We’re going to depart from the normal topics usually found in these pages because of a most compelling article we found in yesterday’s Washington Post’s Health section highlighting an upcoming documentary on PBS. Fair warning – this is an emotionally compelling article and content. The documentary, titled, "The Lobotomist" is a look at how, as…
"At a minimum, Washington should delay the planned 2010 retirement of the Space Shuttle until a new space plane can replace it, as a way to retain a deterring potential military capability. China’s unwillingness to comment on its military space plans, coupled with the Shenlong space plane, confirms its larger aversion to military transparency. The…
14/0819L Jan 1969: USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) is conducting workups in preparations for combat operations off North Vietnam with CVW-9 embarked. First event for the day has just been launched and respot for second event is underway. USS Bainbridge and Rogers are in company. Aft of the isalnd, the exhaust from an "huffer" (jet starting unit) has…
Our favorite grade-schooler and tiger have been absent too long from these pages, something we’re rectifying today:
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…
(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…
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…
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? …
…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…
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…
