Armoured decks make sense if you're expecting your carriers to get dogpiled by land based aircraft (which come in numbers way bigger than any carrier air wing, so if you squeeze as many AC as possible on board then they'll still outnumber you, and carry bigger bombs). The pacific is not the med, basically

A 500 lb bomb is a Very Bad Day for an unarmoured carrier (e.g. yorktown at the battle of the coral sea), whereas armoured carriers were surviving 2000 lb bombs regularly

On 2/1/2019 at 8:01 PM, Xoon said:

The idea is to have a emergency power pack option that could be installed in AFVs when the country in question faces fuel shortages. The power pack would by no means be as good as a conventional power pack, but it would run. The inspiration came from Nazi Germany, which pretty much ran out of fuel, and was unable to properly wage war because of it.  Producing methanol or similar would require a more complex process, with a lot more moving parts. A convoy could have a number of hydrogen production units could stop by a transformer by a river, power the trucks pumps and electrolyser, and suck water from the river.  Effectively refueling the entire convoy on the spot.  This means a armored column could operate outside the supply chain, as long as it has enough ammunition and food.  A except the pump and valves, the entire system is solid state, meaning it wont break down. It runs until the end of its lifespan. 

Tank engines are around 1 MW ea., so assuming a 1:8 ratio of time spent moving to time spent recharging then you need to suck 8 MW from the transformer per tank in the convoy at 100% efficiency - and that's assuming the power grid still works reliably, it was one of the first things to go in the iraq war.

On 2/1/2019 at 8:01 PM, Xoon said:

A gasoline engine can be modified to run on hydrogen.  So in theory, a diesel/gasoline multi fuel engine could run on hydrogen.  Though, running a ICE on hydrogen is very inefficient. Curiously enough, you can add hydrogen to the air in a diesel to improve mileage and power. The hydrogen is ignited initially by the diesel, but since it flame speed is 10x that of diesel, it ignites the rest of the diesel. 

It is really a diesel engine at that point? It sounds more like a high compression otto engine, with the spark plug swapped out for an injector (and if hydrogen acts like a high octane fuel, improving on efficiency isn't that unexpected - although under part load it'd have to revert to act like a normal diesel). The defining feature of the diesel cycle is that there is no fuel mix, combustion only occurs at the boundary between the injected fuel-rich diesel droplets and the oxygen-rich rest of the air in the cylinder so there shouldn't be any diesel floating around the combustion chamber to be ignited by hydrogen.

On 2/1/2019 at 8:01 PM, Xoon said:

 

One a side note, has anyone tried to use a vortex tube at the air intake of a vehicle?  It would allow for super cool air (around -50 C), though it would probably double the drag and air needed into the intake. 

Sub-ambient intercooling could run into issues with condensation getting ingested into the engine

That's interesting. I've seen some work on freak waves previously (as in ~15 years ago), but that was looking at 2d waves where one wave would suck energy out of the waves either side of it - building on the work in a 3d pool is neat

15 hours ago, Toxn said:

We're about two minutes away from some bright spark realising that they could stick a small bomb on these...

The total weight is <33g, so maybe a small firecracker? Small-ish suicide UAVs have been done before, of course

Leclerc has been used as a platform to test a 140mm gun:

Quote

IAV 2019: Nexter tests 140 mm gun on Leclerc MBT

Nexter has fit a 140 mm gun on a Leclerc main battle tank (MBT) to gather data for the Franco-German Main Ground Combat System (MGCS) programme to replace it and the Leopard 2, Jane's learned at the International Armoured Vehicles (IAV) 2019 conference held in London on 21-24 January.

This is understood to be the first time that a 140 mm gun has been successfully integrated onto a 50-tonne MBT and conducted over 200 firings. It is expected to provide a 70% increase in firepower over a NATO standard 120 mm gun.

Nexter has resurrected past efforts to develop a 140 mm main weapon to establish which firepower solutions are best suited to meet the MGCS requirement.

https://www.janes.com/article/85934/iav-2019-nexter-tests-140-mm-gun-on-leclerc-mbt

4 hours ago, LoooSeR said:

   Those are Unarmeytsy, Military-Patriotic Social Movement members, created in 2016.

 

I feel sorry for those berets

On 1/21/2019 at 11:41 PM, Ramlaen said:

 

The ability for the UK to effectivily use nuclear weapons against the United States or American forces is dubious.

The system for transmitting launch codes to the SSBN's is entirely sovereign UK, we aren't piggy-backing off the US PAL system. The only obvious way for the US to impede UK nuclear weapons would be to deny maintenance in future, which doesn't do much for the ~8 missiles on patrol right now (and if HMG will no longer exist anyway, so what?)

More lazy reporting

https://www.38north.org/2018/11/lsigal111318/

(Old rebuttal, but the grauniad report is practically the same as the NYT article they were responding to)

Once Kim agrees to declare their nuclear sites, then that'll be worth reporting -  having operational capability isn't breaching any agreements.

If it's just there to cover some soft foam for crash purposes I bet they could just as well have used some vacuum formed plastic at a lower weight, but that wouldn't have the carbon/aramid a e s t h e t i c

Bigger, armoured bustle would add weight, no? And rolled plates (especially modern rolled plate) is more mass efficient than cast armour? So the new welded turret could be to free up some weight margin for the bustle stowage, if they have it for the new gun.

4 hours ago, SH_MM said:

 

"brand new welded turret"

Given the lack of step, they're either proposing a massive reduction in roof armour thickness or a new turret.

The positions of the turret crew are unlikely to have changed, why would the loaders periscope or gunners sight show up in a different location?

This scenario shouldn't feature in the SDSR, because any proper invasion of the UK (i.e. an existential threat) would warrant a nuclear response and no-one wins. Any threat nation invading just the UK would be an odd move, and would have to contend with almost every submarine in NATO en route (who've been salivating for a chance like that for decades).

6 hours ago, LoooSeR said:

 

Must be very futuristic if they're considering a hovertank. The hologram showing the 3d model is a neat touch

I agree, ABS sensors normally do double duty to run the speedo.

1 hour ago, Xoon said:

Quote

 

The problem is that the plug broke, snapped in half. Now the hole is permanently plugged. I either I drill it out and tap a new thread, or I just replace the entire thing. Its only a L shaped metal piece, so I might find the part laying around. 

A left handed drill might get it out

3 hours ago, heretic88 said:

Basically, this armament would be quite good. But in my opinion, replacing the 100mm+30mm combination is still a mistake. The original armament is excellent, especially the 2A70 with very effective HE shells. 30mm may be a problem, it needs a solution for its poor AP performance, but that shouldnt be that hard to solve.

But here is another question: What is the point of the whole Kurganets-25 project then?  It doesnt have any real advantages over this modernized BMP-3, and is massively more expensive... This also applies to the comparison with BMP-3 Dragun. 

Unless it's carrying more hull armour

I like the glass boot lid, reminds me of the recent volvo hatchbacks (which I guess were copying this)

21 hours ago, Belesarius said:

http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/25989/intel-report-confirms-china-developing-stealthy-regional-bomber-in-addition-to-strategic-bomber

 

 

"An arm of the U.S. Intelligence Community has publicly confirmed the existence of not one, but two Chinese stealth bomber development programs for the first time in a new report. In addition to the much-reported H-20 stealth heavy bomber program, China is also working on a smaller, regionally-focused stealthy bomber, commonly referred to as JH-XX. 

This new information was contained in the Defense Intelligence Agency's (DIA) latest China Military Power report, which the Agency released on Jan. 15, 2019. DIA restarted issuing its "Military Power" unclassified public reviews, which trace their origins to the Cold War-era Soviet Military Power reports, in 2017. This new examination of China's capabilities says the information it contains is up to date as of November 2018."

Looking through that report linked, I'm pretty sure they've used a photoshopped image. Check out page 81 - the amphib vehicles in the background look awfully similar. Reverse image searching it shows up the same 'shopped image all over the place, so I think it got attached to an AFP news item. Here's an example of a typical report using it:

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/1996073/china-russia-hold-joint-naval-drill-south-china-sea

This is very off topic, I know

ETA: I just noticed that that AFP news item credited the image to Xinhua news agency.

18 hours ago, Xoon said:

19 hours ago, Donward said:

 

Remove the flooring tiles, cut into shape the heating mats, add a power cord and heat sensor, and hook it up to a thermostat. Then re add the flooring. 

Not very expensive at all. 

 

Besides, who uses water borne floor heating outside of eco houses? 

Is electric heating for the whole house typical in norway? Gas in the UK is several times cheaper than electricity (like 5p/kWhr compared to 15 p/kWhr, which makes sense given how a significant fraction of the power in electricity starts as gas going into a combined cycle plant), so a gas boiler pushing hot water around the house is the normal way of heating houses here

Interview with UK F-35 pilot

https://hushkit.net/2019/01/15/interview-with-a-british-f-35b-lightning-ii-pilot-semper-fidelis-to-semper-paratus/

He likes it, and apparently there's no plan for the UK to buy the gunpod at present

Did russia get any extended end connectors with their shermans?

7 minutes ago, Belesarius said:

I'm thinking of the situation with the Russian carrier when Spain wouldn't let them refuel and had to get a tanker to come and refuel it. It could be embarrassing for them if something like that happens. I've seen a breakdown of the ranges of the ships unrefuelled and it's not an easy go for what they have. The War Zone did an article breaking down why it is unlikely for them to actually deploy to Venezuela.

 

I'm also sure they'll bring their tanker (this is dependent on said tanker being available, and it was overhauled recently so they're likely to want to show it off). If they don't have the training to replenish while underway it's possible to transfer fuel while stationary at sea (even commercial oil tankers can do that, as demonstrated by north korea evading sanctions), so I'm sure iran has the capability to get a few ships to america if they wanted to. Bringing the tanker also means they'll have a helicopter hangar available (AFAIK it's the only one afloat in their navy, which sort of explains their "helicopter carrier" moniker for it)

It's nothing to do with demonstrating any kind of military effectiveness, of course

7 hours ago, Belesarius said:

Will believe it when I actually see it. they don't really have the logistical ability to do this easily.

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-usa-navy-idUSKCN1OY0SX

A one-off deployment to the atlantic isn't too challenging, it's not war so there's plenty of ports to call in. AFAIK there's no sanctions preventing countries from selling fuel to iranian vessels. It won't achieve much, but it should be possible

Putting a 57mm gun on something intended to support infantry goes back over a century

Shouldn't add too much parasitic mass to include a timed fuse in the base of an APFSDS, so that just outside the interception range it goes pop and sheds the fins (~100g? The OICW grenades seem to be around that, and it's not much extra weight with several kilos of W). I wonder how early you could do it and still be stable enough when you hit the target?

On 12/17/2018 at 12:26 AM, Xlucine said:

WoWS is pretty fun

WoWS is odd. For new players, you typically get sorted into games with 2-3 players per team and the rest bots. These are pretty easy to play, and it's easy to feel good about your performance (especially if you play aggressively).

Once you hit some magic number (possibly number of battles, or tier), you get normal matches with players filling all the slots. This is a fundamentally different game, as players are a lot better than the bots - suddenly the aggressive gameplay that works well against bots just gets you killed quickly.

I'm still re-calibrating to adjust for this.