Category Archives: Technology

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A-10 Lightning II (Warthog) still needed down in the weeds

The U.S. Air Force won’t consider retiring the A-10 Warthog <http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-air-force-now-plans-to-keep-the-a-10-warthog-flying-1788309985#_ga=1.41855211.836898836.1483458923>  from service at least until 2021, according to news reports. That’s a relief for ground troops who have come to rely on this workhorse of a plane.

USAF

Defense News <http://www.defensenews.com/a10%20retirement%202021>  reports talks over the A-10’s future are still ongoing, with some deliberations over if the platform needs to be replaced with a new program altogether. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said today that he would like to see the conversation around the close air support mission (CAS) move from a “platform-centric discussion” that focuses on whether the A-10 is needed or not, to a more “family of systems” approach that recognizes that a variety of aircraft support operations on the ground.
Translation from bureaucrat to real English: the Warthog, like any other plane, is not a multi-purpose aircraft, and the military these days loves multi-purpose everything, as the great F-35 can program makes clear. <http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/f-35-a-great-plane-now-thanks-to-president-trump-1791824958#_ga=1.121287112.1551709916.1441293991>  The A-10, on the other hand, needs to be discussed with the purposes it was built for in mind.

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WATER WARS

 

The rapidly industrialising third world is seriously short of fresh water and this will have a serious effect on their success or failure in move economies from subsistence to modern, in the space of a single generation. A second group of mostly rich Middle Eastern petroleum producers have their own problems of fresh water shortage, that will have a catastrophic effect on their plans to diversify away from oil extraction, in the face of massively increased non-OPEC oil production and a tough oil pricing environment.

AP

Looking at two cases, Egypt, an emerging third world Regional power in the Middle East with burgeoning population growth trying to handle international competitive threats to the upstream Nile river water resources; and Saudi Arabia attempting to diversify away from almost 100% dependence on oil production, into industrialisation, whilst having meagre and failing natural fresh water availability. With Egyptians surviving on just 40 Cubic Metres of water per head of population per year and the Saudis using 76 Cubic meters each, when the UN mandated 500 Cubic Metres for an industrialised First World water consumer, shows just how serious the problem is right now in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, let alone when the ‘demographic bulge’ hits their societies.

Linked to water scarcity, as a serious limitation to diversified economic growth, is the availability of inexpensive energy that might drive ‘artificial water’, that is sea water desalinisation, as a crutch for a serious and growing water shortage crisis. Cheap permanent energy availability will hamstring the plans of both of these nation states. The irony of this for the Saudis is breathtaking.

Both Egypt and Saudi Arabia risk serious political fallout internally unless they can solve the ‘water problem’, and soon, as their demographics explode and unrest and radicalism rises.

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Shhhhhh…….

The fourth Yasen-class submarine, the Krasnoyarsk, has passed critical tests of its structures and pressure hull, according to Russia’s TASS news agency. It’s supposed to be the most quiet nuclear-powered attack sub ever to enter the Russian fleet.

As TASS reports, the Krasnoyarsk’s pressure hull withstood hydraulics tests and that further work is being planned for installation and assembly. The hull is built with low magnetic steel to help it avoid detection, according to The Diplomat. Keep in mind that Magnetic Anomaly Detectors were a large part of Cold War submarine hunting.

Russia has five Yasen-class subs under construction at the Sevmash Shipyard, in Severodvinsk, Russia. The only one in service at the moment is the K-329 Severodvinsk. That boat is 390 feet long and 13,800 tons; it carries a crew of 32 officers and 58 enlisted submariners. It has “The vessel has eight torpedo tubes, four of which are 650mm tubes while the rest are 533mm tubes,” according to The National Interest.

As far as speed, it can travel as fast as 35 knots, and is considered the fastest sub in Russia’s fleet. Russia has had much faster subs back in the day, like the K-222 that could supposedly top 44 knots underwater, though that almost certainly wasn’t very quiet.

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New sidearm….finally

The U.S. Army announced on Thursday that it would adopt a new sidearm manufactured by Sig Sauer.

The Army awarded Sig Sauer the contract for a brand new Modular Handgun System worth up to $580 million over 10 years. That sum will equip the military branch with the P320 beginning this year once operational testing is complete. It will replace the standard issue Beretta M9 that the Army currently employs.

The guns are designed to accommodate a number of different configurations. The gun, which has already been successful in the civilian market, will come in both a full-size and compact variant. It will be able to accept both standard and extended magazines and silencers. The civilian version of the gun is sold in 9mm, 357 Sig, 40 S&W, and 45 ACP, but the Army has not announced what caliber it will use.

The head of the Army’s acquisition unit praised the modular P320 as a unique advancement in firearms technology.

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Merkel: Opening the Borders Was Against German Law and was Planned in Advance

In the following exposé of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s machinations during (and before) the “refugee” crisis, Silberjunge focuses on two major points:

1. The chancellor’s opening of the borders to uncontrolled migration without a directive from the Interior Ministry was a clear violation of German law.
2. The entire migration wave should not even be called a “crisis”, since it was planned in advance.

 

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