The Military Thread

A video about the AN/PRC 104 portable single side band radio

Very neat. Could be a fun addition to a ham radio collection.

Sounds like the Russians won't be fielding large numbers of the T-14 any time soon. Sounds like the early days of the T-90 all over again.

What, cost overruns? In an environment where auditors could be told to fuck off because the head of UVZ has more clout than they do? You don't say!

Seriously though, it'll be far in the future before we learn the full project histories of all the big Russian projects now...and they will make for fascinating reading, I bet.

edited 8th Dec '16 5:27:45 PM by SabresEdge

So it just dawned upon me that Modern Warfare 2 presented the then ridiculous notion of a powerful US government figure cooperating with Russian extremists to further in his own power years before it was cool.

And one of the key players in saving the country is a Mexican guy who does everything the white people can't/won't do

Ramirez! Destroy that tank! With your knife!

Ramirez! Reform our healthcare system!

Ramirez! Do it without raising the debt and costs while using the private sector as the sole provider!

Ramirez! Fix the nerdy guy up with a date!

Ramirez: Whaddaya think I am, a miracle worker??

Remember when we basically all laughed at Infinity Ward for their batshit crazy story in Modern Warfare 2?

LMAO, reality is stranger than fiction.

Thankfully Putin is not as crazy as Makarov or President Vorshevsky

That it, I'm calling it. Trump's presidency will be followed by a radical liberal populist candidate who is Hispanic and a veteran of whatever armed conflict Trump get's us involved in.

This is after British special forces troops uncover an incriminating source of intelligence which proves enough to convict at least one GOP member of treason.

Vorshevsky was actually the Only Sane Man of the Russian government who wanted to resolve the war as soon as possible; hence, the attempted peace talks with NATO that Makarov sabotaged in Modern Warfare 3. Vorshevsky only continued the war out of intimidation and threat of being usurped by Makarov's totally-not-United-Russia faction.

edited 8th Dec '16 9:49:07 PM by FluffyMcChicken

If this were two years ago, I'd laugh so fucking hard at the absurdity but 2016....

Fuck.

Granted, MW 2 is still pretty stupid. What with Russia launching a trans-Atlantic invasion, that NATO ignores, after finding the off button to the entire US early warning network. Pity, cause the first game was actually pretty good when it came to the plot.

Yeah, the US land invasion was pretty stupid, specially when it revolved around disabling all those early warning satellites never mind the Early Warning System the US uses are huge as fuck radar stations scattered across the US coastline.

Or how the Russians simply bypassed the US fleet on its way to the US.

And how they invade the East Coast with airborne forces and yet have IFV's, SAM's and heavy artillery.

...How the hell would they even reach the East Coast? Did they build landing strips in Cuba?

I think the plot masterstroke of the first Modern Warfare was that it wasn't afraid of nuclear weapons. At least not in the sense of handwaving off their existence. So that final 'oh shit' moment of the American campaign is such a punch in the face.

edited 9th Dec '16 2:09:28 AM by math792d

I figured Vorshevsky was your typical frothing at the mouth demagogue, riding the surge of popular outrage and doing his level best to keep his power without letting the crazies like Makarov ruin him.

Explains why he was so eager to make peace as soon as it all went pear shaped at the start of MW 3.

The tiger was no longer fun to ride, and he needed a safe way to get off.

Are shovels still utilized as melee weapons nowadays?

They can be but melee weapons really just sorta don't exist anymore. Even knives have become more tools than anything else.

What Garcon said, at least on the conventional level. Depends on the environment.

edited 9th Dec '16 7:04:21 AM by TerminusEst

and Not even for close quarters?

In current military doctrine, if you let the enemy get close enough to actually engage in hand-to-hand combat, you've done something terribly wrong.

Pretty much. Shit is beyond fucked at that point.

There aren't actually bayonets anymore either. Sometimes you can clip your knife onto your gun but that depends on the knife and the rifle.

We actually do (or some units still do). The thing is downright nasty in closed spaces. Although it's far from ideal. Might have something to do with the max. engagement distance being 50 meters inside a forest. Or just a way to fill in the time, who knows.

There is a coming paradigm shift, in which urban warfare and extreme close quarter combat play a role, but like I said it's situational. Pretty sure you can start a flame war in the Pentagon about this.

People who need to go out and touch people, generally want to slit that throat quietly.

edited 9th Dec '16 7:23:39 AM by TerminusEst