Potentially interesting MILITARY-related stuff

[Winston]

Navy Super Hornet Conducts First Guided Launch Of Impressive 'Stormbreaker" Miniature Bomb
The testing milestone comes amid difficulties and delays that have pushed back Air Force plans for the weapon and temporarily halted its production.
JUNE 15, 2020

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...nch-of-impressive-stormbreaker-miniature-bomb
Raytheon says that a U.S. Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornet has successfully conducted a guided release of a GBU-53/B StormBreaker glide bomb for the first time. The test comes as deliveries of these bombs to the Navy, as well as the U.S. Air Force, have been halted for months over a number of issues, including the premature failure of clips that help prevent its folding tail fins from springing open and inadvertently, potentially damaging the aircraft carrying them.

The Massachusetts-headquartered defense contractor publicly announced the flight test on June 15, 2020, but did not say when or where it had taken place specifically. The Air Force is also in the process of integrating the GBU-53/B onto its F-15E Strike Eagles, and the weapon is also slated to get added to the arsenal of all three F-35 Joint Strike Fighter variants, which will be able to carry them internally.

"StormBreaker is the only weapon that enables pilots to hit moving targets during bad weather or if dust and smoke are in the area," Cristy Stagg, the StormBreaker program director at Raytheon's Missiles and Defense division, said in a statement. "Super Hornet pilots will be able to use poor visibility to their advantage when StormBreaker integration is complete."

The GBU-53/B, previously known as the Small Diameter Bomb II, has these capabilities thanks to a robust multi-mode guidance system. The bomb can find its mark, on land or at sea, using an imaging infrared seeker or millimeter-wave radar, or by using semi-active laser-homing to zero in on the target.

GBU-53/B

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GBU-53/B
About 105 pound of the SDB II is an explosive warhead which encompasses a "blast-frag" capability and a "plasma-jet" technology designed to pierce enemy armor, White explained.

The SDB II also has the ability to classify targets, meaning it could for example be programmed to hit only tanks in a convoy as opposed to other moving vehicles. The weapon can classify tanks, boats or wheeled targets, White added.

Warhead: 105 lb (48 kg)
Operational range:
69 miles (110 km), 45 miles (72 km) against moving targets
Guidance system:
Millimeter wave Active radar homing / Semi-active laser guidance / Infrared homing (using an uncooled imaging infrared camera) / GPS coupled Inertial guidance / Data-link

 

[Winston]

Famed U-2 Spy Plane Takes on a New Surveillance Mission
Designed with slide rules in the 1950s, the stealthy high flier still has a lot to offer
10 Jun 2020

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/famed-u-2-spy-plane-takes-on-a-new-surveillance-mission
Each branch of the U.S. military uses a variety of weapons and sensors, located everywhere from the depths of underground bunkers to high-Earth orbit. In an ideal world, a human would be able to take data from any one of these systems and quickly use it to command other systems to act. But many such systems have their own controls and machine languages, which can make it difficult for them to “talk” to one another. In 2018 the Air Force began developing the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) as a network that can connect and translate among these disparate technologies.

The ABMS is intended to expand on a more limited existing network called the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS). JSTARS tracks ground targets and assists with command and control—but it does so from a single platform, the airliner-sized E-8C plane. The E-8C coordinates among a variety of units, including piloted and unpiloted aircraft, ships and submarines, as well as ground troops. ABMS would essentially loop JSTARS into a network with other U.S. surveillance systems, further broadening the data available and creating one overarching platform from which to move sensor and targeting data among systems across the globe.

The U-2 is slated to become a high-flying facilitator of the ABMS, but first it will need a series of upgrades. The first round, scheduled to reach the fleet starting in 2022, will give pilots new computers and cockpit displays. The plane’s existing computer processor was integrated in the early 2000s; Lockheed Martin plans to replace that unit with a system called Enterprise Mission Computer 2. In addition to greater computing capacity, EMC2 prevents vendors from locking the airplane into any one company’s tech ecosystem. “Your Android or Apple [smartphone] has the ability to use apps from different vendors, [with] different accessories and plug-ins from all sorts of brands,” Helley observes. To replicate that principle, EMC2 is built with open-source architecture, which is long standard in the commercial sector and is designed to fit the Air Force’s systems. This technical standard will allow the U-2 to mesh at a variety of security levels with systems on other sensors, vehicles and weapons. “That’s the goal with open mission systems and the U-2,” Helley says.

Within the cockpit, new touch-screen displays will render images and maps with higher fidelity. They will combine information from onboard sensors and offboard sources such as ships, along with airborne and satellite radar systems. Compared with older displays, the new ones will provide pilots with a more complete picture of objects, terrain and movements of interest, allowing humans to better share imagery and other data. Although the system will still require pilots, such upgrades will make their jobs easier: a significant degree of automation will analyze the data the craft scoops up, and ground controllers already have remote access to direct the craft’s sensors.

 

[Winston]

One Russian military satellite inspects another at close range.

Kosmos 2535 - launched 10 July 2019 18:04 - Soyuz-2.1v / Volga - Undisclosed mission. Presumably military geodesy.

Kosmos 2543 - launched 25 November 2019 17:52 - Soyuz-2.1v / Volga - Undisclosed mission. Possible satellite inspection.



On Jun 4 to 10 the Kosmos-2543 inspector satellite changed its orbit to synchronize with the Kosmos-2535 target satellite (which appears to have partly disintegrated in Aug 2019 after close passes by the Kosmos-2536). Here you can see the relative distance between 2543 and 2535

 

[Winston]

Soviet Nuke Development

 

[Winston]

Nuclear Effects At Sea

 

[Winston]

No wonder it's so expensive. Check out what it takes to extract and refine it from ore.

Titanium - The Metal That Made The SR-71 Possible

 

[Winston]

CHINA: EMP THREAT
The People’s Republic of China Military Doctrine, Plans, and Capabilities for Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack
Dr. Peter Vincent Pry - Executive Director
EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security
June 10, 2020

https://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/CHINAempTHREAT2020logo.pdf
Missiles of China

https://missilethreat.csis.org/country/china/

 

[Winston]

Submarine USS Chicago Conducts Encapsulated Harpoon Certification Training Vehicle (EHCTV) Testing

 

[Winston]

Atomic Journeys - The Nevada Test Site



Atomic Cannon Sequence in HD



This is also footage of the same atomic cannon test with awesome fireball development footage and the up to that point unknown precursor shock wave phenomena:



Yucca Flats - 1996

French Thermonuclear Bomb Test

 

[Winston]

Terrorist vivisection device with no collateral damage.

This Is Our Best Look Yet At The Shadowy Hellfire Missile With Pop-Out Sword Blades
These missiles keep taking out terrorist leaders overseas by ripping through their vehicles and mortally slicing them up.
JUNE 17, 2020

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...wy-hellfire-missile-with-pop-out-sword-blades
Video has emerged online that shows the remains of three AGM-114R9X missiles used in a recent strike on Al Qaeda-linked terrorists in Syria, providing the best look yet at the innards of this mysterious version of the venerable Hellfire, which has six pop-out sword-like blades in lieu of a traditional explosive warhead. The War Zone was one of the first to report on a previous photograph that gave us our very first look at the inner workings of this weapon. Visible markings, which include the R9X designation, seen in the new video also offer additional details.

The same hub structure and blade stubs are also seen in a photo from the aftermath of a previous targeted strike in which one of these missiles was employed against a minivan in Idlib in December 2019. You can read the War Zone's full initial assessment of how the missile works here. That strike killed a member of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which Hurras al-Din split from in 2017. HTS, which had rebranded itself from the Al Nusra Front earlier that year, has at least officially renounced its links to Al Qaeda.

This Photo Proves How The Hellfire Missile That Uses Blades Instead Of Explosives Works
This core of the AGM-114R9X missile, with its swing-out sword-like blades, is exactly how this gruesome weapon goes about plying its deadly trade.
DECEMBER 3, 2019

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...-that-uses-blades-instead-of-explosives-works

 

[Winston]

Some nice sub interior photos.

Nukes, Nubs And Coners: The Unique Social Hierarchy Aboard A Nuclear Submarine
Getting assigned to your first sub doesn't make you a submariner and once you become one you'll find yourself in a social structure unlike any other.
JUNE 16, 2020

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...e-social-hierarchy-aboard-a-nuclear-submarine

 

[Winston]

Hopefully, since India is a friend of the US we'll get some inside info on this.

BrahMos-II

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrahMos-II
BrahMos-II or BrahMos-2 or BrahMos Mark II (note: not to be confused with BrahMos block-2) is a hypersonic cruise missile currently under joint development by Russia's NPO Mashinostroyenia and India's Defence Research and Development Organisation, which have together formed BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited. It is the second of the BrahMos series of cruise missiles. The BrahMos-II is expected to have a range of 450 kilometres (280 mi; 240 nmi) and a speed of Mach 7. During the cruise stage of flight the missile will be propelled by a scramjet airbreathing jet engine. Other details, including production cost and physical dimensions of the missile, are yet to be published. It is expected to be ready for testing by 2020.

Engine: Scramjet
Operational range: 450–600 km (280–370 mi)
Maximum speed: Mach 7 (8,575 km/h; 5,328 mph; 2,382.0 m/s)
Launch platforms: Ship, submarine, aircraft and land-based mobile launchers.

3M22 Zircon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3M22_Zircon
Zircon is believed to be a maneuvering, winged hypersonic cruise missile with a lift-generating center body. A booster stage with solid-fuel engines accelerates it to supersonic speeds, after which a scramjet motor with liquid-fuel (Decilin [ru]) in the second stage accelerates it to hypersonic speeds.

The missile's range is estimated to be 135 to 270 nautical miles (155 to 311 mi; 250 to 500 km) at low level, and up to 400 nmi (460 mi; 740 km) in a semi-ballistic trajectory;[20] average range is around 400–450 km (250–280 mi; 220–240 nmi). According to Russian media, the longest possible range is 540 nmi (620 mi; 1,000 km) and for this purpose a new fuel was created.

Zircon can travel at a speed of Mach 8–Mach 9 (6,090–6,851 mph; 9,800–11,025 km/h; 2,722.3–3,062.6 m/s). Such high speeds would likely create a cloud of plasma around the missile, absorbing any radio waves and making the missile virtually invisible to radars (plasma stealth).] This has led to concerns that it could penetrate existing naval defense systems. Zircon exchanges information in flight and can be controlled by commands if necessary.

Hypersonic Cruise Missiles Soon to be in Service

 

[Winston]

USSR DETONATED A NUCLEAR BOMB TO PUT OUT A BURNING GAS WELL

Date: 30 September, 1966.
Type: underground, 1532 m
Location: Urta-Bulak, Uzbekistan.
Yield: 30 kilotons

 

[Winston]

B-58 Hustler | Technological marvel or Cold War blunder?



Lockheed F-104 Starfighter | The world's first Mach 2 fighter

 

[Winston]

Raytheon RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile 'SeaRAM'

 

[Winston]

No Lightning for F-35A Lightnings Until Further Notice
June 24, 2020

https://www.airforcemag.com/no-lightning-for-lightnings-until-further-notice/
The Air Force’s F-35A Lightnings are under a cautionary restriction not to fly within 25 miles of thunderstorms or lightning, until the On-Board Inert Gas Generation System is fixed, a Lockheed Martin spokesman said June 24. Delivery of F-35s was temporarily halted because of the issue, but has resumed.

The OBIGGS protects the F-35 by flooding an area struck by lightning with inert nitrogen gas, to prevent explosion. During an F-35 depot maintenance check at the Ogden Air Logistics Complex at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, an OBIGGS tube, which deploys the gas, was found to be damaged. Delivery of aircraft was suspended June 2 to ensure the system was being properly installed, but resumed June 23 when it was determined the problem was occurring “in the field after aircraft delivery,” a company spokesperson said. A maintenance action may be causing the problem, and it’s not known how many jets might be affected.

Because the tube may not work properly in a lightning strike, F-35A unit commanders have been advised to direct their pilots to steer well clear of known or potential lightning storms until the issue is resolved. The problem apparently hasn’t affected the F-35B or C models.

“We are working with the F-35 Joint Program Office on a root cause corrective action investigation to determine next steps,” the spokesperson said.

 

[Winston]

That time a T-34 did a barrel roll after a Russian military parade

https://www.militarytimes.com/off-d...barrel-roll-during-a-russian-military-parade/
The Russian spinoff of the blockbuster hit “Fury” is not going as expected.

Anyone who has experience driving any number of ground-based military vehicles knows that despite their myriad capabilities, the number of blindspots necessitates a ground guide — oftentimes multiple.

Tanks have gadgets and gizmos aplenty and whozits and whatzits galore. But you want blindspots? It’s got twenty.

Such was the case for one unfortunate Russian soldier endeavoring to load a World War II era Soviet T-34 tank onto a vehicle transport truck, a cringeworthy moment captured in a recently-circulated video from the country’s 2018 Kursk military parade. The concept may have been simple enough, but so many things went awry with the execution.

First, the operator was steering from the enclosure instead of from an exposed position.

Second, even using an exposed vantage point, the tank operator’s collection of blind spots should have warranted a handful of ground guides. Yet there was only one — two if you count the frantic set of hands that quickly vanish from the small opening on the tank’s nose.

The vehicle’s elevated approach on the ramp means the driver’s vantage point would have been assisted by a lone ground guide, but only if the guide possessed the mystical power of levitation.

 

[Winston]

IT’S SENTIENT
Meet the classified artificial brain being developed by US intelligence programs
31 Jul 2019

https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/31/...ice-spy-satellites-artificial-intelligence-ai
At the final session of the 2019 Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, attendees straggled into a giant ballroom to listen to an Air Force official and a National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) executive discuss, as the panel title put it, “Enterprise Disruption.” The presentation stayed as vague as the title until a direct question from the audience seemed to make the panelists squirm.

Just how good, the person wondered, had the military and intelligence communities’ algorithms gotten at interpreting data and taking action based on that analysis? They pointed out that the commercial satellite industry has software that can tally shipping containers on cargo ships and cars in parking lots soon after their pictures are snapped in space. “When will the Department of Defense have real-time, automated, global order of battle?” they asked.

“That’s a great question,” said Chirag Parikh, director of the NGA’s Office of Sciences and Methodologies. “And there’s a lot of really good classified answers.”

He paused and shifted in his seat. “What’s the next question?” he asked, smiling. But he continued talking, describing how “geospatial intelligence” no longer simply means pictures from satellites. It means anything with a timestamp and a location stamp, and the attempt to integrate all that sundry data.

Then, Parikh actually answered this question: When would that translate to near-instantaneous understanding and strategy development?

“If not now,” he said, “very soon.”

----------

Just don't stupidly give it control of nukes:

 

[Winston]

Best of 2018 in the Mach-loop, Low-Level Flying



Mach-Loop & LFA7 2019 Highlights

 

[Winston]

Timelapse of F-86 Sabre assembly at Oregon Military Museum

 

[Winston]

The Air Force Almost Got A Near Hypersonic Radar Plane Killing Cruise Missile Decades Ago
The primary goal was to give bombers, such as the B-52, a means to destroy Soviet air defense sites and airborne early warning and control aircraft.
1 Jul 2020

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...adar-plane-killing-cruise-missile-decades-ago
In the 1970s, the Air Force began work on a new nuclear-tipped stand-off missile, a design in many ways far ahead of its time and capable of near hypersonic speeds. Its purpose was to nuke enemy air defenses as the bombers snaked their ways to their targets, but it also had a relatively exotic secondary role—shooting down Soviet airborne early warning and control aircraft.

The Air Force awarded the initial design study contract for this new weapon concept, eventually known as the Advanced Strategic Air-Launched Missile (ASALM), in 1971, according to an official history. At that time, the AGM-69A Short Range Attack Missile (SRAM), which you can read about in more detail in this past War Zone piece, was in the final stages of development. The SRAMs, each of which had a W69 thermonuclear warhead with a yield of around 200 kilotons, gave the Air Force's B-52 bombers and FB-111 Aardvark combat jets an immediate means of engaging Soviet surface-to-air missile sites along their flight paths when they entered service the following year.

The eventual goal was for the ASALM to be able to cruise at around Mach 4.5 and have a maximum range of up to 300 miles. The SRAM had a top speed of Mach 3 and a range of 100 miles.

Mockups:

B-52s Would Have Nuked Their Way Through Soviet Air Defenses With These Missiles
The AGM-69 Short Range Attack Missile was a vital, but seldom discussed part of America's airborne deterrent during the last half of the Cold War.
24 May 2019

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...the-way-to-their-targets-using-these-missiles

Boeing AGM-69 SRAM

https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/boeing-agm-69-sram.145910/
W69 warhead

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W69
The W69 had a diameter of 15 inches (380 mm) and was 30 inches (760 mm) long. It weighed 275 pounds (125 kg). It had a yield of between 170-200 kilotons.

 

[Winston]

Excellent video with interesting radar cross section comparisons and a detailed description of how the F-117 was shot down over Serbia.

How Stealth Changed Modern Warfare

 

[Winston]

Operation Teapot - Shot Turk

Test of primary for XW-27 class D, 2 megaton lightweight thermonuke, in an XW-27 mockup. Desert Rock VI. 508ft tower shot. XW-27D "Linda" primary. 43 kilotons.





Mark 27 nuclear bomb

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_27_nuclear_bomb
The Mark 27 nuclear bomb and closely related W27 warhead were two American thermonuclear bomb designs from the late 1950s.

The Mark 27 was designed by the University of California Radiation Laboratory (UCRL; now Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) starting in the mid-1950s. The basic design concept competed with the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL; now Los Alamos National Laboratory) design that would become the Mark 28 / B-28 nuclear bomb and W28 warhead. The Mark 27 was roughly twice as heavy as the Mark 28/B-28/W28 family of thermonuclear weapons. The Mark 27/W27 devices had a yield of 2 megatons versus the 1 to 1.5 megatons of the Mark 28/B-28/W28 weapons.

The Mark 27 and W27 were produced from 1958; both were retired by 1964, as the Kennedy administration began to redirect funding from manned nuclear bomber programs. Both US Navy bombers carrying the Mark 27 homb, the Douglas A-3 Skywarrior and North American A-5 Vigilante, were repurposed from the nuclear strike role to tanker, electronic countermeasure (A-3) or reconnaissance (A-5) roles by 1965.

The W27 warhead was 31 inches (790 mm) in diameter by 75 inches (1,900 mm) long, and weighed 2,800 pounds (1,300 kg). 20 W27 warheads were produced for the United States Navy SSM-N-8 Regulus cruise missiles. The W-27 warhead was withdrawn from service along with the Regulus cruise missile in 1964.

The Mark 27 bomb was 30 inches (760 mm) in diameter by 124 to 142 inches (3,100 to 3,600 mm) long, depending on specific version. The three versions weighed 3,150 to 3,300 pounds (1,430 to 1,500 kg). 700 Mark 27 bombs were produced.

Rope trick effect

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rope_trick_effect
Rope trick is the term given by physicist John Malik to the curious lines and spikes which emanate from the fireball of certain nuclear explosions just after detonation.

The surface of the fireball, with a temperature over 20,000 kelvins, emits huge amounts of visible light radiation, more than 100 times the intensity at the Sun's surface. Anything solid in the area absorbs the light and rapidly heats. The "rope tricks" that protrude from the bottom of the fireball are caused by the heating, rapid vaporization and then expansion of guy wires (or specialized rope trick test cables) that extend from the shot cab, the housing at the top of the tower that contains the explosive device, to the ground. Malik observed that when the rope was painted black, spike formation was enhanced, and if it were painted with reflective paint or wrapped in aluminium foil, no spikes were observed – thus confirming the hypothesis that it is heating and vaporization of the rope, induced by exposure to high-intensity visible light radiation, which causes the effect. Because of the lack of guy wires, no "rope trick" effects were observed in surface-detonation tests, free-flying weapons tests, or underground tests.

The cause of a surface mottling is more complex. In the initial microseconds after the explosion, a fireball is formed around the bomb by the massive numbers of thermal x-rays released by the explosion process. These x-rays cannot travel very far in the lower atmosphere before reacting with molecules in the air, so the result is a fireball that rapidly forms within about 10 metres (33 ft) in diameter and does not expand. This is known as a "radiatively driven" fireball.

Inside the radiative fireball the bomb itself is rapidly expanding due to the heat generated by the nuclear reactions. This moves outward at supersonic speeds, creating a hydrodynamic shock wave at its outer edge. After a brief period this shock front reaches and then passes the initial radiative fireball. The shock wave contains so much energy that the compression heating it causes in the air causes it to glow. At the point in the explosion captured in the photo above, the shock front has passed the original radiative fireball and has about twice its size.

In the first few microseconds after detonation, the bomb casing and shot cab are destroyed and vaporized. These vapors are accelerated to very high velocities, several tens of kilometers per second, faster than the shock front. However, this acceleration happens in a short period, so the material is trapped behind the shock front, even though it eventually travels faster than the shock front. The various light and dark patches are caused by the varying vapor density of the material splashing against the back of the shock front. The irregular variations in mass distribution around the bomb core creates the mottled blob-like appearance.

 

[PatD]

That time a T-34 did a barrel roll after a Russian military parade

https://www.militarytimes.com/off-d...barrel-roll-during-a-russian-military-parade/
The Russian spinoff of the blockbuster hit “Fury” is not going as expected.

Anyone who has experience driving any number of ground-based military vehicles knows that despite their myriad capabilities, the number of blindspots necessitates a ground guide — oftentimes multiple.

Tanks have gadgets and gizmos aplenty and whozits and whatzits galore. But you want blindspots? It’s got twenty.

Such was the case for one unfortunate Russian soldier endeavoring to load a World War II era Soviet T-34 tank onto a vehicle transport truck, a cringeworthy moment captured in a recently-circulated video from the country’s 2018 Kursk military parade. The concept may have been simple enough, but so many things went awry with the execution.

First, the operator was steering from the enclosure instead of from an exposed position.

Second, even using an exposed vantage point, the tank operator’s collection of blind spots should have warranted a handful of ground guides. Yet there was only one — two if you count the frantic set of hands that quickly vanish from the small opening on the tank’s nose.

The vehicle’s elevated approach on the ramp means the driver’s vantage point would have been assisted by a lone ground guide, but only if the guide possessed the mystical power of levitation.

Just a couple of things. The arm that shows "from the small opening" is the driver. Having loaded a bunch of tanks on trains and trucks the driver is a moron or not trained. Once properly lined up you don't just gun the engine and pray. You slowly accelerate and once you lose site of the ground guide don't steer until you go over center, get off the gas and can see them again. Not rocket surgery. That being said, I have seen a tank rolled while loading due to a driver not following the ground guide.

 

[Winston]

This Lecture By An F-22 Test Pilot On The Raptor's Flight Control System Is Bonkers
The video highlights just how much fly-by-wire automation is needed to make the Raptor's super maneuverability a reality.
11 Jul 2020

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...-the-raptors-flight-control-system-is-bonkers
Lt. Col. Randy "Laz" Gordon is an accomplished test pilot, engineer, and F-22 Raptor squadron commander who lent his expertise about all things aviation, and especially about the F-22's incredible fly-by-wire flight control system, to students taking MIT's Private Pilot Ground School in 2019. His lecture is astonishingly accessible considering the complexities of the systems and concepts he describes and will give anyone a remarkable appreciation for just how incredible the super-maneuverable Raptor'sflight control system really is.

Gordon covers so much ground in his talk. He talks about the constant tension between low-observability (stealth) and aerodynamics that resulted in the F-22's design, the massive loads the Raptor's powerful flight control system and its huge control surfaces have to instantly counteract, how supersonic flight requires unique flight control concepts, and even how permanent magnetic generators keep power running to the F-22's flight controls just by having the engines windmill.

Some other interesting tidbits include:

Raptor pilots make sure their hands are off the flight controls and visible when ground crews are working around a running jet because one touch of the stick could cause the 4,000psi hydraulic system to send a control surface into deflection which can decapitate a ground crewman.

Although the F-22's high altitude capabilities, partially a product of its thrust vectoring capabilities, are known, Gordon notes the aircraft flies at altitudes from 60,000-65,000 feet.

He describes the pressure-sensitive sidestick control concept, which moves less than a half-inch, very well. The concept was pioneered by the F-16, with the YF-16's sidestick not moving at all before changes were made.

The flight controls page on the F-22's multi-function-display is really well described here. The level of automation and simple symbology to describe complex issues is remarkable.

The F-22 knows it is about to take off and automatically reconfigures the plane for departure. It does the same upon touchdown.

Multiple other automation flight logic modes, in which the flight control system sets to totally different parameters, exist. This is not uncommon on other fly-by-wire aircraft, like airliners, but the F-22's huge flight envelope makes them far more pronounced.

There is a mode for aerial refueling to give the jet the best fine handling behind the tanker.

In aerial combat mode, you put pressure on the stick and it locks in a G-rate for a turn and stays there even if you take your hand off the stick.

When landing, it goes into a pitch command mode, where the pilot simply directs the pitch of the aircraft and it stays there.

A large number of limiters are used to make sure the jet is not capable of being structurally overloaded and it even automatically unloads individual parts of the aircraft during certain maneuvers by using flight control surfaces non-traditionally.

When an F-22 drops a weapon, namely a 1,000lb JDAM, fuel automatically sloshes forward to maintain center of gravity. There is no fuel panel on the jet to command this, it is all part of the control logic.

 

[Winston]

WWII Colorized

https://www.facebook.com/pg/HistoryisallaboutColour/photos/?ref=page_internal

 

[Winston]

The service says that technical problems and other issues have dogged the programs, which have led to at least a two-year delay.
JUNE 30, 2020

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...nd-missile-defense-airborne-laser-initiatives
The U.S. Air Force says it has pushed back the schedule for beginning flight testing of a podded laser directed energy weapon intended to protect fighter jets and other aircraft from incoming missiles by two years to 2023. The delay is the result of technical difficulties combined with general slowdowns in work due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It also follows the disclosure of issues with a separate airborne laser weapon system program intended for missile defense.

Defense News was first to publish the latest details on the Self-Protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator (SHiELD) Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) program, following an interview with the project's manager, Jeff Heggemeier, on June 10, 2020. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has been working on SHiELD since at least 2013. It awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin the following year to develop the solid-state laser itself, while Northrop Grumman and Boeing subsequently got deals to work on the beam control system and the pod, respectively. The Air Force had originally planned to begin flight testing of a complete prototype system on a fighter jet in 2021.

Heggemeier did not go into great detail about the technical issues that the program is apparently experiencing. Last year, the Air Force, in cooperation with Lockheed Martin, successfully used a ground-based solid-state laser known as the Demonstrator Laser Weapon System (DLWS) as a surrogate for SHiELD to shoot down a number of air-launched missiles over White Sands Missile Range in News Mexico.

Navy To Add Laser Weapons To At Least Seven More Ships In The Next Three Years
The laser dazzlers will help protect ships from certain kinds of attacks and shield them from surveillance from other ships, aircraft, and drones.
JULY 8, 2020

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...east-seven-more-ships-in-the-next-three-years
While its exact power class is unclear, ODIN features a relatively low-powered laser and is designed to work as a dazzler to blind electro-optical and infrared optics. This could be used to confuse optical or imaging infrared seekers on incoming weapons, such as anti-ship cruise missiles, throwing them off course. It could also neutralize cameras used for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) purposes on other ships, manned aircraft, and drones.

It's the thing in the center of this photo:

 

[Winston]

F-117 cockpit:

 

[Winston]

From a video game!

Arma III

https://arma3.com/

 

[Winston]

This Nuclear-Capable 1950s Missile Once Delivered the U.S. Mail
One of America's first cruise missiles was tapped to deliver 3,000 letters—and a message to Russia.
SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...ble-1950s-missile-once-delivered-the-u-s-mail
The flight would have looked like any other missile test. Aimed at Naval Station Mayport, near Jacksonville, Florida, the bright orange Regulus I was fired from the deck of the submarine USS Barbero. It was a 100-mile shot—a range within which the missile was good and accurate—and instead of a 3,000-pound nuclear payload, the landing gear-equipped training missile was loaded with 3,000 letters addressed to senators and dignitaries, even the president.

Examples of the missile's unusual cargo, and even the boxes fitted into the payload compartment, have been preserved by the National Postal Museum. While the letters inside were jocular and enthusiastic about the accomplishment, the underlying message was about as subtle as the typical payload of the Regulus: If the Navy can deliver the mail, the Navy can deliver the bomb.

Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield was on hand for the unloading of the precious payload. It would be the first—and last—U.S. Mail to be delivered by missile. Before taking the reins of the Postal Service, Summerfield was a politician, and a General Motors dealer in Michigan. He had a vision for a modern postal service, all conveyor belts and machine sorting, and as visionaries are wont to do, he had a few words to say at the successful delivery of the mail by the Regulus:

“This peacetime employment of a guided missile for the important and practical purpose of carrying mail, is the first known official use of missiles by any Post Office Department of any nation. Before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia by guided missiles.”

Regulus Missile Mail

https://postalmuseum.si.edu/collections/object-spotlight/regulus-missile-mail

Regulus 1 missile mail container

https://postalmuseum.si.edu/object/npm_0.234863.8