Notables..

DEFENSE AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT!

Directed energy systems down drones in US Air Force demonstration.

U.S. Air Force personnel used Raytheon-built microwave systems and high-energy lasers to bring down dozens of small drones during a recent exercise. The target drones were flying both alone and in swarms.

Airmen took control of both the microwave and laser systems after just one day's training. They used an Xbox-style controller to direct the laser and a joystick to operate the high-power microwave in real-world scenarios at the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

“Countering the drone threat requires diverse solutions,” said Stefan Baur, Raytheon Electronic Warfare Systems vice president.

The HEL system, paired with Raytheon’s Multi-spectral Targeting System of sensors, uses invisible beams of light. Mounted on a small, all-terrain, militarized vehicle, the system detects, identifies, tracks and engages drones.

Raytheon’s HPM uses microwave energy to disrupt drone guidance systems. High-power microwave operators can focus the beam to bring down drone swarms. With a consistent power supply, an HPM system can provide virtually unlimited protection.

The two systems complement one another. HPM can instantly defeat a swarm. HEL shoots down drones one at a time. If the laser is occupied and there's another target coming, HPM can bring it down.

Raytheon’s HEL and HPM were the only directed energy systems that participated in the demonstration, which was part of the Air Force Directed Energy Experimentation campaign. The White Sands Missile Range exercise follows a similar Army-directed energy exercise held in 2017.

“After decades of research and investment, we believe these advanced directed energy applications will soon be ready for the battlefield,” said Dr. Thomas Bussing, Raytheon Advanced Missile Systems vice president.

https://www.raytheon.com/news/feature/defense-speed-light

Notables..

SCUM: Anti-democratic EU: President Junker reveals Eurosceptics will be blocked from Commission jobs, REGARDLESS of election results.

The EU will ensure that eurosceptic candidates are obstructed from securing top jobs in Brussels no matter that outcome of the European elections in May, Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, has boasted.

In an interview with Polish media Juncker shot down the notion that the increased support at the ballot box for national populist parties predicted in May would – in any way – affect the globalist European Union integration project.

“In these elections, those who promote foolish nationalism will pay the price for it,” Junker threatened.

“Nobody knows this, but last time I rejected the candidacies of six of the Commissioners presented to me by national governments,” the unelected bureaucrat gloated.

“Do remember that governments merely propose commissioners. It is the president of the Commission who accepts them and allocates their responsibilities,” he ominously added.

While he spoke with a journalist from Rzeczpospolita, Juncker sneered that regardless of whether Poland’s national populist ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party wins November’s national parliamentary election or if it’s beaten by an opposition coalition backed by globalists in Brussels, Poland would have to stay in the EU due to its financial dependence on the transnational institution.

“Poles do not want to be cut off from all of this,” Junker arrogantly proclaimed, before adding that Western Europeans “should not think Poland is only in the bloc for money.”

The unelected Luxembourgish politician went on to claim that Poland’s membership in the EU is essentially contingent upon its shared ‘common values’ with other countries inside the EU, smugly adding that money from Brussels ‘is not a gift, but a recognition of the magnitude of the reforms carried out’ since joining the bloc.

In the same interview, Juncker spoke about the European Commission’s decision to pursue disciplinary sanctions against Poland due to the government’s purported repudiation of ‘democratic standards’ with reforms made to what the ruling PiS party considers a corrupt judicial system requiring additional accountability.

“Rule of law is the cornerstone of the EU,” Juncker professed, arguing that while “certain countries [sometimes]allow themselves a degree of insubordination, depending on who happens to be in power and the stage of the political cycle they are in”, he was “confident that in a few years’ time, these issues won’t be troubling us anymore”.

https://voiceofeurope.com/2019/05/anti-democratic-eu-president-junker-reveals-eurosceptics-will-be-blocked-from-commission-jobs-regardless-of-election-results/

Notables..

US.-based Afghan pilot training program ends after nearly half of pilots go AWOL.

A U.S.-based program to train Afghan attack pilots has shuttered after nearly half of trainees went absent without leave, or AWOL, resulting in only one graduating class, according to a government report released this week.

The program taught Afghan Air Force pilots to fly the AC-208 light attack combat aircraft. It was disbanded after more than 40 percent of those enrolled left in the middle of training, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in its quarterly report.

“Those students that did not go AWOL were pulled back to Afghanistan to complete their training: as a result, only one class graduated from the U.S.-based program,” the report stated. The remaining classes will finish their training in Afghanistan.

The pilots were trained at Meacham Airport in Fort Worth, Texas by advisers called the Train Advise Assist Command-Air. The instructors are part of NATO’s Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan.

SIGAR did not indicate whether the AWOL pilots were found. Foreign trainees going AWOL is not uncommon. Nearly half of all foreign military trainees — 152 out of 320 — gone AWOL since 2005 were from Afghanistan, SIGAR reported in 2017.

https://gellerreport.com/2019/05/us-based-afghan-pilot-training-program-ends-after-nearly-half-of-pilots-go-awol.html/

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