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Google uploads 360-degree photos of USS Constitution – Business – The Boston Globe
Can’t make it to the USS Constitution? Consider paying it a virtual visit instead.
On Tuesday, Google unveiled several 360-degree shots of the ship’s deck and interior. The historical warship is the latest addition to Google’s collection, which includes wraparound photos of museums and scenic locales from around the world.
via Google uploads 360-degree photos of USS Constitution – Business – The Boston Globe.
Definitely worth a click through.
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The History Of The Battleship In 15 Awesome Pictures
The History Of The Battleship In 15 Awesome Pictures.
For once, DB tells it straight.
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Bomber force prepares for new B-52 bomb bay upgrade testing
1/15/2015 – EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — Since the Air Force’s decision in 2013 to increase the B-52H bomber fleet’s effectiveness and versatility by increasing the aircraft’s smart weapons capacity by over 50 percent, teams from Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., Boeing and, now Edwards, have partnered up to begin developmental testing on the “Buff’s” newest upgrade.
This new upgrade comes in the form of a Conventional Rotary Launcher, which members from the 419th Flight Test Squadron, the Global Power Bomber Combined Test Force and Boeing installed on an Edwards B-52H this past December.
“The upgrade modifies the internal weapons bay of the B-52H bomber by integrating a CRL that has the capability of carrying Military Standard 1760 “smart weapons,” said Jeff Lupton, Boeing 1760 program manager.
via Bomber force prepares for new B-52 bomb bay upgrade testing.
Huh. Learn something new everyday. Honestly, I thought they’d done this a couple years ago. They did it to the B-1B fleet recently.
Basically, when you’re dealing with smart weapons, such as JDAM, the plane needs to be able to talk to the weapons, via a data cable, in this case, called a databus. Rewiring a bomber bay to support that is a fairly major undertaking, considering the nearly prehistoric origins of the rest of the B-52’s avionics.
Recently, most B-52s have had the capability to use laser guided bombs (off the wing bomb racks) added via the Sniper laser/thermal imaging pod. On the B-52, the pod is on the starboard wing, between the pairs of engine pylons, on a newly installed pylon.
Another big advantage of adding the Conventional Rotary Launcher is that the latest CRL can carry far more than just the 8 2000lb JDAMs of the first generation rotary launcher. Instead it can mix and match 2000lb and 500lb bombs giving a B-52 more weapons, as well as much greater flexibility in choosing an appropriate weapon for a given target.
The last B-52 rolled off the production line in 1962. Current plans are to keep them in service at least until 2040. Built in an era when the service life of a modern aircraft was 1o to 15 years, that’s pretty impressive.
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Lifeline to Rendova
The invasion of Rendova was one of the more obscure operations in the Pacific. In a nutshell, the small island was seized by the 172nd Regimental Combat Team in order to provide a base for long range artillery to pound the Japanese airfield and defenses at Munda Point on the island of New Georgia.
Like so many other operations in World War II, the operation was filmed by combat camera crews. And like so many others, the film was edited and released to the public. Usually these short 10-20 minute pieces would be shown before the feature at a movie theater, along with a newsreel or two.
These films were both for the general information on the war effort, and, of course, propaganda designed to generate support for the war effort on the home front.
This short film about Rendova gives an overview of the operation itself. The second half of the film focuses on the treatment of the wounded, and shows both that treatment and the production of medical supplies that the home front effort supported.
What’s remarkable about this 1943 film is that it breaks one of the taboos of wartime press. Showing Japanese dead was rather routine. But when it came to American troops, the rules were different. It was understood that photographs and film could show wounded US troops, but not the dead. This film, however, indeed shows the bodies of Americans fallen in battle, though carefully so that no individuals might be identified. It’s also somewhat more graphic than usual in showing the actual wounds of Americans.
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Masters of the Air: Tribute to the Mighty Eighth | Flying Magazine
In the thin air above 20,000 feet, with Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighters bearing down from all directions, the inside of an unpressurized American bomber in World War II was an altogether foreign world. Freezing cold, oxygen-deprived and hundreds of miles from the nearest friendly fighter escort, the bombers faced desperate odds with each mission deep into enemy territory. It’s a story we imagine we know well — but then, we’ve never seen or heard it told quite like this.
Building on the successful formula they established with the Academy Award-winning film Saving Private Ryan and the hit HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks are teaming up once again, this time to tell the engrossing personal stories of the men who fought and sometimes died over Nazi-occupied Europe flying with America’s famed Eighth Air Force.
via Masters of the Air: Tribute to the Mighty Eighth | Flying Magazine.
I first saw a blurb about this something like two years ago. Every single day when I check the stats for this blog, someone has clicked on that post. It is nice to finally see some updates on the mini-series. Let’s face it, making a mini-series about the air war is a lot more complex than one about the ground war.
The Air Force, then and now, went all in on selling the Mighty Eighth as the true success story of the war. But reality, of course, was a bit less explicit. And for all the stupendous raids on Germany in late 1944 and the first half of 1945, the first year and a half of operations by the 8th were less than successful. The Army Air Force struggled to build bomber strength in Britain. Every time they started to build up, planes would be siphoned off to North Africa or Italy. Doctrine was poor. Training, while better than most, was not as good as it would be with experience. And the great shortcoming was the inability to provide long range escort to the target and back, resulting in losses that were downright ghastly.
In the later parts of the air war in Europe, total numbers of losses weren’t so much reduced, as the size of the fleets and the replacement pipeline were robust enough that such losses could be sustained.
Bomber aircrews in Europe faced some of the highest casualty rates of any arm or service, and they deserve to have Spielberg and Hanks tell their story.
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Motherships and International Cooperation
Every navy faces the challenge of unlimited missions, and limited resources. Even ours. For our allies, the problem is even more acute. The European Union, taken in aggregate, is roughly equal to the US in terms of population and production. But it isn’t a single entity. It’s an extremely loose confederation of independent states. And because of that, the individual navies tend to be quite a bit smaller, both in total hulls, and the size of individual hulls. In spite of the importance of sea trade to Europe’s economic health, fielding navies large enough to secure that trade is virtually impossible, to say nothing of the post-war European tendency to shy away from militarization.
So when threats to sea trade arise, such as piracy off the eastern coast of Africa, no single nation can field a sustainable response. But by fielding international task forces, Europe, with the cooperation of other like minded nations, such as the US, and even China, and of all people, Iran, has managed to suppress the worst of piracy in the waters off the coast of Somalia.
Most Euro navies are frigate navies. And while frigates are quite the handy little warships, let’s face it, it’s a bit much for tracking and deterring pirates in 15m skiffs. Given our lack of frigates, the US Navy tends to support operations there with a Burke class destroyer. Which, let’s face it again, a multi-billion dollar warship is a bit much for taking on cheap boats.
Chuck Hill, of the invaluable Coast Guard Blog, shows a more sensible approach to countering low capability maritime threats, through cooperation of various nations and platforms.
The following was reported by the German Navy blog Marine forum, “8 January, PIRACY–Anti-Piracy Forces: Sweden is preparing for another mission (M-04) in support of EU operation “Atalanta”, this time working jointly with the Netherlands navy … COMBAT BOAT 90 fast interceptor craft, helicopters and 70 personnel to embark on Netherlands Navy dock landing ship JOHAN DE WITT.”
As you may recall, I have advocated using WPCs supported by a mother ship to supplement the larger cutters for distant drug interdiction operations.
Large amphibious ships are almost by definition “motherships.” Designed to operate and support landing craft, it is no great stretch for them to similarly support small patrol craft and other small combatants. The weakness of small craft is their lack of seakeeping. That is, their endurance and their crew’s ability to remain on station is limited. But by pairing them with a larger vessel, the ability of a small flotilla of craft to patrol large areas is greatly enhanced, at a fraction of the cost of maintaining several larger combatants on station.
Further, virtually all major amphibious ships have the ability to support significant helicopter detachments. Said helos are critical for the surveillance part of counter piracy operations, vastly expanding the task force’s field of view, and vectoring the limited number of patrol craft to the most likely targets of interest.
The one real disadvantage of this approach is that amphibious shipping is already in great demand for its primary mission. In our own Navy, we simply don’t have enough “gators” to support the requirements for our Marine Corps.
Some alternatives exist. The Navy’s Advance Floating Support Base (AFSB) would be a particularly good fit for this role. Of course, the limited number and costs of AFSB in the foreseable future means maintaining one on station is not realistic. Other options might include the Joint High Speed Vessel, though they have limited endurance. My own first suggestion, years ago, was to buy used Platform Support Vessels at dirt cheap prices. The drawback with that platform is the cost of refitting them with command and control facilities, and more critically, the lack of sufficient helicopter facilities.
Chuck’s suggestion of using forward supported WPB and WPC Coast Guard patrol vessels is a good one, though again, the Coast Guard is hard pressed to meet its domestic demand signal for boats.
Other areas that would benefit from such a mothership concept include the Persian Gulf, and the waters near Singapore, where currently the Navy envisions extended deployments of LCS ships.
The US Navy has long operated alongside our partners and allies, and this is one area where such further cooperation is likely to be mutually beneficial.
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Marines mull change to social media policies
Marine officials have revealed little about their strategy to counter Marines’ participation on social media pages with abusive or misogynistic content, but change may be on the way.
Officials say discussions are taking place at Headquarters Marine Corps concerning who is the arbiter of content and whether a single entity should be responsible for application and enforcement of social media standards.
“Any changes that may arise are still in a predecisional stage,” said Marine Corps spokesman Capt. Eric Flanagan.
via Marines mull change to social media policies.
I thought GEN Amos was gone?
This will not end well.
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Navy to Build Aegis Trainers for Surface Warfare Officers at ‘TOPGUN’ – USNI News
U.S. Navy’s surface warfare officers will learn to track and target air threats in a planned Aegis combat system simulator that will be built Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center at Naval Air Station Fallon, Nev., the head of the Navy’s new surface warfare training outfit told USNI News last week.
“TOPGUN has a facility and we’re going to add a piece to it and surface officers are going to Fallon to train,” said Rear Adm. James Kilby, the new commander of the Naval Surface Warfighting Development Center.
“It’ll be within the next two years, we’re looking to do that.”
In addition to the fighter weapons school — TOPGUN — Fallon is also home to the E-2 Hawkeye and E-2D Advanced Hawkeye training school — TOPDOME.
via Navy to Build Aegis Trainers for Surface Warfare Officers at ‘TOPGUN’ – USNI News.
Seems like something of a no-brainer. And it appears they’ll be able to simulate most of the interface, as opposed to having to actually build an Aegis/SPY-1 system there.
Air warfare is more than just dogfighting. A key part has always been setting the stage before the fight, right from first detection, to facilitate victory. From the days when Gerald Ford served as a fighter director officer, surface control of the airborne assets has been a key to success. Integrating the surface Navy with the E-2 and fighter communities this way is relatively inexpensive, but also adheres to the mantra “fight as you train.”
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Load HEAT- Sienna Miller
I mostly recall the ridiculously attractive Sienna Miller as Baroness in GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, but she’s currently portraying Taya Kyle in American Sniper, a movie which is upsetting all sorts of liberal idiots.
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“The enemy are savages and despicably evil.”
Step 1: Show this to @SonnyBunch. Step 2: Watch him turn into the Hulk. http://t.co/U82Q2YqJf0—
(@daveweigel) January 19, 2015Merely saying such about our enemies in Iraq has caused virtually every leftist with a twitter account to proclaim Chris Kyle was a sociopath.
I cannot imagine what Kyle saw that might have given him the impression that our foes were savage.
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