Man-portable anti-missile systems

 aircraft, awesomeness, news, rockets, russian empire, weapons, youtube  No Responses »
Oct 112022
 

Assuming the video is accurate (these days, who knows), it appears that a Ukrainian soldier swatted a Russian cruise missile on its way to a war crime using a standard shoulder-launched short range missile.

It’s unclear to me what system was used, as the video is pretty potato in quality. Doesn’t look to me like a Stinger; not enough stuff on the front of the launcher. Maybe a Grail, Gremlin or Piorun.

A MANPAD vs a cruise missile makes sense: cruise missiles fly low, generally subsonic, have no countermeasures such as flares and do not try to maneuver to avoid getting hit. On the other hand their engines are small and do not put out nearly as much thermal energy as the turbojets of a fighter; but on the gripping hand, they are also not as IR shielded as the exhausts of a stealthy airplane or a battlefield helicopter. So the trick with using a MANPAD to take out a cruise missile is to be in the right place at the right time, and to be on the ball. It’s impossible to know what apartment building or orphanarium or kitten hospital the Russian cruise missile was targeted to obliterate, but it’s safe to say that the missileer here just saved a fair number of civilians a lot of grief.

 Posted by at 8:53 pm

Space Defense Platform

 history, Hmm..., models, nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft, weapons  No Responses »
Oct 102022
 

A model built by or for Raytheon depicting their concept of a “Space Defense Platform.” Shown in early 1962 (possibly late 1961), this is a very early concept for a space-based weapon system meant to destroy other space vehicles. Scale is unknown, but if it is 1/1 scale, it seems fairly small. It is surrounded by what look like interceptor missiles, missiles which bear a resemblance to the contemporary FIM-43 “Redeye” shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile. The space missiles seem to have infra-red seekers like the Redeye, four small fins up front much like the Redeyes (which of course doesn’t make any sense in context of a space-based missile), but no tail fins, unlike the Redeye. Presumably steering would be accomplished by vectoring the main nozzle or the use of divert thrust near the nose, or both. Perhaps the four small “fins” are in fact thrusters, each pointing “sideways.” Much later interceptor missiles for use in space used gas generators that ran non-stop and fired from all of the thrusters non-stop; doing so negated their thrust, until a valve closed on one or more thruster, making the thrust asymmetric.

 

Redeye missile for comparison:

The model has few other features of note. Some ports, some antennae, some ill-defined projections near the bottom… and a spherical item, held aloft by a short boom, at the top. Notice a small “radiation” symbol on the sphere, indicating that this spacecraft was to be nuclear powered. Presumably some sort of low-power system, an RTG or the like, rather than a full reactor. in either case, radiators are not in evidence.

For those lookign to nail down the size of the model:

1) Assume the missiles are Redeyes.

2) Down at the bottom is a shiny hemisphere… it *might* be someone’s head.

3) The ceiling lights and contours are likely made to standard sizes.

 Posted by at 11:50 am

AbramsX

 awesomeness, news, weapons, youtube  No Responses »
Oct 092022
 

General Dynamics is showing off their next-generation main battle tank. And, shockingly, it’s an actual piece of hardware rather than a computer generated bit of flim-flam. If this gets put into production, it will differ from the current Abrams by:

  • an autoloader and a three-man crew rather than four
  • a hybrid engine system, with supposedly 50% better fuel consumption
  • a 30mm chain gun up top rather than a Ma Deuce
  • “Trophy” active protection system
  • reduced weight

I’m a bit stumped about the saw-tooth skirts on the side. Other than that, it looks sufficiently sci-fi. Note that the turret, which is now to be unmanned, is of somewhat lower profile, making the tank a slightly smaller target from the sides. However, as we’ve seen recently a whole lot of tanks get taken out from above. The “AbramsX” won’t be any smaller in that regard. Whether it’ll be any safer from a top attack remains to be seen, though Trophy has a good reputation.

 Posted by at 8:43 pm

B-1B Ad

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, history, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, weapons  No Responses »
Oct 092022
 

The ad below was published in magazines in 1982, showing a cutaway illustration of the then-fancy new B-1B bomber, recently rescued by the Reagan Administration. The background is here depicted as a rather dull gray, but the physical ad has a shiny metallic coating, which must have cost a small fortune at the time.

 

The full-rez version of this scan has been uploaded into the 2022-10 APR Extras Dropbox folder. It is available to all APR Patrons/Subscribers at the $4/month level and above. If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.



 

 Posted by at 1:11 am

Bridge Goes BOOM

 awesomeness, Hmm..., news, politics, russian empire, weapons, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Oct 082022
 

The Kerch Bridge that connects Russia to Crimea partially collapsed after an explosion – possibly a car bomb – went off overnight. A parallel span with a rail line had a fuel train at the time; several of the tanker cars caught fire. All in all, quite an impressive mess.

 

In related matters, it seems that the deeper strategy behind the Wagner Group recruiting Russian criminals has become clear:

 

The prisoners, it seems, were never meant to be useful as any sort of fighting force, and barely even as cannon fodder: instead, they are being simply dumped into Ukrainian hands. This empties out Russian prisons, saving them some money, and are now Ukraines problem. Ukrainian military forces have to deal with the POWs on the battlefield; then the tattered Ukrainian economy has to deal with housing them. The Russians, it seems, views them as deserters and won’t trade them for Ukrainian POWs.

Genius. Evil genius, but genius nonetheless. It’s largely the same strategy that Turkey and such have used against Europe with floods of “migrants.”

 Posted by at 8:15 am

Limited nuclear war, if it comes to the UK

 Crazy, Hmm..., nukes, politics, russian empire, weapons, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Oct 082022
 

If Putin absolutely loses his mind and decides to nuke UK, how might he go about it? The below analysis assumes a total of two ICBMs are used against the UK. Not to utterly destroy the country, but to turn it into a humanitarian nightmare and distract from Ukraine. Assuming Russia succeeded in setting off these warheads on the chosen targets… yes, Britain would very quickly be in very, very serious trouble. But I have the sneaking suspicion that even without NATO backing the Brits just might remember that not all that long ago their nation used to have a backbone, and as a result British nukes will quickly start appearing in the skies of Russia.

If one assumes this scenario and it actually ends with just the targets in Britain the video suggests (let’s say that five seconds after it’s announced that Russian forces have nuked Britain, the Russian people/military rise up and string Putin and his lackeys from lamp posts and start begging to not get nuked in response), the future of Britain would become very interesting indeed. Probably Britains biggest current nightmare is the vast number of foreign colonists. But if Britain ceases to be the land of free bennies, it’s safe to assume that many, if not most, if not *all*, of these “migrants” will pick up and migrate somewhere else. There has been a whole lot of lack of British pride/patriotism on display in many of these immigrant communities; there doesn’t seem to be anything holding these people in place. And if things get really bad in Britain, one wonders how tolerant the natives will be for antagonistic extra mouths to feed.

But I suspect that if Britain catches two ICBMs, they’ll soon catch more as a response to the British response. Might not be a whole lot of Britain left in the end.

Far and away the best thing to happen if Putin actually gives the order is if he very quickly has an unfortunate health episode, before said order can be carried out.

 Posted by at 2:25 am

Russians in or near Ukraine: Make You Some Money

 Hmm..., politics, russian empire, weapons  No Responses »
Oct 072022
 

Are you in control of some military hardware near Ukraine? Sell it.

Ukrainian parliament signs law offering $1 million rewards to defecting Russian soldiers who hand over a fighter jet or a warship

An infographic showing the bounties you can earn for various vehicles, anything from trucks ($10,000 US) up to helicopters ($500,000) to jet fighters ($1 million) and combat vessels ($1 million). I was certain that I’d seen another one that includes subs, and offered something like $200 million for major combat vessels. but perhaps that vague recollection is simply a brain fart, possibly a lingering aftereffect of the Commie Cough.

 

 Posted by at 1:53 am

B-21 Raider to be revealed in December

 aircraft, history, Hmm..., news, weapons  No Responses »
Sep 222022
 

Northrop Grumman to Unveil the B-21 Raider

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC), in partnership with the U.S. Air Force, will unveil the B-21 Raider during the first week of December at the company’s Palmdale, California facility. … Six B-21 test aircraft are in various stages of final assembly in Palmdale, California. Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Air Force confirmed in May that the B-21 first flight is projected for 2023. 

I expect this to be the last US strategic bomber to be unveiled in my lifetime. The last one, the B-2, was unveiled in 1988, some 34 years ago. The bomber before that, the B-1A, was shown in 1974, or  14 years before the B-2. The bomber before *that* was the B-70 in 1964, or ten years before the B-1. The B-58 was rolled out in 1965; the B-52 in 1951. The trend line indicates that years between bombers became decades between bombers have become generations; whatever follows the B-21  probably won’t arrive until… what? 2070?

 Posted by at 4:33 pm
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