Steeljaw Scribe

(ed.  OK, so it’s not Friday - we were otherwise engaged this weekend and the coming week looks like it is going to be fairly busy - so consider this either a delayed post from Friday past or a downpaymet on the coming Friday… - SJS)

“Vergeltungswaffe” - literally translated it means “compensation weapon” and in WWII they were a source of constant development and experimentation by Hitler and his minions who sought what we call today an asymmetric response to the growing Allied conventional superiority in the air, on the seas and on the ground.  Some, like the notorious V-1 and V-2 actually reached fruition and rained terror on the south English countryside during the last two years of the war - the V-1 with some 2,419 hits and the V-2, the first medium-range ballistic missile, with 500 launches against London by war’s end.  While they may have been assessed “successful” (if success is to be measured in terrorizing civilian populations) most of the other V-weapons never made it to operation, much less off the paper   of some who merely sought personal gain at the Third Reich’s expense.

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Tags:   Reflections18 Comments

Just a few noteworthy quote:

- I have spent all my life under a Communist regime, and I will tell you that a society without any objective legal scale is a terrible one indeed. But a society with no other scale but the legal one is not quite worthy of man either.
- It is not because the truth is too difficult to see that we make mistakes… we make mistakes because the easiest and most comfortable course for us is to seek insight where it accords with our emotions - especially selfish ones.
- Today when we say the West we are already referring to the West and to Russia. - We could use the word “modernity” if we exclude Africa, and the Islamic world, and partially China.
- Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence.
- Literature becomes the living memory of a nation.
- Writers and artists can achieve more: they can CONQUER FALSEHOOD! In the struggle with falsehood art always did win and it always does win! Openly, irrefutably for everyone! Falsehood can hold out against much in this world, but not against art.  And no sooner will falsehood be dispersed than the nakedness of violence will be revealed in all its ugliness - and violence, decrepit, will fall.

Tags:   history lessons · In Remembrance · Russia1 Comment

NSS, NDS, NOC, NMS, MS - there is a veritable alpha-bit soup of documents out there and trying to make heads or tails of them individually or their relationship to one another.  In trying to make sense of this morass, some few years ago we carved out substantive portions of our day to develop a document map that displayed the (then) “As Is” environment (ca. 2002) and the presumed “To Be” based on various reform directives issued from OSD and the JS (yeah, yeah — Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Staff).  The purpose was to aid our then newly arrive flag understand this array as well as to serve as a road map for the rest of our directorate.  The result was what we charitably called the “PowerPoint from Hell” that had over a hundred hyperlinks (each document displayed had it’s own slide showing purpose, relationships, status and organizational responsibilities (primarily geared to the Navy Staff and meant to show the real assignments vice the booger-flicking responsibility shucking task avoidance exercised by some of our fellow directorates on the staff.

OK, so what did this modern day Sisyphean accomplishment look like?  Ecce:

Strategic Documents Map

Individual Documents Explained:

Tags:   Strategy & Policy2 Comments

OK, so a bit of a cop out but it serves in a pinch, especially after this kind of week…Up first, Phoreign Phantoms doing their thing to a bit of Wagner.  Some vintage footage, and for those of us who spent a wee bit of time in Kef working with our RAF counterparts across the pond, you’ll recognize one of our protagonists - as well as a well known antagonist.  Quick — ID that variant…
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Tags:   Flightdeck Friday4 Comments

…And it is an interesting read, informing the potential rationale behind some recent decisions, such as the Navy stepping away from the DDG-1000:

Future Challenges Risk
An underlying assumption in our understanding of the strategic environment is that the predominant near-term challenges to the United States will come from state and non-state actors using irregular and catastrophic capabilities. Although our advanced space and cyber-space assets give us unparalleled advantages on the traditional battlefield, they also entail vulnerabilities.

China is developing technologies to disrupt our traditional advantages. Examples include development of anti-satellite capabilities and cyber warfare. Other actors, particularly non-state actors, are developing asymmetric tactics, techniques, and procedures that seek to avoid situations where our advantages come into play.

The Department will invest in hedging against the loss or disruption of our traditional advantages, not only through developing mitigation strategies, but also by developing alternative or parallel means to the same end. This diversification parallelism is distinct from acquiring overmatch capabilities (whereby we have much more than an adversary of a similar capability). It will involve pursuing multiple routes to similar effects while ensuring that such capabilities are applicable across multiple mission areas. (emphasis added - SJS) - National Defense Strategy - June 2008

Source Document here.

There’s more in the way of extracts below the fold…

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Deterrence. Preventing war is preferable to fighting wars. Deterring aggression must be viewed in global, regional, and transnational terms via conventional, unconventional, and nuclear means. Effective Theater Security Cooperation activities are a form of extended deterrence, creating security and removing conditions for conflict. Maritime ballistic missile defense will enhance deterrence by providing an umbrella of protection to forward-deployed forces and friends and allies, while contributing to the larger architecture planned for defense of the United States . . . We will use forward based and forward deployed forces, space-based assets, sea-based strategic deterrence and other initiatives to deter those who wish us harm.  - A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower (Oct 2007)

USS Lake Erie passes the USS Arizona Memorial

Longtime readers (all 2 of you) will remember when we wrote some two years ago about the first of the Aegis-CG’s being dispatched in a SINKEX   at the ripe old age of 18 years.  Following the wholesale decommissioning of the Spruances and their dispatch in other SINKEX’s, some wondered aloud about the future of the remaining CG-47s and even the newer Burke-class DDGs.

Well, we have an answer - sort of.

There is an extensive plan being put into action to ensure a full 35 years of relevant operational service will be gained from the Burkes (assuming, of course, proper corrosion prevention and other PMS - comments Byron?) and the remaining Ticonderoga CG’s.  The program for the Burkes will begin in 2012 and will concentrate on Hull, Mechanical and Electrical repairs, to be followed by combat systems improvements.  First out of the chute will be Arleigh Burke and Barry, followed by 3 x DDGs/yr. until 2006 when it would accelerate to 9 ships per year.  What caught our eye in this re-work process was a commitment to convert the entire Burke class to BMD capability.  At present, the Navy & MDA are in the final stretch of converting 18 ships - 3 CG’s and 15 DDG’s, to BMD 3.6 engage which will mean 18 ships capable of employing the SM-3 Blk 1/1A against SR- and MRBM threats.  Later this year they will begin a further step/spiral upgrade to 3.6.1 which adds a terminal defense capability with the SM-2 Blk 4 to supplement shore-based terminal defenses.  Seventeen ships will get that mod while the Lake Erie, the BMD test and development platform, will begin receiving the next generation of BMD capability with the trial installation of BMD 4.0.1.  All but 2 of those sips are based with PACFLT (3rd or 7th Fleets) with the remainder on the East Coast.

That disparity is one reason why we have advocated for a wider deployment of the BMD configuration to the DDG-51 class (and to the CG’s as well - more on that later).  There are compelling reasons.  The ballistic missile threat to our deployed forces and friends, allies and partners overseas grows - at present it is concentrated in short- and medium range heater systems, but as we have consistently noted,   there are major actors   who continue to develop longer ranged theater systems   with a natural developmental process that can reach to intercontinental capabilities sooner rather than later.  Still, the bulk of the threat in the near and mid-range term (now to say the next 5 years) is primarily in the theater.

USS Decatur

To be sure, there are shore-based systems, some proven and deployed, others in development, but like so many other shore-based systems, there are limits in mobility, footprint, deployability, host-nation restrictions and the like which circumscribe their utility.

Not so for BMD capable ships operating from the global maritime commons.  Using their inherent flexibility, maritime forces employing integrated and combined maritime air- and missile defense will provide a powerful deterrent and if that deterrence is ignored, a capable and credible defense - if…

If there are enough numbers.  Enough numbers meaning hulls and missiles.  For it does no good to concentrate the capability in a relatively small number of hulls.  On the one hand, it turns them instantly into high(er) value units whose loss wold have a disproportionate effect.  Numbers limit coverage and COA’s a COCOM can deploy and employ.  Numbers also play to just how fast you end up Winchester  , for make no mistake, the competition is very much working on building numbers   into their side of the balance sheet.  Finally, there is also the practical side of only x-amount of real estate in the VLS’ which must also be occupied with vanilla SAM’s, Tomahawks, and other ordnance as required by these multi-mission platforms.

So, what about the remaining CG’s?  Well, there’s the rub.  Older already than the oldest DDG-51, the CG-47s are also slated for similar HME repairs, but as of now the decision to upgrade all 22 of them to BMD capability is up in the air.  Money, of course, being the driving factor as well as the fate of the CG(X), CONOPS for which the Navy is still holding tight to its chest, but intimates quite openly will have BMD as a primary mission.

In the final analysis, the need, the requirement for a wider deployment of this capability is just as compelling today, looking to the near future as it was a few decades ago when the growing cruise-missile threat compelled the wider installation of area and point-defenses on a greater number of platforms - not just special purpose AAW cruisers.  Likewise, the Fleet needs to become as conversant in the language of BMD as it is in all aspects of AAW.  The time to start is now.

USS Curtis Wilbur

Tags:   Aegis BMD · Missile Defense · The Maritime Strategy4 Comments

As a Student NFO back in the late 70’s (OK, 1978) in P-cola, we tended to spend a certain amount of our free time over at the (then) new-ish Naval Aviation Museum (the ‘National’ appellation still some several years off) and while our attention was drawn to some of the indoor exhibits, nicely finished and looking factory fresh, it was the ecclectic collection of “stuff” out in the back yard that was of particular interest.  Included therein one could find the “Truculent Turtle” P2V, all manner of relatively recent training craft (including the T-2 and T-39, both of which we were slated to fly in VT-10, which, of course, gave pause for thought), and WF, F4D, F3D, A3D, and other items to include a couple of behemoths stuck in the far corner - the P4M Marlin and PB2Y Coronado flying boats.  Now, frequent readers know of our fondness  for these beasts 0and though appearing exceptionally forlorn and dejected in their resting spots, we wondered what the future held for them. 

Turning to today’s CHINFO clips, looks like we have the answer  to one: 

PENSACOLA NAVAL AIR STATION, Fla. - Ed Ellis steps across the National Naval Aviation Museum into the aircraft that was Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Chester Nimitz’s flying headquarters during World War II.
“If this plane could talk,” said the 67-year-old retired Navy captain, longing to hear the conversations that happened aboard the vintage PB2Y Coronado. “Nearly every Navy admiral in the Pacific was in here.”
The Coronado - the first U.S. plane to land in Tokyo after the war - is the latest restoration project undertaken by the museum’s mostly volunteer staff of hundreds of military retirees.

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Tags:   Chronicles of Naval Aviation · history lessons1 Comment

…no, not those  .

First up — Hustler Love:

Hustler Low Level

Over in the comments section for the Flightdeck Friday we did some time back (for VALOUR-IT)  , one of our visitors (blog author of Mostly Flying  ) left this very interesting commentary:

As a young lieutenant in 1967 I had control of SAGE air defence radars across Washington, Montana, the Dakotas, and Canada during an exercise called “Snowtime.” I was in charge of ECCM at the Great Falls SAGE Direction Center.

We thought we were in pretty good shape because of the frequency diversity in radars we enjoyed. Sitting near the base I had an FPS-24 operating at 200MHZ and there was an FPS-35 a little north operating at 300 MHz. We knew from previous experience with the B-52s at Minot and Grand Forks that they didn’t have the jamming gear to touch those radars. So, we had them peaked and tweaked and were accepting all the data they could process down two phone lines. (1200 baud x 2 if memory serves)

We watched the Buffs take off out of Minot and head north before they turned around. Even down low, we picked them up pretty well because of the high terrain and, frankly, really good radars! They were about to reach the CAP line when poof, everything went white.

We jumped radar frequencies, fiddled with receivers and antennas, and did all the things that you do, but we were having a hard time. At the debriefing, the word came out. Two B-58s, one low and one high, had taken us down across three states. Poof. Better jammers and antennas than the buffs.

An interesting lesson in the power of that bird.

Interesting indeed - we had our own encounter with Buffs a couple of decades later  - it was plainly obvious their defensive systems had substantially improved…

Pic of the Day:

TR heads for TRW's

080724-N-7241L-002 ATLANTIC OCEAN (July 24, 2008) The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) prepares for flight operations under stormy skies. The Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group is participating in Joint Task Force Exercise “Operation Brimstone” off the Atlantic coast . U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Nathan Laird (Released)

So, all that oceanpointed and TR is locked in the only rainshower around?  What gives?

Well - to launch and reover aircraft you need wind over the deck - the more (up to a point) the better. Ideally, you don’t want to have to make it all yourself as you end up with axial winds (winds down the centerline of the deck vice down the angle):

CV OPS

which is no fun for the landing evolution. So you go looking for natural wind and as it happens, the closer you get to rain showers, the greater the wind owing to the outflow effect:

The Outflow Effect

As rain falls from the cloud in greater volume, wind increases which, of course, is what the carrier seeks.  A simple explanation to be sure and there are many additional issues that would need to be addressed.  Still, a good bet when the front end called back asking for the ship’s location (especialy when playing EMCON) was to pass “Look for the only rain cloud”  - and there she’d be…

Have a great weekend y’all…

Tags:   Saturday Shorts1 Comment

It is late 1960 in America - 13 December to be exact. Across the country the mood is reflective and restive. The prosperity of the fifties had netted Americans a bewildering array of choices in everything from products for the home to the cars they drove and sealed American dominion across the globe. The recently concluded Presidential election saw a close finish with a relative newcomer, challenging Americans to a New Frontier which could be found in areas as disparate as the African continent or the reaches of space. “Change” was the watchword for the new decade - be it a new Administration’s intent to implement Keynesian economics 0 to “get America moving again” or Harold Macmillan’s Winds of Change  speech that would light the fuse for the final dismemberment of the British Empire; “change” was the order of the day for the new decade. Change was also in evidence in the form of a volubly demonstrative Soviet presence, given an inflated persona courtesy new regimes led by Communist revolutionaries and closely managed demonstrations of missile prowess.

In the far western US, change was also present on the ramps of a sprawling complex that occupied the dried Muroc lakebed - Edwards AFB. There the collective scientific, engineering and industrial genius of the previous decade was taking form. A collection of aircraft were to be found there that were both a tour de force and broke new ground. Whether it was speed, altitude, methods of propulsion, construction materials, or control technology, they all had one thing in common for all their differences - to a plane, they all sought to push the edge of the envelope out a little more.

Some, like those that sported a “USAF” on their flanks, found it via dramatic lines - needle sharp forms held aloft on impossibly small wings, meant to violently pierce and peel away clinging air molecules in the quest for speed. Others, commonly found with a USN on the side, seemed to seduce the wind with their graceful curves, in some cases assuming an almost manta-ray like form   in the sky. And yet, there was one that was different. Broad of shoulder, with a long, almost needle-like nose and a vertical tail that soared like some prehistoric shark’s above the other offerings - this one was different.

It was built by a company who emerged from the war mists of a decade and a half ago with a classic design and who again in the skies over Korea, had provided a swept wing fighter   that earned a reputation as a killer of MiGs in the frozen spaces over the Yalu River. The same company with a reputation for innovation that provided the Navy with its first nuclear bomber designed to operate off a carrier and whose jet-black winged rocket was bringing Americans to the very edge of space.

This was the North American A5A Vigilante and it was poised on this day to set a world altitude record that would stand until the following decade.

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