This is good news

I feared that after Paul Allen’s death, that Stratolaunch would die quickly. They seem to have found a new lease on life. (post in memory of Mike Nofsinger)

Kills

Strange air to air kills, that is.

Su-25 kills a Tu-16 with an anti-tank missile

What more is there to add to a headline like that?

Russian aircraft and helicopter losses in Syria

This is fascinating.  Given Russian budgetary problems these losses have to be hurting.

Good news?

After the series of USN procurement screw-ups, I am not confident about anything they do, but this seems like good news.  Lets hope they don’t boondoggle it.

US Navy upping their game

The new Ford class aircraft carrier has been designed with extra electrical capacity for laser weapons.

In addition the USN SSBNs are now fielding small yield nukes on some of their missiles.

Go Navy

Iran won’t be firing missiles at Israel anytime soon

At least not until they get their rockets to work.  Story here.  While space launch failures usually sadden me, I can’t say that this story brings anything but joy to my little heart. (h/t Jeff “Inch High” Groves)(post in memory of Mike Nofsinger)

The changing battlefield

The USAF is developing a UAV that is capable of being launched and recovered by a large airborne transport aircraft. The X-61A is planned to be configurable to any number of missions from recon to SAM suppression.  If the technology pans out, and there is no reason to think it won’t, the number of manned aircraft over the battlefields of tomorrow will shrink dramatically. Also, modern air defense will get a ton more complicated.

X-60

A lot of the information surrounding hypersonic missiles is just hype, but I did want to at least note this.

Well, this is interesting

Story here.  If this laser works as advertised, it could really change things in a number of arenas, such as air and missile defense, anti-anti-tank defense etc.  Of course, we need to wait and see.