Blood Red Decks

A Soviet Navy sailor told me (yes it was many years ago) that the decks were painted red to honour the blood spilled by the Russian Navy over the years.

He was particularly proud of the fact that the Russian Cruiser Aurora fired the shot signalling the start of the Russian Revolution on 25th October 1917 (it was a blank).

Before the money ran out the decks were well painted and it did not appear to be a cheap ‘just the base coat of red lead paint’ idea.

Since the end of the Soviet Union this naval tradition appears to be still in evidence on major ships.

Auxiliary ships and ‘minor combatants’ of course have been seen with green decks.

Tac Recce

daveglehill

No I never flew the Phantom in the ground attack role Rockall so I concentrated on the air defence role which is my area of expertise.

Thank you clearing this up, I was at Coningsby 72′ to 75 and there are lots of tales to tell from this time! I look forward to your book, my first squadron was a Phantom one and it remains a very special jet. I hope your book is a success, thanks.

One of the saddest thing about this is that the US have been at war ever since…

dj

…and america has shown willingness to have their proxies (israel) launch hundreds of US-built weapons into Palestinian towns to terrorize the inhabitants. It is not inconceivable that america would gift a nuke to israel for terror reasons.

It is also not inconceivable that Palestinians would answer with a volley Iranian-built artillery rockets into israel if they perceived a threat.

(see what happens there?)

See the argument from both sides and then see it rationally

Oh no! Is this the future of warfare – major states supplying weapons to more volatile ‘puppets’ to enforce mutual foreign policy?

If nukes are no longer a deterrent then why are some people getting all hot and bothered about Iran (maybe) building them? I expect even the Israelis might see any future Iranian nukes as a bit of a deterrent.

If however defensive weapons were more effective the ‘Bad Actors’ could behave any way they wanted to but they simply wouldn’t get anywhere.

Maybe it’s more fundamental than that, maybe we can never be at peace as long as we remain one interdependent species but still tied into the idea of individual run for profit ‘Nation States’.

Future Warfare

Just a thought but … what if Future Warfare was purely defensive globally rather than offensive?

If we had robust Defence Forces would we then be justified in abandoning the (assumed) role of World Police on behalf of the UN?

Do we get involved in ‘policing actions’ to do any real good or just for political kudos, either with the home electorate or our perceived bigger ‘allies’?

Maybe the world is now too ‘global’ in a trade sense for this to work.

New from Boeing

I’ve just read a Boeing press release for CHAMP.

Boeing and the U.S. Air Force have successfully tested the Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP) during a flight over the Utah Test and Training Range.

CHAMP uses a high-powered counter electronics microwave pulse from a missile to cut power to, say a room full of computers.

This looks like a pretty good way of getting rid of all those annoying UAV things.