Empty Turrets and the Duke of Columbia raised bounty on brigands by 30 gold crowns.

Two articles from Strategypage.

The first a bit of info on Russia's new tank.  Including the bit that made me interested on how there's no one in its turret. The crew is all within a capsule in the hull.

The second is about the United States giving bounties on various outlaws, pirates, and cut-throats..

Smaller carriers? More bang for the buck?

Foxtrot Alpha has an interesting article on the possibility of the US Navy going away from an "all nuclear super carrier" force.   That is building a mix of Ford/Nimitz class vessels and smaller Queen Elizabeth-ish  class ships.


It's an interesting idea,  as the US Navy doesn't have anything between the Nimitz and the Wasp/America class.   And there could be many situations where one needs a flattop but doesn't quite need the full "Alpha Strike" or multi-mission capability of a Nimitz.  Especially with the increase of precision weapons in the last few decades.

And having more flattops would increase flexibility.   Especially given that a given number will be in dock for maintenance.

Now that's Testing and Evaluation.

Aviation week has a short piece on the 4477th Test & Evaluation Squadron

A very interesting read on what it was like to fly and test "procured" Russian aircraft, complete with stuff like the "BOMB EXPLODE" switch, the superior abilities of inferiority made Russian flares, and the near miracles done by the maintenance staff.

They had to keep planes flying with no support documentation, no plans, and no supply chain.

Nuclear Security Doing it wrong.

"Protesters" got into the Y-12 plant.

Though when you breach several fences to infiltrate a place where nuclear weapons components are built and nuclear material is stored in order to... spill human blood, protest might be too mild of a term.

Via. Reynolds.

Field Engineering: You're doing it right.

Here's an article on the development, design, and deployment of the Army's "Ironman" system. Which is basically putting a belt of ammunition in a backpack and connecting it to a machine gun via a flexible linkage.

All modular, all off the shelf, and very effective and cool. Bravo.

Update: Here's some more photos and a claim that the field developed version is a copy of an existing prototype.

If true undercuts the point, though the first link seems to point more to parallel development, as it has been a commonly seen idea.

Vroooom!

13,000mph is a respectable speed to say the least.

Followup on a hypersonic glider test.

<+KJ> Thank God for old school Army videography

That'd be tonight's quote of the day, when he presented the following vid in GBC

And say hello to Ivy Mike.



I love that old style speaking cadence. Wonderful.

And scale.

As a meal that doesn't look half bad.

Maybe not half good, but this Russian RP-SPN Special Forces Food Ration looks a lot better than I thought it would.

From MicroBalrog a site that has a lot of neat historical and current Russian military stuff.

Via C-90 on GBC

Why I don't see a robot uprising

Well at least by military robots.

Craked (yes going there again) has 6 Shocking Ways Robots Are Already Becoming Human


I'll just concentrate on #6 which deals with military robots.

One colonel ordered a minefield-clearing robot (it was programmed to walk through the field, set off a mine, lose a limb, then drag itself onward until the next explosion) to cease its duties because he couldn't stand watching it anymore. He considered the treatment of this robot ... "inhumane." More than one soldier was brought to tears when their beloved battle 'bot comrade was destroyed by an IED. But the first place award for BRFFs goes to a group of soldiers who, after acquiring some much needed down time, took their robot fishing with them -- because they felt the robot had earned a day off, too.

Remember that mine clearing robot? In an inversion of the standard trope. The robot's creator was the one coldly to watch the robot blow itself up bit by bit. It was the miltiary officer who had such empathy for the robot to stop the test.

From another of the articles linked in Cracked.

One EOD soldier brought in a robot for repairs with tears in his eyes and asked the repair shop if it could put "Scooby-Doo" back together. Despite being assured that he would get a new robot, the soldier remained inconsolable. He only wanted Scooby-Doo.

I remember this anecdote from a couple years ago. It was part of a larger piece on a "bot hospital" in Iraq. Where damaged robots would go to be repaired.

I can't find the article on the bot-hospital right now, but that bit on Scooby-Doo stuck with me.

And then this.

Sometimes such bonds led soldiers to risk their lives for their robots, in a strange inverse of the idea that robots would spare human lives. Singer recounted another EOD soldier who ran 164 feet under machine gun fire to retrieve a robot that had been knocked out of action. And several teams have given their robots promotions, Purple Heart awards for being wounded in combat, and even a military funeral.

Treating the robots as a comrade, as a brother in arms.

It makes sense. War is the most stressful thing, and here soldiers are working with the robots. They're going to develop emotional bonds to something they work with and has helped save their lives.

Well, at least the robots aren't developing bonds back. Oh wait... that's #3 on Cracked's list.

This is why I'm not as worried about military robots. Given they'll likely face the least alienation and prejudice from the soldiers they'll be working with.

Civilian robots on the other hand...

A flying Humvee?

Sure why not?

It's at least less insane than a flying tank.

Might actually merely be a slow helicopter with a weak engine, low range, poor handling, and horrible procurement cost, unsteady of a giant disaster.

Oh and making a ground vehicle have the helicopter grade maintenance hours...

Still it looks cool, which I suppose is most of the justification for the program.

Via Ace.

Remember when I used to write about insane military hardware instead of gripe about the leviathan? Good times.

A new Army carbine? Really?

It looks like the army has a plan to upgrade their standard rifle.

It comes in three parts, one is to continue the evolutionary improvements of the M16, M4 systems. This is in an improved M4A1 that will be getting mass distribution.

Following that will be further evolutions of the system.

The second phase of the M4 improvement program begins this fall and will focus on increasing the M4’s effectiveness and accuracy, with emphasis on the bolt, bolt carrier assembly and the forward rail assembly.

The final part is a potential new weapon including changes to the operating system (direct impingement versus piston).

Interesting stuff, though I suspect they'll merely continue the slow incremental improvement of the system. There seems to be too much inertia given the decades of existing service, with the decades of known performance.

Feedback Controls.

Strategypage on trouble brewing in China. In short corruption breeds unrest, unrest breeds revolution.


Here's what happens when there's endemic corruption and a total lack of trust.

The corruption is everywhere. University degrees, and other education credentials, for example, cannot be taken at face value. There's simply too much cheating. So employers have to carefully examine job candidates. This often includes administering lots of tests, and making sure there is no cheating, or that the test monitors are not bribed. In effect, the most honest aspect of the country is business. You can't run any kind of profitable company without a fair degree of
honesty and dependability. There is cheating going on (like the contaminated baby formula that actually killed a few babies), but that sort of thing puts you out of business (and got some of the baby food executives executed). Thus market pressures keep a lot of Chinese honest, but not so government officials.

Emphasis added.

Funny that. The only way you can ensure quality is by giving the "consumers" a method of choosing to forgo paying for the service. If the provider's funds are cut off then they cannot continue.

This is what is so troubling about government bailouts of banks, automakers, and newspapers. It makes them immune to customer power, and beholden to governmental power. The feedback system of quality being ensured by customer buy-out fails, and is replaced by a feedback system of pleasing governmental paymasters. This way they'll get money from the the public (via taxes), no mater what they produce.

"Whoever pays the piper chooses the tune." When you bailout a company, they stop selling products and airtime, and start selling governmental-approval. They make money by towing Policy, whether by donating to the "right" causes or producing the "right" products.

Profits be damned, because they're not making their money by moving product, they're making their money by ensuring the tap from Uncle Sugar doesn't run dry.

Another example of how the feedback system is subverted.

With military equipment, lax standards are an even greater problem. That's because military equipment doesn't really get put to the test unless there's a war, and China has not been at war since 1979 (where outnumbered, but experienced, Vietnamese troops beat the crap out of
the Chinese invaders). So second rate military equipment is all the rage. Manufacturers make more money, a lot of which is used to bribe purchasing officers to buy the flawed gear. The Chinese leadership, or most of them, are aware of this, and this leads them to make military
threats, with the realization that actual military action could be disastrous for China. The best stuff is often exported, because foreign users are less likely to tolerate shoddy standards, and will not order more stuff.

Emphasis added.

Here's a prime example of what happens when the government becomes your customer. This is especially acute on military procurement, as the product can only be purchased by government. Hence bloated programs, schedule slip, and feature creep. As we've seen the only way out is if the Defense Contractor can sell to a different nation-state, one that can choose where they buy their weapons. This requires the approval of the host nation, but one can see how consumer choice is what ensures quality.

The ability of a customer to take their money elsewhere is what forces a company to fight for that money. Take that away, and they've got no reason to maintain quality or service, because they'll get your money anyway.

But don't worry, making healthcare a government procurement program will be different. They'll get it right this time.

Missle Developments.

Compare and Constrast

Almost makes you wonder what side they're on.

But hey, they've got more important threats to deal with, like the
possibility that Glen Beck mght say something.

Getting closer to SmartBlood

As the Prof says "Well it is the 21st century...."

The U.S. has finally developed artificial blood. It is grown from umbilical cord cells and genetically modified animal cells. It won’t be available for use for another five years (lots of testing and production optimization required), and will cost about $1,000 a pint (450 millileters).

This is a technology that bears watching and has some real future aplications, given the complexity of biological fluids and tissues.

Oh, and kudos to anyone that gets the title reference. Wonder how progress is going on the BrainPal.

Entabulator both Turbo and Retro

An intersting old machine.

Here's a more modern version based on the same principals.




Here's wiki with more details about the design.

Russia brings back the Q-Ships?

Well that's the "positive" view of the Morinformsistema-Agat, a Russian company, selling a cruise missle launcher that can pass as a shipping container.

Though Russian arms frims, much like most other contries including the US, can only export to approved sellers.

A Q-ship is a warship disguised as a merchantman. In WW2 subs would be enticed into attacking them and then being fired upon. Q-ships could also be used to covertly attack targets due their concealed nature.

Not sure I agree with Ace's terms here, but he does paint a bleak picture.

It's a terrorist missile system, because it is hidden in a run-of-the-mill shipping container, the sort that burdens 80% of the ships at sea. And that's a terrorist weapon, then, because a lawful military force displays its military nature openly. This is expressly designed to hide in plain sight on an ostensibly civilian ship, one our Navy would be very reluctant to fire upon... until it itself has fired first.

A ship armed with one of these could ignore warnings from an aircraft carrier and keep inching closer until it's in range -- while our boys hold fire, not wishing to attack what appears to be a civilian transport -- and then hit us.

And, of course, it could fire on an American city before being inspected at port.

As a weapons system its use is questionable. But I'm sure some more Smart Diplomacy will keep Russia from selling these things to anyone with an axe to grind.

Rocket Troopers

Following on the Rocket-Man's invention is the potential military use.

Basically, it's a rocket(or turbo jet) powered glider that can take a single man over long distances. Think of it like a HALO jump with much greater range.

Not for common use, but there are some cases where it'd be handy.

Obama: Weapons and Government.

So who doesn't Obama trust with guns?

People that are trusted to pilot passenger aircraft.

I can see Obama's logic. Guns are "scary", while an airliner. What's the worst it could do?

So, Obama doesn't trust commercial pilots with guns.

How about the Military?

Uh oh... Pentagon Ready To Announce Weapons Cuts


Ace's thoughts: "Because Lord knows, we wouldn't want to create or save any jobs in an industry that actually employs Americans, what with this whole recession thingy going on."

And in the news story, Gates gets to the real humor.

The United States "cannot expect to eliminate national security risks through higher defense budgets, to do everything and buy everything," Gates said.

But we can expect to eliminate domestic policy problems by throwing billions at it?


Obama's spending for next year: 28% of GDP

Then again this is a man that wants to cut medical coverage for military vets to save... $560 million

Barack Obama wants to shove off the cost of medical care for injuries and illnesses sustained in combat in order to find $560 million in fresh revenue streams. This amounts to just over half of what Obama just gave Hamas in Gaza to rebuild after their disastrous war with Israel this winter, and about 1/300th of what the government gave AIG in a bailout.

He doesn't care about the acutal money, it's the ideology to him.

Military and guns are bad, domestic spending to "change" America good.

Hang onto your hats.

What is Russia up to?

Remember how immediatly after the election the Russians said they would put Iskander Missles in Kaliningrad as a blunt to the US-European Missle Sheild?
Strategypage goes behind the headlines and looks into the logicstics and production of the Iskander Missle

Russia now plans to send five brigades of Iskander (60 launchers, each with one missile, plus reloads, which could amount to over a hundred missiles) to Kaliningrad. Iskander is just entering production, and it would take several years, at least, to produce that many. Actually, it might take five or more years to produce enough missiles for five brigades, because Russian missile production capabilities have sharply deteriorated since the end of the Cold War in 1991. This is one reason why the current Russian government is making so much noise about this imaginary NATO plot to surround and subdue Russia. Losing the Cold War did not go down well in Russia. Rather than forget and move on, many Russians prefer to remember, and use the imagined evil intentions of their Cold War foes to explain away defects in the Russian character.

This Russian deployment to Kaliningrad is all about a unique feature of Iskander, which is that it is not a traditional ballistic missile. That is, it does not fire straight up, leave the atmosphere, then come back down, following a ballistic trajectory. Instead, Iskander stays in the atmosphere and follows a rather flat trajectory. It is capable of evasive maneuvers and deploying decoys. This makes it more difficult for anti-missile systems to take it down.

Neat Site

The Balance of Military Power

It shows glossy ads from the "1986 World Defense Almanac".

A fun site for those that want to see defense industry ads.