SayethWhaaaa

Hmmm... Damned time zone differences! I must have missed you. I was on on the regular times to see if anyone was there (night time EST) but there were only these damned "*=TEF=*" clan punks who kept booting me off... if anyone see these guys, give 'em a hot 40mm one for me!

Happy Birthday! So how many more birthdays until you hit that "grumpy ol' bastard" age bracket?

Hey, Happy Bday leatherneck! Oorah baby!

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23401053-23109,00.html ...which totally sucks for us! Happy trails champ!

Uh... what European STOVL fighters? Harrier's no longer in production. I find the idea of the RAN operating the Kitty kinda funny in that they'd have to increase the overall size of the Navy itself by about 20% and that'd be just for one ship! You're right though Pig, the time of the RAN Carrier has long since passed. Shame, would have been nice to at least have something like the Invincible... :cray:

We couldn't afford to operate the sucker...

We here at CA always wish our members well and wish them happy birthdays out of genuine compassion and not out of fear of incidents such as this: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23290522-29277,00.html Uh... so Happy birthday to anyone who's got a birthday today...

That's prolly why you aren't in Naval acquisitions. It's a good platform, large, relatively fast, copeous space in the hanger bays and more importantly, built. True, it won't be (technically speaking) as good as a newbuild ship, but it seemed like a bargain at the time. I mean the sale of a carrier, to be rebuilt, refitted and modernised and all you had to pay for were the fighters you intended to use onboard... what more could you want?? At the time it was a buyer's market. But now Russia's realising that maybe the 'sweetener' for the Mig-29Ks was a little too sweet. And you know how touchy they've been about being exploited since the end of the USSR. Anyways, I got the impression that the Gorky was just a stop gap until the Vikrant class ships come online. These will be more advanced and more importantly, tailored specifically to India's needs, not augmented from something else.

What about Australian: 'Wings Over Toowoomba' 'Wings Over Coodamungra' 'Wing Over Wooloomaloo' hehe WOW... Not the nerdy kind either! or for the Kiwis: 'Wings Over Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu' ...or we can just call it Wot?! for short. I'd personally like to see a Wings Over Tamworth so as we could bomb Australian country music back to the hell from which it spawned! In all seriousness, I heard Wings Over Cuba before... was this someone yanking my chain or is this a potential TK dev? What about South America? I'd love to see a production involving Brazil/Peru/Chile and/or Argentina (Falklands mods/campaigns notwithstanding.)

Only problem with the Chakri Naruebet is that it's even smaller than the Spanish and Italian carriers. Here's a shot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:HTMS_Chakri_Naruebet.jpg Hey Ghost, sounds like you guys are on the verge of getting screwed. Are they making the navy pay for the rust too? When are the Vikrants coming online? Weren't they supposed to be before the Gork?

Just curious dude, but have you noticed that the default SF terrains kinda looks like the outer metro areas of Radelaide, the Hills notwithstanding??

I just loved how the pilot threw away a state of the art plane in dubious circumstances... at least I would have been if I wasn't thinking naughty thoughts about Maggie Q!

Heh, I was going to ask if he'd had the chicken or the fish too but... That really sucks! Maybe DVT??

It's also got something to do with construction too. I know that by having the struts inside the wing built in a zigzag method can have an effect on the return signature. the Zigzag method is supposed to help deflect the return away from the aircraft but not toward the radar in a similar fashion to the way the F-117 is able to scatter radar beams/pulses, whatever you want to call them. The intakes are apparantly built out of composites and have a high percentage of their surface coated in or built with radar absorbing materials. This is supposedly the standard set in the early naughties (around 2002) with Russian, Indian and other Su-27/30s but I have seen too many sourced materials about this. India is definitely doing it though. I'm a bit confused with the designation Su-35 though. Is this the new Su-35 without canards? Because the first gen Su-35 has been flying since in VVS service for almost ten(?) years now, albeit, in very, very limited numbers.

What?! The "You're fired!" scene?? Ridiculous?? Say it ain't so... I love how in movies like this, they'll fire missiles, miss and instead of using the rest of their missiles, they decide "No... I have to get closer. It needs to be more personal!" Hehe. Kind of like in Stealth how they're flying in ULTRA close formation as though it was normal for Mach 4+ superstealth planes. Were they huddling up to keep warm??

Yep, I saw a couple recently here (sometime in the past month) but I can't quite remember who they are. I'll get a scan or some other kind of copy of the OoB for the main players of the Australasian region. Say nations like Oz, NZ, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and PNG? Only problem I could think of is that during that period (and I'm a total bloody trainspotter for knowing this, please don't hold it against me! ) is that the RAAF had a major advantage over the aircraft of neighbouring air forces in that most nations were either using the CA.27 Sabre (Indonesia & Malaysia) or A-4 Skyhawks (Singapore and NZ) which were a generation less advanced than the RAAF's Mirage IIIOs. I think the TUDM(Malaysian AF) had only just brought their first F-5E sqn online and the Indonesians had big troubles with keeping their Soviet supplied equipment (Mig-15/17/21s and Tu-16s) in the air for lack of support/spares. Other than that, on paper it'd make for some good fighting...

If you're doing one set in the 70s, I have an order of battle for the region accurate up until 1975. Otherwise, I'll have to do some digging, but I might have one accurate up until 1989...

Why not a campaign between Oz and New Zealand. I mean, they (the Kiwis) had been begging to get their arses whooped for a long time now! What with their beautiful landscapes, pure white snow, funny accents, different belief systems and weak dollar!! THOSE BASTARDS!!! GRRRRRR!!!!!!!

More importantly, what are your settings with regards to flight model and landings? Easy? Normal? Hard? I know it sounds like a dumb question, but it's gotta be asked...

Makes me wonder why nobody got them! I'd heard Pakistan had been offered them in the early 80s... I dig the skins! I dig the Indonesian sk!!

That kinda sucks...

...don't mean to sound all patronising (if I do, by all means slap me upside the head! ) but in capable hands, emphasis on capable, the Sukhois ARE that good! Any AF with highly trained air crews and a full support infrastructure, I'm talking AWACS, ATA refueling, EW support - the works, who're flying Sukhois have the sharpest non stealth teeth on the planet. Just watch how the IAF have been applying them! BTW, I mean current or next gen Su-30/35s, not Su-27s etc. Okay, they're not stealthy, but neither is the F-15 and that plane has proven indomitable with comprehensive training and support infrastructure. I should apologise, I've been ragging on the SuperBug when really I shouldn't. It IS a capable plane, but it's optimised to the way the USN has required a multirole platform over the last 20 years. And this is it's major export problem. It's a jack of all trades, but master of none. It's got a decent carriage of weapons, a nice precision strike capability, good range, capable air to air ability, reasonably long legs, uses advanced technology and refinements... but compare it from category to category and it can be bested by another aircraft every time. The F-15C or Su-27/30 can better it's air to air capability for example, the Su-34/F-15E can better it's strike capability. Both have longer range too. Rafale, F-15E,Su-30/34 are or can use advanced technologies such as AESA, RAM coatings etc and so on. It's been fine for use in for the combat zones and deployments it's been used in so far by the USN, but in those situations, it's never had to compete with an enemy with a respectable airborne defense (When was the last time you heard of USN aircraft in hot OCA/DCA situations...? The first Gulf War?). Take it out of it's historical context and put it in a situation where it would suddenly have to face advanced F-16 variants in the Indian situation, or against the Su-27/30 family in the Malaysian/Australian situations, then you start to see potentially major mismatches that can't necessarily be compensated for by weapons systems alone...

Hehe, no I mean that the F/A-18E/F is one of the first names from US negotiators you'll hear where there are potential arms deals going through. I remember when that used to be the Viper. Don't mean to make it sound like they're pathetically desperate to sell the Superbug, but I picked up a book off of Amazon a few days ago and they said for an extra $20 I could get me a 'practically unused' SuperHornet!

There's no sale potential of the Gork to the PLAN on the cards if the deal falls through...?

Goddamn! Boeing is DESPERATE to unload the SuperBug, aren't they?? Ghost, you come up with the best defence-info tidbits! There's no sale potential of the Gork to the PLAN on the cards if the deal falls through...? It'd be interesting to see if a Su-27/33 is bought for the Kitty if the US deal goes through...