Raw Intel

Iran test launches Shahab 3 missiles in 2009 The German newspaper Die Welt reports that Iran is building intermediate- range missile launch pads in Venezuela. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards firm, Amir al-Hadschisadeh, is building the launch complex, including missile silos and bunkers on the Paraguaná Peninsula, on the north coast of Venezuela facing America. Miami is about two thousand miles north from the launch site. Iran's Shahab 3 IRBM has a range of a thousand miles, the Shahab 4 1200 miles, and the Shahab 5, under development, more than 4000 miles. Washington, DC and New York City are about 3000 miles from the launch site. The Shahab missiles were based …

Here is a title that isn't shocking to anyone on the front porch; U.S. Navy Officials Suppressed Bad LCS-1 Test Results Mike Faybey's article at AviationLeak is worth a full read, so is POGO's say about it. Nothing really shocking in some respects, especially the testing information - but what is more interesting is what this tells us about the culture. There are two things that I think are the most important in the article. They are things that perhaps the general public does not fully get a grasp of, and sadly those inside the lifelines know so well that they are an accepted part of the atmosphere. First, like we discussed with Chris Cavas on Midrats last…

DDG 1000's composite deckhouse was revealed this week down in Gulfport. The uniquely angled 48.8m long, by 21.3m wide, by 19.8m high balsa-wood core carbon fiber super-structure is designed to provide the Navy's newest guided-missile destroyer a low radar and infrared signature. The deckhouse, combined with a low-profile tumblehome hull will likely achieve this goal, but is it truly fair to say that this design is "stealthy?" Today's enemies will not operate long range maritime patrol aircraft and radar satellites like the Soviet Union did to locate U.S. fleets on the open ocean 30 years ago. They will, however, use a network of tattletale fishing dhows equipped wit…

Not by me - I went to see The Avengers at IMAX.Anyway - Burke over at StrategyPage does a fine job. For some reason, I like this. At this point, we should remember Mark Twain’s remark that Wagner’s music is better than it sounds. Battleship is actually more fun than a description of it sounds. Once the action starts it’s nonstop. The movie looks great, and you can sit there and ogle your choice of the special effects, the extensive Navy hardware, or Brooklyn Decker. It’s a summer movie, big, loud, mindless, and fun if you don’t think about it too much. It’s an unusual blend of patriotism and PC. The movie’s heart, at least, is in the right place. The i…

From here. STRAIT OF HORMUZ (May 19, 2012) The guided-missile destroyer USS Nitze (DDG 94) transits the Strait of Hormuz with Military Sealift Command missile range instrumentation ship USNS Invincible (T-AGM 24) and British Royal Navy ships HMS Ramsey (M110), HMS Pembroke (M107) and RFA Lyme Bay (L3007). Nitze is deployed as part of the Enterprise Carrier Strike Group to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility conducting maritime security operations, theater security cooperation efforts and support missions as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jeff Atherton/Released) It is very interesting that while …

Christopher Carlson has produced a very good analysis on the ASCM hit on the INS Hanit. You can get the whole thing here. The Executive Summary: If missiles have your puzzl'r puzzl'n - then make sure and listen to yesterday's Midrats if you have not already. View the full article

If the name CDR E. A. Westfall, CDR, USCG sounds familiar, then you are a regular listener to Midrats. He joined us back on Episode 26 of Midrats to discuss the nature of Command, and is the Commanding Officer of the USCGC ESCANABA (WMEC 907). Well, our good Skipper has had an interesting day mid-month. From CNN: A U.S. Coast Guard cutter was fired upon by suspected drug traffickers during a pursuit off the coast of Nicaragua, a Coast Guard spokesman told CNN. No Coast Guard personnel were injured in the gunfight, said Lt. Cmdr. Chris O'Neil. The incident took place in the early morning of September 14, but information about the attack was not re…

One of the SEALs from the bin Laden raid has apparently written a book about the operation. He uses a pseudonym, but I know his name and it will likely come out shortly. The bottom line is that doing this makes you a douche of epic proportions. There was whining about how former operators were pointing out that leaks about classified ops were hurting our security. They were called unprofessional, which was unfair. They were not giving out info, they were saying that the giving out of info was a dangerous thing This jackass is going to basically spill the details of the raid so he can cash in. Dear Loser, Enjoy the money, you are now dead to all the rest of us. Cordiall…

Were they ever? I will stick with my quote that they are the best friend about $5 B a year will buy, except you can't buy friends. We have some tough decisions to make and whether we keep paying a bunch of corruptocrat weasels who have never played straight with us is first and foremost. I don't have an answer yet, and I don't think there are any good ones. View the full article

From a little side-bar I was having with our buddy Galrahn - we wandered in the Royal Navy's VERY retro sounding Joint Concept Note 1/12: Future 'Black Swan' Class Sloop-of-War: A Group System. OK, the only retro use is "Sloop-of-War" - which I fully support. It ain't a corvette ... and it is almost more like the exceptionally poorly named LCS. Read the whole thing - but without picking it apart all over the place - right or wrong I like some of the intellectual work behind it. The Brits have done some good, modest, and reasonable intellectual ponderings; "122. The UK needs affordable solutions to deliver a balanced fleet. It requires the agility to adjust to a…

All you old Cold Warriors ... remember those innocent "tattletales" that always seemed to want to collect "Electronic Intelligence" on our HVU? What's a few torpedo tubes between friends? This was in dry dock in St. Petersburg in the middle of last decade. I am pretty sure this was just a test and development ship - at least that is what a quickie search about the hull number says. I tend to believe that - because I really don't see how you could hide that for long. Remember what part of the world they were found in more than not? You see the underside of every hull eventually. Still though .... Innocent? Sure they were! Hat tip RS and other dudes in e…

You can say one thing about President Obama, he is consistent on foreign affairs. Kick our allies in the teeth and kiss our enemies on the ass. I guess weakness is the new strength. WASHINGTON – Citing a need to refocus America's defenses against missiles, the White House said it will shelve Bush administration plans to build a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. "After an estensive process, I have approved the unanimous recommendations of my secretary of defense and my joint chiefs of staff to strenghten America's defenses against ballistic-missile attack," Mr. Obama said in a morning address. If all of those people did call for this, t…

Ungh. He strikes; again. "What our task force is here to do is really to understand what the impacts of climate change, especially in the arctic, will have on Navy's operations, said Rear Adm. David Titley, Navy oceanographer and director of task force climate change. "We look at climate change simply as changing geography, and we work on, above and under the water and the ocean every day, so we need to understand as that environment is changing, how that will impact our naval operations. So, really it's all about readiness for us." Where exactly have poorly researched, fraud infused, socio-religious, neo-paganism made its way in to the readiness matrix again…

The Salamander underground comes through. The report to Congress on Fire Scout referenced earlier this week can be found here. You have to skip the first 11 pages of letters to Congressmen and Senators to get to the meat. Head to the link above, give it a read and then come back. Let's discuss. Here are my Top-3. 1. Since Milestone C, the program has conducted extensive flight testing collecting 1,500 MQ-8B flight hours between March 2007 and March 2011 . Contractor developmental test pilots executing developmental test plans flew 1,250 of those hours. These developmental tests were not operationally realistic, and yielded little insight into the oper…

The DOT&E FY2011 Annual Report (PDF) is out, and I noted that Wired is focused on the LCS report (PDF). The reason the Wired article on LCS reads like it's reaching for straws to find news in the LCS report is because the DOT&E FY2011 Annual Report on LCS lacks new information. The DOT&E report basically details exactly what ADM Pandolfe told everyone at Surface Navy Association conference - in January of last year (in 2011). Hard to get worked up about issues openly discussed over a year ago. What I did find interesting about the report is that the report heavily focuses on the MIW module problems, but only one aspect of the module - the airborne pieces e…

Back in 2008's Zhuhai airshow, a mysterious SAM called FL-3000N was shown and looked a lot like RIM-116 (aka RAM). You can see my commentary on this system at the bottom of my blog entry on Zhuhai 2008. At the time, I thought it was more of an export project, since Zhuhai airshow tend to display those more prominently. I was also under the impression that PLAN was going the route of using new air defense guns as the next generation CIWS. It turned out with the recent Varyag photos, that they have decided to field both this new SAM (domestic designation is supposedly HQ-10) and what looks to be Type 730 (commonly found on most recent PLAN warships) on Varyag. You…

BTW - in the German Navy, three thick stripes is a LCDR, not CDR. I like the beard too. ... and yes, I noticed the picture in the Wardroom/Chiefs Mess at the 3:00 mark. Hat tip Boquisucio@Argghhh!!! View the full article

Call me juvenile, but if they ever make a movie of the Libyan intervention, this has to be in it: A U.S. Navy P-3C Maritime Patrol aircraft, a U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt attack aircraft and guided-missile destroyer USS Barry (DDG-52) engaged Libyan Coast Guard vessel Vittoria and two smaller crafts after confirmed reports that Vittoria and accompanying craft were firing indiscriminately at merchant vessels in the port of Misrata, Libya, during the evening March 28, 2011. The P-3C fired at Vittoria with AGM-65F Maverick missiles after multiple explosions were observed in the vicinity of the port rendering the 12-meter patrol vessel ineffective and forcing i…

Wait. What?! This video (flying around today) of Democrat Senator Jeanne Shaheen is unbelievable...: Wonder how the SEAL Team chiefs and officers feel about that one... Jonn Lilyea says that this is evidence of the Dems swiftboating the SEALs. Heh. View the full article

Prototype No. 2011 of the J-20 project had its maiden flight last weekend. As previously discussed, No. 2011 has significant changes to the previous J-20 prototypes that we've seen in flight testing (No. 2001 and No. 2002). There were probably 2 more prototypes similar to 2001/2002 for the purpose of static and RCS testing. It seems like 2001/2002 are more like the demonstrator prototypes whereas 2011 is the first pre-production prototype. It's likely that the production version of J-20 will not see any major differences unless major problems are found in testing. The pictures below show prototype 2001 vs prototype 2011 from different view point with Chinese labels o…