Not sure I buy this argument. The SR-71 needed to be refueled midflight quite often. Where are the tankers going to come from to refuel this if we don’t have that large global footprint. If anything I would say that this becomes a less relevant aircraft if we reduce the number of bases.

I’ve heard the moon can be a harsh mistress.

Not only does each ICBM cost 8 figures which is a reficulois amount for a sigle conventional strike, but every time you launch one you would have to explain to Russians, Chineese (and probably French and British) what you are doing and then hope they are not friendly enough with whomever you are targeting to leak the…

You can train someone how to fight, but no amount of training will give them the will to fight. Iraq/Syria are fractured entities of warring sects/tribes with little national identity. Trying to organize these groups into an effective, cohesive, and collective force, is damn near impossible. This is one of the reasons…

How are you going to “let” civilians leave when you ain’t in control of the city?

Korea? Japan? Germany?

I'm guessing the Kurds leave this one alone and let their enemy and enemy of their enemy to pop off all their ammo on their own.

How is it irrelevant?

But be honest...you’d put up with the music for the IMAX version of the video, no? And just wait a couple of years when you’ll slap on the VR goggles and get the pilot’s eye view.

Man, that is just crazy how fast the carrier disappears in the video when that F/A-18 goes vertical.

It’s too bad we haven’t had eight years of the supposed opposite of Bush to show us how it’s done.

This a much better ( and more sobering ) video about the Afghan Army....

Actually, if I had my choice, Tyler would be the ONLY source on Jalopnik/Gawker/Gizmodo/io9/Sploid. Why he isn’t working for Defense One or Jane’s is beyond my mortal comprehension.

Oh yeah, that deal made for some very strange bedfellows. The Hardliners in Iran were doing just about everything in their power to scuttle the talks led by the civilian government, and their moderate President. Iranians understand US politics better than most Americans do. They knew what the process was for approving…

If people on both sides are whining about it being a bad deal, that probably means it was a relatively good deal, objectively. It means that neither side got everything it wanted, which is the point of a deal.

I’m really hoping this is the case. I still think we’re paying too much and getting not near enough out of the plane, but I do share the opinion that, in the long run, it will end up being viewed as capable and worthwhile (again, at a price higher than we thought it was going to cost).

My step brother has his fathers copy framed in his den... I’m trying to work on his wife that it just doesn’t fit with her decor and he could come see it at my house... But alas no luck.

That was a hyper dumbed down helo insertion profile. In real life we’d be 100Kts on the DECK while jamming and popping flares / chaff. I always wondered why they never show a proper helo insertion in movies?

Oh.my.lord.

I never understood ‘the whale’ should have been ‘the platypus’ ... unless the meaning of whale was like the Vegas meaning. Sunk tons of money into this ugly thing. Hard to believe this gave rise to the F-117. I remember watching some of the first film on that plane back 89.