Year: 2008

Brazil Shortlists Fighters

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Brazil is looking for fighters to replace it’s existing 1960s vintage fighter force.

It has now shortlisted the Super Hornet, Dassault Rafale and Gripen NG while dropping the Eurofighter Typhoon, F-16, and Su-35 from the competition.

If they are looking at lifecycle costs, the Gripen wins, being half the weight of the competitors.

If they are looking for an aircraft to operate of their carrier, the Rafale wins, because the F/A-18 is really too big for their rather small carrier.

Additionally, they have an existing relationship with Dassault, as they leased Mirage 2000s from them.

That being said, Stephen Trimble notes they are very interested in technology transfer, wanting to rebuild their defense industry, which, after all, was half of the effort to build the Italo-Brazilian team that built AMX attack plane in the 1970s, so it may come down to who gives them the best technology transfer.

My guess is that this competition is France’s to lose, but they have found innovative ways to lose export competitions recently.

More on the M4, M16, and the 5.56 Round

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Well, first, it appears that as a part of a potential M4/16 replacement, the army is once again looking at the 25mm smart grenade launcher, now called the XM25 Individual Air Burst Weapon, which grew from the abortive Objective Individual Combat Weapon (OICW).

Incorporating this into a standard carbine or rifle is, I thin, a losing proposition. You add weight and complexity when only one person on the fire team really needs to have the weapon under most scenarios.

As such I favor a solution analogous to the M203, which can be installed on the weapon as needed.

There are two issues with the M4 and one with the M-16, they both require a lot of care and cleaning, and the M4 has lethality issues beyond about 50 or so meters.

As to the former, much of the issue is the gas tube system, in which the gas which it tapped to drive the bolt directly, and there is a drop in kit, basically a new upper receiver assembly, which adds a piston, the H&K 416.

While people talk about going with a heavier round, the real problem with lethality with the M4 is that its barrel, at 14-1/2 inches is just too short, and so velocity, and hence energy, suffers. Seeing as how bullpup rifles are shorter with a barrel typically about 4 inches longer, that solves the problem.

As an interim solution, going with the upper receiver replacement makes sense, while one looks at something more extensive.

BTW, good article on the H&K G11, which used a 4.85mm caseless round, which would have been a world beater.

My understanding is that they fixed the cookoff issues, but the rounds, and the weapon, were too fracking expensive.

Here is some gun pr0n, with the pictures from here:


NLOS-C Prototype Fires First Round

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They have validated the concept with mockups and breadboards (It’s why you see the cables running out of the back of those vehicles) but this does represent a step forward for the howitzer variant of the Future Combat System:

The mobile cannon, which is crewed by two soldiers, has a fully automated ammunition loading system and on-board projectile tracking. Lieutenant Colonel Robert McVay, Army Product Manager for NLOS-C said in a statement that “This marks the first 155mm round fired from a fully automated howitzer mounted on an FCS hybrid-electric chassis and remotely commanded through its on-board computers and controls.”

You will note in the picture that this is not the full up model firing, but one of the breadboard models, note the cables out the rear.

Russia Has a Clue on the Ukraine

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It appears that they are offering major shipbuilding contracts to the Ukraine, including the construction of their carriers, in order to better relations.

Unfortunately, it appears that Vladimir Putin is clueless on the Ukraine, or he got a severe attack of the stupids, because he just accused Ukraine of assisting Georgia in the war.

It’s reassuring to know that other nations’ foreign policy can be as f%$#ed up as ours.

Well, That Prevents the Space Station from Becoming an Expensive Door Stop.

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Or more accurately, it prevents it from becoming a marginally less productive doorstop from where it is now.

Michael Griffin, NASA Administrator, is now saying that he is not seeing excessive Congressional opposition to the continued purchase of Soyuz flights to support the space station.

I’m of a mixed mind. This makes it easier to shut down the Shuttle, which is easily the most self destructive program that NASA has ever embarked on, but the Space Station is a pretty useless and expensive boondoggle too.

Not Enough Bullets, Part 2 of Who Knows How Many

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Alan H. Fishman. former CEO of the former Bank Wamu, got $20 million for his 17 days on the job:

According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, WaMu threw a $7.5 million bonus at Fishman when it hired him on Sept. 8, and guaranteed him an immediate cash severence of $11.6 million — both of which he gets to keep.

He also was eligible for annual bonuses of up to 365 percent of his annual base pay — set at $1 million — to go with millions of shares of company stock.

Fishman does lose out on a big bonus that would have kicked in had he remained on the job through 2009.

We are paying a bunch of Harvard MBAs to fail, and not surprisingly, that’s what they produce, failure.

Of course, the employees and their pensions….C’est caduc.

Economics Update

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Well, we are seeing the 9th straight drop in monthly non-farm employment rolls (click on graphs for pretty pictures).

I find The U6 graph that I swiped from Paul Krugman to be particularly interesting.

Let’s just call it; we are in a recession.

I would also note that the credit flows have nearly shut down worldwide, which is why the Federal Reserve lending window is seeing record use from banks.

BTW, it ain’t just the Fed which is throwing money, particularly US Dollars, out the windows, it’s all of the central banks.

The obvious big news is the House passing the Wall Street bail-out, and I’m as yet unsure how the markets are reacting to this.

Oil is down down, which could either imply confidence in the US economy, or the belief that a recession is inevitable, and the dollar is mixed.

On the Human Metronome

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So, now that Charlie, aka, “The Human Metronome,” is in public school, he can take music classes, and we got him a Ludwig Percussion Kit, model LR2482R, which, “features a 13″ wooden snare drum, 2 1/2 octave bells, tunable practice pad with multi-purpose snare and bell stand, music rack, mallets and drum sticks. All items fit securely in the padded rolling bag that has sturdy plastic wheels and a telescoping handle.”

It’s pretty neat how you get it all into one compact package.

Charlie got it yesterday, when the music store delivered it to school, and has been working the drums and bells.

Mostly the bells.

Right now, he’s sitting there with the mallets, and plinking out a tune….Not Mary Had a Little Lamb….He’s doing Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.

He must get the musical skilz from his mother’s side of the family.