March 20, 2020
March 18, 2020
March 11, 2020
OK, this is just crazy
An artillery round with a 65 km reach. That is insane. It is hard to wrap your mind around that kind of range for a mobile artillery piece.
To give some perspective, the famed “Paris railway gun” had a 120 km range.
March 6, 2020
Submarines in Asia
An interesting article on submarine development and acquisition going on in Asia. The South China sea may get very interesting.
March 4, 2020
Syria heating up
I noted here the Russian and Syrian aircraft and helicopter losses in the Syrian civil war. Well, in a timely addition to that information, it appears that someone shot down a Turkish drone/UAV which allegedly led Turkish F-16s to down two Syrian Su-24s as well as destroy a SAM site.
UPDATE: And apparently the Turkish Air Force has now downed a Syrian L-39.
March 2, 2020
Russian aircraft and helicopter losses in Syria
This is fascinating. Given Russian budgetary problems these losses have to be hurting.
February 17, 2020
Creates more questions than it answers
Story here. Popular Mechanics is really doing a lot of work on the story surrounding the USN UFO sighting and what interest the DoD may have in the subject. I am not sure this article answers a lot of questions, other than to suggest that the government handed out money to politically connected individuals for “work” that remains hidden. It is undeniable that some things are happening that we currently don’t have good explanations for.
February 16, 2020
US Navy upping their game
February 13, 2020
Movie review: T-34 (2018)
T-34 is a Russian war movie about a Russian tank commander and his crew who put up a valiant defense in front of Moscow in December 1941. After defeating a number of German PzIIIs, their tank is knocked out and captured. In late 1944 the tank commander is pulled from the POW camp along with other tank crew members and forced to operate a captured T-34 in training against German tanks at a tank training center in eastern Germany. Unbeknownst to the Germans, the Russians locate several tank main gun shells in the Russian tank and use those to escape, in the process taking with them the female Russian prisoner who is a translator for the German guards who helps them in their escape.
Putting aside the slightly silly story, this movie is good. Really very enjoyable and not just for the Russian and German military equipment. It is a classic action/war movie and could easily have been made in Hollywood instead of in Russian. Much of the equipment is actual period equipment, or very realistic mock ups. (Much better than M-48s as Tiger tanks in Battle of the Bulge.) The acting is very good and equivalent to most B-list actors out of Hollywood. I watched a dubbed version and it was entertaining to see how the dubbed dialogue differed from the subtitles which were more direct translations of the Russian dialogue.
According to Wikipedia, this is the second highest grossing Russian film of all time. In additional to being available on DVD, it is also available for streaming on Amazon Prime. It is well worth watching. 4 out of 5 stars.
February 1, 2020
American Battlefield Trust
These folks do great work preserving American Battlefields and in teaching history. Here is a 4 minute video on combat in the Revolutionary War.
