European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 7, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page b the stars and stripes thursday August 7, 1986 they have a flair for tracking Sun events by  Cruger staff writer san v1to Dei no Manni As Italy with in two minutes of a solar flare or other significant event on the Sun eight air Force cos and a major arc passing inc information from Italy to the unite states. Air Force global weather Central at of Tim and ni-b., then passes the information within five to 15minutes to about 00 Oreana Jalinos around the world said maj. Tamzy j. House commander of Thesan Vii solar Observatory. Solar flares sometimes exploding for 120,000 Miles from the Sun s surface can be extremely Hurt Ful to satellites by interfering with their operation Sand positioning she said. House who holds a doctorate in meteorology from the University of Wisconsin said flare activity also can cause interference with communications on a global scale. Additionally radiation from solar flares could be life threatening to space walking Astro nauts. The san vim facility is the new Mideast site of the solar electro optical network a world girdling . Air Force solar observing operation set up to provide solar flare alerts. When it was activated earlier a is year it completed the worldwide network of real Lime solar observatories. House it native of Central City Iowa said things happen quickly when the Sun flares. Electromagnetic radiation reaches Earth in 8,3 minutes and particles from the flare begin reaching Earth 15 to 30minutes after the Clare. Those particles May Ihnn continue arriving for two hours to 100 hours. We Alert our customers As to when they May experience degraded communications she said. But a uphold by Rodvil  Louse Noi All flares will interfere with communications be cause he degree of interference depends on the flare s intensity. The Observatory also known As act 8, 4lh weather Wing is staffed by eight air Force cos in Addi Tion to House. It operates from Sunrise to Sunset seven Days a week As he staff listens o he Sun electronically for radio bursts and watches ii through a sophisticated Telescope for solar flares. The Tele scope is capable of viewing the Sun in different wavelengths of the spectrum and of performing magnetic analysis of the Sun. Wajih radio equipment we listen to the radio frequencies the Sun puts out House said. The Sun is generally putting out a constant level of Energy. When the Sun flares it puts out More Energy per haps 1 percent added to its total. So we measure the difference Between the quiet Sun and the More Active Sun to find out what it is  the average solar flare is equal to 10 trillion megaton bombs with temperatures of Over 100 Mil lion degrees fahrenheit said tech. Sgt. Hans Han son 3 2, chief of solar optical operations. Hanson of san Bernardino calif., said the site s Best viewing of the Sun generally takes place from 30 minutes to two hours after Sunrise and then again inthe afternoon for about 90 minutes. That s when i try to get a lot of my Ork done he said. One of Seon s customers is an american homing Igeon society that anxiously awaits news of sol rare activity because flares can throw off the Birds ability to navigate said tech. Sgt. Cliff Stevens. 36.the station chief. Solar flare activity runs roughly in 11-year cycles and these Days Are relatively quiet times Stevens said. The last big year for solar activity was 1979, with 10 to 12 flares taking place daily he said. Currently we Are Only experiencing about one a month. The next big year for solar activity will be 1990." House said solar observation is in its infancy hav ing really begun after world War ii. We can t forecast the Sun the said. We Are where weather forecasting was Back in the 1890s, but one thing is certain and that is that As we gel More Active in space we will Sec More and More solar observation taking  Usa eur starts training soldiers to use belgian made machine gun to her today  s of Wilcer bad Kreuz N.C. Germany the army s new machine gun was introduced to some soldiers of the blah inf div this week but they won t gel to use it until later this year. Selected Usa eur soldiers Are receiving new equipment training on the army s m-249 squad Auto malic weapon saw. Besides the 8th inf div other v corps and Vii corps infantry units will Send some of their soldiers to the raining classes which Are scheduled through september. All Usa eur infantry battalions including Berliand Southern european task Force in Italy will receive the new machine gun said Usa eur spokes Man Sec de Rolph. The 8th inf div will be the first to receive the new weapon he said. Fielding of the belgian made nato Light machine gun will begin in late october said capt. Bill Jones he division s new systems manager. Rolph said Fielding of the saw in Usa eur is expected to be completed by mid december. The Marine corps has had it for 2vj years said Jimmy Sims one of the two new equipment training instructors in Germany. The army has been using he saw in the 82nd airborne div at fort Bragg. N.c., and with rangers at fort Benning a. Army times reported in february that a Pentagon official said More than 7,000 saws already bought by the army would remain in storage depots until Retro fitting could be done to improve some deficiencies in the Sun s design. The saws being issued to usar eur soldiers have not been retrofitted said Art Whit Ney spokesman for the . Army Materiel come. Alterations the army wanted included a strength ened butt Stock a stronger barrel changing handle a heat shield for the barrel and a better Buffer Assembly. Only the Buffer Assembly affects the weapon s performance. As the recoil Spring in the Assembly weaken with continued use the gun s firing rate increases wearing out the barrel prematurely. The army times quoted the official As saying the problem Don t affect the saw s combat efficiency. Instill pins the Lead Down the  " the saws will be retrofitted in the Field when All the recommendations have been tested out Whitney Lold the stars and stripes. Testing is being done by he . Army malefic Cornel s armaments research and development Center in Dover no. Each u5areuh Rifle squad will be issued two m-249 squad automatic weapon weight 200-Rcund to if till Qew Younai a Aulne ill a . Bum length Rhu Fig rate of fire Iun it Iai Cyrta r7zsnxjndipw Irthum non nil cyclic. 1,000 round pm nut nil Niue by diked by round of Muju Range Jud Winum  sights front Wrt Al id hoofed port to hmm to my id fiut mow saws. Eighteen will go to each infantry company Aid Sec. Bob Centner a Usa eur spokesman. The new machine guns will replace m-i6ai rifles Jones said. " the m-249 is not designed to replace the m-60.1 Don t think anything will replace the 60," Sims said. The new guns will be a significant increase in the amount of Range and firepower of an infantry squad Jones said. Rodney Carter another new equipment training instructor said firing tests of the saw shredded a flak jacket Hung on a tree 1,000 Yards  after 85 rounds were fired at a moving jeep 1,000 Yards away the engine Block burst he said. The Standard round for the saw is an m-855armor-piercing 5.56mm Shell heavier than that fired in the m-16a1, but it also will fire m-16 ammunition. Carter said the operator can use belted ammunition in a 200-round disposable Box or in emergencies a 30-round m-16 Magazine he said. Training classes for selected operators armorer and organizational maintenance soldiers Are being Given in Germany by the iwo instructors from Anniston army depot aja., with the coordination of . Anny mate Riel come Europe. Classes Lail a half Day for operators one Day for unit armorer and 2vi Days for organizational maintenance soldiers. Those trained in the classes will become train ers for unit soldiers Jones said China floods kill hundreds cause massive damage peking up1 floods spawned by a month of heavy rain have killed at least 263 people in northeastern and Southern China in a second successive year of disastrous summer storms official news reports said wednes Day. Troops and civilians in Southern Yunnan province Are repairing dozens of major highways damaged by floods that have destroyed 7,090 Homes said an official Al the flood control Center in the provincial capital of Kun Ming. At least 233 people have died in the province Accord ing to official reports. Seventy five of the province s 128 counties have been flooded since heavy rain began lashing the Region in Early july the spokesman said in a Telephone interview. He said the deluge destroyed 130,000 acres of crops 130 Bridges and 330 Miles of River embankments in in province. Africa Locust plagues threaten 5 nations crops Nairobi Kenya a the Rains that brought Relief to drought and famine plagued Africa have spawned swarms of locusts so thick that five countries craps Are now in serious danger a United nations Agency says. For the first time in a half Century an infestation of four types of locusts has occurred at the same Lime in Africa and the plague could last five years the u. N. Food and agriculture organization said in a statement tuesday. Map director general edouard Saou Raa described Tik Locust invasion As a terrible new Scourge that could be More disastrous than the infestation of 1974, when locusts consumed millions of tons of crops in thesauri Bell. 2-train collision kills at least 30 in India new Delhi India a an egress train collided with a freight rain wednesday in Northern India sending some cars tumbling into a Monsoon swollen River and killing Al least 30 people go Vemmer radio reported. The United news of India said As Many As 100people were feared dead in the crash on a Railroad Bridge in he state of  news Agency said the express train s locomotive and two cars plunged to o the Koel River while another car was hanging precariously from the Bridge