Boeing's X-37B, an unmanned and highly advanced space plane, just completed a nearly-two-long year Air Force mission whose purpose is still not currently known.

Whatever its mission, the plane comes from one of the most legendary pedigrees in all of aviation: the fabled X-series, the line of experimental aircraft that are responsible for some of the greatest milestones in the history of flight.

The X-Plane Program is an ongoing US government effort dating from the 1940s and involving a number of private-sector manufacturers. Its goal is to push the outer limits of aviation technology: The X-1 was the first plane to break the sound barrier. And the first human being to go to space twice did it in a high-flying X-15. The X-planes were used to test rocket engines and pioneer new methods of take-off and landing. They set records for range, speed, and altitude — some of which still stand.

Here's a look at the X-37B's illustrious predecessors — its fellow members of one of the greatest families of aircraft ever built.

Bell X-1

The Bell X-1 was first tested in January 1946, just months after the end of World War II. In October of 1947, legendary pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the X-1, the first time an aircraft had reached that threshold in level flight. 

Bell X-2

The Bell X-2 would triple the X-1's feat by flying at three times the speed of sound, or Mach 3, in the mid '50s. In more than a dozen test flights, the colorfully nicknamed "Starbuster" also broke the existing record for altitude, flying at nearly 24 miles above the ground.

But the X-2 was also riddled with problems as it flew on the outer edge of the era's technological capabilities. Its maiden flight saw the plane's nose gear collapse upon landing. Its last flight would break the speed record, but at the cost of USAF pilot Milburn Apt's life.   

Bell X-5

The Bell X-5 first flew in 1951, earlier than the X-2. It pioneered variable-sweep wings, or "swing wings," which can be shifted back and tucked closer to the plane's body to allow greater flight speeds.

This design was inspired by the Messerschmitt P.1101, a German prototype designed for eventual service in World War II — but brought to and studied in the Bell factory in Buffalo, New York after the war.    

Convair X-6

The Convair X-6 was meant to test nuclear-powered flight on a modified bomber.

The project was canceled when president Kennedy pulled the plug on further research. "Nearly fifteen years and about $1 billion have been devoted to the attempted development of a nuclear-powered aircraft," Kennedy told Congress in 1961, "but the possibility of achieving a militarily useful aircraft in the foreseeable future is still very remote."

The X-6 never flew.

Ryan X-13 Vertijet

The Ryan X-13 Vertijet was meant to pioneer vertical takeoff in aircraft, though it didn't have the same approach as today's V-22 Osprey. Instead the X-13 was a "tailsitter," set up to launch like a space shuttle before tilting forward in flight.

The plane was technologically sophisticated, but of limited practical use — one of the only two X-13s ever built was donated to the Smithsonian Institute in 1960, just five years after the aircraft the model's first flight.

Hiller X-18

The real ancestor of today's vertical take-off and landing technology is the Hiller X-18, which used the tilt-wings we see in today's VSTOL-capable aircraft. This plane was extraordinarily ahead of its time: the X-18 debuted in 1957. The V-22 Osprey, whose design and appearance are strikingly similar to that of the X-18, wasn't introduced into US military service until 2007. 

The X-18 was an experimental craft back in the '50s, but the Osprey is now one of the workhorse transport planes of the US military.

North American X-15

Among manned, powered aircraft, the North American X-15 still holds records for highest altitude (67 miles) and greatest speed (Mach 6.7) — and that was all the way back in the 1960s.

The plane took off from the bomb bay of a B-52 (see the above photo). The X-15 achieved spaceflight twice according to international standards, making it the first re-usable manned spacecraft in history.

X-20 Dyna-Soar

The X-20 Dyna-Soar only lived as a concept in the '50s and '60s, but its approach to space exploration has proven viable today. After spaceflight, the X-20 was meant to return to Earth and land on an airstrip, much like NASA's iconic Space Shuttle or Virgin Galactic's private endeavors. Even if it never actually flew, the X-20 represented an attempt at working towards aviation technology that was decades in the future at the time — but was eventually firmly proven.

McDonnell-Douglas X-36

The McDonnell-Douglas X-36 was an experiment in minimalism, "designed to fly without the traditional tail surfaces common on most aircraft"according to NASA, which contributed to the project.

The X-36 was built to prove that a tail-less fighter jet could have improved maneuverability compared to more traditional designs. The unmanned prototypes, which flew the first of several dozen test-flights in 1997, were built on a 28% scale compared to a "theoretical advanced fighter aircraft configuration," according to NASA.

That full-sized plane was never built. In that respect, the X-36 fits a pattern in the X-planes' history. It's a line that's proven that even the most extreme aeronautical feats are possible — even if they don't always result in aircraft that can be put to any widespread, practical use.

SEE ALSO: Here's what we know about the secret Air Force plane that just returned to earth

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Dressed in matching combat fatigues with days' worth of beard, the man known as Sipan barely stands out from the crowd of Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters. But unlike his fellow fighters, Sipan is an American who has taken up the cause against ISIS not for survival, but for a sense of justice. 

Sipan, whose real name is Jeremy Woodard, is a former US Army serviceman who has traveled to Syria in a bid to fight what he sees as a existential evil in ISIS, Jim Muir reports for the BBC. 

Despite the risks of fighting ISIS without the support of the US government, Woodard is not the only former service member of the US military to take up cause against ISIS. A spokesperson for the YPG said that at least three Americans were fighting with the Kurds against the jihadists in northeastern Syria. Among them is a fellow US Army veteran, Jordan Matson. 

Woodard served as a US Army Infantry specialist for 18 months in Iraq and for a year in Afghanistan. He has been in Syria battling against ISIS for a little over a month, yet during that time he has already had numerous close shaves against the militant group despite his military experience. 

"ISIS is much harder to fight. They're stronger, they have more weaponry, they have more financial backing. Al Qaeda, the Taliban — they're like a baby unit, much weaker," Woodard told the BBC.

"We've got airstrikes from America, but that's not getting the job done. More countries need to pull together and put troops on the ground. That's the only way it's going to get resolved. If not, it's just going to get worse."

Woodard had already lost all the supplies he brought to Syria when his position was overrun by the jihadist fighters. Three days later, he managed to retake his position alongside the YPG, but his belongings were gone. 

However, for Woodard, who gave up his lifestyle and family back home, including a 4-year-old daughter, the fight against ISIS was the good fight.

"They kill innocent people daily. They rape women and children and sell them into slavery. Killing an Isis [Islamic State] member, to me that's doing a good deed to the world. All of them need to get wiped out," Woodard said. 

Yet despite a growing international coalition against ISIS, alongside frequent US airstrikes, the jihadists continue to push their advance. The militants are once again threatening the Yazidi minority sect in northern Iraq with massacre, while also overrunning Anbar province just outside of Baghdad.

SEE ALSO: Iraq's 3rd-largest Military Base Is In Danger Of Falling To ISIS

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Digital Globe, a high-resolution satellite imagery company, released the following image of the Turkish border where refugees are fleeing the bloodshed in Kobani, a Syrian border town currently under siege by the Islamic State.

CNN's Hala Gorani notes that the photo shows "100s of cars abandoned at Turkey border by refugees fleeing Kobani fighting."

Earlier this week the US began airdropping weapons, ammunition, and aid in Kobani to help ill-equipped Kurdish forces who are trying to counter fighters from the Islamic State (aka ISIS or ISIL) surrounding the crucial Syrian border. 

"ISIS decided Kobani was important to them. This provided us with an opportunity," a senior Obama administration official said after the equipment delivery. Another official added that ISIS would "suffer significant losses for its focus on Kobani."

The US military had conducted 135 total airstrikes in Kobani, killing "hundreds" of ISIS fighters in hopes of slowing the group's advances into the city, according to US Central Command's General Lloyd Austin.

Austin described Kobani's security as "fragile," and he noted that the city could still fall to ISIS militants. Even though Kurds control approximately 70% of the city, ISIS continues to exchange fire from the east and south, said Anwar Muslim, a local government official in Kobani, reports CNN.

Kurdish commanders in Kobani have complained of the lack of coordination with the US military and a lack of resources to defeat ISIS, according to AFP. Dexter Filkins outlines the hesitation: "The history of the Kurds’ relationship with the United States is a series of swings between rescue and abandonment, and, as a consequence, between gratitude and distrust," he wrote for The New Yorker.

Here's a look at Kobani's location near the Turkey-Syria border:

Michael B. Kelley contributed to this report. 

SEE ALSO: The US Is Taking Full Advantage Of ISIS Fighters Gathering Around Kobani

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Russian President Vladimir Putin allegedly tried to tempt Poland into invading Ukraine with the goal of partitioning the country in 2013, former Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski told Ben Judah in an article in Politico.

According to Sikorski, who was Poland's foreign minister from 2007 until this past September and is now a member of parliament, the Polish Foreign Ministry first became alarmed over Putin's expansionist ambitions in the summer of 2013. The Ministry discovered that Russia was thinking about which Ukrainian provinces it could conceivably grab even before protests broke out in Kiev in November of 2013.

The Kremlin reportedly attempted to include Poland in these machinations — by offering to allow Warsaw to take its own slice of western Ukraine.

Sikorski told Politico: 

Putin wants Poland to commit troops to Ukraine. These were the signals they sent us. … We have known how they think for years. We have known this is what they think for years. This was one of the first things that Putin said to my prime minister, Donald Tusk, [soon to be President of the European Council] when he visited Moscow. He went on to say Ukraine is an artificial country and that Lwow is a Polish city and why don’t we just sort it out together. Luckily Tusk didn’t answer. He knew he was being recorded.

Despite Poland's lack of interest in taking part in any violation of its eastern neighbor's sovereignty, Russia reportedly continued to offer Poland the chance to partition Ukraine. On one occasion, according to Sikorski, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a veteran radical right-wing politician and then the speaker of Russia's parliament, came to Warsaw and offered Poland the five provinces of western Ukraine. 

“We made it very, very clear to them — we wanted nothing to do with this,” Sikorski told Politico. The belief within the Polish government at the time was that Zhirinovsky operated as a plausibly deniable feeler from Russia's inner political circles. 

However, Sikorski has come under fire for his statements to Politico.

He tweeted claims on Monday that some of his remarks may have been "overstated" in the interview. Sikorski is also under fire in back home for the interview, with some politicians calling for his removal from government for his dodging of reporter's questions back in Warsaw.

Poland and Russia are not exactly on friendly terms at the moment. In a sign of escalating tension across the entirety of eastern and northern Europe, Poland said it arrested two Russian spies on October 17. Sweden is also searching for what it believes is a Russian submarine in its territorial waters. 

Russia's reported offer to Poland over Ukraine is reminiscent of Poland's own partition during World War II. Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union conducted a series of partitions that split Poland, Romania, Finland, and the Baltic States between the two nations under the notorious and long-secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. 

Ukraine has been locked in a frozen conflict with Russian-backed separatists since early this year. The eastern provinces of Ukraine are still locked in fighting between the government and rebel forces, despite the existence of a proposed ceasefire. Russia also continues to occupy the Ukrainian province of Crimea. 

You can read the full Politico article here»

SEE ALSO: Russia issued an oddly worded denial over reports that one of its submarines is in Swedish waters

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One of the quickest ways to show how tough you are in the Army is to wear a Ranger tab.

In the two months it takes to earn, a soldier's mental and physical endurance is pushed to the absolute limit. He survives on one meal a day and a few hours of sleep per night.

Check out Ranger School >

He arrives at Ft. Benning in the best shape of his life and will lose an average of 20 pounds if he stays the full course.

The Discovery Channel's "Surviving the Cut" shows the 61-day course at Fort Benning and offers a glimpse at some of the toughest military training in the world. The attrition rate at Ranger School is intense and less than one-in-three who start the course achieve the coveted tab.

338 Ranger candidates begin the 61-day course long before the sun's up — and won't stop for another 20 hours

It's a non-stop schedule that includes brutal hand-to-hand combat tests ...

... strength tests where candidates carry another soldier 100-yards, the kind of move that save lives on the battlefield.

Despite a $7.6 billion US effort to curb opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, the country had more space dedicated to the crop than ever in 2013, according to a report by the Inspector General responsible for overseeing Afghanistan's reconstruction.

Over 200,000 hectares of poppies were planted in Afghanistan last year, producing an opium worth $3 billion. Some of money undoubtedly went towards supporting the Taliban, which has long used Afghanistan's narcotics industry to fund its militant activities.

The Inspector General's report states that "the narcotics trade poisons the Afghan financial sector and undermines the Afghan state’s legitimacy by stoking corruption, sustaining criminal networks, and providing significant financial support to the Taliban and other insurgent groups."

And there's a human cost within Afghanistan from an industry that both fuels and thrives off of drug addiction. In some villages, as The New York Times reported last year, drug use is as high as 30 percent, while HIV rates among intravenous users in Herat, the country's third largest city, are at 18 percent.

The US has spent about $7.6 billion to combat Afghanistan's opium industry, efforts that include developing and supporting the country's own counter-narcotics capacity and providing incentives to Afghan authorities to enforce anti-drug laws. 

Now, it's unclear if that investment has yielded any real progress. The Inspector General even suggests that things are getting worse. "The problem is in resurgence," the report states.

A map made from UN data by the Inspector General and the US Army Geospatial Center seems to support the idea that $7.6 billion in anti-drug spending hasn't amounted to all that much. Afghanistan has vast growing areas for poppies, areas that both US and Afghan efforts haven't been able to reduce.

The Inspector General's report included a response from an official at the American embassy in Kabul noting "marked changes" in recent cultivation patterns.

"Essentially, poppy cultivation has shifted from areas where government presence is broadly supported and security has improved, toward more remote and isolated areas where governance is weak and security is inadequate."

The letter adds that Afghanistan produces "well over 80 percent of the world's illicit opium [...] a windfall for the insurgency, which profits from the drug trade at almost every level." 

SEE ALSO: This $486 million blunder in Afghanistan sums up the disaster of military spending

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A team of researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have discovered a pair of historically significant vessels sunk during World War II's Battle of the Atlantic off of the coast of North Carolina. 

The two vessels are the German U-boat 576 and the freighter Bluefields. The ships, lost for more than 70 years, have been discovered approximately 30 miles off of the North Carolina coast in an area known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic. 

The discovery of U-576 and Bluefields draws attention to the scope of the Battle of the Atlantic, which took place between the Allies and the Axis powers across the entire width of the ocean's northern half. 

“Most people associate the Battle of the Atlantic with the cold, icy waters of the North Atlantic,” David Alberg, superintendent of NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, said in a press release. “But few people realize how close the war actually came to America’s shores. As we learn more about the underwater battlefield, Bluefields and U-576 will provide additional insight into a relatively little-known chapter in American history.”

The sinking of U-576 and Bluefields occurred minutes apart on July 15, 1942.

On that day, a group of 19 merchant ships were being escorted by the US Navy and Coast Guard from Norfolk, Virginia to Key West, Florida to deliver cargo for the war effort. It was off the coast of Cape Hatteras that U-576 attacked the convoy.

During the ensuing chaos, U-576 sank the Bluefields and was able to severely damage two other vessels.

However, the Nazi submarine was itself sunk during an aerial bombardment from a US Navy Kingfisher aircraft that provided support to the convoy, and a barrage from the deck guns of the merchant ship Unicoi. 

The skirmish resulted in the death of all 45 members of the submarine crew along with our Allied casualties. 

NOAA hopes that the discovery of the vessels will provide greater context and information for historians studying World War II. The Battle of the Atlantic was the single longest operation of the war, with U-boats consistently approaching US shores. But much of its history remains obscure due to the paucity of archaeological records and the difficulty of reaching or even locating crucial wrecks. 

The discovery has further significance since the site is protected under international law as a war grave for the German sailors. Because of this, the remains of U-576 will remain undisturbed at the bottom of the ocean.  

SEE ALSO: This chart shows the astounding devastation of World War II

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Russia Today, the English-language news outlet of the Russian government, is debuting a documentary Wednesday that purports to tell the "untold story" of how the Malaysian Airlines flight MH-17 may have actually been shot down by a military aircraft in July.

The mainstream consensus is that Kremlin-backed Ukrainian separatists shot down the civilian plane with a surface-to-air missile provided by the Russian government. RT, however, is pushing back against this narrative with "eye-witness interviews and expert opinion."

"The film attempts to establish what might have brought down the ill-fated airliner and all 298 people aboard," RT's website says about the documentary, titled, "MH17: The Untold Story."

In the trailer, published Tuesday afternoon, witnesses claim they saw a second aircraft that could have shot down the plane.

"I lifted my head and saw a small military aircraft in the sky. So I’m 100% sure there was a second aircraft," one man says.

Another man decisively concludes, "Aircraft MH-17 was crippled by an air-to-air missile, and as it descended, it was finished off by cannon fire."

This theory has also been presented on television propaganda networks in Russia. However, experts have noted the evidence shown in those broadcasts may have actually inadvertently proved cannon fire did not bring down the plane. 

RT did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider asking whether they expect people will be convinced by the documentary.

View the trailer for RT's "MH17: The Untold Story" below.

(Additional reporting by Hunter Walker)

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A mysterious yellow flyer is circulating among staff at the World Bank today, and it shows employees have serious problems with the bank’s current president, Jim Yong Kim. 

The leaflet, called “Yellow Flyer No. 3,” calls on staff to walk off the job and gather in the building’s foyer every Thursday until concerns over the Bank’s management are addressed.

The Bank's current president is increasingly unpopular at the institution, with many staff deeply dissatisfied with his tenure so far.

“There's a culture of fear with Kim because the perception is that you get fired if you disagree with him,” one World Bank staff member told Business Insider. “I think the sense is that he wasn't qualified for the job, a bit superficial, narcissistic, and promises a lot but delivers little on implementation.”

Staff have been incensed at President Kim’s reform process, which they claim has been needlessly opaque, unfocused, and lacking in substance. They say President Kim has fired several well-respected managers, curtailed employee benefits, and talks of new budget cuts, all while wasting money on external consultants and bonuses for senior staff. 

Similar yellow flyers appeared earlier this month, prompting staff to gather in the Bank’s atrium and forcing the president to hold an impromptu “Town Hall” meeting.

The Bank, established to combat global poverty, came under new leadership in 2012 when President Barack Obama appointed former Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim to head the institution. 

One former staff member told Business Insider that while Kim initially raised expectations over much needed reform to red tape and aging technology, he has failed to follow through in any substantive way. 

“The entire reform effort by President Kim should be taught in business schools as a case study in how to poorly manage institutional reform,” the former employee said. “It has resulted in complete chaos and created a culture of fear, uncertainty, and distrust.”

Earlier this month, Kim told reporters, “We’re undergoing the most thorough, the most ambitious reorganization in close to 20 years, so it’s not a surprise to me that there’s anxiety, that there’s concern.”

When we reached out to the bank, they told us, “We don’t comment on anonymous flyers posted by lone individuals."

"We are implementing fundamental changes to our development delivery model to become fit for purpose to meet today's most pressing challenges. Of course staff unease is natural and understandable in any large organization undergoing such a large-scale realignment," a spokesperson said

"We believe we will come out of this process as a stronger, more unified organization, better positioned to achieve our mission."

Here's the full flyer:

SEE ALSO: Instagram's 'Rich Kids Of Tehran' Shows Iranian Elites Living It Up Despite Sanctions

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The extremist group ISIS shares a territorial "footprint" with an earlier and now-disbanded grassroots effort to battle Sunni jihadists in Iraq.

Al Qaeda in Iraq, ISIS's predecessor, had been defeated when the US pulled the last of its troops out of Iraq in December of 2011. The US troop "surge" that began in 2007 helped secure the gains made by an American-supported Sunni Arab uprising against AQI — the "Sahwa," or Anbar Awakening campaign that decisively shifted grassroots Sunni support away from Al Qaeda and towards the US and its partners.

But as these maps illustrate, the reach of the Sahwa by the end of the American campaign against AQI has an unnerving correspondence with the parts of Iraq now under ISIS's control.

The first depicts the Sahwa and related groups like the Sons of Iraq were active in 2007, during the height of the pushback against AQI:

This map shows the territory that ISIS controls in the region as of October 19. It's roughly the same area:

The Sahwa was broken up in the years after the pullout, the deliberate result of policies embraced by despotic former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. That created a vacuum that ISIS is now filling with few real forces on the ground to challenge its rule.

The map is the creation of Michael Pregent, a lecturer at the National Defense University, and a former US intelligence officer and Department of Defense employee based in Iraq during the Surge period. He explained to Business Insider that during his last years in Iraq US officials widely assumed that the Sahwa would be able to survive any American pullout. Instead, Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's sectarian Shi'ite Prime Minister, dismantled the militia movement.

Maliki worried that it could herald a revival of totalitarian Sunni rule over Iraq, and broke his word to meaningfully integrate its members into the Iraqi Security Forces.

"The Iraqi government looked at this 90,000-man force as a threat," said Pregent. "We told them, hey, this is a static force, it's not an army capable of offensive operations. It's basically there for neighborhood defense."

Maliki didn't he believe it.

"He thought we were arming a bunch of terrorists that had their sites on Baghdad," said Pregent.

Ironically this is exactly the scenario that the Iraqi government faces today, except from a group that's arisen partly because of the Sahwa's absence.

During the closing years of the American operation in Iraq, the US acted as what Pregent called a "third-party guarantor," ensuring that Baghdad would continue to fund the Sahwa and then act to legitimize it after the American military left. But after the US pullout, Maliki refused to integrate Sahwa fighters into the security sector as existing battalions or units, dispersing its leadership throughout Iraq's dysfunctional and sectarian security apparatus.

Iraq's security forces are now overwhelmingly Shi'ite and therefore lack the ability or the legitimacy to retake Sunni population centers from ISIS. And the US's former partners now feel that Washington sold them out.

"They don't just feel abandoned by the central government. They feel abandoned by us," Pregent says. "We gave them assurances that this wouldn't happen."

It's a slow-motion policy failure, and Pregent's map shows the result of it: western Iraq is now at the mercy of a radical Sunni jihadist movement with no on-the-ground force that can really contest it.

SEE ALSO: ISIS claims to have captured US-airdropped weapons

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Good morning! Here's what you need to know for Wednesday.

1. Islamic State militants continue to shell the Syrian town of Kobani after US aircraft dropped weapons, ammunition, and medical supplies to Kurdish forces there. 

2. The World Health Organization said it's fast-tracking the testing of two experimental vaccines for Ebola, which could be ready for use on 20,000 health workers in Liberia by January, The Guardian reports. 

3. A televised first meeting between student leaders of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong and government officials showed little progress.  

4. A new poll showed Wednesday that Brazil's president Dilma Rousseff gained 1 percentage point on her pro-business candidate Aecio Neves, ahead of the Oct. 26 runoff to the presidential election.  

5. Traders say three major changes — stablizing energy stocks, a possible delay in US interest rate hikes, and subsiding panic over Ebola — have sent markets surging back. 

6. Swedish forces reported two new sightings of unidentified vessels in its waters. 

7. South African athlete Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to five years in jail for shooting and killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. 

8. After reporting a drop in global same-store sales of 3.3% in the last quarter, McDonald's has unveiled a plan to get the burger chain back on top, including "going back to the basics."

9. Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes, will make $780 million by selling off its stake in Tesla.

10. Ben Bradlee, the legendary Washington Post editor who oversaw the newspaper's covers of the Watergate scandal, died on Tuesday at the age of 93.

And finally...

Sleeping lions have nabbed first place in London's Natural History Museum's wildlife photographer of the year 2014 competition.  

SEE ALSO: The 10 Most Important Things In The World Archives

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Gavião Peixoto (Brazil) (AFP) - Brazilian planemaker Embraer unveiled its new KC-390 military transport Tuesday as the country expands its foray into the global security and defense air transport market. 

Developing the KC-390, the biggest plane Embraer has produced, cost 4.6 billion reais ($1.9 billion), paid by the Brazilian Air Force in partnership with Argentina, the Czech Republic and Portugal.

The new aircraft was presented at Embraer's testing facility at Gaviao Peixoto in Sao Paulo state at a ceremony attended by Brazil's defense minister, Celso Amorim.

"This significant stage in the KC-390 program demonstrates Embraer's ability to bring a complete hi-tech project to fruition," said Jackson Schneider, the firm's president of security and defense.

Saito said the new aircraft would comprise "the backbone of the air force's transport aviation," as the plane can operate in a range of conditions "from the Amazon to the Antarctic."

Nelson During, analyst with specialist site Defesanet, dubbed the KC-390 the largest military vehicle developed in the Southern Hemisphere that would take Embraer "to a new business level."

Embraer is targeting 728 sales of the new aircraft in 77 countries for receipts of $50 billion.

Last May, the company signed a contract with the FAB to supply 28 KC-390 over ten years in a $3.2 billion deal as the FAB gradually retires the US Lockheed Hercules C-130.

Amorim said co-developers Argentina, the Czech Republic and Portugal had also signaled their intention to buy airframes, as had Colombia and Chile.

The KC-390 project, largely financed by the FAB, was launched in 2009.

The medium-size, twin-engine jet-powered aircraft is capable of transporting up to 23 tons of cargo and boasts a maximum cruising speed of 860 kilometers (550 miles) per hour.

The plane will provide logistical back-up on military, humanitarian and search-and-rescue missions.

Embraer, the world's third-largest manufacturer of commercial aircraft behind US giant Boeing and Europe's Airbus, did not indicate the unit price of the plane, due in service by year's end.

The company is one of Brazil's biggest exporters and boasted a record $22 billion of order book business at the end of the third quarter.

Earlier Tuesday, some 7,000 Embraer personnel demanding a 10 percent pay rise began a one-day strike. The company has offered 6.6 percent.

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Police are looking for multiple gunmen in the capital of Canada after several shootings in downtown Ottawa.

One gunman shot a soldier at Canada's National War Memorial before facing off with police in the parliament building. The gunman has been killed by police, and the soldier has died in the hospital.

According to Hazel Harding, a spokeswoman for The Ottawa Hospital, three victims were taken there including a soldier. Harding said two of the victims were in "stable condition."

"All inquiries about the soldier's status (the third patient) should be directed to the Department of National Defence," Harding said in an email to Business Insider.

The capital is on lockdown as police investigate shootings at two locations: the War Memorial and Parliament Hill.

Police said earlier there was another shooting near the Rideau Centre shopping mall, but they now say there was no incident there. All three locations are within a few hundred yards of one another.

"We are actively looking for suspects right now," Ottawa Police Service Constable Marc Soucy told Reuters.

Soucy also told Business Insider that the police were not certain how many shooters were involved.

"We don't have an exact number," Soucy said. "There may be more than one."

Soucy said police "don't know" whether there was a connection to terrorism.

"That's too early in the investigation; only time will tell," he said. 

A construction worker on the scene told Reuters he heard a gunshot, and then saw a man dressed in black with a scarf over his face running toward parliament with a gun.

The man stopped a black car at gunpoint and hijacked it, construction worker Scott Walsh told Reuters. The driver got out safely, then the man drove the car to the Center Block on Parliament Hill, where construction work is underway.

The suspected gunman rushed past a woman with a child in a stroller, who ran away screaming. He did not attack the woman or child, Walsh said.

Center Block is the main building at Parliament Hill, a sprawling complex of buildings and open space in downtown Ottawa. It contains the House of Commons and Senate chambers as well as the offices of some members of parliament, senators, and senior administration for both legislative houses.

The shooter inside parliament was reportedly armed with a rifle, according to CBC, which is also carrying a live stream of its coverage. 

According to a tweet posted by Member of Parliament Craig Scott, one of the shooters was shot by Sergeant at Arms Kevin Vickers near lawmakers' offices:

The sergeant at arms traditionally performs "ceremonial and administrative duties" at the Canadian House of Commons. Soucy could not confirm whether Vickers shot any alleged suspects. 

Witnesses reported hearing several shots fired inside parliament. One reporter on scene noted that security inside the parliament building was typically "very lax."

A member of parliament tweeted:

We're now in lock down on the hill as shots were heard outside our caucus room in centre block

— Malcolm Allen (@Malcolm_AllenMP) October 22, 2014

The Globe and Mail has uploaded video from the scene inside parliament:

In the video, you can hear what sounds like gunshots going off in quick succession inside the building.

Here are some more photos from the scene:

And more from Twitter:

RT @CBCOttawa: Passersby working on shooting victim. From the CBC's Jason Ho. #OTTnewspic.twitter.com/HzBFibMSyy

— Mario Carlucci (@Luccidor) October 22, 2014

Soldier now being loaded into ambulance #cbcottpic.twitter.com/RCcdacR1w6

— Giacomo Panico (@GiacomoPanico) October 22, 2014

War memorial now #cbcottpic.twitter.com/8itHcpec00

— Giacomo Panico (@GiacomoPanico) October 22, 2014

Rapid response officers at War Memorial #cbcottpic.twitter.com/YBc5LKbYVE

— Giacomo Panico (@GiacomoPanico) October 22, 2014

RCMP officer drawing his weapon in front of Chateau Laurier #cbcottpic.twitter.com/nA9kOiZdIw

— Giacomo Panico (@GiacomoPanico) October 22, 2014

And some witness accounts:

From CBC's Jason Ho: "I had just passed war memorial and I heard a bang - I turned around and saw man holding up large gun"#cbcOTT#OTTnews

— CBC Ottawa (@CBCOttawa) October 22, 2014

Jason Ho: "There was a commotion, people starting ducking and running. I ran back. People surrounding soldier doing CPR."#cbcOTT#OTTnews

— CBC Ottawa (@CBCOttawa) October 22, 2014

Dozens of shots in parliament. I see a bodyu on the ground outside the library of parliament

— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) October 22, 2014

Ottawa police tactical unit here

— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) October 22, 2014

Looks like the suspect - talk is there was one but they are looking for people - came in through front doors

— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) October 22, 2014

One agent may have been shot, officer tells press

— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) October 22, 2014

So I am locked down in Centre Block on Parliament Hill after at least one shooter burst in and opened fire

— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) October 22, 2014

I was in the west wing of the building and shooter appears to have entered through main door on south side, heading north along hallway.

— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) October 22, 2014

Camera people say they saw a guy with what appeared to be a long gun of some kind

— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) October 22, 2014

I heard dozens of gunshots and the smell of gunpowder is heavy in the hallways right now

— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) October 22, 2014

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has not responded to requests for comment from Business Insider.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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It's been five days since a suspected Russian submarine was first spotted in Stockholm's archipelago, a violation of Sweden's sovereignty ostensibly confirmed through subsequent sightings and a possible Swedish-intercepted Russian-language transmission through an emergency-radio frequency.

But as Elias Groll explains at Foreign Policy, the Swedish military is at a bit of a disadvantage in locating the vessel. It sold off its last sub-tracking helicopters in 2008. And the search area is spread out over "a dense island grouping, with myriad places for a submarine to hide," Groll writes.

The sightings — all of which have been made by private citizens, rather than the national military — are spread out over a vast area, as this map, at right, released by the Swedish government demonstrates.

Sweden isn't a NATO member. With such vague information — Groll notes that much of the speculation around the search has turned "farcical" in the absence of any solid developments or leads — there's little public indication that a more capable military is interested in getting involved in the hunt.

The Swedes don't seem to be totally sure what they're looking for. The Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet is reporting that authorities believe they could be searching for more than one vessel.

And they aren't certain of the vessel's size or purpose. "It could be a submarine, or a smaller submarine," Swedish Rear Admiral Anders Grenstad said on Oct. 19. "It could be divers using some form of moped-like underwater vehicle, and it could be divers that don't have any business on our territory."

But earlier this week, Russia issued a strangely worded denial, with the Kremlin's defense ministry claiming that "there have been no irregular situations and, even less so, accidents involving Russian naval vessels." This statement rules out the possibility that a submarine may have become disabled and drifted into Swedish waters — without denying that a submarine could be in the area intentionally.

The Swedes are certain that the country's sovereignty has been violated.

Sverker Göransson, the country's top military commander, told journalists Tuesday, "This is very serious ... I would even go so far as to say that it's f----- up." 

NOW WATCH: Icelandic Commission Confirms That Video Of Mythical Sea Monster Lagarfljótsormur Is Actually Real

SEE ALSO: Sweden is prepared to use force to bring a suspected submarine to the surface

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Tunisia is the Arab Spring's success story, the one country that's turned into a stable democracy after replacing its leader in a wave of popular protests. But it's also the world's single biggest exporter of violent jihadists.

Over 3,000 Tunisians have traveled to fight in Iraq and Syria— nearly a thousand more than the number of people making the short trek from the third-biggest source: Jordan, Syria's neighbor. It's 500 more than the number that have traveled from Saudi Arabia, a traditional jihadist hotbed with three times Tunisia's population.

A report in The New York Times looks at possible answers for why a country which navigated the challenges of the Arab Spring with such apparent success is now a source of so many jihadists.

Dozens of interviews with Tunisian youth in one of the capital's suburbs, Ettadhamen, point to motivations that range from seeking a higher standard of living to ideological motivations, like erasing the arbitrary borders that European imperialists drew in the region a century ago.

The jihadist problem is fueled by low youth employment. The African Development Bank, which is headquartered in Tunis, puts unemployment among young graduates at "a particularly worrisome level" of 34 percent. According to the Times, "education is inexpensive but jobs remain scarce," making young people "prime candidates for jihad."

"It seems that everyone under 30 knew someone who had traveled to fight in Syria or Iraq, or someone who had died there," the Times reports.

But fresh recruits are not limited to a group of frustrated youth, and economic explanations are unsatisfying. After all, Tunisia isn't the only country in the region that's fallen on hard times.

New freedoms in the country during its democratization process have allowed more vocal praise for ISIS and open recruitment. It's also possible that the security services are just less organized and less capable of identifying and stopping would-be jihadists — though Tunisian officials say that many of the roughly 400 fighters who have returned to Syria have been arrested.

Notably, dozens of the Times' interviewees said they didn't believe news reports of the Islamic State's atrocious crimes, which include mass killings and beheadings. Tunisian youth may be exposed to a distorted view of ISIS, in an environment of political openness and economic desperation.

And the result is that one of the most promising countries in the Middle East is a major source of jihadist recruitment.

SEE ALSO: These two maps explain ISIS's chokehold over Iraq

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A ceasefire has technically been in place in eastern Ukraine since negotiations began in Minsk between the Ukrainian and Russian governments on September 5. But this attempted cessation in hostilities has failed to take effect on the ground. 

Large parts of Donetsk have been destroyed as a result of the fighting, which has included large-scale and possibly indiscriminate shelling by both the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists. There have been allegations from Humans Right Watch that both sides have used cluster bombs in the attacks. 

The fighting in eastern Ukraine has devastated Donetsk's international airport. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled the region as fighting has continued, especially in the city center. One of east Ukraine's major population centers now has a post-apocalyptic quality to it. And it's partly because of fighting that occurred during what was supposed to be a halt in combat.

Despite a ceasefire that was meant to allow for a Russian-Ukrainian peace process, fighting continued almost unabated in Donetsk. 

The separatist prime minister of the Donetsk People's Republic declared that the ceasefire was over following a massive explosion — along with weeks of continued fighting in the city — on Oct. 20. 

The conflict has had a nightmarish effect on the city, as shells have hit targets ranging from schools ...

... to grocery stores.

Hundreds of thousands have fled the city in an attempt to avoid the conflict. There are more than 250,000 internally displaced people in Ukraine. 

The UN estimates that over one million people have fled the fighting in eastern Ukraine, with over 800,000 refugees crossing over the border into Russia. 

Sadly, the Ukraine crisis does not appear to be any closer to reaching an end. 

SEE ALSO: Report: Putin offered Poland's prime minister the chance to join forces and partition Ukraine

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Seemingly unconnected acts of violence have killed two soldiers in Canada within the past two days. 

On Oct. 21, a Quebec man was shot and killed by police after he used a car to attack two soldiers in a parking lot in a town outside of Montreal. One of the soldiers died.

According to the Prime Minister's officer, the attacker, identified as Martin Couture-Rouleau, had been ideologically radicalized and had been known to terrorist investigators in Canada prior to the incident. The jihadist sympathizer had previously been detained at a Canadian airport in July after attempting to fly to Turkey.

Yesterday's attack led to a raising of the terrorist alert level within Canada. 

"I am horrified by what took place here," Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney said at a press conference. "This is a terrible act of violence against our country, against our military, against our values."

Couture-Rouleau's attack came a day before a shooting attack on Canada's Houses of Parliament in Ottawa. 

The New York Times reports that a Canadian soldier has been killed in the shooting. 

The Ottawa Police have told Reuters that they are currently looking for suspects linked to the attack in Ottawa. 

"We are actively looking for suspects right now, so we don't know if it is suspect one or suspects plural," Ottawa Police Constable Marc Soucy told Reuters.

The possibility that there is more than one gunman raises the specter of a coordinated terror attack.

Signs of radicalization of Quebec suspect

There are currently no links connecting the Ottawa shootings to Couture-Rouleau's attack outside of Montreal. There have also been no conclusive links proven between Couture-Rouleau and ISIS, highlighting the likelihood that this was a "lone wolf" attack. 

Couture-Rouleau's Facebook page featured a photo of ISIS's flag, along with rants against local Muslim groups and a professed support for al-Qaeda. 

ISIS has urged supporters to carry out attacks against Western nations that have joined the US-led coalition against the group. Canada has said that it will send six fighter jets to take part in the operations against the jihadists in Iraq.

Ottawa police say it's "too early" to tell whether today's shooting incidents in downtown Ottawa are linked to terrorism.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has not responded to Business Insider's requests for comment on the developing situation at Parliament Hill. 

SEE ALSO: Follow BI's developing coverage of the active shooter near Canadian parliament

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The Swedish military is currently hunting what it has described as a mysterious foreign vessel that is violating the country's territorial waters. Swedish authorities aren't sure what they're looking for— or even how many vessels they're looking for. Confirmed details are scarce, but it's at least possible they're looking for a Russian submarine, a possibility that has led Swedish military planners to consider using "armed force" to coerce the vessel into surfacing.

The Swedes want to pull off one of the most difficult naval maneuvers of all: capturing a submarine. This is so difficult the CIA spent six years trying to raise a wrecked Soviet sub from the ocean floor in the late 1960s and early 1970s — which is a less outlandish endeavor than trying to bring in a live, functioning one.

No Soviet or Russian submarine has ever been captured. A Japanese midget submarine was taken after running aground duirng the Pearl Harbor raid during World War Two. But only one Axis sub was actually boarded on the high seas during the war, and its story demonstrates the near impossibility of taking an enemy vessel whole.

U-505 sits in Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, with 70-year-old bullet holes tracing the outline of a sloping chrome-colored hull. Visitors can tour its cramped interior with guides who indicate where a series of self-destruct charges were hidden to be used in the the unthinkable and nearly unprecedented event of an enemy boarding. After a top-secret military and intelligence effort spanning several months, the entire mission was in danger even after American sailors set foot on the defeated U-505 150 miles off the coast of West Africa on June 4, 1944.

Capturing a submarine is remarkably difficult. A dedicated captain will sink his vessel rather than let it fall into enemy hands, and a hull breach or badly placed depth charge could wreck the ship before it is even in a position to be boarded. Here's how it was done in the case of U-505.

U-505 was captured based on intercepted German communications suggesting U-boats would be operating near Africa, about 150 miles off the coast of present-day Cape Verde, in May 1944. A so-called "hunter-killer" force called Task Group 22.3 — under the command of Rear Admiral Daniel Gallery and the USS Guadalcanal carrier group — was dispatched to the U-boats' suspected area of operation with the express objective of capturing rather than destroying an enemy sub. 

The hunt for U-505 depended on an intercepted message decrypted as part of a joint US-British effort to break German naval codes. Capturing the sub required knowing roughly where the vessel was going to be ahead of time. Even then, Task Group 22.3, which included no fewer than six US Navy ships, had to spend two seemingly fruitless weeks scouring the area for sub activity — a hefty commitment of time and resources even under the best of circumstances.

The searchers nearly ran out of fuel. They encountered U-505 only by luck, and they were fortunate not to accidentally destroy the ship in the initial confrontation. One of the Guadalcanal's escorts "made sonar contact on an object just 800 yards away on her starboard bow. Guadalcanal immediately swung clear at top speed, desperately trying to avoid getting in the way, as Chatelain and the other escorts closed the position," according to a US Navy description.

The six American vessels attempted to enclose the U-boat. The Chatelain dropped a depth charge designed to explode only on contact; the Guadalcanal scrambled two of its planes to track the ship and fire on the water to mark its expected position. A round of depth charges from the fast-closing Chatelian persuaded the sub to surface.

"Just six and one-half minutes after Chatelain's first attack, U-505 broke the surface with its rudder jammed, lights and electrical machinery out, and water coming in," the Navy's account reads.

The American fleet was still vulnerable to an underwater attack. One of the escort ships swept the sub's deck with machine-gun fire; another fired a warning torpedo. A boarding party from the USS Pillsbury attempted to land on the enemy ship only when it showed no apparent signs of activity. And even then, those self-destruct charges threatened to bring the whole operation down while killing every member of the boarding team.

But the German crew surrendered peaceably, and the sub turned out to be a cryptological bonanza, with encrypted typewriters that included the cypher keys that German vessels planned to use for the next two months of the war.

But any number of factors could have doomed the hunt for U-505.

The sub's crew was demoralized — it knew it was under enemy pursuit, and one of its commanding officers committed suicide in the vessel's control room shortly before U-505 was captured. A more skilled or committed crew might have opted to destroy the sub entirely, and an ill-placed depth charge from a US ship could have accidentally ended the operation for good.

This doesn't mean the Swedes can't catch their alleged Russian sub. As Reuters reports, the country's military is considered to be skilled in anti-submarine warfare.

However, Sweden sold off or retired many of its submarine-hunting helicopters in 2008; that same Reuters article says some of them are currently in a Swedish museum. The sub hunt is the biggest Swedish military operation since the Cold War, but it involves just five anti-submarine corvettes working in a vast and rocky Scandinavian island chain prone to bad weather.

Luck might be on Stockholm's side, and the search is understandable even if it returns empty-handed. Sweden wants to prove it takes violations of its sovereignty seriously. And the actual capture of a Russian sub, which could yield substantial intelligence or valuable captives, would give Sweden and its allies an indispensable and perhaps unprecedented degree of leverage over Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Even so, the odds are against a Swedish Armed Forces whose leadership already seems exasperated by the task before it. Whatever Sweden is hunting most likely will not surface until it is back in friendly waters, making the search effort seem like a semi-farcical hunt for nothing.

SEE ALSO: A D-Day Veteran Tells The Story Of His 4 Weeks In Combat For The First Time

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Likely end-game scenarios for Syria's three-year-long civil war are coming into view, even if the actual end of the conflict appears as hopelessly far-off as ever.

There are four likely scenarios in which the conflict can end, according to a new report from the RAND Corporation. Aside from a single longshot scenario, each of the possible outcomes bodes poorly for the region, the international community, and the Syrians themselves. 

In December 2013, RAND assembled a workshop that included US intelligence and policy experts, think tank scholars, and RAND researchers. The workshop was instructed to come up with four possible endings to the war in Syria, each of which had to be plausible and could occur in the near term — between 2014 and 2015. 

In an October paper, RAND readdressed the workshop and tweaked its findings to fit the new realities of the ground. 

Here are its four scenarios.

Prolonged Conflict Between Surviving Statelets

In this outcome, the current battle lines in Syria harden and a number of semi-functioning mini-states sprout up throughout the country. These possible units could include a rump Alawite state run by the Assad regime that stretches from Damascus to the Mediterranean coast in the west, a Kurdish state in the far northeast, a moderate Islamist state that controls the area between the outskirts of Damascus and the Israeli border, and an ISIS emirate the spans from Aleppo to the Iraqi border. 

In this situation, Iran and Russia would likely continue to fund Assad, while Tehran would also build patronage ties to the Kurds and non-jihadist Sunni rebels. Hezbollah would likely continue to fight in Syria, leading to a ever heightening levels of sectarianism. 

Al-Qaeda and ISIS would be the big winners from this scenario, as they would have free reign to continue their operations and plan out terrorist attacks. Sectarian fighting would likely also further spread into Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq. 

An Assad 'Victory' 

This scenario wouldn't be a regime "victory" in the purest sense.

Instead, Assad and his regime forces would slowly grind down the rebel factions by brute force and by playing off of their internal divisions. Even then, rebel groups would likely continue to operate along the Turkish border, the Golan Heights, in the eastern Syrian wilderness, and in pockets of resistance in Aleppo and Damascus. 

This partial win would likely further embolden Assad to take a more aggressive stance towards the Gulf States that assisted anti-regime militants or whose governments have a particularly Sunni sectarian flavor to them, like Bahrain and Kuwait. However, in the long run, Syria would prove a major financial drain on Iran and the US could potentially woo Assad away with economic aid. 

At the same time, ISIS would continue to function in Iraq and Hezbollah would lose any support in the Arab world as it would be seen merely as a tool of the Iranians. The Gulf States would then likely turn on the US and blame it for the Assad victory, citing Obama's years of policy indecision.

Regime Collapse 

The collapse of Assad would be a drawn-out affair involving the slow loss of a substantial number of regime soldiers over a period of months. This outcome would only come about through the rebels acquiring more advanced weaponry like portable anti-aircraft missiles. 

The fall of the regime would lead to the emergence of a multitude of competing fiefdoms in the country, ranging from secular nationalist to ISIS enclaves. This would lead to a constant level of violence between the various rebel factions, with ISIS emerging as the strongest force in the region. 

This is the worst possible outcome for Iran and Hezbollah.

Iranian influence in the region would decline with the loss of a trusted proxy, and a weakened Hezbollah would likely come under attack from a number of factions in Lebanon. At the same time, ISIS would plan terror plots from its safe haven while possibly carrying out ethnic cleansing against Syria's Alawite minority. 

A Negotiated Settlement 

A negotiated settlement is the least likely to occur of these scenarios. This outcome would rely upon the resumption of now-suspended peace talks and the creation of an inclusive, non-sectarian government in Syria consisting members of the Assad regime and members of the various rebel factions. 

In all likelihood, the settlement would provide for safe passage out of Syria for Assad and his family — which means it would require a host nation to offer him asylum. It would mean creating an entirely new national government with an inclusive military that involved Sunnis at the highest levels. This military would then have to turn against ISIS and the Nusra Front to secure Syria's territorial integrity. 

Both the US and Iran would likely have to work in conjunction to deploy military trainers to create the new national army. The Gulf States would likely support this outcome but may have trouble cracking down on donors to violent jihadist groups operating in the country. 

You can read the full RAND report here»

SEE ALSO: An American man has joined the ground war against ISIS in Syria

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Good morning! Here's what you need to know for Thursday. 

1. Much of downtown Ottawa was on lockdown Wednesday after a gunman, identified as Canadian Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, shot and killed a soldier at the National War Memorial on Parliament Hill. 

2. Russian prosecutors have detained four Moscow airport workers, who officials say might be responsible for the plane crash that killed the CEO of the French oil giant Total, 63-year-old Christophe de Margerie. 

3. The World Health Organization updated its Ebola figures, warning that the virus could infect 10,000 people in West Africa by early December, while 4,877 people had died from Ebola so far. 

4. The National Institutes of Health has begun early human testing of an Ebola vaccine, called VSV-ZEBOV. 

5. Tesco, the world's second-largest retailer, confirmed on Thursday that its first-half pre-tax profit had been overstated by £263 million, and the company announced that chairman Sir Richard Broadbent would step down. 

6. US-led airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria have killed 553 people over the past month, with most of the dead being members of the jihadist group. 

7. Swedish forces are still hunting for what the country believes are mysterious foreign vessels illegally operating in its waters. 

8. Britain's National Health System says it needs an extra £8 billion a year after warning of a £30 billion annual shortfall that would develop by 2020. 

9. Apple said the company would open 25 stores in China within the next two years. 

10. Scientists have unraveled the oldest DNA ever, which comes from the femur of a man who died about 45,000 years ago.

And finally ...

Mark Zuckerberg speaks Mandarin. 

SEE ALSO: The 10 Most Important Things In The World Archives

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