kalvasflam

That's a good point, a regional war is far more likely to escalate into something big and go nuclear as these smaller powers gets nukes. Control might be lacking, and there might be a willingness to use these weapons. The whole reason places like Iran and Pakistan are even considered a threat on nukes is due to likelihood of terrorism. Both China and the US has too much to lose going at it. That way nobody is a winner, the one likely area of conflict "Spately Islands" is likely going to be worked out into some type of energy sharing deal unless there is a gigantic energy crisis all of a sudden. Taiwan, is really a non-issue, it'll go back to China eventually, it may be a million years, but it won't matter. The big question on the military development is the width and depth of those development. It will continue to expand intoo space in the next century for sure. But in terms of in atmosphere aircrafts, it'll be two fronts, stealth and sensor platforms, as well as integration and expansion of unmanned vehicles into all the services.

That is true, the military budget is really directed toward operational needs now. I can foresee when Iraq and Afghanistan is over, there will likely be a lot of replenishment of warstock and equipment. I wonder when the next generation MBT will be developed; the M1s aren't going to be the king forever.

Interesting, I wonder if the Raver angle will tie into anything. I was hoping the batty was dead, but oh well. I hope they do well with this turn of events.

The GA depiction of Globalhawk is actually pretty accurate, all it does now is loiter, and take pictures, kind of like an airline. Of course, that's what the predator used to be like to until somebody in the CIA thought about the brilliant idea of taping on a pair of Hellfires.

Look.... UAV funnies http://aviationweek.typepad.com/ares/2007/...cartoon_co.html I think I like the GA cartoon a bit better. It accurately depicts the Globalhawk as is. And hell, who doesn't like those priceless commercials.

Going off topic once again, for China to successfully attack Taiwan, they need to hold the straits long enough to land lots of ground pounders. It really depends on whether or not they can achieve air superiority, otherwise, it becomes a blood bath for whatever phibs they have. China does have a sufficiently large air force, so, if they get in enough numbers, they can probably overwhelm Taiwan. But this is fantasy talk, there is no way China would risk a shooting war that would essentially throw all those years of progress down the drain. The same would be true for NK, I mean, why would China stick up for a nobody? There is not much in the way of profit, no goal is advanced by acutally siding with Korea militarily. Back on topic. For UCAVs, if they can make each one at the cost of 1/10th of an F-16, then they start becoming economical. Because then, they essentially become disposable units. Otherwise, it's a lot of money to maintain them, and then you don't even have a man in the loop. The Predator itself is not a bad start, but early models were still a bit too expensive. And they don't deliver much ordinance. The one that I like the most in economic terms is the Minion, assuming if that ever comes to fruition. Then that would truly be an interesting UCAV.

Amen, to even think about having US Army and Marines taking on the Chinese army is folly. The lift capability to get the troops there is non-existent, and China doesn't have enough blue water capability to sealift its armies. The US Army has been, and will be a force that is geared to destroying other armies, it is not a fit force to occupy territory. UCAV development will be interesting though, but I'm not sure if its enough savings to really justify taking out the man in the loop. I just can't believe a UCAV vs a manned aircraft that the former will ever be able to take on the latter in a dogfight unless the UCAV is totally autonomous. I still don't see how several UCAVs can work as well as say an F-15 loaded with SDB.

Ah but did you know Chloe is truly famous. See Chloe.... http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/sto...mp;channel=comm There is no DoD or DoHS project named Tony, or Michelle, Bucchanan, or even Jack Yeah, you can just imagine a nerdy looking girl squinting at a computer screen and going: "oh my God, a missile, take that, take that, and that, and that, and that..."

No... Death to Audrey, no one abandons 24 and lives. Oh, this reminds me, I really don't like Milo and Nadia, not even remotely close to Tony and Michelle.

I wonder if the A350 will be transported the same way when the time comes... would the dimensions be right?

Crap, why can't those things fly to Moffet field. How annoying.

Oh no, there goes the poor evil Republican... nooooooooooo.... now we have to rely on the evil Democrat to be a good foil on 24. Although it's kind of interesting, things looks like they're coming to a rapid conclusion for the muslim terrorist. I wonder who the mole is... hey... that drone looks like a mini global-hawk.

The Airbus problems are major only on the surface. If anyone doubts that France and Germany aren't going to bail out that company, they're deluded. They can't afford to let Airbus go down, this Power8 thing, if that has to go in order to get some French and Germany politicians elected, well, hey, France is already a socialist country anyway.

I think I've also see a similar pic except that they also squeezed in an AMRAAM in there. http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-SDB.html The things are supposed to cost about $70K to $90K a pop.

I've seen one armed with eight AMRAAMs on an Aviation Space weekly magazine, or was it ten, I can't remember, but it's ridiculous. I talked to an -18 pilot once back in 98 I think, and the guy laughed and said it was ridiculous what Boeing (might have still been MCD then) put up since there weren't more than 200 AMRAAMs in the inventory.

Trust CNN for accurate information... well, reporters aren't paid to report good news, it's the bad news that's interesting. He was probably hoping that the flight disappeared mysteriously, then it would really make it onto the news cycle. But one interesting effect might be seeing how much the humidity effect might be for the plane. Although, it's not that humid in Hawaii at the moment.

Blasphemy... Ike is rolling over in his grave right now... mainly because he is not a class of tank (Patton, Sherman, etc), but seconded to a class of carrier named after a squid admiral.

I hope Iran buys a bunch. Mig 35 that is.... haven't looked at the stats, but what's so different about the Mig 35 vs the standard Mig 29?

I'm sorry, I don't want to... but I have to.... oh who am I kidding, I enjoy torturing you... bring on the pain inducers. Where is that damned agonizer.... ha ha ha ha Oh, damn, daddy says my time with you is done... wahhhhhh, he wants to play with you... sorry bro.

That's probably because all the European fighters were carbon copies of each other.... heh heh Sorry, couldn't help myself. One of my personal favorites, probably the precusor of these planes. The F-16XL.

I'm hoping Gray will stick around a little longer, nothing like family fued. I could stand to see the master mind being busted out of CTU jail at the end of the day. As for dad, well, to be honest, I'm not too thrilled with Jack's dad being involved. I was hoping the Gray story line take a little longer to play out.

It's a fun show, but they're just doing repeats now I think. The funniest one was when I caught a commercial on History channel about the battle off Samar, and the commercials called Yamato, the Yamamoto... hilarious. But it's a very well done show. I am looking forward to new episodes, I wonder when they'll come out with the next one. There is literally tons of materials, WWII and so on. I don't recall, but they haven't done one that centered on people other than the Americans, and so far, it's pretty limited to the Asia theater of operation I think. But Battle of Britian comes easily to mind here as good fodder for the show. I'd also like to see what they have on the ostfront. That would be great.

Yes, just like between the a supposed Soviet/US nuclear war, there will be a winner, but if that's winning, I think people would rather do without. In regards to Korean and Vietnam, that is a bygone era. It was the time of our glorious chairman, well, once he kicked the bucket, let's just say things hadn't been so great between Vietnam and PRC for a while. These border wars and so forth. As for NK, let's face it, NK under Chinese influence a long time ago, they're puppets. If China's threat is their military, then their weakness as have been pointed out by others is their economy. Their track record is a mindset, win at all cost, nothing wrong with that as long as they're being smart about not committing national suicide (something that would happen in a shooting war) But speaking of the Chinese military, who do they threaten exactly? Please let me know. I'm mystified by your statement. As for arms race, the analogy is to the US/Soviet arms race, under those context, there is no such thing with China right now. And if you're talking about selling arms, you can pretty easily see who sells the most armaments on the planet, by a large margin, it's the US, followed by the Russians.

All of which (David's statements) points to the fact that strategically, China is just not as likely to take the gloves off against the US. The big sore point right now: Taiwan is nothing but bluster at the end of the day, only a lunatic would ever even contemplating a military action there. The US has implied that it will come to Taiwan's aid as well. Again, all of it is talk. In that situation, there is no winner at all, only a collective group of losers if a shooting war starts. Everyone stands to lose a ton of money if there was ever a shooting war between China and the US. Any true communist (in China) would know this, and would go to great length to avoid this. After all, you don't put your country on the fast track to riches, and then deliberately derail yourselves in the process. In the long run, the real threat from China is not military, it's economical. There isn't much of an arms race right now either, it's just catch up. No real concern for a few decades on the military front.

My thoughts exactly, let's not blow things out of proportion. China tested a capability. Let's not treat it as a declaration of war or anything. As the country grows, military muscle is one of the thing that China feels it has to have. From their point of view, it's protection of their current infrastructure. It's a bit unlikely for China to go off like little Kimmy to the East.