Aero L-159 Alca Combat Aircraft

                         The Aero L-159 Alca is a Czech-built multi-role combat aircraft. It is in examine with the Czech Air Force and Bolivian Air Force but some countries have a presented interest.

The L-159 ALCA is an armed version of trainer aircraft L-59. He is basically equal to the basic version, with the addition of arms which gives you some military ability. The models L-59 and its militarized version L-159 are in turn derived from the older L-39 Albatros. It exists in two versions: L-159A and L-159B (two seats). Among the principal characteristics of the family 59/159 is the new engine The L-159A is fitted with Italian Grifo-M radar (Grifo-L version).

Stryker M1128 105 mm gun Info

            Stryker M1128 Mobile Gun System mgc is an eight-wheeled armor fighting vehicle mounting a 105 mm tank gun, based on the Canadian LAV III light-armor vehicle, which in turn is based on the Mo wag Piranha. It is in service with the United States and was also being considered for adoption by several other countries, including Canada.

105mm Light Gun Info

          The 105mm Lt gun is a versatile, air portable and air mobile artillery piece which can be carried around the battle field under slung from a Puma or Chinook. Used by the Parachute and Commando Field Artillery Regiments of the British Army. In service since 1975 it has replaced the 105mm Pack Howitzer. Robust and reliable, the gun proved its worth in the Falklands, firing up to 400 rounds per day.
Crew 6;

Descriptions:
Weight 1,858 kg;
Length 8.8m;
Width 1.78m;
Height 2.13m;
Ammunition HE, Smoke, Illuminating, Target Marking;
Maximum Range (HE) 17.2 kms; Anti Tank Range 800m;
Muzzle Velocity 709m/s;
Shell Weight HE 15.1 kg;
Rate of Fire 6 rpm.

Su-25 Frogfoot- Military Aircraft

           Su-25 Frogfoot  introduced in 1980, it was the first dedicated ground attack aircraft produced by the Soviet Union since the World War Two era propeller driven Il-2 Shturmovik. drawing heavily on lessons learned by the American Air Force during the vietnam war, and mirroring the performance of the American A-10 Warthog, the Frogfoot is a rugged aircraft capable of accuratly delivering a heavy payload from low altitude and surviving in the low level, high threat forward area environment. Though the Sukhoi Design Bureau originally sought to rely on speed to survive, it was determined that increased speed reduced the low level battlefield effectiveness of the aircraft. In short, if the aircraft was to perform its job effectivly, it would have to be able of operating at low speeds; speed would be sacrificed for low speed maneuverability and heavy armor.

After several design changes, the first prototypes were accepted in 1980. The 1st production Frogfoots were equipped with twin multi-fuel non afterburning turbojet engines, a twin barreled internally mounted 30mm cannon, titanium armor around the pilot and control surfaces, and foam filled, non-explosive self sealing fuel cells. The Su-25 was equipped with eleven underwing and under body hard points, was capable of delivering 4000 kilograms (8,818 pounds) of ordnance and could be operated off of unimproved dirt strips.

The following combat experience in Afganistan, an enhanced version, the Frogfoot-B, was fielded in 1984. The B model was a production modified version of the two seat Frogfoot-A trainer. The second seat was removed, as was the internal gun, and additional fuel, armor, and avionics were installed, in addition to an improved 30mm cannon, mounted in an external pod. In addition, the Frogfoot's lack of all weather, night time capability was addressed by incorperating a Forward Looking Infra Red (FLIR) low light navigation system as well as a TV camera and laser designator, spot tracker and rangefinding package. Although the Frogfoot has been out of production for a number of years, it still remains in front line service with Russia's Frontal Aviation as well as many export nations, including Iraq.

Marine Protector-class Patrol Boat Info

             The Marine Protector-class of 87-foot costal patrol boats (WPB) was initiate in 1993 to substitute the existing fleet of Vietnam-era 82' Point-class patrol boats. The 87' WPBs would offer improvements in crew habitability, electronics, communications, and sea handling. Most notably, the 87' WPBs are capable of deploying and recovering a 5.5m RIB (Rigid hull Inflatable Boat) while underway (with the 82' WPBs, deploying the RIB required the patrol boat break off operations to winch the RIB over the side with a hoist.) The design of the 87' WPB is based upon the Damen Stan Patrol 2600 then in service with the Hong Kong Police. The production contract was award to the Bollinger Shipyards out of Lockport, LA. With the first production model, the USCGC Barracuda (CG 87301), entering service in Eureka, CA. in January 1998. Construction would be split between Bollinger, which was responsible for construction of the hull in addition to final assembly, while the superstructure would be assembled by VT Halmatic.

The Marine Protector-class patrol boats are powered by two MTU 8V396TE94 twin-turbo V8 diesel engines, producing 2,680 horsepower combined.  Propulsion is provided by two shafts fitted with fixed pitch 5-bladed screws.

A total of 65 have been produced, with the previous, USCGC Terrapin (CG 87366), commissioned in January 2005 and assigned to Bellingham, WA. Unit cost was $3.5 million per boat.

Cobalt Bomb Info

A cobalt bomb is a theoretical type of "salted bomb": a nuclear weapon intended to contaminate an area by radioactive material, with relatively little blast.

The weapon's tamper would be of ordinary cobalt metal, which the blast then would transmute to the radioactive isotope cobalt-60 (60Co), which would produce deadly nuclear fallout.

As far as is publicly known, no cobalt bombs were ever build. The Operation Antler/Round 1 test by the British at the Tadje site in the Maralinga range in Australia on 14 September 1957 tested a bomb using cobalt as a radiochemical tracer, but was considered a failure.[

The cobalt tamper would be transmuted into the isotope 60Co upon initiation and bombardment by neutron radiation. 60Co decays into an excited 60Ni by beta decay. The excited 60Ni then transition to a ground state 60Ni, releasing gamma radiation.

The idea of a cobalt bomb was originally describe by physicist Leó Szilárd, who suggested that an arsenal of cobalt bombs would be capable of destroying all human life on Earth (whether he was actually right is disputable). Cobalt was chosen because of the fallout, that would have a half-life of 5.27 years and would be intensely radioactive at the same time. While there exist isotopes with a longer half-life than 60Co, they are also insufficiently radioactive.[1] Many isotopes are more radioactive (gold-198, tantalum-182, zinc-65, sodium-24, and many more), but they would decay faster, possibly allowing some population to survive in shelters.

To provide a point of reference: to equally distribute 1 gram of cobalt per square kilometer of Earths surface one needs 510 tonnes.

Yugo class submarine

                           The Yugo class submarine is a class of four midget submarines used primarily for infiltration and espionage by North Korea. The class is so named because it was build to plans supplied to North Korea by Yugoslavia in 1965. In fact this class submarine is a family of midget submarines for that not all are identical. The displacement is either the standard 90 tons of the original Yugoslavian design for the early units, or 110 tons for the later units, while armament is either a pair of 400 mm torpedo tubes (early units) or a pair of 21 in short torpedo tubes (later units), however, all units have the same range: 550 nautical miles (1,020 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h) on the surface and 50 nautical miles (93 km) at 4 knots (7.4 km/h) submerged. Their final example was built in the 1980s, after which they were superseded by the Sang-O class submersibles. In 1998 one out of the 6 submarines was captured by the South Koreans. In July 2007, 4 were given to Iran to pay back some of North Korea's debts to Iran; the last one was retired but kept by the North Koreans.

Sang-O class submarine

                 The Sang-O class submarines are in use by North Korea, and are the country's largest home-built submarines. A single unit was captured by the Republic of Korea Navy after it ran aground on 18 September 1996 in the 1996 Gangneung submarine infiltration incident. The class is based on the Yugoslavian  Heroj class submarines, albeit much stripped down, with vintage radar and sonar systems.

Whiskey class submarine Info

Whiskey-class submarines (known in the Soviet Union as Project 613, 644, and 665) are a class of naval submarines that the Soviet Union built in the near the beginning Cold War period.

The initial design was developed in the early 1940s as a sea-going follow on to the S-class submarine. As a result of war experience and the capture of German technology at the end of the war, the Soviets issue a new plan requirement in 1946. 

The revised design was influenced by the German Type XXI submarine and was developed by the Lazurit propose Bureau based in Gorkiy.

Walrus class submarine Info

 The Walrus-class submarine is the only submarine class at this time in operation in the Royal Netherlands Navy. They have been in use since 1990 and are all named after sea mammals.

The Walrus-class submarines are strange in that instead of a cross-shaped assembly of stern diving planes and rudders, they mount four combined rudders and diving planes in an "X" configuration. This tail configuration was first tested in 1960 on the United States Navy's USS Albacore (AGSS-569), but has since been used only by the Walrus class, all Swedish Navy submarines since the Sjöormen class, the Royal Australian Navy's Collins class and the German Type 212A.

The submarines were in high command by NATO during the Cold War since they combined a highly skilled crew with a very silent boat. At that time the majority of NATO submarines were either nuclear or Brown water subs. After the cold war, the subs have been tasked for many intelligence gathering operations (still classified) in the Yugoslavian region, Iraq and Caribbean.

In 2007, the cabinet approved an upgrade of the four operational subs and recruitment of additional crew to improve overall operational availability. The upgrades are focused on near-shore operations and integration with new weapons. It will include the US migration from the current MK 48 mod-4 torpedo to the mod-7 version.

In June 2010, Netherlands agreed to deploy one submarine to help combat piracy in the waters off Somalia. Possible missions could include, signals intelligence; going close to shore and intercepting pirates' radio signals, and the tracking of Pirate Vessels.

Zwaardvis class submarine Information

                 The Zwaardvis class submarine is a conservative assault submarine that replaced the Dolfijn class in the Royal Netherlands Navy. Zwaardvis is based on the U.S. Navy Barbel class with the teardrop hull design. In September 1981 the state of China (Taiwan) ordered two modified Zwaardvis class submarines, the Chien Lung/Hai Lung class. In 1992 a replicate order for another 4 boats was turned down by the Netherlands Government because of pressure from the People's Republic of China. The two Dutch boats have been replaced by the Walrus class.

The two decommissioned Dutch boats, Zwaardvis and Tijgerhaai, were weighed down on a ship and transported to PSC-Naval Dockyard, Lumut, Malaysia in expectation of purchase by the Malaysian Navy in 1997. However, the Malaysian Navy declined the offer and chose the French Scorpène class instead. The two boats are still in Lumut awaiting a buyer and potential refurbishment.

T-AK - LASH Type Cargo Ships

                    The lighterage on board ships are assigned to Military Sealift Command's Prepositioning Program. SS Green Valley, SS Green Harbour, SS Austral Rainbow and MV Jeb Stuart are all stationed out of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

The LASH ships are capable to transport both barges and containers. All four ships are self-sustaining, meaning they are capable of unloading themselves in areas without developed harbor infrastructure.

The Green Valley was chartered by MSC in 1992. Central Gulf Lines owns and operates the Green Valley. The Austral Rainbow and Green Harbour are also owned and operated by Central Gulf Lines. The Austral Rainbow was first acquired by MSC in 1987 and has had severed successive charters with MSC. The Green Harbour was acquired in 1985. The Jeb Stuart is owned and operated by Waterman Steamship Company under contract to MSC. The Jeb Stuart was chartered in 1992.