French FRES Flop Forecast

February 17, 2008 in Europe, MOD, special relationships, stupid procurement

Continuing our Weekend of Defence Procurement, we’ve bashed the FRES vehicle program enough in the past. Costed at £14bn, meant to deliver a C-130 portable, RPG-tough, wheeled vehicle capable of carrying something equivalent to a tank main gun and providing reconnaissance, big gun, infantry, and utility variants, it’s so far failed to deliver anything at [...]

UOR: Unimaginably Orphul Reid

February 17, 2008 in Afghanistan, John Reid, MOD, stupid procurement

John Reid. Thank God we managed to avoid the nightmare; Prime Minister Reid. That really worried me in 2006-2007; Chris Lightfoot and I were planning to start a dedicated anti-Reid website at one point.
Anyway, Reid has been personally fingered by the coroner’s inquest into the death of RHA Captain James Philippson, as the Grauniad reports. [...]

Rosyth RUSI Rant

February 17, 2008 in MOD, NATO, naval, press, special relationships, strategy, stupid procurement

I promised more serious content; here goes.
Right, everyone is vexed about the RUSI report (PDF download) that was recently published under the names of Gwyn Prins (a minor hero of this blog’s, for his The Heart of War: Power, Conflict, and Obligation in the 21st Century) and the Marquess of Salisbury (no less, who hasn’t [...]

James Graham Badly Needs to Wind his Neck In

February 16, 2008 in LibDems, fisking, mastur/metablogging, politics

OK, so it’s frankly hilarious that a RESPECT councillor and Socialist Workers Party member has defected to the Tories. But describing him as a “socialist jihadist conservative” is offensive, stupid, illiberal and anti-democratic, not to mention libellous.
For a start, it assumes facts not in evidence. Mr Hussain is not, to the best of my knowledge, [...]

Back from 3GSM Mobile World Congress

February 14, 2008 in Europe, GSM, dayjob, engineering, geekage, glob-Al, hacker, networks

Back from Barcelona, after a terribly intense 3GSM. This was my third, and the first in which I was actually participating rather than just reporting; I feel the need to decompress, my feet hurt, and I’m feeling the effects of eating breakfast at 5pm, covering every game in town, and finally dining (or rather lunching) [...]

Off to 3GSM Mobile World Congress

February 9, 2008 in GSM, dayjob, networks

What it says on the tin.
Sadly, I can’t promise anything like Sadly, No! and their superb blogging from CPAC. However, anyone who wants to meet me can import this vCalendar file.

Test The Theory!

February 9, 2008 in 4GW, Africa, Viktor, banter

Looming war over water between Georgia and Tennessee?
Note to self; charter Ilyushin-76, sell arms to both sides, make a fortune. Relatedly, over at my new favourite blog, they’re discussing driving 400 kilometres a day across the savannah in your Land Cruiser and a mystery delivery in a whole Antonov-124…or possibly even an An-225? It’s not [...]

Why Your Allies Won’t Have War With You

February 9, 2008 in 4GW, Afghanistan, Europe, special relationships, strategy

So Gates has been doing the rounds of EU capitals, looking for more troops (and money) for Afghanistan. He didn’t get very far; although Germany did agree to find half a battalion of light infantry as a quick-reaction force for the northern zone, this just relieves a Norwegian force that is currently doing the job. [...]

Turned the speakers up to the sky, but nothing came

February 8, 2008 in hacker, intelligence and stupidity, space, special relationships

Well, I didn’t get up in time to watch the lost spy satellite hurtling across the southwestern sky; it didn’t matter as it was ten-tenths overcast. But about 1940 on the 21st? If the skies are clear, I’ll be out there; it should reach its maximum altitude at 78 degrees over the horizon, coming from [...]

I am a lineman for the county…

February 6, 2008 in Internet, hacker, history, naval, networks, strategy

So what about those submarine cables then? There has been a mass of blogfroth about this, but I’m quite surprised by the degree of mis- or possibly dis-information that is circulating. For a start, Iran is not without Internet connectivity, whatever this webpage says. It shouldn’t be this difficult; after all, the route to anywhere [...]