Retracting Head Ter Ter

Maybe the guy with the drum is taking out the waste/used fluids from the valk? I find the lone guy trying to push the Micro-Missile launcher all by his own muscle power funny!

GLAUG!!!!!!!

I really can't imagine the US having much problems decimating the IrAF. The advantage of B-2/F117s making strikes with impunity is a big advantage. The USA does not need to do anything else until it wants too since the IrAF cannot strike back in any way. Sun Tzu would agree. The chance of an IrAF bird blundering within range of a B-2 at night is lower then that of the B-2 crashing due to pilot/mechanical faults IMHO.

Its wishful thinking but I would love Dragon to make one of them in Iranian colours.

The Berkut is about as developed as the YF-23 so I don't think anybody can buy it as it is. I have no idea what the PLAAF is doing with the FC-1 and the J-10 though. Anybody?

Whats with the backstreet Hip-Hop look huh?

RBOZ-01 King Gojulas (Tomy Zoids) EZ-021 Deathsaurer (Tomy Zoids) EZ-015 Iron Kong (Tomy Zoids) 1/48 VF-1A Hikaru (Yamato) ERTL Star Destroyer (its a model kit but I fly it around the house blasting rebel scum like a toy) DX Msia MSN-04 Sazabi (can't pose much but it looks great)

I was talking about 2 movies. Short Circuit (lightning strike causes AI to come alive) and Electric Dreams (spilled drink makes some Mac? come alive). Dang, whats the song from Short Circuit called? I bet they will use some fancy nuke reactor to plot device the range issue. Dunno how to solve the ammo issue though.

Actually, I was rather surprised by that. Normally it is that the AI goes rogue on its own without any outside influences. Skynet, HAL, Sharon Apple... the list goes on and on, so I'm rather pleased that Stealth isn't going with that over-wrought route and is going for something a little different. And yes, those specially designed T&A flightsuits are annoying, but they're not nearly as bad as they could have been and they're uniform across the gender board. I'd be having a much more ranting time if they'd given Her Albaness a special, womens-only flightsuit that had the midriff showing... Or the Ai goes rogue because it finds out they are cancelling the AI programme and scrapping him etc etc... I think the Lightning strike thing has been done before. Some 80s robot on treads. He had a number for a name. Can't recall the shows name. What made edgar (from electric dreams) go rogue? Champagne or coffee?

China may have a lot compared to a minor nuclear power, but against either the U.S., Russia, U.K., and France (I think?) it is still far outclassed in numbers and more importantly quality. Nope, China is third. Ahead of UK and France in warhead numbers. Tech is debatable but so far the UK and France have not fielded ICBMs. Number of warheads is sketchy. From low estimates of hundreds to several thousand (tactical and strategic up to 3 MT).

Iirc the polar route is still long a too range for moment.. Also there's the problem with the Russians who don't like foreigns nukes flying through their airspace. Isn't that a bit less than what one U.S. boomer would carry? Use any on Japan and China won't no where near enough to seriously damage more then a dozen cities. How, assuming just Japan, China and the U.S. been nuked how would the world be ****ed? Doubtful as most if not all of the Chinese leadership would be dead or incapacited before reaching the 1% mark. China ain't got enough nukes to put a major dent into Cali. population much less the rest of the CONUS. How again would this happened? Don't think they'll care what the Russians will think at that kind of point in time. I said 'at least'. Yes, the US has way more warheads and delivery systems. But 50-100 warheads in that kind of 200-1000 kiloton range is enough to do crazy damage even if half get thru. The rest of the world might not lose people directly, but the economy will be at the most screwed ever since Adam Smith and the ecological problems that kind of fallout will cause is going to screw everyone. I am just saying that China having so many years and the money to build nukes won't build a force which can't assure some semblance of MAD with the Russians and USA. otherwise, whats the point?

Your point, nuke U.S. soil regardless of where it is and the response will still be the same. I don't have the time to drag up the sources. Chinese ICBM's should easily reach the west coast. Not sure about the East Coast. Maybe if they took the polar route. China has at least 50-100 warheads in the 200 kilo to megaton range. Using the IRBMs they only need to use 10% to seriously screw up Japan. That leaves enough warheads for the USA. Not enough to turn it all into molten glass like the US can do to China, but enough to f*&K the whole world up still. I wouldn't trust those reports of China having a measly 20-30 ICBMs. They have been in this nuke programme for long enough. Nukes aren't that expensive to make and China sure has the money (compare to the bajillions they have been spending on buildings and sports stadiums this past decade) to churn em out. Point is, anyone starts lobbing nukes and the world is f^&ked seriously. China might lose 99% of its population and the USA 50% but the world is screwed 100 times over.

I dunno about that... the ISDs in Star Wars always seem to miss an awful lot (My personal gripe on Sci-Fi: In an age of shields, ion propulsion, and laser cannons, nobody has the brains to invent a slightly better targeting system???) Thats the part which is really unrealistic about most sci-fi cap ship battles. Even 20th century targetting systems can aim better then whatever is aiming those beam weapons we see on screen. Heck, its just a case of putting the mouse pointer onto the target.

Hey lets get to talking planes (I do think the Japanese need to face history though). I am still awaiting the results (due out in a few months) of the F-15K vs EF2000 vs Rafale competition for the Republic of Singapore Air Force. I wouldn't bet 2 cents on the Rafale. F-15K vs EF2000 seems like political ballgame. Most of the RSAF equipment is US made though.

The size of the weapon carrier (mech/ship/plane) which is the most tactically efficient depends on one most important factor. The size of the most effective weapon currently available. e.g. Back when big naval rifles ruled the day, capital ships had to be big. When the brits put an 18 inch gun on a big cruiser, they strained the hull. So now that SAMs/SSMs are smaller and dont have recoil problems, surface combat vessels dont need to be that honking big. You can bet that if aircraft dont need the huge takeoff/landing spaces, its more effective to build 2 smaller carriers then one 1000+ foot long USS Enterprise. So in a world where small hand held weapons can defeat big mechs, big mechs wont be needed. In a world where huge beam weapons can hit and destroy any target, the capital unit would be Death Stars. Think about it, with advanced targetting technology (even early 21st century tech can hit a mach 25 missile with a laser), a huge cap ship with beam weapons bigger then the attacking mechs/spacefighters would outrange and destroy any attacking force with smaller vessels/guns in open space.

Gundam Ball! I think one of the biggest problem with walking mecha is stabilising the cockpit. WHen a human or animal walks, the head (cockpit) area moves up and down. Quite uncomfortable for a pilot unless they have a free floating/inertial cancelling cockpit. When you have a big mecha moving/dodging/fighting the cockpit should be moving around a lot. Much more so then a tank. The bigger the mecha, the bigger the movement.

Ow! Took me about 12 mins and it looked so crap I gave up. How the heck do you guys hold a mouse your mouse steady for drawings? Here goes.

Talking about 'Deluxe' toys. I just saw the Tamiya Masterwork Collection 1/350 Battleships! WOW!

I would bet Israel and Japan would both get the F/A-22I/J somewhere down the road. After all, once their current F-15s' run out of airframe life, they can't just replace it with the F-35s. And I don't see either country buying Su-35/37/45 etc or the Eurojets. Maybe in the 2015-20 timeframe the US would let them have the Raptor. But I don't think that kind of time lag would help the USA with the current funding problems.

I don't suppose they'd include the Ultra-Rare Minmay shower scene event card?

I've said it before on these forums... Paint a brick like a bus on 3 sides, paint a 2-d robot body and face on the 4th side. Viola! Instant Transformer! (ok ok the real Transformers add in gimmicks like opening the 'door's to become the arms in robot mode, and maybe the back end of the 'bus' can have like 1 degree of movement in 'robot' mode to simulate 'legs' but you get the idea.)

The car and truck makers would have an even bigger gold mine with the studios. Also, does this mean the aircraft manufacturers can charge royalties from Tom Clancy and the publishers who put the B-1 or F-15 on the paperback cover?

*cough*capn*cough*america*cough*cough*legioss*cough*cough

Even when he finally got permission to install inline engines, he was forced to use the Jumo engines when he preferred the DB ones. Doras and 152s might have been better if Professor Tank had his way. IIRC, the Oerlikon cannon found on the Viggen had the same KE after 1500m of flight as the shell of the DEFA/Aden cannon at the muzzle!

Well, it wasnt the airframe that led to that. They gave the better high-alt engines to the 109. If Kurt Tank had his way and was given the DB engines to equip his 190s things might have been quite different.