Sunday, September 24, 2017
The Brick of the Unknown...pic by PFC Matt Navarra
 |
| Cpl. Vincenzo Champion carries The Brick of the Unknown, a block symbolizing the weight of those who were lost or captured, to remember their sacrifice at the #POW/MIA5krun on Sept. 22, 2017 at Camp Hansen, Okinawa. “The Brick of the Unknown is never carried in a backpack or set down because there is no easy way to carry the burden of a lost service member,” said Champion, a reconnaissance Marine with #3rdReconnaissanceBattalion. |
Modest Proposal. Let's do the F-16XL to make up for F-35 capability shortfall!
Modest proposal.
Let's do the F-16XL to make up for F-35 capability shortfall!
What do I mean exactly? We take the best of the F-16's that we have on hand and we do a 3 piece upgrade to AESA equipped fighters we have.
Piece 1. The wing.
That wing. It captures everyone's attention because its so radical and futuristic looking. My love of it is the range increase it gives! Wikipedia isn't precise but we're looking at a range of almost 3k miles. Hows that for a deep penetration missile truck? Mach 2 top speed! Ceiling of beyond 50K feet!
Piece 2. Divertless Intake.
Divertless inlet. Expanded maneuver envelope. But the biggest benefit is no engine stalls or anomalies. I'm sure there is more to it but I just believe that this is the way to go with this modest upgrade.
Piece 3. P&W F-119 Engine.
P&W F-119. The F-22 engine. What do we get out of this? An engine that has demonstrated the ability to supercruise. It's in the inventory now. And last but not least it is thrust vectoring capable.
Summation.
These upgrades would give us performance upgrades to the F-16 that should allow it to go toe to toe with the SU family of monsters out there and win. We're talking about pure performance too. Increased range, speed, payload etc....
Leadership have painted themselves into a corner. They rolled the dice on the F-35 and its time for us to save them from themselves. So how do we do that? We make proposals that are reasonable (notice I didn't say free) and we make the case for clawing back the air superiority that has been squandered while trying to get the F-35 to work.
The time has come to start making hard choices. We can't allow religious belief in the F-35 to hold sway over rational examination of that program. In short we must start working on Plan B now. We can't wait till a war starts to try and get it done on the fly.
Let's do the F-16XL to make up for F-35 capability shortfall!
What do I mean exactly? We take the best of the F-16's that we have on hand and we do a 3 piece upgrade to AESA equipped fighters we have.
Piece 1. The wing.
That wing. It captures everyone's attention because its so radical and futuristic looking. My love of it is the range increase it gives! Wikipedia isn't precise but we're looking at a range of almost 3k miles. Hows that for a deep penetration missile truck? Mach 2 top speed! Ceiling of beyond 50K feet!
Piece 2. Divertless Intake.
Divertless inlet. Expanded maneuver envelope. But the biggest benefit is no engine stalls or anomalies. I'm sure there is more to it but I just believe that this is the way to go with this modest upgrade.
Piece 3. P&W F-119 Engine.
P&W F-119. The F-22 engine. What do we get out of this? An engine that has demonstrated the ability to supercruise. It's in the inventory now. And last but not least it is thrust vectoring capable.
Summation.
These upgrades would give us performance upgrades to the F-16 that should allow it to go toe to toe with the SU family of monsters out there and win. We're talking about pure performance too. Increased range, speed, payload etc....
Leadership have painted themselves into a corner. They rolled the dice on the F-35 and its time for us to save them from themselves. So how do we do that? We make proposals that are reasonable (notice I didn't say free) and we make the case for clawing back the air superiority that has been squandered while trying to get the F-35 to work.
The time has come to start making hard choices. We can't allow religious belief in the F-35 to hold sway over rational examination of that program. In short we must start working on Plan B now. We can't wait till a war starts to try and get it done on the fly.
Harlem deli worker charged with murder after fatally stabbing man who tried to attack him behind counter
via NY Daily.
A Harlem deli clerk was charged with murder Friday after fatally stabbing a man relatives say was a serial shoplifter, sending him running down the street with a knife still stuck in his gut.Story here.
The drama began simply enough around 7 a.m. Friday at the A&S Candy Grocery on W. 145th St. near Lenox Ave. with an argument involving two men and the clerk. The men threatened Ahmad Hafeed, a 22-year-old store employee, and then stormed off.
Police said the two men returned to the store around 9 a.m. One of them, a 46-year-old man, had a knife and slashed at Hafeed as he stood behind the counter. Hafeed backed away and grabbed his own knife. He ran from behind the counter to confront the two men, surveillance video shows.
During the struggle, Hafeed, a native of Yemen, stabbed his would-be attacker several times in the midsection before the man broke free and ran from the store — the blade still sticking out of his stomach.
Interesting. Make sure you follow the link to read the whole thing but this sounds like a clear case of self defense.
Why NY Police would charge the guy is beyond me.
What I find interesting is the dynamic here. People of middle eastern descent have "set up shop" in the hood for quite awhile now. It's just one of those dynamics that you see...one of those "true cliches" that everyone hates.
Store keeping is just part of their culture...or rather the desire to be store keepers.
Anyway that's going off on a tangent. I look forward to hearing more about this story. If it is as is being reported then New York has adopted European sensibilities when it comes to self defense (I'm assuming that his coming from behind the counter to confront the criminals is at least part of the reasoning from the police...do they have a "retreat" part of their self defense laws?).
Note. Yes. I am assuming the criminals are black although they failed to identify them. The location would seem to imply that.
Lockheed Martin's Orbital Base Camp & Lander (pic heavy)
* LM should hope like hell NASA turns them loose on this concept. It could go a long way to revitalizing their reputation. Between the F-35 fiasco and the little known (but business cooperation destroying) partnership skullduggery with Patria during the Amphibious Combat Vehicle program, they could use a big win.
Turkey's new S-400 and the bragging about ability to shoot down US aircraft.
Thanks to Dave for the link!
via Defense News.
Turkey’s state run news agency Anadolu on Wednesday published an infographic showcasing the capabilities of the country’s new Russian-acquired S-400 missile defense system — and its ability to shoot down U.S. aircraft.Story here.
The graphic from the NATO ally’s news agency explains that the new S-400 can hit targets at 400 km away at 4.8 km per second. The infographic also says it can eliminate U.S. aircraft such as the B-52 Stratofortress, B-1 Lancer, F-15, F-16, F-22 Raptor, and several other high tech U.S. aircraft.
Hmm. This system is formidable, so I have no problem with them saying that. What rankles is that they would identify it being able to shoot down US aircraft.
Why that distinction?
It's a given that they wouldn't list Russian aircraft after that idiotic shoot down of a SU-24. I don't see them listing EU aircraft because I'm sure that Turkey is hoping against hope that it can still, by some miracle, make it into the Union.
The Chinese are off limits to them because I imagine that they hope to either team with them, get into their markets or just play nice.
So why don't we get the same consideration?
This is why Trump's America First resonated with so many (to include me). Label this as another instance of a so called ally that being disrespectful to the Red, White and Blue.
Blast from the past. Steyr ADGZ Heavy Armored Car.
This is another vehicle from WW2 that I didn't know even existed. It's a funky design but most wheeled vehicles of the time were.
On a side note I do find it interesting that 8x8's (or 12 x12's in this case) usually had two drivers positions. We've tossed that requirement today because most vehicles are designed as troop carriers.
Still the concept seems to have merit.
Just throwing it out there but should we have a backup capability for another crewman to drive the vehicle remotely? I'm talking about maybe an X-Box type controller for the gunner to take over driving (or the commander) if the driver is incapacitated. Just a thought.
Saturday, September 23, 2017
Penampakan Medium Tank Pindad-FNSS Kaplan/Harimau
Thanks to DWI for the link!
Don't know exactly what I'm seeing here. Is this cgi? If real I wish we got a longer look. If fake I wish the same.
Don't know exactly what I'm seeing here. Is this cgi? If real I wish we got a longer look. If fake I wish the same.
Subscribe to:
Posts
(
Atom
)