US Military Catches up on IED+French Anti-Tank Missile+CN Satellite Launchers

choi

(1) How the IED Changed the US Military; Makeshift bombs caused death and agony--and triggered changes in gear. USA Today, Dec 20, 2013 (Under the heading"10 Years of LED").
www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... mputations/3803017/

Quote:

(a) "When one of the first Americans serving in Iraq, 25-year-old Pfc Jeremiah Smith, 25, of Odessa, Mo, died in an explosion under his vehicle in May 26, 2003, six weeks after the US invasion ended, the military wasn't even sure what to call the thing that killed him.

"The Defense Department inadvertently applied an oxymoron, saying he was 'hit by unexploded ordnance.' Officials couldn't possibly know at the time that this weapon — what would come to be called in military parlance an improvised explosive device, a term now in common usage by those in and out of uniform — would be the most destructive of two wars.

(b) "SURVIVING A BLAST

"They call it 'going boom.' The first time for Spec Leif Skoog, 23, a roofer back in Phoenix, was Oct 3. He and Crane were in an RG-31 that was pushing an 8,000-pound roller in front of the vehicle, a device designed to detonate anything buried before the truck passes over it.

"That's exactly what happened. The roller was destroyed, but the RG-31 survived. For those inside, there was the shock of the explosion, painful ear pressure, air made black with billowing dirt and dust, and a chemical smell that burned the nostrils.

"Skoog, closer to the blast in the driver's seat, was stunned and disoriented. "It's not a physical wound," he recalls. "It's more like something doesn't feel right."

(c) "And bomb-defeating technology on board has reached a crescendo.

"The trucks are wrapped in netting that can deflect rocket-propelled grenades. Inside, soldiers wearing helmets, body armor, protective goggles and fortified underwear sit on shock-absorbing seats and track potential IED hot spots on computer screens.

"From inside their armored vehicles, they can remotely inspect and probe suspicious ground with long metal arms. They can deploy robots big and small. They have electronic jammers, ground-penetrating radar and giant IED-uncovering rakes.


My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the rest.
(b) The pribt version has a graphic that the online version does not have. The graphic helps a reader know what improvements have been made on the armored pesonnel carriers, but it (graphic) is not crucial.
(c) RG-31 Nyala
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RG-31_Nyala
(manufactured in South Africa by Land Systems OMC, a division of BAE Systems)

choi

(2) Armor: French ATGMs Catch Up. Strategy Page, Dec 18, 2013
strategypage.com/htmw/htarm/articles/20131218.aspx
("European defense firm MBDA has finally developed an ATGM (anti-tank guided missile), MMP (Missile Moyenne Portee) to replace their much older Milan. MMP is a 15 kg (33 pound) missile/container that is used with an 11 kg (24.5 pound) firing unit. MMP can be fired in confined spaces and is ready for action instantly (other ATGMs require up to 30 seconds for the guidance system to be ready). MMP is fire and forget, as are most of its competitors and has a range of 4,000 meters. Developed largely for the French, the French Army has ordered 400 MMP firing units and 2,850 missiles. Export orders are difficult to obtain because there are a lot of similar systems already out there. For example there’s the American Javelin, the Israeli Spike, the Swedish Bill 2 and the Russian Korenet-E. MMP has longer range and better electronics than the competition but this is not enough to be decisive")
  
Notea) There is no need to read the rest.(b) Missile Moyenne Portée medium range missile. MBDA, undated.www.mbda-systems.com/mediagaller ... heet-1371209713.pdf French-English dictionary:
(i) missile (noun masculine; from Latin missile “a weapon to be thrown, a javelin”): "missile"
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/missile
(ii) moyenne portée: "medium range"
(iii) moyen (masculine) / moyenne (feminine) (adj): "middle; average"
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/moyen
(iv) portée (noun feminine): "range"
www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/tr ... english/port%C3%A9e
(c) FGM-148 Javelin en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FGM-148_Javelin(In service 1996–present; anti-tank missile; The system takes a top-attack flight profile against armored vehicles (attacking the top armor, which is generally thinner); "The missile is ejected from the launcher so that it reaches a safe distance from the operator before the main rocket motors ignite; a 'soft launch arrangement'")

choi

(3) SPACE: The Orbital Empire Braces For The Chinese Takeover. Strategy Page, Dec 18, 2013
strategypage.com/htmw/htspace/articles/20131218.aspx

two consecutive paragraphs:

"China's main satellite launcher, the 'Long March' rocket, is based on Russian designs, meaning it is simple, cheap and reliable. This has made China a major player in the satellite launching business. China competes on price. The U.S. Space Shuttle was retired because it was the most expensive way get stuff into orbit. Satellites sent up via the Space Shuttle cost $25 million a ton. The Russians and Chinese will do it for $3-6 million a ton. But insurance can more than double that cost if there have been a number of recent failures with Russian and Chinese boosters. This keeps more reliable American and European boosters in business. The Long March has a failure rate of about six percent, which was a little higher than twice the rate for the most used Russian launcher. The Space Shuttle failure rate was two percent, as were most Western satellite launchers.

"The Chinese Long March can put 9.5 tons in low earth orbit and 5.5 tons in a high one (geostationary transfer orbit). The Chinese took their time to perfect Long March, requiring 28 years to make the first fifty launches, and nine years for the next fifty. So far, Long March has carried out some 164 launches so far.