My nose hurts. I have a cold. It's making many parts of my head ache. It's odd. I always get ill when I have holidays. Ah well.

Yesterday the Storm Shadow missile was deployed for the first time. It's a cruise missile which is fired from Tornado aircraft. Why do I care so much about this missile in particular? Because my brother helps make them.

Now, BAE Systems make all sorts of things. They make things for both the commercial and defence aerospace sectors. My brother's made parts for lots of things (he's a mechanical engineering apprentice). I don't pretend to understand much of what he does, but I know he machines things.

When he came to visit last weekend he mentioned the Storm Shadow missile. He mentioned it because they'd been testing it, I think, and he jokingly said that it was so good that the Americans could actually hit targets with it. (There's some sort of lasting stigma attached to American bombing, after WWII - my granddad used to say that the only times the soldiers ducked was when American bombers flew over...)

Now the missile's been used in anger for the first time. Yeah, so if my brother actually made parts for the missile it was nothing more than parts for the guidance system. He mentioned gyroscopes, and mirrors. But still... it makes it kind of personal. John considered joining the Navy for a while, since it's a great way to learn engineering, but there was the problem of possibly having to go to war. Part of me is sad that something he's touched might have ended up being used for war. But part of me knows that he's a good engineer, and if anyone had to make parts for a missile - to make sure it is as exact as they say - then I'm glad he was involved.

I'm making too much of this, I expect. But it's weird... he told me that there's a Storm Shadow missile on display at the place he works. Presumably it's little more than a shell, but the point is that it's as long as his bedroom. I don't know about you, but I don't really think about the scale of these things.

However clinical they say these things are... it's going to get messier... :(

posted by Fiery Fred @ 9:38 PM