Typhoid

you would be surprised. An outstanding (ly bad) example is the USAF Maj who (used to) fly F-22's and posted all kinds of very interesting details on it on a web blog somewhere. briefly..... One of the guys I work with actually used to be that guy's wing commander. He had some "choice" comments about that idiot! point being that people can be stupid and put stuff up that has no reason to be here and should not be up here. And yes, there are some very savy and very bad actors out there who data mine everywhere. You would be surprised to see just how quickly Google will pick up blog comments from places just like this and, in fact, have picked up posts from this very site.

"I got a corsair license over here to fight pirates." really? That would be an awesome license to frame in my business office!

Eraser, there is your answer on the rifles. Poland is making their own AK variants chambered for the 5.56 NATO cartridge. herman01, thanks. I hadn't realized the 101 and 102 were also chambered for the NATO round. No wonder Chavez is buying so many of those....... "There is also a huge diffrence between the russian .30 cal round which is 7.62 x 39 and the NATO one which is 7.62 x 54 and also known as the 308 in domestic firearms." yep. I have rifles chambered for each of those and I can assure anyone that the ammo for one does NOT work in the other!!

awesome! seriously, I am surprised that some of the shipping companies haven't banded together and hired some group. Maybe they have...........

hmmm........ intriguing idea. Maybe an independent group without legal constraints and discreetely funded..... like mercenarie$.......... I see a Wings over Pirates variation of SFP1 coming......... Real Artillery is 16"

we do, in fact, have one of those on station as part of this operation.

you are absolutely right. The problem of piracy would be over in about 24 hours if the forces currently on station were allowed to fix the problem. But none of the countries with those forces presently deployed have the political will to do so, nor are any of those countries likely to grow a pair in the foreseeable future. I love it!

HA!, like anyone gets everything right! at any rate, the F-14A+ that is uploaded at this site does have the basic air to ground bomb capabilty already included. no editing required. http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...p;showfile=3924

"Obviously it's also f***ing annoying having a high pitched squeal go off every few seconds (you can hear these things throughout a ship when it's active even on the upper deck) and I'm fairly sure it's louder than what the whales normally produce. " you've got that right!!!!!! (actually the file doesn't sound anything like it - but what the heck....) now, what the fuss was about is the new, low frequency active sonar with high power out, which is quite a bit different than what we've used in the past. But the key point is your statement; "However I'm not aware of any research that indicates the whales suffer any permanent damage from the actual sonar itself." nothing but speculation and theories without any actual scientific research based on evidence. Of course, the 9th Circus ruled for the environmentalist-whacko-nutfruitcakes, but now the Supreme Court has (finally) got it right.

having ridden Iowa for a several months in the Med, way overkill for small boats! A superb warship but now a niche platform for a very narrow mission set. Within that mission set, there is nothing that can match what the Battleship can do and at the lowest cost as well. Simply awesome to watch Real Artillery in action!! But outside of that mission set, the BB is not cost effective. Way too high a personel cost, fuel cost and maintenance upkeep. To suppress piracy, we need lots of Frigates and Destroyers with helicopter gunships, airborne surveillance and quick reaction light combat capabilities. now. Whenever we grow a pair and decide to start dismantling the shore sites where the pirates are based, the BB would again be awesome. That's her niche. Coupled with UAV targetting the BB guns can dismantle in very short order anything at all with aircraft going further inland beyond the range of the Real Artillery. But not likely we will ever get there........ oh, and unless there has been a significant upgrade that I'm not aware of (quite possible given how long I've been out of the fleet) the CIWS does not have a mode to engage small boats. That's why the USN, and everyone else as well, has installed 50cal. There was an effort to mount the same chain gun in the Bradley onto our combattants but I don't know where that ended up. Real Artillery is 16"

all very true which makes life "fun" for the poor CO and his Task Force Commander............. (who was it who said, in reference to a new government, first hang all the lawyers?)

yup. similar thing happens to engines in the carrier environment as the comment above about chopping ones throttle and having the fan quit. "Retarding the throttle to idle" is not the same thing as ham-handing the throttles around and inducing a flame out and/or compressor stall. short sea story of an E-2 pilot doing initial Carrier Qual (CQ) and ham-handing the throttles around. the IP "counseled" the student several times about judicious movement of the throttles but without success in getting his full attention. Then on a touch and go (or what the pale blue suit guys accuse us of "crash and dash") the student rammed the throttles from full idle to full go on touch down and promptly induced a dual engine compressor stall while rocketing down the angle........ lots of excitement in the cockpit and tower.......... the IP got one of them restarted as they went off the angle and they didn't get too damp from the sea spray as they bottomed out on one fan. Their flightsuits were a little damp and sticky though........ end of instructional flight......... similar happened to me with a student in a general aviation doing a practice precautionary approach. On the go around he jammed it forward and it quit. I just gently brought it back and then back up and away we went. Point being that in the real world, jamming the throttles around can result in a bit of sweat in the cockpit at inconvenient moments.

well........................ not exactly. Remember that pirates are not exactly flying a state flag, and are therefore not afforded those rights of protection under such a flag. They are, quite bluntly, fair game. They are particularly fair game if caught in the act of attempted piracy. It depends on what the ROE in the area is in force. There are now, I think, 4 task forces or groups of warships patrolling the area operating under several different organizational authorities, and each warship also operates under its own national authority and ROE. a very confusing situation to say the least. But all one country has to do is declare the area a combat zone for piracy ops much like a "Maritime Exclusion Zone" in a developing conflict. Then the Navy of that nation will have full legal authority to engage on sight any vessel not flying a recognized flag or engaged in any operation that suggests piracy or attempted piracy. And one should remember that under international law, combattants captured out of any recognized uniform are not afforded any rights under the Geneva Convention. To put it bluntly, under international laws of the sea, they can in fact be shot on sight and if captured, hung from the yardarm without trial. Now, no country is willing (yet) to go to those measures. But international law regarding piracy on the high seas is quite extensive and permissive for any country with the intestinal fortitude and will to go to the measures needed to stamp out this vile cancer. To really stop the piracy cold, however, is even more simple. The target ships themselves merely have to shoot back in self defense and knock off a couple of these groups and that cost of doing business will make it very unpalatable for the pirates. The North Koreans did something like that not to long ago when one of their ships was captured. The crew waited until, coincidentally a USN FFG was close aboard tracking the ship, and then they stormed and retook their ship with a little assist from the USN FFG light machine guns. We then provided some medical assistance to the NK crew and patched up one of the surviving pirates being held by said NK crew, who declined to turn their prisoners over to us. Reportedly, they turned over what was left of them to the authorities at their next port of call.......... A few more like that and there will be no more piracy. (and you won't find me, of all people, providing such a favorable comment on the actions of NK's!!)

Outstanding!! Great Job!!

eh, not quite. the AK 7.62 round is not the same as the 7.62 NATO round and the latter cannot be fired from the AK or SKS. I also rather doubt the 5.45 AKM can fire our 5.56 cartridge. I have not heard of that being the case and does not seem likely that our slightly larger cartridge would chamber at all. "The real issue in NATO is funding. Who is going to chip in the $$ for the toys for the boys." AMEN!!!!

cool. I've got a modded F-14A+ that has the bomb capability. But the documentation on when that was implemented is a little contradictory (always there or in '95)

that makes Task Force 150 under NATO plus a task force from the EU and the Russian FFG all patroling down there. Might need warship traffic control....... and every nation has a different ROE.... we have sufficient forces there on station to clean out those nests of pirates. Whether we (all countries) have the political will remains doubtful.

I don't know the specific model designation, no. It is the Ground Based Interceptor (GBI) built, I think, by Boeing. http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app4/gbi.html

cool place FC. Now I know who I'm dropping in on during the summer in years to come. and roger the step away from the computer. I ensure that I keep that as a purely secondary pursuit in life and tool to do things with.

sounds very cool, my friend. I'm envious. I'll let someone else respond on the details of the Greece military, I'm not sure where they are right now. We are installing Anti-Ballistic Missiles in Poland to counter the Iranian regional IRBM threat to Europe in the near term and the potential Iranian ICBM threat to North America in the longer term. Read that carefully, these are ABM's which are defensive systems only. In order to make them effective, they need a target engagement radar on the threat axis, which is the proposed radar site in the Czech Republic. As a counter to our potential deployment of defensive ABM's, the Russians are threatening to deploy a force of offensive SS-26 Iskander SRBM's (one of the types used against Georgian targets) which can be either conventionally armed or nuclear. Hope that helps. (No politics in the above, just a statement of where things stand at present).

Nice recovery..........

ditto I like that much better

if you'll notice, I acknowledged as such a few lines up.

I think that will be a very, very large group!!