Old War/Dad Power: Clancey chat (both types)

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Xerxes17: Feb 17, 2011

I got onto the OP! :peanut:

But at least on the awful app the links are broken :smith:

# ¿ Jan 13, 2020 04:14

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 17:56

Xerxes17: Feb 17, 2011

Smiling Jack posted:

I didn't get a photo, but a very long time ago I saw some sort of tracked artillery with "the last argument of democracy" on the tube in very nice calligraphy.

Edit: was the late 1990s so a M109 I guess.

That vic commander was clearly a history major then.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2020 03:33

Xerxes17: Feb 17, 2011

Proper Kerni ng posted:

I'm frankly astonished that somebody at Lockmart hasn't pitched a program to DoD to defend huge swathes of territory with small unmanned barrage balloons with one or two AMRAAMs, a simple radar setup, and a datalink to every other balloon in the network through a remote control center.

Sounds like the pitch for a techno-thriller movie.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2020 11:47

Xerxes17: Feb 17, 2011

MRC48B posted:

Yes. Plus they added more countries, (sweden, italy, france china)

for even MORE GRIND

They did however do a revision of the RP and SL costs of vehicles, so now it's much easier to hit the top tier vehicles.

# ¿ Sep 27, 2020 23:12

Xerxes17: Feb 17, 2011

Schadenboner posted:

Gallipoli?

E: wearing those stupid hats has gotta be high on the list too? It’s like: the brim is there for a loving reason, “mate”. Maybe dont try to end up with carcinoma of the ear-skin?

That side of the brim is clipped up so it doesn't get in the way of your Enfield when you are carrying it shouldered.

# ¿ Nov 20, 2020 14:36

Xerxes17: Feb 17, 2011

drgitlin posted:

You know, it didn’t require a “horrific maximalist free market approach” in the USSR to create at least as much radioactive contamination, even without Chernobyl. Just the demands of the national security apparatus.

It's almost as if there's multiple ways to be stupid. How has the environmental record been for French civilian nuclear power?

# ¿ Feb 12, 2021 02:30

Xerxes17: Feb 17, 2011

aphid_licker posted:

Very hefty population density, lots of them insanely poor, the land area is basically 100% swampy river delta sitting barely above the current sea level, biggest neighbor has an ethnic-religous hatred for them, the question sort of presents itself what they're gonna do about even a piddly one foot increase in sea level. They took in the Rohingya minority that was ethnically cleansed from Myanmar and about a year in they were contemplating moving them to an "island" that is not actually reliably above sea level. They're just being squeezed and squeezed with no good way out.

e: not really related but their alphabet is insanely cool-looking imo

Well to be fair that island is pretty much the only non-developed space left in Bangladesh.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2021 00:16

Xerxes17: Feb 17, 2011

Murgos posted:

Have you come across any information on funding for the next generation ground based strategic deterrent? I.e. have they tipped their hand on are they going to do a life extension on Minuteman III or are they going to fund Minuteman IV (or whatever name it gets)?

Hopefully someone buys them some flashcards hahah.

# ¿ May 29, 2021 16:02

Xerxes17: Feb 17, 2011

bewbies posted:

China probably isn't building more ICBMs, they're just transitioning from a TEL force to a silo force. I think this was the plan all along with the DF-41 but I'm not sure...and I wish I knew more about the thought process that went into this. They were all about TELs for decades.

I'm gonna guess money.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2021 15:04

Xerxes17: Feb 17, 2011

mlmp08 posted:

And the Predator is retired and mostly used by Border Patrol now, while we’re at it.

Sgt. Sixta is already out of jail??

# ¿ Jul 22, 2021 09:51

Xerxes17: Feb 17, 2011

Attack helicopters are the continuation of Tank Destroyer Doctrine by other means.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2021 08:49

Xerxes17: Feb 17, 2011

Cyrano4747 posted:

For more lawful stupid idiocy, WhatsApp has picked this moment to crack down and disable Taliban help lines.

The tl;dr is that the Taliban is pretty sensitive to perception, at least during this phase where it is/was conquering territory and didn't want to engender strong resistance because of raping and pillaging. So they set up these WhatsApp lines where people could report problems and they'd get someone to take a look at it. Invariably they found that it was "criminals claiming to be Taliban" who did the bad thing, but they also got a lot of people's poo poo back and broadly discouraged people from doing bad poo poo after they occupied territory. Read the article and you'll notice a lot of NGOs who work in those areas are pretty supportive of the report lines and think they do good.

So now, with the lines getting used a lot, WhatsApp has decided to take notice of them and shut them down.

I guess they'll switch over to Telegram instead.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2021 13:12

Xerxes17: Feb 17, 2011

I'd imagine one of the things that would get in the way of using powerful lasers in a military context aside from point defense is the issue of backscatter. If you shoot a laser at a ground target and now everyone who was looking at it without eyepro is blind, that's going to be bad both practically and legally.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2021 02:17

Xerxes17: Feb 17, 2011

Cyrano4747 posted:

That, uh, seems like a bad feature to have on an ATGM. Like, ever, I remember half the conversation around hypothetical Fulda Gap scenarios being Apaches popping up out of tree cover and from behind hills to unload before diving behind terrain again because it might, maybe, let them survive long enough against soviet AAA to need a reload.

I remember a poster (maybe an old recruitment poster for the Army?) from the 80s or 90s that featured exactly that, a nose-on view of an Apache popping up over trees like an angry gopher. Can't find it now, but that was kind of their thing even back then.

Not, you know, hovering in a single position for extended periods of time to serve as a glorified ATGM launching mast.

The Vikhr is a laser beam rider, which means the electronics on the missile can be simpler, which makes the weapon much cheaper. It's also supersonic, so having to sit there paining a target is lass of an issue, and it has a decent 8km range.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2022 13:18

Xerxes17: Feb 17, 2011

An exterior phone is very practical because it won't emit like a radio, doesn't need to be tuned in like a radio andwould be dead simple and reliable.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2022 17:28

Xerxes17: Feb 17, 2011

Probably a dumb question, but if you *really* had to test a Nuke, why not set it off in space?

# ¿ Oct 24, 2022 03:45

Xerxes17: Feb 17, 2011

Vahakyla posted:

I dunno what missiles could be effective from 105mm.

The 100mm Bastion is effective for what it is.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2023 12:51

Xerxes17: Feb 17, 2011

I think lasers might end up hitting some implementation limits simply due to the blinding issue. If crazy YouTubers can make 'laser cannons' where even being in the same room as them when turned on will instantly blind you without protection, I can't imagine how the hell battlefield use is possible. No good if you blind half of your air watch guys on the first engagement of a target, and good luck getting grunts to always have their goggles on without exception. That's even if you can have protection that works.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2023 05:07

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 17:56

Xerxes17: Feb 17, 2011

CarForumPoster posted:

SDRs are rarely going to find their way into commercial products for RF Rx/Tx. They're extremely expensive compared to a wifi/bt module or a chip that can operate on a few ISM bands.

Why is that? What makes the task so difficult q simple ARM chip couldn't handle it?

# ¿ Aug 13, 2023 23:06

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