Bill Buppert | The Libertarian Institute

Surprise! Ukrainian Aid is Mismanaged

by Bill Buppert | Aug 21, 2024 | Blog

One discovers that war-making by the West after WWII around the world started to see a trend that Smedley Butler would knowingly nod at as the sophisticated money-laundering complex to provide weapons and assistance in hundreds of conflicts.The tracking and auditing of these weapons transfers have not always been up to the standards one would expect responsible providers and agencies to employ to provision arms and assistance. Well, the latest GAO report is out and the findings are not pretty and I think they underestimate the graft and criminality not only in the end use delivery in the...

The Emperor Has No Clothes: Stealth Technology is Sexy and Useless

by Bill Buppert | Aug 20, 2024 | Blog

On 27 March 1999, during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, a Yugoslav Army unit (3rd Battalion of the 250th Air Defense Missile Brigade, which was under the leadership of Colonel Zoltán Dani) shot down an F-117 Nighthawk stealth aircraft of the United States Air Force by firing a S-125 Neva/Pechora surface-to-air missile. It was the first ever shootdown of a stealth technology airplane. The F-117, which entered service with the U.S. Air Force in 1983 was the first operational aircraft to be designed using stealth technology; by comparison, the Yugoslav air defenses were considered relatively...

Sig P320/M17/18: MILSPEC is Overrated

by Bill Buppert | Aug 19, 2024 | Blog

A negligent discharge (ND) in a weapon is when the operator strokes the trigger that results in the firing of the weapon. In my time, the lion's share of these are NDs but actual mechanical (unintentional, accidental or "uncommanded") discharges were rare and then the SIG-Sauer P320 arrives and now it becomes the Accidental Discharge (AD) king in the SIG pistol. NDs are a training issue and AD is a mechanical issue that causes it to fire. SIG settled two cases out of court but Robert Zimmerman just prevailed in winning a court case that may start the train on finally resolving this. I...

Bang for Your Buck: Breaking the Bank to Upgrade the Nuclear Arsenal (Part II)

by Bill Buppert | Aug 16, 2024 | Blog

In Part I, I discussed and critiqued an overview of the new efforts to update the US nuclear arsenal. Here, we'll chat (again) about the Sentinel which is the improved replacement for the aging Minuteman III ICBM and it is already in trouble with the schedule sliding to the right and the costs increasing (surprise). The first test flight has slipped from 2025 to 2026. It will continue to slip if history is a judge. The complexity of the Sentinel program has been emphasized by the Secretary of the Air Force, who characterized it as “struggling” with “unknown unknowns.” Acknowledged as one of...

Bang for Your Buck: Breaking the Bank to Upgrade the Nuclear Arsenal (Part I)

by Bill Buppert | Aug 15, 2024 | Blog

The United States is on track to spend the equivalent of more than two Manhattan projects per year in one of the most expensive nuclear arms races in history. The US has not done a recorded air breathing nuclear detonation since 1992 (the last US test, Julin-Divider, was on September 23, 1992). Almost 50 years and over 1000 tests in the USA alone and its nuclear warhead inventory and the energetics needed to loft them via rocket-borne means for the submarine and ground-launched missile programs is ancient and sclerotic. Although nuclear explosions have not been conducted in the USA since...

The Spirit Dissolves: Imminent B2 Retirement

by Bill Buppert | Aug 14, 2024 | Blog

Stealth is a buzzword, please keep in mind that long wave radars detects the minuscule radar cross sections of "stealth" platforms. It can still be detected by a sufficiently powerful radar or at sufficiently close ranges. Dual-band radars are more effective against stealth than disjointed sensors, being able to focus the high-frequency beam to track the blips spotted by the low-frequency one. Pardon me while I geek out: At a low enough frequency, one cannot use angled surfaces to deflect the re-radiated radio frequency (RF); even a very thin wire one half wavelength long is optimally sized...

Icebreaker Follies: The US Continues to Drive to Zero

by Bill Buppert | Aug 13, 2024 | Blog

The Navy did have 1.5 icebreakers and now they have half of one. Well, actually, the US has no operational icebreakers now. The Coast Guard’s other icebreaker, the ancient heavy Polar Star, is undergoing a service life extension program at the Mare Island Dry Dock in California [H/T to Q Captain]. The fire reportedly damaged a starboard transformer as a result of which the starboard engine remains inoperable. The Coast Guard’s other icebreaker, the 50-year old Polar Star, is not available during summer as it is undergoing a service life extension program at the Mare Island Dry Dock in...

Boeing Incompetence Continues: The Space Launch System Debacle

by Bill Buppert | Aug 12, 2024 | Blog

We all know what is happening now with the Boeing disaster in space where two astronauts are marooned and the billion dollar taxicab is not only malfunctioning but can't be undocked without a human inside piloting the capsule away. Boeing was contracted by Never Ascend to Space Again (NASA) to develop a new upper stage for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and it's seven years behind schedule and significantly over budget. The new Exploration Upper Stage, a more powerful second stage for the SLS rocket that made its debut in late 2022, is viewed by NASA as a key piece of its Artemis...