An Afghan A-29 apparently went down in Afghanistan due to mechanical issues. A US instructor pilot was on-bard, but ejected and was rescued.
Buried in the story is the nugget about US based training of Afghan pilots being wound down because the Afghan trainees go AWOL when they get into the US. Why would we continue to bring members of certain foreign military forces into the US for training?
Looks like we have three in the Pacific now. I suspect that absent a flair up elsewhere, this will be standard for the foreseeable future.
And, relatively speaking a nearby one. There sure is a lot of space out there.
Looks like Russia is sending clandestine support to rebels in Libya. The most interesting part of the story to me is the fact that the MiG-29 is almost completely out of the Russian Air Force inventory.
The Russian adventure in Syria has not been cheap. See this article. Given the sad state of the Russian economy, the cost of these airplanes and helicopters, the Russians can ill-afford their Syrian adventure, which is all the more reason for the US to look for ways to suck them in further.
Kazakhstan lost a MiG-31 to an engine fire last week. Operating these has to be a real strain on the resources of that country.
Story here. Whatever you think, Elon Musk is certainly ambitious, and that is required to get our morbid space program moving forward again. (post in memory of Mike Nofsinger)
