U.S. military officials are hinting of secret weapons that have “other capabilities” and are “global in their positioning.”

These comments surfaced over the weekend in a Washington Post article regarding tensions on the Korean peninsula: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/10/29/in-standoff-with-north-korea-the-u-s-keeps-deployment-of-strategic-assets-mysterious/?utm_term=.47f14590f525

They seem to be reminiscent of former defense secretary Ash Carter’s cryptic references to secret weapons.

Anyway, here are a few tantalizing tidbits from the Post article:

Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: “Is it different things? No … Is it doing different things at different times? Yes. And is it incorporating other capabilities on occasion? Yes.”

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has been even more vague. Asked Saturday at a news conference in Seoul if strategic assets will stay on the South Korean Peninsula for a fixed amount of time, he declined to answer.

“Regarding our strategic assets, they are global in their positioning,” he said. “They are global in their reach, and we are quite assured that they are in a position to be responsive . . . So, that’s all I’ve got to say about that.”

Well, this is my big takeaway from Anthony Capaccio’s article in Bloomberg.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-25/air-force-s-2-billion-bomber-request-pays-for-staff-drawings

Money also will be spent on producing engineering drawings for a “clean-sheet” design, he said, which means the new bomber won’t be an adaptation of the B-2 stealth bomber or other existing aircraft, as some analysts have suggested.

Northrop’s performance is “generally on track” and “within the windows of expected progress that we’ve expected at this point,” Donovan said. Still, “there is some risk in this program because it’s a brand new, clean-sheet design. So we’ll work through those.”

 

So, what ever happened to that Air Force concept drawing that strongly resembled the B-2? Was it a complete ruse, a distraction to confuse the media?

Other officials have said the new platform is based on extensively tested technology that is “very mature” yet unknown to the public.

What does it mean? Perhaps the B-21 is something completely different, to borrow a phrase from the great Monty Python.

Thank you, Mr. Capaccio!

 

Interesting article touching on the mysterious black world of the military-industrial complex and focusing on the SR-72.

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/rumors-secret-warplanes-preceded-mach-6-sr-72-spyplane-22556?page=2

The writer is asking all the right questions.

It seems fairly obvious that the SR-71 was replaced long ago with something far more advanced.

The SR-72’s just a smokescreen. There has got to be a reason for them to park the alleged prototype on the tarmac for people to see.