Noyhauser

I dont understand the bitching going on. I mean regardless how much we complain/debate this issue, the US Navy isnt changing their minds. Yes, I agree the F-14 is by far superior in every aspects including bombing role over the F/A-18E/F. And who says the F-35 will be better? All we got to see is the prototype being used and Lockheed Martin won the contract. Doesnt mean jack until they do more testing.

The F-14 is an old design but the Hornet is too. The hornet was designed in the mid-70s. So they improved on the F/A-18 to give us the E/F version. They could have done it with the Tomcat. The only reason why we got the F/A-18E/F is b/c of the actual maintenance cost is less than a Tomcat. And to those who are saying the F-14 is too old and should give way to the Hornet, then are you saying we should give way the A-10 to the F-16 as the new CAS? Frankly, the newer isnt always better.

One point that hasn't been made that is most of your metrics for "performance" skews very heavily towards the tomcat, and in reality the F/A-18e/f is far superior to the F-14.Most of you look at pure performance, like speed, payload weight... thats all good... The tomcat may have a slight edge in these areas... but thats really debateable. It seems the F/A-18E/F is probably more maneuverable, but lets for arguments sake I'll say the F-14 is slightly better.

Where the F-14 loses any respect is in more important areas, maintenance

Currently for every hour of flightime the F-14 requires 33 hours of maintenance. not good.

The new F/A-18 requires 17 hours... effectively half the time in the shop... that may not seem very important but it is.

Less labour intensive airframes, allows you to keep your forces more active. In the case of the 18E vs the 14, you can fly double the ammount of sorties. That means you can have double the number of planes flying at one time. 2 more planes in a dogfight will mean far far more than some small performance advantage. It means you can drop double the amount of bombs on target, because you get that bonus sortie you never had with the F-14 while its sitting in the shop.

Also with 1/2 the maintenance costs, you can afford to buy twice the number of planes... meaning more units in the air.

Also the F/A18E is almost a brand new aircraft in everywhere it counts... especially upgradeble avionics. This allows for quicker replacement of obsolete technology, and keeping in pace with new technological advancements... like new weapons. The Tomcat would require difficult and expensive modifications to keep pace. Remember what I said, if we didn'trepace te 14, half of us would by crying about why the USN's mainline fighter is 35+ years off,

So really the F/A 18 is a far better than the F-14... just have to take it all into perspective.

Hey he's the one who posted on his blog about us... that and he was the one boasting about his position. Who put's his job title IN his title anyways?

And how can he say that this is a MW flame fest without Agent one? Seriously.

not when you're out of cash and the need for air superiority fighters is not very pressing.

You know what I find most ironic...

He's probably going to post all this stuff we have said about him on his blog yet again. (failing to understand how un funny he is)

his unaware RT sheep will click on the link and come to this site, and explore. They will see Yamato... They will see Hasegawa.... hear about Mac+ and DYRL....

And in the end he'll have less customers.

I love some of these quotes from his blog. Some of these will go down in geek history

No doubt Macrossworlders can not wait for

me to finish washing Carl Macek's balls.

*snort* Nerdlaff*snort*

Reading his blog just screams self absorbed geek to me.... I mean your a " Operations Coordinator for Harmony Gold USA." Wow... be proud. You've really hit the big times. You really had to bold it and put it right at the top of your page so everybody could see.

Also, you work for a company which hasn't produced a real piece of original content... well since.... ever. Your company rips off character and mechanical designs from Japanese animations from the 1980s. It also uses underhanded techniques to keep your customers from buying (or even knowing about) a far superior product from Japan. Thumbs up to that.

We wanted to control the various domain nemaes of the Robotech universe. It allows us to support the main RT.com website and ensures the overall health of the franchise. The last thing we would want is to have mospeada.com be a porn site or something.

I wish it was a porn site... at least I'd be getting some gratification watching big breasted hotties instead of clawing my ears out to reba west's voice.

Oh and last year called, they want their howard dean jokes back.

So, did BoK work for HG when he ran amok here or was he recently upgraded from lickspittle-wannabe to lackey?

Actually, I think he's pulling duty these days as Macek's personal ball washer.

Wow you're famouse Mech! he quoted you.

"Through decades of tireless work at Harmony [Greed], Streamline Pictures, and ADV Films, Carl has [deprived us of] the magic and enjoyment of [Macross and other] anime [by subjecting us to poor storylines, whiny voice actors, and lawsuits] to generations of [unsuspecting] fans in America."

Isn't it also amazing how BankofKev, who started life as a lighting design major (with a minor in basketweaving, I'm sure), could get a job as "Operations Coordinator" with HG? Just because he did an "audit of Robotech's television ratings and viewer demographics during its original run in the 1980s." How could his "...analysis of the ratings in a cost effective manner along with his years of production experience" make him "a natural candidate for the Robotech team"? At least not without a lot of lubrication... 

Funniest post EVER

As much as I love Macrossworld... its not life engrossing. I'd say devoting blog space towards ranting about the people on here is the epitomy of hurting. I mean seriously, are you that childish about getting ripped apart on here that you have to self justify yourself on your own blog?

... sigh, do we have to have this argument YET again? Round and round the mullberry...

The Tomcat is an obsolete fighter that was intended for a mission that doesn't exist anymore. Only Russia posseses Long range air launhed SSMs that you speak of MJ, and its not selling them due to the MTCR.

Moreover if the navy would have wanted something to cover this role they would have asked for it to be in its first spiral development. They asked for the growler instead.

Keeping tomcats going was fast becoming a money pit for the USN. Its extremely difficult to upgrade a 30 year old fighter to modern standards. They can do that with the F/A-18E/F

But I find I have a lot of anger as I make my way to work and/or drop my wife off at school. So I think I'd go for the stomping GBP-1S and give the obnoxious drivers something to think about.

...the 21 might not be a good choice for you then.

it makes me wonder...who would pay $5000+ dollars for a glorified retirement scooter, when you could get a good bike for $200 dollars, stay fit and pocket the rest of it?

That goes for the segway as well... just a complete waste of cash.

yes, but most of those (like the SA-9) are used because they need ruggedness, ease of maintenence and mobility. Also the Gaskin is more of a short range close in defence missile, vehicle mounted (like the Avenger) than a medium range one.

One thing you have to realize about soviet equipment in the 1980s, it was designed to be as untechnical as possible. Soviets were going to EMP everything with nukes, and watch NATO's technical advantage fry out. Radar systems would be the first to go.

(i'd type more, but I've dislocated my shoulder yesterday playing Rugby, and I've only got one hand to type... sorry)

(most SAMs are heat seeking, aren't they?).

I thought the big ones were generally radar-guided, while the little ones (like Stinger) were heat-seekers.

Don't have time to look up the details right now, so someone else will probably set me straight if necessary.

It has more to do with weight. IR seekers are self contained guidance units, that can be man portable. Radar guided needs a radar dish, computer, and maybe a comunication link to operate... which is impossible to make manportable. And its impossible to make a radar guided self contained SAM... the seeker is too big, and too delicate to be used on the ground.

You guys should just go the extra half-mile and build full size ones. Lose the ski ramp.

The point about the Harrier and Amphibious assaults is completely true, however. No one really notices Japan as a military threat anymore, but a sudden purchase of say....30 harriers could make them a point of interest from our UAVs and satellites, and that they don't want. Personally, I don't think their weapons should be limited as they are, anyone who had a grudge against the US and could hold any power to take action against us is long dead by now. Same for Germany. Germany was just under teh power of an insane dictator who had plenty of health problems and mental dementia. The german people aren't warlike in nature (Trust me, my entire family is german, all the way down my dads side.) and have incredible military forces. The KSK, GSG9 (Well, I still don't know if they are allowed to handle things out-of-country) etc. Times change. Grudges are lost.

Anywho, back to discussion of planes. Lockheed and Dassault should sue, David. You caneven make out the panels on the body of the 16 in that pic.

Actually I think its a fine thing to do. with regional tensions the way they are MORE offensive weapons is not a good thing. What would the Japanese use a carrier for when the have article 19?

And your point about germany is a lot different. The german government has forces for self defence and a constitutional clause preventing out of country depoyments (but due to a 1994 constitutional court ruling the Federal republic has been ammended saying deployments as part of a multinational coalition is ok). GSG 9 is a self defence measure. Also germany has the EU to use as a framework for action and a moral check on its behavoir... Japan has no close allies. Germany for the longest time supported "civillian power"" models of foreign affaris, which eschewed miliatary force ans stressed the application of diplomacy and economic trade to act internationally. It still believes in those tenets deeply. So things haven't changed that much.

wasnt there a movie back in 1996 that was a retelling of the war of the worlds? OH YEAH IT WAS INDEPENDANCE DAY! lets see alot of aliens show up and destroy the earth and a VIRUS winds up being the answer to stopping them.

GIVE ME MY PERFECT BOOK TO SCREEN CONVERSION!

for anyone who has read the book youll know what i mean.

yup I would love to see a old school adaptation. I think Sky Captain and the world of tommorrow showed that setting people in a previous time period can put people in the seats.

As it stands, from the short trailer that showed me nothing at all except some explosions far far away, and from the voice over it does sound like a Independence day knock off. I actually liked the old WoW...

I wanna know what exactly is wrong with:

Space Marines on a research facility on Mars

Demons from Hell come through their "gates" that they make

One man(Hell, even a squad) kills many of them

As they go deeper into the base it starts to be all... hell-like

I mean come on, one of the reasons the first Doom was so awesome was because of the story. I mean, the story was kind of weak, but it certainly wasn't just tacked on and it really wasn't bad either.

Nothing at all. Actually its what made it so great. But look at the budget, 70 million?... its not really all that much for a sci fli flick that doom should have. Something tells me that the budget for the latest doom game was probably more (or I could be wrong here....). So they probably couldn't have really intricate deamons, special graphics, great actors or unique sets. So its they probably changed the story to make it cheaper.

50$ says that the big "tie in" with doom will be someone picks up a shotgun half way through the movie and lays down some serious lead. At that point the super Doom geek fans will be "ooooh... its the shotgun" and snicker themselves silly because they think that they alone understand the significance of it.

While I will have exited the movie 30 minutes ago to sneak into another theater after I saw how badly my childhood has been raped.

sigh, how hard could it be to keep to something as relatively straight forward in sci fi as in doom.

*SPOILER WARNING* for those who haven't played doom for its story yet

The only reason why I'd ever watch a doom movie was to see the devil himself as a half Goat half mechanical being walking around firing missiles. That and him getting roasted by the BFG5000... sigh.

What are the JMSDF's prospect of operating AV-8B Plus(AV-8J) jump jets from its so called large helicopter destroyer ?

slim to none

The helicopter carrier is to be as un-offesnsive as possible. Its a strict helicopter carrier, that is designed to be used for ASW work, thats it. Anything more would be a contravention of the Japanese constitution, which forbids the possession of offensive weapons of any kind. Notice how the Japanese really have no long range strike weapons either... same reason. Its a really politically touchy subject. Its really more like the old Moskva Class of Helicopter cruisers the USSR once fielded, even in design. with no ski jump, it makes it highly unsuitable for carrying this sort of plane. Here is a link to the old Moskva (I really liked this ship)

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/row/rus/1123.htm

Even if the Japanese did secretly intend to use their helo carrier for offshore support of a land force (I can't even begin to tell you how unlikely that would be)... it would pretty obvious they were doing so if they started buying harriers.

it is information high

Maybe, and I know I'm stretching here folks, it's called Macross Zero because it takes place in the same universe as every other Macross series, and happens to be a prequel. Not to mention the fact that it carries all teh same themes and ideas, features versions of some of the mecha from the other Macross shows, and even has one of the characters from another Macross series playing fairly big role in it.Yeah, I know it's crazy, but you know how wacky those Japanese are.

i know, i'm being obtuse

.... either way we could asssume you were being obtuse for the sake of being funny, or actually being serious. My previous post was made in the spirit of you post.

might explain why the Monster has the funky hands... legal issues? I can just imagine the legal arguments stated in a court... "members of this court, as you can see quite clearly in this frame, with the deployment of these hands, the Monster in Macross zero episode 5 is nothing like the one seen in SDF MAcross"

And about the series being called Macross and not being macross... give me a break. Hell why don't they call it HWK Monster? its the only thing that appears in all the series.

You might try Legend of the Galactic Heroes. I've probably only seen about a dozen episodes, but it was pretty good stuff and I know there are people around here who will recommend it. But--it's very long, and acquiring a complete set could be pretty expensive (if/when one is available in the US).

This might also be useful: Recommended Anime

I'd like to second this. LOGH is one of the greatest Japanese Sci fis in my mind ever, and I've been watching anime since I was a child. (but I haven't got all the way through... I'm only at the end of the second season, because if I start Season 3 I'm not going to stop and its exam time)

Its shockingly good. You want a realistic space battle using real tactics? This series has it. Its not really comedic, but serious with a deep dark overtone. Realism is the key, politics, war and people are all thrown together and you really have an epic. You can find boots on EBAY if you need to...

No other series comes close to this one for its deep story.

These issues relate to Macross in various ways. In M+, Sharon may be conscious, or she may simply be mimicking consciousness; there's no way of knowing. The moment when Isamu hears Myung singing is subject to multiple interpretations, only some of which might suggest there's something special about biological consciousness as distinct from electronic mimicry. Both M7 and MZero imply the existence of "higher powers", but they also strongly imply that all the "magic" is really no more or less than "supertechnology" (Clark's Third Law). This isn't to say that there aren't spiritual overtones to both shows. There are. But because the "magical" elements of the shows are presented as "scientific", the shows don't necessarily advance a supernatural or divine form of spirituality. Instead, M7 & M0 can be seen as offering a "positivistic spirituality" which acknowledges the limitations of our understanding, values life and humanity (in the broadest sense), and argues against the arrogance of power.

Wow.... Ewilen

best

answer

ever!

Well at least one of the most intelligent posts I have ever seen on this board. It succintly explains in a theoretical level what I think Kawamori (may) be getting at.

i'm intrested in which characters in m+ had super natural powers too....

i mean.. we can agree that "thinking" isn't a super natural power right?

As I've pointed out before, Mac + isn't really in the pattern of the Macross stories, because it never was supposed to be one according to Kawamori. It was originally supposed to be part of an alternate universe under the title of advanced valkyrie... but that got shelved and he reused the script to create Macross plus later. Compared to Zero, Seven, and SDF, it is the odd one out.

Has somebody asked the obligatory what scale question yet?

no?

Okay what scale is it?

All joking aside, congratulations on a beautiful boy. I hope all the best for him.

Okay, guys. Yes, clyde01, I have heard it before. Just go to the airplane vs. thread and you can find me, Shin, David, and others going back and forth about it.

wha?

Hey ewilen you forgot me!

(really I just posted that as an excuse to use my favorite smiley)

If anything it gives EVEN MORE attention to a president who didn't do anything except screw Norma Gene and get killed. I personally think JFK is the most overated man in US history.

MUST... RESIST... URGE... TO... MAKE... POLITICAL STATEMENTS