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80th Anniversary of VE Day today. Let us not forget the greatest generation.

In an era of shifting geopolitical dynamics, the United States sought to withdraw from it's role as the world's policeman and it's President saw the opportunity for the ultimate defence deal - leasing Nimitz-class aircraft carriers and selling the accompanying aircraft to certain friendly countries. The increase in US defence spending and a ramping up of Ford class carrier production ('the Admirals have a name picked out for the next carrier. It's a beautiful name, the best, but I can't tell you what it is') enabled the US to prematurely release some of the earlier Nimitz-class carriers from front-line duties, and while such a move would be unprecedented, it would serve both the US and the recipient nations' interests in maintaining regional stability whilst reducing America's spend on defending others, and offset the trade deficit between the US and countries it had accused of 'ripping them off' by selling more to America than America had sold to them. Japan was the first recipient. Previously constrained by constitutional limitations on offensive military capabilities, the country had gradually expanded its defense posture in response to growing threats from China and North Korea. Leasing a Nimitz-class carrier would significantly enhance Japan’s ability to project power and defend its territorial integrity, particularly around the East China Sea and Taiwan Strait, as well as to protect it's trade routes through the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. For the U.S., leasing a carrier could strengthen the alliance, share the burden of maintaining maritime security, and enable a more distributed force posture without requiring permanent overseas American carrier basing. The carriers would retain the CVN-xx designation, and could be recalled to US Navy service if necessary, allowing the U.S. to retain strategic influence over the assets, although the recipient naton was allowed to choose to rename the vessel. Along with the lease of the carrier came the purchase of aircraft. JASDF F-15 units were re-equipped with various versions of the F/A-18 Superhornet, F-35A orders were switched to the navalised F-35C variant, and additional E-2 Hawkeyes were purchased, as crews from both the carrier and it's air wing were sent to the appropriate US Navy schools to learn new skills and US Navy personnel were seconded as advisers for at least the first deployment. By early 2027 CVN-70, formerly USS Carl Vinson, set off on it's first deployment as JS Akagi, a historic name chosen in honour of the earlier carrier that had been flagship of the 1st Air Fleet, the Kido Butai. That first cruise set the template for most future deployments, beginning with a 3 week shakedown in the Kuril Islands, including intercepts of snooping Russian Bears and other aircraft types, followed by a power projection transit through the South China Sea, including exercises with friendly nations' navies. Exiting via the Straits of Malacca into the Indian Ocean, further exercises were held with the Indian Navy while real-world ASW and air intercept sorties by the air wing kept prying Pakistani (and their Chinese allies') assets at arm's length, before Akagi took up station for around six months in the Arabian Sea. Forays into both the Straits of Hormuz and the Red Sea would feature in all cruises by the Akagi and it's battle group, and the air wing would fly many combat missions, hitting targets in the air, on land and at sea as needed. Relief on station would be by either a US carrier, or more frequently a former US carrier, and Akagi would return home, again making it's presence felt in the South China Sea, for rest and refit before the next deployment.

A german carrier and some german Typhoons I think the Royal Navy would go mad!

Here is updated F-4S Phantom II (TMF) with new avoincs overhaul / textures. TMF F-4S Phantom II.7z NOTE: This files are desigend to work with TMF F-4S, please get TMF F-4S first, then install it on top of it. There are two types of cockpit textures, choose one from either folders (_COCKPIT - TEXTURE or _COCKPIT - TW STYLE) I hope this helps you with the roll tab issues. Eagle114th

I like my Doritos with a little extra kick......

dont give a certain president this ideas , he may want to make that deal nice idea , maybe one carrier for the German Navy with Navy Thypoon`s

slightly more serious but still funny... a few of the bootleg DVDs i bougth in Iraq actually had a "tour the factory" bit in the extras. and yes, it did show smiling workers opening legit DVDs and loading them in one machine, hooked up to 20 others with presumable blanks. was somewhere in the Philippines; not surprising as the Philippinoes working on Balad AB were the best source for bootleg anything without leaving the wire

Awesome stuff man!!! For a phone camera, they look fine to me!!!

I was thinking ‘Rostock’ as most modern German warships are named after places and that’s where the navy headquarters is located.

Yes, we need to remind everyone how important our veterans are.

from the Seymour Johnson AFB airshow this yea r today i learned that CAP names their planes T-33 flying demo a few shots from the 4th FW firepower demo and the reason i still went even when everyone else in the family bowed out...... THE HOG!!! not the greatest shots, all taken from my phone camera. but i thought you guys might enjoy they got themselves a new title..........

Why not "Graf Zepplinn" ??? An aerial pioneer (and yes, I know the context for the unfinished KMS boat)

A Taiwanese F-103 mod would be cool! Mandatory screen, a Early J-7I over Formosa (cannot be more what if than that )

Ah Yes, I solved this issues with F-4S, it is a bit tricky. First, do not use COCKPIT.ini for roll tabs, rather use HUD method. Here is my cockpit.ini codes for optical sigh for F-4S: NOTE: for SOS - MAIN - BLANK.TGA, I use empty texture with ful alpha. And here is HUD codes in avionics .ini: I sue [HUD_BANKINDICATOR] for roll tab, and what makes it work is these codes: HorizontalAlignment=CENTER VerticalAlignment=CENTER This forces roll bar to stay at the center of HUD, right where the fixed sight is. For fixed sight I created [HUD_GUNSIGHT]. This way the fixed sight with roll tab staying with it while leading sight are free from it. Eagle114th

I like it ... even a 'historic" foray into the Indian Ocean. Did they make a port call at Trincomalee ?

the hard part about using the lego style, is getting them to follow the "streets". especially when there's curved ones. For example, look at the massive building blocks on many maps (India/Pak, one of the Euro ones, other I can't remember). They're a nightmare to work with when trying to add 'targetable' items. Below is not the worst, but couldn't find the one with the nicely colored buildings

i could complain that the sale of capital ships is forbidden under US law. but i could see the current Congress passing an exemption or overturning it. the catch would then be to get the assests in Japan's hands before 2027, when the presumably Democrat led Congress takes over and starts fighting POTUS tooth and nail....

Sitrep: Only one sea to city tiles still has to be done. That's how it looks at the moment: I was experimenting with TOD houses. It would be nice if i could put as many small houses as necessary on the map. But this would overload the game engine and only 500 per tile would appear in game. So i thought, that i could place only bigger houses, as shopping centers and skyscrapers. But skyscrapers should be visible from far distances and should not disappear from 10 km or so. So i think i will make the skyscrapers as normal target objects in a seperate target area. But for the inner city with the skyscrapers i still must create a new tile. It is still a long way.

Doing some tests I often deal with F-103 intercepts. They're tough opponents but when I manage to reach their six it's impossible to let them go. It's a J-4/F-4 Fresco-A without afterburner, this F-103 really let me caught him up. To activate the F-103 periscope, in the data.ini file : [Fuselage] ... SystemName[xxx]=Periscope (replace xxx by next number in sequence) & [Periscope] SystemType=HIGHLIFT_DEVICE CLiftdc=0.0 CDdc=0.002 Cmdc=0.00 DeltaStallAlpha=0.0 AreaRatio=1.000 DeploymentMethod=AUTOMATIC_MACH Setting[1].Angle=8.62 Setting[1].DeployValue=0.85 Setting[1].RetractValue=0.86 MaxDeflection=8.62 MinDeflection=0.0 ControlRate=0.5 RotationAxis=X-AXIS ModelNodeName=PeriscopeCover ReverseModelOrientation=TRUE

South Himalayas

Very nice!

Force de dissuasion

thanks my friend i´m searching for years now on this laser pod especially the dimensions , but i cant find anything that would help me i found this picture from a A-6 showing the Pave Knife lock on , no idea how the track would loock like , mabe only the cross hair without the large white box