Author: Matthew G. Saroff

Damn You McCain!!! Damn You to Hell!!!!!!

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I made a promise about She Who Must Not Be Named last June.

I promised the following:

I am not referring to the city of lights, neither am I referring to the similarly named town in Texas.

Rather, I am referring to the hotel heiress.

Absent some sort of political activity, such as endorsements, running for office (PLEASE GOD NO!!), or her attempting to assassinate someone, she will not be mentioned here.

Now, you force me to say the following:

Damn you John McCain!! Damn you to hell!*

Because, your lame ass add, and the subsequent condemnation of that ad by Kathy Hilton, the mother of She Who Must Not Be Named:

It is a complete waste of the money John McCain’s contributors have donated to his campaign. It is a complete waste of the country’s time and attention at the very moment when millions of people are losing their homes and their jobs. And it is a completely frivolous way to choose the next President of the United States.

What’s more, Kathy Hilton has actually contributed to your campaign!

How can I ignore that. How can I let all that pass…..Damn you.

*Yes, I know that the stakes are high in the presidential campaign, and that this post is really all about me, but I’ve never claimed to have class, or vision, or for that matter, hair on the top of my head.†
†Hair on my back, and my ears….that I claim proudly.

Great Lakes Basin Compact Passes Senate

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The Great Lakes Basin Compact is a multi-state agreement that would, among other things, prevent transfer of water out of the region and coordinate environmental efforts.

It’s interesting that it’s being cast as preventing the export of water to foreign nations, though it’s far more likely that any mass transfers would be to the mountain west, parts of which rely on the rapidly depleting Ogallala aquifer.

It appears that the House will pass it too, and Bush has said that he will sign it.

Why is Iraq Buying Abrams and Light Armored Vehicles

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Seriously, anyone who thinks that a $10.7 billion purchase that includes such items as Abrams tanks is a response to actual military needs is full of it.

There are still thousands of tanks and APCs out there for them to lose, but someone in the Pentagon or the State Department has twisted their arms to buy equipment that they do not need.

They won’t be engaging in a major shooting war with anyone for the next 20+ years, and under those circumstances, T-72s and BMPs will do the job just fine.

I’d Like to Think that Jews Aren’t That Stupid

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It looks like McCain is looking at Representative Eric Cantor (R-VA) as a VP pick.

I hope that this sort of choice won’t make a difference to how Jews vote, and my guess is that it would not have much of an impact on Jewish voters, but it would piss off the Evangelicals that McCain is so aggressively courting.

We’ll see.

I expect his running mate to be an Evangelical, because choosing a Jew or a Catholic, or even a mainline Protestant would honk off their leadership.

Missing Friday Evening News

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Specifically the news from the FDIC, which almost always chooses to act after the close of business on Friday.

Well, this Friday, they seized First Priority Bank. Sun Trust will be taking over the deposits.

Additionally, they warned four banks that they did not have enough liquidity. They were ordered to, “raise more capital, expand their loss allowances and better oversee and diversify their loan portfolios.”

Stupid Congress Tricks: Tanker Edition

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Rep. Norm Dicks (D-WA) got language inserted into the defense spending bill to benefit Boeing, things like forbidding consideration of characteristics of the tanker proposals that might exceed the minimum requirements of the bid, which I would note is pretty much an admission that the A-330 makes a better tanker.

Well, we have a rumor that the nomination of Michael Donley for Secretary of the Air Force has had a hold placed on it by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) (as if you couldn’t guess the state). She wants the military to, “the gravity of the flaws in the tanker acquisition process.”

You gotta love that military-industrial complex.

DDG-1000 Political Battle Lines Drawn

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At first, it seemed fairly straightforward, with friends of the DDG-1000 fighting it out with friends of the DDG-51, though it is complicated because, even the Navy doesn’t want any more, Admiral Mike Mullen, who is chairman of the JCS, spent a lot of time defending it, and the policy direction, to Congress.

Well, John Murtha just made everything a lot more complex. He’s proposing that instead of putting the money in either destroyer, that the money be put into an LPD-17 amphibious warfare ship, two T-AKE auxiliary dry cargo dock carriers, and long lead items for the next Virginia class submarine.

Thing is, Murtha is probably right. The surface combatant fleet, destroyers basically, is the youngest part of the fleet, and the old ships that need to be replaced are amphibious warefare craft and support ships, and the Submarines are the only survivable combatants in a surface engagement with a peer power (which is at least 20 years away), and are useful at surveillance and things like inserting SEAL teams.

I Want My Jetpack

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Only $100,000.00, and it’s supposed to have about an hour’s endurance (see also here).

It sounds a lot like a lawn mower, and based on the video (see below) I think that the flight controls are not ready for prime time.

Additionally, it probably needs some refinement….It has a 200 hp engine, as compared to the 178 hp engine used in the original Bell Model 47, (The chopper you see carrying wounded in the opening credits for the M*A*S*H TV series), so my guess is that there is a some aerodynamic refinement that could be done, in addition to getting weight out of the system.

Still, it comes with its own ballistic recovery parachute, a must for the ham-handed pilot.

Speaking of the Eclipse 400…..

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The CEO and founder of Eclipse Aviation Vern Raburn has stepped down. It appears that their major backer European Technology and Investment Research Center Aviation (ETIRC) made this a condition of additional funding.

As a part of the leadership change, there is an announcement that their Eclipse 400 single engine VLJ is not a done deal.

Eclipse is not even close to approaching its intended production rate for the Eclipse 500, 4 planes a day, it’s currently at less than 1, and I think that ETIRC wants to get the ducks in a row on the 500 before moving on the 400.

VJL Update

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Hmmm….It looks like Cirrus is developing a dingle engine business jet, the SJ50, that looks an awful lot like the Eclipse 400 (previous posts here) that I discussed a couple of months ago.

It’s pretty clearly a form following function thing, rather than any outright copying. There are relatively few configuration options for a single engine very light jet that the marketplace will accept.

Interestingly enough, it appears that Cirrus will sell it with a recovery chute, as it does on its piston engine models, which will be a challenge, given the higher speeds and energy involved.

First, Diamond International expects to certify its D-Jet and start deliveries some time in Q2 2009.

Seeing as how their engine supplier is not Thielert or some other new entrant, it’s a Williams FJ-33-4A-19 turbofan, I would expect them to be on schedule.

Honestly, I think that the single engine VLJ is likely to be a winner in the VLJ sweepstakes, because the operating costs will be lower.

In the two jet VLG category, the Adam A700 has been rescued from bankruptcy, albeit absent the “Adam” name, as AAI, who purchased the company out of receivership, thinks that there is some bad market mojo there.

It appears to be among the most spacious of the VLJs, which may, or may not, be a function of its twin boom design.

Finally, Piper has flown it’s VLJ Piperjet, which is another of the single engine VLJs, though it’s somewhat larger then the D-Jet, the Eclipse 400, and Cirrus Jet.

It appears larger than its single engine competitors, but it just doesn’t look right. Something just looks wrong about the aircraft, but then again, so did the F-4 Phantom.

Gaaahhhhh!!!!!!!!

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We have a winner in the wanker press competition, coming, not surprisingly, from the Wall Street Journal.

Writer Amy Chozick is suggesting that with much of the American public overweight, that Barack Obama might be too fit to be president!!!!

But in a nation in which 66% of the voting-age population is overweight and 32% is obese, could Sen. Obama’s skinniness be a liability? Despite his visits to waffle houses, ice-cream parlors and greasy-spoon diners around the country, his slim physique just might have some Americans wondering whether he is truly like them.

So, this is the new meme of the Kule Kidz inside the Beltway, huh? as opposed to this adulatory coverage of Bush and Rice about their “intense” exercise regimes.

So, is Obama too skinny, or too black?

So Not Shocking…JFS Cost Skyrockets

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The cost of the JSF for Australia has apparently $AUS75 million to $AUS131 Million* (the Australian dollar is about $0.95 US).

It’s still cheaper than the F-22, which law forbids them to get anyway, which clocks in at an eye-popping $355 million (US).*

I think that a number of nations will start considering alternatives, either US (F-15, F-16, F-18E/F) or foreign (Typhoon, Rafale, Gripen,Flanker Family), when the full cost is made known.

Additionally, I think that for non-US (and non-UK) forces the support costs may be higher because their own militaries will not be able to maintain some of the systems, as they will not be given sufficient information on the aircraft’s highly integrated avionics.

But wait, there’s more!!!!

Lockheed is looking to change the accounting structure in order to generate a sh$#load more costs:

The JPO currently bills each of the three major F-35 contractors separately. This unique arrangement is designed partly to limit the amount of overhead feeds charged by each of the contractors, which can amount to hundreds of millions of dollars over time.

Lockheed’s proposal, however, would bundle all of the industry team’s charges into a single billing process for submitting to the JPO for payment.

Each charge submitted by BAE and Northrop would include a discrete fee to cover their own overhead costs. Lockheed would then add its own overhead for the aggregated bill. Since Lockheed would be charging an overhead fee on top of fees already charged by BAE and Northrop, the JPO would be paying a “fee on a fee”, Wood says.

She adds that the JPO estimates the current structure has saved $850 million already, so making a change for the full-rate production phase could dramatically increase the programme’s overall costs.

So if you read anyone who says they have a handle of the actual cost of the F-35, don’t believe them.

*There are a number of ways to price aircraft, and I believe that both are total program cost divided by number of aircraft. I’ve heard quotes at about 1/2 as much for the F-22.

Is There Pentagon Electronic Warfare Deficit?

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Stephen Trimble is reporting that the Pentagon is concerned that its current generation of EW gear will not be able to cope with later models of Russian SAMs.

The S-300 and S-400 systems (SA-12, 20, 21, 23) have the potential even the existing ALQ-99, which is carried by dedicated jammers, the EA6B Prowler and F/A-18G Growler.

I’m not sure how much this is Pentagon budget sucking, and how much is real needs myself.

He also posted a neat Youtube (it’s about an hour long) on the history of electronic warfare in the Silicon Valley: