Jan/Feb I&A

Just sent out the first e-mail with the download links to the first I&A for 2012. Apologies for the delays, there were numerous factors involved including a bit more work to deal with, as in the kind that actually results in me getting paid.

If you didn't get the e-mail today, you'll get it tomorrow or Thursday. I have to break it up over three days now due to Gmail's daily limits to prove I'm not a spambot. One change: the link to download the previous month's issue will appear here when the next month goes out. Also, you can download the entire 2011 back catalog here: click

So, we're back now for 2012. Normal operations will resume from this point forward. Now I suppose I need to update the SAM Site Overview file, right?

January I&A

Here are the topics in the works for the upcoming January issue of I&A:

-The importance of IMINT
-The DPRK's SAM Network
-An overview of DF-31 bases (notice that there wasn't too much attention to the details of relevant facilities in the December 2nd Artillery Corps piece-that was done to allow me to do longer, more in-depth overviews like this in the future...plus it kept the PDF from being 500 pages)
-Something odd about HQ-9 SAM sites (as in sites designed for the HQ-9, not hybrid or other sites simply hosting an HQ-9 battery)
-A contributor piece by Christopher Biggers on Bandar-e-Abbas

Newsflash: there have been many issues with and complaints about the Google Documents format. Some people can't always get the links to work. Sometimes the system itself does weird things, like giving me the link to the wrong issue, or only allowing Google account holders to view the documents. To address these problems, beginning with the January issue I&A will be distributed via Mediafire. That's the same hosting site that I used to distribute the 2011 collection of back issues, as well as the PDF I wrote on the Falcon missile family. As far as I know, there aren't any issues using Mediafire at the present time. If there are any, let me know now! As a warning, being that it's a file hosting site, it remains to be seen if some e-mail providers will filter out the download link. If that happens I'll re-attack the problem.

I&A December

I&A's December issue will start to go out tomorrow. If you got an e-mail tonight, Google Documents did something weird and I managed to re-send everyone the November issue.

Oops. Sorry about that!

I did at least manage to send everyone the right KML file.

Update:

The correct download link just went out to the first set of subscribers. Everyone else will get the download link and the KML file tomorrow.

I&A in 2012

By this point many of you have a good idea of what I&A is all about. The goal for 2012 is to continue to increase the scope and depth of the content. Ergo, here are a few items to bring to your attention:

1. Additional contributors are always welcome. If you think you have something to say, send me an e-mail with "Contributor" in the subject line. While imagery analysis will always play a big part of I&A, other features are certainly welcome as well.

2. I'm starting to prepare a general outline of topics for 2012 to begin getting things organized. To that end, feel free to reply here with a comment if there is a subject area or specific topic that you want to see covered. As the list grows I'll add them at the bottom of this post.

3. The large-size image format received an upgrade in the December issue. I'll be toying with a few more templates over the next few weeks, and will post some examples here to see which one you believe works out the best overall.

Potential Topics For 2012
Air Defense - The DPRK
Air Defense - Japan
Facility Analysis - The RoK's ADD complexes
Facility Analysis - individual 2nd Artillery Corps garrison complexes
Software Review - Falcon View
Strategic Warfare - European SSBN Facilities
Tech Notes - The S-500

I&A Volume 1 (2011)

Below you will find a link allowing you to download all eleven issues of I&A from 2011, containing over 400 pages of analysis in total. At the end of each year, my plan is to make the previous volume available in this fashion to allow anyone unfamiliar with I&A to take a look and potentially subscribe. Recent subscribers can now enjoy access to the back issues as well. They have all been formatted in a manner allowing them to be employed as source material for research. The issues are contained within a standard Windows .zip file, hosted at Mediafire.

Click here to download Volume 1

Here are the major contents of each issue, in chronological order. Articles authored by contributors are noted with the author's name following the title. All issues also feature a Links article looking at various relevant websites, a complete list of references for each article, and the What Is It? analysis exercise on the back cover.

Download! Print! Read! Distribute! And if you haven't already, subscribe. It's free!

February 2011 (V1N1, 17 pgs)
Overview - Feature Overview
Overview - I&A: What Is It?
Tech Notes - The J-20's Real Impact
Current Events - The J-20 In Imagery
Air Defense - Nagorno-Karabakh
Historical Perspective - Analysis Over Time

March 2011 (V1N2, 33 pgs)
Current Events - Latakia Port Facility
Air Defense - China's Hybrid SAM Sites
Historical Perspective - OTH-SW Deployment in China
Strategic Warfare - Iranian SSM Facilities
Software - Facility Drawings in GIMP
Reading List - High-Tech Reading List

April 2011 (V1N3, 51 pgs)
Current Events - The Libyan Lesson
Air Defense - The S-300P/S-400
Air Defense - Contact Line (Masis Ingilizian)
Strategic Warfare - War of the Weird
Historical Perspective - SAM Modernization in China
Facility Analysis - The Price of Nuclear Rennaissance (Raj Kumar)
Reading List - Military Classics

May 2011 (V1N4, 23 pgs)
Current Events - Pakistan and Bin Laden
Air Defense - Armenian Air Defenses (Masis Ingilizian)
Strategic Warfare - Pakistani Nuclear Facilities (Raj Kumar)
Historical Perspective - SAM Site Analysis
Book Review - Ken Alibek's Biohazard

June 2011 (V1N5, 45 pgs)
Current Events - PRC NAVAIR Developments
Imagery Highlight - Algerian FLANKERs
Air Defense - China's Strategic SAM Network
Strategic Warfare - Soviet/Russian ABM Systems
Software Review - Google Earth
Reading List - Tools for the IMINT Analyst

July 2011 (V1N6, 26 pgs)
Current Events - Iranian Silos "Unveiled"
Imagery Highlight - Shenyang
Facility Analysis - Karachi Port Facility (Daniel Videre)
Tech Notes - China's New AAM
Air Defense - Azerbaijan (Masis Ingilizian)
Strategic Warfare - Soviet/Russian BMEW
Tech Notes - IADS Classification

August 2011 (V1N7, 26 pgs)
Current Events - Azeri Favorit Spotted
Imagery Highlight - Zhukovskiy
IC Analysis - ODNI's New Mission (Marv Gordner)
Facility Analysis - Tabriz Silo Complex
Air Defense - Taiwan
Historical Perspective - Warsaw Pact SAM Sites
Software Review - SpaceEye

September 2011 (V1N8, 20 pgs)
Current Events - Varyag Begins Sea Trials
Tech Notes - The RVV-BD
Air Defense - PLA Airborne Surveillance (Raj Kumar)
Strategic Warfare - Assessing China's Type 094 SSBN Force

October 2011 (V1N9, 79 pgs)
Air Defense - Russia
Strategic Warfare - Space Surveillance in Russia
Strategic Warfare - Russia
Historical Perspective - Former Soviet ICBMs
Facility Analysis - Ashuluk
Facility Overview - Zhukovskiy
Reading List - Russian Aviation

November 2011 (V1N10, 21 pgs)
Current Events - Umm Aitiqah AB (Christopher Biggers)
Facility Analysis - The Playing Field (Daniel Videre)
Imagery Highlight - Vietnam's Vostok-E
Tech notes - Iran's Nahang SSC (Christopher Biggers)
Facility Analysis - Denial and Deception at Bandar-e-Abbas (Christopher Biggers)
Conflict Analysis - Deepening Tides of War (Masis Ingilizian)

December 2011 (V1N11, 68 pgs)
Strategic Warfare - The PLA's 2nd Artillery Corps
Strategic Warfare - PLA Ballistic Missile Launch Sites
Strategic Warfare - The PLAN SSBN Force
Air Defense - PLA SAM Modernization

November/December I&A, Future Plans

The November I&A has begun to filter out to subscribers. Expect to find it in your inbox today or tomorrow.

The December I&A will feature numerous topics related to the PLA, similar to what was seen in October for Russia. Topics being worked on so far incldue the following:

-The PLA's 2nd Artillery
-PLA Ballistic Missile Launch Sites
-The PLAN's SSBN Force
-Current Chinese SAM Developments
-Iranian Ghadir SSC Production

Once the December issue goes out to subscribers, I will make the 11 issues completed to date available for download here, along with the KML files distributed with each issue. I'll also post a list of the complete contents of each issue.

I&A November Update

With the tehnical problems involving the distribution of October's issue in the past, I'm already putting together the November issue. The November issue is going to be largely contributor-driven, thanks to a large number of submissions waiting in the wings for Red October to get out of the way!

Topics being prepared by contributors are as follows:

Current Events: Umm Aitiqah AB, Libya (the lack of airstrikes)
Facility Analysis: SLOCs in the South China Sea
Tech Notes: Iran's Nahang SSC
Conflict Analysis (a new area): Nagorno-Karabakh
Facility Analysis: Denial and Deception at Bandar-e-Abbas

I may or may not insert the obligatory air-defense related piece. Right now, the issue doesn't seem to need it, but if I get a good idea there may be one stuck in there by the time the issue is released.

At any rate, November is looking very good so far! I'm very pleased with the work the contributors are doing to date, and I hope to see more from them in the future.

Oh, and sometime later this week, I'll update the SAM Site Overview file again.