VCDH

I'm re-reading the second edition now for some scenario work in ANW. It's a very good read and well worth the money I paid for it (I got it at Origins 06) Later D

Dosvidanya Rodina. F-15 = 29.9 million in FY 1998. F-22 = 137.5 million in 2008 [this comes from Wikipedia]. The Death Star has been destroyed. Grand Moff Tarkin is dead. Darth Vader is in a wheelchair and The Emperor is nowhere to be found.....except maybe in a certain city in Texas.... Career > Truth The first 100 days are over. It's not cool to blame the former administration any more. Conspiratists unite! Go Pierre Salinger! In many countries [but not all], change is usually brought about by a negative reception to the experiences of a majority. This is called democracy. I can be convoluted, twisted, and cheated, but it's still democracy. As happens very often with change, those previously in power often disagree with it. Considering the personalities and political affiliations of the previous administration......who cares? Later D

It never ceases to amaze me the lengths that the DPRK will go to get attention via it's missile technology. What they can't get conventionally [they wouldn't get 50 meters in a conventional fight with the ROK] they have to try and get using nuclear saber rattling. The equation is quite simple. Use nukes, and get turned into the worlds largest self lighting glass parking lot. Probably can't get any worse for their civilians there anyway. With that nutbar Kim stroking out every second day the possibility of a hardline succession grows. If the army takes over they may think their only chance will be to start a fight. Part of me almost wants to get it over with. Later D

I’m not a conspiracy freak but this really doesn’t add up. I mean, think about it. First off, there’s a war on in Sudan and as a general rule weapons are shipped towards a war, and not away from or through it. Secondly there are more direct and more secure routes to Gaza. Iran through Northern Iraq, into Syria and from there by sea into Egypt or even directly into Gaza. I’m also pretty sure that some of those trucks carrying humanitarian aid are also carrying some extra cargo. Finally, the reaction time for hitting a convoy like that has to be very very fast and the window for it being small. Any intel regarding it, would probably go stale very quickly. I would hazard a guess that the attack, while it definitely took place, didn’t involve weapons going to Gaza at least in the conventional sense [rockets and small arms]. Whatever it was, it was most likely a threat to Israel to generate this kind of action. I suppose there is the lesser chance that Israel is doing this as a proxy but I doubt that. An unsupported airstrike by Israel would have to pass close enough to Egypt and Saudi Arabia to be detected. The question then is what those nations did once they picked up the Israeli’s. Or if they did anything. Unfortunately this report forces us to ask more questions than it answers. Later D

Watching BBC at this time, they are reporting that the North Koreans launched their rocket at 0230 UTC Sunday. First stage fell into the Sea of Japan, second stage fell into the Pacific ocean east of Japan. Nations in the region are lodging the usual protests. Apparently there was no effort by Japanese air defence to shoot the weapon down Depending on the apogee of the flight path, I'd guess we're looking at an IRBM class weapon. While the news calls this 'signifigant' I would say that it is somewhat less so. They need to perfect an RV and I don't see any nation allowing that kind of test near their borders. Remember that this is based on Scud technology. Later D

This couldn't happen soon enough.....I hope we catch him.... Later D

They'd certainly like to have more. Send donations c/o Robert J. Stevens Golfing Fund. Figured you for a Bob Cole Celebrity Golf Classic kind of guy Brad. All joking aside tho, its instresting that they only want 4. Guess they really are pricing themselves out of existance. Not as if they had a good 2007 so we might as well stick it to them again this year. Guess this is what you get for holding the F-35 hostage the way they did. Later D

And with those 4 the world is safe for democracy. GG Air Force Later D

I guess the Air Force wants more F-22s Later D

I've been on a few frigates and I was at the commission ceremony for HMCS St. John's. Granted it was a few years ago but they had a beer dispenser very similar to a soda dispenser that you see in offices and cafeterias around the world. IIRC it was 50 cents for a beer. I understand it was for when the ship was tied to the dock and was locked out when at sea. If there's a serving RCN member the he'd be able to help my spotty memory. Later D

I strongly suspect that there's more common sense than we think. Iran: 1. The NIE tells us nothing that we didn't know before 2. After Iraq, the invasian of Iran is currently not an option 3. Iranian Terrain between US Forces and Tehran precludes a swift invasion 4. Should Iran get nukes, then the US would not likely be the first target, Israel would be 5. Should there be an attack against US forces or civilians, all bets are off. North Korea 1. The only reason Kim still lives is because he's got the Army 2. The Army is so obsolete then I'd doubt they get very far against an alerted ROK/US force 3. The NK Air Force is worse off than the Army, sticks and stones could sink their navy. 4. Invasion by the US is not an option due to the NK's sponsor, China 5. The US is better off dealing with China on the matter of a new NK government but the price could be too high 6. The NKs are harmless where they are. To do anything else would be suicidal Later D

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been killed CNN has just recently confirmed that the former PM was shot in the back of the neck shortly after a suicide bombing at a rally where she was due to speak. Minutes ago CNN confirmed that the former Prime Minister died at 0616 EST this morning. Reports indicate that at least 5 shots were fired at her resulting in one hit. No further information is available at this time. Later D

Thought the Slavas were all out of service due to disrepair? Later D

I think that it's important to realize that this NIE really does nothing to absolve Iran of it's nuclear ambitions. I haven't seen anything that has mentioned syria and the recent Israeli attack on what appears to be a nuclear facility. Given the Israeli nuclear deterrent it is ever more logical for Syria to have the bomb than Iran although either nation having one can't be tolerated by any US Administration, no matter who is sitting in the oval office. "Us? We don't have a nuclear program.....<psst...how's that Syrian thing goin?" I'm willing to speculate that the 'Syrian' nuclear project was more of a combined Iranian/Syrian project with North Korean assistance. The biggest problem now is that the Israeli attack, which undoubtedly had reasons to do so, will drive these efforts underground. The unfortunate end result being that it's only a matter of time before an Arab nation gets the bomb. And it's unlikely that any amount of political or diplomatic efforts are going to stop that. We are, after all, talking about Israel. Later D

Combat Fleets says that the Zolfaqar (of which 3 have been apparently ordered) will be 88 meters long and 1400 tonnes in displacement. They claim it will be capable of making 30 knots and is to be able to preform AAW, ASuW, and ASW. There will be a helo. The initial ship was planned to be completed in 2001 and the third in 2003. The “hull” is said to be of 70% Iranian manufacture and the “missile launcher” 90%, indicating a large amount of foreign (Chinese?) input. The Iranian navy is calling this a destroyer. No other information is given. If any of the above information is anywhere near correct (and I wouldn't bet the farm on that), then this indicates a vessel that is slightly smaller than a Gepard class frigate, which is 1600 tonnes standard. The sub is.....small. Smaller than even the old German Type 205s and they were tiny. I can't speculate on it's capabilities other than it can't be all that hot on underwater endurance due to the warm weather of the Gulf. (lack of heat dissipation kills batteries, they have the same problem with their Kilo's). Later D

SSKs are the quietest platforms going nowadays. With no emphasis on ASW at all on the part of the USN, this is going to happen more or less on a regular basis. IIRC this is the second time this year that this has happened. Later D

mmmm.....Piracy Tom Oliver and I talked about this once a very very long time ago. Kinda depends on what you use I suppose.... I'd find myself a 500 tonne coaster, fit a four inch gun aboard her - tastefully hidden by a fake deck house - and man her with 10 or twelve cutthroats. "You are Captain Trapp of the S.S. Charon and I claim my five pounds." For practicality, my nod would go to an armed trawler-type ship. Ubiquitous enough to be 'expected' almost anywhere and with enough junk 'expected' on the upper decks to conceal some sort of rapid-fire nastiness. The most important thing would be to have plenty of small, fast boats (zodiacs or seariders) for boarding the luckless after dark and enough rapid-fire unpleasantness (or at least one heavy[ish] gun - 40mm or maybe even 76mm) to make sure that no-one got a radio squark off. That could lead to your whole day being spoiled. I applaud an imaginative bunch of piratical types simulating seafarers, give high marks to the selection of an "Ubiquitous" trawler (for its ubiquity, a sub [and I know someone here is going to suggest it <shakes fist>] of a sub is just a dead giveaway for someone up to no good) but some obstacles come to mind.... Capt. Charon & his merry crew sortie from their hidden island base in their jaunty pirate trawler "Cacafuego" to seize... 1) Lotsanissan Maru, an auto transporter with a "really valuable" cargo of 400 of the new Maximas steaming across the Pacific at about 24kts. "Stop or we'll fire" Lotsanissan Maru's 12 man crew, below decks watching skin flicks, hears naught, keeps on steaming.... Bang, bang, bang, bang...Lots of 4.7' fire, big old hulk keeps on truckin'.... "We're gonna board the bastard!" 12 Zodiacs can't catch up...4 try to come alongside but are swamped by wake somewhat rougher than one from a waterski boat...2 make it alongside, but volunteers with rubber cups on hands and feet have grave problems crawling up 40' vertical steel side of ship, fall back in water.... Lotsanissan Maru sails on un-noticing, a few holes in side of its eleven ga-jillion GRT hull, sprinkler system putting out a handful of burning cars, 12 man crew still below decks watching skin flicks. Capt. Charon, running low on fuel, decides to capture a tanker, sights supertanker, SS Mary Jane Humble-Socony, fully laden, steaming along at 19.5kts and catches up... But can't come alongside because of monster turbulence created by BFSH (big f***ing square hull), fires many shots, accomplishes much broken glass on bridge of tanker, many 4.7" holes in sides, oil spewing out over Cacafuego's filthy old pirate topsides (pirate ships always had filthy topsides and no razors for the crew), all that nasty old Bunker C which can only be ignited with preheaters, time and effort. Tanker skipper comes out on bridge wing, flips the bird and activates bow thruster sucking Capt. Charon and his mangy crew under and down the tubes. To top it all off, his radio antennae all screwed up, the tanker CO pulls out his trusty satellite phone (that new handheld all-in-one antenna model for 500 bucks from Sharper Image), calls the dispatcher who contacts the nearest representative of the TransPacific Multi-Lateral Pirate Catching Force which sends out a helo, rescues surviving pirates from water, flies them to Singapore where after a mercifully brief trial they are two-blocked to the yardarm to the sound of a bosun's pipe, muffled drums and mournful sea chanties like "Roll your leg over, oh, roll your leg over....". Twitching a little, the pirates are heard to say...."Choke, gurgle, aaaaah s***!" as they pass on to pirate's heaven, wher'ere that may be... And before anyone starts <evil monkey glares and points fingers at all of you...> Old Capt. Huevos-Immensos who chose a submarine as his ride, is still trying to catch up to his first target, MV Carnival Empress of Bogside, whose 22kts over the ground is a little better than he can manage with the diesels running all ahead Bendix and taking blue water over the periscope shears. Bet the pirate business ain't what it used to be....I'll cya when I get back from Oz. Later D

I'd say that the high deployment rates are probably exacerbating the situation as well. Remember that Type 21 frigates suffered from hull cracking that required external stiffeners to be added to the design. Less ships and more deployments mean more wear and tear on a given frame set. Box girder construction and decreased scantlings only goes so far. I don't know the average deployment rate of a Burke but I was once involved in a yard availability for a ship that was 20 years old, operating constantly at least 6 months of the year. She suffered from ice infested waters in the first third and heavy weather during the last third of the six months. During this yard availability she required 87 tonnes of new plating to be installed from the bow down to the leading edge of the bilge keel. Later D

Hi Craig, Tony and Brad I usually look at this from the surface ship perspective. In that case stealth is way over-rated. What's the point of adding stealth to a barn to reduce the RCS to a barn door? IR and ECCM are much more important aspects to naval warfare than stealth. This doesn't mean to say that stealth doesn't have it's place. I do agree with Craig that it's being over used on platforms....well...rather it's being spent on the wrong types of platforms. F-22s at 80 mill (or is it down to 60 now?) a copy with limited payloads to preserve stealth characteristics are nothing more than a Glorified F-117. SDB is promising but with the advent of broad band jammers to block GPS then they are going to rely more and more on a dual seeker solution. Mind that other services are falling behind because of the USAF holding the JSF program hostage so they could get the F-22 numbers they wanted. And 185 aircraft or so isn't really going to cut it. So what's the solution? When you get down to it, the Air Force is merely the airborne support arm of the ground forces. The Navy is another support arm but they have the greater responsibility of protecting the supply line (does anyone think that we're going to be scrapping it out in North America anytime soon?). Once the Air Force gets over that and realizes they are still trying to win WW2 by air power alone then maybe we can get somewhere with aircraft procurement. Taking back Kuwait and invading Iraq were pushovers because the people the other side was too centralized and insulated from the reality to adapt to the situation. Israel has probably the best armed forces in the Middle East. They certainly did not win last year because the other side fought asymmetrically using data gained from careful observation of their enemy. They knew what to expect and they planned for that. Israel was kind enough not to realize that this might not be a pushover. Hate can be a big motivator. The US would be heeding this experience for future conflicts. We hear all this rumbling about Iran and nukes and despite for all the rumblings of the current administration there is probably little they can do to prevent Iran from getting nukes except extending their nuclear umbrella over Israel. Not as if the US is going to win the PR game among the Arab Bloc. This is where the LCS can be useful. It's amusing to see people decry the 'Little Crappy Ship' when it hasn't even seen service yet. I think it's important to note that while the LCS may look like a frigate that doesn't mean she's going to function like a frigate. Both the 57mm Mk3 and RAM are fine weapons. I'm not too sure about NLOS but a TOW looking missile with a 40nm range kind of explains the function of the LCS to begin with. Much like Flight IIA Burkes the ship will probably be fitted for, but not with Harpoon missiles. Mk141 is plug and play anyway. A camel is still a camel but camels can still be useful. Even if they are meant to support special forces and operate with carrier groups at the same time. A Mk41 set, even 2 sets for 8 cells would silence alot of critics. Is it necessary? I'm not sure yet to be honest. Time will tell. But bolting on a set isn't all that hard. Canadian Halifax and Dutch M class frigates use Mk48 which is basically bolted on to the deck of the ship. I suppose another option is Mk57 PVLS but I suspect that's major surgery to install. So let's get another aircraft in the pipeline. One where weapons carriage is a priority over stealth, US operations need to learn to take into account asymmetric thinking. The alternative is to price the Air Force out of existance, a frigate that can't really do anything, and an Army that's engaged and bogged down in the mountains of Iran where the death toll will make Iraq look like a picnic. Later D

Some amplification is necessary here: Armor works much in the same way as the Harpoon3 paper rules (from which H2 was based on back in the day). In the source code, there are two sets of tables that deal with armor. The first one deals with warhead penetration while the second deals with critical hits vs armor. I'm going to deal only with the first one here because I haven't looked at the second yet. H3ANW uses 4 different levels of armor class: None, Light, Medium, Heavy and Special. The amount of penetration a warhead has is directly related to the type of warhead it is and the amount of explosive power it contains (DP). The higher the DP rating of the warhead the more penetration it has for a given warhead type. The table is meant to provide a modifier for to the DP value vs the armor class. Please note that the DP value of a weapon is directly related to the amount of explosive it carries and NOT the total weight of the weapon. A Mk84 2000lb bomb for example, carries just under 1000lbs of explosive. The rest (fuse and steel casing) is not factored into the calculation. Example - AGM-84 Harpoon series Warhead: Semi-Armor Piercing Type (there is a modifier for the warhead type) 227kg of HE carried H5 (not H4.1) DP rating is 53dp (yes there is a change coming in DP calculation) Under the table listed in the source code, there is an entry for this warhead class: '101 - 250kg High Explosive' The engine then preforms a lookup to determine just how effective the weapon will be vs the armor classes in this particular case: None - 100% full effect Light - 100% full effect Medium - 50% of full effect (so 27dp) Heavy - 25% of full effect (13dp) Special - 5% of full effect (3dp) It should be noted that this example covers about 40% of the warhead types in game. There are a few caveats here to make note of. First is that ANW determines explosive weight on the basis that 1dp equals 5kg of explosive. So the engine will read 53dp as 265kg of explosive power. This takes the warhead into another category on the table but the only difference is that Special Armor effect is doubled from 3dp to 5dp (the rules state that you round down the value, the exact value is 5.8dp). This means that you should use the current (not H5) dp values. Anti-Radar type weapons should have their warheads listed as Fragmentation types in ANW. This forces the engine to limit damage to the ship that would normally suffer more damage than the proportion warhead would indicate. In ANW Fragmentation is an airburt type weapon. Under the code air burst type weapons are unable to penetrate any kind of armor whatsoever. ARMs are tasked (if they score a hit) to preform a critical hit on the radar they are aimed at. So there may be light damage to the ship but nothing it can't handle. The radar on the other hand, will be smacked down. A spreadsheet to help calculate DP values will be released with the H3 Platform Assistant in the near future. Later D

From the Guide to World Naval Weapons Systems 5th Edition: Millennium (35mm/1000 GDB-008) This gun was selected for the Danish Flexible Support Ship (Stanflex 3500) now under construction. It had previously found no buyers. Millennium is a 35mm, four-chamber revolver cannon (the designation is for the rate of fire, not the barrel length) with a sensor that measures the actual muzzle velocity of each round as it travels up the barrel. An induction coil is used to program each round individually; upon detonation, the AHEAD round releases 152 spin stabilized tungsten penetrators near the predicted target-intercept plane. Time resolution of the fuze is 2 msec, equivalent to a range error of 6 feet at 3000 feet/sec. The name refers to the rate of fire and the muzzle velocity (1000rnds/min and 1000m/s. Elevation limits are +85 to -15 degrees; the mount weighs 3200kg. Swept radius is 3.186m while the mount itself is 2.389m wide and fits within a 1.565m radius. It has a facted low RCS shielf. In 1999 tests in Switzerland, an 8-rnd burst produced 280 hits on a simulated small boat, and a 24-rnd burst at 1000m range (equivalent to opening fire at 2800m) caused 78 hits on a Maverick mounted on a pole. In unfuzed mode, a Millennium projectile penetrated 55mm of armor. Millennium played a signifigant role in the US Fleet Battle Experiment Julliet (July to August 2002), on board Lockheed-Martin's ship SLICE. For this test Millennium was co-marketed by Oerlikon-Contraves and Lockheed-Martin, and it was controlled by an STN Atlas MSP 500 Electro-Optical Director. The companies involved claimed that the quick intergration of the gun and it's FCS, in a standardized palleted version, was particularly signifigant. During the exercise, the gun was fired at typical littoral targets, including simulated 'swarm' boats. Using AHEAD air-burst ammunition, the gun destroyed a simulated submarine periscope, showing it's director could acquire and accurately track a very small target in rough sea. In theory, the hits would have blinded the periscope. That, in turn, might be crucial, because in shallow water, a submarine might be unable to rely on her passive sonar due to multi-path problems. Millennium programs the detonation point of each round as it leaves the barrel. Reportedly, observers were very impressed by the number of hits thus achieved. Later D