Very succinctly put. I agree with you entirely.

I’m about 2/3rds through this article and I’m absolutely gripped. This is fantastic!

I think Hollywood should do a biopic about this guy. He’s a hero to his people but pretty sketchy to a lot of the rest of the world, classic Oscar bait if performed well. Besides would tell more of the world about the guy many say was responsible for giving a leg up to any despot aspiring to join the nuclear club.

The BBCs strategic affairs correspondent once wrote a very good editorial on why at the onset of the Saudi coalition in Yemen Nawaz Sharif decided against Pakistan joining. The logic was that Pakistan was built on the principle of being a Muslim nation, not choosing a sectarian side, so for the sake of internal…

Oh I’m pretty sure they have it, and even if they don’t they’re probably working overtime to develop it. What I meant was the conviction by the Pakistani Army to go ahead and use it against the oft spoken of ‘Cold Start’ doctrine supposedly adopted by their Indian counterpart.

Well I can see the motivation for the state dept to make sure something like that is in place, that too at the high standards that would allow the White House to rest assured there wouldn’t be pandemonium in one of the most densely populated parts of the world (not that there isn’t as it stands, but you get what I…

I shall look it up. I wonder who the prospective buyers would be. I imagine Iran might be interested. Surely ships such as these frigates would make more sense for the Egyptians for example, compared to the Mistrals

I figured they were general secretaries pretty much from your initial post. Got me thinking how other than Brezhnev, Krushchev, Gorbachev I can’t think of many Soviet premiers off the top of my head. You’d think being the leader of the second power in the world (not to do with rankings, just in relation to the USA)…

Think stealth is the order of the day everywhere it seems. Stealth optimised ships are all the rage. I actually think the Buyan class looks neat. As for the red paint, it’s definitely different (makes for a change although does stand out a lot, so not helping it blend in) and it also makes sense given this is Russia…

Only 1/6th of it (by population)

And if that were the case you can bet your bottom dollar some goatherder would not hesitate to lob a nuke across the border at the ‘mortal enemy’. Honestly though I’d sleep a lot better if I could just know how foolproof Pakistani nuclear failsafe protocols are. I mean sure it’s unlikely they’ll have them simple…

This is a lot sleeker than I thought it would be. I mean look at the forward gun, is that faceting done to reduce to radar signature?

Alright, many years ago (1997) my mom was travelling with me on Bangladesh Biman. I was about 4, the overhead rack would shake violently on take off (my dad jokes the airline might have the shoddiest planes but no incidents funnily enough). Anyway some of the passengers were pilgrims as our flight had a stopover in…

For sure, I’ve been sifting about just reading all the articles this week. Space exploration really deserves to catch the public imagination more considering how much we get out of it. I’m assuming it’ll all be posted on Flightclub so I should be good just by following it right?

I’ll admit I don’t know who those last two are and that’s the first time I’ve heard of the term gerontocrat but I sort of have an idea of what it means seeing as you said they were aging career politicians.

Interesting read indeed. Not surprised at the gross ineptitude of the bureaucrats.

Kinda strange to see standard procedure is 5 guys yanking on one end to prop it up on the other side. You always assume there’ll be some high tech solution. Guess keeping it simple has kept it going this long.

Can I just say how much I’m loving the Space Week articles! Please keep it up. If I could request one thing would be to have stuff about the other space programs like the Japanese, the Europeans, the Indians and most importantly China. Heck I only found out this week Chinese space farers are called taikonauts. I’d…

surely a panoramic roof would be helpful for this job. NASA needs to get that option pack next time

Well I’m sure that’s understandable considering the state of Chernobyl at the time. I just find it remarkable how quickly they were able to realise they had just the thing to use at the site, and put it to use. It must’ve saved dozens of lives of brave folks who would’ve probably gone in otherwise.