Potentially interesting MILITARY-related stuff

[Winston]

SS-N-8 Sawfly (Р-29). 1970s launch failure.



An extensive Soviet film about the SS-N-8 is found below. Definitely looks like a military film. Shows loading of missile into sub's launch tube and sub launch control section with complete launch process and IN PORT launch (8:35) from flooded launch tube as would be the case if submerged and, no doubt, to prevent exhaust flame damage to launch tube. Salvo launch process starting at 11:36. Google translation of associated text:

The R-29 missile (URAV Navy index: 4K-75, START code: RSM-40, US Defense and NATO code: SS-N-8 Sawfly, English Sawfly) is a Soviet liquid-propellant two-stage ballistic missile of submarines. Developed at the Design Bureau im. V.P. Makeeva. It was put into service in March 1974. As part of the D-9 missile system, it was deployed on 18 Project 667B submarines. In March 1978, a modernized rocket entered service, which received the designation R-29D. The D-9D complex was armed with 4 Project 667BD missile submarines. In accordance with the Russian-American agreements on the reduction of strategic arms, in the 1990s, Project 667B and 667BD submarines were decommissioned, and the R-29 missiles were removed from service.



R-29 / SS-N-8 SAWFLY

https://fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/slbm/r-29.htm

 

[Winston]

Stripped F-117 Nighthawk Arrives at Hill Aerospace Museum Direct From Tonopah
The USAF continues to send a handful of F-117s to museums while a few of the stealth jets continue to operate under secretive circumstances.
AUGUST 6, 2020

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...ill-air-force-base-museum-direct-from-tonopah
The fuselage of the aircraft arrived by truck, direct from Tonopah Test Range Airport (TTR) in Nevada. Staff from Hill AFB, which is adjacent to the museum, assisted in moving it from the truck and into the museum. The aircraft arrived having been stripped of its trademark black Radar Absorbent Material (RAM). The demilitarization process for the Nighthawk is extremely complex, and it is detailed in this previous War Zone feature. The USAF has established a special facility to assist in the demilitarization of the F-117s at Tonopah.

To remove any trace of the highly classified radar-absorbent material that coated the F-117’s faceted surfaces, the aircraft was “media-blasted.” This is a process similar to sand-blasting, but utilizes sodium bicarbonate crystals instead of sand so that the jet’s bare skin, which is an amalgam of composite and metallic materials, would not be harmed in the process.

While media blasting was safe for the jet, it was abhorrent for the crews that had to do it. Everyone involved had to be covered head to toe in protective gear and masks, any open seam sealed with tape. Apparently, the fine particulates got everywhere and into everything—no crevice was too small.

Although the F-117s were officially retired over a decade ago, some remain flying under intriguing circumstances. The War Zone has exclusively detailed how the USAF’s plans to slowly dispose of the roughly 50 remaining aircraft at a rate of around four per year.

The USAF has earmarked a dozen F-117s for loan to museums for public display. With the exception of the remains of Vega 31 in Serbia, the few other Nighthawks currently on display are pre-production YF-117s.

All told, the USAF looks to be moving fast to place the 12 F-117s set aside for display around the country, while a handful of others remain active flying missions from TTR. The rest of the airframes still being stored at the remote airbase are set to slowly be destroyed over the coming decade.

Lots of photos at link. Just two:

 

[Winston]

This Is The First Photo Ever Of A Stealthy Black Hawk Helicopter
Almost a decade since we learned of the stealth Black Hawks used in the Bin Laden raid, we have seen no images of them or of their lineage, until now.
AUGUST 4, 2020

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...mage-ever-of-a-stealthy-black-hawk-helicopter

 

[Winston]

Stealth Is Put To The Test In Huge Exercise Teaming RQ-170s, F-35s, B-2s With Other Jets
This exercise is also the first confirmation that the Air Force's top-secret 44th Reconnaissance Squadron flies the reclusive RQ-170 Sentinel.
AUGUST 6, 2020

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...se-teaming-rq-170s-f-35s-b-2s-with-other-jets
The U.S. Air Force has revealed a major recent exercise involving a wide variety of different stealthy aircraft, including F-35A Joint Strike Fighters, F-22 Raptors, and a B-2A Spirit stealth bomber. Most notably, at least one RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone from the service's top-secret 44th Reconnaissance Squadron, which The War Zone was first to report on in detail, also took part in the event. The exercise focused on stealthy penetration into denied areas, suppression and destruction of enemy air defenses, and electronic attack tactics.

The 53rd Test and Evaluation Group, part of the 53rd Wing at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, led the so-called Large Force Test Event (LFTE), which cost approximately $1.4 million to put on. The exercise ran from Aug. 4 to Aug. 6, 2020 and was part of efforts to develop solutions to a number of "Tactics Improvement Proposals," or TIPs that the Air Force has identified as priority concerns. In addition to the stealthy platforms, Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle combat jets and U.S. Navy EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft participated in the LFTE.

The 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron, part of the 53rd Test and Evaluation Group, provided the F-35As, F-22s, and F-15Es, while the B-2A came from the Group's 72nd Test and Evaluation Squadron. The Navy's Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Nine (VX-9) supplied the EA-18Gs. The Air Force's 605th Test and Evaluation Squadron and the Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center (NAWDC) were also involved.

In addition, the 44th Reconnaissance Squadron sent at least one RQ-170, which is especially notable given that this appears to be the first official confirmation that this unit flies these flying-wing unmanned aircraft. The War Zone previously published a deep investigation into this unit, about which little is still known, which you can find here.

 

[Winston]

U.S. Army Robot Vehicle Experiment
6 Aug 2020

https://www.military.com/daily-news...vehicle-experiment-heres-what-it-learned.html
U.S. Army modernization officials are about to finish the service's first experiment to see whether the Robotic Combat Vehicle effort can make units more deadly on the future battlefield.

For the past five weeks, a platoon of soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division has been conducting cavalry-style combat missions using two-person crews in specially modified Bradley fighting vehicles to control robotic surrogate vehicles fashioned from M113 armored personnel vehicles in the Robotic Combat Vehicle Soldier Operational Experiment.

The platoon has operated in the rugged terrain of Fort Carson, Colorado, testing different technologies to control the robotic vehicles, sending them out hundreds of meters ahead to scout for enemy positions.

"This experiment was 100% successful ... because we learned; the whole purpose was to learn where the technology is now and how we think we want to fight with it in the future," Brig. Gen. Ross Coffman, director of the Army's Next Generation Combat Vehicle-Cross Functional Team, told defense reporters Thursday during a virtual roundtable discussion.

"All of the technology was not successful; it's a sliding scale. Some knocked our socks off, and some -- we've got a little bit of work to do."

The experiment, scheduled to end Aug. 14, is one of three designed to evaluate the performance and potential of robotic combat vehicles on the battlefield, Coffman said.

Some of the technology tested in the experiment worked better than anticipated, he added.

"The interface with the crew ... so the soldiers see where they are, they see where the robots are, they can communicate graphics ... it just absolutely blew us away," he said. "The software between the robotic vehicle and the control vehicle -- while not perfect -- performed better than we thought it would."

There were challenges with the target recognition technology that links the robotic vehicle with the control vehicle.

"It works while stationary, but part of the challenge is how do you do that on the move and how that is passed to the gunner," Coffman said. "We've got some work to do with that.

"We have some work to do with the stability systems with the weapon systems as you are going across terrain," he continued.

Another challenge will be to get the control vehicle and the robot vehicle to communicate adequately beyond 1,000 meters.

"The distance between the robot and the controller is a physics problem and, when you talk flat earth, you can go over a kilometer from the controller to the robot," Coffman said, adding that potential adversaries are wrestling with the same challenge.

Several defense firms participating in the experiment have "created radio waveforms to get us the megabytes per second to extend that range" in dense forest terrain, he said.

"That's the hardest part, is you get into a dense forest, it's really hard to extend the range," he said. "We tested them; we went after them with [electronic warfare] ... so we have a really good idea of what is the realm of the possible."

 

[Winston]

Check Out This B-52 Stratofortress Carrying Two AGM-183 Hypersonic Test Missiles
The USAF just completed the last captive carry flight of what's slated to become the service's first hypersonic weapon. Launch tests are next.
AUGUST 9, 2020

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...carrying-two-agm-183-hypersonic-test-missiles
The age of hypersonic combat is fast approaching. Case in point, an Edwards Air Force Base test B-52H Stratofortress just carried out its last captive carry test flight for the service's new AGM-183 Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW). The next phase will be actual test launches of the extreme-speed, air defenses-busting, tactical boost-glide hypersonic missile system.

The B-52 involved in the tests, 60-0050 "Dragon's Inferno," has been seen with increasingly elaborate modifications associated with the ARRW test program. These include a number of apertures for filming test launches, which are painted in customary day-glow orange that is a staple of the Air force's flight test community. The aircraft has flown with a captive carry AGM-183 airframe on numerous occasions, but this is the first time we have seen the B-52 outfitted with a pair of the missiles, one of which appears to be more advanced than the previously seen test missile airframe and has a gray overall scheme.

 

[Winston]

Declassified photos from Tinian Island (click on image). Enter "Tinian Island" in Google Earth to see remains of WWI activity.

 

[Winston]

Start at 1:49. Beautiful scenery.

F-22 Aerial Refueling • Red Flag Alaska

 

[Winston]

Shows the incredible amount of monitoring instrumentation installed.

Operation Tumbler-Snapper - Nuclear Test Film (1952)

 

[Winston]

The American Scientists Who Saved London From Nazi Drones
For months, German V-1s terrorized the city. To take them down, US physicists had to develop a “smart fuse”—a task they were told was practically impossible.
4 Aug 2020

https://www.wired.com/story/the-american-scientists-who-saved-london-from-nazi-drones
Excerpt:

After hearing a distant explosion, they returned to sleep.

Witnesses who glimpsed the four Nazi aircraft that reached English soil that morning came to similar conclusions as the firemen. The objects looked like crippled planes. From below, observers saw “nothing but a black shape with sheets of flame spurting out behind it.” Dark silhouettes appeared over farms like burning black swords knifing through night.

It was not until a few days later, when 73 of them reached greater London, that citizens began to learn the truth of the German “buzz bombs.” They were V-1s, 4,900-pound winged missiles flying on autopilot. London newspapers announcing the arrival of “Pilotless Warplanes” assured readers that “Our Scientists Will Defeat It.” The Evening Standard ran a column on “How the Robot Works.” An article on “How to Spot Ghost Planes” detailed the craft’s telltale characteristics: Its “terrific speed,” the flames from its exhaust, and its loud buzzing vibrations. The peculiar aircraft weren’t “crashing.” Their noisy engines were cutting out above the city, leaving the 1,800-pound warheads to drift down silently to their marks. “When the engine of the pilotless aircraft stops,” the Evening News advised, Londoners should take cover, as “it may mean that the explosion will soon follow—perhaps in five to 15 seconds.”

In the first two weeks of the siege, the German air force launched an estimated 1,585 drones, over 1,100 of which successfully crossed the Channel. British Royal Air Force pilots managed to shoot down only 315 of them. Five hundred and fifty-eight struck greater London.

Ack-ack guns, which usually defended the capital against Luftwaffe bombers, went silent. Shooting at the V-1s over the city, after all, could only succeed in bringing the pilotless aircraft down on their intended target. Gun sites went silent as flocks of noxious drones moaned and blustered, dove, exploded, and wrecked the city anew. After three weeks, Prime Minister Winston Churchill disclosed, the V-1s had claimed 2,752 lives and injured some 8,000, devastating figures not seen in London since the end of the Blitz three years prior.

The Allies’ anti-aircraft defenses hadn't been useful then, either. In the early weeks of the Blitz, it had taken an average of 20,000 rounds from ack-ack cannons to drop a single German bomber. As one American physicist recalled: “It would be just a sheer stroke of luck to hit anything.” Now, once again, it was clear that the anti-aircraft battalions would stand little chance. Flying at over four hundred miles per hour, the V-1s made for exceptionally fast targets. Even in locations where gun crews were cleared to fire, their speed made them difficult to track. According to one commander, the resultant shooting “was both wild and inaccurate.” British gunners were hitting only 9 percent of the drones.

For some years, the solution had been obvious—in theory. If scientists could install some sort of sensor inside a round, it could be programmed to blow up in proximity to a plane. In effect, such a device would make an airplane look 50 times bigger to a gun. The problem was that the electronics of the era were extraordinarily delicate, and the pressure inside an anti-aircraft gun could reach up to 20,000 times the force of gravity. The task, in short, was to shrink components as delicate as old radio parts to the size of a tennis ball, cram them inside a bullet, and engineer this new “proximity fuse” to be rugged enough to work as it flew in the air more than two thousand feet every second while spinning over two hundred and fifty times.

For this to work, the new “smart” fuse would have to be both small and very sturdy—qualities that seemed to challenge the laws of physics. The task, American scientists were told, was practically impossible.

YEARS EARLIER, IN 1940, four American physicists with zero background in designing weapons had taken up the challenge of developing the fuse at the request of the US Navy. The project was a true long shot. No one, not even their boss, the engineer Vannevar Bush, thought they would succeed. At first, they couldn’t buy an anti-aircraft gun or easily procure one from the Army or Navy. So the scientist built their own “cannon” out of Shelby steel tubing, a bored-out chunk of metal, and a spark plug. They needed “shells” for tests so they made them from smaller pipes. They needed a firing range, so they set up an improvised proving ground on a friend’s farm in Virginia.

To buy gunpowder, they looked up “Dynamite” in the Yellow Pages.

Led by a fiery physicist in Washington D.C. named Merle Tuve, the small band of four was organized under the umbrella of the National Defense Research Committee, which would become the research and development hub for new military devices. By the end of the war, Tuve’s staff would number over 1,000. They were known as Section T: T for Tuve. After the atomic bomb, their unlikely smart weapon would turn out to be, in the words of one prominent historian, “perhaps the most remarkable scientific achievement of the war.”

They raced to solve puzzle after puzzle as war raged.

 

[Winston]

The forgotten mine that built the atomic bomb
3 Aug 2020

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200803-the-forgotten-mine-that-built-the-atomic-bomb
Excerpts:

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) role in creating the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was kept secret for decades, but the legacy of its involvement is still being felt today.

The Shinkolobwe mine – named after a kind of boiled apple that would leave a burn if squeezed – was the source for nearly all of the uranium used in the Manhattan Project, culminating with the construction of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945.

But the story of the mine didn’t end with the bombs. Its contribution to the Little Boy and Fat Man has shaped the DRC’s ruinous political history and civil wars over the decades that followed.

The story of Shinkolobwe began when a rich seam of uranium was discovered there in 1915, while the Congo was under colonial rule by Belgium. There was little demand for uranium back then: its mineral form is known as pitchblende, from a German phrase describing it as a worthless rock. Instead, the land was mined by the Belgian company Union Minière for its traces of radium, a valuable element that had been recently isolated by Marie and Pierre Curie.

It was only when nuclear fission was discovered in 1938 that the potential of uranium became apparent. After hearing about the discovery, Albert Einstein immediately wrote to US president Franklin D Roosevelt, advising him that the element could be used to generate a colossal amount of energy – even to construct powerful bombs. In 1942, US military strategists decided to buy as much uranium as they could to pursue what became known as the Manhattan Project. And while mines existed in Colorado and Canada, nowhere in the world had as much uranium as the Congo.

“The geology of Shinkolobwe is described as a freak of nature,” says Tom Zoellner, who visited Shinkolobwe in the course of writing Uranium – War, Energy, and the Rock that Shaped the World. “In no other mine could you see a purer concentration of uranium. Nothing like it has ever been found.”

Mines in the US and Canada were considered a “good” prospect if they could yield ore with 0.03% uranium. At Shinkolobwe, ores typically yielded 65% uranium. The waste pile of rock deemed too poor quality to bother processing, known as tailings, contained 20% uranium.

In a deal with Union Minière – negotiated by the British, who owned a 30% interest in the company – the US secured 1,200 tonnes of Congolese uranium, which was stockpiled on Staten Island, US, and an additional 3,000 tonnes that was stored above ground at the mine in Shinkolobwe. But it was not enough. US Army engineers were dispatched to drain the mine, which had fallen into disuse, and bring it back into production.

Under Belgian rule, Congolese workers toiled day and night in the open pit, sending hundreds of tonnes of uranium ore to the US every month. “Shinkolobwe decided who would be the next leader of the world,” says Mombilo. “Everything started there.”

All of this was carried out under a blanket of secrecy, so as not to alert Axis powers about the existence of the Manhattan Project. Shinkolobwe was erased from maps, and spies sent to the region to sow deliberate disinformation about what was taking place there. Uranium was referred to as “gems”, or simply “raw material”. The word Shinkolobwe was never to be uttered.

This secrecy was maintained long after the end of the war. “Efforts were made to give the message that the uranium came from Canada, as a way of deflecting attention away from the Congo,” says Williams. The effort was so thorough, she says, that the belief the atomic bombs were built with Canadian uranium persists to this day.

After the war, however, Shinkolobwe emerged as a proxy ground in the Cold War. Improved enrichment techniques made Western powers less dependent on the uranium at Shinkolobwe. But in order to curtail other nations’ nuclear ambitions, the mine had to be controlled. “Even though the US did not need the uranium at Shinkolobwe, it didn’t want the Soviet Union to get access to the mine,” explains Williams.

When the Congo gained independence from Belgium in 1960, the mine was closed and the entrance filled with concrete. But Western powers wanted to ensure that any government presiding over Shinkolobwe remained friendly to their interests.

“Since there has been a need for uranium, the US and the powerful countries have made sure nobody can touch the Congo,” says Mombilo. “Whoever wanted to lead the Congo had to be under their control.”

 

[Winston]

Basically their F-15EX - in other words an upgraded 4th generation fighter. But, anyway, only 30 aircraft? Russia's GDP is less than California or Texas alone. China is the primary enemy and that should have been recognized LONG ago... but there was too much money in NOT recognizing that. As the very old Marxist saying goes, "A capitalist will sell you the rope you hang him with."

Why Russia’s MiG-35 Is Starting To Look Like A Dead Duck
The latest-generation Fulcrum should have been in service by now, so why isn’t it and what went wrong?
AUGUST 8, 2020

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/35500/why-russias-mig-35-is-starting-to-look-like-a-dead-duck
Almost four years on from the MiG-35’s first flight, there’s no sign of the hoped-for large-scale orders for the warplane from the Russian Defense Ministry. The Fulcrum-F — described by the manufacturer as a “Gen 4++” fighter — had been slated to begin frontline squadron service around mid-2020, but to date, Russia has purchased only six examples.

The latest iteration of the Fulcrum, which is based on the standard MiG-29's 43-year-old Cold War-era design, entered development in 2014 thanks to defense ministry funding ready to meet a domestic requirement, but the fighter is still undergoing its mandated state flight-test campaign. It had been hoped that trials would be completed by late 2018 or early 2019, after which Moscow would place an order for at least 30 aircraft.

 

[Winston]

Apparent in-sky size of solar system objects relative to each other over the next 2 years



Planets and dwarf planets to scale in size, rotation speed & axial tilt in distance order from Sun



Relative orbital velocities – planet motions, rotations and tilts to scale



Light Speed – fast, but slow

 

[Winston]

Extreme Materials



Upsalite: Scientists make 'impossible material'... by accident

https://phys.org/news/2013-08-upsalite-scientists-impossible-material-byaccident.html
Researchers in Uppsala, Sweden accidentally left a reaction running over the weekend and ended up resolving a century-old chemistry problem.

Mesoporous magnesium carbonate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoporous_magnesium_carbonate
Mesoporous magnesium carbonates (MMCs) constitute a family of magnesium carbonate materials with high specific surface areas. It was first reported in July 2013 by a group of researchers in nanotechnology at Uppsala University.[1][2] The highest reported surface area of any MMC is 800 m² per gram, which is the highest surface area ever measured for an alkali earth metal carbonate.[1] The average pore size of MMCs can be adjusted by tuning the synthesis conditions.[3] So far, all reported forms of MMCs are anhydrous and X-ray amorphous.

One BAM good nanocoating!

https://ceramics.org/ceramic-tech-today/one-bam-good-nanocoating
What’s almost as hard as diamond, slicker than Teflon and “green” enough to reduce the United States’ industrial energy consumption by trillions of BTUs a year? The answer is BAM – a ceramic alloy created by combining a mix of boron, aluminum and magnesium with titanium diboride. The world’s third hardest material, next to diamond and cubic boron nitride, BAM is as slippery as it is strong. With a 0.02 coefficient of friction, it is substantially slicker than Teflon (0.05) and lubricated steel (0.16). Discovered accidentally in 1999 by two researchers at DOE’s Ames Laboratory, BAM has now grown into the nanocoating superstar of a four-year, $3-million project designed to lower industrial energy usage by reducing machine friction. The project, largely funded by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, is led by Bruce Cook, one of BAM’s discoverers and a scientist at the Iowa lab.

Aluminium magnesium boride

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_magnesium_boride
Aluminum magnesium boride or Al3Mg3B56 [1][2][3] colliqually known as BAM is a chemical compound of aluminium, magnesium and boron. Whereas its nominal formula is AlMgB14, the chemical composition is closer to Al0.75Mg0.75B14. It is a ceramic alloy that is highly resistive to wear and has an extremely low coefficient of sliding friction, reaching a record value of 0.04 in unlubricated[4] and 0.02 in lubricated AlMgB14−TiB2 composites. First reported in 1970, BAM has an orthorhombic structure with four icosahedral B12 units per unit cell.[5] This ultrahard material has a coefficient of thermal expansion comparable to that of other widely used materials such as steel and concrete.

 

[Winston]

Nucleosynthesis of the elements

 

[Winston]

The Force of Nothingness Has Been Used to Manipulate Objects
7 AUGUST 2020

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-force-of-nothingness-has-been-used-to-manipulate-objects
Scientists can use some pretty wild forces to manipulate materials. There's acoustic tweezers, which use the force of acoustic radiation to control tiny objects. Optical tweezers made of lasers exploit the force of light. Not content with that, now physicists have made a device to manipulate materials using the force of… nothingness.

OK, that may be a bit simplistic. When we say nothingness, we're really referring to the attractive force that arises between two surfaces in a vacuum, known as the Casimir force. The new research has provided not just a way to use it for no-contact object manipulation, but also to measure it.

The Casimir force was first predicted in 1948 by Dutch theoretical physicist Hendrik Casimir, and finally demonstrated within his predicted values in 1997.

But, since then, it has been generating a lot more interest, not just for its own sake, but for how it might be used in other areas of research.

What Casimir predicted was that an attractive force would exist between two conducting plates in a vacuum, due to contrasts in quantum fluctuations in the electromagnetic field.

"To understand this, we need to delve into the weirdness of quantum physics. In reality a perfect vacuum does not exist - even in empty space at zero temperature, virtual particles, like photons, flicker in and out of existence," Tobar said.

"These fluctuations interact with objects placed in vacuum and are actually enhanced in magnitude as temperature is increased, causing a measurable force from 'nothing' - otherwise known as the Casimir force."

 

[Winston]

Interactive: The Top Programming Languages

This app ranks the popularity of dozens of programming languages. You can filter them by excluding sectors that aren’t relevant to you, such as “Web” or “Embedded.” (The sectors that languages are assigned to are based on typical use patterns we’ve seen in the wild, rather than atypical or proof-of-concept projects.) Rankings are created by weighting and combining 11 metrics from eight sources—CareerBuilder, GitHub, Google, Hacker News, the IEEE, Reddit, Stack Overflow, and Twitter. (Read more about our method and sources). Special thanks to CareerBuilder for providing access to its API, which became closed since last year’s ranking.

The default set of weights produces our IEEE Spectrum ranking, but there are preset weights for those more interested in what’s trending or most looked for by employers. Don’t like the presets? Make your own ranking by adjusting the weights yourself using the “Create Custom Ranking” option.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/static/interactive-the-top-programming-languages-2020

 

[Winston]

BOOM HOPES TO REIGNITE SUPERSONIC TRAVEL WITH XB-1
10 Aug 2020

https://hackaday.com/2020/08/10/boom-hopes-to-reignite-supersonic-travel-with-xb-1/
It’s no coincidence that the XB-1 bears more than a passing resemblance to NASA’s X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST) aircraft. While Boom has been relatively cagey about how quiet their planes will eventually end up being, it’s clear from even a cursory glance that they’ve adopted some of the design elements that NASA and X-59 prime contractor Lockheed Martin believe will help mitigate the sonic booms generated by their experimental aircraft.

Both planes utilize a long and thin fuselage to prevent the front and rear pressure waves from compressing together and generating an energetic shock wave. Instead of hearing the loud crack of these waves slamming into each other, an observer on the ground would hear a series of dull thumps. While this doesn’t solve the problem completely, it should reduce the traditional sonic boom to the point it would simply blend into the normal background noise of life in an urban environment.

That said, the XB-1 clearly isn’t taking the concept quite as far as the X-59. Boom is ultimately looking to create a practical commercial aircraft, whereas NASA is researching the limits of the technology. The almost comically long nose extension on the X-59 will surely provide NASA with a wealth of data about sonic boom abatement, but probably won’t become a standard feature on aircraft of the future.

Boom says construction of the XB-1 will be largely completed by the end of the year, and that flight tests will start in 2021. That just so happens to be when NASA and Lockheed Martin plan on starting flight testing of the X-59.

But for Boom, the successful testing of the XB-1 is just the beginning. After validating their core technology and design principles on the smaller craft, the company says they will immediately begin construction on a Mach 2.2 capable airliner they call Overture.

The 52 meter (170 ft) long aircraft would be able to carry up to 55 passengers, and is intended for high-speed international business flights. Even though it’s projected to be considerably quieter than the similarly sized Concorde, Boom envisions the Overture primarily flying transoceanic routes where noise won’t be a concern. While the timetable obviously depends on how well the XB-1 performs, Boom hopes to have the Overture ready to enter service by 2027.

Boom

https://boomsupersonic.com/xb-1
XB-1:

Overture:

 

[Winston]

A Bridge Above: 20 Years of the International Space Station

 

[Winston]

The outline of that 'copter looks awfully familiar.

Chinese Z-10A Attack Helicopter Shows Off New Missile During Live-Fire Exercise
The latest footage suggests that the weapon could be integral to a hunter-killer attack helicopter team concept of operations.
AUGUST 11, 2020

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...ows-off-new-missile-during-live-fire-exercise

 

[Winston]

Tandem seating cockpit ala F-111. Nice lines and I like the paint scheme.

Sukhoi Su-34







Air show demo:

Sukhoi Su-34

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_Su-34
First flight: 13 April 1990
Introduction: 20 March 2014
Produced: 2006–present
Number built: 135

Incredibly detailed examination:

Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback
Russia's New Heavy Strike Fighter
Technical Report APA-TR-2007-0108
by Dr Carlo Kopp, AFAIAA, SMIEEE, PEng
January, 2007
Updated October, 2008
Updated January, 2011
Updated April, 2012

https://www.ausairpower.net/APA-Fullback.html

 

[Winston]

Operation Dominic, one of the most photogenic nuke test series with 31 tests. Hardtack I with 35 tests was another one.

Operation Dominic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Dominic
Operation Dominic was a series of 31 nuclear test explosions with a 38.1 Mt total yield conducted in 1962 by the United States in the Pacific. This test series was scheduled quickly, in order to respond in kind to the Soviet resumption of testing after the tacit 1958–1961 test moratorium. Most of these shots were conducted with free-fall bombs dropped from B-52 bomber aircraft. Twenty of these shots were to test new weapons designs; six to test weapons effects; and several shots to confirm the reliability of existing weapons. The Thor missile was also used to lift warheads into near-space to conduct high-altitude nuclear explosion tests; these shots were collectively called Operation Fishbowl.

Operation Dominic occurred during a period of high Cold War tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, since the Cuban Bay of Pigs Invasion had occurred not long before. Nikita Khrushchev announced the end of a three-year moratorium on nuclear testing on 30 August 1961, and Soviet tests recommenced on 1 September, initiating a series of tests that included the detonation of Tsar Bomba. President John F. Kennedy responded by authorizing Operation Dominic. It was the largest nuclear weapons testing program ever conducted by the United States and the last atmospheric test series conducted by the U.S., as the Limited Test Ban Treaty was signed in Moscow the following year.

Why the undersides of B-52s were painted white...

Operation Dominic 1962, Nuclear tests (HD)
From "Trinity and Beyond. The atomic bomb movie" [GREAT film! So is the entire series from Peter Kuran]



Dominic Sunset 1 Mt





Dominic Housatonic 8.3 Mt (last U.S. nuclear weapon airdrop)





Dominic Bighorn 7.7 Mt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY9r7mRUgFU
Dominic (unknown)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdKag_J-ze8
Dominic Bluestone [see W56]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcF72F3bbQw
W56

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W56#cite_note-3
The W56 was an American thermonuclear warhead produced starting in 1963 which saw service until 1993, on the Minuteman I and II ICBMs.

The W56 was manufactured in a series of models, all of which were approximately the same size and had a 1.2 megaton yield. The Mod-1, Mod-2, and Mod-3 variants weighed 600 pounds (270 kg), with the Mod-4 variant weighing 680 pounds (310 kg). All versions were 17.4 inches (440 mm) diameter by 47.3 inches (1,200 mm) long.

The W56 demonstrated a yield-to-weight ratio of 4.96 kt per kg [i.e., nearly 5 thousand TONS of TNT per 2.2 pounds of weapon - W] of device weight, and very close to the predicted 5.1 kt per kg achievable in the highest yield to weight weapon ever built, the 25 megaton B41. However unlike the B41, which was never tested at full yield, the W56 demonstrated its efficiency in the XW-56X2 Bluestone shot of Operation Dominic in 1962, thus from information available in the public domain the W56 may hold the distinction of demonstrating the highest efficiency in a nuclear weapon to date.

Trinity and Beyond - the Atomic Bomb Movie

Streaming:

https://www.amazon.com/Trinity-Beyond-Atomic-Bomb-Movie/dp/B002LOAUP8
Blu-ray:

https://www.amazon.com/Trinity-Beyond-Atomic-Movie-Blu-ray/dp/B002VCPFGY
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61kaMIcz6pL.jpg
Peter Kuran's great series of nuke films, all using digitally restored films:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Peter+Kuran&i=movies-tv&ref=dp_byline_sr_dvd_2

 

[Winston]

200 kilotons, only 9 inch outside diameter(!) which means the US W58 and W59 were almost certainly the same.

ET.317

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ET.317
ET.317 was a thermonuclear weapon of the British Royal Navy, developed for the UK version of the UGM-27 Polaris missile.

Development

The US Polaris A-3T warhead was the US W58. Britain considered but never used the W58 because the British safety authorities considered it unsafe in several respects. Instead they fitted a hybrid of a US W59 fusion secondary, triggered by a new British primary based on a Cleo boosted-fission device tested in Nevada as PAMPAS and TENDRAC. Variants of this basic design were used or intended for several other delivery systems, including the WE.177 bomb, UK Skybolt ALBM, and the Blue Water SSM (a tactical battlefield missile), and several others.

Documents declassified and released into the public domain in 2012 disclose that ET.317 was a warhead that used the fission-fusion-fission process, where a boosted-fission device codenamed Jennie triggered a fusion secondary codenamed Reggie which in turn was encased in U-238 depleted uranium. In the conditions created in the fusion process, vast quantities of free neutrons are liberated, and the normally unfissionable U-238 casing fissions. This results in a smaller, lighter, cheaper, dirtier weapon than one using only a fission-fusion process. Fission of the depleted uranium casing can generate a significant proportion of total weapon yield, and compared to other fissile material U-238 is cheap and plentiful as a waste product from HEU manufacture. Jennie was based on the Cleo device tested at PAMPAS and TENDRAC. Reggie was based on the US W59 fusion secondary.

Since the Reggie secondary manufactured in the UK from British-owned materials was a copy of the US W59, by implication, the W59 thermonuclear weapon deployed in some Minuteman I ICBMs also used the fission-fusion-fission process.

Although the physical dimensions of ET.317 are not themselves declassified, the dimensions of the Mk.2 ReB (Re-entry Bus) are. These show that the central warhead compartment measures 10.69 inches (271 mm) outside diameter. After allowing for the ReB's magnesium alloy structure and nylon phenolic ablative coating, and some thermal insulation, the diameter of ET.317 cannot have been greater than 9 inches (230 mm) in order to fit inside the RV. Much smaller than the 16.3 inches previously claimed for the W59.

The yield of ET.317 was stated in official documents on many occasions to be 200 kt. When retired, the Reggie fusion secondary was recycled and reused in its successor, the Chevaline warhead, matched to a new boosted-fission trigger codenamed Harriet. In that form, it is claimed to yield 225 kt, although there are as yet no official sources for that claim. Because the Chevaline warheads numbered two per missile, rather than the previous three ET.317 warheads, the surplus warheads were dismantled and while Jennie was no longer required, some Reggie secondaries were refurbished and installed as the secondary in WE.177C aircraft-delivered tactical nuclear bombs.

W58

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W58
The W58 was an American thermonuclear warhead used on the Polaris A-3 submarine-launched ballistic missile. Three W58 warheads were fitted as multiple warheads on each Polaris A-3 missile.

The W58 was 15.6 inches (400 mm) [probably more like 9 inches - W] in diameter and 40.3 inches (1,020 mm) long, with a basic weight for the warhead of 257 pounds (117 kg). The yield was 200 kilotons.

The W58 design entered service in 1964 and the last models were retired in 1982 with the last Polaris missiles.

Researcher Chuck Hansen claims based on his US nuclear program research that the W55 and W58 warheads shared a common primary or fission first stage; this design was nicknamed the Kinglet primary by Hansen in 2001.

Kinglet (nuclear primary)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinglet_(nuclear_primary)
Kinglet was a boosted fission primary used in two designs of American thermonuclear weapons, the W55 and the W58; and was also adapted by the British as a super-hardened primary known as Harriet used in the Chevaline improvements to the British Polaris A-3TK missile.

Primary is the technical term for the boosted fission trigger of a thermonuclear weapon, and, via the Teller-Ulam concept, is used to compress, heat and ignite the fusion fuel in the thermonuclear secondary.

The Kinglet primary was used in the US W55 warhead of an NDB ("nuclear depth bomb") carried by the SUBROC anti-submarine missile launched horizontally from a submarine to attack at longer ranges and at shorter times than torpedoes can manage, and with a much higher kill probability. The two yields of the W55 are a common feature of NDBs. A high yield will be used in deep oceanic water. A low yield will be required for use in shallow or coastal waters, and in deep oceanic water to minimise risk to nearby shipping. The lower yield is likely to be obtained without the boosting, which in turn reduces the fusion element almost completely.

Kinglet was also used as a primary in the three W58 thermonuclear warheads of the US Polaris A-3 missile. The British had safety concerns about Kinglet and the W58 and initially rejected it for their Polaris A-3 missiles, and substituted a different all-British primary. The most recently declassified documents suggest that the British later adapted the Kinglet primary as a basis for Harriet used in Chevaline because it could be hardened against the effects of exo-atmospheric ABM warhead bursts before re-entry, whereas their original primary would be vulnerable, and unable to defeat the Soviet Galosh ABMs defending Moscow.

Kinglet primary based nuclear weapons:

W55 - 4.5 or 250 kilotonnes of TNT; 343 mm (13.5 in) diameter; 1,001 mm (39.4 in) length; 213 kg (470 lb)
W58 - 200 kilotonnes of TNT; 396 mm (15.6 in) diameter; 1,016 mm (40 in) length; 117 kg (257 lb)

British nuclear testing in the United States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_nuclear_testing_in_the_United_States
Following the success of Operation Grapple in which the UK joined the club of thermonuclear nations (the US and the USSR at the time), Britain launched negotiations with the US on a treaty under in which both could share information and material to design, test and maintain their nuclear weapons. This effort culminated in the 1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement. One of the results of that treaty was that Britain was allowed to use United States' Nevada Test Site for testing their designs and ideas, and received full support from the personnel there, in exchange for the data "take" from the experiment, a mutual condition. In effect the Nevada Test Site became Britain's test ground, subject only to advance planning and integrating their testing into that of the United States. This resulted in 24 underground tests at the Nevada Test Site from 1958 through the end of nuclear testing in the US in September 1992.

[snip]

The Polaris Sales Agreement, which was signed in Washington, DC, on 6 April 1963, meant that a new warhead was required. The Skybolt warhead tested in Tendrac had to be redesigned with a Re-Entry System (RES) that could be fitted to a Polaris missile, at an estimated cost of between £30 million and £40 million. The alternative was to make a British copy of the W58. While the AWRE [British Atomic Weapons Research Establishment - W] was familiar with the W47 warhead used in the A2 Polaris missile, it knew nothing of the W58 used in the A3 which the British government had decided to buy. A presidential determination was required to release information on the W58 under the MDA, but with this in hand, a mission led by John Challens, the Chief of Warhead Development at the AWRE, visited the LLNL from 22 to 24 January 1963, and was shown details of the W58. However a carbon copy of the American design was not possible, as the British used a different conventional explosive, and British fissile material was of a different composition of isotopes of plutonium. A new warhead had to be designed. It was given a fission primary codenamed Katie and fusion secondary codenamed Reggie. The whole warhead was given the designation ET.317.

A new test series was required, which was conducted with the LANL. The first was Whetstone Commorant on 17 July 1964. It was followed by Whetstone Courser on 25 September. The latter used an ET.317 Katie, but with 0.45 kg less plutonium. The test was a failure due to a fault in the American-made neutron initiators, and had to be repeated in the Flintlock Charcoal test on 10 September 1965. This test had to be authorised by the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, and his cabinet. Charcoal produced the highest yield of any UK nuclear test at NTS up to that date. The design saved 166 kg of plutonium across the Polaris warhead stockpile, and reduced the cost of its production by £2.5 million.

 

[Winston]

USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Dwight_D._Eisenhower
Laid down: 15 August 1970
Launched: 11 October 1975
Commissioned: 18 October 1977
Class and type: Nimitz-class aircraft carrier

In drydock in 2019 (click on image for full size)

 

[Winston]

A-10 Warthog Live Fire Training

 

[Winston]

RED FLAG Alaska 20-3 ENDEX Video

 

[Winston]

155mm M549A1 HE-RAP
High Explosive – Rocket Assisted Projectile

The M549A1 is an extended range, rocket assisted high-explosive projectile for use in long range harassment and interdiction (H&I) fire mission. The rocket motor is located in the aft end of the two-piece forged alloy projectile body. The rocket is initiated by a pyrotechnic delay which ignites upon a gun launch and provides a 7-second delay. This delay maximizes the range extension effect of the rocket motor. The copper alloy rotating band is overlay welded to withstand Zone 8S propelling charge launch forces and is protected during storage and handling by a plastic grommet. A specially-designed shock-attenuating lifting plug is provided for handling and storage.

Explosive Fill: TNT, 15 lbs. (6.8 kg)
Rocket Motor: Dual Grain, 6.5 lbs. (2.9 kg)

Brochure:

https://www.gd-ots.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/155mm-M549A1-HE-RAP.pdf
155mm M549A1 HE-RAP Projectile Renovation Line - Blue Grass Army Depot, Richmond, KY

 

[Winston]

Loyal Wingman breaks cover
17 August 2020

https://www.australiandefence.com.au/news/loyal-wingman-breaks-cover
Boeing Defence Australia’s secretive Airpower Teaming System (ATS), more commonly known as Loyal Wingman, has been spotted by local sources out in the open in the past week.
Until now, the only released pictures of the unmanned platform have been carefully controlled by the original equipment manufacturer, but it would appear that the aircraft is now being prepared for taxi trials at an undisclosed location, possibly Amberley, ahead of its first flight.

Until now Boeing has declined to reveal where the aircraft was being built, other than ‘somewhere in Queensland’ or when and where the first flight would take place, beyond saying ‘sometime in 2020’.

“The first ATS aircraft is currently undergoing ground testing, which will be followed by taxi and first flight later this year,” a Boeing spokesperson said today, but declined to confirm the location of these activities at this time.

The ATS is a joint program between BDA and Defence and known as Defence Project 6014 (Loyal Wingman Advanced Development Program) and launched amid much fanfare at the 2019 Australian International Airshow at Avalon by then Minister for Defence Christopher Pyne. Under the terms of the project Defence is contributing $40 million to build three ATS prototypes to further explore the concept of airpower teaming, under which autonomous vehicles operate with manned platforms during a range of air combat missions.

According to Boeing data released at Avalon, the ATS is 38 ft (11.7 metres) long, with a wingspan of 24 ft, a range of 2,000 nautical miles and capable of ‘fighter-like’ performance. It says the platform will include a range of sensors to enable it to perform Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) and Electronic Warfare roles, but since then very few details been released.

Coincident with the roll-out of the first ATS air vehicle in May, Head Air Force Capability, Air Vice Marshal Cath Roberts revealed that the ATS platform will feature a 2.5 metre removeable and reconfigurable nose, with an internal volume of over 1.5 cubic metres, which will allow ‘a range of sensors and payloads’ to be installed and tested.

 

[Winston]

Navy Makes Unusual Public Display Of Its Secretive Seawolf Submarine's Presence Off Norway
The visible deployment of the advanced submarine is a pointed signal to Russia, which has stepped up its own sub operations in the region.
AUGUST 25, 2020

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...retive-seawolf-submarines-presence-off-norway
The U.S. Navy has released a number of pictures of the first-in-class USS Seawolf surfaced in a fjord near Tromsø, Norway last week. The service is typically very tight-lipped about submarine operations, in general, and even more so about its three highly advanced and secretive Seawolf class boats, which are known to be heavily involved in specialized intelligence activities, among other missions. This very rare public appearance in Scandinavia would seem to be intended, at least in part, to send a message to the Russian government about American underwater capabilities in the region.

The Navy first announced that Seawolf had visited Norway and was otherwise operating in that region on Aug. 21, 2020, which was itself an unusual public disclosure. The pictures of the submarine making what was described only as "a brief stop for personnel" appeared online on Aug. 25. It is very uncommon to see official photographs of this submarine, or the others in its class, outside of exercises or its homeport at Naval Base Kitsap in Washington State. Defense journalist Chris Cavas, who follows naval issues closely, noted on Twitter that this also appears to be the first time the Navy has released photos of Seawolf anywhere, in any context in five years.

 

[Winston]

F'em.

Oh, and by the way, here's the multi-TRILLION dollar bill for that lab virus you intentionally allowed to spread here.

China Freaks Out Over Supposed U-2 Spy Plane Flight Over Its Naval Exercise
China says the U-2 dangerously interfered with its naval drills. Meanwhile, it seems Beijing may execute a major anti-ship ballistic missile test.
AUGUST 25, 2020

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...-u-2-spy-plane-flight-over-its-naval-exercise
China is making a big deal out of a supposed overflight by a U.S. Air Force U-2 spy plane of one of its currently underway People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) exercises. It isn't clear where exactly the incident is claimed to have taken place as China has four major naval wargames underway in the South China Sea, Yellow Sea, East China Sea, of Sea of Bohai right now. The northeastern reaches of the South China Sea, in particular, has experienced a massive uptick in military activity in recent weeks, with Chinese forces and U.S. forces flooding the area with military capabilities. The U.S. has placed a near-constant stream of surveillance aircraft over the area and Taiwan has raised its alert status due to the activity level of PLAN assets. The latest Chinese drills in that region are slated to run from the 24th to the 29th, but in the case of the supposed U-2 mission in question, the Yellow Sea exercises seem most likely where the high flying spy aircraft crashed the PLAN's party.

U-2s sortie out of Osan Air Base in South Korea, making the trip west to the Yellow Sea local in nature. China also says the incident occurred in an area that was under its Northern Theater Command's responsibility, pointing to exercises in this area. The U.S. still hasn't confirmed the mission took place or responded on any level to China's accusations.

According to Reuters, China says its Defense Ministry has lodged 'stern representations" with the U.S. government over the U-2 “seriously interfering in normal exercise activities" that could have resulted in an "unexpected incident." They added that the flight was "an act of provocation, and China is resolutely opposed to it... China demands the U.S. side immediately stop this kind of provocative behavior and take actual steps to safeguard peace and stability in the region.”

While China can issue a notice to airmen (NOTAM) warning of live-fire drills, the vast majority of the exercise would have taken place in international waters. So, the U-2 may have waltzed into or near China's air defense identification zone, and the airspace it 'closed' for the exercise, but that doesn't mean it broke any territorial boundaries.

Still, doing so is undoubtedly a bold move. If China was executing live-fire drills, placing an aircraft in that area ups the risk of a mistake being made. Still, they could see the U-2 coming from far away and the aircraft has one of the world's most capable electronic warfare self-protection suites. The potential payoffs of pushing one of these spy planes directly over or near a Chinese live-fire naval exercise are also quite high. The aircraft could suck up all of the PLAN's radar, data-links, and other communications signatures, as well as eavesdrop on its voice communications and monitor its operational procedures. Just how the PLAN would respond to the U-2 being there and what sensors would track it could dramatically increase the fidelity of this intelligence value, as well. In other words, it would both stimulate and surveil the PLAN's integrated air defense capabilities.