Probably most (if not all) of these 'plots' are dreamed up by hyper-imaginative DHS agents.

It's not the cure for all problems. For one is that the tanks are integral to the fuselage, so even if they're empty (you're trying to save weight) or you're in a dogfight situation (you need more maneuverability & agility) you can't jettison them unlike normal drop tanks.

US military observation blimp breaks free, drifts 150 miles causing havoc and snapped power lines



A high-tech U.S. military blimp designed to detect a missile attack came loose on Wednesday and wreaked havoc as it floated from Maryland into Pennsylvania, dragging more than a mile of cable and knocking out power to thousands.

The U.S. military scrambled two armed F-16 fighter jets to keep watch as the massive blimp traveled into civilian airspace after coming untethered from its base at Aberdeen Proving Ground, a U.S. Army facility 40 miles northeast of Baltimore.

Pentagon officials said they were unsure why the 242-foot-long blimp broke free at 12:20 p.m.. Military officials wrestled for hours over the best way to safely bring it down, but eventually it deflated on its own.

The blimp, part of a $2.8 billion Army program, landed in Exchange, Pennsylvania, a community outside Bloomsburg, about 150 miles north of the Aberdeen Proving Ground.

John Thomas, a spokesman for Columbia County emergency management agency, said he had no details on the landing. "It's pretty rural out through there," he said, adding there were no reports of injuries.

The blimp's travels caused widespread damage, local officials said. At one point, 30,000 Pennsylvania residents were without power, the governor's office said.

"The tether attached to the aircraft caused widespread power outages across Pennsylvania," said a statement from Governor Tom Wolf's office.

New issue Russian 6kh9-1 bayonet to be used as part of the Ratnik system.

Russian bayonets are always designed to have the blade facing up, because unlike most other armies that train soldiers to stab their bayonets in an in-and-out motion, the Russians train their soldiers to stab and slash upwards, disembowelling the enemy.

Same game, different players.

Huh? so many more poorer third-world countries like Sudan, Kenya and Zimbabwe also use Mi-24 but I haven't heard that they have many problems with spare parts and supplies. Also some Mi-24 parts are also compatible with Mi-8 transport helicopters, which even more countries currently use, so its not like the Mi-24 a unique one of a kind helicopter with specialized parts.

Also what aircraft doesn't need depot for constant operation?

Probably more about distance from Russia and whether they actually pay the Russians on time for the Russians to bother sending them on time.

The Mi-24 is still a active duty front-line Russian attack helicopter made by an active manufacturer that's located in Russia (unlike some former Soviet arms manufacturers which are located in the former Soviet Republics like Ukraine and Kazakhstan, which can cause problems) so there's no reason why it would be so hard to finds parts and supplies from the usual Russian supply chain.

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: Oct 31 2015, 06:53 PM

A minigun for something like this is somewhat of an overkill. A 7.62 or .50cal MG would have been sufficient.

Hahaha Viking age dead already la.
Nowadays all these Scandinavian countries all have become LBGT-loving ultra-liberal welfare states.

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: Nov 4 2015, 01:21 PM

What's the advantage this would have on regular hellfire-armed stealth UAVs?

Also what's the definition of 'suitable target'? Cruise missile are one-way weapons and its targets are usually large stationary structures or follow relatively predictable routes (like ships) which are then pre-identified and the missile is expressly programmed to attack a target that fits that particular target profile (or any secondary targets, just in case).

Cruise missiles loitering to attack a target of opportunity that just happens to pass by , say a terrorist Toyota truck full of armed dudes, that is just ridiculous. The tech that enables an autonomous weapon system to identify its own targets won't be available for a while.

If this weapon is deployed and circling the skies,what happens if no targets turns up? You can't well recover a cruise missile the way you recover a UAV. You still could recall a patrolling UAV to a friendly airstrip when it runs out of fuel. If the fuels starts to run low on this thing with no target appearing,you'll be forced to voluntarily crash or self-destruct the darn thing. Imagine a $ 1.5milllion USD weapon (the cost of a Tomahawk missile) which can't find any targets and you're forced to self destruct it?

The 1930's war with 300,000 casualties that no one is talking about


A KMT officer (foreground, with pistol) checks out an adjoining street corner while his troops await his orders during the 1930 Central Plains war

In 1930, there was a civil war in china between the main army of the Kuomintang government, led by Chiang Kai-Shek and a coalition of three powerful warlords in the Central Plains region of Henan, China.

The war, known as the Central Plains war was shocking in that within the relatively very short span of the war, from May to November 1930, the two sides fielded nearly 1.3 million soldiers (600,000 Kuomintang and 800,000 warlord faction) and ended the war with about 300,000 casualties on both sides ( approx. 100,000 Kuomintang and 200,000 warlord faction).

During the 1911 revolution, Dr Sun Yat Sen enlisted the help of regional military leaders in his attempt to overthrow the Ming Dynasty. Due to his strong personality, he succeeded in unifying the leaders of the mostly regional military system practiced under the Ming Dynasty and to turn them over to the revolutionary side.

After his death, the various military leaders, resenting that the younger Chiang Kai-Shek was chosen as the leader of Dr Sun's Kuomintang party (KMT) over the more senior members, began to drift away from the KMT central government in Nanjing and started to strengthen their own power base in their respective regions. Over time the regions developed a quasi-independent attitude towards the KMT central government. In reality, vast swathes of China was under the local control of warlords, out of the control and authority of the KMT central government in Nanjing.

Although Chiang Kai-Shek briefly reasserted his authority over the entire country during the 1927 'reunification of China' military campaign, in early 1930 powerful warlords began to fall out with Chiang, who has drawn up plans to reorganize the then mainly regional armies (a remnant of the Ming Dynasty military doctrine) into a federal army under the control of the KMT. The regional military leaders were afraid of losing their authority and traditional power base and openly rebelled against the KMT government.

Hostilities started on mid-May, concentrating on the Henan and Shandong region. The battles waged were large-scale conventional warfare, in contrast to the mainly insurgent and guerrilla warfare of the 1950 Chinese civil war. Both sides fielded huge amounts of forces, totaling over 1.3 million soldiers. After some early successes, the Warlord factions began to fall back under the attacks of the KMT's better armed and trained armies (trained and supplied by Weimar Germany). After hostilities ceased in November 1930, casualties for both sides were estimated to be around 300,000 soldiers.

The war nearly bankrupted the KMT government and effectively broken the KMT military as an effective fighting force. thus it was in no shape to resist the Japanese Army as it started the invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and eventually China. Military historians have commented that the Japanese military probably sensed that the KMT was most likely unable to resist them after the KMT has suffered so many casualties during the Central Plains war and that without the Central Plains war, Japan may have not gone through with the invasion of China, at least during the period of 1930 to 1945.

Yup, suddenly feel the urge to write something substantial.

One consequence of having too much time.

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: Nov 6 2015, 10:05 AM

Most probably a shroud for some type of ECM antennae.

Hahaha I just realized I should've said Qing instead of Ming. Momentary lapse of concentration. No wonder I had this feeling something sounds funny, but I can't put my finger on what.

Sharp eye there,sir.

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: Nov 6 2015, 02:56 PM

From the experience of NATO during the cold war, the 7.62x51mm round is a good man-stopper and has a long reach, but it's unsuited to fully automatic fire. The recoil is horrendous even to a stronger european soldier and a shooter can quickly lose control of his aim. That's why the British L1A1 SLR can only shoot single shots only. Also the larger bullets means less rounds can be carried in the same magazine space.

Also your example cited pistol (revolver) fire, which the US used the .38 rounds, so it's somewhat irrelevant to the subject of rifle fire. In the war US troops with 8mm Krag rifles blew away Filipino rebels just fine.

The Hague Convention ban the use of hollow point ammunition by the military. What planet are you from?

Donno if serious or trolling.

From some of your questions and statements it seems its you they didn't teach.

I think the only movies I saw in the last 10 years regarding China's that time period is 'Shaolin', starring Andy Lau. That and probably '1911', starring Jackie Chan (but it tells about the 1911 revolution). More movies are set in the 1947 Chinese civil war.

I find the warlord era interesting because the fragmentation of China at the time essentially led the way for the Japanese to have the belief that their invasion of China would have a very good chance to succeed. The invasion itself it didn't do so well either the Japanese could only conquer Manchuria and some cities & coastal parts of China, even with the KMT government at not full strength due to the near constant warlord warfare. A full-strength KMT military would have been very difficult for the Japanese military, with its relatively small numbers, to overcome and most probably cause them to think harder before they invaded Manchuria in 1931 and China in 1937.

A Chinese counter-offensive by the KMT and CPC in 1940 practically ground the Japanese invasion to a halt and caused a stalemate that they fought hard to keep until the Japanese surrender in 1945. Even with the Pacific war with the USA in full force after 1941, the Japanese army was forced to keep 20-25 of their best divisions (nearly 400,000-500,000 troops) in China right up to the end of the war in 1945 to keep fighting the KMT and Communist forces.

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: Nov 9 2015, 07:54 AM

UPNM develops locally-developed nitocellulose ammunition propellant from mangrove wood



National Defence University of Malaysia (UPNM) managed to produce high quality powder explosive shells made of mangrove wood and is expected to enhance the country's defense industry in the future.

UPNM scientist, Lieutenant Commander (Rtd) Mohd. Yol Najib Abdul Ghani Hamid said the production of explosive powder is known as nitrocellulose can save costs compared to ordinary explosive powder produced by the manufacturer.

"Every bullet has four main components of the primer, casing, explosive powder and ammunition. But, the most important and most critical is the propellant which determines the lethality of the ammunition.

"It is also one of the important material in producing a steady shot. The use of nitrocellulose gives increase of 40 per cent to the speed of the bullet thereby increasing the power of the shot."

"We've made test shots before and found the average speed of the explosive nitrocellulose powder capable of producing speeds up to 590 meters per second than ordinary explosive powder which is 350 meters per second, "he said.

In the meantime, he said, the production of these powders have a special process for converting cellulose to nitrocellulose. According to cellulose content which can either be done by adding the nitrogen content in the material, known as the 'nitratating'.
"The higher content of nitrogen, the explosive powder explosives more reliable and will be at a better quality.

"In addition, the lighter propellant means that members of the security agencies can carry more rounds of lighter ammunition with nitrocellulose propellant compared to rounds with heavier explosive powder. It also produces less carbon deposits which makes the barrel of the gun cleaner and prevent damage to the components," he said.

Meanwhile, he said, the explosive powder could be produced in different caliber bullets in the future.

"So far, we have done tests with bullets of 5.56 millimeters (mm) which is used by assault rifles. Artillery shells also have great potential for using nitrocellulose, but it will take time and will require some modifications.

"If nitrocellulose with a nitrogen content are used as explosive powder, the high bullet speed can potentially defeat lower-capability ballistic vests.

Bullets with nitrocelullose powder can also be produced for different types of ammunition such as artillery shells. However they require modifications to take into account various factors such as cost and materials to be used.

"Together with other experts in the field, UPNM will try our best to collaborate with several parties, including developing larger ammunition for larger guns in the future."