gravelbelly22

gravelbelly22

  • Commented on Service announcement: upcoming outage(s)
    But that was then. Today I'm going to express my team's work allocations as post-it notes on a whiteboard, because we have been instructed we now use agile methods for management. No-one has advised how that is supposed to work,...
  • Commented on Service update
    Charlie - just for my nitpicky OCD, you wouldn't get a Typhoon to supercruise at M2, the figure is apparently M1.6 for a "clean" aircraft. Anyway... It's not as if iScotland would need an interception capability; the Baltic States and...
  • Commented on Service update
    It's interesting... The debate is certainly triggering high levels of political interest; I heard one suggestion that the referendum could result in an 80% voter turnout. The polls are still sitting at fractionally over half No, just over a third...
  • Commented on The Ferguson Question
    It's a bit more subtle than that... MoD Police aren't quite "policing the armed forces" (that's the Military Police, in its various branches); and when there's a need for civil police, for a civil offence, it's the local constabulary that...
  • Commented on Hiatus
    And congratulations too, to Ginjer Buchanan. Perhaps your shameless touting worked? :)...
  • Commented on Down tools
    That's the USAF's version of "working to rule." When the Pentagon doesn't like the orders they get from the Oval Office, they interpret them in such as way as to increase casualties. Sorry, that's using conspiracy theories when plain old...
  • Commented on Down tools
    Sorry - your strategic mobility argument fails as soon as the escorts in your CVBG can't keep up. The carrier can't steam around on its own without AAW and ASW escorts, and the SSN that apparently escorts USN CVBG will...
  • Commented on Down tools
    I did enjoy the "Mr. Earbrass" link, though. Oysters and trifle? Wow....
  • Commented on Down tools
    Nowt to do with "invade Russia or PRC". More to do with "Russia sells S-400 or one of the more advanced S-300 models to anyone with the cash". But yes, F-35 is apparently a bit more than "not that much...
  • Commented on Down tools
    The production cost of a military aircraft is a far smaller fraction of the total cost than for, say, a car. The Canadians did a cost analysis (easy to find with a search engine) that suggested that it's as low...
  • Commented on Down tools
    Using nuclear propulsion for "independence from your supply chain" is a myth; you still need an RFA to refuel all of the escorts in the CVBG (because a CVN on its own, without AAW and ASW support is a bad...
  • Commented on Down tools
    But do you need to? The radar horizon against a 5m altitude target isn't that different; and you only need a couple of thousand feet of altitude to see to the full range of the ASTER 30. http://www.ewdefence.co.uk/onlinetools.html Meanwhile, it...
  • Commented on Down tools
    Hugo - the reason that the Argentinian Navy failed to close with the RN task force was simple; the Vienticinco de Mayo was a bit wheezy, and there wasn't enough wind for it to hit full speed into wind, while...
  • Commented on Down tools
    Actually, the USN is quite impressed by the QE class. The modular build appears to have gone swimmingly, and the £6billion bill for two carriers is impressive next to the Ford-class CVN bill of $14 billion for the first vessel...
  • Commented on Down tools
    Dirk - the F-35 has never flown in exercise against Sukhoi pilots, so I would suggest that your "clubbing baby seals" is perhaps.... fictional? (Obviously you're operating in good faith)...
  • Commented on Down tools
    Remember in all of this that the biggest element of the defence budget is salaries. Every sailor on a ship costs you £100k per year, minimum, by the time you factor in training costs, pay, harmony time ashore, etc, etc....
  • Commented on Down tools
    Oh - and as for the Su-35, any airborne AEW is vulnerable. The E-2 is propellor-driven, can't outrun a fighter, definitely can't outrun a missile. At least the AEW can see the fighter first, and the missiles on the ships...
  • Commented on Down tools
    While helicopter AEW may have been born of the necessity for a crash programme to put AEW on a small carrier like HMS Invincible, it was kept and updated. The Sea King ASACS has turned out to be very effective...
  • Commented on Down tools
    2000AD may not have crossed (I was old enough to start reading it from issue 1), but you'll recognise some of the characters (Judge Dredd) and some of the authors (e.g. Dan Abnett wrote the original "Guardians of the Galaxy"...
  • Commented on Who Owns SF?
    OGH continues to select excellent guest authors. I enjoyed "Ammonite", but really enjoyed "Blue Place" - read it in a single sitting ;) this means it's either Hild or Stay next... But I have the feeling that the military historians...
  • Commented on Who Owns SF?
    Leviticus denounces men who lie with men as being unclean in one passage ... but uses exactly the same language to denounce the eating of shellfish and the wearing of cloth made from mixed fibers! Eating pork is apparently a...
  • Commented on Competition Time!
    Honestly, it's like no-one has read Skippy's List :) ... Statements in regard of the charges against Intelligence Officers Alice Jones and Suzanne Smith, D Section. That on or about the evening of 31 December, they brought alcoholic beverages into...
  • Commented on Schroedinger's Kingdom: the Scottish Political Singularity Explained
    1) Why would would a Scottish independence movement want to swap a smallish influence in the UK parliament for a tiny influence in Brussels? Seems nonsensical to me. It's only nonsensical because you're not thinking like a politician. It's not...
  • Commented on World Cup: engage Grinch mode now!
    I'm currently in Orlando, Fl, scuttling from airconditioned hotel to airconditioned car to airconditioned (pick a destination), as it's over 32 outside On the way to pick the kids up from school, the car thermometer was reading 26 today. Edinburgh...
  • Commented on Crass commercial interlude
    I do wonder if there's a Laundry equivalent of the Royal Observer Corps, or the UK Warning and Monitoring Organisation. Basically, no matter how bad it gets, there will still be survivors; more lives can be saved by trying to...
  • Commented on Schroedinger's Kingdom: the Scottish Political Singularity Explained
    what would people like Kenny MacKilljoy be like... Well, he's trying to remove the Scots Law principle of corroboration from the statue books; opposed by nearly all policemen and lawyers, AIUI... ...it makes you wonder whether it's a coincidence that...
  • Commented on World Cup: engage Grinch mode now!
    Let us not forget that there was only one shooting war with the name of a sport in its name... Oh, the irony :) shooting is an Olympic and Commonwealth sport, you know. Hence the username - from the days...
  • Commented on Schroedinger's Kingdom: the Scottish Political Singularity Explained
    What is it with Scottish aristos and the attraction of fascism, I wonder? Same thing as happened with SNP party leaders and the attraction of fascism... They were sold on the "nationalist" part, and at the time didn't have the...
  • Commented on World Cup: engage Grinch mode now!
    Token football comment: Apparently, the England squad visited an orphanage in Brazil. "It was heartbreaking, seeing them so sad, and without any hope in their eyes" said Jose, aged six......
  • Commented on World Cup: engage Grinch mode now!
    I went to a sport-heavy boarding school, and found myself the youngest, smallest, and geekiest person in my year. And rubbish at team sport. Deep joy. (Since then, I have had a deep and irrational mistrust of enthusiastic rugby coaches;...
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