NEW: Russian President Vladimir Putin says that the country will deploy their first regiment of hypersonic nuclear-capable Avangard missiles beginning next year - Reuters
https://twitter.com/NewsBreaking/status/1077997998569795584
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Replying to @CivMilAir @ETEJSpotter
The Boeing VC-25 is a military version of the Boeing 747 airliner, modified for presidential transport and operated by the United States Air Force as Air Force One, yes?
His last tweet at 18:18
When did AF take off?
Rear Adm. Robert Sharp will become the next director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in February, according to a Dec. 26 news release from the organization.
He will take over for Robert Cardillo, who has served as head of the agency since 2014.
Sharp currently leads the Office of Naval Intelligence and serves as director of the National Maritime Intelligence-Integration Office. On Nov. 29, the White House nominated Sharp for his third star and the Senate approved the nomination Dec. 22. In a Dec. 26 press release, the NGA formally announced the change in leadership. Politico had reported that Cardillo might be retiring and that a uniformed officer might be chosen to take his place.
NGA, which collects, analyzes and distributes geospatial information to the military and intelligence community, has been led by a civilian for eight years.
Sharp will assume command of NGA during a ceremony in February, the agency said. He will become the agency’s seventh director. In a previous assignment, he served as director for intelligence for U.S. Special Operations Command
Cardillo had been a champion of leveraging emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to help unburden analysts. Rather than having humans staring at images or hours of full motion video, new technologies could do this monotonous work getting analysts back into the business of using their brain power for analysis.
Cardillo provided Senators in 2016 an anecdote that described how important leveraging algorithms would be to his agency’s mission. He explained how an analyst physically counted 25,000 buildings in a particular area as there was no algorithm designed to do this for them. “Think of the hours he had to spend to do that,” Cardillo exclaimed. “I turned to my head of research and I said don’t let that happen again.”
It is not immediately clear if Cardillo, who started as a photographic interpreter for the intelligence community and became President Barack Obama’s daily intelligence briefer and then the No. 3 official in in the intelligence community, is retiring or moving to another assignment. An NGA spokeswoman declined to comment.
https://www.c4isrnet.com/intel-geoint/2018/12/26/new-chief-for-military-spy-agency/?utm_campaign=Socialflow+DFN&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social
https://twitter.com/CivMilAir/status/1078004423543189504
AIR FORCE ONE SPECULATION:
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Air Force One has reportedly been spotted flying over parts of Europe today
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President Trump hasn’t tweeted today
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No Marine posted outside the White House West Wing today.
An airplane traveling to Chicago was forced to return to Louisville on Wednesday morning due to a mechanical issue.
The American Airline flight left from Louisville International Airport around 9 a.m. and was on its way to Chicago's O'Hare Airport, according to Fly Louisville spokeswoman Sara Brown. She did not have the flight number.
Not long after taking off, the airplane — which was carrying about 70 passengers and crew members — had to turn back to Louisville, Brown said. She declined to say what the mechanical issue was.
Brown said there were no injuries and that an emergency response team was sent to the scene to examine the plane and passengers.
An American Airlines spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment sent via phone or email.
More details on the flight were not immediately available.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/2018/12/26/louisville-chicago-flight-returns-mechanical-issue/2415595002/
probs saw this already