AKADEMIK N. STRAKHOV beginning to go to work.

Previously unknown instructions & settings sheets for the SG-41 have been discovered in Czech archives! Thanks to Eugen Antal, Carola Dahlke & Robert Jahn who published them in Cryptologia. I've been working to bring these into Virtual SG-41 @tnmoc.bsky.social @cryptomuseum.bsky.social

Merry Christmas all.

Irish Air Corps having a bit of fun in their annual Christmas video, GOC sits at his desk watching Top Gun while playing with a model Gripen. Santa walks in and says "if it isn't the chief of the Irish Air Force!" as the GOC corrects him with "not yet, not yet!" www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRSq...

#Türkiye boeing E-7T wedgetail AEW&C peace eagle seen circling at the poland ukraine border. #HVK42 #4B8298 #Ukraine

OK, what is this about: it's the second time in a row I've observed this behaviour from the vessel Stargazer. It begins its journey with a stated destination of Ashdod, Israel - but as it nears UK & Ireland, it changes its destination to Iskenderun, Turkey - but then goes to Israel anyway.

Irish Air Corps C295 MSA #285 appears to have taken a look at Akademik N. Strakhov earlier today.

I just published Potato, a new pansharpening package. It aims to render certain kinds of satellite imagery more clearly and accurately than what’s for sale and on satellite maps today: github.com/celoyd/potato/

A classified launch from Plesetsk tomorrow is expected to carry the first Obzor radar satellite, so here is my attempt to interpret its design, along with more details and updates on the mission: russianspaceweb.com/obzor-r1.html

Captain Darragh Kirwan appointed as head of the Naval Service replacing Michael Malone. Here’s an interview I did with him when he was head of Naval Ops. 'Not how navies work': Head of naval operations hits out at 'incorrect' reports on status of ships jrnl.ie/6476975

That's #286 - the cargo/transport variant as opposed to the two MSA's😑

Akademik Ioffe is continuing south in the direction of Brazil, but see that other track? That's a Russian flagged sailing vessel named LINOSA, MMSI: 273253360. It appears to have left Natal, Brazil on August 7th and that track shows 90 days of drifting. Does anyone know more on this?

"government has been accused in the past twelve months of pushing to increase defence spending in order to set the country on a course to joining up with military alliances." Same old nonsense. 21 years ago PC-9 rocket & gun pods were cast as a plot to join NATO: www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/d...

Two Russian flagged cargo vessels possibly transiting the Irish Sea in the coming days, Stargazer from the north, Sinegorsk from the south. Both tend to take the Irish Sea route.

On a more serious note, integrating towed sonar arrays, air search radars and (likely?) upgraded rws secondary armament on the P60 class is going to be quite the project. Going to be a big capability jump and require whole new skill sets to operate effectively.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRcx... Someday.

"Mr. President, we must not allow a naval AI slop gap!"

I've been trying to figure out if the Irish C295 MSAs have an Air-to-Air radar capability - I still don't know, but some interesting (to me) bits: Flight AAL9605 shows up on screen in the Airbus promo video about the Irish C295s: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cxea... Guessing it's an ADS-B contact.

Defence Forces took ‘correct decision’ not to shoot down rogue drones, says Taoiseach

Russian logistics ship ADLER is at anchor IN Sweden. Possibly broken down. Usually runs heavy weapons to Russian bases in Africa / Middle East. Was inspected by military aircraft 2h ago. Swedish Coast Guard just arrived to area.

Looks like folks are beginning to pick up on what was announced back on 11 December in the "Defence Sectoral National Development Plan 2026–2030" - a mention of a "Sonobuoy project". The ramps on the two C295 MSAs will be watched closely :)

Re: QENDIL, I am very unsure but Landsat may have caught it today around 09:06 UTC. Possible position: 34.558092N 21.746004E I don't have time to dig into this, but it might be possible to see if there's any heat signatures etc. Please take photo & coords with grain of salt as I haven't verified.

#Russia #LNG #Tanker #Voskhod IMO 9953511 #IMO9953511 definitely not going through the #EnglishChannel ! Looks like #Ireland #CoastGuard might got some pictures @maritimekiwi.bsky.social @pa.nton.cx @puca.bsky.social @altw.bsky.social @conorgallagher.bsky.social @nialljournal.bsky.social

Of GREAT INTEREST Unconfirmed reports from Russian social media, a Russian vessel attacked in Mediterrean and a high-ranking official of a security service was killed. Don't want to spewculate publicly at this stage Awaiting more information

The last people I would trust with reactor safety are Silicon Valley bros. Move fast and break things is a recipe for disaster.

Putin is giving a (big-ish) speech at the Defense Ministry today. Here he's pledging to have the new, hypersonic nuclear-capable IRBM Oreshnik deployed for use by the end of the year. He also says the Burevestnik nuke-powered cruise missile and Poseidon nuke-capable torpedo are still being tested.

Whenever the primary radar discussion comes up in Ireland, I'm reminded of the INLA bombing of the Mount Gabriel secondary surveillance radars (SSR) in 1982. It was an odd case - SSRs are militarily kinda useless, as they wont see anything without a transponder. www.rte.ie/archives/201...

👀

@altw.bsky.social The Irish Air Corps transport C295 IRL286 did its first run to Lebanon yesterday. One refueling stop in Italy. Seems to be staying in Larnaca, Cyprus tonight.

#C298 #Ireland #AirCorps doing its thing. Wonder if they got a good view of #Karol and #Tavian / #Arcusat ? @puca.bsky.social

Very interesting! Looks like a well planned and executed operation. However, as always at this point, accurate BDA is still pending.

The number of active satellites in orbit has now passed the 14000 mark according to my estimates:

And back to the night of the incident - vessel FLUVIUS PLYM, made a bit of a strange swerve on the way south: I wonder if it was avoiding LÉ William Butler Yeats. Curious if any of the ferries saw anything relevant on the night. www.youtube.com/watch?v=n04w...

C284s movements the day after. Looks like it might have done top cover for an Irish Coastguard helicopter before proceeding north. Might be a coincidence, but HMCG aircraft also flew over the Irish Sea, not sure what it (briefly) looked at, but maybe Arklow Valiant. www.youtube.com/watch?v=chFB...

Currently listening to this podcast episode from @johnmooneyirl.bsky.social on the suspected drone incident on the night of 1st of December in the Irish Sea: open.spotify.com/episode/2WiG...

🔺Northern Fleet Air activity A Russian Navy NFAF Tu-142 MPA RTB after a 4-hr local sortie in the Barents Sea, 14 December 2025. A further Tu-142 RTB shortly after take off. ⚠️Aircraft likely supported the departure of multiple warships ahead of planned exercise activity.

The Irish Air Corps C295s are tricky to spot with Sentinel 2 - even if you know where to look. Image from 2 December, while #284 was doing a run up the Irish Sea, when Zelenskyy was in town.

Incredible footage out of Australia, confirmed by NEWS AU, of a brave bystander neutralizing one of the terrorists in the Bondi Beach attack which took place during a Hanukkah gathering. Australian authorities say multiple people have been killed. At least two suspects are in custody.

Here is a bit of my resignation speech from last night

🇨🇭Switzerland is developing its next national security strategy. Switzerland intends to officially and openly state in a formal, strategic state document that from 2028 onwards, Europe may find itself in a difficult situation due to the fact that: cms.news.admin.ch/dam/en/der-s...

For this week’s DOOMSDAY MACHINES, I interviewed my good friend @cherylrofer.bsky.social about her +30 year career at Los Alamos — topics discussed include gender, lasers, and much more — doomsdaymachines.net/p/working-at...

QGIS goofin'

“A spokesperson for the 🇩🇪 German Foreign Office said Friday that the 🇷🇺 Russian ambassador has been summoned to Berlin. The German government has accused Russia of carrying out repeated hostile actions against Germany, including acts of sabotage, cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns.”

Image of the dark vessel captured by satellite shortly before last weeks drone incident. The next images are off the nearby Naval Service vessels P63 and P71. EU satellite images identified ‘dark vessel’ in Irish Sea that could be linked to rogue drones www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025...

www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025... Still on the fence about this event and still have a million questions with no answers. Updated timelapse with positions as reported in Irish Times: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8whJ...

New 5 GHz interference (Sentinel-1 center freq 5.405GHz) has appeared over Kola recently. Lines intersect in the vicinity of Gadzhievo. Data from December 5th and 6th used here.