Steeljaw Scribe

“I’ll take ‘Space’ for $100B Alex”

“Russia, South Ossetia, Georgia and the ISS.”

“What is - How the US could find itself locked out of the ISS after 2010 Alex”

Russia’s invasion and occupation of South Ossetia could have far reaching effects off world.  In a scenario strikingly reminiscent of the movie, 2010  , increased tensions between the US and Russia now cold lead to the loss of US access to the ISS for at least 4 or 5 years.  Yep - the same ISS the US has put over $100 billion (that’s Billion with a capital “B” by GAO estimates  ) could be blocked to US and international partner access, save Russia, after 2011 if an agreement to allow our astronauts to continue to ride Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS is allowed to expire in 2009.  Bad as that is, the infuriating thing is we have no one to blame but our own short-sighted selves for this state of affairs.

It began when we put all our manned spaceflight eggs in the Shuttle basket, eschewing further development of traditional rockets for manned space boosters.  Experience with operating the shuttle feet and the losses of first the Challenger and later Columbia unmasked the fallacy of that policy, and so now, 30 years after the last Apollo mission, we have Apollo on steroids, the Constellation program 2, which maybe will reach IOC with the first manned launch in seven years, 2015.  Barring, of course, more major technical issues  .  In the meantime, the Bush administration has decided to end the shuttle’s operations by 2010, meaning from this point, after next month’s shuttle flight to re-service the Hubble, there will be only 9 flights left.  The gap-filler is a contract, with Russia, to fly US and international partner astronauts on Soyuz which expires in 2012.  And that is possible only because of a waiver to the Iran-North Korea-Syria Non-Proliferation Act which forbids U.S. purchase of high technology goods from Russia. A new contract (and exemption) were being held-up in Congress which had put it on the back burner (along with all sorts of other legislation) before it went into recess and now, with the Russian invasion of Georgia, it’s likely there won’t be any action soon on the new contract for the remainder of this year and likely as not, in 2009 either.  And therein lies the problem, for the Soyuz production line requires about a three year planning process for new modules.  Without an agreement, extra modules for supporting transport of our astronauts to ISS in 2012 and beyond, will not be made.

So now, according to current NASA administrator Mike Griffin, he is looking into extending the shuttle   past 2010:

…The first and most obvious possibility is there won’t be any American or international partners on the space station after Dec. 31 of 2011. That’s a possibility. Another possibility is that we will be told to continue flying shuttle and we would be given extra money to do so, in which case our Ares and Orion could be kept on track and we would no longer have a dependence on Russia.

“A third possibility is we could be told to keep flying shuttle, not be given any extra money, in which case we don’t get Ares and Orion anytime soon and we still have a gap, it’s just further out in time. All right? And all of these things ignore the fact that flying shuttle does not ameliorate in truth our dependence upon the Russians because we still need them for crew rescue. So if we continue to fly shuttle, either we’re flying without crew rescue capability, in other words putting crew on station and then leaving them there without a way to get home in an emergency, which we have never done, or our tenure on station is only during the two weeks you get when the shuttle visits a couple of times a year.”(Emphasis added)

To say this sad sate of affairs fully reflects the abysmal lack of vision, planning and funding on the part of several administrations and Congress would be a gross understatement.  NASA as well, holds plenty of blame, especially in decades worth of gross mismanagement and lack of vision.  And now, all those chickens are coming home to roost as the agency is forced to look at extending a prohibitively expensive and aging system to avoid the prospect of not having access to a system we have put the majority of funds into to build and operate.

Short-sighted vision.

Bad policy.

Haphazard funding.

It’s a rotten way to run any program, much less a space program.

In 1971, when the Nixon Administration was looking at canceling the Apollo program and not approving the development of the Space Shuttle - then Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director Casper Weinberger stated that such a policy: “…would be confirming in some respects a belief that I fear is gaining credence at home and abroad: That our best years are behind us, that we are turning inward, reducing our defense commitments, and voluntarily starting to give up our super-power status and our desire to maintain world superiority.” Three and a half decades later this seems equally valid, if not more so given the increased number of countries that are making significant investments in space.  Both candidates are generally supportive of the America’s space program 1, but neither seems to go beyond generalizations and more of the same - the same thought processes that have put us where we presently find ourselves.

Something needs to be done to re-awaken the excitement and sense of purpose present in the early 60’s following Kennedy’s call for a landing on the Moon.  Something that will inspire a nation to look beyond its nose, to grow a new generation of scientists and engineers, to inspire a public to “look at the way thigs could be and ask, ‘why not’ “

And maybe 2010 will be the year we keep contact…

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Tags:   history lessons · NASA · Russia · spaceNo Comments.

So Hanna arrived and dumped 12+ inches in a little over 8 hours:

We’re under one of the red spots…(wx station at nearby school reporting 26.8″ - can’t be right…)

Between rain bands…

The Good:

The Bad:

Citadel still lost to Clemson

& The Ugly:

Tags:   Gratuitous Slap · weatherNo Comments.

Since the program began, Aegis BMD has been concentrated on the West Coast and with the FDNF.  Now, however, two more ships - this time on the East Coast, have undergone the modifications and one, the USS RAMAGE (DDG 61) has begun a deployment with the SM-3 Blk1a missile onboard (full article here  ): 

“She is loaded,” said Rear Adm. Alan Hicks, program director for Aegis ballistic missile defense, in a teleconference with reporters. “She can search and track for cueing; she can do engagements of exoatmospheric threats; and she can defend herself against air threats. That is our definition of fully mission-capable.”. . . On top of the enhanced software to track and target airborne ballistic missiles, the big arrow is the Standard Missile-3, which can make an intercept in space, at 100 miles above sea level.

Besides USS Stout, the other East Coast BMD destroyer, there are 16 other BMD capable Aegis cruisers and destroyers - Lake Erie, Port Royale and Shiloh on the cruiser side, and the Burke-class destroyers Benfold, Russell 2, Paul Hamilton, O’Kane, J.S. MacCain, Hopper, Higgins, Stethem, Curtis Wilbur, Decatur, Milius, Fitzgerald and John Paul Jones; all home-ported on the West Coast or with the FDNF in Japan.  As we’ve argued before - more are needed  , especially in light of the growing proliferation 0, horizontal and vertical  , of ballistic missiles.  Added ships will increase coverage, flexibility and presence in the employment of sea-based BMD from the maritime commons :

“I believe, near-term, that we need an additional four to six Atlantic Fleet ships in order to give the necessary flexibility to the fleet commander to keep the presence forward,” Hicks said.

Earlier in the summer, coincidentally at a time when war tensions between Iran and Israel were flaring, two Pacific-based BMD destroyers, the Benfold and the Russell, conducted a communications system test - not missile intercepts - in the Middle East.  The exercise was described as a test of the rapid exchange of information between the two fleets, via satellite, as well as information from ground-based sensors.  Benfold, in the Persian Gulf, and Russell, in the Mediterranean, worked “with one another in detecting, tracking, sharing information and engaging a simulated ballistic missile by sharing data via a number of paths,” according to information from 6th Fleet in Italy. 

“We expect when Ramage arrives in theater, between commander, 6th Fleet, and commander, 5th Fleet, to continue that level of exercises across areas of responsibility to further refine operational procedures,” Hicks said.

Now, about that fully integrated and combined air and missile defense concept  …

Tags:   Aegis BMD · ballistic missiles · Maritime Strategy1 Comment

Those of us who spent anytime in Hampton Roads became intimately familiar with the “joys” of two significant landmarks - the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel 0 and the more recent cousin, the Monitor-Merrimac  Memorial Bridge Tunnel  .  The HRBT, as it is called in polite company, is the link from Norfolk to the Peninsula, unless, of course, you opt for a much wider trip out of your way to use the James River bridge or MMBT.

Which, when, not if, things went south (literally) on the HRBT, you had no choice but to punt and use one of those alternates.

Still, even at the height of summer, with the scaredy-cat turistas flocking south for to burn to a crisp at VaBeach or the Outer Banks, for all the hi-jinks they and the occasional native displayed (like 100+ mph on the bridge part, in a Porsche, ahem…) nothing approached the level of this - the longest in city tunnel in Europe, found in Russia.  There is a river running over it, and water leaks at various points. When the temperature reaches minus-38 degrees like it did this particular winter, the road freezes, and the result is what you see in the  video below. This video was taken during A SINGLE DAY with the tunnel camera:

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Special kudos for the bus driver’s save…

Tags:   HumorNo Comments.

The mid-1950’s were a fascinating time in aircraft development in the US.  The famous “Century Series”  was well underway with participation by almost all of America’s premiere aircraft manufacturers, a series of X-planes   were pushing the boundaries at a remote desert lake-bed   only recently renamed for one aviator who gave his life   while testing a giant, bat-like bomber 0, and the Navy was busy expanding the capabilities of its carrier-based jet aircraft  .  Overlaying this environment was a layer of public competition in speed, range and prestige that was collected under the general rubric of air races.

Begun between the Wars, the competitions   were meant to spur technological development of the native American aircraft industry, as did competitions overseas, like the Schneider Trophy (which led to the development of the Supermarine Spitfire).  Bendix, Collier, Thompson - each trophy had a particular element tested - speed, durability, range, all factored in whole or in part. Many of these competitions were integrated with air shows, and in turn provided venues where several aviators garnered public recognition and fame in the process - notables like Jackie Cochrane and Jimmy Doolittle among others.  They also become a point of pride and prestige among the manufacturers and, especially after WWII and the rise of the USAF, between the Services as competition for resources in the Federal budget ensued the following decade.

1956 provided an opportunity for Navy to showcase its latest developments.  Besides the deployment of the FJ-3 Fury which had begun a few years earlier, 1956 saw the deployment of the long-range A3D Skywarrior and the all weather interceptor F3H-2N Demon. An opportunity to showcase all three types presented itself with the opening of the 1956 National Air Show in the middle of the country at Oklahoma City’s Will Rogers airport.  What better way to demonstrate naval air power than to pick a site in the middle of the continent and fly aircraft from a carrier to it?

Off the West coast of the US, the USS Shangri-La (CV-38) was conducting flight ops with all three models.  Built in 1943 and launched in 1944,she was the 9th ship in the improved lne of Essex-class carriers known as the Ticonderoga-class CV.  Named for a reference to the first USS Hornet (CV-8) (from which the Doolittle Raid 0 was launched - President Roosevelt 0 answered a reporter’s question by saying that the raid had come from “Shangri-La 0“, the faraway land of the James Hilton 1 novel Lost Horizon  ), aircraft from Shangri-La’s airwing would make an exceptional appearance over the course of three days at the air show.

Beginning on 1 September 1956, the opening day of the air show, four FJ-3 Furies of VF-24 took off from Shangri-la at sea off the Pacific coast of Mexico and flew nonstop, 1,198 miles to Oklahoma City without refueling. The fastest, LTJG D. K. Grosshuesch, completed the flight with a time of 2 hours 13 minutes 38.6 seconds for an average speed of 537.848 m.p.h.  He was awarded the North American Trophy for this accomplishment.  Next, on 2 Sept was an F3H-2N Demon of VF-124, flown by LTJG R. Carson, who captured the McDonnell Trophy with a nonstop, non-refueling flight originating off San Francisco, covering the 1,436 miles in 2 hours 32 minutes 13.45 seconds for an average speed of 566.007 m.p.h.  Finally, demonstrating the long-range strike capability of the brand new A3D, two A3D Skywarriors, piloted by Captain J. T. Blackburn, commanding Heavy Attack Wing 1, and Commander C. T. Frohne, XO of VAH-1 were launched from Shangri-la off the Oregon coast, flew across a finish line at the National Air Show, Oklahoma City, and continued on to Jacksonville without refueling. In completing the 1,543.3-mile leg from the Shangri-la to Oklahoma City in 2 hours 32 minutes 39.7 seconds for an average speed of 606.557 mph, Captain Blackburn was awarded the Douglas Trophy.

Three days, three different squadrons, three different aircraft types, one carrier - a feat not since replicated…

Epilogue:

Not everyone was enamored  of the events that week.

LTJG Carson got to experience the other end of the Demon’s performance envelope   - and fortunately survived to tell about it.

Tags:   Chronicles of Naval Aviation · history lessons · Naval Aviation2 Comments

Blasting, billowing, bursting forth
With the power of ten
    billion butterfly sneezes
Man with his flaming pyre
Has conquered the wayward breezes
Climbing to tranquility
Far above the cloud
Conceiving the heavens
Clear of misty shroud…

- Moody Blues, Higher and Higher

Growing up we were insatiable in our appetite for anything related to space - missiles, telescopes, books on astronomy - or anything by Clarke or Asimov (and later Pournelle & Niven).  Time spent contemplating watery, pale views of Mars or Jupiter (courtesy atmospherics) was supplemented with black and white photography in accompanying astronomy books.  When we first saw 2001 and the explosion of color and texture possible in space - well beyond the grainy low res color TV pictures or 8mm films of the time, we sat transfixed in wonderment.

And so it was in great anticipation we awaited the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and were sorely disappointed when the initial imagery came back all blurry.  But a visit by a follow-on crew of orbital optemitrists remedied that situation and the results - well, the results have been nothing short of breathtaking.  See for yourself:

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Recently, after over 18 years on orbit, the HST passed its 100,000th orbit.  The HST is slated for one more servicing flight by the Shuttle astronauts, later this year.  After that another good ten years will be expected from Hubble before it is de-orbited at the end of its lifespan.  When it does, it will close the circle in a firey death, probably somewhere over the Pacific.  But the images of this vast, beautiful universe around us will remain - and that is its legacy, along with those thousands of engineers, scientists, astronauts and dreamers who conceived, built, put it on orbit and operate it today.

Tags:   Hubble · NASA · spaceNo Comments.

Red Flag has always been a varsity exercise and in recent years, it has seen increased participation from allies and friends.  This year has been no exception with Brazil (F-5s), Sweden (JAS-39 Grippens), France (Rafales) and Turkey F-16s) among the many participants.  This was in addition to the usual USAF, USN and USMC participants.

Notable among the  invitees this year was the Indian Air Force whose marquee participants were the Sukhoi Su-30 Mk I (that’s “I” as in “Indian” 1) Flankers.  As expected, the Indian Flankers did not showcase their full capability, especially in the EW realm, for much the same reasons th US won’t in other venues with its most advanced aircraft.  Additionally, the Indians employ their Flankers in a different networked schema than the US that includes ground-based infrastructure not brought to Red Flag. Nevertheless, the IAF has apparently given a good accounting of itself,  to the extent the USAF has evidently asked them to be regular  participants.  By most accounts, their participation has generally played well at home too.  Oh yes, there was another element of the Indian armed forces that made the trip  , but to somewhat less public play too…

One other note - a not inconsiderable element to this was the fact that most of the candidate aircraft for India’s lucrative MRCA competition currently underway, were also participants in the exercise, availing the Indians a chance to assess operations with dissimilar aircraft.

As is usually the case with Red Flag, there is some compelling imagery for the sampling:

IAF Maintainers conduct post-flight checks.  Note the postions of the engine’s directional nozzles (USAF photo)

Keeping them flying is a ‘rond the clock operation, no matter the nationality (USAF photo)

More below the fold:

[Read more →]  

Tags:   India · Red Flag · USAF3 Comments

First, the official press release:

Missing WWII Pilot Is Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing from World War II, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

He is 2nd Lt. Howard C. Enoch Jr., U.S. Army Air Forces, of Marion, Ky. He will be buried on Sep. 22 in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C.

Representatives from the Army met with Enoch’s next-of-kin to explain the recovery and identification process and to coordinate interment with military honors on behalf of the Secretary of the Army.

On March 19, 1945, Enoch was the pilot of a P-51D Mustang that crashed while engaging enemy aircraft about 20 miles east of Leipzig, near the village of Doberschütz, Germany. His remains were not recovered at the time, and Soviet occupation of eastern Germany precluded his recovery immediately after the war.

In 2004, a team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) surveyed a possible P-51 crash site near Doberschütz. The team found aircraft wreckage. In 2006, another JPAC team excavated the site and recovered human remains and aircraft wreckage.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA in the identification of Enoch’s remains.

And now, the rest of the story…

The Details:

A/C type: P-51D

Serial Number: 44-15371 (CV-Z “Happy”

Squadron: 368th FS, 359th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force, RAF East Wetham

Date of loss: 19 March 45

Area of loss: Germany, 20 miles east of Leipzig (Doberschütz)

March 1945.  In this the third year of the combined Allied air campaign against Nazi Germany, the Allies reign the skies.  Day- and night the distant thunder of thousand plane raids headed for the heart of the Reich can be heard throughout the heartland of continental Europe.  Ground forces pushing through weakening German resistance on both fronts while over head contrails from B-17s, B-24s, P-47s and P-51s are etched across the sky.  No where can be considered sanctuary for German aircraft as the Mustang and Thunderbolts range freely over German territory.  Even the wonder weapons like the Me-262 jet fighter find themselves being shot down over their home airfields.  The end is very near.

In an area east of the industrial center (what remains that is) of Leipzig, a solitary P-51 is engaged in a duel with an Me-262 over the snow covered fields. It is a truism, borne through the ages of aerial combat that there is no margin for error in fighter combat.  High speeds, g-forces, blinding sun, and so many other factors can combine to cause a moments hesitancy or a temporary loss of situational awareness, all of which comes to a crashing end in flame and thunder.

Nearby Mustangs saw two aircraft crash in the fields - one German, one American.  The spot was marked, but since it was behind Russian lines, no Americans would be able to get to the crash site to ascertain if there was a survivor or if remains could be recovered.  Indeed, just a few days earlier, American Mustangs had found themselves engaged in combat with Russian fighters not far from here.

And so Kentucky native,  19 year old Lt. Clifton Enoch, USAAF a member of the 368th FS for only a few short weeks, was declared missing, presumed dead.  Eight years later, as the Soviet “Iron Curtain” descended over Eastern Europe, it was deemed unlikely that his remains would ever be located and repatriated with his homeland.  In the American Cemetery at Henri-Chappelle, Belgium, Lt. Clifton wa listed on the Tablets of the Missing” and there it was thought the story would, sadly, end.

But it didn’t end there.  An unborn son was left behind with Enoch’s 17 year old wife.  That son is now a 68-year old Framingham, Mass. resident who maintains a memorial to his dad over a mantlepiece. Dan MacDonald of GateHouse Press Service picks up the story   from there:

As it turns out, his father’s plane crashed in what would later become Soviet-controlled East Germany, hampering recovery efforts during the Cold War.

Compounding matters, World War II debris was so commonplace in Germany that a crashed plane was unlikely to cause much of a stir.

“You can’t dig a hole in Germany without hitting munitions or pieces of airplanes or something that blew up,” said Enoch. “So there’s just so much there to the local people it’s no big deal.”

The pilots who were flying with Enoch misidentified the location of the crash site, further complicating the search.

“This is no one’s fault. There was no GPS. They were going by landmarks in a country they had never been in before,” said Enoch.

In 2004, German historian Hans Guenther Ploes identified a particular rural area as a potential location of plane wreckage.

In 2006, U.S. government dig teams sifted through the wreckage and found what at the time were termed “possible human remains.”

“It was the Army, they were being cautious,” said Enoch.

The archaeological findings were then sent to a lab in Hawaii for analysis.

The Army studied the geography of the crash, the style and plane identification, and, ultimately, DNA.

“They were trying to eliminate all the other possibilities just to make sure this was my dad’s crash site,” said Enoch.

Now, Enoch hopes for a military burial at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia by the end of August

Lt. Enoch will be buried with full honors on 22 Sept 2008 at Arlington Cemetery.  In recognition, the governor of Kentucky, Gov. Steve Beshear as said the flags of the US and Kentucky will belowered to half-staff that day throughout the state.

Welcome home Lt. Enoch - your mission is complete and now you may rest easy in peace.

Tags:   MIA · WWIINo Comments.

Taking a break from VTC h*ll (ed: 8+ hours yesterday alone, how the h*ll did Nimitz & Ike win a war without  it? - don’t answer, that was a rhetorical question… - SJS) & following up on the comments   to a previous Flightdeck Friday (Phlightdeck Phriday: Phabulous Phantom Edition).  Some have offered their guess at the recce question posed in the first film.  To those who offered Badger C, you were almost there…it was a C-Mod whose chief recce feature were the notched flaps and wing racks to carry the AS-6, as shown below.  It also added the SHORT HORN (NATO code name) radar which provided support for the AS-6:

Badger C-Mod

(image from www.fas.org  )

Compare to the Badger C below:

Badger C

(image from Air Power Australia  )

The Badger J was notable by having the glazed nose as opposed to the C/C-Mod’s solid nose which housed the NATO-code named PUFF BALL search radar.

(image from Air Power Australia  )

Badger J

Oh and Skippy   — not quite like the recce training we had back in the day - eh?

Tags:   Flightdeck Friday2 Comments

The term tipping point describes a point at which a slow gradual change becomes irreversible and then proceeds with gathering pace. It is derived from the metaphor of a rigid solid object being tilted to a point where it begins to topple.

Couple of observations from the region…

Iran to launch 1st domestic satellite soon - Ahmadinejad

(16 August 2008, IRNA)  Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad added in his press interview in Istanbul Friday that Iran would in near future launch its first domestic satellite to the space.  According to IRNA, President Ahmadinejad said addressing the audience, “I want to inform you of a first hand news today. The Americans sanctioned us 28 years ago, but that is not the whole story.”

“They also imposed a number of sets of embargoes, whose single purpose was the block the path of our progress. But thanks to all those sanctions, we are now a nuclear country, and will by grace of God very soon launch our first Iranian made satellite.”

The Iranian president reiterated, “This satellite, the rocket that would launch it, and the land station from which it would be launched are entirely made in Iran, by the talented Iranian scientists and technicians.”  He pointed out that the Islamic Iran is today also among the top five world countries with advanced bio-technology expertise, the top in nano-technology field, and that the Iranians have achieved all such high objectives thanks to the US, and US backed sanctions, which our nation is decided to resist against.

Presumably a modified version of the Shahab-3   would be used to loft a nominal 35-40 lb object (ostensibly named Safir - Persian for “emissary’) into low orbit.  Recall that America’s first  satellite, Explorer, was about 53 lbs and was launched on the Jupiter-C  ,  a derivative of the Redstone MRBM which itself was derived from the V-2.  Ironically, the Shahab is a derivative of the SCUD which itself was derived from…the V-2.  We would expect the launch to be fairly soon. Still, given Iran’s past history, there is a reason they call it rocket science  .

Update: Iran says it launched satellite into space  

or maybe not  …

And the Pentagon says “not so fast…”:

“The Iranians did not successfully launch the rocket,” a senior U.S. defense official told CNN Monday. The two-stage rocket could have been capable of launching a satellite into space, but the U.S. intelligence assessment shows that the second stage “was erratic and out of control,” said the official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the intelligence. The rocket “did not perform as designed,” (more  )

Meanwhile, over in Israel:

Israel Takes Delivery of First F-16I Sufa (‘Storm’)

The long-awaited Israeli F-16I Sufa (‘Storm’) rolled off Lockheed Martin’s production line in Texas last week into the waiting hands of Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who was on scene to receive the new aircraft, the first of 102 ordered by Jerusalem in 1997.

The F-16I is a heavily modified two seat version of the U.S. Air Force’s F-16D Block 50/52-series fighter. In addition to the new and more powerful Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-229 engine, the F-16I boasts numerous internal and external advancements and modifications. For example, the Sufa has been customized with new avionic technologies, internally mounted FLIR (forward looking infrared) viewers, and cutting edge weapon system hardware provided by the Israeli defense company Lahav - a division of Israel Aircraft Industries.

Complementing the upgraded weapon systems is a dorsal compartment containing enhanced mission avionics and chaff and flare dispensers, enabling it to conduct either pilot training or combat missions. In addition, removable conformal fuel tanks (CFTs) have been added along the fuselage and above the wing roots, freeing-up underwing hard points for additional armaments. The F-16I has an unrefueled combat strike radius well in excess of 500 miles. The extended flight range allows Israeli forces to attack targets well within Iran and Libya without having to refuel.

Three squadrons of the new aircraft are expected to be operational from the Ramon airbase deep inside the Negev by 2008 with the first strike aircraft arriving next month.

An Israeli opinion…  

And while the world has been focused on Beijing and South Ossetia/Georgia:

IRAN: The United States said yesterday that Iran had left the United Nations Security Council no choice but to increase sanctions on the Islamic republic for ignoring demands that it halt sensitive nuclear activities.

The US declaration came a day after an informal deadline lapsed for Iran to respond to an offer from the US, Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia for talks on its disputed nuclear programme. “It is clear that the government of Iran has not complied with the international community’s demand to stop enriching uranium and isn’t even interested in trying,” said Richard Grenell, spokesman for the US mission to the UN.

“They leave the Security Council no choice but to increase the sanctions, as called for in the last resolution passed.”

Tehran has not formally responded to the offer. But Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday that Tehran would not back down in its nuclear dispute with the powers, which have supported three rounds of Security Council sanctions.

“In whichever negotiation we take part . . . it is unequivocally with the view to the realisation of Iran’s nuclear right and the Iranian nation would not retreat one iota from its rights,” he said.

A successful space launch with the implicit declaration of an operational MRBM able to loft a nascent nuclear payload.  More stalling on the nuclear front.  The US distracted and entwined elsewhere.  Israel’s vow not to let Iran acquire nuclear weapons and an expanded long-range strike capability being added to its inventry….

Not a matter of weeks, but perhaps a few short months.  Time will tell…

Tags:   Iran · IRBM · Israel · MRBM · nuclear4 Comments