Flightdeck Friday: “Air Raid Pearl Harbor. This is Not A Drill.”*

*Telegraph from Patrol Wing Two Headquarters warning of the attack on Pearl Harbor   Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives:   Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval…

National Intelligence Estimate: Iran Stopped Bomb Effort In 2003…

… or did it?  Read Here:   — Some items of note: "We cannot rule out that Iran has acquired from abroad—or will acquire in the future—a nuclear weapon or enough fissile material for a weapon."   "We assess centrifuge enrichment is how Iran probably could first produce enough fissile material for a weapon, if…

9 Ships + 1 Aircraft Denied ≠ A Mere “Snafu”

  WASHINGTON (CNN) — China has refused nine U.S. Navy ships and one Air Force jet entry to Hong Kong in the past month, U.S. military officials said Friday.  Senior Navy officials said that Beijing denied permission for the USS Reuben James, a Navy frigate, to make a holiday port call for sailors at the end…

Flightdeck Friday: TFX — A Time for Turkeys (Pt II)

“Senator, there isn’t enough power in all of Christendom to make that airplane what we want” VADM Tom Connolly testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee (1968)   In Part I we explored some of the politics (and politicking) behind the TFX – the program to provide the Air Force and Navy with a common…

Красная Звезда в четверг (Red Star Thursday)

 A bit more about China and the Kitty Hawk deal, plus some more below the fold about another failure of Russia’s Bulava SLBM and some other aspects of the Russian defense industry.   Panda Bashing? On the heels of the story of the Chinese turning away the Kitty Hawk comes that of the two minesweepers…

Support Your Local Zappers

    Want to send something to show your appreciation and support for what our folks are doing overseas? How about to a deployed squadron, like say, VAQ-130 aka the Zappers? Here’s the address – and trust us folks, even though the deadline has passed for getting care packages and such into theater by Christmas was 15…