Tribute to the Dragonfly

Here is a must read about the A-37 Dragonfly in Vietnam. This guy also has some great and successful CAS stories about the aircraft. That includes running off of one engine when loitering to save fuel.

We’re going down now, lights out, ” he told the FAC.

“We’re gliding down from altitude completely dark with our throttles pulled all the way back to idle,” he recalled. “It’s pitch black. The VC think everybody’s gone home. They can’t see us. They can’t even hear us. I dove the last 6,000 to the deck and leveled out at 100 feet. But that’s nothing in an A-37.”

Tracers from Russian-made 12.7-mm guns swarmed him as he methodically dispersed cluster bombs from rock-throwing altitude. He laid them in a swath 300 meters long. Flying a racetrack pattern, his wingman followed, also strewing the bomb units.

The ambivalent combatant, whose one request was duty in a non-lethal aircraft, paused for an instant four decades later. “We killed them all,” he continued quietly. “We killed over 200 of them on one run.” Both A-37s climbed away, then returned to take out gun emplacements with hard bombs. “The base was saved,” Martel said, regaining his all-in-a-day’s-work tone. “And we picked up a little medal.” His Silver Star recommendation describes “Outstanding bravery…in the face of the heaviest ground fire anyone has ever received in this area of operations.”

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More cartoons–Python 5

The Python series of air-to-air missiles has always been good. Here are some low quality cartoons to help market it.

H/T- Robert

U.S. , China press conference on Saturday Night Live.

This is pretty funny.

If you aren’t in the U.S. you will need a VPN or proxy to see it, Worth the effort.

Big things for the U.S. Army’s naval capability

This is huge. And it applies to a lot of missions that the Army may have to do today.

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Deck heating

Here is the timeline to do something about reducing heating damage to U.S. Navy amphibious aviation ships that will operate the MV-22 Osprey and F-35B.

The Office of Naval Research’s proposed timeline aims to develop a flight deck cooling system by 2014:

• 2010: Award contract.

• 2011: Test materials to handle aircraft heat.

• 2012: Build a large-scale test panel.

• 2013: Conduct land-based testing.

• 2014: Install the Thermal Flight Deck Management system on a ship.

Study–Chinese HQ-9,HHQ-9,FD-2000,FT-2000 SAM systems

Here is another threat update for you courtesy of APA. In it we see what makes the Chinese flavor of this SAM system different than its Ru-tech roots.

The HQ-9 family of missiles are clearly derived from the Russian S-300PMU / SA-10C Grumble and S-300PMU1 / SA-20A Gargoyle family of SAMs, but with numerous unique design changes. Cited kinematic performance typically falls in between the SA-10C and SA-20A, making the HQ-9 systems credible equivalents to various MIM-104 Patriot variants.

Like its Russian ancestors, the HQ-9 is designed from the outset for “hide, shoot and scoot” operations, with high mobility vehicles employed for all critical battery components.

In operational planning terms, the HQ-9 should be treated as equivalent to early model SA-20 variants, with the caveat that the different acquisition radar package will impose unique planning requirements, especially in terms of EWSP and SOJ requirements. The possibility of FT-2000 antiradiation rounds being mixed into HQ-9/FD-2000 TEL payloads presents a series of operational risks all of its own.

The high mobility of the HQ-9 family of weapons will present similar SEAD/DEAD challenges as seen with late model SA-10, SA-20 and SA-21 variants, especially if a disciplined “hide, shoot and scoot” doctrine is followed by HQ-9 users.

Chinese sources claim that the HQ-9 family of systems employ much newer computing technology than imported Russian S-300PMU/PMU1/PMU2 systems. This suggests a equal or superior computing capability for signal processing, data processing and guidance support.

The HQ-9 family of systems should not be underestimated – they will be credible equivalents to the SA-20 family of systems.

The grand Afghanistan delusion

Lets look at the delusion some have about Afghanistan. That is, that adding and training more Afghans for security will somehow do the job.

Brown said: “This is part of our idea that we will build up the Afghan army by nearly 50,000 [from 90,000] over the course of the next year.”

■ Within six months there must be clear plans for police training.

■ Within nine months President Hamid Karzai must have appointed almost 400 provincial and district governors.

■ Within 12 months 5,000 additional Afghan troops will be trained by Britain in Helmand and thousands more in other parts of the country.

■ By the end of 2010 Afghan security forces must be taking the lead in five out of the country’s 34 provinces. Control in one or two districts in Helmand will also be handed over.

Rubbish. Without significant leadership that isn’t appointed by graft and nepotism, this will never happen the way the American lead coalition would hope. Which makes the coalition plan, one grand delusion that avoids the realities of a region of the world that only understands tribal loyalty.

Time to call it a day and leave.

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Medic becomes first woman in Royal Navy to be awarded the Military Cross

How typical; how common; the bravery of battlefield medics.

“I promised my friends and comrades I’d be their medic, I promised I’d be there if they ever needed me. They needed me that day – so when the call came, that’s just what I did.”

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LAAF

These guys are always good for a laugh.

Russian Navy will be much smaller by 2015

Expect the Russian Navy to get much smaller.

That is what the chairman of the committee on national maritime policies in the upper house of parliament has stated.

Because of a large amount of decomminssioning activity and very little shipbuilding activity, by 2015, the Russian Navy will look a lot different.

-“The allocated funds are insufficient to carry out large-scale construction of ocean-going ships and simultaneously maintain the existing fleet in combat-ready condition.” -

Which begs so many questions such as, where are the regional naval hot spots in the coming years?