Saturday, February 27, 2010

This is a little curious and slightly disturbing

While surfing through some photos of the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov at the pier, I ran across these photographs:


What is that in the upper right corner, behind the kingpost on that red ship moored nearby?


Why it appears to be the former Golf class diesel powered ballistic missile submarine K-118, later converted to a communications submarine and now in its final resting place, next to the Kuznetsov.

You'd figure that a country which has an ambition to build six aircraft carriers in the next forty years would find the time and money to dispose of their junked ships properly, instead of just leaving them derelict at the carrier pier.

Excellent photo essay on the Caspian Sea Monster

Livejournalist igor113 has an excellent series of photos of the weird and wonderful Caspian Sea Monster.

There are photos of the flight deck (bridge? flight deck? I have no idea what to call it!), the crew quarters (the ekranoplan could stay at sea for five days), the galley, the anchor room, the forward most radome in the nose, the flight engineer control panel, some sort of damage control panel, the "engine room" and the weapons control station under the first pair of SS-N-22 tubes. The beast is truly the weird offspring of a 747 and a missile corvette; parts of it are genuinely airplane like and parts of it are genuinely ship like.  Igor climbs the tower to the tail gunner's station up on the vertical stabilizer and I am stunned by the good material condition that the area is in. In fact, the entire interior looks pretty good, good enough that it looks like with a little rehab and paint, it could be restored to operational condition pretty quickly.

Astounding.

Photos from the outside. 
Photos from the inside.
Photos of the Orlan's specially built support dock.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Russia is very different from America



The head of Murmansk Oblast Dmitriy Dmitrienko gifted his apartment to the commander of BPK Severomorsk...

According to the official press release, the governor gave the apartment to the CO "during the fleet wide formation held in honor of Armed Forces Day. Captain First Rank Andrey Klimenko, captain of the Severomorsk, received the special gift. The governor gave him the deed to the apartment that he received during his service in the Northern Fleet".

Dimitrenko had the apartment since it was assigned to him. With the agreement of the Northern Fleet and the administration of the city of Severomorsk, he gave it to a new owner who needed a better place for his family...
 Via KGRR.

Somebody check Frank Gaffney's garage for a crescent wrench

Because anyone who owns a CRESCENT wrench, an obvious symbol of Islamic Jihad if I've ever seen one, clearly wants Sharia law in the United States:

The Obama administration’s determined effort to reduce America’s missile defense capabilities initially seemed to be just standard Leftist fare — of a piece with the Democratic base’s visceral hostility to the idea of protecting us against ballistic missile threats. A just-unveiled symbolic action suggests, however, that something even more nefarious is afoot.
 ...
What could be code-breaking evidence of the latter explanation is to be found in the newly-disclosed redesign of the Missile Defense Agency logo (above).  As Logan helpfully shows, the new MDA shield appears ominously to reflect a morphing of the Islamic crescent and star with the Obama campaign logo. (For a comparison, the previous logo is below.)
 You know what else is evidence of the Islamic conspiracy to remake the United States?

  Does the crescent moon and palm tree signify that South Carolina is under imminent threat of Islamo-fascist take over? I'll bet Frank Gaffney thinks YES!

Is this lovable American icon also a sinister harbringer of Islamo-fascist takeover?

 
 He makes CRESCENT SHAPED PASTRIES! FRENCH CRESCENT PASTRIES!

Since Frank Gaffney has obviously moved on to write for the Onion, I'd say its fair to say that no one should give a shit what he thinks about anything.

Addendum: Bonus "Frank Gaffney is crazier than a shithouse rat with tertiary syphilis" blogging -

When do we get to hear the phrase “sap and impurify our Precious Bodily Fluids” used in all seriousness? And by whom? I’ll take Sarah Palin, by the end of the year.
-dms
Word, yo.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Su-33 almost buys it on Kuznetsov



Don't know when this was filmed, but it doesn't look good to my black shoe clad eye. Make sure you check out the tailhook.

Russia vs. the Pirates: Round Four for the Pacific Fleet

 Via Vladimir Pelevin's blog:



Gist:
 A task force left Vladivostok for the Indian Ocean today consisting of the large anti-submarine warfare ship (BPK) Marshall Shaposhnikov, the ocean going tug and the tanker Pechenga. The sailors will ensure the security of vessels in the Horn of Africa area. This will be the fourth deployment by Pacific Fleet vessels to Somalia. During previous deployments our ships escorted more than a hundred vessels from 26 nations and thwarted more than 20 attacks.
 Other reports indicate that the ships will carry detachments of marines and the Shaposhnikov will embark two helos.

Previously, the  BPK Admiral Tributs, the tanker Boris Butoma and the ocean going salvage tug MB-99 returned to Vladivostok on 16 Nov 2009 after a 140 day deployment to the Indian Ocean on piracy patrol.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Photo of the Day



An undated photo of an SS-N-18 being loaded into/removed from an unidentified Delta III with the Marshal Krylov missile range ship in the background.

A retaliatory strike for sending us T.a.T.u.

American Porno Model Adopts a Child From Russia.

Model and Lesbian Tila Tequila Adopts Child From Russia.

What ever you do Russia, you don't EVEN want to know what we would retaliate with if you send up Ksenia Sobchak...Mutually Assured Cultural Destruction, Bitchez!