The Navy Thread

Sorry guys, the F-35 is the future and will be the aircraft. More nations are on board and most of the issues are being resolved (or are being talked about by punidts and gurus who aren't building airplanes)....

International production has started, hasn't it?

And as for the Hornet...

edited 10th Feb '16 10:54:41 AM by Greenmantle

Tom, it's pretty much impossible to take you seriously when you engage in your hyperbole. Fire ALL of the officers involved? Including the pilots? And the maintainers? And the support troops who maintained the hangars and prepared the meals and handled the pay? And the sister services for being part of the same military? And Your Little Dog, Too!?

edited 10th Feb '16 10:46:37 AM by AFP

Yes, the little dog too, because clearly it is a cat person doing the decision.

New mandate, we bring back the ship cat.

Any one alergic to cats is no longer allowed to navy, they can go army instead.

Wow how the fuck did we get not one but two aircraft with OBOGS issues. I am hoping there is no "Hornet Cough"

It is actually three types of aircraft, as problems seem to be occurring the Hornet and Super Hornet fleets, which use different types of oxygen supply systems.

Maybe its the oxygen, not the aircraft.

Just a thought.

Maybe there's nitrogen contaminating it. I remember reading a Food Babe blog complaining about how a lot of airliners have that going on in the pressurized air.

I wouldn't exactly go around citing food babe on anything and instead look for a source with real credibility. ...Wait a tick. You pulling our collective leg on that one or are you serious?

I wonder how frequent the oxygen problems are for the F-18 series. The F-22 the problems are fairly regular.

edited 10th Feb '16 5:36:37 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Tom, it's pretty much impossible to take you seriously when you engage in your hyperbole. Fire ALL of the officers involved? Including the pilots? And the maintainers? And the support troops who maintained the hangars and prepared the meals and handled the pay? And the sister services for being part of the same military? And Your Little Dog Too?

Not all of that but yes I would do a sort of Stalinist Purge of the US military over the F-35 boondoggle. Every. Single. Officer. Involved. Will. Be. Sacked.

The F-35 pilots will be sacked if they aren't transferable to another airframe (like a Super Bug or F-16) and/or they have connections to the defense contractors. This is case by case only.

The brass involved above the pilots will be sacked at all ranks and completely. No "survivors". Worse, at my discretion I might demote them to E-1 and strip them of their retirement and benefits with a Dishonorable Discharge for such a display of incompetence and waste.

No enlisted ranks are affected so the techs by and large get to just enjoy the show. Worst some of them would have happen is a case of "Dammit, now I gotta go back to tech school for 6 weeks and learn something new!"

Beyond that, no further purges are expected or needed at this time. (With the possible exception of the Navy brass and officer corps who are connected with the LCS.)

By the way, the dog has it coming so he's not spared. (He ate my lunch!)

@ AFP: While that is funny, the problem is the wrong mix of oxygen really can be toxic, and is a very serious concern for divers.

Yup. That's true. One of the worst ways to die is getting your dive bottle mix wrong.

Meanwhile, I've been thinking more on my VLCC pod layer thing. It could be the world's biggest ever Q-Ship.

Tom, please refer to my previous comment. From now on, every time you go on a tear like this, I'm gonna assume you're just a funny guy joking around.

@ Tom: And how would other overseas Air Forces be affected by your policies? Would you like them to do the same?

I've no sympathy for ANY head of a foreign air arm who drank the Pigeon Kool Aid. Or for their political masters who pissed money against the wall to appease America, to the detriment of their own industry, or to those of near neighbours who could use the cash for their decent enough aircraft. The Pigeon ISN'T too big to fail, but those cowardly fucks will insist otherwise til the walls come tumbling down.

Two TRILLION dollars later.

Apart from the dog part, I would do something like that as President. It's that much of a catastrophe. I have very little respect for the Military-Industrial Complex and the way brass suck off the cocks of defense contractors often at the expense of the rest of the military and the country. On the flipside I have utmost respect for the uniform and would do anything and everything I can to make sure our military is well-paid, has the best equipment and is the best damn fighting force on Earth. These two things are not so intertwined that ditching the MIC would turn the rest into a military like that of Uganda.

Either way, something needs done and this "too big to fail" mentality surrounding the Pigeon isn't what I would encourage. A purge of the Officer Corps over the Pigeon just might do us some good.

How far back are you willing to go? Back to when the F-35 program had its roots in the late 1980s, to people like Dick Chaney and Donald Rumsfeld and George HW Bush, to retired Officers? Are you willing to prosecute foreign officials and (former) members of their militaries?

I think it's always been that way, whatever the economic system and however far back you go. Well, it's either that or the bean-counters at work.

edited 11th Feb '16 5:05:42 AM by Greenmantle

Currently serving only. I can't re-write the past. But I can fix the present to build a better future.

And the contractors aren't immune in this either. They may very well be forced to eat the cost of the F-35 program without subsidy or tax break.

The MIC is very much a post-WW 2 thing. Before the 50s the military had a lot more sway and authority over its equipment. Hell, back then a lot of its equipment was MADE by the Feds, not a contractor. (Springfield Armory is one example. It made firearms for the US military from 1776 to around 1963 and is/was Federally owned and operated. A LOT of WW 2 era firearms were made there.)

A lot of the best stuff in those days while made by a contractor had to be approved by the military first. There's a fuckton of equipment that the contractors put a lot of money and man-hours into only for it to FAIL Army, Marine Corps or Navy standards and never get picked up. For example the P-39 Airacobra for Army and Navy use. While a halfway good plane in its own right, it didn't meet the standards needed for Navy carriers or Army aviation. It never got picked up in the US.

Nowadays the brass can't say no or reject a design like that without an expensive test competition and/or Congressional approval. (Because these days the Airacobra's parts would be made in 12 states before the thing was ever submitted thus securing the Congress' sympathy.)

edited 11th Feb '16 5:19:52 AM by MajorTom

New Royal Navy Frigate to be called the Type 31.

Only eight? Fuck-a-doodle-do.

Eight is better then zero.

At 7k tons apiece, 8 of them combined is less displacement than a Midway class aircraft carrier post-SCB-110 conversions.

edited 12th Feb '16 5:32:58 PM by MajorTom

They can pack more punch into smaller ships these days though right? Plus they say that the cost saving will allow the Royal Navy to add more destroyers and frigates in the 2030's.

edited 12th Feb '16 8:06:39 PM by JackOLantern1337

There was a filmreel about the operation of BB gun turrets a while back, but here's a near animated gif◊ from The Other Wiki.