It’s derived from their CSS-5 intermediate range missile and uses technology similar to that of the Pershing II, which had a CEP in the single digit meter range.
The current version has a range around 1800 km and a nuclear warhead that weighs around 600 kg. I imagine an anti-ship (carrier killer) version would have a similar range and a similar weight warhead.
In any case if one of these hits a flight deck at mach 4 or so, the warhead is guilding the lily.
It looks like Bob Gates is not the only one who thinks that the USAF is refusing to carry its weight in a counter-insurgency campaign. The army has found it necessary to expand its own aviation services to meet its needs.
The system is called David’s Sling (paid subscription required), and it makes no sense at all.
The system’s features:
So, you’ve got a missile that weighs somewhere north of 500 pounds (bottom pic for scale), and will probably cost something well north of $¼ million a piece, and they will use it to intercept Kassams and Katyushas that cost something less than $100 and $1000 each respectively.
That’s sounds like a really good trade….not.
This is a good sign, though I believe that the electrical systems are actually not holding back the program, it’s structures and fasteners.
Still given that the 787 is replacing most of the pneumatic systems powered by bleed air with electrical ones, this successful test is good news for them.
June is looking good for Boeing.
Ayveq, the masturbating walrus dead at 14.
It appears that Neera Tanden has been hired by Obama to work on his campaign as director of domestic policy.
This is some very friendly signaling from the Obama campaign to hillary supporters:
She was a key architect of, among other things, Clinton’s health care plan, whose more aggressive push for universal coverage through mandates was probably the key domestic policy difference between the Democrats.
My guess is that all these imagines slights that we have heard about over the past are more figments of the imaginations of the Beltway Boyz than anything else.
Yep, we have Rupert Mordoch’s New York Post going front page on an article about CPS reporter Lara Logan having an affair in Baghdad.
Imagine that, a war correspondent in theater having an affair.
In any case, I agree with Will Bunch. Lara Logan is being smeared for her criticism of Iraq war coverage, which she has been highly critical of.
This started when she said on the Daily Show, that, “If I were to watch the news that you’re hearing in the United States, I’d just blow my brains out. ‘Cause it would drive me nuts.”
And it appears that it’s not enough that Mugabe and his thugs forced Tsvangirai out of the race, that they are now using violence to force people into the ballot booths:
In some other suburbs of Harare, the capital, residents said they had been rounded up Thursday night, forced to chant pro-Mugabe slogans until daybreak and then force-marched to the polls. They were told to copy the serial numbers off their ballots so it could be confirmed later that they had voted for their 84-year-old president.
(emphasis mine)
The interesting thing is that I think that I’m more disgusted with South African President Thabo Mbeki than I am with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.
As near as I can figure out, Mbeki is Mugabe’s butt boy because he is afraid that what is happening in Zimbabwe, where the trade union movement became the basis for a popular political movement, will happen in South Africa, where the trade unions have become increasingly hostile to the ANC and its IMF driven cheap labor policies.
Consumer spending jumped 0.8% in May, largely driven by the income tax rebates, though one wonders how much of that spending went into people’s gas tanks.
What’s more, given that oil hitting a new record, even if retail gasoline is edging a bit lower, it’s highly unlikely that the giant sucking sound coming from our cars will change.
What’s more, this is continuing to drive the dollar lower.
At the core of the American economy, we have been living beyond our means for many years, and there will be some painful adjustments.
Despite the best efforts of Dick Cheney and John Bolton, who have always wanted war with North Korea, it looks like an agreement has been forged, as the DPRK has demolished the cooling tower at their Yongbyon reactor.
The things that they are asking for, formal recognition, trade, and some aid are much cheaper than war.
So now, the Republicans are blocking paying doctors through Medicare in order to protect their HMO friends:
But Senate Republicans (and President Bush) don’t like the way the bill finds money for docs by cutting subsidies to Medicare Advantage, the privately administered Medicare plans.
If they needs subsidies, then, “Medicare Advantage, the privately administered Medicare plans”, are less efficient than big government, and hence are government waste, which should be abolished.
The cloture vote failed 58:40, and it needs 60 votes. Kennedy was not there because he has cancer, and McCain was not there because he doesn’t give a damn about doing his job as Senator.
When Republicans complain about earmarks, they are looking at amounts that are in total less than 1/10 of this.
I hope that the Democrats pound them mercilessly on this until election day.
Because if the members of the House Judiciary Committee expect US Attorney General Michael Mukasey to comply with a subpoena regarding documents connected to political scandals*, they have the political acumen of Little Orphan Annie©.
You have to vote on the subpoena, but once the deadline passes, have him arrested.
*DoJ foot dragging on the New Hampshire phone jamming, the US Attorney firings, political interference in the Civil Rights Division, etc.
They still enforce a death penalty for homosexuality, but they are one of the most transsexual friendly governments in the world, and now I find that Iran’s policy towards drugs and addiction is geared to a remarkable degree towards treatment, rather than punishment:
In a country where the discussion of some social and cultural issues, like homosexuality, can be all but taboo, drug addiction has been widely acknowledged as a serious problem. It is talked about openly in schools and on television. Posters have encouraged people to think of addiction as a disease and to seek treatment.
Iran’s theocratic government has encouraged and financed a vast expansion in the number of drug treatment centers to help users confront their addictions and to combat the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, through shared needles.
…..
Iran’s government, trying to curb addiction’s huge social costs, has been more supportive of drug treatment than any other government in the Islamic world, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
…..
But two decades later, it recognized that this approach had failed. A sharp increase in the crime rate and the number of people infected with HIV, both directly linked to a surge in narcotics use, persuaded the government to shift strategies.
….
…. After a 25 percent surge in HIV cases, the government began distributing free needles in prisons in 2000.
….
“There are so many options that no addict can claim that there is nowhere to go for help,” said Dr. Mohammad-Reza Haddadi, a physician and researcher at the National Center for Addiction Studies. “It is much cheaper and healthier for them to go to these centers for methadone than to drug dealers.”
They realized that a war on drugs wasn’t working, and they changed.
The fact that the Iranians are more sane on drug policy than either mainstream party should be an embarrassment to Americans.
Which matters to us because it means that it is likely that their central bank will raise rates, placing further downward pressure on the dollar.
Of course, their CPI data shows a 1.5% inflation rate, and their central bank rate is ½%, so both are nowhere near the US rate.
I agree with Bill Sweetman’s assesment (see also here), that this is a sweetspot for tactical airlift.
Looking at the picture’s, it’s clear that the aircraft is about twice the size of a C-130, and half the size of a C-17, and it’s got a lot of tire, which translates to good rough field performance.
The only real competitor out there is the AN-70 (picture below), which carries about 10 more tons, but has somewhat shorter ranges at a similar load out, but the Russians and the Ukrainians need to fund it past the one remaining prototype (see bottom picture).
Comparison:
|
|
A400M |
An-70 |
|
Empty Weight (kg) |
70,000 |
66,230 |
|
Max Gross Weight(kg) |
145,000 |
141,000 |
|
Speed (km/h) |
780 |
780 |
|
Max Payload (kg) |
37,000 |
47,000 |
|
Range w/20 t Payload |
6,600 |
3,300 |
|
|
8,000 |
9,300 |
I would note that with its contra-rotating props, the An-70 is a lot louder, and would therefore likely be unacceptable for the partners in EADS, France, Italy, Germany, and Spain.
Also, there are provisions for aerial refueling the An-70 in the pictures that I’ve seen.
On the minus side for the A400M is that it’s engines are behind schedule, and so it will be a while before it flies and ships.
A400M
A400M
AN-70
At least that’s what Dick Cheney and John Bolton say about the idea of opening up an official American Interest Section in Terhan.
Not much of a Craplinologist*, but it appears that Cheney lost on this, big time.
*Where “Crap” is the Bush administration. It derives from the phrase “Kremlinologist”.
Not very surprising.
The Senators and Representatives from Boeing Washington State and Kansas have promised to do whatever they can to get the tanker contract back too Boeing.
Alt-A loans are technically prime loans, though they are low quality prime loans that bridge the gap between sub-prime and regular prime loans, and their performance tanked in May, with delinquencies greater than 60 days, roll rates*, and loss severity all rising.
There never was a sub-prime crisis. There is a housing crash.
*Roll rates capture the number of loans moving from current to delinquent each month.