Zach
@thrustwr
Former NavalNews & USNINews writer, Track Fuser, R-1/P-1 Budget Reader. For defense-related stuff Site:
This is the main yard (Ingalls), it had two LHAs (bigger than WW2 carriers), three LPDs, and four destroyers fitting or under construction at the same time. This is close to 200k tons of vessels under construction/fitting out.
This is a satellite image I commissioned in 2024. It shows more (7) modern destroyers under construction at Bath Iron Works (one of the smaller US military yards) than any single Korean shipyard has ever built.
The missile uses a simple ball and socket nozzle setup. It was designed by United Technologies's Chemical Systems Division. It was later made by Hamilton Sundstrand but it might be made by someone else.
Tfw have to use a 2 KT warhead because the MSR has a resolution basket measured in hundreds of meters. Spartan flying into the heavens with a 5 MT warhead and a rough idea (down to a mile) of where the warheads are:
LoADs/HibEx were even smaller funkier/smaller Sprints but still had nuclear warheads. HEDI (which wad mostly for experimentation) was effectively a HTK Sprint (it reused many parts from it). THAAD's seeker/other stuff come from this program.
Used PAR and MSR (the radars from Safeguard) to show what simplified command guidance of then looked like.
Out here doing little bit of tracing for some stills of the Spartan and Sprint missile (from the safeguard system) for the upcoming video (I briefly mention them)
>comeback after being offline for a monthish >A strain of algea is waging a successful campaign against the Trump Admin >We are on the 16th round of negotiations and peace deals that get broken daily >Adobe is telling me the price of my subscription plan has gone up 100%
Mood today. Awake for close to 36 hours, two flights, two trains, several busses.
Accidentally left the test render on Apple ProRes, the little 4 min video is now 12GB.
The Iranians traded the survival of their launchers for being able to attack the US/ISR. Entirely reasonable ofc, but this meant their tempo fell off. But seeing how firing 500+ missiles in less than 4 days did little to US/ISR ops, saving launchers for after the war was (probably) more important
Close to 5k sorties were flown in 91 against less than 50 launchers and not a single one was destroyed. The entire war here involved 12k sorties and destroying even 35% of all pre-war SRBM/MRBM launchers (thousand or so) is an insane achievement.
The aircraft totals if you include two seater JAS 39Ds and F/A-18Ds that do trainer missions.
Two seat aircraft are traditionally trainers, the Swedish air force is reported to use 39D variants in. The numbers i have come across all indicate about 70-73 C/Es variants as being active. It is for the same reason I exclude Finnish Air Force 18D models. If you have better sourcing, I will update.
Updated my 2024 "Defenders of the North" air forces map. New changes include the Danes parting with all F-16s and taking delivery of 15 F-35As, the Norwegians getting all 52 F-35As they ordered and the Swedish Air Force inducting Gripen Es into service with one of their units in Southern Sweden.
I have been cooking for a few months now on a new release schedule for new videos and other materials. Since my schedule has cleared up, I am going to be doing some Patreon-only releases for the coming months.
The only image of the PAC-1/2 seeker I have been able to find. Some Jane's Land-Based Air Defense issues have images of the TK-1 seeker which is very close.