Leaderboard

And medium calibre stuff:

Guide "How to tell the difference between T-90 and T-90A". These are the most visible differences between T-90 and T-90A. I made this guide because I haven't seen any on this topic and majority of people don't even know there are these two variants (there are more) or don't know what is different between them, so I wanted to enlighten people. This guide is not 100% true because there are some "hybrid" T-90 which incorporate parts from both models, for example T-90A chassis (body, new tracks and engine) with T-90 cast turret = T-90K http://live.warthunder.com/post/599752/en/ I didn't incorporated export(T-90S) models because they can be distinguished very easily by the complete lack of Shtora-1 EOCMDAS or by the missing MTShU-1-7 modulator such as T-90SA for Algeria, Armenia and Azerbaijan. I am open to any suggestion or to constructive criticism. I hope this will help.

So, small update of Polish Armoured Forces program: 1) IFV "Borsuk" (Badger program) The most important polish armured program couse still using obsolate BWP-1 IFV. The whole program have big turn couse MoD accused swiming requirement and now "Badger" will not swim and have combat weight around 40 metric tons. Two prototypes has been made in HSW Facotry and one of them have now test trials. It will be shown on MSPO exebition in sebtember in Kielce city in Poland. In this program is conected new polish RCWS turret (ZSSW-30) whit 30mm ATK-44 and 2x Spike ATGM. More or less, despite 24 months delay, all is correct in this program now. 2. Leopard 2PL program. And here are first problem. But not whit tank on RH themselfs but rather on typical polish-poles war between two polish factories. What worse - cost modernization was underestimated couse polish Bumar factory must bought mucht more equipment and...personell then have. Bumar is trying to fell all on german side what couse bigger cost per one tank and MoD is angry for that. So in "time axis" whole program is corret and german partner is doing his job wery well but polish facotry (as ussallly..) fucked up it's part. Propably wil, be big turn in this program soon. Now circa 80 Leopard 2A4 are dismounted in factory and waiting for...polish factory competition growth :/ 3. Armoured MGS vehicle on chassis platform "Gepard" ( cheetah) Thanks God it was canceled 4. PT-91 tank and T-72M1 modernisation program. Yes, yes, cheetah program was canceled what forced T-72M1 and PT-91 modernisation T-72M1 modernisation will be wery limited - only night vision for gunner and passive for Tc + new programable radio and new amunition. And thats all. In case PT-91 - the scope of the modernization will be done in July. Now there are 3 possible proposition waiting for MoD decision: 1st - PT-91MZ variant (scania engine+ renk, new FCS, new gun, new most tank components to be honest) 2th - limited modernisation: New gun, turret drives, stabilisathion, partially new FCS, turret ring, radio etc - so only fire power growth + C3 3th - most limited only "refresh" - FCS modernisation, new thermal cameras, amunition and mostly that all Result will be known in June.

Testbed for sonic boom reduction techniques

That is what i would call low level flying

PDF about use of Lexington and Saratoga's 8 inch guns as coastal artillery on Oahu; http://eugeneleeslover.com/ENGINEERING/8-inch-turret.pdf

No, there are sevral NERA layers: In case Ob.184 before 1984 (and propably some late T-72A) we have simple steel plates:

In case of Soviet T-72Bs - no. There is not much of "spacing" and "just steel plates" inside of the armor package IDK if Iranian T-72s retain Soviet T-72s UFP layout.

@Collimatrix, @Scolopax, @Bronezhilet, @Priory_of_Sion, @MrMartin Multiply reports that Bagdadi was killed in airstrike. Ru MoD issuied a statement that Bagdadi was possibly killed together with other big commanders and leaders of ISIS during their meeting. Ru MoD pics (left is May 13, left one is May 29, strike was done on 28.05.2017):

This is pathetic. Just lob a couple of missiles through each other palaces and be done with it.

Iranian T-72 hull armour and for compare T-72B m.1989 hull armour. Again NERA.

The guy is opposed to the "prison industrial complex" and opposed the North Dakota Pipeline while having a major hangup with male circumcision. These aren't exactly mainstream beliefs among right wing political figures. Coupled by the fact that he was a "Nihilist" who has a major hangup with religion and it's clear the guy is just some random nutter of the sort you can expect to find in Portland. Accordingly, the local news media has dialed back on the news coverage of this case and they have also toned down the narrative that this guy was a right wing Trump supporter (particularly when his social media feed contradicts this narrative). What the story does show is that the MAX train in Portland is a fucking weird and dangerous place to be with the amount of bums, drug dealers and crazies riding it. As an example. Here is a story of a homeless bum who stole the wedding ring off the finger of the dead husband stabbed by the Nihilist Berniebro and made off with the victim's backpack. http://koin.com/2017/06/01/man-wanted-for-stealing-bag-ring-from-max-victim/ And a couple days later, another random crazy man stabbed a Max passenger, this time with a butter knife. http://www.kgw.com/news/crime/man-cuts-passenger-with-butter-knife-on-max-train-police-say/446613160 The real news story isn't Stabby McNihilist. The real news story is that the mayor of Portland and the Portland city council has allowed these sort of mentally ill criminals to roam free in the streets of the Rose City. That's despite the fact that Portland Police know who half of these nutters are and are prevented from doing anything to incarcerate them until they actually stab and murder someone.

Loughner cannot be put in a right/left spectrum and the Portland stabber was a Berniebro. And 'my party' is a centerist Democrat who hasn't bought into progressive identity politics.

I'm radically left for this board. I haven't seen anything but condemnation from my friends list about these attacks. Even people who are pretty far left of me have at worst said "I understand their anger, but not the right method to deal with it. If you ID them, toss them in jail." I have seen a bit of "I told you so." from the radical anti-gun people I know. On weapons, from what I've seen from actual friends? Actually a bit more tolerance/willingness to explore, and a few exploratory requests for information from the folks I know. (Nate has been very helpful a couple of times at random moments, so he's a great firearms ambassador to the left... even if he doesn't know it.) , but also a bit of "They are armed, so we should be as well.", which honestly people try to shout down, but there is that undercurrent of somewhat sane people actually speaking up. I'll add that this particular line of commentary is based on friends in the US. Canada has a whole different deal going on.

Wonder Woman The Wonder Woman is next DC depressing movie about superheroes. This movie sets itself appart from Marvels movie by having unusual twist - superheroes in this film are actually a bad guys! In this universe Superman, Wonder woman and other powerful superheroes came to conclusion that they will never be able to save humanity, as main danger for it is humanity itself! Which led many of them to decide to establish super-dictatorship on humans, with very strict order, eugenics and genetical modification of human brains and bodies to make them obedient and futile. Superman in the film established his forces of mass-produced replica soldiers using alien tech to defeat humanity. Replicas were made out of Supermans fanboys using a lot of genetic enhancement Civil war between superheroes ended in favor of dictatorship-backers and now humanity is in deep trouble, as it will be transformed into slaves of some aliens and other strange humans wearing wacky colorful tight suits. Scene where Batman was found by Superman's Fanboys/Replica troopers in his hideout in Iraqi deserts Second model of Replica troopers were made with wings for fast clearing operations in remote places, this action scene is happening in early part of the movie Superman attacks last position of joint human forces in Northen America. Too much CGI with quick-cut editing makes this scene hard to follow After defeated humans in America obey to their new oppressors, other parts of world became aware of a superheroes plague that will overrun the whole world with their laser-firing eyes, tight suits and stupid actions scenes, living no place for real humans to live and breathe. Supervillians started to get into Europe and Africa, and this is where we meet our "hero" (actually a main antagonist) - Wonder woman, who lead supervillians attack on Euroasian continent. Gal Gadot as Wonder woman, scene takes places in ruins somewhere in France. A scene where Wonder Woman blows up some humans, to show that she is now a villian Authors of scenario of this movie have more interesting twists - according to flashbacks of one of characters in the movie, Russian president, Soviet communists are still alive and working hard on creating means of establishing communism somewhere in deep Siberian undeground bunkers. They are creating a robot workforce that will make communist paradise a reality. Russian president contacts them via special bot in Kremlin's undeground facilities to coordinate their actions to clear the Earth from Superheroes plague. "Contactbot" that helps to speak with Siberian communists Red Square as portrayed in Wonder Woman. Robot guarding one of FSB building in Moscow Communists proposal of using mass-producable drones to fight with Superman's Replicas and special robots to defeat each supervillian is supported by all sides and all military factories switch to production of combat robots. Commie Battle droids march on Red Square before being sended to Eastern Europe to fight Replicas and superheroes that invaded European country In few short scenes movie shows us how Replica forces were defeated by commie robots, and now wonder woman is hiding from steel machines that want nothing but her being dead. Communist robots hunting down main tight suit wearing super villian, defended by group of Replicas In last scene of the movie Siberian robots managed to cut wonderwoman from her escape and now they are assaulting building, where she tried to hide. Wonder woman was quickly killed upon her being spotted by robots, as no amount of armored bikinies can stop bullets. Movie ends with a Commie robot shown fighting in US, hinting future movie about death of Superman. It is like those movie makers wanted to say that only Commies can clean America from superheroes invasion!

McCain is old and senile. He still thinks the Cold War is going on, and we have to arm the fascists to fight the commies. One of the big reasons the US government can't cooperate with the Russian government, many of the people in power cannot move past the Cold War.

Stolen from Andrey's blog http://andrei-bt.livejournal.com/544066.html Photos of RCWS itself, from otvaga:

Canada yes! Bill C-16 passed Canada's senate 67 to 11, so now very soon you must respect my pronouns (meme, maymay, memeself) or you shall go to jail and be sent to reeducation camp for misgendering me. Government mandated opinions are oh so very progessive! Other link

Every day that goes by has me incrementally more convinced that Trump is the Grand Master Persuader that Dilbertman believes he is. I am watching him throw meat to the sharks, and get everything he wants while they are distracted. In a few months, his opponents will wake up to a bright, sunny day where the birds are singing, grab their phones to start the days reading of tweets, and find that Trump has quietly delivered on every. single. one. of his campaign promises. The wall will be built, tax reform passed, healthcare reworked, the VA restructured, etc. Trump will declare victory, and for many folks the illusion of a chaotic, out-of-control manchild will be broken. They'll have been roundly defeated, because they were too worried what "covfefe" meant to notice that he was getting shit done. Whether any of this will be good for America, I have no idea. But the opposition is currently demonstrating the political acumen of a pack of alligators. Trump is a cajun with some chicken fillets he bought at a gas station and a 20 gauge shotgun. They don't stand a chance.

They're still stuck in the homogeneous "red menace" days, give it a few more decades. SKS-D is the one with the magazine. It's easy to remember because D stands for "dumbass conscript lost the magazine again" (or detachable I guess).

Jill Stein was ahead of the curve. Overnight, she developed the genre of cynical Trumpsploitation by fundraising for a recount that everyone knew couldn't possibly work. After that, she dispersed the monies using a highly transparent process. By "transparent" I mean "you can't see it." But of course, some slow-in-the-mind didn't understand the joke. The hashtag resistance isn't about meaningfully delaying Trump. The man works like a ratchet. Trump keeps getting ahead in areas where there isn't much media scrutiny, which is why a sugar trade deal with Mexico recently was renegotiated. Hashtag resistance and the Trumpsploitation genre of clickbait outrage are all about getting money and saving face. Dumb fuck. You're not supposed to actually do anything, much less go shoot up Washington DC. Noodly-armed catamite couldn't even shoot center mass.

Iraq

So, here is the latest news regarding a new tank for the US Military.... I'm not sure exactly what this means. Apparently they will spend 10 million dollars in order to come up with a description of the new vehicle they want.

That's new info. Thanks. I've been hearing about the effects of open hatches upon hits (primarily HEAT charges) but I've never quite understood the logic there. Always thought I've missed some parameter. Because either way, you're going to get your ears popped and a serious concussion. This level of pressure shouldn't just be dangerous, but lethal in close proximity, as it's enough to have it applied to your neck and you're done for. But how consistent is that pressure across the tank and how effective are NBC systems against such sudden rise in overpressure?

Concerning shaped charge Beyond-armour effect. The results of soviet tests in 1968 (development of integrated ERA) using pressure sensors and rabbits. In case of penetration of 115 mm HEAT round inside the testing rig sensors recorded overpressure with an amplitude of 0.4 kg / cm2. Such overpressure can be considered dangerous for humans. http://andrei-bt.livejournal.com/469619.html

The only "supposed" cutaway I could find was some rumored cutaway of the LeClerc's armor package, but quite a few people doubted the validity of it.

More fun with calculated values - I stuck the values from Tank Designer 0.9 into a new spreadsheet, fixed them up a bit and then used solver on them to try to come up with an optimised array against all threats. ERA wins hands down, with NERA being the second-best option when ERA is excluded. Here it is interesting to note that the solver never comes up with multi-material arrays (combining, say, a material good against APFSDS with a material good against HEAT). It is also interesting to note the sheer advantage even the gimped ERA values have in terms of areal density. I'm really wondering at this point how hard it would be to make an armour package that simply consists of stacked, hollow RHA boxes (with holes to vent gas) filled with ERA bricks. You could lay this stuff in two rows deep for protection against tandem charges, and still get an areal density 1/4 of the equivalent level of RHA protection.

Made in iraq, IIRC with external support. It's NERA all right, here's a better look at the cutaway section:

Ok, here is another monster post for this thread. This is from a special supplement to Military Technology Vol XI Issue 4 from 1987. It's all about Renk transmissions for tracked vehicles.