The Military Thread

The impression I got from the Aubrey Maturin book series was that the Royal Navy was livid at having to fight on yet another front instead of blockading Napoleon like they were supposed to be doing. The fact that the big American 44-gun frigates were rampaging through their own frigate line so that they had to dispatch 74s to patrol the American station did not help at all, and informed opinion in Britain was "this is a stupid sideshow that might just cost us Canada that all could have been avoided if we'd been a little smarter about the whole impressment issue", since understandably they viewed Napoleon as the big threat.

The war wasn't very popular in the north, either, since the merchants made their living by trading with the Brits. Although Nantucket Island took a rather pragmatic approach to the issue: blockaded from the mainland, the fishermen made a killing by selling supplies at an exorbitant markup to the British ships.

Yes, I remember reading somewhere that New England was unofficially neutral, and as such was spared attack.

Overstretch is nothing new. I think the British Military is used to it.

They infamously had to defend Malta with three biplanes during World War II. Biplanes with bulls-eyes already painted on them.

Hey, don't knock the Gladiator.

Faith, Hope, and Charity. You've got to believe.

(And Desperation as a backup, though that'd be for the Falklands. ...and a lot of Hurricanes too.)

Yeah, I love the Legacy Names of the four fighters they have based in the Falklands, just because of that last one. That is so British.

edited 27th Jul '14 5:31:01 PM by AFP

I'm constantly surprised there isn't a rig called "Duct Tape" or just "Jerry".

Hmmm... come to think "Conduct" would work as a name... <rubs chin>

edited 27th Jul '14 5:51:11 PM by Euodiachloris

"The Mighty Mallard", because it's held together with Duck Tape?

I like Jerry. Or maybe Gaffer.

As I sat waiting at the E-Club barbershop to get my hair cut, I noticed that the guy ahead of me was a Colonel. Why does a Colonel go to the Enlisted Club to get his hair cut?

Probably because they have reserved parking for Colonels in front of the E-Club. Why they decided to do that is one of those great mysteries of the Air Force (to be fair, they have reserved spots for Chiefs at the Officers' Club, leading me to think someone got confused when they put in a request for parking signs...)

Nope, it's so that the high and might field grades can see what those enlisted types are up to.

At the Enlisted Club in the modern Air Force? Not much. Coffee at Rickenbaker's, Kareoke on Thursday nights, or the lunch buffet. Otherwise it's all Commander's Calls in there lol

edited 28th Jul '14 12:24:10 AM by AFP

Here’s the first (and second) Australian F-35 Lightning II aircraft

Poor Australia.

What they're getting a better aircraft than the F-111's that went to the great hanger in the sky? They are part of a multi-national team?

Ah, F-35, you so snazzy.

...On the other hand...is it normal that the first word that came to my mind when I saw its picture the first time was "fat"?

Also, what exactly is its function supposed to be?

Hey, now. We've already given the F-35 repeated knobbled stick beatings, thoroughly.

But to answer your last question, its function is a general-purpose fighter in the same vein as the F-16, but with CTOL, STOVL and carrier based variants.

edited 28th Jul '14 8:11:50 AM by l3wt

EVERYTHING

If I understand correctly, it's meant to be capable of doing everything- ground attack, intercepting, escort stuff...

Whilst it sounds good on paper, making one fighter to do everything is harder than it sounds.

Multiple variants for one platform.

And here I thought simplicity was the virtue in military engineering...

Technically speaking it's never bad to have one platform capable of performing several tasks, it's just that as far we can tell, the F-35 is... not that platform. At the very least, Lockheed Martin appears to be having a hell of a time trying to contort it into doing as advertised.

So the problem is with the marketing men?

It was for simplicity. It's just that we're still at the point technology-wise where it's not yet really feasible for a "A + B = plane B; A + C = plane C; A + D = plane D" situation.

edited 28th Jul '14 9:36:07 AM by entropy13

Probably with those that hold the purse strings in various countries — without it, the F-35 wouldn't have been necessary, at least not in this fashion.