The Islamic Countries that Buys Our Weapons?

Published on 6 Dec 2015 - Last year, Saudi Arabia became the United State's largest purchaser of arms, enshrining the untouchable status of a ruling monarchy that many accuse of fanning the flames of extremism in the Middle East

MH17 - may cooler heads prevail :

All Parties Involved to Blame for Malaysian Aircraft Disaster in Ukraine?

Published on 19 Jul 2014 | Larry Wilkerson: Why weren't commercial flights banned over an area where aircraft had already been shot down?

F-35 pilots left blind.

The ill-fated F-22 fighter jet isn’t the only aircraft that has the Pentagon scratching their head. A new report published by the US Government Accountability Office reveals that the insanely expensive F-35 plane has its fair share of problems too.

As the US Air Force tries to examine the culprit behind the dozens of reported incidents logged onboard its fleet of F-22s, its allegedly more advanced sister plane isn’t sitting too pretty either. According to the GAO’s annual report on the F-35 (pic), the future of the program pegged at costing the Pentagon more than $1.5 trillion over the next three decades is up in the air. The planes, on the other hand — well, not so much.

At the center of the controversy keeping Air Force officials scrambling for explanations is a state-of-the-art visor that is supposed to provide pilots with up-to-the-second information about the aircraft’s every move. The report says that the visor is "integral to the mission systems architecture,” which is now being jeopardized because the headgear isn’t providing pilots with the right information. The problem seems to be with the visor’s inability to counter the turbulence the planes encounter during their mission that move them at upwards of 1,200 miles-per-hour, which is instead creating an error being called “display jitter,” described as “the undesired shaking of display, making symbology unreadable.”

Since the F-35 is expected to operate in tandem with a correctly calibrated visor, these jitters aren’t just causing headaches for the pilots expected to wear them. The website Foreign Policy reports that since the system relies on working headgear, the Pentagon is now developing a replacement piece that is expected to add another $80 million to the program’s price tag, which has already exceeded the estimated cost by around $1 billion.

Although the F-35 isn’t expected to be up and running until 2018, the actual launch date might be even later. The GAO’s report reveals that the plane also has been documented to have problems with landing in tight spaces and the software that helps power it is in desperate need of an upgrade. Then there is another issue involving the craft’s tailhook, which, if corrected, might cause even more problems to arise. If redesigned, the GAO says that "other aircraft structural modifications may also be required,” skyrocketing the completion cost to even more astronomical numbers.

Amid testing of the fleet, the Air Force has already grounded around $400 billion worth of F-35 fighters no fewer than three times. Earlier this year, US Air Force Major General John F. Thompson, deputy Joint Strike Force Program executive officer, told reporters that the military vowed to see no further delays in the F-35 program that has so far been marred with mishaps. Both Britain and Australia had expressed interesting in purchasing F-35s from the Pentagon to be used in their own military, but in March asked for more time to consider the contract after the last slew of incidents had foreign air forces reconsideri

Full report RT  |  18 June, 2012

Arming, to be used on peaceful demonstrators!

Russia : Arms America sold used against peaceful demonstration...

Published on Jun 14, 2012 by hjmanan : Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia speaking after he refuted Hillary Clinton allegation of Russia selling helicopter-gunships to Syria. He accused America of selling to Egypt & Gulf States for used in suppression.

Billions spent perfecting a killing machine?

A military programme too big to fail

Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on 26 Jan 2012 - The US military calls the F-35 the next generation strike aircraft. The F-35 is also the most expensive weapons program in US history.

But it is nowhere near ready.The programme, which was supposed to cost $233bn, has ballooned to an expected $383bn.

Eleven years after the launch of the F35, the military intends to conduct more test flights this year. But the current budget crunch will just put even more focus and pressure on the programme that one could say is too big to fail.

When It Became A Good Thing To Be A War Profiteer?

Apr 18, 2011 - Can Someone ANYONE PLEASE Tell Me?

Discussing American madness :: The Anti-American Manifesto.

'Re-distributed bailout would mean $350,000 per American'

"The Anti-American manifesto is addressing the fact that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are able or willing to address the biggest problems facing the US today, which are the economy, the environment, healthcare and the wars," Rall told RT. "And now you have to ask yourself as an American do you want to tolerate the system that is unresponsive and not going to go anywhere or do you want to change it. The Anti-American Manifesto is not anti-American, it is anti the American government, or more specifically, this American government. We can do better and that's what I want to do."

Koreas in border artillery clash.

The BBC's John Sudworth explains how the cross-border clash developed

South Korea says it has returned fire after North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells at one of its border islands, killing two marines.

The South's military was placed on its highest non-wartime alert after the shells landed on Yeonpyeong island.

Pyongyang accused the South of firing first. The Southern military said it had conducted exercises but shelling was directed away from the North.

This is one of the worst clashes since the Korean War ended, analysts say.

There have been occasional cross-border incidents since the conflict ended without a peace treaty in 1953, but the latest comes at a time of rising regional tension.

Continue reading the main story ::

Saudi Arabia to do record $60 billion American arms deal

newsupload2010 | October 21, 2010

From the world's biggest embassy !

Cost of Iraq's 'new era':

AlJazeeraEnglish | August 28, 2010

The US government has said that the change of military strategy in Iraq is a "new era" for the country.

Operation Iraqi Freedom will become Operation New Dawn from Wednesday.

This means fewer soldiers in the country, but more diplomats who will be living in the world's biggest embassy in Baghdad.

The embassy stretches across 2km and and 104 acres of land - six times the size of the UN headquarters and bigger than the Vatican.

Along with four new regional offices it will house nearly 2,500 diplomats, protected by as many as 7,000 private security guards.

For travel anywhere outside of the embassy, the diplomats have a new fleet of armoured cars, trucks and special aircraft.

All this will cost the US $2.5bn next year, over and above the costs of maintaining a military force of 50,000 American soldiers.

Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna reports.

Greek military spending criticised

AlJazeeraEnglish — May 13, 2010 — Despite a deep deficit crisis, Greece is being encouraged by Paris and Berlin to continue spending billions of dollars on defence.

It spends just over three per cent of it's gross domestic product on military weapons - more than any other nation in the EU - included those involved in international conflicts, such as Britain, France and Germany

Athens' military budget even eclipses Pakistan - a nation at war on several fronts.

Evidence The Pentagon Is Fighting A Religious Crusade!

(Jan 21, 09). Revelations that US troops have been using guns with a Biblical reference inscribed on part of the weapon throws the claim that their military is a secular force into question. The Pentagon has been buying scopes from a company called Trijicon for at least five years. It is South African founder started the practice three decades ago. The company has continued to insrcribe the parts ever since.

Upkeep Of Subs To Cost RM290 Million Annually

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15  09   |  Bernama

-- The cost to operate the nation's two submarines including maintenance costs is estimated at RM290 million annually, said Defence Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

He said the value of the procurement contract for the two submarines was 1.084 billion Euros (RM5.382 bilion), which included the purchase price, integrated logistics support and spare parts as well as training of the crew and the project team.

Thailand To Charge Plane Crew Over North Korean Arms

BANGKOK, Dec 13 (Reuters) 

- Thailand will press charges against the crew of a plane forced to land in Bangkok and found to be carrying arms from North Korea, a government spokesman said on Sunday, adding it was unclear where the plane had been going.

Military and police sources, declining to be named, said the United States had tipped the Thai authorities off about the 35 tonnes of arms that the plane held, which flouted United Nations sanctions against North Korea.

They said the five crew members - four from Kazakhstan and one from Belarus - were saying little.