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Monday — Fire for Effect

The Iraq War is won, Afghanistan — mmm not so much
Behind the scenes of an ICBM launch
A ballistic missile’s newest enemy: mirrors
SOCOM gets the Hummingbird
Inside Israel’s missile shield


Blast from the past 1979: US Air Force sponsors First Strike, depicting a catastrophic Soviet surprise attack on America’s strategic forces. Reagan defense build-up ensues…

{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }

unmannedanimal November 10, 2008 at 5:35 pm

glad the Hummingbird is out in the field. excellent example of a UAV that bursts through the envelope of its more conventional peers. its potent combination of loiter time, service ceiling and sensor payload is record-breaking.
perhaps more importantly, the level of autonomy that this platform utilizes is a key innovation which will enable a persistent sensing revolution.
kudos to Frontier and Boeing for paving the way.

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Camp November 10, 2008 at 6:55 pm

The vid reminds me of the movie…
“The Day After (Attack Segment)”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VG2aJyIFrA
and then there’s…
“War. War Never Changes.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AihKA_AgMok
“Civil Defense Authority PSA on Fallout”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgA0WdtpFlg
“Bush Vs. Zombies” 8O)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoXgRtDysLY

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bdwilcox November 10, 2008 at 7:37 pm

After watching the video, all I can say is that it’s a good thing Obama promised not to modernize our nuclear forces and to unilaterally disarm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8TWPchxgio
God help us.

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XML November 10, 2008 at 8:13 pm

#bdwilcox
“Obama promised not to modernize our nuclear forces and to unilaterally disarm.”
“God help us.”
Policy of the weak, i.e. idealism, political correctness, and a dangerous path that will hurt US national security, and Obama will become unpatriotic, and viewed as weak amongst the enemy.

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bdwilcox November 10, 2008 at 9:05 pm

#XML
Spot on. Where sheep graze, wolves gather.

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Hibbidyhai November 11, 2008 at 10:31 am

Please don’t make every comment section about politics. It does get kind of tiring after a while.
I remember there was about 3 weeks in high school civics class to nuclear war and some of policies in case of such an event, and there was a project where the class broke into groups and role played as the president and his cabinet during a practice nuke war.

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Adam November 11, 2008 at 6:01 pm

Yes bdwilcox and XML, the US is in danger of obliteration as its military spending only equals that of the rest of the world. Better start lobbying Congress to raise taxes!

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unmannedanimal November 12, 2008 at 7:49 pm

@RLTM
re: “Extraction purposes as well?”
it can be used for resupply (1kg within a 5000km radius), but i don’t think there’s room for human payload. retractable landing gear and the sensor payload highlight a distinct lack of benches.
the FORESTER array is pretty hefty; last i heard the prototype weighed in at 600lbs unmounted. obviously there’s post-development bulk to trim but it’s still a 6m airfoil housing a UHF aperture plus hardware to mount, stabilize, and rotate independent on the rotor.
when you add up all the fuel it sips while breaking endurance records without pause, 6500lbs gross seems like less and less…
“recovery of high-value assets” is part of the design’s repertoire but i don’t think troop extraction falls under that umbrella.
some more scale:
about half of the little bird’s gross is payload, right? hummingbird is a meter and change longer than that airframe with twice that distance added to rotor diameter, lighter construction (carbon fiber) with less engine (but much more power/weight thanks to low drag along the length of the flexing rotors), more avionics/native sensors to support autonomy and yet payload+fuel is 6 to 7 tenths of the gross weight.

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Woody August 4, 2011 at 7:57 pm

Is there anything NEW to watch that would tell the story like it might be Today ??

Using updated weapons, weapon systems, alerting technology, current forces and strengths, etc etc

I just discoverd this site and enjoyed watching First Strike for the first time …. now I would like to see MORE !!

And learn how it might be Today …. or somewhat like it might be today.

Seriously !

Thank s !!

–Woody

.

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