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?

Battling with Tecnology.

New things to Learn.

They say that it is 'hard to teach an old dog new tricks? I would have to agree with that claim. Tecnology will always move on, but people will always be slow to catch up with it. In the United Kingdom the governemt wants people to be digitaly minded and yet many regions have declined to teach children basic computer programming. Old folk remain very limited to understanding anyway.

These past weeks the tourist space plane crashed in the States, but no one is giving up. NASA lost their rocket and we are promised that within the next five to ten years most cars in Europe will be electric.

Politics has forced changes in space and in relation to fuel at the moment, but I expect that in ten years we will see many changes while the machines of today will remain. The esential systems in place to supply ISS (International Space Station) will continue, the Electric car may not be a success as hoped for since power cuts could be a serious disadvantage. Sir Richard Branson will be nearer to his vision of space tourism.

China, India, Iran and Nigeria will be the new kids on the block in relation to space exploration, bases on the Moon and stations in space!

New Nations in Space.

China, India and Japan.

Japan landed a probe on a meteor, China has sent a man into space and a rover to the Moon, while on a first attempt India has reached Mars. These are some of the achievements of the new space ager's, there are many other nations such as Brazil, Iran, Israel, North-Korea and Pakistan who have regular military satellite launches and test their inter-continental ballistic missile programmes.

America, Russia and Europe are now being side-lined in space exploration, but there will always be a demand for many nations to visit the International space station. As technology progresses and the possibility of commercial flights come nearer, there will be more people wanting to achieve firsts.

Nigeria wants to be the first African country to joint the space race this century and by the end of it many more achievements such as bases on the Moon and Mars, if not further afield will have been made.

Jet Trainers.

From Training to Counter-Insurgency.

We will always need aircraft of differing types to train our pilots, from simple basics to advanced flight. One of the most versatile aircraft that is available to a host of nations for both training and light attack is the Jet trainer.

The British Royal Air force and Royal Navy have the long and well tested BAE Hawk-200 Jet, this aircraft has also been adopted by the United States of America and is known as theT-45A Goshawk. France and Germany developed their own Alpha Jet, which today is newly operated by the Nigerian Air force.

Spain and Italy have also designed the Casa C-101 Avio jet and the Aermacchi MB-339. Argentina FMA IA-63 Pampa, Taiwan the AIDC AT-3, the Czech Republic Aero L-39 Albatros

Many smaller nations cannot afford the millions that a fully fledged combat jet such as the F-16 costs, so they opt for light-attack and Counter-Insurgency. What seems a mid-level machine, still has the potential to do substantial damage combined with speed. These aircraft can be fitted with a host of rockets and missiles, some can carry a 20-30mm cannon and a variety of bombs and all sorts of combinations.

Having the ability to go from a two-seat trainer to a combat role saves time and money, but of course they have their disadvantages up against the dedicated fighter combat jets.