Glenn Dean's Blog

In 1983, David Diem and Doug Turner set a world record: 32 hours 7 minutes to drive an automobile from New York to Los Angeles on public roads.  They accomplished this not as part of a manufacturer's promotion, Guiness attempt, or other publicity stunt, but because it could be done.  They were racing in the last year of the US Express, the underground, outlaw cross-country road race that succeeded the Cannonball Run, which ran from 1971 to 1979.  Many who participated in the race believed that Diem and Turner had somehow cheated, since their winning time required averaging -- averaging! -- over 89 miles per hour for more than 2700 miles, including five gas stops and a stop for a traffic ticket.

Now, the Cory Welles / Gravid Films documentary 32 Hours 7 Minutes has recently been released on DVD to document not only their story, but the story of the 2006 attempt to prove not only that the 32:07 record was possible, but that it could be beaten.

I purchased an early copy of the DVD and can provide the following brief review: it's great -- if you're a car geek, racing geek, or a fan of outlaw racing or the movie Cannonball Run, you need to pick this up to hear the real story.

Director Welles interweaves the stories of the early cross-country races and outlaw racing scene that surrounded the original Cannonball and successor US Express with the mystery of how Diem/Turner accomplished their historic feat, as well as how Alex Roy and Team Polizei 144 set out to beat the record.

Roy documented his attempt in his 2007 book The Driver: My Dangerous Pursuit of Speed and Truth in the Outlaw Racing World.  While the book is great and provides a tremendous amount of detail about the planning and execution of Roy's multiple attempts at the record, 32 Hours 7 Minutes is a necessary companion.  The one hour, forty minute film provides both histocial context via interviews with the original participants, as well as the drama of actual footage from both the 1983 race and the in-car footage from Roy's multiple cross-country attempts.  Short of driving it yourself, nothing quite captures the pucker factor of doing 140 down a public highway with eyes peeled for law enforcement and ears wired to the squawk of a CB radio, as the in-car documentary of the actual event.

I met Alex Roy at the 2008 New York Auto Show shortly after his book was published, and found him to be two people: a gifted showman and self-promoter who has built a larger-than-life image through his Polizei 144 exploits, and a focused, deliberate planner capable of setting all else aside to massage the slightest detail needed for success.  While you get a glimpse of both in the documentary, it's the latter that comes through the clearest: you'll see Roy's obsessive attention to detail as he pours over routes and preps the mulitple GPS systems and night visions sensors he used in his custom-modified 2000 BMW M5.  

Alex and I  had a lengthy discussion at the show comparing the planning and analysis for his cross-country runs to the remarkably similar military procedure known as "Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield".  While he doesn't have the same background, Roy planned with all the focus and attention to detail needed for a high-stakes military operation.  The film provides great insight into the outcome, though the book explores Roy's process in greater detail.

Oh, and the record?  Well, I won't spoil the ending or reveal the secret that enabled the '83 run to succeed -- you'll have to pick up the film or read the book for that!

I'm a bit behind, so there's some "old news" I need to catch up on commenting which I'll hopefully get a chance to do once I power down for the holidays.

Here's a fascinating article from the German magazine Der Spiegel (translated into English) that takes a look at the affect of the drone war in Pakistan on the pilots flying the missions.

Spiegel Online International: "Dreams in Infrared: The Woes of an American Drone Operator"

Warfare has a human face and lasting physical and psychological effects on those who fight it on both sides, even if the weapons of modern warfare places thousands of miles of distance between the combatants.  The "empty battlefield" and psychological distance in warfare has been growing since projectile weapons finally overtook melee weapons; is the unmanned system the ultimate expression of this phenomenon?

"Big E", CVN-65, aka USS Enterprise, the US Navy's first nuclear-powered supercarrier, was retired on 1 December 2012 after 61 years of active service, thousands of miles travelled, thousands of aircraft launched, and multiple combat tours.  CVN-65 was the eighth ship in the US fleet to bear the name.

Sadly, there's no museum able to take the full ship, which must be destroyed to fully extract and demilitarize its nuclear reactors, though I hear the "starship" square superstructure may end up in a museum.

The name will live on, though: the Secretary of the Navy has announced the Big E will return as CVN-80.

Somehow, that just seems right.

that hits a personal pet peeve of mine: the fact that the media has no clue what a tank is, and routinely reports inaccurate information as a result.

OK, I'm an armor guy, so I take proper vehicle recognition as a point of pride, and I certainly don't expect the general public to be an expert in differentiating various generations of armored vehicles.

Since the media is supposed to be informing the general public, however, you'd think they would do just a little bit of research to provide an accurate report.  Sure, your average civilian will label anything with a track a "tank", but the media should known enough to differentiate a tank from an armored personnel carrier.

Anyway, Phillips starts with a Reuters video when some genius reporter labels a BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle as a tank, and  goes on to provide a civilian-friendly explanation of what is and isn't a tank.  if you've ever been confused, check out his post and then .

(Nice shot of a 2S19, by the way.  It's not a tank, but it's an impressive piece of self-propelled artillery.)

The People's Republic of China has just conducted its first public arrested landing of a J15 jet on their carrier the Liaoning, according to Reuters, who provided the video report below.

China has been working to establish carrier capability for some time, so while this isn't surprising, it is a bit ahead of timeline.  And while a few landings of a prototype aircraft aboard a small carrier is a long way from blue-water carrier fleet operations -- by most estimates it will be several years before the Chinese have mastered the complicated art of sustained carrier operations -- it does move the Chinese into the elite club of nations with carrier capability, and makes them one of only three carrier powers in the Western Pacific.  The US and India have the others, though one supposes the Russians could shift their one carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov, from the Black Sea if they chose.  Thailand does have a carrier as well, though without an operational air wing it is perhaps an "aircraft carrier" in name only.

That's not bad for the former-Varyag, which the Chinese origially bought supposedly to serve as a floating casino before retrofitting it into the functional Liaoning.

(Edit to add the Thai carrier.)

In honor of Veteran's Day, 11 November 2012, I'm making my books available for free at Smashwords.com.

For Soldier/Geek: An Army Science Advisor's Journal of the War in Afghanistan, use promotion code TA77S at checkout to get the book for free.

For Weapons of the Zombie Apocalypse, us promotion code BS78P at checkout to get the book for free.

As always, Smashwords offers eBooks in all of the most popular formats.  These promotion codes will be available from 9-12 November 2012.

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UK military author Russell Phillips is also doing a promotion of his ebooks for Remembrance Day, the Commonwealth's holiday commemorating the sacrifices of their veterans.  See details at Russell Phillips' Blog.

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I'll be out visiting the troops somewhere hot, dusty, and unpleasant for Veteran's Day, so let me extend veterans of all services and nations a sincere thank you for your service and sacrifice.

The Army has announced that the next-generation Apache helicopter, formerly the Apache Block III but now officially the AH-64E, has been approved for full rate production.

According to the Army.mil release, the AH-64E  will be in production for the next decade.  It's new capabilities include "an Improved Drive System, increased engine capabilities, technologically advanced composite main rotor blades and sensor enhancements."

Here's some video of AeroVironment's Pume "All Environment" small unmanned aircraft system.  Versions of the Puma are in use with US SOF and some conventional forces.

I was in Afghanistan in 2009 when conventional forces in our sector got some Pumas for experimentation, courtesy of the Rapid Equipping Force.  They were an immediate hit.  We were deploying them into the Konar and Korengal river valleys.  Those areas lacked sufficient space to launch and recover the Army's standard medium UAS, the Shadow, which had to be launched from some distance away and spent a great deal of time just getting on station above the units they supported, which meant they had greatly reduced station time.  The standard small UAS, the Raven, could be launched from remote FOBs, but lacked the range and station time to support the missions required, plus it had a hard time handling the high winds and altitude in that sector.  Puma hit the sweet spot: big enough for decent station time with an ability to fly at higher altitude and under higher wind conditions, but small enough to easily launch from and recover to austere FOBs and COPs.

I haven't heard if more Puma systems were deployed in support of conventional Army forces --  we were experimenting with a number of other UAS systems at the same time -- but it would be a shame if the success of that experiment were not followed up.

Hat tip to Gizmodo.com for the video.

History was made today as Felix Baumgartner and the Red Bull Stratos team set a new World Record for a high altitude parachute jump.  Baumgartner, wearing a full pressure suit, jumped from a pressurized gondola hanging from a balloon at more than 128,000 feet over Roswell, New Mexico, free falling for four andn a half minutes before opening a traditional parachute and floating to a successful soft landing.  This surpasses the record set by USAF officer Joe Kittinger, set at 102,800 feet in 1960.  Data are still being reduced -- I just watched the jump live and as I type this the final results are unconfirmed -- so the jury is still out as to whether Baumgartner will also set a world record for maximum skydiving speed.  He was trying to exceed MACH 1 during his free fall.  Interestingly, he missed Kittinger's record for maximum free fall (4:36) by about eight seconds or so.

It's an amazing feat of aerospace and medicine (given the extreme health risks at the upper limits of the atmosphere ); here's some footage of the 96,000 foot test jump:

So the question for this blog: is there a military application for this sort of Ultra-HALO (High-Altitude, Low Opening), or is this just a stunt?

Well, yes and yes.

HALO (where the parachutist exits an aircraft at high altitude, free falls, and opens a chute at low altitude to guide in to a target) as well as its companion tactic High Altitude, High Opening (HAHO) (where the parachutist opens the chute shortly after exiting a high altitude aircraft, and floats for a long time and distance under canopy), both stem from the same high altitude parachute research that involved Joe Kittinger's record jumps in the '60s.  The USAF reserach program, which was focused primarily on survival of pilots ejecting from aircraft at high altitude, was also used to develop these specialized parachute insertion techniques first used in the Vietnam War, and which subsequently became common use for special operations forces across the globe.  So from that perspective these extreme altitude parachute jumps have already had a military payoff.

Will this level of extreme altitude have direct military application, since higher altitude equals longer range insertions?  I think it's highly doubtful in the near term, for a number of reasons.

First, though, one has to look at the value of HALO/HAHO in application.  What do the tactics get you in military utility?

(1) Increased safety for the deploying aircraft.  The aircraft can deploy its jumpers from above effective ground fire, or -- typically in the case of HAHO -- from across a border, or otherwise in a safe area.

(2) Reduced risk of detection of the entry.  The short period of free fall and rapid descent make it less likely that the jumpers are detected during the drop; the HAHO approach event masks the sound of opening parachutes by doing so at high altitude.

(3) High level of deception about the target.  Especially with the distances that can be achieve by HAHO -- as much as 30+ miles -- it is very easy to deceive an enemy about the intended target even if they detect the inserting aircraft, unlike traditional airborne insertions which drop directly above the intended landing zones.

Does Ultra-HALO add to any of the above benefits?

(1) Increased safety.  In theory yes ... getting above 80,000 feet clears virtually every surface-to-air weapon on the planet.  In practice, no, since no practical delivery aircraft can operate at that altitude.

(2) Reduced risk of detection.  Not so much, as in this case the increased duration of fall exposes the jumper to greater risk of radar detection.

(3) High level of deception.  This is about the same as current tactics, to whit:

(a) To achieve maximum range, the jumper must maximize glide ratio across the duration of fall, to be able to get the most forward distance out of the jump and thus get as far away from the delivery aircraft as possible -- to deceive about the intended target or enable the target to be significantly inside of a hostile border.  Since the best freefall parachutists achieve about a 1:1 glide ratio (1 foot forward for every one foot fallen), which under canopy they can achieve a 5-6:1 glide ratio, the most distance is achieved not in free fall, but under canopy.  Hence HAHO tactics -- pull at as high an altitude as possible.  Let's say that's 30,000 feet (higher altitudes require more chute area to be effective, whcih then become impractical to pack as man-portable systems), and assume about 5:1 so the parachutist can achieve 30 miles of penetration once the chute is opened.  Jumping from 120,000 feet at 1:1 leaves 90,000 feet of free fall and equal forward flight, for a little under 18 miles range.  That's not bad, right?  Almost 50 miles total?

(b) Except that 1:1 won't be achievable for most of that free fall period, since air density is too low to achieve an effective glide ... so real range is significantly less.  Even eploying something like a wingsuit (2.5:1) to try and get more distance before opening the chute won't gain a tremendous amount, leaving the parachutists with the same 30-40 mile range already achieveable with current HAHO tactics.  That of course neglects that you can't employ a wing suit due to the pressure suit required for the high altitude jump, plus the added drag of additional equipment carried ... the additional altitude quickly becomes a bigger problem than it gains you in cross-range distance.

So I don't expect Special Forces to start jumping at 100,000 feet any time soon (there's still the persistent problem of getting them back out once you put them in, which is the much harder problem if they are that far on the side of a border you don't want to be caught violating). From the perspective of expanding Ultra-HALO to military use, the Red Bull Stratos mission hasn't added much mroe than the pioneering USAF work in the '60s already achieved.

Which in any case should not diminish their accomplishments.

But maybe, just maybe, in the farther future, when orbital insertion becomes more practical, you'll see these sorts of Ultra-HALO "Helljumper" tactics.  If you can put your SF team at suborbital altitudes, any point on earth is less than 45 minutes away.  That requires a lot more development of a delivery vehicle, though ...

 [image error]

[image error]Watch that first step.

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... but unfortunately they never made it past the prototype phase.

The National Archives has released a declassified document about "USAF Project 1794" which was a 1956 design study by Canadian aicraft company Avro Aircraft on a saucer design intended to reach 100,000 feet with a top speed of Mach 4 and a range of 1000 nautical miles, with vertical takeoff and landing capability.

Considering the highest flying, fastest aircraft the USAF has put into service, the SR71 Blackbird, couldn'y hit those specs (except for range, but it's a bit irrelevant with refueling), that's a pretty aggresive concept, saucer shape notwithstanding.  The project was canceled without successful demonstration ... as far as we know.

Apparently they couldn't successfully reverse engineer the wreckage from Roswell, or something.

The archives have some cutaway drawings at the link.