As with any operational aircraft, they’re still “kinda” online for parts replacement, refurbishment and so on. Yeah ramping up to full production would still be an ordeal, but they aren’t exactly starting from scratch.

Hmm...I wouldn’t call Russia a relatively unknown influence in the Middle East.

Eh. As a concept I certainly found it interesting, but WAAAY too much sheetmetal going on. I think if they’d built it it would have ended up like the Toyota FJ Cruiser. Moderate success that in no way put a dent in Wrangler sales.

Surprised this wasn’t just a list of Jeep concepts

Agreed that Vietnam is pretty much a perfect case for shore bombardment. BUT a vast portion of the world’s population lives within range of the BB’s guns when you get down to it. Yeah, useless for somewhere like Afghanistan though.

Back in college I actually wrote a paper on the role off the New Jersey off the coast of Vietnam in (I think...it’s been awhile) 1968. The thing’s shore bombardment capabilities were staggering. There are accounts from Marines saying the big guns effectively cleared the Viet Cong out of a strip 12-15 miles back from…

Agreed. I think the first gen Pinz was a little bit better sorted - and was certainly the more successful of the two on the export market. Hence why it’s still in production.

I miss the old Land Rover that died somewhere around 2000. The newer ones are very nice, for sure, but they don’t fulfill the “take it anywhere, fix it with twine and chewing gum and limp it home” appeal of the Series vehicles, the Defender and even the Range Rover and original Discovery.

As much as I love the FC 101, the Pinz is definitely the better vehicle.

I feel like this little study only went about halfway. Passion brands attract more interest. HOLY FUCKING SHIT! The only thing that surprises me is how out front BMW is, but I’m sure BMW owners overindex for smartphone and social media adoption. Jeep...obviously. Ferrari pops up in states where exotics might be more…

Christ that’s impressive

I’ll bite - the 2004 F-150. The ‘97-’03 was a good enough truck, but looks-wise it was an unfortunate victim of Ford’s “Round Everything” period. The 2004 put the kibosh on that and got back to simple, iconic styling.

It was competing for the ATF contract against the YF-22 - which became the F-22

Favorite aircraft? No question - the P-47. Flying damn tank.

It’s similar but I don’t think it’s 100% the same. FWIW, the newish MiG-29SMT is also wearing a variant of the gray splinter camo:

And it’s totally possible to give them something more interesting that is still difficult to spot. Even boring gray can have a kick of interestingness - just see Canada’s CF-18 fleet.

Yeah but that’s just a commemorative scheme (and I believe the Aussies or Canadians beat them to that punch with a WWII-commemorative F/A-18 in BoB-era camo)

It’s a shame, though, that both India and the UK are totally content with boring, naptime gray schemes.

I rented one as well - back in ~2006 or so. It was mediocre but not actually awful. Wallowing suspension, terrible seats that made me feel like I was in a dentist’s waiting room, vague steering.

Well, I know they switched to the new, larger platform in ‘05, so maybe that was part of it. Though it was still way better than the Pole Position, zero-resistance steering in the Tacoma I also test drove.