Current Events

Armchair General and WarfareHQ have undergone some dramatic changes. Not only has WHQ become StrategyZone Online, but the forums and both sites have moved to a new server. Please drop in and give them a visit was well as changing your book marks accordingly to: http://www.strategyzoneonline.com/forums/ Congratulations, SZO.

NAVY WANTS UNDERWATER SPYCAM NET Defense Tech Submarines have been part of America's arsenal since the Civil War. But we still don't have a very good idea about what lies below. Even the coastal, or littoral, waters remain something of a mystery -- which is why the USS San Francisco ran aground in January. And trying to track the sneaky little diesel subs that Tehran and Beijing are stockpiling? That can be even harder still. The Office of Naval Research's solution: a semi-autonomous "network of fixed bottom and mobile sensors" that can track ships and subs along in the shallows. According to Defense Industry Daily, the Navy's big thinkers have just handed Penn …

ELF still controversial BY EMILY FAWVER Spooner Advocate Last Updated: Wednesday, May 11th, 2005 10:14:16 AM On Sept. 30, 2004, the United States Navy shut down the much-debated Project ELF (extremely low frequency) stations in Clam Lake, Wis., and Republic, Mich., after the Navy said the project was outdated and no longer of use. Project ELF was built in 1968 and started transmitting ELF waves in 1989. The purpose of the project was to communicate with deeply submerged, fast-moving Trident and fast attack submarines, each carrying 24 missiles with up to eight nuclear warheads. The Navy used ELF waves because the waves are able to deeply penetrate the o…

Looks like another step close to David Drake's "Hammer's Slammers" storyline. U.S. Army Balks at Sending Laser Weapon to Iraq By REUTERS DefenceNews

By KATE WILTROUT, The Virginian-Pilot © May 3, 2005 HamptonRoads.com The Navy plans to create a sonar training range where its forces can learn to detect enemy submarines. But with sonar known to have contributed to some whale deaths and possibly linked to other cases of animal distress – including a recent beaching incident, shown above, on the Outer Banks - a battle is brewing. Four months ago, as a half-dozen Navy ships practiced hunting submarines off the coast, more than 30 whales of various species stranded and died on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. The Navy said no sub-detecting sonar had been used within 50 miles of the beach during the exercise, a…

Earth Penetrating Warheads Against Deep Targets FAS.org The Administration is requesting funds from Congress for exploring the feasibility of a Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, or RNEP. “Robust” means that the nuclear bomb will be able to penetrate some distance into hard rock before exploding. The RNEP is being pursued in response to the worldwide proliferation of deeply buried targets. The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) has just completed a study, “Earth Penetrating Warheads against Deep Targets,” that examines arguments for the RNEP, analyses countermeasures, and calculates the consequences of using an RNEP. We find it comes up short on all accoun…

From The Wargamer Rumored: Matrix to Publish Harpoon Titles? Posted by Chris Abele @ 11:56 EST Harpoon – Commander’s Edition and Harpoon 3 Advanced Naval Warfare to be added to Matrix catalog "Sources close to the matter have revealed to The Wargamer that Advanced Gaming Systems' Harpoon line of products will be re-published by Matrix Games. Two of the classic naval simulation games will be re-released: Harpoon Classic will be renamed Harpoon – Commander’s Edition and will feature improved AI and database elements. It is unclear how this game is related to the "Harpoon Classic 2005" game mentioned on the AGS web site. The more recent Harpoon 3 will be published …

Wow, February seems to be the lucky month for the Harpoon community. 2 new sites to support our hobby. Such an embarrassment of riches. WarfareHQ.com is the latest site to host a dedicated Harpoon discussion section and File Archive. Players and designers can also post their scenarios, databases, After-Action Reports, and any other manner of files to the File Archives. All versions of computer Harpoon and even the paper rules may be discussed. On a personal note, the number of different sites is not meant as competition with one another but is only meant to give us another place to discuss Harpoon and Harpoon-related topics. I will be joining and supporting…

Source: http://personal.inet.fi/cool/foxfour/sovmis/sovmis-ss.html http://www.nti.org/db/nisprofs/russia/expo...eral/expmsl.htm http://www.missilethreat.com/missiles/ss-26_russia.html

From National Defense Magazine, March 2005 issue http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/iss...ewd_Tactics.htm Shrewd Tactics Underpin Navy Strategy to Defeat Diesel Submarines In preparation for future wars, U.S. ship commanders will be trained to employ unconventional tactics against enemies equipped with diesel submarines. Navy planners anticipate that adversaries will try to deny U.S. forces access to key strategic coastal areas by deploying quiet diesel-electric submarines. These hard-to-detect boats would make it difficult for U.S. ships to move around freely without exposing themselves to an enemy torpedo shot. For that reason, the U.S. Navy is adop…