The Brimley effect on defense companies

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Monday, March 16, 2009 - 7:41 PM Share

BAE Systems just bought Advanced Ceramics Research Inc., a small Arizona-based maker of UAVs, or drone aircraft. This is a sign to me that defense contractors are paying attention to the pro-UAV views of the new crowd at the Pentagon. I wonder if the first carrier to carry mainly stealthy, long-range, naval UCAVs -- that is, combat drones -- will be named the USS Obama.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the drone wars, the United States shot down an Iranian drone that was in Iraqi airspace, according to Major-General Abdul Aziz Mohammed Jassim, head of military operations at the Iraqi Defense Ministry. He didn't disclose how this was done.

And here's more bad news for the Air Force, another service in the sights of the Brimleyites: The Russians are having a hard time playing a credible boogieman, with a large part of the Russian MiG-29 force found unable to fly safely.

JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images

EXPLORE:IRAQ, MILITARY, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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KENNETH SORENSEN

9:04 AM ET

March 17, 2009

What's the craft in the picture, Tom?

It's obviously a pretty advanced UAV. Its not the MQ9-Reaper. It has got a label:'nr. 102', and it is obviously an American produce. You can see some palm-trees in the background and the picture is probably taken on a hot day above 30 degrees Celcius. So it could be either California or Israel. Seing two Israeli flags in the background settles it: It is one of the newest American UAV's (so new that Wikipedia havent got an article on it), and it has been sold (or given depending on the way you look at it) to Israel.

Given the controversity surrounding The United States' relationship with the illegal colony on the shores of the Mediterranean with an inhabitable surface-area the size of Delaware and the adjacent Cecil County in Maryland, and the way this entity have been dragging the US into conflicts, one after the other.

1982: 1.700 Palestinian women, children and non-weapon carrying men are killed by Christian Falangists in the Sabra Chatilla refugee camp-ara, while Israeli troops are keeping watch close by. All in all 17.000 people, most of them Palestinians are killed in Lebanon during Israels presence there. This was before the Internet and the rapid distribution of news; today they would not have been able to get away with it.

1983: The deadliest single-day death toll for the United States Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima occurs when a suicide truck-bomb rams the barracks at Beirut International Airport and kills 241 marrines. Needless to say the Americans got dragged in due to the Israelis unheard-of advance right up to Beirut. This was the first time the Americans abandoned their principle of never to intervene directly anywhere in the Arab world, but instead 'hover over the horizon'. The second was Iraq.

1987: The first Intifada. For the first time it dawns on the world that there exist another people in the area, that have had their human rights abused and spat on. Israel tries frantically to quell the unrest with great brutality;

1996: Israel under PM and Nobel-laureate, now President, Shimon Peres shells a UN-camp in Qana,the same town where Jesus turned water into wine,- where 102 civilians are hiding, resulting in their death.

2000: Ariel Sharon takes a walk on the Holy Temple Mount, triggering the Second Intifada.

2001: (September)The WTC and Pentagon are attacked by flying fuel-bombs. The Congress was the target as well, because, to quote the official 9/11 report: "It was the greatest source of support for Israel in the US". The architect of the attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's, animosity towards The United states stemmed not from his time there as a student, but because of his violent opposition to U.S. support for Israeli policies towards the Palestinians. If you wish to include other motives, the secondmost important such, was US troops continued stay on holy Saudi soil after the end of hostilities following The Gulf War in 1991. King Fahd had been promised that they would be withdrawn immediately after the war. The guy who was responsibly for their continued stay was the superzionist and -lobbyist Martin Indyk -- an Australian jew, and US-citizen from 1993,-- later US ambassador to Israel.

2001: (October) The invasion of Afghanistan would not have happened without 9/11

2003: The invasion of Iraq, would not have happened without 9/11 (see above) and not without the prodding of Israel, and particularly The Israel Lobby

I am sorry to say, that I do not find it appropriate to show pictures with Israeli flags on pages related to American defense.
Often Americans have to defend themselves because of Israel.

IDMAJ

11:32 AM ET

March 17, 2009

Do your homework

Kenneth, did you ever consider that the aircraft in the picture might actually be an Israeli UAV, made in Israel? Don't let your virulent anti-semitism get in the way of your judgment. If you do some research, you'll find the IDF has been building their own UAVs for well over 20 years now.

KENNETH SORENSEN

12:01 PM ET

March 17, 2009

Yes I have been on the relevant wikipedia-pages

And I have indeed seen one with a similar small propellar. (The propellar does seem a bit small, but one has to remember that the vehicle is build of lightweight materials. Still I should think this craft is for surveillance purposes, withness also the big radar compartment under the bulky nose.) One that Israel tried to sell to China in 2004, but this was duly stopped by The United States.

Anyway all this doesn't explain why Mr. Ricks has chosen an israeli UAV to illustrate apparent US needs in this field.

It is my points that 1) How impressive the Israeli military products may be, the israeli engineers could just as well make their stuff in The United States, - as indeed they will have to, when we in a short time will introduce Arab Majority Rule in Palestine - with all those Israelis willing to stay put having absolute freedom to do so, just as the Whites can stay after the end of Apartheid in South Africa in 1994 - and 2) It is Israels mis-placement in the middle of the Arab world that makes these developments necessary in the first place. Theese technologies cost a lot to develop - many of them in financed with American donations/loans.And finally 3) The United States would perhaps be 20 years behind were it not for Israel, but neither would there be any need for them, because it is all the wars that Israel has entangled the US with, that creates a demand for them.

BILL KELLER

12:54 PM ET

March 17, 2009

Unmanned Air and Space Craft.....

You can do a great deal when not having to support a weight that must breathe, eat and excrete under a restricted atmosphere.

Such as... to decrease the cost and size of the seabourne launch pad.

TOM RICKS

6:20 PM ET

March 17, 2009

The Brimley effect

You've got the click on the links! Read all about it at

http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/03/06/obama_vs_navyair_force

CARL

2:01 AM ET

March 18, 2009

Drones are indeed the wave of

Drones are indeed the wave of the future. The question is, how far in the future? So far as I know, we don't have a one that can penetrate contested airspace in numbers enough to be effective, nor is there one that could evade much less fight an interceptor. We do have a bunch of low performance platforms that can hang in the air a long time, collect a lot of data and pop off the occasional Hellfire.

We should be cautious about enthusiasm for potential getting in the way acquiring things we can actually use in the next 15-20 years. The British let their enthusiasm for missiles run away with them in the late 50's and they regretted it.

I think the news about the MiG-29's could also be interpreted as saying we have a bunch of airplanes of a similar vintage and we should replace them before they fall out of the sky too.