* Another strong anti-missile test at sea
* Israelis unveil new RPG-stopper
* Europe’s killer drone inches ahead
* Chemical security getting gassed
* Ex-NSAer: spying hurts security
* Senators propose snoop cash cut
* “America’s China War Plan“
* Iraqi EOD trains up
* Surveillance court’s new judge
* “Black budget bonanza“
* “Your money or your site“
* Justice Department kills own surveillance probe
(Big ups: Bruce)
Am I mistaken, or did not Henry Kissinger promise China that the U.S. would not interfere with the Taiwan issue anymore under the Nixon administration?
gotta say, that Israeli iron fist is interesting.
I wonder how it’ll work in the field?
Assuming Iron Fist works as advertized, it should pretty much put the Trophy munition out of work (I assume they share sensors and fire control).
Stupid question… what if you add tungsten dust (health effects permitting) discussed elsewhere to this warhead? Then, you’d get frag/blast with a really short lethal radius, and a wound radius barely any larger than that.
While googling this, I found that some pages claim Iron First was able to negate KE munitions (probably by deflection). If that is the case, then it throws a *lot* of possibilities and threats into the air.
Likewise, I’m impressed by the Iron Fist piece; it’s about time someone used a blast-only munition. I’m likewise impressed by the apparent ability to deflect KE rounds although I’d stop short of saying it will stop, say, an APFSDS round from an Abrams or a T-90 until I see such a thing demonstrated. There’s lots to mull over… How many targets can it engage simultaneously? What’s the reload time? If the KE round is fast enough, will deflection be enough to protect a light armored vehicle? This one bears watching.
As for the China article I cannot find myself agreeing with the author that we shouldn’t be writing OPLANs with their name on it. Let’s face it; as long as the Chinese military behaves belligerently towards one of our allies, we’re fools not to have plans in place. I’ll be in favor of downgrading the OPLAN when China pulls back some of the hundreds of TBMs pointed at Taiwan.
I’ve got to say, for as much money as we’ve wasted on ICBM defense, the ship-based missiles have been absolutely incredible. I’ll hand it to Bush that at least one part of his program is working well beyond expectations.
I’m no peacenik, but I had wondered if we should have taken that money we spent on Star Wars 2 (because as we all know, all new Star Wars stuff has sucked balls–stupid Lucas) and spent it instead on other equipment. But I really like how the ship-based systems have performed.
The Iron Fist thing looks cool. It might even make the Army dream of the 20 ton FCS tank possible (begin flames here).