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kalvasflam

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Everything posted by kalvasflam

  1. kalvasflam
    There is an argument to be made about multi-role and single role type aircraft. The best versions of so called multi-role aircraft in my opinion started out with a single role, and then expanded, I'm of course talking about the F-15. One could argue all of the other 4th generation fighters and bombers were single role aircraft to start with. The F-16 is a light attack, same for the F-18, and the F-14 was an all around interceptor specific to the Navy. The extensions on the F-16 and the F-18 mainly ended up in foreign markets (super hornets notwithstanding) where the need became multi-role. After all, the operators of the F-16 and F-18 had dual roles for both types. The F-22 was also a single role aircraft. And I don't think I would be too far off to suggest that had the production continued, they could've evolved a version of the -22 to a Strike Raptor. The F-35 was a disaster of a multi-role aircraft, one could in fact argue that if the services went with just three separate designs, they would've been better off. The A variants would have been the light attack replacement for the F-16s. The B variant would have been a close support type for the Marines, and the C variant would've been dedicated attack variant for the Navy. The F-35 became primarily an air force aircraft (owing to the economics involved) and the marine variant came off as a little brother, while the navy version became an unwanted stepchild. The only reason the -C has longer legs and better structural frames is because of the need to land the plane on a carrier. It's a bit sad that the US naval aviation has been reduced to such a sad state, in the days of the Soviet Union, each carrier air wing had 90 plus aircraft, now they barely field 60. There is no more long range attack (A-6), no dedicated sub hunters (S-3), no dedicated interceptors per se (F-14), only two specific airframes that are dedicated to multiple roles, F-18 for tanker, EW, light attack, interceptor, none of which are performed especially well compared to their single role counterparts. Then there is the F-35 for (I guess light attack) whatever role that it gets slotted for. Hopefully, with the 6th generation and the advent of UCAS, the USN will get back to more of its roots on the carriers.
  2. kalvasflam
    I would agree with David to a large extent. While the F-35 is a good aircraft for the most part, and it would've been an awesome F-16 replacement, and just as good an F-18 replacement, it just got stuck with too many roles. Not to say that the F-35 isn't a capable aircraft, but Lockheed really bilked the USAF and the government for a ton of money. I think if nothing else, the advocates of the F-35 and certainly Robert Gates should shoulder the blame for the travails suffered by this program, and they should be castigated for not continuing the F-22 line, because the learning on that line would've continued to carry over and reduce the cost of new aircraft, and certainly, I think one could've made a case for something like the equivalent of a Strike Eagle in the F-22 package. At the point of termination, the F-22 was a proven design, while the F-35 for its superficial similarities was still a new design. I wonder what lessons might be learned from programs like the P-8 which was both effective and within budget. Sadly, it isn't the manufacturer that is the difference considering how screwed up the KC-46 program is. And of course, still no AWACS replacement.
  3. kalvasflam
    The comparison was obviously made in jest. But you know, quantity has a quality all on its own, so said a crazed Georgian once. I think they built quite a few P-38, I wonder if they'll get up to a fraction of that number with the F-35. And in response to your comment about the F-35 killing targets BVR. That is true, as long as they can reach the target. Yes, you're of course correct, in combat these days, everything is chained together, the US showed that years ago. This is the real reason no one wants to play against the USAF or the USN, there are just too many assets that has the ability to amplify what even a weaker aircraft could do.
  4. kalvasflam
    The P-38's claim to fame is really that it killed Yamamoto. It's a nice looking plane, and did a great job in the Pacific, but if it's one thing that particular plane is known for, it is whacking Isoroku. You know what the funny thing is? The P-38 had better combat range than the F-35. Imagine that.
  5. kalvasflam
    You know, I don't mind the copy and paste machine that they have, but consider this, even that in and of itself is very inconsistent. In the three years since 2199, they built 5 Andros, and about a dozen DNs. Also, a number of Gamilas ships I'm assuming, and presumably refitted some of the older Earth vessels. Ok, I can buy that. Then from the time when 2202 started to the time at battle of Saturn, they have churned out or are in the process of churning out, more than a dozen Andromeda class, a few hundred dreadnoughts, and that doesn't even include the various patrol cruisers and such. I'm sorry, but WTF? It's like the time slip is a plot slip too, able to speed up production at will.. or I suppose, to slow it down. The same applies to Gatlantis. The only way they have managed to get this far one would assume is because they have something similar. How else do you explain from episode 1, with one Calaklum to the million plus that we saw in episode 7? It's just utterly crazy. If they had such a capability, why not just overwhelm the humans from day one. I am assuming Gatlantis also have some weird form of time slip, probably encompassing all those trapped planets. (It is ridiculous actually). Oh, and speaking of ridiculous, just how powerful is the WMG on Desslar's new ship, because that Gatlantis fleet with all those Calaklums he eliminated came from episode 7, and if I remember right, no Calaklums were actually destroyed (thank you pacifist Kodai, too bad nobody else cared) by Yamato. So, even if you assume half the number of Calaklums died from having parts stripped or fell out of formation or whatever. That's still a ridiculous number of ships, and Soto managed to kill them all in one shot. I have to tell you, that puts Desslar's ship heads and shoulders above all of those Andromedas. The Ultimate WTF. As for Teresa, I can say that when she finally does show up, it'll be a case of lazy writing.
  6. kalvasflam
    I have to say, it is utter stupidity that the USAF is not buying additional F-15s. Because the damned things are still decent missile trucks and still deadly against most gen 4 fighters. The fact of the matter is, they need an air superiority fighter, if they can't buy the F-22, then just go buy the thing from the line that is still open. As for the F-35, well, the thing is it would depend on the production line being open as long as the F-16 line was/is open and having literally thousands of those roll out. The plane itself has a lot to be desired, short legs for one. The USAF isn't so badly off since the unit is designed to replace F-16s. But the USN is screwed, the range is slightly better than the F-18 E/F but nowhere near what was lost when the Navy retired its last A-6. So, it isn't the best strike aircraft in the world until they get the Stingrays up and running, and hope they can double the range of the -Cs.
  7. kalvasflam
    Given how well the F-35 has worked out, not sure likening the concept of Lightning II to a Tomcat II would necessarily be a good idea. Also, Hasn't the Israelis looked at the Silent Eagle as a potential option. Overall, this current state of affairs can be blamed on Gates and his action that shut down the F-22 line. Yes, I feel that blame needs to go where it is deserved.
  8. kalvasflam
    The story is totally screwed up as far as the space battles and logic goes. A good story is something like MSG the Origin, the first few episodes where there was very few variants of mobile suits. 2199 was pretty consistent in terms of the mechanics if you think about it, Gamilas had a huge fleet which was built partly during Desslar's conquests. The Earth fleet was pretty pathetic. Then came 2202, and my rant. 2202 literally screwed the pooch with successive episodes, newly introduced warships are pretty quickly stormtrooperized for no discernable reason. The Medalusa class was the most powerful ship until episode 1 which several were shown in battle. Then came the mighty Calaklum, which was so awesome that it survived the WMG by Andromeda, and the pathetic shock cannons from Andromeda did nothing to that ship. (Sure, go ahead and tell me the WMG missed that ship and managed to hit everything else). By episode 7, there were millions of them, quite literally, which made the story utterly ridiculous. Why did we need them, because whiny Kodai had to justify the use of his pathetic WMG. Things are on a pretty even keel for a little while, because, hey, five Andromedas and some dozen dreadnoughts aren't that bad. I can even excuse the missile ships of idiocy in the Telezart portion of the arc. But then came the mighty battle of Saturn. In the original series, the Calaklums were not that numerous, led by a single Medalusa and supplemented by a lot of Kukulkans, then there was the Gatlantis carrier fleet. In terms of fleet organization, it almost made sense, that formation seemed a lot like the dreaded third or fifth fleet in WWII. But in 2202, what did Gatlantis bring to the party? Nothing but Calaklums, there were so many of them, it was insane. Oh, let's throw in a few sacrificial Nazca class ships so the Gatlantis fleet won't look too one dimensional. It's like a battle fleet consisting of nothing but New Jersey class battleships. But it's ok, at leas the human forces made sense, they had those new light cruisers and patrol cruisers, led by a single dreadnought and supplemented by a bunch of refitted Kongos armed with WMG. But then, to even things out, Earth spammed dreadnoughts. Oh, and remember when the mighty Calaklums just laughed off the Andromeda's WMG, and the shock canons couldn't even scratch the paint on those ships? Now, they were blasted to pieces with grim regularity by the dreadnought's shock cannons, that as far as I can tell were the same type as Andromedas. But don't worry, by episode 19, we'll up the number of specials, Andromedas by the dozens at least. New Andromeda class with more guns, Gamilas Andromedas, Andromedas with dreadnoughts attached. Oh, but for old time sake, we'll bring back some old Gamilas ships, and look, was that a Medalusa that was getting its ass kicked by some measly pieces of trash that was Gamilas cruisers? How the mighty has fallen. But lest we forget the important thing, by episode 17, WMGs were used with such regularity, it was essentially equivalent of atomic bombs being used like conventional artillery. If Starsha would've had the audacity to show up and lecture anyone, she would've been bitchslapped and then laughed out of town for her naivete. Times like this, I'm reminded of what Syndrome in the Incredibles said: *Everyone* can be super! And when everyone's super... ...*no one* will be. Yamato 2202 took the lovely notion of space battles as presented in 2199, took a crap on it, and then proceeded to kick the logic out of the situation, and slathered on the needless model kit variations to sell, then for good measure pissed on the entire concept and expect everyone to fall in love because, who doesn't like useless trash (Michael Bay Transformers) mashing into each other. end rant. Yes, for all that, I'll still watch the rest of 2202, I like a good train wreck.
  9. kalvasflam
    I'm sure before long, there will be variations aplenty. Let's see, I think the dreadnoughts will already have three color variations, for the Andromedas, I see ten types now, don't we just love nice color schemes, then there are all of those options beyond that. Plenty of choices. Everyone will get some type of love. Ginga has a model kit, and that's before it gets released on the silver screen.
  10. kalvasflam
    So, let's see, they decided to do the thing that would help to drive up the storyline, bring back the only character that I remotely care about. I wonder if the Dessler part is going to be in ep 20 or 21. Lots of new ships, Gamilas type Andromedas, not just carriers, but now battleships. The EDF threw up what I assume was a 10 gun battleship. I hope the story is as good as the animation. But we seem to be getting stormtrooperization of ships really fast. The boosted Andromedas are now ramming Gatlantis battleships, this is even before the episode gets released. I do think the one weakness with this entire show is how they depict time. In the three years they had the time dance, they launched five Andromeda class, and now, in a span of months ( am assuming its only months in between ep 1 and ep 18), they are launching two new ship types at least, well over a dozen Andromedas, not including the Gamilas variants. I'm going to assume that the Andromeda Yamanami is on is actually not the original, because they can't be sitting there having a stalemate for weeks on end. So, this is just a bit nuts. I would be curious to see if someone actually put up the statistics on the battle of Saturn, and what happened afterwards. It wouldn't surprise me if the number of ships went into the thousands.
  11. kalvasflam
    Looks entertaining. It was kind of funny how there is suddenly a break in the action, it's like that old Star Trek episode where they encountered the Borg, immediately after the Borg tractor is cut off, Picard shouts: "conference, now" and the main characters all saunter off to the conference room to discuss the next course of action while a very real enemy is just sitting there, doing nothing. PLOT DEVICE. Zordar can't be bothered with the human/Gamilas battle fleet immediately, he needs to head off and choke out Sabera again. It's funny though, what happened to the other two Andromeda class ships? why is the Andromeda itself sticking around? why didn't its DNs get close and act as a booster? so many questions, and no answers at all.
  12. kalvasflam
    For direct energy weapons, there are a few considerations, such as range, and the amount of power needed. to do sufficient damage. You can technically buy laser diodes that runs in the hundreds of Watts, stack a bunch of them together, and you can get up to tens of kW range pretty easily. A potential reference point would be the AN/SEQ-3, it is estimated to be running at 15 kW to 50 kW, my guess is that this is really a pulsed laser. Now, it's a big sucker since its mounted on a ship, but in theory, you could mount that onto an F-35, and it could be powered by the engine on that particular plane without any problems. But then you'd have to propagate enough of that energy through the air to physically do damage to an air frame, or may be detonate something like ordinance or fuel. The physics of it becomes a problem, the real airborne testbeds thus far have been mounted on the 747, the YAL. Then for fighters, you have to somehow mount the weapon on, and be able to steer the beam physically onto a target. Which is technically something that has already been worked out given the availability of laser jammers that can target missiles. However, even though this might be technically feasible, the practical reality is that the laser probably can't be just mounted to a fighter for air to air combat. My guess is that the laser above probably has range under 10 miles, but that assumes the power can be scaled up. This is great as long as your target is within visual light of sight. But in any type of aerial engagement, the fight is supposed to be BVR (beyond visual range), this usually means air to air missiles. If you get too close, the whole point of stealth start to become irrelevant because the other side might see you. And if you have directed energy weapons, so might they. My guess is that lasers might be good to take down relatively undefended targets like tankers or transports and such, but any type of counter air would still require lots and lots of AAMs. That said, I would guess that it might actually be possible for lasers to take down incoming AAMs, it would be a pretty small window for engagement, but definitely possible as long as the laser is oriented in the right direction.
  13. kalvasflam
    Star Wars movies always seem to have issues with time. I think the time period in TLJ might actually be easier to explain if it weren't for the Reylo interactions. Because you could infer that Rey was with Luke for months while the actions between the Resistance and the FO was taking place over the span of just a few days. ESB is quite a bit harder consider how the rebels all left Hoth at the same time, for Luke to realistically get more than a few days of training with Yoda, one would have to infer that the Falcon was playing hide and seek with the Empire in the asteroid belt for weeks. But then, if we put any of these movies to any kind of serious analysis, everything would start to fall apart. So, I guess we just have to completely ignore disbelief and enjoy the show.
  14. kalvasflam
    You know, this is the problem with going all in on these social issues for the movies, they've done such a horrible job that they end up making woman look bad. The impression you walk away with on Phasma is that she is nothing more than a specially dressed, babble spouting, idiotic nutjob. Congrats Hollywood, way to make a strong female character. Then with Rey, they went the opposite direction, she's essentially the second coming of Anakin Skywalker, so damned powerful that she can fly ships without training, duel with lightsaber and use the force with nary a glance. Disney should just stick with what its good at, great popcorn flicks, stop trying to be so social on everything.
  15. kalvasflam
    Well, let's be honest, Fett probably got lucky somehow, and then had a series of lucky coincidences which cemented his reputation. But listen, it can only improve from there, the actor for Jango is going to be Aquaman's dad. So, that's gotta be a good thing right? His son talks to fish... that's definitely an improvement over "My son got swallowed by a stationary thing in the middle of the desert because a blind guy accidentally shoved a pole into his rocket pack, and he fell in." Hmmm, that came out wrong. Oh well. As for Phasma, I argue she would fit right in with the KoR. Because if the guys Reylo minced in Ep VIII were KoR, let's face it, they were pretty incompetent and stupid too. Hello, your boss just got offed by his apprentice, and now the few of you morons are going to fight him? Then what? The logical process of thought would've been, "Oh crap, Snoke is dead, we're going to get revenge, and kill his assassin... wait a minute, let's say we kill these two, then what are we gonna do? What the heck, why are we risking life and limb for a dead guy again? Screw it. I'm going to sit back and do nothing, that's usually a good idea. After all, no reason for the apprentice to be mad at us, we've just stood around posing."
  16. kalvasflam
    Her armor does stand out. You know what it says, out of a sea of white targets, that chrome piece of crap is screaming "SHOT ME, SHOT ME" How she managed to become a leader of anything is beyond me. As for the difference between her and Fett, to be honest, sometimes, people can't tell if you're an idiot or an incompetent if you don't open your mouth, but if you start talking, they'll have confirmation.
  17. kalvasflam
    Are you kidding me? Phasma was probably one of the KoR, that she'll come back extra crispy with a side of BBQ sauce is not necessarily a bad thing. Finn needs to have an enemy. A nemesis, cause otherwise, who is Finn going to test his awesome hand to hand skills against. Certainly not Rose. And let's face it, Kylo would just own him.
  18. kalvasflam
    But it would be a sweet opening scene. Rey offing the KoR, may be we can leave one of them alive for the future. haha.
  19. kalvasflam
    Having power and the ability to use said powers are two completely different things. It was interesting how Leia suddenly decided to go all Mary Poppins in outer space considering that she had shown no such aptitude in the previous movies. But whatever, I'm sure Luke had been training her somehow. As for the knights of Ren, I'm sure we'll see them in Ep IX. They'll be da bomb.
  20. kalvasflam
    Ok, I don't care who is playing Aquaman, but the guy talks to fish.
  21. kalvasflam
    Thor movies were mostly carried by Loki, and Loki still did a lot of that in the third one. The other characters stepped up. It certainly didn't hurt to exclude or limit other characeters, no more Padme Amidala saying: "you're breaking my heart" was a huge improvement. The Jane Foster character was just not that good. At best, she was a vehicle for getting Thor back on Earth. I liked the fact that they knocked off the annoying parts of the Asgardians: Warriors 3, and thank goodness Sif was a noshow. I agree though, not as much in the way of repercussions, but it still did advance the overall MCU plotline a little by bringing the Hulk back into the mix.
  22. kalvasflam
    yep, gotta admit, for the MCU, the Capt America series was actually the best of the individual ones, certainly better than Thor, and I'd argue better overall than Ironman. Although Thor's last outing redeemed the series.
  23. kalvasflam
    So, this is the secret plan, while the story telling in 2202 has went down the tubes and we've hit full speed on the copier, the way to lure back fans is to provide appropriate fan service. 2199 certainly set up the franchise well with all those strong females characters, if Yuki doesn't work, send in Yamamoto and Melda with even less clothing and more suggestive poses. Throw in some bananas and cherries while you're at it. The male brain can be turned into mush, and after they've become pliable, they'll accept however much BS we put into the series. Oh, and for the bluray editions, we'll also put in more special fan service material with special shots and profiles (at never seen before angles) of these dolls.
  24. kalvasflam
    For the answer to that, I direct you to this famous quote: Dark Helmet: Now you see that evil will always triumph, because good is dumb. Thank you Mel Brooks and Spaceballs.
  25. kalvasflam
    I think there are too many unknowns with the state of the rest of the galaxy to be sure. It would be pretty weird if the bulk of the Republic military and all of the decision making authority was just in one system. Sure, you might be able to take out the seat of political power, but there is usually someone left over, and the militaries typically don't act that stupidly to concentrate everything in one place. Also, for the US, DC can be turned into a crater, and that still wouldn't buy whoever it is reprieve from retaliation. The military command structure would still be there, and there is always a designated survivor somewhere. I don't how deep the line of succession goes really, but you'd have to take out a whole lot all the way to eliminate the US government. But anyway, I guess we're probably expecting a bit too much for movies to emulate the reality.
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