Free Republic

“Trumpism without Trump” is what America needs in four years, said conservative author Ann Coulter during a lecture at the University of Texas at Austin on Thursday night hosted by the university’s Young Conservatives of Texas. In a wide-ranging speech that reached far beyond the event’s proposed topic of immigration, the political commentator explained to a socially-distanced crowd of 97 people why she believes the 2020 U.S. presidential election has produced “the best of all possible outcomes” for conservatives. “The reason I’m very happy that [President] Trump lost – and lost narrowly – is that a second term of Trump...

The Royal Norwegian Navy has been around, in one form or another, for over a millennium. Though once a loose conscription of seafaring coastal communities, the Royal Norwegian Navy has, for the last 200 years, been an organized force responsible for the defense of the Nordic country’s deceptively long coast. During the Cold War, the Norwegian Navy turned to fast patrol boats armed with guided missiles and torpedoes. Most of these vessels were armed with the “Penguin” anti-ship missile, which had a range of roughly 34 miles and used infra-red homing for deadly precision. Additionally, some of the Norweigan patrol...

With the Pakistan Navy seeking four to six new fast attack craft (FAC) missile boats, the Turkish shipbuilder Savunma Teknolojileri Mühendislik ve Ticaret A.Ş. (STM) is offering its newly unveiled FAC-55. The Turkish news outlet Deniz Haber Ajansi reports that the STM FAC-55 was showcased in Karachi during the International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS), and had attracted interest from Pakistan and a few other countries. With a top speed of 55 knots (102 km/h), STM designed the FAC-55 to exhibit several capabilities typically found in larger corvettes, such as STM’s Ada-class. For example, the FAC-55 appears to be armed...

During Indodefence 2014, the international defence exhibition held in Jakarta in November, SAAB and local shipyard PT Lundin presented a redesigned Stealth Fast Attack Craft (FAC) trimaran. The first hull of the original project called KRI Klewang 625 (solely designed and built by PT Lundin) was destroyed in a fire in Septembre 2012 shortly after its launch. The new project, presented by SAAB as a turnkey system solution, incorporates many modification and improvements. Compared to the original KRI Klewang, the redesigned stealth FAC includes a raised bridge, modified wave-piercing hull and a higher mast. The new Sea Giraffe 1X 3D...

Defense procurement authorities are preparing to issue a Request for Proposal (RfP) for the acquisition of indigenous fast attack craft that will cost around $800 million, according to sources, who say some of Turkey’s leading shipyards are expected to take part in bidding Turkey’s ambitious program for the acquisition of up to 10 indigenous fast attack craft (fast assault boats) may cost Ankara up to $800 million, officials and industry experts say. The contract covers a batch of four boats with an option to buy six more. A defense procurement official said the program, although it will come with a...

Taiwan retires 20 fast attack missile boats (AFP) – 7 hours ago TAIPEI — Taiwan on Sunday decommissioned the last 20 of a fleet of ageing missile boats as part of ongoing efforts to modernise its military forces against former rival China, officials said. The navy bid farewell to the 50-tonne Seagull-class missile boats during a ceremony held in the southern Tsoying naval base, more than three decades after they had been put into service. The Taiwanese navy first built the missile boats, reportedly an imitation of Israel's Dvora-class patrol boats, in the late 1970s and later mass produced them...

Fast-attack boat efficacy questioned ACHILLES’ HEEL:：By disabling radar and data links needed to acquire target information, China could blind Taiwan’s fast-attack missile boats and render them practically useless By J. Michael Cole / Staff reporter Tue, Jun 12, 2012 - Page 3 The effectiveness of Taiwan’s fast-attack missile boats to counter the Chinese military will largely depend on the vessels’ ability to acquire targeting information, which might not be guaranteed in a full-scale war scenario, a defense expert said recently. Unable to compete with the People’s Liberation Army Navy on a tonne-for-tonne basis, the Taiwanese Navy has in recent years...

Insight: From a ferry, a Chinese fast-attack boat (Reuters) - It looked like a textbook win-win deal when Australian high-speed ferry designer AMD Marine Consulting formed a joint venture in 1993 with the engineering arm of a state-owned Chinese shipbuilder. The joint venture partner, Guangzhou Marine Engineering Corporation, a subsidiary of the giant China State Shipbuilding Corporation, gained access to state-of-the-art technology in wave-piercing, aluminum-hull designs. For AMD, a Sydney-based private company, the payoff was a foothold in China's maritime market during a period of rapid growth. The joint venture, Seabus International Co, began designing high-speed aluminum catamaran ferries and...

Pakistan navy gets its first fast-attack ship from China BEIJING: Pakistan's navy commissioned its first fast attack craft armed with missiles at a Chinese shipyard on Monday, with its chief admiral Muhammad Asif Sandila saying that the force was fully prepared to counter any elements challenging the country's sovereignty. Sandila was the chief guest at the commissioning of PNS Azmat, Pakistan's first "fast attack craft (missile )" at Xingang shipyard in Tianjin. He said the vessel's induction will supplement the Pakistani navy's combat potential. Describing the commissioning as a milestone in defence and strategic cooperation between Pakistan and China, Sandila...

VT Halter Marine launches first of 4 vessels for Egyptian navy PASCAGOULA, Mississippi -- VT Halter Marine's Pascagoula yard launched the first of four Egyptian navy fast missile craft Thursday, marking a milestone in the ship's construction. The four-vessel contract represents an $807 million deal for the local shipbuilder. "It's clearly a great day," Halter Marine CEO Bill Skinner said. "This is the first of four, and it's been a great program for us, one that's provided hundreds of jobs." Skinner said the first vessel is on track for a fourth-quarter delivery next year. The fast missile craft is designed...

China building fast attack craft for Pakistan PTI Sep 20, 2011 BEIJING: Launching a fast attack craft being built by China, Pakistan's navy chief Admiral Noman Bashir today said the induction of the vessel equipped with advanced weaponry and sensors will supplement his country's combat potential. "The environment around us warrants Pakistan navy to be prepared to counter the forces challenging our sovereignty as well as regional peace and security," he said at the launch of the missile-armed vessel at Xingang shipyard at Tianjin in China. The missile craft construction project represents a "quantum leap, not only in defence production...

Egypt eyes to buy Turkish unmanned aerial vehicles Monday, September 19, 2011 İPEK YEZDANİ - ipek.yezdani@hurriyet.com.tr ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News According to an executive at Turkish Aerospace Industries, the new Egyptian government is interested in buying Turkey-made unmanned planes. Some Middle East countries prefer Turkey rather than Israel or the US, defense experts say. Turkey will also sell six multi-role tactical platform naval vessels to the North African country Egypt is interested in buying made-in-Turkey unmanned aerial vehicles called Anka from a Turkish defense company, the Hürriyet Daily News has learned. Egyptian and Turkish authorities talked about a possible...

China begins construction of missile crafts for Pak Navy K J M Varma Beijing, Mar 1 (PTI) China today formally began the construction of two state-of-the-art fast attack missile crafts for the Pakistan Navy in addition to several naval frigates it is building for its close strategic partner. The keel-laying ceremony of Fast Attack Craft FAC(M) of Pakistan Navy was held at Xinggang Shipyard in China''s Tianjin city today. Pakistan Navy has signed a contact with China Shipbuilding & Offshore International Company Limited (CSOC) for construction of two state-of-the-art missile crafts which will be equipped with latest weapons and sensors....

China's Project 022 FAC â‹… NEWTOWN, Conn. - The Chinese Navy's Project 022 class is, despite its innovative hull design, a classic missile-armed fast attack craft. It is designed for the sole purpose of delivering eight anti-ship missiles to a specified naval target and has virtually no capability outside that area. Its design makes it unsuitable for patrol duties, while its short operational radius limits its applicability to maritime policing work. In military roles, it is virtually defenseless against air attack and would have to rely on speed and agility to survive in a hostile environment. Craft in this general...

Korea's Neighbors Catch Up with U.S. Stealth Technology China's Navy deployed a new high-speed stealth vessel called DaoDanTing Type 022 during its military drill last month. The vessel is capable of carrying eight missiles with a maximum range of 200 km and traveling at 36 knots per hour while avoiding radar and infrared detection. China has 80 of the ships. In January this year, Russia held its first test flight of the Sukhoi T-50 stealth fighter jet in the far eastern region of Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Last month, the second test flight was completed. Moscow plans to deploy the T-50 in active...

Gun used to kill prosecutor is focus of massive search By Steve Miletich Seattle Times staff reporter FBI agents are conducting an unusually sweeping search for a customized gun used in the killing of Seattle federal prosecutor Thomas Wales, according to the owner of a Minnesota arms company and sources familiar with the investigation. The gun, an Eastern European-made semiautomatic pistol called a Makarov, had been fitted with a replacement barrel that leaves telltale marks on bullets. The search, one of the most laborious gun sweeps in FBI history, is taking place in all 50 states, as agents track down...

FBI seeking all Makarov replacement barrels The FBI is conducting a nationwide campaign to seize, and ballistically fingerprint, all Makarov 9 mm replacement barrels manufactured by Federal Arms Corp. Anyone who has purchased a barrel from FAC may receive a call from the FBI, asking that they "voluntarily" surrender the gun and the barrel so the FBI can fire two rounds through it to take a ballistic fingerprint. This appears to be part of the investigation into the homicide of Thomas Wales, an Assistant U.S. Attorney who was murdered in his Seattle, WA home in October, 2001. Wales was also...

The First Amendment Coalition (FAC) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) are working together to find ways to avoid much of the confusion and controversy that surrounded coverage of forest fires in Arizona last year. Jim Payne, Public Affairs Media Officer for the Southwestern Region of the USDA Forest Service, had been invited to attend the FAC meeting Jan. 9. He was unable to attend as he was out of town when the invitation came. When he returned to Phoenix and found his invitation he wrote Mark Scarp to bring him up to date on what is happening with...