The Problem With Proliferation: Cruise Missile Edition

March 2011.   The still of the pre-dawn darkness is only slightly disturbed by the passage of a container ship.   Like the many thousands of others like her plying the ocean’s ways, this one’s cargo is neatly stacked on the deck — ISO shipping containers in a multitude of colors and shippers markings.  …

Flightdeck Friday – Fleet Air Arm Edition: Blackburn Buccaneer

August 1977.  Nellis Range – Nevada. The flight lead of a section of F-4E’s is searching in vain for the intruders. Flying CAP, their mission is to intercept ingressing strike aircraft as part of the large scale exercise known as ‘Red Flag.’  Normally an exceptionally challenging environment, meant to replicate the skies over Central Europe,…

Six Test Firings = Zero Hits: Indian Navy Refuses Sub Delivery

In 2001 India signed a contract with Russia to upgrade 10 Kilo class submarines to enable them to employ the Klub land attack cruise missile,  The first of these subs, the INS Sindhuvijay, recently conducted pre-delivery tests with an Indian crew which included six test firings of the Klub.  All six tests were considered failures…

Wednesday Roll-up of Missile News

Continuing the themes from yesterday’s post: a. India plans aerospace military command to oversee space-based assets: In yet more fallout from China’s ASAT test comes the announcement from India that they intend to “create an aerospace command to control and protect satellites and spacecraft orbiting the Earth.” Air Chief Marshal Shashi Tyagi said India was…