kalvasflam

I've seen one armed with eight AMRAAMs on an Aviation Space weekly magazine, or was it ten, I can't remember, but it's ridiculous. I talked to an -18 pilot once back in 98 I think, and the guy laughed and said it was ridiculous what Boeing (might have still been MCD then) put up since there weren't more than 200 AMRAAMs in the inventory.

Trust CNN for accurate information... well, reporters aren't paid to report good news, it's the bad news that's interesting. He was probably hoping that the flight disappeared mysteriously, then it would really make it onto the news cycle. But one interesting effect might be seeing how much the humidity effect might be for the plane. Although, it's not that humid in Hawaii at the moment.

Blasphemy... Ike is rolling over in his grave right now... mainly because he is not a class of tank (Patton, Sherman, etc), but seconded to a class of carrier named after a squid admiral.

I hope Iran buys a bunch. Mig 35 that is.... haven't looked at the stats, but what's so different about the Mig 35 vs the standard Mig 29?

I'm sorry, I don't want to... but I have to.... oh who am I kidding, I enjoy torturing you... bring on the pain inducers. Where is that damned agonizer.... ha ha ha ha Oh, damn, daddy says my time with you is done... wahhhhhh, he wants to play with you... sorry bro.

That's probably because all the European fighters were carbon copies of each other.... heh heh Sorry, couldn't help myself. One of my personal favorites, probably the precusor of these planes. The F-16XL.

I'm hoping Gray will stick around a little longer, nothing like family fued. I could stand to see the master mind being busted out of CTU jail at the end of the day. As for dad, well, to be honest, I'm not too thrilled with Jack's dad being involved. I was hoping the Gray story line take a little longer to play out.

It's a fun show, but they're just doing repeats now I think. The funniest one was when I caught a commercial on History channel about the battle off Samar, and the commercials called Yamato, the Yamamoto... hilarious. But it's a very well done show. I am looking forward to new episodes, I wonder when they'll come out with the next one. There is literally tons of materials, WWII and so on. I don't recall, but they haven't done one that centered on people other than the Americans, and so far, it's pretty limited to the Asia theater of operation I think. But Battle of Britian comes easily to mind here as good fodder for the show. I'd also like to see what they have on the ostfront. That would be great.

Yes, just like between the a supposed Soviet/US nuclear war, there will be a winner, but if that's winning, I think people would rather do without. In regards to Korean and Vietnam, that is a bygone era. It was the time of our glorious chairman, well, once he kicked the bucket, let's just say things hadn't been so great between Vietnam and PRC for a while. These border wars and so forth. As for NK, let's face it, NK under Chinese influence a long time ago, they're puppets. If China's threat is their military, then their weakness as have been pointed out by others is their economy. Their track record is a mindset, win at all cost, nothing wrong with that as long as they're being smart about not committing national suicide (something that would happen in a shooting war) But speaking of the Chinese military, who do they threaten exactly? Please let me know. I'm mystified by your statement. As for arms race, the analogy is to the US/Soviet arms race, under those context, there is no such thing with China right now. And if you're talking about selling arms, you can pretty easily see who sells the most armaments on the planet, by a large margin, it's the US, followed by the Russians.

All of which (David's statements) points to the fact that strategically, China is just not as likely to take the gloves off against the US. The big sore point right now: Taiwan is nothing but bluster at the end of the day, only a lunatic would ever even contemplating a military action there. The US has implied that it will come to Taiwan's aid as well. Again, all of it is talk. In that situation, there is no winner at all, only a collective group of losers if a shooting war starts. Everyone stands to lose a ton of money if there was ever a shooting war between China and the US. Any true communist (in China) would know this, and would go to great length to avoid this. After all, you don't put your country on the fast track to riches, and then deliberately derail yourselves in the process. In the long run, the real threat from China is not military, it's economical. There isn't much of an arms race right now either, it's just catch up. No real concern for a few decades on the military front.

My thoughts exactly, let's not blow things out of proportion. China tested a capability. Let's not treat it as a declaration of war or anything. As the country grows, military muscle is one of the thing that China feels it has to have. From their point of view, it's protection of their current infrastructure. It's a bit unlikely for China to go off like little Kimmy to the East.

You have to really wonder now how far back does brother Graham's conspiracy extend back to. It's a stretch, but hey, may be it goes back even further than season 5.

Male Kim... ha ha ha ha, Kim Jong Il? Anyway, cool twist with daddy and older bro being evil

Heh heh, you noticed, I did say modified for space. I know basic physics after all. But think about it, what is the so called smart pebbles other than a glorified rock. There are ways to get around that, you have to design a gun that handles the right type of bullets, in the end it's just a matter of compensating for the momentum. Lynx, no offense, but lets not make a mistake in believing that other countries couldn't have duplicated the effort before China. It's not a denial that China has gone a long way from the day of the first paramount (idiot) leader, but if Japan for example wanted that capability, they could do it. Same for quite a few countries in Europe. That said, we'll see what the next step is. It'll be interesting, that's for sure.

For me, I think a space fighter on the first generation has to be launched on a booster. Otherwise, it's forced to carry too much fuel to have enough usable sensors or armaments and other stuff. The fighter ought to be able to land like the standard shuttle, I think the difference ought to be that the fighter has limited atmospheric capabilities, in that it can maneuver and move around in the atmosphere, not a strict glider like the shuttle. The primary armament ought to be a chain gun or a gatling of some type, modified for space operation of course. Then it needs a very good sensor suite with a fantastic tracking computer. Building in stealth features should not be too big a deal I think. I wouldn't be surprise if there is such a capability in the US already, black project of some type. But such a unit would likely have to have a booster unless there is some very exotic type of propulsion.

As for the Chinese ASAT, welcome to the club.... Third country in the world that has an ASAT capability. Great. Other than that, it ain't a big deal. It's about capability and flexing the muscles. Something that any superpower would do when they can. There is too much money to be made for anything really stupid. I'd be interested when someone has a space capable fighter.

Agreed with the Palmer comparison, I'm sorry, but Wayne Palmer strikes me like... well, there is no easy way to say it, he is a WUSS. Even his sister would make a better president, if she has a little more sense, fortunately her boyfriend is a little more level headed and practical in my opinion. But getting on to the main story line, I'm sorry to see Curtis getting killed, the fact that Jack poped him is a real tragedy, simply because Curtis didn't have a choice. And while someone could blame Jack for not making sure Curtis was separated from Assad, let's face it, Bauer was probably being battyslapped less than 48 hours earlier. So far, this season is quite powerful in content delivery. I just hope there isn't the same convulted twist as season four, and hopefully someone will step up to be as good a villian as Logan.

200 planes though... ok, 100 to be absolutely fair, the rest on some type of options from what I remember. But they've got like five or six smaller companies under the same name. This must be some huge expansion. I can see places like India going big. But what other local carriers are in SEA right now? Does Jetstar count? But nontheless a gigantic win for Airbus

But getting back onto the order books, it seems that Airbus is starting off the year on a good note. http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1167996652.html I've personally never heard of AirAsia, not nearly as famous as the other airlines in SE Asia, but holy smoke, 200 airplanes? Gawd, are they trying to start their own air force? Can you imagine if they went bankrupt all of a sudden. But somebody in Boeing must be gnashing their teeth at this order. Even if it is just A320s. As for paymenht, I always thought there is some fee to reserve the slots, but a majority of the cash is paid on delivery. But then again, I'm no expert on this. But what happens if an act of God occurs in the middle of production and the airplane is smashed. Is the company then only responsible for delivery the percentage of the plane that's incomplete? Just a random thought

Ouch... asking for a lot... TWA? Aren't they out of business? True enough though, Boeing has a big backlog, and they've managed to screw up before. Remember the strike in 2005, and the union disputes in the late 90s. Could happen again. And the refuge from MMM is a big question mark. I had friends at 3M who had very nasty things to say about McNerny.... The bottom line is whether Boeing managed to streamline their operations and deliver on time (787 is a big risk right now), and whether this big deal about integrating in new suppliers is actually working out. Success has a thousand fathers, and failure is usually just another orphan.

Sometimes you have to wonder what the US has in the works in secret. Nobody hears much about the next generation stuff, all the stuff in the open is about UAVs, not much in the way of manned aircraft. Stealth is so 20th century as far as state of the art goes. I wonder what's next.

I still like the original a bit better since it shows that there is in fact a cost of victory. Camille the vegetable says that you don't always walk away at the end of the day. That said, I did think the movie (all three in fact) could've benefited tremendously from entirely new animation, there is just some transitions that are a little too rough in my opinion. Oh well. Nothing is perfect. But the movies are pretty good.

Oh, well, it's simple then, what Singapore really needs is not an air force or an army. They need two surplus Ohios with all the fixings. (Pre-SSGN modifications of course). But one thought, given such a small area, it would almost be wise to invest in some VSTOL aircrafts, the F-35 would be perfect in this case I think. But you better put them on one of the more remote outlying islands.

Ok, that's a fair explanation. The narrow waterways prevents use of maritime assets. It's not very obvious from the map sometimes the exact distance. But air assets can still be helpful in terms of stopping small crafts from crossing, although not small arms fire. Are the urban areas immediately adjacent to the shores? More importantly, what is the general terrain like on the other side out to about 30 km? That is a good way to understand the best options. I don't know anything about your neighbor's military capabilities, but how well armed are they in terms of artillery and MBTs? A buffer zone if needed is something that has to be created, probably through MBTs frist (if they can be used easily) then garrisoned with infantry while tanks are withdrawn a bit further back and held as a mobile reserve. That's if it ever can to a conflict.

Ok, somehow, I think you managed to move my argument from Singapore to armies in general. That's plain wrong. I started off with the comment that it makes very little sense for Singapore with its geography to have tanks. I stand by that statement. In theory, if the defense budget of Singapore was indeed infinite, then tanks make sense, after you buy a bunch of other stuff up to and including AFVs. So, the first argument is its a matter of how you use your money. Unless Singapore intends to launch offensive operations, tanks don't make as much sense in their overall defense budget requirements. In that case, you'd go with maritime assets first. Read, the argument here is not about suitability of MBT in urban environment, it's about the need given other requirements. Now, for the second argument. Tanks (espcially Main Battle Tanks like the leopards) have a very specific mission in mind. They are used to run things over. They are designed to operate in non-urban environment. Note, this is very different from saying that tanks are not useful in urban environment. They can provide a lot of good fire support. However, in an urban environment, if you're fighting house to house, a MBT is not as much an asset because a) it can't easily maneuver in an urban environment. b) it doesn't carry its own infantry to work in house to house situations. c) if you pull infantry along, they'll be exposed outside of the tank armor. Unlike AFVs/ I understand your point about having a large gun, but the solution is not a MBT. A better solution might be a Stryker with a mobile gun system, I think those are operational. Those will provide the firepower you need to get the job done, but are probably nimble enough to fight in an urban environment. Ok, onto the next customer.... Retracting Head Ter Ter "That leaves only certain states, uhm, where the majority of the population are of a certain, uhm, faith. That bigger one with lots of population has effectively ZILCH long distance (as in from there to singapore) strike capability. No meaningful maritime assault or amphibeous forces, weak air force with most planes down. Its F-16As are grounded by spare parts shortage. The soon to be 6 Flankers will be overwhelmed by several tens of F-16C/Ds backed by F-5 interceptors and soon the Strike Eagle. So that leaves the one which does not need naval/air assets to strike hard into our land. And as already mentioned, the small land mass doesn't give us space to defend. We need to STRIKE first and create a buffer zone. Tanks are needed in such a land based assault scenario. p.s. And as Coota0 said, if it gets any bigger scale, we have to hold until the Cavalry *cough*pacific*cough*fle...*cough arrives." Yep, the geography dictates who your enemies are. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, to get to the main island, the neighbors would have to somehow transport enough troops over water to be a big threat right? The worst case scenario is a bunch of psychos in small craft all trying to make it across at once. There what is needed is not MBT, cause if these suckers make it ashore, Singapore is in big trouble. What is needed instead is martime assets to blow the suckers out of the water before they land. In this case, those assets would be attack choppers armed with rocket pods and ATGMs, (really good against small craft), back up with a survelliance set up, probably UAVs if possible, and the -16s can be equipped with Penguines to take out larger vessels. Singapore's best first strike capabilities are aerial. It has range and capability. If they run a land base scenario, it's going to be a nightmare. Singapore tanks (if my understanding of geography is correct) has to be transported over water, then if they land somewhere, they'd have to have a logistical tail to support them. All of which are going to be extremely vulnerable. And what targets can the tanks reach that the -15s and -16s can't? Now, the tanks might be able to do more damage, but they would be hugely exposed all the way through. Apologies for the detour into non aircraft related territory here. But it's an interesting discussion.