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hobbesmaster posted:There was a virologist or biologist explaining the "genetic evidence" for the "lab escape" in the cspam thread. Basically the "tuned to humans" or "its artificial!" theory is because theres a bunch of the random stuff you'd expect from the animal coronaviruses... and then smack dab in the middle theres a sequence that is very common for labs to splice into stuff to study to do work on medications or whatever. Are you talkinh about this fesearcher below? quote:
It’s nigh impossible to Prove a negative to people who want to cling to an alarming or Sinophobic explanation, but the experts agree that it is extremely unlikely and that there are a few much more likely methods of original infection other than a lab leak, much less the idea of a lab leak of a virus that was engineered or “hosed with”
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Jun 16, 2021 01:22
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The Iron Rose posted:Ultimately, I think a lot of the takes in the past few pages are overly optimistic, especially if we’re accounting for another half decade worth of development on behalf of all parties. We may not be the strongest military power in the world for that much longer, and our foreign policy priorities should reflect that understanding. There’s pessimism about Taiwan and then there’s this. On what number of decades are you placing the idea of the US dripping from most powerful military in the world? Disadvantaged in a localized fight != less powerful globally.
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Jun 16, 2021 01:57
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Dance Officer posted:Does US intervention in an invasion of Taiwan require an act of Congress? Because that might be difficult. It doesn’t even take an act of congress to unilaterally nuke Buenos Ares. It’s sustaining the fight after the opening volleys where Congress can try to come into play.
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Jun 16, 2021 06:45
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https://twitter.com/danlamothe/status/1405593286866313230?s=21 Part of the challenge for these better trained elite units is likely that they’ve been built for strikes and raids and had a lot of practice hunting down leaders, caches, etc, not for police work and holding defensive points against irregular battle lines.
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Jun 17, 2021 20:43
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TCD posted:It was a bad joke about the the B model flying off amphibs . Google says they deployed in 2018? Yeah, back in 2018 the Marines flew B’s from an LHD and pulled missions in USCENTCOM.
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Jun 20, 2021 05:08
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British carrier hosts USMC fighters to strike into Syria and Iraq from the Eastern Med. https://twitter.com/oirspox/status/1407275200438210560?s=21
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Jun 22, 2021 12:30
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BIG HEADLINE posted:You know, like the Founders intended. That possible future is objectively closer to what the founders intended. The founders were pretty bad.
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Jun 25, 2021 06:25
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https://www.rudaw.net/english/analysis/25062021 US air defense artillery systems back in the “shooting down air breathing threats” game.
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Jun 25, 2021 12:33
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Yeah, the founders directly intended slavery to be legal and for local governments to be able to develop very strong gun control laws, compared with those of today. Saying “ah, but DDs were allowed back then and there were not magazine caps” is missing the forest for the trees. Entire classes of people were permitted to be forcibly disarmed, enslaved, etc, while protected elites could keep arms. And from town yo town, local laws could preempt firearm carry right out of existence. Founders: they were very imperfect even back when they were in style, and their style was a pretty long time ago. Thankfully, they at least enshrined means of changing their laws within the laws.
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Jun 25, 2021 14:11
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Sorry, already working on/with boring stuff like vulcan cannons and 30mm chainguns and missiles.
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Jun 26, 2021 21:07
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It’s also a common talking point in US domestic politics. *thing discovered* We didn’t do it. But if we did, it was not intentional. But if it was intentional, it was good. But if it wasn’t good, lol get over it, loser.
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Jul 4, 2021 18:48
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Daesh really knows how to bring people together. When you are so hated that the US, West Europeans, Russia, Kurds, Iranians, a ton of Arab states, Israel, and Shia militias all agree you must be crushed, that’s quite an accomplishment. Then of course when Daesh is nearly destroyed, various groups turn on each other but hey, that’s politics. https://twitter.com/royalairforce/status/1413064344976433160?s=21
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Jul 10, 2021 13:24
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https://twitter.com/clemente3000/status/1413813372575956995?s=21 Ah, the Indiana Snake-Hog.
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Jul 11, 2021 13:37
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Put AMRAAMs on an A-10, re-designate as the F/A-10 Maddog.
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Jul 11, 2021 16:31
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Someone woke up spicy today. https://twitter.com/mena_conflict/status/1415793740703309831?s=21
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Jul 16, 2021 14:01
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Also the Army has announced finalization of $320 million for Stinger production. Mostly it’s light, cheap enough, new models can kill drones, and has shot down a ton of stuff. This isn’t terribly surprising but indicates less desire to rely entirely on a new missile from the ground up for stuff like small unit, maneuver unit, and C-UAS point/base defense.
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Jul 16, 2021 14:07
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Sure. It’s reasonable enough to have A-10s as comparatively cheap planes to conduct low intensity warfare, avoid any modern conflict, and keep to higher altitudes when there’s a whisper that the enemy may have MANPADS more modern than 1990ish.
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Jul 16, 2021 14:15
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Comparing China to climate change is 1: a very tortured comparison 2: useful how? If China is like climate change then it is an inhuman fact of existence, an unchecked and morally neutral force of nature and physics, largely created by humans and their policies. Also: if you think going full nuclear tomorrow would fix climate change, I have extremely bad news for you. About climate change.
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Jul 18, 2021 08:31
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shame on an IGA posted:I admit reducing emissions 95% or more overnight and simultaneously reducing the earth's albedo might not get all the way to a solution but it'd have to help some Even if a magical genie replaced 100% of fossil fuel power generation AND home/structure-heating with nuclear power and the associated infrastructure overnight, that’s not close to 95% of emissions. If the genie is also turning every ship, train, airplane, truck and car into nuclear power, it gets closer but that stretches credulity further than the existence of a genie. Not sure how the nuclear power genie gets after agriculture, waste, and manufacturing/industrial chemical reaction and emissions. This is getting pretty off topic, but regardless, I don’t think China is a valid comparison to climate change because on its face it just doesn’t make sense.
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Jul 18, 2021 14:24
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Kaal posted:The Army and the Marine Corps both used lots of mortar systems in Iraq and Afghanistan. With modern computers they can be really surprisingly accurate, since it's a simple parabolic trajectory. The lightweight mortars can have about 3,000m ranges, with the medium and heavy mortars doubling that. There's rounds in development that boast 12km-20km ranges and are plenty effective. Also for FOB or small unit defense, even a small number of on hand precision guided mortars really make a difference. If it’s a given that rounds will rapidly be able to target your exact grid, that is a very significant deterrent to harassing attacks from close range.
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Jul 20, 2021 12:40
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You know what gun looks old as hell whenever I see one? The G36. It somehow looks more out of place whenever I see one than an M16A2. Really big, built in optic, absurd carry handle-ish frame, big Sci-Fi series prop gun energy. Seeing an A2 is like seeing an old, but normal CRT in an elderly person’s house or in the back of some workshop or break area where “hey, it ain’t broke.” The G36 in this TV analogy is a big-screen flat panel from the specific period of TV where that meant it was 2 feet thick and a billion pounds.
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Jul 21, 2021 20:14
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And the Predator is retired and mostly used by Border Patrol now, while we’re at it.
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Jul 21, 2021 20:52
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The real answer is that FOBs nowadays already have optics on M2s and armored QRF and secfor vehicles with optics and MMGs or HMGs or autocannons, plus mortars and/or artillery. Hence why the main way used to harass them is often lobbing rockets, not rolling up to direct fire HMG range.
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Jul 21, 2021 21:03
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Warbadger posted:The optic isn't built in and it's actually kinda rare to see the old dual or single optics stuck to them these days. I dunno why, but that’s what I’ve seen a lot of the weird old optics over the last year from operationally deployed soldiers. It surprised me, and I thought maybe the first group was a one off, but nope.
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Jul 22, 2021 02:41
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Warbadger posted:I'm surprised they're digging those out of storage. For a while you saw the single optics with the little rail on top, but even those had pretty much vanished. Maybe they found a few crates of old optics in a corner somewhere. These are Spanish soldiers with G36s. I didn’t get a chance to eye the Germans’ rifles too closely, as they typically rolled with sidearms day to day.
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Jul 22, 2021 14:33
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Air Force: we want to re-wing (again) 218 A-10s but divest 42 A-10s. Senate: Every A-10 sparks joy. https://twitter.com/defense_news/status/1418604265833041920?s=21
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Jul 23, 2021 18:44
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madeintaipei posted:A-51 Mustang II. A call back to the P-51 Mustang and a sly joke about the Pinto-based Mustang II. A-36 Apache II Callback to the A-36 laymen don’t know about, plus bonus duplicate name of another platform, just to be confusing.
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Jul 23, 2021 23:35
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hobbesmaster posted:The only bloody nose the US got during the 2003 invasion of Iraq was a raid solely by attack helicopters being turned back by small arms fire so unironically yes. Yes. Small arms fire. Like the small arms of crew served and mounted 12.7mm, 23mm, and 57mm. This thread has a few trigger points but perhaps none stronger than China, Marines, and helicopters.
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Jul 24, 2021 16:00
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COIN will not be a strategic task. Congress and the president already said so. But stability operations, aye, that’s a row we could hoe…
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Jul 24, 2021 18:39
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Yeah. Only one succumbed to enemy fire and crashed/was captured. On the other hand, they landed basically 5% or less mission capable without repairs, with numerous punctures and hits destroying engines, driveshafts, rotors, optics, etc. Attack helicopters are still a pretty awesome glass cannon to have at your disposal. And basically every major military still wants them, and they’re not just a prestige buy. They really, really shine when you can find the enemy, and I don’t mean that glibly. Plenty of forces have attack choppers or armed utility choppers that are either very vulnerable or preserve themselves by not really engaging that closely due to lack of good ability to find the enemy ahead of time.
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Jul 24, 2021 20:19
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hypnophant posted:In fact congress ought to get out of procurement altogether; set conditions and let the military figure out how to execute. Let’s not get too crazy here. They are THE budget body, so you can’t very well tell them to give you boatloads of unaccountable funds.
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Jul 24, 2021 21:18
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They are a division commander’s best way to rapidly move a shitload of ATGMs somewhere, kill stuff, and then gtfo. Just like everything else in a division fight, the div cdr shouldn’t just do this without joint coordination. And while the US is offensive-focused, that’s huge in a defense. Having helicopters you can leverage potentially saves you committing your armored reserve, and use on defense is far less likely to put you into a dodgy surface-to-air fires ambush scenario. Modernization of attack helicopters really focuses on giving them better ways to understand where targets and threats are, self-defense countermeasures, and general flight/loiter range/power-plant upgrades. One of the major upgrades to Apaches is giving them video and near-infrared capability to identify targets outside of short-range air defense ranges. Even if that also places the apache out of range, it provides the helicopter units the ability to attack as planned, change approaches, call in SEAD or other long range fires, or just abort entirely. So a combination of better ability to attack and significantly better ability to avoid getting ambushed and killed.
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Jul 26, 2021 08:35
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MG tactics came up earlier. Crew served machine guns: still a cooler job in theory than in practice. https://twitter.com/centcom/status/1419618239781515264?s=21
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Jul 26, 2021 12:22
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Anything that is a “dismounted crew serve maneuver range” probably sucks. And I ruck march for personal enjoyment.
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Jul 26, 2021 13:16
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It turns out that if a war snaps off all of a sudden day zero isn’t the ride of the valkyries in helicopters leading the charge, it’s stuff like over the horizon strikes, surface to surface fires, and making sure your joint air doesn’t get blown apart sitting on the tarmac in the tarmac. Attack helicopters have a fundamentally different role from fighter-bombers. Here is an extremely clumsy take, so pummel at will: Where ISR, fixed wing fires, and surface/land-based precision fires can open the door for helicopters, helicopters can do terrible things to motorized units, C2 nodes, and strong points, opening the door for ground forces to seize and/or hold land.
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Jul 26, 2021 19:22
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Checkmate, patrols can be killed by artillery, so it’s obsolete. War is rock paper scissors in the hell future.
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Jul 26, 2021 20:05
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I do not understand.
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Jul 26, 2021 21:30
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Hell, even if you just were given a few dozen squadrons of them, with a limited PGM reserve, you could do really nasty C2 and critical infrastructure strikes. Forget killing A tank or shooting down A plane. You could kill the comms and command of formations of tanks and air defense radars once you find them.
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Jul 27, 2021 14:52
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lmao, wait can’t some Tucanos carry sidewinders?
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Jul 27, 2021 14:53
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bewbies posted:unless they have missiles super tucanos are going to be pretty firmly outclassed air to air by any late war fighter. it is definitely not a role they are optimized for. My take is that they’d be pretty sick as an attacker /striker that you don’t risk against fighters (without missiles) because 1: Why bother, it’s waste of sorties that could be used to PGM important stuff. 2: You can probably do really unfair 2-ship or small formation night time attacks that have piss poor chance of enemy fighters intercepting you anyway.
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Jul 27, 2021 15:28
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