US will not offer new F-16s to Taiwan

Taiwan Air Force F-16 fighter jet takes off from the closed-off section of Sun Yat-sen freeway at Chang-hua county in central Taiwan, in this May 15, 2007 file photo

US President Barack Obama has decided against selling new F-16 jets to Taiwan but will give the island an arms package worth US$4.2 billion (RM12.6 billion), the Washington Times reported.

The newspaper quoted administration and congressional officials as saying the US Congress will be briefed later today on the proposals.

Buried by a Welsh beach for 60 years, the World War II fighter that has emerged from the seas

The World War II Lockheed P38 Lightning buried under sand and waves on a Welsh beach, its location is being kept secret

A diver and experts examine the Lockheed P38 Lightning which crashed on a training exercise in 1942

The Lockheed P-38 Lightning as it would have looked, with a Spitfire flying alongside

It has been hidden under the the sands and waves since it crashed off the coast of Wales in 1942. But now this wreckage of a rare World War fighter plane may soon be back on dry land.

Described as 'one of the most important WWII finds in recent history', the location of the Lockheed P38 Lightning has been kept a secret to keep the amazing find safe.

Women fliers honored 65 years after war efforts- WASPS girls WW2 Fenale military flyers

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Some 65 years after their service, a group of former civilian women pilots whose unheralded work was key to helping the U.S. effort in World War II are being honored Wednesday with the Congressional Gold Medal.

Fewer than 300 Women Airforce Service Pilots are still alive. About 175 of them, along with thousands of family members, have traveled to Washington for the ceremony at the Capitol.


Jane Tedeschi is one of the WASPs who will be recognized.

"I think it is wonderful. I think it really is," she told CNN, saying it's especially meaningful because "so many of us are still alive to get this honor."

The Women Airforce Service Pilots was born in 1942 to create a corps of female pilots able to fill all types of flying jobs at home, thus freeing male military pilots to travel to the front.

As part of the commemoration, the former pilots attended a wreath-laying ceremony Tuesday at the Air Force Memorial just outside Washington to remember their colleagues killed in the line of duty.

"I think that this is important. It is hopefully something that people will remember," Tedeschi told CNN last week. "It is another thing to honor the women who lost their lives at that time and of course what it did to persuade people that women could do this."

With only about a quarter of the former 1,102 WASPs surviving and all in their late 80s or older, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas; Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Maryland; and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida, pushed a bill through Congress to honor these women by awarding them the medal, given as an expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions, according to the House of Representatives' Office of the Clerk.

"This is a largely overlooked veterans group. They haven't gotten the medals they deserve, the recognition they deserve," Ros-Lehtinen told CNN.

Longtime dream of flight

From the time she was about 8, Tedeschi wanted to fly.

"[Charles] Lindbergh was flying across the Atlantic, and a lot of other people were flying air races and things like that." she said, "It was very romantic."

Flight was still relatively new in the 1920s and 1930s, and female pilots were few. But Tedeschi was determined.
Video: Forgotten female heroes

In 1941, she found a childhood friend who taught flying and started taking lessons. After the friend was sent off to war and the airport near her home in Bethesda, Maryland, was closed to private flying, she traveled about 40 miles to Frederick and spent nights on the floor of a farmhouse to continue her lessons.

Around the same time, Deanie Parrish was working in a bank in Avon Park, Florida, and kept seeing aviation students who were attending a flying school there.

"I asked an instructor 'Why can't I learn to fly?' and he didn't have an answer ... so I decided to find out for myself."

She found an instructor and started taking lessons.

These two women were not only fulfilling a personal dream. Along with 1,100 other women, they would become an instrumental part of the war effort during World War II, becoming the first women to fly U.S. military aircraft.

In the days after the outbreak of the war, Jacqueline Cochran, one of the country's leading female pilots at the time, went to a key general to argue that women would be just as capable pilots as men if they were given the same training.

She won the argument, and the program was launched.

At 21, Parrish joined up in November 1943.

"Everybody was doing something," she said. "I wanted to do something for my country."

Some 25,000 women pilots applied, and 1,830 were accepted. They had to pay their own way to Texas for 21 to 27 weeks of rigorous training, for which they received less pay than the male cadets in the same program, Parrish said.

Just short of requirements

Candidates had to be at least 21 and at least 5 feet, one-half inch tall.

When Tedeschi underwent a physical, she was told her height was only 5 feet.

"I frowned," she recalled. "I said 'I need that half-inch,' so he wrote it down." She was in.

Eventually the women who completed the program were assigned to one of 120 bases across the country to start their missions.

Depending on the base, they participated in a range of activities:

-- Ground-to-air anti-aircraft practice.

-- Towing targets for air-to-air gunnery practice with live ammunition.

-- Flying drones and conducting night exercises.

-- Testing repaired aircraft before they were used in cadet training.

-- Serving as instructors.

-- Transporting cargo and male pilots to embarkation points.

"We were still civilians. All of our training was to make [Army] Air Corps pilots," Tedeschi said.

They flew more than 60 million miles in every type of aircraft -- from the PT-17 and AT-6 trainers, the fastest attack planes such as the A-24 and A-25 or heavy bombers such as B-17s or B-29s.

Paid $250 a month, the women were not officially part of the military. They received no benefits, no honors.

Eventually, Parrish was sent to Florida where she flew a B-26 bomber for air-to-air target practice, training gunners for combat.

Tedeschi, who graduated in May 1944, was sent to a Selma, Alabama, base that did more engineering work.

"We did whatever they asked us," she recalled in a CNN interview. "You knew enough about flying you could adapt ... sometimes it was a little tougher."

For instance, she would take planes up after repair. That could involve acrobatic work, "which, of course, we liked to do." She could also be called to do night flying.

While the work was technically noncombat, it could be dangerous.

Thirty-eight of the pilots were killed. Parrish recalled the military would not allow the flag to be put on a colleague's coffin.

"It still bothers me," she told CNN.

End of the program

As the war was winding down in December 1944, the program was closed -- with no recognition from the government and not much help for the women who served.

"You got home the best way you could," said Parrish. "I paid my own way home."

Several of the women, however, said they were not bitter since the only reason they had signed up was to do their part for the country, pointing out that they were just like the thousands of other women who also learned new skills and went to work in the factories to replace male workers sent off to war.

"We were proud of what we did, and the war was over. It was time to get on," said Tedeschi.

But many Americans were not aware of their efforts, and that has bothered them. The WASP records were sealed for more than 30 years. In 1977, Congress voted to make them eligible for veterans' benefits.

"I didn't care for veteran status, but now I could have a flag on my coffin ... that is important to me," Parrish said.

Parrish married a pilot after the war. She and her daughter, Nancy, for over a decade have documented the work of the WASPs and worked to gain national attention for their work. Read more about the WASPs at the Wings Across America Web site.

While some of the WASPs say the medal itself is a nice gesture, more importantly they say they hope the publicity will teach younger generations about their accomplishments and remind some still skeptical men just how capable women are.

"Millions of Americans will learn about the history of these women. I think that is so important," Parrish told CNN.

Brazil says negotiating for French fighter jets

Brazil order 50 Cougar Helicopter from france worth $12 billion . Will be assembled in Brazil itself . A transfer of technology that is vital for this deal between France and Brazil. Highly reliable helicopter and well used in many troubled times. Can used for wide range of missions including tactical troop transports , special ops, shipborne operations , surveillance, combat search and rescue , evacuation and others. Can carry side arm of 2 7.62mm general purpose machine guns , a 20 mm cannon , rocket launcher pods , air refueling capability , radar warning , able to continue to fly 30minute when fuel is zero and other more.


Brazil already ordered 5 Scorpene Submarine which are new generation of diesel electric attack submarine. They are highly automated new submarines with new diesel engine with air independent propulsion system which allow it to stay under water for more than 21 days without surfacing to recharge battery etc. Also equipped with all rounder weaponary consists of anti-ship,anti submarrine torpedoes , anti surface missiles. Have 6 torpedo tubes that can be all fired at once . Can consists of Black Shark wire guided torpodes with 50 km range and also shoot Exocet missiles(anti ship missile). Weaponary are all automated. Can carry crew of 31 man , with 9 person per shift to handle the whole submarine automation. Total of 18 torpedoes or missile , 30 mines can be carried at one time.



A Rafale fighter jet performs at the international Paris Air Show this summer. Under the deal, Brazil will acquire French-built Rafale fighter jets and military helicopters.Rafale is a twin-jet combat aircraft capable of carrying out a wide range of short- and long-range missions, including ground and sea attack, air defence and air superiority, reconnaissance, and high-accuracy strike or nuclear strike deterrence.


France's President Nicolas Sarkozy speaks during a press conference at the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia, Monday, Sept. 7, 2009. Sarkozy is on a two-day official visit to Brazil.




Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, right, and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy joke in front of a mirror during their arrival at the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia, Monday, Sept. 7, 2009. Sarkozy is on a two-day official visit to Brazil.


Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his wife Marisa Leticia ride on an open car during the Independence Day parade in Brasilia, Monday, Sept. 7, 2009.


Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, right, and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, speaks during the Independence Day parade, in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, Sep. 7, 2009. Sarkozy is on a two-day official visit to Brazil.


France´s President Nicolas Sarkozy, left, and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva watch the Independence Day military parade in Brasilia, Monday, Sep. 7, 2009. Sarkozy is on a two-day official visit to Brazil.


Brazil's president said Monday his country is negotiating with France for the purchase of 36 Rafale combat jets, a sign that Dassault SA is the clear favorite over U.S. and Swedish companies to win the $2 billion-plus contract.

Stepping up an aggressive plan to fortify the defense of its valuable natural resources, Brazil said Monday that it had entered into a billion-dollar-plus agreement to buy 36 French fighter jets.

In a defense plan unveiled last year, Brazil detailed what it saw as the need to militarily protect its growing reserves of offshore oil as well as natural resources in the Amazon basin. On Monday, Lula said that the French fighter jets would help Brazil defend its borders.

The announcement by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva came during a Brazilian Independence Day visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Silva's office said negotiations have begun with Dassault, "taking into account the breadth of the proposed transfers of technology and the guarantees offered on the part of the French."

Sweden's Saab AB has been offering its Gripen fighter and Boeing Co. of the U.S. has proposed the F-18 Super Hornet for the Brazilian contract, which is expected to be worth about $2.2 billion to $2.5 billion.

A decisive factor was France's willingness to transfer technology to Brazil in the course of supplying it with Rafale fighter jets. Saab, maker of Gripen jets, and Boeing, maker of F-18 Super Hornets, were reluctant to do, Lula indicated in remarks last week in which he expressed a preference for the French planes.

The agreement follows a long-term pact signed in December and valued at $11 billion, under which Brazil and France will jointly build five submarines, one of them nuclear-powered. The vessels will be built at a new shipyard in Itaguai, an industrial zone near Rio that includes three new steel factories.

In addition, France is selling Brazil 50 military helicopters that will be assembled at a factory to be built in Minas Gerais state.

Sarkozy, meanwhile, told a news conference that France plans to acquire a dozen KC-390 military cargo transport planes made by Brazil's Embraer to replace U.S.-made C-130s it now uses.

A Brazilian deal would be a breakthrough for France, which has yet to find a foreign buyer for the jets. The French government has been trying for years to market the Rafales, from Saudi Arabia to India and elsewhere, but has yet to clinch a deal.

While the announcement gives Dassault an inside track on the sale, Silva indicated that the negotiations do not rule out purchase of a rival plane.

Sarkozy said his country has no worries about transferring technology to Brazil.

"France will be a trustworthy, efficient partner," he said. "We do not fear sharing technology."

Sarkozy also announced France supports Rio de Janeiro's bid for the 2016 Olympic Games — and asked that Brazil back France's proposal to host the 2018 winter games.

They also discussed plans for December's global warming summit in Denmark and this month's economic meeting of the Group of 20 in the United States.

Brazil already has agreed to buy five French Scorpene submarines, one of them with nuclear propulsion, and 50 Cougar helicopters for about $12 billion. All would be assembled in Brazil.

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Brazil has entered into final negotiations with France to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets, the two countries said on Monday during a visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

In exchange France has agreed to buy around a dozen KC-390 military cargo planes, a future jet-powered transport plane to be built by Brazil's Embraer.

France, seeking its first overseas buyer for the Rafale, has been competing against the United States and Sweden to sell 36 planes to help renew Brazil's air force.

The Rafale, manufactured by Dassault Aviation, was shortlisted along with the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet supplied by Boeing and the lighter Gripen combat jet offered by Sweden's Saab.

Yves Robins, a spokesman for Dassault Aviation, said there was every reason to think Brazil would buy the Rafale planes.

We can imagine that it will be concluded definitively in 2010, if things go well, he said.

It is the latest skirmish in the global fighter jet market, reckoned to be worth around $17-billion (U.S.) a year.

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