http://www.softwar.net/thenews.html The Pentagon, VA The USAF failed to perform a follow on strike to destroy the shot down F-117A that fell into Serb hands. The Pentagon is playing down the fact that the F-117A state of the art navigation and bombing systems fell into Serbian and eventually Russian hands. Of lesser concern is the F-117A construction and design. Serbian forces scooped the remains of the downed fighter. Russian engineers have already been on the scene on a so-called "trade" mission. PONY EXPRESS The Pentagon, VA The Clinton strikes into the former Yugoslavia are a down-right communications disaster. U.S. commanders are upset that the only secure connection to NATO from Aviano is a dozen antiquated STU-2 (Secure Telephone Unit 2) units. Most of the NATO communications are passed via hardcopy and hand courier. SHOOT WHAT YOU CAN SEE The Pentagon, VA The USAF is now claiming the F-117A was downed at 15,000 feet. The Air Force claims that bad Yugo weather forced the F-117A to drop laser guided bombs below the low cloud deck. USAF officials are certain that optical tracking systems for the SA-3 GOA and the SA-6 GAINFUL surface-to-air missiles are capable of intercepting aircraft if a good visual silhouette of the black jet against the gray sky were available. PASTEL BOMBERS The Pentagon, VA The controversy over the flat black color scheme for the F-117A appeared very early in the stealth jet program. The night sky is not black but various shades of gray. Lockheed engineers calculated the best visual camouflage for the Nighthawk was a dull pink. Dull pastel colors would be obscured whereas dark, flat black would appear as a "hole" or silhouette. Air Force officers, however, objected to the pink camouflage. So the more masculine color - flat black - was picked. Note - the B-2 Stealth bomber and F-22 Raptor Stealth fighter have adopted the Navy "battleship" gray scheme. DWINDLING ALCM INVENTORY The Pentagon, VA According to Aviation Week and Space Technology the USAF has no more than 2 weeks worth of air Boeing launched cruise missiles (CALCM) left. Worse, the remaining inventory has suffered from repeated failures. The Air Force has been unable to fire more than six of the Boeing B-52 launched missiles from any single plane. Failed CALCM missiles have to be returned to the United States for repair because no missile maintenance facilities are located in europe. RUNNING OUT OF TV BOMBS The Pentagon, VA USAF officials are now concerned they will also run out of TV guided AGM-130 bombs. The Serbian strikes and the Iraqi "Desert Fox" attack has depleted the inventory of the TV guided AGM-130 stand-off bombs. Ironically, the AGM-130 is also made by Boeing. SERB HACK ATTACK The Pentagon, VA NATO has confirmed they are under hack attack from Belgrade. NATO officials accused Belgrade hackers of trying to crash the NATO web site with "saturation" attacks. NATO computer security officials noted they had also taken action to prevent several Serbian virus attacks on allied computers. FIN ================================================================ 1 if by land, 2 if by sea. Paul Revere - encryption 1775 Charles R. Smith SOFTWAR http://www.softwar.net [EMAIL PROTECTED] Pcyphered SIGNATURE: 996FBA5161D0E940A8EC31048994A509E7BCCA0994E3BE13EE29802B56F7F182 923413AFD846CDEBEEC34304A7970F65D8AB5B32709B27D45F13DEEDC7C40472 20545ACF6FE0D59A ================================================================ SOFTWAR EMAIL NEWSLETTER 04/06/99 *** to unsubscribe reply with "unsubscribe" as subject *** ================================================================
