Invader ZIM

From this link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/F-35_flights_should_resume_soon_Pentagon_official_999.html What's interesting is that if there is a problem with the engines, the U.S. will take the hit and make the necessary modifications, but Australia in the article will get the updated engine design if that's necessary, good business practice imo.

lol, all speculation, but if the U.S. military selects this missile for production, it has to be flight tested and qualified on the intended aircraft, which means it could be months,years, or never because a competing design was selected instead. :smilewink:

Geez, my blood sugar must be low, sorry about that Maior, I had the biggest brain fart doing that, my apologies.

To help with the discussion, take a look at this interesting info and speculation gentlemen. http://elementsofpower.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-mysterious-lm-cuda-missile.html

Thanks for that marcos, certainly allows for design flexibility, noticed the surprising lack of a warhead, it's an entirely kinetic kill vehicle.

I'll just leave this right here: :lol:

Thanks for that info Maior, geez this thing can carry 12 of those 360 missiles from the photo. But how many CUDA's can the F-22 carry then?

Yea, your correct marcos, there's a lot of defense companies that work with many other's and overseas with allied defense companies, as well as a whole slew of defense subcontractors to get a project done. It's never as black and white as a single company name being the sole creator of a large military project anymore.

Actually, since I've used that site for my military news for years I'm really surprised what kind of stuff goes on in a regular day that I don't see on CNN or other news agencies. Once you keep up with it you you'll start to see how these defense companies are tied together, and how militaries are moving their equipment and where. I mean in the article above, who knew that Northrop Grumman was working on part of the system for a European designed stealth drone?

Very, very cool!! Thanks for the photo!

Awsome find, and congratulations on getting a multiple signed copy. Out of curiosity, did Amazon list it as used with writing inside? lol.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/First_Flight_of_nEUROn_Unmanned_Combat_Aerial_Vehicle_Demonstrator_Conducted_999.html

Well, let's see, the U.S. is planning on having over 2,400 F-35's, we have 180+ F-22's with another 179+ Golden Eagles slated. I think we can afford a few accidents and losses during wartime. Likewise, I wonder how hard it would hit if those guys at Sukhoi if they lost a T-50 or two in testing and evaluation, let alone a large scale war.

It's kind of you to say that GGtharos, but as Mandrake pointed out, there's a few of us who do understand the implications of the technology, not just for the F-35 either. I would rather not say where I worked but I can honestly say I worked in the U.S. defense industry for years and had my hands on some of these programs mentioned on the forums, so I have an unfair advantage on seeing how the systems integrate and work with a battlefield network. But even trying to explain using public sources on how some of this technology changes the battlefield to my mother or other family members, and friends can be daunting, most people just don't care or aren't interested to know how it all works when it comes to battlefield technology. It certainly takes a certain type of individual that wants to look deeper into how all this works.

To answer your question Fanboy, I think it comes down to disinterest. People who work in the media have to cover a story, most don't care about aircraft, let alone care about what model of aircraft they are covering. They see how much a program costs and sensationalize it, making the public think it's wasted tax dollars without looking further in detail about all the different technologies being developed for it, or the amount of different companies involved, and jobs such a program creates. You and other's here have a general interest in all things military, and aircraft in particular where you look deeper into the details and put together the pieces of the puzzle to realize that these systems aren't always the waste of money they are implied to be by the rather uninformed media/John Q. Public or Joe Six-Pack

I think some are missing the big picture on how much a force multipler the F-35's can be, check out those recent videos posted by marcos. These F-35's are basically going to be automatically tracking, classifying and pinpointing anything of relevance to a much larger network of warfighting systems each with their own datalinks and information sharing capability both in space, in the air, and on the ground, that's amazing firepower in knowledge for every one of these F-35's, F-22's and other datalinked systems that's flying in the battlespace. They aren't fighters, their strike aircraft with amazing potential to destoy advanced enemy command and control networks. Imagine in that one video it's seeing a SAM launch, now everyone on the network has immediately pinpointed its location, planes are going defensive and are out of range, but an MLRS system on the ground now has the data to do a counterbattery strike on the sam system. It's amazing potential when you can see where all enemy and friendly forces are and can maneuver your forces to keep out of sight of the enemy while being able to hit him precisely where it's going to hurt. The enemy is basically giving himself away every time one of his tanks fires, his sam's fire, he turn on his radars, or fires artillery. It has amazing implications these systems.

Fresh from the newswire: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/First_F_35_Production_Model_Takes_Flight_999.html

Drones with Decoys and Jammers http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Raytheon_to_integrate_Miniature_Air_Launched_Decoy_on_Remotely_Piloted_Aircraft_platform_999.html http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/SM_3_takes_out_medium_range_ballistic_missile_target_999.html http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Raytheon_USAF_complete_Small_Diameter_Bomb_II_fit_check_on_F_35_aircraft_999.html SpaceWar is a treasure trove of info if you guys are into any countries military info and systems, there's too much news to post lol.

LOL, nice one thereminqblank, the Voot cruiser just doesn't have the style of the Arwing. Dang Irken scientists just don't understand style.

I think people started off by thinking too big, we should have asked for a Galactic Empire Executor Class Star Destroyer or perhaps gone smaller than that with a Mon Calamari Star Cruiser to start... Once we had that down then we should go for a Death Star. Personally, I'd love to tool around in one of these: ;)

That show is for entertainment purposes only.

Out of curiosity, how many Tu-95's are there total in the Russian Air force?

You've got 5 seasons of stories to catch up on then, at least you'll have something to look forward to after work or on the weekends lol.

Yea, both asteroids were going in opposite directions, just an amazing coincidence. http://www.spaceweather.com/

And over 1,000 injuries, many windows busted, a city of 1 million in awe of what they are reporting to be a mere 20 ft diameter stone exploding at 39,000 feet overhead. Sort of shows how very small and fragile we are I guess. :D Thanks for the info Speed, I was thinking something along the lines of an asteroid getting parts sheared off it from gravitational pull of the earth, causing these smaller stones to head into our atmosphere. But it does seem to be an amazing coincidence, perhaps they will have data on how or where this 20 foot diameter stone came from, would be interesting to see it's orbial path compared with the larger stone passing by.