Borkan-3.

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Yemen! Technology! Mercenaries! Al Qaeda!

As from Iranian PressTV and thanks to same:

"Yemeni armed forces unveil new generation of domestically-built Borkan missiles"

"Yemeni Armed Forces have unveiled a new generation of domestically-built Borkan (Volcano) long-range missiles, which could act as a game changer in the face of the Saudi-led military aggression against the Arab country."

Three items to take from this PressTV article:

1. Borkan-3 an Iranian version of an improved SCUD ballistic missile as being fire by Yemeni [?] forces against Saudi Arabian targets. Domestically built as in Yemeni more correctly stated as Iranian built in Yemen? Operated by Hezbollah and Iranian troops perhaps also.

2. Security Belt mercenaries from a variety of countries their numbers aided and abetted by large numbers of locals [Yemeni] presumably well paid for their efforts. Read further [with many additional links] concerning Security Belt  mercenaries.

Mercenaries from nations to include: "Australia, South Africa, Colombia, El Salvador, Chile and Panama"

3. Saudi Arabia in league with Al Qaeda? AQAP Sunni-oriented and in opposition to the Shia brand of Islam. The enemy of my enemy is my friend? And USA indirectly involved with AQAP as a consequence? War can make for strange and unexpected allies.

Yemen the civil war now characterized by the large-scale involvement of foreign interventionists. So much so the role of the foreign interventionists and the goals of same seemingly now more important that the domestic affairs of the Yemeni themselves.

coolbert.

Low-Yield.

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Russians cheating? And in a big way?

This is all much more clear now?

1. "U.S. Believes Russia Conducting Low-Level Nuclear Tests"

"Russian MP notes tests can't be carried out secretly"

"With no evidence to support the allegations, US DIA [Defense Intelligence Agency] officials are accusing Russia of potentially having the capability of violating the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Russia ratified this treaty in 2000, and the US has never done so."

2. "U.S. believes Russia conducting low-level nuclear tests: official"

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States believes Russia may be conducting low-level nuclear tests, a U.S. intelligence official on Wednesday, while the head of a body monitoring a global nuclear treaty said there was no sign of such violations by Moscow."

RUSSIANS SIGNATORIES TO THE NUCLEAR TEST BAN TREATY [USA NOT A SIGNATORY] VIOLATING THE TREATY WITH WHAT ARE CALLED "LOW-YIELD" DETONATIONS?

SO BELIEVED THE USA MILITARY INTELLIGENCE [DIA].

Repeated and unexplained high-levels of atmospheric radioactivity as might have been associated with a nuclear detonation observed by a whole host of sources.

See however within context of a previous blog entry a very reasonable explanation, those high-levels of atmospheric radioactivity not due to atomic explosion.

It is not so much reality that counts but the perception of reality that counts?

coolbert.

Gunpowder.

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After viewing the various embedded You Tube video the devoted reader to the blog will have to draw your own conclusions.

From the Strategy Page CIC article # 472 by Professor Al Nofi:

"Gunpowder Empires"

 "By the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century firearms were sufficiently advanced as to provide an overwhelming advantage when used against peoples who were entirely unfamiliar with them. This sparked the era of 'Gunpowder Empires.'”

OVERWHELMING ADVANTAGE!!

Gunpowder Empires as deemed to include: * The Spanish [Mexico] from 1519 AND * The Spanish [Peru] from 1526.

Firearms and gunpowder could not been a DECISIVE factor both with regard to Spanish conquest of both the Aztec and Incan Empires. Firearms [to include cannon and small arms as understood at the time both] too FEW in number and the RATE of FIRE too slow. Not a DECISIVE factor.

Thank Spanish victory rather to:

* Steel armor and steel edged weapons.
* Horses [used in a mass formation charge].
* Guile and ruthlessness.
* Lots and lots of allies.
* Disease.

I had always believed that the widespread use of gunpowder weaponry [cannon and what moderns call small-arms] was almost exclusively a phenomenon restricted to the European cultural domain. But this apparently is not so. Even Bert learns something all the time and is better for it too.

coolbert.

Plumbbob.

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A headline distressing to say the least. Shop of horrors.

"Man suing body donation company after mother's corpse was used for bomb testing"

BY CAITLIN O'KANE . . . CBS NEWS 

"An Arizona man is suing a body-donation company for selling his mother's body to the military for blast testing. Jim Stauffer believed his mother's body would be used for medical research. Instead, it was used to test bomb impact."

BODY AS DONATED TO SCIENCE FOR ALZHEIMER'S RESEARCH INSTEAD SOLD FOR $6,000 USD. CADAVER SUBSEQUENTLY BLOWN TO PIECES BY THE MILITARY.

Here from the era of the Cold War and above-ground nuclear testing a You Tube video showing pigs as subjected to atomic detonation. Pigs the ideal [?] animal to be studied for weapons injuries of all sorts. A pig the body size roughly that of a human. Internal anatomy of a pig greatly resembling that of a human.

I would like to assume the remains of those subjected to blasts humanely disposed with a degree of reverence. Fragments probably only remaining, a communal grave for most probably.

coolbert.

Underground.

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To war by robot! Underground!

Thanks to the tip from Freeper.

"What Lies Beneath: Inside DARPA’s Subterranean Challenge"

"DARPA’s Subterranean Challenge is trying to address those needs. It’s a multi-phase competition aimed at promoting robotics technologies that can traverse, navigate, map and search underground environments. It will feature three different circuits — tunnel, urban underground and cave — before culminating in the grand finale that combines elements of each."

The future is now! See this You Tube video a drone useful to map large cavernous areas. A large cave, a mine shaft, even a warehouse. Apparently autonomous with lots of high-tech. Science fiction in fruition. But only for again large cavernous areas with lots of flying space.

 See this previous blog entry, from the era of the Cold War, Soviet underground warfare technology.

coolbert.

Mayak.

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Finally! Culprit has been found! Rosatom! Gigantic!

From the Internet web site New Scientist and the article by Ruby Prosser Scully we have a description of mystery solved!

"Gigantic, mysterious radiation leak traced to facility in Russia"

"A nuclear fuel processing facility in Russia looks to have been been the source of the leak"

"The source of a gigantic, mysterious leak of radioactive material that swept across Europe in 2017 has been traced to a Russian nuclear facility, which appears to have been preparing materials for experiments in Italy."

"The leak released up to 100 times the amount of radiation into the atmosphere that the Fukushima disaster did. Italian scientists were the first to raise the alarm on 2 October, when they noticed a burst of the radioactive ruthenium-106 in the atmosphere. This was quickly corroborated by other monitoring laboratories across Europe."

"Mysterious" leaks of radioactive material into the atmosphere hardly a novel occurrence. A number of such instances recently have been observed the source of which was never determined.

See previous blog entries [with additional links] as germane:

https://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2017/10/radioactive.html

https://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2017/11/ru-106.html

https://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2018/01/spike.html

https://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2018/02/u-235.html

More to follow on this subject. 

 coolbert.

Flail.

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Military robot stuff! Mr. Robot the mine clearing robot with flail!

Thanks to the Internet web site National Defense and the article by Stew Magnuson

"Mini-Flail Robot Designed to Destroy Roadside Bombs"

"Demining vehicles that use flails to churn the earth and destroy anti-personnel mines date back to World War II."

"The Protector mini-flail manufactured by HDT Robotics can be operated up to 1,300 feet away and is intended to destroy small mines and improvised explosive devices."

A Protector in action. Protector can also serve as a robotic "mule". Earth in front of the machine churned up the machine move forward. Protector is "protected" from explosion of an anti-personnel mine but not able to survived the detonation of an anti-tank mine?

Here from the era of World War Two [WW2] a Scorpion flail mine clearing machine. A tank modified with flails in front to detonate mines and clear a path for ground troops.

How effective this flail device was in clearing mines I am not sure. 

Understand full well devices such as the Protector flail apparatus never a 100 % complete solution to the mine clearing problem.

In war sometimes the old ways are the best ways? Better than nothing? 

 coolbert.