Category Archives: Military/War

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Japan and China Naval Confrontation

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When I first began posting  earlier this year about the naval rivalry in East Asia, I judged that the “cold war” stand-off would continue indefinitely.  All countries in the region, especially China, have too much to lose if the dispute should ever turn hot.  Peace is much better than war for an economy.  But recent events centering on the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands have me worried that the already tense situation could spiral out of control if the feuding nations do not step back from the brink.  All parties involved should read Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August.   The danger of a catastrophic miscalculation is too great.  Read about the latest flare-up here.

Additionally, James R. Holmes, flat-out the best naval writer on the web, has written a great analysis of the possible match-up of Japan and China in a naval war.

Marc De Santis

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Blood Like Wine – Now 100% Free For A Limited Time Only

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I have set up my Kindle fantasy novel, Blood Like Wine, as part of a five-day-long free promotion over at Amazon.  You can click on the cover of the novel to the right and it will take you there immediately.  My inspiration for the Kindle novel was Tolkien, my favorite author since I was ten.  I have also put a great deal of effort into getting the battles right.  I am a student of ancient warfare, and I have modeled the combat on real battles, sorcery not included.  The novel is set in a fantasy version of the Roman Empire.  It is not called the Roman Empire, of course, but it is very much like it, just as Tolkien made Middle-earth a fantasy version of early Medieval Europe, but did not call it that.

Download it now, while the price is right!  It will make a great holiday stocking stuffer too!

Marc De Santis

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Japan-South Korea Maritime Rivalry

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Long-time readers of this site will recall a number of posts concerning China’s maritime rivalries with other Asian nations over territorial rights in the East and South China Seas.   As I noted in the post, Asia’s Mediterranean, the waters of “coastal” East Asia resemble the Mediterranean Sea of ancient and medieval times in the sheer multiplicity of contending states with overlapping claims.

There are rivalries that exist quite apart from China’s own ambitions.  Japan and South Korea – both U.S. allies – also have a dispute over the Takeshima, or Dokdo Islands.  You can brush up on the dispute, which has just been inflamed by the visit of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to the islands, here.

 

Marc De Santis

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U.S. Army Dirigible

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You will enjoy this short video of the U.S. Army’s new surveillance dirigible – the LEMV.

Airships have a certain romance to them.   To paraphrase Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, airships hang there in the sky just the way that bricks don’t.

Jet aircraft are very expensive to operate per hour of flight time.  Airships are less expensive.  Unfortunately, I was not able to determine just how much less expensive they are, but when I find out, that information will make its way into a future post.  As I mentioned in a previous post, an F/A-18 costs about $20,000 an hour to fly.

Marc De Santis

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F/A-18s at War

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Read this illuminating article about American airpower over Afghanistan.  Don’t forget to watch the extraordinary three-and-a-half minute video either.   It is remarkable from start to finish.  The piece makes some good points about the recession of airpower in the theater as U.S. forces draw down.  Airpower is much like oxygen.  You don’t notice it much until its gone.

Another point to bear in mind – one hour’s operation of a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet fighter can cost as much as $20,000.00.  Very roughly, that is equivalent to dumping a Honda Civic into the ocean for every hour of flight time.

Marc De Santis

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Cradle of Aviation

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I recently visited the fabulous Cradle of Aviation Air & Space Museum in Garden City, New York.  Apart from being a top notch aircraft museum, the Cradle places a strong emphasis on showcasing Long Island’s rich aviation history.   Here are photographs of a few of my favorite exhibits:

 

Here is a glorious Grumman F11 Tiger in Blue Angels livery.

 

This is a Grumman F9F Cougar with swept wings.  The incorporation of wartime German aerospace research allowed post-war American engineers to place redesigned wings on the originally straight-winged Cougar.

 

The 70 mm Hasselblad camera was used by Apollo astronauts to take pictures on the moon.

 

A Republic F84 Thunderjet.  It was no match for the MiG-15 in combat over Korea, but it performed well as a fighter-bomber.  Note the straight wings.  Swept wings were just becoming standard on new jet fighters at this time.

Marc De Santis

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Asia’s Mediterranean

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The South and East China Seas are looking more and more like Asia’s version of the Mediterranean, with all of the same problems that have plagued the Middle Sea for centuries.  Multiple hostile states vying for control.  Just as the Mediterranean has been a theater of conflict going back to time of the Mycenaeans, the South and East China Seas are now arenas of tension for numerous Asian nations struggling for resource rights amid competing historical territorial claims.   Take a look at this article about the ongoing problems in Asian waters.

China is establishing a new garrison on Yongxing Island.  This is meant to help solidify Chinese claims to the Spratly, Paracel, and Macclesfield Bank Islands.

Further north, there is a potential feud brewing between China and Japan over Okinawa.

To help us understand China’s motivation, here is another great piece by Jim Holmes of the U.S. Naval War College.

Tensions exist even between China and India in the theater.

Marc De Santis

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Warbirds Forever!

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Here are some photographs of Second Word War-era warbirds at the American Airpower Museum in Famingdale, New York.

This is a Grumman TBF Avenger, a torpedo bomber used to great effect in the Pacific Theater.  Its wings could fold to save space on an aircraft carrier.

 

This is a North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber.  It was made famous for its role in the 1942 Doolittle Raid on Japan – Thirty Seconds over Tokyo.  This particular machine was General Hap Arnold’s personal airplane.

 

This is a Douglas C-47 Dakota.  It is the military transport version of the legendary DC-3 airliner.  It is painted with D-Day invasion stripes, and looks as it would have when it carried American paratroopers to jump into Normandy in June 1944.

All three photographs were taken with a Nikon D3100.

Marc De Santis

 

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Everything Old is New Again

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The U.S. Navy has deployed a converted transport ship, the Ponce, into a floating forward base for helicopters and special operations troops.  The critical changes were the addition of a flight deck and a modular barracks.  Here is The New York Times article.  This reminds me of the escort carriers built during WWII.  They typically used merchant ship hulls and were very cost-effective as convoy protectors.

Marc De Santis