Secret Space Plane Launched Again

Photo from Boeing.com

Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River economic community. The opinions expressed here do not reflect opinions of the Leader’s owners or staff.

The US military’s super secret X-37B space plane blasted off again last week on another secretive mission that’s expected to last at least a couple of years. Military Times reports, as in previous missions, the reusable plane resembling a mini space shuttle carried classified experiments. The Boeing-made X-37B is an unmanned, reusable spacecraft that takes off vertically and lands horizontally on a runway.

Axios reports members of the House Oversight Committee will receive a classified briefing on unidentified anomalous phenomena, better known as UFOs, by the Office of Inspector General of the Intelligence Community. The briefing responds to committee queries regarding former intelligence official David Grusch’s claim that the government possesses “nonhuman biologics” from a recovered UFO.

US Navy helicopters on Sunday sank three boats operated by Iranian-backed militants that were firing on a civilian cargo ship in the Red Sea, US Central Command said. Stars and Stripes reports four small boats belonging to the Houthis from Yemen fired small arms and crew-served weapons at the Maersk Hangzhou, at about 6:30am local time.

Denmark’s Maersk and German rival Hapag-Lloyd said on Tuesday their container ships would continue to avoid the Red Sea route that gives access to the Suez Canal following a weekend attack on one of Maersk’s vessels, reports Reuters. Maersk had paused all Red Sea sailings on Sunday following attempts by Yemen-based Houthi militants to board the Maersk Hangzhou, Reuters reported. US military helicopters repelled the assault and killed 10 of the attackers. Maersk’s decision to avoid the route followed Hapag-Lloyd’s.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) is facing a new set of federal bribery allegations in a superseding indictment unsealed Tuesday that accuses him of providing assistance to the government of Qatar as well as Egypt, reports The Washington Post.

The US has quietly reached an agreement that extends its military presence at a sprawling base in Qatar for another 10 years. The deal, which has not been announced publicly, according to CNN, highlights Washington’s reliance on the tiny Gulf country that recently played a central role in mediating the release of Americans from captivity in Gaza and Venezuela. The Al Udeid Air Base, located in the desert southwest of Doha, is the biggest US military installation in the Middle East and can house more than 10,000 American troops.

Military commanders no longer get to decide whether to prosecute major crimes, including sexual assault and domestic violence. As of last week, every branch of the service opened a special trial counsel office. Military Times says the move upends the traditional chain-of-command military justice system. After a dozen years of effort, Congress voted in late 2021 to install independent prosecutors regarding 14 crimes including murder, manslaughter, and child abuse.

President Joe Biden issued a new proclamation late last month pardoning Americans federally charged with simple possession, attempted possession and use of marijuana — but none of it applies to service members whose offenses fall under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, reports Military.com.

After months of extra duty at sea providing protection for Israel, the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group will be sailing home “in the coming days,” the Navy announced Monday. The Ford was sent to the Eastern Mediterranean to be within striking distance of Israel the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, according to Military.com. The carrier’s warships sailed into the Red Sea and repeatedly intercepted incoming ballistic missiles and attack drones fired from Houthi-controlled Yemen.

Seoul’s metropolitan government, with the country’s military, held an urban field exercise last week to prepare for threats from North Korean against the roughly 10 million South Korean residents. Stars and Stripes reports the exercise included simulations of an aerial drone attack on a water purification plant, a North Korean special operations forces assault, and a chlorine gas leak.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Pyongyang will abandon its efforts to reunify the peninsula because of Seoul’s insistence on the “collapse of the [North Korean] regime” and “absorbing” the North, the country’s state-run news agency reported Sunday, according to Stars and Stripes.

Task and Purpose went looking for the oldest equipment still in use in the military today. It’s likely the very oldest are analog navigation tools like the sextant, paper charts, protractors, and the compass for ocean navigation, some of which even predate the founding of the US Navy. Sailors are still taught to use these tools in case digital communications systems, like GPS, go down or get jammed by an enemy.

Reuters reported last week that world stocks rallied to their highest level in more than a year, while the US dollar hit a five-month low, as expectations mounted that key central banks such as the Federal Reserve will start to cut interest rates early next year. In line with expectations of lower interest rates, the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield fell to a five-month low, while the two-year Treasury yield tumbled to a low not seen in seven months. But investors tempered their expectations as Wall Street’s main indexes fell at the open on Tuesday, kicking off 2024 on a dull note, as Apple shares dipped following a broker downgrade and Treasury yields climbed, says Reuters.

Contracts:

Find Department of Defense contracts awarded in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC, from December 26-December 29, 2023, here.

Find Department of Defense contracts awarded in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC, from December 18-December 22, 2023, here.