On a related track, seems we here is Aus overtook the US in terms of house/apartment sizes a few years ago (2009):

“We are bigger than the US for the first time. Our newly built homes are 7 per cent bigger than those in the US, double the size of those in Europe, and triple the size of those in the UK.”

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-11-30/australians-live-in-worlds-biggest-houses/1162630

I suspect its simply because Canadian housing prices have held reasonably steady while those in the US have crash landed due to the recession. Not sure $ “wealth” is really a good measure of standards of living.

In this country (Strayliya) if you own your home and need to go to an old folks home or need to relocate for care then the people who own the institution your going to then sell your house and contents. They give you around $15,000 and keep the rest!!!!!! There are some that give an amount back to the family if it’s only a short stay but most just keep it.
It is just legalised stealing. For the last 10 years or so there have been all sorts of shonks/spiffs/(insert your lowlife name here) getting into old folks homes. They feed them very little and spend the absolute minimum looking after them which mainly involves keeping the quiet, medicated,fed and into bed around 5pm.
It seems the way of the world, user pays, cost recovery and privitisation of everything government used to provide.

But only if you want and agree to finance your time in a retirement home via a reverse mortgage.

Superannuation has been compulsory for around 30 years now, and luckily more stringent laws about preservations ages should stop people blowing their retirement savings on sports cars and O/S holidays rather than using it to support their golden years.

But true, there were people who were caught between the winding back of the 1950s and 1960s welfare system, and the (government supported) self responsibility style approach that really gathered momentum from the early 1980s.

Replace old aircraft with older ones that aren’t as good, that makes a great deal of sense.

Why is Nimrod “better”? P-3 was selected in preference to Nimrod by more than one or two countries. eg Canada, Aus, NZ. If you’re talking about pre update II P-3Cs, a RAAF AP-3C style upgrade would be possible even on those old birds, giving them improved ASW, ASuW as well as respectable SIGINT/ELINT capabilities. After their structural refurb NZ’s old P-3Bs will be flying for a lot more years as P-3K2s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_AP-3C_Orion

Hi all,
Here’s our take on what has been a good 7 days for Eurofighter:

http://hushkit.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/eurofighter-typhoon-boon-the-luftwaffe-take-on-the-f-22-raptor-at-red-flag/

Reads like a true fanboy site. EF’s marketing department couldn’t have written anything more glowing. 🙁

Still, it does refer to one key fact: “Now before I go any further, we all know the usual disclaimer: without details, and in particular without rules of engagement specifics, not much can be inferred from BFM anecdotes.”

Reality is most F-35 Nations will see a reduction of F-35s.
It doesn’t have to be a problem for Nato.
Rather the wet dream of LM though.. a problem it is, sinse they prospected sales and price wich were totaly unrealistic.

But outside Europe:

* non-“parter” nation Japan will buy a sizeable number of F-35s, and expect South Korea and Singapore to operate it in the medium term

* the RAAF are actually argiung for an increase in their fighter strength – buying the originally planned 100 F-35s while retaining F-18Fs converted to EF-18G spec

* the US is emerging from recession, and is now firmly focussed on the Asia Pacific which is fast becoming the economic and political global focal point.

Because he has no other choice. Even a Raptor will have hard time to achieve a lock on and kill a modern 4+ Gen fighter equipped with proper ECM.

And regarding the missile kill ratio, we got to consider that the development of both measures and countermeasures has been roughly linear. Anyone expecting a Pk of 0.9 against a Gen 4+ aircraft in dense ECM coverage must be out of his mind. Give or take, anything over 0.4 will be a success.

F-15Cs had problems to even lock on a MiG-21UPG equipped with ELTA 8222 jammer. I can’t imagine the problems the AIM-120would have had if it was actually fired.. And now, try to repeat the same, but this time against a Rafale or Typhoon.

A 0.4 x 6 kill ratio is still high enough to make a WVR dogfight look like a high risk marginal benefit at best scenario. How would going WVR increase your probability of a kill, particularly if you only have 2 x AIM-9 (M model?)with no JHMCS.