Free Republic

Mr2001 writes "Consumerist reports that Apple is refusing to work on computers that have been used in smoking households. 'The Apple store called and informed me that due to the computer having been used in a house where there was smoking, [the warranty has been voided] and they refuse to work on the machine "due to health risks of second hand smoke,"' wrote one customer. Another said, 'When I asked for an explanation, she said [the owner of the iMac is] a smoker and it's contaminated with cigarette smoke, which they consider a bio-hazard! I checked my Applecare warranty and...

EDMONTON —The newly formed “Balloon Platoon� at the Edmonton Garrison comprises a group of keen young soldiers learning the capabilities of Canada’s new persistent surveillance system (PSS). As members of Task Force 3-09, they will be the first soldiers to use this counter improvised explosive devise (C-IED) system in-theatre. “It turns out a balloon is a very stable platform,� says Captain Robert Dona, the officer who, on behalf of the Assistant Deputy Minister (Materiel), is responsible for ensuring the system works. “The balloon acts as a visual deterrent, as well. If you can see it, it can see you.� The...

New laser weaponry being developed at Boeing has dealt a telling blow to airborne aircraft -- all of them unmanned -- in successful tests that take military laser technology a few steps closer to assuming a key role in future conflicts. Laser weapons are seen by industry analysts as a major step toward a more effective -- and more cost-effective -- deterrent to enemy threats from the air. Laser weapons can be fired at enemy targets without any apparent risk to human crews involved. However, most defense laser technologies are still many stages behind fictional depictions of laser weapons in...

Inability to grasp tactical and technical reality leads to sensationalistic and misleading reporting. I am no great fan of the Army's M1126 Stryker infantry combat vehicle (ICV), the eight-wheeled battle taxi hastily adopted by the Army in 2001 to provide an air-transportable vehicle offering more protection and carrying capacity than a HMMWV. It's too big (at 23 feet long and 9 feet wide, it's the size of a bus) and too heavy (about 20 tons in fighting trim) to fit comfortably on a C-130 Hercules transport plane or to be dropped by parachute. Its cross-country mobility leaves something to be...

That Nene Anegasaki, she's a charmer. She's also a video game character from extreme dating sim Love Plus, now wedded to a flesh and blood gamer. The two were married when a man brought his DS along with a copy of Love Plus to a church in Guam. There's no word on honeymoon plans, but the two will be holding a small reception for family, close friends and the internet on November 22nd. (Seriously, there will be a webcam and stuff.) It just goes to show, the power of Woman has no bounds. Stick her in a digital fortress,...

Chinese scientists have developed membranes that could improve direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). DMFCs oxidise methanol to produce small amounts of electricity over long periods, making them ideal as portable power supplies. A vital component of DMFCs is the membrane, which separates the two reactions of the cell while allowing protons to move between them. But sometimes unreacted methanol can also pass through the membrane, which reduces the fuel efficiency and performance. 'This methanol cross-over is an Achilles' heel for the implementation of the DMFC,' says Yohannes Kiros, an expert in fuel cells and energy at the Royal Institute of Technology,...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Nov. 18, 2009 -- The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] in May demonstrated the ability of mobile laser weapon systems to perform a unique mission: track and destroy small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). During the U.S. Air Force-sponsored tests at the Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, Calif., the Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated eXperiments (MATRIX), which was developed by Boeing under contract to the Air Force Research Laboratory, used a single, high-brightness laser beam to shoot down five UAVs at various ranges. Laser Avenger, a Boeing-funded initiative, also shot down a UAV. Representatives of the...

I certainly understand why someone would want to post anonymously on The Times Argus Web site/message boards. A number of legitimate reasons have been provided in letters and subsequent on-line comments ranging from "I don't want my boss to know my politics" to "It's my right as an American to express my opinion." When one poster suggested that I would "die soon and nobody would care" and went on to describe what I was wearing, I even considered adopting a pseudonym for myself. Most contributors make consistently reasonable points in mostly respectful ways. Coincidently, many of them are real people,...

eldavojohn writes "Uranium mines provide us with 40,000 tons of uranium each year. Sounds like that ought to be enough for anyone, but it comes up about 25,000 tons short of what we consume yearly in our nuclear power plants. The difference is made up by stockpiles, reprocessed fuel and re-enriched uranium — which should be completely used up by 2013. And the problem with just opening more uranium mines is that nobody really knows where to go for the next big uranium lode. Dr. Michael Dittmar has been warning us for some time about the coming shortage (PDF) and...

NASA scientists are sick of being asked if the world is going to end in 2012 – so much in fact, they've published an article on their website explaining just why it's a load of rubbish. The release of Roland Emmerich's blockbuster film 2012, in which John Cusack's character Jackson Curtis has to deal with the end of the world, has only made matters worse. There are several theories as to how the world is supposed to end, most of which focus on a particular date - December 21. The best-known is that relating to the Mayan 'long-count' calendar, which...

Israel Aerospace Industries has signed a $350 million deal with Brazil to supply Heron unmanned aerial vehicles to patrol the South American nation's borders and provide security for the 2014 World Cup tournament and the 2016 Olympic Games. All told the state-run company, flagship of Israel's defense industry, will provide 14 drones over several years, three of them by April 2010. The deal comes amid a big surge in sales of Israeli UAVs worldwide, particularly with nations providing military forces in Afghanistan where UAVs have become a major component in the war against the Taliban and their jihadist allies. The...

- Names Ares "Invention of the Year" Based on Launch of Dummy Vehicle Citing Time magazine's selection of NASA's proposed Ares rockets "The Best Invention of the Year" based on a single purported "test flight" of the vehicle on October 28th, the Space Frontier Foundation congratulated NASA on its propaganda triumph. The Foundation pointed out that the rocket launched by NASA was not an Ares 1 at all, but a dummy vehicle cobbled together from pieces of other space systems, an elaborate mock-up shaped and painted to look like the actual vehicle, which isn't even scheduled to fly for another...

As Canadians fuss over the slow rollout of H1N1 shots and highly publicized cases of queue jumping, they can take solace in one generally overlooked fact: most other industrialized countries have considerably less of the vaccine on hand. Per capita, the U.S. has shipped barely half as much as Canada. Britain -- twice as populous as Canada -- has distributed about the same volume of vaccine as here, France even less. And yet those places are generally not seeing the same kind of controversy -- and saturation media coverage -- around the availability of vaccine as has Canada. The international...

US researchers have genetically modified bacteria to eat carbon dioxide and produce isobutyraldehyde - a precursor to several useful chemicals, including isobutanol, which has great potential as a fuel alternative to petrol. The modified bacteria are highly efficient and powered by sunlight, so a future goal is to set up colonies near to industrial plants. This would allow greenhouse gases to be recycled into useful chemical feedstock - supplying several hydrocarbons that are typically obtained from petroleum.  Liao and his team used genetically modified cyanobacteria to produce isobutyraldehyde from carbon dioxide Cyanobacteria and microalgae that consume CO2 have been identified for...

The Indian army is set to order an unspecified number of Akash anti-aircraft missiles to replace its aging Russian SAM-6 Kvadrat air defense missile system. The missile system is for the T-72 main battle tank and has a Hyderabad-developed Rajendra phased-array radar capable of tracking up to 64 aircraft simultaneously over a radius of just under 40 miles. It can shoot down aircraft within 15 miles, according to Indian media reports. The Akash is part of India's Integrated Guided Missile Development Program. Its main target will be use against attacks from unmanned combat aerial vehicles including Cruise missiles and aircraft....

astroengine writes "Physicists are getting excited about the possibility of micro-black holes (MBH) being produced by the LHC and an international group of researchers have done the math to see what kind of impact they could have on the Earth. Unfortunately, if you're a megalomaniac looking for your next globe-eating weapon, you can scrub MBHs off your WMD list. If a speedy MBH is produced, flying through our planet, it will only have a few seconds to accrete the mass of a few atoms. It would then be lost to space where it will evaporate. If a slow MBH is...

CASR DefenceBudget &  ProcurementPractices  ————IndustryPressReleases———— -CanadianDefence Policy,Foreign Policy,& Canada-USRelations- CASR Home Documents DND  /  Gov'tDocuments 2007  -  DNDDocuments Arctic Rescue – Aerial Search and Rescue – FWSAR – November 2009 SAR Techs Shine in Ice Floe Rescue  but  Questions also Raised The dramatic rescue of  17 year old  Inuit hunter, Jupi Angootealuk, has drawn public attention to the aerial search and rescue capabilities of the Canadian Forces once again. The press release from 17 Wing Winnipeg ( reproduced below ) rightly celebrates the achievement of  SAR Techs. No one questions the skill or bravery of  people willing to parachute...

Chinese chemists have made sturdy nanotube sponges that can selectively absorb oil and volatile chemicals in preference to water. The sponges float on water and can absorb up almost 180 times their own weight in oil, giving them great potential for mopping up industrial spillages. 'We are very excited about the potential of our material,' says Anyuan Cao, who led the work at Peking University, Beijing, China. 'The sponges can absorb a variety of oils - from volatile solvents to thick and sticky oil - but they are also elastic and robust. They can be wrung out like towels and re-used,...

When the Wenchuan earthquake killed some 80,000 people in southwest China in May of last year, suspicion immediately fell on the reservoir behind the nearby Zipingpu Dam. Seismologists knew that several hundred million tons of water had filled the reservoir in the preceding few years and that either the water itself or its weight might have weakened a nearby fault and unleashed the quake. A new analysis finds that both scenarios are plausible, but further insight will require the cooperation of the Chinese government. Last December, an American researcher was the first to prominently report (Science, 16 January, p. 322)...

Enlarge ImageStoking Fears. A new study has raised fresh concerns about nanoparticles, but they may be unfounded. Credit: Nandiyanto/Wikimedia The headlines are laced with fear. "Nanoparticles 'can damage DNA.'" "Nanoparticle Safety Looking More Complicated." "Nanoparticles Indirect Threat to DNA." All seem to suggest that a new study, released yesterday, has found that nanoscale materials, used in everything from medical imaging to cancer treatment, can damage genetic material in our bodies, feeding public fears. But this particular study has little relevance to human exposure risks, experts say, and it is deeply flawed in other ways. "I think it's a meaningless...

A group of engineers working on a novel manufacturing technique at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., have come up with a new twist on the popular old saying about dreaming and doing: "If you can slice it, we can build it." That's because layers mean everything to the environmentally-friendly construction process called Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication, or EBF3, and its operation sounds like something straight out of science fiction. "You start with a drawing of the part you want to build, you push a button, and out comes the part," said Karen Taminger, the technology lead for the...

Four thousand years ago, a government bureaucrat in Mesopotamia jotted down a tally of slave laborers on a clay tablet. The bureaucrat left behind the count in wedge-shaped symbols that proved hard to fully decipher with the naked eye. Until now. Researchers at the University of Southern California's West Semitic Research Project have helped uncover its hidden narrative with the aid of lighting and imaging techniques that are credited with revolutionizing the study of ancient texts. Over the last three decades, the USC project has produced thousands of crisp images of inscriptions and other artifacts from biblical Israel and other...

Chinese challenge to 'out of Africa' theory 00:01 03 November 2009 by Phil McKenna The discovery of an early human fossil in southern China may challenge the commonly held idea that modern humans originated out of Africa. Jin Changzhu and colleagues of the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology in Beijing, announced to Chinese media last week that they have uncovered a 110,000-year-old putative Homo sapiens jawbone from a cave in southern China's Guangxi province.

If the standard, boring, 1001bhp, open-top Veyron Grand Sport is just too commonplace for your exacting standards, how about a one-off Grand Sport Sang Bleu? Bugatti unveiled this special edition convertible Veyron at Pebble Beach over the weekend. As the Sang Noir special edition Veyron featured a black-on-black livery, so the Sang Bleu – yep, it means ‘blue blood’ in French – is decked out in blue carbon fibre and polished aluminium. Mechanically, the Sang Bleu identical to the standard Veyron Grand Sport – though it’s tough to argue with a thousand-bhp 8.0-litre W16 engine and a 0-60mph time...

Iran is preparing to launch its second indigenous communications satellite aboard a Safir-2 (Ambassador) booster rocket, an event that will test the country's ballistic missile capabilities. And, if it's successful, it could impact significantly on U.S.-led negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear ambitions by demonstrating the Iranians' growing mastery of missile technology. Satellite launch vehicles such as the two-stage Safir-2, believed to be a modified Shehab-3 intermediate-range ballistic missile, are generally considered to have a potential application as an intercontinental ballistic missile. Ten months ago Iran successfully launched the Omid 1 (Hope) satellite into orbit atop a 72-foot Safir from...

Lockheed Martin successfully fired a U.S. Army Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) rocket 92 kilometers in a recent test at White Sands Missile Range, NM. The flawless test highlighted recent product improvements of this battle-proven system to give it a longer reach, maintaining its accuracy and effectiveness while minimizing potential collateral damage. Firing crews for the launch were from the 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery from Fort Lewis, WA. This test firing of a unitary GMLRS met all mission objectives, which included: + Verify production of GMLRS and HIMARS production lines; + Validating rocket and launcher reliability; + Proving...

The U.S. Air Force is modifying the fire control software on its AC-130H gunships so the 105mm howitzer and 40mm autocannon can track and shoot at different targets at the same time. Currently, the two weapons can both be aimed at only one target at a time. The AC-130s are also being tested using missiles, like Hellfire. U.S. Air Force operates 25 of these gunships (eight AC-130H "Spectre", and 17 AC-130U "Spooky"). The AC-130U has an additional 25mm autocannon, and always had the capability to track more than one target at a time. Because of their vulnerability to ground fire,...

Last month, the U.S. Air Force created four new UAV squadrons (29th Attack Squadron, 6th Reconnaissance Squadron, 16th Training Squadron and 849th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron). All these new units are actually training squadrons. The air force is training 220 operator crews (each with a pilot and one or two sensor operators) a year. In two years, this will increase to 400 a year, which will enable the air force to run 50 CAPs (Combat Air Patrol; UAVs in the air over a combat zone) simultaneously. The large number of new crews are needed because the pilots only operate UAVs for...

The U.S. Air Force has successfully tested its new Paveway II Plus laser guided bomb. The existing Paveway II bomb has a range of 14 kilometers and will hit within less than half a meter of where the laser designator is reflecting off the target. Paveway is actually a guidance kit (costing about $20,000) that is fitted to a dumb bomb, turning it into a glide bomb that homes in on the reflected laser light. The Paveway II Plus is more accurate and reliable, but the exact figures are classified. Laser guided bombs have been in use since the 1960s....

MICROSCOPES are invaluable tools to identify blood and other cells when screening for diseases like anemia, tuberculosis and malaria. But they are also bulky and expensive. An engineer at U.C.L.A. has adapted cellphones to do the work of microscopes in screening for diseases. Now an engineer, using software that he developed and about $10 worth of off-the-shelf hardware, has adapted cellphones to substitute for microscopes. “We convert cellphones into devices that diagnose diseases,” said Aydogan Ozcan, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and member of the California NanoSystems Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, who created the devices....

Several high-priority and high-priced satellites crucial to U.S. national security are slated to launch over the next 15 to 18 months, according to Bruce Carlson, director of the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). During a keynote address here at the Strategic Space Symposium, Carlson did not provide details of the upcoming missions. Most of the NRO’s satellite programs are classified. Carlson noted the launches to make the point that the NRO continues to perform its mission despite having had its struggles in recent years. But Carlson also said the NRO has suffered a steep decline in its research and development...

The development schedule for a new U.S.-Israeli missile interceptor system is overly ambitious, and defense authorities likely will have to implement a backup plan if countries like Iran acquire a nuclear-tipped missile before the end of the next decade, according to defense experts. Advanced sensor and propulsion capabilities envisioned for the Arrow-3 interceptor likely will take significantly longer to develop than the five or six years estimated by Boeing Co., particularly given the program’s funding level, the experts said. “Look at any system that is developed — it takes 10 years from concept to deployment and there’s not much [funding]...

The U.S. space agency says blogs and tweets will be part of the upcoming launch of space shuttle Atlantis and its mission to the International Space Station. The shuttle is to lift off Monday, Nov. 16, at 2:28 p.m. EST from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA said the STS-129 mission will be commanded by Charles Hobaugh and piloted by Barry Wilmore. Mission astronauts are Robert Satcher Jr., Mike Foreman, Randy Bresnik and Leland Melvin. Wilmore, Satcher and Bresnik will be making their first trips into space. Atlantis and its crew will deliver equipment to the International Space Station....

In the future, asthmatic children may be able to monitor their condition using breath analysing sensors built into their mobile phones. Thanks to a UK company who have embedded a carbon nanotube sensor, which can monitor nitric oxide (NO) levels in exhaled breath, into mobiles. '200 different chemicals are exhaled in your breath,' says Victor Higgs, managing director of Applied Nanodetectors, during a demonstration of his company's latest prototype at the Nano and emerging technologies forum 09 in London this week. And these can be used to monitor and diagnose a wide range of diseases.  Nanotube sensors inside mobile phones could potentially be used...

One of the last regular users of JATO (Jet Assisted Take Off) rockets is dropping the practice. The U.S. Navy Blue Angels acrobatic team will no longer feature their C-130 (called "Fat Albert", and used to haul around the maintenance personnel and their equipment) doing a quick and fiery takeoff using JATO rockets. This was always a crowd pleaser, partly because you hardly see it anymore. JATO was first developed in the 1920s, to get gliders into the air. Later, especially during World War II, and a few decades after, JATO was used for getting aircraft off the ground quickly,...

The U.S. military said on Tuesday it is now tracking 800 maneuverable satellites on a daily basis for possible collisions and expects to add 500 more non-maneuvering satellites by year's end. The U.S. Air Force began upgrading its ability to predict possible collisions in space after a dead Russian military communications satellite and a commercial U.S. satellite owned by Iridium collided on Feb. 10. General Kevin Chilton, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, called the collision the "seminal event" in the satellite industry during the past year and said it destroyed any sense that space was so vast that collisions were...

Russian defense officials announced that the failed Bulava ballistic missile test last July, was due to a defect in the first stage steering system. This was fixed, and another test will take place before the end of the month. So far, the Bulava has been test fired eleven times. Only one of those tests was an unqualified success, and six were absolute failures. But the Russian government insists that development will continue, and succeed. The inept development of the new Bulava SLBM (Sea Launched Ballistic Missile) for the new Boeri class SSBN (nuclear submarine carrying SLBMs) has become a growing...

San Jose, California (CNN) One day, while uploading yet another text file to the Google Docs Web site, I started to wonder: When I save this file online, where does it actually go? I store tons of information on the Internet instead of just on my laptop or work computer. Often, I do this specifically so I can access information from both places, or from my mobile phone if I need it on-the-go. Without realizing it, I'd started cloud computing, that nebulous term that refers to the idea that computing power is moving off home PCs and laptops and onto...

Breakthrough in industrial-scale nanotube processingRice pioneers method for processing carbon nanotubes in bulk fluidsRice University scientists today unveiled a method for the industrial-scale processing of pure carbon-nanotube fibers that could lead to revolutionary advances in materials science, power distribution and nanoelectronics. The result of a nine-year program, the method builds upon tried-and-true processes that chemical firms have used for decades to produce plastics. The research is available online in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. "Plastics is a $300 billion U.S. industry because of the massive throughput that's possible with fluid processing," said Rice's Matteo Pasquali, a paper co-author and professor in...

DETROIT -- Chrysler Group will launch Fiat-designed diesel engines and dual-clutch transmissions in its North American products, Chrysler said today. The company also will launch its new Pentastar V-6 engine on the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee in the second quarter of 2010, said Paolo Ferrero, Chrysler powertrain chief. The Pentastar will replace all Chrysler’s V-6 engines, from 2.7-liter to 4.0-liter displacement. The first dual-clutch transmission will appear on a D-segment vehicle at the end of 2010. Also about that time, Chrysler will launch stop-start technology on the Jeep Wrangler. Chrysler did not immediately specify when it would introduce Fiat-derived diesel...

Christian Coalition of America supports the continuation of the policies (known as "Net Neutrality") that have helped build and maintain a free, open and vibrant Internet. These policies have been in place since the beginning of the Internet and have ensured fairness for all people and points of view. "Net Neutrality" is an issue extremely important to America's grassroots organizations and to those Americans who want to ensure the cable and phone companies controlling access to the Internet will not discriminate based on content. If current "Net Neutrality" policies don't remain in effect, consumers could possibly have to pay additional...

31 years ago, in 1978, the television program 60 Minutes put on an episode about the awful threat of "video piracy" to the movie industry. Featuring the MPAA's Jack Valenti, the episode focused on how the VCR was going to destroy the movie business because anyone could copy and watch a movie in the privacy of their own home. Of course, in retrospect, that episode is hilariously wrong. You would think that, given how wrong they got it thirty years ago on this particular subject, 60 Minutes would be a bit more careful taking on the same subject again. No...

It's blurrier than old MySpace snapshots, but it's there as expected. The Apollo Lunar Modules and the US flag left behind at the Apollo 17 landing site has been caught in a close-up image by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The lander as well as the flag, or rather the remaining flag pole, seen in the image above are exactly where they should be based on this shot by the Ascent Module "right after Apollo 17 lifted off the Moon": Going a step further, the location can be compared to more recent images of the landing site and everything still...

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) today announced the DARPA Network Challenge to mark the 40th anniversary of the Internet. The competition requires participants to discover the exact position of 10 large, red weather balloons that DARPA will place in undisclosed locations across the continental United States. The first person to identify the location of all the balloons will win a $40,000 cash prize. The balloons will be positioned on December 5, 2009. “It is fitting for DARPA to announce this competition on the anniversary of the day that the first message was sent over the ARPANET, the precursor...

Concern over the H1N1 swine flu has inundated the airwaves and the newspapers since active swine flu was first identified in Mexico in April. And though the panic has waned slightly in recent weeks because this variant of the flu is not living down to its deadly predictions (in fact, it’s not even as deadly as the seasonal flu), for many people, if not most people, perception trumps facts and statistics, and so there have been mass mobilizations to combat the contagion.  The campaign has included classes to convince people to avoid unnecessary contact with others; a huge expenditure to...

Death from the flu is often heartrending for those who have to watch: the victim, having been weakened from the flu virus, contracts pneumonia from bacteria or viruses that have taken hold in the lungs, and he or she struggles for every breath.  The victim’s breathing is often raspy, and it is abnormally fast, like the panting of a worn-out dog. As the victim’s body fights the lung infection, the lungs fill with pus and other fluids, cutting off the flow of oxygen and causing the victim to turn colors — from shades of gray to a bluish purple. The...

Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems was awarded a $46 million contract modification from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to continue development of an infrared sensor intended for a missile warning system that may succeed the over-budget and behind-schedule Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) now in development. The Air Force several years ago began planning for a so-called third-generation missile warning system even as it continued to fall behind on the development of SBIRS, a program dogged by technical troubles. Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Sunnyvale, Calif., is the prime contractor for the SBIRS program, which consists of dedicated missile...

There've been satellites orbiting Earth for half a century. But getting information to and from them is still a pain. Which is why Pentagon research arm Darpa is looking to finally hook the orbiting spacecraft up with reliable broadband connections. It's part of a larger movement to extend terrestrial networks into space, and eventually build an "Interplanetary Internet." In the meantime, we might even get less-than-crappy satellite internet service - if the project works out, of course. Darpa recently issued a request for information about supplying "persistent broadband ground connectivity for spacecraft in low-Earth orbit." The idea would be to...

cptdondo writes "I've got an old laptop that I've been trying to resurrect. It has a 486MHz CPU, 28 MB of RAM, a 720 MB HD, a 1.44MB floppy drive, and 640x480 VESA video. It does not have a CD drive, USB port, or a network port. It has PCMCIA, and I have a network card for that. My goal is to get a minimal GUI that lets me run a basic browser like Dillo and open a couple of xterms. I've spent the last few days trying to find a Linux distro that will work on that machine. I've...

Initial fielding of FNH USA's Special Operations Forces Combat Assault Rifle (SCAR) to the US Special Operations Command (SOCOM)...is anticipated in early 2010 to fully equip the majority of [SOCOM]. So far 1,200 Mk 16 and Mk 17 SCAR weapon systems have been delivered...but...it expects a larger order for around 20,000 weapons next year...The order will also include...15,000 5.56 mm Mk 16 SCAR-Light and 5,000 Mk 17 7.62 mm SCAR-Heavy weapons as well as a number of 40 mm Mk 13 Enhanced Grenade Launcher Modules.