Columbia Class Ballistic Nuclear Submarine gets the green light!

via Defense Industry Daily.

General Dynamics Electric Boat has landed a $5.1 billion US Navy contract to commence development work on the Columbia-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine. Announced last Thursday, the award includes component and technology development, missile tube module and reactor compartment bulkhead prototyping and manufacturing efforts, and United Kingdom Strategic Weapon Support System kit manufacturing—which is covered under a foreign military sale—for the Columbia class ballistic missile submarines. Work will be conducted at several US locations and is scheduled for completion by December 2031. 12 Columbia-class submarines are planned by the Navy, and will replace the current fleet of Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines. The first vessel, the Columbia, is expected to be completed by 2031 at a cost of $10.4 billion counting research and engineering costs. The expected cost of follow-on vessels has been floated at over $5 billion a piece. The vessels will support the US Navy and British Royal Navy's Trident II D5 submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM) system.

First.  Defense Industry Daily puts out a pretty neat and information packed newsletter.  You might want to check it out.  Second.  The first boat hits the water in 2030 timeframe?  Geez.  That's waaay out there.  Does it take this long to develop a follow on?  I mean it is an evolutionary design right?

Blast from the past. Hiller X-18

via Enrique 262 Tumblr Page.

The Pentagon needs to refute this! Russia releases images of US Special Ops operating alongside ISIS????

via RT

The Russian Ministry of Defense has released aerial images which they say show US Army special forces equipment north of the town of Deir er-Zor, where ISIS militants are deployed.

US Army special units provide free passage for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) through the battle formations of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists, the ministry said in a statement.

Story here. 

A few things....

1.  Spare me the bullshit about RT being a news organization for the Russians. I gather info from sources around the globe.

2.  We've heard rumors of the US actually aiding ISIS for MONTHS!  A few people on these pages (not Russians either) had even accused McCain of meeting with groups allied with ISIS.

3.  We had an accusation earlier this week of US Special Ops being involved in some type of ambush on Russian MPs.  We have yet to hear a denial.

4.  Last but not least the Pentagon needs to get a handle on this and they need to get it right the first time.

This is some treacherous ground for the Pentagon.  You know my view on things.  I am of the opinion that we have been doing everything in Syria except trying to kill ISIS (remember the talk of 50 years to kill 100K terrorists in the open desert...the mainstream media might be that stupid but my readers aren't).  If the Pentagon denies that they're in the area or that they aren't working with the terrorists they WILL BE BELIEVED.

The problem.

If they are and they take a calculated risk and the Russians call their bluff and release even more hi-rez pics showing proof without a doubt that the Pentagon was lying then we're gonna have a real deal scandal on our hands.

The American people will be livid.  You think many are anti-interventionist, anti-globalization now?  Consider the possibility of the Pentagon being caught in a lie about our participation in Syria.

Yeah.

They better get this right...and they better not ignore it.  The Russians will continue to beat on this drum and eventually even the mainstream news will have to pick it up.


Of course this could be a big disinformation campaign which is why the Pentagon needs to clear the air ricky ticky quick.

Economics talk. Is China about to destroy the global system that made them powerful? UPDATE!

Thanks to Adi for the link!

via Oilprice.com

The world’s top oil importer, China, is preparing to launch a crude oil futures contract denominated in Chinese yuan and convertible into gold, potentially creating the most important Asian oil benchmark and allowing oil exporters to bypass U.S.-dollar denominated benchmarks by trading in yuan, Nikkei Asian Review reports.

The crude oil futures will be the first commodity contract in China open to foreign investment funds, trading houses, and oil firms. The circumvention of U.S. dollar trade could allow oil exporters such as Russia and Iran, for example, to bypass U.S. sanctions by trading in yuan, according to Nikkei Asian Review. To make the yuan-denominated contract more attractive, China plans the yuan to be fully convertible in gold on the Shanghai and Hong Kong exchanges.

Last month, the Shanghai Futures Exchange and its subsidiary Shanghai International Energy Exchange, INE, successfully completed four tests in production environment for the crude oil futures, and the exchange continues with preparatory works for the listing of crude oil futures, aiming for the launch by the end of this year. ?

“The rules of the global oil game may begin to change enormously,” Luke Gromen, founder of U.S.-based macroeconomic research company FFTT, told Nikkei Asia Review.

Story here. 

I have an EXTREMELY limited view of how all this ties together with the global economy but at least for the last 20 years the price of energy has tied directly to boom times.

Remember how things were right after the great recession?  Oil prices were outrageous.  It made no economic sense.  But it also helped keep the economy afloat.

Now?

Now we're living in a time of relatively mild oil prices (and I believe that even now they're being artificially inflated) and China wants to start a gold/yuan trading scheme?

I don't see how this can help them.  No one will want to trade in the yuan...they keep their money artificially low.  Now gold.  People will bite on that but it just drags them back into the US dominated market.

I'm not understanding what they're thinking but I'm wondering if this could be the first real mistake the Chinese govt is making.

Is this a brilliant move to push China to even greater heights or are they about to destroy the global system that made them powerful in the first place...or is it something in between?

UPDATE!  Wow.  I asked a real deal question and instead got bullshit answers.  I'm not in the mood for even more conspiracy theories.  I don't need to hear the pet theory from the darkside of the internet that supports whatever anti-US faction you're a part of.  Comments are closed on this.  I'll simply write an economist and hope they can answer.  Seriously though.  This is getting tiresome.  Either you know or you don't.  No shame in not knowing.  MUCH SHAME in some of the bullshit that is being peddled.

Open Comment Post. Sep 24, 2017

The Brick of the Unknown...pic by PFC Matt Navarra

Cpl. Vincenzo Champion carries The Brick of the Unknown, a block symbolizing the weight of those who were lost or captured, to remember their sacrifice at the #POW/MIA5krun on Sept. 22, 2017 at Camp Hansen, Okinawa. “The Brick of the Unknown is never carried in a backpack or set down because there is no easy way to carry the burden of a lost service member,” said Champion, a reconnaissance Marine with #3rdReconnaissanceBattalion.

Modest Proposal. Let's do the F-16XL to make up for F-35 capability shortfall!

Modest proposal.

Let's do the F-16XL to make up for F-35 capability shortfall!

What do I mean exactly?  We take the best of the F-16's that we have on hand and we do a 3 piece upgrade to AESA equipped fighters we have.

Piece 1.  The wing.

That wing.  It captures everyone's attention because its so radical and futuristic looking.  My love of it is the range increase it gives! Wikipedia isn't precise but we're looking at a range of almost 3k miles.  Hows that for a deep penetration missile truck?  Mach 2 top speed! Ceiling of beyond 50K feet!

Piece 2. Divertless Intake.

Divertless inlet.  Expanded maneuver envelope.  But the biggest benefit is no engine stalls or anomalies.  I'm sure there is more to it but I just believe that this is the way to go with this modest upgrade.

Piece 3.  P&W F-119 Engine.

P&W F-119.  The F-22 engine.  What do we get out of this?  An engine that has demonstrated the ability to supercruise.  It's in the inventory now.  And last but not least it is thrust vectoring capable.

Summation.

These upgrades would give us performance upgrades to the F-16 that should allow it to go toe to toe with the SU family of monsters out there and win. We're talking about pure performance too.  Increased range, speed, payload etc....

Leadership have painted themselves into a corner.  They rolled the dice on the F-35 and its time for us to save them from themselves.  So how do we do that?  We make proposals that are reasonable (notice I didn't say free) and we make the case for clawing back the air superiority that has been squandered while trying to get the F-35 to work.

The time has come to start making hard choices.  We can't allow religious belief in the F-35 to hold sway over rational examination of that program. In short we must start working on Plan B now.  We can't wait till a war starts to try and get it done on the fly.

Harlem deli worker charged with murder after fatally stabbing man who tried to attack him behind counter

via  NY Daily.

A Harlem deli clerk was charged with murder Friday after fatally stabbing a man relatives say was a serial shoplifter, sending him running down the street with a knife still stuck in his gut.

The drama began simply enough around 7 a.m. Friday at the A&S Candy Grocery on W. 145th St. near Lenox Ave. with an argument involving two men and the clerk. The men threatened Ahmad Hafeed, a 22-year-old store employee, and then stormed off.

Police said the two men returned to the store around 9 a.m. One of them, a 46-year-old man, had a knife and slashed at Hafeed as he stood behind the counter. Hafeed backed away and grabbed his own knife. He ran from behind the counter to confront the two men, surveillance video shows.

During the struggle, Hafeed, a native of Yemen, stabbed his would-be attacker several times in the midsection before the man broke free and ran from the store — the blade still sticking out of his stomach.

Story here. 

Interesting.  Make sure you follow the link to read the whole thing but this sounds like a clear case of self defense.

Why NY Police would charge the guy is beyond me.

What I find interesting is the dynamic here.  People of middle eastern descent have "set up shop" in the hood for quite awhile now.  It's just one of those dynamics that you see...one of those "true cliches" that everyone hates.

Store keeping is just part of their culture...or rather the desire to be store keepers.

Anyway that's going off on a tangent.  I look forward to hearing more about this story.  If it is as is being reported then New York has adopted European sensibilities when it comes to self defense (I'm assuming that his coming from behind the counter to confront the criminals is at least part of the reasoning from the police...do they have a "retreat" part of their self defense laws?).

Note.  Yes.  I am assuming the criminals are black although they failed to identify them.  The location would seem to imply that.

Lockheed Martin's Orbital Base Camp & Lander (pic heavy)

*  LM should hope like hell NASA turns them loose on this concept.  It could go a long way to revitalizing their reputation.  Between the F-35 fiasco and the little known (but business cooperation destroying) partnership skullduggery with Patria during the Amphibious Combat Vehicle program, they could use a big win.

1st LAR Bn @ Deep Strike II....pics by Cpl Justin Huffy....

Can the LAV-A2 still swim?

Turkey's new S-400 and the bragging about ability to shoot down US aircraft.

Thanks to Dave for the link!

via Defense News.

Turkey’s state run news agency Anadolu on Wednesday published an infographic showcasing the capabilities of the country’s new Russian-acquired S-400 missile defense system — and its ability to shoot down U.S. aircraft.

The graphic from the NATO ally’s news agency explains that the new S-400 can hit targets at 400 km away at 4.8 km per second. The infographic also says it can eliminate U.S. aircraft such as the B-52 Stratofortress, B-1 Lancer, F-15, F-16, F-22 Raptor, and several other high tech U.S. aircraft.

Story here. 

Hmm.  This system is formidable, so I have no problem with them saying that. What rankles is that they would identify it being able to shoot down US aircraft.

Why that distinction?

It's a given that they wouldn't list Russian aircraft after that idiotic shoot down of a SU-24.  I don't see them listing EU aircraft because I'm sure that Turkey is hoping against hope that it can still, by some miracle, make it into the Union.

The Chinese are off limits to them because I imagine that they hope to either team with them, get into their markets or just play nice.

So why don't we get the same consideration?

This is why Trump's America First resonated with so many (to include me). Label this as another instance of a so called ally that being disrespectful to the Red, White and Blue.

Blast from the past. Steyr ADGZ Heavy Armored Car.

This is another vehicle from WW2 that I didn't know even existed.  It's a funky design but most wheeled vehicles of the time were.

On a side note I do find it interesting that 8x8's (or 12 x12's in this case) usually had two drivers positions. We've tossed that requirement today because most vehicles are designed as troop carriers.

Still the concept seems to have merit.

Just throwing it out there but should we have a backup capability for another crewman to drive the vehicle remotely?  I'm talking about maybe an X-Box type controller for the gunner to take over driving (or the commander) if the driver is incapacitated.  Just a thought.