Norm began a long career designing satellite communications for the Department of Defense leading a small number of engineers in Reston, Virginia.
KYIV — Russia shot down 158 drones overnight, including 11 over Moscow and the surrounding region, its Defense Ministry said Sunday, as officials across the country scrambled to respond to what appeared to be one of the largest Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia yet.
The assault targeted energy infrastructure, including power plants and oil refineries, and fires broke out at several facilities, including in Moscow. Officials said dozens of the drones were shot down over the Kursk region, where Ukraine launched a surprise incursion on Aug. 6. Russia still controls part of the region.
The mayor of Moscow, who updated Telegram regularly through the night, reported the presence of drones in various suburbs of the city. No deaths or injuries related to the drone attack were reported in Russia.
The attack came after an especially intense week of repeated Russian bombardments on Ukraine, including on energy infrastructure, worsening power blackouts throughout the country and killing civilians.
Ukraine’s allies have imposed restrictions that prevent it from using many weapons inside of Russia, especially for long-range strikes. A delegation of Ukrainian officials are in Washington this week requesting changes to that policy, which Kyiv says has left it fighting with one hand tied behind its back.
Instead, Ukraine has relied on domestically produced drones to strike targets deep inside of Russia.
“It is only fair that Ukrainians should be able to respond to Russian terror in exactly the way necessary to stop it,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram on Sunday. “Every day and every night, our cities and villages are under enemy attacks.”
Natalia Abbukamova in Riga, Latvia, contributed to this report.”
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The Washington Post
Ukraine launches massive drone attack on Russian energy infrastructure
Russia said it downed 158 drones in what appeared to be one of the largest Ukrainian drone attacks yet. Fires broke out at energy facilities, including in Moscow.
September 1, 2024 at 6:19 a.m. EDT
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Our family has had the good fortune of a friendship with Norman Jones.
We met Norman through another friend, John Hamilton. I met John running up and down Lemon Hill. We were going to join a rowing club. John got a bad back. The Fairmont Rowing Association was desperate for members and I began in a gig on the Schuylkill. John taught string instruments in the Philadelphia School District and played the viola professionally. Norman was a tenant at one of John’s rental homes.
When Norm graduated from Drexel University, he fulfilled his army, ROTC at Fort Benning, Georgia. After his basic training, the army told him they had too many officers and he would need to enroll in the National Guard.
We got a call from Norman saying he needed a place to stay for a couple of weeks until he, his wife Mary and his daughter Suzi could find a home of their own. That two weeks stretched out into three months. We became very close friends during the three month period of living basically as one family.
Norm is a microwave engineer but he’s inclined to repairing automobiles and he helped me get my Saab 96 running smoothly. At a time when all cars used mechanical points to distribute a spark to each spark, plug norm help me install and electronic distributor. I remember Norm saying don’t touch the car you’ll be electrocuted when he briefly reversed the polarity of the battery, making the car body positive. The electronic distributor was successfully installed and my Saab 96 no longer stopped and needed new points.
Norm got a job working for Philco Ford and was enrolled in the Air Force National guard at Willow Grove, Naval Air Station. The Air Force Reserve had Cessna O-2s at Willow Grove Naval Air Station. Norm had command of the modified jeeps that carried the ground component of the forward air control.
Betsy & me brought Suzi to the Air Station swimming pool. I played racquet ball at the Air Station court. I sometimes drove Norms car and the guards saluted me. Security was limited at the time.
Norm was working at Philco Ford which designed radios that went into Ford vehicles. Norm designed a radio that would work well in their vehicles. Ford told him to modify them to make them less costly. Norm said the radios would only work for a few months if they were designed that way. Didn’t matter to Ford.
Norm said he couldn’t work for a company like that.
Norm began a long career designing satellite communications for the Department of Defense leading a small number of engineers in Reston, Virginia.
Norm, divorced Mary and married Janet. Janet was a colonel at the NIH Clinical Center.
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| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_ Grumman_RQ-4_Global_Hawk#/ media/File:Global_Hawk_1.jpg |
The satellite communications system Norman’s team designed made the RQ-4 Global Hawk possible.
It also made tiny consumer drones possible.
“Perhaps most important for Ukraine’s asymmetric fight against Russia — a far bigger, better-armed enemy — FPV drones are bargain-bin projectiles. Fashioned by hand from a few hundred bucks of material, they can annihilate million-dollar equipment.
“It’s a revolution in terms of placing this precision-guided capacity in the hands of regular people for a tiny fraction of the cost of the destroyed target,” said Samuel Bendett, a drone expert at the Center for Naval Analyses, a policy institute based in Arlington, Va. “We’re seeing FPV drones strike a very precise spot, which before was really the domain of very expensive, high-precision guided weapons. And now it’s a $400 drone piloted by a teenager.”
MORE AT:
The Washington Post
In Ukraine, explosive DIY drones give an intimate view of killing
October 4, 2023 at 1:00 a.m. EDT
He was concerned Janet could be kidnapped and used to gain information about Norm's work. Norm was away often at Palo Alto CA and Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. He designed a complete hard wired security system for their Reston home. His computer recorded in detail every person that came near their home.
Betsy, Julia, Jeff and me visited Norm and Janet at their home in Reston and were greeted by speaker on their security system as we walked to the front door.
Desktop computers were a new thing in the early 1990s. Norm taught Jeff and Julia how to use them. This is his office in Norm & Janets home in Reston.
In the photos below Norm is instructing Julia & Jeff on how to use computers. Norm is an excellent and very patient instructor. At the time the photos below were taken Norm could not tell us what he did for the DOD.
The military satellite communications system his team in Reston designed is still in use. Norm placed a ground unit in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. For a time it was the only communication system connecting New Orleans with the rest of the world.
Over the years Norm's original designs were modified and used by Google Maps, Skype and other commercial systems.
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