All I Want For Christmas Is A New Railgun

2008 test - the "flame" is plasma, not a chemical propellant

Take a projectile and put it on a small sled, then insert the two into the mother of all straight-line super-duper electromagnetic devices and you have the U.S. Navy's prototype rail gun. This new military toy has been developed  in part by the weapons geeks at BAE, the former employer of OTR's older son. Some test firings took place late last month and the video looks pretty exciting. It isn't every day that you can watch a projectile leave the muzzle at 5000 mph and head for a target that could be one hundred miles away.

Here is a brief Discovery Channel video produced around 2006 that offers us some background on railgun technology. Looks like they have come a long way toward that smaller, faster gun.

Diversity Incident Boiling At The Naval Academy

Powerline (Scott Johnson) is reporting on a disturbing discrimination issue involving the Naval Academy's color guard and its appearance at the World Series on October 29. It seems the guard would have been "performing while white and male," so administrators replaced two of them on October 28 with a white female and a male of Pakistani descent as a person of color. This attempt at diversity backfired when the Pakistani forgot his shoes and cover and had to be replaced by one of the original guard members. It gets better.

The color guard at Annapolis is a competitive, extracurricular activity for which members compete. In other words, they earn rank. The incident has created anger and frustration among the middies and the alumni. The Academy administrations attempt at a cover up, including a gag order, and contradictory written statements is testimony to what Mother always told you: tell the truth. Be sure to follow all the links in Johnson's post so you can enjoy the comedy as it builds, and understand the sad reality that a multi-culti diversity policy poses for our military.

Under Fire in Afghanistan

"Don't worry . . . We're armored and heavily armed when we go out."

My son assured me that his NATO keepers took good care of their civilian employees. He was right. Yesterday, he emailed this picture showing how a Taliban sympathizer tested the bullet-resistant glass on their SUV.

The first installment of his Afghanistan experience is still in draft on my computer. I asked him to report primarily on people, daily life and the culture at large, and balance it with the military presence. What could fulfill that request better than the picture of a solitary vendor patiently waiting for customers at his colorful stand as seen through a bullet-marred window? My wishes for a deep depth of field on Afghanistan have been put into a very proper perspective.