Living the dream...

YESSSSSS!   This week is all about deep rivers and high mountains.  Monday started in The Berkley Hotel in Las Vegas.  I had the day off to celebrate President's Day.  Thanks, Trump. Here's a tour of my crib: Welcome to my bathroom Living area Kitchen / diner / fire escape Massive (lonely) bed Makeup application facility room Bath / shower / art gallery All in all, it was very nice.  But they had a rule book that would make Heinrich Himmler proud.  Firstly, no guns allowed: Wot no guns? Secondly, you aren't even allowed to smoke marijuana on the premises: Bob Marley not welcome After checking out of the hotel, we drove from Las Vegas back to Goodyear via the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead and  Kingman  on Route 66. Dad (in Nevada) and me (in Arizona) One small step for man, one entire revolution for the minute hand Family portrait in front of the Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial...

I heard this song playing on the radio during the week and thought it would be a good accompaniment to this week's blog :) This week, work has mostly been about synthetic-aperture radar  (SAR), Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) and Close Air Support  (CAS). SAR is something completely new to me and is absolutely amazing!  It provides "round the clock reconnaissance" and enables target identification regardless of weather.  Here is an example of a SAR picture: SAR image By using SAR, targets can be identified and then their position can be extracted for use by weapons such as... ...JDAM!  JDAM consists of a bolt-on GPS guidance kit and a mark 80 series bomb with longitudinal strakes strapped to the side.  JDAM is made by Boeing and is not entirely relevant to us - we don't have them in the UK.  But we have very similar weapons made by Raytheon, so it has been interesting learning about the differences.  The bottom line is ...

This week we finally started doing some air-to-ground training at work.  It is such a relief after so long doing emergencies and air intercept training; it feels like taking a nice shower after doing something really dirty.  I have had to rack my memory for details of the GBU-12 - this is a 500lb Paveway II bomb.  Paveway II was just starting to be replaced when I joined 617 Squadron in 2002 and then was taken out of RAF service about 10 years ago - it seems strange going back such a long way on such a modern programme!  The UK won't use this bomb on the F-35, we will instead use Paveway IV which is much better. I know that at least one person who will read this is interested in technical data, so here it is!  Paveway II was the first generation of laser-guided bomb to be brought into military service.  It is more accurate than the ballistically-aimed bombs which it replaced, but still has several drawbacks.  Firstly, it can only be employed in rel...