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The UK has agreed to buy three Boeing RC-135 Rivet Joint electronic intelligence aircraft and related ground equipment from the USA, defence secretary Bob Ainsworth has announced. Confirming the development on 22 March, Ainsworth said the aircraft will deliver a "vital capability for the Royal Air Force to replace the [British Aerospace] Nimrod R1 that will be retired from service in March 2011". The UK Ministry of Defence will introduce the Rivet Joints under Project Helix, a long-running effort to upgrade or replace its Nimrod R1 fleet, which was reduced to two airframes in 2009. Operated by 51 Sqn at...

The report card is mixed regarding next-generation nonkinetic, or limited effects, weaponry ­developed by the U.S. and its allies. Cyber-warfare turns on three critical aspects--attack, defense and assessment. Information-technology industry officials say attack capabilities are receiving attention and funding. Defenses against cyber-attack have begun attracting support because of persistent adversaries who flourish in the Wild West atmosphere of the Russian and Chinese cyber-worlds. The big shortfall, they agree, is in battle damage assessment (BDA). "I'm trying to render an enemy system nonfunctional with a nonkinetic attack," says John Osterholz, BAE Systems vice president for integrated cyber-warfare and cyber-security. "How do...

Excerpt - SEOUL — U.S. reconnaissance planes have sniffed out how close the North Koreans are coming to test-firing a Taepodong II missile, which could reach the west coast of the United States. The success of U.S. spy flights off the east coast of North Korea, in the view of analysts here, explains why North Korea last weekend threatened to shoot down planes that intruded into its air space. U.S. and South Korean intelligence sources noted the language of the North Korean threat was considerably stronger than the usual almost ritualistic accusations concerning U.S. spy flights. Unlike previous rhetorical blasts,...

At 3:30 in the morning of August 31st, 1983, Korean Airlines flight 007 landed at Merrill Field in Anchorage, Alaska. An hour and a half later it took off from Runway 32 bound for Seoul's Kimpo airport. Aboard were 240 passengers, a cabin crew of 20, a three-man flight crew and six other KAL crew members deadheading back to Seoul. Shortly after take-off, Flight 007 was cleared directly to the Bethel VOR beacon and then on to the Romeo 20 route. However, the aircraft started diverging from its intended course and passed 12 NM North of the Bethel beacon....

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea says a U.S. strategic reconnaissance aircraft intruded into its airspace on Monday and on three consecutive other days to spy on the country ahead of a possible attack. The North's official KCNA news agency said the RC-135 aircraft was supported by a KC-135 refuelling tanker plane on its missions up and down the east coast of the Korean peninsula inside North Korean airspace. "The U.S. imperialist warhawks illegally intruded RC-135 strategic reconnaissance plane into the territorial air of the DPRK to spy on it," KCNA said on Tuesday. DPRK is the acronym for the...

TOKYO, Feb 10 (AFP) - As the Korean nuclear crisis escalates, US spy planes are stepping up activities around the strategic Japanese island of Okinawa, a report said Monday. The only US air force WC-135W plane, which helps collect and identify debris from nuclear weapons detonations, landed at Okinawa's Kadena airbase six days earlier, the Jiji Press news agency quoted informed sources as saying. The aircraft, nicknamed Constant Phoenix and assigned to the Offutt air base in Nebraska, was believed to be still on Okinawa as its departure has not been confirmed. An E-6 Mercury, which provides command and...