ПерÑпективный Ðвиационный ÐšÐ¾Ð¼Ð¿Ð»ÐµÐºÑ Ð¤Ñ€Ð¾Ð½Ñ‚Ð¾Ð²Ð¾Ð¹ Ðвиации, Perspektivnyi Aviatsionnyi Kompleks Frontovoi Aviatsy, literally “Future Front-line Aircraft System” As more video and still footage becomes available, some thoughts are emerging. First observation is that clearly this is just a flying prototype that focuses on the airframe and not much else for a 5th gen fighter: Alexander Golts, an…
Tomorrow brings the much anticipated release of the first of three documents of significant import to the US Navy – the QDR for 2010 (Draft-QDR-2010-predecisional). Language in the draft highlights China as one of several state-actors that have acquired significant anti-access capabilities over the past ten years. Additionally, it points out that: Chinese military doctrine…
UPDATE: Lots of comparisons to the F-22 based on the front end shots and planform, but I’m also thinking that Sukhoi took some cues from this bad boy: based on a comparison from the tailfeather POV: for comparison, here is an in-flight of the YF-22 and YF-23: Things that make you go hmmm…. In this…
27 Jan 1973: The Vietnam cease-fire, announced four days earlier, came into effect and the carriers Oriskany, America, Enterprise and Ranger, on Yankee Station, cancelled all combat sorties into North and South Vietnam. The cost of this endeavor in terms of lives and treasure was indeed dear. From 1961 t0 1973 the Navy lost 896…
Admittedly, there has been a bit of light posting around here of late – but with good cause. With the new year we shifted location and jobs, moving from the purple world back to Navy blue and gold. Still very much involved in the operational world and much more analytical work, but from a different…
Readers here will recall the petition we launched last July when it came to light that there was a “sense” of Congress motion passed that the next ship following the Gerald Ford (CVN-78) should be named after Barry Goldwater. You will recall we were, well, less than enthusiastic (to put it charitably) that yet another…
17 Jan 1930.  USS Lexington (CV-2) completed a 30-day period in which she furnished electricity to the city of Tacoma, Wash., in an emergency arising from a failure of the city’s power supply. The electricity supplied by the carrier totalled 4,251,160 kilowatt-hours. From Historylink.org: In the 1920s, Tacoma received most of its electrical energy from…
Early in the new year and it has been a busy one for Navy, setting aside all the work going into the Haiti relief effort. No, instead we witnessed two more CO’s being relieved, with one in particular, gaining special notoriety. To wit, there has been a pretty lengthy re-telling of first- and second-hand accounts…
In the mail today: The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial. Air Force Maj. Russell C. Goodman of Salt Lake City, Utah, will be honored this…
From China today comes news today of a successful missile intercept test: “BEIJING (AP) — China announced that its military intercepted a missile in mid-flight Monday in a test of new technology that comes amid heightened tensions over Taiwan and increased willingness by the Asian giant to show off its advanced military capabilities. The official…
