61–70 of 332 posts
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How do you know your preferred experts are experts?
This seems like a very philosophical discussion. I'm not sure what you want here. Do you want me to explain reading the news? You take in new information, and if it disagrees with your prior knowledge, then you make a judgement call on what the truth probably is. We don't understand global politics from first principles.
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Your linked weapon has a range of 40km and a payload of 5kg. Meanwhile the US has repurposed their SDB1 program with an M26 motor and now uses it for artillery purposes with 150km range and a warhead weighing 93kg but since it is a bomb from 2006 it is not a threat, right?
GLSDBs are nice but cost ~$50k a pop. Turns out a plastic airframe with a chainsaw motor, RPG warhead and some mostly COTS electronics can inflict similar damage for a small fraction of that. These are more directly comparable to Israel's Harpy/Harop, still costing fortunes are they com from the 80s and carry all of proper military development the red tape.
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It's vertical landing, not vertical take off. It's still a short rolling take off. I actually wouldn't be suprised to find they do a short rolling landing too (rather than go full hover, use the lift fan to allow them to land at lower than normal stall speed would be). They've tested the rolling landing on board the HMS QE And yes, for full maintenance, you do need need a proper airport and hangars. But for a quick r…
From what I know, we only have single military airport capable of supporting F-35. Fully loaded F35 needs 2.5 km of high quality concrete. It also needs extensive overhaul after every flight to maintain stealth coating. There is no "quick refual/arm" with stealth, it is more like operating Space Shuttle! There are also civilian airports, but we would propably run out of those very soon. And using civilian infrastruct…
"FTA: they would involve placing aluminum AM-2 mats along a strip of highway, up to 1,500 feet long. This will be sufficient for the stealth jets to carry out short takeoffs and vertical landings while protecting the road beneath them." "AM-2 matting consists of 1 1/2" x 2' steel rectangles coated with a epoxy nonskid material, available in both 6 and 12 foot lengths, and are assembled in a brickwork pattern to form…
> I wonder about FOD. i.e. all the crap in and around a highway that could damage the engines.. They would send out personal to remove FOD (foreign object debris) before any operations and before laying those mats, I assume.
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Pretty sure "controversy" killed biological weapons and most use of nuclear (thankfully). They're even trying to get rid of certain cluster munitions.
We have enough nuclear weapons to kill off humanity. They have not been used because of fear of retaliation, the number has been reduced because of costs. But the US with it's largest conventional military would benefit from a removal of all nuclear weapons. We'll see if Russia uses a tactical nuke when Ukraine enters Crimea. Biological weapons have been killed because they are hard to be used operationally. You don'…
Bioweapons are useless unless your goal is to kill off everyone.
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Ukraine deployed some nice German canon designed against drone swarms. USA has laser version of it. It will be interesting fights of the future for sure.
>Ukraine deployed some nice German canon designed against drone swarms Bruh, the German Ghepard wasn't some fancy drone cannon but an obsolete anti aircraft cannon designed in the 50's which they scrapped because present day jets fly much faster and higher than those from the '50's but it's perfect for Iranian drones.
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GLSDBs are nice but cost ~$50k a pop. Turns out a plastic airframe with a chainsaw motor, RPG warhead and some mostly COTS electronics can inflict similar damage for a small fraction of that. These are more directly comparable to Israel's Harpy/Harop, still costing fortunes are they com from the 80s and carry all of proper military development the red tape.
A SDB has a 93kg warhead. An RPG-7 warhead is 4kg. You're not going to get similar damage out of them. A SDB also has jamming resistant GPS receiver, which you're not going to get on COTS electronics.
More importantly than the price, Ukraine just can't manufacture the GLSDB (arguably Vilkha are in a similar league, still production is very slow), while you can put together these kamikaze drones in a garage.