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8 years ago @ Defense Tech - F-35B Leaps off Ski Ju... · 4 replies · +3 points

How are you going to launch Super Hornets without cats and traps? Are Super Hornets stealthy? What is more expensive, one F-35 or two craters that used to be F-18s before they got shot down?

8 years ago @ Defense Tech - F-35B Leaps off Ski Ju... · 1 reply · +6 points

Yeah, finally just did something the Harrier can do. Only stealthy, supersonic, longer ranged, with off-axis targeting.

9 years ago @ Kit Up! - Army Chief Adds to Con... · 0 replies · +8 points

You know, as long as the guys in the field get camo that actually works, I'm good. It should have happened years ago and I roll my eyes at the wasted time and money, but whatever.

9 years ago @ Defense Tech - A Tale of Two Gatling ... · 5 replies · +20 points

If you're flying a $50M stealth aircraft within gun range of the bad guys on the ground, you're doing it wrong.

9 years ago @ Defense Tech - Navy Tests New Vehicle... · 1 reply · +2 points

Unfortunately all the countermeasures you propose would be fabulously expensive (random spiral trajectory? Plasma shields?) or simply wouldn't work (reflective materials). People need to realize that a 10kW laser isn't a flashlight that can be stopped with a bathroom mirror. Even smoke isn't going to be very effective--that much laser should burn through smoke particles pretty efficiently.

Lasers are perfect for AA and point defense which is why the DoD is pushing at least two such systems right now. Unlike a kinetic round, a laser reaches its target instantly, is not affected by gravity or wind, and can use any source of electricity for ammunition. The current downside is a total lack of penetration that makes them useful only against fragile (UAVs) or volatile (incoming explosives) targets.

Against those targets, however, it doesn't take that much power to be effective. Consider that you can mission kill an airliner (and put yourself in jail) with a handheld laser pointer. 10kW of that is going to fuck up every sensor on a UAV almost instantly. You don't even have to shoot it down.

9 years ago @ Defense Tech - Four Russian Surface-t... · 2 replies · +4 points

Yes, but who would pull the trigger? Not the Ukraine military; the separatists have no aircraft and Russia is (probably) not flying air support any more. Unlikely that it'd be the Russians, who would at least have the sense to check the target's transponder code.

That leaves the separatists, who are known to have captured a Buk missile system a week or so ago and have been happily shooting down planes ever since. Problem is they had to have had help--a multi-vehicle SAM battery is not like operating an iPhone.

9 years ago @ Kit Up! - Army Taps Scorpion to ... · 0 replies · +10 points

This is how government R&D supports private enterprise. If the Army stopped Crye from reselling modified Scorpion people would scream bloody murder about Big Government quashing small businesses. Instead the Army helped foot the startup R&D costs for a very successful company. I know I'm glad MultiCam existed during the last couple of land wars in Asia, even if the Army was too dim to realize what they had.

10 years ago @ Defense Tech - Hagel Moves to Kill Co... · 0 replies · +3 points

Dude, we haven't flown F-111s for sixteen years.

10 years ago @ Kit Up! - Russia Upgrades Soldie... · 0 replies · +10 points

They've outsourced the copying of our tech to the Chinese.

10 years ago @ Defense Tech - Cyber is Likely Winner... · 0 replies · +1 points

Not an excuse, I'm afraid. There is no reason the HVAC systems should have been able to reach customer credit card data. There's also no reason for Target to not have had data loss prevention systems in place.

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