XBradTC

I'm tired of this idiot in the White House doing everything he can to ruin American exceptionalism, and praise thuggish regimes. 

I'm tired of terrorists slaughtering innocent, such as today's attacks in Brussels, and immediately, before the bodies are even cool, being warned about a backlash against Islam. 

Yes, I know the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful people. We have Muslim friends, and are proud to call some our fellow soldiers. And any number of Americans forged intense friendships with Muslims who served as interpreters or otherwise supported US servicemen in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

But the reflexive warning against the backlash is a failure to recognize that there is, in fact, a problem in Islam, and that there are those who wish to conduct terror operations in the modern world. The instant "religion of peace" mantra shows a profound disrespect for the electorate. It assumes we cannot use our judgment and tell the peaceful from the radical, and having been silenced, we, as a society, lose the ability to notice and confront the radical. 

The Atlantic Conveyor was built on the Tyne by Swan Hunter and delivered to Cunard in 1970 as part of their contribution to the Atlantic Container Line consortium. It would go on to be sunk in the 1982 Falkland Islands conflict, where it served as an aircraft ferry.

This is her story.

via www.thinkdefence.co.uk

Read the whole thing, as well as some interesting stuff on other merchant ships modified for service with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.

The US Navy entered World War II with a number of obsolete submarines from the interwar years, and a handful of what would become known as the “fleet boats” of large, long range, diesel electric powered submarines. After a year and a half of disastrous operations where faulty torpedoes critically hampered their operations, beginning in 1943, US submarines began to rack up a record of successes that would result in the virtual elimination of the Japanese merchant fleet, and an outsized portion of the Imperial Japanese Navy itself. Also in 1943, the mass production of the wartime submarines would begin the enter COMSUBPAC in great numbers.  Of the roughly 200 submarines in service at the end of the war, about 120 were Balao class boats.

Essentially an improved Gato class, the Balao’s were built with thicker hulls and stronger steel, giving them a diving depth of 400 feet, rather than the 300 feet of the earlier successful Gatos.

The name “fleet boats” came from their intended use as scouts and the front echelon of the main battle fleet, a role they performed well, especially in the battles around the Philippines. Detecting, counting and tracking enemy fleets, and whittling them down as targets of opportunity provided fleet commanders with critical information on Japanese locations, strength and intentions.

But the most famous use of the fleet boats was their wide ranging operations in Japanese home waters, operating in the very back yard of the empire, and gutting the merchant fleet so critical to providing Japan with the materials to sustain her military power.

The Balaos were big subs, at 311 feet long, and with a submerged displacement of about 2400 tons. They had six 21” bow torpedo tubes, and four tubes in the stern.  They were powered by four diesel engines, either Fairbanks-Morse or General Motors, which in turn powered electric motors. There was no direct connection between the engines and the twin propeller shafts.  Their large battery banks would allow them to remain submerged for as long as 36 hours at a time, though 12-24 hours was far more common. They had an astonishingly long range on their diesel engines, about 11,000 nautical miles, and a typical patrol could last as long as 75 days.

The largest warship ever sunk by submarine, the IJN Shinano, at 59,000 tons, succumbed to the Balao class boat USS Archerfish. The most successful Balao class boat was probably the USS Tang, which sank an incredible 33 enemy ships during the war, for a total of 116,000 tons of shipping.

The US discovery of the German Type XXI U-boat at the end of World War II made it clear that the future of submarine warfare was with boats with much greater underwater speed, and endurance while submerged. The Navy recognized they would not again face an opponent with no radar, and that surfaced night attacks followed by submerging to escape would not be a viable tactic. And as such, virtually the entire Balao fleet was rendered obsolete virtually overnight, even though most were only one or two years old.

That pending obsolescence lead to the GUPPY program., or Greater Underwater Propulsive Power. Hulls and the conning tower would be streamlined for greater underwater speed, the battery banks would be vastly increased to provide much better submerged endurance, and a snorkel would be fitted to allow the use of the diesel engines while at periscope depth, providing nearly unlimited submerged endurance.

Even as nuclear submarines entered the fleet in increasing numbers throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the GUPPY improved Balaos and similar fleet boats provided the backbone of the Silent Service, and indeed, quite a few GUPPYs served well into the 1970s.

As they were retired from the fleet, many were provided to friendly foreign nations, with something over forty serving our allies.

Astonishingly, one boat to the day still serves with the Republic of China (Taiwan) on active duty. The former USS Tusk today serves with the ROC Navy as the Hai Pao.

With so many built, they’ve also proven to be popular museum ships. And while you find them in the usual suspects, such as San Francisco, and Patriots Point, South Carolina, would you believe there are examples in Muskogee, Oklahoma and Little Rock, Arkansas of all places?

Some spicy language, but soldiers are hardly plaster saints. 

What if you never had to clean and lubricate your rifle again?

Army engineers at Picatinny Arsenal believe they’ve cracked the code to make it happen with a new surface applicant, which they said could go into production in 2018.

When rifles and machine guns are fired, byproducts accumulate, leading to what's known as "fouling." Buildup of powder residue and moisture can eventually cause the weapon to jam, or lose accuracy, reliability and cyclic rate (rounds per minute). That’s why soldiers have to clean their rifles, generally with a wet lubricant known as CLP (cleaner, lubricant and preservative).

The new material, known as durable solid lubricant, would be applied during manufacturing and coats the weapon's moving parts. DSL simply prevents material from sticking to the weapon's surface. Since the fouling buildup only loosely adheres to a DSL surface, any force from the other moving parts or vibrations from firing is enough to knock it loose and keep the rifle clean.

via www.armytimes.com

Heh. The last line of the article says it all, about testing the DSL with CLP. Because even if this really does work, they know the chain of command is going to spend a ton of time making soldiers clean their weapons the old fashioned way anyway.

The smaller first explosions you see are APOBS, or Anti-Personnel Obstacle Breaching System, basically a smaller, man portable version of the MCLIC, or Mine Clearing Line Charge. 

Breaching doors in an urban environment is a difficult task for infantry units. One way the Marines have been doing it over the years is using what is known as a water charge. Basically, it's a few feet of det cord sandwiched in between two 1000ml saline IV bags. The whole mess is taped up with 100 mile an hour tape (the military version of duct tape), and then an adhesive is slapped on one side. 

Det cord itself could be used, except det cord is an extremely "fast" explosive, and tends to cut, rather than push. The saline bags convert that cut into a push, excellent for removing a door. And as you can see, having a bag on both sides means it can be used in very, very close proximity to friendly personnel. 

The odd mixture of uniforms and accents is because there are some foreign exchange student involved. 

Sorry for the light content today. Had some back end technical issues that made posting a challenge. It looked something like this:

The U.S. Army plans to set up equipment depots–so-called equipment activity sets–in a number of Asian countries, including Cambodia and Vietnam, the top officer of the U.S. Army’s Materiel Command said at a conference, Defense News reports.

General Dennis Via, speaking at this year’s Association of the United States Global Force Symposium and Exposition, said that the Army plans to set up eight equipment activity sets around the globe.  However, Asia-Pacific equipment activity sets will differ from other equipment caches that the Army maintains in, for example, Europe, the general notes.

via thediplomat.com

Crazy times when the US is stockpiling equipment in Vietnam and Cambodia again.

So, XBrad, why didn’t you produce any content yesterday?

Well, because I was busy. I spent the day with family at the Palm Spring Air Museum. And, oh, by the way, took a hop in the B-25J “Executive Sweet.” Just a quick jaunt from Palm Springs Airport to the Salton Sea and back, but it was a lot of fun.