LostCosmonaut

That works, thank you. Must have missed those earlier.

Questions that are actually somewhat relevant I promise:

• What are the armor penetrating capabilities of Cascadian LMG and HMG rounds (non-armor piercing)?
• About what technological level is the Calfornian Navy's submarine arm operating at? Is the Project 641 a reasonable comparison?

Going back to 2014 posts in this thread, but are any internal layout diagrams of the Object 780 available? I'm most curious about how the driver's optics worked; does the gun not recoil far enough back into the turret to go between the driver and his optics, or is there some other arrangement that lets it work?

Invest 90Q is live; https://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/storms/90Q.html

Somebody remind me to organize this thread sometime.

Wirraway Operating Instructions

Boomerang Operating Instructions

Some interesting things going on in the Southern hemisphere. First, Australia is under threat from two different tropical cyclones, Veronica and Trevor;

More unusually, several models are forecasting development of a fairly deep warm-core cyclone off the southeast coast of Brazil.

(GFS and Canadian model also show it but keep it weaker)

South Atlantic tropical cyclones are highly rare, with only one known to have reached hurricane strength; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Catarina

Maintaining domestic shipbuilding capability is a pretty big deal for Canada, which is a good chunk of why straight up buying ABs isn't going to happen.

Per SpaceX, BFR heatshield will be a combination of hexagonal tiles, with transpirational cooling for areas of highest thermal load;

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1107378575924035584

31 minutes ago, Jeeps_Guns_Tanks said:

I wonder how many calories they got during the Blitz?

According to the BBC it was about 3,000; www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zqftn39

via wikiped:

In December 1939 Elsie Widdowson and Robert McCance of the University of Cambridge tested whether the United Kingdom could survive with only domestic food production if U-boats ended all imports. Using 1938 food production data, they fed themselves and other volunteers one egg, one pound of meat and four ounces of fish a week; one quarter pint (0.14 litre) of milk a day; four ounces of margarine; and unlimited amounts of potatoes, vegetables and wholemeal bread. Two weeks of intensive outdoor exercise simulated the strenuous wartime physical work Britons would likely have to perform. The scientists found that the subjects' health and performance remained very good after three months; the only negative results were the increased time needed for meals to consume the necessary calories from bread and potatoes, and what they described as a "remarkable" increase in flatulence from the large amount of starch in the diet. The scientists also noted that their faeces had increased by 250% in volume.^[26]

The results—kept secret until after the war—gave the government confidence that, if necessary, food could be distributed equally to all, including high-value war workers, without causing widespread health problems. Britons' actual wartime diet was never as severe as in the Cambridge study because imports from the United States avoided the U-boats,^[26] but rationing improved the health of British people; infant mortality declined and life expectancy rose, excluding deaths caused by hostilities. This was because it ensured that everyone had access to a varied diet with enough vitamins.^[25][27]

Lockheed R6V

psh, everyone knows that the F-35 is a clone of the Yak-43, not the 141.

Today in War in the Pacific: 6 American carriers attack 2 Japanese carriers

I'd prefer 1940-50, since that would let us go with California's response to the previous competition, which is the general idea we'd been kicking around on discord.

Or if we want to do 1930-40 I could make up some ORIGINAL CONTENT DO NOT STEAL about another chunk of postapocalyptic America.

12 hours ago, LoooSeR said:

   A new commercial space flights for tourists is registered in Russia and plans to build launch facility,

 

   Seems familiar... only thing is that it works on liquid oxygen and alcohol. 

There's a blurb about it in this article; https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/03/rocket-report-sls-slip-likely-pegasus-problems-and-eelv-has-expired/

(I think it's the same one you mentioned)

Suborbital tourism company to use ethanol fuel. A Russian company that wants to offer suborbital space trips for tourists, CosmoCourse, says that it will use ethyl alcohol as a fuel, TASS reports. The company says it plans to begin space tourism flights in 2025 and is now designing its own launch complex in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region, some 400km east of Moscow.

Perhaps, perhaps not ... We first heard of CosmoCourse back in 2016, when the company announced a plan that looked a lot like Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle and said it would be flying by 2020 from another location. So while we're always intrigued by new space tourism entrants, we don't have much faith in a company that has already moved its launch target by five years.

 

Also, from that article, Ukraine is trying to develop a domestic launch site, and the next FH mission is prepping the pad.

18 minutes ago, Pascal said:

 

Isn't the UK on intentional homicide rate lower than USA? Or the name appeared just because the knife crimes are too much in London?

Second part

A von Karman ogive will give you the minimum drag for a fixed length and diameter.

They are significantly more of a pain to model in solidworks or similar software, for the tank design contest I just modeled my shells as tangent ogives, which I figured were close enough and much easier to draw.

I'm fairly skeptical of the ability of any model to realistically simplify all the factors affecting tactical success, and what exactly is a 'replacement general?' (tbf the site does address those a bit). My bigger beef is that it doesn't consider how various leaders performed at the strategic level. Still, its interesting and fun, and more than worth it for these two paragraphs;

There were also generals that had surprisingly low total WAR despite a reputation as master tacticians. Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate States Army, finished with a negative WAR (-1.89), suggesting an average general would have had more success than Lee leading the Confederacy’s armies. Lee was saddled with considerable disadvantages, including a large deficit in the size of his military and available resources. Still, his reputation as an adept tactician is likely undeserved, and his WAR supports the historians who have criticized his overall strategy and handling of key battles, such as ordering the disastrous ‘Pickett’s Charge’ on the last day of the Battle of Gettysburg. In the words of University of South Carolina professor Thomas Connely, “One ponders whether the South may not have fared better had it possessed no Robert E. Lee.”

German field marshal Erwin Rommel, nicknamed the ‘Desert Fox’ for his successes in North Africa during World War II, also performed poorly in this model, finishing with -1.953 WAR. This finding disputes the praise Rommel has received as a tactician from modern generals, including Norman Schwarzkopf and Ariel Sharon. However, like Lee, Rommel has been the subject of considerable historical debate. In particular, critics have attributed much of his reputation as a tactical genius to both German and Allied propaganda. British generals reportedly exaggerated Rommel’s tactical abilities in order to minimize disapproval regarding their defeats.

Unconfirmed reports that an Israeli F-35 killed a Chinese radar in Syria; https://defence-blog.com/news/source-israeli-f-35-destroyed-chinese-made-radar-during-airstrikes-in-syria.html

Last month, an Israeli satellite imagery analysis company ImageSat confirmed that Chinese-made JY-27 radar of the Syrian Air Defense at Damascus airport destroyed by Israeli airstrikes on January 20th.

No airstrike details were given and the quoted ImageSat did also not contain any further information but some source said that radar was destroyed by Israeli F-35i Adir fighter jets.

The source claims that F-35i Adir fighter jet of the Israeli Air Force has destroyed Chinese design JY-27 radar of the Syrian Air Defense near Damascus International Airport on 20 January.

 

 

 

The JY-27 radar of the Chinese manufacturer CETC is a fully solid-state and fully coherent long-range early warning system. It is designed and developed to provide early warning information and detect low-observable air targets in so-called “Stealth technology”, included F-35 and F-22 fighter aircraft. Besides, it provides the early warning information for weapons system as well.

 

From discord yesterday; https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-02/f-sf-fwd022119.php

 

Fox domestication in Bronze Age Spain.

https://spacenews.com/final-fiscal-year-2019-budget-bill-secures-21-5-billion-for-nasa/

Of that total, $180 million will go to Restore-L, a satellite servicing mission also previously threatened with cancellation, and $100 million to nuclear thermal propulsion research, including planning for a flight demonstration mission by 2024.

Hype for potential of NERVA returning (plus probably some Timberwind DNA)

Christ, Indian procurement is such a shitshow. At least the old fighters Canada got cost about a six pack of Molson + a Wayne Gretzky autograph, and are already in working order.

I had just assumed his signature was some Tier 3 Russian meme I didn't comprehend.

The A380 is ceasing production in 2021; https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/02/citing-lack-of-demand-airbus-cancels-a380-superjumbo-aircraft/

In general, things have been trending away from large airliners, the 747-8 is still only barely alive, plus mid-sized birds like the 767, 777, and A330 are more capable than previous twins.

@Jeeps_Guns_Tanks to be fair Mechanized has usually had a more 'serious' tone than other forum sections (I don't post much in it because I'm not an expert but I occasionally read).

Current answer rating: two stars, "quite useful"

Even their rating system is fucked