chuck1981… (Remember, in 1991 the Army needed an Air Force helicopter to show them the way in battle….sort of a slap in the face huh for such an expensive and “modern” helicopter).
If i remember correctly werent the pave lows outfitted with the GPS receivers which were a relatively new thing for the military. And even if they hadnt been, they were designed to do exactly what they did for the Ah-64s, long range insertions with high quality/accurate navigation.
And, the AH-64s were designed with the European theater in mind, lots and lots of landmarks for basic Mk1 eyeball navigation. I dont think this was a shortcoming of the Apache, it just wasnt upgraded at the time with a GPS receiver, along with a lot of other equipment, let alone the individual soldier.
chuck1981We dont need our new fighter to take down the F-22 unless Australia has WMD or more oil then Iraq and Like I said if our radar in central Australia can detact the B-2 then whats not to say it cant see the F-22. If we want the F-22 we will have it and wont be because we are friends but because the yanks need minerals just like the Chinese do.
Personally, I put the odds of the Raptor getting exported at less than 50/50.
chuck1981See, a lot of us don’t believe in reducing demand. Sure efficiency can be made better but only to a certain degree. However, being Yanks, we want solutions to feed the demand, whether its more drilling/refining, bio-fuels, etc etc.
Now sens you hit on something that I had always thought to be true, but in the past few years was told but certain people from overseas thats its not. I always thought that it was mostly a tax issue that increased the price of your fuel, but I was told it was because of the petro-dollar issue……
And about taxes, here in the states i forget the exact numbers, but I’m pretty sure the federal tax on gasoline is 25 cents and 27 cents on diesel….thats per gallon. One top of that there are state taxes, some are a fixed $ amount others are a percentage of the total cost of the fuel(I’m not sure but possibly double taxation….as in a tax on a tax, it happens often). From what I understand, the big greedy oil companies make 10-15 cents profit on the same product per gallon……does it seem right the government [I]takes[I] more from the buyer than the producer actually makes? To me, no, but thats my opinion.
I’m sure you heard about the major bridge collapse in Minnesota a few months ago. They were screaming down in DC that they needed more money, all this money being wasted in Iraq etc etc etc…..One senator even went so far to float the idea of an additional tax (i believe 50 cents per gallon) on fuel in order to do infrastructure improvements….
Funny thing is, when the transportation bill came out of congress, the amount of crap in it was quite frankly atrocious. Would you believe, in the state of Minnesota where the bridge collapsed, they had $700,000 set aside in the transportation bill in order to build a bike path? A freakin bike path. In Las Vegas, they had $200,000 set aside for a postal(mail) museum….
LAS VEGAS…..I don’t anyone is going there to look at old stamps and envelopes.
Sorry, didn’t mean to get so sidetracked, but I was just trying to use this as an illustration why a lot of Americans don’t really like government, whether its local, state or federal…..and the whole general idea of taxation…..after all, we did sort of have a revolution on the very issue not long ago :dev2:
chuck1981Man, im having a bad day, my second double post 😀
chuck1981My old Merzedez drinks around 9 liters per 100 km and 1 litre of bensin cost approx. 1.40 € at the moment.
Now last time when the gasoline prizes were discussed in here, Americans had to pay around half of what we europeans have to pay….not to mention those ridicilous SUVs propably eats douple that of my mersu which by our standarts is one hell of a drinker!!
This americans trying excuse themselves from the fact that their country consumes numerically and relatively more than anyone else is mere BS. Its equally ridicilous to point the fingers towards european nations. Yeas we consume and polute alot too, but at least in here there are strickt restrictions and governments that actually give a damn about whole issue…The bensin pize is good and painfull reminder of that.
…There should be some swedish greeneis taking over the governing of USA for few years, I bet my hat that that way if not all, but alot of current proplems would be solved and world would be one step closer to the right path..;)
Yeap…tough, alot of our energy is comming from either biomass or natural gas…
With all due respect I quite frankly thing you fail to understand one principle of this country. A good percentage of the population does not like government, does not like what the powerbrokers in DC decide to do in order to “reign in its people”. Quite frankly, if you want my honest opinion, the hopes of a good many peoples of the world may be answered one day, by DC doing exactly what you think a “good government” should do. There will be a backlash, and it may cause widespread problems in this country and believe me, crazy thing is Im meeting more and more people who feel the same way.
And btw, what is the right path? im intrigued…
chuck1981One question, does that 28.5% for transportation include average people transporting themselves? Or is it just the transport industry and public trans that makes up that percentage?
chuck1981Americans can afford the American way of life, if only certain idiots would learn a thing or 2 (Regular joes and the government included).
What I would like to know is other than transportation, what is the biggest contributor to the US/Canada’s higher consumption rate? Or is it just that, transportation? And if it is that case, well i hate to say it but not much will change then…..Our economy is totally dependent on transportation, all fueled with fossil fuel. SOME inroads can be made on fuel economy, but because the fact that the US is not urbanized like a lot of Europe, public transportation and whatnot will not have as large as an impact.
Because I know we would all like to be intellectually honest here, and with the Canadians and Americans using almost the same amount of oil per person, we, together, must have similar issues that are worrying everyone else in the world so much.
chuck1981double post
chuck1981wasnt there also an RAF B2 pilot? i thought i read that somewhere….
chuck1981Ok, I must confess I have to do some more research. Years ago when I first heard about this “plasma stealth” I was under the impression it was another way of lowering the radar return of an aircraft, in lieu of shaping/ram treatments…aka the US idea of stealth. What I read was that the idea was for it to “envelop” an airframe, therefore not allowing any em waves from hitting the airframe, therefore not getting any returns.
Is this still something that the Russians are working on? Or was I just grossly misinformed? just wondering.
Ok, i found a Janes article from 1999 and it seems this is designed to “envelop” an aircraft, and i guess it would work on an ICBM as well. And it would then make make sense of Russia concentrating on agility so much, I would have to agree.
This is very interesting, but…….I seem to remember an experiment during WWII at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. They were trying to make a ship “invisible” to radar…..but the results were quite a suprise. Hopefully the Russians have better results than us Yanks did :diablo:
chuck1981Ok, maybe I am getting confused, it happens sometimes :p . When I was talking about a “plasma stealth” system, I was referring to a device that could produce a “man-made” plasma, that could then be manipulated around an aircraft, nosecone etc etc…..
I understand that ICBMS may have some type of operational system, but isnt that kind of cheating? As in, because of the speed and high heat, plasma at that point is sort of a “natural” occurence? What does the Keldesh device do on an ICBM? Thats my question, i may be confusing 2 different issues or something.
chuck1981Ya know, come to think of it I remember a similar “letter to the editor” concerning the Typhoon, Rafael and F-16. And if i remember correctly, this “writer” had a source within this air force (i forget the nation, ill see if i can find the magazine) who said that the F-16 fared very well against the Rafael, and since the Rafael is in the same class as the Typhoon, this would seem to infer the F-16 would fare pretty well against the Typhoon.
I forget the exact verbage of the letter, but I just had to chuckle. I dont believe the latest Blk 60 F-16s were even the ones being offered/tested…..
Id be very wary of any letters to the editor on any subject.
chuck1981I hope you don’t choose your women the same way 😉
only after a few drinks :diablo:
But seriously, weve heard about this Plasma Stealth thing for years, and I feel itll be heard for a good many more years, but just that, heard. The technical implications of such a system are quite frankly astronomical to make any use of it in a tactical environment. (At this current time).
And all of this other technical mumbo jumbo…..with regards to a few people on here, does anyone else know what the hell theyre talking about? :p
chuck1981You’d be surprised… You also would be surprised how many high school students were out there from 50km+ away even in my country (who told you that the density of schools in a smaller country must be so much greater?). But they did not travel to the school and back everyday, not even with a 1.5l car, instead they had a room at a campus and only returned home for weekends.
If you took 6mil average Americans and placed them in a country of the size of Switzerland, what do you think how much fuel per capita would they save? My personal guess is: not a gallon.. 😉
Just wondering, are these public/government schools? or private schools? In the US this would be considered a boarding school, and there is no way in hell anyone would be willing to pay for that, let alone ship theyre kids off to a “public/government” school. Well a lot of americans wouldnt like it, i cant say all 😀
Im late for work and dont have time but i agree, the people of Rhode Island (smallest state per area) probably use more fuel than all the Swiss (not positive, but justa guess)
chuck1981Actually i do know that here in Pennsylvania all gasonline during the winter months has to have a percentage of Ethanol in it, its been that way for 10 years or so. I may be wrong but i think the percentage is around 10-15%.
Lately im not sure what they are doing with the gasoline mixtures, I drive a diesel truck now and am more interested in the recent switch over to Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (<15ppm sulfur) and the effects on engines and whatnot…..And the debate it still out
Sign In
