I went to a catholic high school, but it was also the only private school in the area so only about half the kids were catholic. It was a mix of preppy rich kids who drove exclusively white 3-series BMWs and suburbans, and rednecks. My lifted Duramax and I fell squarely in the later category. There were no rules about…

You mentioned the F-35 program without condescendingly going into great detail about its failures and setbacks. The cardinal rule of FA has been broken. The ghost of Rogoway will now haunt this page forever.

I’m really interested in seeing this pulled off but I don’t think I would have the balls to try it on an engine of mine.

Of course, but you would have only one direction of the wave hitting the building, breaking windows and killing people in exterior facing rooms. By preventing a truck bomb from reaching the base you don’t have the omni-directional force that could compromise the integrity of the structure. Most of the people in OKC…

It has nothing to do with the strength of the military. Trucks filled with sand present a strong barrier against a VBIED reaching the base of the building. They are also mobile and easy to quickly bring in and out, something you need to have because you cannot clog midtown Manhattan with permanent barriers.

Shifter Carts :)))

America’s most badass truck almost 500 lighter

Showed this picture to a friend who was a naval aviator for 20+ years. Brought back some memories for him, tons of cool stories too. He did say they nicknamed the KA-3 and A-3D killed all three and all three dead because they lacked an ejection seat. If you had a soft shot off the cat you didn’t stand a chance.

Any fighter would need the same assistance in targeting and neither a fighter nor a drone can match the payload you get with a bomber. When you factor in that you don’t need the tanker support for the B-1 that you would with an F-16 it’s a smart move.

You and I have very different definitions of ridiculously cheap my friend.

Please please please! The Silent Eagle offering would be hands down the best 4th generation fighter made. Something the US should be considering since our F-15 C/Ds are getting on in years and the F-35A probably won’t be really ready until mid 2020s.

While Pope Francis was here in DC he mostly rode in a Fiat 500L that pretty clearly had a ballistic panel inserted inside the rear door.

I see what they did there. They though if they put the fighters on the runway instead of the ramp we wouldn’t notice. Sneaky sneaky Russia.

Tyler, have you seen the test of the Ground Launched SDB? It seems like an interesting version of rocket assisted artillery.

You are absolutely correct. One of my biggest issues with the Navy right now (besides deciding to field carrier based fighters that are less than stellar in air to air combat) is that it doesn’t seem to recognize that there is a need for a blue water ship in a class smaller than a destroyer or cruiser. Especially…

I believe that my biases have remained fairly in check. ISIS is still around, and still holds vast amounts of territory in Iraq and Syria. If a sovereign nation invaded an ally, driving them back to the outskirts of their capital and committing atrocities along the way the response would have been tremendous. But the…

Not to be pedantic but the USS Samuel B. Roberts was struck by a mine, one that was intended for commercial oil tankers in the greater context of the Iran-Iraq War. For the most part during that period of time both countries rarely attacked American warships escorting tankers through the Gulf. They knew that the…

I disagree. The President is not a man that likes to be adversarial in any situation but here he would have no choice. He can get away with letting groups like ISIS off but Iran is a legitimate state and attacking a US Navy ship is an act of war. The pressure from the country and congress would be too great. In…

Iran will not fire on American warships or commercial ships under their protection. While a destroyer may be vulnerable to a massive attack by small boats the flag it flies offers more protection than the weapons it carries. Iran would lose too much if it made a move like attack an American ship. It would essentially…

The military is an incredibly complicated case study. Its job is to be prepared to defend the country from every conceivable scenario. That costs an amount of money that we cannot truly comprehend. So when the instrumentalities the military puts into place for its stated purpose are not used, it has effectively…