Military Heat

The Phalanx close-in defense system was first fitted to the USS Coral Sea in 1980 and is actually a 20 mm M61 Vulcan (Gatling-type) rotary cannon which is controlled by a system that acquires and tracks possible threats by radar.

Initially the system was able to fire only 3000 rounds per minute, but that improved as the Block 1, 1A and 1B came into play with upgraded radar, control systems, new sensors (FLIR) and rates of fire up to 7000 rpm.
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In the late 1960’s a secret program was undertaken by the US Air Force and Navy to evaluate flight characteristics of soviet built aircraft. The US acquired aircraft, radar systems, missiles as well as other hardware from friendly nations (Israel,Egypt,etc.) or aircraft used by their pilots to defect. The program continued until the early 1990’s, when the fall of the Soviet Union led to the end of the Cold War. (Read more…)

The A-10 Thunderbolt II (nicknamed Warthog) is one of my favorite American military planes. Why is that? Well it’s partly because of it’s unusual look, and partly because of its trademark 30mm GAU-8 Gatling gun. Its gun is also its trademark, shooting up to 70 uranium depleted rounds every second!

When it first came out in 1976, part of the army didn’t have much faith in the beginning in the A-10 Thunderbolt II, because they preferred high flying, high tech airplanes like the F-15 and F-16 with precision munition. (Read more…)

One of the planes that impressed me in my early years, was the C-130 Hercules. I don’t know why, but along with the DC-3 (and the military version C-47) it has always caught my imagination and interest.
The aircraft started production in ‘56 after the project was won in the 1950 by Lockheed Martin with the YC-130 prototype. An interesting fact is that this “old girl” is still in production!
Actually it’s still wanted by military air forces around the world including the USAF. And in September 2006 the “headcount” was for 186 planes to be made and delivered! That is simply unheard off, for such an “old plane”, but the secret stands in its oldness. Or lack of it, actually.
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The Apache AH-64 helicopter is the current workhorse of the US Military. The need for an attack helicopter started after the war in Vietnam when a lot of Huey helicopters were fitted with attack rockets. Although the Huey did its job properly as an armed transport helicopter, as an attach chopper it left a bitter taste, over 5000 people dying in it!

Thus the Apache was created. The first one flew in 1975, and after proving its worth, in 1983 the assembly line started rolling aircraft after aircraft at a price of 18 million US dollars.
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