Lackland AFB, San Antonio, Texas. USAF E-4B Nightwatch 75-0125 lit up a little while ago today on ADS-B Exchange and has been taxing around at low speed. According to Flight Aware it has been at Lackland since it flew down from Lincoln, Nebraska on May 25th, 2022. Interesting.
https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=adfeb6
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/750125
>https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=adfeb6
Looking through the fence, if you will.
Google maps, Bing Bird's Eye. You know. The usual suspects. Looks like E-4B 75-0125 (1 of 4) has been getting some extensive work done at the Lackland Boeing Facility and today was a bit of a taxi test.
When he reached the New World, Cortez burned his ships. As a result, his men were well motivated.
>>19670114 past bread
>PlaneFag Reports - Up from STRATCOM HQ Offutt AFB is USAF Boeing WC-135 constant phoenix 64-14836. Call sign OLIVE36.
Landed in Qatar yesterday. Squawk 7507.
The Constant Phoenix's modifications are primarily related to the aircraft's on-board atmospheric collection suite, which allows the mission crew to detect radioactive debris "clouds" in real time. The aircraft is equipped with external flow-through devices to collect particulates on filter paper and a compressor system for whole air samples collected in high-pressure holding spheres. Despite the different designations, both the C- and W-models carry the same mission equipment (with a front-end avionics suite similar to the RC-135V and W aircraft).
The interior seats 33 people, including the cockpit crew, maintenance personnel, and special equipment operators from the Air Force Technical Applications Center. On operational sorties, the crew is minimized to just pilots, navigator, and special-equipment operators, to reduce radiation exposure to mission-essential personnel only.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_WC-135_Constant_Phoenix
Hillary Clinton: "There Needs To Be A Formal"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_suit
dress code picrel
>Amazon
>United Launch Alliance
Because we won't use a Falcon 9.
>crispy critter
debil digits confirm
>Beat me to it!
that's a real shame
you must be slipping
anon hopeful that trend continues
'''Disaffected Ex-Army Intel Officer Tried Brazenly to Sell Secrets to China, Feds Say
Story by Justin Rohrlich • 3h'''
A former U.S. Army intelligence team leader who complained of learning “some really terrible things about the American government” hoarded years worth of national defense secrets and technology that he tried to share with China, according to a newly unsealed federal indictment.
Joseph Daniel Schmidt, 29, has been living primarily in Mainland China and Hong Kong since March 2020, just two months after separating from the military as a sergeant. Safely out of reach for U.S. authorities for more than two years, Schmidt was arrested Friday after landing at San Francisco International Airport. He is charged with attempting to deliver national defense information, and retention of national defense information, each of which carry up to 10 years in prison.
Schmidt’s alleged overtures to the Chinese began with a Feb. 24, 2020 email, according to an FBI affidavit that accompanies a detention motion filed Friday by prosecutors.
“I am a United States citizen looking to move to China,” Schmidt wrote to the Chinese Consulate in Istanbul, according to the affidavit. “I currently reside in Istanbul, and am trying to set up an appointment at the consulate in Istanbul. I also am trying to share information I learned during my career as an interrogator with the Chinese government. I have a current top secret clearance, and would like to talk to someone from the Government to share this information with you if that is possible.”
Schmidt then allegedly ran through the finer points of his service, listing “training in interrogation, running sources as a spy handler, surveillance detection, and other advanced psychological operation strategies.”
“I would like to go over the details with you in person if possible, as I am concerned with discussing this over email,” the email concluded. “I’m sorry for using English, but I want to make sure that I do not miscommunicate. Please contact me at your earliest convenience if I can set up a time to meet with you. Thank you, Joe Schmidt”
Schmidt, an active-duty soldier from 2015 to 2020 who studied Mandarin, was most recently assigned to the 109th Military Intelligence Battalion at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) near Tacoma, Washington. He held Top Secret and SCI (Sensitive Compartmented Information) security clearances, according to the affidavit, and was assigned to a Human Intelligence (HUMINT) squad. Schmidt’s work “directly supported the Indo-Pacific Command, the U.S. Department of Defense’s geographic combatant command that covers the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean region, including the PRC,” the affidavit states.
more at:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/disaffected-ex-army-intel-officer-tried-brazenly-to-sell-secrets-to-china-feds-say/ar-AA1hO8k2
Near collision, tense encounter as Beijing flexes muscles in the South China Sea
Adrian Portugal
Fri, October 6, 2023 at 8:07 AM CDT·3 min read
By Adrian Portugal
NEAR THE SECOND THOMAS SHOAL, South China Sea (Reuters) - The crew of the Philippine coastguard boat watch anxiously as an imposing Chinese vessel draws near and cuts off its path, coming within a metre of collision in a vast stretch of open water in the South China Sea.
The captain of the BRP Sindangan shuts off the engine and activates the reverse throttle. China's coastguard issues a warning via megaphone to leave as the Filipino crew watch closely on a radar that shows two vessels side by side.
"In accordance with international and Philippine national laws we are proceeding," a crew member responds.
"Request to stay clear from our passage."
Tense encounters like this, about 100 miles (185 km) off the Philippines and witnessed by a Reuters journalist, are becoming more frequent in Asia's most contested waters as China presses its claim of ownership over almost the entire South China Sea.
China rules the waves here, and the Philippine mission is symbolic of a wider battle between Beijing and neighbours determined to uphold sovereign rights in their exclusive economic zones (EEZ).
The Philippine coastguard ship is escorting smaller boats to the Second Thomas Shoal that carry supplies to a handful of troops posted to a makeshift garrison aboard the Sierra Madre, a World War Two navy ship that was intentionally grounded on the reef a quarter of a century ago.
STRATEGIC BATTLEGROUND
Their constant presence aboard the rusty ship has irked China and turned the Second Thomas Shoal into a strategic battleground, with Beijing deploying its more modern coastguard ships and clusters of fishing boats as far as 620 miles (1,150 km) from the Chinese coast.
Just 800 metres away, a grey navy ship starts to follow the Sindangan, joining the four Chinese coastguard vessels and five other boats suspected by the Philippines of being militia.
The Sindangan hangs back as the supply boats advance to complete the remaining nine miles (17 km) to reach the troops aboard the Sierra Madre.
China condemned the resupply mission, saying Philippine vessels had "intruded" in its waters in the Spratly Islands without its permission. It has previously ordered the Philippines to tow the grounded ship away from the atoll.
The stakes are high if this brinkmanship turns to miscalculation in the South China Sea.
Relations between the Philippines and China have further soured this year at a time of strengthened military engagement between Manila and Washington that Beijing says risks stoking regional tensions.
The Philippines and the United States have a Mutual Defense Treaty, and the Pentagon in May made clear it would protect the Philippines if its coastguard came under attack "anywhere in the South China Sea".
Jay Tarriela of the Philippine coastguard said it was his country's right to operate freely in its EEZ and accused China of violating international law.
"They have carried out dangerous manoeuvres and blocking operations to prevent our routine operations in providing supplies for our military troops," he told reporters.
https://news.yahoo.com/near-collision-tense-encounter-beijing-130734283.html