Blistex posted:

Agreed. Also, the production model was going to look very different

Blistex posted:

ded posted:

nice rails to fully ruin any stealth the plane has

HonorableTB posted:

I was once given a disciplinary writeup because my tie was loosened while I was hunched over trying to diagram a business process using software shat out of satan's fetid rear end in a top hat

Blistex posted:

Agreed. Also, the production model was going to look very different

Grammarchist posted:

The 2014 F-35 thread did bring about the phrase "In the distance, a beaver roars" which I still think about at least once a week.
https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?noseen=0&threadid=3627558&pagenumber=140&perpage=40#post434458288

"Major Laurier had picked the wrong day to change meth dealers.

The sharp pounding in his head had started just as the scramble alert came on. A Russian Tupolev Tu-95 bomber had blatantly violated Canada's northern sovereignity and was headed for the strategic city of Yellowknife. It was up to his squadron, No. 420 Harper's Harriers to show those Slav bastards what-for with their state-of-the-art C-35 war machines... and peacefully escort them out of Canada's airspace.

Now, he was alone. Captain Fraiser's C-35 had flown through a cloud and the moisture had torn its skin from its fuselage. The rookie, Lieutenant Dorian, had attempted a gentle banked turn and the strain on his engine was too great. His plane exploded in a hail of fire, cheap steel and packing peanuts. He didn't even have time to scream. loving hotshot, thought the Major.

The Tupolev was zooming southeast at a blistering Mach 0.3 but he was slowly closing in on his prey. He had already dropped his external fuel tanks, all four of his bullets and his missile to stay airborne, and the airframe was shuddering like his Chevy Cavalier on the Trans-Canada Highway. The radar app had crashed an hour ago and OnStar was useless. No, I don't want to find a loving gas station, I'm trying to intercept a warplane! Nonetheless, he had followed the contrails left by the bomber in the northern sky. He knew he was close. And then there! On the edge of his horizon, a vast twenty miles away, were the Russians. He clenched his jaw and punched up the afterburners. The plane kicked and lurched like a mechanical bull with half the gears broken. He set course to ram his plane into the hulking turboprop. I knew I wasn't coming back from this mission, he thought. I'm a C-35 pilot. We don't come back. But at least I'll take these assholes with me. His squadron's motto, gently caress EVERYONE AND PISS ON THEIR ASHES, rang in his ears as his HUD flashed a 404 error.

Meanwhile, on the Russian plane...

The Major was five miles from the bomber when he heard a new and unfamiliar bang. He tried in vain to look behind him, but from the corner of his eye, he could see a great crack forming on his left wing. He knew at once what it meant. The epoxy that kept the plane together was never meant for such extreme temperatures. His plane was literally coming apart at the seams. How he wished he was in an Avro Arrow now. With a sickening CRRRACK the wing tore itself free from the plane and the C-35 went into a death spin. The Tupolev continued on, oblivious.

Amidst the alarms, klaxons and spontaneous fire, Frasier bit his lip and thought of Maverick. Then suddenly he remembered his training. One of the Powerpoint slides had mentioned that the ejection seat was NOT made by Lockheed, but by a British company! Hope sprung in his breast; perhaps he might survive this ordeal, and achieve his dream of becoming a cyberathelete! In desperation he lunged at the ejector handle. The seat roared upward into the void and while the canopy didn't deploy, it didn't matter; the cheap glass was shattered easily by his hundred thousand dollar helmet.

The Major breathed a sigh of relief as the chute deployed and slowed his descent. He took one last glance at his plane, which plummeted like a meteor into the ground and exploded. It was a bittersweet sight. At the very least, he thought, he had saved half a billion dollars from the clutches of the poor, the needy, the nonwhite and Quebec. The thought made him smile.

The ejector seat landed with a soft thud on a river bank, narrowly missing some pine trees. He looked around at the bright sky, the green grass and river teeming with fish. This unfamiliar hellscape sent chills of fear down his spine. If I liked the outdoors, he thought, I would've joined in the army.

Thus began Major Laurier's desperate bid for survival in the harsh subarctic summer, where temperatures could drop to nearly below freezing. In the distance, a beaver roared."

Blistex posted:

Agreed. Also, the production model was going to look very different

numptyboy posted:

Seme really selective angles there.
Almost as if the 'artist' was aware of its hideous appearance from every other angle.
Stupid guppy faced gently caress plane, bet it catches a lot of flies.

Yle posted:

We called the human smugglers - "We have a deal with Russian police", they say
Yle looked into the human smuggling business currently going on at the Russian border. A smuggler told Yle he organizes people's entry into Finland together with Russian officials.

Human smugglers say they have contracts with Russian border officials. Yle contacted two smugglers, who told of tight co-operation, as asylum seekers are brought over the Russian border into Finland.

The border Russia shares with Finland is controlled by a border patrol under the control of national security organization FSB. The smugglers talked of the officials working the border as "the police".

- Yes, we have a contract with the police, says one smuggler to Yle.

Both smugglers interviewed by Yle gave matching descriptions of the ongoing process.

- We take him [the asylum seeker] from St. Petersburg to the border. The police handle their visa, exit papers and stamp their passport, the interviewee told by phone.

For this article Yle utilized exceptional methods of obtaining information. The journalist pretended to be a person who wanted to help their Russian brother come to FInland quickly. The conversations with the smugglers were done in Arabic.

Yle also talked with asylum seekers currently in Russia, who said they had paid smugglers for entry into Finland. Their stories also line up with the smugglers' own versions.



A screen capture from a video published on TikTok, where a man claiming to be a smuggler tells of young men, who he arranges to travel from St. Petersburg to Finland. The people's faces have been covered to protect their privacy.

The smugglers have deals with the police
According to the smugglers, the Russian border officials co-operate with them in exchange for payment. The process is an example of organized corruption.

Yle has not been able to verify the smugglers' information from independent sources. Some of the talk could be marketing speak. The smugglers want to find new asylum seekers for transport, and also compete with other smugglers.

One of the interviewees talked of the "deals with the police". Only some of the smugglers have ongoing deals. If they don't have one, they have to bribe government officials.

- The bribes range from 1000 to 2000 dollars. But if the smuggler doesn't know their stuff, it could lead to a situation where they can be beaten up or otherwise mistreated.

"We got into Finland on Tuesday"
At least a couple of hundred asylum seekers have arrived at Finland's eastern border over these past few days. Yle has found several videos on social media where asylum seekers are saying they are leaving for Finland.

On a video published on the Telegram app [video in the original article] young men say they have just arrived in FInland. At the end of the video the man speaking to the camera thanks the smugglers who got them over the border.

- We made it safely into Finland on Tuesday. This is your group, thanks a lot!

In reality the speaker probably only thinks he is in Finland, after passing one set of border controls. Judging by the surroundings he is still in Russia's half of the border. The red pole seen at the end of the video is likely a foresting sign used in Russia.

Finland is prepared for Russia's "nasty tricks"
Yle contacted the smugglers through a phone number found on TikTok. The smugglers market their services actively on other social media platforms as well. For instance on Facebook an Arabic text post advertises that smugglers can get people into Finland for as little as 2000 dollars. These messages also freely hand out the smuggler's phone number.

In recent years Finland has prepared itself for a situation where Russia tries to exert hybrid influence by directing large masses of asylum seekers to Finland. Russia executed such an operation in 2015 during the height of the refugee crisis.

President Sauli Niinistö said yesterday (ed: on Wednesday) that Finland has prepared for such "nasty tricks" from Russia. Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (national coalition) and Ministry of the Interior Mari Rantanen (True Finns) will be holding a briefing on limitations to be implemented at the border on Thursday.

According to Yle's information the government is planning on implementing limitations made possible by the Border Control Law on a quick time schedule. The reason for this is that Russia has changed its policy and started letting third world citizens without visas to Finland's border. Just Wednesday night alone over 80 asylum seekers arrived at the border.

The smuggler talking with Yle said that Russian government officials have been flexible in their co-operation.

- The border control post we arrived at was closed, so they opened up a new one for us.

Shaman Tank Spec posted:

So Russia are trying to weaponize asylum seekers, which is of course extremely awesome and cool. To clarify: absolutely nothing against people trying to seek safety and escape war and poverty, but a lot against the pieces of poo poo profiteering off their situation, and Russia's lovely government for using them as tools.

Strategic Tea posted:

The fact that any of the big four accountants are still respectable is a disgrace, because they're all neck deep in Putinist collaboration until they were forced to halt business by the latest invasion.

Names to remember:
PWC
EY
Deloitte
KPMG

All are UK headquartered though they will pretend "oh that's just the Russia office it operates autonomously "

As accountancy partners are just replaceable salesmen anyway, I don't see why we shouldn't drag every single one of them through the courts and demand they prove their innocence

WAR CRIME GIGOLO posted:

Things are extreme shaky on the Russia side. Radios aren't being answered. Reinforcements which were there yesterday at eno longer coming. They are having to reshuffle a bunch of people to start building defenses between Melitopol and the Dniper.

Usually you have a nice reserve of engineers and labourers to do this so the infantry can continue doing infantry things. But all the engineers and labourers are infantrymen so

Philonius posted:

This type of cross-training is pretty standard. Every US marine is a rifleman. Every mobik is a slave labourer.

Dilettante. posted:

I wonder how many M109's the USA has in deep storage rusting away while the war they were built for is waging. All this talk about withholding or stopping aid, and no change in increased shell production targets both sides of the Atlantic is infuriating. (While the US is donating shells earmarked for Ukraine to Israel!)

HonorableTB posted:

I was once given a disciplinary writeup because my tie was loosened while I was hunched over trying to diagram a business process using software shat out of satan's fetid rear end in a top hat

Der Kyhe posted:

Well, whatever the actual reason Marines had besides "getting their own model", they were the ones who wanted the B-variant with VTOL/VSTOL-capabilities, and don't have ski-jumps on their carriers which would enable them to operate more conventional designs.

grumplestiltzkin posted:

jsyk, ski ramp takeoffs also drastically limit the takeoff weight, meaning you need to either sacrifice payload or fuel. Theres a reason americas carriers have catapaults and it isnt just for shits and giggles

Tai posted:

Another day and another Russian assault in Avdiivka got popped. Bonus tank turrent take off too.