St. Mary’s Square Rehab Slated
Halloween 2020 at St. Mary’s Square.
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economic community. The opinions expressed here do not reflect opinions of the Leader’s owners or staff.
St. Mary’s County Community Development Corp. has been awarded $250,000 from the Maryland Dept. of Housing and Community Development to revitalize the St. Mary’s Square parking lot on Great Mills Road to create a commuter-friendly, landscaped plaza, a bus transit stop with shelters and bike storage. The town of Leonardtown and St. Mary’s County won $50,000 awards to support streetscaping in the town and along Great Mills Road.
An Air Force pilot safely ejected from a F-35A Lightning II fighter jet that crashed at Hill Air Force Base, UT, on Wednesday evening returning to Hill AFB from a routine training mission. Air Force Times reports the blaze spanned about 10 acres and was suppressed. Hill has indefinitely canceled its flying operations. Five other F-35s from the 388th were diverted to Salt Lake City International Airport until they can return to the base. Base officials have asked the public to contact the base at 801-777-0991 or [email protected] with eyewitness accounts of the accident, or if people have found anything that could be related to the crash.
NAVAIR has grounded the US Navy and US Marine Corps fleet of T-45 Goshawk jet trainers after a fault in the Adour engine was discovered. The UK recently reported a problem with a different version of the Adour engine that powers its Hawk T2 jets, but it is unclear if the two issues are related, reports Janes.com.
Despite campaign promises and an initial drop, since President Joe Biden has taken office the US has increased, not decreased, its weapons sales around the world, including to countries with repressive regimes, reports The Guardian. Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, and General Dynamics were involved in 58% all the major offers made since the Biden administration took office.
The 2023 Index of US Military Strength, a new study by the Heritage Foundation, found the entire US military’s warfighting capabilities to be unusually deficient, reports Marine Corps Times. Branches were rated on capability, capacity, and readiness to defend US interests against major enemies. The Marine Corps, though labeled “strong,” is a one-war force, not large enough to make a major difference given the rest of the ratings: Army – marginal; Navy and Space Force – weak; Air Force – very weak.
DoD’s latest annual suicide report shows the rate of suicide among active duty troops fell between 2020 and 2021, reports Military Times. There were 519 suicides across the active and reserve components in 2021, down 11% from 580 in 2020, according to the report. While the reserve component numbers were nearly stable, the active duty side saw a 15% drop, down to 328 from 384 in 2020. Nevertheless, while the active duty suicide rate dropped to 24-per-100,000 last year, the rates between 2011 and 2021 have climbed overall.
The Pentagon will provide leave and reimburse travel costs for troops who have to go out of state to terminate a pregnancy, reports Military Times. An estimated 80,000 female, active duty service members are stationed in states where their access to abortion has been restricted by state laws enacted since the overturn of Roe v. Wade in June. The new policies also include privacy protections for service members seeking reproductive health care and assurances for military health care providers in situations where states might retaliate against them for performing abortions under federal law.
The Biden Administration plans to launch a cybersecurity labeling program in 2023 for consumer Internet of Things devices — such as routers, smart speakers, internet-connected door locks, and security cameras — in an effort to protect Americans from “significant national security risks,” reports Tech Crunch. IoT devices have notoriously weak security systems, allowing hijackers access to victims’ networks to launch attacks or plant malware. Inspired by Energy Star, a labeling program operated by Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy to promote energy efficiency, the government wants this program to educate consumers about the security risks of their devices.
The USS Missouri has borne witness to some of modern military history’s most monumental events, but Cher gyrating in a fishnet G-string was a one off. Navy Times reports that the Navy thought a music video would be a good recruiting tool, and for reasons unfathomable, thought Cher would be sporting a Navy coverall. The Navy decreed no musician would ever again shoot a music video aboard a Navy vessel. The decree remains. So does the video.
While the pilot shortage continues, the shortage of Aviation Maintenance Technicians is equally dire to the long-term health of the aviation industry, reports Aviation Week. According to Boeing’s Pilot and Technician Outlook 2022-41, there will be a projected global demand for 610,000 civil aviation AMTs over the next 20 years, compared to a need for 602,000 new pilots, excluding business aviation. This means for every new pilot hired a AMT is needed as well.
Army 2030: Disperse or die, network and live , reports Breaking Defense. In an age of drones, commercial satellite imagery and informants wielding smartphones, you have to assume the enemy is always watching, even thousands of miles from the front line. That surveillance can pinpoint targets for long-range precision weapons, which means rear-echelon command posts, support troops and supply dumps are under threat of attack like never before, a threat that changes how they have to operate. That’s the tactical dilemma the Army attempts to tackle with its new multi-domain operations doctrine – and the critical technical challenge for its still-in-development battle network.
