TACSAT-4 Dowlink Active

Our friendly Tacsat 4 (2011-052A) DoD Milsat is on an ascending pass towards apogee right now and located 11,900 km in altitude just south of Puerto Rico. It's 253.000 MHz downiink is active with AM ATC traffic picked off by its uplink. The 253.000 MHz downlink is a flame thrower here in Btown right now. None of the other known UHF downlinks are currently active.

Russian Bear Bombers Over Guam

Russian TU-95 Bear Strategic Bomber (Photo courtesy of DoD)

Noted military reporter Bill Gertz on the Washington Free Beacon website is reporting that two Russian nuclear-armed bombers circled the western Pacific island of Guam this week in the latest sign of Moscow’s growing strategic assertiveness toward the United States.

The Russian Tu-95 Bear-H strategic bombers were equipped with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and were followed by U.S. jets as they circumnavigated Guam on Feb. 12 local time—hours before President Barack Obama’s state of the union address.

Air Force Capt. Kim Bender, a spokeswoman for the Pacific Air Force in Hawaii, confirmed the incident to the Washington Free Beacon and said Air Force F-15 jets based on Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, “scrambled and responded to the aircraft.”

“The Tu-95s were intercepted and left the area in a northbound direction. No further actions occurred,” she said. Bender said no other details would be released “for operational security reasons.”

You can read the entire story by clicking here.