They say four, you say three, I say . . .

By now, everyone who cares has probably heard that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards tried photoshopping their way to intimidation by altering a shot of a screwup into a success, replacing a missile launch failure with a copy of a successful one. The shot on the left is the one they released first; the other is the (supposedly) real version:



A better view of the (supposedly) undoctored version:





I say 'supposedly' because everything in the image should be treated with suspicion; start with the varying trajectories and make yourself crazy from there...

I'm no analyst so we'll let the experts digest the tea leaves, but I would point out that the missile on the erector - and it would seem the others - isn't a Shahab-3, Iran's medium range ballistic missile* that's got everyone's panties in a twist. At best (worst?) that's a theater missile, with a much shorter range and smaller payload. And if that photo is real, it looks to have about as much chance of hitting its target as I have of nailing a muskrat with a headshot at half a mile with a .44 . . .

Still hurts if you get hit with with it, of course. And you might argue that Iran's ineptness only makes them more dangerous, not less . . .

* - Another weapon whose accuracy and specs remain to be proven, but we'll leave that for another day. There's no question that it is a potent missile, at least on paper, though.

Apache attack...



Notice the layered procedure to get clearance to fire?

The longer version gives a better feel for the mission...

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=31d_1212789344

Of course, some of us just like the boom...

It works






The official word:

During a Pentagon news conference Thursday morning, General Cartwright rebuffed those who said the mission was, at least in part, organized to showcase American missile defense or anti-satellite capabilities.

He said the missile itself had to be reconfigured from its task of tracking and hitting an adversary’s warhead to instead find a cold, tumbling satellite. “This was a one-time modification,” General Cartwright said.

Yeah.

Anti-missile technology, though it can never be the only defense against enemies who possess missiles (including terrorists and terrorist states), can work and is important, and why don't we admit it?

Good job, Navy. And everyone else who helped.

(The quote is from the NYT.)

Balls, baby



Driving a plane is like driving a bus, right?

The computer graphics were made with a 777 image, but the photos are real. I'm asking for these guys next time I fly . . .