Tag: military

  • The Sinking of the Vasa

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    In 1628, Sweden launched one of its largest and most powerful warships not just in Sweden, but in all of Europe. She was to participate in the wars with Poland and Lithuania as Sweden sought to expand her growing empire. After two years of construction in Stockholm’s naval yard she set sail into a calm…

  • Missile Defence Systems

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    Brendan Barry
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    North Korea tested another missile yesterday. And while we do not have the precise details, I happened to come across this video from the New York Times exploring the different means by which the United States defends against missile threats. It makes use of some nice illustrations and motion graphics to explain ballistic missiles and…

  • The Missing Argentinian Sub

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    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    A story over the last several days you  may not have heard about concerns the disappearance of the ARA San Juan, an Argentinian Navy submarine. Here in the US and over in the UK, we use rather large nuclear-powered submarines. They can travel the world underwater without ever coming up for air. But most of the rest…

  • The Demilitarised Zone

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    Brendan Barry
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    Over the weekend, the American and North Korean leaders got into an argument with the North Korean leader calling President Trump old and the American leader calling Kim Jong Un short and fat. High class diplomacy. So what holds the North Korean army, by numbers likely not quality one of the largest armed forces in the…

  • North Korea’s Missile Programme

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Another week, another batch of news and posturing from North Korea. So I was delighted to see last week a post from Politico exploring the history of the North Korean missile programme with data visualisation. This kind of maps are my favourite for these types of stories. So often people get locked into this idea…

  • The World’s Fighter Jets

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    As you know, I am a sucker for military-related things. So here we have a piece from the Wall Street Journal on the leading fighter jets of the world. If you have a bone to pick on which jets were included, please take that up with them and not me. The screenshot is from the…

  • North Korea’s Latest Missile Test

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    If you missed it—and these days that is entirely possible—over the weekend, North Korea tested yet another missile. It did land very far away as it fell just off the coast of North Korea near Russia. But it did travel far enough away to be of concern. Why? Well, this print graphic from the New York Times…

  • How to Identify Certain Birds

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    The skies have lots of birds. Here’s a graphic from xkcd to help you identify them all. Because it’s Friday. Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.

  • The Mother Of All Bombs

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    Brendan Barry
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    Yesterday the United States dropped a GBU.43 on a cave complex in eastern Afghanistan. The bomb is better known by its nickname MOAB, Mother Of All Bombs. But just how does the GBU.43 compare to some of the more common—and not so common—weapons in the US arsenal? What we do know is that yesterday was…

  • North Korea’s Missile Programme

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    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    So here’s how this week was supposed to go. I was going to write about the Northern Irish election Monday and then Tuesday was going to be a piece from the New York Times that looked at the public’s concerns facing an incoming president. This piece I was going to save for later. But then…