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Daily News
By Gail Helmer

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Friday June 28, 2002

PC News
New Screens: IL-2 Forgotten Battles
Ubi Soft has released 9 new screenshots from its upcoming IL-2 Sturmovik Add-on, The Forgotten Battles. IL2-Sturmovik: The Forgotten Battles will include two new maps for Finland and Hungary, expanding the battlefield for both single and multiplayer modes. It will also feature more than 20 new single player missions and ten cooperative multiplayer missions. The Forgotten Battles is expected to ship to retail stores worldwide in Fall 2002.

New Battlefield 1942 Video
Electronic Arts has released a new video from Battlefield 1942. The video features the Japanese invasion of Wake Island. Battlefield 1942 allows players to choose from 16 famous battle sites, including Omaha Beach, Stalingrad and Wake Island, from the four main theaters of World War II including the Pacific, Eastern and Western Europe and Northern Africa. With the ability to control more than 35 authentic Axis and Allied vehicles and select from five distinct character classes, players face many choices when developing their plan of action.

The game's multiplayer mode will support up to 64 players on some maps, and some vehicles will let multiple players cooperate, such as the B-17 with a pilot/bombardier station and two separate gunner positions. The single-player mode will let players compete against unscripted computer-controlled opponents.

WWII Online Readers Choice Edition Announced
Strategy First, Playnet.com and Cornered Rat Software announced today that they will be launching a new version of their massively multiplayer online game. The new retail version, WWII Online Readers Choice Edition, has gone gold and will be available in late July 2002. The Readers Choice Edition will contain a new version of the game along with numerous new features and enhancements. Some of which are:
  • New vehicles and weapons
  • All new terrain
  • New objects and tons of concealment for ground troops
  • A redesigned interface
  • New mission launch lobbies and a key mapper
  • Upgraded mission, rank and strategic systems
  • First-person shooter perspective
  • New animations and control systems
  • Increased performance and rock solid connects
Official Medieval: Total War Website
Activision today relaunched the official website for the upcoming strategy game of epic battles, Medieval: Total War. The site includes news, game features and custom wallpaper. The site will also display the latest screenshots from Medieval: Total War that showcase the game's graphical enhancements.

Medieval: Total War allows players to take control of one of twelve world powers as they attempt to rewrite history through a mixture of trade, diplomacy, resource management and epic wars of conquest. Featuring an incredibly powerful 3D engine, the game supports real-time 3D battles of more than 10,000 troops and more than 100 unique unit types, including knights, infantry and siege engines, in terrain as varied as deserts, forest, plains and mountains. Players will utilize authentic battle strategies and tactics as they unleash their forces against medieval castles and mighty fortresses with an arsenal of battle-field weapons including long-bows, muskets, cannons and catapults which can pound castle walls and buildings to rubble.

Return To Castle Wolfenstein: Special Edition
id Software and Activision have joined forces in the ultimate blitzkrieg with the release of Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Special Edition. The Special edition features the original Return to Castle Wolfenstein, new multiplayer maps, the WolfRadiant map editor, all seven official post release multiplayer maps developed by Nerve Software and Splash Damage, including Chateau, Dam, Ice, Keep, Rocket, Tram and Trenchtoast.

Military News
Raytheon Delivers 125,000th Paveway II
Raytheon Company today celebrated a milestone with the delivery of its 125,000th Paveway II Laser Guided Bomb to the U.S. Navy and Air Force. Navy and Air Force officials participated in the special event that recognized Raytheon's three decades of effort to provide this mainstay weapon to warfighters in the United States and 31 international countries.

Raytheon and its Paveway II suppliers recently stepped forward to support the warfighter in the war on terrorism by surging Paveway II production - the first deliveries occurred five months ahead of original contract schedule and at double the planned production rate.



Since its inception in 1968, the Paveway series of laser guided bombs has revolutionized tactical air-to-ground warfare. These semiactive laser guided munitions, which home on reflected energy directed on the target, not only drastically reduce the numbers required to destroy a target, but also feature accuracy, reliability, and cost-effectiveness previously unattainable with conventional weapons.

Implementing lessons learned from Vietnam on Paveway I, development of Paveway II began under a 1973 contract from the Armament Development and Test Center at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. The original contract with the Air Force called for GBU-12 kits on a Mk-82 (500-pound) bomb and GBU-10 kits on a Mk-84 (2,000-pound) bomb. The GBU-16 kit for a Mk-83 (1,000-pound) bomb came later for the Navy.

Lockheed Martin Delivers First PAC-3 Missiles
Lockheed Martin recently delivered the first Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missiles from its new production facility in Camden, Ark., on schedule and on budget. A single four-pack of PAC-3 Missiles, containing two PAC-3s and two missile simulators, was delivered to the U.S. Army at the end of May.

The first tactical PAC-3 Missile four-pack is scheduled for delivery from Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control's Camden Operations within the month. The PAC-3 Missile Low-Rate Initial Production-1 (LRIP-1) contract calls for the delivery of 32 PAC-3 Missiles, 11 Patriot Launcher Modification Kits and 18 Fire Solution Computers.



Eight of the Launcher Modification Kits and all of the Fire Solution Computers on the LRIP-1 contract have already been delivered. The final missile delivery for LRIP-1 will occur by the end of the year. The Launcher Modification Kits and Fire Solution Computers are fabricated and assembled at the Missiles and Fire Control facility in Lufkin, Texas.

The PAC-3 Missile is a high velocity, hit-to-kill missile and is the next generation Patriot missile being developed to provide increased capability against advanced theater ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and hostile aircraft. The PAC-3 Missile defeats incoming targets by direct, body-to-body impact. The PAC-3 Missiles, when deployed in a Patriot battery, will significantly increase the Patriot system's firepower, since 16 PAC-3 Missiles load-out on a Patriot launcher, compared with four of the PAC-2 Patriot missiles.

Navy to Christen New Guided Missile Destroyer Pinckney
The newest Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, Pinckney (DDG 91), will be christened Saturday, June 29, 2002, during a 10 a.m. CDT ceremony at Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in Pascagoula, Miss.



The ship honors Navy Cook 3rd Class William Pinckney (1915-1975), recipient of the Navy Cross for his courageous rescue of a fellow crew member on board USS Enterprise (CV 6) during the World War II Battle of Santa Cruz. When an explosion killed four of the six men at his battle station in an ammunition handling room, Pinckney and the other surviving Sailor attempted to exit through a hatch to the hangar deck above. When the other man grasped the scorching hatch, he fell back unconscious. Despite the suffocating smoke, flames and gasoline fumes surrounding him, Pinckney carried the Sailor to safety. For his selfless heroism, Pinckney was awarded the Navy Cross.

Pinckney is the 41st ship of a planned production run of 63 vessels. These multi-mission ships conduct sustained combat operations at sea, providing primary protection for the Navy's aircraft carriers and battle groups, as well as essential escort to Navy and Marine Corps amphibious forces and auxiliary ships, and independent operations as necessary. DDG 91 will be capable of fighting air, surface and subsurface battles simultaneously. The ship contains myriad offensive and defensive weapons designed to support maritime defense needs well into the 21st century.


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