Steeljaw Scribe

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Prelude
21 February 1945. Bismarck Sea (CVE 95) is sunk by kamikaze attack off Iwo Jima. In the same action, USS Saratoga (CV-3) was removed from action for what would be the remainder of the war and USS Enterprise suffered significant damage.
April-May 1945. Kamikazes are extracting a heavy price during the invasion of Okinawa. On the [...]

(earlier report on Iran’s space launcher acivity here  )

Much reporting since yesterday regarding Iran’s claims to have launched an object into space. To set the record right, Mohsen Bahrami, the head of Iran’s aerospace research centre, told state television that “The first space rocket has been successfully launched into space,” without disclosing its range or [...]

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

TFOA: Things Falling Off Aircraft
Spend enough time in aviation and sooner or later you are going to lose something — a refueling access panel, landing gear door, maybe a drop tank or MER. Other than the odd TWA (Trailing Wire Antenna) drogue that could [...]

Before JSOW and JDAM, before Harpoon, SLAM-ER, and Walleye, there was the Pelican, BAT, and Kingfisher/Petrel. All of these saw development that started around 1942 and some even saw action before the end of the war. As we have seen in the development of AEW radar, there was a surprising degree of technological sophistication [...]

Well, ’twas only a matter of time — UAV’s are expanding in numbers, scope and capabilities (though the FAA isn’t happy about one recent test) and now comes news of the surface equivalent:

The Interceptor unmanned surface vessel (USV) is developed under cooperation between AAI, and two U.S. - Marine Robotic Vessels International (MRVI) and [...]

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In the wake of President Putin’s appointment of a private-sector businessman as Minister of Defense, there appears to be wide-spread disbelief and outspoken criticism bordering on contempt. At issue is the portfolio of former Tax Service Chief Anatoliy Serdyukov. Serdyukov, a 1984 graduate of the Leningrad Institute of Soviet Trade (with a degree in [...]

“…I didn’t ask for a win…”
Kevin Harvick beats mark Martin by .02 secs at the 2007 Daytona 500

“That’s what I love about this sport — it’s hard,” Martin said. “It’s what’s driven me for over 30 years. That’s what I love about it and that’s why I’m here. I had the choice of whether or [...]

“In connection with this I would like to recall that in the 1980s the USSR and the United States signed an agreement on destroying a whole range of small- and medium-range missiles but these documents do not have a universal character. Today many other countries have these missiles, including the Democratic People’s Republic of [...]