Military News

[Jedi2155]

http://rt.com/news/203579-nato-us-mistral-france/

 

US Congressman suggest that NATO buys 2 helicopter carriers destined for Russia....

 

The idea of buying the Mistral vessels is “absurd from a military point of view” because the ships are“custom-built in accordance with Russian standards, which makes their use by NATO highly problematic and will require additional, expensive refitting,” he stressed.

The source has called the proposal by the US senators “a purely political project, in which NATO as an organization is physically unable to participate.”

“The main irony in this situation” is that even if several NATO member states will be able to allocate the necessary funds and purchase the ships – it’s not France, but Russia, which will get the money, he said.

“The contract has been paid and the redemption price will go to Moscow,” which today is “probably”more interested in money than in Mistral and “does not look too concerned” about the problem with delivery.

"The fact that this logic isn’t obvious to the US congressmen may only cause disappointment among allies and laughter among the Russians,” he concluded.

 

[kuhla]

Feels like a really sloppy solution to asset denial.

[Jedi2155]

Interesting:

 

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-wwii-propaganda-campaign-popularized-the-myth-that-carrots-help-you-see-in-the-dark-28812484/?no-ist

 

http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-most-mind-blowing-tricks-used-during-any-war

 

Making people believe that eating carrot improves eye sight. And my mom, still keeps telling this (carrots are good for eyes, but has no correlation with improved eye sight).

During World war II, there were couple of developments in Britain:

1. Britain imported about 70% of its food items from elsewhere (source from link below), while it had an abundance of carrot grown domestically. A food shortage due to naval blockade was imminent. But how to encourage people to eat carrot?

2. Britain's RAF during the war, had developed a superior radar so that now they could work well even in dark, but the invention was kept under wraps for obvious reasons. RAF were then reeling with the problem of sudden surge in identification and hit rates of German aircrafts, especially during night time. Also Britain with help from Poles had cracked the enigma (the encryption device that Germans felt were unbreakable) (Vikram Gunasekar's answer to Who are some little known people that changed the world?) and reading almost all their communications and hence were aware of every single German fleet movement. They even had to restrain themself from bringing down few targets even when they perfectly knew where they were. So how to take advantage of these 2 technology breakthroughs without causing suspicion among Germans?

They decided to kill these 2 birds with one stone - Through a massive propaganda that carrot improves eye sight during black outs. This while encouraging people to eat carrot, also explained the improved hit rate. Pilots were supposedly asked to keep munching away carrots which improved their eye sight in dark to extreme levels.

Apparently Germans and the whole world took the bait and believed it. And a lot of people continue doing it till date.

[kuhla]

There is some science behind it but it's real thin. The rod cells in your eyes are entirely responsible for night vision. Rhodopsin is a light-sensitive receptor protein found in the rods. That protein requires retinal, a form of vitamin A. Carrots are high in vitamin A so there are the two dots to connect but there are a lot of dots in between. Very few people are deficient in vitamin A and there are a number of other vitamin A sources and if you have a crappy diet then even if you high dose vit A the uptake will be bad so it won't make much difference.

[Jedi2155]

The point of the article is the choice of words that most people use. This is a good quote from the smithsonian.

 

Somewhere on the journey the message that carrots are good for your eyes became disfigured into improving eyesight

 

That is where the propaganda lied. If it was too false, then the Germans wouldn't believe it because they have plenty of scientists too. But it had to be such a slim truth where the line be lie and truth would be blurred such as in this case.

[kuhla]

So what you are saying is despite double checking wikipedia, I've still let 1940s British propoganda get me worked up into promoting carrots?

[Jedi2155]

Maybe . I actually couldn't tell from your post because you only presented facts about what it does do. The tone of how you presented the facts though sounded like you believed that the science says "well it can improve eye sight, but only very limited individuals." That is true but belays the fact carrots provides nutrients good for eye health but generally does not improve eye sight except in the circumstances you showed but the propaganda stated that it would improve for everyone.....

 

if you have a crappy diet then even if you high dose vit A the uptake will be bad so it won't make much difference.

 

Reading into that, I'm not sure if you still had the assumption that it would be beneficial for "everyone" versus just some people.

I'm really peeling into onion thin assumptions in reading your thoughts . THE BRITISH PROPAGANDA EFFORT STILL AFFECTS 21st CENTURY GERMANS.

[Jedi2155]

Dutch F-16 shoots itself down
https://www.funker530.com/dutch-f-16-shoots/

 

[Malaphax]

I'm going to try and keep this as non-political as possible. 

Germany underspends their NATO target of 2.0% GDP.  Their population generally does not like spending on the military.  However, they've underspent to such levels that they cannot maintain military readiness.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/05/german-air-force-unable-train-pilots-shortage-planes/

As the largest economy in the EU and 2nd largest in NATO, it's tough to look at Germany's unwillingness to spend as reasonable, especially with the rise in Russian agression (there's still fighting in Ukraine) and China's rise on the global stage. 
The new defense minister of Germany Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, is widely seen as the successor for Merkel, and I'm curious what (if anything) she'll do regarding this problem. 

[kuhla]

4 hours ago, Malaphax said:

I'm going to try and keep this as non-political as possible. 

Germany underspends their NATO target of 2.0% GDP.  Their population generally does not like spending on the military.  However, they've underspent to such levels that they cannot maintain military readiness.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/05/german-air-force-unable-train-pilots-shortage-planes/

As the largest economy in the EU and 2nd largest in NATO, it's tough to look at Germany's unwillingness to spend as reasonable, especially with the rise in Russian agression (there's still fighting in Ukraine) and China's rise on the global stage. 
The new defense minister of Germany Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, is widely seen as the successor for Merkel, and I'm curious what (if anything) she'll do regarding this problem. 

So I agree in the sense that (1) they promised to hit that number publicly (NATO) and (2) because they (NATO) seem to rely very heavily on the idea of the US always being there in the case something really goes wrong which feels like a very unhealthy way of thinking (every country should consider self sufficiency a bit more in this ultra-globalized world we live in imho).

That being said, Germany's spending (in USD, not GPD%) as recently as 2007 was in the same ballpark as China and Russia ( https://ourworldindata.org/military-spending ). I think conventional warfare is just unlikely to happen these days. Looking into the future it would seem more effective to divert funding into counter-terrorism, cyber-defense, COIN, etc.

Looking even beyond that, military operations have an environmental cost in terms of the production and use of military equipment which gets more and more "expensive" to justify every year.

[kuhla]

I know this is a really old thread but I did not want to start a new thread.

https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/02/09/nato-seen-favorably-across-member-states/#public-reluctance-on-article-5-obligations-across-nato-member-countries

Results from one survey question from last year.

60% of Germans claimed their country should NOT use military force to defend a NATO ally in the event of a Russian attack. Think about that for a moment. They are obligated by the NATO agreement but they still would not want to. It is disappointing.

[Malaphax]

This was made fairly clear with Ukraine and invasion/war that's still happening.  Germany seems content to let Russia just slowly gobble up former soviet states.  The fact that they're not interested in defending a NATO ally is just plain sad, especially because they would absolutely expect to be defended if they were attacked.  Why do I have this weird flashback about Poland getting screwed over while other countries watch?

I still firmly believe that some of these multi-lateral treaties, like NATO, need to get serious about having member abide by the rules and standards they've agreed to.  Germany and several other countries consistently don't meet their target goal of 2%, if that's the case why the hell should the US abide by that same treaty?  There needs to be some mechanism to address non-compliance and penalize countries that don't meet their agreements otherwise NATO itself becomes pointless. 

[kuhla]

3 hours ago, Malaphax said:

......NATO itself becomes pointless. 

I'm especially disappointed in Germany but look at the other countries in that survey. France, Italy, Greece, Spain are also in the >50% "don't get involved even to defend an ally" group. Those are some of the biggest EU militaries. Unless the numbers are skewed by people not taking the survey questions seriously, NATO really does look pointless. On that same page, just scroll down a little bit to the survey "People in member states say the U.S. would defend a NATO ally" and look at those results. They overwhelmingly feel that the US would jump to their defense. Everyone decries the USA acting as "world police" but offer no alternative and are unwilling to get their hands dirty.

[Jedi2155]

No one ever wants to get their hands dirty....

On a side note, the new FFG(X) program is using an Italian builder...looks like a varation of the Italian FREMM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FREMM_multipurpose_frigate

 

new ALAMO round used in the LCS and FFGX in the 57mm turret:

 

[Jedi2155]

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/31409/everything-we-know-about-americas-sword-blade-hellfire-missile-and-its-latest-target

Was not aware of this weapon system.....flying blades for targeted assassination.....

[kuhla]

So a bunch of blades and a small explosive. How weird.

[Jedi2155]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heckler_%26_Koch_G36

Apparently the G36 is being phased out of service and being replaced by the MK 556.

 

Quote

In 2010, Bundeswehr forces equipped with G36 rifles came into a combat encounter with members of the Taliban, in which the barrels overheated, and three German soldiers were killed. This prompted an investigation, which found that two magazines (60 rounds) were enough to overheat the G36's barrel to a severe enough extent to cause accuracy degradation, The G36 is made largely of polymer to keep it lightweight, and it has been suggested that the polymer barrel housing may be the cause of this issue. After the incident, the German Minister of Defence, Ursula von der Leyen, claimed that "The Heckler & Koch G36 has no future in the German army in its current state of construction."^[5] Heckler & Koch rejected these claims, asserting that the faults of the rifles came from faulty ammunition, or the tin barrel covering applied by the Bundeswehr, and also cited its widespread usage as proof of the weapon's effectiveness. The Ministry of Defence attempted to sue H&K, saying they were legally obligated to repair their rifles. The court ruled in H&K's favor, saying that since the G36 was designed according to the Ministry's own specifications, H&K was not responsible for any faults in the weapon.^[6] The H&K would eventually make their own replacement for the G36 in the early 2000s, the HK416, which was adopted by several countries, including Germany and the United States.

Starting in 2017, the German Ministry of Defence had conceived a replacement for the G36. Several companies attempted to provide a replacement, including H&K, who had submitted both the HK416 and HK433, but lost to the MK 556, by C. G. Haenel, with the decision being finalised on the 14 September 2020. H&K complained about "unrealistic demands",^[7] and claimed that there was a lack of fairness in the proceedings, a notion shared by another participant, SIG Sauer. The first MK 556 rifles were expected to begin production by the end of October 2020, where it was slated to eventually phase out the G36.^[8] However, a possible patent law violation by Haenel concerning their rifle's magazine forced the German government to withdraw its commission.

 

[kuhla]

22 minutes ago, Jedi2155 said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heckler_%26_Koch_G36

Apparently the G36 is being phased out of service and being replaced by the MK 556.

 Short-stroke gas piston AR-style. Just like everybody else 😕 it's proven, it's super modular but damn it's also getting boring.

[Jedi2155]

10 hours ago, kuhla said:

 Short-stroke gas piston AR-style. Just like everybody else 😕 it's proven, it's super modular but damn it's also getting boring.

I feel like there are plenty of good alternative bull pup designs like the Tavor and Aug but oh well.

[Malaphax]

The US military is currently in trials for a new rifle and one design is a bullpup. 
https://www.defensenews.com/news/your-army/2020/10/14/the-armys-saw-and-m4-replacement-is-headed-to-troops-by-2022/
https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/gearscout/irons/2019/10/15/these-are-general-dynamics-ngsw-contenders-and-its-a-bunch-of-bullpup/

Some concerns I've seen mentioned regarding bullpup designs are reloading based, especially while prone.  The magazine is just much closer to your torso and it can make things awkward - sort of a reach towards your armpit and reloading by feel.  Standard AR style systems have the advantage of the magazine being further out and more easily manipulated. 

At this point the "new" hotness is the 6.8mm remmington round that the army wants to swap to.  That could be a new NATO standard if we do adopt it - might be a cool middle ground between 5.56 and 7.62

[Jedi2155]

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/why-china-suddenly-cancelled-plans-two-super-aircraft-carriers-147131

Propangda news paper but has some interesting news items

Quote

The catapults used by China’s third and fourth-carriers are also experiencing teething issues, according to Chan: “tests of the electromagnetic catapults used to launch the J-15, China’s only carrier-based fighter, had yet to meet the required standard.”
 Chan’s source also claimed “China doesn’t possess the nuclear technology required, although it has developed many nuclear-powered submarines.” Apparently carrier’s larger scale needs pose a greater technical challenge.

Beijing may also be having second thoughts on whether springing big bucks for big carriers is the best use of its defense budget.  China’s carriers greatest value may lie more in prestige, power projection against weaker adversaries, and building experience for later capability growth, rather than as deterrence against the U.S. Navy.

After all, a six-carrier PLA Navy would still be balancing against eleven higher-capability U.S. carriers. In the past, such naval imbalances in power often resulted in the weaker side’s most valuable ships staying in port rather than sallying forth into likely defeat. Consider the 17 huge Kaiser Wilhelm dreadnaughts built prior to World War I, which saw limited action because they were contained by the 29 dreadnaughts in the Royal Navy.

 

[Malaphax]

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2022/04/19/army-chooses-sig-sauer-to-build-its-next-generation-squad-weapon/

[kuhla]

I'm sure that the new rifle and the new ammo are better but this seems like a huge waste of money/resources and especially bad timing with everything else going on right now.