Russia's new Surmat rocket launch. This is the oddest launch I've ever seen. It's like the rocket gets popped out, says "hold on a sec, I gotta ditch this garbage on my ass. Ok, good to go!"
I'm not sure if this is really a new missile, seems to be very similar in performance to the one it's supposed to replace (SS-18). The little boost thing is used on this one too. It's just to get it out of the silo before main engine ignition because the vibration would be too powerful inside. The US solved this problem and their main engines ignite right inside the silo. Here's the SS-18:
They just put test camo on an SS-18 and launched it.
"Look, our new awesome most powerful and fastest ICBM in the world is in the pre-deployment testing phase. Here's video proof of what we're spending billions on"
What else have we seen from Russia regarding their nuclear weapon upgrades? An Iksander tactical ballistic missile jerry rigged to a mig-31 and fired.
"Look, here's a mach 10 hypersonic weapon with crazy range, it cannot be shot down and the test went perfectly"
The nuclear powered cruise missile? A hypersonic maneuverable boost glide vehicle?
"Look, the best computer animators in my kids elementary computer club made this video. The tests will go perfectly very soon"
While a lot of missions are conducted with the JOTT partners, the Dutch F-35s periodically fly with the 148th Fighter Squadron ‘Kickin’ Ass’, the RNLAF’s F-16 training unit in Tucson, Arizona, to evaluate and validate new tactics. ‘The first time we got to test all these advanced capabilities to their fullest potential was about a year ago, with and against our F-16s in Tucson,’ says Knight. ‘The initial scenario was that our two F-35s would escort a four-ship of F-16s across a notional border and protect them against another eight-ship of F-16s simulating a modern adversary. A relatively inexperienced flight leader was in charge of the F-16s on our side and Lt Col Joost ‘Niki’ Luijsterburg, the Tucson detachment commander, was responsible for the adversaries. Up to this point we had only practised these scenarios in the simulators and while we had a decent game-plan, we were all anxious to see how the F-35 would perform in real life. We figured that the F-35’s stealth would keep us out of harm’s way for most of the fight, but that we also need to protect the friendly F-16s, maximize the lethality of their missiles and get them to the target. To make this happen, we planned to initially use electronic attack against the adversary F-16s, see if we could avoid having them detect friendly fighters and datalink the location of the hostile aircraft to our F-16s. This way we could use the F-16s on our side to shoot down the initial wave of enemy fighters and keep our own missiles available once the ‘Blue Air’ F-16s had to focus on their target attack. The plan worked flawlessly. ‘In the debrief ‘Niki’ told us it was one of the most memorable sorties he had ever flown. Having previously worked in the F-35 program office he was elated to find out how effective the F-35 was, but at the same time he was frustrated by not getting a single shot off the rail against us, while getting killed multiple times. After that sortie it really hit us that the F-35 was going to make a big difference in how we operate fighters and other assets in the Royal Netherlands Air Force.’
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Last edited by CaptainCrunch; 04-07-2018 at 10:02 AM.
Mr. Snyder said that although these vortices are violent enough to have caused cracks in the F-18's twin tail assembly, they do not adversely affect the pilot's control. ''Pilots are aware of something going on,'' he said of the buffeting action.
Until the F-18's are fixed, a McDonnell Douglas spokesman said, they will be limited to climb angles less than 25 degrees above horizontal and dive angles less than six degrees below horizontal. At altitudes higher than 30,000 feet, however, there are no such restrictions because the vortices are weaker in thin atmosphere. Less Development Money
Asked why the problem had not been discovered early in the project, Mr. Snyder said that ''there was a real squeeze on development money'' because of the existence of a prototype aircraft. He said the prototype, designed by Northrop in the late 1960's and called the YF-17, was used to acquire the kind of stress information that might otherwise have been obtained from testing F-18 models in wind tunnels, for example.
I also want to kind of state that when people talk about the development problems on the F-35, which by the way is the most complex aircraft ever made, they tend to forget that the development of the F/A-18 was fraught with a similar story line.
A article that talks about the development of the Onboard Mission library and how it works to fight the aircraft
Consisting of hardware and software, the mission data files are essentially a database of known threats and friendly aircraft in specific parts of the world. The files are being worked on at a reprogramming laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., Air Force officials said. The mission data files are designed to work with the aircraft's Radar Warning Receiver engineered to find and identify approaching enemy threats and incoming hostile fire.
Pleus said the service is working vigorously to speed up development and integration of new software engineered to widen the threat envelope of the mission data files to enable the now operational F-35 to better identify specific enemy threats.
While progress at the Eglin laboratory has been steady, the integration of the mission data files for the F-35 have experienced some delays, prompting the current effort to quicken the pace so that the operational aircraft has the most extensive threat library possible. The first increments of the technology will be integrated for training F-35s, Pleus explained.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
- the IAF launched missiles at Damascus from Lebanese air space .
- IDF artillery targeted SAA in the al-Qunietra district.
- SAA responded with counter-battery.
- an IDF Merkava tank in the Golan Heights fired into the Syrian town of al-Baa'th. SAA ATGM teams engaged, but no update as to the status of the IDF tank.
- SAA fired MLRS and short range ballistic missiles [not confirmed] at IDF positions in the Golan.
^^ This is where the media picks up the story.
- IDF/IAF launched at least three waves of missile attacks against Syria. SAA responds. Back and forth for about 4-5 hours.
Dawn in Syria now...seems to be calm.
- 2 x IAF jets shot down [not confirmed].
- Russian jets scrambled from their base in Latakia to patrol over Damascus.
- Russian jets intercepted IAF jets over Lebanon [not confirmed] resulting in IAF jets returning to base.
- IDF imposed media blackout in Golan and Israel [not confirmed].
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"If you do not know what you are doing, neither does your enemy."
- - Joe Tzu
Just to put things into perspective. Currently the US has the 6th fleet deployed to the Med, that includes the George Bush, Destroyer Squadron 60 which is 4 missile destroyers, Task force 60 which is the Truman plus 6 escorts including cruisers and destroyers. Assault forces 61 and 64 which is 3 to 6 amphibious assault ships and accompanying marines. Logistical support ships
A second carrier group with the Carl Vinson and another 6 escort craft
Plus 2 SSNs
So that's a total of 180 front line naval strike aircraft.
The American's also have forces on the ground and more importantly a heavy contingent of Air Force Assets including f-22 and B-1B Lancers.
The Russians have a significant naval force in the Med as well. there is a 15 ship Black Fleet Task Force built around their only Aircraft Carrier which is the Admiral Kuznetzov, they also have the Nuclear Powered Missile Cruiser The Velikiy which acts as their fleet flag vessel.
The Russians also have a sizable Air Force Component in Syria as well. Including about 30 fighters including 4 of their advanced SU-57's. They also have a sizable heavy bomber component which includes 14 updated backfires and 5 of their TU-160 low level bombers.
If you want a possible flashpoint between America and Russia, its in the Med as there's not a lot of room to maneuver and the Russians surged their navy from its Syrian base in preparation for a attack.
That includes 90 naval strike aircraft.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
he targets included rocket launchers, intelligence posts, military command posts, and weapons depots. No Israeli fighter jets were hit in the strikes, but Conricus said they came under heavy anti-aircraft fire. He added that "ground assets were also used to strike into Syria." The IDF released a map showing a list of targets it said it hit.
Yup and its probably going to get worse before it gets better. I would expect another attack on Israel from the Syrian side of the border as Iran gets Hezbollah to open another missile front.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Just to put things into perspective. Currently the US has the 6th fleet deployed to the Med, that includes the George Bush, Destroyer Squadron 60 which is 4 missile destroyers, Task force 60 which is the Truman plus 6 escorts including cruisers and destroyers. Assault forces 61 and 64 which is 3 to 6 amphibious assault ships and accompanying marines. Logistical support ships
A second carrier group with the Carl Vinson and another 6 escort craft
Ummm, no.
Only CVN 75 [TRUMAN] is in the Med. There are only four CGs at sea now and CVN 75 is the only one at sea that one could deem as being operational at the moment. The rest are training/conducting trials.
CVN 77 [BUSH] is in the Atlantic (off US SE Coast) conducting carrier qualifications.
CVN 70 [VINSON] is in its dock in San Diego.
There isn't an Amphibious Ready Group in the Med; LHD7 is off Yemen. LHD 2 is at sea off San Diego conducting training.
Info current as of 10 May 18.
__________________
"If you do not know what you are doing, neither does your enemy."
- - Joe Tzu