Is US readying to reveal captured alien spacecraft?
Claims the US government has secretly retrieved crashed alien spacecraft and their non-human occupants are hardly new. They are firmly entrenched in post-war American UFO lore and conspiracy theory, inspiring the most famous narrative in ufology: the “Roswell incident.”
Now, however, journalists Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal have injected fresh vigor into these aging claims – apparently with the Pentagon’s approval.
In an article for science and technology news site The Debrief, they report the US government, its allies, and defense contractors have retrieved multiple craft of non-human origin, along with the occupants’ bodies.
Additionally, they report this information has been illegally withheld from US Congress, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office established by the US Department of Defense in 2022 to look into UFOs, and the public.
What are the claims?
The primary source for the new claims is former US intelligence official David Grusch.
Grusch’s credentials, verified by Kean and Blumenthal, are impressive. He is a veteran of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office. He represented both organizations on the US government’s task force studying unidentified aerial phenomena (the official term for UFOs).
Grusch says the retrieved materials are:
of exotic origin (non-human intelligence, whether extraterrestrial or unknown origin) based on the vehicle morphologies and material science testing and the possession of unique atomic arrangements and radiological signatures.
Grusch’s claims are supported by Jonathan Grey, who works for the National Air and Space Intelligence Center, where he focuses on analysis of unidentified aerial phenomena. Grey told Kean and Blumenthal:
The non-human intelligence phenomenon is real. We are not alone […] Retrievals of this kind are not limited to the United States.
How credible are the claims?
Kean and Blumenthal are credible and accomplished reporters on UFOs.
In 2017, writing with Helene Cooper for the New York Times, they revealed a secret US$22 million Pentagon UFO research program. That article did much to initiate a wider rethinking about UFOs, avoiding stereotypes, stigma and sensationalism.
Most of the subsequent “UFO turn” in US defense policy and public discourse has focused on images and eyewitness testimony of anomalous airborne objects. Now, Kean and Blumenthal may have brought anomalous objects themselves – and even their supposed non-human occupants – into the conversation.
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Shortly after the Debrief article, Australian journalist Ross Coulthart’s interview with Grusch appeared on US news network News Nation. Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, Christopher Mellon, has also published an article in Politico calling for greater transparency.
This looks a lot like an orchestrated effort to convince the public (and US Congress) something much more substantial than “things in the sky we can’t explain” is going on.
Approved by the Pentagon?
Grusch seems to have followed Pentagon protocol in publishing his information. Kean and Blumenthal write Grusch:
provided the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review at the Department of Defense with the information he intended to disclose to us. His on-the-record statements were all “cleared for open publication” on April 4 and 6, 2023, in documents provided to us.
What does that mean? A Prepublication and Security Review is how the Pentagon confirms information proposed for public release is reviewed to ensure compliance with established national and Department of Defense policies, and to determine it:
contains no classified, controlled unclassified, export-controlled, or operational security related information.
If Grusch’s information is true, it is surely both “classified” and “operational security related.” So why would the Pentagon approve its publication?
If Grusch’s information is false, it would probably not qualify as classified or operational security related. But this raises another question: why would the Pentagon approve the publication of an unfounded conspiracy theory about itself?
Doing so would likely mislead the public, journalists, and Congress. It would also undermine the Pentagon’s own attempt to understand the unidentified aerial phenomena problem: the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office.
An official denial
Indeed, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office told News Nation it:
has not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently.
Grusch has an explanation for this apparent ignorance. When it comes to unidentified aerial phenomena investigations, he says, the US government’s left hand doesn’t know what its right is doing, with:
multiple agencies nesting [unidentified aerial phenomena] activities in conventional secret access programs without appropriate reporting to various oversight authorities.
Timothy Good’s classic 1987 exploration of UFO investigations, Above Top Secret, described similar bureaucracy.
Nested activities and segregated knowledge
The notion of “nested” unidentified aerial phenomena activities, segregating knowledge within vast bureaucracies, is partly what makes Grusch’s claims both intriguing and (for now) unverifiable.
If this is the case, organizations focusing on unidentified aerial phenomena, such as the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, may operate in earnest and report transparently on the best information they have. Yet they may also be deprived of information essential to their activities.
This would make them little more than PR fronts, designed to create the impression of meaningful action.
In the absence of direct experience of unidentified aerial phenomena, most of us rely on information about them to form our beliefs. Scrutinizing how this information is produced and distributed is essential.
US government activity in this area will continue. Congressman James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, has said he will hold a hearing on UFOs in response to Grusch’s allegations.
Adam Dodd is Tutor, School of Communication and the Arts, The University of Queensland
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Tharman Shanmugaratnam hopes to be a ‘unifying figure’ if elected as President
Mr Tharman also said that his decision to run for President was not rushed.
“I’ve been thinking about it for some months, I wanted to wait to see whether President Halimah was going to stand again but people have been talking to me for some time,” he said.
“I said it is a difficult decision because I’m very comfortable as a policymaker but I think we are entering a fundamentally different era, fundamentally different times,” he said.
He added that people have more varied views and preferences, and that Singapore is maturing as a population and as an electorate.
Internationally, it is a fundamentally more uncertain environment, and Singapore needs to hold its own.
“I make no assumptions about my chances in this race. I’ve never made assumptions in all the elections I have taken part in. This is different because it’s not a political contest, unlike general elections I’ve been through, this is not a political contest. This is about choosing the right person,” he said.
“I still make no assumptions about my chances. I put myself forward to serve to the best of my ability using all my experience in economics and finance, in international affairs, and the standing I have internationally.
“I put myself forward to serve Singaporeans in this new role.”
Following discussions with the other Members of Parliament for Jurong GRC, he said Mr Shawn Huang will take over his Meet-the-People sessions, covering both Taman Jurong and Jurong Spring.
For all other events such as meeting residents for other matters, the other MPs will take turns, he said.
“Once the party decides on who might be a potential candidate for the next round, he or she will have to be on the ground, working very hard,” said Mr Tharman.
“So that’s the system. I think Jurong will be served very well because we work very cohesively as a team. I must say I’ve had a wonderful team.”
AUKUS subs drifting toward a sea of controversy
Australia’s AUKUS nuclear-powered submarines will enjoy the freedom of navigation beyond Australian waters and freely be able to undertake Indo-Pacific patrols throughout the Pacific, Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean and elsewhere.
This is clear from any analysis of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which has a total of 169 state parties.
UNCLOS has been labeled a “package deal” — an “all-or-nothing” treaty whereby states either accept or reject its terms and accompanying rights and entitlements. Expansive maritime zones give coastal states considerable new maritime entitlements and counter-balance against the guaranteed freedoms of navigation for ships of all states, which maritime powers value.
Little significant distinction is made in UNCLOS between the navigational rights of merchant ships and warships, including submarines. But despite UNCLOS there remain tensions with respect to the navigational rights and entitlements of nuclear vessels and warships, and Australia’s AUKUS submarines may eventually sail into a sea of Indo-Pacific controversy.
There are already indicators of choppy waters ahead. Since 1987, New Zealand has prohibited port visits of all nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed vessels. While this law would bar AUKUS submarines from visiting a New Zealand port, it would not impact their navigation in New Zealand waters while undertaking Tasman Sea patrols.
Likewise, while all of the South Pacific is a designated nuclear-free zone under the 1985 Treaty of Rarotonga, the freedom of navigation of nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed vessels remains under the treaty.
But this has not stopped some of Australia’s Pacific neighbors from raising concerns over AUKUS and how comfortably Australia’s acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines sits alongside the Treaty of Rarotonga.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong, and other Australian government officials have made it clear in their frequent visits to the South Pacific that Australia will uphold all of its commitments under the Treaty of Rarotonga and respect the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone.
There have also been concerns within Southeast Asia over vessels carrying hazardous cargo and associated nuclear issues. At various times, regional states such as Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia have sought to bar the transit passage of vessels carrying mixed oxide fuel to Japan through the Straits of Malacca and Singapore.
These concerns also align with ASEAN as a nuclear-free zone under the 1995 Treaty of Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone. Still, like the Treaty of Rarotonga, the freedom of navigation is not impacted by this ASEAN treaty.
Constraints on port visits and nuclear-free zones are unlikely to hinder where AUKUS submarines can navigate. But unilateral actions on the part of some states could have consequences for Australia.
The potential for such actions has been highlighted by statements from regional government officials, such as Indonesia’s suggestion that the passage of Australian submarines would be barred because “AUKUS was created for fighting.”
The freedom of navigation of warships has historically been sensitive. A warship cannot enter a foreign port without first seeking permission, traditionally referred to as “diplomatic clearance.”
While this constraint does not apply within the territorial sea, some coastal states insist that foreign warships can only enter their territorial sea following notification or authorization. Indo-Pacific states that advance this position include Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Vanuatu and Vietnam.
The emergence of AUKUS has given greater prominence to this debate, with Malaysia’s Defense Minister stating in March that the AUKUS submarines would need to seek permission to navigate through Malaysian waters and on the surface.
But this view is not widely shared. It is especially rejected by the major Western maritime and naval powers, including Australia, and is regularly challenged by United States Freedom of Navigation Operations in the Chinese-claimed waters of the South China Sea.
This raises the question of how some Southeast Asian states may respond to increased maritime tensions in the South China Sea, over the Taiwan Straits or in East Asia.
There are already concerns over Australian AUKUS submarines using Southeast Asian waters as an international maritime highway from Australia to the South China Sea and areas further north.
UNCLOS lays down the relevant international legal framework in peacetime. Debates on how UNCLOS should be interpreted take place on the margins, but its core provisions are generally respected.
But if a regional armed conflict was to break out, it must be anticipated that a diverse range of positions will be taken on the freedom of navigation of what may be seen as belligerent vessels passing through neutral waters.
Citing the 1936 Montreux Convention, Turkey’s denial of access to Russian warships through the Black Sea highlights the sensitivity associated with warship navigation during an armed conflict.
In Southeast Asia, ASEAN members may be particularly protective of their legal neutrality if any future regional conflict were to arise. They may unilaterally close their waters to the warships of belligerent powers, or of those supporting one party in a dispute.
Australia will need to undertake the diplomatic groundwork now and in the future to ensure that AUKUS submarines enjoy accepted navigational rights at all times.
Professor Donald R Rothwell is Professor of International Law at the ANU College of Law, Australian National University.
This article was originally published by East Asia Forum and is republished under a Creative Commons license.
Philippines on alert as Mount Mayon volcano spews ash
MANILA: Philippine scientists said that a “hazardous eruption” of a volcano in the archipelago could be days or weeks away, and urged the evacuation of nearby residents from their homes. Hundreds of families living around Mount Mayon in central Albay province are expected to be moved to safer areas afterContinue Reading
Pro-Pita group wants complaints dismissed
Demonstrators ask Election Commission to hurry up and endorse vote results so new government can get to work
A group of demonstrators on Thursday demanded the Election Commission dismiss all complaints against Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat and endorse official election results as soon as possible to pave the way for his government.
About 50 members of the June 24 Democracy group showed up at the office of the EC at the government complex on Chaeng Watthana Road on Thursday afternoon to voice their demands.
Their leader, Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, said they wanted the EC to endorse the results of the May 14 polls immediately.
“As the EC has not verified 95% of the MP vote results, the opening of the House is delayed and the parliament cannot convene to elect the prime minister,” said Mr Somyot, who spent seven years in prison after being convicted of lese-majeste and defamation.
“This lets Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the caretaker prime minister and defence minister, head the government and remain in power.”
Attempts to block Mr Pita and the party that received overwhelming voter support from forming a government has resulted in an “ongoing political crisis”, Mr Somyot said. Move Forward Party received 14.44 million votes in the party-list poll, far ahead of second-place Pheu Thai with 10.96 million.
Mr Somyot’s group said the EC should not accept any of the complaints filed in connection with Mr Pita’s small shareholding in iTV Plc; otherwise, there could be mass demonstrations, he said.
The constitution prohibits a shareholder of a media organisation from running as an MP in a general election. iTV has not been actively involved in any kind of media business for more than 15 years.
“If the EC accepts the complaints for consideration, it will demonstrate its connection with coupmakers,” said Mr Somyot, noting that the EC was appointed by senators who in turn were installed by Gen Prayut and his allies.
Mr Pita held a very small amount of iTV shares and would be unable to influence the business in any way even if it was still involved in media, said Mr Somyot.
“Such petitions and their acceptance will be considered as ill intentioned and the destruction of democracy,” he added.
Mr Pita earlier admitted he had 42,000 shares in iTV but said he held them as the manager of his late father’s estate and had since transferred the shares to other people.
Mr Somyot also demanded that the EC endorse 95% of the MPs-elect, thus making the election official, by June 20 or as soon as possible. He said his group would return to the EC on June 20 if it did not see any progress.
The EC has said that it it is confident that it will be able to endorse the results more quickly than it did after the 2019 polls.
Under the law, the EC has 60 days from Election Day, or until July 13, to certify at least 95% of all MPs-elect to make the vote results official. In 2019, it completed this task on May 8, or 45 days after polling day. This year, the 45-day mark would fall on June 28.
HK dollar de-peg argument gains new currency
As China angles to increase the yuan’s role in trade and finance, economists are wondering what it means for Hong Kong’s long-time peg to the US dollar.
The will-the-peg-survive question has popped with regular popularity since the late 1990s amidst the Asian financial crisis. One such episode was in November last year when New York hedge fund manager Bill Ackman announced he was betting against the peg.
At the time, Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management cited Sino-US decoupling tensions as a rationale. That, he seemed to believe, raised the odds Hong Kong might be forced to end the peg.
And that the turmoil would make the trade profitable, unlike previous attempts by Hayman Capital’s Kyle Bass and George Soros decades before that.
Enter economist Andy Xie, who last week argued it’s time to ditch the US peg and link the Hong Kong dollar to the yuan. It’s hardly a new idea, but one Xie, a former top Morgan Stanley economist, argues has come of age in a recent South China Morning Post op-ed.
The gist of his argument is that “Hong Kong’s currency peg to the dollar is not sustainable. The city risks being increasingly led by US monetary policy as the utility of the fully convertible Hong Kong currency in meeting China’s demand for US dollars is fading. As global yuan demand grows, switching to that currency would boost Hong Kong’s financial fortunes.”
How likely is this? Not very, at least for the foreseeable future. Neither Chinese President Xi Jinping nor new Premier Li Qiang appears ready to make such a momentous change to a 40-year policy that’s served the greater China region quite well.
To be sure, the peg is now generating serious economic headwinds, warranting brainstorming in Beijing. US inflation at near 40-year highs and aggressive Federal Reserve tightening are forcing Hong Kong to tweak monetary policies in kind, undermining the business hub’s growth potential.
As Xie puts it: “With China’s interest rates expected to stay lower than US rates, due to lower Chinese inflation, embracing the yuan would stabilize Hong Kong’s asset markets. Sticking with a US-pegged currency, however, means exposure to volatility.”
Xie adds that “entrenched US inflation threatens to bring back dollar swings like in the 1970s and/or US interest rate surges like in the 1980s — the effect on Hong Kong could devastate its property market.”
Again, President Xi’s financial team hasn’t displayed much tolerance for risky policy shifts. But to economist Raymond Yeung at ANZ Bank, Xi’s ambitions for the yuan — including putting it at the center of oil purchases — are forcing the Hong Kong dollar’s peg back into the global spotlight.
“As geopolitics and economies change, so do pressures on the HK dollar peg,” Yeung says. “In recent months, more countries have expressed interest in using the yuan for transactions with China.”
What’s more, he notes, “the potential emergence of a ‘petro-yuan’ regime may seem to promote the reserve currency status of the Chinese yuan. Speculation about pegging HK dollars with the renminbi and ending the US dollar’s hegemony is also intensifying.”
That intensity can be found in surging interbank rates in Hong Kong. It reflects a drop in banking system cash amid speculation of tighter monetary conditions to come. In mid-May, the Hong Kong Interbank Offered Rate rose to its highest level since December 2019.
The need for the Hong Kong Monetary Authority to keep the city’s currency in a tight range of 7.75 to 7.85 to the US dollar is complicating financial management. Over the last month, the HKMA’s aggregate balance – a key barometer of the amount of cash in the system – hit HK$44.5 billion (US$5.7 billion).
That’s the lowest since the 2008 global financial crisis. More recently, on May 30, Hong Kong’s de facto central bank loaned nearly US$500 million through its discount window.
The main cause for such liquidity squeezes is that “the Fed’s rate hike in June is on the table,” notes strategist Ken Cheung at Mizuho Bank.
Strategist Cheung Chun Him at Bank of America notes that HKMA might have to serve more and more as “lender-of-last resort” as the “scramble for funding will be particularly acute” through the end of the current quarter.
That’s becoming harder, though, as US Federal Reserve rates and those being set by the People’s Bank of China diverge.
Many economists make the argument that in order for the yuan to become a reserve currency rival to the US dollar, China’s financial system would benefit from more explicit ties to Hong Kong’s. This dynamic, though, works both ways.
“Since the city is highly integrated with China’s economy, the currency should be compatible with China’s business cycle instead of that of the US,” says ANZ Bank’s Yeung.
As peg speculation rises, Yeung thinks it’s useful to view things through the lens of Nobel laureate Robert Mundell’s 1960s theory of the “optimal currency area.” Mundell’s framework, Yeung notes, “seems to lend support because using the same currency for economies in a single market should promote economic efficiency.”
To be sure, Yeung hedges, “it’s not totally applicable to Hong Kong because the renminbi market has been extended to it. Trade, investments and financial flows can already be transacted in Chinese yuan.”
But “in our view, the yuan could eventually be a functioning currency in the stock market for transactions, including dividend payments, amid increased acceptance by global investors. Therefore, there is no need to impose unnecessary changes on the existing peg.”
Yeung speaks for many when he argues that “unnecessary change may do more harm than good.” He adds that “in short, stability is key. Although there have been rising concerns about the long-term outlook of the US dollar after the recent banking crisis, it remains a global standard.”
Looking forward, Yeung notes, China’s Belt and Road Initiative “may also attract new segments of investor interest. Countries worried about ‘weaponization’ of the US dollar could also see an alternative in the HK dollar as Hong Kong maintains free capital flows and its legal system is based on the common law.”
Still, speculators like Ackman think the Hong Kong peg’s days are numbered. The city’s precarious place is between a US that’s ratcheting rates higher and a China moving in the opposite direction. Some economists worry China is hurtling toward deflation, exacerbating Hong Kong’s troubles.
As Hong Kong struggles to straddle these two giants, it’s shackled with exactly the wrong monetary policy at a challenging moment. The straight jacket Hong Kong is forced to impose on itself could exacerbate the economic strains already damaging the government’s legitimacy, not least due to some of the worst income inequality in the developed world.
The tensions emanating from the currency peg have only grown over the last five years, in part because of Chinese money bidding up already elevated property prices. As economist Vincent Tsui at Gavekal Research points out, home prices have increased by double digits year after year.
“But if we look at the household income growth,” Tsui notes, “that has been stalled since 2018, before the social unrest, before the pandemic.”
“So basically, this dividend from the economic integration with China has been exhausted. Second, it’s the debt servicing costs, right. So there has been a period of extra low interest rate for a decade. And now actually the interbank rates are triple the level we have seen over the past decade,” says Tsui.
“So, two factors combined together on the demand side, have pretty much weakened as well. The whole supply-demand dynamic is switching in the Hong Kong housing market, making it a much shakier ground as we have seen before,” he adds.
Such risks might reduce the tolerance for fundamental changes to the mechanics of Hong Kong’s financial system. No piece is more central than the US dollar peg – or more destabilizing if a change were announced.
Ackman’s case against the Hong Kong peg has its merits, just as Bass’s did before Hayman Capital closed out its short position in 2021. This goes, too, for Soros in the late 1990s. And Xie’s take also makes some great new points.
“Riding on the yuan’s rise would be a big plus for Hong Kong,” Xie explains. “The yuan accounts for just over 2% of the global payments system, and about the same in global forex reserves. China accounts for about 18% of the world economy and around 30% of global manufacturing output.
“The yuan’s share in global payments and currency reserves is bound to rise. Before it becomes fully convertible, Hong Kong has a unique opportunity to ride its rise and consolidate its status as a global financial center,” he says.
The first step, Xie adds, could be Hong Kong “starting the transition” by shifting the government payroll to yuan and collecting taxes in yuan. “As the stock market gradually makes the shift, along with asset markets and the real economy, bank deposits and credit would follow naturally,” Xie argues. “The Hong Kong dollar would fade away.”
Yet for any of this to happen, Xi’s government would have to display a level of audacity and risk tolerance it hasn’t over the last decade, economists say. That’s why the odds still favor Hong Kong’s peg to the US dollar remaining for the foreseeable future.
Follow William Pesek on Twitter at @WilliamPesek
Jockeys, stable hands at Turf Club face uncertain future with end of horse racing in Singapore
Zyrul Nor Asman, 35, who became a professional jockey three years ago, has spent the last 13 years working with horses. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Nor Azman choked up a little as he talked about the closure. “This news is very sad … I have a new family, myContinue Reading
Loh Kean Yew, Yeo Jia Min out of Singapore Badminton Open
SINGAPORE: Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew and Yeo Jia Min have been knocked out of the Singapore Badminton Open after losing their second round matches on Thursday (Jun 8). Loh, ranked fifth in the world, lost to his lower-ranked French opponent Christo Popov, 21-10, 23-21 in 45 minutes. The Singaporean foughtContinue Reading
Southern independence referendum movement watched
Security agencies say student movement advocating ‘Patani State’ could be breaking the law
Security agencies are keeping a close watch on a group that has called for a public referendum on the independence of “Patani State” from Thailand, because doing so is tantamount to an act of separatism and unlawful, says the deputy commander of the 4th Army Region.
Maj Gen Pramote Prom-in said the referendum call was raised during an event held to introduce the “National Student Movement” or “Pelajar Bangsa” of the four southern border provinces, on the Pattani campus of Prince of Songkla University on Wednesday.
Although the students have the right to express their opinions, they should be careful not to transgress the laws and territorial sovereignty of the country, said Maj Gen Pramote, adding that security agencies had been keeping their activities under watch.
Maj Gen Pramote said the authorities are duty-bound to make people in society understand that such an expression of opinion was inappropriate, considering the sensitivity over security in the region that has long been plagued with insurgency.
The legal office of the 4th Army Region, which is responsible for the South, is considering taking legal action against the student movement, he added.
Maj Gen Pramote said that calling for a public referendum for the independence of “Patani State” (the spelling preferred by the movement) from Thailand is an act of separatism and prohibited by the law. Section 1 of the 2017 constitution stipulates that “Thailand is one and indivisible Kingdom”.
The Pelajar Bangsa movement is led by Irfan Uma. It was formed after the Federation of Patani students, or PerMAS, was dissolved on Nov 8, 2022.
The group organised a panel discussion on the “Right to Self-Determination” on Wednesday. The panelists included Assoc Prof Mark Tamthai of Payap University in Chiang Mai; Voravit Baru, an MP-elect for Pattani and deputy leader of the Prachachart Party; and Hakim Pongtiko, deputy secretary-general of the Fair Party, which has one member in the new coalition led by the Move Forward Party.
Local reports said that participants did not explicitly call for a referendum. But a placard put up at the venue said: “Do you agree with the right to self-determination or not, allowing the people of Patani to be able to legally vote in a referendum for independence?” with spaces for people to mark whether they agree or disagree.
Since January 2004, the southern border provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, and occasionally Songkhla, have been the scene of sectarian armed conflict that has claimed over 7,000 lives, about 90% of them civilians.
The caretaker government has affirmed that it will continue its policy of negotiating for peace in the deep South despite the recent Barisan Revolusi Nasional Melayu-Patani (BRN) announcement that it would suspend peace talks until a new administration is formed.
Want to fly in a military tanker aircraft at the RSAF open house? Public balloting to open in July
RSAF pilot trainees typically travel to the Air Grading Center in Australia for four to five weeks where they undergo aptitude tests by flying CT-4B military training aircraft.
Major (MAJ) Jeremy Lim, head of SOAR and a qualified flying instructor who pilots F-16s, said that instructors like himself can only glean “a limited amount of information” by being with trainees “over a one-hour period of flight” and observing what they do. These trainees do not have any flying experience prior to Australia.
With SOAR, trainees undergo a two-week course in Singapore. They will complete simulator flights comprising four missions, such as the general handling of aircraft as well as advanced manoeuvres.
MAJ Lim said that these missions present a “steep learning curve” for trainees and are “quite sufficient” for the moment.
Users of the simulator can perform risker manoeuvres or those that cannot be accomplished on a training aircraft, such as trying to shoot down a target, he added.
Trainees will also put on sports science wearables, allowing instructors and aviation psychologists to monitor and collect psychophysiological measurements like eye movement, heart rate and facial expressions.
“Holistically, all of this information that’s being captured in this simulator – down to their altitude, air speed – are all being assessed and put into a machine learning in order to inform us how the trainee has the potential in passing their downstream training,” MAJ Lim said.