Category: Military

Guantanamo Court Bars Senior General from Participation

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General Thomas Hartmann, the senior officer in the Office of Military Commissions, has been barred from any participation in the Hamdan trial by senior judge Navy Captain Keith Allred.

The defense, bolstered by testimony from former chief prosecutor Morris Davis, claimed that Hartmann was exerting undue pressure on the prosecutors to rush the “sexy cases”, and hurry prosecutions for political gain, and use evidence obtain by torture.

We are seeing increasing push back, on many levels against the Bush Agenda, by judicial and bureaucratic forces, because there is an increasing realization that Bush and His Evil Minions™ have less than 9 months left on their term, and they are irrelevant.

The judge’s decision on the Yoo memos also reflects this.

Russian Sierra II SSN Back on Patrol

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The Sierra II is arguably the best SSN the Russians have, with all the features of the Akula class, along with a titanium hull and relocated torpedo tubes (they are amidships, as is the manner with US subs to allow for a large sonar array in the nose as may later model Akulas).

They were dropped by the Soviets in favor of the Akulas because they were too damn expensive.

Truth be told, I’m not sure of the military value now, though one might use it to escort a Russian boomer, and there is always the intelligence value of parking one of these just off the coast of an area of interest and either listening to signals, or inserting operatives.

Guantanamo Duty Puts Kibosh on Pakistan Posting for General

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The Pentagon assigned Major General Jay W. Hood as the senior military officer in Pakistan, where he would be crucial to fighting al Queida.

The problem was that because of his role as commandant at the Guantanamo gulag, the Pakistanis did not want him there.

When Bush leaves office, I think that there will be a slew of senior officers who will be told to retire because of their involvement in torture. They are simply too toxic to remain militarily useful.

Hood is just the tip of the iceberg.

Georgia-Russia War of Words Reaches Crescendo

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There are now statements from representatives in the breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia that Russia will be taking over full control of military operations, and the Georgian foreign minister is claiming that they are near to war with Russia.

Again, let me say that much of this* is a direct result of NATO’s expansion eastward, in violation of agreements, which has fed Russia’s long tradition of xenophobia and paranoia, and hence has led to these actions.

*Though there is an aspect of Russia attempting to create a sphere of influence in the area too.

This is Not a Bug, This is a Feature

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One of the consequences of the bellicose and incompetent foreign policy put forth by Bush and His Evil Minions™ is the increasingly paranoid and militaristic foreign policy of Russia.

Perhaps the most extreme example is the return of missiles and tanks to the May Day (Victory Day) parade.

I have concluded that this is not a result of incompetence on the part of Republicans. This is actually one of their goals, because by restarting the cold war, they can create a climate that benefits themselves politically.

Iraq as Evidence of Basic Doctrinal Failings of the US Military

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So, we had an incident in the past couple of days in Sadr City, according to the western press, at least the New York Times, we had:

The ugly daily fight for ground in the poor Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City unfolded Saturday at a small mosque next door to a hospital, damaging the hospital and a number of its ambulances, and near a group of children who were wounded as they gathered tin cans to sell for salvage.

So, according to US military reports, dutifully reported by the Times, we have bombed a Mosque and damaged a hospital in the process, and that’s the best spin that they can put on this.

Compare this to the foreign coverage, though:

Twenty patients and workers in al-Sadr Hospital were wounded and 49 civilian and ambulance vehicles were damaged when U.S. warplanes opened fire at the hospital on Saturday, a health official said.

Even with the best possible spin, we have an atrocity (whether it’s a violation of the law of war is another matter). We bombed a mosque, a house of worship, and we did so with so many, or such large, munitions that we damaged the hospital next door, and somehow this will lead us to win this war?

Since WWII, the US military has had a fetish about applying air power to win wars.

  • The attempts by strategic bombing to destroy the German and Japanese war industries failed.
  • Air power in Viet Nam did not achieve its goals, and in fact aided recruiting among the DC and squelched dissent against the North Vietnamese government.
  • In desert storm, we discovered that numbers of tanks destroyed through air power were overstated.
  • Air power was unsuccessful in eliminating Serbian armor in the Kosovo campaign.

And now, in the campaign in Iraq, we are again relying on air power in ways that will, in the long run, cost more American lives, by moving the populace to supporting our opponents.

Georgia on My Mind

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Nope, we’re not talking about the southern state, but the birthplace of Josef Stalin.

We are having problems. It appears that NATO is warning Russia not to interfere in Georgia, and Russia is warning NATO not to interfere in Georgia.

Fundamentally, this is an outgrowth of NATO’s disastrous policy of expansion, which was driven by post Berlin Wall euphoria and the lobbying of the various national defense industries, who saw a move to NATO as being a way to sell some expensive toys to the former Warsaw Pact nations.

Before the fall of the USSR, one of the conditions that Russia placed on the reunification of Germany was that NATO expand no further eastward. The fact that it has, and that the countries added no use for NATO but as a sword against Russia, contributes to the current bellicose and paranoid nature of Russian foreign relations.

More A400M Delays

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It looks like the first flight of the EADS A400M airlifter will will be delayed again (paid subscription required).

Once again, it is all problems with the engine, with the C-130 testbed not ready yet to fly, and the #1 aircraft will not be flying with final the high pressure compressor, which is in redesign:

The CEO admits that a number of issues could push the flight date out further. The most critical involves the software on the full-authority digital engine control which he said is three times as complex as that on the Airbus 380. Feedback from engine ground tests and static tests, which started in March, will also be critical. ­Suarez says the engine will total 1,200 hours on the bench by the end of May.

I would assume that the FADEC also includes blade pitch.

Of course, if they had bought the AN-70, it would be already for flying for less money, and if they had gone with the US engine proposal they might be flying already.


The #1 airframe is basically complete except for the engines.

IDF Ramps Up Ground Forces Training

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This increase in focus in training ground forces, which accompanies an increase in the status of ground forces is not surprising.

The conclusion of the Winograd report*, which reviewed the 2006 Lebanon campaign was quite clear:

The military has abandoned the doctrine that stressed precision stand-off firepower over maneuver warfare, arguably the biggest mistake Israel made in the conflict.

It should be noted that the doctrine that they are abandoning is the central doctrine of the US military, particularly the USAF, and it is why you are seeing changes as a result of the experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In fact, when one looks at the failures of the US military, at their core have been a consistent over-reliance on air power, whether USAF fast jets or slower helicopters.

*Warning, the format is some sort of mutant flash called NTXbook.

Russia and Ukraine Plan to Restart An-124 Production.

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I think that it is cool.

For most of the forces out there, what they need is strategic airlift capability, not tactical, and honestly, the An-124 pretty much owns the field, and will for the foreseeable future, as the only potential competitor in terms of size, the A-380 is far more restricted in terms of airports, if just because with its low wing, it will Hoover debris off an austere strip.

As the article notes, Anotov has some real problems, noting the fact that the An-70, which is a great tactical airlifter*, is languishing, and wondering if Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation might be looking at a corporate takeover.

*Once you replace the avionics with western equivalents, and allow one of the large western turbine manufacturers to license produce with higher quality materials to improve reliability.

Gripen Sales Pitch to Norway

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Now that Sweden has rolled out the advanced Gripen demonstrator, they are aggressively marketing it to Norway.

Among other things, Sweden is offering co-development on some of the technologies, and a promise to upgrade their Gripens to this standard should Norway buy them.

My money is still on the steamroller that is the JSF, at least until deliveries start showing late and more expensive than previously anticipated, my guess is a price tag 2/3 that of the F-22 ($120 million a pop) as versus the $50-60 million for the Gripen.

At that point, the Gripen will look very attractive to countries that are taking a wait and see approach.

Yep, the Gripen is my fighter obsession right now. In an age of ever spiralling costs, it’s half a generation ahead of the F-16 at around the same prime price, though even with the additional fuel and thrust, it will be smaller and lighter.

New Chinese Boomer Deploys to Hainan Island

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The Chinese appear to aggressively moving towards some sort of submarine based deterrent according to this report by the Federation of American Scientists.

They have a satellite picture (commercial resolution) of one of the boomers at a dock:

There appears to be significant development at the Yulin naval base to accommodate this, including tunnels and a demagnetization facility.

The reports that the island is very near the edge of the continental shelf, which means that the subs could get into deep water quickly, which is typically where you want a boomer, except, of course for the fact that US boats have been doing deep water for the past 50 years.

If China gets a meaningful SSBN deterrent, it represents a threat to US military power, though it is probably a stabalizing factor, because it prevents a nut like Lynne Cheney from going postal on a nuclear level on them with nuclear weapons.

And In the Conuing Tradition of Fanboi Pimping for SAAB

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It appears that SAAB has a pretty competitive entry into the smaller AEW field, the Saab 2000 Airborne Early Warning (AEW) system:

SAAB had previously created a system for the Swedish Military based based on a slightly smaller member of this turboprop family.

The E-2 C/D from Northrop Grumman, and the IAI’s Conformal AEW (CAEW) based on the Gulfstream G550 airframe are its nearest competitors.

Gripen Demo Rollout

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Well, SAAB has rolled out its Gripen demo, with more thrust*, more fuel, and more carrying capacity, see here and here.

There should be a meaningful (i.e. carrying a meaningful air-to-air load) supercruise, in addition to the greater payload and range in the strike configuration.

Additionally there are some developments in parallel in avionics, most notably an AESA radar.

Here you can see how the landing gear has been moved outboard to the win root to allow for more internal fuel and a second pylon on the fuselage.

Also here:

In addition to being the best value of the current generation of fighters, I also think that it’s just plain cool:


*Cheaper engine too. The RM-12, a GE F404 derivative is actually more expensive than the roughly 25% more powerful GE F414.

Eddie Haskell David Petraeus to Head CENTCOM

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Great. This is a man who has staked his personal reputation in Iraq, and now they want him to allocate resources between Iraq and Afghanistan. I wouldn’t expect much perspective here.

Even more disturbing are his lies regarding Iran, which implies that Bush and His Evil Minions™ now have someone who be willing to attack Iran without question.

Furthermore, this will create a problem for an eventual Democratic nominee, because It’s clear that Petraeus will be a voice for Iraq forever, otherwise he looks like the charlatan he is, and there will be political blowback if they try to remove him from the post.

My hope would be that the hearings for his appointment would be scheduled for sometime in late January, 2009.

US Air Power as a Force for Terror, as Opposed to a Weapon Against Terror

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Tom Engelhardt makes a very convincing case that US air power is making terrorism worse, not better.

His thesis is that, “U.S. air power has, in the last six and a half years, been an effective force in a war for terror, not against it.”

When one considers the nature of the United States’ use of air power, particularly on a strategic level, it has largely proved a failure.

In WWII, when the entire 8th air force was focused on bombing the German aircraft industry during the “big week”, aircraft production increased.

In Viet Nam, bombing increased the support of the Viet Cong in the south, and of the general citizenry in the north, as the North Vietnamese civil defense authorities have attested to repeatedly.

While strategic bombing is more often a failure than not, and is currently failing in both Iraq and Afghanistan because it is the strongest recruiting tool of Jihadists, but the military, including the Army and, to a lesser extent, the Marines, continue to call air strikes in rather than clearing buildings.

It is a fundamental error in doctrine that permeates the US military establishment.

B-2 Center of Gravity Seen as Likely Cause of Crash

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As with any flying wing, the moment arm for the controls is fairly short, so maintaining the CG within the proper range is crucial to controllability.

Actually, it’s not just flying wings. The first B-1 crash happened because the CG was too far aft, because the fuel was not properly distributed.

Well, investigators are now examining the fuel management system or other issues involving the CG of the aircraft. (Paid sub reqd)

The report (a short blurb really) says that the , “bomber rotated prematurely, lifted off too early and stalled”.

According to a former B-2 pilot, ““One of these things we always worried about on ferry missions is that you have a lot more fuel on board than on training or operational missions. So CG can play a role. You have to make sure you don’t overcontrol on takeoff because that’s easy to do with an aft CG in a fully loaded configuration.”

F22 Showing Itself to be a Maintenance Pig

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As Bill Sweetman Notes, the F-22 is not even close to achieving its desired maintenance goals:

  • The mean time between maintenance intervals is less than one hour.
  • That number is half what it should have been at the end of system development and demonstration, in December 2005.
  • It’s one-third of the “mature” goal, which is supposed to be achieved in 100,000 operational flying hours, in 2010.
  • It hasn’t improved in the past year.

This is not academic. Last year, there was a class-A mishap when an F-22 sucked in a piece of RAM and trashed an engine.

The wild blue yonder boys seem determined to innovate themselves out of any meaningful military capability.