Taken by a photographer of the Força Aérea Brasileira from the cargo door of a Royal Canadian Air Force CC-130J Super Hercules during Cruzex 2013, this year's major military exercise in South America, this image shows a paratrooper jumping over Rio Grande do Norte, Brasil, on Nov. 8, 2013.

The paratrooper was involved in a high altitude launch and free fall, a procedure different from a low level launch, like the one that saw an unlucky Thai paratrooper die after the deploy line didn’t snap causing him to remain stuck to the plane until he fell to the ground (with a reserve chute failing as well).

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The Pentagon has recently announced its decision to assign seven C-27J Spartan airlifters to the U.S. SOCOM (Special Operations Command).

The aircraft are part of the batch of 21 tactical transport aircraft procured by the U.S. Air Force before the service took the controversial decision to store them all because they were too expensive to operate.

Therefore, instead of lying in the desert in near active condition at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG), at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, seven aircraft will be assigned to SOCOM.

Three SOCOM aircraft were reportedly moved to Pope Field, in North Carolina, and the remaining four (two of those are still being assembled in Turin, Italy) will be delivered by the first half of 2014.

What about the remaining 14?

Along with the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Coast Guard has shown interests in the C-27J. In an interesting interview with Defense News, U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Papp said that the service wanted all 21 aircraft scrapped by the Air Force. However, they will get 14 or fewer (considering that the Forest Service will eventually get a few of them).

“Ideally, out of the remaining aircraft, we’d like to get 14 because that allows us to fully outfit three air stations. Anything less than that and we would have to go back and really re-evaluate the project,” Papp told Defense News.

Dealing with the ending purchase of the CASA C-295 he explained: “We would do a new lay down of aircraft because the C-27J has a lot of the avionics and the engines that our C-130Js have. So there’s a lot of logistics compatibility there that we can gain synergies from. It’s a little bit more capable aircraft. It’s one of the aircraft we looked at when we started the Deepwater project. So we’re going to press ahead and get as many of those as we can.”

The Coast Guard, planning to equip an Alaskan station with the Spartan, could employ the same special SAR (Search And Rescue) configuration pitched to Canada for a fixed wing solution with SAR capability.

Although the new configuration is thus far undefined and will be tailored to the customer’s requirements, it should include a Mission System (palletized solution), a SAR/MTI radar on the nose, an EO/IR turret on the nose, spotter windows and launcher in the cargo bay.

On Nov. 18 the Italian Air Force announced its program to convert six C-27J cargo planes into MC-27J Special Operation, Gunship aircraft.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Trouble inside the Air Force's nuclear missile force runs deeper and wider than officials have let on.

An unpublished study for the Air Force, obtained by The Associated Press, cites "burnout" among launch officers with their fingers on the triggers of 450 weapons of mass destruction. There is also evidence of broader behavioral issues across the intercontinental ballistic missile force, including sexual assaults and domestic violence.

The study, provided to the AP in draft form, says that court-martial rates in the nuclear missile force in 2011 and 2012 were more than twice as high as in the overall Air Force. Administrative punishments, such as written reprimands for rules violations and other misbehaviors, also were higher in those years.

These indicators add a new dimension to an emerging picture of malaise and worse inside the ICBM force, an arm of the Air Force with a proud heritage but an uncertain future.

Concerned about heightened levels of misconduct, the Air Force directed RAND Corp., the federally funded research house, to conduct a three-month study of work conditions and attitudes among the men and women inside the ICBM force. It found a toxic mix of frustration and aggravation, heightened by a sense of being unappreciated, overworked and at constant risk of failure.

Remote and rarely seen, the ICBM force gets little public attention. This year, however, the AP has documented a string of missteps that call into question the management of a force that demands strict obedience to procedures.

The AP was advised in May of the confidential study, shortly after it was completed, by a person who said it should be made public to improve understanding of discontent within the ICBM force. After repeated inquiries, and shortly after AP filed a Freedom of Information Act request for a PowerPoint outline, the Air Force provided it last Friday and arranged for RAND officials and two senior Air Force generals to explain it.

Based on confidential small-group discussions last winter with about 100 launch officers, security forces, missile maintenance workers and others who work in the missile fields — plus responses to confidential questionnaires — RAND found low job satisfaction and workers distressed by staff shortages, equipment flaws and what they felt were stifling management tactics.

It also found what it termed "burnout."

Burnout in this context means feeling exhausted, cynical and ineffective on the job, according to Chaitra Hardison, RAND's senior behavioral scientist and lead author of the study. She used a system of measure that asks people to rate on a scale of 1 to 7 — from "never" to "always"— how often in their work they experience certain feelings, including tiredness, hopelessness and a sense of being trapped. An average score of 4 or above is judged to put the person in the "burnout" range.

One service member said, "We don't care if things go properly. We just don't want to get in trouble." That person and all others who participated in the study were granted confidentiality by RAND in order to speak freely.

The 13 launch officers who volunteered for the study scored an average of 4.4 on the burnout scale, tied for highest in the group. A group of 20 junior enlisted airmen assigned to missile security forces also scored 4.4.

This has always been considered hard duty, in part due to the enormous responsibility of safely operating nuclear missiles, the most destructive weapons ever invented.

In its Cold War heyday, an ICBM force twice as big as today's was designed to deter the nuclear Armageddon that at times seemed all-too-possible amid a standoff with the former Soviet Union and a relentless race to build more bombs.

Today the nuclear threat is no longer prominent among America's security challenges. The arsenal has shrunk — in size and stature. The Air Force struggles to demonstrate the relevance of its aging ICBMs in a world worried more about terrorism and cyberwar and accustomed to 21st century weapons such as drones.

This new reality is not lost on the young men and women who in most cases were "volunteered" for ICBM jobs.

Andrew Neal, 28, who completed a four-year tour in September with F.E. Warren's 90th Missile Wing in Wyoming, where he served as a Minuteman 3 launch officer, said he saw marked swings in morale.

"Morale was low at times — very low," Neal said in an interview, though he added that his comrades worked hard.

Neal says his generation has a different view of nuclear weapons.

"We all acknowledge their importance, but at the same time we really don't think the mission is that critical," Neal said, adding that his peers see the threat of full-scale nuclear war as "simply non-existent." So "we practice for all-out nuclear war, but we know that isn't going to happen."

Every hour of every day, 90 launch officers are on duty in underground command posts that control Minuteman 3 missiles. Inside each buried capsule are two officers responsible for 10 missiles, each in a separate silo, armed with one or more nuclear warheads and ready for launch within minutes

They await a presidential launch order that has never arrived in the more than 50-year history of American ICBMs. The duty can be tiresome, with long hours, limited opportunities for career advancement and the constraints of life in remote areas of the north-central U.S., like Minot Air Force Base, N.D.

In his doctoral dissertation published in 2010 after he finished a tour with the 91st Missile Wing at Minot, Christopher J. Ewing said 71 of the 99 launch officers he surveyed there had not chosen that assignment.

Robert L. Goldich, a leading authority on defense and military personnel issues, reviewed the RAND findings for the AP and concluded that they show the effects over time of the perception that nuclear weapons have been "shunted off" to the sidelines of national priorities.

"I think it confirms that the bottom fell out of the apparent relevance of strategic nuclear weapons at the end of the Cold War," Goldich said.

RAND was looking for possible explanations for a trend worrying the Air Force — higher levels of personal and professional misconduct within the ICBM force relative to the rest of the Air Force. Courts-martial in the ICBM force, for example, were 129 percent higher than in the Air Force as a whole in 2011, on a per capita basis, and 145 percent higher in 2012. Cases handled by administrative punishment were 29 percent above overall Air Force levels in 2011 and 23 percent above in 2012.

On Wednesday the Air Force provided the AP with statistics indicating that courts-martial and reports of spousal abuse are on a downward trend in recent months, while still higher than the overall Air Force in percentage terms. Administrative punishments also are trending downward.

Reported cases of spousal abuse in the ICBM force peaked in 2010 at 21 per 1,000 people, compared to 10.3 per 1,000 in the overall Air Force. The rate for the ICBM force dropped to 14.4 in 2011 and to 12.4 last year. It also has declined for the overall Air Force.

The Air Force's top general, Mark Welsh, said Wednesday he is confident that the ICBM force is on solid ground and performing as expected.

"This is the one mission area in our Air Force that from an operational perspective has been 100 percent effective every day since we started the mission," he said in an interview. "So we're doing something right and we have been for a long, long time."

Still, the RAND study and AP interviews with current and former members of the ICBM force suggest a disconnect between the missile force members and their leaders.

"There's a perception that the Air Force (leadership) doesn't understand necessarily what's going on with respect to the ICBM community and their needs," says Hardison, the behavioral scientist who led the study.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel delivered a "no-room-for-error" message when he visited U.S. Strategic Command in Nebraska last week to welcome Navy Adm. Cecil Haney as the nation's new top nuclear war-fighter.

"Perfection must be the standard for our nuclear forces," Hagel said, noting that "some troubling lapses in maintaining this professionalism" have been exposed recently by "close scrutiny" and "rigorous evaluations."

In Hardison's view, expectations of perfection are "unproductive and unrealistic."

"People who are even top performers, who are exceptionally good at their jobs, fear that they are going to make one mistake and that's going to be the end of their career," she said in an interview.

RAND's survey results, while revealing of a level of discontent, are not definitive. Hardison said the findings need to be confirmed on a larger sample population and the results tracked over time.

Perhaps ironically, the person who raised concerns about problems in the missile force was Maj. Gen. Michael Carey, who was fired in October as commander of 20th Air Force, the organization responsible for the full ICBM fleet — for alleged misconduct that officials have said was related to alcohol use.

In November 2012, Carey told Welsh that his organization's misconduct record was out of line with the broader Air Force and he wanted to find faster fixes.

One change already being implemented is ensuring that lower-level officers and enlisted airmen in the missile fields are given more decision-making authority, said Maj. Gen. Jack Weinstein, the interim successor to Carey. He said he also is seeking to ensure more stability in the ICBM force's work schedules so service members have more predictable periods to spend with their families.

Internally, concern about the ICBM force is not new.

In a little-noticed report published in April, a Pentagon advisory group that has studied the nuclear mission said weaknesses in the way the Air Force manages its ICBM workforce have made it hard to maintain.

"This should be a cause for serious concern," the Defense Science Board advisory group concluded.

It said the problem is especially acute in notoriously frigid Minot, where the Air Force has had trouble keeping people in its maintenance and security forces. Harsh climate is no excuse, it said.

"Minot weather has always been Minot weather. What has changed is the perception of negative career impacts, the slow response to concerns and the need for tangible evidence" that work conditions and equipment will improve, it said.

Kehler, the retiring head of Strategic Command, acknowledges that with national security attention focused elsewhere, it's easy to see why some nuclear warriors would be uneasy.

"What happens is, that translates into a very personal concern that's out there in all parts of the nuclear force, and that is: What's my future?"

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According to the recently published RFI (Request for Information), the ARFL (Air Force Research Laboratory) is looking forward to the development of laser weapons for next generation fighter jets.

Even if this is an Air Force initiative, it is possible that the Navy and U.S. Army will run similar independent research programs.

The U.S. Air Force plans to employ laser-based weapons by 2030.

Based on requirements, weapon elements will have to be ready for laboratory test by October 2014, while they must reach readiness for test on a plane and in a simulated operational environment by 2022.

Three new laser devices are to be created: a small power marking laser, that would act as a marker and as a blinding weapon against the optical sensors of the enemy planes; a medium power laser that is to be used against air-to-air missiles; and a high power device to act as an offensive weapon.

The weapon is to be operable at up to 65,000 feet of altitude and within a speed envelope of Mach 0.6 – 2.5.

Northrop Grumman is developing a solid state laser for the U.S. Navy, Lockheed Martin is on a 30-month contract to develop a prototype turret in an aircraft for the Aero-Adaptive/Aero-Optic Beam Control (ABC) system, while Boeing works on ground forces solutions, including HEL MD cannon that is to be vehicle mounted. Some solutions have been tested already, e.g. the USS Ponce self-defense system against small vessels.

It must be remembered, though, that the laser program is not going to be the first USAF experience with this kind of weapon, since the U.S. Air Force already used ABL on a 747.

That laser was an anti-tactical missile weapon, based on Chemical Oxygen Iodine lasers, developed within a Boeing program.

Cancellation of that program does not mean nothing has survived. NOTAMs issued since the YAL-1 was retired prove that airborne laser testing has not ceased.

ABL used a laser range finder, tracking laser (TILL – Track Illuminator Laser) and finally BILL (Bacon Illuminator Laser) and it was after that that the target was finally destroyed by the main weapon.

USAF tested a chemical-laser weapon using Lockheed C-130H back in 2009.

The laser weapon that is to be developed will probably be employed first on the F/A-XX aircraft that will constitute a replacement for the Super Hornet.

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Even if the fleet of 350 “Boars” is essential to conducting Close Air Support (CAS) missions in Afghanistan, and in any other low intensity conflict the U.S. may be called to fight in the future, the Air Force has a plan to prematurely retire all its A-10 Warthog aircraft between 2015 and 2018.

While some senators and congressmen are fighting back against this decision, the future of the American troops in theater will be tied to the effectiveness, reliability and capabilities of the F-35 that will replace the A-10 in the air-to-surface, Troops-In-Contact (TIC) role.In the meantime, Warthog aircrews continue to train, even though the training pipeline for pilots destined to this type of aircraft has already been scaled back.

The images in this post, taken by Jim Haseltine and made available by the Air Force, show A-10C Thunderbolt II “Warthogs” with the 188th Fighter Wing, Arkansas Air National Guard conducting close-air support training near Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona.

The A-10 can carry AGM-65 Maverick missiles, Snakeye bombs, and Paveway LGB (Laser Guided Bombs) but their main weapon is the GAU-8 Avenger, a 30 mm rotary cannon that is the heaviest of its kind to be mounted on a fast jet.

How many aircraft can fly low and hit hard employing such variety of guided and unguided weapons?

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SEE ALSO: The NSA Is Gathering 5 Billion Records On Global Cellphone Locations Every Day

SEE ALSO: How To Become Invisible To The NSA's Domestic Spying Program

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Even if the development of the hypersonic strike aircraft dubbed SR-72 has been recently announced, its predecessor, the iconic Mach 3 SR-71 Blackbird, remains one of the fastest planes ever flown operationally.

When the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was built, its designer Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson already knew that it would have become vulnerable to enemy defenses.

So, to gather intelligence in the skies of foreign countries, in 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson announced that the Lockheed Advance Development Projects, also known as the Skunk Works, built another strategic reconnaissance aircraft, so fast that no other airplane could reach it: the SR-71 Blackbird.

When the SR-71 entered the active service with the U.S. Air Force, its flight characteristics were incredible: it was able to fly at more than three and a half times the speed of sound at 88,000 feet, over sixteen miles up.

To give an idea of such altitude, the Blackbird took photos from three times the height of Everest and its pilots dressed in full pressure suits like astronauts.

During its career, which ceased on Oct. 9, 1999 with its last flight, no SR-71 was lost due to hostile actions.

In fact, neither enemy fighters nor enemy surface to air missiles (SAM) were ever able to shoot down or to damage an SR-71.But the aircraft was never shot down also because it was hardly detected by enemy radars, being the first aircraft featuring stealth technology. Indeed, for the first time a special paint was used for Blackbird’s wings, tail and fuselage: since it contained iron ferrites, this paint absorbed radar energy instead of returning it to the sender.

With an RCS (Radar Cross Section) of a small light aircraft, when the SR-71 was found on radar it was too late for a SAM computer to estimate its direction for a successful kill.

The range and the bearing of the SR-71 was also denied to the enemy by jamming its devices with the use of the sophisticated electronic countermeasures (ECM) transported by the Blackbird.

Not only SAMs failed to catch the Blackbird: even the the fastest Soviet fighter jets lacked the necessary speed to reach the SR-71.

Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko, who defected to Japan in a MiG-25 on Dec. 6, 1976, confirmed it in its “MiG Pilot” book.

“American reconnaissance planes, SR-71s, were prowling off the coast, staying outside Soviet airspace by photographing terrain hundreds of miles inland with side-angle cameras. They taunted and toyed with the MiG-25s sent up to intercept them, scooting up to altitudes the Soviet planes could not reach, and circling leisurely above them or dashing off at speeds the Russians could not match,” Belenko explained.

However, according to the MiG pilot, Russians tried to intercept and shoot down a Blackbrid, but they always failed at this task: “[The Soviets] had a master plan to intercept an SR-71 by positioning a MiG-25 in front of it and one below it, and when the SR-71 passed they would fire missiles. But it never occurred. Soviet computers were very primitive, and there is no way that mission can be accomplished.”

“First of all, the SR-71 flies too high and too fast. The MiG-25 cannot reach it or catch it. Secondly…the missiles are useless above 27,000 meters [88,000 feet], and as you know, the SR-71 cruises much higher. But even if we could reach it, our missiles lack the velocity to overtake the SR-71 if they are fired in a tail chase. And if they are fired head-on, the guidance systems cannot adjust quickly enough to the high closing speed.”

Moreover, as recently told by the former Blackbird pilot Col. Richard H. Graham in his book “SR-71 The Complete Illustrated History of THE BLACKBIRD, The World’s Highest, Fastest Plane,” Belenko’s missiles would not have worked because “Most air-to-air missiles are optimized to maneuver in the thicker air below around 30,000 feet in order to shoot down an enemy plane. Firing at the SR-71, cruising at 75,000 feet, the air is so thin that any maneuvering capability of the missile is practically nonexistent.”

Speed is the new stealth is Lockheed Martin’s new slogan. But it has worked well for the last 60 years….

David Cenciotti contributed to this story.

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A $114 million contract to build three more Global Hawk high-altitude unmanned surveillance aircraft was announced back in September, despite the Air Force not even wanting them.

Facing budget cuts and wanting to save some cash (about $2.5 billion over five years), the Air Force was planning to stop buying the pricey — and rather unreliable — drones and mothball the remainder of the fleet in favor of the battle-tested and accomplished U2 spy plane.

“The Block 30 [Global Hawk aircraft] is not operationally effective,” the Pentagon’s top testing official had declared in a blunt May 2011 report, according to The Center for Public Integrity.

But the Pentagon was no match for forces on Capitol Hill, as an article written by W.J. Hennigan in the Los Angeles Times points out:

Northrop responded sharply, saying the U-2 "places pilots in danger, has limited flight duration and provides limited sensor capacity."

In the end, the Air Force didn't win that skirmish. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-Santa Clarita), whose congressional district includes Palmdale, jumped in to rescue the project. Congress restored the funding, and last month Northrop received a $114-million contract to build three more drones, saving thousands of jobs.

"I think these planes have proven their capabilities," McKeon told The Times, "and will continue to show their worth over time."

McKeon, who also belongs to the House Unmanned Systems Caucus which lists one of its missions as "actively support[ing] further development and acquisition of more systems," has received $136,900 in campaign contributions from Northrup since 2004, according to Open Secrets.

But it's not the only project enjoying protection from lawmakers.

From The Center for Public Integrity:

The battle over the Global Hawk is one of many in which a major defense contractor and its influential friends in Congress have forced the military to spend money on hardware it doesn’t want. An Army proposal in 2011 to stop refurbishing the M1 Abrams tank to save $3 billion was blocked by the same House and Senate defense panels in response to the lobbying muscle of the tank manufacturer, General Dynamics.

Then there's the F-35 program — at $400 billion the most expensive weapon system in U.S. history — which has been a plagued with problems but deemed "too big to kill,"according to Bloomberg.

That's mainly because work on building the aircraft supports 133,000 jobs and is spread across 45 states.

“It’s got a lot of political protection,” Winslow Wheeler, a director at the Project on Government Oversight’s Center for Defense Information in Washington, told Bloomberg. “In that environment, very, very few members of Congress are willing to say this is an unaffordable dog and we need to get rid of it.”

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BEIJING (Reuters) - China expressed "regret" on Monday that South Korea had extended its air defense zone to partially overlap with a similar zone declared by Beijing two weeks ago that has raised regional tensions.

China's declaration of an air defense identification zone in the East China Sea that includes islands at the heart of a territorial dispute with Japan has triggered protests from the United States and its close allies Japan and South Korea.

South Korea said on Sunday that its move to expand its own zone would not infringe on neighboring countries' sovereignty.

"China expresses regret over South Korea's expansion of its air defense identification zone,"Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters at a regular press briefing.

China had immediately conveyed its concerns to South Korea and requested that Seoulhandles the matter "safely and cautiously", Hong said.

Hong said the zones, which overlap in an area that includes a submerged reef, called the Suyan Rock by China and Ieodo by South Korea, did not constitute territorial airspace.

"There currently does not exist a territorial dispute between China and South Korea on this issue," Hong said, but noted that the reef was situated in portions of both countries' exclusive economic zones.

"This can only be resolved through maritime negotiations," Hong said of the economic zone issue, which puts at stake rights to potential underwater oil and gas reserves.

South Korea objected to China's November 23 move as unacceptable because of the reef, which has a research station platform built atop it and is controlled by Seoul.

Under the Chinese zone's rules, all aircraft have to report flight plans to Chinese authorities, maintain radio contact and reply promptly to identification inquiries.

The extension of South Korea's zone, which was originally established by the U.S. Air Force in 1951 during the Korean War, will not apply any restrictions to the operation of commercial flights when it takes effect on December 15.

(Reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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Close encounters between U.S. Navy F-4 Phantom fighter jets and Soviet Tu-95 Bear bombers were frequent in the skies near aircraft carriers around the world. A collection of shots taken by the U.S. planes can be found in the San Diego Air & Space Museum archive on Flickr.

These photos tell us a story of tense moments when Phantoms launched by American flattops intercepted and shadowed, sometimes in “tight formation,” USSR strategic bombers that skirted aircraft carriers at low level to probe their reaction times.

Some shots depict Soviet crew members greeting their colleagues in the American fighter jets with hand language.

During the Cold War Soviet bombers were often intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea by Italian F-104 Starfighter jets. Here’s a collection of images taken during those close encounters with the “zombies.”

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Air Force boneyards appeal to the child in us. The rows of rusted out planes look like old, forgotten toys, which a child could reach out and grab and lift into the air again.

The feeling is even stronger for airmen.

In an excellent article in Airman Magazine, Air Force Tech. Sgt. Matthew Bates describes retired Col. Bill Hosmer admiring a derelict F-86 Sabre:

To retired Col. Bill Hosmer, it’s still beautiful. He walks around the old fighter and stares in admiration. He slides a hand over the warped metal fuselage and a flood of memories rush over him.

“I haven’t been this close to one of these in years,” he says. “Of course, that one was in a lot better shape.”

So was Hosmer. Time has weathered and aged them both, the plane’s faded paint and creased body match Hosmer’s own worn and wrinkled skin. Even the plane’s discarded wings stand as a metaphor for Hosmer’s own life now – a fighter pilot who can’t fly, standing next to a fighter jet with no wings.

Aircraft from all military services cover the desert landscape of the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group "Boneyard" at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.

An old, weathered flight manual sits inside the remains of a CH-3E Jolly Green Giant. After years of standing in the desert sun of the boneyard, aircraft and equipment slowly age and erode.

The Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser Testbed, (formerly Airborne Laser) weapons system now sits decommissioned in the boneyard. The YAL-1 was primarily designed as a missile defense system to destroy tactical ballistic missiles with an airborne laser system.

The first measurable snow of the 2013-2014 winter covered the U.S. aircraft based at Bagram airfield in Afghanistan on Dec. 29, 2013.

Snow accumulated on A-10s, C-130s , C-17s, and F-16s but the snowstorm did not stop flying activities at the largest U.S. airbase in Afghanistan.

On Dec. 15, Bagram's main runway was reopened after 121 days during which it was renovated and expanded 2,000 feet to accommodate the incoming F-16 of the 457th Fighter Squadron from Kandahar.

The F-16s' take-off and landing distance for the loads they carry are much greater than any other aircraft at Bagram, hence the need to expand it.

The length of the renovated runway not only allows F-16s and A-10s to carry more ammunition, but also allows cargo aircraft to carry more loads.

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The Air Force has released a memo stating that they support HP's claim that Autonomy was cooking its books before HP bought it for $11 billion, if the evidence confirms it.

As you might recall, less than a year later after that acquisition, HP wrote off $8.8 billion and alleged that it was duped into paying too much because Autonomy had improperly inflated its revenues and margins. HP called it fraud, named a whole bunch of ways that it believed Autonomy had done this, and asked for investigations by the authorities.

The situation was a major embarrassment for HP and led to a number of its board members resigning.

Autonomy's founder, Mike Lynch, has consistently and vehemently denied all wrongdoing, claiming that HP's own mismanagement of Autonomy after the purchase is what caused the write-down, he told Business Insider. Investigations in the U.S. and the U.K. are still pending.

Enter the Air Force. It was conducting an investigation into the business practices of a government contractor, MicroTech, after The Washington Post wrote a series of articles about MicroTech. Those stories helped spur investigations of the contractor by a couple of Congressional committees, the Small Business Administration, and the Air Force. At issue was how MicroTech was receiving big government contracts designated for small businesses run by disabled vets.

MicroTech had been an Autonomy reseller. In looking into MicroTech, the Air Force obtained HP's internal investigation into Autonomy, it said.

The Air Force concluded that MicroTech helped Autonomy inflate revenue numbers, it said in a 5-page letter obtained by Business Insider.

The Air Force sided with HP writing:

From 2007-2011, former Autonomy senior management engaged in numerous accounting and sales practices designed to deceive analysts, investors, and potential purchasers into believing that Autonomy could, and would continue, [to] generate margins and revenues that it could not ultimately sustain due to such practices.

The Air Force letter named several ways that Autonomy allegedly inflated its revenues and margins, a list that mirrors what HP said when it made the initial allegations of fraud: not properly booking hardware sales, hosting agreements, and deals with resellers.

For instance, the Air Force letter discussed one transaction between Autonomy and MicroTech regarding an $11 million deal. Autonomy recognized $11 million in revenue on its books. Seven months later, MicroTech had paid only $500,000.

An auditor questioned why MicroTech owed Autonomy so much money. After that, Autonomy recorded a deal with MicroTech to create an "Advanced Technology Innovation Center" and wired MicroTech $9.6 million to pay for the new center, the letter says.

"MicroTech subsequently wired $9.6 million back to Autonomy to pay for outstanding MicroTech receivables," the Air Force letter says.

In other words, the letter alleges the $9.6 million MicroTech paid Autonomy didn't come from a customer, but came from Autonomy itself.

Again, Lynch and his spokespeople deny wrongdoing, saying that HP doesn't understand International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

A blog post on Lynch's website states:

The USAF letter cites allegations made against the Autonomy management team by Hewlett Packard on 20th November 2012 as the basis for this review. ...We strongly reject HP’s allegations. ... The few examples seen to date in support of its allegations, such as those cited in the USAF letter, show that HP appears to have had a fundamental misunderstanding of IFRS accounting practices, and we vehemently deny anything improper.

An HP spokesperson responded via email:

It is patently ridiculous to continue to claim that these very serious allegations, currently the subject of investigation by both the U.S. Department of Justice and the UK's Serious Fraud Office, are merely the result of a 'misunderstanding' in the difference between US GAAP and IFRS accounting rules.

We reached out to MicroTech for comment and will update if we hear back.

SEE ALSO: EXCLUSIVE: A Former Autonomy Salesperson Says This Is How The Creative Accounting Was Done

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The U.S. Air Force gets a lot of ribbing from the other services for being a kush job, but the general consensus when it comes to photography is that United States Airmen are second to none.

The flagship publication in the Air Force — Airman Magazine— has recently collated and released what its editors believe is the best imagery of 2013.

Air Force photographers are unique in that they don't just photograph airplanes or service specific operations. Their travels put them on the ground, in the operating room, or in America's epic Boneyards.

Certainly, the beauty in this imagery is as subtle as it is outstanding.

Senior Airman Jodi Martinez fires at opposing forces during an Ability to Survive and Operate exercise at North Auxiliary Air Field, S.C. Martinez is a photographer assigned to the 1st Combat Camera Squadron at Joint Base Charleston, S.C. The 1st CTCS acquires still and motion imagery in support of classified and unclassified air, sea and ground military operations. Combat Camera held the exercise to train them to function outside the wire as a combat documentation specialist. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman George Goslin)

U.S. Air Force Academy Falcons Head Coach Troy Calhoun leads the team into the stadium to play conference rival Wyoming at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colo. The Cowboys defeated Air Force 56-23. (Department of Defense photo/Mike Kaplan)

Senior Airman Justin Gordon completes a static line jump at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany. Gordon participated in the training to maintain his qualifications and also reenlisted prior to the jump. He's the assistant NCO in charge of survival, evasion, resistance and escape training with the 52nd Operations Support Squadron. (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Gustavo Castillo)

Two US Air Force officers in charge of launching nuclear missiles are under investigation for possessing illegal drugs, officials said Thursday, in the latest setback for the country's nuclear force.

The two officers, assigned to Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, "are being investigated by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations for illegal drug possession," spokeswoman Ann Stefanek told AFP.

The military offered no further details of the case but the news came as US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel paid a rare visit to an ICBM base in Wyoming.

Hagel's trip follows a series of embarrassing incidents and revelations for the Air Force's nuclear team, including internal reviews signalling morale problems among missile units and the sacking of a number of senior officers.

Speaking at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Hagel made no mention of the criminal case but sought to reassure service members that their work was valued, while reminding them of the high stakes at hand.

"In what you do every day, there is no room for error, none. You know that. The American people expect that," Hagel said.

He said Washington would keep up investments to modernize its nuclear arsenal, and that a study was near completion looking at a weapon to replace the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile.

"The United States is going to remain committed, strongly committed, to maintaining a capable and effective, safe, secure nuclear deterrent," Hagel said.

During a stop at Kirkland Air Force Base in New Mexico on Wednesday, Hagel said he was concerned about morale for the missile crews.

"It is lonely work," he said.

"They do feel unappreciated many times. They're stuck out in the areas where... not a lot of attention is paid. And I know they wonder more than occasionally if anybody's paying attention."

Officials acknowledged last month that a two-star US general in charge of land-based ICBMs was fired after he went on a drunken bender in Russia, where he repeatedly insulted his hosts.

Air Force Major General Michael Carey lost his job in October after an inspector general found he had displayed "inappropriate behavior" during the four-day visit to Russia.

According to the inspector general's report, Carey showed up late for motorcades for meetings with Russian representatives, interrupted tour guides and complained over drinks that his unit "had the worst morale."

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ten U.S. Air Force officers are being investigated for alleged illegal drug possession, the Air Force said on Friday, a day after the probe surfaced as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was visiting a base to rally airmen in the U.S. nuclear force.

Lieutenant Colonel Brett Ashworth, an Air Force spokesman, said nine lieutenants and a captain at six bases in the United States and Britain were implicated in the investigation.

Ashworth said the investigation began with two officers at Edwards Air Force Base in California and "expanded, based on contact with the officers in question regarding recreational drug possession." Edwards is the second-largest U.S. Air Force Base and is central to new aircraft and weapons testing.

The probe has expanded to include officers at Malmstrom, Vandenberg, F.E. Warren and Schreiver Air Force bases as well as Royal Air Force Lakenheath in England, home to a U.S. fighter wing, Ashworth said.

News of the investigation emerged on Thursday after the Air Force suspended the security clearances of two missile launch officers in a drug probe at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. The base is one of three responsible for the United States' 420 nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The Air Force action came as Hagel was at a sister nuclear missile base - F.E. Warren in Cheyenne, Wyoming - preparing to rally troops responsible for maintaining and staffing the launch sites.

Vandenberg Air Force Base in California is home to the Air Forces space and missile testing facilities, and Schreiver in Colorado is home to its Space Warfare Center and Ballistic Missile Defense Organization.

(Reporting by David Alexander; editing by Gunna Dickson)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Air Force has suspended security clearances for 34 officers and is re-testing the entire force overseeing America's nuclear-armed missiles after uncovering widespread cheating on a key proficiency exam.

The incident was the largest single case of cheating in America's nuclear missile wings in memory, and is the latest embarrassment for a force that faces growing questions over discipline and morale in the post-Cold War era.

The head of the ICBM force, Air Force Major General Michael Carey, was fired in October for getting drunk and carousing with women while leading a government delegation to Moscowfor talks on nuclear security.

The latest incident occurred last year and involved sharing answers by text message on a monthly proficiency exam for missile launch officers at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, Welsh said.

Malmstrom is one of three bases responsible for the United States' 420 nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles.

"There was cheating that took place with respect to this particular test. Some officers did it. Others apparently knew about it, and it appears that they did nothing, or at least not enough, to stop it or to report it," Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said at a news conference.

Welsh said the 34 individuals under investigation were no longer certified to do their jobs and their security clearances were suspended.

"They are restricted from missile crew duty," Welsh said, adding "people at every level" would be held accountable.

Welsh said retesting of their entire missile crew of around 600 officers, ranging in ranks from 2nd lieutenants to Air Force captains, would completed by Thursday and the exam results would be made available to the public.

Both Welsh and James stressed they had full confidence in the security of America's nuclear missile force.

"This is not about the compromise of nuclear weapons. It's about compromise of the integrity of some of our airmen," he said.

But the cheating scandal was only the latest embarrassment for the U.S. nuclear missile force and, more broadly, the Air Force.

The nuclear missile wing at the base where the cheating took place made news for failing an Air Force inspection last August.

Last week, the Air Force revealed that 10 Air Force officers at six bases were being investigated for alleged illegal drug possession. The Air Force on Wednesday said another officer was also being investigated.

Two of them were also implicated in the cheating scandal.

As for Carey, he was removed from his job as commander of the 20th Air Force in October for "conduct unbecoming a gentleman" during a trip to Russia last year.

According to an investigation by the Inspector General of the Air Force, Carey drank steadily throughout the trip, stayed out late with women he met in Moscow, and showed up 45 minutes late for an early morning departure for delegation meetings.

Carey was said to be slurring his words on a delegation trip to a local monastery and asked repeatedly for a chance to sing with a Beatles cover band at a Mexican restaurant.

The Air Force has sought to tighten controls over its nuclear weapons after a 2008 incident in which a B-52 bomber accidentally transported nuclear armed missiles across the country, leading to the ouster of then-Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and General T. Michael Moseley, the top uniformed officer in the Air Force.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart, editing by Leslie Adler and Gunna Dickson)

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Within a 2-month period, Indian Air Force Wing Commander Aditya Prakash Singh survived two major technical glitches in a fighter jet — in the pitch darkness of night, according to The Times of India.

Last April, Singh was flying a MIG-21 Bison jet above the small Indian village of Halwara when an electrical system failure caused all the cockpit lights to turn off. Unable to read the instruments to operate the aircraft, Singh removed his mask and held a lighter in his mouth to illuminate the instruments in the cockpit.

Remarkably, he was able to successfully land the fighter plane without additional damage. On the two month anniversary of the miraculous flight, Singh's jet engine experienced a total loss of engine power due to a collision with a bird. Again, Singh was able to glide the plane to a safe landing. 

"His ability to maintain his composure in a grave emergency situation, courage, creative thinking, and professionalism has been able to successfully recover two aircrafts at night in limited visibility conditions without any damage and has set an excellent professional example for other to emulate," the Indian Air Force said, reports The Times of India.

Wing Commander Singh was awarded the Shaurya Chakra, India's military decoration for valor, courageous action or self-sacrifice.

SEE ALSO: The 'Ruptured Duck' Is One Of The More Fascinating Awards In US Military History

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On Dec. 30, 2013, Arkansas Air National Guard’s 188th Fighter Wing at Ebbing Air National Guard Base, Fort Smith, Ark. flew one of the very last four-ship missions with theA-10C Thunderbolt (“Warthog”).

Indeed, the wing is currently transitioning from a fighter mission with the A-10C to an Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance mission with the Reaper drone.

The 188th has been equipped with the A-10s since April 2007 and has had assigned a manned aircraft on site since 1953. At a rate of two Warthogs per month since September 2013, the unit is planned to complete its 60-year history with military aircraft at Ebbing ANGB in June 2014.

The four-ship formation included Col. Mark Anderson (Tail No. 188), 188th Fighter Wing commander; Maj. Doug Davis (Tail No. 639), 188th Detachment 1 commander; Col. Brian Burger (Tail No. 613), 188th Operations Group commander; and Capt. Wade Hendrickson (Tail No. 638).

The aircraft flew over Razorback Range, at Fort Chaffee Maneuver Training Center, Ark., along with a 189th Airlift Wing C-130 Hercules which took some impressive air-to-air photos as those in this post.

Currently, the 188th flies with nine remaining A-10s: the last pair of Thunderboltsdeparted for Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, to join the 75th Fighter Squadron on Jan. 15.

The U.S. Air Force plans to retire the A-10C aircraft, its best CAS (Close Air Support) asset,between 2015 and 2018, even if the deadline might be postponed until 2028.

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The U.S. Defense Department’s newest and most advanced fighter jet has cracked during testing and isn’t yet reliable for combat operations, the Pentagon’s top weapons tester said in new report.

The entire F-35 fleet was grounded last February after a crack was discovered in a turbine blade of an F-35A. While the order was subsequently lifted, more cracks have been discovered in other areas and variants of the Lockheed Martin Corp.-made plane, according to the latest annual report by J. Michael Gilmore, director of Operational Test and Evaluation.

Durability testing of the F-35A, the Air Force’s version of the plane designed to take off and land on conventional runways, and the F-35B, the Marine Corps’ model that can take off like a plane and land like a helicopter, revealed “significant findings” of cracking in engine mounts, fuselage stiffeners, and bulkhead and wing flanges, according to the document. A bulkhead actually severed at one point, it states.

“All of these discoveries will require mitigation plans and may include redesigning parts and additional weight,” Gilmore wrote in the report.

The F-35C, the Navy’s version of the plane designed to take off and land on aircraft carriers, has also had cracks in the floor of the avionics bay and power distribution center and, like the F-35B, in the so-called jack point stiffener, according to the document.

The hardware problems, along with ongoing delays in software development, among other issues, led Gilmore to conclude that the fifth-generation fighter jet’s “overall suitability performance continues to be immature, and relies heavily on contractor support and workarounds unacceptable for combat operations.”

He added, “Aircraft availability and measures of reliability and maintainability are all below program target values for the current stage of development.”

The Joint Strike Fighter program is the Pentagon’s most expensive acquisition effort, estimated last year to cost $391 billion to develop and build 2,457 F-35 Lightning IIs. The single-engine jet is designed to replace such aircraft as the F-16, A-10, F/A-18 and AV-8B.

The Pentagon this year plans to spend $8.4 billion to buy 29 F-35s, including 19 for the Air Force, six for the Marine Corps, and four for the Navy. The funding includes $6.4 billion in procurement, $1.9 billion in research and development, and $187 million in spare parts. The department in fiscal 2015 wants to purchase 42 of the planes.

The Marine Corps had expected to begin operational flights of the aircraft in 2015, followed by the Air Force in 2016 and the Navy in 2019.

The Corps’ schedule depends on using a more limited version of the software, known as Block 2B, designed for use with such precision-guided weapons as the AIM-120C Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, GBU-32/31 Joint Direct Attack Munition and GBU-12 Paveway II bomb.

The first operational flights, however, will probably be delayed because the aircraft’s software won’t be ready in time due to ongoing glitches, according to the report.

“Initial results with the new increment of Block 2B software indicate deficiencies still exist in fusion, radar, electronic warfare, navigation, EOTS [Electro-Optical Targeting System], Distributed Aperture System (DAS), Helmet-Mounted Display System (HMDS), and datalink,” it states. “These deficiencies block the ability of the test team to complete baseline Block 2B test points, including weapons integration.”

Lockheed has reassigned more engineers to improve the software, and the Pentagon has assembled an outside team of experts to study the issue.

Even so, the report touches on other problem areas.

The aircraft remains vulnerable to “ballistically-induced propellant fire from all combat threats,” such as missile strikes, according to the document; its computer-based logistics system, the Autonomic Logistics Information System, or ALIS, was fielded with “significant deficiencies;” and the program has a “significant risk” of failing to mature modeling and simulation technology, known as the Verification System, or VSim, according to the document.

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