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From Air Force Magazine, July 2007 “Enemy troops 75 meters away. ... I need guns only!” The Art of Strafing By Richard B.H. Lewis Modern fighter pilots risk their lives every day performing the act of strafing, which to some may seem like a tactic from a bygone era. Last November, an F-16 pilot, Maj. Troy L. Gilbert, died strafing the enemy in Iraq, trying to protect coalition forces taking fire on the ground. My first thought was, “Why was an F-16 doing that mission?” But I already knew the answer. In the 1980s, at the height of the Cold War, I was combat-ready in the 512th Fighter Squadron, an F-16 unit at Ramstein AB, Germany. We had to maintain combat…

From Stratfor The Maneuvering Before the Storm: Second Quarter Forecast 2007 The second quarter of 2007 will brim with fury and froth as two states attempt to challenge the geopolitical order imposed by others to stem their expansion, in hopes of regaining their long-lost position as major powers. Throughout the quarter, these two states will seek a louder voice and a stronger hand. The real conflicts, however, will come later. For the first country -- Iran -- the more aggressive tone is part and parcel of the diplomatic dance with the United States. Both countries realize that their ideal for Iraq -- unified and pro-American for Washington, unified and pro-Ir…

The March 2007 issue of Proceedings contains Eric Wertheim's article "World Navies in Review". You can find it here.

From Aviation Week Concerns Grow About Iranian, North Korean Missiles and Chinese Asats By Craig Covault The Bush administration for the first time says it has intelligence proving detailed and ongoing collaboration between Iran and North Korea in the development of new ballistic missiles. The Pentagon has also just released previously secret intelligence data on new Iranian and North Korean ballistic missiles under development. North Korean and Chinese missiles already threaten the Middle East, Asia and Europe and could eventually target the U.S. The new Pentagon data also confirm an Aviation Week & Space Technology report that Iran is working to…

Interesting excerpt on the Mk41 VLS system. MK 41 Naval Vertical Missile Launch Systems Delivered, Supported (updated) Posted 03-Nov-2006 02:48 Defense Industry Daily The naval MK 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) hides missiles below decks in vertical slots, with key electronics and venting systems built in. A deck and hatch assembly at the top of the module protects the missile canisters from the elements et. al. during storage, and the hatches open to permit missile launches of various types. Lockheed Martin is the system's prime contractor, and BAE Systems Land & Armamaents also makes components and cannisters for the MK 41 system. This post w…

Here is a teaser. "We didn't encounter them in the Gulf or in Kosovo. Next time, we will. The Double-Digit SAMs By John A. Tirpak, Senior Editor Since the inception of stealth aircraft such as the B-2 bomber and the F-22 fighter, the Air Force has been warning that advanced surface-to-air missile systems in the early 2000s would begin proliferating among US adversaries, sharply raising the danger to nonstealthy combat aircraft. As if on cue, Russia in December announced it had struck a multibillion dollar arms deal to equip Iran with the deadly S-300 family of SAMs and its associated radars." The full article is here.

Find it hereHere Hezbollah cracked the code Technology likely supplied by Iran allowed guerrillas to stop Israeli tank assaults BY MOHAMAD BAZZI Newsday Middle East Correspondent September 18, 2006 AITA SHAAB, Lebanon -- Hezbollah guerrillas were able to hack into Israeli radio communications during last month's battles in south Lebanon, an intelligence breakthrough that helped them thwart Israeli tank assaults, according to Hezbollah and Lebanese officials. Using technology most likely supplied by Iran, special Hezbollah teams monitored the constantly changing radio frequencies of Israeli troops on the ground. That gave guerrillas a picture of Israe…

SOSUS- The "Secret Weapon" of Undersea Surveillance By Edward C. Whitman Born of a three-way marriage of early Cold War strategic necessity, World War II progress in underwater acoustics, and an extraordinary engineering effort, the Navy’s pioneering Sound Surveillance System – SOSUS – became a key, long-range early-warning asset for protecting the United States against the threat of Soviet ballistic missile submarines and in providing vital cueing information for tactical, deep-ocean, anti-submarine warfare. And although subsequent events – most notably the end of the Cold War – robbed SOSUS of much of its mission, its history remains an object lesson in how inspire…

Found this while trying to find out more about the SA-10b. Scroll to the bottom for an outstanding graphic. Find it here at the Australian Airpower website.

Gentlemen, Please find the above article here. It is a very interesting read for better understanding some of the problems encountered with attempts at suppressing enemy air defenses in the relative recent past.

Find it here. This article relates pretty well to what was discussed last night on HG chat.

Type of cannon: gas-operated revolver cannon with four chambers Max range: 3500 metres ( 1,890nm) Caliber: 35mm ROF: 1000 rounds per minutes (16rounds/s). Basic load: 200 rounds Capability to fire Ahead ((Advanced Hit Efficiency And [10:30] <JanM> Destruction) air burst munition (ABM)) ammunition (each round consisting of 152 sub-projectiles, weight of each sub-projectile 3.3 g, muzzle velocity 1050 m/s) It's a kind of improved airbust since it can be programmed (when and how detonate) http://www.rheinmetall-detec.com/product.php?lang=3&fid=1570 http://www.deagel.com/pandora/?p=pm00218001 http://proceedings.ndia.org/3500/Bradick_NL_NDIA.pps (pow…

Boeing Eyes High-Flying Torpedo Navy League By RICHARD R. BURGESS, Managing Editor Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is proposing a new weapon that would enable sub-hunting aircraft to fire at targets from high altitudes, reducing the time between target acquisition and attack. Steven L. Wingfield, manager of JDAM Business Development for the Boeing unit, said the proposed antisubmarine warfare (ASW) weapon for the High-Altitude ASW Weapon Concept (HAAWC), would be launched from the P-8A Multimission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) at an altitude of 30,000 feet and glide seven to 10 minutes to the water entry point, where it would shed its wings and activate a parach…

U.S. To Test 700-Ton Explosive By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE DefenseNews The U.S. military plans to detonate a 700 ton explosive charge in a test called “Divine Strake” that will send a mushroom cloud over Las Vegas, a senior defense official said March 30. ”I don’t want to sound glib here but it is the first time in Nevada that you’ll see a mushroom cloud over Las Vegas since we stopped testing nuclear weapons,” said James Tegnelia, head of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Tegnelia said the test was part of a U.S. effort to develop weapons capable of destroying deeply-buried bunkers housing nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. ”We have several very la…

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From Defense Aerospace DRS Technologies to Develop Shaftless Propulsion Technology for Next-Generation Nuclear Submarine Design (Source: DRS Technologies, Inc.; issued June 28, 2005) PARSIPPANY, N.J. --- DRS Technologies, Inc. announced today that it was awarded a new $30 million contract, including options, to develop advanced shaftless propulsion technology for a next-generation U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarine design study under the Tango Bravo program. Tango Bravo is a joint effort established by the U.S. Navy and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Advanced Technology Office (ATO), in Arlington, Virginia, to develop a demonstrati…

How do we model this in Harpoon?! Oz's Magnetic Sub-Hunter DefenseTech Being a sub-hunter has gotten tough, lately. The new diesel subs that Iran and China are buying up are tiny, quiet, and can swim through the crannies that hug the coasts. That makes 'em really hard to find. And it's a major reason why the U.S. Navy is switching from passive sonars to Slayer-loud, active sonars that makes whales slam dance onto dry land. Australian scientists may have found a better way to find these quiet subs, The Engineer reports -- one that doesn't drive whales psycho. The Australian development, called MAGSAFE, uses the detection of changing magnetic fields to…

Blunt arrows: the limited utility of ASATs by Dwayne Day Excerpt from The Space Review Monday, June 6, 2005 Last week in The Space Review Mark Listner wrote about the Outer Space Treaty and anti-satellite weapons (ASATs): “Although technically the treaty does not allow these types of weapons (considering the ban on military activities), the fact is that these have been under development at times in the past, and may be so today.” (See “It’s time to rethink international space law”, May 31, 2005) This is false. The Outer Space Treaty places no limits on anti-satellite weapons and never has. During the Cold War neither superpower actively sought an international …

Many Replacements for the Periscope StrategyPage June 5, 2005: The U.S. is experimenting with two new low-cost optics systems that would allow submerged submarines to "look" around at sea level without having to get close to the surface and deploy a traditional periscope. This also includes an upgrade for existing periscopes by adding a high-tech camera system. The Virtual Periscope will be tested aboard the USS Chicago this summer. It takes advantage of the fact that the surface of the ocean acts as a simple lens, collecting light from above the service and refracting it below. A small camera mounted on the sail of the submarine will collect the light and use …