Daily News
by Gail Helmer
[ Send Us News | Archives ]
IL-2 Sturmovik Update Report
The IL-2 Sturmovik site has posted the following IL-2 Sturmovik update report:
It looks like today is the day that Day of Defeat 2 will be released. The mod is expected to be available today at 3pm PST. Click here for our previous coverage.
Art of War to Feature League System
Want to pit yourself against other strategy players for global supremacy? The Cossacks: European Wars add-on, The Art of War, will include a world ranking league system that will allow players to do just that. The ranking system will allow Cossacks players with an Internet connection to make use of a new feature that includes Ranks and Titles. Players start off as an Esquire and move up the ladder from Baron to Duke as they achieve victories and strive for the title of King.
Players will be able to view the country, user name, gender, date of birth, and clans of individual participants. Art of War will also contain a new multiplayer feature allowing players to join a game in progress as a spectator or referee. Games can also be recorded and sent as an MPEG for others to view. Furthermore, customization of clan logos can be put next to the player’s name.
Strategy First And Paradox Sign Multi Title Deal
Strategy First and Paradox Entertainment made an official statement from the show floor of the Milia Expo in Cannes, France today, announcing that they have signed a multiple title publishing agreement for three of Paradox's upcoming titles. Strategy First published two of Paradox's previous games, Europa Universalis and Europa Universalis II. Both games did extremely well in the North American market. Further information regarding the titles included in the publishing agreement will be announced at a later date.
Military News
Northrop Grumman To Begin Global Hawk LRIP
Northrop Grumman Corporation has been awarded a $101 million contract by the US Air Force to begin low-rate initial production of the Global Hawk high-altitude, long-endurance reconnaissance system.
Under the contract, Northrop Grumman will provide two Global Hawk air vehicles and the mission control element of the system's ground station. Seven air vehicles and two of the mission control elements were produced under earlier phases of the program.
The mission control element will be completed in June 2003, followed by the first air vehicle in September. The second air vehicle is scheduled to be completed in December 2003. W The Global Hawk programme is managed by the Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Centre at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
Global Hawk, produced by Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems sector, provides battlefield commanders near real-time, high-resolution reconnaissance imagery. Flying at extremely high altitudes, the system can survey large geographic areas with pinpoint accuracy to give military decision-makers the most current information about enemy resources and
Investigators Release QF-4E Accident Report
Air Force investigators determined mechanical errors caused an Air Force QF-4E drone aircraft to crash Oct. 25 at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla.
The drone, which was unmanned, was destroyed upon impact in a wooded area on base shortly after takeoff. No one was injured in the accident. The aircraft, assigned to the 82nd Aerial Target Squadron, was participating in a training mission at the time of the accident.
According to an Air Combat Command Accident Investigation Report released Feb. 5, the automatic flight control system failed to properly rotate the aircraft off the runway. The drone’s operator switched the aircraft to manual controls; however, the instruments displayed erroneous information making it impossible for the controller to recover the aircraft. The drone aircraft hit the ground about 10 seconds after takeoff. (Courtesy of ACC News Service)
South Korean Fighter Project Still In Limbo
The planned 40 plane $3.2 billion acquisition programme intended to update South Korea's defensive capabilities is still unresolved after the four competing teams could not match the cost restrictions the government has set on bids. However, the background to the project is becoming increasing political, and it seems that cost may be far from the deciding factor.
The competing fighters for the proposed project are the F-15K of US giant Boeing Co., the French company Dassault's Rafale, the Eurofighter consortium's Typhoon 2000 and the Russian Sukhoi firm's Su-32. Sukhoi reportedly offered the lowest price while the Rafale is considered a joint favourite with the ageing F-15K. It has long appeared that the Korean Government favours the F-15K despite the fact that the opinion of the pilots has veered toward the more modern European planes.
The defence ministry has now set aside another month to review the entire project with a view to narrowing the competitors down to two, but has warned that further difficulties in the price negotiations could lead the project disappearing without trace. The issues are further complicated by the ongoing negotiations between the US and South Korea with particular regard to the situation over the border.
President Bush has stepped up his rhetoric concerning the danger of North Korea as a rogue state and is due to visit Seoul this month to discuss policy in this area. This puts the F-15K on the political table as a bargaining chip, particularly as were the contract to go elsewhere, production of the ageing jet would likely come to an end. As a result the defence ministry has already stated that cost and combat capability would not be the only factors considered.
According to analysts in Korea, the Government should bite the bullet and either seek the extra funding to bring the current bids within their reach or remove some of the less vital requirements from the project. However, the likelihood remains that the F-15K will become the next Korean fighter and George W. Bush and President Kim Dae-jung will be presenting a united front over North Korea.
What's Up at the Pentagon?
Defense-based capabilities. Transformation. Force-sizing construct. Asymmetric threats. These are some of the latest buzzwords at the Pentagon.
What do they mean?
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld used these terms during a Feb. 4 interview with Jim Lehrer on PBS. The secretary talked about transforming the military, the president's fiscal 2003 budget request, the war on terrorism and other defense issues.
When Rumsfeld used the Pentagon buzzwords, Lehrer asked the secretary to explain. For example, when Rumsfeld said, "We have moved from a threat-based strategy to a capabilities- based strategy," Lehrer asked, "What does that mean?"
Rumsfeld explained.
"It means that instead of deciding you're going to look at a threat in North Korea or a threat in Iraq or a threat somewhere else (like) the old Soviet Union, and fashion your force to fit that, what you do is look at the capabilities that exist in the world -- chemical, biological, nuclear capabilities, cyber attacks, that type of thing. And you say to yourself, it's not possible to know precisely where the threat will come from or when, but you can know what nature that threat might be and what capabilities we need to deal with that."
Transformation, according to Rumsfeld, "is not an event, it's a process. It involves a mind set, an attitude, a culture." He said it involves new ways of thinking, new ways of operating, new ways of doing business.
Transformation doesn't necessarily involve a new weapon system, the secretary said, but it might involve a better way of connecting existing weapon systems. It might involve a different way of organizing or fighting as U.S. forces did in Afghanistan. Instead of sending large numbers of ground troops to Afghanistan, the United States sent in air power and special operations forces to support anti-Taliban fighters.
"When the Germans transformed their armed forces into the Blitzkreig," Rumsfeld said, "they tranformed only about 5 or 10 percent of their force. Everything else was the same, but they tranformed the way they used it – the connectivity between aircraft and forces on the ground, the concentration of it in a specific portion of the line."
"One would not want to transform 100 percent of your forces. You only need to transform a portion," he concluded.
Rumsfeld said the president's fiscal 2003 budget "reflects the priorities that are appropriate to our times."
Since national defense and homeland security are crucial right now in light of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he said, that's where President Bush wants to put the nation's money. At the same time, he said, Bush wants to hold down spending in other areas.
The president hasn't forgotten the folks who fly the planes, man the weapons and fight the battles, Rumsfeld added. There's money in the budget request for another military pay raise. "If there's anything that's central to the success of the armed forces," he said, "it is that the men and women be properly treated. These are the people who voluntarily risk their lives for our country. And we need to have talented people capable of doing the important jobs and increasingly high tech jobs."
Lehrer reminded Rumsfeld that before Sept. 11, 2001, changed the military's focus, the defense leader had expressed concern about how the Pentagon controlled its money. Is the structure in place to make sure this money is not wasted? Lehrer asked.
"I guess I would have to say after 11 months or so in the saddle that I'm encouraged," the secretary replied. "The Department of Defense has been characterized by a lot of people as being very difficult to change, resistant, set in its ways, but if you think back over the last 11 months, what's happened, we have a new defense strategy."
The military has a new "force-sizing construct," he said. In the past, the thinking was that the United States should be able to fight two major regional conflicts. Overwhelming U.S. forces would occupy the countries, take over the capitals and change the regimes. Defense officials were supposed to size the forces to ensure this could happen.
Defense leaders have changed that approach, Rumsfeld said, because the armed forces had too little airlift, too few forces, and "the world wasn't like that."
"We still have to be able to win two conflicts," he said, "but we only have to be able to occupy and change the regime in one while stopping the other, and in addition, be capable of engaging in the other lesser contingencies or non-combatant evacuation or an event like Kosovo."
So where does terrorism fit in this picture? Lehrer asked.
Rumsfeld said cruise and ballistic missiles, cyber attacks and other terrorist tools are 'asymmetric threats.' They are "ways of attacking the United States where they don't have to go straight after our armies or navies or air forces."
Terrorists can't directly attack the U.S. armed forces because the U.S. military is too capable, he said. So they go after such perceived vulnerabilities as information technology or they turn American own capabilities against us. U.S. officials couldn't foresee that the Al Qaeda would use box cutters to turn U.S. airliners filled with Americans into missiles.
The threat of future attacks of an even worse nature exists, Rumsfeld said. Several terrorist networks have active programs to acquire biological and chemical weapons, as well as radiation and nuclear weapons.
"We've found intelligence in Afghanistan that attests to the enormous appetite and effort they've put into this," Rumsfeld said. "We don't know how successful they've been, but we know they want them and we know there are countries that have them. The power of a biological weapon is something that we have to be very respectful of as a country."
Countries that engage in terrorism or harbor terrorists pose a danger to the world, he said, Terrorists can attack anywhere, anytime using a range of techniques.
"It is physically impossible to defend at every time in every location against every conceivable technique of terrorism," the secretary stressed. Therefore, if your goal is to stop terrorism, you you must take the battle to the terrorists.
"They are planning. They are plotting," he said. "They have trained thousands of terrorists very well and we have no choice but to find those people and root them out … We have an obligation to try to find them."
[ Send Us News | Archives ]
by Gail Helmer
Wednesday February 06, 2002
- IL-2 Sturmovik Update Report
- Day of Defeat Mod 2 Today
- Art of War to Feature League System
- Strategy First And Paradox Sign Multi Title Deal
- Northrop Grumman To Begin Global Hawk LRIP
- Investigators Release QF-4E Accident Report
- South Korean Fighter Project Still In Limbo
- What's Up at the Pentagon?
IL-2 Sturmovik Update Report
The IL-2 Sturmovik site has posted the following IL-2 Sturmovik update report:
Dear IL-2 Community,Day of Defeat Mod 2 Today
As part of an effort to keep you informed of the status of IL-2 and its future, Oleg Maddox of 1C Maddox Games and Matt Wagner of Ubi Soft will post regular update reports on the official IL-2 Sturmovik website. Producer Matt Wagner, Developer Oleg Maddox, and Executive Producer Carl Norman will all be participating on the official IL-2 Forum. We try to read everything, but please be patient with us as there are many more of you than there are of us. We can’t respond to every message, but will try and answer questions and concerns through regular reports like this one.
Future Patches
While the recent 1.03 patch fixed several problems, we understand that some users are still experiencing “stutter”-both on- and off-line. We are in the process of sorting through your many helpful posts regarding this and we have every intention of addressing it. The 1.03 patch will not be the last IL-2 patch and it is our plan to conquer the “stutter”, along with other commonly requested fixes, in future patches. Please continue to use the official IL-2 forums to report bugs and what you would like to see in future patches. As details become available concerning future patches, we will make an appropriate announcement on this website.
Dedicated Server Patch
A dedicated server patch has been developed for IL-2 and it will be released to certified users once testing is complete. This will not be a freely available patch, but rather it will be sent to users/hosts that meet the certification standards set by 1C Maddox Games and Ubi Soft. As we move closer to completion of this patch, and the details are worked out, we will provide more information.
Third Party, Community Support
We support and welcome third party support for IL-2 and realize its importance to the longevity of IL-2. During talks between Oleg, Carl, and Matt, it was agreed upon that user-made aircraft and new missions will be incorporated into IL-2 via several Aircraft and Mission packs. These will be free downloads and include new aircraft, cockpits, and missions. In order for user-made content to be included, the components will need to be sent to Oleg at 1C Maddox Games and pass his certification process. This process will be administered by Oleg and his team. Once the details of the certification process have been worked out, they will be made available in a future IL-2 Update Report on this website. Please be patient. We realize many of you are investing lots of time and effort to these pursuits but we want to make sure we have a valid and logical process to accommodate the integration of your work.
Follow-on Products
In addition to the Aircraft and Mission packs, we are in the process of finalizing plans for the first IL-2 follow-on product. This product will serve as a stand-alone game or integrate with your existing copy of IL-2, depending upon whether you currently own IL-2 Sturmovik. The direction of this follow-on is the result of strong community feedback, developer resources, and plans that Oleg already had in place. We believe that the majority of you will be very happy with our decision. However, until the legal and business details have been worked out, we’all be unable to go into any more detail at this time. Rest assured, when negotiations have been finalized, you will be informed of the details very soon afterwards.
On a final matter, Oleg, Matt, and Carl will make all official announcements regarding IL-2 on this website. Unless you read it here, it’s not official and should be treated as rumor and speculation. This is your source for the official word. Thanks for you patience. We appreciate your continued support and enthusiasm for the IL-2 Sturmovik product.
Sincerely,
Oleg Maddox, 1C Maddox Games
Matt Wagner, Ubi Soft Entertainment
It looks like today is the day that Day of Defeat 2 will be released. The mod is expected to be available today at 3pm PST. Click here for our previous coverage.
Art of War to Feature League System
Want to pit yourself against other strategy players for global supremacy? The Cossacks: European Wars add-on, The Art of War, will include a world ranking league system that will allow players to do just that. The ranking system will allow Cossacks players with an Internet connection to make use of a new feature that includes Ranks and Titles. Players start off as an Esquire and move up the ladder from Baron to Duke as they achieve victories and strive for the title of King.
Players will be able to view the country, user name, gender, date of birth, and clans of individual participants. Art of War will also contain a new multiplayer feature allowing players to join a game in progress as a spectator or referee. Games can also be recorded and sent as an MPEG for others to view. Furthermore, customization of clan logos can be put next to the player’s name.
Strategy First And Paradox Sign Multi Title Deal
Strategy First and Paradox Entertainment made an official statement from the show floor of the Milia Expo in Cannes, France today, announcing that they have signed a multiple title publishing agreement for three of Paradox's upcoming titles. Strategy First published two of Paradox's previous games, Europa Universalis and Europa Universalis II. Both games did extremely well in the North American market. Further information regarding the titles included in the publishing agreement will be announced at a later date.
Military News
Northrop Grumman To Begin Global Hawk LRIP
Northrop Grumman Corporation has been awarded a $101 million contract by the US Air Force to begin low-rate initial production of the Global Hawk high-altitude, long-endurance reconnaissance system.
Under the contract, Northrop Grumman will provide two Global Hawk air vehicles and the mission control element of the system's ground station. Seven air vehicles and two of the mission control elements were produced under earlier phases of the program.
The mission control element will be completed in June 2003, followed by the first air vehicle in September. The second air vehicle is scheduled to be completed in December 2003. W The Global Hawk programme is managed by the Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Centre at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
Global Hawk, produced by Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems sector, provides battlefield commanders near real-time, high-resolution reconnaissance imagery. Flying at extremely high altitudes, the system can survey large geographic areas with pinpoint accuracy to give military decision-makers the most current information about enemy resources and
Investigators Release QF-4E Accident Report
Air Force investigators determined mechanical errors caused an Air Force QF-4E drone aircraft to crash Oct. 25 at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla.
The drone, which was unmanned, was destroyed upon impact in a wooded area on base shortly after takeoff. No one was injured in the accident. The aircraft, assigned to the 82nd Aerial Target Squadron, was participating in a training mission at the time of the accident.
According to an Air Combat Command Accident Investigation Report released Feb. 5, the automatic flight control system failed to properly rotate the aircraft off the runway. The drone’s operator switched the aircraft to manual controls; however, the instruments displayed erroneous information making it impossible for the controller to recover the aircraft. The drone aircraft hit the ground about 10 seconds after takeoff. (Courtesy of ACC News Service)
South Korean Fighter Project Still In Limbo
The planned 40 plane $3.2 billion acquisition programme intended to update South Korea's defensive capabilities is still unresolved after the four competing teams could not match the cost restrictions the government has set on bids. However, the background to the project is becoming increasing political, and it seems that cost may be far from the deciding factor.
The competing fighters for the proposed project are the F-15K of US giant Boeing Co., the French company Dassault's Rafale, the Eurofighter consortium's Typhoon 2000 and the Russian Sukhoi firm's Su-32. Sukhoi reportedly offered the lowest price while the Rafale is considered a joint favourite with the ageing F-15K. It has long appeared that the Korean Government favours the F-15K despite the fact that the opinion of the pilots has veered toward the more modern European planes.
The defence ministry has now set aside another month to review the entire project with a view to narrowing the competitors down to two, but has warned that further difficulties in the price negotiations could lead the project disappearing without trace. The issues are further complicated by the ongoing negotiations between the US and South Korea with particular regard to the situation over the border.
President Bush has stepped up his rhetoric concerning the danger of North Korea as a rogue state and is due to visit Seoul this month to discuss policy in this area. This puts the F-15K on the political table as a bargaining chip, particularly as were the contract to go elsewhere, production of the ageing jet would likely come to an end. As a result the defence ministry has already stated that cost and combat capability would not be the only factors considered.
According to analysts in Korea, the Government should bite the bullet and either seek the extra funding to bring the current bids within their reach or remove some of the less vital requirements from the project. However, the likelihood remains that the F-15K will become the next Korean fighter and George W. Bush and President Kim Dae-jung will be presenting a united front over North Korea.
What's Up at the Pentagon?
Defense-based capabilities. Transformation. Force-sizing construct. Asymmetric threats. These are some of the latest buzzwords at the Pentagon.
What do they mean?
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld used these terms during a Feb. 4 interview with Jim Lehrer on PBS. The secretary talked about transforming the military, the president's fiscal 2003 budget request, the war on terrorism and other defense issues.
When Rumsfeld used the Pentagon buzzwords, Lehrer asked the secretary to explain. For example, when Rumsfeld said, "We have moved from a threat-based strategy to a capabilities- based strategy," Lehrer asked, "What does that mean?"
Rumsfeld explained.
"It means that instead of deciding you're going to look at a threat in North Korea or a threat in Iraq or a threat somewhere else (like) the old Soviet Union, and fashion your force to fit that, what you do is look at the capabilities that exist in the world -- chemical, biological, nuclear capabilities, cyber attacks, that type of thing. And you say to yourself, it's not possible to know precisely where the threat will come from or when, but you can know what nature that threat might be and what capabilities we need to deal with that."
Transformation, according to Rumsfeld, "is not an event, it's a process. It involves a mind set, an attitude, a culture." He said it involves new ways of thinking, new ways of operating, new ways of doing business.
Transformation doesn't necessarily involve a new weapon system, the secretary said, but it might involve a better way of connecting existing weapon systems. It might involve a different way of organizing or fighting as U.S. forces did in Afghanistan. Instead of sending large numbers of ground troops to Afghanistan, the United States sent in air power and special operations forces to support anti-Taliban fighters.
"When the Germans transformed their armed forces into the Blitzkreig," Rumsfeld said, "they tranformed only about 5 or 10 percent of their force. Everything else was the same, but they tranformed the way they used it – the connectivity between aircraft and forces on the ground, the concentration of it in a specific portion of the line."
"One would not want to transform 100 percent of your forces. You only need to transform a portion," he concluded.
Rumsfeld said the president's fiscal 2003 budget "reflects the priorities that are appropriate to our times."
Since national defense and homeland security are crucial right now in light of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he said, that's where President Bush wants to put the nation's money. At the same time, he said, Bush wants to hold down spending in other areas.
The president hasn't forgotten the folks who fly the planes, man the weapons and fight the battles, Rumsfeld added. There's money in the budget request for another military pay raise. "If there's anything that's central to the success of the armed forces," he said, "it is that the men and women be properly treated. These are the people who voluntarily risk their lives for our country. And we need to have talented people capable of doing the important jobs and increasingly high tech jobs."
Lehrer reminded Rumsfeld that before Sept. 11, 2001, changed the military's focus, the defense leader had expressed concern about how the Pentagon controlled its money. Is the structure in place to make sure this money is not wasted? Lehrer asked.
"I guess I would have to say after 11 months or so in the saddle that I'm encouraged," the secretary replied. "The Department of Defense has been characterized by a lot of people as being very difficult to change, resistant, set in its ways, but if you think back over the last 11 months, what's happened, we have a new defense strategy."
The military has a new "force-sizing construct," he said. In the past, the thinking was that the United States should be able to fight two major regional conflicts. Overwhelming U.S. forces would occupy the countries, take over the capitals and change the regimes. Defense officials were supposed to size the forces to ensure this could happen.
Defense leaders have changed that approach, Rumsfeld said, because the armed forces had too little airlift, too few forces, and "the world wasn't like that."
"We still have to be able to win two conflicts," he said, "but we only have to be able to occupy and change the regime in one while stopping the other, and in addition, be capable of engaging in the other lesser contingencies or non-combatant evacuation or an event like Kosovo."
So where does terrorism fit in this picture? Lehrer asked.
Rumsfeld said cruise and ballistic missiles, cyber attacks and other terrorist tools are 'asymmetric threats.' They are "ways of attacking the United States where they don't have to go straight after our armies or navies or air forces."
Terrorists can't directly attack the U.S. armed forces because the U.S. military is too capable, he said. So they go after such perceived vulnerabilities as information technology or they turn American own capabilities against us. U.S. officials couldn't foresee that the Al Qaeda would use box cutters to turn U.S. airliners filled with Americans into missiles.
The threat of future attacks of an even worse nature exists, Rumsfeld said. Several terrorist networks have active programs to acquire biological and chemical weapons, as well as radiation and nuclear weapons.
"We've found intelligence in Afghanistan that attests to the enormous appetite and effort they've put into this," Rumsfeld said. "We don't know how successful they've been, but we know they want them and we know there are countries that have them. The power of a biological weapon is something that we have to be very respectful of as a country."
Countries that engage in terrorism or harbor terrorists pose a danger to the world, he said, Terrorists can attack anywhere, anytime using a range of techniques.
"It is physically impossible to defend at every time in every location against every conceivable technique of terrorism," the secretary stressed. Therefore, if your goal is to stop terrorism, you you must take the battle to the terrorists.
"They are planning. They are plotting," he said. "They have trained thousands of terrorists very well and we have no choice but to find those people and root them out … We have an obligation to try to find them."