Free Republic

South Korea has formally decided to purchase 40 F-35 stealth fighter jets for $6.7 billion, South Korea and Lockheed Martin officials announced Monday. The commitment by South Korea, which is boosting its air defenses amid ongoing tensions in the Pacific region, marks a "big day" for the F-35 program in Fort Worth, said Steve O'Bryan, Lockheed's vice president for F-35 business development. "This is a two-year process that Korea held, an open competition where they looked at capabilities, their defense needs, the price as well as the timing and they chose the F-35. It was another open, transparent process that...

In 2005, Lockheed Martin labeled the F-35, the stealthy new jet they were building for the Pentagon, as a “fifth-generation” fighter. Ironically, it was a term that they had borrowed from Russia to describe a different stealthy fighter, the F-22. But the term caught on. Some of Lockheed’s rivals tumbled into this rhetorical trap and tried to argue that “fourth-generation” was just as capable—whether it is true or not, making such a case is an uphill struggle. But if “fifth-generation” means more than “the ultimate driving machine,” a sixth generation will emerge. Saab—yes, that Saab—can argue that it has built...

<p>President Obama is committing more military resources, including aircraft and special operations forces, to the hunt for notorious African warlord Joseph Kony.</p> <p>Early Monday, the White House confirmed a Washington Post report that the U.S. was sending "associated support personnel," and a "limited number" of CV-22 Osprey aircraft to assist local forces in their long-running battle against Kony's Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA. Obama sent about 100 U.S. troops to help the African forces in 2011.</p>

It looks really, really good from the previews/website. I don't want to go beyond crazy here, but it seems to have a slant that Freepers would like. We can only hope...From their website:"Based on Alexander Rose’s book Washington’s Spies, AMC’s TURN tells the untold story of America’s first spy ring. A historical thriller set during the Revolutionary War, TURN centers on Abe Woodhull (Jamie Bell), a farmer living in British-occupied Long Island who bands together with his childhood friends to form the Culper Ring -- an unlikely team of secret agents who not only went on to help George Washington...

Mykola Melnyk: "Psychology of a cop and a soldier are fundamentally different" The former first deputy head of military intelligence and one of the founders of the National Guard of Ukraine discusses how the country will be defending itself from the Russian invasion. (Article is dated March 13 2014, Bogdan Butkevych for the “The Ukrainian Week”) Mykola Melnyk was one of the men from the old patriotic military, who in record time in 1991 created the new Ukrainian army and kept the country away from conflicts, until the present time that is. He rose to the rank of lieutenant general,...

.......there is in the United States only one memorial and museum dedicated to the Great War. Located in Kansas City, Mo., the Liberty Memorial and National World War I Museum opened in December 2006 and is a state-of-the-art tour de force.

Madisonville, LA - Col. Rob Maness (USAF, ret.), the conservative candidate running against Mary Landrieu for the United States Senate, is honored to accept the endorsement of Eagle Forum, the nation's leading organization in the fight to preserve traditional values. "Phyllis Schlafly's long-standing, proven commitment to limited government, national sovereignty, and traditional American values is truly remarkable," Maness said. "Phyllis Schlafly and Eagle Forum understand that there has been a dangerous increase in the federal government's power and a retreat from the traditional values that created a country of strong individuals, families, churches, and communities. "As Louisiana's senator, I will...

Just wondering what would happen....never say never, right? How tepid would the USA react? What if Putin said he just wanted "this island" of Alaska's, or "that small region"? He might say Peter the Great did not represent the will of the Russian people when he sold the land to William Seward on behalf of the United States.... What would the nation do? What would the regime do? What would you do?

Willie and Kori Robertson of “Duck Dynasty” helped make a military homecoming very special for one kid who thought he was just touring the “Duck Commander” warehouse, but found an unsuspected surprise – his father a week early from his last tour of duty in Afghanistan. Master Sergeant Scott Schreck  returned home after a 7-month deployment in Afghanistan, meeting his 10-year-old son in a reunion that he emotionally called “a special one, a good memory.” Willie Robertson and the other Duck Dynasty stars had met Schreck last Christmas at a USO tour, and that memory encouraged them to accept this homecoming idea...

CALGARY — The Calgary woman who was killed by Taliban gunmen in a luxury hotel in Kabul Thursday was devoted to peace and wasn't afraid, her grieving brother said Friday. Zeenab Kassam, 57, one of two Canadians killed in the attack, had been teaching English to girls and boys as an aid group volunteer in Afghanistan's capital city for the past year and a half and didn't express fear, Karim-Aly Kassam said. "This is not about the Afghan people, this is about a small, extreme minority of very dangerous people who've found a home in Afghanistan," Kassam said. "She was...

People generally buy a Chevrolet Corvette planning to drive the wheels off it, but examples with absurdly low mileage have to come from somewhere. Cars suffer a small breakdown and are parked for years, owners suddenly pass away and their children don't know what to do with the cars, vehicles get donated to museums... the list of usual suspects for something like this is pretty limited. But the story of this unrestored and completely original 1967 Chevrolet Corvette with just 2,996 miles on the clock is a new one for us. Here's what we know: Don McNamara turned 30 in...

First World War bomb kills two construction site workers 100 years after it was fired at Belgian battlefield • Armament was disturbed and exploded evacuation works at the site • Killed two and injured two, all construction workers working in the area • This area of Belgium is rife with unexploded bombs from the Great War • It is the former Flanders battleground where many shells were fired A First World War bomb killed two construction site workers when it exploded 100 years after being fired at a Belgian battlefield. The bomb had laid dormant for a century at an...

The urgent need by the US Air Force to launch a pair of previously classified Space Situational Awareness satellites into Earth orbit this year on an accelerated schedule has bumped the inaugural blastoff of NASA’s highly anticipated Orion pathfinder manned capsule from September to December 2014. It’s a simple case of US national security taking a higher priority over the launch of NASA’s long awaited unmanned Orion test flight on the Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) mission. The EFT-1 flight is NASA’s first concrete step towards sending human crews on Beyond Earth Orbit (BEO) missions since the finale of the Apollo...

LANCASTER (CBSLA.com) — The U.S. Navy Blue Angels flying squadron arrived in Lancaster Thursday ahead of the first-ever Los Angeles County Air Show set for early next year. KNX 1070′s Vytas Safronikas reported it will be the first air show in 2014 for the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron after leaving their winter training base at El Centro. The L.A. County Air Show, which is scheduled for March 21-22, will be held at the William J. Fox Airfield and will feature six iconic blue and gold Boeing F/A-18 Hornet aircraft as part of the event in the wake of budget...

(Reuters) - Russia signaled concern on Wednesday at Estonia's treatment of its large ethnic Russian minority, comparing language policy in the Baltic state with what it said was a call in Ukraine to prevent the use of Russian. Russia has defended its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula by arguing it has the right to protect Russian-speakers outside its borders, so the reference to linguistic tensions in another former Soviet republic comes at a highly sensitive moment. Russia fully supported the protection of the rights of linguistic minorities, a Moscow diplomat told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, according...

General George S. Patton was assassinated to silence his criticism of allied war leaders claims new book George S. Patton, America's greatest combat general of the Second World War, was assassinated after the conflict with the connivance of US leaders, according to a new book. By Tim Shipman in Washington 20 Dec 2008 The newly unearthed diaries of a colourful assassin for the wartime Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA, reveal that American spy chiefs wanted Patton dead because he was threatening to expose allied collusion with the Russians that cost American lives. The death of...

The man behind the footage of calling a fraud soldier out for wearing Ranger, E.O.D., and 101st Airborne Tab was arrested immediately after the video by the campus authorities. The reason? He was charged with disturbing the peace and making threats against a phony soldier who was pretending to serve and die for our country. The police reported that Vieira, the man confronting the fake soldier, approached him on several occasions and verbally assaulted the fraud! Well there’s a pretty valid reason behind the so-called unnecessary assault. Vieira, who uploaded video of the confrontation to YouTube, was later arrested by...

RUSH: I've got a call up I want to take now. It's a retired 777 pilot. If I wanted to really sound like I was hip, I'd say triple seven. If I wanted to sound like a network TV guy, I'd say we have a retired triple seven pilot, make you think I really knew what I was talking about. The man calls himself Captain Luke, and he's from South Carolina. And Captain Luke, great to have you with us on the program. Hello, sir. CALLER: Great to be back. Rush, I talked to you once before in 1990, and...

In 1969, the Soviet navy shocked the U.S. and NATO militaries with a new and incredibly capable submarine—one that could swim faster and dive deeper than anything else under the sea. But the seven high-tech Alfa-class submarines—able to reach 45 knots and 2,400 feet—were actually inferior where it really mattered. Their speed and depth-resistance came at the cost of noisy internal machinery that made them easy to detect … and destroy.

I had an extraordinary telephone conservation with my 86-year-old black dad, a lifelong Democrat and huge Obama fan. He called to ask me, "Is Obama anti-Christian?" Dad has been a Christian pastor for over 50 years. I said, "Dad, I have been telling you about Obama's anti-Christian policies for the past five years." Dad replied, "And I have not been listening." Dad confessed that he simply could not bring himself to go against a black man in the White House. I felt that dad was expressing the sentiments of many blacks of his era. I asked him to explain why...