He’s calling you one putz.

Putz? WTF is you problem?

I doubt even the truther community would believe its a satellite.

So North Korea is going to preemptively nuke the United States….

More like close to the B-2.

I bet the Su-30 is no comparison in terms of maintenance. IIRC many MiG-31s have been removed from service to provide parts for the most airworthy examples.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/irelandrussiabritainmarineenvironmentmilitary

Irish aircraft monitoring an oil spill believed to come from a Russian navy refuelling accident off Ireland’s south coast have recorded 522 tonnes of fuel spreading across the sea, officials said Tuesday.

….

Other vessels at the scene Tuesday included two refuelling tankers, one aircraft carrier, one Russian ocean-going tug and one Russian destroyer. The Coast Guard said it had established that no nuclear vessels are involved.

The Irish authorities were alerted on Saturday by a satellite surveillance pollution report from the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) in Lisbon.

The ministry said aerial surveillance “confirmed an oil spill covering approximately 4.5 km by 5 km surrounding a Russian aircraft carrier and a refuelling tanker.”

The Russian naval attache confirmed on Monday that the carrier had been carrying out a fuel transfer at sea — called bunkering — from a Russian supply tanker, the transport ministry said.

Sounds like the Kuznetsov. IIRC the Kuznetsov had a problem a few years ago where the ship itself was leaking oil, and Norway or some other nearby nation had to alert Russia about the situation.

The Aviation Week Sourcebook 2009 has an entry for the PAK-FA in its table of military fighter aircraft. For all swing wing aircraft the table entry for wingspan lists two values, and the PAK-FA has two values as well: 25.7 and 47.2 feet.

Other values are:

crew: 2
length: 67.6
height: 19.2
MTOW: 72,312
engines: 2x AL-41F1
performance “typical for primary mission”: mach 1.8

If china is launching long range balistic antiship missiles at USN vessels … we are pretty much all screwed regardless of the outcome… do you get off at dreaming these doomsday scenarios up???

It’s been strongly rumored that China has developed conventionally armed, radar/IR/optically targeted anti-ship version of medium range ballistic missiles. When a US Navy admiral testified to Congress about a new Chinese capability for which the Navy had no defense, it was either missiles like this, or the Sizzler cruise missile.

http://www.hindu.com/2008/10/12/stories/2008101254541200.htm

The article says Russia to start building carriers within the next two years, with the first “built by” 2013-2015.

What do you think the design of these new Russian carriers will be? Will they resurrect the Ul’yanovsk design (nuclear reactors and steam catapults), or build more Admiral Kuznetsov type ships? What will the air wing consist of? I read that Russia is planning a competition for Su-33 replacements, and the supposed contenders were the Su-27KUB and MiG-29K. Neither of which seems to be a replacement for the Su-33.

In a related question, was the Ul’yanovsk planned to have Tor (Gauntlet) or Buk (Grizzly) SAMs? I’ve seen both listed.

The thing to remember though is that the F-22 is already in production, and additional airframes beyond the current buy, would have a much lower per unit cost.

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=41042&dcn=todaysnews

Negotiators agree to buy more F-22s, Zumwalt destroyers

House and Senate authorizers agreed to the $2.9 billion sought by the Pentagon to buy 20 F-22 Raptor fighter jets, a procurement program that enjoys broad support on the Hill. They added a House-passed provision authorizing $523 million in advance procurement for another 20 aircraft in fiscal 2010 — planes the Pentagon has not planned on acquiring.