Helicopter crash in Sri Lanka kills six military personnel
(Reuters) -A helicopter crash in Sri Lanka has killed six military personnel, an Air Force official said on Friday.
A Bell 212 helicopter had crashed into the Maduru Oya reservoir in central Sri Lanka with a dozen armed forces personnel on board.
Six died after they were rescued and rushed to hospital, Sri Lanka Air Force spokesman Group Captain Eranda Geeganage said.
"The helicopter was assigned to conduct a grappling exercise at a passing-out parade. Four special forces personnel and two Air Force gunmen died of their injuries," Geeganage told Reuters.
He declined to give details on the possible reason for the crash.
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‘Something that mattered': 3 Kentucky women on their military service
Growing up, service was a way of life for Dina Parrott. From watching her grandmother make a meal and deliver it to a family coping with the loss of a loved one, to seeing her mom pitch in to help a neighbor down on his luck, Parrott was surrounded by servant leaders. 'My mom and grandmother had me all over the place helping people,' said Parrott, 53, an Air Force veteran. 'They did so much of that, and I remember seeing that, and not thinking it was a big deal. As I got older, I was like, 'Wow.' They elected to help people. And then, as I grew up a little bit more, I started feeling like it was what you were supposed to do.' Without knowing it was happening, that became what Parrott wanted to do with her life. For her, she discovered that service would come in the form of a career with the U.S. Air Force. 'With the military… it's not about just going to war. It's about helping people and making people better,' Parrott said. Women Veterans Recognition Day is observed annually on June 12, commemorating the Women's Armed Service Integration Act of 1948. It is not a separate Veterans Day for women. Instead, in at least 21 states including Kentucky, special attention is paid to women's military contributions. Parrott is one of nearly 2 million female veterans living in the U.S. today — 24,000 of whom are in Kentucky. Since the Revolutionary War, more than 3 million women have served in or with the armed forces, according to the Department of Defense. Veterans like Parrott say it's essential to remember that much has changed for the better for women who serve, because of the sacrifices of those who went before them. Recognizing these female veterans coincides with a time of reflection across Lexington as they city celebrates its 250th birthday with one eye on its rich history and the other on its future as a community and its commitment to public service. After completing a year of college, Parrott's school funds were depleted. She needed a new direction, and wanted a change in her environment. She enlisted in January 1994 and stayed until her retirement in July 2019. 'It was two years before I really understood what (the military) was all about, and I really loved it,' she said. 'It spoke to everything I believed in morally, things I valued.' She enlisted in January 1994 and stayed until her retirement in July 2019. 'I was going to go for four years,' Parrott said. 'I stayed with the Air Force because their No. 1 thing became people first. Literally, this is what they said, 'Put people first and the mission will get done.'' After retiring from active duty, Parrott now serves as the women veterans program administrator for the Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs. 'When I retired, I went back to school, but then I said to my husband, 'I don't have a purpose,' and I struggled. I had nothing to wake up to,' Parrott said. 'It was missing that itch, that call that somebody needs me.' Parrott was young and wanted to do more with her life, and she said she's found that in the work she does with the VA, especially because she gets to celebrate many who are often overlooked. 'People need to understand that every individual, no matter what race or gender or whatever, has something unique to contribute to a mission, whatever you're doing,' Parrott said. Parrott said historically many groups of people — including minorities and women — have been overlooked or relegated to more 'traditional' roles. 'Women have so much more to offer, we've evolved into seeing that everybody is capable. Not everybody has the same strengths, but that's how you build a good team,' she said. Parrott pointed to the accomplishments that continue to be brought to light about women's roles in the military, including those of the Hello Girls, a group of World War I female telephone operators and about the World War II-era 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, highlighted in the 2024 film 'The Six Triple Eight' by Tyler Perry. The battalion included 18 women from Kentucky. The unit has collectively earned a Meritorious Unit Commendation, awarded in 2019, and a Congressional Gold Medal, awarded in 2022. 'Back in the day, none of those women who served were recognized as a veteran for the service they did in the military,' Parrott said. 'There were sought out and brought in, and then overlooked.' Today, Parrott works to right some of those historical deficiencies, and she's hoping to set people straight for the future. 'The reason my program exists is to acknowledge women who have served,' she said. 'If I go to my VA here and my husband goes with me, the volunteers right away are shaking his hand saying, 'Thank you for your service.' I get so angry.' Parrott's husband has never been in the military, and he's quick to correct those who assume he's the veteran, she said. 'He'll give me my props and say, 'No, no, that's all her.' When a woman walks into the VA, she's thought of as anything but a veteran. 'We're trying to bring light to some of these issues, trying to make sure that women are acknowledged,' Parrott said. One major initiative is the Military Women's Memorial Register. An interactive database of records, the register asks women, or their loved ones if the veteran is deceased, to provide information about the service completed. 'It lives on forever, so that no woman's story is ever forgotten again,' Parrott said. Parrott remembers a photo she sent home to her family. On a wall on base were photos of various squadron leaders, including Parrott. 'I remember taking a picture of all these men up here, saying what squadron they're with, and you know they are this leader and that leader. And here's my little face, this little Black girl,' she said. 'I sent it to my mom, and she cried. She cried when she saw that and she said, 'How are you up there?' 'And I said, 'Mom, we have come a long way. We can do this stuff. We just need the opportunity.'' Participation in the ROTC program in high school set Alex Lamb on her path to the military. But years before that, Lamb, now 57, had an inkling there was some type of service in her future. Lamb's mom worked at the police department and Lamb herself was involved in Girl Scouts in her hometown of Gainesville, Florida. Popular period movies of the 1980s like Top Gun and An Officer and a Gentleman further embedded that military mindset into Lamb. Still, Lamb's mother Wanda didn't immediately embrace the idea of her only child heading off to enlist. She went to college for a few months, but tuition and fees were hard to afford, so her mom gave her blessing to enlist. Lamb served from 1989 to 1993. 'I got on the bus that night, and I was wearing jeans and a University of Florida T-shirt, you know like an 18-year-old would wear,' she said. Upon arrival at the U.S. Navy Training Center in Orlando, Florida, Lamb said she quickly understood the weight of her decision. 'You get off the bus, and it's dark. They take you all into a room and you raise your right hand and swear (service) to the country,' Lamb said. Uniform sizing came next. Among other things, Lamb recalled the nondescript nature of the items: plain white underwear and stiff, ill-fitting boots. Nothing personal. Her comfortable jeans and T-shirt were gone, and days later showed up back at her parent's home. Navy personnel mailed Lamb's clothes back to her mother. When she saw the contents, Lamb's mom was shocked. 'She said, 'Honey, I felt like you died,'' Lamb said. 'My mom said that broke her heart. I'll never forget her telling me that.' After apprentice training school, where recruits would be exposed from everything to plumbing and electrical career pathways, to carpentry and machining, Lamb landed in a role as an electrician. But she'd been hoping for something a little more. 'I love water and diving and all that. I wanted to be in search and rescue,' she said. Back then, Lamb said she and other women were discouraged from pursuing those roles. What's more, she said that even in the jobs where women were assigned, the placements generated some not-so-friendly ribbing from their male colleagues. 'They would make bets on who would make it and who wouldn't,' she said. 'You always had to watch your back. No matter how long you were in an assignment, you had to watch your back. And then, when you worked hard — really hard — you never got the credit for it.' The Lexington woman recalled a conversation she overheard when working on a dock. 'After watching me work, a shipyard worker once said, in front of his employees, 'I'll take her and leave you three behind,'' Lamb said. 'That's just how you had to work, to prove yourself. But I hope it paved the way for men to think twice.' The pressure women felt during their active-duty years continues to be a challenge for female service members today, according to a 2021 study in the Journal of Trauma and Dissociation. Women veterans interviewed by researchers revealed that they, among other challenges, were subjected to gender-based discrimination, and continued to feel marginalized in the male-dominated military service environment. Carla Baker experienced that marginalization first-hand during her tour with the Navy. Baker, 54, went through boot camp in Orlando, Florida. Upon graduation, she was assigned to the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport, Mississippi. 'I was a Seabee. I was in at a time when women were still not allowed to go into combat units,' Baker said. She was active duty from 1989-1995, and tried to re-enlist twice, but health complications prevented it. The Navy was a career path chosen from a default position. At the recruiting center, Baker wanted to know what would get her out of her hometown of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, the fastest. 'Enlisting was a spur of the moment decision,' Baker said. 'I was just ready for something different. I was in such a small town, there wasn't much to offer. And I had no desire at that point to go to college, so I took the plunge.' Wanting the fastest route helped Baker land on the construction mechanic pathway, despite the recruiter's encouragement that Baker pursue 'typical female jobs' like a personnel specialist (formerly personnelman) or a hospital corpsman. The choice turned out to be fortuitous, because in time Baker was asked if she wanted to be part of an underwater construction team, or transfer to Camp David. She chose the latter. 'The first time I ever saw my daddy cry, was when I told him I had enlisted. He had wanted to go into the service, he tried every branch, but he was deaf in one ear, so that kept him out. And then mama, she told me, 'Well Carla, you never know. You might meet the president.' She would eventually meet six presidents. 'I met all the way back to (Richard) Nixon,' Baker said. Baker was on site for the former Russian president Boris Yeltsin's trip to Camp David. And when Barbara Bush broke her ankle while sledding, it was Baker who accompanied the First Lady to the hospital. Baker, who today serves as the commander of the American Legion Douglas Laws Post 52 in Harrodsburg, said she encourages any young person who she thinks would succeed in the military to pursue enlistment. 'When I talk to anybody about the military, I say it is so easy to take a civilian, put them through boot camp and turn them into a military person,' Baker said. 'But once you're a military person, you're not coming back to civilian. I'm not the same person I was when I joined up.' She wouldn't trade her service years for anything. But that doesn't mean everything was always smooth sailing. 'We did the same job that men did, and we had to work harder than the men to be taken seriously… We were signing petitions saying that we wanted the same rights as the men who served… We fought tooth and nail for everything that we have gotten.' She recalled a story from June 2022, when Honor Flight Kentucky hosted 135 women, including Baker, on the first female-only Honor Flight. There was a younger woman on the flight who kept trying to speak with Baker, but the logistics of the day kept them apart. Finally, as the day was winding down, the two women spoke. Baker said the young woman was eager to learn about the elder veteran's service. Baker was quick to tell her she never served in combat or combat-facing battalions. 'I said, 'Hon, I was in during a time when women were not allowed to go to combat.' Of course, I told her we signed petitions and spoke out about deserving the same rights (as men). She gave me tears because she gave me the biggest hug and she thanked me.' She said, 'If you had not done what you did, I could not have done what I did.'' Baker said all she wanted then is all she wants now — to be taken seriously for her role, protecting and serving her country. 'America is free because of sacrifices made by individuals willing to stand up for our freedoms. I loved the Navy; I loved everything about it,' Baker said. 'It was the feeling like you were doing something worthwhile and something that mattered,' she said. 'There's nothing I could do now that would ever compare to what I did when I was basically a kid. There's nothing that will ever live up to the experiences that I had in the Navy.'
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Mantashe corrects draft mining bill to remove BEE for exploration
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First Glimpse Of Air Force's New Stealth Nuclear Cruise Missile
After years of development, we have gotten our first look at what the USAF's new AGM-181A Long-Range Standoff (LRSO) nuclear-armed cruise missile could actually look like. The program is a top priority for the Air Force and its Global Strike Command. LRSO is set to replace America's only nuclear-armed cruise missile in operation today, the AGM-86B Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM), which has served since the twilight of the Cold War. The AGM-86B missile has even remained in service long after the more advanced and stealthy AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missile (ACM) was retired after just over two decades of service (1990-2012). You can read all about the AGM-129 and the AGM-86B in this past feature. Most notably from this first unclassified render, the LRSO features an inverted tail very similar to the conventionally-armed AGM-158 JASSM stealthy air-launched cruise missile. The AGM-129 featured a similar arrangement, although with a differently shaped vertical tail. The missile looks like it has a trapezoidal fuselage cross-section design with a wedge-like nose. The wing design is also similar to JASSM. We see no air inlet in the concept rendering, which could be for security reasons, considering the inlet design is often a closely guarded feature on stealthy flying machines, or it could be located on the top of the missile. We also can't say with any certainty how accurate this official rendering is of the actual design, but it is a given that some features will be omitted or even misleading for an initial public release. The airborne leg is already the most flexible of America's nuclear triad. Bombers can be positioned anywhere around the globe, both in the air and forward deployed on the ground. They can also be rapidly recalled as needed, signalling de-escalation. This is a critical tool for strategic messaging that could potentially avert a nuclear holocaust. The nuclear-armed cruise missile component of this capability allows for standoff attacks that present a real challenge for traditional air defenses and cannot be readily identified by ballistic missile-focused early warning architectures. So, as a result, in this new age of so-called 'great power competition,' with the AGM-129 already retired from service and the AGM-86B growing very old and becoming questionably survivable, a new, more capable and resilient long-range nuclear-tipped cruise missile was deemed necessary. This became the AGM-181A LRSO. This new weapon system, built by Raytheon, will be carried by both the new B-21 Raider and the venerable B-52 Stratofortress. The B-52 is also set to be deeply upgraded, overall, as you can learn more about here. Otherwise, little is known about the LRSO's capabilities as the program remains highly classified in many respects. Still, one can expect a subsonic missile with greater range than its predecessors that features a very tough-to-detect and track airframe and engine combination. Strict emissions control and the ability to navigate in any environment, including one where access to GPS is degraded or denied, and dense electronic warfare is the norm, will be critical. Autonomously reacting to threats in its area to better ensure its best path to its target will also likely be a feature. Combined, these elements will offer the missile and its launch platform more employment options and far greater survivability, especially as very long-range integrated air defenses mature at a rapid pace. LRSO has been in secretive flight testing for years now, and it will feature the updated W80-4 thermonuclear warhead. The weapon is also part of the larger Long Range Strike family of systems, which includes the B-21 as its centerpiece, as well as new command and control, space-based support assets, weapons, communications, and other technologies, possibly including classified fixed-wing companion aircraft. These capabilities will work to become something greater than the sum of their parts in order to achieve success in a future combat environment that will be far more threatening than any in the past. When it comes to the price tag, as we noted in a previous report from 2023: 'The Pentagon acquisition report does peg the estimated LRSO program acquisition cost, as of December 2022 and based on the expected purchase of 1,020 missiles in total, at just over $16 billion. Sustaining the missiles over a 30-year lifespan is expected to cost another $7 billion or so.' More current estimates put the cost of LRSO at around $14M each. Previous plans to make a conventionally-armed variant of the LRSO seem to have been dropped, with further extrapolations of the popular AGM-158 JASSM series of air-launched stealthy cruise missiles filling that role. If this first rendering is any indication, LRSO has moved well forward in its development, and we are likely to hear more about it and finally see it in full in the not-too-distant future. The missile has been expected to begin entering operational service toward the end of the decade. Then again, few programs are safe just yet as this new administration looks to manifest its priorities in its first defense budget, which we should be seeing in full any time now. Contact the author: Tyler@
