Belisarius or the White Prince, was a Roman soldier. He was born about 505 in Illyria and died in 565. He served in the bodyguard of the emperor, soon after obtained the chief command of an army on the Persian frontiers, and in 530 gained a victory over a superior Persian army. The next year, however, he lost a battle, and was recalled. In the year 532 he checked the disorders in Constantinople arising from the Green and Blue factions; and was then sent with 15,000 men to Africa to recover the territories occupied by the Vandals.
He took Carthage and led Gelimer, the Vandal king, in triumph through Constantinople. Dissensions having arisen in the Ostrogothic kingdom, he was sent to Italy, and though ill supplied with money and troops, stormed Naples, held Rome for a year, took Ravenna, and led captive Vitiges, the Gothic king. He rendered honourable service in later campaigns in Italy and against the Bulgarians, but was accused of conspiracy and flung into prison. He afterwards seems to have recovered his property and dignities, the story of Tzetzes (a twelfth-century monk), that Belisarius wandered about as a blind beggar, being probably an invention. The only weaknesses in the character of Belisarius appear in connection with his profligate wife Antonina, an associate of the EmpressTheodora. Research Belisarius
Flavius Stilicho was a Roman minister and general. He was born in 359 and died in 408. He was a Vandal by birth and rose to be master of the horse in 384 and conducted an embassy to Persia. In 394 he was appointed governor of Rome. He was murdered after fleeing to Ravenna, following a mutiny of his own troops following the invasion of Italy by Radagaisus with a horde of Germanic tribes. Research Flavius Stilicho
Gelimer was king of the Vandals from 530 to 534. He was a great-grandson of Genseric, and usurped the throne of his cousin Hilderic in 530, but was defeated by Belisarius at Carthage in 533, and at Bulla in Numidia, where he was taken prisoner, and the Vandal kingdom in Africa overthrown. Research Gelimer
Genseric was a Vandal king. Having obtained joint possession of the throne of Spain with his brother Gonderic, he crossed the Straits of Gibraltar with 50,000 men in 429, on the invitation of Bonifacius, the Roman governor of Africa, to assist him against the Moors. He, however, soon declared his independence, and, having completely defeated Bonifacius, founded a kingdom, which, in 439, had its seat at Carthage. He collected a powerful fleet, ravaged the coasts of Sicily and Italy, and in 455 took and sacked Rome.Two unsuccessful attempts were made by the Eastern and Western emperors to overthrow his power, but Genseric secured all his conquests, and, notwithstanding all his cruelties, was permitted to die in peace in 477. Research Genseric
Valentinian III was Roman emperor of the West, from 425 to 455. He was born in 419 and died in 455. Son of Constantius and Placidia, daughter of Theodosius, he succeeded Honorius, his mother acting as regent. The Vandals, who had conquered Roman Africa and set up a kingdom there, concluded an alliance with Attila, who, after defeat by Aetius near Chalons, invaded northern Italy, while the Vandal fleet ravaged the coasts of Sicily. Aetius was treacherously put to death by Valentinian III who a year later shared the same fate. Research Valentinian III
The Vandals were a Teutonic people of the east Germanic stock. Although closely associated with the Goths, they were, unlike them, destitute of the nobler barbarian qualities. Having moved from the shores of the Baltic to the middle Danube, they migrated west. At the beginning of the 5th century they poured into Gaul, and in 409 made their way into Spain. Thither they were soon followed by the Visigoths, who destroyed half of them and penned the rest into the district which still bears their name in the form Andalusia. About 428 they left Spain for North Africa. Upon the Mediterraneanlittoral they established a powerful dominion, and there they ruled for a hundred years. Of their kings the most famous was Gaiseric who carried out the conquest between 429 and 439, and sacked Rome in 455. Their fanatical devotion to Arianism made them fierce persecutors of the Catholics. The pirate fleets of the Vandals spread terror over the whole Mediterranean, but in 533 the emperor Justinian, bent on a full restoration of the dominion of the Caesars, dispatched Belisarius to tame their insolence. The work was done so thoroughly that the Vandal race was wiped out. Research Vandals
The Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) is a joint American and German all-weather, ship self-defence system designed to combat anti-ship missiles. It provides a lightweight, quick reaction, high firepower and low cost ship-defence capability.
The RAM Block 0 missile uses a wide field of view, radio frequency midcourse and a narrow field of view, infrared terminal guidance. Immediately after launch the RF seeker detects the target, guides the missile and points the IR seeker in the target' s direction, initiating the RF midcourse guidance. With the use of accurate IR terminal guidance, provided by the highly precise IR seeker and proportional navigation, the missile achieves a direct hit or an approach in the direct vicinity of the target. The wide RF field of view provides RAM with a 'shoot around the corner' capability for targets in the shadow of the ship's superstructure. Since RAM uses a passive guidance mode, it does not need any additional shipboard support after launch.
The ship sensors provide target data via the External Designation System (EDS) to the RAM GMWS. After target designation from the EDS, the launcher is directed to the firing position and the missiles are prepared and fired against the incoming targets with the priority provided by the EDS. Since its initial operational capability in 1993, RAM Block 0 has had successful intercepts in 113 of 117 production proofing and ship qualification test flights in both the United States and German Navies. The proliferation of passive ASCMs lead to the necessity to upgrade the RAM system.
The RAM Block IInfrared Mode Upgrade (IRMU) gives RAM the capability to engage RF-passive ASCMs by means of a jointly developed IR seeker and IR image acquisition technique. Block I development testing was successfully initiated aboard the USS Gunston Hall with two successful firings each of Block I and Block 0 missiles. Block I development testing continued aboard the unmanned, remotely controlled Self-Defence Test Ship (SDTS). The RAM Block I missile successfully intercepted an Exocet MM38, supersonic VANDAL and other Navy targets. Research RAM
HMS Vandal was a British V Class submarine of 545 tons displacement launched in 1943 and sunk during the Second World War. HMS Vandal was powered by two Davey Paxman diesel engines providing a top speed of 13 knots surfaced and two electric motors providing a top speed of 10 knots submerged. She was armed with one 3 inch gun; two 20 mm anti-aircraft guns and four 21 inch bow torpedo tubes. Research Vandal
Abbreviations
Research Belisarius
