A caveat to all of that is that tanks also operate in a different sort of “dirty” environment: they’re close to the ground. The bar for detection and targeting when your target is close to a bunch of random crap is much higher than a plane that’s literally just surrounded by air. Also, because the tank is close to the…

I was standing on top of a 62 story building which was a turning point for the Blue Angels at the Chicago Air & Water Show this past August. A few times the F-18s probably flew within 200 yards (maybe closer tbh) of the building. They weren’t even remotely on the throttle and the raw noise was enough to shake anyone.

Now that I think about it, something like a Super Tucano should be capable of launching from a Wasp class.  

Depends on your definition of winning. Do we achieve the political outcomes we hope for? Not often. Do we rack up a multiple of enemy casualties relative to our own while we have one arm tied behind our back? Damn straight.

Did anyone else notice the big dog’s dong was blurred/pixelated? Is that really where we’re at as a society?

I recently got a flyer in the mail for a class-action lawsuit against my alma mater for failing to disclose the the dangers of concussions/CTE to players. IMO, the way this will play out is lawyers will succeed with such a lawsuit, colleges/high schools won’t be able to afford the insurance going forward, those…

I’ve always wondered if NK wasn’t a front for a Chinese nuclear weapon program. It could be argued that China never got as far along with their nuclear program as they would have liked (they never tested a miniaturized fusion warhead) and that NK is a nuclear surrogate for them.

My impression of the Rolls Royce engineers designing this engine:

Honest question: what’s the plan if a lot of these high-income, high net-worth individuals decide to up and leave? This is not an unprecedented question either: both Baltimore and Chicago are seeing an exodus of millionaires.

Does anyone know if ventilated seats are an option?

Why not park a couple of Ohio-class (or newly minted Columbia-class... or perhaps something purpose-built) subs on the Great Lakes? Such a weapon system would be literally impossible for any foreign power to target and you’d streamline your missile inventory at the same time. I’d imagine operating in fresh water would…

I’m sorry that makes absolutely no sense. THAAD is strictly a defensive system. How is that destabilizing? Because Dear Leader’s toys won’t work if he decides to use them?

The food at some of the newer outlets is actually quite good. Fronterra Cocina in Disney Springs is a good example. Rick Bayless has a stake in the restaurant, designed the menu, and visits often to check on the kitchen and to cook for special events. It’s on par with Fronterra/Topolobampo/Xoco in Chicago.

Well played. Well. Played.

Well played.

Lasers really have the potential to be game changers simply because speed no longer matters. Hitting the target is no longer an issue. The only issue is delivering enough energy.

That’s precisely the argument all of Europe made after WWI. That was widely accepted as the “war to end all wars”... even by the Germans... because the economic and human losses were so horrific. How long did that last?

Very true. MAD works. It’s an uncomfortable way to keep the peace but, so far, it’s the best thing humanity has found. There’s a chart out there (of course I can’t find it now) that shows deaths due to war as a % of the global population for the last 2,000 years. It’s a surprisingly flat line until about the mid 1700s…

This would be reasonable. Their land based ICBMs haven’t just been silo queens either. The Russians were big fans of mobile ICBMs. The U.S. looked at road-mobile ICBMs in the 1960s and determined that all of the bumping and jostling of driving over a road (especially an unpaved road) tended to cause maintenance issues…

Isn’t that Israel’s flag (note the two flags hanging from the pole near the end of the video)?