pmaidhof

Hi Tony, No Tico took a questionable, but necessary as (lunch) time was of the essence, BOL launch from its passive detection of the Virginia. I suppose that once the Virginia skipper detected the eight inbound missiles he would unleash his stocks. Please keep in mind that this was just a little joy during lunch, not a thesis on ASuW.

Today's engagement was limited to the few data sheets that I had with me. A Ticonderoga Class CG took on one of its predecessors a Virginia class CGN. Hostilities had already been declared so both combatants were looking for action. Since VA had no embarked helo, and since time was of the essence, I did not launch any helos from the Tico. Both ships were on intercepting courses and at Long range, defined as 25-85nm apart - but arranged so that after the first movement turn they would be at 25nm. The VA was active while the Tico was passive. VA, shouting over here was only successful in getting itself passively detected by the Tico. Tico declares combat, and launches 8x Harpoon 1B ibased on the passive detection. The missiles are placed next to Tico. The missiles then move to the medium range band, VA attempt to detect but is again unsuccessful, now against these Sea Skimming missiles. The missiles then move to the Short Range Band. VA detects the inbound missiles. The forward Mk-26 launcher spits out an SM2MR, knocking out one Harpoon. The aft Mk-26 was masked. The Harpoons move to Very Short. The forward Mk-26 is prevented from firing due to time/space reasons. The forward Mk45 127mm/54 takes out 1x Harpoon. VA launches a chaff cloud, which seduces 2x Harpoons. The Mk-15 CIWSs take out 2x Harpoons, but in the end the two remaining Harpoons slam into the VA. Damage rolls of "2" and "2" on a D10 spells 2x crippled results, and the ultimate destruction of CGN-38. Will make sure I have some truely opposing forces next time.

Beginning on September 23, 2007 on Public Broadcasting. PBS - The War

Still no sign of dogfights again this week, however Modern Marvels Friday night @ 8:00pm EDT is as follows: Modern Marvel: B-2 bomber In any battle, the key to victory is the ability to strike the enemy without them knowing what hit them. Within the US arsenal one such weapon can go into harm's way, deliver 40,000 pounds of either conventional or nuclear bombs, and slip away unobserved--the B-2 Stealth Bomber. With its origins in single-wing experimentation in Germany in the 1930s, the B-2 was developed under a cloak of secrecy. But when that cloak was lifted, the world was awed by what stood before them. Able to fly over 6,000 miles without refueling, it can reach whatever target the US military wants to attack and deliver its awesome array of laser-guided weapons with pinpoint accuracy. Using state-of-the-art technology, including over 130 onboard computers, and shrouded by a mantle of stealth, it's undetectable by any radar.

Thanks Brad. I was poking around yesterday trying to find an update on the LCS program, and it now appears from your article that "Freedom" was planned for Spring 2007 but due to the usual delays and cost overruns it now looks like Spring 2008.

Upon further review...(hey NFL is coming back real soon) I take that back from the point that the 2nd a/c impacting, it must have been in one of the countless other Falklands videos I watched. Once I find that one, I'll be sure to post.

Navy Honors Submarine Hero Baltimore Sun - August 29, 2007 By Bradley Olson, Sun Reporter The nicknames of Rear Adm. Eugene B. Fluckey -- "The Galloping Ghost of the China Coast" and "Lucky Fluckey" -- meant to bring a little levity to the exploits of one of the most decorated sailors in history. But as loved ones and shipmates approached an urn on display under the vast dome of the Naval Academy chapel yesterday to say a few words, many stopped in awe, bowing slightly as a last homage to the man who sank 29 Japanese ships as a submarine commander in the Pacific on his way to receiving the Medal of Honor and four Navy Crosses. About 250 people gathered to pay their respects to Fluckey -- an Annapolis resident who died June 28 at the age of 93 -- including members of Congress, past Navy luminaries, top academy officials and 10 men who served under him. "He was an ideas man," said Capt. Max Duncan, a torpedo officer on Fluckey's USS Barb. "He was forever curious to find new ways of doing things. ... And he loved to take it to the enemy." He was the first to fire rockets from a submarine -- now one of the ships' primary roles -- and once blew up a troop train by sending eight men to plant a 55-pound bomb under the tracks. Duncan described several of the more famous incidents during Fluckey's war patrols off the east coast of China from late 1944 to February 1945. In what his Medal of Honor citation describes as "an exceptional feat of brilliant deduction and bold tracking," Fluckey found more than 30 Japanese ships off Mamkwan Harbor on Jan. 25, 1945. Knowing they would have to escape at full speed through shallow, rocky, mine-infested waters, he launched a number of torpedoes and made eight direct hits, blowing up an ammunition ship that caused "inestimable damage by the resultant flying shells and other pyrotechnics." He also is credited with sinking more tonnage than any other U.S. commander in World War II. "He never stopped to assess the situation," Duncan said. "He had our undying respect and admiration. We will miss him." Barbara Fluckey Bove, his only daughter, said he remained engaged in small innovations. In brief breaks he took from the around-the-clock care he gave his ailing first wife in 1979 -- leaving her briefly in the care of family or friends -- he would go out to study the stoplights in residential areas. Having long railed against America's dependence on foreign oil, he came up with a more energy-efficient way to use the stoplights that he hoped could be applied on a national scale. Bove said he sent his work to Congress in 1979 and got no response. When he was put in charge of raising the money for Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, where Navy's football team has played its home games for nearly a half-century, he "was so enthused, he could have built it by himself, brick by brick," Bove said. Noting his agile mind and endless curiosity, she added that it wouldn't be right to wish that he "rest in peace. "Instead we say: Anchors Aweigh, and we wish you Godspeed."

I'm pretty certain that at another point of the video a plane egressing from an attack goes down and crashes into the rising land mass in the background. No obvious explosion so I'm guess ground fire or a life altering pilot error.

A United State Navy Captain and former Astronaut - How PATHETIC. Please delete if you feel it has no place here at HG. Former astronaut aims for insanity defense By Travis Reed - The Associated Press Posted : Tuesday Aug 28, 2007 16:06:14 EDT ORLANDO, Fla. — Former astronaut Navy Capt. Lisa Nowak is pursuing a temporary insanity defense on charges that she assaulted and tried to kidnap a romantic rival, according to a court document released Tuesday. Nowak suffered from major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, insomnia and “brief psychotic disorder with marked stressors,” defense attorney Donald Lykkebak wrote. He said the already-petite woman had also recently lost 15 percent of her body weight and struggled with “marital separation.” “This notice does not challenge competence to stand trial, but only raises insanity at the time of the offense,” he wrote. Nowak, 44, was charged with attempted kidnapping, battery and burglary with assault after allegedly driving nearly 1,000 miles from Houston to Orlando to confront Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman, the girlfriend of a former space shuttle pilot Nowak had been involved with. Nowak, who was dismissed from the astronaut corps a month after her arrest, has pleaded not guilty. Her trial is set for September. Lykkebak wrote that two Texas psychiatrists would testify that Nowak was legally insane at the time of the alleged attack. Circuit Court Judge Marc L. Lubet unsealed the notice of intent to rely on the insanity defense on Tuesday. Florida law requires such a notice before trial to let prosecutors prepare. Danielle Tavernier, a spokeswoman for the state attorney’s office, said prosecutors would address the issue in court and declined further comment. Find Navy Times article here.

Cool

If that doesn't get you MOTIVATED, I do not know what will. Semper Fidelis 2nd Lieutenant Bobo, WHEREVER YOU ARE. [talk about a hijacked thread ]

French Leader Raises Possibility Of Force In Iran By Elaine Sciolino PARIS, Aug. 27 — In his first major foreign policy speech as president, Nicolas Sarkozy of France said Monday that Iran could be attacked militarily if it did not live up to its international obligations to curb its nuclear program. Addressing France’s ambassadorial corps, Mr. Sarkozy stressed that such an outcome would be a disaster. He did not say France would ever participate in military action against Iran or even tacitly support such an approach. But the mere fact that he raised the specter of the use of force is likely to be perceived both by Iran as a warning of the consequences if it continues its course of action, and by the Bush administration as acceptance of its line that no option, including the use of force, can be excluded. Mr. Sarkozy praised the current diplomatic initiative by the world’s powers, a two-pronged approach that threatens tougher United Nations-mandated sanctions if Iran does not stop enriching uranium for possible use in a nuclear weapon, but holds out the possibility of incentives if Iran complies. That approach, he said, “is the only one that can enable us to avoid being faced with an alternative that I call catastrophic: an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran.” Calling the crisis over Iran’s nuclear program “the most serious weighing on the international order today,” Mr. Sarkozy also reiterated his position that a nuclear-armed Iran was “unacceptable” for France. Although Mr. Sarkozy’s aides said French policy had not changed, some foreign policy experts were stunned by his blunt, if brief, remarks. “This came out of the blue,” said François Heisbourg, special adviser to the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris and author of a coming book on Iran’s nuclear program. “To actually say that if diplomacy fails the choice will be to accept a nuclear Iran or bomb Iran, this is a diplomatic blockbuster.” Mr. Sarkozy’s speech, an annual ritual outlining France’s foreign policy goals, came as a new poll indicated that he had extraordinarily high approval ratings more than three months into his presidency. According to a TNS-Sofres telephone poll of 1,000 people published Monday in Le Figaro, 71 percent say they are satisfied with Mr. Sarkozy’s performance. A number of other polls put his approval rating higher than 60 percent. But his debut before his ambassadors was marred by a diplomatic imbroglio involving his foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, who was forced to apologize to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq for calling for his resignation. Mr. Maliki had demanded the apology from Mr. Kouchner, who was quoted on Newsweek’s Web site as saying that the Iraqi government was “not functioning” and that he told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by phone, “He’s got to be replaced.” Mr. Sarkozy made no mention of the diplomatic gaffe. Instead, he went out of his way to repeatedly praise Mr. Kouchner, an outspoken humanitarian activist and former United Nations administrator of Kosovo who left the Socialist Party to join Mr. Sarkozy’s conservative government. In a subsequent speech to the 180 visiting ambassadors, Mr. Kouchner veered from his prepared remarks to say he had apologized to Mr. Maliki on Monday morning. But Mr. Kouchner has a reputation for being unable to hide his true feelings. He also suggested in the same sentence that the beleaguered Iraqi prime minister was already on his way out, saying that he “may be leaving us soon.” The audience, made up of ambassadors, other invited guests and journalists, laughed. Most of Mr. Sarkozy’s speech was devoted to plotting a new, activist course for France’s role in the world, particularly in preventing what he called a confrontation between Islam and the West by working to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and crises in Lebanon, Iran and Iraq. Praising his predecessor, he reiterated, “France was — thanks to Jacques Chirac — is and remains hostile” to the American-led war in Iraq. “History proved France right,” he added. Calling for a concrete deadline for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, he described it as “a nation that is falling apart in a merciless civil war,” where the Sunni-Shiite divide could ignite conflict throughout the Middle East and where terrorists are setting up permanent bases to attack targets around the world. During a headline-grabbing three-day visit to Iraq last week, Mr. Kouchner offered France’s help in stabilizing the country, including mediating among warring communities, and working with the United Nations to play a bigger role. Although Mr. Sarkozy praised Mr. Kouchner’s mission and said in his speech that France was prepared to engage with Iraq, he did not make a specific proposal. Mr. Sarkozy, who is often faulted for being too pro-American, proudly restated France’s friendship with the United States, where he spent a two-week vacation this summer. In a move that is certain to be welcomed in Washington, he announced that France would send more troops to Afghanistan to train the Afghan Army, despite his statement during the campaign that France would not remain in Afghanistan forever. The Defense Ministry confirmed that France would send 150 additional troops. But Mr. Sarkozy harshly criticized the Bush administration for going to war against Iraq on its own and for failing to address the global warming crisis adequately. “It is clear now, and I mean it, that the unilateral use of force leads to failure,” he said of the Iraq crisis. As for the environment, he said the United States “unfortunately is not demonstrating the ‘leadership’ capacity that it claims in other areas.” “When you make a claim of leadership, you have to assume it in every domain,” he added.

If we did not know the truely tragic effects, this video would be considered entertaining, especially with the soundtrack. Apparently there is a 1 and 3 to go along with this 2. South Atlantic Adventure 2

Relative for last of WWII sub victims found The Associated Press Posted : Monday Aug 27, 2007 11:04:27 EDT DEARBORN, Mich. — A relative of a Michigan man who was one of 70 crew members carried to their deaths aboard a World War II submarine has been found, just days after the sunken USS Grunion was discovered. Barbara Larish, 74, said she's never forgotten about her first cousin by marriage, Seaman 2nd Class Byron Allen Traviss. On Friday, she heard on the radio that Traviss' family was being sought. "I immediately stopped putting away my groceries and listened," said Larish, who lives in Dearborn. "I truly didn't know they were looking for families of the Grunion." The discovery of the Grunion late Wednesday off the Aleutian Island of Kiska culminates a five-year search led by the sons of its commander, Mannert Abele, and may answer questions about the last moments of the Navy vessel. "I thought it was lost to history," Larish said. Relatives of 69 of the 70 crew members had earlier been found. But the search was continuing for family members of Traviss, who was from Detroit. Traviss would have celebrated his 82nd birthday Aug. 8. As the eldest remaining member of Traviss’ family, Larish has become the keeper of the tale. She said Traviss lied about his age, 16, so he could join the Navy. The Grunion patrolled the Aleutian Islands during the early months of World War II. Its last official radio message to the submarine base at Dutch Harbor came on July 30, 1942, and described heavy enemy activity at Kiska Harbor. A remote-operated vehicle equipped with cameras and video equipment spotted the submarine on an underwater slope north of Kiska in the Bering Sea. The vessel lies 1,000 feet from the surface and is severely imploded by water pressure. Navy Times Grunion Family Member

Navy Times DD1000

As I'm sure you will, please copy and paste any announcement here.

On topic, but a bit off. Either way, read what this man did. The President of the United States in the name of The Congress takes pride in presenting the MEDAL OF HONOR posthumously to SECOND LIEUTENANT JOHN P. BOBO UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS for service as set forth in the following CITATION: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as Weapons Platoon Commander, Company I, Third Battalion, Ninth Marines, Third Marine Division, in Quang Tri Province, Republic of Vietnam, on 30 March 1967. Company I was establishing night ambush sites when the command group was attacked by a reinforced North Vietnamese company supported by heavy automatic weapons and mortar fire. Lieutenant Bobo immediately organized a hasty defense and moved from position to position encouraging the outnumbered Marines despite the murderous enemy fire. Recovering a rocket launcher from among the friendly casualties, he organized a new launcher team and directed its fire into the enemy machine gun position. When an exploding enemy mortar round severed Lieutenant Bobo's right leg below the knee, he refused to be evacuated and insisted upon being placed in a firing position to cover the movement of the command group to a better location. With a web belt around his leg serving as tourniquet and with his leg jammed into the dirt to curtail the bleeding, he remained in this position and delivered devastating fire into the ranks of the enemy attempting to overrun the Marines. Lieutenant Bobo was mortally wounded while firing his weapon into the mainpoint of the enemy attack but his valiant spirit inspired his men to heroic efforts, and his tenacious stand enabled the command group to gain a protective position where it repulsed the enemy onslaught. Lieutenant Bobo's superb leadership, dauntless courage, and bold initiative reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country. /S/LYNDON B. JOHNSON (Emphasis mine)

It was good. IMHO, it may have been a few years dated since it was continually referred to as the F/A-22.

Russia: Bombers Grounded After Crash By C. J. Chivers The air force grounded its fleet of hundreds of Su-24 attack planes after one of the jets crashed during a training flight in Russia’s Far East. The pilots ejected safely and the cause of the crash was not clear, according to comments by Col. Aleksandr Drobyshevksy reported by Interfax. The Su-24 is a Soviet-era twin-engine jet that was first manufactured in the 1970s and saw action in the wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya. The crash occurred during a week in which President Vladimir V. Putin spoke of the need to modernize Russia’s civilian and military aviation sectors.

USA Today August 24, 2007 Pg. 7 NATO To Get Real-Time Radar Images From Georgia Military radar in the former Soviet republic of Georgia will be integrated into NATO's system by year's end, earlier than planned, because of worries about incursions by Russian military aircraft, Deputy Defense Minister Batu Kuteliya said. NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero said "implementation will be ready in the near future." The announcement came a day after Georgia accused Russian aircraft of trespassing this week and two weeks after it accused a Russian jet of dropping a missile on its soil. Yuri Baluyevsky, the chief of Russia's military staff, denied the allegations and said Georgian officials "suffer from hallucinations."

An Intensifying US Campaign Against Iran Amid US charges of Iran's hand in Iraq's instability, some counsel caution. By Scott Peterson, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor ISTANBUL, TURKEY -- Somalia, 1993: During the darkest days of the American military intervention, when US troops were taking casualties from drug-addled gunmen wearing flip-flops, US officials pointed to a familiar nemesis. It was Iran, warned Madeleine Albright, then-US envoy to the United Nations, that had forged a "tactical alliance" with a Somali warlord and "terrorists" in Sudan. Intelligence sources for the first time spoke of smuggled Iranian weapons. In Mogadishu, journalists were told that Iranian agents were training Somalis to make car bombs. But no proof was ever presented. US charges against Iran's role in Iraq are mounting. But analysts say that a history of unsubstantiated US claims against Iran should serve as a cautionary tale. The lesson to be drawn is not that Iran is guiltless in Iraq, they say, but one of restraint as a familiar drumbeat sounds. The latest step in the Bush administration's intensifying campaign to depict Iran as a disruptive force in Iraq is a decision to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard force a "terrorist" group. That label, and a push for more UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, and continued charges of training, funding, and supplying anti-US militants in Iraq, experts say, could harm Iraq security talks between US and Iranian diplomats in Baghdad. "The Americans are blaming Iran for everything that goes wrong, even if it's not Iran's fault, and Iran does the same with the US," says Trita Parsi, the Washington-based author of the forthcoming "Treacherous Alliance: Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran and the US." "Decisionmakers in Washington are by-the-minute limiting their own maneuverability in how to deal with Iran, [thereby] making it more difficult to put the relationship on a positive track," he says. The US case against Iran This week, the US commander of central Iraq claimed that 50 officers of the Revolutionary Guard's elite Qods Force were in Iraq, training militants. Top US officers also charged this month that lethal roadside bombs called explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) from Iran were used in 99 attacks in July and caused one-third of US combat deaths, an "all-time high," Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, deputy US commander in Iraq, told The New York Times. General Odierno claimed the "Iranians are surging support" to Iranian-trained cells to influence US decisions about the Baghdad troop surge. "Over the past three to four months, [iran's support] has picked up in terms of equipment, training and dollars," Odierno told the Times. Some US charges appear to stick. US forces earlier this month captured homemade video of preparations for two Shiite militant attacks on a US base southeast of Baghdad on July 11 and Aug. 5. The footage showed 50 fresh-from-the-box 107-mm rockets being lined up on metal stands in daylight, to fire upon the base. Intelligence officers told Fox News that there was "no doubt" the rockets – still with some packing grease and English lettering for export, the year 2006, and color-coded – were made in Iran. How they got to Iraq, and carried by whom, they could not say. Fourteen of those rockets were fired at the base, killing one soldier; 36 others were found primed, but their timers failed. Three more larger rockets were fired Aug. 5. Still, other charges have not stuck and some have been retracted. US intelligence sources claimed in Baghdad in February, for example, that the sophisticated manufacture of EFP parts led them to believe that they could only have been made in Iran and that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would almost certainly have been aware of it. Shortly afterwards the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Peter Pace, said that he could not confirm that Iran's government "clearly knows or is complicit." US forces have also raided numerous EFP workshops inside Iraq and found such explosives ; they are often used in the oil industry. Likewise, initial speculation by US officials pointed to "Iranian-trained operatives" in a January attack in Karbala, in which militants dressed as US soldiers and speaking English drove into a US base, kidnapped US troops, and killed five. Months later, the top US general in Iraq denied finding any tie to Iran. Still, headlines linking Iran to the Karbala killings emerged again in early July, after a US general said that two captured operatives, a Lebanese Hizbullah member, and an Iraqi group leader, said that Iran's Qods Force "knew of and supported planning" for the attack. But in late July, Time magazine reported – based on an internal US Army investigation and interviews with US and Iraqi witnesses – that details "suggest" an inside job by the Iraqi police. The result of this buildup of US allegations of Iranian involvement in Iraq could also prove to be a prelude to war: "If you can make the case that Iranians are actually killing Americans, that makes it extremely difficult for those opponents of military action to depict the administration as warmongering," adds Parsi, also the head of the National Iranian American Council. Iranian officials deny undermining US efforts in Iraq, though senior officers note that US forces throughout the Gulf and in Iraq and Afghanistan are often within Iranian missile range. Revolutionary Guard commander Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi vowed this week that "America will receive a heavier punch from the guards in the future." Some hard-liners in Iran, who today exert strong influence over every power center in the Islamic Republic, welcome the steady drumbeat from Washington as proof of US ill intent, says Hadi Semati, a political scientist in Tehran. "I haven't seen this level before [of] a systematic [uS] propaganda campaign, partly disinformation, partly probably true, but exaggerating it … to blame Iran for everything," says Mr. Semati, who recently spent three years at think tanks in Washington. "It reinforces the idea that people have in this town [Tehran] that any discussions on Iraq are purely tactical, and that the Americans are not serious." The Iraq effort "is already a failure," says Semati. "Blaming Iran serves a purpose of partially, or even mostly, from the perspective of hard-liners in Washington, making the situation look better." The Halabja example Such episodes echo past hostile US-Iran allegations, as in Somalia, since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Few examples are as clear-cut as that of Halabja, the Kurdish town in northern Iraq gassed by Saddam Hussein's troops in 1988 in a strike that left up to 5,000 civilians dead. Iraq increasingly received the backing of the US and the West in its 1980s war against Iran. So US officials, to cast doubt that Iraq was solely responsible for such a war crime, began suggesting that Iran was also to blame. "There is a rush to judgment [against Iran today], and this should be questioned, given the past and the outright dissembling that occurred [in 1988] when it was convenient to accuse the Iranians because the American ally Iraq was doing something totally embarrassing to the Reagan administration," says Joost Hiltermann, author of the recently published "A Poisonous Affair: America, Iraq, and the Gassing of Halabja." "These people have learned the lesson that this kind of lying works and will do it again," says Mr. Hiltermann, the Istanbul-based Middle East director for the International Crisis Group. The charge against Iran took root so effectively in the media – this newspaper also published notable, unattributed examples of "good intelligence" that cited Iran's role – that until recently, references to the "Iraqi" gassing of Halabja yielded letters of complaint from readers, pointing out the Iranian role, and offering US government documents as proof. The Halabja case suggests "an exceptional attempt at naked deception," says Hiltermann in his study, noting that 18 tons of Iraqi secret police and intelligence documents seized in northern Iraq in 1991 make frequent reference to Iraqi use of chemical weapons, but none about any chemical use by Iran. Growing antipathy toward Iran If anything, the level of antipathy toward Iran is higher today than two decades ago. "We are confronting Iranian behavior across a variety of different fronts on a number of 'battlefields,' if you will," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said last week. "We confront them on the ground in Iraq. Our military is doing that. We are confronting Iran diplomatically … with respect to their nuclear program." "This administration has a track record of doing what it thinks is right, and doing it regardless [of the facts].... The debate is far less about 'Can it be true?' or 'Can it not be true?' " says Parsi. The bigger picture, he says, is a regional power struggle between a strengthening Iran and an America weakened by debacle in Iraq.

Maybe I'm a cynic, but perhaps its the leadership of the carrier-pilot mafia that does not want to have written the manned "naval aviation" obituary while on their watch.

No Dogfights again tonight. Thought this was a series? Maybe layiog low, afraid of incidental Michael Vick comparisons.

Chinese Navy Modernization Could Lead To U.S. Countermoves, CRS Report Says As concerns over the modernization of Chinese naval forces grow, Congress needs to worry about how much it should weight China's growing power in its planning for U.S. Navy capabilities, says a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report. "Several elements of China's military modernization have potential implications for future required U.S. Navy capabilities," says the report. "These include theater-range ballistic missiles (TBMs), land-attack cruise missiles (LACMs), anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs), surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), land-based aircraft, submarines, surface combatants, amphibious ships, naval mines, nuclear weapons, and possibly high-power microwave (HPM) devices. Limitations "China's naval limitations or weaknesses include capabilities for operating in waters more distant from China, joint operations, C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance), long-range surveillance and targeting systems, anti-air warfare (AAW), antisubmarine warfare (ASW), mine countermeasures (MCM), and logistics," the report says. One of the most prominent elements of China's military modernization has been the deployment of large numbers of theater-range ballistic missiles (TBMs) capable of attacking targets in Taiwan or other regional locations, the report says. "Among these are CSS-6 and CSS-7 short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) deployed in locations across from Taiwan. DOD states that China as of October 2006 had deployed 875 to 975 CSS-6 and CSS-7 TBMs, and that this total is increasing at a rate of more than 100 missiles per year." ..Maritime targets Although ballistic missiles in the past have traditionally been used to attack fixed targets on land, CRS notes, DOD and other observers believe China is developing TBMs equipped with maneuverable re-entry vehicles (MARVs) capable of hitting moving ships at sea. Of more pressing concern may be potential conflict in the Taiwan Strait. "China's naval modernization has potential implications for required U.S. Navy capabilities in terms of preparing for a conflict in the Taiwan Strait area, maintaining U.S. Navy presence and military influence in the Western Pacific, and countering Chinese ballistic missile submarines," the report says. "Preparing for a conflict in the Taiwan Strait area could place a premium on the following: on-station or early-arriving Navy forces, capabilities for defeating China's maritime anti-access forces, and capabilities for operating in an environment that could be characterized by information warfare and possibly electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and the use of nuclear weapons," the report says. --Michael Fabey

WWII submarine found 65 years after sinking By Jeannette J. Lee - The Associated Press Posted : Friday Aug 24, 2007 8:30:09 EDT ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The mangled remains of a World War II submarine were found in the Bering Sea on Wednesday night, more than six decades after the Navy vessel disappeared with a crew of 70 off the Aleutian Island of Kiska. The discovery of the Grunion culminates a five-year search led by the sons of its commander, Mannert Abele, and may finally shine a light on the mysterious last moments of the doomed vessel. “Obviously, this is a very big thing,” the oldest son, Bruce Abele, said Thursday from his home in Newton, Mass. “I told my wife about it when she was still in bed and she practically went up to the ceiling.” A remotely operated vehicle snapped pictures and captured three hours of video footage of the Grunion on a rocky underwater slope north of the volcanic island, said John Abele, who was in Kiska Harbor with the search team on Thursday. The submarine lies 1,000 feet from the surface and had been crushed by water pressue, Abele said. He is director and co-founder of the medical equipment company Boston Scientific Corp. and the youngest of the three brothers. “The most surprising thing was the damage,” said Abele. “It was much more than we or anyone else imagined. Initially it was very hard to recognize as a ship.” The hull had imploded so severely that the interior, including bunks and a dive wheel, are clearly visible, Abele said. No human remains were found. The search team hired by the Abeles, Deep Sea Systems International, said no identifying markings or lettering could be seen; however, the location and appearance of the vessel indicate it is the missing sub. “There’s a 95 percent chance that this is the Grunion and a less than five percent chance that it’s not,” said Christopher J. Nicholson, general manager of the company based in Cataumet, Mass. “The fact that they actually found this in an expanse of ocean is really pretty spectacular.” The Grunion had a propeller guard, which was rare in subs of the day, Abele said. The vessel discovered yesterday also had the fence, which prevented docking lines from getting caught in propeller. The Grunion patrolled Alaska’s Aleutian Islands during the early months of World War II. Its last official radio message to the submarine base at Dutch Harbor came on July 30, 1942, and described heavy enemy activity at Kiska Harbor. Earlier that month, the Grunion sunk two Japanese submarine chasers and heavily damaged a third near Kiska, one of two islands in the far west Aleutians captured by the Japanese. Until a few years ago, the clues to the Grunion’s disappearance were too fragmented to justify a search. But after receiving more information from a model ship builder in Japan, the Abeles launched an initial expedition to Kiska in August 2006. Sonar images of a sub-shaped silhouette prompted a second journey this month. As news of the search spread, several relatives of the Grunion’s crew banded together to locate others with ties to the lost men. To date, the relatives of 69 men are following the progress of the search, said Mary Bentz, of Bethesda, Md., whose uncle died on the Grunion. The relatives of one more man, Byron Allen Traviss, of Detroit, remain to be found. Bentz said the news is a relief after decades of not knowing what happened. Her father’s youngest brother, Carmine Anthony Parziale, of Weedville, Penn., was in his early 20s when he served as a torpedoman third class on Grunion. “I know when my dad would talk about him, his eyes would well up with tears,” Bentz said. “I was relieved to know that this is finally over, that now we can say, two and three generations later, that we know what happened.” A forensic engineer and other experts will use the footage to piece together the Grunion’s final hours and figure out why it sank. The search crew of 17 plans to spend several more days looking for sunken Japanese ships in the area. “Actually seeing the burial site was touching and, in a way, rewarding,” John Abele said. “It provides a closing and hopefully an answer to the unknown.” ——— On the Net: Search for the USS Grunion: http://www.ussgrunion.com Navy Time article here.