CubeSat, SmallSat mission concept studies Washington DC (SPX) Mar 23, 2017 - NASA has selected ten studies under the Planetary Science Deep Space SmallSat Studies (PSDS3) program, to develop mission concepts using small satellites to investigate Venus, Earth's moon, asteroids, Mars and the outer planets. For these studies, small satellites are defined as less than 180 kilograms in mass (about 400 pounds). CubeSats are built to standard specifications of 1 unit (U), ... more

China's ZTE pleads guilty to violating US sanctions on Iran, N.Korea Washington (AFP) March 23, 2017 - Chinese telecom giant ZTE has pleaded guilty in a US court to violating US export controls by selling goods to Iran and North Korea over several years. The move is the final step in the case's resolution which the US government announced March 7 in which it slapped $1.2 billion in fines on the company, the largest criminal penalty in US history in an export control case, although there have ... more

US Senate approves settlement backer as us senvoy Washington (AFP) March 23, 2017 - The US Senate on Thursday approved the appointment of President Donald Trump's former bankruptcy lawyer, a supporter of Israeli settlement building, as Washington's ambassador to Israel. Trump's nomination of 58-year-old David Friedman, a man with a history of undiplomatic declarations, had raised concerns about America's commitment to a two-state Middle East peace deal. But Friedman apo ... more

Deadly New Zealand SAS raid in Afghanistan under scrutiny Wellington (AFP) March 24, 2017 - Pressure mounted on the New Zealand government Friday to call an inquiry into a botched special forces raid in Afghanistan that reportedly left six civilians dead, including a three-year-old child. A book published this week alleges the SAS staged the 2010 raid as a "revenge attack" after a New Zealand soldier was killed, but faulty intelligence meant they targeted villagers rather than insu ... more