Armoured Reconnaissance Vehicle

The ARV combined Vehicle?

It is strange how in modern warfare the Main battle tanks are being replaced by a newer battlefield multirole vehicle that combines the armoured car, and armoured personnel carrier with a smaller fire power than the tank and on at least six wheels.

The U.S. LAV and the Swiss MOWAG with the Finnish SISU are the bases of a new range of ARV, they being more an APC with addons?  Experience worldwide has seen the demise of the armoured car and the APC apart from para-military security operations and some UN work.

The ARV will not fully replace the MBT as yet, but robotic and drone vehicles of various types under development and secret trials probably will?

What this new generation of armour provides is the transportation of specialised troops, light artillery and rocket power combined with speed and maneuverability and much computerised and military satellite software for more accurate aiming of moving as well as static targets! 

The Peoples Republic of China, N-Korea and Russia have also developed their own versions along side their traditional fleets and newer versions of their mobile missile sytems?

Ghost Ships?

There are two kinds!

It is strange to know that there are many abandoned ships in our Oceans floating about, and one hopes that they are being tracked?

The Ghost ship comes in two forms the mentioned above, with many in the Pacific ocean after the Japanese Tsunami some years ago and the recent arrival of a research ship on the south-Cork coast this week after Storm Dennis, Republic of Ireland.

The other type is a weather related sea mirage, in which vessels at some distance appear to much nearer or floating about the water. In some cases this has lead to fanciful tales of cities, islands and even seen UFO's?

Despite the modern advances in GPS global positioning there is still so much that we do not now about the vastness and the isolation of our oceans and what is floating out there from the obvious containers and abandoned or ship wrecked vessels? 

Helicopters 75 Years! Part-One.

Come a long Way!

The day of the helicopter is not yet over, despite many new drones are cheaper than keeping an helicopter in the sky? The helicopter derived from gyro-dynamics in aircraft to act like an early form of the Boeing-Vertol Osprey BV-22, which still occupies U.S. military research into the development and deployment of much newer and stable platform, which is changing the battlefield from science-fiction to reality!

Today nearly anyone can go up in a helicopter from pleasure flying to search and rescue? The small machines are in the Robinson family, while Bell and Sikorsky have held both the military and commercial market, go to any horse racing event and there are more helicopters between the tracks now parked up since riders cover more than one meeting a day?

The largest machines are still dominated by the Russians and Ukrainians with the Mil Mi-26 capable of carrying three tracked vehicles and one hundred and twenty-five combat troops! This helicopter was a development of the Mi-6 well known is Russia as the Cow because it was slow and vulnerable to ground rocket fire?

Mid range giants are the Chinook, Boeing-Vertol CH-47, which has been around since the Vietnam wars of the 1960s and the Sikorsky CH-53 Super stallion, S-92 SAR after that is the successful Westland-Leonardo EH-101 and the various derivatives of the Puma SA-330 to the H332 Super Puma that dominates the North Sea oil and gas supply rigs and wind turbines.

Europe has also taken the lead of the world market with the H-135/145 helicopter in Air Ambulance and police, electric line work along with several other smaller types?

Replacing the Land Rover Defender?

The Grenadier?

It was hoped that this would be a newer version of the successful Defender, but the Germans have produced their own newer version, leaving this new venture of the Grenadier possibly in the doldrums?

There are always problems with trying to keep a good thing going, corporations want to mass produce, because that has been the way over the last one hundred years since the Ford Model T?

Many have tried with aviation and other armaments only to find that the existing owners have done their own new design and have undermined these new upstarts?

Wither is will now go-ahead is not known and what success it might have is also not known, despite there being a demand perhaps more so for existing parts to keep the series going amongst the collectors and enthuseasts?

ARTEMIS to the Moon!

A great vision now put back to 2028?

Elon Musk may not be as clever as the U.S. President claims he is and recent testing of the ISS supply vessel and Moon projects have seriously flopped?

Meanwhile many scientist world wide do not want a Moon base built, but want to keep the region clear of human interference so they can capture long range Space signals for identification?

This return to the Moon is Trump trying once more to out with the Democrats, ie Kennedy in history, but going to the Moon has in some ways thwarted NASA's plans for a direct mission to Mars.

Artemis is not only a Moon base on the south pole, but a Gateway space station orbiting the Moon, putting into question the fate of the International Space Station and its well established research?

We just will have to see if the U.S. President wins a second term and what the future holds apart from the U.S. 'Star Trek' Space force?

Russian Armour!

Upgrades and new Equipment?

Russia is advancing at an alarming rate with their armour, aircraft, ships and missiles far more advanced than the U.S. claims! Already Turkey, Saudi-Arabia and Iran with China have some of the best systems on the market in modern warfare and sadly the U.K. and NATO are getting left behind if there was an outbreak of hostilities?

We do not get to see as much as was claimed that we saw forty years ago during the so called, 'Cold War! But many upgrades have been made to armoured cars and APC's while missile and drones are much of a closed book to the west today?

Aviation on the other hand boast much new aircraft with hypersonic speeds, while the U.S. administration tells lies and Britain's 'Aurora has been a bit of a damp squib ie Novichok and the Salisbury business?

Class 66 Lives on!

The American/Canadian Class 66 lives on?

At this time there remains no real replacement to the British class 66 locomotive, there are some newer classes but no substantial orders have been made for them in relation to freight haulage!

In fact many European engines are being returned to the U.K. to replace the early first introduction 6600-20 and there looks like no other engine is to replace it in the near future?

Like the Class 43 (Intercity 125) in passenger travel, it has seen a rebuild and over forty years of service. Many countries do not let go of their locomotion so quickly and hold on in reserve what might come in handy at a later date!

The price of fuels is one key factor the other be reliability and also ease of use to the existing drivers! None of these 66's were ever as far as ones knows ever employed in passenger services, apart from recovery of preservation trains?