Free Republic

A United States Air Force Academy Professor has argued Critical Race Theory should be taught to all cadets so that they can understand how the United States was 'shaped by racism.' Political scientist Lynne Chandler García said the Constitution brought about 'inequality' and that George Washington was a racist. She argued that the history of the U.S. proved that 'racism has shaped both foreign and domestic policy.' Garcia, who teaches the Marxist theory at the USAF Academy in Colorado Springs, said she agreed with the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley who recently told Congress that Critical Race...

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) launched an effort to prevent forced vaccinations in the military after a massive outreach by troops. In a tweet on Monday, Massie said Democrats have attacked his recent proposal to ban forced vaccinations of U.S. troops. The congressman added he introduced HR 3860 to outlaw vaccine mandates in the military, which has been already back by 24 lawmakers. This came after reports claimed Joe Biden’s Pentagon might require vaccination for U.S. troops by September. “They want everybody to get vaccinated, even those who don’t need vaccinated,” he asserted. “If you followed the science, the Moderna trial...

Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam was locked down for hours because of a bomb threat. Play Video: https://www.kitv.com/clip/15223704/bomb-threat-locks-down-joint-base-pearl-harborhickam A bomb threat forced military officials to lock down Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. By the afternoon, it was back to normal for the busy Oahu base, after its gates were closed for four hours. The ripple effects of the bomb threat were also felt around Pearl Harbor. A line of traffic stretched out from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam after its gates were closed at 9:39 a.m. Drivers not only waited to get in, but also were unable to leave because of a security...

SBIRS is part of the Defense Department’s missile warning network that detects ballistic missile launches. It includes a combination of two infrared sensors in highly elliptical orbit and five satellites in geosynchronous Earth orbit. Lockheed Martin has been the SBIRS primary contractor since the mid-1990s. The fifth satellite launched May 18. The sixth and final SBIRS is in production and projected to launch in 2022. The five-year sole-source contract is for operations and maintenance of the SBIRS mission control center at Buckley Space Force Base, Colorado, and other operations centers at Peterson Air Force Base and Greeley Air National Guard...

MIT launched the Reconnaissance of Influence Operations (RIO) program to automatically detect disinformation narratives online.

Air Force standards for flight training and promotions have been on a downward spiral since the Cold War ended in 1991. Incredibly, the service’s senior leaders are about to accelerate that dive. During the 1980s, the U.S. faced a potential conflict with the Soviet Union. Soviet air-to-air capabilities and surface-to-air missile systems presented a formidable threat. The U.S. Air Force, therefore, designed standards and a training pipeline that prepared pilots to excel in that environment. That pipeline incrementally stepped their skill levels by presenting an ever-growing number of tasks and increasingly complex systems and missions they were expected to master....

When it comes to phantom aircraft that are the product of 'bleeding-edge' technologies and supposedly exist only in the shadows, the so-called RQ-180 is unrivaled in our time. The existence of this high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) stealth drone has all but been officially disclosed. Specters of its existence and growing maturity seem to materialize around every turn, and as of November 2020, the public may have gotten its first glimpse of this aircraft that has existed behind a veil of secrecy and innuendo for over a decade. This is the first in a three-part series - the product of a ghost...

At some point in the next few weeks, a B-52H bomber will carry a missile high into the air and launch it at an unprecedented velocity toward its target, according to the U.S. Air Force. If everything goes according to plan, that missile will accelerate to more than five times the speed of sound before deploying a dummy second stage that will promptly "disintegrate" somewhere in the atmosphere. The missile, known as AGM-183A, is supposed to be the first hypersonic weapon — or Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) — in the U.S. arsenal. It should move so quickly through the...

Master Plan: How China Aims to Crush the U.S. Air Force in a War The Chinese air force isn't here for friendly competition. They mean to destroy. by David Axe Follow @daxe on Twitter L Here's What You Need to Remember: In opting in wartime to confront the U.S. Air Force's fighter squadrons in direct fights with similar aircraft and training, the Chinese air force is betting that it can develop better fighters and pilots faster and in greater quantity than the Americans can do. The Chinese air force aims not just to compete with the U.S. Air Force, but...

THE US military is shielding itself from a new type of weapon capable of knocking out entire power grids for extended periods. An Air Force base in Texas will soon test its systems against a simulated electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, according to reports.... ...It's not clear when the base plans to launch its EMP defence tests, or precisely what those tests will entail. According to the Air Force request, the tests won't include the use of actual electromagnetic waves.... ...Trump moved to protect the US from the emerging threat of EMP attacks with an executive order issued in 2019. The...

Setting off a nuclear weapon about 200 miles (300 kilometers) above the U.S. could create an EMP that would cover most of North America, Pry said. The explosion and radiation from the bomb would dissipate before reaching ground level, but the resulting EMP would be powerful enough to destroy electronics across the region, Pry said. "If you were standing on the ground directly beneath the detonation, you wouldn't even hear it go off," Pry said. "The EMP would pass harmlessly through your body." A small EMP with a radius of under a kilometer can also be generated by combining high-voltage...

Ashli Babbit, a 14-year Air Force veteran with 4 tours is the woman who was gunned down at the Capital today.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv0CQ1XPr_E&feature=emb_title and here is the member of congress (aka the shooter). https://twitter.com/1stacyphillips/status/1347094167411806211

========================================================================== A photograph appears to show a plane flying over Edwards Air Force base that's unlike any aircraft publicly acknowledged by the U.S. Air Force. The aircraft appears similar to the RQ-180, a high-altitude spy drone. The RQ-180’s existence has never been confirmed by the U.S. Air Force. ======================================================================== The image (above) depicts a flying wing-shaped aircraft leaving a contrail in its wake. An observer reportedly took the photo while the aircraft was over the Military Operating Area at Edwards Air Force Base in California. According to Aviation Week & Space Technology, the aircraft “was flying in a racetrack pattern...

Joe Buck and Troy Aikman were caught on a hot mic mocking the military pregame flyover: TROY AIKMAN: That’s a lot of jet fuel just to do a little flyover. JOE BUCK: That’s your hard-earned money and your tax dollars at work! AIKMAN: That stuff ain’t happening with [a] Kamala-Biden ticket. I’ll tell you that right now, partner. Well, Aikman may have a point if Biden makes it across the finish line.

HONOLULU (KHON2) -- A heavy presence of fire trucks and police could be seen at the Daniel K. Inouye airport just after 9 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 5. Residents nearby have reported hearing sounds of explosions. They said that they saw bright flashes of light that may have been fire coming from an aircraft. Video: Heavy police, HFD presence at Honolulu airport after reports of explosive sounds coming from aircraft According to the Department of Transportation, the aircraft is a military chartered jet that flew out of Hickam Air Force Base. Officials revealed that there was an in-flight emergency aboard...

The movie "Thirteen Days" is the latest dramatization of President Kennedy's showdown with the Soviets during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. Retired Air Force Maj. Gottlieb "John" Wilmsmeyer, 71, hasn't seen the film. But the Missouri farmer figures he can match that Cold War tale with a nail-biter of his own. It occurred about the same time. It might even have influenced the missile crisis. But for nearly 40 years, Wilmsmeyer had to keep quiet about "Operation Speedlight Delta." He was crew commander on a KC-135 tanker at Forbes Air Force Base, Topeka, Kan., in the summer of...

WASHINGTON: In a 5 to 0 sweep, an AI ‘pilot’ developed by Heron Systems beat one of the Air Force’s top F-16 fighter pilots in DARPA’s simulated aerial dogfight contest today. “It’s a giant leap,” said DARPA’s Justin (call sign “Glock”) Mock, who served as a commentator on the trials. AI still has a long way to go before the Air Force pilots would be ready to hand over the stick to an artificial intelligence during combat, DARPA officials said during today’s live broadcast of the AlphaDogfight trials. But the three-day trials show that AI systems can credibly maneuver an...

An Air Force helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing at a Virginia airport Monday after someone shot at it, injuring a member of the crew, local and military officials told McClatchy. The UH-1N Huey helicopter is assigned to the 1st Helicopter Squadron at Joint Base Andrews and had been on a routine training flight, the base said in a statement. The injured crew member, who was not identified, was treated at a hospital and released. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the incident.

The FBI is investigating the incident, involving a helicopter assigned to President Donald Trump’s support detail. The UH-1N Huey helicopter, assigned to Joint Base Andrews just outside of Washington, D.C., was conducting a routine training flight roughly 1,000 feet above the ground before it was forced to make an emergency landing at an airport in nearby Manassas, Virginia, after being struck by a bullet, an Air Force spokesperson tells U.S. News. The helicopter is assigned to the 1st Helicopter Squadron, which supports the movement of the president and other senior government officials to and from Andrews, where Air Force One...

Yesterday a group of us discussed our prior military experiences, we had never met before and it was informal employment seminar for my business. I exclusively hire vets and being one, I know we are all capable of embellishing our careers with war stories. Amazingly, not one guy claimed to be a SEAL or Green Beret but, one woman in the group claimed that she was a former USAF Enlisted Tactical Air Controller. It just didn't smell right and I asked about her training. She said Keesler AFB. She couldn't "find" her DD 214. I told her I could go...