By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com August 1, 2011 As if Chinese military-grade electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and high-powered microwave (HPM) weapons, anti-ship ballistic missiles (i.e., “Kill Weapons“), and torpedo-armed submarines aren’t enough, enter China’s new aircraft carrier development program, consisting of “refitting” an “imported” Soviet-era empty aircraft carrier shell weighing 60,000 metric tons from the Ukraine. The shell …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com July 22, 2011 DefenseReview (DR) started covering the ballistic threats to U.S. aircraft carriers several years ago. We’ve known for some time, now, that China is capable of sinking our carriers through the use of anti-ship missiles and torpedoes, or a combination of both. Fast forward to yesterday, when the Washington Times …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com All photos and video clips contained in this article were shot by DefenseReview.com (DR), and are copyrighted. DefenseReview.com owns the copyright on these materials. The photos and video clips were shot with a Canon PowerShot S90 10-megapixel digital camera (still camera with video capability). June 25, 2011 While DefenseReview (DR) was at …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com December 28, 2010 Looks like the “D” version of the Chinese DF-21 medium-range anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) is moving into the deployment phase, although an “over the water” flight test has reportedly not yet been conducted. If the DF-21D ASBM ends up working as advertised, however, it may (potentially) effectively obsolete U.S. …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com July 20, 2010 On October 15, 2009, DefenseReview (DR) published an article on the U.S. Air Force’s successful testing of a Lockheed Martin Martin NC-130H-mounted Boeing Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) weapon system. As impressive as that may have been, Raytheon Company just picked up the gauntlet by shooting down four unmanned aerial …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com April 7, 2010 Updated 4/09/10 Looks like nuclear weapons aren’t the only thing the Iranian government is after. Apparently, they’ve also got a penchant for speedboats, specifically high-tech, very expensive speedboats. Multiple news sources are reporting that the Iranians have surreptitiously acquired a “James Bond-style” fast mover called the Bladerunner 51 / Bradstone …

By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com April 6, 2009 I’ve been writing about the vulnerability of U.S. Navy surface ships, particularly large expensive aircraft carriers, against other countries’ anti-ship cruise missiles and torpedoes for awhile, now. Specifically, I’ve focused on the latest crop of supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles and supercavitating torpedoes, even though some argue that long-range wake-homing …

by David Crane defrev at gmail dot com April 8, 2008 Updated on 4/10/08. DefenseReview readers may remember an article we published on September 16, 2007 about our aircraft carriers being vulnerable to attack by our enemies and/or potential enemies employing/deploying the latest supersonic cruise missile and supercavitating torpedo technologies being developed by the Russians and shared with countries like …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com September 16, 2007 Article updated on 4/07/08. In the world of big business, and big military, money is power. The more money one controls, the more powerful one is. And, in the U.S. military, the bigger the program and sexier the hardware/technology, the more prestige you’ve got, especially if that hardware can …

by David Crane david at defensereview.com November 20, 2006 By now, everyone and their mother knows that last month, in the Pacific, a Chinese submarine stalked a U.S. aircraft carrier battle group and surfaced within torpedo and missile firing range before being detected. DefenseReview can’t really say we’re surprised by this, especially since U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups are no …