California To Regulate False Statements On Global Warming? WTH

I don’t live in California and do not have a dog in their global warming fight, however I do have a problem when a state government believes they can regulate free speech.  Below I have linked the CARB website notice for a public workshop and the proposed regulation on “False Statements”.

I have also included below a few TV commercials that were used against Prop 23 as well as Gov Schwarzenegger’s Climate Action Video. Will this be the reverse California Gold Rush 160 years later? Watch and listen carefully for any “False Statements:

Subject: Air Resources Board Workshop to Discuss Proposed Regulation Relating to False Statements Made to ARB or its Staff

ARB staff invites you to participate in a workshop on December 1, 2010 to discuss a proposed regulation which would prohibit dishonest statements or submittals offered to the Board or to its staff.

The workshop will provide the public with a chance to discuss the proposed regulation and to provide initial comment and feedback.

We welcome your participation in this event.

For further information, please view the web page at http://www.arb.ca.gov/html/falsestatements/falsestatements.htm which contains regularly updated information.

Public Workshop to Discuss Proposed Regulation Prohibiting False Statements

ARB staff invites you to participate in a workshop to discuss a proposed regulation relating to false statements made to ARB or its staff. The workshop will provide the public with a chance to discuss the proposed regulation with staff and to provide initial comment and feedback. We welcome your participation in this event. For further information, please contact Will Brieger at (916) 324-0703.

Background on the Proposed Regulation

ARB wants to improve the quality of information it receives, and enhance the integrity of debate and analysis as new measures are developed and implemented. ARB is considering a regulation similar to regulations used by federal agencies and the California Public Utilities Commission to ensure honest discussion and reports. The contemplated regulation would forbid dishonest statements offered to the Board or to its staff. Such a regulation would be especially beneficial because the Board’s rulemaking and rule implementation relies on accurate technical, scientific, and economic data submitted to the Board. Likewise, a growing number of the Board’s programs require regulated parties to self-report certain information.

ARB is interested in ideas that will promote the integrity of information provided to the Board, so that, among other goals, our programs can best reduce emissions and protect public health.

Date and Location

Date:	Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Time:	9:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Location:	Cal/EPA Headquarters Building Conference Room 550 1001 I Street Sacramento, CA 95814
	Directions to Cal/EPA Headquarters

Workshop Materials

Text of Proposed Regulation
Workshop Notice
Agenda

Questions?

For further information, please telephone please telephone Will Brieger at (916) 324-0703 or email wbrieger@arb.ca.gov. To join our electronic mailing list to receive notices relating to the False Statements Regulation Development, please go to Join Email List.

Text of Proposed Regulation

Proposed 17 CCR §95020

Prohibition on false statements

(a) In any matter within the jurisdiction of the Board, no person may knowingly and willfully do any of the following when transacting any business with or communicating in any manner with the Board or the Board’s staff:
(1) falsify, conceal, or cover up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact;
(2) make any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation;
(3) make or use any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry; or
(4) omit material facts from a communication with an intent to mislead.
(b) “Writing” means handwriting, typewriting, printing, Photostatting, photographing, photocopying, transmitting by electronic mail or facsimile, and every other means of recording upon any tangible thing, any form of communication or representation, including letters, words, pictures, sounds, or symbols, or combinations thereof, and any record thereby created, regardless of the manner in which the record has been stored.
(c) “Communicating, communication” includes speaking, writing or submitting any
information to the Board or the Board’s staff.
(d) A fact is “material” if it is necessary to make the communication, in light of the circumstances under which it was made, not misleading.
(e) Each communication forbidden by this section constitutes a separate violation of
this section.
(f) This section and any penalty resulting from its violation are in addition to all other laws of this state.
(g) This section shall not be the basis for any private right of action.

Anthony Watts from the “Watts Up With That” website exposed other “False Statements” from the American Lung Association:

A few thoughts on California’s Proposition 23 “battle for the planet”

But what is the worst, is the fact the the anti prop 23 crowd has abandoned all pretense of it being about science related to global warming. Instead, they are focusing on making the issues about pollution and what they call “dirty energy”. Then, they tug at emotional heartstrings.

For example, have a look at this ad where the American Lung Association prostitutes itself for the anti prop 23 campaign. This ad has been getting constant airplay:

The kid with the inhaler is a nice touch, don’t you think? There’s no science here, AB32 it’s about limiting CO2 and other GHG’s, not particulates! Kids don’t need inhalers for 390 ppm of CO2!

And I used to think the Lung Association was a straight shooter. With this ad, they’ve reached a slimy low. They are off my list of charities now. They should be off everyone’s.

CARB’s Economic Analysis Helps Make the Case to Reject Proposition 23

Submitted by Russell Meyer on Mon, 11/01/2010 – 16:08

Last Thursday, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) published details on the proposed greenhouse gas trading program to be implemented under state law AB 32. AB 32, as our blog readers know, is under threat from Proposition 23 – which would forestall (perhaps indefinitely) meaningful action to reduce greenhouse gases in California. The analyses done by CARB in association with the development of the proposed program bolster the case for rejecting Prop 23.

These CARB analyses show that the trading program under AB 32 will “shift investment and growth within the overall economy toward those sectors driven by the production of cleaner and more-efficient technologies.” The importance of this targeted growth should not be understated – by moving toward energy technologies that are both home-grown and energy efficient, we reduce our economic exposure to the price volatility of global energy markets. Since the world is using more and more of what are ultimately finite quantities of fossil energy, protecting ourselves by transitioning the economy toward energy systems that are not subject to global supply and demand imbalances is important to protecting our future economic growth.

While transitioning to new and different systems for energy production and use will necessarily result in some temporary economic dislocation, the market mechanisms included in CARB’s regulatory program minimize these impacts. Taken directly from the CARB economic analysis appendix:  “Overall, staff finds no significant adverse impacts on California business or consumers as a whole as a result of the proposed regulation.”

With climate change legislation stalled on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., for the foreseeable future, maintaining the critical environmental legislation of AB 32 is extremely important for advancing the nation’s climate policy. Even absent action by other states, California is the world’s 8th largest economy and a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. Action taken through policy in California is a huge step forward in addressing the global climate crisis.

Much of the rest of the world is waiting for the United States to take a leadership role on the issue of global climate change. With political gridlock in D.C., the best chance for the nation to make significant progress on this issue starts in California. AB 32 is the start of California’s transition to a 21st century economy of clean, green, homegrown energy – and represents an opportunity for the state, and the nation, to retake a leadership position in what will be some of the most important industries of the coming decades.

Related Link:

The Heritage Foundation: California Environmental Regulations Based on Myths

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Ireland: The Age Of Innocence

Ireland in the ditch

The glowing land of paddies
rushing around on the black blood of guiness
gyrating to the everlasting tune of the harp with distinction earned eons ago
as indefatigable and defiant expressions of honour and freedom

a proud people steeped in faith and hope
successfully battling one adversery after another
be they human or ignorance
carving a niche with global attention

rescuing herself no less with hemoglobic blood
from the hands of that mortal enemy across the channel
foretold to hamstring her on end
until constellations favour a divided victory

attacking independence with gusto
amidst fatigue and suffocating embrace of a distorted goodwill
dragging along internally as emigration solidifies
as a green promontory at the edge of europe

with a fringy attitude and growing confidence
ireland measured up in stature
confused between ancient and modern
vaccilating between openness and hoarding hedious baggages

until its investment in the new world finally showed up
combining forces and processes for the emergence of Celtic tiger
unfolding a new pride and honour
riding the waves of economic stability and final emancipation

sustained for over two decades and attracted the best
living high life and celebrating deserved booty
saying little and boosting opportunities
setting up chain reaction of cataclysmic bastion of change

no doubt confidence ran in the head
and gradually bleed the heart to great disease
until avarice and abuse consumed citzen and state
now ireland is now in a ditch naked and desolate

can you imagine her dissolved pride as IMF stood at the door
total dishonour that other capitals indict her treasury
under a bloated taoiseach
as hardwon pride and confidence collapsed quickly to pieces and ignormity

Guardian Commenter: afrogeografa

Here’s the Real Story Behind the Bailout of Ireland

CNBC – By John Carney

…So why would the Eurocrats demand a bailout of Ireland when Ireland insisted it didn’t need one?

The first reason is that much of Ireland’s debt—both its sovereign debt and the debt of its banks—is held by many of Europe’s largest financial institutions. The continued downward pressure on the market value of Ireland’s debt was causing balance sheet issues for these banks.

Many of Europe’s banks had written credit default swaps on Irish debt, which was draining cash. Finally, the banks were finding it increasingly expensive to borrow against Irish debt—that is, other banks would not lend money in exchange for Irish debt as collateral, except at steep discounts—creating the potential for a credit crunch.

It’s likely that the European Central Bank has large exposures to Irish debt. The ECB has been quietly buying European sovereign debt since May—although it won’t say exactly what debt it is buying. The purpose of the purchases is to stabilize the debt market and provide liquidity to the economies of Europe.

The stabilization effort, at least, appears to have failed. Further purchases of sovereign debt in a renewed stabilization effort threaten to become inflationary—essentially the ECB monetizing sovereign debt in Europe. An official bailout may be an attempt to ward off monetization and inflation.

Which means that this is not so much a bailout of Ireland—it’s a bailout of Ireland’s counterparties. That is to say, it’s a bit like Europe’s version of AIG: a backdoor bailout of invisible financial players who failed to manage their exposure to a shaky borrower…

Non-capital Liabilities Of Irish banks

The Irish Credit Bubble

By Morgan Kelly

Economist – University College, Dublin

During the 1990s, rising employment resulting from improved competitiveness caused Ireland to experience rapid economic growth. As Ireland converged to average levels of Western European income around 2000 it might have been expected that growth would fall to normal European levels. Instead growth continued at high rates until late 2007, since when it has turned sharply negative.

The proximate cause of the boom and bust in Ireland since 2000 is well known: construction. Ireland went from getting 4–6 per cent of its national income from house building in the 1990s—the usual level for a developed economy—to 15 per cent at the peak of the bubble in 2006–07, with another 6 per cent coming from other construction. This construction boom led to an employment boom which drove wages in all sectors of the economy to uncompetitive levels; and generated the tax revenues that funded substantial rises in government spending.

However, driving the construction boom was a less recognised boom, in bank lending. As Figure 1 shows, in 1997, Irish bank lending to the non-financial private sector was only 60 per cent of GNP, compared with 80 per cent in most Eurozone economies and the UK. The international credit boom then saw these economies experience a rapid rise in bank lending, with loans increasing to 100 per cent of GDP on average by 2008.

Figure 1

Bank lending to households and non-financial firms as a percentage of GDP for
Eurozone economies and the UK, 1997 and 2008

These rises were dwarfed, however, by Ireland, where bank lending grew to 200 per cent of national income by 2008. Irish banks were lending forty per cent more in real terms to property developers alone in 2008 than they had been lending to everyone in Ireland in 2000, and seventy-five per cent more as mortgages.

This more than tripling of credit relative to GNP in 11 years created profound distortions in the Irish economy. The most visible impact was on house prices. We show below that the rise in Irish house prices has little to do with falling interest rates and rising population, and is almost completely explained by increased mortgage lending. In 1995 the average first time buyer took out a mortgage equal to three years’ average earnings, and the average house (new or secondhand, in Dublin or elsewhere) cost 4 years’ average earnings.

By the bubble peak in late 2006, the average first time buyer mortgage had risen to 8 times average earnings, and the average new house now cost 10 times average earnings, while the average Dublin secondhand house cost 17 times average earnings. These rises in mortgages and house prices became mutually reinforcing, with larger mortgages driving house prices higher; while rising house prices made banks willing to grant larger mortgages.

As the price of new houses rose faster than the cost of building them, investment in housing rose. Ireland went from completing around 30,000 units in 1995 to 80,000 in 2007: one new housing unit for every 20 households.

Like any bubble, the rise of Irish property prices contained the seeds of its own collapse. Property bubbles grow as long as buyers are willing to borrow increasingly large amounts in the expectation that prices will continue to rise. This process inevitably hits a limit where borrowers become reluctant to take on what start to appear as impossibly large levels of debt, and the self-reinforcing spiral of borrowing and prices starts to work in reverse.

In Ireland buyers started to become nervous sooner than most observers imagine: the number and average size of mortgages approved (to all categories of borrower: first time buyers, movers, and investors) peaked in the third quarter of 2006. By the middle of 2007 the Irish construction industry was in clear trouble, with unsold units beginning to accumulate.

This property slowdown was bad news for the Irish banking system which had lent heavily to builders and developers to finance projects and to make speculative land purchases. Share prices of Irish banks fell steadily from March 2007, with the crisis coming to a head in late September 2008 with a run in wholesale markets on the joint-second largest Irish bank Anglo Irish. After aggressive denials that the banking system faced any difficulties, the Irish government has been forced to respond with a sequence of increasingly desperate and expensive improvised measures.

It guaranteed all deposits and senior debt in the six Irish banks in September 2008; was forced to nationalise Anglo Irish in January 2009; invested €3.5 Bn in preference shares in the two large retail banks AIB and Bank of Ireland in February 2009; and established a National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) to buy non-performing development loans from banks in November 2009.

It is currently proposed that NAMA buy loans with a face value of €70 Bn for €55 Bn. However, even assuming that the government’s forecasts of interest costs and the recovery of property prices—which appear to lie in the upper tail of optimism—prove correct, the situation of the Irish banking system will remain difficult.

The business model of the Irish banks for the last decade was to borrow heavily in wholesale markets to lend to developers and house buyers. The collapse of this model leaves them with three, inter-related problems.

1. Large losses on loans to builders and developers.

2. Heavy reliance on wholesale funding.

3. The likelihood of considerable defaults on mortgages.

While NAMA is intended to repair, for now, the damage to the asset side of Irish bank balance sheets from developer loans, their liability side appears unsustainable. The aggressive expansion of Irish bank lending was funded mostly in international wholesale markets, where Irish banks were able to borrow at low rates. From being almost entirely funded by domestic deposits in 1997, by 2008 over half of Irish bank lending was funded by wholesale borrowers through bonds and inter-bank borrowing. This well of easy credit has now run dry.

In the words of Bank of England Governor Mervyn King: “But the age of innocence—when banks lent to each other unsecured for three months or longer at only a slight premium to expected policy rates—will not quickly, or ever, return.”4 As foreign lenders have become nervous of Irish banks, their place has increasingly been taken by borrowing from the European Central Bank and short-term borrowing in the inter-bank market. Payments from NAMA will allow Irish banks to reduce their borrowing by a trivial amount.

Without continued government guarantees of their borrowing and, more problematically, continued ECB forbearance, the operations of the Irish banks do not appear viable. Borrowing in wholesale markets at 5.6 per cent5 to fund mortgages yielding 3.5 per cent is not a sustainable activity, and Irish banks face no choice but to shrink their balance sheets by repaying debt and returning to their earlier state of being funded mostly by deposits. It appears likely that the leverage of the Irish economy will return to normal international levels, with bank lending in the region of 80–100 per cent of GNP, back where it was in the late 1990s.

While the stock of credit to the Irish economy will contract by at least half, when we remember that loans equivalent to 80 per cent of GNP are tied up in mortgages (most of them of recent origin with terms of 35 years or more), the flow of new lending will contract even more sharply. It follows that property prices that were inflated by bank lending will drop steeply.

Should lending criteria return to their late 1990s standards, our results indicate that the prices of new houses and commercial property will return to an equilibrium two thirds below their peak levels, with larger falls possible for secondhand property. This means that, supposing residential prices have already fallen 40 per cent from peak, prices still have to fall by about half from their present levels. Were prices then to grow in line with real incomes, at around 2 per cent per year, it will take about 50 years for real prices to return to their 2006 peaks.

The third problem of the Irish banks is their mortgages. Recent US experience highlights two factors that rapidly increase the likelihood of mortgage default: falling house prices, and, most importantly, unemployment. Both have become realities for many Irish borrowers in the last year. In September 2009, 14.4 per cent of US mortgages were at least one payment past due or in foreclosure; while in Florida, whose investor fuelled housing bubble closely resembles the Irish one, the figure is 25%.6 Dealing with the financial and, more importantly, human cost of widespread mortgage defaults will be the next, and far more challenging, step of the Irish banking crisis.

By pushing itself close to, and quite possibly beyond, the limits of its fiscal capacity, the Irish state has succeeded in rescuing Irish banks from their losses on developer loans. Despite this, these banks remain as zombies entirely reliant on continued Irish government guarantees and ECB forbearance, and committed solely to reducing their own debts.

While bank capital levels are, probably, adequate for the markedly smaller scale of their future lending, we will see below that even fairly modest losses on their mortgage portfolios will be sufficient to wipe out most or all of that capital. Having exhausted its resources in rescuing the Irish banks from the first wave of developer losses, the Irish state can do nothing but watch as the second wave of mortgage defaults sweeps in and drowns them.

In other words, it is starting to appear that the Irish banking system is too big to save. As mortgage losses crystallise, the Irish government’s ill conceived project of insulating bank bond-holders from any losses on their investments is sliding beyond the means of its taxpayers.

The mounting losses of its banking system are facing the Irish state with a stark choice. It can attempt a NAMA II for mortgage losses that will end in a bond market strike or a sovereign default. Or it can, probably with the assistance of the IMF and EU, organise a resolution that shares property losses with bank creditors through a partial debt for equity swap. It is easy for governments everywhere to forget that their states are not wholly controlled subsidiaries of their banks but separate entities; and a resolution that transfers bank losses from the Irish taxpayer to bank bond holders will leave Ireland with a low level of debt that, even after several years of deficits, it can easily afford…]

Lending to the private sector and deposits of Irish banks as a percentage of GNP, 1992 to 2009

Conclusions

In the last decade, the Irish economy has experienced an unusually large credit bubble. Lending as a fraction of GNP increased from 60% in 1997, to over 200% in 2008, twice the level of other industrialized economies.

In the aftermath of this bubble, the Irish banking system faces three inter-related problems. The first is that it has made large losses on loans to property developers. The second is that it has large wholesale liabilities to international bond holders and, increasingly, to the European Central Bank. The final problem is that it faces likely further large losses on mortgages and business loans.

The Irish government’s policy response has been solely to address the first problem of losses on developer loans by establishing a state institution to buy these loans. However, by ignoring the second problem of the large wholesale liabilities of the Irish banks, this project will inevitably end in expensive failure.

As Irish banks are forced to repay this wholesale borrowing and to shrink their balance sheets to normal international levels, the sharply diminished supply of credit will lead inevitably to continued sharp falls in property prices. These falls in property prices will result in severe losses for the Irish taxpayer on the ill-conceived NAMA project.

Despite having pushed the Irish state close to, and quite possibly beyond, the limits of its fiscal capacity with the NAMA scheme, the Irish banks remain as zombies whose only priority is to reduce their debt, and who face complete destruction from mortgage losses.

The issue therefore is not whether the Irish bank bailout will restore the Irish banks so that they can function as independent commercial entities: it cannot. Rather it is whether the Irish government’s commitments to bank bond holders when added to its existing spending commitments, will overwhelm the fiscal capacity of the Irish state, forcing outside entities such as the IMF and EU to intervene and impose a resolution on the Irish banking system.

Download Discussion Paper (PDF)(28 Pages)

Morgan Kelly is a Professor of Economics at University College Dublin. Kelly predicted in 2007 that property prices were going to crash by 60% based on empirical evidence of past property crashes. Kelly has garnered praise from fellow economists for his prediction of the collapse of the property market and for opposing the Government’s banking policy.

Kelly was implicitly criticized by former Irish Tasoiseach, Bertie Ahern in July 2007 for his articles predicting a property crash; “Sitting on the sidelines, cribbing and moaning is a lost opportunity. I don’t know how people who engage in that don’t commit suicide because frankly the only thing that motivates me is being able to actively change something.” Ahern subsequently apologized for the remark.

Related Links:

Bloomberg: Ireland Is Second Euro Nation to Seek Aid as Banks Wobble

Reuters: Analysis: Irish EU bailout may not stop Portugal follow-up

CNBC:  In Bailouts, Spain Will Be ‘the Biggie’: Strategist

WSJ: Europe Races to Aid Ireland

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Next Generation Tactical Aircraft (Next Gen TACAIR) CRFI Posted…

Next Generation Tactical Aircraft (Next Gen TACAIR)

Capability Request for Information (CRFI) Version: 1.0 1 Nov 2010

Solicitation Number: XR_Next_Gen_TACAIR_Technology

Response Due Date: Dec 17, 2010 5:00 pm Eastern

Notice Type: Presolicitation

SYNOPSIS: The Aeronautical Systems Center (ASC) Capability Development and Planning Division (XRX) is conducting market research analyses to examine applicable materiel concepts and related technology for a Next Generation Tactical Aircraft (Next Gen TACAIR) capability with an initial operational capability (IOC) of approximately 2030.  The envisioned system may possess enhanced capabilities in areas such as reach, persistence, survivability, net-centricity, situational awareness, human-system integration, and weapons effects.  It must be able to operate in the anti-access/area-denial environment that will exist in the 2030-2050 timeframe.

This capability request for information (CRFI) is open to all companies.  No contract is intended to be awarded as a result of this CRFI, however any follow on announcements/contracts related to a Next Gen TACAIR system will be restricted to US companies or those meeting the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM) requirements for foreign owned companies with Defense Security Service (DSS) approved mitigation for performing classified work.

Responses to this CRFI are due no later than 17 Dec 2010.  Those interested are encouraged to submit cost data if available.  Industry is encouraged to respond with information not constrained by proprietary data rights; however, if any information is considered proprietary, then the cover page and pages containing such information must be marked accordingly.  Multiple responses, each addressing a concept or family of concepts are encouraged (but not required) from each party.

TITLE: Next Generation Tactical Aircraft (Next Gen TACAIR) Materiel and Technology Concepts Search

CAPABILITY DESCRIPTION: ASC/XRX is conducting market research analyses to examine applicable materiel concepts and related technology for a Next Gen TACAIR capability with an IOC of approximately 2030.  The envisioned system may possess enhanced capabilities in areas such as reach, persistence, survivability, net-centricity, situational awareness, human-system integration, and weapons effects.  The primary mission in the future Next Gen TACAIR definition is Offensive and Defensive Counterair to include subset missions including Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD), Close Air Support (CAS) and Air Interdiction (AI).  It may also fulfill airborne electronic attack and intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance capabilities.

This is not an all-inclusive list and the Next Gen TACAIR definition will mature and sharpen as the market research and Capabilities Based Assessment (CBA) unfold.  The ongoing CBA is assessing potential capability gaps, while this CRFI will support a concurrent market research assessment.  The future system will have to counter adversaries equipped with next generation advanced electronic attack, sophisticated integrated air defense systems, passive detection, integrated self-protection, directed energy weapons, and cyber attack capabilities.  It must be able to operate in the anti-access/area-denial environment that will exist in the 2030-2050 timeframe.

ASC is issuing this CRFI to support Air Combat Command (ACC) in their effort to establish potential weapon system concepts and future operating environment definition, establish a common understanding of future capability needs, and define key enabling technologies and their path to maturity.  This CRFI will support requirements generation/refinement and provide decision-making products (including cost analyses) required to estimate operational benefits.

The Government is issuing this CRFI to conduct market research in accordance with Part 10 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation.  This market research is for information and planning purposes only.  Before submitting any information to the Government, be advised that the Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this request or to otherwise pay for the information you provide.  Your responses will be treated as information only and will not be evaluated as a proposal.

However, respondents’ information may be used, not attributed to a particular respondent, as a basis to engage with appropriate USAF organizations to inform and clarify the Next Gen TACAIR concept and mission needs.  Not responding to this CRFI does not preclude participation in any future announcements/contracts related to a Next Gen TACAIR system.

Submission of Proprietary Information Caution:  The government appreciates that interested firms may not be able to respond to this CRFI without disclosing information deemed “proprietary” or “competition sensitive”.  Data submitted in response to this CRFI will be widely distributed and discussed within the Government as it will be used to assist in developing an acquisition strategy for any future ACC Next Gen TACAIR program.

It is the responsibility of respondents to mark submitted information with appropriate restrictive markings.  The Government’s analyses of responses will require disclosure of your responses to contractor personnel who directly support the Government.  The analysis team will be reminded of their obligation to protect submitted information to the maximum extent permitted or required by the Economic Espionage Act, 18 U.S.C. 1831 et seq., and other applicable statutes or regulations.

In addition, Government members will be reminded of their obligations to afford protection under the Trade Secrets Act, 18 U.S.C. 1905. All support contractor members are required to protect the information by the terms of their contracts.  The Government Project Manager determined the support contractor personnel have no organizational conflicts of interest that could adversely affect protection of the information.

APPROACH: The Government’s objective is to develop a range of promising options at several capability and affordability levels.  The Government is interested in responses from industry in the following format(s):

1.       Materiel Concept – Provide a clear and thorough description of materiel concepts that may define a Next Gen TACAIR system with capabilities to accomplish counterair missions in a 2030 operating environment.  Correlate each concept to applicable technology white papers (see below).  The concepts should be based on sound operational analysis/experience, and be grounded in current concept of operations (CONOPS) and/or plausible future CONOPS circa the 2030+ environment.  Respondents may provide multiple materiel concepts.  Each concept should be provided as a separate white paper.

2.       Technology Concept – Provide a description of the technology concept and the operational benefit it will add to a Next Gen TACAIR system.  Estimate and explain the reasonable likelihood of the technology meeting Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6 by the 2020 timeframe.  Provide an assessment of the current TRL based on the scale provided in the Technology Readiness Level table below.  For planning purposes, estimate budget needed to advance the technology from its current state to TRL 6.  Discuss risks and technical challenges that must be resolved to reach TRL 6.

Identify any enabling technologies which must also be developed to ensure successful implementation of the applicable technology concept.  Describe any demonstrations, experiments, testing and/or prototyping performed to date.  Summarize resulting data and conclusions.  Describe technology objectives and key technical metrics for future development.  Discuss potential cost issues.  State whether these programs are currently funded through TRL 6 maturity, and broadly identify funding sources (DoD-funded, independent research and development-funded, etc.).

Predict system integration risk and operational limitations in an operational TACAIR environment.  Please provide a separate white paper for each technology concept or family of related and complimentary technology concepts; multiple white papers may be provided.  Of key interest to the Government is technology which is applicable to the following areas (these interest areas are not all inclusive and may change depending on the outcome of the CBA):

a)  Air Vehicle

b)  Vehicle/Sensor Protection

c)  Propulsion

d)  Warning and Situational Awareness

e)  Sensors

f)   Data Fusion

g)  Offensive/Defensive Systems

h)  Automatic Target Recognition (Ground and Air)

i)   Communications, Networks, and Data Links

j)   Kinetic Weapons

k)  Non-kinetic Weapons

l)   Electronic Warfare and Information Operations

m) Secondary Power Generation, Storage and Management

n) Thermal Management and Heat Rejection

o)  Human System Integration (HSI)

p)  Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) and Optionally Manned Systems

Technology Readiness Level	Description
1.  Basic principles observed and reported.	Lowest level of technology readiness.  Scientific research begins to be translated into technology’s basic properties.
2.  Technology concept and/or application formulated.	Invention begins.  Once basic principles are observed, practical applications can be invented.  The application is speculative and there is no proof or detailed analysis to support the assumption.  Examples are still limited to paper studies.
3.  Analytical and experimental critical function and/or characteristic proof of concept.	Active research and development is initiated.  This includes analytical studies and laboratory studies to physically validate analytical predictions of separate elements of the technology.  Examples include components that are not yet integrated or representative.
4.  Component and/or breadboard validation in laboratory environment.	Basic technological components are integrated to establish that the pieces will work together.  This is relatively “low fidelity” compared to the eventual system.  Examples include integration of “ad hoc” hardware in a laboratory.
5.  Component and/or breadboard validation in relevant environment.	Fidelity of breadboard technology increases significantly.  The basic technological components are integrated with reasonably realistic supporting elements so that the technology can be tested in simulated environment.  Examples include “high fidelity” laboratory integration of components.
6.  System/subsystem model or prototype demonstration in a relevant environment.	Representative model or prototype system, which is well beyond the breadboard tested for level 5, is tested in a relevant environment.  Represents a major step up in a technology’s demonstrated readiness.  Examples include testing a prototype in a high fidelity laboratory environment or in simulated operational environment.
7.  System prototype demonstration in an operational environment.	Prototype near or at planned operational system.  Represents a major step up from level 6, requiring the demonstration of an actual system prototype in an operational environment.  Examples include testing the prototype in a test bed aircraft.
8.  Actual system completed and qualified through test and demonstration.	Technology has been proven to work in its final form and under expected conditions.  In almost all cases, this level represents the end of true system development.  Examples include developmental test and evaluation of the system in its intended weapon system to determine if it meets design specifications.
9.  Actual system proven through successful mission operations.	Actual application of the technology in its final form and under mission conditions, such as those encountered in operational test and evaluation.  Examples include using the system under operational mission conditions.

RESPONSES AND PAGE LIMITATIONS: This CRFI is open to all companies.  No contract is intended to be awarded as a result of this CRFI, however any follow on announcements/contracts related to a Next Gen TACAIR system will be restricted to US companies or those meeting the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM) requirements for foreign owned companies with Defense Security Service (DSS) approved mitigation for working on classified work.

Responses to this CRFI are due no later than 17 Dec 2010.  Those interested are encouraged to submit cost data if available.  Each response should include two (2) hard copies and two (2) Windows compatible CDs with electronic data files.  Responses should not exceed 20 pages per white paper, although multiple white papers may be submitted.  Please label each white paper as either “Materiel Concept” or “Technology Concept”.

Firms responding to this announcement should indicate their business size in accordance with the Small Business Administration (SBA) standard. Ensure that the submission provides the company name, address and a point of contact with e-mail address and telephone number.

Responses (UNCLASSIFIED and CLASSIFIED up to SECRET) should be sent/delivered to:

ASC/XRX, 2275 D Street     Attn: Mike Wilke

Bldg 16, RM 0053

Wright-Patterson AFB 45433-7224

Related Links:

FedBizOps: CRFI Notice

AF Magazine: The Sixth Generation Fighter

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Sunday Culture: Crossroads…

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

…Robert Frost

The Pope drops Catholic ban on condoms in historic shift

The Pope has signalled a historic shift in the position of the Roman Catholic Church by saying condoms can be morally justified.

Telegraph – By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent

After decades of fierce opposition to the use of all contraception, the Pontiff has ended the Church’s absolute ban on the use of condoms.

He said it was acceptable to use a prophylactic when the sole intention was to “reduce the risk of infection” from Aids.

While he restated the Catholic Church’s staunch objections to contraception because it believes that it interferes with the creation of life, he argued that using a condom to preserve life and avoid death could be a responsible act – even outside marriage.

Asked whether “the Catholic Church is not fundamentally against the use of condoms,” he replied: “It of course does not see it as a real and moral solution. In certain cases, where the intention is to reduce the risk of infection, it can nevertheless be a first step on the way to another, more humane sexuality.”

He stressed that abstinence was the best policy in fighting the disease but in some circumstances it was better for a condom to be used if it protected human life…

The Pope’s comments in the book, Light of the World, are likely to be welcomed by Catholic leaders in the West who have struggled to explain its current teaching.

Asked last year whether a married Catholic couple should use condoms where one of them had Aids, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, head of the Church in England and Wales, disclosed the confusion over the issue. “Obviously that’s a sensitive point and obviously there are different views on that,” he said…

The proposed anti-spanking extended to moral violence

Le Figaro (English Translation)

The pediatrician and member Edwin UMP Antier filed a new bill to fight against the humiliation of children.

Punishing children will soon be banned by law? Parents will now have to weigh every word before berating their rascals? A year after this bill against smacking – remained a dead letter – the pediatrician and member Edwin Antier UMP comes to record a new version of the text by expanding the fight against psychological violence against children. “My project was inspired by the law against violence against women which created the crime of spousal emotional abuse, said the member. She opened the door to my proposal. “

While we celebrate the anniversary Saturday of the signing of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Dr. Antier believes that France is not current on child protection. On the recommendation of the Council of Europe, a score of European countries prohibit corporal punishment. So she proposes to put a law in the Civil Code (not in the Penal Code) to specify that “holders of parental authority are not allowed to use physical violence, to impose mental distress or use any other form of humiliation of the child. ” This ban would be appropriate to expectant parents during their marriage and entered in the health record of the child, according to Articles 2 and 3 of its proposal.

Support unexpected

At the time of the first draft “anti-spanking,” critics had gone wild. Jokes too. “Since then, the idea made its way into the mindset,” said Edwin Antier who obtained the co-signature of twenty members. Among them, the former French judoka David Douillet, UMP Yvelines past year. “He was sensitive to the text as a child he himself has suffered humiliation on the part of a school teacher,” says Edwin Antier. Another unexpected support, that of Herve Mariton, UMP deputy known for his commitment to family values. “This is not a statutory ban on spanking, he says. It is recalled that education is given authority and violence is not the right path of authority. “The bill also leaves a large part in interpretation. “A slap on the hand is not the best solution but it is not violence, according to Herve Mariton. Any punishment is not humiliation. Any reprimand is not violence. “

Despite this support, the project continues to annoy many professionals in early childhood, family associations and policies. The pediatrician Aldo Naouri not hesitate to speak of “nonsense”. The child psychiatrist Marcel Rufo proves égalementcritique. “The pernicious effect of this legislation is trying to impose an image of perfect parents. We are all parents and that means no use of blaming those who are struggling, says the specialist youth. All parents can say mean things. From time to time, we have the right not to bear his child, to find it painful. “

A text considered “redundant”

Specialist child and adolescent psychoanalyst Philippe Jeammet concerned that the text “provides an additional weapon for divorced or separated parents who fight to the detriment of the child.” At its like, number of opponents to the policy of the hands, however, consider it inappropriate to “legislate everything.” “This text seems redundant, especially compared to the 1958 ordinance on the protection of children,” said the magistrate Georges Fenech, Chairman of the Interministerial Mission of Vigilance and Combat against Sectarian. “The texts are confused, argues Edwin Antier. The rearing violence is not considered a problem. An old case law provides that a right of correction. “

There remains the delicate question of the definition of humiliation and psychological abuse. “These words and actions that seek to intentionally injure,” according to the member. Any punishment is it not necessarily offensive? “A parent may punish him for getting a message but without diminishing the child,” insists Edwin Antier. For the pediatrician, parents should simply send the children alone in their room in case of stupidity and, in adolescence, explaining the consequences of their actions.

Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) was an American blues singer and musician. His landmark recordings from 1936–1937 display a remarkable combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that have influenced generations of musicians. Johnson’s shadowy, poorly documented life and death at age 27 have given rise to much legend, including a Faustian myth.

Johnson’s songs, vocal phrasing and guitar style have influenced a broad range of musicians; Eric Clapton has called Johnson “the most important blues singer that ever lived”. Johnson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an “Early Influence” in their first induction ceremony in 1986. He was ranked fifth in Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

Robert Johnson was born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, probably on May 8, 1911 or 1912, to Julia Major Dodds (born October 1874) and Noah Johnson (born December 1884). Julia was married to Charles Dodds (born February 1865), a relatively prosperous landowner and furniture maker with whom she gave birth to 10 children. Dodds had been forced by a lynch mob to leave Hazlehurst following a dispute with white landowners. Julia herself left Hazlehurst with baby Robert, but after some two years, sent him to live in Memphis with Dodds, who had changed his name to Charles Spencer.

Around 1919, Robert rejoined his mother in the area around Tunica and Robinsonville, Mississippi. Julia’s new husband was known as Dusty Willis; he was 24 years younger than she. Robert was remembered by some residents as “Little Robert Dusty.” However, he was registered at the Indian Creek School in Tunica as Robert Spencer. He is listed as Robert Spencer in the 1920 census with Will and Julia Willis in Lucas, Arkansas, where they lived for a short time. Robert was at school in 1924 and 1927 and the quality of his signature on his marriage certificate suggests that he studied continuously and was relatively well educated for a boy of his background. One school friend, Willie Coffee, has been discovered and filmed. He recalls that Robert was already noted for playing the harmonica and jaw harp.

After school, Robert adopted the surname of his natural father, signing himself as Robert Johnson on the certificate of his marriage to sixteen-year-old Virginia Travis in February 1929. She died shortly after in childbirth.

Around this time, the noted blues musician Son House moved to Robinsonville where his musical partner, Willie Brown, already lived. Late in life, House remembered Johnson as a boy who had followed him around and tried unsuccessfully to copy him. But when House moved to Robinsonville in 1930, Johnson was a young adult, already married and widowed. Johnson then left the Robinsonville area, reappearing after a few months with a miraculous guitar technique. He was living near Hazlehurst when he married for the second time.

From this base Johnson began travelling up and down the Delta as an itinerant musician.

According to legend, as a young black man living on a plantation in rural Mississippi, Robert Johnson was branded with a burning desire to become a great blues musician. He was “instructed” to take his guitar to a crossroad near Dockery Plantation at midnight. There he was met by a large black man (the Devil) who took the guitar and tuned it. The “Devil” played a few songs and then returned the guitar to Johnson, giving him mastery of the instrument. This was, in effect, a deal with the Devil mirroring the legend of Faust. In exchange for his soul, Robert Johnson was able to create the blues for which he became famous.

Johnson seems to have claimed occasionally that he had sold his soul to the Devil, but it is not clear that he meant it seriously, and these claims are strongly disputed in Tom Graves’ biography of Johnson, Crossroads: The Life and Afterlife of Blues Legend Robert Johnson, published in 2008. The crossroads detail was widely believed to come from Johnson himself, probably because it appeared to explain the discrepancy in “Cross Road Blues“. Johnson’s high emotion and religious fervor are hard to explain as resulting from the mundane situation described, unsuccessful hitchhiking as night falls. The crossroads myth offers a simple literal explanation for both the religion and the anguish.

In “Me And The Devil” he began, “Early this morning when you knocked upon my door/Early this morning, umb, when you knocked upon my door/And I said, ‘Hello, Satan, I believe it’s time to go,’” before leading into “You may bury my body down by the highway side/You may bury my body, uumh, down by the highway side/So my old evil spirit can catch a Greyhound bus and ride.”

The song “Crossroads” by British psychedelic blues rock band Cream is a cover version of Johnson’s “Cross Road Blues”, about the legend of Johnson selling his soul to the Devil at the crossroads, although Johnson’s original lyrics (“Standin’ at the crossroads, tried to flag a ride”) suggest he was merely hitchhiking rather than signing away his soul to Lucifer in exchange for being a great blues musician.

Source:  Wiki

“Right to die” law announced by government

EL PAÍS – ANA ALFAGEME, Madrid

Deputy PM stresses bill “will not authorize euthanasia”

Terminally ill patients in Spain will soon be able to die with dignity under heavy sedation when the government introduces a national “right to die” law next year.

In making the announcement after Friday’s Cabinet meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba was at pains to clarify that the Socialist government wasn’t planning on drafting a euthanasia law. The proposed bill will allow the families of terminally ill patients and doctors to decide whether to administer drugs that alleviate pain, allowing the person to die in the short term.

The entitled Law of Palliative Care and Dignified Death will be ready by March, Rubalcaba said. “Everyone has been in this type of situation,” he said. “It occurs when you are in the hospital ward and the doctor comes to tell you that a loved one — a mother, a brother or wife — is in a bad way and that their death is imminent. And so what is worse is our fear that they are going to suffer between now and the time they die and we ask the doctor if there is anything he can do.”

In a recent survey, 97.3 percent of health professionals said they favored this practice even though heavy sedatives are known to cut short a patient’s life. Andalusia is the only region in Spain which has introduced a measure to regulate the right to die, and the government has said it will study how that law is functioning.

The Socialists had pledged in its 2004 government platform to create a parliamentary commission to draft a euthanasia law but never carried out the pledge. There have been a series of controversial cases in Spain where individuals have had to go outside the law in order to end their suffering.

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USAF News: Missing F-22 Update, AWACS Upgrade, And Okay To Talk Raptor Again…

Missing F-22 pilot identified

11/18/2010 - JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska – The pilot of the F-22 aircraft that crashed Tuesday night has been identified as Capt. Jeffrey Haney, assigned to the 525th Fighter Squadron. Capt. Haney’s current status is missing.

The aircraft lost contact with air traffic control at 7:40 p.m. Alaska time Tuesday, while on a nighttime training mission. Search and rescue teams discovered the wreckage of the F-22, assigned to the 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Wednesday at 10:15 a.m.

Rescue teams from the 11th Rescue Coordination Center, Alaska Air National Guard, the 3rd Wing and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson continue to search the area, approximately 100 miles north of Anchorage.

The family was notified on Tuesday evening and continues to receive support from the JBER family and leadership.

“This is a very uncertain and difficult time for the family,” said Col. Jack McMullen, 3rd Wing commander. “We ask that the public continue to work with us to respect their privacy and keep them in your thoughts and prayers.”

Evidence at F-22 Crash Site Indicates Pilot Died

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Evidence found at the remote, rugged Alaska site where an F-22 Raptor crashed indicates the pilot died, an Air Force official said Friday evening.

Part of the jet’s ejection seat was found at the site, which means Capt. Jeffrey Haney of Clarklake, Mich., could not have survived the Tuesday night crash, Col. Jack McMullen said. Also found were pieces of the flight suit Haney had been wearing.

No body has been recovered. Haney’s single-seat fighter jet crashed during a training run about 100 miles north of Anchorage. He was assigned to the 525th Fighter Squadron at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

Searchers found the crash site Wednesday but had not previously been able to extensively inspect the hard-to-reach wreckage. Haney was married with two children. Officials said he joined the Air Force in 2003 and has been at the Anchorage base for 4 1/2 years.

The F-22 took off Tuesday from the joint Air Force and Army base for a training run. The jet and a second F-22 practiced “intercepts” and were nearing completion of the exercise when one aircraft disappeared from ground radar tracking and from communications with the other F-22 at 7:40 p.m. Tuesday. An air search had been ongoing, with searchers looking for any sign of a parachute or a fire the pilot might have started had he been able to eject from the plane.

Major AWACS upgrade begins

By Patty Welsh – 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs

11/19/2010 - HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. (AFNS) – The next step in the largest block upgrade in the history of the E-3 Sentry, or Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft occurred Nov. 18 at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., when the first aircraft receiving the block 40/45 modification was inducted by the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center.

New mission software will enhance tracking and combat identification capabilities, in addition to providing operators with a better picture of the battlespace.

“This modification replaces a mission computer system originally installed in the 1970s,” said Maj. Brett Johnson, the AWACS the 40/45 Production chief. “The new system will have an open, network-based architecture, enabling future net-centric modifications.”

The upgrade also allows for more sensor integration both on- and off-board the aircraft, improves the aircraft’s data link infrastructure, improves machine-to-machine interaction and compresses the timeline from threat engagement to neutralization.

“Think about technology thirty or forty years ago, or even five years ago, and compare it to the capabilities a smartphone has today,” Major Johnson said. “We need to give our warfighters improved technological capabilities so they can do their jobs more efficiently and effectively.”

The upgrades are being performed at the same time as programmed depot maintenance to minimize aircraft operational downtime.

“Doing a modification of this size during PDM has never been done before,” Major Johnson said.  “The scheduling, planning and coordination has been a key piece to get us to this event.”

Other program office planners are expressing interest in trying to do something similar for their modification efforts.

While Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center technicians are set to perform the upgrades, Electronic Systems Center officials are the lead integrators.

In late October, ESC officials awarded a contract to Boeing for $65 million to procure and manage the thousands of parts needed, and also provide on-site production and installation support throughout the upgrade.

“ESC’s role as lead integrator is to ensure all the pieces are in place, so before a wrench is turned, everything needed is there,” Major Johnson said.

This first aircraft is the centerpiece of low rate initial production, he said.

Modifications to the first aircraft are scheduled for completion by September 2011. During LRIP, six aircraft are scheduled to be upgraded by 2014.

“This first aircraft is critical,” the major said. “It puts us on the path to our full rate production decision, which is planned for 2012.”

All the aircraft in the AWACS fleet are scheduled to be at full operational capability by 2020, he said.

As a significant amount of the equipment being installed is commercial-off-the-shelf, ESC members are also thinking ahead with regard to technology obsolescence.

“Anyone who has bought a laptop computer over the last few years knows how quickly technology can change,” Major Johnson said. “We’re replacing all of the onboard computer work stations with laptops over the next several years, one aircraft at a time. In a modification of this complexity, laptops are only one of many components we are carefully watching.”

To accomplish that, ESC officials awarded a contract to Boeing for $15 million in September to support active management of diminishing manufacturing sources and materiel shortages.

“There are a lot of moving parts, and a lot of interdependencies to this upgrade,” Major Johnson said. “It has taken a lot of people from ESC, OC-ALC and Boeing to keep us on the right track.”

Mission
The E-3 Sentry is an airborne warning and control system, or AWACS, aircraft  with an integrated command and control battle management, or C2BM,  surveillance, target detection, and tracking platform.  The aircraft provides an accurate, real-time picture of the battlespace to the Joint Air Operations Center. AWACS provides situational awareness of friendly, neutral and hostile activity, command and control of an area of responsibility, battle management of theater forces, all-altitude and all-weather surveillance of the battle space, and early warning of enemy actions during joint, allied, and coalition operations.

Features
The E-3 Sentry is a modified Boeing 707/320 commercial airframe with a rotating radar dome. The dome is 30 feet (9.1 meters) in diameter, six feet (1.8 meters) thick, and is held 11 feet (3.33 meters) above the fuselage by two struts. It contains a radar subsystem that permits surveillance from the Earth’s surface up into the stratosphere, over land or water. The radar has a range of more than 250 miles (375.5 kilometers). The radar combined with an identification friend or foe, or IFF, subsystem can look down to detect, identify and track enemy and friendly low-flying aircraft by eliminating ground clutter returns that confuse other radar systems.

Major subsystems in the E-3 are avionics, navigation, communications, sensors (radar and passive detection) and identification tools (IFF/SIF). The mission suite includes consoles that display computer-processed data in graphic and tabular format on video screens. Mission crew members perform surveillance, identification, weapons control, battle management and communications functions.

The radar and computer subsystems on the E-3 Sentry can gather and present broad and detailed battlefield information.  This includes position and tracking information on enemy aircraft and ships, and location and status of friendly aircraft and naval vessels. The information can be sent to major command and control centers in rear areas or aboard ships. In time of crisis, this data can also be forwarded to the president and secretary of defense.

In support of air-to-ground operations, the Sentry can provide direct information needed for interdiction, reconnaissance, airlift and close-air support for friendly ground forces. It can also provide information for commanders of air operations to gain and maintain control of the air battle.

As an air defense system, E-3s can detect, identify and track airborne enemy forces far from the boundaries of the United States or NATO countries. It can direct fighter-interceptor aircraft to these enemy targets. Experience has proven that the E-3 Sentry can respond quickly and effectively to a crisis and support worldwide military deployment operations.

AWACS may be employed alone or horizontally integrated in combination with other C2BM and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance elements of the Ground Theater Air Control System. It supports decentralized execution of the air tasking order/air combat order. The system provides the ability to find, fix, track and target airborne or maritime threats and to detect, locate and ID emitters. It has the ability to detect threats and control assets below and beyond the coverage of ground-based command and control or C2, and can exchange data with other C2 systems and shooters via datalinks.

With its mobility as an airborne warning and control system, the Sentry has a greater chance of surviving in warfare than a fixed, ground-based radar system. Among other things, the Sentry’s flight path can quickly be changed according to mission and survival requirements. The E-3 can fly a mission profile approximately 8 hours without refueling. Its range and on-station time can be increased through in-flight refueling and the use of an on-board crew rest area.

Background
Engineering, test and evaluation began on the first E-3 Sentry in October 1975. In March 1977 the 552nd Airborne Warning and Control Wing (now 552nd Air Control Wing, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla.), received the first E-3s.

There are 33 aircraft in the U.S. inventory. Air Combat Command has 28 E-3s at Tinker. Pacific Air Forces has four E-3 Sentries at Kadena AB, Japan and Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. There is also one test aircraft at the Boeing Aircraft Company in Seattle.

NATO has 17 E-3A’s and support equipment. The first E-3 was delivered to NATO in January 1982. The United Kingdom has seven E-3s, France has four, and Saudi Arabia has five. Japan has four AWACS built on the Boeing 767 airframe.

As proven in operations Desert Storm, Allied Force, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, the E-3 Sentry is the premier C2BM aircraft in the world. AWACS aircraft and crews were instrumental to the successful completion of operations Northern and Southern Watch, and are still engaged in operations Noble Eagle and Enduring Freedom. They provide radar surveillance and control in addition to providing senior leadership with time-critical information on the actions of enemy forces. The E-3 has also deployed to support humanitarian relief operations in the U.S. following Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, coordinating rescue efforts between military and civilian authorities.

The data collection capability of the E-3 radar and computer subsystems allowed an entire air war to be recorded for the first time in the history of aerial warfare.

In March 1996, the Air Force activated the 513th Air Control Group, an AWACS Reserve Associate Program unit which performs duties on active-duty aircraft.

During the spring of 1999, the first AWACS aircraft went through the Radar System Improvement Program. RSIP is a joint U.S./NATO development program that involved a major hardware and software intensive modification to the existing radar system. Installation of RSIP enhanced the operational capability of the E-3 radar electronic counter-measures and has improved the system’s reliability, maintainability and availability.

General Characteristics

Primary Function: Airborne battle management, command and control
Contractor: Boeing Aerospace Co.
Power Plant: Four Pratt and Whitney TF33-PW-100A turbofan engines
Thrust: 21,000 pounds each engine
Rotodome: 30 feet in diameter (9.1 meters), 6 feet thick (1.8 meters), mounted 11 feet (3.33 meters) above fuselage
Wingspan: 145 feet, 9 inches (44.4 meters)
Length: 152 feet, 11 inches (46.6 meters)
Height: 41 feet, 9 inches (13 meters)
Weight: 335,000 pounds (151,955 kilograms)
Maximum Takeoff Weight: 347,000 pounds (156,150 kilograms)
Fuel Capacity: 23,000 gallons (104,560 liters)
Speed: optimum cruise 360 mph (Mach 0.48)
Range: more than 5,000 nautical miles (9,250 kilometers)
Ceiling: Above 29,000 feet (8,788 meters)
Crew: Flight crew of four plus mission crew of 13-19 specialists (mission crew size varies according to mission)
Unit Cost: $270 million (fiscal 98 constant dollars)
Initial operating capability: April 1978
Inventory: Active force, 33 (1 test); Reserve, 0; Guard, 0

US to Station F-16 Fighter Jets in Poland as of 2013

Novinite

The United States will station F-16 jet fighters and Hercules transport planes in Poland as of 2013, announced Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich.

Klich said Poland has decided to accept an US offer for the rotating stationing of F-16s and Hercules planes on its territory, reported BGNES citing radio TOK FM.

The US planes will be taking part in joint drills together with the Polish Air Force, and will be returning to the US.

According to Klich, the presence of the US military planes in Poland will be similar to the stationing of the American Patriot missiles that were placed on Polish territory earlier in 2010.

Poland, which is traditionally seeking ways to balance its location between Russia and Germany, has drown even closer to the United States with respect to defense coopeartion.

It’s Okay to Talk Raptor Again

Once taboo, talk has resurfaced about the possibility of buying more F-22s.

—John A. Tirpak

Air Force Magazine

Nov. 16, 2010—The Air Force has apparently gotten over one of its biggest taboos: talking internally about the possibility of buying more F-22s.

Until recently, USAF was under strict orders not even to think about it, but recent developments have caused the possibility to crop up in some “what if” PowerPoint slides.

Those developments include likely further slips in the F-35 strike fighter’s schedule and an upcoming defense acquisition board review of the F-35 expected to be fraught with bad news on cost.

That would come on the heels of various deficit-cutting proposals that already suggest cutting the F-35 buy.

Without F-35, Air Force fighter inventories will plummet below minimums in coming years as F-16s age out.

Extending F-22 production could be the dealmaker if F-35 foes carry the day and compel USAF to take mostly new-build F-16s instead.

The Raptors would provide the extra stealth force required to make the non-stealthy F-16s acceptable.

Also, if you’ve listened carefully, USAF has gone from saying it will retain a “portion” of F-22 production tooling to “most” and, most recently, to “all.”

Gen. William Fraser, head of Air Combat Command, acknowledged last week that Lockheed Martin is filming all F-22 tooling processes as the earliest parts of production shut down, so that it can go back to production of parts—ostensibly for repairs or service life extension—in the future.

Also last week, Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) said he might spearhead an effort to get more F-22s into the budget. But he acknowledged it could be a difficult task given pressures to rein in spending.

Gingrey complained bitterly that the Pentagon prematurely terminated F-22 production, centered in Marietta in his Congressional district, before Russia rolled out its own F-22 clone, the PAK FA, last year.

Related Links:

Chosun: China Practices Intercepting U.S. Stealth Fighters

AJC: GOP control of House could revive the F-22 fight

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