Military

Brazil’s new supersonic fighter jet already in test phase

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SAO PAOLO, Brazil – The skies over Sao Paulo state are roaring with low-altitude flights of the Saab-designed Gripen-E military aircraft being built by the Swedish company but completed and serviced at a nearby Embraer plant and Brazil’s National Aircraft Development Center.

The airplanes are part of a $4.5 billion order for 36 aircraft by the Brazilian Air Force, of which 15 will be fully produced by Embraer.

The flights are at times at an altitude of only 15 feet over flat, sparsely in order to minimize the effect of the sonic booms on people on the ground, says Saab, but the company does not report the speeds attained on test flights.

By Milan Sime Martinic

U.S. Shoots Down ICBM for First Time

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According to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, their ground-based defense system has finally shot down an ICBM on the first try.

However, what it hit wasn’t actually an ICBM, but a simulated missile shot from the Marshall Islands, and the interceptor was shot from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Because the simulated missile doesn’t have the unpredictability, range, counter-countermeasures, or mass numbers of real ones, it isn’t representative of how well the military would be able to prevent an actual ICBM attack. Military officials still spoke highly of the event as a significant step.

The “kill vehicle” used in the test is a new kind, a 5-foot-long device that steers into the path of the oncoming missile, destroying it by the force of impact.

U.S. Missile Defense Shield in South Korea Now Operational

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As part of America’s elevated response to North Korea’s military expansion, the THAAD missile defense system installed in South Korea has been completed, less than 2 months after the equipment arrived there, according to the U.S. military.

The move to install the shield was made last July during the Obama administration.