Leituras, encontros com autores, cinema, atividades para famílias, jogos e iniciativas dedicadas à saúde e ao bem-estar marcam a programação da Biblioteca Municipal de Faro ao longo do mês de setembro.
A Biblioteca Municipal de Faro António Ramos Rosa apresenta, em setembro, uma programação diversificada, com propostas dirigidas a diferentes públicos e interesses, reforçando o seu papel enquanto espaço de encontro, conhecimento, cultura e participação da comunidade. Ao longo do mês, são várias as oportunidades para descobrir novos livros e autores, participar em momentos de leitura e escrita, assistir a cinema, desfrutar de atividades em família ou refletir sobre temas relevantes para a comunidade.
No domínio da leitura, o mês começa com uma nova sessão do Clube de Leitura, a 10 de setembro, dedicada à discussão das leituras de verão, e prossegue com dois Encontros com Autores. Gerson Rosário apresenta O Guardião das Lendas, no dia 16 de setembro, enquanto Rui Couceiro estará na Biblioteca para apresentar A Mais Bela Maldição, numa sessão moderada por Maria Luísa Francisco, no dia 29 de setembro. A programação inclui ainda uma nova sessão do Clube de Escrita Criativa, convidando à experimentação e à partilha através da palavra escrita, no mesmo dia.
Também o cinema marca presença com mais uma sessão de “Cinema Francês”, promovida em parceria com a Alliance Française do Algarve e o Cineclube de Faro, com a exibição de Borgo, de Stéphane Demoustier, no dia 18 de setembro. Para quem prefere desafios e estratégia, haverá ainda uma tarde dedicada aos jogos de tabuleiro modernos, dinamizada por João Silva e aberta a participantes de todas as idades, a 19 de setembro.As famílias encontram igualmente várias propostas ao longo do mês. No âmbito do programa Alameda Viva, a Biblioteca leva a Hora do Conto ao Jardim da Alameda, com as sessões Jardim da Multiculturalidade e Jardim Radical, dias 12 e 26 de setembro, respetivamente. A programação inclui ainda, no dia 17 de setembro, uma “Hora do Conto Especial”, sob o mote Cidade de pessoas para pessoas, dedicada à importância dos pequenos gestos e à forma como podem contribuir para uma comunidade mais consciente e participativa.
A saúde e o bem-estar são também temas presentes na programação de setembro. O ciclo Con-versas com Saúde aborda a Anafilaxia e situações críticas em idade pediátrica, numa sessão con-duzida pela Dra. Maria Alfaro, que terá lugar dia 22 de setembro. Já a iniciativa “Biblioteca Social – Humaniza-te” promove a sessão Tu és importante – Agarra-te à vida!, dia 25 de setembro, com a participação das Dr.ªs Nazaré Santos e Patrícia Romão, do Núcleo de Estudos do Suicídio Portu-guês.
Os “Sábados em Família”, dia 26, trazem, por sua vez, uma sessão de yoga orientada por Teresa Sequeira, dedicada ao bem-estar durante a gravidez e à relação entre a futura mãe e o bebé.Ao longo de todo o mês, entre 1 e 30 de setembro, estará patente na Biblioteca uma “Mostra Bi-bliográfica dedicada ao Fundo Documental e Espólio de Mariana Santos”, completando uma pro-gramação que procura aproximar a Biblioteca da comunidade e afirmar este equipamento municipal como um espaço aberto à cultura, à aprendizagem e ao convívio.
Um homem de 61 anos sofreu ferimentos graves, este sábado, na sequência do despiste da mota em que seguia na Estrada Nacional 369 (EN369), junto à vila de Cabeço de Vide, no concelho de Fronteira, distrito de Portalegre.
O alerta para a ocorrência foi dado às 15h29, segundo fonte do Comando Sub-Regional de Emergência e Proteção Civil do Alto Alentejo. Segundo a Lusa, devido à gravidade dos ferimentos, a vítima foi helitransportada para o Hospital de Santa Maria, em Lisboa.
Para o local do acidente foram mobilizados 12 operacionais dos bombeiros, militares da Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR) e elementos do Instituto Nacional de Emergência Médica (INEM), apoiados por quatro viaturas — incluindo a Viatura Médica de Emergência e Reanimação (VMER) de Portalegre — e por um helicóptero de emergência médica.
A year after Canada recognized the State of Palestine, questions remain about the reforms Prime Minister Mark Carney said the Palestinian Authority had committed to.
A year after Canada recognized the State of Palestine, questions remain about the reforms Prime Minister Mark Carney said the Palestinian Authority had committed to.
Uma colisão rodoviária entre dois veículos ligeiros provocou, ao final da manhã deste sábado, 5 de setembro, cinco feridos na freguesia de São João da Ribeira e Ribeira de São João, no concelho de Rio Maior.
Entre as vítimas, o caso mais grave é o de uma criança de 10 anos, que sofreu ferimentos graves e teve de ser helitransportada de urgência para o Hospital de Santa Maria, em Lisboa. Do acidente resultaram ainda mais quatro feridos ligeiros — entre os quais duas menores —, que foram igualmente transportados e assistidos na mesma unidade hospitalar.
O alerta para a ocorrência foi dado às 12h10. Para o local foram mobilizados 19 operacionais do socorro, apoiados por 6 veículos terrestres e 1 meio aéreo.
Não se iluda com a beleza da cidade de Lagos. Ela é também um osso duro de roer. Que o diga quem, em determinada fase da história, a tentou conquistar e falhou redondamente.
Um dos que comprovaram a têmpera dos lacobrigenses e a eficácia das suas estruturas de defesa, em especial, as muralhas, foi o temível corsário britânico Francis Drake.
Em1587, numa altura em que Portugal estava sob o domínio espanhol, vindo de Cádis, onde destruíra mais de duas dezenas de navios inimigos, tentou desembarcar e saquear Lagos.
No entanto, a resistência local foi muito mais feroz do que previra.
Forçado a desistir, o corsário seguiu para Sagres, descarregando a sua frustração ao arrasar quase tudo o que encontrou entre o Porto da Baleeira e o Cabo de São Vicente.
Séculos mais tarde, durante as Guerras Liberais do século XIX, a cidade voltou a ser posta à prova pelo famoso Remexido, um temido guerrilheiro apoiante de D. Miguel.
Decidido a fazer Lagos render-se pela fome e pela sede, o Remexido montou um cerco implacável de um mês.
Posicionou canhões no Monte Moleão e no Cerro das Mós para bombardear a população, queimou os moinhos e destruiu o aqueduto.
Apesar do sofrimento imposto, os seus intentos falharam e, com a iminente derrota miguelista no Alentejo, viu-se obrigado a levantar o cerco, deixando finalmente a cidade em paz.
Das Nationale Antikorruptionsbüro der Ukraine (NABU) hat am Freitagabend mitgeteilt, es führe im Rahmen einer „Spezialoperation Karthago“ Durchsuchungen in der Generalstaatsanwalt durch. Die Operation richtete sich demnach gegen ein Netzwerk von auf Telefonbetrug spezialisierten Callcentern, die von einem leitenden Mitarbeiter der Generalstaatsanwalt geschützt wurden. Die Callcenter sind vor allem in Russland, aber auch in Europa […]
Leonor Lopes entrou na Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto com 19,63 valores. A idade tornou-a notícia em todo o País, mas há uma parte da sua história que passa pelo concelho de Abrantes. É neta de Humberto Pires Lopes, natural de Mouriscas, antigo professor e ex-presidente da Câmara de Abrantes. Numa família onde o ensino e a Medicina atravessam gerações, a jovem garante, contudo…
The face is gone. Not chipped or worn away by time, but struck — possibly on purpose — until nothing remained of the features that once identified this life-size limestone head, carved roughly 2,400 years ago. What survived instead is the hairstyle: a braid gathered at the nape, with curls falling at the sides. For […]
Los Romeros, Sérgio Rossi, Filipe Delgado e Banda ATK são alguns dos destaques da programação do evento que junta música, tradição, gastronomia e animação. A localidade de Vale de Cavalos, no concelho da Chamusca, recebe mais uma edição da Festa em Honra de Nossa Senhora dos Remédios entre os dias 4 e 7 de setembro. A organização do evento anual está a cargo de uma comissão de moradores local…
Três pessoas ficaram feridas na manhã deste sábado, 5 de setembro, na sequência de um acidente de viação ocorrido na Autoestrada 3 (A3), no sentido Porto – Braga, ao quilómetro 27, na zona de Vila Nova de Famalicão.
Bombeiros voluntários de Famalicão
O alerta para a ocorrência foi dado às 08h24. As três vítimas sofreram ferimentos e foram assistidas no local, sendo posteriormente transportadas pelas equipas de socorro para o Hospital de Vila Nova de Famalicão.
Nas operações de socorro e apoio no local estiveram empenhados 11 operacionais dos Bombeiros Voluntários de Famalicão, apoiados por 4 veículos. A Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR) esteve presente a registar a ocorrência e a gerir o trânsito, conjuntamente com a assistência da concessionária Brisa.
Por: Dino Frazão Fonte: segundo Bombeiros Voluntários de Famalicão 05/09/2026
di Cesare Sacchetti Di lui, non si sapeva nulla fino all’estate del 2023, quando da queste parti si parafrasò una famosa opera shakespeariana per annunciare la sua improvvisa venuta, quale “Sogno di un gatekeeper di mezza estate”. Il generale Vannacci ha esordito così nella politica italiana, attraverso una preparazione di marketing concepita da altre menti […]
Tudo em que dá pra sentar é cadeira! — berrou Jorginho, de doze anos.
Faz um tempo que dou aulas de matemática extracurricular para pré-adolescentes e gosto sempre de alterar o material, já que não preciso seguir nenhum programa de conteúdo muito rígido. Recentemente pensei que seria interessante tentar ensiná-los a importância (e a dificuldade) de boas definições e, antes de lhes apresentar as bases euclidianas do fazer matemático, propus um desafio a fim de mostrar que essa empreitada é muito mais complicada do que o pai da geometria fez parecer. Expliquei que a matemática moderna é feita a partir de definições muito precisas, que delimitam exatamente os objetos que querem — bem — definir, mas que, ao longo de sua vasta história, houve inúmeros embates sobre como deveria ser definido, por exemplo, um plano. Antes, porém, de entrar de fato nos objetos abstratos da mãe das ciências, sugeri que começássemos por delimitar algo mais concreto, mais empolgante.
— Alguém pode me dizer o que é uma cadeira?
— Tem um encosto, quatro pernas e dá pra sentar! — alguém no fundo falou.
— E se o encosto quebrasse, ainda seria uma cadeira? — perguntei, crente de que eu conduziria essa investigação magistralmente, pelo infalível método socrático.
— Aí seria uma cadeira quebrada, professor! — Começaram a rir.
— Pois bem, eu quero uma lista de características que a cadeira PRECISA ter para ser uma cadeira. Se ela não precisa de encosto, a lista também não precisa.
— Lá em casa tem uma que não tem apoio de braço, nem encosto, nem perna! É um quadradão assim, e a gente chama de cadeira.
— Quadrado, não. Cubo. — disse Jorginho.
— Certo, então é só um objeto em que dá pra sentar. Seria isso? — perguntei.
— Não! — exclamou Gabriel. — Dá pra sentar no chão, mas o chão não é uma cadeira.
— O chão não é objeto!
— Tá, mas dá pra sentar numa mesa também, e mesa não é cadeira!
Os alunos engataram na discussão e me segurei para deixá-los livres, queria ver se chegariam a algum consenso. Continuaram se lançando exemplos e contraexemplos até que a turma se dividiu em dois grupos: um deles, liderado por Jorginho (que tem uma incrível memória, sempre me lembra de fazer a chamada), defendia que tudo em que se podia se sentar poderia ser chamado de cadeira; o outro grupo, cuja voz mais ardente vinha de Gabriel, tinha como fundamento a intenção do criador do objeto: se alguém fez algo em que se poderia se sentar e o batizou de cadeira, logo aquilo assim seria chamado. As duas escolas de pensamento, então, travaram um feroz embate acerca da natureza real de um tronco cortado na floresta.
Fiquei tão absorvido pelo debate, pela truculência com que sustentavam suas alegações, que me esqueci de que esse é um problema sem solução. A impossibilidade de um consenso foi se tornando mais clara quando vi alguns alunos subindo em suas cadeiras como demonstração de um argumento que não captei por completo e vi bolas de papel voando em suas direções, certamente carregadas de eloquentes réplicas. Tive que me restabelecer como autoridade daquela ágora vulcânica assim que começaram os gritos de “DERRUBA! DERRUBA!”.
— Chega! — e dei um tapão na lousa tentando disfarçar minha satisfação em ter instigado um bélico debate filosófico entre pré-adolescentes.
Mas no silêncio borbulhante da turma ainda com os peitos ebulindo opiniões, Gabriel se levantou lenta e confiantemente e, com uma folha de papel amassada na mão, foi em direção à lata de lixo, gesto que passou despercebido pelos rivais. Eu o olhava pacientemente, esperando-o voltar a sua carteira para que eu pudesse prosseguir com a aula. Ele jogou fora o papel e, no caminho de volta ao seu assento, foi para o palanque na frente da sala, levantou os braços e disse “Tá aqui a cadeira do Jorginho!” e encheu a mão com o argumento que tinha entre as pernas.
No âmbito do Loulé Festival Animal, que irá acontecer ao longo do mês de outubro, a Câmara Municipal de Loulé lança à comunidade o desafio de encontrar o cão mais idoso do concelho de Loulé.
A 1 de outubro, assinala-se o Dia do Cão Idoso, data que coincide propositadamente com o Dia Internacional do Idoso, sendo esta uma efeméride que pretende consciencializar para a importância de dar carinho, atenção e cuidados de saúde específicos aos cães seniores, além de incentivar a adoção responsável de animais mais velhos que se encontram em abrigos.
Assim, a Autarquia de Loulé lança, nas suas redes sociais, um concurso através do qual quer identificar o cão com idade mais avançada registado no concelho.
Para concorrer, os participantes deverão enviar uma fotografia do seu animal e uma fotografia do respetivo Boletim Sanitário (para comprovar a data de nascimento), até ao dia 25 de setembro, para o email bemestaranimal@cm-loule.pt. Deverão colocar como assunto “O meu cão é o mais idoso do concelho”.
Os nomes dos três cães mais idosos serão divulgados no dia 1 de outubro, Dia do Cão Idoso. Aos participantes serão entregues os seguintes prémios: 1º prémio – uma sessão fotográfica do vencedor com o seu tutor e um saco de ração com quilos equivalentes à idade do vencedor; 2º prémio – um saco de ração com quilos equivalentes à idade do vencedor; 3º Prémio – um saco de ração com quilos equivalentes à idade do vencedor.
Assim como os humanos, os cães também enfrentam mudanças significativas à medida que envelhecem. Por isso, é fundamental que os tutores estejam atentos às necessidades específicas dessa fase da vida e, nesse sentido, é este o objetivo desta ação: sensibilizar para a importância de promover um envelhecimento digno e saudável a estes amigos de quatro patas.
The U.S. Air Force is targeting an approximately $10 million unit price, excluding sensors and certain other systems, for a drone to succeed the MQ-9A Reaper. The cost of a fully kitted-out Reaper today is generally reported to be between $30 million and $50 million. The Air Force is also now pushing to accelerate the program to acquire the new drones, dubbed the Massed Modular Aircraft (MMA), amid what it admits are “concerning” Reaper losses in the course of recent operations against Iran.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Niemi, the service’s Chief Modernization Officer, told reporters that the goal was for the MMAs to be “closer to half” the cost of a Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), at a roundtable at the Pentagon yesterday, according to Breaking Defense. He also said the service was hoping to see the price tag on its future CCAs fall to around $20 million after full-rate production of those drones gets underway.
A row of USAF MQ-9A Reapers. USAF/Staff Sgt. Ariel OShea
Beyond cost, the Air Force has previously said that it wants the MMA drone to perform the same general intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and strike missions as the MQ-9A. To that end, stated program requirements to date include a speed of at least 200 knots true airspeed, a munition and sensor payload capacity of at least 2,800 pounds, an unrefueled combat radius of at least 2,300 nautical miles with payload, the ability to self-deploy one-way at least 8,000 nautical miles, and the ability to operate from runways no longer than 6,000 feet. The MMAs also need to be highly modular and use open architecture mission systems to make it easier to integrate new capabilities and functionality down the line.
With all that in mind, Niemi’s MMA cost “estimate includes only the cost of the air vehicle, without being fully missionized,” an Air Force spokesperson clarified after yesterday’s roundtable, per Breaking Defense.
The MQ-9A is out of production, but, as mentioned, the full cost of each one in Air Force service today is generally pegged at between $30 million and $50 million, depending on the sensors, weapons, and other mission equipment they carry. Speaking yesterday, Lt. Gen. Niemi explicitly used the $50 million price point to underscore the MMA program’s unit cost target, as well as explain why the Air Force does not view the newer, in-production MQ-9B as a path to meeting its current needs. General Atomics developed the MQ-9B from the Reaper, but the former is a significantly evolved design with substantial differences from its predecessor.
“If you don’t like losing an MQ-9A that cost on the order of $50 million, with the sensors, you’re probably not going to like losing an MQ-9B at a higher price point,” Niemi said at yesterday’s roundtable, according to a separate report from Air & Space Forces Magazine.
An MQ-9B drone. General Atomics
“There’s a, I think, sort of a misconception that because the MQ-9B is in production, we can walk down there with a big fat check and have 100 of them this year,” the general also said, Breaking Defense also reported. “That’s not reality.”
Niemi acknowledged that tradeoffs will have to be made to find an MMA design that is substantially lower cost compared to the MQ-9A.
“You’re going to have to certainly give up something,” he said, per Breaking Defense. “There’s no doubt if we try and pursue the exact same approach that we had with things like the MQ-9, we’re going to get something that costs about the same as an MQ-9.”
However, “what makes the MQ-9 special has nothing to do with the aircraft itself. Like there is no cutting-edge technology for how fast it flies, how high it flies, how far it flies, all that is proven, decades-old technology,” he added, according to that outlet. “So, if you’re focusing on the truck, and you do it in a way where you’re able to make some smart design compromises … we do think you can drive the cost down.”
Niemi said that he expected the MMA, in very general terms, to look much like an MQ-9, including that it would likely also be turboprop powered and have a similarly shaped main wing.
A US Air Force MQ-9A Reaper. USAF
“I think it’s all going to be proven stuff, because that’s how I’m going to drive down the cost so I can get to that goal that I laid out,” Niemi added.
For its part, General Atomics has had choice words in the past regarding discussions about the costs of the MQ-9A and MQ-9B, as well as their capabilities, particularly in light of recent losses. We will come back to the matter of attrition in a moment.
“Some say we need cheaper, disposable aircraft, so that we can use them and throw them away, or lose them and not feel bad about it. No one is talking about actual capability, ready today,” C. Mark Brinkley, a spokesperson for the company, told TWZ back in June after new discussions about a Reaper successor for the Air Force first began to surface. “No one is talking about all of the hard lessons, already learned, about icing and weather and weapons integration. No one is talking about the multiple survivability upgrades available for the existing platforms and the lack of investment in those.”
“These make-believe weapons that don’t exist have the luxury of being anything you imagine them to be,” Brinkley added at that time. “Unscratched lottery tickets, promising all of the win and none of the lose [sic].”
USAF
“I think it’s really unfortunate that MMA has been branded as a ‘Reaper replacement’ because it misrepresents what America needs now and what we need later,” he told us last month. “We need an immediate backfill solution to a critical shortage of unmanned MALE [medium altitude, long endurance] ISR/Strike. We need to get going on that now. MMA isn’t a backfill solution, or even a bridge to a backfill solution. This isn’t that.”
Brinkley was speaking here in the context of a discussion about Wildfire, a new drone General Atomics is now developing in response to the MMA requirements.
Wildfire “addresses all of the concerns posed by the MMA solicitation. We can deliver years earlier and maintain the same high quality. You can have everything that makes Reaper special, plus more, at a price that doesn’t break the bank,” Brinkley also told Breaking Defense for its story yesterday.
All of this brings us back around to the matter of MQ-9A losses and the Air Force’s efforts now to accelerate the schedule for the MMA program.
Air Force officials have offered glowing assessments of the MQ-9A’s performance in operations against Iran, despite these losses, but have also said that the level of attrition is worrisome. That reality, in turn, had major impacts on discussions that led to the current MMA program.
“Although we have plenty of MQ-9As today, we are going through them at a rate that is concerning to us,” Niemi said yesterday, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine. “There’s not a lot of good options to immediately replace those aircraft.”
When the MMA program was first announced in July, the stated goal was to have an initial operational fleet of 20 of the drones in service by 2031. The Air Force is now working to push that timeline to the left, but still sees fielding of the new drones as being around three years away, at least. The service eventually hopes to acquire at least 180 MMAs.
“I can’t buy an MMA today. The reality is, based on the budget and other constraints, that I’m not going to buy a whole lot of MQ-9Bs today either,” Niemi conceded, per Breaking Defense.
It is important to remember here that the Air Force has already tried multiple times to develop a replacement for the MQ-9 without success. In that time, the idea of what a successor to the Reaper would look like has changed dramatically. As we’ve written previously:
“The Pentagon has long worked on the basis that a future conflict with a peer rival, and especially with China in the Pacific, would see it facing highly robust anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) scenarios. With that in mind, previous Reaper replacement studies had suggested that low observability would need to be incorporated into the design.”
“The latest thinking seems to reject that, or at least reorient the program toward a lower-cost platform of the kind that the Air Force would be able to field in mass, as well as to absorb the anticipated attrition in a high-end conflict. This does not preclude this airframe from featuring low-observable elements. In fact, it most likely will. But those would be more aggressively balanced against cost.”
MMA is also looking at a wider slate of potential vendors. General Atomics, which has long had a monopoly on the U.S. MALE combat drone market, is not the only one angling now for an MMA contract.
A rendering of a stealthy concept Northrop Grumman previously put forward as a possible MQ-9 replacement, underscoring how the thinking in this regard has changed over the years. Northrop Grumman
“…the U.S. drone landscape has changed considerably in terms of manufacturers. A few years ago, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and General Atomics would have been seen as the front-runners for the MQ-9 replacement. Now, there are more contenders, often with a founding focus on rapidly scaling up production at low cost. Still, these firms have much to prove, especially considering the risk in replacing an aircraft as important as the MQ-9. At the same time, in the more advanced drone space, the legacy defense ‘prime’ contractors are also making major progress in leveraging new technologies to reduce production costs and migrating away from exquisite, very expensive drones as their default offerings.”
The possibility was reportedly raised yesterday that the MMA program could ultimately lead to the fielding of multiple types of drones through successive incremental development cycles. This is exactly how the Air Force is running its CCA program now.
With the Air Force now pushing for a more aggressive schedule for the MMA effort, more details about the designs it is considering may begin to emerge relatively soon. The service certainly has a pressing need already for these drones after so many MQ-9A losses.
Video emerged on social media of local workers cleaning the carrier. Two of them can be seen on a scaffolding platform, dressed in silver-colored protective clothing, yellow helmets, face shields and black boots, spraying the side of the big ship. You can see that most of the rust, as well as all of the green swath of algae, was removed from the section where they are working.
The camera also pans across the ship, showing the extent of the work still needed.
Those recent viral rust photos/footage of the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) in Thailand overstated the story.
Yes, the hull looked rough in pictures, but the ship itself was never in question, that's the part the headlines skipped.
It is unclear whether this work had already been scheduled as part of routine maintenance or whether it had been ordered after images of the ship emerged showing its rough condition. The ship was a huge focus of attention even before it got to Thailand.
Interest in the Lincoln flared up anew after it arrived in Thailand due to its condition, as well as intense curiosity about how the crew would fare in a Thai port call after being at sea for so long.
The USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) aircraft carrier arrives at Laem Chabang Port on Sept. 2, 2026 in Si Racha, Thailand. Photo by Thananuwat Srirasant
“It’s terrible. I think they should be ashamed,” John Phelan told members of Congress at a hearing last year, when he was then-nominee for Secretary of the Navy, after being shown pictures of a very worn-looking Arleigh Burke class destroyer, the USS Dewey, during a stopover in Singapore. “Would you want to go on that ship?”
One driving factor in the condition of ships like Lincoln is the operational tempo of deployments, a Navy official noted earlier this year.
“We know what to do, but we choose not to do it,” Mark Lattner, director of the Navy’s Ship Integrity and Performance Engineering, Naval Systems Engineering Directorate, said in January during a panel at the Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium that TWZ attended. “And we choose not to do it because there’s always some other problem I’ve got to fix. I don’t have time. Our corrosion can wait. And so we don’t implement the fixes.”
Finding a solution to the Navy’s rust problem became one of Lattner’s main missions in the wake of the fallout from Trump’s late-night texts to Navy officials demanding answers about the condition of theArleighBurke class guided missile destroyer USS Dewey after he saw pictures of it covered in running rust as it pulled into Singapore last year.
A picture of the USS Dewey covered in ‘running rust’ during a recent port visit in Singapore is shown at the confirmation hearing for Secretary of the Navy nominee John Phelan on January 27, 2025. Senate Armed Services Committee capture
Port calls offer critical time to fix long-standing issues and resupply the ship of pretty much everything you can think of, from jet fuel to food. So it’s no surprise that the Lincoln would be swarmed with support personnel and supplies while much of her crew enjoys being on land once again for a few days.
It’s unclear how long the clean-up work on the Lincoln will last or how much of it will be finished by the time the ship and crew leave port. Either way, from what we have seen so far, it will look much better leaving Thailand than when it arrived.
Nach einer Woche Pause, weil NuoViso letzte Woche sein Sommerfest gefeiert hat, haben Robert Stein und ich am Donnerstag wieder eine Tacheles-Sendung aufgezeichnet, die nun online ist. Sollte YouTube sie löschen, finden Sie sie auch hier bei NuoViso.
Realizou-se, no passado dia 3 de setembro, a primeira Assembleia Geral da Transportes da Lezíria do Tejo, EIM, S.A., empresa intermunicipal criada pelos 11 municípios que integram a Comunidade Intermunicipal da Lezíria do Tejo (CIMLT) para assegurar a gestão e o desenvolvimento do serviço público de transporte coletivo de passageiros na região. Nesta primeira Assembleia Geral foram eleitos…
The U.S. Air Force is seeking an anti-aircraft gun system to help defend its air bases around the world from drones and cruise missiles. The Request for Information (RFI) about these systems, posted on the government’s contracting website on Thursday, is part of a larger Air Force effort to play a greater role in air base defense via ground-based air defenses (GBADs), a capacity traditionally performed by the Army. As a result, the Air Force currently has no such systems. Now it is interested in changing that.
The request comes as the war against Iran exposed gaps in how the U.S. can provide effective, sustained air defenses for its foreign installations and amid concerns about a future fight against a peer competitor like China or Russia.
“The Government is conducting market research to identify potential industry sources capable of providing solutions for a Ground-Based, Medium-Caliber Gun Weapon System that fires affordable munitions, enables defense against air and missile threats with an initial focus on subsonic cruise missiles (CM) and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) to provide persistent defense in support of [the] United States Air Force,” the RFI notes.
The RFI doesn’t stipulate what it considers a medium-caliber round; however, according to the Army, the list includes 20mm, 25mm, 30x113mm, 30x173mm and 40mm shells.
“To effectively assess and compare air defense weapon system performance, there are 15 critical baseline operational and technical parameters that must be analyzed in unison,” the RFI explains.
(Air Force Request for Information)
“These key metrics begin with the system’s Salvo Probability of Kill (Pk) evaluated against both Cruise Missiles (CM) and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Groups 1-5 at maximum range and altitude, ensuring robust lethality against diverse modern threats,” the RFI notes.
A salvo probability of kill measures how effectively a salvo, as opposed to a single shot, defeats a target.
The following chart displays the weight, normal operating altitude and speed of the five drone group classifications.
(Congressional Research Service chart of Group 1 through 5 drones)
The Air Force wants this system to be “rapidly deployable, maintaining a lightweight, modular, and transportable footprint that can be swiftly projected into austere theater environments to meet emergent threats.” The RFI does not provide further details of how the Air Force is looking to transport these systems; however, the service relies on its fleets of C-130 Hercules, C-17 Globemaster III and C-5 Galaxy transport aircraft to move equipment. The size and weight of the systems determines which kind of aircraft can transport it.
These systems could also be moved by truck or ship or on their own if self-propelled, but those options also incur a cost in terms of the timeliness of delivery, and can be impossible for rapid global deployments.
U.S. Army soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 7th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, load equipment and trucks onto a C-17 Globemaster III with U.S. Air Force airmen assigned to the 21st Expeditionary Airlift Squadron at an undisclosed location in the CENTCOM Area of Operations, Dec. 31, 2023. Photo by Staff Sgt. Christopher Neu
A key point of evaluation will be the overall cost of the munitions. The Air Force wants to ensure that the shell’s velocity and terminal effects “are maximized without driving the cost-per-engagement to unsustainable levels or exceeding the physical constraints of the host platform,” the RFI states. We’ll discuss these factors in more detail later in this story.
The service is also looking for the integration of “the right mix of radar, electro-optical, infrared, or radio-frequency sensors—to ensure reliable target acquisition and tracking across varying weather conditions, environments, and countermeasure scenarios.”
As we noted at the top of this story, the Air Force is seeking to improve its organic ability to defend its bases. This has become “an increasingly high priority” for the service, Air Force Secretary Troy E. Meink told Congress on May 20.
“The Air Force is developing organic air and missile defense capabilities, including Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-sUAS) to defend our air bases in all theatres [sic],” Meink stated in his written testimony. “The fielding of the Air Base Air Defense Systems (ABADS) missile defense capability, including kinetic defenses, at overseas main operation bases contributes to joint layered defense but does not reduce the need for increased joint investment in air and missile defense. We will continue to work judiciously for the development and procurement of these critical defensive capabilities.”
(Written testimony of Air Force Secretary Troy E. Meink)
In its Fiscal Year 2027 budget request, the Air Force is seeking about $1.4 billion for a missile defense variant of the Air Base Air Defense Systems (ABADS), according to Air & Space Forces Magazine. In addition, the Air Force also requested $51.8 million in procurement funds for its Small Unmanned Air Defense Systems (SUADS) in Fiscal Year 2026, according to the Air Force Fiscal Year 2026 budget justification book.
The war against Iran and the Ukraine war have, in particular, illustrated the challenges of defending against drones and cruise missiles.
There are two facets to potential use of gun systems for base defense. The first is that in complex air defense environments, it provides an inner, last line of defense against incoming threats. If the outer layers fail to take down the target or that target is not considered a priority over others, a hard-kill gun system offers a predictable and relatively reliable fallback. The gun system would become even more important if interceptor stocks run low, even temporarily, and those weapons need to be rationed for higher-end threats. With the outer defensive rings collapsing, the inner becomes far more important.
For small drones, that interceptors would not be effective with anyway, the gun system can take them down in localized air defense scenarios. Then there is also defending bases in lower threat areas where there are not additional layers of SAM systems. A gun system can provide a core aerial defense against lower-end, lower-density drone and cruise missile threats without costing huge sums of money or requiring a huge logistical footprint.
Beyond that, there is a direct cost comparison argument, but again, that is in a vacuum and a gun system cannot take the place of a multi-layered air defense system without inviting huge risk. Still, the engagement cost comparison is worth mentioning.
High-end, expensive, difficult-to-manufacture air defense weapons, like Patriot PAC-3 MSE, are clearly inefficient against drones. For instance, a mass-produced Iranian Shahed-136 can cost about $35,000 to $50,000, while a Patriot PAC-3 can run about $5 million and takes years to procure. By comparison, the cost-per-engagement efficiency of gun-based air defense systems, designed to defend against drones and subsonic cruise missiles, is far greater. One example of how this plays out is the cost of firing the Army’s Centurion Counter-Rocket, Artillery, Mortar (C-RAM) system. It is a ground-based version of the Phalanx Close-In Weapon System (CIWS) used on various U.S. and foreign warships, and is armed with a six-barrel 20mm Vulcan Gatling-type cannon firing M940 rounds. Those self-destructing rounds currently have a price tag of $80.70, according to the Army’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget request. This means a two-second burst from a Centurion, at a rate of fire of 4,500 rounds per minute, would cost just over $12,100.
Again, this is not a strict apples-to-apples comparison, but it can become a bigger factor during prolonged conflicts when high-end weapons stocks begin to run short. It’s also worth noting that drone interceptors are a rapidly growing capability set that are a lower-cost option for swatting down one-way attack drones and even some cruise missiles. Systems like Coyote have been in service for years with the Pentagon and have been protecting bases overseas with strong results. Even cheaper systems are emerging out of lessons learned in Ukraine. All of these systems have their own advantages and disadvantages, but pairing them with a new gun system would likely have synergistic effects. Overall, deploying densely layered short-range air defenses is becoming increasingly important in its own right, at least in high-threat areas.
Ukraine has a great deal of experience with the costs and prioritization of air defense capabilities. The country faces daily attacks by Russian missiles and drones, which is causing mounting casualties and destruction. This ceaseless bombardment has almost completely depleted Ukraine’s supply of Patriot interceptors, leaving it largely defenseless against ballistic missiles. As we noted yesterday, Ukraine is also running short of air-to-air missiles its Air Force F-16s use to swat down drones.
However, Ukraine has also relied heavily on a wide array of gun-based air defense systems, including the German-made Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns (SPAAG). Based on the chassis of the Leopard 1 main battle tank, Gepards feature twin radar-aimed 35mm automatic cannons, mounted on a single turret. The German variant sports an S-band search radar and a Ku-band tracking radar. These radars are critical to the Gepard’s ability to locate, track, and engage targets at night and amid poor weather conditions.
The following video shows a Gepard blasting an Iranian-made Shahed-136 out of the sky.
A video reportedly showing two Russian Shahed-136 (Geran-2) loitering munitions being shot down by the Ukrainians with a German-delivered Flakpanzer Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft gun (SPAAG) during last night's attack in Odesa Oblast, southern Ukraine.… pic.twitter.com/OhH7vTultm
The Air Force force is also looking at directed energy weapons like lasers for force protection and especially for defending bases overseas. While gaining traction across the services due in large measure to the much lower cost of delivering effects, these systems are still works in progress. Gun-based air defenses, on the other hand, are mature and proven, and modern precision-guided, programmable ammunition makes them even more efficient and effective.
Beyond the cost, high-end air defense systems — including their component sensors — though portable, are generally fixed to a specific location. That makes them vulnerable to attack. This has been the case in both the war against Iran and Ukraine. The same concerns hold true of aircraft. Both conflicts have shown aircraft vulnerability to drones when parked out in the open. Ukraine’s Operation Spider Web attack on Russian strategic bombers last year in particular shed light on this issue, which we have been sounding the alarm on for a long time.
In addition to these challenges, the Air Force is also facing the headwinds of an overall lack of U.S. short-range air defense capabilities, a concern we have been highlighting for years. Currently, there are three gun-based SHORAD systems being fielded by the U.S. military. These include the aforementioned Centurion C-RAM systems.
The Army also uses the Sgt. Stout, an air defense system based on the 8×8 Stryker light armored vehicle. The Sgt. Stout has a turret that can be fitted with up to two four-round launchers for Stingers. Those launchers can also be swapped out for ones that can be loaded with a pair of millimeter-wave radar-guided AGM-114L Hellfire missiles. The turret also has a 30mm XM914 automatic cannon, which can fire proximity-fuzed airbursting rounds against drones and other aerial threats, and a 7.62x51mm M240B machine gun.
Soldiers assigned to 4th Battalion, 60th Air Defense Artillery Regiment conducted a live fire exercise with the SGT STOUT (Stryker A1 M-SHORAD) vehicle in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Sep. 23, 2025. Photo by Cpl. Emaney Wilson
The Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) is armed with 30mm cannons and M240C coaxial machine guns in remote weapon stations (RWS). The RWS on one of the two vehicles is also configured to fire Stinger missiles for a spectrum of ground-based air defense scenarios.
U.S. Marines with 12th Littoral Anti-Air Battalion, 12th Marine Littoral Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, fire an XM914 30mm chain gun mounted on a Marine Air Defense Integrated System during a live-fire range at Camp Schwab, Okinawa, Japan, July 28, 2026. Photo by Lance Cpl. Skilah Sanchez
The Army may have additional gun-based systems on the way. In July, the service put out a request for information to companies that can provide a new gun-based air defense option, using a 50mm cannon system to track and defeat Group 1, 2 and 3 drones.
A few weeks later, Northrop Grumman introduced its Raid Hunter 50mm GBAD system, which it said “combines proven Chain Gun® technology, precision‑guided 50mm ammunition and a networked, interoperable system controller to deliver powerful protection against high-volume, mixed-threat aerial raids. It is designed to defeat a range of aerial threats including high‑priority cruise missile threats, unmanned aerial systems (UAS), and other advanced threats.”
We’re introducing Raid Hunter, our newly named 50mm gun-based air defense system designed to defeat mass, mixed aerial raids with cost-effective interceptors and deep magazine effectors which can be delivered to the warfighter at scale. Learn more: https://t.co/gnOzpo0RA3pic.twitter.com/oTqORTG9Q4
There are foreign options should the Air Force want to go that route. For instance, German arms maker Rheinmetall makes the popular Skyranger 35 gun system, which is a turret that can fit on a wide array of armor hulls.
The Skyranger 35 “is equipped with a KDG 35/1000 revolver cannon in 35 mm x 228 caliber with a firing rate of 1,000 rounds per minute,” according to Rheinmetall, which began delivering these to Ukraine in January. “It has an effective range of up to 4,000 meters and a high degree of commonality with the Oerlikon Revolver Gun Mk 3. Thanks to AHEAD technology, the Skyranger 35 is airburst-capable. In the future, it will also be possible to equip it with modern guided missiles.”
It seems that Ukraine's 1020th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment which belongs to the Ground Forces has taken delivery of the first Skyranger 35 SPAAGs mounted on a Leopard 1 chassis made by @RheinmetallAG.
Skyshield is the fixed placement cousin of this system and has been bought by a number of nations.
Skyshield (Rheinmetall)
This is just one example of a large number of potential offerings that could fit the USAF’s interests, from both domestic and foreign origins.
As we discussed earlier in this story, the U.S. is already facing a challenge defending against Iranian threats. A war with China would be more devastating and, when it comes to the Air Force protecting its bases, require far more robust defenses. At the same time, the Air Force is still very early in the process of taking on more responsibility for protecting its assets.
Parties have until 5 p.m. Oct. 9 to submit their proposals to the Air Force for a gun-based air defense system. With limited options and the service pushing to address its growing desire for organic air defenses, it will be interesting to see who comes forward and what systems they offer. We will provide more details about this effort when they become available.
Um homem de 49 anos sofreu ferimentos graves esta sexta-feira, na sequência de um acidente de trabalho ocorrido no Bairro Forno da Cal, em Alcácer do Sal, distrito de Setúbal.
A vítima estava a realizar trabalhos numa obra quando uma parede cedeu, deixando-a soterrada. À chegada das equipas de socorro ao local, o trabalhador já tinha sido retirado do sotorramento, apresentando contudo um quadro clínico grave.
O alerta foi dado às 14:44. Devido à gravidade dos ferimentos, o homem foi assistido pelas equipas de emergência e subsequentemente transportado no helicóptero do INEM para o Hospital de São José, em Lisboa.
A Autoridade para as Condições do Trabalho (ACT) foi informada e vai investigar as circunstâncias em que ocorreu o acidente, segundo a GNR.
No local estiveram 17 operacionais dos Bombeiros de Alcácer do Sal, do INEM e da GNR, apoiados por cinco veículos, incluindo uma ambulância de Suporte Imediato de Vida (SIV), e a respetiva aeronave de emergência médica.
Por: Dino Frazão Fonte: segundo LUSA Data: 04/09/2026
Login
