Wow!

Joe and a couple of other people are gonna have a cow but this had me saying WTF!

I don't care what side of the political isle you're on this is just plain sad, stupid, pathetic and arrogant.  When I first saw this on Drudge and then followed the link to WeaselZippers.us I thought it was a gag...then I followed the link to the Obama site and its legit.

Just Wow!

F-4 shotdown...

via Reuters.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Syria had admitted it had shot down the plane and apologized, BBC Monitoring reported, citing Turkey's state news agency Anatolia.
Turkey said earlier it had lost contact with one of its military aircraft off its southeastern coast after it took off from Erhac airport in the eastern province of Malatya.
Turkish officials said Erdogan, who was returning to Ankara from Brazil on Friday evening, would convene a security meeting with the interior and foreign ministers and the chief of general staff. They did not say what would be discussed.
Turkey's military said a search and rescue operation was under way. Two crew were aboard the F-4 jet, Anatolia said.

Latest reports say the crewmen were recovered in ok shape.

The Middle East is primed to pop.  The US and European economies are staggering along.  Even China is facing a slowdown.

All we need is some trigger to make the whole world go boom and we could be looking at regional war.

2012 is proving to be quite interesting.

The makings of a Norwegian Air to Air video...

Thanks Endre for the info!  You rock!

Major Eskil “TAZ” Amdal...display pilot and Marie Brudevold...Norwegian Air Force designer.

The following photos illustrate the "shoot".  It was done off the back ramp of a C-130 with some pretty remarkable (at least to this layman) flying.  Enjoy...I did.

A Century of Norwegian Air Power.

Air Power a-century


Pretty awesome.  Norwegian Airpower at the century mark.  Effective, capable and efficient.  Can you ask for more?

Awesome F-16 vid.

Thanks for the vid Endre!

ALTAY. Turkish Tank Dreams.

What happens when you have a Turkish desire to develop its own domestic tank, mixed with S. Korean K-2 technology mixed with an economy that is weathering the current economic troubles rather nicely...bet they're happy they weren't admitted to the Euro now!....

You have the Altay.  Not much info is available over the web but the wiki page gives a good primer.  Read it here.

The Royal Australian Air Force gets busy at Red Flag...

NOTE:

If you enlarge the pics, you can see a photographer in the "observation bubble" on top of the airplane.    Pretty cool.  Now I know how some of these great air to air shots are taken.  One last mystery though.  If these aviation photographers (I'm talking about the guys that take air to air shots) are flying in military aircraft, taking pics of military aircraft and personnel, then why are they then able to turn around and charge the public for copies of the photos?  Just curious. 

Black Sea Rotational Force at Exercise BALTOPS 2012

Photos by Staff Sgt. Nate Hauser

Reconnaissance Marines of the Ground Combat Element, Black Sea Rotational Force 12, fast rope on to a beachhead, from a Lithuanian helicopter, in order to observe enemy movements prior to an amphibious landing during Exercise BALTOPS 2012, June 4. The Marines and sailors of BSRF-12 joined Lithuanian infantry soldiers in the first amphibious landing on Lithuanian soil in 40 years. BSRF-12 is Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force training with 19 countries to facilitate interoperability with U.S. partner nations and promote regional stability while providing a limited crisis response capability in the Black Sea and Caucasus regions. BALTOPS 2012 aims to improve maritime security in the Baltic region through increased interoperability and cooperation amongst regional allies both on land and sea.

Marines of Black Sea Rotational Force 12, perform an amphibious landing aboard Polish landing craft launched from the OPR Krakow during Exercise BALTOPS 2012, June 4. The Marines and sailors of BSRF-12 joined Lithuanian infantry soldiers in the first amphibious landing on Lithuanian soil in 40 years. BSRF-12 is Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force training with 19 countries to facilitate interoperability with U.S. partner nations and promote regional stability while providing a limited crisis response capability in the Black Sea and Caucasus regions. BALTOPS 2012 aims to improve maritime security in the Baltic region through increased interoperability and cooperation amongst regional allies both on land and sea.

Marines of Black Sea Rotational Force 12, prepare to disembark a Polish amphibious tractor while conducting an amphibious landing during Exercise BALTOPS 2012, June 4. The Marines and sailors of BSRF-12 joined Lithuanian infantry soldiers in the first amphibious landing on Lithuanian soil in 40 years. BSRF-12 is Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force training with 19 countries to facilitate interoperability with U.S. partner nations and promote regional stability while providing a limited crisis response capability in the Black Sea and Caucasus regions. BALTOPS 2012 aims to improve maritime security in the Baltic region through increased interoperability and cooperation amongst regional allies both on land and sea.

Marines of Black Sea Rotational Force 12, disembark a Polish amphibious tractor while conducting an amphibious landing during Exercise BALTOPS 2012, June 4. The Marines and sailors of BSRF-12 joined Lithuanian infantry soldiers in the first amphibious landing on Lithuanian soil in 40 years. BSRF-12 is Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force training with 19 countries to facilitate interoperability with U.S. partner nations and promote regional stability while providing a limited crisis response capability in the Black Sea and Caucasus regions. BALTOPS 2012 aims to improve maritime security in the Baltic region through increased interoperability and cooperation amongst regional allies both on land and sea.

Marines of Black Sea Rotational Force 12, disembark a Polish amphibious tractor while conducting an amphibious landing during Exercise BALTOPS 2012, June 4. The Marines and sailors of BSRF-12 joined Lithuanian infantry soldiers in the first amphibious landing on Lithuanian soil in 40 years. BSRF-12 is Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force training with 19 countries to facilitate interoperability with U.S. partner nations and promote regional stability while providing a limited crisis response capability in the Black Sea and Caucasus regions. BALTOPS 2012 aims to improve maritime security in the Baltic region through increased interoperability and cooperation amongst regional allies both on land and sea.

 These guys operate pretty much under the radar but they've been doing great work in spreading the "real" Marine Corps message (real training and no fluffy bunny bullshit) to allies that are generally harder and more loyal than most.  Its probably because they have fresh memories or still feel threatened by Russian expansionist tendencies.