Iran-Israel Conflict

Iran recently lifted its frigate IRIS Sahand from the bottom of the sea, nearly two weeks after it capsized and sank.

The ship sank completely in its home port of Bandar Abbas on July 7, 2024, after attempts to stabilize it were unsuccessful due to the breaking of the securing rope. The IRIS Sahand is one of Iran’s more recent indigenous frigates, modeled after the British-designed Vosper Mark 5.

However, its name, Sahand, carries a historical legacy for Iran. It echos an earlier frigate of the same name, which met a dramatic end at the hands of the US Navy in 1988.          READ MORE... 

The earlier IRIS Sahand, originally Faramarz (F-74), was deployed during the turbulent 1980s, known as the Tanker War, in the Persian Gulf.

Navy to Use Laser Weapons

WASHINGTON – U.S. Navy researchers will ask industry next month to develop enabling technologies in electromagnetic warfare, laser weapons, and electro-optical sensors to defend Navy ships from enemy high-power microwaves, lasers, missiles, and unmanned aircraft.

Officials of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington issued a presolicitation (N0017324RGA01) on Friday for the High Power Electromagnetic Systems Development, Application, and Test project for research in high power electromagnetic and countermeasure technology.  READ MORE...

Precision High-Powered Microwave Weapons

Raytheon, an RTX business, has embarked upon an ambitious endeavor to enhance the defense mechanisms of the US military apparatus by initiating the development of sophisticated high-power microwave (HPM) antenna systems. 

This work is the latest manifestation of the Directed Energy Front-line Electromagnetic Neutralization and Defeat (DEFEND) program, which is primarily concentrated on the formulation and execution of advanced non-kinetic defense systems. 

Raytheon secured a contract amounting to $31.3 million from the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division to begin conceptualizing, engineering, and rigorously testing a duo of prototype HPM systems. 

These prototypes are scheduled for delivery to the US Navy & US Air Force in the years 2024 and 2026, respectively. The primary objective underlying these systems is to harness directed energy to neutralize aerial threats, thereby endowing the United States defense arsenal with a significant technological supremacy.   TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE...

Stealth Submarine

T

he Navy Has Big Plans for a New Stealth Submarine.  Designated as the SSN(X), the service’s next-gen attack submarine is expected to blow competitors out of the water once introduced. The upcoming program is a critical component of the Navy’s submarine force and will help the U.S. retain naval superiority in the forthcoming decades.

While the U.S. Air Force’s Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program has gained media attention recently, the Navy’s future Virginia-class submarine replacement needs its place in the analysis 'sun' as well.

Designated as the SSN(X), the service’s next-gen attack submarine is expected to blow competitors out of the water once introduced. The upcoming program is considered a critical component of the Navy’s submarine force and will help the U.S. retain naval superiority in the upcoming decades.

As China and Russia simultaneously work to develop their respective sixth-generation platforms, the race to produce the SSN(X) is on.      READ MORE...

Russian UFO Engagements

Former Navy pilot Ryan Graves, ex-Navy commander David Fravor and former U.S. intelligence officer David Grusch testify before the House of Representatives subcommittee focused on UFOs while (left to right) George Knapp (red tie left of Grusch), Charles McCullough (light blue tie) and Jeremy Corbell sit behind them (House subcommittee on National Security, the Border and Foreign Affairs)




FIRST ON FOX - Russian warplanes engaged UFOs, "chased them and even shot at them" at least 45 times by 1993, according to classified Russian documents that investigative reporter George Knapp obtained and smuggled out of the country.

That's just one snippet of information revealed in letters written by Knapp and investigative journalist Jeremy Corbell to the House's Oversight Committee before Wednesday's UFO hearing.

Both letters, which were first obtained by Fox News Digital and published in their entirety below, were entered into the Congressional record.

"Since 1969, the position of our military has been that UFOs pose no threat to national security and are not worthy of further study," Knapp wrote in his letter. "This dismissive attitude is directly at odds with what was revealed in documents, reports and internal memos."

As the country's eyes and ears were glued to three explosive testimonies, Corbell whispered something to Charles McCullough as George Knapp listened in with a smirk.

McCullough, who was President Barack Obama's former Intelligence Community Inspector General, represented Grusch in his Intelligence Community Inspector General complaint purposefully seated behind him.

These three men sat directly behind David Grusch, who was flanked by Navy pilots Ryan Graves and David Fravor during Wednesday's Congressional hearing about UFOs.f

Grusch's testimony about recovered "biologics" of "non-humans" from alleged UFO crash sites made national - and even international - headlines, while details in Knapp's and Corbell's letters went under the radar.  READ MORE...

HALO

On Monday, defense giants Lockheed-Martin and Raytheon were both awarded contracts totaling $116 million between them by the U.S. Navy to separately develop prototype ship-sinking hypersonic missiles designed to sink ships hundreds of miles away for a program known as HALO (Hypersonic Air-launched Offensive). The competing initial design proposals are due in late 2024.

This likely-to-be scramjet-powered weapon, also known as Objective Anti-Surface Warfare Increment 2 (OASuW) in Navy budget documents, would be carried by the service’s carrier-based FA-18E/F Super Hornet and F-35 Lightning jet fighters and perhaps future successors. It’s expected to fly farther and much faster than the current LRASM stealth cruise missile.

The focus on anti-ship capabilities reflects the focus on a potential conflict with China in the western Pacific Ocean. Notably, simulations of a battle over Taiwan suggest it would be decided in large part by the effectiveness of long-range anti-ship missiles.
The Navy’s Need for Speedy Missiles

Strictly speaking, a hypersonic missile could describe any weapon that exceeds five times the speed of sound—i.e. traversing a mile per second—but practically, the term applies to two modern concepts. The first is a missile that releases hypersonic gliders that skip just on top of the Earth’s atmosphere.  READ MORE...

2023 Index of US Military Strength

The 2023 Index concludes that the current U.S. military force is at significant risk of not being able to meet the demands of a single major regional conflict while also attending to various presence and engagement activities. The force would probably not be able to do more and is certainly ill-equipped to handle two nearly simultaneous MRCs—a situation that is made more difficult by the generally weak condition of key military allies.

In the aggregate, the United States’ military posture can only be rated as “weak.” The Air Force is rated “very weak,” the Navy and Space Force are “weak,” and the U.S. Army is “marginal.” The Marine Corps and nuclear forces are “strong,” but the Corps is a one-war force, and its overall strength is therefore not sufficient to compensate for the shortfalls of its larger fellow services. 

And if the United States should need to employ nuclear weapons, the escalation into nuclear conflict would seem to imply that handling such a crisis would challenge even a fully ready Joint Force at its current size and equipped with modern weapons. 

Additionally, the war in Ukraine, which threatens to destabilize not just Europe but the economic and political stability of other regions, shows that some actors (in this case Russia) will not necessarily be deterred from conventional action even though the U.S. maintains a strong nuclear capability. 

Thus, strong conventional forces of necessary size are essential to the ability of the U.S. to respond to emergent crises in areas of special interest.

As currently postured, the U.S. military is at growing risk of not being able to meet the demands of defending America’s vital national interests. It is rated as weak relative to the force needed to defend national interests on a global stage against actual challenges in the world as it is rather than as we wish it were. 

This is the logical consequence of years of sustained use, underfunding, poorly defined priorities, wildly shifting security policies, exceedingly poor discipline in program execution, and a profound lack of seriousness across the national security establishment even as threats to U.S. interests have surged.  READ MORE...

Surprising China

China Freaked Out: The Navy Surfaced 3 Missile Submarines Simultaneously


What history has shown in recent decades is that military posturing has become an integral part of how countries deal with one another.

According to Forrest Morgan, an analyst for the RAND Corporation, such actions all point to what is known as “crisis stability”—the “building and posturing forces in ways that allow a state, if confronted, to avoid war without backing down.”

Showcasing Might in Pacific
One particular example Morgan sheds light on is when the U.S. Navy’s Ohio-class SSGNs surfaced in the Pacific more than a decade ago.

“In July 2010, three SSGNs surfaced nearly simultaneously in Western Pacific and Indian Ocean waters, allegedly to signal U.S. displeasure over Chinese missile tests in the East China Sea,” he writes.

This caught the attention of plenty of local reporters as well.

“The appearance of the USS Michigan in Pusan, South Korea, the USS Ohio in Subic Bay, in The Philippines and the USS Florida in the strategic Indian Ocean outpost of Diego Garcia not only reflects the trend of escalating submarine activity in East Asia, but carries another threat as well,” Greg Torode reported for the South China Morning Post.

“Between them, the three submarines can carry four hundred sixty-two Tomahawks, boosting by an estimated 60 percent-plus the potential Tomahawk strike force of the entire Japanese-based Seventh Fleet—the core projection of U.S. military power in East Asia. One veteran Asian military attaché, who keeps close ties with both Chinese and U.S. forces, noted that four hundred sixty-odd Tomahawks is a huge amount of potential firepower in anybody’s language,” he continued.

The reporter concluded that “it is another sign that the U.S. is determined to not just maintain its military dominance in Asia, but to be seen doing so—that is a message for Beijing and for everybody else, whether you are a U.S. ally or a nation sitting on the fence.  READ MORE...

Naval Ship Destroyed

The United States Navy charged a sailor Thursday for starting a fire last year that destroyed the USS Bonhomme Richard while docked at Naval Base San Diego.

The sailor was a crewmember at the time and was charged with aggravated arson and the willful hazarding of a vessel, Cmdr. Sean Robertson, a U.S. 3rd Fleet spokesperson, said according to ABC News.

Robertson did not give any details as to what evidence was found or what the motive was. The name of the sailor has also not been disclosed.

The amphibious assault ship was nearing the end of its two-year $250 million upgrade when the fire broke out on July 12, 2020. More than 60 sailors and civilians were treated for relatively minor injuries resulting from the fire.

The ship, which can act as a mini aircraft carrier, burned for more than four days. The fire left the ship with extensive structural damage and was later scrapped with estimates that it will cost up to $4 Billion to replace it.  READ MORE

On Being White

IN 0.63 SECONDS, I RECEIVED 4,480,000,000 RESULTS ON GOOGLE AFTER TYPING IN "On Being White."

Most of the results through which I quickly browsed were all directed against the WHITE MAN because ALL WHITE PEOPLE were born into a white world of PRIVILEGE...  or, so it is assumed.

I had WHITE PARENTS who were educated and who raised me to treat all people equally as long as their behavior suggested it...  and, that is exactly how I lived my life.

My father accepted a DIPLOMATIC post overseas at an American Embassy and to tell you the truth, I have no idea if his bosses even considered a black man for the job...  but, if there were no black men available, then it would have been difficult to hire a black man for the job.

Going to high school in Cairo, Egypt, I experienced NO RACISM or PREDJUDICE at all among the students with whom I attended this school...  and yes, there were many people of color attending that school.

When I attended college in NC in 1966, that was the first time that I experienced racism and witnessed white people treating black people differently...  including professors.  However, once I enlisted into the US Navy, there was no racism expressed at all and I remember that my Communications Officer was a black man and I showed him the same respect that I showed all officers in the military.

After college, I had several jobs and I have no idea nor did I ask the person doing the hiring if I was competing with any black people.  However, when I was Dean of a proprietary school, I hired both black and white instructors as long as they had the appropriate credentials and/or qualifications...  and, in my experience, I was never put in a position where there was a white and a black equally qualified and I had to chose one over the other.

Whenever I was promoted inside the ranks of education from instructor to Assistant Dean and then to Dean, there WAS NEVER ANY COMPETITION for the position from either other whites or any blacks that were employed.

NOW...

I am being confronted with WHITE PRIVILEGE and how the WHITE MAN/WOMAN has always had the advantage over BLACKS...

I just don't see it...  making it difficult for me to believe it exists...  and yet, logically, I know it exists...  but, NOT ALL WHITE PEOPLE have had a life of privilege...  and, it is that distinction that pisses me off the most about blacks thinking I have had it easy simply because I am WHITE.

I had NO CHOICE in my BIRTH...

and I damn sure had no choice in my birth parents...

NO ONE DOES...  unless they have a direct line to GOD...  and believe that they can influence HIM.

Classic Rock Memories

Radio Station:  Classic Rock '64 -  '71

Commercial Free

• The Beatles
• The Rolling Stones
• The Doors
• Bob Dylan
• Neil Young
• Jimi Hendrix
• The Birds
• T. Rex
• Chicago
• Credence Clearwater Revival

Not too many days ago, I decided to buy some noise reduction/cancellation headphones so that my wife could listen to her music without disturbing me...  and...  while that purpose was not full achieved, I started listening to the above online radio station and just about every song took me back to memories of my past....  most of them good, since I was a carefree soul back then...

Most of these songs and groups were the ones I listened to when I was in High School in Cairo, Egypt and VOA (Voice of America) was the only radio station we could receive...   What we typically listened to was recorded music when someone returned to the US on what was called "home leave.".

The years '66-'68, I was attending college in NC and from '69-'71, I was in the US Navy, stationed at Little Creek, Norfolk, VA.  I received an honorable discharge in 1972 and returned to college...

Honorably Discharged from the US Navy

I was almost 25 years old and had spent 21 months in the US Navy on a 2 year enlistment contract, receiving an early out to return to college.  I had joined the Navy after taking a leave of absence from college after 2 and 1/2 years and while my grades were right around a "D+" to "C-" range, I just did not want to pursue a college education.  I don't know if it was because my parents had forced me to go to college or because I had not learned enough in high school, but I was not interested in anything college had to offer me.

However, after spending a year working before entering the Navy and almost 2 years in the Navy, I quickly realized that college offered me what I needed whether I liked it or not...  When I graduated in 1974, four years behind schedule, my grade point average in my major was 3.8 which I thought was pretty damn good, given my previous grades.

Interestingly, looking back on my 45 year career, none of my employers (which included colleges and universities) never once asked to see my grades either before or after being employed.

My Writing Adventure

I have a passion for writing but that does not mean that I am a professional writer or that I am even good at writing...   I just like to write...

My writing journey began in 1972 after being discharged from the US Navy, I returned to college and began writing poetry before class in the student union while drinking coffee...

In 2009, I created a blog for the sole purpose of publishing my poetry, below is the link:

Reflections:  White Scorpion

Here are some examples of the kind of poems that I write...   and, if you do visit my poetry blog please let me know what you think...


We are shielded 
by the loose-fitting
clothes of our failures,
yet we continually 
change our dress to 
the seasons 
of our dreams...
circa 1977

Figments

morning is a figment of my imagination

or, at least that is what it seems to be,

since my thoughts have been stolen by

the very aspect of old age, leaving me

with a presumption of innocence from

not being able to protect them so well.

27Feb17

Available

how silly i am to wonder

as i do these mornings

when alone with my cats

I ponder the universe

and my place within it,

hoping to case purpose

and meaning to my existence

that, in my case, appears

to be a little misplaced;

still, we all have works to perform

people to meet and things

to accomplish resemble a

an answer to our pondering,

but still i wonder in a debating

playful way what it is precisely

for which i am here and available.

4Mar17

SIDE EFFECTS

2:16 am} and, I cannot sleep...

Retired, so I worry about very little other than what am I going to do tomorrow...

My eyes and body feel tired but when I lay down in the bed, I feel wide awake and just lay there wondering when the drowsiness will put me to sleep...

So, here I am drinking coffee with a little Cappuccino Mix in it to make it swallow a little easier...   and actually, I think I have become addicted to this sugar-free or fat-free mix because straight coffee no longer tastes good to me which is typically all I used to drink after being in the Navy...

I was in communications and worked in the Radio Shack on the USS Recovery ARS-43 which was a salvage and rescue ship.  It had less than 100 men aboard her and every two years she would spend 6 months in the Mediterranean Sea patrolling outfitted with the latest surveillance gear before leaving port at Little Creek, VA which was part of the Norfolk Naval Base.

About 1:00 am this morning I awoke from sleep because I had to take a piss and after laying back down in my soft, comfortable warm bed, laid there for a hour unable to return to sleep.

Because of my non-Hodgkin's "B" cell Lymphoma, I take 2 - 140 mg tablets of IMBRUVICA  daily which is considered an Immunotherapy Drug, not a Chemotherapy Drug.

Common side effects of Imbruvica include:

low platelet count,

diarrhea,

neutropenia,

anemia,

fatigue,

musculoskeletal pain,

muscle spasms,

joint pain,

swelling of the extremities,

fever,

upper respiratory tract infection,

cough,

shortness of breath,

nausea,

bruising,

indigestion,

constipation,

rash,

abdominal pain,

vomiting,

decreased appetite,

swelling of the mouth and lips,

urinary tract infection,

pneumonia,

skin infections,

sinus infection,

weakness,

nosebleed,

decreased appetite,

dehydration,

dizziness, and

headache.

Of course, my inability to sleep could be coming from my enlarged prostate and a PSA count that was twice what it was last year and over the recommended amount and the reason why I am going to a Urologist to see if I have prostate cancer next week.

In addition to my IMBRUVICA, I am receiving a monthly infusion of OPDIVO to control my Metastatic Melanoma which in a matter of 41/2 years went from my foot to my groin to my neck; although, when it was removed from my neck, the Melanoma was DEAD thanks to the radiation treatments I had along with the OPDIVO infusions; apparently, when OPDIVO is combined with radiation, the radiation super-charges the OPDIVO to fight the Melanoma...   lucky me...

Common side effects of Opdivo include:

• fatigue
• rash
• itching
• cough
• upper respiratory tract infection
• swelling of the extremities
• shortness of breath
• muscle pain
• decreased appetite
• nausea
• vomiting
• constipation
• diarrhea
• weakness
• swelling
• fever
• abdominal pain
• chest pain
• joint pain
• weight loss
• irregular heartbeat
• eye inflammation
• infusion-related reactions
• increased amylase
• increased lipase
• dizziness
• numbness and tingling
• skin peeling
• skin redness and
• psoriasis.

YEAH...  I was pretty frigging amazed when I saw these two lists too...  I have been taking immunotherapy drugs for two years but I have also been taking chemotherapy drugs for 10 years, all of which basically has the same side effects...   

WHILE sleeplessness in not on the list...  WTF...  I experience it once or twice a week like clockwork...