Author: Michael

MAXAR via NASA

It’s fair to say that artists’ renderings of satellite systems in orbit are pretty common. Yet images of satellites in orbit taken by other satellites in orbit are a whole different ballgame.
This is precisely what the Twitter account of NASA’s Landsat Program provided on April 3. In a two-second video posted in a Tweet, we see a series of ‘satellite-to-satellite’ images. Here, NASA’s Landsat 8 satellite was pictured orbiting Earth by Maxar Technologies’ commercial WorldView-3 observation satellite.

Envelope expansion testing on the CH-53K King Stallion lasted for five days and nights in the Atlantic. Once the initial sea trials in June 2020 were successful, the aircraft began testing in a contemporary naval environment.

via Chinese internet

New video has emerged of the latest, re-engined version of China’s Xi’an Y-20 military transport aircraft. The Y-20B, which is powered by the domestically produced WS-20 high-bypass turbofan engine, is a significant development compared to the earlier models, which relied on Russian-supplied Soloviev D-30KP-2 engines. What’s more, there are now indications that the improved Y-20B may now be in now in operational service with the People’s Liberation Army Air Force, or PLAAF.

Bay of Pigs would be a great name for a barbecue restaurant if it didn’t point to one of the greatest American military gaffes.
Let’s travel back in time to 1959, when Fidel Castro became Cuba’s dictator. As it turns out, Mr. Castro was buddies with Nakita Khrushchev, the head of the very communist Soviet Union. Now, if there was one thing America hated back then, it was communism. Letting the Soviets control half of Europe was one thing. But having them a stone’s throw away in the Caribbean was just too much.

The Moroccan government has lately found an opportunity to make advances over their neighbour in an enduring arms race that goes back to the 1970’s.
Morocco’s border disagreements with Algeria were due to non-recognition of Algeria’s colonial borders by the Moroccan regime. Both countries’ armed forces have engaged in costly equipment upgrades in recent years, viewing each other as the principal threat to each other’s sovereignty, and equally reluctant to let the other nation gain the upper hand militarily.

The United States and the Philippines have extended their Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), effective as of February 1, 2019, to include provisions for the expansion of four new military sites in the Philippines.
“The announcement of new bases in Philippines, is anticipated to lead to an expanded US military presence in the archipelago,” said Abhijit Apsingikar, senior aerospace, and defence analyst at GlobalData. 
The recent extension of the EDCA sites to cover northern Luzon holds significant strategic value in the event of a Taiwan contingency.

The Netherlands is procuring 20 PULS MRLs in 2023–26. (Elbit Systems)
The Netherlands is procuring Precise and Universal Launching System (PULS) multiple rocket launchers (MRLs), its Ministry of Defence (MoD) revealed on its website on 3 April. The MoD said the Royal Netherlands Army would receive the first systems in 2023. It will be the first time since 2004 that the Netherlands operates rocket artillery.

A screen capture of video imagery posted on Twitter by SSB on 28 March showing the
Marlin
armed USV firing a Kuzgun-KY solid fuel SSM for the first time.
(SSB)
The Marlin armed unmanned surface vessel (USV) jointly developed by Turkey’s Aselsan and Selfine Shipyard successfully fired a Kuzgun-KY solid fuel surface-to-surface missile (SSM) for the first time, İsmail Demir, head of the Turkish Presidency of Defence Industries (Savunma Sanayii Başkanlığı: SSB), announced.

The HK416 automatic rifle was launched by the German company H&K (Heckler & Koch) in 2004. It is an improved version based on the AR-15 design. Its original intention of development was to replace the G36 rifle used by the German army in active service in order to improve performance and reliability.

Technical features: HK416 adopts a number of advanced technologies, the most prominent of which is its unique gas piston system, which makes the rifle more reliable and reduces the recoil force when shooting.

Huizhong Wu, AP Speaker Kevin McCarthy hosted Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday in a show of U.S. support for the self-ruled island.