Fiddler & Arrow.

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From a comment to the blog by Steiner:

"steiner said... Interesting how the Fiddler mirrors the spec of the Canadian Avro Arrow, which would have been in service at the same time had the Soviets managed to build a heavy bomber with 'over-the-pole' capability."

The Soviet era Tu-28 and the Canadian CF-105 Avro Arrow are indeed instances of parallel development?

Combat aircraft, Soviet and Canadian both having very similar, very analogous missions!

Warplanes best thought of as INTERCEPTORS! NOT multi-role-combat-aircraft [MRCA] or fighter planes able to "dogfight". Tu-28 and the Arrow STRICTLY interceptors with a limited mission the characteristics and operational requirements of resulted in parallel development!

Interceptor aircraft able to:

* Get very high very fast!
* Engage an approaching enemy intruder aircraft with MISSILES only!

1. "The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was a delta-winged interceptor aircraft, designed and built by Avro Aircraft Limited (Canada) . . . Considered to be both an advanced technical and aerodynamic achievement for the Canadian aviation industry . . . was intended to serve as the Royal Canadian Air Force's (RCAF) primary interceptor in the 1960s and beyond."

2. "The Tupolev Tu-28 (NATO reporting name Fiddler) was a long-range interceptor aircraft introduced by the Soviet Union in the 1960s. The official designation was Tu-128, but this designation was less commonly used in the West. It was the largest and heaviest fighter ever in service."

"The PVO requirement called for a supersonic aircraft with enormous fuel tanks for both a good patrol time and a long range, a capable radar, and the most powerful air-to-air missiles possible."

According to Suvorov from "Inside the Soviet Army" the Fiddler:

"is designed to attack enemy aircraft attempting to penetrate Soviet air space across the endless wastes of the Arctic or the deserts of Central Asia."

From the various operational and performance characteristics as listed for the Arrow and Fiddler we find:

Arrow: "Combat radius: 360 NM (410 mi, 660 km)"

Fiddler: "Range: 2,565 km when armed (1,595 mi)"

Range not the same as combat radius. "Combat radius refers to the distance from an airbase that a warplane can reach, patrol there for a set amount of time and return to base with minimal fuel left". Fiddler was able to take off at one airbase, complete the mission - - and land at another airbase? Range of Fiddler was ABOUT twice that of Arrow?

In particular - - Fiddler - - an interceptor aircraft, a warplane as carried in the inventory of the Soviet Air Defense and NOT Soviet Air Force. And that distinction must be made clear. The former, Soviet Air Defense, referred to as the PVO Strany!

And both warplanes if an when deployed and operational for combat, operating in what would have undoubtedly have been a nuclear environment, the Cold War turned hot and big time. Manned high-flying long-range bomber aircraft of the Soviet Union and the United States, intruder aircraft confronted and shot down by interceptors of the types Fiddler and Arrow.

Fiddler and Arrow a specific response to specific requirements the role of which is now filled by MRCA almost across the board!

coolbert.

Nay Pyi Taw.

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Here from the latest edition of the National Geographic a description of the Burmese capital city, Nay Pyi Taw. A city built out of the wilderness [?], the ruling junta in Burma deathly afraid of an amphibious attack up the Irrawaddy River, an emulation of Operation Dracula in World War Two [WW2]. The junta members having consulted the astrologers as to the timing of such an attack [an attack existing only in their only minds] and the recourse [the construction of a new capital city away from the ocean, far inland!].

"junta - - noun - - 1. a small group ruling a country, especially immediatey after a coup d'etat and before a legally constituted government has been instituted." [a junta quite often is a group of military men!]

According to the Geographic, among other things you find at Nay Pyi Taw are:

* "an unsettling void: smooth ten-lane roads with manicured roundabouts but scarcely any vehicles."

* "clusters of color-coded government housing complexes with no children in sight"

* "a copy of Yangon's [Rangoon] Shwedagon Pagoda with not a single Buddhist monk chanting prayers"

Furthermore:

"The new capital may feel soulless, but for rulers distrustful of their own people, it could a masterpiece of defensive urban planning. Worried about an imminent attack in Yangon [that amphibious attack up the Irrawaddy river], Than Shwe [the junta boss of bosses] poured several billion dollars into building the city on scrub land in central Myanmar [Burma], safe from killer storms [cyclone Nargis], foreign invasion [that emulation of Dracula], and domestic protests."

"The military zone is a bubble within a bubble, forbidden to all but top officers - - and reportedly honeycombed with underground bunkers."

That despotic and authoritarian ruling Burmese junta has been in charge now for over fifty years!! With no end in sight! A nation almost reclusive in nature, in the model of North Korea, NOT having the cult of personality but rather a number of senior military officers exploiting the natural resources of their own nation for crass reasons and NOW in cahoots with foreign powers [China most specifically]!

Please let us be clear about this! There was to be no foreign invasion, an amphibious attack up the Irrawaddy river in the manner of Dracula from WW2! It was all in the minds of the junta and the astrologers!

My own perceptions and intuition tell me too, that if such an foreign invasion did occur, that army of Than Shwe would disintegrate and be routed in the proverbial heartbeat. If and when such an invasion did occur, and the likelihood of that happening is next to zero!

Pity the plight of the Burmese people! Fifty years now of suffering without amelioration!

coolbert.

99 Balloons II.

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"You and I in a little toy shop buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got Set them free at the break of dawn 'Til one by one, they were gone Back at base, bugs in the software Flash the message, 'Something's out there' Floating in the summer sky 99 red balloons go by."

Conclusion.

Barrage Balloons.

From the the Internet article: "2.3] BARRAGE BALLOONS IN WORLD WAR II / OPERATION OUTWARD" - - the barrage balloon. An anachronism of warfare the likes of which we will NEVER see again?

"A barrage balloon is a large balloon tethered with metal cables, used to defend against low-level aircraft attack by damaging the aircraft on collision with the cables, or at least making the attacker's approach more difficult."

An array of tethered balloons, metal cables holding the balloons fast, creating a maze, a "spiders-web" in the sky!

An OBSTACLE in sky, analogous to a minefield? An OBSTACLE, as with all obstacles as found in warfare, NOT a strict and total impediment to movement [air flight], but a barrier, an impediment that causes your enemy to slow down, deploy, take casualties! AND guarded or monitored as well - -  those approaching [those on the offensive] the OBSTACLE having their movements conform to the wishes of the defender!

"Balloons were intended to defend against dive bombers flying at heights up to 5,000 feet (1,500 m), forcing them to fly higher and into the range of concentrated anti-aircraft fire"

Indeed, the barrage balloon, a mass of them intended to make an entire formation of attacking bomber aircraft [dive or level bomber] fly higher, low-level precision bombardment from the sky being negated. Attempting to fly THROUGH one of these "assemblages" most difficult and dangerous. You might have your wing sheared off or damaged by striking on of those metal cables tethering the balloon!

Explosive charges as attached to the cables in addition posing yet another significant hazard to the combat aviator. NOT just analogous to a minefield in the sky but AN ACTUAL MINEFIELD IN THE SKY!

"Some versions carried small explosive charges that would be pulled up against the aircraft to ensure its destruction"

Strike on of those cables with your aircraft and you set off an explosive device and you are blown to smithereens in the process!!

Any attempt to "force a passage" of the balloon assemblage also most deadly AND COST PROHIBITIVE! Quite often those balloons assiduously guarded by batteries of AAA [anti-aircraft-artillery], the balloons as a defensive weapon very effective when compared to the loss of a combat aircraft [bomber] and crew!

["forcing a passage" by the use of cable cutters. That massed formation of AAA below having targets of an irresistible nature presented to them, almost in a manner seldom seen!!]

"The balloons were credited with a number of 'kills' during the Battle of Britain, though as in World War I their main purpose was to simply present a hazard to aircraft attempting to perform precision low-level attacks . . . the balloons, as was generally the case, were associated with anti-aircraft gun batteries . . . it was far less expensive for the British to replace balloons than it was for the Germans to replace aircraft and pilots."

Barrage balloons the use of now a passe' and outmoded form or warfare we will NEVER see again! At the time effective but NOT NOW!

coolbert.

99 Balloons I.

This is coolbert:

"You and I in a little toy shop buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got Set them free at the break of dawn 'Til one by one, they were gone Back at base, bugs in the software Flash the message, 'Something's out there' Floating in the summer sky 99 red balloons go by."

SkyHookers!

I am reading from the web sites: "Reconnaissance Balloons (WS-119L / WS-461L)"  by Andreas Parsch and
"[3.0] Cold War Balloon Flights 1945:1965" - - details and statistics of the American balloon reconnaissance missions over the Soviet Union and it all makes for very sad and depressing reading. The VAST MAJORITY of these balloon missions were just abject failures, abysmally so, the results apparently gleaned as compared to the money, time, and effort suggesting that these various projects were almost a NO GO from the start.

1. "Between May and October that year [1955], more than a hundred WS-119L  balloons were launched under operation "Moby Dick Hi" (as usual, the Moby Dick name was used as cover). Although only 11 successful mid-air recoveries were made in 33 attempts  Grayback [Moby Dick Hi]." This was Grayback the classified missions.

2.  "[From] 10 January 1956, until 1 March. About 448 balloons had been launched, with about 40 gondolas recovered. The balloons had returned some useful imagery, but their haphazard flight paths made the 'catch' a matter of sheer luck." This was Genetrix the classified missions.

3. "Between 10 January and 6 February [1956], a total of 448 balloons were launched, and resulted in 44 successful camera gondola recoveries. Of the about 380 balloons, which actually reached Soviet airspace, more than 300 were either shot down or came down prematurely because of malfunctions or ballast depletion. The balance of the unsuccessful balloons reached the recovery zones, but couldn't be retrieved for various reasons." This too was Genetrix the same classified missions.

4. "The Genetrix photos covered only a small part (8%) of the Soviet and Chinese land mass. Because of the balloons' drift pattern, particularly interesting areas in high latitudes were not covered at all." More Genetrix.

5. "Three MELTING POT balloons were launched in July 1958 . . . Due to various bungles, all three dropped their gondolas when over Communist territory." Melting Pot the last three balloon missions, recce, 1959.

6. "In hindsight, the most useful results of the program was the development of the HYAC-1 high-resolution high-altitude camera system, which formed the technology base of the camera systems in the first U.S. photo reconnaissance satellites." Again from Melting Pot missions, THOSE GONDOLAS CARRIED ALOFT AND CAPTURED [?] BY THE SOVIETS HAVING THE MOST ADVANCED STATE-OF-THE-ART CAMERAS IN THEM, THE TOTAL LOT COMPROMISED TO THE SOVIETS, THAT EQUIPMENT AS ALSO USED IN THE FIRST OUTER SPACE RECCE SATELLITES [CORONA]!

There you have it. Less than ten percent of the gondolas with cameras and photographic images ever recovered, and the "take" less than spectacular, even so mundane to be more or less worthless.

And from what I read, it is not like these balloons were such crude objects that they no chance of success. Seem to have been more or less for the time state-of-the-art, especially with regard to the camera systems contained in the gondolas. Some pretty good thought had gone into the planning of these balloon missions, but for whatever combination of reasons, again, it was predominantly a NO GO!

You can always with hindsight suggest that a lot of experience was gained from these various balloon missions. Finding out what will NOT work is a step on the road to finding out what will work. Those cameras for instance and I would have to assume the industrialized method of processing the film was a big step forward in the field of photo recon? The balloons themselves we have to give pause to and consider also what alternatives were available. Still, those various stats do make for painful reading, the lack of success most jarring!

coolbert.

Shoot-down?

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From a previous blog entry my own comments:

"'Fiddler' and 'Mystic' did not come off the drawing boards until some time AFTER these balloon projects came to an end? There WERE NO shoot-downs as claimed because from 1956 onward there were NO balloons to shoot at?

NO MORE reconnaissance balloon flights over the Soviet Union in the aftermath of the U-2 reconnaissance "spy plane" successfully having flown many missions - - and the advent too of the various Corona outer space "spy" satellites. The reconnaissance balloon flights ended in 1959 [valid scientific CIVILIAN research flights did continue for sometime thereafter!], such a mechanism [balloon flights] to obtain valid high resolution photographs rendered null and void by that combination of high-flying aircraft and satellites?

Indeed - - the results of those balloon flights seems to have been quite meagre, scant, inconclusive, not even worth the time, energy, effort and money as put into the various recce projects. Continuing these overflights would not make sense as other means, much more effective, were available!

From this web site we find - - however - - an alternative view! Balloon flights it is claimed, according to Soviet sources - -  continued even unto the 1970's, so it is possible that "Fiddler" interceptors of the PVO did fly missions against intruding balloons with SHOOT-DOWNS!

"Cold War Balloon Flights 1945:1965"

* "As another footnote, Russian sources claim that balloon reconnaissance missions over the USSR continued into the 1970s and beyond. According to Russian records, 1975 was a particularly active year for balloon activities, with 16 recorded intrusions and 13 balloons shot down. These claims that are not supported by what has been released about the US balloon reconnaissance effort. The records of encounters between Soviet interceptor aircraft and balloons are detailed and specific, and there's no good reason to doubt they happened -- but what were the balloons doing over the Soviet Union?"

"It seems plausible that the Soviets were actually excitably chasing after weather and research balloons that had strayed into their airspace, though it is of course difficult to rule out the existence of another 'black' [black referring to secret and off-the-books projects - - hidden!] reconnaissance balloon program that hasn't been declassified yet. However, the puzzle then is what the mission might have been, since by the 1970s space reconnaissance was well-developed and the 1950s balloon reconnaissance effort had been an embarrassing bust; if the balloons were part of a reconnaissance program, it must have been a specialized one. Who knows? Maybe it was an effort to test Soviet air defenses, and the balloons were supposed to be shot down."

Personally I would not preclude the possibility of nations OTHER THAN THE U.S. launching balloon missions over the Soviet Union! Constituent members of NATO or the French perhaps desiring their own autonomous intelligence gathering high-altitude - - high-resolution photographic capability!

"Fiddler" and even "Mystic" were active [?] in the effort to combat balloon overflights, the latter aircraft having a GUN as the means to attack the balloons, a type of aerial combat as not seen since the Great War!

coolbert.

Sherman II.

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Sherman - - "stripped"!

Conclusion.

The army of General William T. Sherman, during the monumental "March to the Sea", 1864, "stripped" to the bare minimum of impedimenta. An army expected to maintain a relentless pace, obstacles to be overcome without issue - - troops at all ranks being "loaded" to the "bare" essentials, and most necessarily so. NOT MERELY individual troops "stripped" but an ENTIRE ARMY "stripped". [thanks again to the article from the magazine "Sherman Modern Warrior" by Captain B.H. Liddell Hart "CIVIL WAR Chronicles"] Measures taken to eliminate unnecessary impedimenta to include:

* "Each division and brigade was allocated only enough wagons to carry food and ammunition."

[an army of that period numbering 100,000 men required  2,500 wagon loads of supplies PER DAY during operations!!]

* "Every man brought five days rations on his person or horse."

* "Only one wagon and on ambulance was allowed to reach regiment."

* "a pack mule for the mess kit and baggage of the officers of each company."

* "Tents were forbidden, except for the sick and wounded and one for headquarters as an office."

[that all-wool uniform came in handy when troops had to sleep in the open, during the summer even!]

* "Clerical work in the field was reduced to a minimum."

Sherman too comporting to the same rules that he expected from his troops. Live "rough", without convenience or privilege as might have been normally been found for an officer of such senior rank. Sherman made the same demands upon himself as he did for his various soldiers. Set the example and do not expect others to do what you would not demand of yourself.

"Sherman's own habit of living 'rought 'made his troops more ready to follow his example, while his lack of regard for outward appearance and the trapping of dignity strongly appealed to such pioneer types . . . At night he would often be seen prowling around the camp with his feet in old slippers, his legs covered only by a pair of red flannel drawers, his tall , spare body wrapped in a travel-worn dressing gown, with sometime a short blue cape or cloak over all as a concession to convention."

The "March to the Sea" controversial to this day. Thought in some quarters to be brutal, harsh, unremitting warfare without parallel, scorched earth and destruction on a wide-scale, even violence gratuitous in nature. That is all debatable, but nonetheless, the tactics, means and methods and operational art as practiced by Sherman admirable in the extreme!!

coolbert.

Sherman I.

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W.T. Sherman - - INSANE!

That most controversial soldier and significant general officer of the American Civil War, William Tecumseh Sherman, his detractors often citing mental derangement and insanity as being a malady afflicting the man. NOT a condition suitable under any circumstances for a senior military commander, obviously and intuitively so!! An image perpetuated by the press and repeated throughout history as a glaring mental and character flaw, "Uncle Billy" a man not worthy of command at any level!

From the article: "Sherman Modern Warrior" by Captain B.H. Liddell Hart also as printed in the magazine: "CIVIL WAR Chronicles"

 "Gen. William T. Sherman Insane."

"The painful intelligence reaches us in such form that we are not at liberty to discredit it, that Gen. W.T. Sherman, later commander of the Department of the Cumberland is insane. It appears that he was at times when commanding in Kentucky, stark mad. We learn that he at one time telegraphed to the War department three times in one day permission to evacuate Kentucky, and retreat into Indiana. he also, on several occasions, frightened the leading Union men of Louisville almost out of their wits, by the most astounding representations of the overwhelming force of BUCKNER, and the assertion that Louisville could not be defended. The retreat from Cumberland Gap was one of his mad freaks. when relieved of the command in Kentucky, he was sent to Missouri and placed at the head of a brigade at Sedalia, whee the shocking fact that he was a madman, was developed, by orders that his subordinates knew to be preposterous and refused to obey." As printed in the Cincinnati Commercial December 11, 1861 - - thanks to the American Heritage magazine "CIVIL WAR Chronicles"

Sherman a strong-willed man and commander who had many [?] detractors and enemies, some in high places?

Sherman, as described being "insane" in the figurative sense of the word, NOT literal. Thanks to the very poorly chosen  words of the Secretary of War, Sherman having an image created that HAD NO REAL BASIS!

"He also had a clash with Secretary of War Simon Cameron, who came to Louisville on a short visit. Sherman, pointing out that he had only 20,000 men to cover a frontage of 300 miles, argued that at least 60,000 were needed for the immediate purpose . . . But the Secretary of War described it as an 'insane' demand and this careless phrase was exploited by Sherman's political and press critics, who now depicted him as a lunatic."

There you have it. The context being most important. The soldier Sherman giving his professional opinion to his superior - - the latter of whom responding with terms, a "careless phrase" that caused a lot of grief for W.T. both at the time and for what has seemed to be time immemorial!

NOW you know the full story and are the better for it.

coolbert.