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Well really the Pakistani air defenses probably aren't enough to warrant a full on Ghost Hawk. Just needed to be "good enough". And it was!
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May 16, 2014 23:43
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Craptacular posted:Yeah but it seems to me like killing Osama would be something they'd go all out on. I guess not. I think Osama was as much a PR move as anything. It's not like he was the entire brain behind AQ, he just got (un)lucky. This is the part where someone jumps in and corrects me, probably.
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May 16, 2014 23:44
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Cyrano4747 posted:True, but even then we've got a long history of keeping those around as training drones, target hulks, etc. It's not like we just feed 'em into a giant furnace once they get long in the tooth. Just look at the USN mothball fleets or any one of the various aerospace mothball sites we've got scattered across the desert portions of the SW. Honestly they've been clearing out Suisun and the other reserve fleets lately pretty drat quick.
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May 17, 2014 00:32
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Have you seen metal prices lately? Those ships are worth a few thou each, easy! 
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May 17, 2014 00:35
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Akion posted:I think Osama was as much a PR move as anything. It's not like he was the entire brain behind AQ, he just got (un)lucky. He was a figurehead at the point of his death. Back in '01 he was a financier, using his share of his family's wealth to pay for operations (including the WTC bombing in '93) and training. Then the FBI and the state department got all his assets frozen or seized. Getting Osama was about symbolic vengeance, nothing more.
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May 17, 2014 02:01
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Arcella posted:Just needs "John Player Special" on the side somewhere. Gold and black is a tough color combination to make classy. The Swedes have always been great at design. I love the font they use on Swedish jets of that era - I haven't been able to find out if it exists as a font you can use today.
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May 17, 2014 04:05
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Snowdens Secret posted:Pretty much everything the PLA etc is building right now is some form of prototype; they understand they're advancing too fast for serial production to make much sense. I think they have a destroyer and a corvette / missile boat class they're making somewhat in bulk. Not sure about heavy tanks. Even their cargo aircraft every third one comes out looking different. They went the way of the French on the Type 99 MBT and made the armor package modular, so they're probably done with tank development for the moment like the rest of the world. iyaayas01 posted:Also just look at the aircraft, they're clearly two very, very different designs, intended for two very, very different purposes. The Chinese defense industry isn't above running competing prototypes, and that's the stage these aircraft are in. I wouldn't be surprised if the PLAAF selects only one for adoption. From the J-31/F-60 designation the J-31 is already slated for export to Pakistan. Over the last 20 years it's been pretty standard for one Chinese weapon system to get adopted by the PLA and one to exclusively export to Paksitan. Arglebargle III fucked around with this message at 04:55 on May 17, 2014 |
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May 17, 2014 04:51
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Arglebargle III posted:They went the way of the French on the Type 99 MBT and made the armor package modular, so they're probably done with tank development for the moment like the rest of the world. Maybe Lockheed Martin will take a crap at making the next M1A3 Abrams; It can't be any harder then making a plane, amirite? 
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May 17, 2014 05:01
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Back Hack posted:Maybe Lockheed Martin will take a crap at making the next M1A3 Abrams; It can't be any harder then making a plane, amirite? Aside from the whole fuel consumption issue is there actually anything wrong with the Abrams? It's not like the US is going to ever run out of them either, what with something like 8000 made. Party Plane Jones fucked around with this message at 06:09 on May 17, 2014 |
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May 17, 2014 06:03
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Heliosicle posted:On Wikipedia (its easy) I read that the USAF plan to operate the B-2's until 2058. This seems pretty ambitious to me (someone who knows nothing on the subject really), I know the B-52's have all be operating for 50+ years and are planned to operate for another 30 or more, but I just can't see how they won't end up getting some kind of undetected fault. Is this very likely? Those aircraft will absolutely be flying that long (if not longer), and the crews will probably fly back in a C-130 (because those will still be around and kicking then). Bomber flight profiles are relatively not stressful, and USAF aircraft are very well maintained. While there might be differences in day to day maintenance due to the differences in mission/design as well as funding priorities between different MDS's, fundamentally there isn't a different maintenance philosophy between aircraft types in the AF: regular scheduled inspections at the field level (either calendar or hourly driven) and then periodic trips to depot where they will be basically torn completely apart, high wear components/areas scrutinized, and put back together, with any worn-out parts replaced. Like Dead Reckoning said, AFMC has been collecting data on these aircraft the whole time they've been in service, and the guys who work at depot have generally been working on these planes for a very long time, so they've got a solid handle on components wearing.
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May 17, 2014 06:04
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I've been reading about the XB-70 here and there on the web, sure was a neat looking plane.  I'm sure someone posted pics they took visiting the surviving one in Ohio in this thread somewhere.  Even cooler than the Concorde! priznat fucked around with this message at 06:11 on May 17, 2014 |
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May 17, 2014 06:09
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China acquires most US technology in two ways: 1) a dedicated and skilled information warfare system combined with a extensive network of human spies 2) purchased from Israel
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May 17, 2014 06:11
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iyaayas01 posted:Those aircraft will absolutely be flying that long (if not longer), and the crews will probably fly back in a C-130 (because those will still be around and kicking then). Not to mention the B-2 gets even more maintenance attention given its unique materials.
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May 17, 2014 06:18
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priznat posted:I forget, was it china that Pakistan sold the partially destroyed stealth blackhawk to after the bin laden capture? When the Pakistanis do it, it's an international incident. When Israel does it, it's 'a shining example of international cooperation.' And I see someone beat me to the punch. Also, it begs the question of how much a B-70 airliner ticket would've cost, even back then. Hell, most of the profit would be eaten up by having to repaint it.
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May 17, 2014 06:26
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Party Plane Jones posted:Aside from the whole fuel consumption issue is there actually anything wrong with the Abrams? It's not like the US is going to ever run out of them either, what with something like 8000 made. It's heavier than sin which makes it a hassle to transport. Part of the whole FCS shebang was trying to get something more air-mobile. Whether that justifies a new design going forward remains to be seen. My grandparents flew on Concorde at least once, and said a pretty significant chunk of the time saved over a conventional flight was spent sitting on the tarmac while they hosed the plane off, until the skin was cool enough that they could open the doors and let everyone out. I can only imagine the skyway-scorching hassles a Volkyrie would generate.
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May 17, 2014 07:07
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The M1A3 is already in development and apparently it is going to be a lot lighter due to less wiring and newer armor materials.
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May 17, 2014 07:10
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I'm sure they'll find some TOW launchers to bolt on to use up the weight allowance 
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May 17, 2014 07:15
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priznat posted:I've been reading about the XB-70 here and there on the web, sure was a neat looking plane. The worst part about seeing the one in Ohio is they wouldn't let me sit there, stare at it, and jerk off. Made me sad. It's such an awesome, massive, technology platform. I have several books about the B-70 and the pictures are pretty drat awesome. It was supposed to carry the also cancelled Skybolt ALBM.
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May 17, 2014 14:43
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Smiling Jack posted:China acquires most US technology in two ways: yes vulturesrow posted:Not to mention the B-2 gets even more maintenance attention given its unique materials. Yeah, that's kind of what I was getting at when I said that there might be differences in day to day maintenance due to differences in mission/design...speedtape holding some non-critical fasteners or panels in place? Normal on the BUFF, not so much on the B-2. The overall maintenance philosophy as far as regular trips to depot for an extensive tear-down/rebuild is still the same across MDS's, though.
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May 17, 2014 17:27
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Welp, China is evacuating thousands of citizens from Vietnam after Vietnamese civilians riot in response to Chinese placement of an oil rig in the South China Sea. Naval ships are on the way to assist. Who was talking about nationalism earlier?
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May 18, 2014 10:28
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 B-57 Canberra in front of Operation Hardtack I, Shot Poplar. Footage here. Memento fucked around with this message at 11:56 on May 18, 2014 |
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May 18, 2014 11:53
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One of the best things about that video is that you can see the three stages of the detonation quite clearly - the initial fission reaction from the primary, then the secondary and tertiary fusion stages.
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May 18, 2014 13:22
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BIG HEADLINE posted:One of the best things about that video is that you can see the three stages of the detonation quite clearly - the initial fission reaction from the primary, then the secondary and tertiary fusion stages. Are you sure? I always assumed the delay between the stages would be miniscule (although I can't find sources about this). Maybe it's the double flash effect described here? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_nuclear_explosions#Blast_damage
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May 18, 2014 15:52
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Yeah the stages within a nuclear bomb detonation are nearly immediate, certainly not slow enough for humans to see.
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May 18, 2014 21:45
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Memento posted:
For a second I thought that was just a nice sunset photo. 
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May 19, 2014 02:00
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A-10 Thunderbolt II "The Gun" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzfSP5XWXEs
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May 19, 2014 02:25
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spankmeister posted:Yeah the stages within a nuclear bomb detonation are nearly immediate, certainly not slow enough for humans to see. The stages ignite on the order of nano/picoseconds, but in that particular shot it certainly seemed slowed down enough that you see the initial fission stage lead into the fusion boost.
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May 19, 2014 08:11
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Nah it's probably some sort of physics thing happening with the fireball and not the nuke itself.
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May 19, 2014 08:40
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Yeah, it's atmospheric effects due to the air (and water/barge/device) absorbing the massive amounts of x-rays from the bomb. The whole device is that initial bright flash. Air is basically opaque to x-rays over tens of meters, so it absorbs most of the energy released, gets superheated to thousands of degrees which pressurizes it massively, and then it starts exploding outward at the speed of sound, which is the initial fireball after the flash. Inside that there's the vaporized remains of the device and the barge it was sitting on, not to mention the sea under it, which are a lot denser and so under more pressure and I'm guessing (only) that's the really bright "third" part. According to wikipedia Poplar was a 2-stage device with a lead casing instead of a U238 third stage. In any case that's a pretty stunning picture/video.
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May 19, 2014 08:50
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StandardVC10 posted:For a second I thought that was just a nice sunset photo. Close, it's a sunrise photo
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May 19, 2014 10:09
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BIG HEADLINE posted:The stages ignite on the order of nano/picoseconds, but in that particular shot it certainly seemed slowed down enough that you see the initial fission stage lead into the fusion boost. The Sum of all Fears has the best, step by step description of a nuclear explosions that I've ever read. Three shakes.
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May 19, 2014 13:24
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TerryLennox posted:The Sum of all Fears has the best, step by step description of a nuclear explosions that I've ever read. Three shakes. It's also, in the ensemble of Clancy's work, pretty much the only time a weapon system doesn't perform flawlessly.
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May 19, 2014 13:31
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Do you want to buy a tank from the cold war? An auction is coming up that you might be interested in. (Also old poo poo from WW2 like a DUCK, Sherman tanks, German 88mm guns etc.)
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May 19, 2014 15:02
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That auction has a lot of cool poo poo. I think we need to start a kickstarter for a Goon M16. (M4 half track with quad .50s) 
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May 19, 2014 15:20
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http://www.auctionsamerica.com/events/feature-lots.cfm?SaleCode=LC14&ID=r0018&Order=runorder&feature=&collection=&grouping=&category=
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May 19, 2014 16:44
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DrAlexanderTobacco posted:http://www.auctionsamerica.com/events/feature-lots.cfm?SaleCode=LC14&ID=r0018&Order=runorder&feature=&collection=&grouping=&category= quote:The armor has been demilled to European standards with numerous square holes cut into the hull and then re-welded back into place. I knew weapons needed to be demilled but I had no idea there was a requirement to screw with the armor.
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May 19, 2014 16:56
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BIG HEADLINE posted:One of the best things about that video is that you can see the three stages of the detonation quite clearly - the initial fission reaction from the primary, then the secondary and tertiary fusion stages. If you can distinguish between three events that take about 70 nanoseconds to run to completion in that video, you have way better eyes than I do.
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May 19, 2014 17:04
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Snowdens Secret posted:I knew weapons needed to be demilled but I had no idea there was a requirement to screw with the armor. Kind of makes sense, it'd make it marginally harder for someone to turn a tank into an unstoppable killdozer.
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May 19, 2014 17:05
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Clancy was good at describing the science stuff. Like 10 pages on wave/particle duality in Timeline e: oops actually I think that was Crichton
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May 19, 2014 17:07
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I've never heard of armour needing to be demilled in Europe.  There's enough enthusiasts with private collections that have untouched armour.
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May 19, 2014 17:08
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