Monday, December 19, 2005

Raptor IOC today

The Lockheed F-22 Raptor went operational today. The controversial plane will take over the air superiority mission from the venerable F-15. Critics have questioned the need for the expensive planes since likely adversaries (and especially terrorists) don't field air forces that would need to be shot down. The Air Force even tried tacking on a ground attack role.
The US has been steadily losing ground to advanced Russian designs like the Su-37. The Indian Air Force (in modified Sukhois) has already bested the USAF in exercises. It would be interesting to see how the Raptor fares. I imagine it would win handily.
The US doesn't need 400 of these units, but we do need to show the world (meaning China and Russia) that we are still numero uno.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Yahoo Fantasy Sports Profile

I am a big fantasy sports nut. I used to do every sport but will probably drop hockey and basketball after this season. Yahoo Fantasy just launched a neat feature that displays your stats from 2001 on. There is even a little trophy case with your top 3 finishes.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Swami's

Took advantage of the wonderful weather and went to Swami's. Had a wonderful brunch at Swami's Cafe and then hit the beach.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Battlefield Airborne Communications Node

A co-worker recently reported on our project, BACN.
Quick overview of the project: BACN is, like the name says, an airborne communications node. It allows different radio and data links to be routed to different users. This allows various users, including the warfighter, to access communications they might not otherwise have access to. Our piece is a web-based situational awareness display that shows Link16 data.
I finally made it out to Miramar to view some test flights. Plenty of technical difficulties but pretty neat nonetheless.
Here is some video from a local news cast.
An history of the plane can be found here.