GMerlon

Not being a pro at all, just building some paper stuff for fun from time to time. 
 
Here a couple of 1:35 (T-30 and LT vz.38) and a couple of 1:50 (T-50 and P-26/40). 

 

Correct.
 

A larger cartridge has more inertia and more surface area creating more friction between it and the magazine feed lips and rounds further down in the stack. So, it needs a bigger bolt group to overcome those things, because there is a peak BCG acceleration and recoil spring mass you don't want to exceed, so that means your theoretical BCG velocity is "fixed", and the only way to increase the momentum of the bolt group during feeding is to increase its mass. So no, you could not just drop in 30x173mm rounds even in a hypothetical context, because they'd be too heavy for the BCG to reliably feed. However, the difference in inertia and friction between 7.62 and 5.56 is relatively small, and rifles like the POF Revolution show beyond a doubt that the AR-15 itself has more than enough moving mass to reliably feed 7.62 cartridges. Compare the POF Revolution BCG (left/top) to a standard AR-15 BCG (right/bottom):



 

Obobob and PM

 

 
 

 
 

Beijing's trade war with Australia spectacularly backfires as China is plagued by electricity woes plunging millions into darkness – after it refused delivery of $1billion of Aussie coal

https://imp-navigator.livejournal.com/975930.html
   Yuri Lyamin's short explanation of situation.
 

 

 
 

Photos from frontlines of The Great Sino-Indian War

 

More US troops (approximately 100) are headed to Syria and are bringing Bradleys to take the MRAP chicken games to the next level.

Few days ago in Belarus

 
 

I have accidentally came across this (more info and pictures under the link). 

It's relatively recently identified gem of the Czech military museum in Žižkov, Prague (atm it's still closed due to the ongoing reconstruction). For decades it was stored there but until few years back nobody knew what it actually was. In fact it's 1899 experimental machinegun of baron Adolf Odkolek z Újezdce, the original author of the design solutions used in the famous Hotchkiss Mle 1914 MG (Hotchkiss bought Odkolek's patents). Baron Odkolek (whose name is known in here mainly thanks to the bakeries founded by his uncle and existing till today) was a military officer and weapon designer, he was born near Mladá Boleslav, central Bohemia, but in the later part of his life he lived in Vienna where he also died in 1917. 
 
This particular weapon chambered in 7.92x57 Mauser has a serial number 1 and is functional although part of the sights is missing and the belt design is unknown. Its parts were patented in 1899 (in Germany) and 1900 (in Switzerland). It's surprisingly light, just 10,5 kg. 

Some examples of some experimental Japanese body armor from the 1930s and 1940s, all from this page (Google chrome can make a reasonable translation of the text).
 
A 'tortoise shield', apparently devised specifically to fight against the Soviet Union after the border clashes in there in the late 1930s.

 

 
An early "bullet proof" vest:

 
Apparently they issued several times of shields too, one of which appears to double as a breastplate:

Looks cool, at least.

 
 

My Dad was in the Navy from 1965 to 1969. He's been dead since 2000, so there is no asking him for info on this stuff, my mom is around but won't knot much about the Navy details so I am putting this together from memory and whats in the photos.  The slides were not in great shape, and the first set of scans were rough, and then the scanner broke. So, since Amazon didn't have the same model anymore, I spent a little more money and got a much nice scanner, with a better "technology" for film scanning, and it fixes the flaws when it scans them. The results are remarkable.  As far as I know these images were taken with a Minolta 35mm Camera,   I guess an SLR, since he had a bunch of lenses for it. I learned photography with it, and have a few pictures of my GTO I took with his Camera.  This was the type of camera you focuses, and set the light settings, and had to hand wind. Considering how much harder a camera was to work back then, I think my old man was a reasonably talented photographer.
  
As far as I can remember he went to boot camp in San Diego, then he went to schools for Ejection Seat Maintenance and Air Condition systems on the F4J Phantom. He got assigned to VF-33, part of CAG-6, with  VF-102,  VA-82, VA-86, VA-85, RVAH-13, VAW-122, VAW-13 Det. 66, and VAH-10 Det. 66. CAG-6 was assigned to the USS America, who was about three years old and about to go on a world cruise, that would include the Ships only Vietnam deployment in 1968. When the ship got back, it was stationed on the east coast, and VF-33 went to CAG-7, and ended up on the Independence. My dad was with them for at least one work up cruise, since there are a set of photos from that ship. By mid 69 he was back in San Diego, working with VF-121, the west coast RAG, waiting to get out . I do not have any photos yet from San Diego, at least Navy stuff. 
 
Here is a shot of the CVA-66 USS America, she displaced 61,174 tons empty, 83,500 full load. She was the second Kitty Hawk Class Carrier,  she would spend the majority of her Career in the Med.  (if the logo for the Sherman Tank Site seems like its in odd places, its usually covering a flaw the scanner could not fix)
 

 
Here's a VF-33 Phantom. 

A VF-102 Phantom, an F-4J the same as VF-33. 

 
Here are some pretty cool shots from an underway replenishment. It could be anywhere on the World cruise in 68. 



 
I think this is also from an Unrep, maybe the same one.  This photo is one of my favorite, you get an A-7 and Sea Night for the the price of one!

 
Old shot with bad scanner as a place holder for a duplicate. 

 
This shot is of the flight deck, by the cats on the angle deck looking forward. Not the kill mark on the intake of the F-4J, 212 sitting there, pretty cool. 

 
 
 
These last three shots are all from the USS Independence, in early 69, I assume off the East Coast on work ups for their upcoming Med Cruise. 
 

 

 
 

 

This is my old Man, Rick T, I'm pretty sure that's a Martin Baker Ejection seat right next to him. Several VF-33 Phantoms got shot down, and the seats always worked, so he had that going for him.  This image was scanned on the original scanner, note how cruddy it looks, when get to this slide again, I'll post the improved version. Compare the below image to the one above too. 

 
I'll posts more as I water mark them and host them. 
 
There was a crossing of the line ceremony, that my Dad took a ton of pics on, its pretty interesting. 
 
It was really nice to find these, I had thought hey got lost in a move. 
 
 
 

Some "custom" creations found originally here...


 
Not sure if it's enough of a low rider...
 

 

Some examples of some experimental Japanese body armor from the 1930s and 1940s, all from this page (Google chrome can make a reasonable translation of the text).
 
A 'tortoise shield', apparently devised specifically to fight against the Soviet Union after the border clashes in there in the late 1930s.

 

 
An early "bullet proof" vest:

 
Apparently they issued several times of shields too, one of which appears to double as a breastplate:

Some examples of some experimental Japanese body armor from the 1930s and 1940s, all from this page (Google chrome can make a reasonable translation of the text).
 
A 'tortoise shield', apparently devised specifically to fight against the Soviet Union after the border clashes in there in the late 1930s.

 

 
An early "bullet proof" vest:

 
Apparently they issued several times of shields too, one of which appears to double as a breastplate:

Russian Shaman amphibious ATVs were purchased by UAE (for Dubai police)

 
 
 

Photos from base that was hit by Iranian missiles.

 
 

Clearly the best Webley revolver...

The source was the twitter post. The guy saying that works for Washington Post. 

Navy SF unit members with ADS

 
   AFAIK ammunition for those assault rifles - PSP and PSP-UD.

 

Part of me thinks that we should perhaps start moving some of this discussion to the US/Iran flirting with quagmire thread, since it looks like we're starting to report commentary as well.
 
Petraeus just gave an interview on the US-Iran conflict. Perhaps the most salient bit to me:
 
 
The Brookings Institute has a series of brief commentaries from their 'experts' .Unsurprisingly, center-left views dominant much, but not all, of this work. There are some interesting links to outside sources in there as well.
 
EDIT: couple more interesting articles as well:
 
How Soleimani's killing could make a stronger Iraq
 
Does Soleimani's death matter?
 
 
 

Couple more from the same site: