Military
Friday - April 01, 2011
What A Waste Of Fuel
Sure, why not? Everything else that can fly is getting used over there. And the B-1 is a great airplane that hasn’t had much use. We don’t have very many of them (66 active, 33 reserve), since the procurement program was canceled almost as soon as the design was finalized and flight tested. That’s not my point.
My point is that these airplanes took off from Ellsworth Air Force Base, flew to Libya, dropped 100 precision bombs, then flew home. To Ellsworth Air Force Base. In South Dakota. The UK is in this fight. France is in this fight. Italy is in this fight. Spain too I think? Whatever. Those countries all have air bases, and they’re all allies. And I’m pretty sure the US has at least a couple long runways on a few islands around the Mediterranean. Like the base in Corsica, or the one in Sicily. Or any other airport or air base in Europe that can handle a 737-800 or larger airliner. If you want to fly your toys in theater, bring them over and then keep them around for a bit. Flying bombing missions in Africa out of an airport near the central Canadian border is just plain stupid. Stop pissing away my tax money. [yes I know Ellsworth AFB is actually in west central SD, probably 800+ miles from Canada. My point is that it’s halfway between Chicago and Seattle, and north of Chicago. My point is that this is a 6,100 mile flight, and all that’s needed is a 300 mile flight.]
The wheels of two B-1B Lancers hit the Ellsworth Air Force Base runway Wednesday morning bringing home eight airmen from an airstrike mission in Libya.
“We, of course, were striking military targets that were designed to protect the Libyan population,” said Col. Jeffrey Taliaferro, 28th Bomb Wing Commander. “It was nearly 100 targets, nearly 100 weapons and those weapons did achieve their intended effects.”
The two Ellsworth aircrews were a part of airstrikes in the NATO-led campaign against Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi and army units who still support him.
Launched early Sunday morning, the Ellsworth aircrews from the 34th Bomb Squadron had little notice of their departure.
“Just under two days from our initial notification to launch, we were able to generate several aircraft, hundreds of weapons and launch those aircraft to get them all the way around to the other side of the world to strike targets,” Taliaferro said.
...
On top of the mission’s quick timeline, the flight from western South Dakota to Libya’s airspace marked the first time the B-1 fleet deployed a combat unit from the continental U.S. to strike targets overseas.“They launched from Ellsworth, flew half way across the world by air refueling and many hours later got to Libya and struck those targets,” said Taliaferro, who added that such a mission is not new to all bomber aircrafts.
About 24 hours after their mission in Libya, the two B-1s hit the Ellsworth runway around 11 a.m. on Monday and taxied toward two long lines of saluting airmen. Under largely clear skies and warmer temperatures, the aircrews exited the B-1s to a welcome of handshakes, hugs and congratulatory messages.
Gee whiz flyboys, don’t you get mucho Big Swinging Dick points for this one. Yahoo, some General Genius came up with the idea and you flew the mission, dropped your bombs, and made it home without killing yourselves or crashing your billion dollar airplane. Yee frickin ha.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad they made it back safely. I’m glad they have the training etc to do this kind of thing. But it’s a foolish empty act of bravado. It’s like giving life or death medical decisions to exhausted medical residents when well rested doctors are available; it’s just plain stupid. It isn’t necessary. Fly the plane to Newfoundland and land it. Go to sleep. Get up, fly to England, land, and take a nap. Then fly it down to Italy. Have some scampi, some pasta, and then it’s nap time again. Then get up, refreshed and relaxed, grab a hot shower and a leisurely breakfast, and then go fly the mission. Then fly an hour back to your local air base. Sending exhausted air crews into harm’s way is just asinine. And the reality is that there will NEVER be a need to actually do such a thing, so there is no point training for it. Should the world situation ever be so bad that US Air Force crews are flying non-stop missions, those missions will be a whole lot closer to home than friggin Libya. You’d be better off training your ground crews to be able to work like NASCAR pit crews. And I won’t even mention the quarter million gallons of jet fuel that got used on this one.
Posted by Drew458
on 04/01/2011 at 12:14 PM
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Permalink • Saturday - March 26, 2011
Oh This Hurts
All together now: ‘Rule Britannia . . .’Posted by Drew458
on 03/26/2011 at 04:40 PM
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Permalink • Friday - March 25, 2011
dark comedy
Posted by Drew458
on 03/25/2011 at 02:07 PM
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Permalink • Wednesday - March 23, 2011
daily mail declares fighter ace with no dogfight.
Oh come on. Here we go again. Due to a lack of fighting ability by the bad guys on the same level, and no great Dunkirk like news to share with the readers on the home front, the Mail here names the lady an ace. Well that was easy. Cheapens it’s meaning but hey ... anyone care?
At least we can report it wasn’t her doing, just the Mails clumsy attempt at war like news.
However ... I do believe the lady is a redhead. Looks that way from what I can see. Slightly bigger pix at link.
Our ace in the pack: Lone British female Typhoon pilot takes to skies to keep up the pressure on Colonel Gaddafi
By TOM KELLYThey say there are no prima donnas among the RAF’s Typhoon Top Guns.
But there is one who is arguably a lot better looking than the rest.
Her hair blowing back in the airfield breeze, this is Britain’s first woman Typhoon pilot, Flight Lieutenant Helen Seymour, about to take off on her debut combat mission.
Moments later, having adjusted her helmet and checked the controls in the cockpit, the 31-year-old screeched off the runway with two other fighter pilots to patrol the skies above Libya.
The Mail revealed yesterday how she is one of ten Typhoon pilots stationed at the RAF’s advanced post in Southern Italy from where they can reach the North African country within ten minutes.
Costing £125million, it travels at 1,550mph and can climb to 40,000ft within two minutes.
Flight Lieutenant Seymour and her colleagues are prepared to shoot down any of Gaddafi’s forces that breach the no-fly zone. Last night, she returned after a successful seven-hour mission.
As her canopy opened, she stood in the cockpit and raised her hand to salute fellow pilots on the operation.
A source at the airbase said: ‘She didn’t seem nervous about her first combat mission. Like all the pilots here, she is just completely focused on her job.’
Four Tornado fighters also roared off the runway of the Gioia del Colle airbase near Bari yesterday as British jets continued to put pressure on Gaddafi.
The continuing sorties came as the Tornado pilot who fired the first British missiles on Gaddafi’s airfields described the moment he ‘punched a hole’ in the tyrant’s defences.
Wing Commander Andy Turk, 39, was one of four pilots who took part in the long distance raid from the UK.
Costing £125million, it travels at 1,550mph and can climb to 40,000ft within two minutes.
Flight Lieutenant Seymour and her colleagues are prepared to shoot down any of Gaddafi’s forces that breach the no-fly zone. Last night, she returned after a successful seven-hour mission.
Yeah well, that’s assuming they can find any of his planes. And whats with this “ACE” bombast. That word again. It fits. Don’t you have to have been in X number of dogfights and had X number of kills to qualify as an “ACE?” I guess not in this new pc world where up is down.
Posted by peiper
on 03/23/2011 at 06:49 PM
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Permalink • Monday - March 21, 2011
Here We Go Again
US Army ‘kill team’ in Afghanistan posed for photos of murdered civilians
Commanders brace for backlash of anti-US sentiment that could be more damaging than after the Abu Ghraib scandal
Gosh, do you think they gave their victims funny names and kept a stick figure tally of their kills with chalk? Bragged about their exploits in the newspaper as if killing people was just a game of conkers? Oh wait, that’s normal. This one is over the line. And it is ... by about 3 small steps from behavior the earlier post I’m referring to.
This is going to cause a major stink, and it can’t be blamed on Bush. Cry foul, and call it BS? Uh huh, when Der Speigel claims to have more than 4000 pictures? 12 soldiers from the 5th Stryker Brigade amassed more than 4000 pictures? And videos???
Commanders in Afghanistan are bracing themselves for possible riots and public fury triggered by the publication of “trophy" photographs of US soldiers posing with the dead bodies of defenceless Afghan civilians they killed.
Senior officials at Nato’s International Security Assistance Force in Kabul have compared the pictures published by the German news weekly Der Spiegel to the images of US soldiers abusing prisoners in Abu Ghraib in Iraq which sparked waves of anti-US protests around the world.
They fear that the pictures could be even more damaging as they show the aftermath of the deliberate murders of Afghan civilians by a rogue US Stryker tank unit that operated in the southern province of Kandahar last year.
Some of the activities of the self-styled “kill team” are already public, with 12 men currently on trial in Seattle for their role in the killing of three civilians.
Five of the soldiers are on trial for pre-meditated murder, after they staged killings to make it look like they were defending themselves from Taliban attacks.
Other charges include the mutilation of corpses, the possession of images of human casualties and drug abuse.
All of the soldiers have denied the charges. They face the death penalty or life in prison if convicted.
The case has already created shock around the world, particularly with the revelations that the men cut “trophies” from the bodies of the people they killed.
An investigation by Der Spiegel has unearthed approximately 4,000 photos and videos taken by the men.
And while trying to sweep the story under the rug, the Army is busy apologizing for those pictures left and right? God almighty. Is this what happens when our troops are given an impossible ROE and left off in the armpit of the universe and forgotten about for a decade? Or maybe this happens because they have no respect for their Commander in Chief?
I don’t understand it. I do understand, never myself having been in one, that war is a god-awful horror, and a terrible mess. It’s Bizzaro World with extra blood. And things go on there that seem normal to those involved, but that are beyond the understanding of those on the outside. But somewhere, somehow, there has to be a line.
Despite an overall decline in civilian casualties caused by NATO forces, those episodes have tarnished the coalition campaign and put Mr. Karzai in the awkward position of having to explain why the country’s allies are killing unarmed children and women.
Three photographs, published in the German magazine Der Spiegel, show members of the self-designated “Kill Team” comprised of United States Army soldiers who are accused of making a sport of killing innocent Afghans as they show off one of their victims in a kind of trophy photo; another photograph shows two Afghan civilians who appear to be dead.
NATO, under the leadership of the US Army, has been preparing for possible publication of the photos for close to 100 days. In dozens of high-level talks with their Afghan partners, military leaders have sought to pursue the same strategy used by the US diplomatic corps in the case of the sensitive diplomatic cables released late last year by WikiLeaks. They warned those most directly affected and made preparations for the photos’ appearance in the public sphere. This “strategic communication” was aimed at preventing a major public backlash.
The 12 men are also facing further charges of desecration of corpses, illegal possession of photos of corpses, drug abuse and acts of bodily injury against comrades.
Oh just fucking marvelous. The published pictures are here. They’re a bit grizzly, but you’ve seen worse. Certainly you’ve seen far, far worse from the other side. Daniel Pearl’s beheading, the bridge at Fallujah, any splodey-dope car swarm, etc. But go and look, and then explain picture #3 to me. Yeah, #1 and #2 are a bit odd, and you can’t tell the “innocent civilians” from the enemy because they don’t wear uniforms. I mean, it’s sick enough to take happy trophy pictures with corpses like you snap a pick of a great bass you caught up at the lake. But explain picture #3. Now, what about the 3997 other pictures you aren’t seeing? You think they’re all Happy Little Sally on the swings in the park? Guess again. They’re depraved war porn of the basest kind. For shits and giggles. No? Prove me wrong.
Yes, war is an awful thing. And war without end or purpose or public support or even public awareness or respected leaders or even an attempt at victory and a set of rules forced down your throat designed to get you killed is even more awful. Mind breaking, soul destroying. And that’s Afghanistan, more than TEN YEARS in. And sometimes some people can’t handle it. But a whole squad going rogue, and living in their own Apocalypse Now world, without even the guidance of a Colonel Kurtz? Not even a Lieutenant Calley? And they took FOUR THOUSAND pictures and videos? Great. I can feel the black eye forming even way the hell over here in New Jersey. Babies on spikes and my special private collection of ears. Holy shit. Old men’s arms used to keep the campfire going. Pregnant native women hanging from wires as wind chimes. Get out your umbrellas, because the excrement is about to impact the oscillator once again. I think a dozen uniformed idiots have just shown the world that the US military is made of actual Nazi sadists. Thanks so much. It’s going to take one hell of a chocolate bars, soccer balls, and school building “hearts and minds” PR campaign to counter this one. Fuck. Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/21/2011 at 10:20 PM
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Permalink • Saturday - March 19, 2011
So we are going to war with Libya, a former Brit Ambassador speaks out
I found some very interesting and much thought provoking editorials today. Since the USA is now involved (dragged more or less by the hand according to some),
I’m certain those of you in the USA are reading things or seeing things on TV. But I thought you’d also be interested in how this subject is being treated here in the some of the press. Since I can’t tolerate the overly left wing Guardian, I haven’t gone there yet to see what those piss ants are saying.
Anyway ... the following was in the Mail today and this was the POV from the former British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Syria.
Did the debacle of Iraq teach us nothing?By Sir Andrew Green
So we are going to war with Libya. Make no mistake. That is what is involved.
Gaddafi’s instant ceasefire is nothing but a ploy designed to weaken the international coalition against him. The reality is that we are yet again engaging our armed forces in the complex politics of an Arab and Muslim state.
Have we learnt nothing from Iraq? Nor from the developing chaos in Afghanistan? This time we claim to have the law on our side. Indeed, there was no UN Security.
Council veto from Russia or China but there were five abstentions including, importantly, Germany. This is pretty lukewarm stuff, especially when the going gets difficult, as it surely will.
We also claim to have Arab support but the Arab League resolution was a feeble effort. Both Syria and Algeria voted against the no-fly zone and these are countries which carry considerable weight in Arab affairs.
Meanwhile, it is claimed that Qatar and the UAE might provide some strike aircraft. Useful, perhaps, as window-dressing, but these countries are political pygmies and military midgets. Their air forces are more like flying clubs than serious military assets.
How have we, yet again, got into such a potentially worrying situation? There are surely some simple rules that should be applied before we even start down such a dangerous road as this.
RULE ONE is to know your enemy. Gaddafi is not just an isolated madman. Although he clearly has an unstable personality, he is supported by a whole apparatus of repression that has held down the Libyan people for 42 years.
To talk of these thugs deserting him just because of the imposition of a UN-supported no-fly zone is simply whistling in the wind. His henchmen know that, if Gaddafi goes, they will swing from the nearest lamp-post – if they are lucky.
RULE TWO must be to select your objective and, above all, be honest about it.
Tony Blair was hugely undermined by his claim to be removing weapons of mass destruction from Iraq when, in truth, his objective was regime change.This time round we say that our aim is to protect the Libyan people – presumably only those in the east of the country, as there is little we can do in other parts.
But the reality is that we will not get out of Libya unless we can remove the Gaddafi regime. Last night it appeared that David Cameron and his international allies were acknowledging that. However, it is certainly not authorised by the UN resolution.
RULE THREE must be not to start what you cannot finish. In other words do not enter without an exit strategy.
After eight years in Iraq, the Americans are still not out and the prospects for that country on their eventual departure are, to put it mildly, extremely uncertain.
In Afghanistan, after ten years, we seem to be no nearer a viable state from which we can withdraw with confidence.Despite the experience of Iraq and Afghanistan, we are now engaging ourselves in what amounts to a civil war in Libya in which neither side is likely to have a decisive victory.
Gaddafi should not be able to retake Benghazi once air cover is in place. Equally, the revolutionaries will certainly not be able to take Tripoli and expel Gaddafi by themselves.
The reality is that what we have witnessed in Libya is not the uprising of the forces of freedom and democracy against an evil dictator. It is much more complicated than that.
The Eastern province of Libya, whose capital is Benghazi, was the seat of King Idris, the ruler overthrown by Gaddafi’s coup in 1969.
It is socially, historically and tribally different from the west of the country and has been economically neglected by the regime. The inhabitants have long been disaffected for both political and economic reasons.
Significantly, the uprising took a different course from those in Egypt and Tunisia.
In those two countries the people were able to organise mass demonstrations at very short notice, using the internet to make it difficult to trace individual activists.They succeeded in outnumbering the security forces who were forced to retreat. As a result, the people lost their fear of the secret police. In Libya, that strategy did not work.
The rebels could not achieve a critical mass so the regime had time to reorganise.
Gaddafi also had military units, some mercenary, who were prepared to use live fire against unarmed demonstrators – which the Egyptian army could not bring itself to do.
All this means that we are left with a situation that is messy politically and confused militarily.Our new allies are little more than a rag-bag militia, with little discipline, no command structure and no logistics. With air support they should be able to defend Benghazi but the prospect is for a long stand-off with Gaddafi digging in and staring us out.
What then will be the future of the oil terminals which are largely in the east of the country?Gaddafi seems to have retaken them for the time being but nobody knows whether oil exports can be resumed and, if they are, to whom the money would be paid. As Libya is heavily dependent on imports, these economic factors could become crucial.
Meanwhile, as the situation drags on, developments in neighbouring countries will be of growing importance.
Egypt, whose population of 84million is already greater than that of Germany, will be a key factor but nobody has any idea how things will turn out there. The same applies to Libya’s neighbour to the west, Tunisia.
As for Gaddafi, how will he respond to a prolonged conflict? Will he, as he has threatened, attack Western interests in the air and at sea? Will he turn again to weapons of mass destruction in the knowledge that those who possess them are less likely to be attacked? And how will it all play out in the Arab and Muslim world?
Many will believe Gaddafi’s claims that the West’s intervention is all about it wanting access to Arab oil.
Our response to that argument, that we are concerned about human rights, will be fatally undermined by our failure to protect the Shia in Bahrain, whose peaceful demonstrators have also been victims of vicious repression.
Yet again, the West will be accused of hypocrisy and self-interest. Over time this will be ammunition for Islamic extremists who attribute all the misfortunes of the region to Western conspiracy.
How did we get into this mess? It seems to be that neo-con hawks have succeeded once again in superimposing their enthusiasm for freedom and democracy on hugely complex societies which have no history of freedom and none of the institutions needed for the functioning of a democracy.
These difficulties are simply and naively brushed aside. A wand has been waved and, we are told, the world is a different place.
The Cameron and Sarkozy argument was that we could not stand by and allow Gaddafi to ‘win’. Indeed so, but that is not a sufficient case for direct military involvement.
There was an alternative. This would have been to arrange delivery of a consignment of anti-tank weapons to the rebel groups, which would have rendered Gaddafi’s tanks useless in built-up areas.
Similarly, his helicopter pilots would have steered clear if they found that the rebels had suitable missiles.
Moves like this, if necessary done covertly, would have given the rebels the opportunity to stabilise their defensive position but, crucially, without direct Western military involvement whose implications are now incalculable.
Well I’m sure as heck no expert and have not the makings of a diplomat as I’m too prone to too quickly tell those I really dislike to F***off.
But, now that it’s started and now that we’re going to be engaged as well, don’t you all think perhaps we need to go all out and really get rid of Gadaffi and be done with him? Sure as hell if he remains he’ll do everything he can to restart (as he threatened) support for terrorists. It may now really be in our national interest to get rid of him by any means we can.
Posted by peiper
on 03/19/2011 at 03:56 PM
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Permalink • Missiles Launched
The U.S. Navy fires the first U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles against Libyan leader’s Muammar al-Qaddafi’s air defenses Saturday, a military source tells Fox News.
The U.S. military strikes clear the way for European and other planes to enforce a no-fly zone designed to ground Qaddafi’s air force and cripple his ability to inflict further violence on rebels, U.S. officials said.
Hours after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton attended an international conference in Paris that endorsed military action against Qaddafi, the U.S. was poised to kick off its attacks on Libyan air defense missile and radar sites along the Mediterranean coast to protect no-fly zone pilots from the threat of getting shot down.
“We have every reason to fear that left unchecked, Qaddafi will commit unspeakable atrocities,” Clinton said.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive military operations, said the Obama administration intended to limit its involvement—at least in the initial stages—to helping protect French and other air missions.
French fighter jets fired the first shots at Qaddafi’s troops on Saturday, launching the broadest international military effort since the Iraq war in support of an uprising that had seemed on the verge of defeat. The French military says warplanes have carried out four air strikes, destroying several armored vehicles of pro-Qaddafi forces, according to AFP.
In the hours before the no-fly zone over Libya went into effect, Qaddafi sent warplanes, tanks and troops into Benghazi, the rebel capital and first city to fall to the rebellion that began Feb. 15. Then the government attacks appeared to go silent.
Initial reports say that 110-112 missiles have been fired against Tripoli and Misrata. And that’s just the beginning.
The United States Navy has launched more than 110 Tomahawk missiles in an effort to destroy Muammar Gaddafi’s air defense system. It’s being described by Pentagon officials as the “first phase in a multi-phase operation”. The true thrust of the international military operation has begun.
Shortly after the missile attacks, President Barack Obama informed the American people of the efforts by a “broad coalition.”
“The use of force is not our first choice,” the president said from Brasilia, Brazil. “It is not a choice I make lightly. But we cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his own people that there will be no mercy.”
I am not happy about this. Is Gaddafi a looney who needs to go? Without question. Is eliminating his air defenses and blasting up his tanks going to make the rebels win? Probably not. Will he be pushed from power by his people? Wait and see. And if he is, then what? And if he isn’t, then what?
Looks like we’re now involved in a 3rd war in the sand lands. Good thing the 1st one is 99% over and the 2nd one is forever stuck in 2nd gear.
I think this is a no-win for the USA. And I would not be at all surprised if the price of crude oil shoots up $25/bbl on Monday.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/19/2011 at 03:46 PM
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Permalink • France Over Libya
Brink of war? Are you kidding? Everybody samba!!
French fighters jets soared over Libya on Saturday to counter Moammar Gadhafi’s military forces who were intent on destroying the opposition as they pushed into the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
“Our air force will oppose any aggression by Colonel Gadhafi against the population of Benghazi,” said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, speaking after an international, top-level meeting in Paris over the Libyan crisis.
“As of now, our aircraft are preventing planes from attacking the town,” he said. “As of now, our aircraft are prepared to intervene against tanks.”
The international show of force is much-welcomed by besieged rebel forces who have called for backup to help them stave off a government offensive against their positions in Benghazi and other rebel-held enclaves.
* French jets have entered Libya’s airspace to prevent Muammar Gaddafi’s forces from attacking Benghazi, President Sarkozy has announced.
* Sarkozy’s statement to the press came after world leaders, including British PM David Cameron, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and various Arab leaders, met in Paris Saturday to hold crunch talks on the crisis in Libya.
* Reports emerged this morning of a fighter plane being shot down over Benghazi. Photos and video show the jet above the city falling through the sky in flames.
* Rebels in Benghazi say the government has been bombing roads and areas around the city. The regime has denied any involvement, saying its air force has remained grounded and the cease-fire is being upheld.
Obama “the leader of the free world”, made a speech yesterday in which he talked tough but essentially told the world “let somebody else do this.”
Asked whether the decision to carry out bombing against Libyan forces could begin immediately after Saturday’s session ends, a senior State Department official said: “In terms of when the bombing starts, I’ll leave that for others to lay out at the appropriate time.”
Such leadership.
Fearless Reader then got on his airplane and began yet another vacation embarked on a vital 5 day trade mission to South America with his family.
Obama departed Washington just hours after endorsing military action against Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, leaving an array of military might at the ready and raising the prospect that he would have to authorize military action from a foreign land.
For Obama, the visit represents a chance to engage with newly elected [ Brazilian ] President Dilma Rousseff and get a firsthand assessment of what administration officials believe is her practical approach to governance and foreign relations after eight years of the flamboyant Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
...
Obama arrives bearing no major policy gifts. And he’s not likely to deliver on two of Brazil’s top wishes—an endorsement for Brazil to become a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and a relaxation of tariffs on Brazilian ethanol. The United States and Brazil are the world’s largest ethanol producers.
And after promising question and answer news conferences with these South American leaders, Obama’s first presser was no questions asked. Yeah, because that’s what Rouseff wanted, right.
Obama’s “press conference” with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was abruptly shrunken down to just statements from each leader and no questions from American and Brazilian reporters, though U.S. officials have been quick to point out that they wanted questions from the media but the Brazilian side blocked it.
Wonderful. Brazil abstained from the Un Security Council No-Fly vote, and has in the recent past been willing to engage in talks with Iran.
PRE-POSTING UPDATE: BATTLE IS JOINED In the time it took me to write this post, it looks like war has broken out in the skies over Libya. I was going to do a sidebar piece about the French flying their new Rafale fighter, which is their slightly smaller, less expensive version of the Eurofighter Typhoon, that has not yet been in any real combat ( a few bombing runs in Afghanistan is all ), but this takes precedence:
Allied Powers Declare Military Action Against Libya
PARIS—Top officials from the United States, Europe and the Arab world have launched immediate military action to protect civilians as Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi’s forces attacked the heart of the country’s rebel uprising.French President Nicolas Sarkozy said after an emergency summit in Paris on Saturday that French warplanes are already targeting Qaddafi’s forces.
The 22 participants in Saturday’s summit “agreed to put in place all the means necessary, in particular military” to make Qaddafi respect a U.N. Security Council resolution Thursday demanding a cease-fire, Sarkozy said.
“Our planes are blocking the air attacks on the city” of Benghazi, he said, without elaborating. French planes have been readying for an attack in recent days.
...
British Prime Minister David Cameron said after the summit: “The time for action has come, it needs to be urgent.”
Obama sambas, while Libya burns.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/19/2011 at 11:00 AM
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Permalink • Thursday - March 17, 2011
The Collapse of Internationalism? well, not quite.
We used to get the WSJ when living at home in the US. Also watched this fellow on TV and read his columns.
We like him BUT ... and I think Drew and others here might not agree with me, I really don’t want us to be the world’s cop.
If our national security is the reason, fine. Then lets come right out and say so. I am not at all concerned how some tin pot dictator in a turd world country treats his own ppl. What they do in their own back yard isn’t my concern.
Libya as I see it, is involved in a civil war. It’s a muslim country. Oh great. Daniel wants us to do something, as I understand this video.
Now, coming over the news on BBC Radio, I hear we’re getting involved there. Fine. Now how about going after every single bad guy leader in every country in the world? People on the radio right now are saying that it might come to putting troops on the ground.
If we get involved in one country, why not another? Just what rules are we gonna bend? If our security is at stake I’m all for anything to secure us.
But good gosh. Stop telling me about the poor oppressed innocent rebels who are seeking democracy. Frankly, I don’t trust them either.
The next few days are gonna be very interesting.
Posted by peiper
on 03/17/2011 at 11:57 AM
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Permalink • Saturday - March 12, 2011
Ha, some Tanks I get for all the work I do
You haven’t heard much from me this week. I’ve been busy with lots of things here at home. When I’ve been online, it was mostly working on some family genealogy research. I found a second cousin who had been a B-17 pilot in WWII and then ran an art gallery after the war. His son, my previously unknown third cousin, runs that gallery today. Boring to you, but fascinating to me. This genealogy stuff is very time consuming, even though so much of it is online these days which makes it much easier. And we got whipped again at bowling league. What else is new? And that’s 3/4 of what I’ve been up to this week that I’d bother to write about.
I was going to run a post on the IDF’s first successful combat use of their new Target/ASPRO-A vehicle defense system. I’d seen the news feed on this a week and a half ago, and I ran across a link or two to the story on other blogs.
The Israel Defense Forces Armored Corps successfully operated its new armor-defense system for the first time on Tuesday, defending a tank from an antitank missile attack on the Gaza border. On Tuesday afternoon, an antitank missile was fired at a Merkava 4 tank on the border with the Gaza Strip, near Kibbutz Nir Oz in the western Negev. The tank crew then activated the new defense system, Me’il Ruach (Windbreaker), and successfully foiled the attack.
This is actually a bit of history, it being the very first time an active automatic defense system has been used on a vehicle by any Western forces. Possibly by any forces, but there is a Soviet claim that they had a similar system that worked in combat, back when they were in Afghanistan. But you know the Soviets. They invented everything first, even water.
I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure this thing out, because I had some difficulty understanding how it was an different than the IDF’s similar, earlier Iron Fist system. The two are highly similar, and the tank mounted repulser guns look very much alike. While I may be wrong, I finally understood the difference to be that the repulser gun of the Target system uses something like a shotgun, while the Iron Fist system uses/used EFPs - explosively formed penetrators to do the job. That sent me down a huge research sideline, because an EFP is a variety of a shaped charge explosive, and shaped charge explosives - bazookas, RPGs, etc., are what brought the Era of Armor to a close. That seemed hugely ironic, that a giant armored tank would need to be defended with shaped charge projectors against other shaped charge projectors to which it was highly vulnerable. You see, those things don’t just blow up. They blow forward. Instead of blasting fragments in all directions, their cone shaped hollowpoint metal lined design creates a focused jet of sun-hot plasma which eats it’s way through armor in an eye blink. All of it; the latest designs can chew through armor to a depth 7 times their diameter. Which means an RPG warhead just 3” across can blast through the thickest naval armor plate ever made, with ease. So I did a whole research project on that part too, right back to a 1945 Popular Science article which explained the Munroe effect, and noted how it had been discovered in the late 19th century and then ignored by the military for nearly 50 years. Had it been put to use then, not a single one of the massively armored battleships of the WWII era would have ever been built. Not when three Cub Scouts in a rowboat could sink one, or at least seriously wound or disable it, with a boxful of RPGs.
So anyway, the Target system itself is technically fascinating because it shows just how fast and powerful computers have become. When they aren’t dragged down by Windows I mean. Target can spot, track, analyze, and if necessary defend against RPGs fired at it from only 20 or 30 feet away. Seeing that an RPG flies at just below the speed of sound, that’s mighty fast. And it can defend against HEAT rounds too, which fly faster than a speeding bullet. Pretty damn amazing. It really is a virtual shield, like the one depicted in the fanciful picture above. The other really amazing part is that the counter measure system is so minimal that there is hardly any risk even to nearby bystanders. The first time I heard the news story, it said the guys in the IDF tank didn’t even know the system had activated.
Is it scalable? Can a big one be built, a la Star Wars SDI, that will stop ICBMs? Can a tiny one be made that soldiers can wear that will deflect bullets? Time will tell.
But I put all this stuff together, and it just seemed boring. News item: one tank used a bazillion dollar system to stop one RPG in some dusty alley somewhere in the Middle East. YAWN? What I wrote here isn’t 1/10 of what I had, which covered everything, from the invention of armor and it’s entire history from tree bark and leather through iron and steel through “Harveyizing” through modern ceramic composites and depleted uranium, to defensive reactive explosives, and then on to the whole shaped explosive thing over 100 years, and a discourse on the history and future of tanks from Da Vinci to today. It was huge, but boring. Into the trash! I have to learn to try and be concise.
Speaking of tanks and their history, a guy from bowling league lent me several DVDs of early Laurel & Hardy movies, the ones done by Hal Roach. Yeah, the same Hal Roach who did the Our Gang/Little Rascals films. Ha, he even used the same tune in the Laurel & Hardy flicks.
In one of those movies, Pack Up Your Troubles from 1932, the boys get strong-armed into the Army in 1917 and go Over There. There is one scene where they’re out in No Man’s Land, in a shell crater, running back and forth like ducks in a shooting gallery, trying to get away from the explosions coming in left and right. Sitting in the middle of the crater, in perfect condition, is a Renault FT, the 3 1/2 ton mini tank the French built during the war. A real one.
The boys hide out in the tank for safety, but somebody left the engine running, Stanley leans against one of the control levers by accident, and away goes the tank. Hilarity ensues as he tries to figure out how to drive it, accidentally going up the crater and through the barbed wire, driving an entire company of Jerries out of their trench, tying them up with the barbed wire, and dragging them back to their side as prisoners. The two screw ups are heroes and get promoted. It’s actually about the funniest scene in the whole film. But what I didn’t know is that this little French chug-chug, with it’s top speed of 5mph, was actually still the US’s active duty tank in 1931. It’s little gun used the same anemic 37mm shell that the little pack cannon I wrote about last week used, because that tank served the same purpose, just wrapped in a somewhat mobile and slightly bullet-proof exterior. Here’s another picture and a video of R Lee Ermy taking one for a test ride with all his usual misinformation. That particular tank might be the American made post-war version. Amazingly enough, the FT saw active duty as late as WWII, and perhaps longer, and they keep turning up in the oddest places. Come to think of it, I’ve actually seen the one there at Rhinebeck, but I can’t remember if it was out driving around as part of the show or just sitting on display.
So there you have it. History making tanks from both ends of the time line. But no redheads. No brunettes either, but I’ve got a comparison post in the works on that one. Maybe.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/12/2011 at 10:58 AM
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Permalink • Monday - March 07, 2011
Interesting Military Reading
My brother emailed me a link to StrategyPage.com, and there are any number of interesting reads there. Here are links to just a few of them.
- Egypt invades Libya on the sly?
With large parts of his army changing sides and going over to the rebels, Gadaffi has taken to hiring Taureg tribesmen as mercanaries.Egypt has apparently sent some of its commandos in to help out the largely amateur rebel force. Wearing civilian clothes, the hundred or so Egyptian commandos are officially not there, but are providing crucial skills and experience to help the rebels cope with the largely irregular, and mercenary, force still controlled by the Kadaffi clan.
This is nothing new for the Tuareg, who have been serving as mercenaries for Kadaffi since the 1970s. But now thousands of them are being hired.
...
In Libya, most of the 45,000 man army has either joined the rebels or deserted. The security services (80,000 men of the Revolutionary Guard, Peoples’ Militia and secret police) have also suffered desertions. Worse, but these guys are trained to bully and terrorize civilians, not fight a war. Kadaffi desperately needs some kickass fighters who don’t mind killing Libyan civilians.The Tuareg have a lot of experience in the violence department.
- Somali islamofascist forces taking a beating
March 6, 2011: In Mogadishu, the 8,000 AU (African Union) peacekeepers have pushed back al Shabaab, and seized several compounds the Islamic radicals were using as bases. The peacekeepers have about half their troops in action, and have suffered some 200 casualties in the last two weeks. Al Shabaab suffered over five times as many, including at least 500 dead. The Islamic radicals have been calling in reinforcements since the AU/TNG (Transitional National Government) offensive began in late February, but most of the new gunmen arriving were inexperienced, and took heavy casualties during their first encounters with the AU troops. Total casualties, including civilians, are closer to 2,000 dead and wounded. Al Shabaab is suffering heavy losses as it tries to counterattack and retake lost positions.
- 3rd generation thermal sites reaching troops
Compared to TWS I, the new versions are about a third lighter, and use standard AA batteries.
...
Even during combat, troops have found local Iraqi or Afghan shops selling AAs, and were able to keep their electronic gear going as a result.
...
Thermal sights are particularly popular because they also identify any warm machinery, at long distance, by detecting heat, and they can be used in caves ... as well as in situations like sandstorms and fog. - NorKs forming special squads to fight corruption, because nobody will give them food knowing that it either gets sold or co-opted.
Meanwhile the NorKs are also stockpiling food while people starve so that they can have a big party when ‘lil Kim takes over from daddy.In the midst of all the violence bluster from the north, comes more discreet pleas from diplomats for food. The North Koreans quietly imply that renewed food aid could be monitored, to insure that it got to those who needed it, and not diverted to the military, or sold (in North Korea or China), to provide the government with needed cash. Most donors have stopped supplying food to North Korea because of these diversions, while North Korea explains the lack of free food with loud announcements that it would no longer accept such donations, because they were not needed. But malnutrition is widespread this Winter, the coldest in decades. A lack of fuel makes the suffering worse.
It is believed that the government wants lots of food available for when young Kim Jong Un succeeds his sickly father, Kim Jong Il. It is customary for such occasions to be accompanied by distributions of free food, to put people in a good mood about the change of rulers.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/07/2011 at 10:22 AM
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Permalink • Wednesday - March 02, 2011
Speak Up I Say
Before there was radar, the way to locate the enemy’s airplanes was to hear them coming. This lead to the development of some wacky looking but effective Big Ear technology. It was all aural; no microphones or any electronics.
h/t to Aunty Dhimmi
Gee, you’d think that the smarter heads would have come together, and realized that they could build the original stealth bomber, just by putting some mufflers on the engine. Alas, this is not the case. It turns out that engine noise is less than half the noise produced by a propeller driven airplane. The propeller itself creates something like thunder, as the air displaced around the end comes rushing back in. And the various bits and pieces that stick out - things like canopies, antenna, etc - each contribute to the noise. And the faster you go, the more noise they make. So maybe mufflers would have worked on black painted dirigibles in 1915, but that’s about it.
Of course, to this day, for those people inside the plane it’s even louder, to the point where flying in a small airplane is actually hazardous to your hearing. It also turns out that hanging an exhaust pipe, a muffler, and perhaps a catalytic converter onto an airplane engine sucks out a good bit of their power, and the smaller planes need every last pony just to stay above the ground. That’s a problem, because more and more countries are demanding that airplanes not be so noisy anymore.
One company, Borla Performance Systems, has developed a quiet airplane exhaust that actually increases the power of the engines. But they can’t market their product because of government regulations. Go figure.
Borla Performance Systems of Oxnard, California makes exhaust systems for everything from formula racecars, Italian exotics, and high-performance motorcycles to package delivery trucks. (In one of their biggest recent contracts, Borla has replaced all the exhaust systems, from headers to tailpipes, of the entire U. S. fleet of UPS vans.) Borla also does design and consulting work for Chrysler and Ford. Alex Borla is a pilot - a Beech Baron owner - who feels that aircraft mufflers can make a big difference, and Borla is currently experimenting with such devices.
The company has instrumented the Baron so they can run muffling tests on one engine while leaving the other one stock while making simultaneous noise measurements at exactly matched power settings (confirmed through strain gauges on the engine mounts). Problem is, Borla’s exhaust systems are too good. “We don’t employ any baffles in our automotive and motorcycle mufflers,” Alex Borla explains. “Everything is straight-through. As a result, we’re able to tune the exhaust system all the way out to the tip of the tailpipe. With a baffle-type muffler, as soon as the exhaust pulse hits the first baffle, the tuning effect is over.”
On an airplane, however, tuning the exhaust will buy you trouble. “If the product we make enhances the power of the engine, we can’t get an STC on it,” Borla points out. “I know from just looking at the manifold on the IO-520 in the Baron that I can get at least a 12 to l5 percent increase in power. Which is 30 or 40 extra horsepower, and that’s a big number. I can also bring the engine internal temperatures down and convert that horsepower gain into performance and better mileage.”
But to sell an aviation system, Borla would have to dumb down his product, “And that’s tough to do, with the patented design that we have. But the way the FAA regs are written, I’d have to almost recertify the airplane if I used it.”
This seems a shame. I’ve been up in a little Cessna, and the sound just about made me airsick. Plus the engine has no pollution controls at all, and the exhaust pipes are right in front of you . Good grief, at least run some fat open pipes back past the windows and hang a pair of glass packs on them. Get the noise and the smell behind the passengers.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/02/2011 at 05:04 PM
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Permalink • Monday - February 28, 2011
Ten-hut! Sa-lute!
Frank W. Buckles died Sunday, sadly yet not unexpectedly at age 110, having achieved a singular feat of longevity that left him proud and a bit bemused. In 1917 and 1918, close to 5 million Americans served in World War I, and Mr. Buckles, a cordial fellow of gentle humor, was the last known survivor. “I knew there’d be only one someday,” he said a few years back. “I didn’t think it would be me.”
Mr. Buckles, a widower, died on his West Virginia farm, said his daughter, Susannah Buckles Flanagan, who had been caring for him there.
Flanagan, 55, said her father had recently recovered from a chest infection and seemed in reasonably good health for a man his age. At 12:15 a.m. Sunday, he summoned his live-in nurse to his bedroom. As the nurse looked on, Flanagan said, Mr. Buckles drew a breath, and his eyes fell shut.
“We have lost a living link to an important era in our nation’s history,” Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said of Mr. Buckles, whose distant generation was the first to witness the awful toll of modern, mechanized warfare. “But we have also lost a man of quiet dignity who dedicated his final years to ensuring the sacrifices of his fellow doughboys are appropriately commemorated.”
Mr. Buckles, who was born by lantern light in a Missouri farmhouse, quit school at 16 and bluffed his way into the Army. As the nation flexed its full military might overseas for the first time, he joined 4.7 million Americans in uniform and was among 2 million U.S. troops shipped to France to vanquish the German kaiser.
Ninety years later, with available records showing that former corporal Buckles, serial No. 15577, had outlived all of his compatriots from World War I, the Department of Veterans Affairs declared him the last doughboy standing. He was soon answering fan mail and welcoming a multitude of inquisitive visitors to his rural home.
“I feel like an endangered species,” he joked, well into his 11th decade. As a rear-echelon ambulance driver behind the trenches of the Western Front in 1918, he had been safe from the worst of the fighting. But “I saw the results,” he would say.
“Every last one of us Yanks believed we’d wrap this thing up in a month or two and head back home before harvest,” he said. “In other words, we were the typical cocky Americans no one wants around until they need help winning a war.”
I doubt if there are more than a small handful of people still alive anywhere on earth who even remember the Great War. According to Wiki, in all the world there are only 3 people left alive who could be considered veterans of that affair: the old sailor Claude Choules in the UK, former Women’s Air Force waitress Florence Green, also in the UK, and old Polish soldier Józef Kowalski, who signed up after the shooting was over but before the Armistice was signed. At 111, he’s nearly a year and a half older than the youngster Choules, who is a mere 109.
Posted by Drew458
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Permalink • Wednesday - February 23, 2011
Not This Airplane, Not Today
I wonder what the Libyan Air Force oath of allegiance is? Do they swear to protect their constitution or their citizens against all enemies foreign or domestic? Or do they merely swear fealty to old Daffy Gaddafi? Regardless of the words on paper, it sounds like these two pilots answered to a higher calling. Assuming these two survive the revolution, I’d say they’ll be up for a real courageous restraint award. And someone will have to run the new air force, right?
Thousands of Libyans celebrated the liberation of the eastern city of Benghazi from the rule of Muammar Gaddafi, who was reported to have sent a plane to bomb them on Wednesday as he clung to power.
The crew bailed out of the aircraft after it took off from the capital Tripoli. It then crash-landed south-west of Benghazi, Libya’s Quryna newspaper cited a military source as saying, averting a fresh tragedy in almost a week of bloodshed.
Tripoli, along with western Libya, is still under Gaddafi’s control and people there said they were too afraid of pro-government militia to go out after Gaddafi threatened violence against protesters in a speech on Tuesday night.
As many as 1,000 people have been killed in since the revolt began around a week ago, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said as world leaders scrambled to evacuate their citizens and disagreed on how to end the turmoil.
A Libyan air force plane crashed near the eastern city of Benghazi after its crew bailed out because they refused to carry out orders to bomb the city, Libya’s Quryna newspaper cited a military source as saying.
Quryna’s online version quoted the source, a colonel at an air base near Benghazi, as saying captain Attia Abdel Salem al Abdali and his number two Ali Omar Gaddafi bailed out of the Russian-made Sukhoi-22 plane and parachuted to earth.
The aircraft, which took off from Tripoli, came down near the city of Ajdabiya, 160 km (100 miles) south-west of Benghazi, the newspaper said.
...
Benghazi-based Quryna is Libya’s most reliable media outlet. It was owned by a media group linked to Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam but since Tripoli lost control over Benghazi it has begun to report openly on events in the city and further afield.
The SU-22 was a mid-70s design Soviet ground attack fighter bomber that started life as the SU-17. Production ended in 1978. The SU-22 was the export version. It could go as fast as Mach 2 but had limited range due to it’s heavy payload capacity. This early swing wing aircraft could carry up to 4000 kg of ordnance on 10 external hardpoints. Most nations that flew this plane have now retired it and turned the old aircraft into ornaments at city parks. Libya is believed to have about 40 39 of these aircraft.
Peru recently retired it’s fleet of 11 SU-22s; the only combat they ever saw was when they “accidentally” attacked a US C-130 transport back in 1992.
... and on a similar note, vis-a-vis the violence in Libya:
Posted by Drew458
on 02/23/2011 at 02:57 PM
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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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