title: Los Angeles crime family

text: DeSimone's second underboss Nick "Old Man" Licata succeeded him. Licata had strong ties with Mafia families in the Midwest and South and maintained contact with the mob in Las Vegas. By then, law enforcement knew much about mob activities in Los Angeles, which was helped by top hitman Frank Bompensiero becoming an undercover informant in 1967. In 1963 Joe Valachi outed the Mafia as a secret criminal society, aiding in law enforcements attacks on organized crime and fingered Licata as a high ranking mobster in Los Angeles. A bright spot during the period was that Louis Tom Dragna's company "Roberta Dress Manufacturing" was turning into a $10 million a year business. This was possible because in the 1950s, Jack Dragna flew labor union expert Johnny Dio in from New York City to teach Louis how to manipulate labor unions in the Los Angeles Garment District. Licata had high hopes of restoring the declining family, but with the police and FBI constantly monitoring his family, Licata wasn't able to do much of a better job than DeSimone. On July 9, 1969, Licata was taken into custody after refusing to answer questions at a federal grand jury session about L.A.'s crime syndicate structure. He was held in contempt of court for refusing to testify after being given immunity from prosecution and eventually served six months in prison. A pair of indictments in the mid-1970s threaten to put most of the working family in prison. In March 1973, seven men were arrested for running a rigged gambling operation in Los Angeles that brought in up to $250,000 a month. Their trial was delayed when the key informant and witness, former Mafia associate John Dubcek, was shot and killed in Las Vegas. Although this scared other informants from testifying, they still were convicted and given light sentences. Four months later another 12 men, were indicted for conspiracy, racketeering and extortion against bookmakers, loan sharks, and pornographers. Licata's underboss Joseph Dippolito had a large influence in San Bernardino and the Inland Empire in both legitimate and criminal enterprises. He was seen as Licata's successor, but died unexpectedly of a heart attack in January 1974 at the age of 59. On October 19, 1974, after a long battle with illnesses, Nick Licata died at age 77.


title: Los Angeles crime family

text: Licata's successor, Dominic Brooklier, was initially able to stabilize the family's businesses, but later endured considerable damage done by FBI informants. Brooklier was able to make a lot of money in pornography, extortion, and drugs, but wasn't able to take back control of many independent bookmaking rackets in Los Angeles. "The Last Mafioso" described several instances during the time when the Los Angeles family would shake down movie producers in the porn industry. These producers would then pay a fee to their Mafia backers, usually on the East Coast, to set things straight with the L.A. mob. Once the producers paid, the Mafia backers would secretly split the money with the L.A. family. Brooklier later ordered the death of Frank Bompensiero for his growing criticism of the family, and later finding good evidence that Bompensiero was cooperating with the FBI. When Brooklier was sentenced to a 20-month prison stint along with underboss Samuel Sciortino in 1975, Jimmy Fratianno on Tom Dragna's request, transferred back to the L.A. family from Chicago, and was named co-acting Los Angeles boss with Dragna. Fratianno traveled across the country making new connections and deals. Fratianno's goal was to bring back the ailing L.A. family stature and reputation amongst the Mafia. Since Jack Dragna's 1956 death, Los Angeles was starting to be seen as an "open city" where any Mafia family could do business, but Fratianno hoped that by restoring the ailing family, he would be a candidate to officially run the family after Brooklier was released. However, upon release from prison, Brooklier quickly took back control of the family, and Fratianno was left back to being a low level soldier.


title: Los Angeles crime family

text: The fall of the Los Angeles family came when Fratianno became the second American Mafioso to turn state's evidence and testify against the Mafia in court. On October 6, 1977, Danny Greene was killed by a car bomb in Ohio, and Ray Ferritto was arrested for the murder. Ferritto implicated Fratianno in the planning of the murder, and Fratianno was indicted for charges related to the bombing. Fearing for his safety, Fratianno agreed to become a government witness against the Mafia. In return for his testimony, he pleaded guilty to the murder charges and received a five-year prison sentence, of which he served 21 months. In 1980, after testifying for the government that led to the racketeering convictions of five reputed Mafia figures, Fratianno entered the federal Witness Protection Program. Fratianno claimed that the Mafia had a $100,000 contract on his life. Brooklier, who didn't trust Fratianno, ordered the hit because Fratianno had claimed he was presenting himself as boss of the family, and felt that he was trying to usurp him. Fratianno testified against mobsters not only in Los Angeles, but across the entire country. Although the Justice Department thought it finally crippled the Mafia in Los Angeles, a Federal Judge gave Brooklier, Sciortino, Michael Rizzitello, Dragna, and Jack LoCicero light sentences ranging from two to five years in 1981 for racketeering and extortion. Brooklier still ran the family from his prison cell until he died of a heart attack in 1984. With Brooklier's imprisonment, capo Peter Milano quickly stepped up and began running the family in 1981.


title: Los Angeles crime family

text: Peter Milano was officially made boss of the Los Angeles crime family with Brooklier's death in 1984. He made his brother Carmen "Flipper" Milano his underboss. Since Milano's reign, the family was heavily involved in narcotics, pornography, gambling and loan sharking. 20 reputed organized crime figures were arrested in 1984, in what law enforcement officials said was a bid to take over a $1 million-a-week bookmaking operation in Los Angeles. Neither of the Milano brothers (nor six of the others originally arrested) were charged due to lack of evidence. When Peter Milano became boss, he rejuvenated the depleted family by inducting new members such as Stephen "Steve the Whale" Cino, singer Charles "Bobby Milano" Caci, Luigi "Louie" Gelfuso Jr. and shylock brothers Lawrence and Anthony "The Animal" Fiato into the family. Mobster turned informant Kenny Gallo credited the brothers with "help[ing] Pete Milano revamp the L.A. Family". With a beefed up family Milano succeeded in having nearly every bookie in Los Angeles pay a mob tax to the L.A. family. Robert "Puggy" Zeichick gave Anthony Fiato a $1 million loan which was used to finance a huge loan shark operation. The L.A. family became the dominant loan shark operators in the area. The family's influence stretched all the way to Las Vegas, where they had long standing ties to what the Mafia considered an "open city" where any family could work.


title: Los Angeles crime family

text: The entire hierarchy of the family including the Milano brothers, captains Mike Rizzitello, Jimmy Caci, and Luigi Gelfuso along with many other mobsters were arrested on various charges in the late 1980s, due largely to information and recordings collected by the Fiato brothers. These charges to so many members permanently crippled the family and put the family on the brink of extinction. While Rizzitello, who was acquitted of his original charges at trial, was sentenced to 33 years in prison in 1989 for attempted murder (where he would die in 2005) the Milano brothers pleaded guilty to lesser charges; Peter received a six-year prison sentence and Carmen received six months. Almost every member of the family charged pleaded guilty to receive lesser sentences and the F.B.I. considered the Mafia finished in Los Angeles.


title: Los Angeles crime family

text: However, since Peter Milano's paroled release in 1991, he took back control of the weakened family. The Los Angeles family since made moves into Las Vegas with the Buffalo crime family. The family made headlines again with the murder of Chicago Outfit associate Herbert "Fat Herbie" Blitzstein by Buffalo and Los Angeles family associates in 1997. Blizstein had a lucrative loan shark and auto insurance fraud business the two families moved in to take over. This caused a great deal of scrutiny from the FBI on both families. Members like Stephen Cino and Alfred Mauriello were convicted on related charges along with other associates who cooperated with officials to receive a reduced sentence, putting the L.A. crime family on its last leg. By the 1990s the L.A. family was estimated to have 20 official members.


title: Los Angeles crime family

text: Much of the crime family's activities have become unknown since the Las Vegas indictments. Law enforcement has moved its attention of organized crime towards street gangs such as Mexican and African American gangs who are far more prevalent and widespread. Until his death, Peter Milano was still believed to be the official Boss of the Los Angeles crime family. However, since the late 1990s, his involvement in crime along with other members had become greatly reduced. Some members, like Rocco Zangari and Russell Massetia, moved out of the state and left the family altogether. Other members, like Carmen Milano and Jimmy Caci died of old age with no younger people having to replace them. Los Angeles doesn't have a high concentration of Italians like the East Coast to support them, so recruiting new members is challenging. With Southern California's many racial groups, La Cosa Nostra faced an uphill battle to challenge the many street gangs in the area over criminal rackets. Law enforcement also considers East Coast Mafia members moving to California as a threat.


title: Los Angeles crime family

text: Tommaso "Tommy" Gambino, a Los Angeles-based prosecco magnate and son of Rosario Gambino, has been the reputed boss of the family since 2012. According to informants for the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Canadian gangster and Musitano crime family associate Albert Iavarone was inducted into the Los Angeles family shortly before he was shot dead in Hamilton, Ontario on September 13, 2018.


The 2022 United States Senate special election in Oklahoma was held on November 8, 2022, to elect a member of the United States Senate for Oklahoma. The election took place concurrently with the regularly scheduled election for Oklahoma's other Senate seat. The candidate filing deadline was between April 13–15, 2022.


title: 2022 United States Senate special election in Oklahoma

text: This special election was held to fill the remaining four years of incumbent Republican Senator Jim Inhofe's fifth term. In February 2022, Inhofe announced that he would resign early at the end of the 117th United States Congress on January 3, 2023. He was first elected in the 1994 special election with 55% of the vote, succeeding retiring Democratic Senator David Boren. Most recently, Inhofe won re-election to a fifth full term in 2020 with 63% of the vote.


text: Former U.S. Representative Kendra Horn secured the Democratic nomination by default, while the primary election for the Republican nomination took place on June 28, 2022. U.S. Representative Markwayne Mullin won the Republican primary runoff on August 23, defeating former State House Speaker T. W. Shannon. Mullin won the election.


text: Mullin, a member of the Cherokee Nation, became the first Native American to serve in the U.S. Senate since fellow Republican Ben Nighthorse Campbell retired from Congress in 2005, and the first Native American representing this state since Robert Owen in 1925. Horn won Oklahoma County, making her the first Democrat since 2008 to carry any Oklahoma county in a Senate election.


text: On February 25, 2022, Jim Inhofe, the state's longest-serving U.S. Senator, announced he would leave office at the end of the 117th Congress, triggering a special election for his U.S. Senate seat in Oklahoma.


text: A crowded field of candidates was expected in the Republican primary following the announcement of Inhofe's retirement.


text: Luke Holland, Inhofe's former chief of staff, launched his campaign for Inhofe's seat on the same day with Inhofe's endorsement. The next day, Markwayne Mullin, a U.S. Representative for Oklahoma's 2nd congressional district, announced his campaign. By February 28, Oklahoma State Senator Nathan Dahm had announced he was switching his campaign from running for Oklahoma's Class III seat to running for the special election seat. On March 8, former United States National Security Council chief of staff Alex Gray announced his campaign. T. W. Shannon, a former Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, officially announced his campaign on March 11. Scott Pruitt, former Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, filed to run on April 15.


text: Former U.S. Representative Kendra Horn was the only Democrat to file to run and was automatically awarded the Democratic nomination.


title: Treaty

text: A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal persons. A treaty may also be known as an international agreement, protocol, covenant, convention, pact, or exchange of letters, among other terms. However, only documents that are legally binding on the parties are considered treaties under international law. Treaties vary on the basis of obligations (the extent to which states are bound to the rules), precision (the extent to which the rules are unambiguous), and delegation (the extent to which third parties have authority to interpret, apply and make rules).


title: Treaty

text: Treaties are among the earliest manifestations of international relations, with the first known example being a border agreement between the Sumerian city-states of Lagash and Umma around 3100 BC. International agreements were used in some form by most major civilizations, growing in both sophistication and number during the early modern era. The early 19th century saw developments in diplomacy, foreign policy, and international law reflected by the widespread use of treaties. The 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties codified these practices, setting forth guidelines and rules for creating, amending, interpreting, and terminating treaties and for resolving disputes and alleged breaches.


title: Treaty

text: Treaties are roughly analogous to contracts in that they establish the rights and binding obligations of the parties. They vary significantly in form, substance, and complexity and govern a wide variety of matters, such as security, trade, environment, and human rights. Treaties may be bilateral (between two countries) or multilateral (involving more than two countries). They may also be used to establish international institutions, such as the International Criminal Court and the United Nations, for which they often provide a governing framework. Treaties serve as primary sources of international law and have codified or established most international legal principles since the early 20th century.


title: Treaty

text: Notwithstanding the Law of Treaties and customary international law, treaties are not required to follow any standard form. Nevertheless, all valid treaties must comply with the legal principle of "pacta sunt servanda" (Latin: "agreements must be kept"), under which parties are committed to perform their duties and honor their agreements in good faith. A treaty may also be invalidated, and thus rendered unenforceable, if it violates a preemptory norm ("jus cogens"), such as permitting a war of aggression or crimes against humanity.


title: Treaty

text: A treaty is an official, express written agreement that states use to legally bind themselves. It is also the objective outcome of a ceremonial occasion that acknowledges the parties and their defined relationships. There is no prerequisite of academic accreditation or cross-professional contextual knowledge required to publish a treaty.


title: Treaty

text: However, since the late 19th century, most treaties have followed a fairly consistent format. A treaty typically begins with a preamble describing the "High Contracting Parties" and their shared objectives in executing the treaty, as well as summarizing any underlying events (such as the aftermath of a war in the case of a peace treaty). Modern preambles are sometimes structured as a single very long sentence formatted into multiple paragraphs for readability, in which each of the paragraphs begins with a gerund (desiring, recognizing, having, etc.).


title: Treaty

text: The High Contracting Parties—referred to as either the official title of the head of state (but not including the personal name), e.g. "His Majesty The King of X" or "His Excellency The President of Y", or alternatively in the form of "" Government of Z""—are enumerated, along with the full names and titles of their Plenipotentiary representatives; a boilerplate clause describes how each party's representatives have communicated (or exchanged) their "full powers" (i.e., the official documents appointing them to act on behalf of their respective high contracting party) and found them in good or proper form. However, under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties if the representative is the head of state, head of government or minister of foreign affairs, no special document is needed, as holding such high office is sufficient.


title: Treaty

text: The end of the preamble and the start of the actual agreement is often signaled by the words "have agreed as follows".


title: Treaty

text: After the preamble comes numbered articles, which contain the substance of the parties' actual agreement. Each article heading usually encompasses a paragraph. A long treaty may further group articles under chapter headings.


title: Treaty

text: Modern treaties, regardless of subject matter, usually contain articles governing where the final authentic copies of the treaty will be deposited and how any subsequent disputes as to their interpretation will be peacefully resolved.


title: Treaty

text: The end of a treaty, the eschatocol (or closing protocol), is often signaled by language such as "in witness whereof" or "in faith whereof", followed by the words "DONE at", then the site(s) of the treaty's execution and the date(s) of its execution. The date is typically written in its most formal, non-numerical form; for example, the Charter of the United Nations reads "DONE at the city of San Francisco the twenty-sixth day of June, one thousand nine hundred and forty-five". If applicable, a treaty will note that it is executed in multiple copies in different languages, with a stipulation that the versions in different languages are equally authentic.


title: Treaty

text: The signatures of the parties' representatives follow at the very end. When the text of a treaty is later reprinted, such as in a collection of treaties currently in effect, an editor will often append the dates on which the respective parties ratified the treaty and on which it came into effect for each party.


title: Treaty

text: Bilateral treaties are concluded between two states or entities. It is possible for a bilateral treaty to have more than two parties; for example, each of the bilateral treaties between Switzerland and the European Union (EU) has seventeen parties: The parties are divided into two groups, the Swiss ("on the one part") and the EU and its member states ("on the other part"). The treaty establishes rights and obligations between the Swiss and the EU and the member states severally—it does not establish any rights and obligations amongst the EU and its member states.


title: Treaty

text: A multilateral treaty is concluded among several countries, establishing rights and obligations between each party and every other party. Multilateral treaties may be regional or may involve states across the world. Treaties of "mutual guarantee" are international compacts, e.g., the Treaty of Locarno which guarantees each signatory against attack from another.


title: Treaty

text: The United Nations has extensive power to convene states to enact large-scale multilateral treaties and has experience doing so. Also, under the United Nations Charter, which is itself a treaty, treaties must be registered with the UN to be invoked before it, or enforced in its judiciary organ, the International Court of Justice. This was done to prevent the practice of secret treaties, which proliferated in the 19th and 20th centuries and often precipitated or exacerbated conflict. Article 103 of the Charter also states that its members' obligations under the Charter outweigh any competing obligations under other treaties.


title: Treaty

text: After their adoption, treaties, as well as their amendments, must follow the official legal procedures of the United Nations, as applied by the Office of Legal Affairs, including signature, ratification and entry into force.


title: Treaty

text: In function and effectiveness, the UN has been compared to the United States federal government under the Articles of Confederation.


title: Treaty

text: Reservations are essentially to a state's acceptance of a treaty. Reservations are unilateral statements purporting to exclude or to modify the legal obligation and its effects on the reserving state. These must be included at the time of signing or ratification, i.e., "a party cannot add a reservation after it has already joined a treaty". Article 19 of the Vienna Convention on the law of Treaties in 1969.


title: Treaty

text: Originally, international law was unaccepting of treaty reservations, rejecting them unless all parties to the treaty accepted the same reservations. However, in the interest of encouraging the largest number of states to join treaties, a more permissive rule regarding reservations has emerged. While some treaties still expressly forbid any reservations, they are now generally permitted to the extent that they are not inconsistent with the goals and purposes of the treaty.


title: Treaty

text: When a state limits its treaty obligations through reservations, other states party to that treaty have the option to accept those reservations, object to them, or object and oppose them. If the state accepts them (or fails to act at all), both the reserving state and the accepting state are relieved of the reserved legal obligation as concerns their legal obligations to each other (accepting the reservation does not change the accepting state's legal obligations as concerns other parties to the treaty). If the state opposes, the parts of the treaty affected by the reservation drop out completely and no longer create any legal obligations on the reserving and accepting state, again only as concerns each other. Finally, if the state objects and opposes, there are no legal obligations under that treaty between those two state parties whatsoever. The objecting and opposing state essentially refuses to acknowledge the reserving state is a party to the treaty at all.


title: Treaty

text: There are three ways an existing treaty can be amended. First, a formal amendment requires State parties to the treaty to go through the ratification process all over again. The re-negotiation of treaty provisions can be long and protracted, and often some parties to the original treaty will not become parties to the amended treaty. When determining the legal obligations of states, one party to the original treaty and one party to the amended treaty, the states will only be bound by the terms they both agreed upon. Treaties can also be amended informally by the treaty executive council when the changes are only procedural, technical change in customary international law can also amend a treaty, where state behavior evinces a new interpretation of the legal obligations under the treaty. Minor corrections to a treaty may be adopted by a procès-verbal; but a procès-verbal is generally reserved for changes to rectify obvious errors in the text adopted, i.e., where the text adopted does not correctly reflect the intention of the parties adopting it.


title: Treaty

text: In international law and international relations, a protocol is generally a treaty or international agreement that supplements a previous treaty or international agreement. A protocol can amend the previous treaty or add additional provisions. Parties to the earlier agreement are not required to adopt the protocol, and this is sometimes made explicit, especially where many parties to the first agreement do not support the protocol.


title: Treaty

text: A notable example is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which established a general framework for the development of binding greenhouse gas emission limits, followed by the Kyoto Protocol contained the specific provisions and regulations later agreed upon.


title: Treaty

text: Treaties may be seen as "self-executing", in that merely becoming a party puts the treaty and all of its obligations in action. Other treaties may be non-self-executing and require 'implementing legislation'—a change in the domestic law of a state party that will direct or enable it to fulfill treaty obligations. An example of a treaty requiring such legislation would be one mandating local prosecution by a party for particular crimes.


title: Treaty

text: The division between the two is often not clear and is often politicized in disagreements within a government over a treaty, since a non-self-executing treaty cannot be acted on without the proper change in domestic law. If a treaty requires implementing legislation, a state may be in default of its obligations by the failure of its legislature to pass the necessary domestic laws.


title: Treaty

text: The language of treaties, like that of any law or contract, must be interpreted when the wording does not seem clear, or it is not immediately apparent how it should be applied in a perhaps unforeseen circumstance. The Vienna Convention states that treaties are to be interpreted "in good faith" according to the "ordinary meaning given to the terms of the treaty in their context and in the light of its object and purpose". International legal experts also often invoke the 'principle of maximum effectiveness,' which interprets treaty language as having the fullest force and effect possible to establish obligations between the parties.


title: Treaty

text: No one party to a treaty can impose its particular interpretation of the treaty upon the other parties. Consent may be implied, however, if the other parties fail to explicitly disavow that initially unilateral interpretation, particularly if that state has acted upon its view of the treaty without complaint. Consent by all parties to the treaty to a particular interpretation has the legal effect of adding another clause to the treaty – this is commonly called an 'authentic interpretation'.


title: Treaty

text: International tribunals and arbiters are often called upon to resolve substantial disputes over treaty interpretations. To establish the meaning in context, these judicial bodies may review the preparatory work from the negotiation and drafting of the treaty as well as the final, signed treaty itself.


title: Treaty

text: One significant part of treaty-making is that signing a treaty implies a recognition that the other side is a sovereign state and that the agreement being considered is enforceable under international law. Hence, nations can be very careful about terming an agreement to be a treaty. For example, within the United States, agreements between states are compacts and agreements between states and the federal government or between agencies of the government are memoranda of understanding.


title: Treaty

text: Another situation can occur when one party wishes to create an obligation under international law, but the other party does not. This factor has been at work with respect to discussions between North Korea and the United States over security guarantees and nuclear proliferation.


title: Treaty

text: The definition of the English word "treaty" varies depending on the legal and political context; in some jurisdictions, such as the United States, a treaty is specifically an international agreement that has been ratified, and thus made binding, per the procedures established under domestic law.


title: Treaty

text: While the Vienna Convention provides a general dispute resolution mechanism, many treaties specify a process outside the convention for arbitrating disputes and alleged breaches. This may by a specially convened panel, by reference to an existing court or panel established for the purpose such as the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Justice or processes such as the Dispute Settlement Understanding of the World Trade Organization. Depending on the treaty, such a process may result in financial penalties or other enforcement action.


title: Treaty

text: Treaties are not necessarily permanently binding upon the signatory parties. As obligations in international law are traditionally viewed as arising only from the consent of states, many treaties expressly allow a state to withdraw as long as it follows certain procedures of notification. For example, the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs provides that the treaty will terminate if, as a result of denunciations, the number of parties falls below 40. Many treaties expressly forbid withdrawal. Article 56 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties provides that where a treaty is silent over whether or not it can be denounced there is a rebuttable presumption that it cannot be unilaterally denounced unless:


title: Treaty

text: The possibility of withdrawal depends on the terms of the treaty and its "travaux preparatory. "It has, for example, been held that it is not possible to withdraw from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. When North Korea declared its intention to do this the Secretary-General of the United Nations, acting as registrar, said that original signatories of the ICCPR had not overlooked the possibility of explicitly providing for withdrawal, but rather had deliberately intended not to provide for it. Consequently, withdrawal was not possible.


title: Treaty

text: In practice, because of sovereignty, any state can purport to withdraw from any treaty at any time and cease to abide by its terms. The question of whether this is lawful can be regarded as the success or failure to anticipate community acquiescence or enforcement, that is, how other states will react; for instance, another state might impose sanctions or go to war over a treaty violation.


title: Treaty

text: If a state party's withdrawal is successful, its obligations under that treaty are considered terminated, and withdrawal by one party from a bilateral treaty terminates the treaty. When a state withdraws from a multilateral treaty, that treaty will still otherwise remain in force among the other parties, unless it otherwise should or could be interpreted as agreed upon between the remaining states parties to the treaty.


title: Treaty

text: If a party has materially violated or breached its treaty obligations, the other parties may invoke this breach as grounds for temporarily suspending their obligations to that party under the treaty. A material breach may also be invoked as grounds for permanently terminating the treaty itself.


title: Treaty

text: A treaty breach does not automatically suspend or terminate treaty relations, however. It depends on how the other parties regard the breach and how they resolve to respond to it. Sometimes treaties will provide for the seriousness of a breach to be determined by a tribunal or other independent arbiter. An advantage of such an arbiter is that it prevents a party from prematurely and perhaps wrongfully suspending or terminating its own obligations due to another's an alleged material breach.


title: Treaty

text: Treaties sometimes include provisions for self-termination, meaning that the treaty is automatically terminated if certain defined conditions are met. Some treaties are intended by the parties to be only temporarily binding and are set to expire on a given date. Other treaties may self-terminate if the treaty is meant to exist only under certain conditions.


title: Treaty

text: A party may claim that a treaty should be terminated, even absent an express provision, if there has been a fundamental change in circumstances. Such a change is sufficient if unforeseen, if it undermined the "essential basis" of consent by a party if it radically transforms the extent of obligations between the parties, and if the obligations are still to be performed. A party cannot base this claim on change brought about by its own breach of the treaty. This claim also cannot be used to invalidate treaties that established or redrew political boundaries.


title: Treaty

text: Cartels (“Cartells”, “Cartelle” or “Kartell-Konventionen” in other languages) were a special kind of treaty within the international law of the 17th to 19th centuries. Their purpose was to regulate specific activities of common interest among contracting states that otherwise remained rivals in other areas. They were typically implemented on an administrative level. Similar to the ‘’cartels’’ for duels and tournaments, these intergovernmental accords represented fairness agreements or gentlemen’s agreements between states.


title: Treaty

text: In the United States, cartels governed humanitarian actions typically carried out by cartel ships were dispatched for missions, such as to carry communications or prisoners between belligerents.


title: Treaty

text: From the European history, a broader range of purposes is known. These ‘cartels’ often reflected the cohesion of authoritarian ruling classes against their own unruly citizens. Generally, the European governments concluded - while curbing their mutual rivalries partially - cooperation agreements, which should apply generally or only in case of war:


title: Treaty

text: The measures against criminals and unruly citizens were to be conducted regardless of the nationality and origin of the relevant persons. If necessary, national borders could be crossed by police forces of the respective neighboring country for capture and arrest.


title: Treaty

text: In the course of the 19th century, the term ‘cartel’ (or 'Cartell') gradually disappeared for intergovernmental agreements under international law. Instead, the term "convention" was used.


title: Treaty

text: An otherwise valid and agreed upon treaty may be rejected as a binding international agreement on several grounds. For example, the serial Japan–Korea treaties of 1905, 1907 and 1910 were protested; and they were confirmed as "already null and void" in the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea.


title: Treaty

text: According to the preamble in The Law of Treaties, treaties are a source of international law. If an act or lack thereof is condemned under international law, the act will not assume international legality even if approved by internal law. This means that in case of a conflict with domestic law, international law will always prevail.


title: Treaty

text: A party's consent to a treaty is invalid if it had been given by an agent or body without power to do so under that state's domestic laws. States are reluctant to inquire into the internal affairs and processes of other states, and so a "manifest violation" is required such that it would be "objectively evident to any State dealing with the matter". A strong presumption exists internationally that a head of state has acted within his proper authority. It seems that no treaty has ever actually been invalidated on this provision.


title: Treaty

text: Consent is also invalid if it was given by a representative acting outside their restricted powers during the negotiations, if the other parties to the treaty were notified of those restrictions prior to his or her signing.


title: Treaty

text: Articles 46–53 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties set out the only ways that treaties can be invalidated—considered unenforceable and void under international law. A treaty will be invalidated due to either the circumstances by which a state party joined the treaty or due to the content of the treaty itself. Invalidation is separate from withdrawal, suspension, or termination (addressed above), which all involve an alteration in the consent of the parties of a previously valid treaty rather than the invalidation of that consent in the first place.


title: Treaty

text: A governmental leader's consent may be invalidated if there was an erroneous understanding of a fact or situation at the time of conclusion, which formed the "essential basis" of the state's consent. Consent will not be invalidated if the misunderstanding was due to the state's own conduct, or if the truth should have been evident.


title: Treaty

text: Consent will also be invalidated if it was induced by the fraudulent conduct of another party, or by the direct or indirect "corruption" of its representative by another party to the treaty. Coercion of either a representative or the state itself through the threat or use of force, if used to obtain the consent of that state to a treaty, will invalidate that consent.


title: Treaty

text: A treaty is null and void if it is in violation of a peremptory norm. These norms, unlike other principles of customary law, are recognized as permitting no violations and so cannot be altered through treaty obligations. These are limited to such universally accepted prohibitions as those against the aggressive use of force, genocide and other crimes against humanity, piracy, hostilities directed at civilian population, racial discrimination and apartheid, slavery and torture, meaning that no state can legally assume an obligation to commit or permit such acts.


title: Treaty

text: The constitution of Australia allows the executive government to enter into treaties, but the practice is for treaties to be tabled in both houses of parliament at least 15 days before signing. Treaties are considered a source of Australian law but sometimes require an act of parliament to be passed depending on their nature. Treaties are administered and maintained by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which advised that the "general position under Australian law is that treaties which Australia has joined, apart from those terminating a state of war, are not directly and automatically incorporated into Australian law. Signature and ratification do not, of themselves, make treaties operate domestically. In the absence of legislation, treaties cannot impose obligations on individuals nor create rights in domestic law. Nevertheless, international law, including treaty law, is a legitimate and important influence on the development of the common law and may be used in the interpretation of statutes." Treaties can be implemented by executive action, and often, existing laws are sufficient to ensure a treaty is honored.


title: Treaty

text: Australian treaties generally fall under the following categories: extradition, postal agreements and money orders, trade and international conventions.


title: Treaty

text: The federal constitution of Brazil states that the power to enter into treaties is vested in the president of Brazil and that such treaties must be approved by the Congress of Brazil (Articles 84, Clause VIII, and 49, Clause I). In practice, that has been interpreted as meaning that the executive branch is free to negotiate and sign a treaty but that its ratification by the president requires the prior approval of Congress. Additionally, the Supreme Federal Court has ruled that after ratification and entry into force, a treaty must be incorporated into domestic law by means of a presidential decree published in the federal register for it to be valid in Brazil and applicable by the Brazilian authorities.


title: Treaty

text: The court has established that treaties are subject to constitutional review and enjoy the same hierarchical position as ordinary legislation ("leis ordinárias", or "ordinary laws", in Portuguese). A more recent ruling by the Supreme Court of Brazil in 2008 has altered that somewhat by stating that treaties containing human rights provisions enjoy a status above that of ordinary legislation, subject to only the constitution itself. Additionally, the 45th Amendment to the constitution makes human rights treaties approved by Congress by a special procedure enjoy the same hierarchical position as a constitutional amendment. The hierarchical position of treaties in relation to domestic legislation is of relevance to the discussion on whether and how the latter can abrogate the former and vice versa.


title: Treaty

text: The constitution does not have an equivalent to the supremacy clause in United States Constitution, which is of interest to the discussion on the relation between treaties and legislation of the states of Brazil.


title: Treaty

text: In India, subjects are divided into three lists: union, state and concurrent. In the normal legislation process, the subjects on the union list must be legislated by the Parliament of India. For subjects on the state list, only the respective state legislature can legislate. For subjects on the concurrent list, both governments can make laws. However, to implement international treaties, Parliament can legislate on any subject and even override the general division of subject lists.


title: Treaty

text: See the article on the Bricker Amendment for the history of the relationship between treaty powers and Constitutional provisions.


title: Treaty

text: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the "Head Money Cases" (1884) that "treaties" do not have a privileged position over Acts of Congress and can be repealed or modified by legislative action just like any other regular law. The Court's decision in "Reid v. Covert" (1957) held that treaty provisions that conflict with the U.S. Constitution are null and void under U.S. law.


title: Treaty

text: Treaties formed an important part of European colonization and, in many parts of the world, Europeans attempted to legitimize their sovereignty by signing treaties with indigenous peoples. In most cases, these treaties were in extremely disadvantageous terms to the native people, who often did not comprehend the implications of what they were signing.


title: Treaty

text: In some rare cases, such as with Ethiopia and the Qing dynasty, local governments were able to use the treaties to at least mitigate the impact of European colonization. This involved learning the intricacies of European diplomatic customs and then using the treaties to prevent power from overstepping their agreement or by playing different powers against each other.


title: Treaty

text: In other cases, such as New Zealand with the Māori and Canada with its First Nations people, treaties allowed native peoples to maintain a minimum amount of autonomy. Such treaties between colonizers and indigenous peoples are an important part of political discourse in the late 20th and early 21st century, the treaties being discussed have international standing as has been stated in a treaty study by the UN.


title: Treaty

text: In the case of Indigenous Australians, no treaty was ever entered into with the Indigenous peoples entitling the Europeans to land ownership, mostly adopting the doctrine of "terra nullius" (with the exception of South Australia). This concept was later overturned by "Mabo v Queensland", which established the concept of native title in Australia well after colonization was already a "fait accompli".


title: Treaty

text: On 10 December 2019, the Victorian First Peoples' Assembly met for the first time in the Upper House of the Parliament of Victoria in Melbourne. The main aim of the Assembly is to work out the rules by which individual treaties would be negotiated between the Victorian Government and individual Aboriginal Victorian peoples. It will also establish an independent Treaty Authority, which will oversee the negotiations between the Aboriginal groups and the Victorian Government and ensure fairness.


title: Treaty

text: Prior to 1871, the government of the United States regularly entered into treaties with Native Americans but the Indian Appropriations Act of 3 March 1871 had a rider attached that effectively ended the President's treaty-making by providing that no Indian nation or tribe shall be acknowledged as an independent nation, tribe, or power with whom the United States may contract by treaty. The federal government continued to provide similar contractual relations with the Indian tribes after 1871 by agreements, statutes, and executive orders.


title: Treaty

text: Colonization in Canada saw a number of treaties signed between European settlers and Indigenous First Nations peoples. Historic Canadian treaties tend to fall into three broad categories: commercial, alliance, and territorial. Commercial treaties first emerged in the 17th century and were agreements made between the European fur trading companies and the local First Nations. The Hudson's Bay Company, a British trading company located in what is now Northern Ontario, signed numerous commercial treaties during this period. Alliance treaties, commonly referred to as "treaties of peace, friendship and alliance" emerged in the late 17th to early 18th century. Finally, territorial treaties dictating land rights were signed between 1760 and 1923. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 accelerated the treaty-making process and provided the Crown with access to large amounts of land occupied by the First Nations. The Crown and 364 First Nations signed 70 treaties that are recognized by the Government of Canada and represent over 600,000 First Nation individuals. The treaties are as follows:


title: Treaty

text: There is evidence that "although both Indigenous and European Nations engaged in treaty-making before contact with each other, the traditions, beliefs, and worldviews that defined concepts such as “treaties" were extremely different". The Indigenous understanding of treaties is based on traditional culture and values. Maintaining healthy and equitable relationships with other nations, as well as the environment, is paramount. Gdoo-naaganinaa, a historic treaty between the Nishnaabeg nation and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy is an example of how First Nations approach treaties. Under Gdoo-naaganinaa, also referred-to in English as "Our Dish", the neighbouring nations acknowledged that while they were separate nations they shared the same ecosystem or "Dish". It was agreed that the nations would respectably share the land, not interfering with the other nation's sovereignty while also not monopolizing environmental resources. First Nations agreements, such as the Gdoo-naaganigaa, are considered "living treaties"’ that must be upheld continually and renewed over time. European settlers in Canada had a different perception of treaties. Treaties were not a living, equitable agreement but rather a legal contract over which the future creation of Canadian law would later rely on. As time passed, the settlers did not think it necessary to abide by all treaty agreements. A review of historic treaties reveals that the European settler understanding is the dominant view portrayed in Canadian treaties.


title: Treaty

text: Canada today recognizes 25 additional treaties called Modern Treaties. These treaties represent the relationships between 97 Indigenous groups which includes over 89,000 people. The treaties have been instrumental in strengthening Indigenous stronghold in Canada by providing the following (as organized by the Government of Canada) :


title: Infrared homing

text: Infrared homing is a passive weapon guidance system which uses the infrared (IR) light emission from a target to track and follow it seamlessly. Missiles which use infrared seeking are often referred to as "heat-seekers" since infrared is radiated strongly by hot bodies. Many objects such as people, vehicle engines and aircraft generate and emit heat and so are especially visible in the infrared wavelengths of light compared to objects in the background.


title: Infrared homing

text: Infrared seekers are passive devices, which, unlike radar, provide no indication that they are tracking a target. That makes them suitable for sneak attacks during visual encounters or over longer ranges when they are used with a forward looking infrared or similar cuing system. Heat-seekers are extremely effective: 90% of all United States air combat losses over the past 25 years have been caused by infrared-homing missiles. They are, however, subject to a number of simple countermeasures, most notably by dropping flares behind the target to provide false heat sources. That works only if the pilot is aware of the missile and deploys the countermeasures, and the sophistication of modern seekers has rendered them increasingly ineffective.


title: Infrared homing

text: The first IR devices were experimented with before World War II. During the war, German engineers were working on heat seeking missiles and proximity fuses but did not have time to complete development before the war ended. Truly practical designs did not become possible until the introduction of conical scanning and miniaturized vacuum tubes during the war. Anti-aircraft IR systems began in earnest in the late 1940s, but the electronics and the entire field of rocketry were so new that they required considerable development before the first examples entered service in the mid-1950s. The early examples had significant limitations and achieved very low success rates in combat during the 1960s. A new generation developed in the 1970s and the 1980s made great strides and significantly improved their lethality. The latest examples from the 1990s and on have the ability to attack targets out of their field of view (FOV) behind them and even to pick out vehicles on the ground.


title: Infrared homing

text: IR seekers are also the basis for many semi-automatic command to line of sight (SACLOS) weapons. In this use, the seeker is mounted on a trainable platform on the launcher and the operator keeps it pointed in the general direction of the target manually, often using a small telescope. The seeker does not track the target, but the missile, often aided by flares to provide a clean signal. The same guidance signals are generated and sent to the missile via thin wires or radio signals, guiding the missile into the center of the operator's telescope. SACLOS systems of this sort have been used both for anti-tank missiles and surface-to-air missiles, as well as other roles.


title: Infrared homing

text: The infrared sensor package on the tip or head of a heat-seeking missile is known as the "seeker head". The NATO brevity code for an air-to-air infrared-guided missile launch is "Fox Two".


title: Infrared homing

text: The ability of certain substances to give off electrons when struck by infrared light had been discovered by the famous Indian polymath Jagadish Chandra Bose in 1901, who saw the effect in galena, known today as lead sulfide, PbS. There was little application at the time, and he allowed his 1904 patent to lapse. In 1917, Theodore Case, as part of his work on what became the Movietone sound system, discovered that a mix of thallium and sulfur was much more sensitive, but was highly unstable electrically and proved to be little use as a practical detector. Nevertheless, it was used for some time by the US Navy as a secure communications system.


title: Infrared homing

text: In 1930 the introduction of the Ag–O–Cs (silver–oxygen–caesium) photomultiplier provided the first practical solution to the detection of IR, combining it with a layer of galena as the photocathode. Amplifying the signal emitted by the galena, the photomultiplier produced a useful output that could be used for detection of hot objects at long ranges. This sparked developments in a number of nations, notably the UK and Germany where it was seen as a potential solution to the problem of detecting night bombers.


title: Infrared homing

text: In the UK, research was plodding, with even the main research team at Cavendish Labs expressing their desire to work on other projects, especially after it became clear that radar was going to be a better solution. Nevertheless, Frederick Lindemann, Winston Churchill's favorite on the Tizard Committee, remained committed to IR and became increasing obstructionist to the work of the Committee who was otherwise pressing for radar development. Eventually they dissolved the Committee and reformed, leaving Lindemann off the roster, and filling his position with well known radio expert Edward Victor Appleton.


title: Infrared homing

text: In Germany, radar research was not given nearly the same level of support as in the UK, and competed with IR development throughout the 1930s. IR research was led primarily by Edgar Kutzscher at the University of Berlin working in concert with AEG. By 1940 they had successfully developed one solution; the "Spanner Anlage" (roughly "Peeping Tom system") consisting of a detector photomultiplier placed in front of the pilot, and a large searchlight fitted with a filter to limit the output to the IR range. This provided enough light to see the target at short range, and "Spanner Anlage" was fitted to a small number of Messerschmitt Bf 110 and Dornier Do 17 night fighters. These proved largely useless in practice and the pilots complained that the target often only became visible at , at which point they would have seen it anyway. Only 15 were built and were removed as German airborne radar systems improved though 1942.


title: Infrared homing

text: AEG had been working with the same systems for use on tanks, and deployed a number of models through the war, with limited production of the FG 1250 beginning in 1943. This work culminated in the Zielgerät 1229 "Vampir" riflescope which was used with the StG 44 assault rifle for night use.


title: Infrared homing

text: The devices mentioned previously were all detectors, not seekers. They either produce a signal indicating the general direction of the target, or in the case of later devices, an image. Guidance was entirely manual by an operator looking at the image. There were a number of efforts in Germany during the war to produce a true automatic seeker system, both for anti-aircraft use as well as against ships. These devices were still in development when the war ended; although some were ready for use, there had been no work on integrating them with a missile airframe and considerable effort remained before an actual weapon would be ready for use. Nevertheless, a summer 1944 report to the German Air Ministry stated that these devices were far better developed than competing Soviet systems based on radar or acoustic methods.


title: Infrared homing

text: Aware of the advantages of passive IR homing, the research program started with a number of theoretical studies considering the emissions from the targets. This led to the practical discovery that the vast majority of the IR output from a piston engine aircraft was between 3 and 4.5 micrometers. The exhaust was also a strong emitter, but cooled rapidly in the air so that it did not present a false tracking target. Studies were also made on atmospheric attenuation, which demonstrated that air is generally more transparent to IR than visible light, although the presence of water vapour and carbon dioxide produced several sharp drops in transitivity. Finally, they also considered the issue of background sources of IR, including reflections off clouds and similar effects, concluding this was an issue due to the way it changed very strongly across the sky. This research suggested that an IR seeker could home on a three-engine bomber at with an accuracy of about degree, making an IR seeker a very desirable device.


title: Infrared homing

text: Kutzscher's team developed a system with the Eletroacustic Company of Kiel known as "Hamburg", which was being readied for installation in the Blohm & Voss BV 143 glide bomb to produce an automated fire-and-forget anti-shipping missile. A more advanced version allowed the seeker to be directed off-axis by the bombardier in order to lock-on to a target to the sides, without flying directly at it. However, this presented the problem that when the bomb was first released it was travelling too slowly for the aerodynamic surfaces to easily control it, and the target sometimes slipped out from the view of the seeker. A stabilized platform was being developed to address this problem. The company also developed a working IR proximity fuse by placing additional detectors pointing radially outward from the missile centerline. which triggered when the signal strength began to decrease, which it did when the missile passed the target. There was work on using a single sensor for both tasks instead of two separate ones.


title: Infrared homing

text: Other companies also picked up on the work by Eletroacustic and designed their own scanning methods. AEG and Kepka of Vienna used systems with two movable plates that continually scanned horizontally or vertically, and determined the location of the target by timing when the image disappeared (AEG) or reappeared (Kepka). The Kepka "Madrid" system had an instantaneous field of view (IFOV) of about 1.8 degrees and scanned a full 20 degree pattern. Combined with the movement of the entire seeker within the missile, it could track at angles as great as 100 degrees. Rheinmetall-Borsig and another team at AEG produced different variations on the spinning-disk system.


title: Infrared homing

text: In the post-war era, as the German developments became better known, a variety of research projects began to develop seekers based on the PbS sensor. These were combined with techniques developed during the war to improve accuracy of otherwise inherently inaccurate radar systems, especially the conical scanning system. One such system developed by the US Army Air Force (USAAF), known as the "Sun Tracker", was being developed as a possible guidance system for an intercontinental ballistic missile. Testing this system led to the 1948 Lake Mead Boeing B-29 crash.


title: Infrared homing

text: USAAF project MX-798 was awarded to Hughes Aircraft in 1946 for an infrared tracking missile. The design used a simple reticle seeker and an active system to control roll during flight. This was replaced the next year by MX-904, calling for a supersonic version. At this stage the concept was for a defensive weapon fired rearward out of a long tube at the back end of bomber aircraft. In April 1949 the Firebird missile project was cancelled and MX-904 was redirected to be a forward-firing fighter weapon. The first test firings began in 1949, when it was given the designation AAM-A-2 (Air-to-air Missile, Air force, model 2) and the name Falcon. IR and semi-active radar homing (SARH) versions both entered service in 1956, and became known as the AIM-4 Falcon after 1962. The Falcon was a complex system offering limited performance, especially due to its lack of a proximity fuse, and managed only a 9% kill ratio in 54 firings during Operation Rolling Thunder in the Vietnam War. However, this relatively low success rate must be appreciated in the context of all these kills representing direct hits, something that was not true of every kill by other American AAMs.


title: Infrared homing

text: In the same year as MX-798, 1946, William B. McLean began studies of a similar concept at the Naval Ordnance Test Station, today known as Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake. He spent three years simply considering various designs, which led to a considerably less complicated design than the Falcon. When his team had a design they believed would be workable, they began trying to fit it to the newly introduced Zuni 5-inch rocket. They presented it in 1951 and it became an official project the next year. Wally Schirra recalls visiting the lab and watching the seeker follow his cigarette. The missile was given the name Sidewinder after a local snake; the name had a second significance as the sidewinder is a pit viper and hunts by heat, and moves in an undulating pattern not unlike the missile. The Sidewinder entered service in 1957, and was widely used during the Vietnam war. It proved to be a better weapon than the Falcon: B models managed a 14% kill ratio, while the much longer ranged D models managed 19%. Its performance and lower cost led the Air Force to adopt it as well.


title: Infrared homing

text: The first heat-seeker built outside the US was the UK's de Havilland Firestreak. Development began as OR.1056 Red Hawk, but this was considered too advanced, and in 1951 an amended concept was released as OR.1117 and given the code name Blue Jay. Designed as an anti-bomber weapon, the Blue Jay was larger, much heavier and flew faster than its US counterparts, but had about the same range. It had a more advanced seeker, using PbTe and cooled to −180 °C (−292.0 °F) by anhydrous ammonia to improve its performance. One distinguishing feature was its faceted nose cone, which was selected after it was found ice would build up on a more conventional hemispherical dome. The first test firing took place in 1955 and it entered service with the Royal Air Force in August 1958.


title: Infrared homing

text: The French R.510 project began later than Firestreak and entered experimental service in 1957, but was quickly replaced by a radar-homing version, the R.511. Neither was very effective and had short range on the order of 3 km. Both were replaced by the first effective French design, the R.530, in 1962.


title: Infrared homing

text: The Soviets introduced their first infrared homing missile, the Vympel K-13 in 1961, after reverse engineering a Sidewinder that stuck in the wing of a Chinese MiG-17 in 1958 during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis. The K-13 was widely exported, and faced its cousin over Vietnam throughout the war. It proved even less reliable than the AIM-9B it was based on, with the guidance system and fuse suffering continual failure.


title: Infrared homing

text: As Vietnam revealed the terrible performance of existing missile designs, a number of efforts began to address them. In the US, minor upgrades to the Sidewinder were carried out as soon as possible, but more broadly pilots were taught proper engagement techniques so they would not fire as soon as they heard the missile tone, and would instead move to a position where the missile would be able to continue tracking even after launch. This problem also led to efforts to make new missiles that would hit their targets even if launched under these less-than-ideal positions. In the UK this led to the SRAAM project, which was ultimately the victim of continually changing requirements. Two US programmes, AIM-82 and AIM-95 Agile, met similar fates.


title: Infrared homing

text: New seeker designs began to appear during the 1970s and led to a series of more advanced missiles. A major upgrade to the Sidewinder began, providing it with a seeker that was sensitive enough to track from any angle, giving the missile "all aspect" capability for the first time. This was combined with a new scanning pattern that helped reject confusing sources (like the sun reflecting off clouds) and improve the guidance towards the target. A small number of the resulting L models were rushed to the UK just prior to their engagement in the Falklands War, where they achieved an 82% kill ratio, and the misses were generally due to the target aircraft flying out of range. The Argentine aircraft, equipped with Sidewinder B and R.550 Magic, could only fire from the rear aspect, which the British pilots simply avoided by always flying directly at them. The L was so effective that aircraft hurried to add flare countermeasures, which led to another minor upgrade to the M model to better reject flares. The L and M models would go on to be the backbone of western air forces through the end of the Cold War era.


title: Infrared homing

text: An even larger step was taken by the Soviets with their R-73, which replaced the K-13 and others with a dramatically improved design. This missile introduced the ability to be fired at targets completely out of view of the seeker; after firing the missile would orient itself in the direction indicated by the launcher and then attempt to lock on. When combined with a helmet mounted sight, the missile could be cued and targeted without the launch aircraft first having to point itself at the target. This proved to offer significant advantages in combat, and caused great concern for western forces.


title: Infrared homing

text: The solution to the R-73 problem was initially going to be the ASRAAM, a pan-European design that combined the performance of the R-73 with an imaging seeker. In a wide-ranging agreement, the US agreed to adopt ASRAAM for their new short-range missile, while the Europeans would adopt AMRAAM as their medium-range weapon. However, ASRAAM soon ran into intractable delays as each of the member countries decided a different performance metric was more important. The US eventually bowed out of the program, and instead adapted the new seekers developed for ASRAAM on yet another version of the Sidewinder, the AIM-9X. This so extends its lifetime that it will have been in service for almost a century when the current aircraft leave service. ASRAAM did, eventually, deliver a missile that has been adopted by a number of European forces and many of the same technologies have appeared in the Chinese PL-10 and Israeli Python-5.


title: Infrared homing

text: Based on the same general principles as the original Sidewinder, in 1955 Convair began studies on a small man-portable missile (MANPADS) that would emerge as the FIM-43 Redeye. Entering testing in 1961, the preliminary design proved to have poor performance, and a number of major upgrades followed. It was not until 1968 that the Block III version was put into production.


title: Infrared homing

text: The Soviets started development of two almost identical weapons in 1964, Strela-1 and Strela-2. Development of these proceeded much more smoothly, as the 9K32 Strela-2 entered service in 1968 after fewer years of development than the Redeye. Originally a competing design, the 9K31 Strela-1 was instead greatly increased in size for vehicle applications and entered service at around the same time. The UK began development of its Blowpipe in 1975, but placed the seeker on the launcher instead of the missile itself. The seeker sensed both the target and the missile and sent corrections to the missile via a radio link. These early weapons proved ineffective, with the Blowpipe failing in almost every combat use, while the Redeye fared somewhat better. The Strela-2 did better and claimed a number of victories in the middle east and Vietnam.


title: Infrared homing

text: A major upgrade program for the Redeye started in 1967, as the Redeye II. Testing did not begin until 1975 and the first deliveries of the now renamed FIM-92 Stinger began in 1978. An improved rosette seeker was added to the B model in 1983, and several additional upgrades followed. Sent to the Soviet–Afghan War, they claimed a 79% success rate against Soviet helicopters, although this is debated. The Soviets likewise improved their own versions, introducing the 9K34 Strela-3 in 1974, and the greatly improved dual-frequency 9K38 Igla in 1983, and Igla-S in 2004.


title: Infrared homing

text: The three main materials used in the infrared sensor are lead(II) sulfide (PbS), indium antimonide (InSb) and mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe). Older sensors tend to use PbS, newer sensors tend to use InSb or HgCdTe. All perform better when cooled, as they are both more sensitive and able to detect cooler objects.


title: Infrared homing

text: Early infrared seekers were most effective in detecting infrared radiation with shorter wavelengths, such as the 4.2 micrometre emissions of the carbon dioxide efflux of a jet engine. This made them useful primarily in tail-chase scenarios, where the exhaust was visible and the missile's approach was carrying it toward the aircraft as well. In combat these proved extremely ineffective as pilots attempted to make shots as soon as the seeker saw the target, launching at angles where the target's engines were quickly obscured or flew out of the missile's field of view. Such seekers, which are most sensitive to the 3 to 5 micrometre range, are now called "single-color" seekers. This led to new seekers sensitive to both the exhaust as well as the longer 8 to 13 micrometer wavelength range, which is less absorbed by the atmosphere and thus allows dimmer sources like the fuselage itself to be detected. Such designs are known as "all-aspect" missiles. Modern seekers combine several detectors and are called "two-color" systems.


title: Infrared homing

text: All-aspect seekers also tend to require cooling to give them the high degree of sensitivity required to lock onto the lower level signals coming from the front and sides of an aircraft. Background heat from inside the sensor, or the aerodynamically heated sensor window, can overpower the weak signal entering the sensor from the target. (CCDs in cameras have similar problems; they have much more "noise" at higher temperatures.) Modern all-aspect missiles like the AIM-9M Sidewinder and Stinger use compressed gas like argon to cool their sensors in order to lock onto the target at longer ranges and all aspects. (Some such as the AIM-9J and early-model R-60 used a peltier thermoelectric cooler).


title: Infrared homing

text: The detector in early seekers was barely directional, accepting light from a very wide field of view (FOV), perhaps 100 degrees across or more. A target located anywhere within that FOV produces the same output signal. Since the goal of the seeker is to bring the target within the lethal radius of its warhead, the detector must be equipped with some system to narrow the FOV to a smaller angle. This is normally accomplished by placing the detector at the focal point of a telescope of some sort.


title: Infrared homing

text: This leads to a problem of conflicting performance requirements. As the FOV is reduced, the seeker becomes more accurate, and this also helps eliminate background sources which helps improve tracking. However, limiting it too much allows the target to move out of the FOV and be lost to the seeker. To be effective for guidance to the lethal radius, tracking angles of perhaps one degree are ideal, but to be able to continually track the target safely, FOVs on the order of 10 degrees or more are desired.


title: Infrared homing

text: This situation leads to the use of a number of designs that use a relatively wide FOV to allow easy tracking, and then process the received signal in some way to gain additional accuracy for guidance. Generally, the entire seeker assembly is mounted on a gimbal system that allows it to track the target through wide angles, and the angle between the seeker and the missile aircraft is used to produce guidance corrections.


title: Infrared homing

text: This gives rise the concepts of "instantaneous field of view" (IFOV) which is the angle the detector sees, and the overall field of view, also known as the "tacking angle" or "off-boresight capability", which includes the movement of the entire seeker assembly. Since the assembly cannot move instantly, a target moving rapidly across the missile's line of flight may be lost from the IFOV, which gives rise to the concept of a "tracking rate", normally expressed in degrees per second.


title: Infrared homing

text: Some of the earliest German seekers used a linear-scan solution, where vertical and horizontal slits were moved back and forth in front of the detector, or in the case of "Madrid", two metal vanes were tilted to block off more or less of the signal. By comparing the time the flash was received to the location of the scanner at that time, the vertical and horizontal angle-off can be determined. However, these seekers also have the major disadvantage that their FOV is determined by the physical size of the slit (or opaque bar). If this is set too small the image from the target is too small to create a useful signal, while setting it too large makes it inaccurate. For this reason, linear scanners have inherent accuracy limitations. Additionally, the dual reciprocating motion is complex and mechanically unreliable, and generally two separate detectors have to be used.


title: Infrared homing

text: Most early seekers used so-called "spin-scan", "chopper" or "reticle" seekers. These consisted of a transparent plate with a sequence of opaque segments painted on them that was placed in front of the IR detector. The plate spins at a fixed rate, which causes the image of the target to be periodically interrupted, or "chopped".


title: Infrared homing

text: The "Hamburg" system developed during the war is the simplest system, and easiest to understand. Its chopper was painted black on one half with the other half left transparent.


title: Infrared homing

text: For this description we consider the disk spinning clockwise as seen from the sensor; we will call the point in the rotation when the line between the dark and light halves is horizontal and the transparent side is on the top to be the 12 o'clock position. A photocell is positioned behind the disk at the 12 o'clock position.


title: Infrared homing

text: A target is located just above the missile. The sensor begins to see the target when the disk is at 9 o'clock, as the transparent portion of the chopper is aligned vertically at the target at 12 o'clock becomes visible. The sensor continues to see the target until the chopper reaches 3 o'clock.


title: Infrared homing

text: A signal generator produces an AC waveform that had the same frequency as the rotational rate of the disk. It is timed so the waveform reaches its maximum possible positive voltage point at the 12 o'clock position. Thus, during the period the target is visible to the sensor, the AC waveform is in the positive voltage period, varying from zero to its maximum and back to zero.


title: Infrared homing

text: When the target disappears, the sensor triggers a switch that inverts the output of the AC signal. For instance, when the disk reaches the 3 o'clock position and the target disappears, the switch is triggered. This is the same instant that the original AC waveform begins the negative voltage portion of its waveform, so the switch inverts this back to positive. When the disk reaches the 9 o'clock position the cell switches again, no longer inverting the signal, which is now entering its positive phase again. The resulting output from this cell is a series of half-sine waves, always positive. This signal is then smoothed out to produce a DC output, which is sent to the control system and commands the missile to turn up.


title: Infrared homing

text: A second cell placed at the 3 o'clock position completes the system. In this case, the switching takes place not at the 9 and 3 o'clock positions, but 12 and 6 o'clock. Considering the same target, in this case, the waveform has just reached its maximum positive point at 12 o'clock when it is switched negative. Following this process around the rotation causes a series of chopped-off positive and negative sine waves. When this is passed through the same smoothing system, the output is zero. This means the missile does not have to correct left or right. If the target were to move to the right, for instance, the signal would be increasingly positive from the smoother, indicating increasing corrections to the right. In practice a second photocell is not required, instead, both signals can be extracted from a single photocell with the use of electrical delays or a second reference signal 90 degrees out of phase with the first.


title: Infrared homing

text: This system produces a signal that is sensitive to the angle around the clock face, the "bearing", but not the angle between the target and the missile centerline, the "angle off" (or "angle error"). This was not required for anti-ship missiles where the target is moving very slowly relative to the missile and the missile quickly aligns itself to the target. It was not appropriate for air-to-air use where the velocities were greater and smoother control motion was desired. In this case, the system was changed only slightly so the modulating disk was patterned in a cardioid which blanked out the signal for more or less time depending on how far from the centerline it was. Other systems used a second scanning disk with radial slits to provide the same result but from a second output circuit.


title: Infrared homing

text: AEG developed a much more advanced system during the war, and this formed the basis of most post-war experiments. In this case the disk was pattered with a series of opaque regions, often in a series of radial stripes forming a pizza-slice pattern. Like the "Hamburg", an AC signal was generated that matched the rotational frequency of the disk. However, in this case the signal does not turn on and off with angle, but is constantly being triggered very rapidly. This creates a series of pulses that are smoothed out to produce a second AC signal at the same frequency as the test signal, but whose phase is controlled by the actual position of the target relative to the disk. By comparing the phase of the two signals, both the vertical and horizontal correction can be determined from a single signal. A great improvement was made as part of the Sidewinder program, feeding the output to the pilot's headset where it creates as sort of growling sound known as the "missile tone" that indicates that the target is visible to the seeker.


title: Infrared homing

text: In early systems this signal was fed directly to the control surfaces, causing rapid flicking motions to bring the missile back into alignment, a control system known as "bang-bang". Bang-bang controls are extremely inefficient aerodynamically, especially as the target approaches the centerline and the controls continually flick back and forth with no real effect. This leads to the desire to either smooth out these outputs, or to measure the angle-off and feed that into the controls as well. This can be accomplished with the same disk and some work on the physical arrangement of the optics. Since the physical distance between the radial bars is larger at the outer position of the disk, the image of the target on the photocell is also larger, and thus has greater output. By arranging the optics so the signal is increasingly cut off closer to the center of the disk, the resulting output signal varies in amplitude with the angle-off. However, it will also vary in amplitude as the missile approaches the target, so this is not a complete system by itself and some form of automatic gain control is often desired.


title: Infrared homing

text: Spin-scan systems can eliminate the signal from extended sources like sunlight reflecting from clouds or hot desert sand. To do this, the reticle is modified by making one half of the plate be covered not with stripes but a 50% transmission color. The output from such a system is a sine wave for half of the rotation and a constant signal for the other half. The fixed output varies with the overall illumination of the sky. An extended target that spans several segments, like a cloud, will cause a fixed signal as well, and any signal that approximates the fixed signal is filtered out.


title: Infrared homing

text: A significant problem with the spin-scan system is that the signal when the target is near the center drops to zero. This is because even its small image covers several segments as they narrow at the center, producing a signal similar enough to an extended source that it is filtered out. This makes such seekers extremely sensitive to flares, which move away from the aircraft and thus produce an ever-increasing signal while the aircraft is providing little or none. Additionally, as the missile approaches the target, smaller changes in relative angle are enough to move it out of this "center null" area and start causing control inputs again. With a bang-bang controller, such designs tend to begin to overreact during the last moments of the approach, causing large miss distances and demanding large warheads.


title: Infrared homing

text: A great improvement on the basic spin-scan concept is the "conical scanner" or "con-scan". In this arrangement, a fixed reticle is placed in front of the detector and both are positioned at the focus point of a small Cassegrain reflector telescope. The secondary mirror of the telescope is pointed slightly off-axis, and spins. This causes the image of the target to be spun around the reticle, instead of the reticle itself spinning.


title: Infrared homing

text: Consider an example system where the seeker's mirror is tilted at 5 degrees, and the missile is tracking a target that is currently centered in front of the missile. As the mirror spins, it causes the image of the target to be reflected in the opposite direction, so in this case the image is moving in a circle 5 degrees away from the reticle's centerline. That means that even a centered target is creating a varying signal as it passes over the markings on the reticle. At this same instant, a spin-scan system would be producing a constant output in its center null. Flares will still be seen by the con-scan seeker and cause confusion, but they will no longer overwhelm the target signal as it does in the case of spin-scan when the flare leaves the null point.


title: Infrared homing

text: Extracting the bearing of the target proceeds in the same fashion as the spin-scan system, comparing the output signal to a reference signal generated by the motors spinning the mirror. However, extracting the angle-off is somewhat more complex. In the spin-scan system it is the length of time between pulses that encodes the angle, by increasing or decreasing the output signal strength. This does not occur in the con-scan system, where the image is roughly centered on the reticle at all times. Instead, it is the way that the pulses change over the time of one scan cycle that reveals the angle.


title: Infrared homing

text: Consider a target located 10 degrees to the left of the centerline. When the mirror is pointed to the left, the target appears to be close to the center of the mirror, and thus projects an image 5 degrees to the left of the centerline of the reticle. When it has rotated to point straight up, the relative angle of the target is zero, so the image appears 5 degrees down from the centerline, and when it is pointed to the right, 15 degrees to the left.


title: Infrared homing

text: Since angle-off on the reticle causes the length of the output pulse to change, the result of this signal being sent into the mixer is frequency modulated (FM), rising and falling over the spin cycle. This information is then extracted in the control system for guidance. One major advantage to the con-scan system is that the FM signal is proportional to the angle-off, which provides a simple solution for smoothly moving the control surfaces, resulting in far more efficient aerodynamics. This also greatly improves accuracy; a spin-scan missile approaching the target will be subject to continual signals as the target moves in and out of the centerline, causing the bang-bang controls to direct the missile in wild corrections, whereas the FM signal of the con-scan eliminates this effect and improves circular error probable (CEP) to as little as one metre.


title: Infrared homing

text: Most con-scan systems attempt to keep the target image as close to the edge of the reticle as possible, as this causes the greatest change in the output signal as the target moves. However, this also often causes the target to move off the reticle entirely when the mirror is pointed away from the target. To address this, the center of the reticle is painted with a 50% transmission pattern, so when the image crosses it the output becomes fixed. But because the mirror moves, this period is brief, and the normal interrupted scanning starts as the mirror begins to point toward the target again. The seeker can tell when the image is in this region because it occurs directly opposite the point when the image falls off the seeker entirely and the signal disappears. By examining the signal when it is known to be crossing this point, an AM signal identical to the spin-scan seeker is produced. Thus, for the cost of additional electronics and timers, the con-scan system can maintain tracking even when the target is off-axis, another major advantage over the limited field of view of spin-scan systems.


title: Infrared homing

text: The "crossed array seeker" simulates the action of a reticle in a con-scan system through the physical layout of the detectors themselves. Classical photocells are normally round, but improvements in construction techniques and especially solid-state fabrication allows them to be built in any shape. In the crossed-array system (typically) four rectangular detectors are arranged in a cross-like shape (+). Scanning is carried out identically to the con-scan, which causes the image of the target to scan across each of the detectors in turn.


title: Infrared homing

text: For a target centered in the FOV, the image circles around the detectors and crosses them at the same relative point. This causes the signal from each one to be identical pulses at a certain point in time. However, if the target is not centered, the image's path will be offset, as before. In this case the distance between the separated detectors causes the delay between the signal's reappearance to vary, longer for images further from the centerline, and shorter when closer. Circuits connected to the mirrors produce this estimated signal as a control, as in the case of the con-scan. Comparing the detector signal to the control signal produces the required corrections.


title: Infrared homing

text: The advantage to this design is that it allows for greatly improved flare rejection. Because the detectors are thin from side to side, they effectively have an extremely narrow field of view, independent of the telescope mirror arrangement. At launch, the location of the target is encoded into the seeker's memory, and the seeker determines when it expects to see that signal crossing the detectors. From then on any signals arriving outside the brief periods determined by the control signal can be rejected. Since flares tend to stop in the air almost immediately after release, they quickly disappear from the scanner's gates. The only way to spoof such a system is to continually release flares so some are always close to the aircraft, or to use a towed flare.


title: Infrared homing

text: The "rosette seeker", also known as a "pseudoimager", uses much of the mechanical layout of the con-scan system, but adds another mirror or prism to create a more complex pattern, drawing out a rosette. Compared to the fixed angle of the con-scan, the rosette pattern causes the image to scan to greater angles. Sensors on the drive shafts are fed to a mixer that produces a sample FM signal. Mixing this signal with the one from the seeker removes the motion, producing an output signal identical to that from the con-scan. A major advantage is that the rosette seeker scans out a wider portion of the sky, making it much more difficult for the target to move out of the field of view.


title: Infrared homing

text: The downside to the rosette scan is that it produces a very complex output. Objects within the seeker's FOV produce completely separate signals as it scans around the sky; the system might see the target, flares, the sun and the ground at different times. In order to process this information and extract the target, the individual signals are sent into a computer memory. Over the period of the complete scan this produces a 2D image, which gives it the name pseudo imager. Although this makes the system more complex, the resulting image offers much more information. Flares can be recognized and rejected by their small size, clouds for their larger size, etc.


title: Infrared homing

text: Modern heat-seeking missiles utilise imaging infrared ("IIR"), where the IR/UV sensor is a focal plane array which is able to produce an image in infra-red, much like the CCD in a digital camera. This requires much more signal processing but can be much more accurate and harder to fool with decoys. In addition to being more flare-resistant, newer seekers are also less likely to be fooled into locking onto the sun, another common trick for avoiding heat-seeking missiles. By using the advanced image processing techniques, the target shape can be used to find its most vulnerable part toward which the missile is then steered. All western Short-range air-to-air missiles such as the AIM-9X Sidewinder and ASRAAM use imaging infrared seekers, as well as the Chinese PL-10 SRAAM, Taiwanese TC-1, Israeli Python-5 and Russian R-74M/M2.


title: Infrared homing

text: Early seekers did not image the target, and anything within their FOV would create an output. A flare released by the target causes a second signal to appear within the FOV, producing a second angle output, and the chance that the seeker will begin to aim at the flare instead. Against early spin-scan seekers this was extremely effective because the signal from the target was minimized through the midcourse, so even a dim signal from the flare would be seen and tracked. Of course if this happens, the flare now disappears from view and the aircraft becomes visible again. However, if the aircraft moves out of the FOV during this time, which happens rapidly, the missile can no longer reacquire the target.


title: Infrared homing

text: One solution to the flare problem is to use a dual-frequency seeker. Early seekers used a single detector that was sensitive to very hot portions of the aircraft and to the jet exhaust, making them suitable for tail-chase scenarios. To allow the missile to track from any angle, new detectors were added that were much more sensitive in other frequencies as well. This presented a way to distinguish flares; the two seekers saw different locations for the target aircraft - the aircraft itself as opposed to its exhaust - but a flare appeared at the same point at both frequencies. These could then be eliminated.


title: Infrared homing

text: More complex systems were used with digital processing, especially crossed-array and rosette seekers. These had such extremely narrow instantaneous fields of view (IFOV) that they could be processed to produce an image, in the same fashion as a desktop scanner. By remembering the location of the target from scan to scan, objects moving at high speeds relative to the target could be eliminated. This is known as "cinematic filtering". The same process is used by imaging systems, which image directly instead of scanning, and have the further capability of eliminating small targets by measuring their angular size directly.


title: Infrared homing

text: Early seeker systems determined the angle to the target through timing of the reception of the signal. This makes them susceptible to jamming by releasing false signals that are so powerful that they are seen even when the seeker reticle is covering the sensor. Early jammers like the AN/ALQ-144 used a heated block of silicon carbide as an IR source, and surround it with a spinning set of lenses that send the image as a series of spots sweeping around the sky. Modern versions more typically use an infrared laser shining on a rapidly rotating mirror. As the beam paints the seeker it causes a flash of light to appear out of sequence, disrupting the timing pattern used to calculate angle. When successful, IR jammers cause the missile to fly about randomly.


title: Infrared homing

text: IR jammers are far less successful against modern imaging seekers, because they do not rely on timing for their measurements. In these cases, the jammer may be detrimental, as it provides additional signal at the same location as the target. Some modern systems now locate their jammers on towed countermeasures pods, relying on the missile homing on the strong signal, but modern image processing systems can make this ineffective and may require the pod to look as much as possible like the original aircraft, further complicating the design.


title: Infrared homing

text: A more modern laser-based technique removes the scanning and instead uses some other form of detection to identify the missile and aim the laser directly at it. This blinds the seeker continually, and is useful against even modern imaging seekers. These "directional infrared countermeasures" (DIRCMs) are very effective, they are also very expensive and generally only suitable for aircraft that are not maneuvering, like cargo aircraft and helicopters. Their implementation is further complicated by placing filters in front of the imager to remove any off-frequency signals, requiring the laser to tune itself to the frequency of the seeker or sweep through a range. Some work has even been put into systems with enough power to optically damage the nose cone or filters within the missile, but this remains beyond current capabilities.


title: Infrared homing

text: Most infrared guided missiles have their seekers mounted on a gimbal. This allows the sensor to be pointed at the target when the missile is not. This is important for two main reasons. One is that before and during launch, the missile cannot always be pointed at the target. Rather, the pilot or operator points the seeker at the target using radar, a helmet-mounted sight, an optical sight or possibly by pointing the nose of the aircraft or missile launcher directly at the target. Once the seeker sees and recognises the target, it indicates this to the operator who then typically "uncages" the seeker (which is allowed to follow the target). After this point the seeker remains locked on the target, even if the aircraft or launching platform moves. When the weapon is launched, it may not be able to control the direction it points until the motor fires and it reaches a high enough speed for its fins to control its direction of travel. Until then, the gimballed seeker needs to be able to track the target independently.


title: Infrared homing

text: Finally, even while it is under positive control and on its way to intercept the target, it probably will not be pointing directly at it; unless the target is moving directly toward or away from the launching platform, the shortest path to intercept the target will not be the path taken while pointing straight at it, since it is moving laterally with respect to the missile's view. The original heat-seeking missiles would simply point towards the target and chase it; this was inefficient. Newer missiles are smarter and use the gimballed seeker head combined with what is known as proportional guidance in order to avoid oscillation and to fly an efficient intercept path.


title: Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House

text: Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House is a 2002 American made-for-television Christmas family comedy film directed by Rod Daniel, which first aired on ABC on November 3, 2002, as the first episode of the forty-seventh season of "The Wonderful World of Disney", followed by a DVD release on September 2, 2003. The fourth installment in the "Home Alone" franchise, the film stars Mike Weinberg, French Stewart, Missi Pyle, Jason Beghe, Erick Avari, Barbara Babcock, Joanna Going, and Clare Carey. It tells the story of Kevin McCallister who goes to spend his Christmas with his father and his new girlfriend as his old enemy Marv and his wife Vera come up with a plan to kidnap a visiting prince with help from an inside person that Kevin least suspects. This is the first film in the "Home Alone" franchise to not receive a theatrical release nor have any screenplay contribution from John Hughes.


title: Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House

text: Whereas "Home Alone 3" featured a standalone plot and new characters, this film brings back several of the main characters from the first two films, including Kevin McCallister, but with all of the roles played by different actors. The plot revolves around Kevin McCallister trying to defend his future stepmother's house from his old nemesis Marv and his sidekick/wife Vera. It was the last film that Rod Daniel directed before his subsequent retirement (partly due to his diagnosis from Parkinson's disease, complications of which resulted in his death in 2016).


title: Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House

text: Peter McCallister, who is finalizing a divorce from his wife, Kate, announces to their children, Buzz, Megan, and Kevin that he and his wealthy girlfriend, Natalie Kalban, are hosting the visit of a royal family at her mansion, and invites them to spend Christmas there. After the three initially refuse, Kevin accepts the offer after being bullied by Buzz (who was supposed to be at the movies with his friends) and revels in the mansion's luxuries.


title: Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House

text: The next morning, Peter and Natalie go out while Kevin stays with Natalie's servants, Mr. Prescott the butler and Molly the maid. Kevin notices his old nemesis, Marv Murchins, and his wife, Vera, scouting the house. After failing to get Mr. Prescott's attention via the intercom, he drives them away by flooding the mansion. When Peter and Natalie return, they refuse to believe Kevin's explanation, especially since Mr. Prescott claims to have seen nothing. Kevin discovers that the security cameras were turned off during the break-in, leading him to believe that Mr. Prescott is in league with Marv and Vera. To cheer themselves up, Kevin, Peter, and Natalie decorate their Christmas tree, although it is later re-trimmed by professional decorators at Natalie's request.