Invader ZIM

agreed :thumbup:

Thanks for that info G00dnight, but I don't think the Syrian army has any active countermeasure systems for use on their T-72's. At least none that I could find info about. The Shtora usually has a heavy housing that has ribs, because it emits a lot of heat and needs the heatsink housing to be properly cooled. The standard looking searchlight housing we're seeing in these Syrian tank videos seems to be pointing to the fact that these tanks still have the Gen 0 IR night vision system installed. It's really just a standard incandescent searchlight that has a IR filter glass over it so that only those with IR viewers can see the searchlight. The newer tanks that have Shtora would be the T-90, as you had mentioned, which have two mounted systems. http://defense-update.com/products/s/shtora-1.htm

lol, take it easy my friend, my response was to nr1jc, who seems to have anticipated what was coming, coupled with my experience with other threads in the past that link to anything calling anything the best of anything. Thanks for the video, always fun to see the aircraft, but the thread usually ends up ugly. So.......

But only the Allah kind will do... No other snackbars. :D

I can see the bait, but noticed it's attached to a hook and a pole... This fish has decided not to bite. :megalol:

IDF F-15 multiple large bird strikes, two engines on fire, and safe landing both from the aircraft and the F-15 behind it.

LOL, some good ones guys. It's been a bit since I contributed so here goes:

I certainly agree, it's one reason engineers tend to like being in the field, because there's always unexpected results in practice that constantly challenge them to come up with a solution to a problem. Thanks for the horizontal and vertical stabilizer comparisons, it's interesting how the systems are being swapped onto the other test airframes. This practice is different from current U.S. procedures for prototype aircraft. Thanks for the correction on Su-47.. I must be dyslexic because I always mess up it's designation. :doh:

Nice finds, it's amazing to read just how bad it was for Russian aerospace in the 90's. Even today, when you see a system out of prototype and being fielded, you usually find the numbers of available aircraft are very low when compared to Western air forces.

Thanks for that info NOLA, what I had heard (and I cannot confirm) is that some of the in house or lab vibration tests and other stress tests done on some airframe parts on the ground also exhibited stress cracks earlier than anticipated in accelerated age testing, indicating a problem early on with some of the materials when trying to achieve the specified operational lifetime of the material. This is just speculation, but it may explain the lack of flying time for T-50-2, as modifications are done to address the problem. I'm sure experience was gained with the S-47, specifically I liked that the S-47 had a pronounced "S" shaped ducting for the engines, but it appears using that would have limited the internal weapons in such a way that Sukhoi decided to make a trade off with the T-50 that left the ducts more straight, but allowed for more volume for internal weapons. Thanks again for the info, it's always appreciated.

Yea NOLA, I saw your review of the revisions, but was looking for more info on what changes were made specifically to aircraft number 4 because of the airframe cracks from the other test aircraft.. A few items you had listed were expected advances toward a more functional or fleshed out prototype, other changes, for example the structural changes going from composite to metal might indicate there are problems with some of the composite materials in certain parts of the airframe not performing to specifications at this time. There will be hurdles to overcome, both expected and unexpected. Any info is interesting to me.

We have a saying too "You only get what you pay for, no more and no less." Is this 4th prototype in response from the two other airframes that exhibited structural cracks during low g maneuvers out of the box?

No, but I'm willing to bet when they start working on how to integrate their avionics with their weapons systems, and working more with the engines that's when your going to see more delays. It just happens, no matter what country your from.

LOL, I am getting old. I liked Harpoon, don't get me wrong I was also playing Red Alert and Command and Conquer as well in the mid 90's. But it was games like Harpoon that inspired me to read more into things and analyze how a scenario can play out, instead of reading just a generic or biased news article somewhere. These ships and their systems can be far more capable than many think if used correctly, and if used incorrectly, they can also be very expensive artificial coral reefs. :music_whistling: I didn't realize your hint for Waypoint until after I posted lol, I used to love reading the articles there, I really recommend diving in at the Waypoint site Kaktus and start reading the articles that interest you. There's great stuff on stealth, and anti-stealth technology, satellite recon etc, anything related to the worlds navies and their ships, as well as capabilities. I'm really looking forward to the "Command: Modern Air-Naval Operations" Looks like a real successor to Harpoon 3. I died a little inside back in 2003 when they cancelled Harpoon 4 for the PC though. :(

Kaktus, if your looking for info to help you visualize how naval forces operate and how the radar's would detect things, one good naval simulation I would recommend would be to try out Harpoon 2 or 3. Aside from radars, many ships use ESM, or electronic support measures. http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_warfare_support_measures In Harpoon, if you keep your radars off to help avoid detection, ESM systems will give you a contact if they detect something of military interest, like a radar that just scanned for a moment. You won't know exactly where it was, depending on it's aspect to you and other factors, as ESM tends to use triangulation with other ships to determine bearing and range of the emitter, but you will know the radar type. You then go into your library in Haproon and look up all ships that have that type of radar and then your on your way to discovering what it might be. :thumbup: Additional watching of the contact to see where it's moving, and if other emitters are nearby may indicate a task force. Launching a helicopter to fly within 30 nm at low altitude and them popping up briefly can also help identify the contact. The tutorials and instructions there alone will help explain to you how a Carrier task force can resupply aircraft and ordinance from the supply ships. It even simulates the time to resupply depending on the amount of rough seas are in the operating area and the ordinance to be loaded. You seem to be looking only at the maximum ranges of missiles and aircraft, but in actual operation with help from the above mentioned simulators you can better visualize how a flight of F-18's can fly out to a position, below the radar horizon, radar's off, within 40 nm from the closest enemy contact in the task force, some loaded with 4 Harpoon missiles each, and some loaded out with 16 MALD's each, other's loaded with HARM's. Using a little math from the speed of the MALD decoy launch to fly over a large Russian Task Force and coinciding the Harpoons to arrive at about the same time, while having the Harm laden F-18's launch at multiple ships to poke out their eyes or at least add to the confusion, it becomes clearer how overwhelming the enemies radar with decoys and jamming helps the subsonic missiles to work. It's pretty fascinating stuff when you get into it, really opened my eyes 20 years ago when I got Harpoon 2 and saw just how complex naval operations and the ships systems work to determine what's out there and how to deal with it.

I was impressed with the large stone slabs being used on the sides of the tank. The IR system would be of limited use anyways in this situation. Last thing I would want is having to take armor in a built up area at night with the Syrian systems available.

When your thrown into dangerous situations..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=R0hD6T6Ke5E#! Anyone know Russian? The improvised spaced armor created by it's crew on this T-72 is impressive. The blown out IR searchlight on the turret front indicates these tanks have no thermal systems.

Go onto Youtube and search for "Battlefield Friends" Those series of cartoons pretty much describe my experience with the Battlefield franchise lol. Warning for the videos, they have a lot of bad language so if the kids are around...

It's terrifying, in many of the videos about the fighting you almost never see regular infantry going in with the tanks, it looks like these tanks make regular runs into devastated villages without the aid of dismounted infantry to help protect the tanks and take up positions to control ground. This could definitely drag on for some time. As a Western observer, that alone terrifies me.

LOL, yea, these are quite the conversation piece. :thumbup:

What cichlidfan linked to, CDVS, they are a good site, didn't get my 30mm from them, it came from a neighbor's yard sale, but I purchased other small military collectables from CDVS and wasn't dissapointed.

Welcome to the club, we can be pretty fanatical when it comes to our favorite planes. Here's my A-10 round I got last summer. The small round next to it is a .50 cal Browning from 1943 :D

Wow! I want the kinematic and Covert flares. :thumbup:

Great read Maior, just what I need, another reading destraction!! :thumbup: Barely scratched the surface reading it and was sucked in already. :book:

Thanks guys, now take a photo of something you guys own that you think no else would have and post them up, it can be anything. :thumbup: