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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Julius Wong who wrote (208882)11/11/2024 12:57:42 AM
From: TobagoJack  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 218167
 
little wonder DoD Pentagon giving the NGAD a rethink :0))) as well as pondering Taiwan issue as well, and reckoning the conundrum of China + Russia

more on NantianMen project
more on Taiwan in regard to anti-access / area-denial

Russia Russia Russia knowhow (especially if coupled with China China China manufacturing)


airandspaceforces.com
USAF Rethinks Whether It Needs a Manned 6th-Gen Fighter for Air Superiority
Greg Hadley
The Air Force is reconsidering how it gains air superiority—and whether it needs a manned sixth-generation fighter to achieve it, acquisition boss Andrew P. Hunter and Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James C. “Jim” Slife said.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in July the Air Force would take a “pause” on its Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter program, rather than commit to the program as planned. But amid mounting speculation over the program’s future he expressed confidence that “we’re still going to do a sixth-generation, crewed aircraft.”

On Sept. 4, however, Hunter and Slife suggested at a Defense News conference that USAF will use the pause to revisit fundamental questions about NGAD.

“From a requirements perspective, what I would say is we’re going back and starting at the beginning with ‘What is the thing we’re trying to do?’” Slife said. “‘How do we achieve air superiority in a contested environment?’ would be one way to frame the question. A different way to frame the question would be, ‘How do we build a sixth-gen manned fighter platform?’ I mean, those are not necessarily the same question.”


– Andrew P. Hunter, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics Photo by Mike Tsukamoto/Air & Space Forces Magazine

Air Force doctrine defines air superiority as the “degree of control of the air by one force that permits the conduct of its operations at a given time and place without prohibitive interference from air and missile threats.” The key to that is the given time and place. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin said in February it would be “cost prohibitive to be able to say that we’re going to build enough Air Force to do it the way we did before and have air superiority for days and weeks on end.” In May, Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James C. “Jim” Slife added that “our traditional conception of what things like air superiority means have changed.”

So too has technology, Hunter said. Since “we did the initial analysis of alternatives for NGAD, frankly, our technology base has advanced in ways faster than we anticipated,” he said. “So we see that there are capabilities that we have [now] that perhaps we would want to be part of this mission space going forward that weren’t baked into where we started with the NGAD system.”

That includes advances in autonomy that is fueling the development of Collaborative Combat Aircraft. USAF wants to start fielding CCAs quickly, through an incremental, iterative approach that leaders argue can more rapidly incorporate emerging technologies.

CCA are being developed as part of a family of systems under NGAD, and Hunter suggested that with the pause on a manned platform, the Air Force may now tweak the entire family.

“I wouldn’t rule anything out,” he said. “But I also wouldn’t rule anything back in. What we’ve got to make sure is, as we sum it up into a package that delivers air superiority, that it actually meets the mission need as best we are able to do it, and is affordable at the same time.”

Speaking on the same panel, Slife spoke of taking a mission engineering approach to the design and fielding of these weapons, one focused less on specific platforms than on systems-level integration.

Such an approach could change how the Air Force moves forward on NGAD, Hunter suggested. “It’s not any individual platform that’s going to deliver air superiority. It’s the entire force,” he said. “And we know that we have many things in our force that we will into the next several decades. We’re going to have an F-35 force. We’re going to have the F-15EX, we have F-22s. And so, what is the role that we need to have to supplement those capabilities that we will know will be resident in our force, to deliver that full capability that we need?”

Whether Hunter is suggesting the Air Force could keep its F-22 air dominance fighters well into the mid-2030s or longer is unclear. That decision would reverse earlier plans to retire the Raptors by around 2030. But given the pause on NGAD and Raptor modernization plans, it now seems at least plausible that the F-22s remain longer.

Hunter was coy when asked if there was a chance the Air Force could restart NGAD with a contract award as soon as 2025.

“We’ll have to wait and see what our analysis delivers,” he said.



To: Julius Wong who wrote (208882)11/11/2024 2:33:33 AM
From: TobagoJack  Respond to of 218167
 
something wrong, whilst Team USA Nasa wants China's water-laden moon soil but is refusing to trade with China using its Apollo-era moon dust

- the USA moon dust is not from the moon (that Armstrong footprint better be on the moon)
- the USA moon dust (1 gm) gifted to China by Nixon was fake (unbecoming)
- Team China does not wish to break US laws by handing moon soil over to Nasa en.wikipedia.org

shame

another thing wrong, that astronaut Sunita not looking healthy, and surely Team China has the capability and over-capacity to bring her back to earth quick, alas, the Wolfe amendment is again in the way

not astute


dailymail.co.uk

EXCLUSIVE

Fresh health concerns about NASA astronauts stranded on ISS after 'gaunt' new photo

A doctor has raised concerns about the health of one of NASA's stranded astronauts after a recent photo showed her looking 'gaunt.'

Sunita Williams, 59, has spent 152 days in space after Boeing's faulty Starliner space craft left her stuck on the International Space Station.

Williams and her fellow astronaut Barry Wilmore docked on June 6 on what was supposed to be an eight-day mission but have been there since.

While the two have put on a positive front in their public comments and interviews, a recent photo tells a different story, according to Dr Vinay Gupta, a pulmonologist and veteran in Seattle.

Dr Gupta told DailyMail.com: 'What you're seeing there in that picture is somebody that I think is experiencing the natural stresses of living at a very high altitude, even in a pressurized cabin, for extended periods.

'Her cheeks appear a bit sunken - and usually it happens when you've had sort of total body weight loss,' Dr Gupta added.

'I think what I can discern by her face and her cheeks being sunken in is that [she] has probably been at a significant [calorie] deficit for a while.'

The body burns more calories in space as it adjusts to the changes in gravity and tries to maintain its body temperature in cold, harsh conditions - and to prevent muscle and bone loss, astronauts exercise about 2.5 hours a day, which burns more calories.

It comes just days after an entire NASA crew was hospitalized without explanation after spending more than 200 days on the ISS.



PICTURE OF HEALTH: Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore before their mission on June 6



WEARING ON HER: A doctor has raised concerns about Sunita's health, claiming this September 24 showed her looking 'gaunt'

In the photo, which was published on September 24, Williams can be seen tucking into a pepperoni pizza and chips while surrounded by condiments and other treats.

'Based on what I'm at least seeing in the photo, I don't think she's quite at a... place where I say her life's in danger,' Dr Gupta said.

'But I don't think you can look at that photo and say she has sort of healthy body weight.

'There's just things that the human body cannot adjust to, and one of which is, you know, she's probably losing more calories than she's intaking.'

Astronauts are encouraged to consume up to 3,500 calories per day while in space to prevent the body from breaking down.

But Dr Gupta said: 'Your metabolism [in space] fundamentally requires you to burn way more energy than you're intaking, even if you're intaking pepperoni slices.

'Her body's probably working harder to do basic things, because the partial pressure of oxygen is lower than it would be on sea level.



The crew tuck into high-calorie foods to combat the harsh muscle-wasting effects of being in space

'They're intaking very high calorie foods, as you can tell - cold cuts, and, you know, other meats, the proteins, but high-fat cold cuts - it's not necessarily a balanced diet.'

The problem of the body breaking down is a particular worry for women.

A study assembled by NASA in 2014 found that women have greater loss of blood plasma volume than men during spaceflight, and women’s stress response characteristically includes a heart rate increase while men respond with an increase in vascular resistance.

The loss of blood plasma causes your metabolic rate to temporarily increase while your body mobilizes resources to adjust to the loss of plasma.

And this response can slightly elevate your calorie burn, resulting in weight loss similar to what Williams may be experiencing.

Another study released by Ball University in 2023 also found that women lose more muscle than men in a microgravity environment such as spaceflight.

Researchers explored muscle loss (atrophy) in men and women during two extended bed rest trials.

The men spent 90 days and the women spent 60 days in a six-degree head-down tilt position, where their head is below their feet.

This simulated a weightless condition similar to what crewmembers experience during spaceflight.

Both volunteer groups ate, slept, performed personal hygiene and all other activities in either the head-down tilt or a horizontal position.

The team found that all participants lost a significant amount of muscle mass in both areas of the leg throughout their bed rest period compared to before bed rest.

The women lost more muscle from the quadriceps at one month compared to the men, and the women lost more muscle mass at two months than the men lost at three months.

'The amount of oxygen in the air is lower than it is at baseline, their nutritional intake is not going to be as robust as can be on the ground,' said Dr Gupta.

'Their ability to work out is going to be limited. So every every sort of physiologic variable that defines our well being is going to be suboptimal, especially even in a pressurized cabin, but in, you know, in outer space in their case, right?

'So what you're seeing there in that picture, especially with Sunita, is somebody that I think is experiencing the natural stresses of living at very high altitude, even in a pressurized cabin, for extended periods.'

He continued to explain that even thought Williams has had the necessary training to spend time on the ISS, there are 'just things that the human body cannot adjust to.

'Her metabolism is probably from the roof, to keep warm, to operate in an environment that, again, even though it's pressurized, her body's probably working harder to do basic things, because the partial pressure of oxygen is lower than it would be on sea level,' Dr Gupta added