Air Force applying study of OSU athletes to Special Forces
An Air Force laboratory is studying football players and other athletes from Ohio State University in research intended to benefit the players and help researchers understand demands on special forces teams in action.
More than 100 wrestlers along with men’s and women’s lacrosse players will join the research roster that already includes Buckeye football players, The Dayton Daily News reported.
Josh Hagen, a researcher with the 711th Human Performance Wing, said the goal of the study is to develop a sports science strategy for all of OSU’s athletic teams.
This involves tracking biometric data that can be used to develop training workloads and recovery plans.
“It makes you more cognizant of the things you can do,” said Joe Burger, a 22-year-old senior linebacker. “You can definitely tell a difference and seeing a difference makes you a believer.”
According to Hagen, the information is also useful to understand the demands placed on special operations forces when conducting missions.
The research agreement between the Air Force Research Laboratory and OSU is not a financial deal. The two entities only exchange knowledge.
“There’s no other school that has a relationship like this,” said Doug Calland, OSU’s associate athletic director for sport performance. “It’s really been unbelievably helpful to know because we’re going to go hard just like the military does. They train hard and we’re training hard, and we need to make sure that we’re doing that in the right way.” AP
Russia blames U.S. for near-collision of planes over Syria
A Russian military spokesman is blaming the United States for a near-collision of the countries’ warplanes in Syrian airspace.
Major-General Igor Konashenkov said in a statement Oct. 29 that the Oct. 17 incident involved a Sukhoi-35, Russia’s most advanced fighter jet, and an American E-3 radar plane near the city of Deir al-Zour. Konashenkov said Russia had informed the U.S. military of the Su-35’s intent to fly in the area.
But, Konashenkov says the American plane unexpectedly descended by about one kilometer (0.6 miles) and came within 500 meters (0.3 miles) of the Russian plane
The incident was first reported Oct. 28 by a U.S. military spokesman, who said it had been raised with Russian commanders but deliberately not made public.
Konashenkov said the Americans apologized for the incident. AP
Prosecutors: Two U.S. men tried to export military parts to Iran
Federal prosecutors charged two California men with conspiring to smuggle fighter-jet parts to Iran in a scheme they allege dates to 2009.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles said in a statement Oct. 28 that the pair worked with two Iranian nationals to break laws that restrict exports to the longtime U.S. adversary.
A nine-count federal indictment unsealed Wednesday alleged that Zavik Zargarian of Glendale tried to help one of the Iranians purchase more than $3 million worth of parts for fighter jets, including F-15s and F-18s. Their would-be supplier was an undercover federal agent.
Prosecutors also say Vache Nayirian of Los Angeles exported more than 7,000 fluorocarbon rubber O-rings, which could have military uses, including for aircraft landing gear.
To evade detection, the shipments went to other destinations in the Persian Gulf before being routed to Iran, where the national air force received them, prosecutors said.
Both defendants have been assigned court-appointed attorneys and pleaded not guilty Oct. 26. The attorney representing Nayirian questioned the strength of the government’s case, given that it began seven years ago and a grand jury produced the indictment in 2014.
“Any time you have this huge delay, you wonder what’s the reason,” attorney Michael Shannon said.
Zargarian’s federal public defender did not return a call requesting comment Oct. 28.
The indictment also named Zargarian’s Glendale-based company, ZNC Engineering, as well as Iranian nationals Hanri Terminassian and Hormoz Nowrouz.
U.S. District Judge S. James Otero set a Dec. 20 trial date. AP