Maybe I should start thinking of these as Tuesday What We’re Reading, so when I’m a day late I’m actually on time.
Defense
- A few years ago, HMS Vanguard needed a replacement reactor based on possible leakage concerns; evidently it isn’t a serious problem, because the other V-boats aren’t getting the swap
- Can’t keep a Mad Dog down
- Industry tests ‘unhackable’ network – Suspicion quote my own. I share this article mainly because it’s a terrible piece of technology reporting, confusing DDoS protection with unhackability, and part of the reason why government IT spending is so schizophrenic.
- Unedited headline alert: Europe’s Next-Gen Fighter is Stuck in the Bickering Phase – From the article, “We’re talking about a timeframe of 2040 to field a follow-on to the Rafale and Eurofighter.” So, in terms of relative age, it’ll be like fighting the Gulf War with late-model P-51s, or your modern Flanker variant of choice with a Tomcat (the A model, with the crappy engines).
- News in pictures: Israel blows up Hamas TV station – I believe Israel said, “Launch no rockets outside the typical 40km radius, or the gloves come off.” Guess what happened?
- Russian unintentionally-submarine dry dock could hasten the shrinkage of Russia’s navy – Not merely in terms of tonnage, but in terms of tons per ship. Really, though, Russia is a natural hegemon but not a natural world power, and a navy/defense apparatus which can control the Baltic and the Black Seas and keep the Americans from making surprising amphibious landings is all they really need. If ever you’re looking for a game to simulate the Russia Problem, Empire: Total War as Imperial Russia really drives home the problems. (Namely, that your territory is huge and hard to traverse.)
- NorK missile sites identified – The headline is a bit misleading. It’s not that we just discovered they’re operating 13 missile sites, it’s that we’ve now found at least 13 of the 20 or so we think they have.
- Bunker busters, new and improved, with adjustable parameters – Cooool.
- The Navy wants to overhaul its amphibious fleet – I guess having the largest and second-largest fleets of aircraft carriers in the world isn’t enough. Fitting out the San Antonios with weapons like a cruiser or destroyer would be fun, though.
- The Diplomat runs down the news from China’s Zhuhai air show – Including a picture of a J-20 with open weapons bay. What’s the Chinese for glasnost?
- Merkel and Macron call for an EU army for EU members to underfund – At least, that’s what I would expect based on the state of their national armed services.
- Chaff and flare manufacturers on shaky ground in the US – Not great, but at the same time, how hard is it to make chaff and flares?
- The cost of rust: $21 billion per year – And if you ask CDR Salamander, we should probably be spending more to keep our Navy rust-free.
Guns
- Reader Kilo Sierra shares the International Ammunition Association’s Cartridge of the Month Archive – It ran from 2005 to 2010, too short a life for such a cool-looking series.