Blast from the past. Marauder Family of Aircraft via Defense.ru

Check out the plane before and other interesting concepts here.

Open Comment Post. Jan 29, 2018.

US govt to build 5g network to combat Chinese spying...

via Reuters.

The U.S. government has also blocked a string of Chinese acquisitions over national security concerns, including Ant Financial’s proposed purchase of U.S. money transfer company MoneyGram International Inc (MGI.O).

“We want to build a network so the Chinese can’t listen to your calls,” the senior official told Reuters. “We have to have a secure network that doesn’t allow bad actors to get in. We also have to ensure the Chinese don’t take over the market and put every non-5G network out of business.”

Story here. 

I've watched the deals being blocked by the Federal govt and silently cheered. As big a buffoon as I think Trump is turning out to be, as many times as he's shot himself in the leg, I can still call it when the feds get it right.

They're getting it right with this initiative.

The US is finally taking steps to deal with the real threat to the republic.  The Chinese.  The political witch hunt involving collusion with the Russians has already faded away and the focus is on Trump's trying to block the investigation.

That's irrelevant.

They're getting eyes on China and the focus is becoming sharper.

Far from complete but this is a good first step.

Canada skipping 5th gen, to fly the CF-18 til 2032

via National Post.

Canada will squeeze even more flying time out of its aging CF-18s, keeping the jets operating for another 15 years.

There had been plans to take the jets out of service shortly after 2025.

But representatives from companies who took part in a Jan. 22 industry day outlining the Liberal government’s program to buy new fighter planes were told the RCAF will now keep the CF-18s operating until 2032.

The jets, first received in 1982, will be retired after 50 years of service.

Some aerospace industry sources, however, question whether the 2032 retirement is set in stone since any delays in the purchase of new jets could alter that schedule.

The first replacement aircraft for the CF-18s will arrive in 2025 but the deliveries of the 88 planes would not be completed until 2030, according to the federal government documents distributed to industry representatives at the Jan. 22 meeting in Ottawa.

Story here. 

This F-35 issue has many govts twisting in the wind.  The USMC bought UK Harriers so that they could have a fresh supply of parts for that airplane but instead chose to keep the Hornet in service longer and retire the AV-8B early.

Weird thinking but that's what they're doing.

Now we see the Canadian decision. 

Stunning.

They are in essence reverting their air arm to a flying coast guard and will only protect the homeland.  In some ways that is the essence of national defense but will make them irrelevant in any future allied actions...even popular ones.

But to the mechanics of this thing.

I've heard of large aircraft being kept in service for a number of years but a fighter?  Is it possible?  I can imagine that they would have to limit g's and they would be limiting overall flight hours to make it work.

Sucks for Canada but it will be a wonderful laboratory to see how things work or not.

We can't win in Afghanistan because we don't know why we're there?

Thanks to Overwatch DVA for the link!

via NY Times

“The United States is not losing in Afghanistan, but it is not winning either, and that is not good enough,” reads the opening sentence of a top-secret review of the war in Afghanistan commissioned by President George W. Bush in 2008, according to multiple participants in that review. Subsequent classified reviews of the American strategy in the war have repeated that conclusion.

The Trump administration undertook the latest rethinking of the war in August. President Trump’s advisers again reviewed its causes: opium, corruption, ethnic factionalism and, above all, the support and sanctuary provided to the Taliban by Pakistan, through the covert action arm of its powerful spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence.

Why is this problem so hard? Why, since the Sept. 11 attacks, has the United States been unable to prevent Pakistan, a notional ally that has received billions of dollars in aid, from succoring the Taliban at such a high cost in American lives and Afghan misery?

One major reason is American war aims in Afghanistan have been, and remain, riddled with contradictions and illusions that Inter-Services Intelligence can exploit. President Bush, President Barack Obama and President Trump have all offered convoluted, incomplete or unconvincing answers to essential questions: Why are we in Afghanistan? What interests justify our sacrifices? How will the war end?

Story here. 

This article is a MUST READ!

Consider this.  When we made our foray into Afghanistan within the timespan of a couple of months we had destroyed Al Qaeda, sent the Taliban running and for some unknown reason let Bin Laden slip between our fingers.

If we were smart the war for us would have ended right there.

We could hunt Bin Laden at our leisure.  Afghanistan would be an Afghanistan problem.

But what did we do instead?

We wandered from stupid reason to stupid reason for why we had to stay.  First it was the idiots yelling "stay the course".  Then it was pushing the meme "that all people deserve to live in a democracy".  Next it was to give women and children a chance at a real life outside of Islamic law.

Now?

Now they're saying that if we leave it will create a power vacuum and that we'll be right back chasing terrorists in that country...they'll fight us in the US instead of us fighting them over there.

The sheer insanity of it all boggles the mind.

The author though makes one other point that must be popped out.  I've talked about a deep state on these pages and some have laughed.  But do you get the force of connection in this article?  Inter service agencies are influencing US policy?

Just plain wow.

Read the article and accept as fact the idea that we really do have a deep state inside the US govt.

Forward Arming and Refueling Point

Wonder if this is just another unicorn capability like artillery raids?  Maybe in low intensity combat but with what we're seeing today?  Not sure you would want to hazard your 100 million dollar Osprey, CH-53K to refuel your 100 million dollar plus F-35 near the forward edge of the battlefield.

The meme war between the YPG and Turks has begun...score 1 for the YPG!

Note!  Cartoon is via Enrique 262 Tumblr Page.  Forward all hate his way.  I personally found it funny!

Greek Mythology. The Myth Of Er...

via Greek Mythology.com

The Myth of Er is a tale in Greek mythology about a man who died on a battlefield and returned to life nine days later, recounting what happened in the afterlife. The word "myth" was used in the ancient Greek sense, meaning account, rather than the present-day meaning.

Er was a man who died during a battle, and along with the souls of the other combatants, he was led to a magnificent place that had four doors; two into and out of the sky, and two into and out of the earth. There were judges who decided which path each soul should follow depending on the life they had led on Earth. The good ones were told to go to the sky, while the bad ones were led into the earth. From the sky exit, souls that appeared clean came out, telling of a place that filled them with incredible feelings. The souls that emerged from the earth exit were dirty and were talking about the misery and the difficulties they faced for punishment of what they had done while alive. Some souls however, those of murderers and other criminals, were not allowed to exit the earth and remained trapped forever.

Er was told that he would not be judged and that he should remain there in order to see the whole procedure and report it back to mankind. Seven days later, they were all led to another place where there was the Spindle of Necessity. Necessity or Ananke was a primordial goddess and personification of fate. There, the souls were given a lottery number, and based on that, each of them was told to ask what their next life should be. The first soul, having travelled through the sky in the previous area, decided to become a dictator; when that happened, though, he didn't realise that he was destined to eat his own children because of his actions. Er realised that the souls that had travelled through the sky and had not lived the punishment of the other path, often chose bad things for their next lives, while the opposite happened for the souls that had been punished.

Once the souls chose their next life, they were led under the throne of Necessity to the River Lethe (Forgetfulness), where they were told to drink in order to forget their previous lives. That night, when each soul fell asleep, they were sent to new bodies to lead their new lives. Er's soul did not go through all of this and did not drink from the River Lethe, thus remembering everything he had experienced. When he woke up, he returned to his old body which had not decomposed during that period, but he found himself on the funeral pyre that his fellow soldiers had started. They saved him from the flames and he managed to recount his experience in the afterlife.

The myth was used by Socrates to show that the choices people make have an impact on the afterlife, and that those who pretend to be pious but are false in their souls will be eventually punished in the next life.

Why did I post this?  Simple.  Greek mythology is in my opinion pretty cool.  It tells some interesting stories and gives a look at thinking during ancient times.

It's also thought provoking.

I've been searching out "warrior" mythology from the Greeks and this popped up on the list.

This is just for enjoyment.  Don't read anything else into it.

Open Comment Post. Jan 28, 2018

M4A3 75w, with a T-34 Calliope