… on the BoMi and BWB drawing booklets:
Oct 242013
Oct 232013
Some news/promo/propaganda video out of Iran touting their Ra’ad-85 UAV/PGM drone aircraft, meant to crash into things and blow itself up (yes, a truly innovative idea to come out of the Middle East). As mentioned at length HERE, one amusing feature of the design is that it seems to be held together with tape.
[youtube 2mUhXWjIMmM]
Oct 172013
Very little has emerged from the Strategic Defense Initiative days revealing *actual* weapons designs. With the exception of some of the Brilliant Pebbles and Zenith Star designs, almost nothing apart from unreliable artwork has been released. On occasion, though, bits have come out. Three neutral particle beam satellite weapon concepts were shown, in low-rez and frustrating detail, in a report on power systems for SDI use.
The Martin-Marietta NPB concept:
The Ge/Lockheed NPB concept:
The TRW concept:
The drawings are too small to glean details such as full-scale dimensions, or even get a really good handle on layouts. The GE/Lockheed design seems to come equipped with large panels, presumably radiators, held within a triangular cross-section framework. The Martin and TRW concepts appear to be roughly cylindrical. And unlike the majority of the artwork produced for public consumption, here you can make out the nuclear reactors meant to power the systems.
While dimensions are either unavailable or illegible in these illustrations, two show the SP-100 reactor and associated radiator system. The radiators change from illustration to illustration of the SP-100, so cannot be firmly relied upon as a scale reference, and the Sp-100 reactor itself is little more than a dot, but this illustration of the SP-100 should help to give a rough idea how big it, and by extension the NPB concepts, were going to be.
Oct 112013
In works:
Oct 102013
Another space-based anti-missile system contemplated for the Strategic Defense Initiative was the neutral particle beam. Specifics are exceedingly thin as befits a concept that sounds a *lot* like science fiction.
In practice, the system is a particle accelerator that ionizes hydrogen atoms, grabs them with massively powerful magnetic fields and accelerates them to near light speed. At the end o the weapon, extra electrons are stripped from the atoms, making the hydrogen atoms electrically neutral. This makes them largely impervious to natural and artificial magnetic fields, so they go where you aim ’em and can’t be readily shielded against. However, atmosphere rapidly scatters the beam, so space basing is really the only option. Unlike a laser beam, a mirrored surface would not faze a neutral particle beam. In fact, much of the damage would be done *within* the target, as the hydrogen atoms would penetrate some distance before being stopped and depositing their kinetic energy as heat.
Most of the artist impressions of NPB weapons that I recall showed U-shaped accelerators. By folding the accelerator in half, the spacecraft would be more compact. The energy requirements meant that nuclear powerplants were needed, but the power requirements – billions of Watts for a tiny fraction of a second – would make the power storage and supply issue entertaining. If that issue is cleared up, firing rates of perhaps thousands of shots per second would be possible.
Heres a terrible-quality image of unknown origin, but shows the basic idea:
Another illustration, credited to Los Alamos National Lab. Note that what at first glance appears to be solar panels is actually transparent; these are either the result of severe artistic license or depict not solar panels but radiators.
I’ve seen virtually nothing to judge the scale of these systems, but there were multiple references to NPB weapons being very large systems requiring numerous launches and considerable on-orbit assembly. Studies in the early 1990’s indicated that operational NPB weapons would probably not be feasible before 2025.
Oct 082013
During Reagan’s “Star Wars” days, concept art of space-based anti-missile systems were cranked out on a fairly regular basis. Much of it was, most likely, pure artistic license with little basis in reality. However, some of the weapon artwork was clearly based on actual engineering, such as the Zenith Star and Brilliant Pebbles programs.
One uncertain design is shown in the painting below. It represents a space-based railgun, apparently capable of firing projectiles at high speed in rapid succession. While attributed to the DoD, the vehicle has “Boeing” painted on it. Unlike a lot of the designs, this one at least has a sufficiency of attitude control thrusters. Power for the system is probably nuclear, with the reactor on the far right, surrounded by conical radiators.
Seems it’d make a nifty display model.
Sep 192013
They went to the bother of creating a crappy computer animation of the Navy Yard massacre. And they further went to the bother of arming the perp not with the shotgun he actually had, not just with an Evil AR-15, not just the full-auto M4 (the military weapon the AR-15 most resembles), but an M4 with an M203 40mm grenade launcher.
Spectacular.
[youtube qs35NnT6lZk]
Sep 182013
Ever wonder what would happen if you tried to centerpunch a speedboat at power with a GBU-10 laser guided bomb dropped from a B-1 bomber? Wonder no more:
337th TES evaluates B-1 maritime proficiency
Sep 162013
Regarding today’s Navy Yard massacre, we currently know this about the killer:
1) He’s black (thus probably negating Tea Party affiliation)
2) He’s a Buddhist (thus probably negating a religious motivation)
3) He’s a New Yorker (thus negating the likelihood of emotional stability)
4) He had a history of legal dubiousness
5) The Navy Yard was yet another “Gun Free Zone”
As for motive: so far… who the hell knows?
What’s reported: he had a shotgun, an AR-15, and variously a Glock handgun and/or a “rifle.”
I’ve seen reports that he actually showed up only with the shotgun. Reportedly he took out two guards and then up-gunned with their Glock and AR-15. If true, this means that the AR-15 in question was actually a government issued weapon, and not something controlled by local, state or federal gun control laws. And if true, expect that little detail to be ignored in favor of talking heads on TV yammering about “yet another evil AR-15.”
And the only people armed at the facility were the guards, who he took out first via shotgun. Again, speculation based on muddled reports. This would have left, once again, a large number of defenseless citizens at the mercy of an armed maniac… in this case, armed by the government.
Sep 122013
A Boeing artists impression of a 747 modified to launch ICBMs (probably Minuteman IIIs). Dates from 1974. Missile load appears to be at least 4. Given how far aft the missiles are dropped, there would likely be an impressive pitch even upon drop.
From an old ebay auction.
