On the XCH-62

Post-Vietnam budget cuts.

Didn’t they also have rather big problems in making strong enough gearboxes for this machine?

Anyway, some Russian stuff.
First the La-200, which lost out to the Yak-25 in the all-weather interceptor role.
Then the ugly prop-thingie, which is the Tu-91 Bychok. This was a CAS/torpedo/light attack aircraft from the late 1950s (basically a turboprop-Skyraider) which got cancelled because Khrushchev liked missiles more than aircraft, and especially over ugly aircraft like this one.
Final one is the Percival P.74 helo. Probably dismissed because it looked too much like Budgie.

Ja,
The Il-102 never really was a competor for the T8/Su-25. It is nothing more but a rehashed IL-42 from the 1950s, which was then considered as a replacement for the IL-2 and Il-10 Shturmoviks. In the 1950s this was cancelled (much like the Bychok), but in the late 1980s they rebuilt (or built from existing parts) one of the prototypes to show they were ‘still’ in the fighter business.

…undermined Soviet war in Afghanistan.
SNIP
I think historians will be generous with Reagan.

Well, the Reagan Fanboys are already more than happy to forget Reagan giving Osama a good start.

Billy, some of the stored Belgian Yawndarts are fully upgraded MLU’s. They’ve got some two- to three thousand hours of flight time left. Upgrading the older ones would create an even longer second lifespan.

But what an insult it would be. Lawndarts hopping around the runways from which once MiG-25s lit their suns. Horrible.

Diesel/electro subs are actually quieter than nuclear ones. No pumps running the cooling water, very hush-hush.

But what on Earth does Israel need a carrier for? It has no strategic interest in blue-water sealanes, it has no maritime rivals except maybe for some Cypriotic anchovies-fishermen, and it doesn’t even have free access to the sea from it’s own shores. Not in the Med (Egypt to the left, Syria/Lebanon to the right, and Cyprus as a convenient cork in the bittle) and not on the Red Sea either. If they’d embark that boat in Eilat, both Egyptian, Jordanese and Saudi schoolkids could amuse themselves by flying paper aeroplanes into it.

Although Ja’s Chakri Naruebet-comparison does have a point. With the water level in the Dead Sea dropping quite dramatically over the last years, perhaps Sharon and his successors want something bigger to float in? The CN is nothing more but a big grey yacht with a large multi-purpose helodeck either.

I bet the Subpar Hornet is better than the 1950’s F3D-2 🙂

Only if you’d give the Super Borenet a rearward-facing radar like the Skyknight. If not.. the EF-10B had enough range for a jammer.

Guys, you’re all free to ring the BS alert if necessary. And this is an obvious one – can’t really add anything to Ja what Ja just said here (how about that???).