Book Review - Learning to Love the Bomb

Rookie Missile Commander, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

Things must be rough all over at Strategic Command - if they are letting a character like this be in charge of a ICBM. But seriously - I just finished reading one of my best friend's latest book, "Learning to Love the Bomb - Canada's Nuclear Weapons during the Cold War." (Yes - it is on Amazon - that's where I got my copy when it came out last summer) I have always been an amateur military history buff - but Sean is the professional.

The picture above - was taken during a visit to the Titan Missile Museum in January 2006. That is him at the Missile Commander's console - with his hand posed to execute the launch order - "turn the key" (the fact that you don't see the Deputy Missile Commander in the chair on the left - means that no matter what Sean does, the missile won't be flying today. The fact that the missile has been decommissioned, de-fueled and has two large holes in the body is only a minor set-back).

Back to the book. Sean's specialty is the Cold War era. And as we get farther and farther in time from this era - there is still research being done every day, bringing new stories of that turbulent time to light.

Some of Sean's previous works in this era are;

• Securing Command of the Sea (NATO Naval Planning, 1948-1954)
• Canada and UN Peacekeeping (Cold War by Other Means, 1945-1970)
• War without Battles (Canada's NATO Brigade, 1945-1993)

But this book - his latest on the Cold War - revolves around Canada's access to and control over nuclear weapons. I won't kid you - this isn't an easy read. It is full of meeting notes, political in-fighting, larger than life ego's, all revolving around the why, how, and when that Canada had nukes. But Sean did a pretty good job of pulling it all together to explain this - through three separate Canadian governments (and these were some pretty different governments),
the formation of NORAD, through the evolution of NATO's European defense policies.

The early NATO defense concepts - incorporated the use of tactical nuclear weapon's into their plan because there was a realization that the smaller NATO conventional forces would just be a speed bump in the road to the overwhelming size of the Soviet armies. It wasn't until the late 70's/early 80's - where the NATO technology was starting to provide quality over quantity that there was a sizeable shift away from nuclear weapon's (and the fact that it isn't really defending a country if you ended up destroying it while the enemie's army is the advancing across it).

One thing that you have to remember about the timeframe - late 50's to the 60's - was that just like the Battleship leading up to World War 1 - the Bomb was the weapon that everyone HAD to have. If you didn't have the Bomb, then your country wasn't part of the top tier of nations. In some ways - this policy has continued today with countries like Iran and Libya (Iran doesn't want to admit that this is the case - but I don't think that anyone buys the other excuses coming from their firebrand of a President - and Libya has given up theirs in exchange for 'normal' relations with the rest of the world).

I have to admit - that there are times that I am the 'ugly American' because I am not as knowledgeable about the world around me. I can name every single US President since World War 2 - but couldn't name any Canadian Prime Minister's except for Trudeau or Mulroney. So all of the material in this book - was brand new to me. That's one of the things that I value in Sean's friendship - he brings an outside perspective and opinion to our discussions and debates.

[Now you be asking why I haven't posted this review on the book's page on Amazon... well - I figure it wouldn't necessarily be given the proper credit. Because you see the picture above - was the one that Sean used for his 'About the Author' on the inside of the dust jacket. I was the photographer who took it. And am credited with taking it. So now - I am an 'internationally published photographer.' I think I was ROFLMAO for a least 10-15 minutes when I first opened the book up. My wife keeps telling me I need to put this picture on my CV/resume - just as an ice-breaker for interviews]

Trivia - what is this plane's primary function?

Boeing Co N378BC, originally uploaded by Drewski2112.

Give up?

Let's start w/ the obvious. Yes - it is a Boeing 737. Yes - it is painted for the RAAF (Australian Air Force).

But - what is the purpose of the extra 'fin' running down the center of the fuselage?

That is a Multi-role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) - because this is a AEW&C aircraft - or more simply - AWACS. With the new Electronically scanned array - think Aegis in the Navy - you no longer need the flying radome on top of the USAF E-3's or USN E-2C's.

Basically - this is a 737-700 (equivalent to the BBJ) - w/ extra equipment for a modern airforce. Australia has ordered 6, Turkey is buying 6 and South Korea is looking at this as well.

As my brother correctly pointed out - the 737 AWACS falls under the 'Wedgetail' project name.

(More info on the 737 AEW&C project)

If you want to see more pictures from the Seattle area airports - including Boeing Field and Renton Muni (where the 737 is assembled) - then take a look at Drewski2112's pictures over on Flickr.

Housecleaning - links from days gone by (part 1)

Ok - these have just been collecting in a second browser window for weeks now - and I haven't had a chance to do anything w/ them.

So - here they are - while I am waiting for the clock to strike 2 across the country (so I can make sure all of the machines I am responsible for - have changed back to Standard time);

- Lego's - nothing your mother would approve of

- Pictures from outer space

- Pictures of the damage to Endeavor's tiles (from August's flight)

- France spy's satellites that don't exist

- The dark side - of a different moon

Links - week ending August 19th

Sorry for the lack of original content. Work has been a beast over the last couple of weeks. This is all Milstuff.....

- Return of the Spaceplane (Wired)

- Laser Weapon power level mystery solved (Wired)

- ASAT - What did the Chinese stir up (Military.com)

- A Day in the life of a X-47 (Defense Tech)

- Return of the Battleship (Ares @ AviationWeek)

Links - week ending August 12th

More articles that I have kept open in my browser for the last week - to read when I need a break from the monotony of work;

- Ride along w/ Wired magazine on the first Virgin America flights (and see how Geeky air travel has become)

- How to (physically) hack a high security lock

- FAA puts new ground surveillance radar goes into service early at O'Hare

- Hypersonic's - getting closer than many believe

- Rising age of US military aircraft attracting attention (due to maintainability)

Is the Future of flight taking shape today?

With only a little bit of fanfare - the one possible future of (manned) flight - took to the air last week in the California desert. The X-48B - Blended Wing Body (BWB) took to the air from Edwards Air Force base for a 30 minute test flight.

This 8.5% scale model - based on a design from Boeing's Phantom Works. The wing is blended into the fuselage - so it has some aspects of a flying wing - but without the sacrificing payload/range for stealth.

[And - no - they didn't train mice to fly the scale test model. It was fully radio controlled from the ground. Yes - they do make jet engines that small - I have seen them on amateur radio control planes. I have to dig up the pictures from a trip the Tucson R/C Jet Rally from Feb 2004. But trust me - its a jet. All you have to do is remember the Predator/Reapers that are flown over Irag and AFG - are being controlled from CONUS - and flying something like this from the side of the runway - is child's play.]

Boeing has been looking at this design for several years. At first as a high volume passenger jet - which met a luke warm/cold reception (due to the need for airports to reconfigure to handle the different shape - as well as the fact that only a small percentage of the passenger's would have windows).

But the design attracted interest from the US DOD - whose requirements for windows - doesn't rank very high up in the design criteria. Think about it. I could see 3 different uses for this airframe;

- tanker - jet fuel doesn't care if can see out a window or not
- cargo - ditto about cargo/troops
- stand-off weapons carrier - maybe 4-6 internal rotary launchers

Just like a flying wing - the whole body is part of the airfoil. Providing what I would guess is great lift - and combine that with 3 modern turbo fans (like on the new Dreamliner) - this thing probably gets great fuel economy. Leading to either a seriously long range - or a long loiter capacity.

(I will have to admit - that this thing must be day glow on a look down radar)

It will probably start life as either the tanker or the cargo plane - but don't be surprised if the Air Force requirement for a Long Range Strike aircraft takes a serious look at the X-48B.

For more information - take a look at the following stories;
- Boeing's press release (pictures)
- AP Story posted to CNN/Money
- Wired News (pictures)
- Murdoc Online (pictures)

[UPDATE - September 16th - It looks like other people are thinking the same thing about the BWB being something that the DOD is interested in. Over on Defense Tech - http://www.defensetech.org/archives/003724.html]

[UPDATE - December 12th - here is a link to some more pictures of both the flying prototype and the model in the wind tunnel. Over at CNET - http://www.news.com/2300-11397_3-6207999-1.html?tag=ne.gall.pg]

[UPDATE - December 20th - here is a link to a brief article in Popular Science - to see what a MIT/Cambridge designed BWB Passenger aircraft would look like - from Feb 2007 - http://www.popsci.com/popsci/aviationspace/6d915d1eb5370110vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html]

It's too late?

Well, it might be too late for any peaceful options to deal w/ Iran's peaceful (wink wink nudge nudge) nuclear program.

If not too late - then the clock is definitely ticking.

News reports out today - show new digging in a MOUNTAIN site - outside of the Natanz facility.

Digging that wasn't there six months ago.

But enough of my intro - here are the links (2nd includes the unclassified overhead that the media is using);

- Washington Post
- Arms Control Wonk

Undiscovered Soviet space programs - the N-1

Ok - maybe 'undiscovered' is mis-leading. Since I haven't personally dug up these stories, just have come across them recently. But I got you to read - right? Stay - it is worth it.

Back in January - I took family down to Tucson area to see the Pima Air and Space Museum and the Titan Missile museum. If you haven't figured it out already - I am a bit of a aircraft & defense issue nut. Just a nut - not a freak. I have a life otherwise.

While we were waiting for our tour, I was browsing the books at the Gift Shop - and ran across what I thought was going to be a cheesy little guidebook to the Russian (former Soviet) space program. It is titled Russian Spacecraft by Robert Godwin. Initially it didn't look like much - especially with only 96 pages - but the author did a good job of putting in the important facts. Like;

• Russian boosters were fueled w/ Kerosene & Liquid Oxygen (LOX) - instead of the US preference to Liquid Hydrogen (LH2) and LOX. And this dictated a lot of the design issues (not having the extra oomph of the cryo-fuel)
  
• Early Cosmonauts were ejected from their capsule on re-entry and parachuted to the ground themselves (because the parachutes on the capsule wouldn't slow it down enough)
  
• The Booster/launcher used to launch Soyuz and Progress capsules to the International Space Station today - is an modification of the early R-7 ICBM - which was used to put Yuri Gagarin into orbit.
  

But there were other things in this book - that immediately caught my eye (and finally swayed me to purchase to bring home to read). Like;

• The Russian Space program was truly mired in bureaucracy. The 'Designers' (like the great Korolev) fought harder among themselves for funding of their dreams/proposals at times harder than against the US Space program.
  
• the famed N-1 super-booster - did actually leave the launch pad an astounding four times. But due to the funding issues - it was never successful (zero for 4). More on that later.
  
• A 'Polythem' orbit anti-satelite weapons platform
  

I think the N-1 was held in almost mythical proportions by the US during the race to space - at least publicly. I don't ever remember seeing pictures of it, and was amazed when I first read that a not so secret US Intelligence agency, had a scale model of the N-1 launch complex in their on-site Museum.

Once Glasnost struck - then info started pouring out. Even the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC put a model of an N-1 on display (it was built by a model builder who donated it to the Museum to go next to a Saturn V in the same scale).

Speaking of the NASM - this is a picture of a Russian Vega probe that was given to the museum - and is now on display in the 'Space Hall' the Udvar-Hazy Center out at Dulles, VA.





Ok - back to the N-1. So before this little Pocket Guide, I (and my brother - the aspiring Aerospace Engineer - don't laugh - he graduates this Spring - and has real job offers already) thought that the N-1 never made it off the pad. And that's what hooked me about this book - because it had a picture of a night shot of the N-1 clearing the pad.

Now - it was never successfully flown - and the longest flight listed was just over a minute. But it was fresh info.

[You have to realize - that when I realized in college, that while I could run a computer just fine, I just didn't have the mindset to program one. So in an attempt to complete any degree and join the military - I switched to History. And one of the classes I had to take - was how to research. And my paper was going to be how to research the Soviet space program. Ala James Oberg (a former NASA engineer - who has become one of the foremost Space Experts). I think I got a 'B' on the paper - because I neglected one small fact. I don't read, speak or understand Russian. The prof said it wouldn't stop the research, just make it much more difficult!]

Ok - this one has been dragging on long enough. If you want more info on the N-1, may I suggest these two sites;

- Wiki and
- My Space Museum

Maybe when I rediscover my motivation for this post - I will write up the Polythem.

What can a bug in a computer program do?

Let's ask the US Air Force, who when trying to deploy their brand spanking new F-22 Air-supremacy fighter to Japan the other week, and to turn back to Hawaii due to an initially unspecified computer bug.

Well - it is finally come out what that bug actually was.

The International Date Line.

Yep - you heard me. A line on a map - caused the computers on 6 F-22's to lock up. And the planes had to follow (yes - follow) their escort tankers back to Hawaii.

Here is the thread over on DefenseTech about this. I really like the comment in the most recent AP story - that said one of the pilots was able to contact a Lockheed-Martin engineer and try to reboot the computer.

What did this guy have his Cellphone w/ him? And was talking and flying at the same time? If he was - he must be Superman - since most people I see DRIVING and talking on a cellphone can barely handle it.

So - now that you know what a bug did to a bunch of brand spanking new Air Force planes - are your computers updated for the revised DST change next week ;) ?

---

If you want more info on the F-22's and their initial overseas deployment - keep an eye on David Axe. He is a Military Tech correspondent for Defense Tech International, and also publishes his stories on Wired's new Blog - the Danger Room (run by the guy who used to be in charge of the DefenseTech blog at Military.com).

Space War - already begun?

Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the last 3 weeks, you might have heard about the Chinese and their Anti-satellite test. The People's Liberation Army launched an old ballistic missile and scored a impact kill on one of their old Weather sat's (approx 500 miles up).

The reason that this test has scared the beegeebers out of everyone (esp the US) is that this altitude is considered key - because the majority of the intelligence gathering satellites are below this altitude. The New York Times published a graphical chart showing the altitude of this test - in relationship to the other satellites in orbit (shown on the right side of this page). Compare the number of blocks (each representing a satellite) in first column (the US) w/ the second column (China). Attacks against these satellites would only server to blind the US, but not make us impotent. The GPS constellaton - is located at a higher altitude - so it can still be used to rain precision guided munitions down on our enemies. We just might not hit the 'right' target - if we can't see where it is when it is time to attack. [For comparison purposes - the International Space Station orbits approx 190 nautical miles up, and the Ansari X prize - which was won by ScaledComposites SpaceShipOne only reached approx 62 nautical miles] Another key point about the altitude that this test occurred at - is that the expected 900 major pieces of debris will now have to make it through all of those orbital paths, before it can fall out of the sky (and safely disintegrate on re-entry to Earth's atmosphere). Space.com - continues to track this element of the story - most recently in this article. The one thing that no one seems to be talking about - is that the Chinese could successfully 'test' their new toy several times, and creaet a large amount of debris in orbit - and that debris could damage several satellites. Think about it - they can destroy satellites quicker and cheaper than anyone else can deploy replacements.

US sources claim that this did not come as a surprise, but the hue and cry over this test has been dramatic. The US shared the intel on this test w/ several in the international community (more than just the usual UK & NATO), and several countries came out against this test. And one of the more interesting facts about this was that the Chinese did not immediately come out acknowledging this test - and that they were perfectly within their right to do so.

About a week before the Chinese test was made public - the Space Review published an article talking about how the US had realized that a hard kill ASAT would result in orbit debris that could do as much if not more harm to the orbital environment - and has been looking at ways to 'soft' kill or temporarily neutralize someone else's orbital assets.

And the US has tested some basic ASAT techniques. Not only was there the ASAT launched from high-altitude by a F-15 pilot, but along the same lines as the Chinese test - there was a US Army ABM project - the Homing Overlay Experiment. The picture below is from a test vehicle for this project that is currently hanging in the Space wing of the National Air & Space Museum out in Dulles, VA.






Defense Tech - has a good series of articles about this event - best started w/ the first article - here. At the bottom of the article - they include links to the subsequent articles and revelations about this test (one of the keys ones is that it took a significant amount of time before the Chinese admitted what they had done).

Then there is this link to MSNBC which has an animation showing the orbits of the debris from this test - compared to the orbit of the International Space Station - Video.

The most interesting (and short) article about all of the hulabaloo - has been this Wired News article - that was posted this past Thursday. I love the last line of it;

"If there was any chance that our military space budget was going to be cut, the Chinese have just ended that," Lewis said.

As several of the articles above have mentioned - this test is going to have long term effects in the Space and Defense policies of the US for a long time to come (at least until the next Presidential election).

Stay tuned.

A real Nuclear family - strange but true

Triva challenge - let's see how well you score....

- What was the name of the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb?
- What was the name of the pilot?
- What was the Bomb Group it belonged to?
- Where is that Group currently based?
- What plane does the Group currently fly?
- Name one of its newest pilot trainees....

Answers later.....

Robert