Octopus Overlords

Holman wrote: Wasn't the F-117 basically just a tech demo for stealth technology anyway?

IIRC there was debate about whether it really had a role it could fill, and then the Serbs (the Serbs!) managed to shoot one down.

Holman wrote:Wasn't the F-117 basically just a tech demo for stealth technology anyway?

IIRC there was debate about whether it really had a role it could fill, and then the Serbs (the Serbs!) managed to shoot one down.

On Oct. 4, 2017, the Army’s program office for ground vehicles announced that the service had accepted the first M-1A2SEPV3 “on schedule and on budget.” General Dynamics Land Systems builds the tank in Lima, Ohio, using existing M-1 hulls as a starting point.

The Army asked to buy 56 M-1A2SEPV3 tanks in 2018, against a total requirement for around a thousand of the new vehicles — enough to equip all of the branch’s active-duty tank brigades. At present, a V3 costs around $20 million. The price should drop as the production rate increases.

While officially a variant of the nearly four-decade-old M-1 tank, the SEPV3 is, in all the ways that matter, essentially brand new. The preceding variant, the M-1A2SEPV2, entered service in 2007.
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The M-1A2SEPV3 boasts improved inertial navigation to achieve what Kotchman described as “better round dispersement” — in other words, improved main-gun accuracy. There’s also a data-link for programmable munitions, making the SEPV3 compatible with new, “smart” cannon rounds that are beginning to enter the Army’s arsenal.

The V3 tank also has tougher front and rear armor than the V2 does — plus a built-in jammer for defeating radio-triggered improvised explosive devices.

Some of the most important improvements are seemingly the most boring. The V3 comes with a new auxiliary power unit installed underneath the armor. This APU allows a tank crew to power their vehicle’s electronics without turning on the main engine. That way, a tank can quietly and efficiently monitor the battlefield for hours at a time without guzzling a full tank of gas.
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Fifty years ago, the Army might have given a vehicle with so many new features a new designation — at the very least, referring to it as the M-1A3. But in recent decades, the military has preferred to downplay many of its technological advancements.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2017 10:17 am In my eye Have Blue is a artistic beauty. Makes the steal even more ugly.

Holman wrote: ↑Mon Dec 11, 2017 10:04 pm ...Forgive my ignorance, but are the yardage markers and field lines heated or what?

(No, I have not watched a football game in decades.)

Boeing on Tuesday unveiled its entrant into the U.S. Navy’s MQ-25 tanker drone competition, a prototype wing-body-tail aircraft ready to begin tests this month.

So far, Boeing has released one photo of the aircraft facing head-on to the camera, proving that the company has fabricated a prototype and that — as expected — it has moved away from the flying wing design it considered putting forward to the precursor of the MQ-25 program, when the Navy prioritized strike and ISR capabilities for its first carrier-based drone.

“It’s an aircraft with the mission in mind, and we felt confident that the wing-body-tail design was the best for the refueling mission,” said Boeing spokeswoman Didi VanNierop, who added that the company incorporated lessons from its Phantom Ray unmanned demonstrator and other Boeing unmanned aerial systems.

Udar4450 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 26, 2017 8:34 am Ouch, nuke. Means that the guy has spent at least 6 months under the sea...

xwraith wrote: ↑Fri Jan 26, 2018 1:47 pm

Based on the principles of chainmail armor, the "Superelastic" tires can withstand more deformation than any other non-pneumatic tire. At the same time, they could potentially withstand extraplanetary abuse and provide better traction for next-generation rovers.
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It's not just the chainmail-style configuration that makes the tires work, though. They're also built from alloys like nickel-titanium (NiTi) that can deform up to 10 percent without losing their shape. "The use of a NiTi shape memory alloy yield a superelastic tire that is virtually impervious to plastic deformation," according to the team at NASA's Glenn Research center.

xwraith wrote: ↑Fri Jan 26, 2018 1:47 pm

The Navy warship that was stuck on the St. Lawrence River for three months is now underway to its homeport at Naval Station Mayport, Fla., a Navy official told USNI News on Monday.

Littoral Combat Ship USS Little Rock (LCS-9) left on Saturday bound for the Atlantic Ocean after weathering the winter pier-side in Montreal, Lt. Cmdr. Courtney Hillson told USNI News.

“The ship was moored at the Port of Montreal until weather conditions improved and the St. Lawrence Seaway melted enough for the safe passage of the ship,” Hillson said.
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The Littoral Combat Ship was stranded on the river in January. It was returning from its December commissioning ceremony in Buffalo, N.Y., where it entered the fleet next to its namesake, the decommissioned guided-missile cruiser USS Little Rock (CG-4).

Little Rock was late leaving Buffalo due to weather and had stopped in Montreal for a port visit and minor repairs.

“The ship was ready to depart Montreal, but the extreme cold, subsequent condition of the St. Lawrence Seaway and availability of icebreakers and support ships caused the delay,” Hillson told USNI News in January.

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 02, 2018 12:57 am In Viet Nam I saw those Chinooks carrying Hueys all the time. A buddy of mine ( a copter crew chief) said those were the most powerful choppers in the world at the time. Even more the the giant Skycranes.
They've been around for over 50 years and looks like they're still the most powerful.

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 03, 2018 6:47 pm All the B-52s in service now are the "H" models which had the biggest engines of the models. (I worked on the D,E,F,and G models)
I supposed they're always looking for ways to improve them. I think the H models were the last built in the 60s.

Lockheed Martin’s stealthy new AGM-158B Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range — JASSM-ER — made its debut on the raid on Syria on April 13.

A pair of U.S. Air Force Rockwell International B-1B Lancer strategic bombers launched 19 of the new air-launched cruise missiles against the Barzeh Research and Development Center near Damascus.
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Indeed, the addition of the JASSM-ER made the aerial portion of the raid on the Syrian research lab possible. While the B-1B was a capable bomber initially when its was fielded in the 1980s, the aircraft is not survivable against modern air defenses and has to rely on standoff weapons when faced with a conventional foe.

In this case, while Russian forces in Syria did not attempt engage allied forces, the very presence of advanced Russian surface-to-air missile defenses such as the S-300V4 and the S-400 — which have a range of 250 nautical miles if equipped with the appropriate missiles — necessitated the use of the JASSM-ER’s standoff capability.

Thus, the addition of the JASSM-ER allowed a non-stealthy aircraft that would normally be unable to strike inside a so-called anti-access/area denial bubble to hit targets well inside such a zone. As such, a weapon such as the JASSM-ER breathes new life into conventional non-stealthy aircraft such as the B-1B or fourth-generation fighters such as the F-16 Fighting Falcon or F-15E Strike Eagle, which are unable to penetrate into heavily defended airspace.