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kalvasflam

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Everything posted by kalvasflam

  1. kalvasflam
    Well, can't argue that. I noticed Desslar was firing on Gatlantis ships again, wonder if that means he survived being shot in the gut. Or may be this is his swan song. But it does look like Kinman is going to bite the dust. (not surprising, we expect a few deaths here. The captain and the marine, Kato, and half the pilots, and of course, we can't have a season if Yuki isn't injured or dying or dead in some ways). Heh heh, Kodai is going to have a relationship with a zombie at this rate.
  2. kalvasflam
    I'm more of a Balebat fan myself, but whatever. You know what I do see though, a new F***ing origin story so we can see Thomas and Marrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrtha been gunned down for the (I lost count how many) times. Alright. Time to introduce the new generation of movie goers to the sad sad Bat story and explain why the Batman is such an a-hole.
  3. kalvasflam
    I think Central Anime will release in the next few weeks. OMG, that trailer is so melodramatic.
  4. kalvasflam
    Let's put it this way, if Tom Cruise manages to make movies for another 80 years, good stuff like the first Jack Reacher, or the MI series, or some other similiar movies, would you not enjoy that? Think about all of the other action heroes from the 80s and 90s, Bruce Willis done, Arnie Pooh, over the hill, Stallone, is he still alive, Harrison Ford, OMG, can't believe they offed Han...hmmm, in retrospect, Thank God. Isn't it amazing that Cruise is still doing movies at the level he is doing?
  5. kalvasflam
    Geez, that's just evil. Although part of me wonders why pretty boy isn't trying to get older machines from the USN or USMC. I suppose they might be even more worn than the stuff from down under.
  6. kalvasflam
    Oh man, Le Chiffre has gone hard core. I guess Mr. White didn't really kill him. Having the hand controlled machine gun was absolutely hilarious. Imagine if one of those guns were misangled, he'd cut himself in half.
  7. kalvasflam
    Nice, I wonder what type of munitions. I'm sure that the -35 can easily carry that many SBD in its internal bays. Although a moving target would suggest some other type of ordinance. A Paveway would make sense as it would be an LGB. I wonder in that case if the -35 was doing the illumination by itself or if it had a buddy. What would be freakish is if the -35 was lasing by itself, and all five of the munitions were Paveways. Beagles, is that what they call the Boeing built planes as opposed to when McD did it, I guess then it would've been either Meagles or McDeagles.
  8. kalvasflam
    OMG, they are bringing back the Crazy 88s. I'm so there. And wait... Iron Chef is bald?
  9. kalvasflam
    I definitely liked Cavil in that movie better than him as Superman.
  10. kalvasflam
    Oh no, not that picture of the dead wife again.... someone burn it, quick, it'll piss him off. I want to see this guy with his belt full of kitchen utensils that he then uses to serve people.
  11. kalvasflam
    yeah well, Nick ain't above B&E. But no Stark this time.
  12. kalvasflam
    I haven't watched the current Trek, so I wouldn't know, but I think it would be a nice counter point to the original TNG and even DS9. Which is, the Federation is a force for good (propaganda), it's worth preserving (self importance), and sometimes, we need to get dirty to face the threats both external and internal that can tear it apart (finally, some truth) Also, TOS was not all sunshine and unicorn, there were some pretty dark situations that just happened to be dealt with by a living legend. (That and the fact that Roddenberry realized NBC needed stuff that had conflict for prime time, because near Utopia just doesn't sell as well. Sure, he put in a lot of hints about Federation being a utopia, but not really on the frontiers.) One final point, Yeoh should be pretty good in the role considering that she did a fair job portraying the devil mother in law to be in Crazy Rich Asians. (You can see the ruthlessness oozing out of her)
  13. kalvasflam
    now that's something I'd actually watch. the dirty side of the trekverse. where we screw our enemies and not care about the consequences.
  14. kalvasflam
    Ha ha, I wonder if his specialty will be assorted kitchen utensils used to kill people, those paring knives can be quite deadly, although i would have to assume his deadliest weapon will be a spoon, used to carve other people's heart out, as the immortal Alan Rickman so eloquently reasoned: "Because it's dull, you twit! It'll hurt more!"
  15. kalvasflam
    I think the F-15E cost difference wise (if you believe this pop mech chart) is not that significant from the F-15C. I found this chart while looking at costs for the F-15X, and it was a little astounding that that thing actually costed $100M a pop. You could've said that there was a lot of sunk cost on the F-15 air frame, so I am really wondering where that cost is coming from. Actually, I would also be curious on how much the avionics on these things actually cost. Because it isn't as if each time you start a new combat aircraft, the avionics comes from a fresh sheet of paper, there has got to be a lot of commonalities here. Given how much military procurement wants to go with off the shelf stuff, I wonder how much more money is invested here. I suppose there is a consideration of the environment that you have to put these things through, but even then, the costs are sky high. Also, I wonder if Boeing had to build the A-4 in volume today, what the cost would be? I mean if you stuff in a bunch of new electronics and such, would it double the cost to $20M 2017 dollars?
  16. kalvasflam
    Interesting, I would be really curious to know what's driving the cost. The F-15X is running at that price from a quick check. It seems odd that in 1998, the F-15E costed about $31.1M, but the cost 20 years later is triple. Has the air frame changed that much? Or is this just inflation, but 300% seems to be a lot. Could be just because it's a small lot order on a production line that's not running at full speed any more. Interesting. I wonder what the cost of development on the F-15s were back in the days. My other thought is that the F-15X isn't that much of an improvement over the old F-15Es. Anyway, found an old article on Popular Mechanics that talked about this a little: https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/news/a25678/the-cost-of-new-fighters-keeps-going-up-up-up/ Then there was this chart. It was an entertaining read, not that it really explained why the cost has skyrocketed to such an extent.
  17. kalvasflam
    Does anyone expect the LM guy to say anything bad about about their primary breadwinner? Seriously, I wonder if they could somehow get that engine into the F-16 C block 50s; it seems to have significantly more thrust. Although the -Cs might not have stealth, it carries just as much weapons if not more. And probably costs less. But it does make me wonder if structurally the F-16s can accommodate such an engine. A total side note, I wonder how much it would cost to rip out the avionics and upgrade it to modern standards. To be more precise, take something like an F-15 airframe, but stuff in the electronics of the F-35, compensated of course of the right frameworks. I'm not sure what the difference would be between the F-15E and the F-15X in terms of the avionics, computers, and other capabilities. Then how much of a difference there would be between the -35 and the 15X. Anyone know?
  18. kalvasflam
    So, let Microsoft handle all the software, and then every plane in the US arsenal will experience periodic unwanted crashes. Ha ha. Seriously though, the aerospace industry has been in some ways decimated through consolidation. So, we get basically too big to fail. Unless some upstart comes and shake things up. Right now, in the US, there is just Boeing doing commercial airliners, and a hand full of other giants doing military aircraft. What we need is like a Space X for the aircraft industry.
  19. kalvasflam
    The truth of course is that even with the bloviating by our idiotic leaders, the US military is still far ahead of the nearest competitor. There will be rude surprises, but the strategic situation overall still hasn't turned enough for the nearest peer to be directly competitive. It may change in another two decades, but for now, the weakness isn't in its body, rather in its heart and mind.
  20. kalvasflam
    What you said about the F-35 with AMRAAM Ds might be true. And yes it's newer technology, but realistically, it tells you how far US naval aviation has regressed. Those capabilities were already available in the mid to late 80s, and more. (by which I mean, the capability to hit aerial targets 100 miles out, to strike targets with lots of ordinance from more than just a few hundred miles away, to have significantly ranged ASW platform from carriers) That in 30 years, the USN has not advanced beyond those capabilities, and have in fact retarded their long range strike as well as their anti submarine capabilities from the carriers tells you just how dire things are. I suppose you can blame good parts of this on the Clinton drawdown, which was follow by budget being diverted to the wars in the middle east., and the wasteful expenditures in the Pentagon. If they had just incrementally advanced the capabilities of the aircrafts from the 80s, the US Navy would have been in much better shape over all. All this fighting against the paper tigers in the middle east has basically taken the edge off of the USN capabilities, to a point where it is possible for there to be a near peer compared to the USN. How sad. The day the F-14s were retired from the USN is more or less the day most Macross fans gave up hope of ever seeing a transforming VF-1.
  21. kalvasflam
    In a word, they should've made the damned thing for the USAF first, gotten it all done, and then signed up the other countries and services. Well, too bad we let a bunch of whack jobs in the Pentagon dictate how all of this should go, and now, basically, what you have is the worst of all worlds. The F-35 was designed to be the jack of all trades, and instead it became the jack of no trades.
  22. kalvasflam
    I don't know about that, all I know is that the Aussies sure know what to do with their surplus gear. The most entertaining part of the note, those aircraft were of the same vintage as the CF-18s. But then, it's not that much money, not enough for a new F-35. Which could wipe the floor with those 25 F-18s if it had enough weapons. https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/canberra-confirms-sale-of-25-hornets-to-canada-at-a-454867/
  23. kalvasflam
    I heard the audio, I'm not sure how much of it was cut, but it seemed like the decent and landing was pretty quick. My bet is some of it was cut. Anyway, going back to my favorite whipping boy, the F-35. https://www.businessinsider.com/trumps-new-pentagon-chief-said-the-1-trillion-f-35-is-f-2019-1 My only comment here is: OMG. Not because of the fact what Shanahan said was true, but because of the fact a Boeing exec made that comment. Now I question whether Boeing would've done any better, (hello KC-46) but Boeing was stuck with a firm fixed price contract, there is no question that the -35 was a crap show that kept ramping up costs. Either way though, the acting SecDef isn't doing himself any favors, and now the procurement decisions involving the F-15X is going to get questioned, and it won't matter if he signed a pledge, his soul, or his firstborn on recusing himself from Boeing related matters. This is what happens when defense consolidation gets too far.
  24. kalvasflam
    I read that, and it was nothing short of a miracle. At,that altitude, even ejecting is very iffy. That they managed to land the plane was just amazing. Although I believe this wasn't the first time for a canopy failure at altitude. Fortunately they had oxygen, but can't imagine the thermal shock the two must have gone through.
  25. kalvasflam
    You mean like transform? I agree. It is sad, that they retired the F-14. I think part of that had to do with the demise of Grumman and it being folded into Northrop. And let's face it, Northrop Grumman hasn't built much in the way of combat aircraft as of late. Sure, there is the B-21 coming up, the only thing we can hope for is that there won't be the same B-2 cost overruns which ended production at 21 units.
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