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Perhaps it is because I spent a lot of time as a JO playing around with the how, when, and to what degree we would nuke someone that nuclear weapons can sometimes be a cold subject.
Especially at the tactical nuke level - it isn't the end of the world. Indeed, we trained to fight and win in a nuclear environment not that long ago.
Along those lines, I think more people should get comfortable with Alex Wellerstein's NUKEMAP.
From Davie Crocket to the Tsar Bomb - play dial-a-yield all you want.
Want to know what a probably terrorist nuke of NYC would look like? Without pondering fallout .... build your own ... even your hometown if you wish.
Now this is a problem solver.Grumman recently tested an electronic laser system that combines small silicon-based lasers into one more powerful beam, much like the Death Star. 100 kilowatts (kW) is generally considered the threshold for a useful weapons grade laser, and the most recent test only hit 30 kW. Since the weapon is built simply by chaining smaller lasers together,it will be able to quickly scale up its power by the end of the year, according to Grumman.
These new electric lasers have replaced traditional chemical lasers, which are bulky and require noxious gases to generate their high-powered beams. The size and danger of these systems has rendered them impractical for most military situations.
WASHINGTON — Two years ago, Marines in Iraq asked for an emergency order of
When the lasers hadn't arrived by last fall, a frustrated lieutenant colonel named Marty Lapierre dipped into a special fund and requisitioned 28 of the devices, which temporarily blind — and therefore stop or redirect — unwelcome drivers.
But those handheld lasers, called the CHP Laser Dazzler, didn't make it to the troops, either. 200 nonlethal lasers to keep innocent Iraqis from being killed when they fail to stop at U.S. military checkpoints.
Why?Just before Christmas, Marine generals told Lapierre and Marine science adviser Franz Gayl to shelve the lasers because they were unsafe — even though the Army and Special Forces were using them.
Something dangerous in the war zone!
What is going on here? Is there a bowl of rice next to a gored bull?Instead, in March, Marine brass shipped a competing laser called the GBD-III, or Green Beam, which is made by B.E. Meyers & Co. in Redmond.
Gayl and some Marine officers said the Dazzler, with its wider beam, is much better for the Marines' purposes.
E-mails from Lapierre and others question why it took nearly two years to get lasers to Marines in Iraq, and why the Pentagon second-guessed field commanders and rejected the device they wanted.
Good question. Let's dig around some and see what we find.When Marines wrote an emergency "Urgent Need Statement" asking for Dazzlers in May 2005, they thought they'd found a simple solution to a difficult problem.
"Marine Forces have recently experienced a string of lethal encounters and casualties" in Al Anbar province, they wrote. They wanted to stop Iraqi civilians at checkpoints without shooting them.
At the time, some troops were testing the Dazzler. In Redmond, B.E. Meyers was working to adapt one of its existing military lasers for use at checkpoints.
The Dazzler and the Green Beam operate in similar ways: They shine a green laser beam to temporarily blind a target. If a car is racing toward a checkpoint, troops briefly flash the laser at the windshield.
The Dazzler, which costs about $8,000, is made by LE Systems in Connecticut.
B.E. Meyers, which sells the Green Beam for about $10,000,...
The Army and Special Forces have used the Dazzler since at least last year. But the Navy and Marines have their own requirements.
"I don't care about SOCOM [Special Forces], don't care about the Army," said Raymond Grundy, a Marine combat-development expert who recommended the Green Beam over the Dazzler.
Ah ha! There is the owner of the bull and bowl of rice.
Don't listen to me though; follow one of Phibian's 10 rules for success: when in doubt - follow Lieutenant General Mattis.In an angry e-mail in February, Lt. Gen. James Mattis, who commands the First Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Pendleton, Calif., called the review board "a bunch of smug, safe, stay-at-home" second-guessers. He added that some issues the board raised were "claptrap."
That doesn't do it justice. Read the PDF of the emails in question here. Personally, I like how LtGen Mattis comes out strong .... and I invite solid men like Skippy (when he gets back from his "Men who love to wear thongs" convention) to tell me what word has been blacked out. Mmmmmm, I think I smell something different out there, how about you?The 2008 federal budget contains $7 million for B.E. Meyers to improve its Green Beam laser. The money was added to the budget by Reps. Dave Reichert, R-Auburn; Jay Inslee, D-Bainbridge Island; Rick Larsen, D-Lake Stevens; and Adam Smith, D-Tacoma.
Thought so....and if the following is true, this is a crime - and Marines are probably dead and wounded because of it."If we had sole-sourced [the Dazzler] in Oct. 2005, and delivered by Jan. 2006, how many innocent IZ [Iraqis] would not have been needlessly killed?" he asked.
One reason it took a year to get the Green Beam to troops after its approval in February is that Marines in Iraq didn't want it. They wanted the Dazzler, said Col. Roger Oltman, a Marine combat-development officer in Quantico.
The Marine command prevailed after warning that money for checkpoint lasers would vanish and troops would end up with nothing.
One final comment; I think if we can train our Marines not to shoot themselves in the foot, we can train them to use a laser, don't you?Marine officers agreed new equipment should get to the field faster. But the safety of the troops as well as Iraqis is paramount, they said.
"Our Marines are already putting their lives on the line," said Col. Kirk Hymes, who oversees key lasers programs. "I don't want them putting their eyes on the line, too."
Yes Colonel, much better dead.
OK, she isn't going to grace the cover of Playboy - but still. Unlike most beltway bandits - I bet she doesn't smell like stale Honduran cigars, Aqua Velva, Old Spice, and wears Sansabelt slacks. Helen Greiner is the President of IS Robotics, ... Helen holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.S. in Computer Science, both from MIT. Her 10 years of experience in robotic technology includes work at NASAÂ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and MIT'’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. For more information on the ongoing work at IS Robotics, visit the CompanyÂ’s homepage, www.isr.com.
Heaven. Smart, sharp, easy on the eyes. Just like Mrs. Salamander (put in for Force Protection reasons).
You already know her company....the company has already proved its mass appeal with the success of the Roomba, a vacuum cleaner that has become the bestselling consumer robot in history.
More important, iRobot's products are saving lives. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Army is deploying 300 of the company's PackBots, 42-pound track-wheeled rovers with arms and antennae that seek out suspicious objects and remove them to safe places for possible detonation. Sensitive enough to sniff out a bomb, they are also tough enough to climb stairs and to survive a drop from 10 feet onto a concrete floor.
Gender conventions suggest that Angle, the company's chief executive officer, would be running the military side of iRobot's business, and Greiner the consumer end. Yet, as anyone who really knows Greiner might have predicted, the case is exactly the opposite. It is Greiner who secures government contracts and networks with generals.
But here is why she is Salamander Dream Girl of the Month. Angle recalls the day he and Greiner went target shooting with a military client, a three-star admiral. The weapon of choice was the AK-47, but for safety reasons the automatic function had been disabled. "Of course Helen was the only woman there," says Angle, "and she kept saying 'I want to fire the automatic.' " After much protesting, the mechanism was restored. Greiner blasted away.
I bet John wishes she was his boss. And here is why her company, and Helen herself, should be loved by everyone in uniform.iRobot's PackBot is the new standard in unmanned reconnaissance and bomb disposal. It is a lightweight, rugged robot that can be carried and deployed by a single soldier. PackBot offers unprecedented mobility and durability—it can be thrown into a building through a window, climb stairs, drop 20 feet and still function properly. The robot was originally developed under the Tactical Mobile Robotics program, which was sponsored by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Designed as a versatile payload carrier, iRobot has added reconnaissance payloads with pan/tilt head and night vision, Chem/gas/rad payloads, and a bomb disposal (EOD) payloads.
The PackBot EOD has been used on thousands of bomb disposal missions and we are very proud of its life saving function. The one pictured was sent back to us from Iraq for analysis after a bomb detonated. In most missions, the PackBot EOD returns safely, but in the case where it is blown up, better a robot than a soldier. A geek aside: the PackBot is running a Linux OS with iRobot's Aware robot control software.
I know the EOD guy's wives love her too.
No, LBG - not the Woomba - the Roomba!
Some video out there is calling this a SS-N-22 Sunburn. That ain't no Sunburn - but I will call it a Silkworm or one of its friends - at a quick glance. Primitive, but still a challenge. Don't get caught sleeping in the Strait of Hormuz.
