Military Technology

Posts about weapons and weapon technology

Periodic World Craziness Update # 13

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The latest month’s wackiness in the world of international relations, politics, and  brinkmanship. Egypt’s Islamists aim to build on constitution vote:  We are now starting to see the logical outcome of the “Arab Spring.”  I would guess that more Islamist regimes will come to power but they will at first cloak themselves with legitimacy of Democracy.  We are seeing a repeat of the patented Arab “one man, one vote, one time” phenomenon that occurred in the wake of WWII. Mexico urges US court to block part of Arizona law:  I just wonder why we don’t hear any US politicians or the administration telling a foreign nation to stay out of internal US affairs. I also find … More after the Jump…

Periodic World Craziness Update # 12

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The latest month’s wackiness in the world of international relations, politics, and  brinkmanship. Red Flag Over the Atlantic:  Everyone who follows China understands that China wants and is trying to increase their influence in the world.  They are doing this by exercising their considerable economic clout in places such as Africa and South America and also by increasing defense spending an acquisitions.  This year they launched their first Aircraft Carrier and have increased defense spending by double digit percentages every year for the past dozen years or so.  That they would be interested in an Atlantic base should surprise nobody.  If they aspire to regain the Great Power status they lost hundreds of years ago they must have a … More after the Jump…

War and the Modern Mind

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I have been pondering why modern Westernized man has such a problem successfully waging war for a few days and had a breakthrough recently.  Before we can really get to that, a few brief thoughts are in order. First, what is war?  Most people would probably agree that war is armed conflict between states, at least that is the classical definition.  I would add the modern caveat of armed conflict with what are euphemistically called non-state actors (IRA, AL-Qaeda, FARC, etc.).  These two definitions are good enough for my current purposes although I don’t think they really cover everything that we should or could call war. Second, what constitutes victory?  … More after the Jump…

Periodic World Craziness Update # 11

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The latest month’s wackiness in the world of international relations, politics, and  brinkmanship.  Greece, Spain ‘in depression’: Nobel winner Stiglitz:  The slow motion death of the Euro continues and the only people that seem to not recognize it are the technocrats in charge of the various EU government.  At some point, probably too late, the signs and symptoms will be so overwhelming that the EU’s leaders will have no choice but to stop trying to apply band-aids and have to do something that will actually work.  That end is probably the dissolution of the Euro. China’s increasing military spending unnerves neighbors:  Count me among the people who is alarmed by the growth in Chinese … More after the Jump…

Periodic World Craziness Update # 10

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The latest month’s wackiness in the world of international relations, politics, and  brinkmanship. U.S. military suspends joint patrols with Afghans:  All I can say is that it is about damn time one of the higher ups realized that the joint patrol and living policy is a failure.  Absent a robust vetting process, which is obviously lacking, it is unconscionable to have our troops living side by side with Afghans who cannot be trusted as far as we can throw them. Pakistanis Try to Storm U.S. Outpost; One Is Killed:  I expect that demonstrations supposedly in outrage over the video will continue for a another week or so.  I am more and more … More after the Jump…

Periodic World Craziness Update # 9

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The latest month’s wackiness in the world of international relations, politics, and  brinkmanship. Afghanistan: a ragged retreat threatens to turn into a slow-motion rout: Afghanistan is increasingly in the news again. I don’t know if that is because the US Presidential race is entering the final stages or that the war does in fact seem to be turning into a slow motion disaster. I suspect a little bit of both with some other factors thrown in. What ,most journalists and commentators fail to acknowledge however is that the war in Afghanistan went south a long time before Obama came into office. It went out the window when the US invaded Iraq and … More after the Jump…

Periodic World Craziness Update # 8

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The latest month’s wackiness in the world of international relations, politics, and  brinkmanship. Heavy clashes hit Syrian capital for second day:  The unrest, hell call it what it really is, the Civil War in Syria seems to be entering a new phase as the rebels gain in strength and/or competence and are actually starting to bring the conflict to the capital Damascus.   The big question mark is not can the rebels win but what will the international community do?  As things now stand they will offer only condemnations of the Assad government because they are stymied by Russian and Chinese support for Assad and his government.   I don’t see that … More after the Jump…

Periodic World Craziness Update # 7

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The latest month’s wackiness in the world of international relations, politics, and  brinkmanship. An Authoritarian Axis Rising?:  Perhaps more people should be talking about this.   This article asks the intriguing question of whether world events over the past year or so, but particularly since Putin’s return to power, don’t highlight the beginning of a new bipolar world order.   These supposed Axis states are China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Venezuela.   Interestingly, as the article points out, half of them rely on oil money and thus lower oil prices are seen as a threat.   Is the world once again aligning along authoritarian lines?  That is a good question, … More after the Jump…

Burg Waldeck in Waldeck, Germany

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Below is a series of photos I took recently when my family and I visited the castle ruins of Burg Waldeck in Waldeck, Germany.   The top photo is a screen shot from Google Earth showing the layout of the castle as it appears today. Burg Waldeck is a typical Keep and Bailey type castle.   There is a rounded keep at the center of the complex with a small courtyard and various outbuildings.   It is surrounded by a curtain wall that is currently about 10-15 foot high with rounded turrets defending the most vulnerable parts of the wall.   It sits on top of fairly steep hill that … More after the Jump…

Documentary Storm

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DocumentaryStorm, a website for documentary lovers has asked me to help them promote their site and help them celebrate their one year anniversary.   After checking it out I agreed, they have a pretty good collection of military themed documentaries.   I have highlighted some of the ones I think are the best below.   Fell free to check out their list at DS Military Videos. The Great War, This is the complete Great War series that was initially aired by PBS in the ’90s. The Survivors of Stalingrad:  A good series about the battle for Stalingrad and the subsequent fate of the German troops who were captured there. Ancient Warriors: … More after the Jump…

Medieval Swordsmanship

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Found a really interesting website today about a society aiming to recreate medieval and renaissance sword-fighting methods based on the instructions produced during the period.   It is the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts.   They have a fairly extensive website with plenty of interesting discussion of medieval fighting styles.   They also rightly point out that what we see in movies is about as far removed from reality as The Hobbit.   Very interesting site and worth checking out.

Book Review: The Last Full Measure: How Soldiers Die in Battle by Michael Stephenson

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[FULL DISCLOSURE: I received my copy of this book free from the publisher for purposes of reviewing it. I was not paid for this review and the opinion expressed is purely my own] Michael Stephenson’s work The Last Full Measure: How Soldiers Die in Battle follows somewhat in the tradition of classics such a Keegan’s The Face of Battle and Victor David Hanson’s The Western Way of War. Where it differs from these two works as that while Keegan and Hanson focus on specific battles or time periods this book aims to be a more general description of the experience of combat throughout recorded history.   In that, the book is … More after the Jump…

The Reality of War – Violent Death

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Today I was reading a selection of articles from Foreign Affairs magazine dealing with modern Counterinsurgency and its perceived success or failure.   One of the things that struck me about the articles and that Bing West brings out in his rebuttal to two critiques of a piece he wrote is the modern predilection for forgetting, either purposefully or not, that war is in essence about man killing man.   What should be the enduring image of war is that of a battlefield strewn with bodies after the armies have moved on such as those below. That is not the image that the modern West has of warfare though.   … More after the Jump…

Book Review: Why Germany Nearly Won: A New History of the Second World War in Europe by Steven D. Mercatante

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[FULL DISCLOSURE: I received my copy of this book free from the author. I was not paid for this review and the opinion expressed is purely my own] At first glance Why Germany Nearly Won: A New History of the Second World War in Europe is another of the rehashing’s of WWII in the East and West that have become so popular since the fall of communism in the 1990’s and the opening of previously closed Russian archives.   That first glance would be wrong.   Steven Mercatante has produced a very well written history of the war in the East that goes to the heart of why the Eastern … More after the Jump…

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Given that I generally try to concentrate on the German Wars of Unification when I do any serious research I thought I would toss this link out there.   I ran across the following article about the Battle of Lundby in 1864 today.   It is probably the best description of any single action from the Danish War of 1864 I have ever seen.   What makes it so great for my purposes is that it is in English and I can direct my readers to it.   The first of the German Wars of Unification, the Danish War of 1864, is practically ignored in English scholarship and thus finding something like this is a treasure as it sheds light on the development of Prussian tactical and operational methods that is not generally open to the English speaking world.

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