I thought I’d try an experiment in blogging: a five part series going into the details of Iran’s liquid-propellant missile development program; something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. (The over-all title of the series is “Scaling Up the SCUD” but I don’t have enough room to put that in every time.) Iran’s missiles …
Tauscher Roundtable on Nukes
by | 2008-11-17 | 5 Comments
Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) gave an outstanding talk to a roundtable I co-hosted this morning at the Center for American Progress, my home institution, to mark the release of a study by Joe Cirincione and me, Orienting the 2009 Nuclear Posture Review: A Roadmap. Congresswoman Tauscher, who chairs the Strategic Forces Subcommittee of the House …
When is a Solid-Propellant Rocket Not?
by | 2008-11-17 | 42 Comments
How about when half of it is liquid propellants? How about when it includes all of the deadweight—fuel tanks, turbopumps, and engines—associated with liquid propellant engines? How about when it makes no attempt to solve one of the major problems of solid-propellant technology: thrust vector control? Hi wonk readers! Jeffrey has kindly taken off my …
Have a Sense of Humor
by | 2008-11-14 | 11 Comments
I’ve now gotten several emails asking who was the inspiration for the Cold War Troglodyte. One writer wondered if it was an amalgam of Keir Lieber and Daryl Press. Another thought maybe Ward Wilson. This is ridiculous. Given that Press and Lieber are about as far from Ward Wilson as I can imagine, I realize …
