Category: Military

Stealth Technology Spreads

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The significance to this article on Pakistan’s development efforts on a stealthy cruise missile is fairly straightforward, this stuff is not rocket science.

The basic physics of stealth have been known for 40 years, and the technology to cluster inexpensive computers to do the calculations is also well known.

The implementation is not a natural monopoly of the USA…It isn’t rocket science*.

*I spent much of the late 1990s as a rocket scientist, or at least a rocket engineer. These days, rocket science is not rocket science.

Interesting Developments for the SU-35 Family

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First, there is a new variant of the SU-27, the Su-35-1, which is supposed to supercruise.

The strakes on the nose of earlier models, and the canards of the later models, both of which increase high AoA agility at the cost of additional supersonic drag have been deleted, but the agility is retained because of the new thrust vectoring engines (NPO Saturn Item 117S). (see vectoring nozzles below)

Additionally, airframe has been lightened, which would increase cruise speed, and about 2000 pounds (about 300 Gallons) of internal fuel.

Also, it looks like the Russians are fitting the SU-27 class fighters with an
AESA radar with mechanical scanning.

This provides something like 2x the area that can be scanned by the radar, and better off sight performance.


One disadvantage is weight, which is why the helmet cued volume is less, because the antenna cannot slew quickly, but there are a number of significant advantages.

Cover Up, Part Deux

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Well it looks like the cover up masquerading as a court martial is finished.

So they acquitted Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan of everything but talking about the investigation, for which he will receive a reprimand.

So, no regular army officers, Jordan is a reservist, were convicted of anything, and the only thing an officer got was a slap on the wrist.

My someone with a star had to know, and explicitly approve of it, and someone at a higher level had to give tacit approval.

Based on reports, we already know that Rumsfeld viewed the Geneva conventions with contempt, and as the saying goes sh&% flows down hill.

India launches contest for 126 new fighters with RFP release

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India just released it’s request for proposal for 126 fighters to replace part of it’s aging MiG-21 fleet.

A list of likely bidders are, with what I see as pros and cons are below, with my guesses as to the outcome after that:

  • Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Horne
    • Pros:
      • Interoperability with Western weapons
      • Good payload/range (Probably best of the lot)
      • Highly capable radar/avionics. (maybe the best of the lot)
    • Cons
      • Relatively low agility (probably worst of the lot)
      • Expensive.
      • Largest plane in competition.
      • Subject to US sanctions.
  • Dassault Rafale
    • Pros
      • Interoperability with Western weapons Highly capable radar/avionics. Might be adapted to use Indian Kaveri engine. Dassault already has aircraft in the Indian fleet (Mirage 2000s) Cons Would be 1st foreign adopter of system, may cause support issues.
      • Somewhat expensive.
  • Eurofighter Typhoon
    • Pros
      • Interoperability with Western weapons
      • Good payload/range
      • Highly capable radar/avionics.
      • Very high performance (supercruise at Mach 1.4+ in air to air configuration)
    • Cons
      • Air to ground capabilities still in development.
      • Expensive.
  • Lockheed Martin F-16
    • Pros:
      • Interoperability with Western weapons
      • Good payload/range
      • Capable radar/avionics.
      • Good agility.
      • Lower lifetime costs (because it is single engined).
    • Cons
      • Expensive.
      • Subject to US sanctions.
  • RSK MiG-35
    • Pros:
      • Interoperability with Russian weapons, which they already have in service.
      • Operations and maintenance should be most similar to those of the MiG-21s being replaced.
      • This is a member of the MiG-29 family, which the Indians already have in service.
      • Probably the lowest purchase price of any of the competitors.
    • Cons
      • Avionics are likely the least capable of the lot.
      • Payload/range is likely 2nd least of the lot.
  • Saab Gripen.
    • Pros:
      • Interoperability with Western weapons
      • Highly capable radar/avionics.
      • Lowest life cycle costs (based on the fact that it is the smallest and lightest of the lot.
      • Superb short/rough runway performance.
      • Might be adapted to use Indian Kaveri engine.
    • Cons
      • Probably the least payload/range (but more than the MiG-21)
      • Somewhat subject to US sanctions.

First, note that this will not be India’stop of the line fighter. That will be the SU-27 family variants that it is already flying, or has already bought, so absolute top end performance is not crucial.

India, by virtue of it’s non-aligned status, has a highly heterogeneous air fleet, which makes for a complex supply chain and support. This would suggest that they will buy the MiG, and that’s my call at this point, though there are issues with the Russians, such as the much delayed carrier delivery, and currency issues (the Russians want to start pricing in Euros).

However, the Russians are no doubt aware of this, and might push too hard.

If you go for lowest life cycle costs, the Rafale wins, with the F-16 being close behind.

The Indians have experience with Dassault as a supplier, which might give them a leg up too.

I think that the F-18 and Typhoon are pretty much out of the running.This is a competition for a lightweight or medium fighter aircraft, and both are well above this weight class.

Comments? Thoughts? Aspersions to my heritage?

It’s Official, We Need to Abolish the Air Force

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Or, as David Axe, of War is Boring puts it, Reason #817 Why the Air Force Sucks.

This a real quote from the real Air Combat Command chief Ronald Keys, “The hardest wars we fight are not on the battlefield, but the wars we fight in the halls of Congress. They are fought in the Pentagon, they are fought in these programs, to make sure the money is paid and eventually the program is operating.”

That’s our problem. The air force is not a bunch of soldiers, it’s a bunch of f&^%ing K-street lobbiests.

Go read Axe’s stuff…It has the some quotes from Air Force’s counter-insurgency manual that are so stupid, you would think that Alberto Gonzalez would remember them.

One quote from Axe:

The Air Force bailed out of the potentially revolutionary UCAS killer drone program in order to buy a big new fleet of big new manned bombers for much more money. The service wants to prepare for an imaginary high-tech air war with China instead of fighting the dirty, low-tech wars we’re actually in. Why? Because high-tech superpower showdowns are what the Air Force knows. They’re easy. The low-tech approach to warfare, by contrast, requires patience and smarts, two things today’s Air Force lacks.

The independent air force was a bad idea.

Ironically, I considered joining the USAF, despite my myopia after I left high school.

A400M Progress

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There has been significant A400M progress, so the EADS (Airbus) Military transport seems to be back on track.

I think that this will be a winner. It’s bigger and faster than the (way too small) C-130 Hercules, but smaller and cheaper than the hideously expensive C-17, which with its turbofan engines is a Hoover for FOD on the runway.

The An-70 needs too much seed money, and it’s too noisy and well…too Russian (yes, I know that Antonov is Ukrainian, but it’s perceptions). See a cool YouTube of it here


Bootnote: It appears that a lot of people end up at this post because they are doing google image searches on the A400. For defense and aviation related stuff, about 10% of my output, I would suggest using the following tags: Aviation, Defense, Defense Procurement, Engineerng, Military, Missile Defense, Missiles, NASA, NATO, Naval, Nuclear Weapons, technology, Transportation, and UAV.

Scat Stealth Drone

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The Russians have unveiled a new stealthy combat UAV at the Moscow air show.

As I’ve said a number of times, the building blocks of stealth are publicly available, the equations were originally published in a Soviet scientific journal and are publicly available, so this is no surprise.


This appears to be mockups of various wind tunnel studies, and it also appears that the first prototype will be manned with a v tail.



Iraq War Brings Drop in Black Enlistees – New York Times

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There is an interesting article in the NY Times regarding precipitous drop in Black enlistment in the military.

The sharpest decline in black recruitment has been experienced by the Army, which has the most troops deployed in Iraq; black recruits dropped to 13 percent of the Army’s total in 2006 from 23 percent in 2001. In the Marines, with the second-largest force in Iraq, the share of black recruits decreased to 8 percent from 12 percent in the same period. There were also declines in the Navy and the Air Force, though not as great as those in the two other services.

To provide some perspective, note that Blacks are about 13% of the US population.

As a traditionally economically disadvantaged community, it should be noted that Blacks are traditionally more likely to enlist, as doing so is perceived as a way out of poverty and America’s profoundly dysfunctional ghettos.

“I’m not really into going overseas with guns and fighting other people’s wars,” said Mr. Finch, 18, headed to college this fall to study accounting.

While the fact that we are mired in a senseless quagmire in Iraq, this quote highlights another aspect of the drop, that many Blacks feel divorced from the US Government, and in particular George W. Bush, with whom the Iraq war is closely associated.

Additionally, it should be noted that one of the reasons that Black ghetto youth joined the military was to get away from gang activity in their neighborhoods, and because of the lowered recruiting standards, gang members, and gang culture, have increasingly entered the military.

Our military is being destroyed, and in a much more profound and long lasting way, by our fools errand in Mesopotamia.

This is a Cover Up

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This is mighty convenient, they are dropping the most serious charges against the only officer charged in the Abu Ghraib affair.

They send a bunch of soldiers and non-coms to jail, but when it comes time to try a relatively senior officer, one who probably has the goods on higher ups, there are procedural issues.

Yeah Right.

A military judge on Monday dismissed two of the most serious charges against Army Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, 51, a reservist, after a general who investigated the scandal acknowledged he had not read Jordan his rights before interviewing him. The action left Jordan still facing four counts and a possible 8 1/2 years in prison.

Prosecutors on Monday amended one of those remaining counts, a cruelty and maltreatment charge, by narrowing its scope from three months to one day.

Is it just me, or has someone ordered these guys to throw the case?

…

In court Monday morning, prosecutor Lt. Col. John P. Tracy announced that Maj. Gen. George Fay had contacted prosecutors Sunday to say that he “misspoke” during a March 12 pretrial hearing in which he testified under oath that he had advised Jordan of his rights during an interview in 2004.

Tracy said Fay realized his error while preparing to testify at Jordan’s trial this week. Fay told government lawyers that “he indeed did not read Lt. Col. Jordan his rights,” Tracy said.

Does Fay have it right now? Or is he lying to keep things out of the public lie? If he did neglect to read him his rights, was it intentional, to provide a “get out of jail free” card for silence?

Jordan’s defense, led by Capt. Samuel Spitzberg contends that although Jordan was the titular head of the interrogation center, he spent most of his time trying to improve Soldiers’ deplorable living conditions at Abu Ghraib. The defense argued during an October hearing that interrogation conditions were set by two other officers: Col. Thomas Pappas, an intelligence brigade commander who was the highest-ranking officer at Abu Ghraib, and Capt. Carolyn Wood, leader of a unit within the interrogation center called the Interrogation Command Element.

Neither Pappas nor Wood has been charged with crimes. Pappas was reprimanded and fined $8,000 for once approving the use of dogs during an interrogation without higher approval.

So, now that Jordan can roll over on regular army officers, and ones who do know how high it goes, suddenly, there are “procedural errors”.

Mighty convenient, that.

Military Drugs

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I’ve come across an interesting report on military research into disabling drugs. Normally, one would thing of things like tear gas, but here they are talking about hallucinogens, and “relaxing agents”.

Of note is that the use of such agents by the military is expressly forbidden under the chemical warfare treaties, on the theory that their use would inevitably lead to full blown poison gas use.

This is precisely what happened in the Iran/Iraq war, where tear gas use escalated into poison gas attacks.

Chávez’s Buys Sniper Rifles

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As a result of Bush sanctions against Venezuela, including the denial of spares on the F-16 fleet, Chávez has moved toward acquiring Russian equipment.

Now, he is purchasing a large quantity of Dragunov sniper rifles.

The Dragunov is a derived for the AK-47 with a scope, and while it underperforms designed from scratch sniper rifles, it is simple, more accurate than an assault rifle, and more powerful (it uses a full rifle round). Realistic use is out to about 600m according to wiki.

“Sales like this, and other sales of military equipment and arms to Venezuela, don’t seem consistent with Venezuela’s needs,” David J. Kramer, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, said by telephone.

“It does raise questions about their ultimate use,” he added. “We’re not sure what their purpose would be.”

It took me 5 seconds to realize that this is intended to for a number of things:

  • Deter the US from invading because by increasing casualties.
  • Deterring the Venezualan Army from staging a coup for the same reasons.

Of course, I’m not a blithering idiot Bush administration official, so I can spot the obvious.

Mark Joyce, the Americas editor for Jane’s Country Risk, part of Jane’s Information Group, said that a purchase of thousands of sniper rifles would fit with the continuing military reorganization in Venezuela under Mr. Chávez.

The changes emphasize large civilian reserve forces, which bypass the traditional military chain of command and report directly to Mr. Chávez and could become the core of a domestic guerrilla force if Venezuela were invaded.

Russia and China in Joint War Games

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Not sure what it means, except that perhaps the two countries are far closer than when it was the USSR across the border.

“=The war games were staged under the flag of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a regional grouping that includes Russia, China and four Central Asian states.“

…

The exercises take place against a backdrop of mounting rivalry between the West, and Russia and China for influence over Central Asia, a strategic region that has huge oil, gas and mineral resources.

That being said, I think that much of the world is looking for some sort of return to a bipolar world.

There is No Patreaus Report

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You know how all of Bush and His Evil Minions™ have been talking about David Petraeus’s report on progress in Iraq? It now appears that there is no such thing as the Petraeus Report. Instead, “Despite Bush’s repeated statements that the report will reflect evaluations by Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, administration officials said it would actually be written by the White House, with inputs from officials throughout the government.”

But it gets EVEN BETTER. It appears that the Bush administration won’t even let Petraeus testify before congress at a public hearing. “Senior congressional aides said yesterday that the White House has proposed limiting the much-anticipated appearance on Capitol Hill next month of Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker to a private congressional briefing, suggesting instead that the Bush administration’s progress report on the Iraq war should be delivered to Congress by the secretaries of state and defense.”

I guess that they are afraid that the good General might tell the truth.

Bush Toadies Need to be cleaned out of the US Military Needs to Cleaned

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Think Progress has the video and this remarkable quote from Gen. Casey:

A questioner asked, “What are the prospects in Iraq and how will this war end?”
Casey responded: Right now, there’s so much residual mistrust left over from the time under Saddam Hussein that they’re not quite ready to go forward. But they have an educated population, they have oil wells, they have water, they have some of the most fertile land I’ve ever seen. In a decade or so, this will be a remarkable country, if we stick with it.“

Bush and His Evil Minions™ (Karl Rove) has succeeded in poisoning almost every branch of government by purging competent reality based people, and replacing them with those who are insane.