Using the atmosphere to brake eliminates the need to carry extra fuel. The Dragon 2 capsule lands under power, but it still decelerates with a heat shield.
RagingBulldog
hz1098
Actually no, the Shuttle cannot return from the moon. Even if you were to somehow augment the fuel/engine capabilities (the Shuttle's main engines couldn't even reignite once in orbit), the velocity when returning from the moon is far too fast for the Shuttle. It would burn up in the atmosphere. You could technically…
I highly doubt those ships ever end up in Russia. NATO would throw a fit, and postponing would still break the contract. The French would rather get paid now from a less controversial buyer like the Canadians.
We are all aware of the Iran Air 655, however that occurred in 1988 not last month. To be fair flight 655 did take off from Bandar Abbas on its way to Dubai.
It's not something NATO wants to have cruising around the Black Sea, for sure. The real long term threat is that the third and fourth carriers in the planned deal would be built in Russia under French direction. That would help restore the Russian warship-building industry (and engineering expertise), which as of now…
Haha that was the first thing that popped into my head too. The moon has plenty of titanium! Mining it would probably be more expensive though than fighting a war with Russia to annex Siberia.
The Mistral class is a very capable and practical platform for most missions, but it is not meant to be under enemy fire. It's built to merchant shipping standards not warship standards. There's limited redundancy and much fewer sealed compartments.
The US has stocks of natural gas for years to come. I know of plenty of shale wells that were drilled and capped, waiting for the demand to rise. I know there are natural gas shipping facilities on the US East Coast that were rushed to construction approval so that the gas can be shipped to Europe in the future if…
It would be a good purchase for the Canadians. I think the versatility of the Mistral class would make it well worth the value. And the French will likely be willing to cut a deal since one of them is almost ready for delivery.
It's about time. I wonder if they've found another buyer, or if the EU or NATO is interested as a joint effort.
I'm surprised this is just now becoming a well-funded idea. It's been long understood that the experience and training of individuals is worth far more than weapons systems, aircraft, or ships. The Japanese in WWII suffered far more from the loss of experienced combat pilots than the loss of combat aircraft. Similarly…
Great pics, I think I can bump you out of the grays.
If Russia's foreign policy was no worse than "the west" (which is an unfairly broad term), then why does its policy continue to isolate it from the rest of the developed world?
According to Lavrov, those are obviously images from "computer games". I guess he was ordered to ignore the DigitalGlobe stamp in the corner. These are images from commercial satellites that anyone can access. This Russian lying game is getting really old.
Agreed, but at least they usually only start wars that have some kind of strategic or geopolitical need. Such is the nature of democracies. If the people are really opposed to a war, the leadership will think twice about it.
The dictators may often bring "peace" (at least a lack of infighting) to their own citizens, but they also tend to start war with other countries. Saddam kept the Shias and Sunnis from fighting but he also started the Iran-Iraq War and the Gulf War. The Iran-Iraq war resulted in nearly a million dead total, including…
Yes. I phrased that as to say if Ukraine were to join NATO, that would be bad in Russia's eyes.
Tyler has anyone been able to identify what model tank that is? I can't really distinguish anything from the T-72 to the T-90, especially with that blurry image.
I agree there is a disturbing Neo-Nazi resurgence in eastern and central Europe, one that is fueled by anti-immigrant sentiments. But to claim that they are in charge of Ukraine is completely false.