Friday, June 22, 2012

SAM Update...update, plus I&A

Just about done with the updating.  For now all that has been accomplished is a sanity check of individual locations (which took a lot of time given that there are well over 7,000 sites), with some updates and deletions.  I have yet to go through China's EW sites to reattack the radar ID issue, that'll be next. 

One thing I have decided to do is go through Russia and China and break everything down by military region.  In these two cases, you'll be able to open the country folder, and see a series of subfolders for each MR.  These folders will be organized the same way the country folders are now, with subfolders for active sites, facilities, etc.  Also, the MR subfolders will also be "clickable" the same way country folders are now.  When you click on Russia, for example, a window will appear giving you the overall totals for Russia.  Then when you click on the Western Region folder, for example, you'll get the totals for that individual region.  This will make things like updating the Russia and China air defense articles for I&A that much easier as well, as I will no longer have to spend time separating everything out.

When the Russia and China breakdowns are done, I'll update the files.  Doing China's EW sites will be a bit more time consuming so it'll likely appear in the next update.  I also may go back and heavily alter the Historical Sites idea, using it only to store sites that have actually disappeared.  Given that some countries re-use old SAM sites for newer systems (like Russia) I can't justify moving, say, their SA-2 sites into the Historical section en masse.  If it can't be done there, it shouldn't be done anywhere in order to maintain consistency.

Working a few new projects for IHS Jane's as well, more details on those to follow when it gets closer to publication.  For now, pick up the next issue of Defence Weekly, I just might be quoted in there.

The June I&A is coming along, with a few interesting topics.  There will be a Syrian air defense network piece, an examination of what might be a new radar in Russia, an overview of Korea's ADD complexes, and a contributor piece on Iran.  And anything else I can think up in the next few days!  It'll be out by the end of the month.

All for now, except that if you haven't 1) seen Prometheus, 2) heard The Industrialist, or 3) acknowledged the superiority of the Heat, then, well:  summer, you're doing it wrong.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

It looks like Syria is becoming intersting after the downing of turkish F-4

Anonymous said...

In South of France (43.029893° 6.097696°) there is a radar operated by French Navy and north of that position there is a EM Intelligence station

ika said...

Can you please redo Syria? With the airforce map as well?

Anonymous said...

Internet tell us that it was probably a SA-11 Buk-M2 (this should be SA-17) - that would be a premier. They recently got 2 or 3 batteries.
SOC will find them one day ;-)

Sean O'Connor said...

Buk-M2E is in fact the SA-17, yes. I'd be suprised if it was involved, though, given that various sources claim that they're displacing SA-6 batteries in the south. Or was the Turkish RF-4 somewhere it REALLY wasn't supposed to be?

Working on Syria right now. No Buk-M2E sites located yet (most of the imagery is too old), but all of the maps, etc. will be updated and enhanced.

Anonymous said...

It seems that it was an AA gun, probably Shilka.

Anonymous said...

Well we have only few information. Some sources say the RF-4 was 13km off the coast when being hit and fall into international waters. That would be too far for ZSU-23. It should be a SAM.

ika said...

Maybe Sa3? There are plenty on the coast I think.

Anonymous said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304830704577497081567553846.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

The syrians were right. Anyway the turkish version was too fishy