Steeljaw Scribe

Lots of press these past few days over China’s ASAT test/demonstration vs. a defunct FY-1C weather satellite. Some may ask why the big deal — space after all, is not the province of but a few privileged nations and the target satellite was theirs, so why the concern? In a word, debris. The [...]

The phrase "assassin’s mace" is the English translation of "shashou jiang," a term of ancient Chinese strategy. "Shashou jiang" was a club with which the "assassin" incapacitated his enemy, suddenly and totally, instead of fighting him according to "the rules."
To summarize from Part I   – a Chinese strike using Theater BM’s has been conducted [...]

Over the years, the acreage afforded by carriers from the Essex through Nimitz-classes have stirred some creative thinking as to what might be launched and/or recovered therein. Of course, everyone should remember the specially configured P2V-3C’s that provided an iterim nuclear capability until the AJ Savage could come along. Along the way, though have been [...]

A simple clock served as one of the signatory icons of the (first) nuclear age. The “Doomsday Clock” of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists hearkened a reminder of impending destruction. First set at 7 minutes to Midnight when it appeared in 1947, the clock’s minute hand has moved closer to and fallen away from [...]

Have been reading Ian Toll’s Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy during my recent travels. Very interesting read of not just the construction and operation of these ships, the most famous of course being Constitution, but also of the founding of the Navy as a cabinet-level service with a [...]

Announced today — story follows. While YHS wishes the name had been reserved for use on another class as part of a return to tradition and convention, one hopes CVN 79 will be Enterprise, America, Intrepid or Coral Sea. (ed. note: The model unveiled at yesterday’s announcement also showed a more, *ahem* complete airwing than [...]

Posting on the road today from that Midwestern metropolitan center known as Omaha, or, as the residents of Elkhorn found out yesterday  , Russia re-incarnate with Omaha’s naked grab of the town formerly known as Elkhorn. Interesting little law in Nebraska that allows a municipality to ‘borg’ a neighboring town without allowing the victim township [...]

In the mid-80’s, the VAW community in an attempt to address soaring OPTEMPO and a shortage of pilots tried the NFO Copilot program, wherein 2nd tour LTs and LCDRs were taken through a FRS NATOPS syllabus and qualified to fly right seat for day/VMC ops off the boat…
“So Scribe, what was it like as a [...]

A new feature wherein YHS dips into his photo-locker of some 40+ years.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
The Battle “E” Bluetails (VAW-121) — 6+months into deployment, 3 more to go. We *thought* we were leaving the next day for only our 2nd port visit that deployment — Perth, Australia. [...]

(As promised in this post  , 2007 will see this blog cover more of the threats and concerns posed by China, Russia and other countries like Venezuela. Most of the China postings will be collected under the "Assassin’s Mace" or Shashou Jiang identifier. - SJS)

The phrase "assassin’s mace" is the English translation of "shashou jiang," [...]