This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Nukes

  • The Russians Now Have a Hypersonic Missile

    Vladimir Putin

    I’m only posting this now, because Vlad Putin is Russian Orthodox and the Orthodox Church doesn’t celebrate Christmas until January. And that’s getting close. Vlad is pawing the ground and snorting. He can now claim a successful launch of a hypersonic missile (a/k/a  a glide vehicle, per the story) as his ultimate answer to the US’s aggressive warmongering. Full story is at the link: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2018/12/26/putin-oversees-hypersonic-weapon-test-says-its-invulnerable/

    These days, I can’t figure out if he’s whistling Dixie in Russian or just yankin’ us because it’s fun for him to do so.

    From the article:  Speaking to Russia’s top military brass after watching the live feed of the launch of the Avangard vehicle from the Defense Ministry’s control room, Putin said the successful test was a “great success” and an “excellent New Year’s gift to the nation.”

    The test comes amid bitter tensions in Russia-U.S. relations, which have sunk to their lowest level since the Cold War times over the conflict in Ukraine, the war in Syria and the allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

    Note the linkie thingie to another article in the middle of the missile test news, in which he says we’re threatening him with war. Here it is:  https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2018/12/20/putins-ominous-warning-us-is-raising-threat-of-nuclear-war/

    Oh, puh-lease!  Yes, Vlad, I do know about Tsar Bomba, what it was like and its range. But that was the 1960s and this is a lot later. I lived through that. So did a lot of other people I know.

    We are not the ones who want nuclear war. We have always seen nukes, et al., as deterrents, not weapons. We won’t start it, but by God, we will end it.  We were glad the Cold War ended. You should have learned something from that.

    Be careful what you wish for, Vlad. You might not like it.

    Anyway,  Schastlivogo Rozhdestva.

    (My Cyrillic  script didn’t work here, so it’s phonetic.)

  • Nuke Nerd Alert!

    The Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft carrying the crew of astronaut Nick Hague of the U.S. and cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin of Russia blasts off to the International Space Station (ISS) from the launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan October 11, 2018. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov

    It seems that Vlad Putin is taking a stab at using nuclear-powered rockets to send stuff to Mars.

    Now, considering that rocket propulsion systems require a “push” to reach delta V (escape velocity, as shown in the Soyuz MS-10 photo), it is not clear exactly how the Russians intend to produce that effect. It’s not quite the same thing as using nuclear fuel to heat water to produce electricity and drive a big nuke bird farm, or even using Bernoulli’s principle to make a caterpillar drive propel a submarine, like that Big Pig in the “Hunt For Red October”. (One of Sean Connery’s better movies.)

    There’s no real explanation on how this nukey spacebird will manage to escape the chains of Earth and touch the Heavens. However, I’ve included a link to the original article at BGR, which tells us that Elon Musk’s reusable rockets will soon be outdated because Russia’s will be one better. https://bgr.com/2018/11/14/russia-nuke-rocket-spacex-rocket/

    And apparently, the US is bringing back an old tech program abandoned in the 1970s, which someone brought up in the comments for the article about the Russian announcement at WUWT.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/11/15/russia-will-shape-the-future-of-spaceflight-announces-nuclear-powered-reusable-rocket-programme/

    I’m really more interested in how a nuclear-powered engine can get something that big off the ground, never mind into Space. I understand how reactors work (at the basic level). I’m just curious as to what they intend to use for the propulsion system to create the liftoff.  I’m guessing, however, that they’d use conventional fuels to get liftoff and reach escape velocity, and then switch over to the nuclear engine to keep propulsion stable and control spin/yaw/wobble/whatever floats your boat.

    I’m leaving this for you nukey birds to discuss at length and confuse us mere mortals, and have some fun on a snowy Saturday.

  • No Nork War Just Yet

    Here’s more news about Norkiland, including a reference at the end to the solar storms generated by a large sunspot (a cluster?) going on right now.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/08/north-koreas-next-missile-launch-could-come-saturday-as-it-plays-chicken-with-us.html

    The article references changing the angle of the missile’s guidance system to a flatter trajectory to hit a specific target. Guam was his last threat (here) which means that he’s still peeved at not getting quite enough attention, and it’s all out fault.

    It’s mostly rehashing what was on the news last night, but since Irma is more of an attention hog than the Cheeseslayer, the reports on Noriland’s chief Numbnuts were slim.

    However, Pres. Trump did indicate that while warfare is a possibility, it will be a sad day if it does come to that. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-system/trump-sad-day-for-north-korea-if-u-s-takes-military-action-idUSKCN1BI07P?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

    Here’s a reminder from a couple of days ago that Kim Cheese does have some big boomers.  From 09-06-2017 – a Google Earth shot of landslides at Nork nuke test site: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41170940

    And in case anyone thinks it was just another possible false flag, this is the USGS’s seismic report of an explosion in that area, followed by a 6.3M quake on 9-4-2017:

    https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us2000aert#executive

    Well, really, if ND:tBF is that anxious about getting attention, he needs to lawyer up, hire a disbarred sloppy attorney from Florida to represent him and sue Pres. Trump because he’s not getting enough attention from us. They have similar personalities and Fatty Kim da T’ird has a lot of cash from his suspected theft of Bangla Desh’s $81 million deposit account in the New Yok  Federal Reserve Bank earlier this summer

  • A Slap In the Face

    On 9/3/2017, an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council was requested by he United States, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Korea Request

    Here’s the press release:  https://usun.state.gov/remarks/7952

    This is a link to the transcript of Amb. Nikki Haley’s address at the Emergency UN Security Council Briefing on 9/4/2017:   https://usun.state.gov/remarks/7953

    You must read it before you react.  She is not mincing words in this address at all.  To quote her final sentence: “Twenty-four years of half measures and failed talks is enough. Thank you.”

    Here is a transcript of her additional remarks https://usun.state.gov/remarks/7954

    Ambassador Nikki Haley

    U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations

    U.S. Mission to the United Nations

    New York City

    September 4, 2017

    AS DELIVERED

    Mr. President, due to the urgency of the situation with the nuclear test, as well as the announcement by North Korea that they are planning for another ICBM test, we want to urge the Council to move very quickly on this.

    I think that North Korea basically has slapped everyone in the face in the international community that has asked them to stop, so the United States will be circulating a resolution that we want to negotiate this week and vote on on Monday. So just wanted to let the members know.

    I know that some are going to Addis, but we wanted to make sure that we will do that on Monday when we can get those negotiations finished. Thank you.

    ” slapped everyone in the face” is not mincing words at all.

    Fatty Kim da T’ird is itching for a fight. As Amb. Haley says, he wants a war. That much is as clear as a bell.  Anyone who thinks that, because I point and snicker at him, I don’t take him seriously, is badly mistaken.

    I grew up under the constant implied threat of nuclear war with Red China and the Soviet Union. Our house was barely 10 miles from ground zero in a target city, with a heavy equipment factory, a grain processing plant, an electronics factory, a tire factory and a sizable railyard.  Those are still in place today, as well as an additional grain processing plant. Both of these companies process corn and soybeans for the fuels industry. In addition to these, the  hospital where my mother worked is now a major medical teaching hospital, and the university that I graduated from has expanded its curriculum exponentially into current events, as well as adding two new master’s degree programs some time back.

    Any large city was a target city, whether it was New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, or Washington, DC, and whether or not it was near a military base. Pensacola, FL, was and still is home to Navy tech schools and ships, and a naval aviation training command.  It was a target city then and still is today.

    I think it’s far past time we got (Vlad Putin) Russia and (Xi Jinping) China, along with Japan, France, Israel and South Korea, into the White House for another kitchen table conference. And maybe it’s time someone put the screws to Iran, once and for all.  Vlad Putin (smooches) has stated that sanctions do not work on North Korea.  http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/850109/north-korea-news-latest-war-usa-trump-nuclear-bomb-missile-test-launch-south

    I miss the Cold War more than I thought I would.

  • And the Beat Goes On….

    Russia is nervous about the Norks? So it seems. It appears, per this Reuters article, that Russia’s somewhat doveish approach to Norkiland is not doing so well. The Russian government is continuing trade with the Norks, but in a more moderated way.  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-northkorea-trade-idUSKCN1B81BO

    According to Galushka’s statement, the Russian government is sticking to the guidelines of its trade agreement with North Korea. But there is an alternative side to this, from HuffPo, which deserves a view. And once in a while, HuffPo publishes something worth looking at.

    We can all view the contrasts between the two Koreas, North and South, in this series of photos by the tourist, who followed a strictly guided tour a year ago in Norkiland. It’s worth a few minutes of your time to see the contrast between the two, if you want to watch his video. His first image, of the contrast between the two Koreas at dusk, is indicative of the rest of the images he provides.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/north-korea-photos_us_59a07221e4b06d67e3377f37

    There are also, from South Korea’s NIS agency, indications that the Norks are going to engage in a 6th nuclear test at Punggye-ri. I don’t know how accurate CNN’s article is, but the link is here: http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/28/asia/north-korea-missile-test/index.html

    Stock your pantry shelves.

  • We Gonna Show You!!

    It’s the usual stuff with Norkiland: we gonna bump up missiles, we gonna launch ‘em at you, we gonna show you we Da Big Cheeses. We gonna bomb Guam!!!

    So the threats toward Guam didn’t work. Guam went about its day-to-day business. Guamaians got interviewed by reporters who may have never heard of that US island territory until the week before last week. We did discover, however, that Guam has a lot of cuisine involving Spam and that they’re happy to be a territory of the U.S. They welcome tourists and want our business. I still don’t know why that birdbrained blowhard hasn’t threatened the Marianas, but maybe his maps are outdated??

    Yesterday (Aug. 25), he decided to up the scare tactics, by running his own drills.

    10.10am: Kim Jong-un prepares to invade South Korean Islands (Express.co.uk article:  http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/846077/North-Korea-v-USA-latest-news-live-updates-Kim-Jong-un-launch-missiles)

    “Kim Jong-un is preparing his soldiers to take over a South Korean island, North Korea’s state propaganda has revealed. In a series of simulated drills, warplanes and missile launchers bombarded a mocked-up war zone. Simulated attacks on South Korea’s border islands of Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong saw paratroopers leap from planes while others swept into position on dinghies. The DPRK state media said Kim “expressed great satisfaction” with the exercises.”

    He did launch three missiles yesterday. One of them exploded and the other two fell into the Sea of Japan. The Japanese indicated they knew and weren’t worried about it.

    Before that, he was making a nuisance of himself with his stated intentions to sell missiles and nukes to Syria and Iran.

    That pesky solar eclipse took up a lot of room on the news, so ND:tBF went on another tantrum binge, threatening this and that, and finally settled on selling his deadly stuff to Syria and Iran.  Ah, but wait! There’s more, isn’t there?  He was already doing that, wasn’t he?  http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/844704/North-Korea-news-United-States-sanctions-sell-weapons-Syria-Iran-Donald-Trump-World-War-3

    Well, the South is taking him seriously. They’re running drills on everything, which is not really new. They’re just broadcasting it more. I believe the Chinese still have troops at the Nork-China border, as a buttress against potential swarms of refugees fleeing the North. If the North did test an H-bomb in June, as Fatty Kim da T’ird has bragged, he’s pushing his agenda harder and harder. There was a seismic event in June located in northwestern Norkiland, registered at 5.1M. That’s either a massive quake over there, or he really did let off a big one.

    Per the 2nd and earlier article, he does intend to sell his products to Syria and Iran. I thought Iran was posting along nicely with its own nuke missile program, or was that just another hysterical, partial-truth report from the Clowndog News Network? While Norkiland is under UN sanctions to not do what they’re doing, they just keep on keeping on, moseying on down the trail to the launch button. He needs money, which he isn’t getting from China right now, to work on his hard-driving nuclear missile program.

    Ms. Emily Landau, from the Institute for National Security Studies, says ‘it’s all about money’, in regard to Fatty Kim da T’ird’s posturing. From the 2nd Express article: “Emily Landau, a senior research fellow and head of arms control program at the Institute for National Security Studies, warned Mr. Trump’s sanctions could force North Korea to sell its weapons if it is required to raise funds.”  Okay, but, Emily, weren’t the Norks and their Secret Squirrel Cage hackers the chief suspects behind the Wannacry virus a few weeks ago?  https://www.wired.com/2017/05/wannacry-ransomware-link-suspected-north-korean-hackers/

    (I know, I know: those guys cashed in their chips.) And weren’t they the chief suspects in the theft of hu-u-u-u-uge sums of cash from the Federal Reserve Bank in New York City? She does admit that he will sell his weapons to anyone who will pay the price.

    I’ve got an extra $5 this month. Does anyone think he’d sell me a nuke missile for my home defense system? Anyone? Bueller?

     

  • DPRK Readying Next Nuke Test

    NDtBF is at it again- can’t feed his people but he can afford to pop another A-Bomb, and soon.

    ‘“The test could come as early as the end of the month,” said one official.’

    Both the Russians and the US have prepositioned surveillance aircraft to the area to monitor the air post blast. Ours is an Air Force WC-135 Constant Phoenix bird, and the Russians have deployed an Antonov An-30R reconnaissance aircraft.

    “The Pentagon is increasingly concerned about North Korea’s ability to miniaturize a nuclear warhead and eventually place it on a ballistic missile. Each missile brings North Korea closer to achieving that goal, according to defense analysts.

    In his New Year’s address, Kim Jong-un said his nation has “entered the final stage of preparation for the test launch of intercontinental ballistic missiles.”

    Earlier this month North Korea launched four ballistic missiles, which landed 190 miles from Japan, an indication North Korea was simulating a more sophisticated attack to overwhelm anti-ballistic missile systems in Japan.”

    No doubt this is partly in response to SecState Tillerson’s comments concerning the Norks and their weapons programs:

    “Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, in a visit to South Korea, said if North Korea increased “the threat of their weapons program” to an unacceptable level, the Trump administration would consider action. “The policy of strategic patience has ended,” Mr. Tillerson said.”

    Sounds like the grownups are in charge, and Laughing Boy isn’t happy about it.

    More Here.

     

     

  • Gee . . . Thanks, SCoaMF

    Iran recently tested a new and highly sophisticated air defense system.  They obtained the system from Russia.

    The system is based on Russia’s S-300 missile.  The NATO designation for the original system is the SA-10; since the original version was first deployed in the late 1970s, Iran doubtless received a more modern variant.  The first linked article is unclear regarding precisely which S-300 variant Iran received.

    The S-300/SA-10 system and its descendants are quite capable.  They are regarded as some of the best currently-deployed air defense missile systems in the world.

    So, why do I say – completely sarcastically, of course – “Gee . . . thanks, SCoaMF” in the title above?  Read on.

    It seems that Iran and Russia signed the contract for Iran to purchase the system back in 2007; the system was to cost Iran $800 million.  However, international sanctions associated with Iran’s nuclear program prevented delivery.

    The US-Iran nuclear      giveaway      “deal” removed those sanctions. That in turn allowed Russia to deliver the system to Iran last year.

    And anyone with the common sense to pour p!ss out of a boot knew a priori exactly that would happen.

    In other words:  the previous       gang of utterly naïve imbeciles screwing things up “by the numbrs” in  DC        Administration in effect approved delivery of that system to Iran.  So in the event of hostilities with Iran US military aviators will now have to face one of the most sophisticated SAM threats in the world – a threat that wasn’t present prior to the US-Iran nuclear      giveaway       “deal”.

    Oh, and that $40 billion in Iranian assets we released in the Iran nuclear     giveaway      “deal”?  That was 50 times more than the $800 million cost of Iran’s new S-300 system.  So not only did the previous       DC gang of feckless fools        Administration green light installation of Iran’s new SAM system, they also reimbursed Iran for buying the damn thing – 50 times over.

    Hell, the $1.7 billion cash ransom the US paid Iran to release 4 US citizens a bit more than a year ago alone paid for Iran’s new system – more than twice!

    I know I’m repeating myself but I’ll say it again anyway:  “Gee . . . thanks, SCoaMF.”