Raw Intel

Via The Economist; read all the way to the bottom. When you think about it - their population is 4x ours and their economy has been growing 2-3+ more than ours for over a decade; is was only a matter of time barring a bad black swan. Not all is smooth sailing for China; but 2025 is not that far down the road. Ponder. View the full article

I can't help myself; it is time again to revisit the crew of The Swan of the East; the SMS EMDEN. Everyone should know the story of The Ayesha by Kapitänleutnant Hellmuth von Mücke; Taking no one with me, I got into the steam launch and went out to the schooner to learn whether she was at all seaworthy. The captain and a single sailor were aboard her. Of the former I inquired casually whether he had any ammunition aboard, for I did not wish him to suspect the real purpose of my coming. He said there was none, and a brief inspection of the ship led me to believe that she was still seaworthy. Consequently I sent my officers and men aboard the "Ayesha" to get her into…

DID would like to wish all of our readers a Happy New Year! So, what milestones does India’s Ministry of Defence want to highlight from 2011? Dynamint Nobel is still working on its classic Panzerfaust, whose modern versions have proven quite popular. The lightweight versions are strong urban warfare weapons, and the next step is integrating them with remote weapons stations for roles like harbor defense. Switchblade UAVs to launch from subs? While the could retain their kamikaze capabilities, the reality is that sub-launched UAVs are going to be 1-shot items at first. Why not adapt an existing UAV designed for that? Aviation Week Intelligence Network re…

[From 40 Commando in Afghanistan in 2008...] For those that have ever met and/or partied with these guys know that this is what what you can usually expect... Christmas for the Commandos in Afghanistan was always going to be different - but no one could have predicted just how different. One minute they were singing carols at dusk beneath a mellow sun in the baked bare wasteland of Helmand province while wearing festive Santa hats, the next they were firing mortars after their Christmas Day service came under attack from the Taliban. So rapid was the reaction of Royal Marines of 40 Commando that within less than a minute of the first "contact" from the Taliban's machine g…

This wins the prize for complete inability to admit the blisteringly freaking obvious point that al Qaeda is an Islamist terror group, they are at war with us and we are at war with them. This member of the Defense Department wastes bushels of oxygen evading the simple fact that our enemies are religious fanatics of an easily-identifiable flavor, identifiable because they shout their "god's" name as they hack the heads off living men and women. It is sad reminder that our "leaders" would rather bury their heads in sand, that our enemies tread wearing the iron sandals of violent Islamist extremist ideology, than be shunned by the "right"-thinking left as politically incorr…

DigitalGlobe Inc., a commercial satellite company, said Wednesday that it took a photograph of China’s first aircraft carrier during a sea trial in the Yellow Sea, off the Chinese coast. View the full article

Presented for comment. Confirmed by multiple sources, this is the very latest from OMB to the DoD regarding aircraft carriers and FY13: The navy has proposed an additional 2-year schedule slip to its newest carrier, CVN79, which would extend the funding profile from the original 8 yrs to 12 yrs. The Navy would initiate the 4-yr construction process in FY15 after 8 years of advance procurement activities. Given the challenges of implementing the BCA caps, OMB allows the additional 2 year slip to CVN-79. However, the Navy should request authorization to commence regular CVN-79 construction in FY13 and continuing through FY18. The CVN-79 funding profile does not change,…

VAQ-129 aboard Reagan over the Veteran's Day weekend. Hat tip DW. View the full article

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…

It never fails that in or around Veteran’s Day, someone decides to show the world what a total jackass they are. And this year doesn’t disappoint. Meet Sufolk University law professor Michael Avery. Professor Avery is a member of the law school staff. He’s a Harvard grad who also studied at Moscow University from ‘68 to ‘69 (and that tells you volumes). He once gave a talk in Cuba (with Fidel Castro in attendance) entitled "The Hypocrisy of US Policy Towards Terrorism." Another member of the law school staff sent an email around asking for support for deployed troops (including a law student from the school who is deployed) to include pretty basic stuf…

An interesting discussion going on at AskReddit about the comparisons.... Let's say we go back in time with a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), since the numbers of members and equipment is listed for our convenience in this Wikipedia article , could we destroy all 30 of Augustus' legions? We'd be up against nearly 330,000 men since each legion was comprised of 11,000 men. These men are typically equipped with limb and torso armor made of metal, and for weaponry they carry swords, spears, bows and other stabbing implements. We'd also encounter siege weapons like catapults and crude incendiary weapons. We'd be made up of about 2000 members, of which abou…

CBC News is reporting that the Harper Government is at least pondering the idea of cutting their losses with the Victoria class submarines and replacing them with nuclear submarines. The Victoria class submarines have been plagued with problems since being acquired from the UK, and despite being described as the "military bargain of the century" when purchased for $750 million in 1998, they have become anything but. The submarines are currently all out of service, with HMCS Victoria the soonest to potentially return to service by late next year. The article describes the issues. One of the subs, HMCS Chicoutimi, has been in active service of the Royal Canadian Na…

I'm just gonna come out and say that this argument hasn't aged well: Employing a squadron of stealth fifth-generation F-22s along with other select capabilities would help reduce the need to expend significantly more resources while reducing operational risk. Coercive diplomacy backed by naval presence, decisive air power, and accurate weapons in the region would allow the U.S. and others to negate Libyan air defenses and air forces. The world-class capability inherent in the F-22 also bears a psychological-intimidation factor that sends a clear message that no Libyan aircraft will fly without consequences. Simply talking about a no-fly zone should highlight th…

Ummmm, yep. Rex just about nails it. In the main, the establishment American media abandoned its critical faculties during the Obama campaign — and it hasn’t reclaimed them since. Much of the Obama coverage was orchestrated sycophancy. They glided past his pretensions — when did a presidential candidate before “address the world†from the Brandenberg Gate in Berlin? They ignored his arrogance — “You’re likable enough, Hillary.†And they averted their eyes from his every gaffe — such as the admission that he didn’t speak “Austrian.†The media walked right past the decades-long association of Obama with the weird and racist pastor Jerem…

Learn and adapt ... learn and adapt. Using attack helicopters from the sea appears to be in vogue, again. The concept appeared dormant, but gained new attention in Europe when the French and U.K. moved to deploy on ships the Tiger and Apache helicopters in support of military operations in Libya. Australia also has plans to deploy its Tiger ARHs from ships. Now Russia is joining the mix. The country's military is conducting trials to clear the Ka-52 for ship-borne operations, with the Northern Fleet using the Vice Adm. Kulakov for at-sea trials. When I saw that pick, my puzzl'r started tingl'n and I said, "Ah, ha! I've seen that…

Paul made this observation in an email; If this is for real, it makes the Tomcat look petite He's got a good point. Look at the size of the people relative to the aircraft. More importantly; check out that weapons bay. Unlike other internal weapons bays for internal air-to-air missiles - the J-20s is massive. Give it a look. Looks deep. That almost seems less a weapons bay than an old school bomb bay with plenty of room for all sorts of toys. How far back does it go behind that huge access door that is down? Perhaps, because it is a single, vice a folding door like the F-22, it just seems big. But ... the J-20 is a big bird. Ar…

In this age of austerity I am an unrepentant and unapologetic supporter of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). Let's get a few things straight about what that means. It means I think this jet and the program are absolutely critical to our national defense and our continued air dominance. It means we made a very bad mistake cancelling the F-22 program after 182 aircraft (to replace 700-800 aging air superiority fighters) and the JSF is the last and greatest hope for bridging that self-inflicted 5th generation fighter gap and retaining our technological and tactical air edge. Perhaps what it doesn’t mean is important as well. My support requires a well thought out a…

Maybe it's Baghdad Bob. Sump'n. Here is a problem; a free press relies on honest information from government sources and industry in order to produce stories. The press also should make sure and have the right reporters focus on the right areas. When you have government sources living in PPTland, industry in full Bu11sh1t Bingo mode, and the press is full of restaurant and theater critics - I guess you git howlers like this from The Australian. They carry three helicopters and special forces units with armoured vehicles that can roll off a ramp into action, while fast gunboats can be launched from the stern. All at once? On bank holidays too? Does it …

Loaded to the K-MAX (click to view full) With its 5,145 lb empty weight (2.3 metric tons), the K-MAX UAS cannot quite convey the same sense of graceful lightness as its Hummingbird Boeing competitor, coming at slightly less than half the weight. Belonging to a different weight class shifts the Lockheed Martin/Kaman helo to a different mission focus, with a clear emphasis on battlefield cargo resupply. K-MAX has a useful load of 6,855 lb (3.1 tons) vs. 2,500 pounds for the Hummingbird. Up to 6,000 lb (at sea level) can be attached to the cargo hook which is attached to a curved trolley system. Payload at 10,000 ft is still rated above 5,000 lb. (more…) View the fu…

Just lovely. Our "friends' the Pakistanis, the best allies money can rent, have apparently continued hedging their bets as far as who will be their sugar daddy. With the planeloads of loot we have been supplying them, which they tranship almost immediately to Dubai, in jeopardy they have continued to play footsie with the Chinese. "The US now has information that Pakistan, particularly the ISI, gave access to the Chinese military to the downed helicopter in Abbottabad," said one person in intelligence circles, referring to the Pakistani spy agency. The Chinese engineers were allowed to survey the wreckage and take photographs of it, as well as take samples of the…