Agiel

I think how some Russians are so quick to denounce the entire pro-Ukrainian movement as "Fascists" to be a hilarious case of calling the kettle black given how many Russians think "Little Russia should be one with Big Russia again."

Where's Scharfschütze? http://simonmenner.com/pages/Camouflage.htm

Infrastructure is important for sustained operations, of which the campaign was successful in crippling. This is the essence of using air power as a maneuver element that embodied the AirLand battle concept; striking at command and control, logistics centers, bridges, and all the elements needed for high level operations. If Milosevics forces attempted to assemble in force to decisively defeat the KLA then they would have been hammered back to the Stoneage. He likely knew this situation was not sustainable and he soon sought a diplomatic out for his predicament.

We shot down 2 of the invisible planes with the third unconfirmed, do you find it that strange that we shot down "regular planes" too. The only reason it even came to bombing Serbia is because America couldn't force our soldiers from Kosovo, ie. they were losing. Really sarcastic answer: Ah yes. Let us have a moment of silence... for the entire air force of two that were lost over Kosovo. Semi-sarcastic answer: If you imply "winning" on the part of the Serbs as cowering under camo nets and bridges then sure. Serious answer: Stealth *does not* mean "invisible." It simply reduces the distance of which an aircraft may be detected (probably <25nm, which thus means there are now giant gaps in what used to be a formidable air defense system. I will freely admit that the Stinkbug shootdown was as a result of poor planning when they had them fly the same ingresses to the target area as when you put a search and track radars directly in its path, you will eventually get a return. When they began to vary their IPs over Yugoslavia, the only evidence of the passing of F-117s was the destruction they wrought. The B-2 is an entirely different story. It's RCS is a fraction of that of the F-117 despite being three times bigger and a former Hungarian SA-2 operator and current SME has relayed to me that nothing short of the SA-10 has *any* chance against it. For the Serbs to make any meaningful incursion into Kosovo, it would have immediately tipped off the E-8 JSTARS and Rivet Joints that were flying overhead. After that, then they would have the second largest military in Serbia.

China voting against secessionist movements, regardless of stripes, is largely consistent with their geopolitical outlook. For instance, they do not recognise the existence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia any more than they do Kosovo. If they vetoed it or claimed solidarity with Russia on the issue it would be calling the kettle black given their issues with Tibet, Taiwan, and the Uyhgurs (the same can be said about Spain, what with the Basque separatist movement). Also it's a misconception that China is in an alliance with Russia. Whatever co-operation and "understandings" between the two countries are at best tactical in nature (serving as strategic counterpoints to the west) and the two countries are in reality strategic rivals, particularly in Central Asia (I've heard it said that Russia's rearmament programs are as much about the Chinese as it is about NATO).

260 km would be close to the 140 nautical mile range limit. Even with that kind of combat radius I doubt it would have enough playtime on station to justify the mission (it's powered by an engine from a snowmobile for Christ's sake). And to have a simple short-ranged observation UAV ferry from Germany to closer bases seems needlessly round-a-bout when bigger, better drones are more suitable.

Arggghhh... just when I managed to get the widescreen thing working flawlessly. In any case, sterling work. Just bought it in Steam for the sake that in case I lose my old disc I always have the game. However, it remains about as crashy as I remembered it being.

The MQ-5B only has a range of 140nm. In other words the claim is not only total bupkis, but very very poorly researched bupkis at that. And from the horse's mouth: http://rostec.ru/en/news/4416

So America is lying, but Serbia isn't? And I did read your links (which mention 120+ shot down craft). And the links on those sites (which go into even higher numbers) Ah, I saw this figure before. When I decided to humour the guy who told me this and asked for his source, turned out it was from one of those Slavic Supremacist websites.

Most aircraft we fly don't have to worry about trapping on a carrier:

...and whatever fighters the Serbians dared to launch were swiftly put back into the ground: ...and one MiG-29 shot down by a "peace-loving" Dane no less. Some might find that to be absolutely embarrassing*. *Only jesting. Red Flag exercises have shown the Danes to be no jokes.

She comes off as needlessly abrasive and confrontational while at the same time failing to bring anything new to the table. There's at least some modicum of merit to her cause, but however much there is it deserves someone better. If anything the /btard scum of 4chan have done more for her thesis than ten thousand of her videos ever could. I've been of the belief that the Anglo-American tradition of feminism has its roots in the moral guardians movement where the European sex-positive approach takes it cues from post-modernism which is why I found them far more palatable.

Having kept my eyes on an upcoming gem from Ukraine, Cradle, for quite some time I was a bit distressed when the EuroMaidan protests took a violent turn and the developers were still on radio silence over the past couple of months. Thankfully, they've recently broke the silence on VKontakte (from my understanding a European answer to Facebook). I've plugged the post into Google translate and gotten something approximating comprehensibility: Original post from vkontakte: http://vk.com/cradlegame For now I'm just overwhelmed by the news that these fine folks have managed to stay safe through all the events over the past few weeks.

In fairness, the F-22's flyaway costs would have been reined in as the program became more mature (as has been the case with the F-22's direct predecessors) and the USAF had gotten the at least 381 airframes they requested (as if Congress tried to put a finer point on the issue, they ordered production to halt at 183). It is rather unfortunate given that if it was decided that the United States military needed more F-22s, then restarting production would NOT be cheap, or easy. That would mean restarting factories and re-hiring subcontractors in as many as 44 states, and even after that was done it would take as long as three years for the first F-22 to roll off the assembly line. So it will be quite likely these 183 Raptors will be the last and only F-22s in existence. While the F-15s, F/A-18s, and F-35s that will fill out the ranks of the USAF and the Navy are still fine aircraft in their own rights, and contrary to hawkish scaremongering another open war between the great world powers isn't inevitable, or even likely, having more F-22s means the difference between parity or near-parity with their biggest rivals and the 8:1 kill ratios the American aviators traditionally enjoyed, and deterring its rivals from testing those 8:1 odds. Small comfort that as a result of the worldwide recession armaments programs of other countries boasting high-quality equipment has proven as restrictively expensive for the next biggest competitors as it has for the US military.

Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing. A great landing is one you can use the aircraft again.

Loved that touch too.

I think that's an F-22 You would be correct. The F-35 is a single-engine fighter in the vein of the F-16 where the F-22 is dual engine like its direct predecessor the F-15 air superiority variants. Also the F-35 has forward swept air intakes. As a sidenote I believe that artist made another one with Bill Clinton: Somewhat odd that he's a gunslinger in this image given that he signed the Assault Weapons Ban into law.

Well I've learned to say "Never say never." It's amazing how someone born in the 1920s would see planes evolve from rickety bi-planes to Spitfires and Me 262s dueling over the Europe to F-14 Tomcats to remote control craft that are exploring Mars. Hell, if you had told me in 2004 that in year's time there would be a hastle-free video streaming site that anyone with broadband could view and upload 10 minute videos all for free, I would have laughed in your face.

There is an unwritten law amongst military aviators that those who are caught singing "Danger Zone" are to be shot down. For those who sing "Take My Breath Away" guns are clear on the offending aviator after he has successfully ejected.

It's certainly a cracking yarn. Perhaps my favourite sections were the ones involving Colonel Hugo Martínez who lead Search Bloc against the Medellin Cartel. He's an interesting guy in the sense that he showed inhuman amounts of bravery (He was only supposed to serve as the head for 2 months before being rotated out; he ended up serving for nearly the entirety of the hunt that lasted nearly a decade) and integrity in the face of efforts by the cartel to either buy him out or intimidate/assassinate him, yet at the same time he looked the other way when the men he commanded resorted to underhanded tactics in fighting the cartels (something he denies to this day). If you've got time for a doorstopper, Guests of the Ayatollah is also another great book by Bowden.

It looks like they got an Mi-26 to lift a portion of the Versailles palace and flew it all the way to Ukraine.

Oblivion (modded, obv) was actually the most fun I ever had with an Elder Scrolls game, warts and all. My very first Gamebryo RPG was Morrowind, and I suppose after that high watermark of New Vegas, I was sort of burned out on that form of game after some hours through Skyrim, so it didn't really click with me to the extent previous games had. Oh, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution was a way more cohesive game than the original Deus Ex was, and I actually totally agree with Tom Chick's review of that game.

I recall Kurt Vonnegut's list of rules for writing fiction that was to the effect of "Every character must have a motivation, even if it is a glass of water."

While we were shooting the s*** over Skype, a friend of mine came to a rather disturbing conclusion: "I just realized I prefer eating insects (shrimp) to eating ovulations (chicken eggs)."

USN has been there, done that: Fun fact: I guess the artist did not know that the thing on the F/A-18's centerline hardpoint is not a bomb, but an external fuel tank.