Author: Matthew G. Saroff

Like Bukakke* with Knives

No Comments

Only $1.59, and I get a whole new definition of “facial”

Ok, so about the only plus to my being unemployed is that I make it to the gym 3-4 times a week, and do the stationary bicycle, get told by Fox News that we’re all going to die, and then I shower.

Well, I shave 2-3 times a week, I have a beard, so hitting my neck and the sparsely hairy parts my cheeks† does not have to be a daily thing.

I like to shave in the shower, and to do any fine work in the mirror afterward. I know my face well enough, and the hot water softens the hair and makes the shaver work better.

So, I got a new disposable razor, a Bic® Comfort 3® Pivot, because it was what what was on the shelf.

Well, one of the features is a, “Twin lubricating strip with Aloe vera and Vitamin E for sensitive skin. Improves shaver glide over the skin and reduces irritation.”

I kind of figured that it didn’t mean much, you see this crap all the time on consumer products.

I was wrong. There I was, in the shower, and this razor is oozing this clear stuff onto my face.

Ewwwwww!!!!

*If you don’t know, you can always check out the Wiki, but it’s NSFW.
†The upper ones cheeks, I don’t shave my ass. Sharon ‡ likes my hairy ass, thank you very much.
‡Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.

Idiot

2 Comments

So, Barack Obama is offering millions billions in subsidies loan guarantees for the nuclear industry as a part of his cap and trade carbon emissions bill:

President Barack Obama is endorsing nuclear energy like never before, trying to win over Republicans and moderate Democrats on climate and energy legislation.

Obama singled out nuclear power in his State of the Union address, and his spending plan for the next budget year is expected to include billions of more dollars in federal guarantees for new nuclear reactors. This emphasis reflects both the political difficulties of passing a climate bill in an election year and a shift from his once cautious embrace of nuclear energy.

He’s now calling for a new generation of nuclear power plants.

I understand how he might have to cut a deal with lawmakers who are bought and paid for by supporters of the nuclear power industry in order to get a global warming emissions bill passed, but you don’t start the negotiations by giving into them.

You make them come to you to get a deal. If you give them everything they need at the start of the process, then they will just knife you later to get more, see Nelson, Ben, and Lieberman, Joe.

Even if you support nuclear power, you keep it in your back pocket until the time is right to get the votes.

At this point in the process, you have the threat of a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) hanging over the heads of coal and oil companies, and you use that to twist arms.

Unbelievably stupid.

Economics Update

No Comments

Well, we had mixed signals, with factory activity rising faster than expected and construction spending falling faster than expected.

As to what you follow, I’ll go with disposable personal income and personal consumption expenditures, where spending went up less than income, increasing the savings rate, meaning that the consumer is still well into the “paradox of thrift”, and as The Big Picture observes, most of the increase in personal income is from government stimulus spending, but Obama has decided to go all 1937 on the budget. (Separate post for the budget)

Meanwhile in central bank/bond finance land, the Obama’s budget, along with the industrial growth reading pushed bond prices down, and yields up.

Meanwhile, in Oz, the Reserve Bank of Australia kept its benchmark rate at 3.75%, it had been expected to raise the rate to 4%, and so its currency took a hit.

Meanwhile in currency and energy, the ISM’s index of national factory activity drove both oil and the dollar up.

We Are F%$#ed

No Comments

It appears that according to Robert Gibbs, Obama’s press secretary, nothing can be done with the largest majorities in a generation:

This is the emerging talking point from the White House and Congessional leadership: It is a mathematical impossiblity that Dems will ever be able to get anything done without cooperation from Republicans.

Ignoring the fate of supermajority requirements for ordinary business (see taxes, raising, budget, California, f%$#ed), the voters hate weakness.

They hate it even more when you are the ones who are supposed to be in charge.

Why bother voting for a Democrat when they are unwilling to do anything, because the tiny minority in the corner is saying nasty things.

Let me refer you, once again to Josh Marshall’s bitch slap theory of electoral politics:

Let’s call it the Republicans’ Bitch-Slap theory of electoral politics.

It goes something like this.

On one level, of course, the aim behind these attacks is to cast suspicion upon Kerry’s military service record and label him a liar. But that’s only part of what’s going on.

Consider for a moment what the big game is here. This is a battle between two candidates to demonstrate toughness on national security. Toughness is a unitary quality, really — a personal, characterological quality rather than one rooted in policy or divisible in any real way. So both sides are trying to prove to undecided voters either that they’re tougher than the other guy or at least tough enough for the job.

In a post-9/11 environment, obviously, this question of strength, toughness or resolve is particularly salient. That, of course, is why so much of this debate is about war and military service in the first place.

One way — perhaps the best way — to demonstrate someone’s lack of toughness or strength is to attack them and show they are either unwilling or unable to defend themselves — thus the rough slang I used above. And that I think is a big part of what is happening here. Someone who can’t or won’t defend themselves certainly isn’t someone you can depend upon to defend you.

Demonstrating Kerry’s unwillingness to defend himself (if Bush can do that) is a far more tangible sign of what he’s made of than wartime experiences of thirty years ago.

Hitting someone and not having them hit back hurts the morale of that person’s supporters, buoys the confidence of your own backers (particularly if many tend toward an authoritarian mindset) and tends to make the person who’s receiving the hits into an object of contempt (even if also possibly also one of sympathy) in the eyes of the uncommitted.

This is certainly what Bush’s father did to Michael Dukakis and, sadly, it is what Bush himself did, to a great degree, to Al Gore.

In other ways, Bush’s bully-boy campaign tactics play to his strengths, albeit unstated and unlovely ones. Many of the polls of the president have shown that while people don’t necessarily agree with the specific policies he’s pursued abroad many also intuitively believe that there’s no one who will hit back harder. There’s some of that ‘he may be a son-of-a-bitch but he’s our son-of-a-bitch’ quality to the president’s support on national security issues.

This meta-message behind the president’s attacks on Kerry’s war record is more consequential than many believe. So hitting back hard was critical on many levels.

All the silly little political orgasms over who stood and who didn’t at the SOTU speech, or how Barack Obama came off better in his tête-à-tête with Republicans does not matter.

If you cannot be trusted to fight for yourself , you cannot be trusted to fight for us.

Are these guys trying to lose both houses in 2010?

Deep Thought

No Comments

Why is it that washer fluid reservoirs in your car always hold something like 2-3 quarts, which means that when you refill it with a new bottle, you have a more than half empty bottle to bang around in your trunk?

These things are blow molded, and can easily be made in to irregular shapes, so that they could hold, for example, 5 qt, and then you could toss the bottle after you filled the tank.

It’s kind of like hot dogs coming in packages of 10, and hot dog buns coming in packages of 8.

A Good Plan View of the PAK-FA

1 Comment
Click for full size

H/t ELP Defens(c)e Blog

What is apparrent from this view:
Edge Alignment.

  • Relatively flat central belly area.
  • Straight through engine air path (which implies radar blockers, as in the F-117 and F/A-18E/f).
  • The flaps on the leading edge of the leading edge extensions.
  • Metallic skin on rear portion of engines.
  • Su-27 style “stinger, with a relatively large radome.
  • Landing gear appears robust.
  • Trapazoidal (stealthy) air inlets with splitter plates.

I think that the metal on the rear fuselage around the engines are an indication that whatever signature reduction techniques that they want to apply, they are not all on this model, so it reinforces my earlier assessment that this is not a representative prototype, but rather more of a validation model for the configuration.

Hopefully, This is as Close as I Ever Come to Pledge Week

No Comments
Click for full size

Charlie in front of the control room


Pledge drive studio while programming is going on


Pledge drive during requests for donations


Control room for studio


Control room for satellite up and downlink


Server room

Charlie just had a tour of the Maryland Public Television (MPT) studios, courtesy of his cub scout troop.

As the crow flys, it’s only about a mile away from us.

It’s pledge week at MPT, which meant that there was no escaping it on a tour.

We swung by twice. the 1st time, the regularly scheduled program was showing, and the 2nd time, they were in the break doing their pledge fund stuff, and I couldn’t change the channel.

One of the things that I notices, and it really wasn’t much of a surprise, is that the studio is actually rather a lot smaller than it appears on TV.

Seeing as how square footage costs money, this is really not surprising: You see the same thing with the Star Trek™ bridge in the Smithsonian.

As to Charlie’s thoughts on his visit to MPT, he thought that it was an OK way to kill an hour.

A final note, I need to remember to clean my cell phone camera lens before take pictures.

What Krugman Said

No Comments

So says the Shrill One, and so say we all:

Put it this way: if our financial system is so high-strung, so manic-depressive, that low rates for a few years can inflate a monstrous bubble, while a few discouraging words from high officials can send them into a tailspin, this doesn’t make the case that policy must walk on eggshells, forgoing any attempt to fight prolonged unemployment. Instead, it makes the case for much, much stronger financial regulation.

I would only add that one of the metrics that should be used in financial regulation is proportion of GDP. There must be a conscious effort by regulators to keep the financial industry from becoming the tail that wags the dog of our economy.

FCS-MGV* Successor to Have Tracks

No Comments
Click for full size

Tracks vs wheels


Linked band track

One of the lessons from Stryker in Afghanistan is that they are too road bound which creates regular predictable routes, which makes them more vulnerable to IEDs.

When juxtaposed with their relatively thin armor, the consequences are unfortunate:

What doesn’t work is the Stryker in Afghanistan, says Scales. The 5th Stryker Brigade, operating in southern Afghanistan’s Kandahar area, has taken heavy casualties, losing some 21 of the eight-​​wheeled vehicles and two dozen soldiers killed. “The vehicles have proven to be too thinly armored to survive the very large explosive power of Taliban IEDs and too immobile to maneuver off road to avoid them,” Scales writes.

I would also add that, for a given envelope, tracked vehicles are more space efficient, since the wheels on something like a Stryker are large, have significant travel, and the front (and sometimes rear) wheels sweep out a larger volume as an artifact of their pivoting to steer. (see picture)

Also, tracked vehicles are a lot better in urban conflict, because they can go over something like a junked car road block, while wheeled vehicles cannot, and because they can pivot steer, their maneuverability in close quarters is superior.

The downside of tracks is operational cost and road speed.

It’s why it’s rather cramped in Strykers.

Unfortunately, it appears that they are still fixated on some sort of “very quiet” track system:

“The lesson of contemporary wars is that IEDs can best be defeated by designing a vehicle capable of avoiding them,” he writes, in other words a vehicle that can go off road across rough terrain so that it isn’t limited to predictable routes. That means the future GCV must be tracked. It must also be quiet enough to be somewhat stealthy, Scales argues, which would imply a rubberized band track.

This is an area that I worked on extensively on the FCS-RMV, since, as a recovery vehicle, it would have to perform field repair, and from this perspective, band track, basically a continuous rubber band is a complete disaster.

First, with link track, every vehicle can carry a few extra links, and if there is damage to one, or two, they can repair it themselves. Additionally, they can short track, shorten the track by pulling links, and reroute the it so that one or more road wheels are not in the path.

By contrast, if a band track is broken, the crew can’t repair it, the replacement has to take part as a whole (as opposed to feeding the track a link at a time around the drive and road wheels), and it’s a unit, which when stored is huge, as in large enough that you need a truck to carry it to where ever you need to go to do the repairs.

There is a solution, called segmented band track, which splits the difference, so, for example, as opposed to rigid links, the tread would be made with (for example) 10 flexible treads that are linked together with pins (bottom pic), which splits the difference.

It is hoped that this will combine the simplicity of transport of link track with the light weight, lower noise, lower vibration, less wear on the road, and higher performance of continuous band track.

I will say that one of the things that should be avoided, at least on the basis of my experience with the FRMV specifically and the FCS-MGV generally, is to make a fetish of commonality between different vehicles performing different roles.

In the FCS program, almost every vehicle carried significant weight and cost penalties as a result of having a common chassis.

Commonality in systems is good, but if you take it to chassis design, you have start increasing weight and cost of the systems to attain this.

*Future Combat Systems – Manned Ground Vehicle.

Sikorsky’s X2 Looks to Break 250 MPH Early This Year

No Comments
Click for full size

Soon to hit 250 MPH?

Sikorsky is looking at taking the coaxial rotor compound helicopter to more than 250 miles per hour soon:

Sikorsky expects to exceed 250 kt. with its X2 Technology coaxial-rotor compound helicopter demonstrator early in the year, resetting speed expectations for rotorcraft that have been stuck at around 150 kt. for decades.

A modern reinterpretation of Sikorsky’s XH-59A Advancing Blade Concept (ABC) testbed, which reached 238 kt. in the 1970s, the X2 combines fly-by-wire control, integrated engine/rotor/propulsor system, variable-speed rotor, high-lift/drag rigid blades and active vibration control to realize the speed potential of a coaxial rotor while retaining the hover agility of a helicopter.

The ability to auto-rotate in an emergency is a big plus too.

It works by offloading the retreating blade, and so preventing retreating blade stall, which occurs when the relative speed of the blade versus the air at higher speeds falls.

The issue has always been the complexity of the flight controls, the X59A required two pilots, and vibrations, which appear to be satisfactorily addressed through active digital flight control system on the X2.

I’ve always favored it over the tilt rotor concept, it appears to be both simpler and more redundant, and the rotors are not a compromise between lift and propulsion that they are in something like the V-22.

Earlier posts

Why I Prefer Working for the Marine Corps

No Comments
Click for full size

Launching the MICLIC

I have done worked for both the US Army, on the recovery vehicle for the now-canceled Future Combat System, and for the Marine Corps on the EFV (Called the AAAV when I worked on it) amphibious landing craft.

I found that the Marine Corps requirements, as well as their personnel, were much more straightforward and matter of fact.

A case in point is the Assault Breacher engineering and mine clearance vehicle, which clears a path through mines launching, the Mine Clearing Line Charge (MICLIC), 1,750 lbs of C4 on a 100 meter rope to clear a path.

It was developed after the Army’s Grizzly was canceled.

The Grizzly was much more sophisticated, with a dozer blade/plough, which would automatically maintain the desired depth, and turn over and predetonate mines, it had an automated turret, and when reviewed by the military, they found over 50 flaws that they thought made the vehicle dangerous, and potentially life threatening.

There was also the problem that creating an automatic plough to clear a lane is a non-trivial operation. The Assault Breacher has a far less ambitious blade on the front, which is not intended for quite that level of speed or automation, and because of this, it actually works.

While the EFV is still a bit of a mess, I think that its goal was too ambitious, in general the Marines look for good enough, as opposed to the ultimate in whiz bang, so they get the job done.

Russia Looks to Joint Venture With Chinese for Mi-26 Successor

No Comments
Click for full size

Proposed Mi-46

The Russians make the largest production helicopter in the world, the Mi-26 “Halo”, and they have been considering an updated helo in the same (humongous) size range for some time.

Now, it appears that they are looking to do a joint venture with the Chinese to develope a 20T payload class helicopter. (paid subscription required)

Seeing as how the helicopter originally flew in 1977, and has been in service since 1983, there is a lot of room for improvement.

Just updating the transmission to modern aluminum alloys in the transmission and going with a more modern rotor system would probably add about 10% to payload and range performance, but that would be an upgrade rather than a completely new design.

A completely new variant might be based on the canceled Mi-46, though that was about a 12 tonne class machine.

I think that the reason for a joint venture has more to do with a potential market, they want to sell to the Chinese, than it does to any real technical or development advantage that they might gain.

Death Spiral, JSF Edition

No Comments

It appears that the UK’s order of JSF’s may be reduced by as much as 50% because of cost and schedule issues:

The Ministry of Defence may be forced to halve its order for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) at the next Strategic Defence Review, according to a report in the Guardian.

The UK had ordered 140 of the aircraft for use by the RAF and on the Royal Navy’s proposed new carriers, but the newspaper reports that “a consensus has emerged” that the number of fighters ordered is unsustainable. Delays and cost increases on the JSF programme are said to mean the MoD could be looking to order just 70 of the fighters.

Harrier and Tornado squadrons may also suffer further cuts, the report says, identifying a “huge shift” in spending that is being considered for the Strategic Defence Review following the next general election.

It’s really not surprising.

Given today’s fiscal environment, and the enormous cost of the JSF, it comes down to a choice of between buying the JSF for a military that lacks the resources to do anything with them, or cutting back and allowing the funds to go to things like ground forces.

Some More on the Pak-FA

No Comments
Click for full size

H/t Douglas Barrie at Ares

First, is that the wheels are large, and I would assume relatively low pressure, implying, as is consistent with Russian doctrine, that it is intended to operate from poorly prepared fields.

The second is that it has relatively small all moving vertical stabilizers, which implies to me that thrust vectoring might be a part of further development, though there was no evidence of such in the initial videos.

Also, the wheels were never retracted, but this is not a surprise on a first flight.

There is also what appears to be a not-particularly-lo IRST on the nose.

Also, if you look at the somewhat more detailed video, it appears that the leading edge of the leading edge extensions (a mouthful that). Aerodynamically, it appears to me to be rather similar to the leading edges of the inlets on an F-15, which pivot down for better pressure recovery at high angles of attack.

Also, lots of rivets on a closer look in the new video, which implies that this is, as I originally surmised, a demonstrator rather than a true prototype.

Urban Air Mule Demonstrates Hover

No Comments
Click for full size



Looks a bit Buck Rogers

So, the Israeli ducted fan cargo UAV concept has finally left the ground.

This appears to have validated the basic control systems, as well as the software.

It appears that the most likely route to success will be on an eventual autonomous ambulance (bottom pic), particularly since the ducted fan arrangement eliminates those pesky rotors which can strike buildings and people.

Here is my original post on this.

Russian R-77 (AA-12 Adder) Upgrade Tests are Complete

No Comments
Blah, blah, blah!

It appears that the upgrades involve significant changes (paid subscription required):

The upgraded R-77 is both heavier and longer than the basic missile. It weighs 190 kg. (418 lb.) rather than 175 kg., and is 3.71 meters (12.17 ft.), rather than 3.6 meters, in length, according to company data.

The increased range is at least in part due to improved aerodynamics. A company executive says the radome shape has been refined, while a “boat-tail” configuration has been introduced at the rear to help drag reduction. Adapting the missile to fly lofted trajectories would also increase the maximum launch range. The executive adds that the active radar seeker has been improved. The manufacture of the RVV-SD seeker is believed to still be Istok.

It also looks like they may be moving away from the unique lattice fins, so as to improve range, at the cost of a slight loss of agility, and the need for larger actuators to move these surfaces.

Considering that the IR guided R-73 (AA-11 Archer) already out ranges the Sidewinder for dogfight applications, this may be a reasonable trade-off.

A further development of the basic R-77 design, previously associated with the Article 180 designation, is also underway, though manufacturer TRV remains unwilling to discuss the program. It is likely that the missile’s signature lattice fins have been replaced with a conventional design, with further range improvements included. This is possibly based on the introduction of a dual-, rather than a single-pulse, solid-rocket motor.

With a weight of 190 kg, as opposed to the 152 kg, physics would seem to dictate that it would have superior range and terminal energy to the AIM-120 AMRAAM, even with the “egg crate” fins.

The use of a lofted trajectory may very well be something that can be retro-fitted through software, which might allow for significant improvements in range for the existing inventory.

I will suggest that this story seems to indicate that reports of a ramjet powered R-77M1 on Wiki are premature.

Report: Brazilian Military Prefers Gripen

No Comments

According to this report, the Brazilian President’s first choice, the Dassault Rafale, is actually ranked 3rd:

Brazil’s F-X2 fighter programme could be the subject of further delays, after a summary of the air force’s 30,000-page evaluation report was leaked to one of the country’s leading newspapers.

The Folha de São Paulo newspaper reported that the air force’s F-X2 procurement programme committee has ranked Saab’s Gripen NG as its first-choice candidate for the deal, initially for 36 aircraft, due to its lowest acquisition and operating costs. It is followed closely by Boeing’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet Block II.

I think that part of this is higher level diplomacy, with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva believing that closer relations with France are more important than those with Sweden (that’s a no-brainer), and his belief that allying with Dassault will provide more opportunities to the Brazilian aerospace industry.

The Rafale is certainly not the low cost solution, it’s low production numbers mean that acquiring the aircraft will necessarily be expensive, and the Gripen is ½ the size of its competitors, with ½ the number of engines, so it will be much cheaper to operate.

I would also note that, given Swedish requirements for austere field operations, it would likely be better suited to operating from some hole-in-the-wall air strip in the Amazon jungle.

F-35 Update

No Comments
Click for full size

H/t ELP Defens(c)e Blog

So, the F-35 B has finally engaged its lift fan in flight, (video below) which is a step toward, but considering the fact the aircraft flew only 10% of the scheduled test flights in 2009, I guess you take what you can.

The bigger news is about the F-35 C model, where a study has been released showing that it will be significantly more expensive to operate than its predecessors:

Moreover, NAVAIR estimates the total of 680 short take-off and vertical landing F-35Bs and carrier-variant F-35Cs, ordered by the US Marine Corps and USN, respectively, will cost $30,700 to fly each hour. This compares to $18,900 for the Boeing AV-8B Harrier II and Boeing F/A-18A-D, the aircraft types the Joint Strike Fighter will replace.

Although NAVAIR projects the F-35 will fly 12% fewer flight hours than the AV-8B and F/A-18A-D fleets, the agency expects the modern aircraft to cost as much as about 25% more to operate at peak rates, the briefing says.

The unexpected cost increases mean the F-35 “will have a significant impact on naval aviation affordability”, the NAVAIR document concludes.

Note that this is competing against an F/A-18 with 2 engines, and roughly the same level of installed thrust and weight.

In fact, it is more expensive to operate than the F-15 Eagle, which is significantly larger, but costs only $30,000/hour to operate and only slightly less than that of the F-22, which is nearly twice the size, and costs $44,000/hour to fly. (scroll down)

When the inevitable costs escalation is included, and part of the hourly cost is the amortization of the initial purchase, I think that the “smaller cheaper” F-35 will be nearly the cost of the F-22.

I do not consider this an argument for the F-22, just an argument for a 2nd tier that costs less (inflation adjusted) than an F-4 Phantom to operate.

The US has air dominance because it dominates the situational awareness in any potential conflict, which is done with things like advanced communications, AWACS, etc., not a plane that can break mach 1 in a vertical climb.

Lockheed-Martin’s response is that the study is “not definitive,” which is defense contractor speak for, “I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for your meddling kids.”