US may lose 'star wars' to Russia
Moscow (Voice of Russia) Jun 03, 2014 -
Cooperation with private firms will benefit the US space industry but cannot replace cooperation with Russia. Washington risks seeing its space projects hit hard if it abandons cooperation with Moscow, Bloomberg says.
NASA has been actively promoting commercial projects to develop new-generation space rockets, supply vehicles and spaceships capable of carrying astronauts to low-Earth orbit ...
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U.S. Military orders ammunition from ATK Defense Group
Arlington, Va. (UPI) Jun 5, 2013 -
Contracts for medium- and large-caliber ammunition for U.S. military aircraft have been given to ATK's Defense Group by the U.S. Army.
The ammunition is for platforms such as A-10 aircraft, Apache attack helicopters and AC-130 gunships. Training ammunition for the Abrams battle tank is also included.
"Developing and producing ammunition that provides superior performance and reli ...
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'Sports diplomacy' for Philippines, Vietnam troops
Manila (AFP) June 05, 2014 -
Filipino and Vietnamese troops will engage in a light-hearted round of sports diplomacy on contested islands in the South China Sea, the Philippines said Thursday, as tensions worsen with China.
Basketball, beach volleyball and tug-of-war games will be held this weekend on tiny islands that are claimed by nations to show that rivals can still be friends, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario ...
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With just four pounds of explosives, terrorists could burst open Keystone XL, report finds
Washington (UPI) Jun 5, 2013 -
Terrorists in a hypothetical attack on the planned Keystone XL oil pipeline could cause a "catastrophic" oil spill, a retired Navy SEAL said in a report.
Dave Cooper, a former member of SEAL Team 6, which hunted down al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in 2011, was contracted to provide a threat assessment of the planned pipeline for NextGen Climate, led by a vocal Keystone XL opponent, bil ...
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International research and technology center opened by Boeing
Sao Jose Dos Campos, Brazil (UPI) Jun 5, 2013 -
A research and technology center for aerospace technologies has been opened by Boeing in Brazil, its sixth such center outside the United States.
The Boeing Research & Technology-Brazil center is located in the SÃPounds o José dos CamposTechnology Park and will focus on development of sustainable aviation bio-fuel, air traffic management, remote sensing, advanced metals and bio-materia ...
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China sentences nine 'terrorists' to death: report
Beijing (AFP) June 05, 2014 -
China has sentenced nine people to death on terrorism-related charges in its ethnically divided western region of Xinjiang, state media said Thursday, as authorities crack down following several deadly attacks.
Multiple courts in Xinjiang sentenced 81 suspects on various terror-related charges, state-broadcaster CCTV said.
In the past year Xinjiang - home to the mostly Muslim Uighur min ...
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Britain's military moves to broaden supplier base
London (UPI) Jun 5, 2013 -
A pilot program to help companies bid for British defense contracts is being put in place this month by the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory.
Research Cloud, or R-Cloud will help broaden the organization's access to suppliers and also reduce the cost of trading with DSTL by providing easy-to-use, direct access to current and future research requirements.
"Dstl places in ...
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Obama expresses 'concerns' over sale of French warships to Russia
Brussels (AFP) June 05, 2014 -
US President Barack Obama on Thursday said he had "expressed some concerns" to France about its sale of warships to Russia.
"I have expressed some concerns, and I don't think I am alone," Obama said at a news conference in reply to a question about France's controversial decision to go ahead with a deal to sell two Mistral warships to Russia despite events in Ukraine.
"I think it would h ...
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Obama makes 'no apologies' for Taliban hostage deal
Brussels (AFP) June 05, 2014 -
President Barack Obama vehemently refused to apologise Thursday for doing a prisoner trade with the Taliban to free a US soldier, despite a fierce political storm over the deal in Washington.
Critics, both Republican and Democratic, have asked whether the transfer of five Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay for the release of US Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was even legal, and question bot ...
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Royal Navy receiving accoustic targets for training
Farnborough, England (UPI) Jun 5, 2013 -
Underwater mobile acoustic targets are to be deployed and maintained for Britain's Ministry of Defense by QinetiQ.
The targets are torpedo-sized systems that simulate the radiated noise and target echo strength of a submarines and are used in the training of submarine crews in detecting and classifying targets and for the firing training torpedoes.
The Ministry of Defense contrac ...
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Militants launch major assault on Iraq's Samarra
Samarra, Iraq (AFP) June 05, 2014 -
Militants launched a major attack on the Iraqi city of Samarra on Thursday and occupied several neighbourhoods, sparking house-to-house fighting and helicopter strikes in which dozens of people were reportedly killed.
The assault comes with Iraq already facing major security challenges, including anti-government fighters holding all of one city and parts of another for more than five months, ...
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500 'Qaeda' killed, aid needed: Yemen army
Sanaa (AFP) June 05, 2014 -
Yemen's armed forces have killed 500 Al-Qaeda suspects in an assault on their southern strongholds since the end of April, the army said, even as the network killed 14 soldiers on Thursday.
On the army said, 40 soldiers have been killed and another 100 wounded in the assault in Shabwa and Abyan provinces, during which 39 militants were captured, Colonel Saeed al-Fakeih told reporters.
"W ...
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Raytheon selected to demonstrate next generation, modular radar system
Tewksbury MA (SPX) Jun 05, 2014 -
Raytheon has been awarded a $6 million study and demonstration contract by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to further develop an Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR).
Raytheon's EASR concept leverages proven Radar Modular Assembly (RMA) architecture matured on Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR). EASR's flexible approach meets the performance needs of different candidate ship class ...
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NGC Offers High Power GaN Amplifiers for Ka-band Terminals
Redondo Beach CA (SPX) Jun 05, 2014 -
A pioneer in the design and fabrication of advanced semiconductors, Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has introduced two new high power gallium nitride (GaN) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) power amplifiers for Ka-band satellite communication terminals and point-to-point digital communication links.
The APN228 and APN229 power amplifiers were developed with the company ...
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LockMart Receives Contract For MK 41 Vertical Launching System
Baltimore MD (SPX) Jun 05, 2014 -
The U.S. Navy recently awarded Lockheed Martin a contract to provide engineering design services for the MK 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) that helps protect the fleet from numerous naval warfare threats. This $10 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract includes options, which if exercised would bring the total contract value to $182 million.
As the only system capable of launching anti-a ...
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Tech firms mark Snowden leaks with new campaign
Washington (AFP) June 05, 2014 -
Some of the largest technology firms and activists marked the anniversary of Edward Snowden's leaks on Thursday with new efforts to thwart online snooping and boost privacy.
A coalition of companies and digital activist groups unveiled new steps in their "Reset the Net" campaign - stepping up encryption to keep online activity free from government surveillance.
The moves came one year a ...
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Congress kept in dark after Bergdahl death threat: aide
Washington (AFP) June 05, 2014 -
Congress was deliberately kept out of the loop regarding negotiations to free a US soldier because his Taliban captors threatened to kill him if the news leaked, a Senate aide said Thursday.
Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was handed over to US forces in Afghanistan last weekend in exchange for the transfer of five senior Taliban leaders held by the United States.
The swap was immediately cr ...
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Pakistan: Decline and fall?
Washington DC (UPI) Jun 05, 2014 -
Pakistan's Taliban - known as TTP - are facing a major army offensive against the wishes of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Nawaz, as he is known (Sharif is as common as Smith in the U.S.) then took off for an unprecedented summit meeting in Delhi with the freshly elected new Indian Prime Minister Narendra D. Modi.
It was the first time that the leader of one of the two hostile nations a ...
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Hagel tours warship in Black Sea port, reassures allies
Constanta, Romania (AFP) June 05, 2014 -
Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel toured a warship stationed at a Romanian Black Sea port Thursday, reaffirming the US commitment to the security of allies worried over Russia's intervention in Ukraine.
"The presence of the USS Vella Gulf is a clear expression of this commitment" to the collective security of NATO allies, Hagel told journalists at the port of Constanta.
USS Vella Gulf, a guided ...
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China under-reported defense by 20 percent: Pentagon
Washington (AFP) June 05, 2014 -
China underestimated its growing defense budget by nearly 20 percent with its spending likely nearing $145 billion last year, the Pentagon said Thursday.
In an annual report required by Congress, the Pentagon said that China's defense budget for 2013 was higher than the officially announced $119.5 billion.
"We think that if you start factoring in other considerations, other funding stre ...
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