Lego battleship

In Death Valley National Park, north of Barstow, California, is Rainbow Canyon. It’s not especially remarkable, just one canyon in an area full of them, all but indistinguishable from its neighbors in an area populated mainly by snakes. But stand on one of the canyon tops for long enough and a fighter jet will suddenly roar into the valley below you, flying fast and very, very low. It will be visible for only a few seconds before it turns hard and disappears behind the next hill. But during those few moments, anyone with a camera has a brief chance to take a spectacular picture. Rainbow Canyon (or Star Wars Canyon, as some call it) is part of the R-2508 restricted airspace complex, host to a busy, low-level training route for combat aircraft.

Military pilots train to fly low and fast, hiding behind hills to fool radar and going fast enough that they can’t be shot at. Since flying is a perishable skill, every fighter or attack pilot periodically has to practice such low-level flights. Rainbow Canyon is in the desert of eastern California, where the population is sparse and the airspace wide open. It’s also surrounded by military bases, bombing ranges, maneuvering grounds and radars—an ideal spot for military pilots to hone their skills. Among the nearby facilities are Edwards AFB, Naval Air Station China Lake, and Plant 42 (where Lockheed and Northrop build advanced aircraft).

Photos are taken on a high ridge above the jets

Thunderbird

Marine Harrier

F-18 Hornet with brown camo.

Artist rendering of LLD laser mounted on a ship. Credit: Lockheed Martin

The US Navy Office of Naval Research has successfully tested an all-new, fully electric laser weapon system. Designed to fry aerial threats like drones and missiles, the new weapon system is entirely electric, so it doesn’t require chemicals.

WEAPONIZED LASER SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT INCREASING

Around the world, military forces are increasingly testing and deploying laser systems. The Debrief recently reported on the Iron Beam weapon system successfully tested by the Israeli Defense Ministry. The U.S. military has also tested several laser-based weapons systems with varying degrees of success, including a ship-mounted laser that blasted an incoming surface drone to pieces.

211214-N-VQ947-1142 GULF OF ADEN (Dec. 14, 2021) — Amphibious transport dock ship USS Portland (LPD 27) conducts a high-energy laser weapon system demonstration on a static surface training target, Dec. 14, while sailing in the Gulf of Aden. During the demonstration, the Solid State Laser – Technology Maturation Laser Weapons System Demonstrator Mark 2 MOD 0 aboard Portland successfully engaged the training target. (U.S. Navy photo illustration by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Devin Kates)

NAVY LASER BLASTS ALL TARGETS FROM THE SKY

Dubbed the Layered Laser Defense system (LLD) by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Lockheed Martin designed laser weapon marks a significant technological breakthrough. Unlike laser weapons systems designed and tested in the 1980s, the LLD is entirely electric. As such, the LLD system carries no chemicals or propellants, dramatically improving safety and cost concerns. Also, since the final model is designed for on-ship deployment, the LLD could theoretically operate with unlimited ammunition as long as the ship can provide electrical power.

“The Navy performed similar tests during the 1980s but with chemical-based laser technologies that presented significant logistics barriers for fielding in an operational environment,” said Dr. Frank Peterkin, the ONR’s directed energy portfolio manager. “And, ultimately, those types of lasers did not transition to the fleet or any other service.”

There is also a cost-savings benefit to the Navy for this type of system. For example, Israel’s Iron Dome costs upwards of $150,000 to bring down a single incoming missile, while a disabling shot from their Iron Beam laser system costs at most a few hundred dollars. According to a report in New Atlas, the LLD is expected to cost around a dollar per shot.

The system offers other advantages as well. For example, it is equipped with a high-resolution telescope that lets operators identify and assess the weapon’s effectiveness. The system can also adjust its power output, which can disable and not destroy specific targets the Navy may not want to destroy. The system can also target surface threats like fast attack boats or water-borne drones.

In February, the Office of Naval Research carried out the LLD system tests at the US Army’s High Energy Laser Systems Test Facility at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. According to a report by TechSpot, “the LLD was tested against a wide range of targets, including unmanned fixed-winged aerial vehicles and quadcopters as well as the high-speed drones that acted as subsonic cruise missile replacements.” All tests were a success, with the LLD system downing every target.

Images from Russia’s Victory Day parade which marks the anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. World War Two cost more than 20 million Soviet lives.

BBC

The Chilean Army comes by its German influences and traditions honestly, from a decent-sized influx of German immigrants during the second half of the 19th century, most of whom settled in the southern part of the country, centered around Puerto Montt, where the weather is cooler and wetter, and where dairy farms and breweries now abound. But it didn’t end with Chile. Bolivia, Columbia and Argentina all used German advisors, techniques and uniforms. Right up to the present day.

(Bolivian soldiers with stahlhelm M35 helmets and M16 assault rifles.)

(Argentine soldiers with Casco M38 helmets in the mid-1940s.)

Former US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman general Mike Mullen with Chilean honour guard 2012.

Chilean army 2014

German Waffen SS troops 1944

Chile

Chile

(Colombian troops on the streets of Bogota in the 1948-1949 time frame.)

Traditions are hard to break, especially military tradition.

Not to be left out of the equation, the U.S. changed their military helmets in the early 1980’s. The Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH) is the United States Army’s current combat helmet. Although very different from the German helmets, the U.S. helmet does have a similar look.

Air Force

Altus Air Force base Oklahoma

U.S. Navy

Marine Corps

And finally, the U.S. Army.

Forget Area 51, America has an EVEN MORE secretive military test site named Area 6

A TOP secret airbase more mysterious than Area 51 has been spotted in the Nevada desert on Google Earth.

Area 6, a shielded airbase used for testing unmanned aircraft, has got conspiracy theorists wondering what the US Government might be hiding at such a remote location.

The site is roughly 12 miles northeast of Area 51 and is part of the Nevada National Security Site, where 1,000 nuclear tests were carried out between 1945 and 1995.

Six nuclear tests and four detonations have been completed in Area 6 according to the US Department of Energy.

The mysterious airbase has a 5,000ft runway used by federal agencies to carry out aircraft tests, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Its secretiveness has quickly led to comparisons with Area 51, where some conspiracy theorists believe the wreckages of crashed UFOs are stored and studied.

National Nuclear Security Administration spokesman Darwin Morgan told the Las Vegas Review-Journal: “We have controlled airspace and that gives them opportunities to test various types of platforms.

“We do a wide variety of work for others – supporting people with sensor development activities.

“It evolved from the nuclear testing program. We had to have very good sensors to collect data in a split second before they were obliterated.”

The Nevada National Security Site is run by the National Nuclear Security Administration’s field office in the state, which works with other agencies to develop ways of tackling terrorism.

Could they be interrogating the Grays at Area 6?

See also: https://markozen.com/2021/07/21/nuclear-bomb-craters-in-nevada-2/