Sunday With Calvin
Our favorite grade-schooler and tiger have been absent too long from these pages, something we’re rectifying today:
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…
CIA in 1974: “Israel Has Nuclear Weapons”
(h/t ArmsControlWonk) —– —– In a curious action, the 1974 National Intelligence Assessment on foreign nation’s nuclear arms development programs was released by the Bush Administration on the eve of his trip to Israel and the Gulf States. The NIA contains some rather stunning wording – in prticular, the assessment by CIA that: We believe…
Flightdeck Friday: Hypersonics – Douglas D-558-III
As the emerging theme this week is hypersonics, what with the reference to the Shenlong and the upload to the Virtual Library of a comprehensive 3-volume history of the US hypersonic effort from the X-15 through the NASP, reader and frequent correspondent Thommy Thomason joins the scene as a guest author of this week’s Flightdeck…
The Problem With Debris: The ASAT Test One Year Later
About this time last year (11 Jan), China conducted the now infamous direct-ascent ASAT (Anti-Satellite) hit-to-kill test. We have written to some degree about it already – notably here and here. Both articles describe the notorious aspect of the test – the addition of significant amounts of debris to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). How much? …
There’s Professionals…
…and then there’s the jackasses. The crews of the USS Port Royal, USS Hopper and USS Ingraham clearly showed they were on the side of the professionals, The IRGN? Well, here’s an extract from today’s press conference with ADM Cosgriff (C5F/NAVCENT): Q Sir, Jonathan Karl with ABC News. A couple of quick things. One, the Iranian…
Raptors’ Thanksgiving Intercept of Tu-95 Bears
While there aren’t any official photos out of the 22 Nov sunset intercept, there are a couple homemade ones floating around the ‘sphere – like these courtesy AW&ST’s Ares blog (subscription maybe required). No shots w/Bears – yet: Word is the package was a couple of Raptors, a tanker (natch) and an AWACS. Do you see what we…
Admin Update
As promised, the Flightdeck Friday Index has been completed and is now available under the "Pages" heading on the sidebar. Future topics will include Brewster’s F2A Buffalo, Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, Boeing PB-1W, Blackburn Buccaneer and de Havilland Sea Vixen (among many others). If there are any favorites out there, drop a line and we’ll add…
Real War, Real People, Real Cost
This is an entry I would have preferred not to have published, but there are limits to what we can control in life, and apparently I have passed one of those limits. — Andy Olmstead Andy Olmsted was a blogger who wrote for several blogs including Winds of Change and had a column in…
Flightdeck Friday: Goodyear F2G Corsair
Like many other aircraft during WWII, the Corsair found itself being produced by companies other than its originator, Chance-Vought. Here, the alternate producers were the Brewster Aircraft Company, builder of the F2A Buffalo (a future Flightdeck Friday topic, BTW) and the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, producer of non-rigid airships or blimps. With production lines…