JediMaster

That one shot of the Lightning has a Badger in it...did TW ever have a Tu-16 before? I thought we only had 3rd party ones.

No one can claim the Hip isn't rugged.

Well, if there are 2 that they share 1 of each could get the national-type name. As for the actual sharing, though, that's only good for peacetime training and exercises and such. In the time of a real emergency that theoretically threatens both of them, unless there are an equal number to be split it will get messy.

More likely the answer is the engine was too cool for the older model seekers to lock on to. Speed has nothing to do with a lock on.

So it's sat there for 17 years? Methinks there will be some heavy maintenance needed to make it fly again.

No, they have plenty of airspace where no one would see. Back then there were areas you could see the runway from, but judging by the low sun angles in some shots, I'm guessing this was an early morning flight. They probably took off just before sunrise, then on landing taxi'd fast to the hangar. I wonder why they took so long to show this as it's nothing more than a plane we've seen for over 20 years flying with its gear (mostly) down. The only difference is the paint scheme. I'd like to see more of the prototype with the tail fins the other way.

Italian and Japanese AWACS and tankers are 767s. Wedgetail and Peace Eagle are 737s.

That was an Earth Forces Destroyer and a bunch of fighters from Babylon 5 at the end!

Considering I was playing FPS games before gamepads were invented or they were on consoles, it feels perfectly natural to me! I just don't see how you can aim properly without aim assist (which is unnecessary with a mouse). The entire range of motion on a gamepad is represented by a thumbstick with a fixed range of motion of less than 1". You can move a mouse as much or as little as you want and adjust the sensitivity on the fly. While I admit the left stick is a little easier than WASD on a keyboard, as soon as I start hitting the other keys (like running and jumping at the same time) the gamepad becomes more "thinking" about it while on the kb I just do it.

Of course, the reports that the UK will be buying F-35Cs now instead of F-35Bs would also moot the catapult question.

Arma2 does have UH-1Y and AH-1Z. I also haven't spent much time with the planes, but I like the helos. In fact, there's that AH-64 campaign that came out with the 1.05 patch I've yet to try. Oh, if you want to fly Cobras and Apaches in a more sim-like environment, try EECH with the latest mods from arneh. EECH is on gog.com I think pretty cheap, and the mods add a TON of stuff.

What are the cost/benefit stats for regular vs extra jihad?

I didn't even know that existed. I also see the Momo seems to be going out of production.

There is an adjustment period. I love it for flight sims, but I've still not gotten used to it for racing or Arma (both of which support it). My laps are too easily messed up with it on in Race and in Arma I wind up having problems looking down the sight if my head isn't just right. For sims like Black Shark, Il-2, SF2, FE2...it's a necessity!

No mouse/kb support for Xbox, no. It has been proven to many people's satisfaction that people using them will beat the gamepad players every time from playing cross-platform titles like Shadowgrounds. That's why I don't have any FPS games like CoD for my 360, just 3rd person stuff, racing (with my wheel), and flying...although I admit I find flying with the gamepad hard.

The Tigers are old and do need to be retired. Whether they actually need more planes to replace them is a different argument. The Swiss Air Force is hardly busy operationally, so I'd dare say their Hornet fleet is sufficient.

The upgraded Rafale engines are in development, but the lack of French military interest combined with the dearth of export sales has put it on a slow development track. However, that further hurts export prospects as whoever decides to buy the plane with that engine in effect becomes the launch customer and then has to deal with all those headaches that normally the developing country would work out first like reliability, performance, and availability.

Kazakh didn't buy them, they inherited them. When the USSR broke up they were stationed there, and like most of the former Soviet republics they kept them. Some sold their planes on the market, some sold them back to Russia, but some like the Ukraine and Kazakhstan merely made them into their own air force. The sticking point is maintenance. As long as Russia provided spares support at reasonable pricing they could keep using them. My feeling is that they did because of the importance of Baikonaur and the KAF has had no problems keeping their planes running well. When the new facility, on Russian soil, is finally finished and the agreement with Kazakhstan over using Baikonaur expires, the dynamic might change. Right now, Russia is "over a barrel" with Baikonaur and has to do almost whatever Kazakh wants that isn't unreasonable, a situation I'm sure they're eager to change ASAP.

Sweet!

No, but I've had my Momo for years now and have no trouble with it. Well, occasionally I have to disassemble the pedals and reseat the throttle pot to stop spiking, but that's it. I admit I'm disappointed there's no options in the "nicer" category. The Momo is just under $100, but the G27 is over 2.5x more. Where's the one that comes in between $150-200? I might go for that. As for buttons, I rarely need all the ones the Momo has anyway.

Wow, the humps on the SMT give it an almost Flanker-like profile.

Actually, I can think of two states that applies to: Texas and California. Neither are the USA, they're just what they are!

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