Well, in theory and in tradition a “cruiser” has 8 inch guns. So by that tradition it’s two 6.1 inch guns makes it a “destroyer”. Montreux Convention for example still ostensibly uses gun caliber and tonnage. This is, of course, absurd as guns are long since secondary weapons and the Tico’s only had 5 inch guns. But,…

Role, mostly. The Ticos were a lot smaller than WW2 cruisers for instance. The Zumwalts are intended to be used as destroyers.

You’ve come a long way, baby

Respectfully disagree. As a Post 9/11 UFNROTC guy who started in VQ(P), then went TACAIR.... Nothing is worth spending time in VP-30. The “culture” of that place is the most laughably out of touch in Naval Aviation. There is a shocking general lack of tactical mindset in MPRA as well. Your FITREP performance is…

Disagree on the dream job thing. P-3/P-8 is the way to go. Per diem. Come back to your hotel room with maid service, wifi and you go to more places for longer on your dets. Did I mention you’re not on a ship?

Aberdeen Proving Grounds in MD ??

SOP on military ranges when they can’t be sure that they’ve secured all of the explosives etc. These things can be hard to find.
I once worked on a base where they still had areas fenced off because they couldn’t account for all of the mustard gas shells that had been fired off there some sixty years ago.

In my head, that letter is being read aloud by Morgan Freeman, while Ashokan Farewell plays in the background.

He sent one of those letters like in the “Civil War” series right before he went to work on the bomb.

They don’t. It’s basically the missing officers playing cover your ass.

As I understand it brass does not spark. You would use a brass tool to NOT spark when in use.
Perhaps the brass tool on a steel bomb casing would spark the steel, but are bomb casings made from steel? Using a brass tool is what you want to do when working with explosives, but this guy seems to have left out the…

You’re a bit off on the numbers. It was actually 5 kilotons of ANFO.

Fun fact: in 1985 the DoD set off almost five thousand tons of ANFO on purpose, equivalent to 4,000 tons of TNT . The test, code named “Minor Scale”, was to simulate a small nuclear explosion.

Funny thing about sensors...you can retro fit the A-10 with the same sensors.

Magazine size limit is all the more reason why F-35s can’t replace A-10s.

Britain’s Frank Whittle and German scientists largely developed jet engines in parallel and without knowing of each other’s work. Robert Goddard (an American) is probably the person most-credited for inventing liquid rockets.

Did you mean about crazy people who chase tornadoes or the other crazy people who cut down trees in swamps?

Man, remember when Discovey had actual educational/informative programming? I’m old.

Nonetheless, the B-47 was probably the single most important advancement in jet transportation ever. Up until we found all the secret Nazi engineering documents, the US and Brits were sort of floundering around with all kinds of different design ideas. Thanks to the clever Germans, we not only found out about a better…

I'm really surprised that Eurocopter has enough power to carry the weight of the pilot's enormous balls.