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The US Air Force has revised its retirement plan for the A-10 attack plane, keeping the aircraft in the air into the next decade when the F-35 is finally ready for combat (whenever that is). (credit: US Air Force)

In the Department of Defense's budget request for 2017, the Air Force has conceded what to many has been obvious—that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will not be ready to take the place of the A-10 Thunderbolt II (also known as the "Warthog") in close air support missions any time soon. In its budget request, the Air Force is seeking funds to keep the A-10 flying, and DOD officials say the aircraft will remain in service until at least the 2022 fiscal year.

Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter gave a summary of the budget request in a speech at the Economic Club of Washington, DC on February 2. He said that the A-10 would be replaced by the F-35 squadron by squadron as the new aircraft are brought into service. But the Air Force has also reduced the number of F-35A aircraft it plans to purchase in 2017.

Officials at the Air Force's F-35 Joint Program Office had suggested last year that a "block buy" of F-35 aircraft, possibly in 2018, would reduce the overall cost of the program. But that idea is being opposed by the Defense Department's chief of systems testing. Michael Gilmore, the DOD's Director of Operational Testing and Evaluation (OT&E), has warned against committing to a "block purchase" of the F-35 by the US and other military customers until after the aircraft passes its initial operational test and evaluation.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson. (credit: AT&T)

A Republican state senator in Tennessee is fed up with AT&T and other private Internet service providers that are trying to stop the spread of municipal broadband.

"We're talking about AT&T," Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) said at a rally of business owners, residents, and local officials in the state Capitol, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported yesterday. "They're the most powerful lobbying organization in this state by far... Don't fall for the argument that this is a free market versus government battle. It is not. AT&T is the villain here, and so are the other people and cable."

The battle over municipal broadband in Chattanooga and surrounding towns is among the most prominent nationwide. Tennessee state law has prevented the Chattanooga electric utility—which also provides broadband—from expanding to adjacent communities that lack fast, cheap Internet access. Chattanooga petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to preempt that state law, and the FCC granted the request, using its authority to promote competition in local markets by removing barriers to infrastructure investment.

Composite image of the Smith Cloud, as it might look from Earth if we could see it. The cloud itself is in false color, radio data from the Green Bank Telescope. The background image shows the cloud's actual location, with the Milky Way stretching from top to bottom right. (credit: Saxton/Lockman/NRAO/AUI/NSF/Mellinger)

Seventy million years ago, some unknown force blasted a tremendous amount of gas out of our galaxy. Known as the Smith Cloud, that gas is now arcing back toward the Milky Way, pulled in by its gravity. Thirty million years from now, it will return to our galaxy once more.

The cloud and its trajectory were already well-known, but the new study confirms its origin was inside the Milky Way.

The Smith Cloud was originally an amorphous blob of gas, but the forces it has been subjected to have shaped it into a comet-like form. It’s a whopping 11,000 light-years long and 2,500 across. At that size and its current distance, if it could be seen in visible light, it would appear 30 times bigger than the Moon in the night sky.

The wait for "spring 2016" just got a little more specific and easier to bear, as Bethesda Softworks has announced its Doom reboot will be released on PS4, Xbox One, and Windows on May 13. Players will be able to buy the game for $60 or invest in a $120 collectors edition that includes a 12-inch Revenant demon statue and a metal case. Players who decide to put their money down early will get a "Demon Multiplayer Pack" as a preorder bonus, a package that includes a number of cosmetic upgrades and six "Hack Modules" that can be used for a one-time boost in multiplayer.

Today's announcement comes alongside a new campaign trailer, shown above, which... actually doesn't tell us that much about the game's campaign. Instead, the jumpcut-filled trailer is packed with lots of extremely gory shooting action and almost no indication that the game has an actual plotline to speak of. Which is kind of how it should be when it comes to Doom.

The game originally known as Doom 4 was first announced way back in 2008, and largely unseen by the public during its long and reportedly troubled development. The game was eventually renamed to just Doom and first shown off in its new form at Quakecon 2014.

(credit: BBC)

Today, the BBC announced that Matt LeBlanc—best known as Joey from the sitcom Friends—is joining the cast of Top Gear alongside Chris Evans. Although the full cast is yet to be confirmed, it's widely believed that Evans and LeBlanc will be joined by car journalist Chris Harris and German racing driver Sabine Schmitz. And if the picture on Top Gear's website is anything to go by, The Stig will be back in May of this year as well.

LeBlanc has proper car credentials, too. He was the fastest "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" on Top Gear and is a frequent sight in the paddock club at Formula 1 races. According to Top Gear's website, further cast announcements are due soon—Harris has just announced he's closed his Patreon, if any more clues are needed.

Hiring LeBlanc is a smart move by the BBC. The previous incarnation of the show had to work hard to create global appeal but did so successfully, earning a lot of money for the corporation along the way. With Clarkson et al. off to Amazon, LeBlanc gives the new version some star appeal beyond Evans (who is unknown in the US).