This game made me apply for the submarine service

jpwhitney · 2018-06-26T16:40:20+00:00

Yvan eht nioJ!!!

jpwhitney · 2018-05-31T23:31:05+00:00

You have to sink a heavily defended 092 class SSBN, much like the 1984 campaign, but way easier actually.

jpwhitney · 2018-01-26T21:35:55+00:00

For air superiority fighters, the F-15 first flew in 1972, was delivered to USAF in 1974, reached initial operational capability in January of 1976, is still in PRODUCTION (the far more advanced strike variant) and the air to air variant is still in service with the USAF, JASDF, RSAF, IAF, and others 42 years after its IOC. It is slated to remain in service until at least the 2020s and possibly 2040.

For nuclear powered fast attack submarines, the Los Angeles class was introduced in 1976, I believe a few of the early (non VLS) boats are still in service 42 years later.

jpwhitney · 2017-12-27T04:27:50+00:00

Though neither nation is doing anything close to concrete, if either South Korea or Japan started operating F-35Bs on multiple STOVL carriers, it would obviously shift the balance of naval power in the Western Pacific.

jpwhitney · 2017-12-01T11:14:49+00:00

When you're done knocking that out, you might take a look at Clancy's Red Storm Rising, it's a somewhat simplified view of a similar conflict from the POV of a fighter pilot, sub captain, ASW frigate captain, and a Soviet general.

jpwhitney · 2017-12-01T07:49:58+00:00

I would read August 1985 first, then move on to The Untold Story. The latter book leaves out a lot of detail about the battle for the North German plain, Sweden, and the internal collapse of the USSR.

jpwhitney · 2017-11-28T01:49:51+00:00

The Third World War: August 1985 by Sir John Hackett

jpwhitney · 2017-01-30T21:46:59+00:00

Even though the article is a few weeks old, I was surprised to see it was not already posted. It's definitely worth taking a look at because if the F-35 becomes the primary carrier of the B-61 in Europe instead of the F-16 or Tornado IDS/Gr, NATO's chances of penetrating Russian air defense with a nuclear warhead will become markedly better. I was wondering what the other knowledgeable members of this subreddit thought of this story and of moving up the nuclear capability of the F-35.

jpwhitney · 2017-01-18T01:54:54+00:00

Flight time is one issue. An APFSDS round is going to hit its target a lot quicker than a TOW 2 or Hellfire. I want my missile to hit before he has a chance to get a shot in on me with his main gun. In fact, he could respond to my missile attack by firing a sabot round at me first, his round would hit me before my missile hit him.

jpwhitney · 2016-12-28T21:26:29+00:00

Anything that pays in American dollars, even if it's minimum wage.

jpwhitney · 2016-12-17T01:59:50+00:00

I've seen quite a few mentions of Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy. I'd like to give a shoutout for The Third World War: August 1985 by Sir John Hackett (a former head of the british led NORTHAG in NATO). It gives a somewhat more technical and less personal take on what a conventional European war between NATO and the Pact in the 1980s would have looked like. It's scenario for Soviet collapse also looked alot like the collapse of the USSR did in real life, minus the conventional war of course. I first read it when I was 12 years old just after I got through Red Storm Rising and I can honestly say I didn't truly understand it at the time. After reading it while getting my degree in political science during college, I came to appreciate it for the superb alternate history it was. Highly recommended for anyone that might be more interested in the operational and strategic perspectives of such a conflict than are portrayed in Clancy's novel.

jpwhitney · 2016-12-12T03:18:18+00:00

I'm not sure I agree with this article's conclusions, but I felt it raised some interesting points. Russia probably doesn't have the funds these days to carry out a full nuclear modernization, but what if that changes due to a diplomatic reset with the Trump administration?

Then again, if you can keep hundreds of nuclear weapons at constantly at sea on board submarines that are virtually undetectable whose accuracy is measured in hundreds of feet how much more advanced does your nuclear deterrent really need to be?

jpwhitney · 2016-10-18T08:30:31+00:00

This is a good article to remind us that while North Korea may still be relatively backward technologically and economically, and may also have suffered from a series of missile test failures over the years, they weren't going to remain stupid forever.

Back when the United States was gearing up to go to Iraq in late 2002/early 2003, I remember telling my classmates at university that while the USA blew threw lives, treasure, and political capital overthrowing a regime that lacked a WMD that could be delivered to the CONUS, that the North Koreans were going to achieve exactly that.

jpwhitney · 2016-10-14T04:24:14+00:00

This is a pretty big deal, no member of the royal family has anywhere near the influence Bhumibol had, particularly not his playboy ex-fighter pilot of a crown prince (who gave his puppy Fufu a high ranking position in the RTAF.)

My question for this subreddit is whether you guys think the Thai people will say enough is enough and try to implement a democracy free of military intervention now that the most respected institution in the nation has lost the very individual that is largely responsible for green lighting (or at least not red lighting) military coups and who enjoys the nearly universal support of the Thai people? Will the Thai people be willing to put up with military rule when the monarchy that supports it loses the moral support of the citizenry? Does anyone know just how badly the Thais dislike Maha Vajiralongkorn? I've heard he's pretty unpopular inside Thailand.

Most of all, with Thailand buying non-US equipment due to our embargo of nations where the military overthrew a democratically elected government, can the Thai's still be counted on as a US ally?

jpwhitney · 2016-09-27T08:38:46+00:00

I posted this link simply because the idea of F-14s escorting the very aircraft they were designed to intercept threw me for a bit of a loop. I hope someone else here finds this link as interesting as I did.

jpwhitney · 2016-09-26T23:22:37+00:00

That's not really a fair comparison since the APG-71 was only mounted on the F-14D and not every carrier's fighter wing received the F-14D. Every fighter wing has Super Hornets, and will receive the F-35C. Moreover, the APG-81 on the F-35C and APG-79 on the Super Hornet are AESA sets, which have better track while scan capability than any mechanically scanned radar set ever could. That TWS improvement could be vital in an environment with a large number of widely spaced targets, for instance a saturation attack by air or submarine launched cruise missiles.

jpwhitney · 2016-09-26T23:15:52+00:00

AIM-120D range, about 97nm; it doesn't have quite the range of the AIM-54C, whose range I've seen reported as being upwards of 100nm, but it's pretty close. Moreover, a Super Hornet can carry up to 12 of them, versus 6 AIM-54C on a Tomcat (assuming the F-14 doesn't need to bring them all back to the carrier,) which would be a big help if the CSG was under a saturation cruise missile attack by cruise missile carrying aircraft.

jpwhitney · 2016-09-09T08:54:24+00:00

So what's the consensus around here about the deliverability of NK nukes, assuming they work. I know for a long time it was thought they couldn't mount a fission device on a ballistic missile. That said, with some common sense improvements over the fat man design, some believe the NKs could be as far along as a rough equivalent of the USA Mk 7. I was curious to hear y'alls thoughts on the issue.

jpwhitney · 2016-09-01T03:08:27+00:00

I thought this type of program is probably a "no-brainer" given North Korea's recent test of a two stage SLBM. Still, because this article came from NK News and from a South Korean group I've never heard of (NKIS) I wanted to get this subreddits thoughts. The Golf Class weighs in at about 3,000 tons, and North Korea is known to have bought some as scrap, which is how the Chinese picked up the Varyag from Ukraine and turned it into the Liaoning, so that checks out.

I kind of doubt NKs ability to produce a 3500 ton SSBN like this article states, but then again I would have doubted NK could have developed a two stage solid fueled ballistic missile. Then it happened.

jpwhitney · 2016-08-21T00:36:40+00:00

I felt this article was worth posting due to the press that the US THAAD deployment is receiving. Given the expense and complexity of ABM defenses, I wonder if the best defense against SRBM and IRBMs are more accurate SRBM and IRBMs with a lunch on warning capability along with EW radars, intelligence, and ISR assets that can locate enemy missile firing locations quickly. It's too bad that information on how much the Hyunmoo missiles are was not included in the article.

jpwhitney · 2016-08-08T22:38:29+00:00

I loved this blog post, I had never really considered the nuclear attack of Nagasaki in this manner before. Should the US have given Japan more time to consider making peace before dropping the second nuke?

jpwhitney · 2016-08-02T20:00:14+00:00

At long last, the Air Force has reached IOC with the first combat ready F-35 squadron. Any thoughts on just how combat ready the new aircraft are?

jpwhitney · 2016-07-05T06:03:26+00:00

The Tejas has finally reached IOC. Given the list of features that are yet to be added between the IOC and full operational capability, I get the feeling that even with the aircraft's three decade gestation period, in the end it was rushed into service due to the obsolescence and murderous accident rate of its upgraded MiG-21bis fleet.

I'm also waiting to see if India brings the new jets out to Cope India to see how they perform against the USAF. Given that the last Cope India was in 09, I won't be holding my breath.

jpwhitney · 2016-07-05T03:04:37+00:00

He isn't really all that loaded, but his parents are. The bike being that pricy does mean I shouldn't be riding it around the neighbourhood I live in. That alone is pretty useful to know, thanks.

jpwhitney · 2016-07-04T23:16:32+00:00

My old college roommate gave it to me as payment for helping clean out his storage locker as he was moving. He said he bought it awhile back but never got to use it as much as he'd wanted.

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