QB-19 RCAT Drone Was Not "Top Secret" Copyright 2024 by Michael H. Maggelet QB-19 RCAT Drone Was Not "Top Secret" Recent news articles and websites are promoting a myth that the RCAT QB-19 drone and its derivatives, produced by Radioplane and used by the Army as a target drone, was "top secret".    In fact, I have yet to find any reference that the common drone, or its radar guidance and tracking system, was even classified.  The RCAT was produced under various designations from 1946 to the mid '80's, and saw service worldwide.  Yahoo News article parroting the myth ..read more

 "Reasons Why Pentagon Won't Shoot Down Chinese Spy Balloons" 1 April 2024, Copyright 2024 by Michael H. Maggelet 1. Shooting down balloon in sparsley populated Montana or North Dakota may trigger a "near peer" balloon arms race between Montana and North Dakota. 2. Tourists may confuse deflated balloons for obese Lewis and Clark reenactors, buckskinners, and USAF missile officers. 3. Don't want to provoke Putin, nor any Winnie the Pooh balloons. 4. Local ranchers may confuse balloon debris for UFO, much to the detriment of actual UFO crash sites in New Mexico. 5. Gender identity of ..read more

 B-52 Prep for Release Checklist Copyright 2023 by Michael H. Maggelet    A blog reader asked if I had a copy of the release sequence for the B-52 in relation to the 1961 Goldsboro Broken Arrow involving two Mark 39 weapons, so I dug up this document from the archives. It should be noted that over the decades, the nuclear safety rules varied slightly with changes in equipment, so the basic procedures will differ slightly.     Excerpt from "Joint Task Force 8, Ad Hoc Group for Nuclear Safety, Technical Nuclear Safety of Project Dominic, B-52 Airdrops, 26 February ..read more

US Should Retain B83 Bomb Copyright 2023 by Michael H. Maggelet   The B83 strategic bomb, first deployed to FB-111 bases in mid 1984 (and later to SAC B-52's), was derived from the B77 thermonuclear bomb. I worked on the first mod of the B83, and since it was a newly deployed modern weapon, there wasn't much maintenance to perform internally. There were several retrofits accomplished just as I arrived at my new base, and the B83 was a welcome arrival compared to the B43 bomb which had been in the stockpile since 1960.   I won't go into the technical details regarding the B83, only ..read more

  Soviet Officer “Saves World” Bravo Sierra Note- I wrote this piece in 2019 on another blog, and unfortunately Leftist propaganda continues to deceive those naive enough to believe such nonsense.   Copyright 2019 by M. H. Maggelet   Time and again we read stories about Soviet officers performing their internationalist and progressive duties, and in the face of overwhelming imperialist hegemony and provocation, they manage to save the world from a nuclear holocaust and restore collective peace and international justice, etc. That’s what the Left wing ..read more

Air Force Times Washington, D.C.- 1 April 2023   The U.S. Air Force announced today that the special military operation conducted by General Merrill McPeak in the '90's resulting in changes to U.S. Air Force regulations, specialty codes, and uniforms will be reverted to the 1986 era.    This move, designed to improve morale, will be implemented immediately and will revert all Air Force Instructions back to "Regulations", which were in place since the end of WWII. Additionally, Air Force airmen, totally confused about ever changing annual physical testing requirements, will now h ..read more

DOD Officially Releases UAP (UFO) Footage Copyright 2020 by Michael H. Maggelet     While footage of U.S. Navy F/A-18’s filming “unidentified aerial phenomena” was circulating for years on Youtube, the Department of Defense formally released the videos on April 27, 2020.   Unfortunately for history, the footage does not reveal the speed of these craft in the display data, and interestingly enough, analysis of the videos do not show contrails nor residual heat signature from a power source (the IR heat signature over the craft is uniform). However, testimony from USS Nimitz per ..read more

  Could The Moskva Have Been Carrying Nuclear Weapons? Possibly. Copyright 17 April 2022 by Michael H. Maggelet   The recent sinking of the Russian Federation Navy flagship Moskva (formerly the “Slava”, i.e. Gloryin Russian) has brought concerns by some in the media that the warship may have been carrying nuclear weapons.   The possibility exists that the ship may have been carrying nuclear weapons, however there are no public announcements made by NATO countries, which likely have surveyed the area of Moskva’s sinking in the Black Sea.   Aerial sniffer aircraft, such as ..read more

US Nuclear Weapons Not On "Hair Trigger" Alert Copyright 2019 by Michael H. Maggelet     Another longstanding myth perpetuated by anti-nuclear activists and organizations is the claim that US nuclear weapon systems such as ICBM’s and SLBM's are on “hair trigger alert”. This is nonsense, since US nuclear weapons require authentication and enabling before launch. The time it takes to perform these actions takes several minutes (for nuclear release). As far as tactical and strategic nuclear aircraft, they have not flown airborne alert missions since 1968, and ground alert was cancelled ..read more

Air Force to Change Nuclear Weapons Terms and Glossary (1 April 2022, Albuquerque, NM).   In keeping with other branches of the US military, the Air Force recently announced changes to the nomenclature for nuclear weapons materials and components.   “This is a practice that is long overdue, and we need change” stated Colonel Rike Moades, noting that in the early days of the nuclear weapons field, weapon components were known by their drawing number and a long name. For instance, the H-12 Handtruck, first developed and used in 1950 with the Mark 4 bomb as the “Cartridge Dolly”, conti ..read more