There is a country in the Far East called China. And both aircraft have actually performed missions they were built for. And today it takes a decade to put a modern combat aircraft in service. And you are horribly shortsighted; who says that there won’t be a full scale war in the near future?

DoD be like:

Also, here is a spy shot of its first test pilot:

The XM25 is great, but I think that “multirole” weapons like that XM29 are stupid and pointless. The problem is, the DoD always has an urge to create a Swiss army knife in order to make an efficient screwdriver.

It looks horribly impractical and pointless for anyone who isn’t Rambo or Robocop.

Interesting reads. You are right; while it is widely known that the Germans don’t really want to squeeze the Russians like the rest of the NATO does, as it is too much important for them, economically, that it is not often reported by the press.

What the actual fuck is that last weapon? It looks like it came from a stupid 80s sci fi action movie.

While I don’t know the details about the T-62, I do know that T-72 was a “second class” tank. T-80 was their primary tank, equipping most of the “first class”, spearhead units, while the T-72 was serving mostly with the motor rifle divisions and OMG units, whose role was to exploit that breakthrough. T-90 was actually…

You know, subs don’t run at max speed all the time, meaning they are not always easily detectable. Alfas and Victors were the first boats that really scared the NATO planners.

I didn’t mean Russia joining NATO, I meant some sort of looser, cooperation-based alliance - sharing technology, economical cooperation and so on.

That’s exactly what makes China a more credible military adversary, and a reason for the potential arms race. Russia is more of a hollow force, a nation with Napoleon complex; they have lost their significance and now they are trying to regain it with aggressive posturing.

That’s not how they worked; Alfa class were actually relatively quiet boats, their speed being used for high speed dashes into the battle area and to escape from it, not for the attack itself.

I don’t know where did you get that, because the Alfa class were pretty good attack boats. They have caused quite a stir in the west, they were state of the art for their time and have formed the basis of the Akula class (which is, in simple terms, Victor III + Alfa).

Alfa-class or F-22? Because I’m not sure about the latter. Also, the Alfa class actually owned us.

No, but it doesn’t mean anything. Some of the Alfas were scrapped, but others have ended up like this:

Well said. Until 2011, I was actually hoping that a NATO-Russia alliance of some sort would be possible, but that all disappeared once Putin had a first in a series of his brain farts.

Vodka makes you see things that aren’t really there, like budget.

They won’t, just like they are not able to fund all other new naval projects that are currently underway.

What it means is a new-built boat based on the design of the Alfa class, because all of the remaining Alfas were sold for scrapping (meaning, they are rusting near Murmansk).