Military History

From The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 17 January 2007 We stand at the brink of a second nuclear age. Not since the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has the world faced such perilous choices. North Korea’s recent test of a nuclear weapon, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, a renewed U.S. emphasis on the military utility of nuclear weapons, the failure to adequately secure nuclear materials, and the continued presence of some 26,000 nuclear weapons in the United States and Russia are symptomatic of a larger failure to solve the problems posed by the most destructive technology on Earth. As in past deliberations, we have examined other …

From Defence Talk Sea King Helicopter Celebrates 50th Anniversary of First Flight US Navy | Mar 20, 2009 Share & Bookmark: NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, Patuxent River: The H-3 Sea King helicopter community celebrated the 50th anniversary of the aircraft’s historic first flight March 11. The Sea King is a twin-engine, all-weather, amphibious helicopter used for numerous roles that include anti-submarine warfare, anti-ship warfare, search and rescue, transport, communications, airborne early warning and executive transport. “The Sea King was the Jack of all trades and master of all,” said Capt. James “Walleye” Wallace, Support and Commercial Deriva…

Fifty-three year old nuclear missile accident revealed (Rapid City Journal)

Meant to post this yesterday. Canadian Korean war vets honoured

Some images of that historic day ...

It's 69 years since the Battle of Midway. I found this very interesting article discussing the battle and comparing it with the events it inspired in the Wing Commander franchise.

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the German invasion of the USSR.

From CBC News [excerpt]

It is worth noting that 26 May is the 70th anniversary of the start of Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of Dunkirk. CBC News story

I was reading erroneously the Google News of Philipinnes ..... http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/metro-ma...oved-us-embassy

Lest we forget ... https://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm...m/beaumonthamel

From Veteran Affairs Canada The Opening Day, Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916 Beaumont-Hamel is situated near the northern end of the forty five kilometre front to be assaulted by the French and British. The attack, originally scheduled for June 29, 1916, following a hitherto unprecedented five-day artillery bombardment, was postponed by two days to July 1, 1916, partly on account of inclement weather, partly to allow more time for the artillery preparation. At Beaumont-Hamel, the 29th British Division , with its three Infantry Brigades, the 86th, the 87th and the 88th, faced particularly formidable defences, resolutely manned by the experienced troops of the …

I have transcribed an except from Norman Polmars book "Cold War Submarines" that describes just how good SOSUS is. Might be handy for you scenario developers out there. SOSUS SOSUS was a network of hydrophones emplaced on the ocean floor to detect low frequency noise sources. During WWII, the US, British, and Soviet navies installed limited capacity acoustic arrays on the ocean floor in shallow waters, primarily at the entrance to harbors. After the war, the US Navy began the development of deep ocean arrays. The first developmental SOSUS type array was installed at Eleuthera in the Bahamas in 1951-52, followed by a small experimental array off Sandy Hook, sout…

From the USS King website: http://www.uss-king.com/piraz.shtml

A curious and detailed web site about the Vickers VC.10 and variants, with in-deep analysis of the military conversions: http://www.vc10.net/

Interesting page full of rare data linked to other Israeli UAVs in the chaotic site Israeli-Weapons (if you accede from the front page, you obtains almost nothing ... ): http://www.israeli-weapons.com/weapons/air...eron/Heron.html

Intrigued on if the Improved Los Angeles-class (from USS San Juan) has a ducted screw and it qualifies them for the "Does not cavitate" flag. I don't remember any photo of any Los Angeles with a ducted screw, but ... Analysing navysource.org photos (I saw all the boats photos today!), some curious results here: USS Jacksonville (SSN-699, Flight I) launching ceremony, unshrouded screw probably covered with tarpaulin: http://navsource.org/archives/08/700/0869914.jpg USS Buffalo (SSN-715,Flight I), clearly unshrouded screw (this was a very difficult one to detect in the thumbnails!): http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/0871520.jpg USS Oklahoma City (…

From Code One [excerpt]

The fascinating history of AC-130 Spectre and his operations: http://www.spectre-association.org/historySpectre.htm Plane-by-plane history: http://www.spectre-association.org/First_Lady_129.htm http://www.spectre-association.org/listingsA.htm http://www.spectre-association.org/listingsEH.htm http://www.spectre-association.org/listingsU.htm

This story has been covered by several outlets in the past while: Pacific Fleet's War Diaries Now Available Direct link to the US Naval War College collection here.