Year: 2008

Replacing the M16/M4 and Possibly the 5.56 Round

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Well, this is one of those issues that leads to heated discussions, so let’s start with my position:

The 5.56 round is just find, and any lethality issues are an artifact that the barrel on the M4 carbine, at 14.5 inches, is too short. The M-16 with its 20 inch barrel does not have the lethality issues.

The solution is to replace the M4 with a Bullpup design with a barrel length of at least 18 inches.

Such a design will still be shorter than the M4, and hence easier to handle in enclosed spaces, such as city warfare.

I would also go with a piston arrangement, as opposed to a gas tube, which to bring too much fouling.

‘Nuff said.

In any case, the Army is now looking at an M4 replacement, and is considering going with something like a 6.5mm or 6.8mm round.

This has all the hallmarks of a fiasco to my mind though. They are bidding a new weapon and allowing for a new caliber at the same time, which means that they will not really be able to compare apples to apples.

It should be interesting on the boards for a while though as various gun religions engage in Jihad.

Boo Yah!!!!

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I was reading this article about the spate of aerial encounters between Russian bombers and NATO aircraft, and it appears that it gets pilots pumped up on both sides.

Regardless of the political fallout of the situation, pilots on both sides just love this stuff.

In any case, a commenter at this article, after noting that the Russian pilots get only about $800/month, said something very wise:

[R]ather than build JSF or Raptors, why not just take that money, and recruit Russian pilots away? We can move them into foreclosed condo’s down in So Beach, pay them twice what they make, and I think save the American Taxpayer a ton of money.

Very wise.

Malaysia Looking at Airborne Radar Purchase

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When you consider their airforce, a mix of MiG-29s, Su-30 MKMs, and F-18s, it seems inevitable that they would start to consider some sort of airborne command and control capability, particularly given Thailand’s purchase of Saab’s Erieye, Australia’s oft delayed Wedgetail, and Singapore’s E-2Cs and future deliveries of Phalcons.

I think that over the next few years, we will see a lot posturing, both on the part of the Malaysians and on the part of the companies who want to make a sale to them.

Boeing Shows off Bomber Proposal at AFA Convention

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So, now we have some models of the competing Boeing and Northrop Grumman concepts to compare:

Boeing Above

Northrop Grumman Above

Both are clearly designed with stealth in mind, and Boeing’s design is rather similar to the B-2, though they have made comments about laminar flow designs to reduce drag. The outer wings, given their narrow chord would likely be laminar flow naturally.

N-G’s design looks as if it would more easily accommodate a large weapons bay, which might make it easier to carry ultra heavy bunker busters.

Based on my estimates of scale, both appear to carry less in the way of bombs than a B-52 (20-30 tons), and more in line with something along the line of the B-47 (10-15 tons).

My guess is that given miniaturization of nuclear weapons, and the available of relatively small guided weapons, a larger capacity is considered redundant.

The Undeniable Lightness of Being a Rich Pig

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We are now seeing sob stories out of Wall Street like this:

‘A lot of those people will have to sell their homes, they’re going to cut back on the private jets and the vacations. They may even have to take their kids out of private school,’ said Frank. ‘It’s a total reworking of their lifestyle.’

He added that it’s going to be no easy task.

‘It’s going to be very hard psychologically for these people,’ Frank said. ‘I talked to one guy who had to give up his private jet recently. And he said of all the trials in his life, giving that up was the hardest thing he’s ever done.’

The Chinese have the right idea: A bullet to the back of the head for the folks who managed this fiasco.

H/T Kevin Drum.

A Witch Hunter? Palin is Linked to a Kenyan Witch Hunter?

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Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

Well, if you are waiting for the next shoe to drop in the dsyfunctional religious freak show that is Sarah Palin, here it is.

It now appears that everyone’s favorite hock mom has said that her election as governor was as the direct result of the prayers of a Kenyan witch-hunter, Thomas Muthee.

I’m not sure which I find more disturbing, the belief that the prayers of a self admitted witch hunter somehow got her elected governor, or the complete self-absorption to think that here elections are somehow the direct will of God.

In either case, it’s clear that she is just plain nuts, in a way that makes John Seymour McCain look pretty damn sane.

Here’s a hint, girl, if you believe that God is on your side, you are almost certainly arrogant, wrong, and deluded.

Sane people don’t believe that God is on their side; sociopaths do. Sane people worry if they are on God’s Side.

In any case, here is a vid of her talking about how she sees herself as have being elected by dint of God supporting her.

H/T Group News Blog.

Israel Conditions Number of JSFs Purchased on Ability to Add Domestic Content

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Once again, one of the issues with the F-35 JSF is that, to a greater degree than any other fighter aircraft history, the country operating the aircraft will be unable to modify its systems to meet their needs.

It now appears that the Israeli Air Force will purchase the F-35, the number that it purchases will be highly dependent on the ability it will have to install indigenous systems, as the JSF is a remarkably closed system.

In the long run, I think that follow-on orders for the aircraft may be hindered by this, as operators, and nations becoming operators, find out the degree to which they have to jump through hoops to integrate upgrades and new systems that were routine in prior aircraft.

Number 3421 on the List of Things that I’d Never Say

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God Bless Jerry Brown.

He’s always rubbed me the wrong way, but his decision to accurately label the Califoria hate initiative is a very good thing:

Those voters were much more likely to oppose the measure when read Brown’s wording (58 percent against it and 30 percent for it) than those in the same category who were read the old version of Prop. 8 (42 percent against and 37 percent for it), according to the Field Poll.

The Brown language reads, in part: “Eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry.” The original version read, in part: “Limit on marriage.”

No big surprise here…If you tell the truth people vote now on this abomination.

Steve Gilliard Would Be Happy

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The last game ever to be played at Yankee Stadium will be played tomorrow, with the Orioles and the Yankees fighting for the basement.

I’m not sure if Steve would give a damn about that, but the fact that the Yankees will be out of the playoffs for the first time in 13 years, that would make him smile.

Oh…Yeah….F@#$ the F@#$ing Yankees.

Economics Update

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If you think that this crisis is over, it’s not even close, as evidenced by the fact that 40% of US money market funds posted no returns yesterday:

More than 40 percent of U.S. taxable money market mutual funds posted zero return Thursday amid persistent turmoil in the credit markets, fund tracker Lipper said Friday.

Lipper said 560 of the 1,263 classes of taxable money funds it tracks earned no return Thursday. This compared with 73 classes that posted zero return Wednesday and 63 Tuesday.

A lot of taxable money mutual funds “put up big fat zeros yesterday,” said Jeff Tjornehoj, senior research analyst at Lipper in Denver. “This is unprecedented in recent history.”

Expect to see the phrase, “unprecedented in recent history,” a lot in the next few months.

Part of this was no doubt the rather large gyrations in US T-Bills over the past few days, which went almost to 0% a on Thursday, because people were so concerned about finding safe havens. The 3 month T-Bill was at 0.22% Thursday, before heading back up to 0.91% on Friday following announcement of various rescue plans for the financial markets.

The dollar rose in response to the bailouts too, as did oil, though gasoline is down for the 3rd straight day, as that market adjusts to the realities of Hurricane Ike.

That being said, even with the rescue packages, Moody’s is still looking at cutting its ratings on monoliner insurers Ambac and MBIA.

Also, it now looks like Morgan Stanley is still looking at merging with a commercial bank, even if the news of the bailout plans may have helped.

Raytheon Eyes Sidewinder-X Upgrades

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It appears to be a significant improvement on the original AIM-9X, with lock on after launch, and could drive the move to a new rocket motor, the rocket motor on the AIM-9X is the same as previous models, as it would allow launches to longer range.

From all I know about the missile, the kinematics (basically range and long range maneuverability) are not that good, having a single pulse motor (with thrust vectoring, you want lower thrust at the start in order to make the vectoring work better) and being smaller (5″ body diameter as vs 6″) than many of its competitors.

Looks Like the DDG-100 May Be More F$#@ed Up than Previously Found

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Well, it looks like the sad saga of the DDG-1000 Zumwalt destroyers may become even sadder, as there are now doubts that the two ships purchased may never sail.

Noah Schactman cites a report from Defense News:

Issues have arisen in guaranteeing the seals between the composite construc­tion panels of the huge Zumwalt deckhouse… [where] all of the ship’s major sensors… are em­bedded in the structure, and all of the ship above the first super­structure level is contained…

[O]ne source familiar with the situation said the Navy is so wor­ried about the problem that it has been canvassing other manufac­turers of composite structures to see if an alternate production source could be found.

So will any Zumwalts be built?

… Sen. Susan Collins, R­-Maine, and a key supporter of the DDG-1000, told Defense News, “I still expect the Navy’s going to abandon the DDG-1000.”

It sure sounds to me like the ships cannot be built right now.

Background here.