A test pilot putting the Air Force's most sophisticated fighter jet through its paces has revealed that it can perform an 'impossible manoeuvre' made famous in the film Top Gun.

Major Morten 'Dolby' Hanche, who is the first Norwegian to fly the F-35, says the jet can 'slow down quicker than you can emergency brake your car'.

This means that when a pilot being chased by an enemy jet applies the air brake, the jet following them would overshoot and could be shot down.

According to Hanche: 'I can whip the airplane around in a reactive manoeuvre while slowing down. The F-35 can actually slow down quicker than you´d be able to emergency brake your car.

'This is important because my opponent has to react to me stopping, or risk ending up in a role-reversal where he flies past me. Same principle as many would have seen in Top Gun - hit the brakes, and he’ll fly right by.'

Major Hanche believes the F-35 is able to lock-on to a target earlier than the F-16 because the aircraft is able to hold a stable Angle of Attack (AOA) at a more extreme angle compared with the older fighter

However, Major Hanche believes his new jet is a dramatic improvement on the F-16.

Hanche has spend the past four months flying the new jet with the 62nd Fighter Squadron at Luke Air Force base in Arizona, he is a firm fan of the weapons system.

In a blog he wrote: 'I now have several sorties behind me in the F-35 where the mission has been to train within visual range combat one-on-one, or Basic Fighter Manoeuvres .

'As an F-35-user I still have a lot to learn, but I am left with several impressions. For now my conclusion is that this is an airplane that allows me to be more forward and aggressive than I could ever be in an F-16.'

During his intensive training he said he is learning to fully exploit the capabilities of the aircraft: 'As the offensive part, the training objective is to exploit every opportunity to kill your opponent with all available weapons.'

He said the aircraft performs very well in a dogfight situation. 'The offensive role feels somewhat different from what I am used to with the F-16.

'In the F-16, I had to be more patient than in the F-35, before pointing my nose at my opponent to employ weapons; pointing my nose and employing, before being safely established in the control position, would often lead to a role reversal, where the offensive became the defensive part.'

Hanche said he is able to point the nose of the F-35 at a higher angle of attack (AOA) than the F-16 and maintain stable flight.

This is a significant advantage in a dogfight. He said: 'This improved ability to point at my opponent enables me to deliver weapons earlier than I am used to with the F-16, it forces my opponent to react even more defensively, and it gives me the ability to reduce the airspeed quicker than in the F-16.'

He said: 'I have flown additional sorties where I tried an even more aggressive approach to the control position – more aggressive than I thought possible. It worked just fine. The F-35 sticks on like glue, and it is very difficult for the defender to escape.'

During his two-day visit to Beijing this week, Singapore’s foreign minister, Vivian Balakrishnan, said that Singapore had proposed the expansion of the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES)–a series of protocols for the safety of naval vessels–as one of several interim steps to defuse tensions in the South China Sea. He also said that China had indicated that it is an idea worth exploring.

“It is, in a sense, some rules of engagement which will prevent untoward accidents or miscalculations which will lead to tensions and conflict at sea. And we’ve suggested expanding this to cover both naval vessels and coast guards,” Balakrishnan said.

As Balakrishnan himself correctly noted, CUES itself not new. As I’ve noted previously, CUES was negotiated and signed at the Western Pacific Naval Symposium back in 2014. Since then, various countries have been using CUES in exercises as a practical measure to reduce miscalculation at sea, including the United States and China as well as Japan and the Philippines.

Singapore as well as several other countries have also previously suggested–both privately and publicly–expanding CUES to cover disputes areas and non-military vessels. Last December, Malaysia’s new naval chief told a regional security forum that CUES should be expanded to cover disputed areas in the South China Sea as well as “other maritime agencies, especially the coast guards” (See: “Malaysia Wants Expanded Naval Protocol Amid South China Sea Disputes”).

Just last month, Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin, the commander of the Japan-based U.S. Seventh Fleet, also said in Singapore that expanding CUES to cover non-military ships would be a wise move, particularly since confrontations in the South China Sea have involved non-military vessels–including large Chinese coast guard ships and smaller ones manned by militia organized by Beijing (See: “China is Building a New South China Sea Fleet for its Maritime Militia”).

Arabiya quoted an unnamed Filipino official as saying Sheikh Ayed al-Qarni was “in a good condition” after being shot in the hand by an unknown gunman at Western Mindanao State University in Zamboanga.

The official added that Filipino security forces shot dead the gunman.

"We pinned down the gunman. He's dead," Filipino spokesperson Helen Galvez told AFP. “We are investigating this incident.”

Galvez said the gunman used a .45-caliber pistol.

Al Arabiya reported that Saudi authorities are sending a plane to the Philippines to bring the injured cleric back to the kingdom.

Saudi media outlets described Qarni as a senior Islamic scholar.

In his book "Awakening Islam," the French academic Stephane Lacroix included Qarni among "the most famous" Saudi preachers.

In 2012 Qarni was refused entry to the United States despite holding an American visa, and he was later told that he was on a “no fly” list.

The Sheikh has previously advocated religious war against American troops in Iraq and against the Israeli army. 

Defense officials tell The Daily Beast that the American military is interrogating an Iraqi man suspected of fighting with ISIS, the second known captive after Umm Sayyaf.

In May 2015, a raid on the Syrian compound of Abu Sayyaf, the nom de guerre for the ISIS operative who oversaw the group’s gas and oil operations, ended with his death and the capture of his wife, an Iraqi known as Umm Sayyaf. She was interrogated by U.S. authorities and provided valuable intelligence about ISIS’s inner workings, U.S. officials told The Daily Beast.

The raid and subsequent interrogations yielded information that helped the U.S.-led coalition launch assaults on ISIS’s network of illicit oil sales, the first major assault on the heart of ISIS’s finances. Earlier this year, the coalition also struck three buildings in the Iraqi city of Mosul that housed an estimated $750 million of ISIS funds.

Umm Sayyaf was interrogated by a special unit called the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group that gathers information primarily for intelligence purposes and not for criminal evidence to use in an indictment or at trial

Nine months ago, U.S. officials handed Umm Sayyaf to Iraqi Kurdish authorities for eventual prosecution. The U.S. said she’d face swift justice, likely for her role in imprisoning a pair of Yazidi women in her home, where they were sexually abused.

It’s not clear what charges the Kurds might file against the Iraqi man now in custody. But if Umm Sayyaf’s case is any guide, there may be confusion over what to do with him, too.

According to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, in their new report the Military Balance, China has been making significant inroads into the African defence market, “reflecting the broader growth in Beijing’s influence and investment in the continent”.

Using an analysis of the exports into 51 countries on the continent the IISS determined that 68 per cent of them currently use Chinese military equipment.

Mr Dempsey, on the IISS report, said: “China has exported to Africa for decades. It’s not a phenomenon per se… but we’re seeing more advanced equipment being exported by China, maybe because they can’t get it elsewhere… armed UAV’s [unmanned aerial vehicles] to Nigeria for example…more types that affordable from elsewhere.” 

“Chinese-manufactured weapons and ammunition have spread across the continent through illicit trade, and have been found in the hands of armed groups and government forces in places like South Sudan, Darfur and the Central African Republic.

Turkey finds itself in conflict with Russia and Iran, at odds with Egypt's Sisi and has lost its standing with NATO and the US.

Turkey was a large and important market for Israel's security industries, which provided drones, intelligence systems, tank and planes upgrades, and more. For years, there was close cooperation between the Mossad and Turkey's intelligence agency, the MIT, which included meetings, an exchange of each countries' situational assessments and more.

This cooperation began in 1958 with the initiation of an intelligence pact between Iran's SAVAK, under the Shah, the Mossad and Turkish intelligence. The codename in Israel for this pact was "Clil" (Complete).

Instead, Turkey finds itself in a conflict with Russia and Iran over Syria, where Erdogan hoped to see President Bashar Assad ousted. Erdogan supported the Muslim Brothers in Egypt and now he finds himself at odds with Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi. Because of Turkey's uncompromising fight against its Kurdish population, as well as in Syria and Iraq, Ankara is also losing its influence with NATO and with the US. Turkey is now more isolated than ever and is therefore interested in renewing ties with Israel, in the hope that the Jewish state can help Ankara improve its standing in Washington. Turkey also needs natural gas from Israel in order to diversify its sources of energy and to reduce its dependency on Russian gas.

However, the bigger problem to be solved is connected to Hamas in Gaza. Turkey is looking for a foothold in the Strip. Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon is strongly opposed to this, with his main argument being, to use a schoolyard expression, "You started it." Meaning, Erdogan broke the rules, and therefore he bears the responsibility for rectifying the situation. Egypt's Sisi as well is not prepared to easily forgive and grant Erdogan a prize for his behavior, as if nothing happened.

The Pentagon has been developing a weapon system of highly flammable and intensely hot rocket balls to help destroy weapon of mass destruction (WMD) bunkers.

These “kinetic fireball incendiaries” are specially designed to rocket randomly throughout an underground bunker while expelling super heated gases that rise over 1,000 degrees Farenheit.

These rocket balls are specifically designed for destroying potentially dangerous materials — such as chemical or biological weapons — without blowing them up, which would risk scattering the materials into the surrounding area, Wired notes.

Instead, the fireballs function alongside a 2,000 pound BLU-109B bunker bomb, Flight Global reports. These bunker bombs are able to punch through six feet reinforced concrete. After punching into a bunker, the bomb would then release its internal kinetic incendiaries.

Once inside a bunker or structure, the rocket balls get to work. Essentially, the balls are hollowed out spheres comprised of rubberized rocket fuel that have a hole on the outside. As Technovelgy notes, this hole causes the balls, once ignited, to expel hot air in excess of 1,000 degrees Farenheit.

Additionally, the expulsion of air causes the incendiary balls to rocket wildly throughout a structure with enough force to break down doors. This allows the balls to randomly and fully reach the entirety of a bunker while incinerating everything inside.

Five China Coast Guard vessels have taken over Jackson Shoal, a disputed feature in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea some 140 nautical miles west of the Philippines’ Palawan Island, according to a report by the Philippines Star.

The Philippines Star, citing sources, said that the Chinese vessels “chased” fishermen away as early as last week.

“These gray and white Chinese ships, around four of them inside the lagoon, prevented us from entering our traditional fishing ground,” one of the fisherman told the Star. If confirmed, this incident would represent an increase in Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea.

At least five people – including a captain in the Jordanian army – were killed in the fighting in Irbid, some 15 kilometres from the Syrian border and 80 kilometres north of the Jordanian capital Amman.

Unnamed military sources also told the Jordan Times “that anti-terror personnel carried out the operation to arrest a number of hard-line takfiris” a term for a Sunni Muslim who accuses others of being unbelievers. 

A close look at Ahrar al-Sham, the so-called moderate Salafist militia, backed by U.S. allies, that’s actually allied with al Qaeda

At midnight on Feb. 27, after months of negotiations and meetings in Geneva, New York, Moscow, Riyadh, and elsewhere, and after an intense day of Russian airstrikes, a partial ceasefire came into effect in Syria

While many are quick to point out Russian and regime aggression is a threat to the truce (and rightly so), less attention is given to concerns about the opposition

One rebel group in particular, Ahrar al-Sham, has made the situation extremely complicated and is an enormous threat to the ceasefire’s success

On the one hand, the group has made real efforts to present itself as moderate and distinct from Syria’s al-Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, which is excluded from the current ceasefire

On the other hand, Ahrar al-Sham has worked closely with Nusra since the war began and has been in a formal alliance with it since early 2015

Ahrar al-Sham may appear to be a group divided—teetering between moderation and extremism, between democracy and Salafism—but this is likely a charade

Under its original leadership, Ahrar al-Sham was already clearly a radical Salafist militia. Though the group’s founder, Hassan Aboud, refused to pledge allegiance to al-Qaeda and claimed to have ideological disagreements with Nusra

To Ahrar al-Sham’s credit, its forte was guerilla-style fighting and it steered away from the Nusra-style suicide bombings, but it committed its own war crimes against Syria’s civilians

After a September 2014 explosion killed Hassan Aboud along with many of Ahrar al-Sham’s senior leadership, Hashem al-Sheikh (also known by his nom de guerre, Abu Jaber) took control of the group

Off the op-ed pages and on the ground, the reality was entirely different. Over the course of 2015, Ahrar al-Sham’s new, “more moderate” leadership had dramatically expanded its cooperation with Nusra

Ahrar al Sham’s actions contradicted its rhetoric, yet that was no accident. The group played both angles—boasting democratic values and fighting for Salafism—and it benefited from each

Nusra could hardly afford to squabble with Ahrar al-Sham when the two groups were busy fighting an Assad reinforced by increased involvement from Iran and Russia

In September, Hashem al-Sheikh stepped down as emir, making way for Abu Yahia al-Hamawi, who continued to push the notion that Ahrar al-Sham was mainstream and aligned with Western interests

Al-Hamawi reportedly claimed that Nusra had withdrawn from the Army of Conquest—a rumor that would have been convenient for the umbrella group’s foreign backers, but nonetheless proved false

In late February, Ahrar al-Sham entered into a new coalition with a handful of Islamist and FSA militias under the leadership of its former emir, Hashem al-Sheikh. The new umbrella group is called “Jaish al-Halab,”

Why then form this confederation? Jaish al-Halab is a means by which Ahrar al-Sham can play both sides of the newly implemented ceasefire. If hostilities resume (beyond the small scale violations seen already), Ahrar al-Sham can of course continue its close cooperation with Nusra

But if the ceasefire holds, Ahrar al-Sham can separate from Nusra; go dormant in the fight against the regime; stockpile weapons from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey; and exert significant control in northwest Syria—all legitimized by the international process

The same P-3 that NOAA's using for hurricane science has been a dedicated submarine-hunter for the U.S. Navy. For this job, the Orion carried a Magnetic Anomaly Detector (MAD), which is basically a giant metal detector for finding subs. The P-3's replacement, the P-8 Poseidon, does not have a MAD. This is something of a relief for the crew, as the MAD required them to fly uncomfortably at low altitudes. Instead, the P-8 will launch drones carrying MAD to dip down and scour the seas below.

Last year the defense company BAE Systems scored a Navy contract to make a MAD small enough for an air-launched drone—the awkwardly named High Altitude ASW Unmanned Targeting Air System (HAASW UTAS). We don't know all the details yet, but the new detector may be more sensitive than previous versions, possibly based on an Atomic Vapour Magnetometer that the Navy has been developing.

A flock of drones scouring the seas with MAD could overcome one of the traditional problems with this technology: A single aircraft searching a single swath gives it relatively short range compared to sonar. MAD drones, though, could hunt far and wide.

What is DIRCM?

Northrop's DIRCM system consists of several parts -- all working together to detect and track incoming anti-aircraft missiles, then defeat the threat by jamming and confusing the missile's infrared tracker, causing it to go off course.
Northrop produces DIRCM in various formats:

LAIRCM "is required to defeat the latest and future advanced IR threats" to Large military Aircraft.

CIRCM  is a more affordable "Common" system "built on open architecture to work with existing hardware" to protect a wide array of helicopters and medium fixed wing aircraft.

Northrop also offers a "pod-based" DIRCM system, dubbed Guardian , which incorporates "a multiband laser pointer/ tracker and an ultraviolet missile warning sensor." This all gets stuffed into a single, canoe-sized unit that can be bolted onto existing aircraft such as commercial airliners.

Who wants missile protection?

Northrop Grumman has enjoyed some measure of success selling its DIRCM systems around the globe, including sales to the Canadian military and several other foreign governments in 2014, for example, and to the governments of Oman and Qatar the year before that. The U.S. military has also been investing billions of dollars in outfitting its aircraft with Northrop Grumman LAIRCM systems.

This month, Northrop landed a new client when, in a recent notification to Congress from the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), the government of the United Arab Emirates expressed its interest in buying a set of eight "AN/AAQ-24 (V)N LAIRCM" missile defense systems from Northrop. UAE hopes to install the systems to protect its fleet of seven (current) and one (on order ) Boeing (NYSE:BA) C-17 military transport aircraft.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia's Sukhoi aicraft manufacturer has begun the development of a sixth-generation jet fighter, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Wednesday.

"If we stop now, we will stop forever. Work is underway on a sixth and a seventh [generation]. I do not have the right to say much more," Bondarev said.

The award of the unknown amount of munitions was given to the Ellwood National Forge and General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, which both build BLU-109 "bunker buster" bombs. Their sale is the first to Turkey, and the contract will expire in 2020.

The Foreign Military Sales system was criticized Tuesday by a prominent Air Force general and last week by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who both said the slow process to buy weapons was pushing potential overseas customers to buy from Russia instead. Not only does that mean less revenue for U.S. defense companies, it can mean that U.S. forces have to work with their allies using different weapons and communications systems on the battlefield.

ABU DHABI // Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, opened the Seih Hafair Camp National Service School of the Presidential Guard on Wednesday.

The fully-equipped school is built specially for national service recruits.

“The UAE leadership’s keenness to modernise and upgrade capabilities of the armed forces is not limited to procurement of the latest equipment and arms technology, but also to preparing human resources that are capable of dealing with the different defence technologies,” the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince said.

Setting off from Kuwait en route to Bahrain, the U.S. sailors had never navigated across the Persian Gulf in small patrol boats, and they were unaccustomed to traveling such a long distance in vessels designed for shorter missions in coastal waters or rivers

Mechanical problems, communication breakdowns, and a lack of navigation training or preparation all played a role in the blunder, Foreign Policy has learned, based on interviews with officials and others familiar with the case

The sailors in Kuwait who were captured by the Iranians were trained to operate riverine command boats, or RCBs — small, speedy craft about 50 feet long that are used to transport special operations forces, patrol coastal waters, or escort larger ships. The sailors, under the command of 27-year-old Lt. David Nartker, were ordered to Bahrain to take part in an exercise and had less than 24 hours to prepare. Only one of three boats at their disposal was in working order. The crew members had to cannibalize one of the broken vessels to get an engine part so they could have a second boat to sail

The trip required the crews to travel about 240 nautical miles, more than twice the usual distance they were accustomed to

The U.S. sailors were using a GPS device to navigate, but Farsi Island is so small that it did not appear on their screen when it was zoomed out to a wider view. As they drifted within sight of land, the Americans did not even know that it was Farsi Island

Throughout the cruise, the positions and direction of the two boats were automatically relayed to the operations center every 30 minutes via an electronic tracking device, the U.S. official said. But for reasons that remain unclear, commanding officers or others at the operations center did not inform the boat crews that they were headed in the wrong direction

As the Iranians encircled the boats, the U.S. sailors managed to repair the faulty engine. Now the Americans had a choice. With 50-caliber machine guns and GAU-19 miniguns on their boats, they outarmed the Iranians. And their RCBs were bigger than the Iranian patrol craft. But escaping would mean opening fire on the Iranian forces or ramming their vessels — actions that could lead to a wider conflagration

The case has raised a litany of unanswered questions for the military: Did the Navy properly maintain the riverine boats? Did commanding officers ensure the sailors were properly trained in advance? Did the boat crews receive a briefing on how to navigate the Persian Gulf? Who was watching out for the boats as they made their way from Kuwait and began to veer into Iranian waters?

What do we see on the video? We see a T-90 model 1992 with a cast turret. This much is obvious from the presence of Shtora and the shape of the gunner’s hatch. Model 2004 tanks have a welded turret with a higher level of protection.

The tank is protected by Kontakt-5 reactive armor, and its forward aspects are protected by layered armor. We can see that the missile hit the left front turret face, triggering Kontakt-5, but apparently failed to penetrate the main armor.

The tank’s crew neglected its battlefield duties: the hatches were open, Shtora was not switched on. It suggests the crew was not very well trained. We have information suggesting Syrian crews are not trained in Russia but on the spot. There are Russian tankers in Syria but they work as instructors at the Ithriyah base.

The explosion of a 6kg warhead naturally caused considerable blast over-presssure which penetrated into the open hatch, which prompted the stunned gunner to jump out of the tank. If the hatch were closed, he’d not have suffered from the over-pressure. The tank’s frontal protection is several times greater than side protection. Soviet and Russian tanks are designed to withstand hits by most munitions from the frontal aspect, in other words, within the forward 60 degree arc.

The tank’s crew was poorly trained, and the way the tank was being used leaves a lot to be desired. Tanks ought to be part of combined arms teams and operate with close infantry support. As one can see, the crew did not detect the missile’s launch. If at least three tanks, or a platoon, were operating together with mutually interlocking fields of vision and fire, and if infantry were scouting ahead of the tanks, the missile crew would have been destroyed immediately after launch. The tank also makes no attempt to maneuver, and a single, isolated tank that’s sitting still is an ideal target.

The video was filmed in Sheikh-Akil north-west of Aleppo where the Zaviya Mountain Falcons is operating as part of the Free Syrian Army 5th Corps. It was a reconnaissance in force by Khazara and Afghan Shia fighters. They tried to capture Sheikh-Akil but were repulsed. Later videos from the same town do not show a T-90 wreck, though there are videos showing the withdrawal of troops and equipment. It means that the tank either left the battlefield on its own or was evacuated.

Shtora-1 is standard equipment on a T-90. The two turret-mounted projectors emit modulated radiation in the optical and infra-red parts of the spectrum. The system suppresses optronic ATGM coordinators out to a distance of 2-2.5km. ATGM tracking systems receive false signals from the Shtora emitters so the missiles receive improper course corrections leading to them flying off to the side or crashing.

Shtora has a probability of success of about 80-90% against an ATGM. It is very effective against older Milan, HOT, TOW, Fagot, Konkurs, and others. But the TOW-2A has not only a xenon lamp but also an infra-red emitter which emits a coded signal, making the Shtora less effective against the missile. Which is why Shtora is not part of more recent Russian designs, for example the modernized T-90SM or the T-72B3.

Modern missile launch detection system which operate in the UV spectrum can be installed on UAVs and ground vehicles, but so far they are experimental. Such systems detect the rocket motor plume. They can issue launch warnings, allowing the crew to aim the tank’s weapons against the source of the launch and to eject an aerosol screen which conceals the tank from optical and IR detection systems.

While Syria fighting has seen model 1992 T-90s, there’s also the model 2004 T-90A. But T-72s are more vulnerable against ATGMs with tandem warheads.  They can be modernized using Uralvagon-developed applique kits which increases their survivability.

One should add that SAA tanks and other armored vehicles are sometimes equipped with “dazzlers”, or domestically developed systems with function in a way similar to the Shtora, except that they provide all-round field of protection. Since Syrians now have TOW-2A in their possession, they can develop jammers capable of operating against these missiles. As long as one knows the frequencies and spectrum ranges which the ATGM tracker senses.

Using T-90s or Su-35s will not bring about a breakthrough in the fighting, however, if tanks are used with skill, in close cooperation with other arms and in a concentrated, mass fashion, the effectiveness of their operations will increase.

“There is a move now from the rebels to separate their brigades from those of the terrorists, and this gives an opportunity to attack Al Nusra and other Al Qaeda groups, without attacking the rebels,”

“If the rebels would start to fight with the official government army, against ISIS, then we would have a chance to defeat ISIS, and to have peace in Syria. It is a dream, but a realistic dream,” said the journalist

The US divided Iraq, they divided Libya, and now they could divide Syria into four or five parts. Divided countries are weak countries, and I have an impression that certain American politicians like weak countries in the Middle East.”

Having witnesses IS operations during a 10-day assignment in Raqqa, the group’s unofficial capital in northern Syria, Todenhofer believes that it is sufficiently well-organized to exist indefinitely if it is not placed under pressure. He also says new attacks in Europe, like those carried out in Paris last year, are imminent, but little can be done to prevent them.

The U.S. Army publishes an official “Visual Aircraft Recognition” manual whose purpose, according to the manual itself, is to “assist the user in the technique of identifying friendly, hostile or foreign-country aircraft.”

So … there’s a problem. In February 2016, the Army published its first updates to the manual since 2006. And this update adds some gross, even hilarious errors. Louis Gundlach, a retired fighter pilot, first pointed out the errors and aviation aggregator Alert 5 drew attention to Gundlach’s pointers.

The majority of Americans, about 88 percent, are right handed, so it might be a good idea to keep an eye on the right side of a suspect first—and check their waist band.

The majority of those righthanded people that carry handguns illegally carry them in the right front waist band, loose. 

WHY?

• They see it in the movies.
• It's the "cool" thing to do.
• That is where it is the most secure and accessible