Typhoid

yabut since the Ayatollahs shot anyone who knew how to operate the fields decades ago, they don't actually get a lot of production. They essentially export what oil they can now in order to pay for the refined gasoline they can't produce themselves. A very, very vulnerable setup........

the problem with the XM-8 boiled down to $$$$ for the delivered capabilty. At 10K per rifle, it was simply too expensive to buy and equip. They came up with variations for awhile that basically involved a family of components being issued to the various members of a squad with only 2 full up OICW's and everyone else carrying a carbine version that essentially was the same as the current M-4. At that point....... SOCOM is playing around with some ideas for a new rifle and the Army and Marines have gone back to the drawing board. The problem is to balance something modern, affordable in vast numbers and is better than the current rifles. That is a tough act. Having said that, new calibers are being played with and old M-14's have been put back in service in some of the Marine brigades to provide some extra power downrange. I've seen some different stuff tried out with a 6.4 (I think) caliber tried out in a special SOCOM experiment. Haven't heard the result but did hear some counter arguments on how effective it was expected to be. at any rate, there is a lot of effort going on right now to field a better family of weapons for our troops. At the same time, most of the other major countries in the world are fielding new rifles and MGs which for the most part are incremental improvements of their previous arms. We have to, the current family of M-16s is just that and the M-4 is very popular in the field. But we do need something better than the .223 with more reliability than the M-16 and M-4. but for cheap.......

that and the fact that his daddy was an Admiral might have had something to do with it.....

a lot of what comes out of Iran is "highly fictionalized". They probably are negotiating something with a top end number around that, what actually gets put on contract will be a lot less. There isn't all that much oil being pumped out of the Iranian oil fields to fund that much fighter acquistion.

awesome.......

what brand are you smoking? I'm not sure of the source but the following is an interesting analysis and underscores why this aircraft is needed rather than reworked, old F-15C's. --------------------------------------------------------- A pilots' analysis of dog fighting an F-22. Sprey said his briefing focused on the time-tested factors that define an effective fighter plane: (1) See the enemy first; (2) outnumber the enemy; (3) outmaneuver the enemy to fire, and (4) kill the enemy quickly. Having spent two weeks fighting two raptors against 6-8 of our latest technology F-15Cs with datalink, AIM-9X, helmet mounted cueing system and the latest radar software, we 1) ... never acquired the raptor with our radars before our eyes. We occasionally saw it in the cons at 60+K, but by that time we were already dead. 2) ... outnumbered the raptors 3-1 or 4-1, and never even got a valid shot off on one. 3) ... found the only BFM setup even worth attempting against a raptor is a 6K offensive setup, and you're just trying to keep from going defensive. If you're at 3K approaching a gun wez, he will stop so fast you can't help but overshoot. If you're at 9K offensive, he turns around and shoots you before you get to his turn circle. No need to even talk about when he starts offensive. 4) ... knowing the above info, killing the raptor quickly wasn't an option, we couldn't kill even one! I was convinced. We were even fighting some of the initial lots of airplanes, before their data links were working correctly and they had older software. I haven't fought the newer lots flown at Tyndall or Langley, but I can assure you they are even more lethal. Sortie rates are on the rise, software stability is on the rise. All I can say to the critics is in 20 years when this airplane goes to war it will still dominate, just like the Eagle did when we employed it 18 years after fielding! - Leo

LCDR is an O-4. Based on his demonstrated headwork (lack thereof) those of us on the fleet staff were astonished that he had made it that far. He was gone in very short order.

will the new Flanker models have Iranian skins to go with them? http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...icle%2FShowFull

I don't mind shelling out for the occasional good mod. These things are absolutely fantastic!

cool! Did you add the carrier to the terrain and then into the campaign file?

The F-14 shootdown of an RF-4C is absolutely true, but I recall it being in 1989 or 90. It happened as stated above during an exercise when the F-14 pilot (LCDR), IN AN EXERCISE, took the calls for real and let loose. Everything worked perfectlly; the missile, the warhead, the ejection seats, the parachutes, the SAR...... on the 6th Fleet staff we got the report (I was on the staff, in the meeting but thankfully missed that event!) and the VADM who was always level, never swore, never lost his temper - asked "Is the E#!@$#^% dead yet?" defineately a career ender. He was off the carrier before we were ever briefed and had his wings pulled and told to "seek another line of work". Things were rather "tense" between the 6th Fleet Staff and the 16AF staff in Torrejon for awhile.

yup, same place and I've had the same thing happen. Flew a CAP with some of the new Mig29 mods to check them out, and had Mirages, IDF and Swedish Viggens coming in...... ah well........

Welcome Aboard

also the F-6 that you can get with the Taiwan scenario

we'll send in a wave of P-3's first to clear them out of the way......

I've never got those to work either. Does anyone have one fully functional that they could upload?

the sim can get confused and get multi-era planes together. which is why it makes sense to make era specific loads. Before I learned how to do that, I loaded up the latest Mig-25 for a fighter sweep over Alaska, and lost my wingman to an F-4. As in Wildcat....... so it certainly can be done. if a plane has a date that is outside of the dates in the options.ini file, it seems to put a blank date and bring it in whenever. If you open up the options.ini file dates to include all eras, then the planes will only show up in the era that they have entered in their aircraftdata.ini files.

awesome. Thanks.

great SG1 stuff, is that in another sim? or maybe they can be uploaded for a real far out WoE load?

all I can tell you is that when I sat in the real cockpit in the real Mig-23, I could not see very well forward.

I believe it does. I saw them come up on one of the mods not too long ago. either the SU-17 mod by someone to bring it up to an Su-17b4 level or on the Mig-29S model that's out there somewhere.

will that be in the Wings over the Gate edition?

Here are some new interesting modelling opportunities! Should make some interesting effects pack mods! "NGC Begins Work to Equip B-2 Bomber with Massive Penetrator Weapon (Palmdale, Calif., July 19, 2007) -- The U.S. Air Force's B-2 stealth bomber would be able to attack and destroy an expanded set of hardened, deeply buried military targets using a new 30,000 pound-class penetrator weapon that Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) has begun integrating on the aircraft. The company is doing the work under a seven-month, $2.5 million contract awarded June 1 by the Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio. Northrop Grumman is the Air Force's prime contractor on the B-2, the flagship of the nation's long-range strike arsenal. The new Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), which is being developed by The Boeing Company, is a GPS-guided weapon containing more than 5,300 pounds of conventional explosives inside a 20.5-foot long enclosure of hardened steel. It is designed to penetrate dirt, rock and reinforced concrete to reach enemy bunker or tunnel installations. The B-2 is capable of carrying two MOPs, one in each weapons bay. "This integration contract is part of Northrop Grumman's on-going effort to ensure that the B-2 remains capable of delivering a decisive blow to an increasingly sophisticated enemy," said Dave Mazur, vice president of long-range strike for the company's Integrated Systems sector. "It is the first step in helping the Air Force make this new weapon available for operational use on the B-2." According to Mazur, the Air Force is expected to make a decision later this year on whether to develop a limited operational capability for the MOP, or to proceed with a more comprehensive development program that would optimize the weapon's operational utility. The current contract will focus on adapting the B-2's weapon bay fixtures to accommodate the new weapon. The B-2 is currently equipped to carry up to 40,000 pounds of conventional ordnance. It can be configured, for example, to carry up to 80 500-lb class GPS-guided bombs or 36 750-lb class bombs in its smart bomb rack assembly, or up to 16 2,000-lb class weapons in its rotary launch assembly. Source : Northrop Grumman Corporation For more information on Northrop Grumman Corporation visit their Company Profile on ASDSource."

Nuclear hand grenades were reserved for limited export to "selected customers"........