Archive for July, 2003

According to Strategy Page (sorry, no permalinks on SP) the XM29 OIWC rifle program is on hold and in danger of being scrapped. It combined a 5.56mm assault rifle with a 20mm “smart grenade” launcher. Did you ever see Aliens? Pretty much like those rifles. Anyway, it was too heavy, and getting the weight down made it too fragile.

However, the replacement is the XM8. According to Strategy Page

The M-8 is a modular weapon, taking three different barrels for different functions. Most M-8s would look similar to the current M-4, with a shorter barrel than the M-16. There would be a longer barrel for sharpshooters and snipers (longer than the M-16 barrel) and a heavy barrel, of about the same length as the M-16, for the M-8 when used as a light machine-gun. There would also be a “commando” version with an even shorter barrel and no butt stock, for use in tight spaces, and for armored vehicle crews.

If you recall, many US troops wished for a main weapon shorter and more wieldy in urban areas than the M16, but at the same time no one wants to be stuck with only a short-ranged carbine. The M8 could address this by fitting both bill, depending on the expected mission. A 40mm grenade launcher can be added to the M8, but this would eventually be replaced by the M25 25mm “smart grenade” launcher.

The M8 should be available by the end of this year.

You may have noticed that the WaPo Iraq headlines are gone. They finally started working as advertised, but the advertisment didn’t say they completely sucked. Gone.

I’ve replaced them with a Department of Homeland Defense threat level indicator (in case you’re wondering when to purchase cases of duct tape) and some headlines from SpaceDaily. Use the comments of this post to let me know what you think. If you think, that is.

US backs down on claim Saddam’s bodyguard caught
Now it appears that Saddam’s bodyguard, captured today, may not actually be Saddam’s bodyguard. But there is this:

The suspected regime loyalists included a possible brigadier general, Major Troy Smith of the Fourth Infantry Division (4ID) said, which is scouring Saddam’s old hunting grounds for holdouts of the defeated Baath party.

That may mean that we aren’t as close to the Big ‘S’ as we hoped, but a brigadier general? If that’s the bad news, I’ll be just fine.

U.S. Troops Nab Senior Saddam Bodyguard
One by one we continue to take bad guys off the street. Gun by gun and bomb by bomb we continue to disarm those that remain. This is a slow process, but we are making headway. Think back to Afghanistan in the months after the fall of the Taliban. Attacks against US troops were a daily occurrence. But we kept the pressure on, and although the media went on and on about Vietnam blah blah blah, the attacks tapered off. Maybe things could be going better in Iraq, but not by much, if you ask me.

In Iraqi city, a new battle plan
Here’s an example of how our troops and the Iraqis are coming together, even in the city where fifteen demonstrators were killed by US troops in April. US 3ID officers met with local sheiks and clerics.

The sheiks and clerics wanted the brigade commander to pull his troops out of the city. That request was immediately rejected. But instead of storming out, the sheiks made a series of alternative demands. They asked that tanks not be driven through residential neighborhoods at night. They beseeched soldiers not to frisk women or clerics. And they insisted that searches of cars and homes be conducted without a presumption of guilt that led to soldiers knocking down doors and dragging out occupants in handcuffs.
The officers agreed to most of the demands. But Capt. John Ives, a military intelligence officer who became the key interlocutor between the local leadership and the brigade commanders, said they warned the sheiks that the moment a woman or a cleric pulled a gun on soldiers, or the occupants of a house attempted to resist a search, “all bets would be off.”

We won the battle. We are winning the peace. And things like this will win hearts and minds.

And those demonstrations where Iraqi civilians were killed on April 28th?

Many residents believed that the demonstrators were unarmed, although local leaders concede that a handful of Hussein loyalists who had infiltrated the demonstration might have shot at the soldiers.

I heard the military saying that at the time, but all the news people just rolled their eyes.

Just happened across this. Although not specified, I suspect that it may be a joke.

I’ve been having trouble with the images in the new Blog*Spot version of MO. I had been hoping to store all my images in my personal photo space, 760MB of it, that came with my new SBCYahoo! DSL account and pull them into MO. After painstakingly uploading every image and then editing each post to link to the new location’s URL, I discovered that the URLs seem to change after a while. I confirmed this with SBCYahoo! tech support.

That means that Murdoc Online is going to be image free for the time being. That applies to all old posts as well as new ones. I’ll link to images if it seems appropriate. I’m considering upgrading my Blog*Spot account to include image hosting, and I’m also exploring other alternatives. Thanks for your patience.

InfoWorld: Napster 2.0 cued up for holiday relaunch: Napster is rising from the dead.

At launch, the new Napster will boast access to up to 500,000 tracks through individual download, [and] monthly subscription of Internet radio…

Wasn’t the real fun of Napster that it was FREE? (I don’t really know…I never checked it out.) We’ll see.

NASA ‘SCRAMJET’ READY TO FLY AGAIN: The X-43A scramjet is almost ready to fly again.

Scramjets compress air as it moves through the engine at supersonic speeds — without the need for moving parts. Traditional aircraft use fan blades to compress air, which is subsequently used for combustion in a chamber. Theoretically, scramjet technology could replace rockets as a propulsion system to space.
If everything had gone as planned two years ago, the X-43A would have broken a speed record for an airplane by flying at Mach 7 — seven times the speed of sound, which is more than 5,000 mph at sea level. That’s far faster that any air-breathing craft has flown.

Last week NASA released info on the failed first test flight of the X-43A. Apparently the booster rocket that was to shoot the test vehicle to 95,000 feet for the test wasn’t able to cope with the low altitude of the launch from a B-52. Sheesh.

Scramjets are a “way out there” technology that could some day change the way people and things get to low earth orbit. I don’t have any problems with researching them, because our current methods of getting people and things to low earth orbit is far too complex and expensive. Even when they aren’t grounded.

Sample sounds has recorded samples of many different weapons, West, East, and in between. Tip to Hell In A Handbasket.

Sex Pistols to bring anarchy to USA
The Sex Pistols want to play Baghdad.

[Front man "Johnny Rotten"] Lydon says he is indeed serious when asked about published reports that the Pistols want to play Baghdad.
“We’re very, very interested in playing Baghdad, and we’re meeting all kinds of denials and red tape,” Lydon says. “I’m slowly cutting my way through it.”
He adds: “If you want to give them democracy, do it properly. Give them the Sex Pistols. Wake up, America.”

Am I the only one who thinks this is a bad idea? Is this how we win hearts and minds? Trials for war crimes seem more likely.