Showing posts with label al Shahbaab. Show all posts
Showing posts with label al Shahbaab. Show all posts

Sunday, October 30, 2011

DTN News - U.S. DRONES NEWS: White House Confirms US Drones In Ethiopia

DTN News - U.S. DRONES NEWS: White House Confirms US Drones In Ethiopia
(NSI News Source Info) NEW DELHI, India - October 30, 2011: The White House says the United States has drones in Ethiopia and that the unmanned aircraft are there to conduct reconnaissance missions, not airstrikes.
Spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Friday that the operation is part of the U.S. government's partnership with Ethiopia to promote stability in the Horn of Africa and combat terrorism.
U.S. military officials have confirmed the drones are flying into Somalia, where the government is battling the al-Qaida-Linked militant group al-Shabab.
The drones can be armed with missiles and satellite-guided bombs, but a military spokesman told VOA on Friday the missions are strictly for surveillance purposes.
Authorities say the remote-controlled aircraft are flying from an airfield in the southern Ethiopian city of Arba Minch.
The spokesman also said the drone operation is unrelated to Kenya's ongoing military offensive inside Somalia.
Kenyan troops moved into Somalia two weeks ago in pursuit of al-Shabab militants, who are suspected of kidnapping several foreigners on Kenyan territory.
On Friday, Kenyan and Somali forces captured the town of Burgabo in the Lower Juba region.
Kenyan troops have now moved within 200 kilometers of the port city of Kismayo, the third largest city in Somalia and an economic hub for al-Shabab.

Endurance (Courtesy - Wikipedia)

RQ-4 Global Hawk, a high-altitude reconnaissance UAV capable of 36 hours continuous flight time

Because UAVs are not burdened with the physiological limitations of human pilots, they can be designed for maximized on-station times. The maximum flight duration of unmanned, aerial vehicles varies widely. Internal-combustion-engine aircraft endurance depends strongly on the percentage of fuel burned as a fraction of total weight (the Breguet endurance equation), and so is largely independent of aircraft size. Solar-electric UAVs hold potential for unlimited flight, a concept originally championed by the AstroFlight Sunrise in 1974[61][62][63][64] and the much later Aerovironment Helios Prototype, which was destroyed in a 2003 crash.

Electric UAVs kept aloft indefinitely by laser power-beaming[65] technology represent another proposed solution to the endurance challenge. This approach is advocated by Jordin Kare and Thomas Nugent.

One of the major problems with UAVs is the lack of inflight refueling capability. Currently the US Air Force is promoting research that should end in an inflight UAV refueling capability. The first UAV-UAV refueling flights are expected sometime during the first half of 2012.[66]

One of the uses for a high endurance UAV would be to "stare" at the battlefield for a long period of time to produce a record of events that could then be played backwards to track where improvised explosive devices (IEDs) came from. Air Force Chief of Staff John P. Jumper started a program to create these persistent UAVs, but this was stopped once he was replaced.[67]

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is to sign a contract on building an UAV which should have an enormous endurance capability of about 5 years. The project is entitled "Vulture" and a September 15, 2010 news release indicated DARPA’s Vulture Program Enters Phase II.[68] The developers are certain neither on the design of the UAV nor on what fuel it should run to be able to stay in air without any maintenance for such a long period of time.[69]

Notable high endurance flights
UAVFlight timeDateNotes
QinetiQ Zephyr Solar Electric336 hours 22 minutes9–23 July 2010[70]
QinetiQ Zephyr Solar Electric82 hours 37 minutes28–31 July 2008[71]
Boeing Condor58 hours 11 minutes1989The aircraft is currently in the Hiller Aviation Museum, CA.

[72]

QinetiQ Zephyr Solar Electric54 hoursSeptember 2007[73][74]
IAI Heron52 hours ?[75][76]
AC Propulsion Solar Electric48 hours 11 minutesJune 3, 2005[77]
MQ-1 Predator40 hours 5 minutes ?[78]
GNAT-75040 hours1992[79][80]
TAM-538 hours 52 minutesAugust 11, 2003Smallest UAV to cross the Atlantic

[81][82]

Aerosonde38 hours 48 minutesMay 3, 2006[83]
Vanguard Defense Industries2 hours 55 minutes11 February 2011VTOL platform carrying a 18 lb payload.[84]
TAI Anka24 hours30 December 2010[85]

*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News

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Sunday, September 11, 2011

DTN News - SAD CHAPTER OF OUR MANKIND HISTORY: Americans Mark 10th Anniversary Of September 11 Attacks

DTN News - SAD CHAPTER OF OUR MANKIND HISTORY: Americans Mark 10th Anniversary Of September 11 Attacks
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - September 11, 2011: Americans Sunday remembered the horror of September 11, 2001, and the nearly 3,000 people who died in the hijacked plane attacks as authorities worked to ensure the emotional 10th anniversary was peaceful.
Law enforcement authorities in New York and Washington were on high alert against what was described as a "credible but unconfirmed" threat of an al Qaeda plot to attack the United States again a decade after the toppling of the World Trade Center's twin towers by hijacked airliners.
Security was especially tight in Manhattan, where police set up vehicle checks on city streets as well as bridges and tunnels coming into the city.
President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush, who was president at the time of the attacks, were scheduled to be among the dignitaries at the Ground Zero site in New York.
They were set to join victims' families to hear the reading of the names of those who died on September 11. Bells will toll across the city.
In the attacks, 19 men from the Islamic militant group al Qaeda hijacked airliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon outside Washington and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
To mark the attacks, Obama was set to visit all three sites.
"Thanks to the tireless efforts of our military personnel and our intelligence, law enforcement and homeland security professionals, there should be no doubt: today, America is stronger and al Qaeda is on the path to defeat," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address.
U.S. forces killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in May.
Sunday's Ground Zero ceremony was set to include moments of silence marking when planes hit the twin towers as well as when they collapsed. Other moments of silence will mark when a plane hit the Pentagon and another crashed in Shanksville after passengers fought back against the hijackers.
Bush, who has kept a low profile since leaving office, was in Shanksville Saturday. "The memory of that morning is fresh, and so is the pain," Bush told a crowd at the site.
'THEIR LIVES MATTERED'
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie spoke Saturday at the opening of a monument to the 746 residents of his state killed in the attacks. The "Empty Sky" memorial in Liberty State Park, across the Hudson River from the World Trade Center, has the names of the dead etched on two 30-foot tall walls, each 208 feet and 10 inches long -- the exact width of the twin towers.
"Their lives mattered," Christie said at the ceremony, which began late because security slowed traffic. "That's why we built this memorial and that's why we come here today."
Security concerns were high in Washington, too. Authorities shut down part of Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia outside the U.S. capital Saturday because of a suspicious object but later said no explosives were found.
New Yorkers, accustomed to heightened security and alerts that have become commonplace over the past decade, appeared to take the increased police presence in stride.
A decade later, after a faltering start, there are signs of rebuilding progress at the World Trade Center site. The new One World Trade Center skyscraper rises more than 80 stories above the ground as it inches to its planned 1,776 foot height -- symbolic of the year of America's independence from Britain.
The memorial plaza is ready and the neighborhood has enjoyed a revival, making it a trendy Manhattan place to live.
The 2001 attacks were followed by U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the latter of which Obama opposed. The United States still has thousands of troops deployed in both countries.
But the weak U.S. economy has become the biggest concern for many Americans. Obama said, "After a hard decade of war, it is time for nation building here at home."
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News

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Thursday, July 15, 2010

DTN News: Shebab Threaten More Attacks After Uganda Bombings

DTN News: Shebab Threaten More Attacks After Uganda Bombings
Source: DTN News / AFP
(NSI News Source Info) KAMPALA, Uganda - July 16, 2010: Somalia's Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab Thursday vowed further attacks after two deadly bombings in Uganda, as Kampala said it would send more troops to boost the African Union force in Mogadishu.
Sunday's bomb attacks on entertainment spots in Kampala where crowds were watching the World Cup final killed at least 73 people and underscored the risk posed by the Somali rebel movement to the entire region. "What happened in Kampala is just the beginning," elusive Shebab leader Mohamed Abdi Godane said in an audio message broadcast on several Mogadishu radio stations. The Shebab -- fighting Somalia's Western-backed transitional government -- said the blasts were in retaliation for the presence of more than 3,000 Ugandan troops in the embattled African Union mission in Somalia (AMISOM). "We are telling all Muslims and particularly the people of Mogadishu that those martyred in AMISOM shelling will be avenged," he added. Godane said the Kampala attacks were carried out by a unit named the Saleh Nabhan Brigade after a Kenyan-born Al-Qaeda operative allegedly behind 2002 anti-Israeli attacks in Mombasa and killed in a suspected US air raid last year. Uganda could provide 2,000 more soldiers for the African Union force, an army spokesman said Thursday, following a decision this month by a regional body to bring AMISOM to its full strength of 8,100. "We are capable of providing the required force if other countries fail to do so," spokesman Felix Kulayigye told AFP. "I should say, however, that I think it is appropriate that other countries contribute." The United States welcomed Uganda's decision and pledged to boost its own aid to the force, the main obstacle preventing the Shebab from seizing full control of Mogadishu. "We have reviewed, since Sunday, the support that we're providing to AMISOM. We are going to beef that up," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said. He also said 63 FBI agents assisting in the probe of Sunday's attacks had arrived in the region. The Kampala attacks, the deadliest in the region since the 1998 bombings against the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, spoiled the continent's World Cup party and drew global condemnation. Analysts said they further raised the Shebab's jihadist profile but their immediate objective was to force a withdrawal of AMISOM, which also has 2,500 troops from Burundi. With fewer than 7,000 troops on the ground, AMISOM has enabled the tenuous survival of Somalia's Western-backed President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed but failed to weaken the insurgents. "We are going to go on the offensive for all those who did this," Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said Wednesday of the weekend attacks. "We can join to build up the strength of that force to 20,000 so that working with the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia we can eliminate the terrorists," he said. "We were just in Mogadishu to guard the port, the airport and the State House. Now they have mobilised us to look for them." Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, whose 2006 invasion of Somalia failed to suppress the Shebab before withdrawing early last year, has said he would not send troops back in but nevertheless advocated a tough approach. "There is absolutely no hope of engaging in negotiations with this group. There is no option but to work for their total annihilation," Meles told state television Thursday. Ugandan investigators were meanwhile still trying to determine the exact circumstances of Sunday's attacks in Kampala and identities of all the victims. A senior official has said that at least one of the blasts was a suicide attack while police said they had already arrested six suspects.
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