Technical Intelligence Bulletins May

Technical Intelligence Bulletins May - June 1999

Vol. 4 No. 3 May-June 1999

A non-profit publication about the veterans of Technical Intelligence in war and peace,the current operations of the

National Ground Intelligence Center, the Technical Intelligence Unit at Aberdeen Proving Ground and news items

of interest to the technical intelligence community.

THE WILLIAM L. HOWARD ORDNANCE TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE MUSEUM.

The URL for the site is:: http://wlhoward.com

Changes in the 203rd M.I. Bn

Captain Mary Dillon has departed from the U.S. Army for Civilian Life. She will be missed. Major Chris Winne spoke w/ LTC McGrath the first week of May--Bn change of command is mid-July. Randy Conlon will take over the 203d MI Det -- I assume it will be called a detachment. Steve Cloum heads off to CGSC at Leavenworth, and will likely miss the ceremony. Major Winne has been busy lately -- SOUTHCOM owes the Joint Staff a camapign plan and he is the primaryintel planner for it. We've been working it since early March. We're virtually in the crisis action planning mode. Chris W Ronald Gillen wrote: Anybody know what a 'Graphite Bomb' is?

The Serbs claim that we are dropping them on their installations. Regards ..... Ron Gillen

What is concerned are the so-called "graphite bombs", 250 kilogram weight, which produce a "cloud of dust" that disables and paralyses the functioning of power sources and electrical devices. Bombs of that kind were used yesterday night by American and British pilots, leaving the greatest part of Serbia without electric power. The "graphite bomb" was until very very recently classified. It is dropped to air-burst over an electrical power plant, power sub-station, etc. Thousands of carbon filaments drift down into the transformers and equipment to short everything out. There's more to than just that, but it causes a great deal of hard to repair damage. It cannot be cleaned out by having someone simply hose it off: 'nough said on the subject.

For those who can surf the web, there is a very interesting CIA web site which is located at:http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/facttell/index.html

Captain Bob Bennet, a retired USCG officer, and a long time friend of my family, is the author of the book,"Sandpounders" which is about the origins of the Search and Rescue Service. It is supposed to go back as far as the Civil War and bring you up to WWII and beyond. An obscure topic but part of the war effort(s). According to Bob, one of the earliest stations was established at Sea Girt, New Jersey The book was printed by the Government Printing Office and should be on the shelf by now.

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The Dogs of War - A story from the past

The Russians had war dogs which carried a vest filled with explosives. The dogs were trained to eat under a tank. The Russians turned them loose on the German tanks and the dogs advanced rapidly. The German realized what was going on and fired on the dogs with machine gun fire whch scared the dogs and they ran back and hid under the Russia tanks thus destroying the Russian tanks. According to Granville Rideout's book, the CHICOM SERIES about Vietnam >weapons, he showed a picture of the dog and harness assembly. I never heard of the VC or the NVA using this and I never met another Vietnam vet who had ever heard of such a weapon.

Yes, dogs were of great use during WWII on Russian side. They were trained to find wounded on battlefield, and even tow them away using sort of light skies, on which wounded man had to belt himself. They carried also a small bag with some wound dressings and ethanol.

Dogs were used to deliver messages (nothing original in that), to search for snipers in forest ("koo-koos"). It is truth - dogs were used to hunt for German tanks. They had an explosive charge on the back, with long vertical antenne fuse. During training they got food only under tanks - first standing, then moving. BUT NOBODY WOULD RISK AND SEND SUCH DOG TO THE COMBAT, WHERE TANKS OF BOTH SIDES WERE PRESENTED. In the period of war, when these dogs were useful, a Russian tank was a rare thing on battlefield. SergeyA.

Russian Radar during WW II

Ron Babuka of Cornell University asked .....in "26". "Maxim Gorkii" was built for Baltic, "Molotov" for Black Sea (it was the first ship to have air-warning radar in Soviet Navy, and it had it by 1941!), and two more - for Pacific.Do you know what the cruisers used for fire control of the main batteries?Were they directed optically or were they radar controlled?

The radar was rather primitive one - no way it could be used to direct fire - main or AA. However it was the first air-warning radar at Black Sea at all, and "Molotov" had been used as sort of American radar-picket ship of 1944. USSR was far below in radar-construction by 1941 (it joined the High League in 50's only), and even this radar was of great help.

Main batteries were controlled by optical directors-computer systems, pretty good and complicated. They could gave very good results in good weather. I am not sure, but fire controls also could be prodused with the help of Ansaldo. Later LOMO (Leningrad), started optical fire systems, including naval and they were 100% of excellence. Soviet flotilla leaders and destroeyers used not 135-mm, but 130-mm guns, as well as cruisers "Chervona Ukraina" (Red Ukraine [Ukr.]) and "Krasnii Krim" (Red Crim [Rus.]). The flotilla leader "Tashkent" purchased

from Italy in late 30's also was rearmed with Soviet 130-mm guns. They were, I believe, the best guns of size for the naval combat with ballistic/rate of fire/weight of shell combination better than all 127-138-mm guns around. The problem - they were not universal, and couldn't fire on airplanes, and that was bad. Sergey.

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SPECIAL EVENT REPORT; Aberdeen Proving Grounds

Event: Aberdeen, Md - - - East Coast Military Rally Location: Aberdeen Proving Grounds

Situation: Every military nut for miles arounds shows up, lots of story telling, equipment trading, beer guzzling. Military Vehicles abound. Weather: Excellent, except for Wednesday which was a wash out.Special Dignataries Noted: Surplus Al W3UGD, Jeff Ciccone WA2YOJ

Narrative Thursday: I left my home base Dover, Delaware on Thursday at 0545 hours in my Chevy "CommoVan", the plan was to do a quick recon on Thursday and then drive my M-151 up on Friday and setup real "working radios". Thursday was pretty much of a radio bust but did manage to add a survival radio to my collection and found a PRC-6 for $10 that had 50.9 Mcs crystals in it. The URC-11 was complete with a BA-1315 battery and was working. The troop that

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examined the radio prior to me tried it out and send out the beacon on 243.0 mcs(I dont do megahertzies), you could hear it(the beacon) from the case. He did it several times before I could get the radio out of his hand. Once I had the radio in my hand had to buy it. Then ran into Surplus AL and he was doing a brisk business selling manuals, connectors etc. Bought a lot of RF adapters from him for an excellent price. AL extended the invitation to set up next to him if I came back on Friday and I accepted.Narrative Friday: Departed Dover Delaware at 0530 with the M-151. During my preflight at 2100 hours the evening before I found that the valve in the left tire was not a valve , it would not let any air in or out The tire seemed to be full so I elected not to change any thing, I could not get the valve to unscrew.But decided to download some of the equipment to lighten the load. On my AM departure I had to wear a Watch Hat and M-65 jacket, cool breeze floating in from the ocean and I didnt have any doors or curtains on the jeep. Lonely driving North early in the morning, nothing but jeep sounds, those knobby tires hitting the pavement, sort of a buzzing sound.

Approx 45 minutes out, U joint on the front right side started to make clicking sound, since the shaft was just free wheeling, press on. The jeep had ran fine the weekend before at the Dover Air Show, but now we were on a real cross country mission. Got to rendevous with Surplus AL

and show the Feather Merchants some real radio operation.Stopped in Elton Maryland at MacDonalds, quick snack and had to let several kids sit in jeep. On to Aberdeen, click, click, click, the U Joint sounds nagging at me, also listening for air to exit from front left tire.

Gas gage now going up and down, up and down, all most hitting the stops of the gage, plenty of gas but evidently the pot(variable resistor) in the tank was bad. What keep the gas tank from blowing up with the variable resistor making sparks in the middle of the gas, never have

understood this, any way pressing on.

Arrived at Aberdeen, finally found the encampment area, dodging beer cans on the street as I approach the encampment area, drive around and find Surplus AL, he is happy to see me and I place the Jeep in a strategic spot that I chose the day before during my recon run to get

shade from a tree but still get the antennas partially in the clear. I dont unpack right away as I want to hit the flea market. Found a GRC-9, with canvas cover, cables, mint condition for $135, owner promises me that he will find the vehicle mount kit etc. Then I saw a RS-6 complete, even had a handcrank generator cable which I had not seen before. Started walking around, in my years of hamfesting I have never seen so much green radio equipment. But prices in general were high. The sad part is I saw no World War Two equpment or very much Korean war equipment. Only saw one small Russian piece which was a power supply, looked like aircraft stuff. But there was a lot of it.Returned to Surplus AL's site, he is doing a brisk business, mostly manuals, and he had a lot of em,every Manual needed from Search Lights to PRC-6's. Start talking to AL and for the first time that I have known him find out that he was awarded a Purple Heart, I am stunned.

After a while I sat up. I ran a GRC-109 on 7.038 CW and it worked out fairly well, using a 20 foot vertical and the jeep ground via a slave connector. Also ran a PRC-47 which is on a mobile mount in the jeep. A GRC-9 was also used, using a "inverter power supply from a GE exec" one radio and it worked very well powering the GRC-9 and the GRC-109 transmitter. The CW sounds stabbed the air, the sounds floated across the encampment and lot of folks showed up, courious, asking questions, many had been radio ops in Viet Nam , looks of SF guys, lots of em, ran their fingers over the equipment, bringing back the memories of the camps and the reports to Saigon.

Al came over and picked up the key and started pounded out a CQ, the receiver was slightly overloaded but I turned up the volumn as the crowd gathered. We worked up and down the East Coast on a North South path, not much on 40 to the West. Jeff Ciccone WA2YOJ drops in,

invites me up to the "stealth jeep". I leave AL to man my site and his and visit jeff. Jeff has so much equipment, its hard to mention it all, and its all new stuff that I am not familiar with it, anyway he is the Official East Coast Green Radio Czar, the king, I gave him first place for "radio jeeps" but I was unofficial second.

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Anyway back to Surplus Al's site and my jeep. Stayed on 40 meters, band was dropping in and out. Jeff comes back, people are asking questions about installing equipment in there military vehicles, mostly jeeps, one guy even brings his jeep over- - - Jeff patiently explains

what is needed and how to operate the equipment, What a green radio ambasador!

I break out my two PRC-71's, ask lots of folks if they have seen the radio and if they KNOW WHERE A MANUAL IS LOCATED, no one knows , its like the radio does not exist. Tried out a couple of crystals for the PRC-71 ordered from JAN crystals for a load cap of UUFD( pf to the

new guys)(I don't like to recognize pf's) Crystals worked great and were close to frequency. Worked the 71's for a while on forty and then set them up in the phone band so that the feather merchants and straight leggers could try out SSB or CW, used small antennas with a 50 ohm

resistor built into the antenna to keep the RF radiation range down. 1700 hours, pack up, bid AL a farewell, he comes over to the jeep like he is worried about me and probably with good reason, tell him I will be careful etc. I give Al my last softdrink out of my cooler and wish him luck with the on coming evening, it will get cold.Lonely under the tree. On the road, click, click, click, click, the U joint talking to me. Trucks passing me at 75 MPH, tourist honking their horns because I am to slow, to slo to slo. Kids in the back seat waving.

Gas gage going up and down, its making me nervious, I don't get nervious but pull over and pull the wire out of its connection, now the gage is steady, empty is the reading but steady. Click click click, Finally get to the home barn three hours later.

END OF REPORT Respectfully Breck Smith K4CHE, Dover DELAWARE <SmithAB1@Bellatlantic.net>

WHAT'S BEHIND THE WAR AGAINST COLD FUSION?

[This text by Silicon Valley writer and broadcaster Hal Plotkin (hplotkin@sfgate.com) is reproduced with permission. Plotkin invites all readers to print out this text and send it to your Congressional representatives. A longer version is posted at

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/05/1

7/coldfusion2.dtl. GSReport thanks Dan Drasin for bringing this story to our attention.]

By Hal Plotkin Special to SF Gate May 17, 1999

Dr. Michael McKubre, an electrochemist at Menlo Park, California-based SRI,was generating unaccounted-for heat in a carefully-controlled cold fusion experiment. McKubre presented his findings at the centennial meeting of the American Physical Society, the nation's premier gathering of physicists. Close to 100 scientists attended McKubre's talk, a sizable audience for a technical session. Despite the crowd, and the importance of the subject, no major news stories have been published about the event. According to McKubre, there was only one journalist present. In his talk, McKubre detailed the results of SRI's nearly 10-year effort to replicate the work of Utah chemists Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann. McKubre confirmed that, under the right, difficult-to-achieve conditions, sustained reactions are taking place in SRI's cold fusion cells. McKubre says the reaction appears to be nuclear in origin. In addition to carefully measuring the excess heat being produced, McKubre has also detected elevated quantities of Helium-4, a known fusion by-product. McKubre's findings turn what is currently known about nuclear science on its head.

But that is only half the story.

Since writing my first report on McKubre's work two months ago, I've become convinced that the federal Department of Energy is responsible for a massive failure to serve the public interest. Rather than budget the funds needed to explore this new, emerging science, our top national energy science officials have adopted what might be called, at best, a policy of benign neglect. At worst, it's a policy of fraud and deceit.

How could this be happening?

The stakes in the debate about cold fusion are enormous. In this case, an unholy alliance seems to have come together. The principle players are the fossil fuel industry, which has no interest in

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seeing itself eclipsed by a new, non-polluting source of energy, and the mainstream physics community, which wants to protect, seemingly at all costs, the federal funding it relies on to continue its massively expensive hot fusion experiments.

I've seen how squirrelly even good people can get when a few of their bucks are in jeopardy. So it's not surprising that when several trillion dollars are on the table, there are signs of skullduggery. Take, for starters, the Energy Resources Advisory Board (ERAB) panel

appointed during the Bush administration to look into the cold fusion claims made by Pons and Fleischmann. That panel leaned heavily on an experiment done at MIT that found the field unworthy of financial support. Since then,however, Dr. Eugene Mallove, the chief science writer at MIT at the time, has come forward to denounce the MIT study, citing irregularities in the way MIT's results were presented. Mallove contends MIT's researchers did generate excess heat in their cold fusion experiment, and then fudged that finding in their final report. As evidence, Mallove has produced a copy of the original heat-measurement graph used in the MIT experiment, which showed slight heat production above the expected level. That graph did not appear in the final MIT report. In its place, the MIT team published an "adjusted" graph that showed no production of excess heat.

Mallove resigned in protest and demanded an investigation. In addressing Mallove's complaint, MIT did not dispute that the original graph had been altered. Instead, one of the 15 authors of the MIT report was permitted to take the unusual step of changing the description of the experiment's purpose, AFTER the paper describing it was published. According to an appendix added to the report as a result of the investigation into Mallove's charges, the experiment was redefined to have been a search for a sudden onset of released energy, rather than to determine if unaccounted-for heat was being generated in cold fusion cells. Mallove contends MIT's handling of the matter was fatally flawed. "In science, we don't usually allow anyone to redefine the purpose of an experiment to match the results," he says.

Since then, with funding from futurist Arthur C. Clarke, Mallove has been publishing "Infinite Energy" magazine, a publication devoted to spreading news about cold fusion experiments. Last month, Mallove released "Fire From Water," a video documentary about cold fusion. Mallove is currently negotiating with several national networks interested in broadcasting the newly released video.

There are several incredible moments in "Fire From Water." It contains, for example, the first video footage I've seen of sustained energy releases in cold fusion cells. It's easy to see why the scientists involved immediately assumed some kind of nuclear reaction was taking place. The cells bubble with energy, emitting steam in amounts far greater than can be explained by the energy put into them. In some cases, the reactions go on for days, even weeks.

But there's more.

In a telling interview, former Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) executive Tom Passell says that at least some of those involved in the campaign to debunk cold fusion intentionally misled congressional investigators and the public. EPRI is the Palo Alto, California-based consortium of utility companies that conducts research into power generation and distribution technologies. Besides his professional credentials, Passell has an excellent reputation as a longtime, well-known, Palo Alto civic volunteer. Passell says that shortly after the ERAB panel persuasively denounced cold fusion as junk science in congressional testimony, some of the members of that panel quietly came to EPRI seeking money so they could study the phenomena themselves. Apparently, cold fusion research was only worthless if someone else was getting the money to do it.

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If Passell's charge is true, it means some members of the ERAB panel intentionally lied to Congress, offering scientific testimony that cold fusion was unworthy of further study, testimony which they knew to be false. In non-scientific language, that's called perjury. "The search for money, for research funds, is a big thing," Passell says, "and sometimes takes precedence over the search for what we call truth." Despite the federal government's ongoing obstruction, scientists around the world are continuing to investigate cold fusion. Several recent advances are worth noting.

Les Case, an MIT-trained chemical engineer with more than 20 patents under his belt, discovered that cold fusion reactions could be made more reliable by the addition of a carbon catalyst. Case used his own funds to support his work; his technique is the one now being replicated by SRI's McKubre. Others have made similar observations, most notably Tom Claytor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. (Interestingly, the current firestorm of controversy about the alleged leaking of nuclear secrets to the Chinese at Los Alamos may make it harder, in the future, to obtain information about the successful Los Alamos cold fusion experiments).

The biggest slam against cold fusion researchers involves their inability to replicate the same results each time they conduct the experiment. But, as McKubre points out, the same could have been said about the first transistors. Due to problems with material impurities, only one in a hundred or so of the first transistors worked. By studying those that did work, however, scientists were able to perfect the invention. The same thing happened with integrated circuits, which led to the clean rooms that carefully control the manufacturing environment now used to produce computer chips.

When it comes to cold fusion, however, the detractors in the Department of Energy say further scientific inquiry should be abandoned because, in as many as seven out of ten tries, cold fusion does not work. (Les Case is claiming he's got the failure rate down to just 10-20 percent. Recently, he visited McKubre's SRI lab to demonstrate his latest techniques). It may be hard to believe that people with vested interests could have been responsible for dampening, and nearly killing, this field for the last 10 years. Until you realize how much money is involved.

We're not just talking about the $15 billion the U.S. has spent in the last few decades to support the work of hot fusion scientists, such as those who dominated the ERAB panel. Those scientists and their institutions would, of course, be forced to find a new paradigm, and new funds, to support themselves if cold fusion theories proved valid. But that is just the tip of the financial iceberg. The foundation of the fossil fuel dependent international economy is also on the line, down to the last nuclear power plant, coal mine, and neighborhood gas station. It's no wonder some people are worried. It would be remarkable if they were not taking steps to stop advancements in this field.

Clearly, though, stepped up cold fusion research efforts are called for. Even if cold fusion claims are bogus, we'll undoubtedly learn a lot we don't know about material sciences and electrochemistry, two fields vital to future scientific progress. It is not enough, though, to encourage the handful of scientists who, against all the obstacles, have secured funding to continue work on cold fusion. We need a full-scale investigation into the Department of Energy's ongoing campaign to discredit scientists working on understanding the unusual, and potentially useful, cold fusion effect. And the first person we should call on the carpet is the Secretary of Energy, Bill Richardson. If Secretary Richardson could find time to visit Monica Lewinsky's apartment to offer her a job, he can surely find time to answer a few questions about

his department's continuing role in retarding the progress of cold fusion investigations.

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U.S. Stinger Missile Used Worldwide By ANNE GEARAN

WASHINGTON (AP) -- At about 35 pounds, the shoulder-fired Stinger missile that India claims Pakistani forces used to shoot down two aircraft in the disputed Kashmir region is a favorite of soldiers, terrorists and guerrillas worldwide. They're deadly and difficult for pilots to target from the air. They are also relatively cheap, with a black market price of $50,000 to $80,000 each.

The State Department warned last year of the proliferation over the past two decades of hundreds of thousands of American-made surface-to-air Stinger missiles and their foreign-made counterparts. ``In the wrong hands, such exports can endanger our people and empower our

adversaries,'' Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said last year, noting that's why the United States has imposed restrictions on export of Stingers.

Since the 60-inch Stingers were tested in the late 1970s, about two dozen countries and groups have acquired them, either by authorized U.S. sales and agreements or through the black market. In addition to major European allies, Israel, Japan, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia and South Korea have Stingers. So do Iran and Qatar, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Angola and, reportedly, China.

The United States provided about 900 Stingers to guerrillas in Afghanistan after the Soviet Union invaded in 1979. They have spread to other countries and groups since, and the United States has been buying back the missiles where it can. The CIA has reportedly spent more than $55 million on that effort. The State Department estimates 115 countries and dozens of groups are equipped with shoulder-fired missiles. Serb forces are using less-sophisticated Soviet-designed versions against NATO aircraft and missiles over Yugoslavia, but there is no official word on whether the shoulder-fired weapons have hit anything. The United States first used the Stinger in combat during the Grenada invasion in 1983. Descendants of that missile are still in use by the Army and by other U.S. forces to a lesser extent. The shoulder-fired version is used by ground forces, and the Army also puts an air-to-air version aboard combat helicopters. The Stinger is fired from a disposable launch tube and requires no field testing or maintenance, the Army claims. The missile uses infrared seekers to home in on airplanes and is equipped with a six-pound penetrating warhead. AP-NY-05-28-99 1809EDT

Jane's Defence Upgrades1-15 June 1999

First Swedish Pbv-501 on show in Brno The first Pbv-501 infantry fighting vehicle to be overhauled and partially upgraded by VOP-026 Sternberk for the Swedish Army was displayed at the IDET 1999 exhibition held in Brno in the Czech Republic in May. Pbv-501 is the designation applied to the ex-East German BVP-1s acquired by Sweden in 1994, 350 of which will undergo a modernisation programme at VOP-026.

Marines plan Hornet avionics modernisation The U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) is starting to modernise the avionics and mission capabilities of its Boeing F/A-18A Hornet fighters. Using the

Engineering Change Programme (ECP), it is intended to upgrade all the F/A-18As in the USMC's two active and four reserve operational squadrons plus some attrition reserves totalling 76 aircraft, to F/A-18C avionics standards under ECP-583.

Swiss Skyguard to be enhanced The Swiss Army is modernising the Skyguard fire-control unit used withits twin 35mm low-level air defence gun system. Oerlikon Contraves is to upgrade 66 systems, the first of which is to be completed during the third quarter of this year, with the final unit to be delivered by the end of 2001. The value of the contract, which will see Skyguard equipped for 21st Century targets, has not yet been disclosed.

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Upgrades feature in Greek fighter procurement A number of in-service Hellenic Air Force F-16C/Ds and Mirage 2000EGs are to be upgraded as part of a Greek fighter procurement plan. The 36 in-service Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 30s will be upgraded to Block 50+ standard, while 10 Dassault Mirage 2000EGs will be upgraded to Mirage 2000-5 Mk 2 configuration. The latter will serve alongside 15 new fighters of this type to be ordered.

BACKGROUND BRIEF: US Army moves UH-1 upgrades towards funding One of the most long-standing of US Army upgrade requirements is the need to keep long-serving Bell UH-1H/V Iroquois (`Huey') helicopters in service with their reserve components until 2025. This has recently increased in priority, since the grounding of the entire UH-1 fleet last month for structural and system inspections, following a fatal crash. David C Isby reports.

TECHNOLOGY INSERTION: Scorpion family LEP begins The first examples of the British Army's Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) (CVR[T]) Scorpion family to be refitted with a Cummins diesel engine were handed over at the Alvis Vehicles Limited (AVL) Telford facility in April. Christopher F Foss reports these were the first 200 members of the CVR(T) light armoured vehicle family to be re-engined under the British Army's Scorpion Life Extension Programme - one of ten pilot programmes chosen by the UK Ministry of Defence to the test Integrated Project Team concept, a key part of the Smart Procurement Initiative

FOREIGN REPORT Issue 2547 June 10th 1999 website: http//:www.foreignreport.com

Next ethnic hot spot: Crimea... As in Kosovo, Muslims confront Orthodox Christians

UKRAINIAN authorities remain concerned that Tatar grievances in the Crimea could turn the region into another sort of Kosovo. The area's autonomous status was abolished at the end of the second world war in 1944: returning Soviet troops ethnically cleansed the peninsula

of its Tatar population after accusing them of collaboration with the Nazis. Many Tatars died en route to Uzbekistan, where 200,000 still reside. Many thousands have been returning to the Crimea, which they claim is their ancestral home.

...or nuclear India and Pakistan? ACCORDING to a well-placed source, while the dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir rumbles on,Pakistan is readying itself for a further test of its Ghauri-2 ballistic missile.

Kosovo: what kind of victory? ALTHOUGH the Yugoslav generals were at midweek playing for time about the withdrawal of their armed forces from Kosovo, it seemed certain that, barring unforeseen upsets, NATO's terms would ultimately be imposed on Yugoslavia, as we predicted. What kind of victory will it be? This exclusive report provides some answers. 9 June 1999 Japan's improbable premier JAPANESE prime ministers rarely cut a dash. The present prime minister, Keizo Obuchi, is no exception. He replaced a flashier and more determined predecessor who had nonetheless failed to lift Japan out of its prolonged recession. Obuchi looked like a dismal mediocrity. His only skill seemed to be that of an operator doing political deals in smoke-filled back rooms. He had no policies, no vision for Japan's future. Won't last long, you say? Wrong.

Better than Nigeria TANZANIA was described in a recent report as being the fourth worst example of corruption in Africa, on a par with Nigeria. No longer. There has been a surprising turn-about.

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Missile Defense System Scores Hit 10 June 1999 THAAD system launches AP/Tom Moore

WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M. (AP) — After six straight failures, a $3.8 billion experimental missile-defense system scored its first hit Thursday, shooting down a rocket in a test that left a puff of smoke and a twisted white trail of vapor across the desert sky.

It was a much-needed boost to the Army's effort to create an antimissile umbrella that would protect ground troops across an entire war zone. The project, the Theater High-Altitude Area Defense system, is designed to use ground-launched missiles to destroy incoming enemy missiles. Some critics have complained that the cost is too high and have expressed doubts over whether it will even work. ``For all of those people who stood on the House floor and said missile defense doesn't work, guess what? Today we hit a bullet with a bullet,'' Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., one of the most outspoken advocates of a national missile-defense system, said in Congress. The previous failures were an inevitable part of the process of developing a new technology, he said. THAAD is supposed to strike missiles at high altitudes — even above the atmosphere. In contrast, the Patriot missiles used during the Persian Gulf War to knock down Scuds strikes at lower altitudes and relies not on a direct hit but on a warhead that explodes near the target.

THAAD also differs from President Reagan's unfulfilled vision of a ``Star Wars'' antimissile shield for the nation that could knock thousands of enemy missiles from the sky. That plan included high-powered orbiting lasers that would zap missiles in flight.

THAAD had nine previous flight tests — three to test equipment and six failed attempts to strike a target missile over the Army missile range in New Mexico. Three more flight tests are planned. THAAD is made by Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space, which was fined $15 million after THAAD's sixth failure March 29. If THAAD cannot make a second successful intercept by July 16, Lockheed will owe an extra $20 million in penalties.

``This is a great day for America, the Army and the missile defense community,'' said army Col. Lou Deeter, THAAD program manager. ``We appreciate all the people standing behind us and letting us prove this could happen.'' The target missile lifted off first, then the THAAD missile lifted off 120 miles to the south from White Sands and struck the target seven minutes later, creating a burst of debris in the clear sky. ``I think I can put it in four letters — B-A-N-G,'' said Bob Hunt, spokesman for the Army's program executive office for air and missile defense in Huntsville, Ala. The aerial display could be seen throughout New Mexico and as far west as Phoenix. ``It was beautiful,'' said Lee Phares, a waitress who saw it on her way to work in Las Cruces, just southwest of White Sands. ``It was curved and it was pretty.'' Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington-based group that has been critical of the program, was unconvinced. ``The 1-for-7 record isn't that much better than 0-for-6,'' said Brian Hughes, director of the group's national security reform project. It's a batting average that shouldn't put that in the starting lineup for missile defense.''

US Suspects Some of Smallpox Weapon.c The Associated Press(U.S. Government Officials Say Russia, Iraq, North Korea Likely Concealing Deadly Smallpox Virus For Military Usel)NEW YORK (AP) - Government officials say Russia, Iraq and North Korea are probably concealing the deadly smallpox virus for military use, The New York Times reports in Sunday editions. A secret federal intelligence assessment was completed late last year. It was based on evidence that includes disclosures by a senior Soviet defector, blood samples from the North Korean soldiers that show smallpox vaccinations and the fairly recent manufacture of smallpox vaccine by Iraq, according to the report.Officials told the Times that the assessment was an important factor in President Clinton's recent decision to reverse course and forgo destruction of American stockpiles of the virus.Besides the United States, only Russia retains openly declared stocks of the virus. The intelligence assessment concludes that Russia is most likely hiding additional stocks of the virus at military sites, the Times said.Although the United States has about 56,000 troops stationed near Iraq and North Korea and is periodically bombing Iraq, the officials told the newspaper there are appears to be no imminent military threat

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involving the virus.The virus that causes smallpox is known as variola. It ravaged the globe,

killing millions and crippling man survivors. Victims had high fever, nausea and a pronounced rash.The United States unilaterally renounced germ warfare in 1969 and lobbied for a 1972 international treaty banning such arms that more than 100 countries, including the Soviet Union, signed.AP-NY-06-12-99 2151EDT

The July 1999 issue (Vol. 9, No. 4) of JOURNAL OF MILITARY ORDNANCE contains:

IDEX-99, by Steven Zaloga, Andrew Hull, and David Markov. (Report on the latest armor shown at the international defense expo in Abu Dhabi.)

THE GUATEMALAN RBY-MK1, by Julio Montes. (Armored transport vehicle built to travel mined roads.)

US ARMY ORDNANCE MUSEUM, by Dr. William Atwater. (News from Aberdeen. Please welcom Dr. Peter Kindsvatter, the new Ordnance Corps Historian.)

ABERDEEN'S GERMAN VEHICLE MOTORPOOL, by Adam Geibel. (List of the original 1945 German holdings at Aberdeen.)

SOUTH WAZIRISTAN SCOUTS CHEVROLET LORRY, by Adam Geibel. (1937 improvised armored truck of the Indian Army.)

OPERATION JUST CAUSE. (Parachuting M551A1 Sheridans into combat in Panama,1989. Eight tanks were dropped at 0125. The first one to be found by its crew was at 0600. Two of the eight were damaged in landing.)

VBL: A COAT OF MANY COLORS, by Steven Zaloga. (Panhard armored car in service with France and many other countries, with several color photos.)

Plus book reviews and current news reports. 30 pages with black and white and color illustrations. ISSN 1088-0852. Six times per year from Darlington Productions, Inc. PO Box 5884, Darlington, MD 21034, $24 in USA.

Airship fire mystery solved after 60 years

The last moments of the Hindenburg THE true cause of the most dramatic air disaster in history, the crash of the airship Hindenburg, has been revealed by new evidence which overturns the official explanation, accepted for the past 60 years. Until now, the finger of blame has been pointed at the highly inflammablehydrogen gas used by the airship, the largest ever built, which burst into flames at the end of a flight from Germany to America on May 6, 1937. But new research to be announced next month will show that the disaster would still have happened if modern, non-flammable helium had been used. The real culprit was an explosive mix of chemicals used to paint the fabric of the 800ft-long airship. The final moments of the Hindenburg were captured in famous newsreel footage showing it approaching Lakenhurst naval base, New Jersey, after its transatlantic flight. Having been delayed by electrical storms, it arrived in the early evening and dropped landing lines in preparation for mooring. Seconds later, the entire airship was engulfed in flames, and after hovering for a few moments it crashed tail-first on to the ground. Of the 97 crew and passengers on board, 36 were killed. At the time, a host of theories was put forward, ranging from a turkey farmer shooting at the Nazi-sponsored airship, to sabotage. The official investigation ultimately pinned the blame on a leak of hydrogen gas ignited by static electricity from the nearby storms. But now Dr Addison Bain, an expert in rocket fuels at Nasa, the US space agency, claims that the standard explanation is contradicted by the newsreel images. These show huge flames travelling along the airship from stern to bow.

Burning hydrogen produces flames that are invisible in daylight, and which shoot vertically upward, he said. " "The Hindenburg just didn't look anything like a hydrogen fire." Witnesses also reported red and orange flames with the newsreel showing the fabric of the airship being engulfed at the rate of 50ft per second. This suggests that the fire was linked to chemicals used to give the cotton fabric a reflective coating, to prevent expansion of the hydrogen gas by the sun's heat. Dr Bain carried out tests on a remnant of the fabric retrieved from the crash. The coating of aluminium powder and iron oxide is a combination now known to burn explosively

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when ignited by a spark, and which is actually used as rocket fuel for the US Space Shuttle. The mix is also an electricity conductor.

Dr Bain said: "Electrostatic charge has an affinity to aluminium, and once the reaction starts the aluminium gets very hot." He believes that this deadly combination of properties was responsible for the Hindenburg disaster, beginning with a huge build-up of static electricity. He said:

"The intense heat expanded the hydrogen gas to the point where it actually exploded." The fact that hydrogen itself did not caused the Hindenburg disaster could help rehabilitate the gas, he believes. Some say it is an ideal "green" fuel. Dr Bain's research will be put to the test using fabric from the Hindenburg in a television documentary to be screened next month. Many airship experts are already convinced. Michael Rentell, of the Airship Association, said: "It is a very good theory in that it is based on science, and Dr Bain certainly knows what he is talking about."

· What Happened to the Hindenburg? will be screened on Channel 4 on July 6 as part of the Secrets of the Dead series which starts on Tuesday.

FRENCH RESISTANCE DURING WW II

Mike Ballard. a history teacher at Crystal River High School in Florida asked the WW II Discussin list : This week's question, since there are French members of the list, concerns the French Resistance during the war.

How widespread was the membership? How did one join (I don't believe that there were public recruiting stations)? Were French women active? What support did they get from the Allies? How effective were they? And how did they get those radio phrases we saw on "The Longest Day"? I do realize that the other occupied nations also had resistance movements, and that those caught payed a high price. There are a great many written accounts of the French Resistance Movement (French Forces of the Interior, and "Maquis"). Not to denigrate the gallant French resistants, one might mention they were greatly supported, supplied, and trained by British organizations, notably Special Operations Executive, and by the American OSS. Those "radio messages" you mention originated from SOE's French Section in London. Women were very active in the Resistance. Though there must be numerous books written in French about it, you may find it more practical to read those in English. Here's a few worthy of study:

CLANDESTINE OPERATIONS: Arms & Techniques Of The Resistance 1941-1944, by Pierre Loraine

SPECIALLY EMPLOYED: The Story Of British Aid To French Patriots In The Resistance, by Col Maurice Buckmaster

MAQUIS and ROAD TO RESISTANCE, both by George Millar

SOE IN FRANCE: An Account Of The Work Of The British Special Operations In France, 1940-46, by M.R.D. Foot

A good few on women agents, including: CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE, ODETTE,NANCY WAKE

BRITAIN AND EUROPEAN RESISTANCE, by David Stafford

CANADIANS BEHIND ENEMY LINES, by Roy MacLaren

Plenty of summer reading! Enjoy. -- Sidney Allinson.

World War II Bombs Found in Germany .c The Associated Press

GOETTINGEN, Germany (AP) - About 7,000 people were evacuated from their homes in this central German city Saturday after two American-made World War II era bombs were uncovered near railway tracks. A home for the elderly was evacuated early in the afternoon and patrol cars

used loudspeakers to order other residents in the area to leave for temporary quarters set up for them in public buildings. A bomb team was preparing to defuse the smallest bomb, a 500-pound explosive, police said. The other device, a 1,000 pound bomb, was too rusted to permit experts to defuse it at the site and police said it would be moved to an isolated construction waste depot to be detonated. More than 50 years after the war, old bombs and ammunition are still regularly found in Germany. Most recent finds have been in former East Germany, where excavation for new construction projects have often uncovered leftover bombs since reunification in 1990.

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A question was asked about a Japanese handgrenade. Gordon Rottman sent in this response:

The weapon in question is as follows (extracted from my WWII grenade book):

Model 1 Frangible Toxic Gas Hand Grenade (SEISAN SHURUDAN) Glass gas grenades were captured on Guadalcanal and in Burma early in the war. Its designation is unconfirmed and is believed to have actually been developed in the 1930s. They were also identified as "T.B. grenades" by Allied intelligence, but the meaning is unknown. These are the gas grenades once employed against British tanks in Burma near Imphal in 1942. They were filled with liquid hydrocyanic acid (AC), a blood gas derived from hydrogen cyanide. These grenades were initially reported as filled with 80 percent hydrogen cyanide (aka prussic acid). They were found stabilized with either powdered copper (Cu) or arsenic trichloride (AsCl3). Both types had metal crown caps. The copper-stabilized type had a rounded bottom with a cork plug and the other a flat bottom and a rubber plug under the caps. The copper-stabilized type was packed in a metal can and the second in a cylindrical cardboard container. Both types were further packed individually in larger cylindrical metal cans with a web carrying strap. The inner containers were double walled (sides, bottom, and lid) and filled with neutralizing agent-soaked sawdust. The arsenic trichloride-stabilized type were called the 172 B-K and 172 C-K by Allied intelligence after container markings, but these were almost certainly lot numbers rather than designations. (In early 1943, the US Military Intelligence Division reported a similar grenade being used by the Germans, but this turned out to be a mistake due to misidentification of Japanese grenades captured on Guadalcanal and retuned to the States where they were mixed up.)

Weight: 1.2 lbs Diameter: 3.9 in

Construction: glass body, steel cap Filler: 12.2 oz liquid hydrocyanic acid with stabilizer Fuze: none Causality Radius: INAIdentification: clear glass body, yellowish (copper-stabilized) or greenish (arsenic trichloride-stabilized) liquid, light olive drab shipping can with brown band Fig. 9-18 There was also a glass screening smoke grenade of similar design. Yes, it is in violation of the Hague Convention, but so was mistreatment of POWs. Gordon Rottman

CHANGE OF COMMAND AT THE 203RD IN JULY 1999

Maj. Chris Winne spoke with Maj.Randy Conlon who is back at APG, and will take command of the 203d on 13 July. LTC McGrath, will head to the Army Staff this Summer. We wish Maj. Conlon a successful tour and we also wish LTC McGrath success on the DA Staff. Another voice with Technical Intel experience at the highest levels. Like General Electric, "Progress is our most important product" WLH

VISITORS TO THE W.L. HOWARD TECHNICAL INTELLIGNCE MUSEUM

During the Memorial Day weekend, Majors St Cyr and Winne, now with CENTCOM and SOUTHCOM intelligence staffs came for a visit. Both are veterans of THE 203RD and Technical Intelligence and it was good to see them again

ANOTHER TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE VETERAN

LTC Howard, having been stationed at FSTC during the 70's, I enjoyed touring your virtual museum. It brought back many memories. I noticed in one of the pictures that you used the acronym "MEXPO". As an Arabic linguist, I worked on Project MEXPO in the early 70's, prior to going to FSTC in 1974 when I worked on Project Druid Grove. Do you know if these projects or if any of the intelligence derived from these projects has been declassified? I would be interested in obtaining some of the translations I did at that time. Any information you have would be appreciated. I was military. Army Security Agency. 2 trips through DLI, first for Arabic, then for Russian. I spent about 6 months at NSA, 6 months in Ethiopia, 6 months with Project Mexpo and 18 months at FSTC. For my non-ASA assignments I was assigned to ASA battalions at either Ft. Bragg or Ft. Hood and attached for duty in Washington and Charlottesville.Regards, Phil Daneman

This page last updated June 15, 2004