Samson’s Wings: Israel’s New C-130 Hercules Fleets

Israeli C-130

In July 2008, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced Israel’s request to buy up to 9 stretched C-130J-30 aircraft, which will replace some of the aging C-130 aircraft that Israel made famous in its 1976 commando raid at Entebbe, Uganda.

It took some time, but Israel finally became the 13th C-130J customer nation in April 2010. Appropriately, Israel’s new “Samson” planes will contain a number of features associated with the new special forces variants bought by India and the USA. The first plane landed in Israel in April 2014, but program of up to 9 planes looks like it will take a while to finish…

General Dynamics Vindicated in GMV Lawsuit

• Defense News reports that the US Federal Claims Court rejected AM General’s lawsuit against USSOCOM over its GMV award to General Dynamics.

• Israel launched Ofek-10, a surveillance satellite with a reported 0.5m resolution.

• Thomas de Maizière, Germany’s Interior Minister (~Homeland Security for our American readers) (and former defense minister), after almost a year of Snowden revelations: the US is operating without any kind of boundaries.

• Boeing announced that the US Navy certified their Phantom Badger combat support vehicle for transport aboard V-22s.

• This video from the Des Moines Register shows how ludicrous it is for local police to use MRAPs. But hey, they get brand new impressive vehicles for cheap.

• VentureBeat reports that a US Air Force evaluation group is testing Google Glass and likes its fast information retrieval capabilities.

• Today’s video from the UK’s MoD shows their “Porton Man” robotic mannequin, developed to test NBC suits: