A happier New Year 2021.

 What did you get in your Sock?

Christmas has proved through for model making and the traditional boys toys, but it has also included drones and cameras as gifts with new state of the art features that sometimes us oldies cannot keep up with?

Lockdown isolation does not have to be depressing with model railways, war gaming and interactive platforms. Looking out the window offers many different opportunities to observe nature, the skyline, vehicles and transport or something totally different?

We have to know that you cannot use a drone at a certain height and distance from any airport or field and one is not sure what the regulations say in relation to railway lines or yards or ports, marinas at that!

We are all hoping for a happier New Year, but with the warning from WHO, it may be getting worse?

Father Christmas not effected by COVID-19!

 What will Christmas Bring in our Socks?

For many children it may mean little or nothing, since poverty in western society is on the rise and one can measure this by the price of rents in the private sector and so called unsocial housing?

But there is a plethora of toys out there and many of us will get something despite the continuing Pandemic?

New announcements in technology will also come to the fore at this time of the year with more emphasis on both electric and gas powered machines, but also the rise of the drone and more effective uses for them from Internet shopping providers to even the postal services?

Drones may initially work well in isolated places, saving delivery and driver times and some may even be deployed from vehicles rather than distribution centers? 

One main problem with drone flights is that they could collide with light aircraft or obstacles such as power lines, transmitters and other communication towers!

Gas Powered Aviation = The Future!

 Hydrogen is now a Fact?

Many aircraft manufacturers say, 'That they are now planning for hydrogen powered design along with the wing concepts that will prove to be more economical!

Already there is a push in Europe for such a concept, while Embraer is looking at battery powered helicopter flight with many others?

Airbus is now promoting the A220-100 as a business jet to counter new arrivals from Japan and the far east that will do very well.

Boeing has certified its MAX series into service, after the two tragic losses, Ryanair will be the biggest operator of the type in Europe and outside of the U.S. Many new adaptions are being added to the Boeing 777-10 series and Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner, while Airbus has been busy with its popular A330 and EWB A350-900/1000 series.

Vulnerability of Shipping?

 Isle of Wight Incident!

Terrorism is one of the major threats that nations face today and success in shutting down terrorist networks has been of note in the last twenty years, but many of these groups move on to new fields of operation in terms hijacking other causes?

Piracy did not die with the advent of steam and Diesel and this is noted in the Arabian sea and throughout the Indonesian islands today, ships are vulnerable to being boarded at night while in port or by the crew themselves?

We do not really know what was going on in the English Channel, but it was serious to have to call in special forces? 

The cost of security of ships lays with their owners and many foreign ships still do not pay their workers very well, in fact shipping can be a real legal minefield as to who owns what and what flag the vessel is under and who crews it from the Master to cheap labor?

It will be almost impossible to secure ship and there is a new front forming in using large vessels as terror weapons around the world?

Driverless Vehicles!

 Sooner than Later?

We already have driverless metro's, and various Monorail and tram systems such as here in the U.K. with the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) and the not so new system employed at Heathrow International airport.

But with continued experimentation continuing in the United States and Japan, the car and truck is coming soon? A few teething issues remain and the possibility of a slower Motorway speed limit might be for dedicated lanes and safer infrastructure in case of a collision?

Escaped cattle and other farm animals remain a problem in many part of the world, apart from desperate humans trying to cross busy roads for all sorts of reasons?

Demise of the MBT?

 A New Kind of Warfare!

The battlefield is a developing place in tactics and technology, ever since Cain killed his brother Able out of jealousy and ever since then most wars stem from bitterness and hatred of each other and at the cost of human life soldiers and civilians?

Enemies come and go, so do causes, but also criminal cartels, dictatorships and maniacs wanting to rule the world. The origins of the Main battle tank stem from World War I (1914-18) and was invented by the British with everyone following to this present day, but not all nations use this type of vehicle opting more for the personnel carrier or armored recon vehicles.

These first tanks were clumsy, but one has to start somewhere and by World War-11 very little had changed, since it was believed that the last war would be the one to end all? The Soviet Union developed a light machine known as the T-34 to outrun the Nazi-German heavy tanks, which were better in pack operations but not isolated in the open steppe!

It was after 1945 that what we understand in shape and design of these vehicles came to the fore, the U.S. Sherman and successive designs up to the present Abrahams, Israel Merkava, Russian t-90 and their electronic countermeasures or deflection equipment. 

But the last few wars in Iraq proved that the days of this type of armor were really coming to and end, missile guided and drones can be very effective now in most weather conditions and the role of helicopters and lighter vehicles equally.

Neptune and Uranus?

 Watery Worlds!

Missions to these two cold giants is not planned for the near future and the Hubble Telescope is to spend it last few years taking regular observations?

Recently it has been discovered that these two giant worlds are made of water, but as to their structure this is still not known! Much of this knowledge is coming from the Juno probe that is orbiting Jupiter and revealing its internal structure, which may act in a similar way for all four giants?

Uranus is covered in cloud and looks like the cue ball on a snooker table, there is really nothing to see accept that it lies on its side meaning only one pole is lit and the other remains dark. The strange thing about the belts and Moons of this world is that they are hard to see because of unknown dark materials?

Meanwhile Neptune is blue with wispy high clouds and a black spot that moves and changes or may be replaces by another every so many years? Neptune has one of the largest Moons in the Solar system that of Triton, which many now believe may be a captured Pluto type world?

Triton is believed to be active with volcanism and other mysterious features discovered by Voyager in our only fly past! One thinks with so many wonderful things to discover that money should be put aside to build probes to visit and study the Moons and rings if nothing else, I think we will be surprised by what we discover there too?

Hydrogen!

 The power of the immediate Future?

Gas powered buses are popping up everywhere and London is promising a huge fleet, but down in Plymouth these vehicles continue to run with the conventional so one cannot not see if they will make much difference across England at this time?

Legislation to get the infrastructure into place for alternative energy fuels will as it does take time and one has to wonder when it does get through what new tech will be available? 

We seem to always be lagging behind here in the U.K. with transport and trying to improve or claim to be greener when in reality we are not like the rest of Europe or many other places too!

Hydrogen will be easier to manage that the rechargeable battery for now and with some automobiles having options this is the beginning of a new future? Sadly the lack of will by the producers not to cut the prices on these alternative new cars may prove in the long term that they are not as good as is being claimed?

No Air shows this Year!

COVID-19 cancels large Crowds?

This new crown virus is ending social interaction for us humans, unless one is ignorant and risks catching it or just does not believe that it is really real!

Sometimes one finds that over the years here in Swansea since 2007 the Wales National Air Show has become a bit boring with nearly the same aircraft and displays showing up or not?

But then it is free and when events are free, one does not get to see the best of aviation on the ground and in the air! Making these shows more of a recruiting ground for the armed forces wither you like that or not?

The Ort Field.

An ice cloud that surrounds our Solar System?

The Voyager spaceships have now reached the furthest points of our Solar system to discover that we are in some ways protected by a ice shield, but as yet the depth of this Ort cloud is still not known and what is beyond it may be deep space!

It is one of may new discoveries that are being made this year about our universe, with new radio signals coming from strange new objects not seen before and several Nova's exploding where there was thought to be nothing?

In other news we will be having some close encounters this month with some very large asteroids and a warning that in years to come a potential collision!

Many probes are also on the way to Mars, the U.S., the U.A.E and Europe are all sending theirs, so something interesting must have been found that we as yet are not being told about?

M113, MOWAG and BTR-60/70 Logistics.

Every army needs support!

Recovery, ambulances, engineering, bridge layers, ammunition supply, communications, and missile systems support radars.

Trucks are fine on roads of nearly all types because of four, six, and eight drive chassis, but when we come to mud and wet ground things change a bit?

The U.S. and its allies used the common components of the tracked M113 in all guises and this was the same for both Soviet/Russia with the mass build of the BTR-60/70 and a host of conversion variants. 

Being amphibious was a great breakthtough for the military cutting out the need for bridges and this has proved sufficient for some situations and not all, that is why armies have engineering corps?

But in recent years the MOWAG has become the new vehicle on the block and is now used by a whole host of nations perhaps more so than Russia and America put together?

Warships? Part-Two.

Aircraft Carriers, Helicopter cruisers and Other.

The world of war shipping is very extensive in the last one hundred years we have moved from big guns to missiles defence systems and the role to mine the seas and have torpedo tubes have all been incorporated into several designs large and small!

The aircraft carrier one would like to think came with the arrival of the aeroplane, but new data has revealed that ships fitted with hot air balloons though limited were prevalent in the 19th Century.

Today there has been a need to save money and to multitask war ships with helicopters, jump jets and now drones both aircraft and rotor and as we move on this is much cheaper and safer in the long term with the microchip and satellite communications?

The U.S. perhaps leads the world in nuclear powered vessels followed by Russia, the U.K., France, China, Japan, Australia, India, Thailand, Italy, Spain and Brazil?

Boeing 737MAX Comeback?

New computer control system Solved?

Well this is what Boeing in Seattle is saying, wither it is true is another matter! 

As seen recently with the sad crash in Pakistan, pilots do not seem to have been trained very well in handling their aircraft forgetting to let the wheels down?

It would seem to be a simple mistake, but the problem that is being encountered world-wide with new aircraft is the complexities of needing a degree in computer engineering as well as being a well trained pilot?

The danger is computers are taking away access to the over ride of manual control, since humans can do things still that machines cannot?

The 737MAX series was to be the last of this great line of type entering now into the 21st Century, but with the loss of two aircraft in Indonesia and Ethiopia and the complexities of control being lost in updating pilots to fly them this has caused major delays and a stump in production from building, painting and delivery!

Warships Part-One.

Design and concepts not much changed?

The modern warship has one advantage over all past designs and concepts and that it is now invisible on sonar, this major advance is known as stealth and it has been around since the 1980's but now it is the norm for most of the rich nations of the world!

History shows us that armour had always been part of a key element, from ancient times with shield and metal bands to having a battering ram. Through history the cannon replaced crossbows and catapults of various types and that was over four hundred years to the development of the ironclads and modern metal ships.

The layout of all current vessels is almost the same guns being now replaced by rocket and missile systems, with the addition of the helicopter deck for one or two craft! Prior to this was the extra boats needed for exploration or pillage? 

Dragon-X

Dragon X made it to ISS!

The possibility of returning to the Moon is now on course as the vehicles needed are being having their final tests and being prepared for the 2024 window?

Of what value the return to the Moon will be is still unclear at this time, that is perhaps based around the whims of the  U.S. President and the free hand that he has given to Elon Musk to ruin humanities view of space with the array of thousands of Satellites!

One has not heard yet of when the dangerous return to Earth trip is to be made and despite this great achievement not to rely on Russia, a new Space shuttle is under development to be revealed soon!

It is much smaller to the retired ones, but it will be capable of carrying a crew of seven and will not be just for the ISS, but also Gateway that will orbit the Moon, if not direct operations to the Moon and return to Earth?

'Hi Folks!

Have not been Well?

Things will be changing from July where a blog will be written every second week! Don't worry its not COVID-19, but the GP told me that there are a host of bugs knocking about and for some of us it would be wise to stay in!

Whatever we may think we think is perhaps the beginning of our problems and it already looks like the Coronavirus is spiking once more?

My advice for what it is worth, if you have underlaying issues protect your self as best you can if you have to go out and if not just stay in and not worry?

Social Distancing!

Distancing, how do we do that?

If this pandemic is to continue how are we to beat it in the concept of social distancing when today it was seen in the U.K that it was not working?

A great revolution of transport adaption has to be started, but governments will not want to spend the money and Mr. Johnson is not promising much hope to us in saying there may never be a cure, so why are people going to work unprotected?

Air travel may continue with the use of larger aircraft and the Airbus A380 might see a second life as the right kind of potential isolation aircraft? Other wise nothing that we have is viable and the costs will not cover the business!

The world is now in some really dire straights as a second wave in China, S-Korea is breaking out and still there is no unity working together to solve this situation, while many people are ignorant to what this undiscriminating virus is doing to humanity?

Truckers n Trucking.

The current life-Line?

Road transport remains the essential way of moving goods around the place, between the rails and the sea ports! We may joke about white van man or woman, but much of what is being sold on-line at this time is coming through these poorly paid self-employed workers?

Throughout each country there are a host of distribution centres, some handle dry goods, electricals, while others are supermarket factories that turn out their branded products? There are also many regional medical and pharmaceutical centres that process or store essential medication and equipment!

At this time our motorways and roads are busy with the fleets of trucks that usually travel at night but now all the time. With the introduction of more electric vehicles, one supposes that in the next few years the familiar will be withdrawn and maybe even road trains might become more popular, currently one occasionally might see a funfair convoy of truck and mobile home and the Dutch truckers use split trailers?

Cruise liners hive for Germs?

The allure of the Seas, Rivers, Lakes, Canals?

Many people enjoy that luxury cruise a once in a life time experience or an addiction to the life style?

What many people do not realise is that many of these boats have a quick turnaround of passengers or clients and despite the best efforts of the underpaid cheap labour crews to clean not all is and so the possibility of cross-infections are high!

The companies will probably be in uproar with me saying this but I know the truth, since many members of my own family have worked on shipping around the world and some of them are truly unbelievably filthy, even at the best of times!

After this SARS COV-2/COVID-19 business is over, the world will have to be a different place and separation of people will be something of an issue? Since no vaccine or cure has yet been found and this may linger for another year with what ever else is going on, a mutation of this germ is highly possible and those smoking or who have underlaying issues such as addictions to narcotics, alcohol and lung infections could or will die!

Aviation Zigzags?

Radon Scanning or map Making?

It perhaps will not be admitted by the governments, why aircraft are mapping for Radon leakage in the middle of a pandemic, but this is a fact that we are dealing with radioactivity in the atmosphere and the first thing that troubles that is radon gas leaking out of the ground!

Map making could be an added need especially over the populated areas of the country and the need to get accurate mapping in our times of high criminality and terrorist activity?

There are many areas of the world that have radon gas veins and in the event of a nuclear explosion, large amounts of this gas are released from the ground causing exposure to skin and body cancers!

Pollution levels have recently been discovered to effect this SASR-COV2/Covid-19 outbreak and the probability of ending fossil fuel burning is high on the agenda after this quarantine ends?

Return to Mercury and Venus!

Lots going on in Space?

Recently we had a second Moon orbiting the Earth, but I think has now left and is heading away! 

It is nothing new with planets and their gravitational fields, many believe that Triton was captured by the gravity of Neptune and may be more of a minor planet such as Pluto and as we know now its many cousins (136) of them on the outer edge of our expanding Solar System!

But now we are off to Mercury and Venus once more, exploring the two inner planets may reveal that Venus is not as hot in the polar regions as once thought by the Soviet Russians who landed their rovers for eight-minutes before they melted.

Mercury has what seems to be ice or frost layers in its craters, despite being the closest object to the Sun! But these could equally be salts exposed by past bombardment?

Space X is progressing well with dockings to the International Space Station, but as yet not crewed? One more unmanned test is to be made, as the Russia claims that the U.S. is trying to capture planets in our Solar system and make them American!

If there is anyone out their, I think they will still not be bothering with our primitive world and its failure even to cooperate with millions to die from this COVID-19 Virus?

EASTER is still On!

More Air Freighters?

Most of the aircraft now flying across Europe and the Atlantic are air freighters, carrying essential equipment to combat COVID-19 which is a new plague for the 21st Century! Compared to one hundred and one years ago air travel is now far more complicated than those flimsy light bi-planes that could only carry two people and a bag of mail?

The jet engine in commercial airlines from the 1950's revolutionised air travel world-wide and with various military conversions, such as the Boeing 707 made dedicated air freight big business until the arrival of the of the 747 Jumbo in 1967-71!

Today a whole host of older aircraft fly postal and for Amazon supplies, some airlines as mentioned last time are civilian contractors for the U.S. military or Israel/N.A.T.O! Russia has its own dedicated fleets too built up from the now defunct TU-154M that had a chequered history and the newer Ilyushin Il-76 and its many newer developments!

Meanwhile many smaller propeller air craft are deployed daily, both civil and military to carry medications, sick people and other essential supplies. Helicopters are now an essential in rescue, air ambulance and police work, some may be replaced by drones and despite much promises we are not quite yet there with the big stuff?

Easter blessings to one and all!

Air Shows Cancelled 2020!

Freighter Aviation Continues?

Bums on seats one would think makes the airline industry work, but it actually the cargo in the holds of most commercial aircraft that make the income!

There are many older aircraft by tradition in the aviation industry for freight, but now many new types such as the Boeing 777 are filling that role too. 

Most of the Amazon parcels come from the United States through FedEx and business post through UPS and DHL, but their are equally as many lesser known companies moving pharmaceuticals, military hardware and prisoners from A to B/Z by Kalitta, Wamos and various other Boeing 747 Jumbo's?

We will have to see how far things are going to develop with this COVID-19 virus, to see if air freight will be curtailed? 

One thinks not since China is now recovering well and they will have a monopoly over the Pacific region, airlines such as Cathy and EVA-Evergreen will hold their ground with Japanese ANA Cargo and S-Korean Cargo.

I think all air shows across Europe have been called off and many trade fares also since the shaky response to the recent Singapore show, were sales were fine but not much human life was seen?

Italian deployments for COVID-19.

IVECO .

At this time most of us across the globe cannot escape the serious requirement to stay indoors because of this virulent virus that is spreading and worsening as it has in both China and now Italy?

It is noted with the deployment of the army to maintain a lockdown some vehicles deployed came from the Iveco range, Trakker At190T, LMV (2) Light, the MUV utility M40.is Torpedo and the WNS Ambulance version.

These type are the basis of a paramilitary support to the Police and are the versatile end of a successful range of good quality military hardware!

We tend to only know Iveco for limited number of heavy goods vehicles in which they are employed in the building industry, but Italy has its own manufacturing base for many important types and their own equivalents the Jeep?

Uranus and Neptunian Discoveries?

139 Plutonian objects and regular space telescope Observations!

The Ort cloud has revealed a group of six hundred objects beyond Neptune of which 139 may be Pluto sized planets and amongst them may be that elusive dark planet nine that astronomy is gathering pace to discover?

The distances of these objects are now estimated to be up to eight times the distance of Earth from the Sun, Pluto to the fringes of the Ort cloud and it is not clear if it was New Horizons that has gathered this data or a Space telescope observations that have tracked unidentified objects only to discover that there are many more planets in our Solar system than ever thought?

The latest Space telescope is to be used on a regular basis for more observations of both the cold gas giants Uranus and Neptune, which are now revealing perhaps more of their secrets and that they are not inactive far our worlds than we have thought for over forty-seven years?

Wither another New Horizons probe is sent to Pluto is hard to know, but eventually something will be sent maybe from the Martian colony when it is established in the next fifty years or so? 

Meanwhile NASA has revealed that the proposed Gateway Lunar station is now not required for the Artemis programme but a smaller station will provide emergency backup!

Helicopters 75 Years! Part-Two.

U.S. Catching up to the Russian Kamov KA-52 Alligator?

It is only now that the U.S. is finding a place for the Russian Alligator helicopter concept, which is the fastest in the world!

The idea of the helicopter gunship has been around from the 1960's and there early deployment in the Vietnam war, machines such as the Cobra are well established, while Europe developed the Tiger and the U.S. upgraded to the Sikorsky AH-64 Apache. 

Many other countries have just put rocket pods and machine guns on helicopters with a crew of two and use them in a similar role, but these are not dedicated machines for ground support combat and anti-tank or MBT-Killers?

Meanwhile the Soviets lead the way initially in the development of the Mil Mi-24/35 combination special forces and gunship, nothing like it has yet been attempted and sales of it continue to flourish world-wide.

But the Kamov design team cam up with the first jet powered helicopter in the late 1990's and the west did everything to knock it down boasting that the faulty British Lynx was far superior, now demised while down on the south pole the Kamov KA-32/34 transport helicopters are an essential tool to cope with the coldest weather conditions on the planet.

Various new concepts are coming to the fore in the U.S. and many drone versions too, since this is now being seen as another invaluable tool in warfare and many civil adaptions in the years to come?

Oil extraction and Drill-Ships!

SERTAO?

Port Talbot S-Wales to Falmouth, Cornwall, SW-Great Britain and now to a new buyer, after spending over a year being impounded for debts from a Brazilian exploration company!

The U.S President says that he likes oil and he is not alone, despite what we may think of Greta Thunberg and her campaign to end the use of fossil fuels it does not seem to be giving the drillers and consortiums a guilty conscience?

Africa is the new prospect for the black gold and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire is where this rich harvest of crude is to be found! It is also time for the African nations to become rich that all goes with the oil industry and some Europeans might find that worrying for one reason or another?

White dominated exploitation is the traditional idea of the African and this is true from 1500 and the first European conquests by the Portugese and human slavery that eventually lead to the division of Africa and the gold/diamond mining that made South-Africa what it is today. 

Drilling at sea for both oil and gas is continuing world wide, closer to home is perhaps happening fifty-five miles NW of Belmullet in Co. Mayo Republic of Ireland!

Armoured Reconnaissance Vehicle

The ARV combined Vehicle?

It is strange how in modern warfare the Main battle tanks are being replaced by a newer battlefield multirole vehicle that combines the armoured car, and armoured personnel carrier with a smaller fire power than the tank and on at least six wheels.

The U.S. LAV and the Swiss MOWAG with the Finnish SISU are the bases of a new range of ARV, they being more an APC with addons?  Experience worldwide has seen the demise of the armoured car and the APC apart from para-military security operations and some UN work.

The ARV will not fully replace the MBT as yet, but robotic and drone vehicles of various types under development and secret trials probably will?

What this new generation of armour provides is the transportation of specialised troops, light artillery and rocket power combined with speed and maneuverability and much computerised and military satellite software for more accurate aiming of moving as well as static targets! 

The Peoples Republic of China, N-Korea and Russia have also developed their own versions along side their traditional fleets and newer versions of their mobile missile sytems?

Ghost Ships?

There are two kinds!

It is strange to know that there are many abandoned ships in our Oceans floating about, and one hopes that they are being tracked?

The Ghost ship comes in two forms the mentioned above, with many in the Pacific ocean after the Japanese Tsunami some years ago and the recent arrival of a research ship on the south-Cork coast this week after Storm Dennis, Republic of Ireland.

The other type is a weather related sea mirage, in which vessels at some distance appear to much nearer or floating about the water. In some cases this has lead to fanciful tales of cities, islands and even seen UFO's?

Despite the modern advances in GPS global positioning there is still so much that we do not now about the vastness and the isolation of our oceans and what is floating out there from the obvious containers and abandoned or ship wrecked vessels? 

Helicopters 75 Years! Part-One.

Come a long Way!

The day of the helicopter is not yet over, despite many new drones are cheaper than keeping an helicopter in the sky? The helicopter derived from gyro-dynamics in aircraft to act like an early form of the Boeing-Vertol Osprey BV-22, which still occupies U.S. military research into the development and deployment of much newer and stable platform, which is changing the battlefield from science-fiction to reality!

Today nearly anyone can go up in a helicopter from pleasure flying to search and rescue? The small machines are in the Robinson family, while Bell and Sikorsky have held both the military and commercial market, go to any horse racing event and there are more helicopters between the tracks now parked up since riders cover more than one meeting a day?

The largest machines are still dominated by the Russians and Ukrainians with the Mil Mi-26 capable of carrying three tracked vehicles and one hundred and twenty-five combat troops! This helicopter was a development of the Mi-6 well known is Russia as the Cow because it was slow and vulnerable to ground rocket fire?

Mid range giants are the Chinook, Boeing-Vertol CH-47, which has been around since the Vietnam wars of the 1960s and the Sikorsky CH-53 Super stallion, S-92 SAR after that is the successful Westland-Leonardo EH-101 and the various derivatives of the Puma SA-330 to the H332 Super Puma that dominates the North Sea oil and gas supply rigs and wind turbines.

Europe has also taken the lead of the world market with the H-135/145 helicopter in Air Ambulance and police, electric line work along with several other smaller types?

Replacing the Land Rover Defender?

The Grenadier?

It was hoped that this would be a newer version of the successful Defender, but the Germans have produced their own newer version, leaving this new venture of the Grenadier possibly in the doldrums?

There are always problems with trying to keep a good thing going, corporations want to mass produce, because that has been the way over the last one hundred years since the Ford Model T?

Many have tried with aviation and other armaments only to find that the existing owners have done their own new design and have undermined these new upstarts?

Wither is will now go-ahead is not known and what success it might have is also not known, despite there being a demand perhaps more so for existing parts to keep the series going amongst the collectors and enthuseasts?

ARTEMIS to the Moon!

A great vision now put back to 2028?

Elon Musk may not be as clever as the U.S. President claims he is and recent testing of the ISS supply vessel and Moon projects have seriously flopped?

Meanwhile many scientist world wide do not want a Moon base built, but want to keep the region clear of human interference so they can capture long range Space signals for identification?

This return to the Moon is Trump trying once more to out with the Democrats, ie Kennedy in history, but going to the Moon has in some ways thwarted NASA's plans for a direct mission to Mars.

Artemis is not only a Moon base on the south pole, but a Gateway space station orbiting the Moon, putting into question the fate of the International Space Station and its well established research?

We just will have to see if the U.S. President wins a second term and what the future holds apart from the U.S. 'Star Trek' Space force?

Russian Armour!

Upgrades and new Equipment?

Russia is advancing at an alarming rate with their armour, aircraft, ships and missiles far more advanced than the U.S. claims! Already Turkey, Saudi-Arabia and Iran with China have some of the best systems on the market in modern warfare and sadly the U.K. and NATO are getting left behind if there was an outbreak of hostilities?

We do not get to see as much as was claimed that we saw forty years ago during the so called, 'Cold War! But many upgrades have been made to armoured cars and APC's while missile and drones are much of a closed book to the west today?

Aviation on the other hand boast much new aircraft with hypersonic speeds, while the U.S. administration tells lies and Britain's 'Aurora has been a bit of a damp squib ie Novichok and the Salisbury business?

Class 66 Lives on!

The American/Canadian Class 66 lives on?

At this time there remains no real replacement to the British class 66 locomotive, there are some newer classes but no substantial orders have been made for them in relation to freight haulage!

In fact many European engines are being returned to the U.K. to replace the early first introduction 6600-20 and there looks like no other engine is to replace it in the near future?

Like the Class 43 (Intercity 125) in passenger travel, it has seen a rebuild and over forty years of service. Many countries do not let go of their locomotion so quickly and hold on in reserve what might come in handy at a later date!

The price of fuels is one key factor the other be reliability and also ease of use to the existing drivers! None of these 66's were ever as far as ones knows ever employed in passenger services, apart from recovery of preservation trains?

Ferries.

Improving and new power Sources!

Ferries in the shipping world are growing demand, new power propulsion and comfort more than many are lead to believe, despite the many new bridges being constructed around the world?

Island communities still need shipping and tourism to keep their local economies going and the roll on/off ferry is that vital link. Electric propulsion is now leading the way as far as we know to improve the environment as others forms are withdrawn.

Meanwhile comfort on these boats are being improved all the time and this is encouraging both their demand and use and this will be the more so as Diesel is replaced and newer designs for stability and endurance come to the fore?

Many older ferries that sink around the world, is more due to ignorance and maintaining rusty vessels!  Where many corrupt officials and governments turn a blind eye, instead of enforcing safety and declining licences to unscrupulous people!