DTN News: South Korea In Pictures Of The Day January 28, 2010

DTN News: South Korea In Pictures Of The Day January 28, 2010 *Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) SEOUL, South Korea - January 28, 2010: South Korean military are on high alter due to North Korea on Tuesday declared a no-sail zone in the waters off its west coast, according to media reports in the South.South Korean sailors arrive at a port by ferry from the west islands for their vacation in Incheon, west of Seoul, January 27, 2010. South Korea has returned fire after North Korea shot several artillery rounds into waters near a disputed sea border with the South on Wednesday, Yonhap news agency reported an unnamed military source as saying. North Korea on Tuesday declared a no-sail zone in the waters off its west coast, according to media reports in the South.Members of local reserve forces participate in a drill in Ansan, south of Seoul January 27, 2010. South Korea has returned fire after North Korea shot several artillery rounds into waters near a disputed sea border with the South on Wednesday.South Korean soldiers conduct a military drill in Yanggu near the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, northeast of Seoul January 27, 2010.South Korean soldiers conduct a military drill in Yanggu near the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, northeast of Seoul January 27, 2010. South Korea has returned fire after North Korea shot several artillery rounds into waters near a disputed sea border with the South on Wednesday, Yonhap news agency reported an unnamed military source as saying. North Korea on Tuesday declared a no-sail zone in the waters off its west coast, according to media reports in the South.

DTN News: Joint Task Force Organizes Haitian Airport

DTN News: Joint Task Force Organizes Haitian Airport *Source: U.S. DoD issued January 28, 2010 By Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service (NSI News Source Info) PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, - January 28, 2010: When a disaster strikes, people assume it should be easy to get relief supplies in. A C-130 Hercules transport lands as Air Force aerial porters move cargo at the airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Dustin Doyle (Click photo for screen-resolution image); high-resolution image available.

But it’s not always a simple proposition. Can the airport’s runway support the weight of cargo aircraft? What is the security situation like? What equipment does the airport have for unloading and loading? How many people and the means to support and supply them will be needed?

All of these questions and more are in the realm of Joint Task Force Port Opening at Toussaint L’Overture International Airport here. The unit, operating under U.S. Transportation Command, opened the airport after the magnitude 7 earthquake that hit Haiti Jan. 12 and has been responsible for operations on the airport’s ramp since then.

The task force contains the Air Force’s 621st Contingency Response Group, from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., and the Army’s 688th Transportation Detachment for rapid port opening from Fort Eustis, Va.

The disaster in Haiti marks the first time “the whole enchilada” has been used in an operation, said Air Force Col. Patrick Hollrah, the task force commander.

“Something of this magnitude takes the whole team to make it happen,” he said during a recent interview. “This is, unfortunately, what we were made to do. It is our job to respond to these.” The unit was the second one on the ground after the Air Force Special Operations Command team. “[The special operations team] brought a special tactics team with them that was restoring order and starting to control the airflow in,” Hollrah said. “There were literally airplanes parked everywhere.”

The terminal building, while still standing, has cracks all through it and cannot be used.

Aircraft parked where they could and crews improvised the unloading process. That caused confusion beyond belief, the colonel said. Relief supplies got intermixed and trucks drove straight down the ramp to load supplies.

“We started working in tandem [with the Air Force special operations team] to get airplanes unloaded so they could get off the ramp to clear off parking spaces so more airplanes could come in,” Hollrah said. It was a short time from order to execution, so the team surveyed the area on the flight down to Haiti and had an idea of how they wanted to set up the unit.

“The biggest challenge was the volume of air traffic, volume of vehicles and the volume of people on an airport ramp,” he said. “Anywhere else, a ramp is a restricted area. Not here.”

The unit is trying to get control of the safety and distribution parts of the equation, but it is slow going. “Eventually, we’ll get back to a point that improves safety and allows the traffic to flow where it needs to when it needs to,” Hollrah said. “It will also make the unloading and distribution process faster.”

Aerial port airmen unload the aircraft and move the goods off the ramp. Army vehicles take the goods and move them to a forward distribution node, about a mile away. “This opens up the ramp space and stops having trucks drive right on the ramp to pick up supplies,” said Army Maj. Vicky Snow, the 688th commander.

The soldiers stack the goods and, using rough-terrain forklifts, load trucks from governmental and nongovernmental agencies. By far, the most goods in the supply yard belong to the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is responsible for picking up the relief supplies and distributing them. That process is moving smoothly.

Nongovernmental agencies also pick up their goods at the yard, and this can be more of a problem. In one case, someone donated a plane to airlift supplies to the effort, and several organizations placed goods aboard it without tracking numbers, or even labels.

“Separating these out and ensuring they go to who they belong to can cause problems,” Snow said. “In other cases, they don’t have the right trucks to load with a forklift, so we have to break down the palettes and load [the vehicles] by hand. This takes time.”

These are small units. “We have all our people cross-trained, and everybody pitches in to ensure the mission gets done,” Hollrah said. “We’re a bridging force that can come in quickly to get the process started. Then we turn the responsibility over to government or non-governmental agencies.”

The unit not only handles supplies coming in, but also helps the State Department with refugees getting out.

“We have a high-volume evacuation of American citizens,” said Air Force Maj. Matt Jones, the task force’s operations officer. “We’ve been averaging 1,200 American citizens per day that have been getting on U.S. military and commercial aircraft and getting back home.”

Before the earthquake, the airport saw 30 flights on a busy day, and those were mostly during daylight. At its peak, since the disaster, the airport received 120 flights per day 24 hours a day. The most recent statistics show the airport has handled at least 12 million pounds of relief supplies, and this does not count critical supplies that medical and relief personnel brought with them.

The joint task force will continue until its services are no longer needed, Hollrah said, or until the mission is taken over by other organizations.

DTN News: Taking Credit For Failure

DTN News: Taking Credit For Failure *Source: By Scott Stewart STRATFOR (NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 28, 2010: On Jan. 24, a voice purported to be that of Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the botched attempt to bring down Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day. The short one-minute and two-second audio statement, which was broadcast on Al Jazeera television, called the 23-year-old Nigerian suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab a hero and threatened more attacks. The voice on the recording said the bombing attempt was in response to the situation in Gaza and that the United States can never dream of living in peace until Muslims have peace in the Palestinian territories. The speaker also said that attacks against the United States would continue as long as the United States continued to support Israel. While the U.S. government has yet to confirm that the voice is that of bin Laden, Al Jazeera claims that the voice is indeed that of the al Qaeda leader. Bin Laden’s health and welfare have been the topic of a lot of discussion and debate over the past several years, and many intelligence officials believe he is dead. Because of this, any time an audio recording purporting to be from bin Laden is released it receives heavy forensic scrutiny. Some technical experts believe that recent statements supposedly made by bin Laden have been cobbled together by manipulating portions of longer bin Laden messages that were previously recorded. It has been STRATFOR’s position for several years that, whether bin Laden is dead or alive, the al Qaeda core has been marginalized by the efforts of the United States and its allies to the point where the group no longer poses a strategic threat. Now, questions of bin Laden’s status aside, the recording was most likely released through channels that helped assure Al Jazeera that the recording was authentic. This means that we can be somewhat confident that the message was released by the al Qaeda core. The fact that the al Qaeda core would attempt to take credit for a failed attack in a recording is quite interesting. But perhaps even more interesting is the core group’s claim that the attack was conducted because of U.S support for Israel and the treatment of the Palestinians living in Gaza. Smoke and Mirrors During the early years of al Qaeda’s existence, the group did not take credit for attacks it conducted. In fact, it explicitly denied involvement. In interviews with the press, bin Laden often praised the attackers while, with a bit of a wink and a nod, he denied any connection to the attacks. Bin Laden issued public statements after the August 1998 East Africa embassy bombings and the 9/11 attacks flatly denying any involvement. In fact, bin Laden and al Qaeda continued to publicly deny any connection to the 9/11 attacks until after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. These denials of the 9/11 attacks have taken on a life of their own and have become the basis of conspiracy theories that the United States or Israel was behind the attacks (despite later statements by bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, that contradicted earlier statements and claimed credit for 9/11). In the years following 9/11, the al Qaeda core has continued to bask in the glory of that spectacularly successful attack, but it has not been able to produce the long-awaited encore. This is not for lack of effort; the al Qaeda core has been involved in several attempted attacks against the United States, such as the attempted shoe-bomb attack in December 2001, dispatching Jose Padilla to the United States in May of 2002 to purportedly try to conduct a dirty-bomb attack, and the August 2006 thwarted plot to attack trans-Atlantic airliners using liquid explosives. Interestingly, while each of these failed attempts has been tied to the al Qaeda core by intelligence and investigative efforts, the group did not publicly claim credit for any of them. While the group’s leadership has made repeated threats that they were going to launch an attack that would dwarf 9/11, they simply have been unable to do so. Indeed, the only plot that could have come anywhere near the destruction of the 9/11 attacks was the liquid explosives plot, and that was foiled early on in the operational planning process — before the explosive devices were even fabricated. Now, back to the failed bombing attempt on Christmas Day. First, the Yemeni franchise of al Qaeda, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), has already claimed responsibility for the attack, and evidence strongly suggests that AQAP is the organization with which Abdulmutallab had direct contact. Indeed, while some members of AQAP have had prior contact with bin Laden, there is little to suggest that bin Laden himself or what remains of al Qaeda’s core leadership has any direct role in planning any of the operations conducted by AQAP. The core group does not exercise that type of control over the activities of any of its regional groups. These groups are more like independent franchises that operate under the same brand name rather than parts of a single hierarchical organization. Each franchise has local leadership and is self-funding, and the franchises frequently diverge from global al Qaeda “corporate policies” in areas like target selection. Furthermore, in an environment where the jihadists know that U.S. signals-intelligence efforts are keenly focused on the al Qaeda core and the regional franchise groups, discussing any type of operational information via telephone or e-mail from Yemen to Pakistan would be very dangerous — and terrible operational security. Using couriers would be more secure, but the al Qaeda core leadership is very cautious in its communications with the outside world (Hellfire missiles can have that effect on people), and any such communications will be very slow and deliberate. For the al Qaeda core leadership, the price of physical security has been the loss of operational control over the larger movement. Taking things one step further, not only is the core of al Qaeda attempting to take credit for something it did not do, but it is claiming credit for an attack that did little more than severely burn the attacker in a very sensitive anatomical area. Some have argued that the attack was successful because it has instilled fear and caused the U.S. government to react, but clearly the attack would have had a far greater impact had the device detonated. The failed attack was certainly not what the operational planners had in mind when they dispatched Abdulmutallab on his mission. This attempt by the al Qaeda core to pander for publicity, even though it means claiming credit for a botched attack, clearly demonstrates how far the core group has fallen since the days when bin Laden blithely denied responsibility for 9/11. The Palestinian Focus Since the beginning of bin Laden’s public discourse, the Palestinian cause has been a consistent feature. His 1996 declaration of war and the 1998 fatwa declaring jihad against the West and Israel are prime examples. However, the reality of al Qaeda’s activities has shown that, to bin Laden, the plight of the Palestinians has been less an area of genuine concern and more of a rhetorical device to exploit sympathy for the jihadist cause and draw Muslims to al Qaeda’s banner. Over the years, al Qaeda has worked very closely with a number of militant groups in a variety of places, including the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat in Algeria, Jemaah Islamiyah in Indonesia and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement in China. However, while one of bin Laden’s mentors, Abdullah Azzam, was a Palestinian, and there have been several Palestinians affiliated with al Qaeda over the years, the group has done little to support Palestinian resistance groups such as Hamas, even though Hamas (as the Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood) sprang from the same radical Egyptian Islamist milieu that produced al-Zawahiri’s Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), which al-Zawahiri later folded into al Qaeda. Jihadist militant groups such as Jund Ansar Allah have attempted to establish themselves in Gaza, but these groups were seen as problematic competition, rather than allies, and Hamas quickly stamped them out. With little help coming from fellow Sunnis, Hamas has come to rely on Iran and Iran’s Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, as sources of funding, weapons and training. Even though this support is flowing across the Shiite-Sunni divide, actions speak louder than words, and Iran and Hezbollah have shown that they can deliver. In many ways, the political philosophy of Hamas (which has been sharply criticized by al-Zawahiri and other al Qaeda leaders) is far closer to that of Iran than to that of the jihadists. With Iran’s help, Hamas has progressed from throwing rocks and firing homemade Qassam rockets to launching the longer range Grad and Fajr rockets and conducting increasingly effective irregular-warfare operations against the Israeli army. Hezbollah’s ability to eject Israel from southern Lebanon and its strong stand against the Israeli armed forces in the 2006 war made a strong impression in the Middle East. Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas are seen as very real threats to Israel, while al Qaeda has shown that it can produce a lot of anti-Israeli rhetoric but few results. Because of this, Iran and its proxies have become the vanguard of the fight against Israel, while al Qaeda is simply trying to keep its name in the press. Claiming credit for failed attacks orchestrated by others and trying to latch on to the fight against Israel are just the latest signs that al Qaeda is trying almost too hard to remain relevant.

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DTN News: U.S. Department of Defense Contracts Dated January 28, 2010

DTN News: U.S. Department of Defense Contracts Dated January 28, 2010

*Source: DoD issued January 28, 2010

(NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON - January 28, 2010: U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) Contracts issued January 28, 2010 are undermentioned;

CONTRACTS

NAVY ~Austal USA, Mobile Ala., is being awarded a $204,238,728 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-08-C-2217) to exercise options for Ships 2 and 3 of the Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV) program. The JHSV will provide high speed, shallow draft transportation capability to support the intra-theater maneuver of personnel, supplies, and equipment for the Navy, Marine Corps and Army. Work will be performed in Mobile, Ala., and is expected to be completed by July 2012. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. ~Maritime Helicopter Support Co., Woodbridge, Va., is being awarded an $84,337,927 ceiling price firm-fixed-priced performance based logistics contract for repair of various line items of the H-60 helicopter systems and components. This contract contains options which, if exercised, will bring the not-to-exceed ceiling price of the contract to $306,683,371. Work will be performed by Sikorsky Aircraft Co., Stratford, Conn. (70 percent), and by Lockheed Martin Systems Integration, Owego N.Y. (30 percent). Work is expected to be completed by Jan. 30, 2011. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Inventory Control Point, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity (N00383-09-D-010F). ~United Technologies, East Hartford, Conn., is being awarded a $24,674,404 delivery order #0003 under a previously awarded basic ordering agreement contract (N00383-07-G-003M) for repair of line items used on the J-52 engine in support of the EA-6B aircraft. Work will be performed in Jacksonville, Fla., and is expected to be completed by July 2012. Contract funds will not expire before the end of the fiscal year. This contract was not competitively awarded. One company was solicited and one offer was received. The Naval Inventory Control Point, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity. ~Electric Boat Corp., Groton, Conn., is being awarded a $23,661,596 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-03-C-2101) for the planning and execution of the USS New Hampshire (SSN 778) post shakedown availability (PSA). Specific efforts include planning efforts, including long lead time material procurement, in preparation to accomplish the maintenance, repair, alterations, testing and other work on USS New Hampshire (SSN 778) during its scheduled PSA. Work will be performed in Groton, Conn., and is expected to be completed by September 2010. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The supervisor of shipbuilding conversion and repair, Groton, Conn., is the contracting activity. ~Dck pacific construction, LLC, Honolulu, Hawaii, is being awarded a $12,687,000 firm-fixed price contract for construction of box magazines and supporting facilities at Navy Munitions Command, East Asia Division, Detachment Pearl Harbor. The work to be performed provides for the construction of five standard type “C” earth covered box magazines and supporting facilities, which include: access roads; concrete apron; interior lighting and power; exterior security lighting; grounding; building lightning protection; building electrical service; site secondary electrical distribution; and fire hydrants. Special foundation features include excavation of existing subgrade to the coral formation and concrete fill below the invert of the magazine foundation to the coral formation. Work will be performed in West Loch, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and is expected to be completed by December 2011. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online Web site with 12 proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Hawaii, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, is the contracting activity (N62478-10-C-1482). ~Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors, Moorestown, N.J., is being awarded a $9,800,000 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-03-C-5115) for engineering services for DDG 51 class and CG 47 class Aegis combat system installation, integration, test and fleet life cycle engineering support. The required services include program management; operation support; quality assurance; configuration management; ship design integration; firmware maintenance; combat system test and evaluation; Navy furnished material support; special studies; and future-ship integration studies. Work will be performed in Moorestown, N.J. (45 percent); Baltimore, Md. (20 percent); Bath, Maine (12 percent); Pascagoula, Miss. (8 percent); Washington, D.C. (5 percent); Norfolk, Va. (5 percent); Mayport, Fla. (3 percent), Oxnard, Calif. (1 percent); and San Diego, Calif. (1 percent). Work is expected to be completed by September 2010. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington Navy Yard, D.C., is the contracting activity. ~BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair, Inc., San Diego, Calif., is being awarded an $8,919,673 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-08-C-2300) to exercise an option for the accomplishment of the post shakedown availability (PSA) for the DDG 51 class AEGIS destroyer USS Dewey (DDG 105). Specific efforts include engineering and management in support of the PSA; labor and procurement of material to correct government responsible deficiencies and accomplish system upgrades; perform specified PSA work items inclusive of tests and post repair sea trials; and task additional manhours and material in order to complete emergent repairs. Work will be performed in San Diego, Calif., and is expected to be completed by December 2010. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. ~L3 Services, Inc., Mount Laurel, N.J., is being awarded a $7,454,671 modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-award-fee contract (N00421-05-C-0009) to exercise an option for engineering and technical services and supplies to design, develop, procure, prototype, modify, integrate, install, test and evaluate, and provide logistics support for telecommunication and related communication-electronic systems. These services are in support of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Special Communications Requirements Division. The estimated level of effort for this modification is 72,368 man-hours. Work will be performed in Lexington Park, Md. (80 percent), and Saint Inigoes, Md. (20 percent), and is expected to be completed in April 2010. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity. ~Dyncorp International, LLC, Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $6,745,095 firm-fixed-price contract for continued contractor logistics support for 12 U.S. Navy UC-35C/D aircraft. Work will be performed at Andrews Air Force Base, Clinton, Md. (25 percent); Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS), Futenma, Japan (25 percent); Naval Air Station, New Orleans, La. (17 percent); MCAS Miramar, Calif. (17 percent); and MCAS Cherry Point, N.C. (16 percent). Work is expected to be completed in November 2010. Contract funds in the amount of $5,415,627 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to FAR 6.302-1. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity (N00019-10-C-0027). AIR FORCE ~Northrop Grumman Information Technology, McLean, Va., was awarded a $46,422,033 contract which will provide for reliability and maintainability information system sustainment and modification which will include all activities associated with planning, controlling, documenting, maintaining and operating the system. At this time, $2,500,000 has been obligated. 554 ELSG/PK, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8770-10-D-0001). ~Boeing Co., Wichita, Kan., was awarded a $35,403,359 contract which will provide contractor logistics support for the VC-25A aircraft. At this time, $8,220,600 has been obligated. 727 ACSG/PKB, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla.,is the contracting activity (FA8106-09-C-0005/P00005). ~Northrop Grumman System Corp., San Diego, Calif., was awarded a $22,549,365 contract which will develop and deliver a new synthetic aperture radar mode for the Block 20/30 Enhanced Integrated Sensor Suite. At this time, $2,068,897 has been obligated. 303 AESG/SYK, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-01-C-4600, P00331). DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY ~CORRECTION: The announcement dated Jan. 26, 2010, for Metals USA, (DBA) 1-Solutions Group, Fort Washington, Pa., should have stated that the contract is for customer direct metals deliveries (SPM8EG-09-D-0013).

DTN News: Saab Signs Contract For Air Defence System RBS 70 To Finland

DTN News: Saab Signs Contract For Air Defence System RBS 70 To Finland *Source: DTN News / Defense News (Click here for link) (NSI News Source Info) STOCKHOLM, Sweden - January 28, 2010: Defence and security company Saab (STO:SAABB) has signed a contract on further deliveries of the RBS 70 ground based air defence system to the Finnish Army. The order has a value of MSEK 260.

First deliveries of materiel are scheduled for 2011.

“This is very positive and it further proves the capability of the RBS 70 system which until now has been exported to 18 countries located on all five continents,” says Tomas Samuelsson, Head of Business Area Dynamics.

Saab serves the global market with world-leading products, services and solutions ranging from military defence to civil security. Saab has operations and employees on all continents and constantly develops, adopts and improves new technology to meet customers’ changing needs. http://www.saabgroup.com/

For streaming and broadcast-standard video, please visit www.thenewsmarket.com/saab. If you are a first-time user, please take a moment to register. In case you have any questions, please e-mail journalisthelp@thenewsmarket.com.

The information is that which Saab AB is required to declare by the Securities Business Act and/or the Financial instruments Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication on January 27 at 13.15.

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DTN News: Boeing B-52 With CONECT Upgrade Accomplishes 1st Test Flight

DTN News: Boeing B-52 With CONECT Upgrade Accomplishes 1st Test Flight *Source: DTN News / Boeing (NSI News Source Info) EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., - January 28, 2010: Boeing [NYSE: BA] announced today that a B-52H upgraded with new communication technology successfully accomplished its first test flight at Edwards Air Force Base on Jan. 17. The Combat Network Communications Technology (CONECT) upgrade allows B-52H crews to receive and send real-time digital information during their missions. The more than three-hour flight around the Edwards area included an initial system build-up test, interphone test and communication test. The test process included power-on of each system in flight to determine that there were no adverse effects on flight-essential systems. "Completion of the first test flight brings us one step closer to giving command centers and troops on the ground the ability to communicate with the B-52 through the military's digital information network," said Jim Kroening, Boeing B-52 Development Programs manager. "Augmenting current voice-based communication gives B-52 crews greater situational awareness and significantly enhanced mission capabilities." Prior to the first test flight, a robust testing approach was used, starting with unit and system testing in the laboratory, progressing to system ground test and then flight test. Boeing and the U.S. Air Force have accomplished more than 220 ground test points out of about 500. Ground and flight test will continue through February. The aircraft will then rotate through its planned depot maintenance at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., and resume ground and flight test in January 2011 at Edwards. A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is one of the world's largest defense, space and security businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions, and the world's largest and most versatile manufacturer of military aircraft. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is a $34 billion business with 68,000 employees worldwide.

DTN News: Boeing Delivers Record Number Of Apache Longbow Crew Trainers In 2009

DTN News: Boeing Delivers Record Number Of Apache Longbow Crew Trainers In 2009 *Source: DTN News / Boeing (NSI News Source Info) ST. LOUIS, - January 28, 2010: Boeing [NYSE: BA] delivered a record five Apache Longbow Crew Trainers (LCTs) in 2009 -- more than in any previous year -- and all five have been declared "ready for training." The U.S. Army accepted two LCT deliveries at Fort Hood, Texas; one in Illesheim, Germany; and one at Fort Drum, N.Y. The Egyptian Air Force accepted the delivery of its first LCT in November, allowing aircrews to train from their home base. Boeing has delivered a total of 29 LCTs to date. "The Apache LCT we delivered to Fort Drum in December is the first device to include the new display-system upgrade," said Mark McGraw, Boeing vice president of Training Systems and Services. "It incorporates a new out-the-window display using projectors, screens and mirrors to dramatically improve the scene that is presented to the aircrew." The Fort Drum LCT reflects the Apache Extended Block II configuration, ensuring concurrency with the AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter. This LCT simulates the aircraft's fully integrated avionics and weapons, as well as a state-of-the-art modem that transmits real-time, secure, digitized battlefield information to air and ground forces. Boeing is on contract to deliver three additional LCTs to the Army throughout the next two years. One will include a new Department of Defense-directed threat server and another is part of a National Guard modernization program. The third may be used as a development platform for future LCTs. The Apache LCT is a full-mission, high-fidelity flight simulator that provides training for individuals, crews and maintenance test pilots. Deployed worldwide and used for in-theater training in Iraq and Afghanistan, the LCT supports battalions by allowing pilots ample opportunity to meet their training needs and rehearse missions. The LCTs also may be networked with additional trainers for collective training capability. The AH-64D Apache Longbow combat helicopter is produced by Boeing in Mesa, Ariz. A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is one of the world's largest defense, space and security businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions, and the world's largest and most versatile manufacturer of military aircraft. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is a $34 billion business with 68,000 employees worldwide.

DTN News: Information Technology News TODAY January 28, 2010 ~ Apple's iPad A Small Step For Technology, A Leap For Multimedia Domination

DTN News: Information Technology News TODAY January 28, 2010 ~ Apple's iPad A Small Step For Technology, A Leap For Multimedia Domination *Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada- January 28, 2010: The Apple spiderweb continues to grow. The lasting impact of yesterday’s announcement of the company’s much-anticipated tablet computer won’t be the sleek, feather-light gadget itself. Rather, the iPad represents the latest tool in Apple’s ongoing – and increasingly successful – effort to lure consumers in with stylish gizmos that subsequently require them to buy and download most, if not all, their movies, music, books and applications exclusively from Apple’s online stores.The 13.4mm-thick (0.5-inch) and 730-gram (1.6 lbs) iPad tablet has a 9.7-inch LED display, 1024x768-pixel resolution and comes with a 16, 32 or 64 Gb flash drive. “Announcements of this magnitude from Apple are almost never about the hardware,” said independent technology analyst Carmi Levy. “The hardware is a hook to the wider ecosystem.” Indeed, amidst the hype of the iPad unveiling were several far more important announcements: by launching iBooks, a digital bookshop in its iTunes store, Apple CEO Steve Jobs now has his sights set on competitors such as Amazon, positioning the iPad as a direct competitor to Amazon’s Kindle book-reader. By partnering with several big-name publishers and content providers such as The New York Times, Apple stakes its claim to the digital publishing market, one of the few areas of electronic entertainment where it doesn’t already have an established presence. Mr. Jobs described the tablet yesterday as the most advanced technology in Apple’s history: “better than the laptop, better than the smart phone.” But despite several glowing reviews from critics about everything from its crystal-clear screen to its blazing speed, the tablet essentially represents a supercharged version of previous Apple products. “[The iPad is] a very good replacement or upgrade for the iPod Touch, and that’s about as faint a praise as you can offer,” said Forrester analyst James McQuivey. “Even Jobs himself tried to position this as a brand new category,” he said. “And then he went on to introduce a very large iPod Touch.”