Recently in National Security Category

We interrupt this sabbatical...

The Naval War College set up an online discussion today in response to the Secretary of the Navy's recent speech on Green Policy.

Thought you might be interested in participating.

Link is here.

Registering is a little clunky, but the topic is important. Please give it a shot.

It's your Navy :)

Have been participating in this URI-NWC collaboration the past several months. The University of Rhode Island kids are very sharp, and the executive faculty at both institutions, including the War College President, are extremely receptive to their ideas.

Warms my heart...

A friend and I were chatting this morning. It started with "how was your weekend?"

I said we went out on one of the Newport Marina's skiffs and did some fishing while the Eco-Wife sunbathed, yada yada, which migrated to us talking about the advantages of sailing vs powerboats, which wandered into a discussion about sail efficiency, and somehow we ended up talking about aircraft wings and winglets.

LOL - couple Navy aviation buffs, obviously.

Anywho, we wondered aloud about how long winglets have been around and why they weren't on every plane since they apparently save aircraft fuel.

So here's the deal:

Commercial airplanes have to overcome two types of drag: (1) skin friction and (2) induced drag. Ride a bike down a hill or stick your hands out a moving car's window and you already know what the first feels like.

The second is caused when air flows over the wings and lifts the plane. You can't do much about induced drag, since you wouldn't have "lift" without it. It's the same force that pulls against your string to lift a kite it into the air. Near the end of the wings this lifting force wraps around the wingtip in little tornados ("vortices"). Here's an awesome picture! Putting winglets on the ends cuts these vortices down, almost eliminating this kind of induced drag.

Wingtip vortices are the most pronounced when the wings are doing the most lifting, which is usually when the plane is flying slowly and during takeoff and landing. So that's when winglets help the most.

But surprisingly, they can also hurt a plane's fuel economy. Once the plane has leveled off and is zooming along the extra friction from the winglets cancels out (or even subtracts) the benefits they provide at other times.

The Air Force recently completed a complex study that found some larger aircraft (cargo, aerial refueling) benefited from them and some didn't depending on the shape of the wing and the type of flying (lots of takeoff/landings vs hours of long cruise).

Then there's the cost of installing them. It's comparatively cheap to build them as part of a new wing, which the Air Force did with the C-17 cargo plane. But the Air Force found the cost of adding them to existing planes quickly out-paced any fuel savings costs, at least for now. As fuel costs rise that will probably change.

Oh - and the USAF study on winglets is already 15% over budget. LOL!

Here's a wiki with lots of good info.

Disgusting.

UPDATE: Disturbing. In Chicago? But of course.

I'll just say it. These guys are bad for the environment.

Green up your grilling. Lots of good info at SustainLane this week.

I hope you will also visit your local Veterans memorial or cemetery this weekend. Do thank someone in the armed forces, fire fighting and lifesaving organizations, and police forces (and their families) for their sacrifice. 

Other ways you can help:

As a Navy Reservist, I also want to say thanks for supporting our military. I have several folks in my unit deployed around the world right now. They and their families really appreciate your prayers.

Corrie Markham and son Jacob were out picking up trash on Dewey Field yesterday. Naval War College took part in the Naval Station Newport RI basewide cleanup.

Not sucking up here, but I think the Admiral bagged the most trash of all of us. [U.S. Navy photo by MCC(AW/AC) Robert Inverso]

The best line of this article linked at Drudge today:

"We fear more that any revenge taken by the pirates against foreign nationals could bring more attacks from the foreign navies, perhaps on our villages," Abdullahi Haji Jama, who owns a clothes store in Harardhere, told the AP by telephone.

Exactly.

The Bush Doctrine (remember that?) stated that both terrorists and the states that harbored them should expect military force to end their acts. Whether Obama decides to continue in that vain or in more of a law enforcement flavor, terrorism and piracy must be illegitimized in civilized society. And then dealt with accordingly.

Whether it's the Mesopotamian Marshes or big cities you can't do charity work while people are shooting at you. And you can't do your environmental charity work if your cargo ship full of humanitarian relief (wind turbines, solar-powered cooking pots, etc) is held up by pirates. Even the UN recognizes this.

Environmental and peace movements are often linked. But you don't get either without effective deterrence. And you don't get deterrence unless guys like Abdullahi get that you're serious about security.

When the Abdullahi's of the world let pirates know they have no place to go, the task is much easier.

The Navy’s incentivized Energy Conservation Program (i-ENCON) reduces ships’ energy consumption by 10 percent each year. Program sponsors work with the fleet to review specific fuel-saving procedures and recognize ships with the most fuel-efficient operations. At Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, the Navy’s 270 megawatt geothermal plant delivers an average of 1.4 million megawatt-hours of electricity annually to the California electric grid. This plant is the largest renewable energy producer in the DoD and the third largest geothermal electricity producer in the U.S. The Navy sponsors more marine mammal research than any other organization in the world, working in partnership with other agencies, academia and non-governmental organizations.

[Chief of Naval Operations  Earth Day Rhumb Line for 10 APR 09.pdf]

Geoengineering. Excerpts:

 Tinkering with Earth's climate to chill runaway global warming - a radical idea once dismissed out of hand - is being discussed by the White House as a potential emergency option, the president's new science adviser said Wednesday...One option raised by Holdren and proposed by a Nobel Prize-winning scientist includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun's rays.

It still is radical, and stupid:

But he said there could be grave side effects. Studies suggest that might include eating away a large chunk of the ozone layer above the poles and causing the Mediterranean and the Mideast to be much drier.

And those are just the predicted problems. Scientists say they worry about side effects that they don't anticipate.

Scare tactics:

He and many experts believe that warming of a few degrees more would lead to disastrous drought conditions and food shortages in some regions, rising seas and more powerful coastal storms in others.

Mankind seemed to prosper in past warm periods. It is harder to adapt to cold periods. Cold is harder on food supplies and energy consumption. More scientists are talking about global cooling now. Suppose geoengineering hastens cooling? 

Politicians need to get out of making science policy, or at least put science before politics when making policy. -D

P.S. The Obama "science advisor," on another subject, said:

The U.S. anti-ballistic missile program is not ready to work and shouldn't be used unless it is 100 percent effective. The system, which would be used to shoot down missiles from countries like North Korea or Iran "needs to be essentially perfect ... that's going to be hard to achieve."

Um, if it's "not ready to work" what shot down that satellite last year and why do we have operational anti-ballistic missile ships and bases?

From a friend's email today:

Afghanistan is a real experience. You haven't lived until you have raced into oncoming traffic through the streets of Kabul with a probable SVBIED behind you. Definitely gets the adrenline going in the AM on the way to work - probably a lot like DC traffic! Seriously, we lost two Naval Officers this week and another was WIA. Please say a prayer for their families.

Join me in that today, won't you please?

A little oo-rah for your Thursday Wednesday... (you can tell I'm ready for Friday!)

Our SecState today:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told an audience Friday "never waste a good crisis," and highlighted the opportunity of rebuilding economies in a greener, less energy-intensive way.

...breath...continuing:

Highlighting Europe's unease the day after Russia warned that gas flows via Ukraine might be halted, she also condemned the use of energy as a political lever.

One man's opportunity is another woman's political lever. Heh.

By the way, just because our elected officials are making rash statements and decisions doesn't mean we should.