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H&I Fires* 27 AUG 2008

By Denizens on August 27, 2008 | | Comments (16)
Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.

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Chuck Simmins, of America's Northshore Journal, sends us this picture with a request to help him ID the ordnance.  Admittedly, my first thought was... the captioner and I have a different idea of what "mostly intact" means.  -the Armorer

080825-N-0629H-021 GORI, Georgia (Aug. 25, 2008) A Russian missile lies largely intact in the master bedroom of a home in Gori. Residents of the embattled city have begun to return and have commenced the work of cleaning up their city following the recent conflict between Russia and Georgia. The Department of Defense deployment is part of a larger United States response to the government of Georgia request for humanitarian assistance. This effort is being coordinated by the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development. (U.S. Navy photo by Lt. Jim Hoeft/Released)

080825-N-0629H-021 GORI, Georgia (Aug. 25, 2008) A Russian missile lies largely intact in the master bedroom of a home in Gori. Residents of the embattled city have begun to return and have commenced the work of cleaning up their city following the recent conflict between Russia and Georgia. The Department of Defense deployment is part of a larger United States response to the government of Georgia request for humanitarian assistance. This effort is being coordinated by the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development. (U.S. Navy photo by Lt. Jim Hoeft/Released)
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John Hawkins of Right Wing News sends:
 
Take a look at this poll to see what the right side of the blogosphere thinks about the following questions;

Out of the following VP candidates rumored to be on McCain's short list, which one DO YOU THINK HE WILL TAKE?

Out of the following VP candidates rumored to be on McCain's short list, which one WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE HIM TAKE?

Out of the following VP candidates rumored to be on McCain's short list, which one WOULD YOU LEAST LIKE TO SEE HIM TAKE?
Answers can be had by clicking here.  -the Armorer

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Over at Jules Crittenden's place -

Hero with a dark past makes good, in Afghanistan and back home. The decorated National Guardsman combat vet who saved a critically injured motorcyclist's life is an ex-cop who did time for assaulting his girlfriend. Commenters at the Herald site think it's unfair to note that past, but at least a couple seem to get there's a bigger story here
Read the whole story here - Redemption Song.  -the Armorer

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Today is a Denizenne birthday...    Anybody know whose?

<crickets chirp>

That's right!  Castle Chef and Den Mother, Cricket! 

Since the Engineer has fully retired, Cricket - here's something for you to keep him busy (or scare him back to work...) A Kitchen Remodel Estimator!

Happy Birthday, ma'am!  -the Armorer

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*A term of art from the artillery. Harassment and Interdiction Fires. Back in the day, when you could just kill people and break things without a note from a lawyer, they were pre-planned, but to the enemy, random, fires at known gathering points, road junctions, Main Supply Routes, assembly areas, etc - to keep the bad guy nervous that the world around him might start exploding at any minute. Not really relevant to today's operating environment, right? But, it *is. The UAVs we fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for targets of opportunity are a form of H&amp;amp;amp;amp;I fires, if you really want to parse it finely. We just have better sensors and fire control now. Of course, now I have to call them UAS's, because someone got a Legion of Merit for the name change.Anyway, I call the post H&I Fires because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to that particular topic. Another term of art that might be appropriate is Free Fire Zone.

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16 Comments

By BillT on August 27, 2008 2:05 PM
Looks like the midsection of an SS-21C, but it looks like it was either placed there or dropped straight through the roof. I don't see any damage to the door (or the couch, for that matter -- it's compressed, but it isn't cut) that would have been caused by something visiting at the terminus of a ballistic trajectory.

Plus there's about two meters of rocket motor compartment missing, whatever it is, and that's one heavy chunk of machinery to have popped off as clean as a whistle -- no dangling fuel lines or wiring harnesses.
 
By BillT on August 27, 2008 2:12 PM
Happy Birthday, Cricket!!!

Dinner is salmon steaks grilled with fresh dill, roasted red potatoes with clarified garlic butter, fresh wax beans with a tarragon vinaigrette and a pear cobbler with extra crumblies and a dollop of homemade mint chocolate-chip ice cream.
 
By John of Argghhh! on August 27, 2008 2:27 PM

You may well be right, Bill, especially given that the firing of SS21s into Georgia is one of the things that got the Poles to sign on to the missile defense deal.

The guidance fins don't seem to have quite the right shape - but pics of the missile itself are really pretty rare, at least via some quick googling.  Lotsa pics of the truck, but not so many of the missile.

I also thought the location was interesting, and the condition of the missile body - but, if we go from a presumption that the light source in that pic is a big hole in the wall...  it would have to have been a pretty flat trajectory on entry.

Insufficient data, really.  But from general size considerations, I'm with you on this one.

 
By Heartless Libertarian on August 27, 2008 3:15 PM
There's another picture around - I saw it on Murdoc Online - of a piece of an SS-21 parked on top of a Georgian police car.

That piece also looks like it dropped almost straight down on the car.
 
By Oldloadr on August 27, 2008 3:15 PM
I'm no expert on Russian ordnance, but do you all see what appears to be carbon on the exposed trailing end? If the missile is solid fuel and the fuel core had cracked, the rocket motor would have exploded at the moment the burn reached the crack and could have produced such a scorched appearance; this could have affected the trajectory and velocity...
What do you all think?
 
By Fishmugger on August 27, 2008 3:15 PM
Wasn't that thing supposed to go BOOOOM? How much is it worth? Did those people hit the lottery? They could at least get a new couch out of this. If we knew what time of day it was, and where the Sun was, we could work out a better idea of trajectory. Ahhh forget it; I can't remember tangent things and the cosecant stuff without my slide rule. It's in a box in the attic.
 
By BillT on August 27, 2008 3:22 PM
The guidance fins are definitely small for the A-model, but the B and C improved the inertial guidance system by an order of magnitude -- so I guessed that they could downsize the guidance fins because they only had to fine-tune the trajectory in the terminal stage.

But the missile body's the right size, fer sher.
 
By BillT on August 27, 2008 3:30 PM
It looks like the leather on the back of the couch got cut and peeled by the fin on the far side -- I'm sticking with fell through the roof.
 
By Galrahn on August 27, 2008 4:54 PM
I'm not very bright when it comes to politics, but I'll tell you what I see and what is a common concern among Democrats here.

If McCain picks Sarah Palin, he has a real chance to take New York state. Her stance to oppose same sex marrage is offset by her support for same sex partner benefits, and while that may not make conservatives happy, I have heard it spoken as very attractive to the Fem movement here in NY who was 100% Hillary and is not happy at all with Obama.

Personally, I like her because she is a lifetime NRA member, among many other things, but that's just me.
 
By AFSister on August 27, 2008 6:31 PM
Funny how  most Rep's think McCain will pick Romney, who is also both tied for "who I want him to pick" AND "who I don't want him to pick".  Judging by that poll, McCain would do well to pick Pallin over all others.  She got the same amount of "who I want" votes, and ZERO "I don't want" votes.
 
By Ymarsakar on August 27, 2008 10:20 PM
<B>She got the same amount of "who I want" votes, and ZERO "I don't want" votes.</b>

Maybe because all the "I don't want" votes were taken up by the easily recognized names, like Mitt.

 
By Cricket on August 28, 2008 7:53 AM
Awww...shucks.  Thanks for the estimator.  We have a Rough Idea, but don't need it to get rougher, so we will use it!

Just what I have always wanted, a missile in the livingroom.

*sniff*

Seriously, how would something like that be uh...defused or removed without it going boom?
 
By BillT on August 28, 2008 8:36 AM
...how would something like that be uh...defused or removed without it going boom?

V-e-r-r-r-r-r-y carefully...

 
By AFSister on August 28, 2008 10:05 AM
Sorry I missed the party, Cricket.
Hope you had a great birthday, filled with those you love and who love you back.  What else could one want more than that?  I know that's what I want.
 
By XBradTC on August 28, 2008 11:33 AM
Cricket, I think we can presume that this is an SS-21 with a cluster bomb warhead. At a certain height above the target, the shroud over the warhead would separate and the bomblets would scatter. That means there isn't a big old bomb in the body lying on the couch. I'd still use extreme caution, as one or more bomblets may not have separated or there may be other pyrotechnic toys in there.
 
By Ymarsakar on August 29, 2008 9:59 PM
<B>V-e-r-r-r-r-r-y carefully...</b>

Do it like the SF, rig the entire house with det cord and demolitions, stand back, and then blow it up. Then call in a JDAM to make sure no booby traps are around.

Oh wait, was that JDAM supposed to be before we wired up the building for demolitions disposal?

<B>I'd still use extreme caution, as one or more bomblets may not have separated or there may be other pyrotechnic toys in there.</b>

Given Russian munitions reliability and maintenance...