Very interesting, Is this a PLAN or PLAAF bird??? Im interested becouse the hardpoint layout remoinds me of the FBC-1 models shown at airshows.

If anything they ought to add a pair of Goalkeepers (repackaged to reduce RCS and with a surface mode too) and a pair of 21-cell RAM launchers.

A better option would be to get the off the shelf and probably more capable 35mm Millenium Ahead turrets, but the plan seems to be that these ships and those around them will be able to stop a AShM before it gets to that stage, the 57mm are intended as CIWS but with greater reach and the ability to stop small boats faster and with greater ease.

Is the plan still to use the new larger VLS cells? If so this is weird as frankly they are a system without any missiles and the Mk-41 would offer greater payload and fleet commonality. The DDX is increasingly looking like a ship for a ships sake. All it will realy have over the existing vessels in the fleet is its main guns. I realy feel that the USN is missing an oppotunity here, the technology has been developed for them to develop a very powerful multi-role DDG to follow on from the AB, instead they made it to expensive by trying to make everything 22nd century rather than 21st, so had to turn it into what is in effect a glorified Monitor (when they already have the LCS programme) in order to cut the costs back. Personally I just hope that theylearn their lesson for the next class.

Should I understand that this is the way you speak to your “allies”? If that is so, why don’t you call us “servants”? At least you would be for once honest – at last.

If you somehow feel that I was talking down to you then you have my apoligies for that was not my intention, I was simply trying to point out the harsh, and in many ways inconcievable to the western mindset, reality.

Ummm suicide in Islam is considered an absolute ‘sin’ from what I know about this religion. How exactly are they expecting a reward in the after life for committing a sin :s

I think Phrozenflame summed it up quite well, you might also want to take note of all the SUICIDE bombers we see coming from the muslim world.

As you realise it is impossible for all us who are not Americans to take this incident as an act of war. I suppose that if whoever wants to make a war in the name of “coalition” and be supported by his “allies” should at least respect basic humanitarian beliefs otherwise he should do the job himself.

So, as long as we Europeans are part of this mess I think we share responsibility for actions we don’t like at all.

Why? These people reagard death as being quite different to what those in the west with Judao-christian origins believe. As far as they are concerned this act will grant tham accesss to paradise and at the same time people like you will jump up and say oh my god they must have been desperate all americans are evil, therefore just giving them what they want.
And dont for a moment think that prison suicides are limited to guantanamo bay, in fact its record on this issue would make alot of european prisons jealous.

Its bizzaare that people think that the people who are held in Guantanamo bay should somehow just be let out when most of them would happily fly a plane into a sky scraper with the first opportunity they get.

It’s just dumb to compare the change that ocure in USSR and WP with the situation in Iraq.I myself expirienced that transition between

I have to agree with this statement.

The situation we are seeing in Iraq at the moment is largely the result of decisions made in the planning phase of the original invasion and immediately after.

To a certain extent the coalition was a victim of its own success, they needed only a limited force to bring down the regime but once that job was done the force was not adequate enough to provide post war security thus the atmosphere of anarchy developed, once in place this is very difficult to remove.

Secondly, the decision to effectively completely demolish the workings of the original government meant that the functions of government broke down for a crucial period adding to the above situation.

Then there was the disbandment of the new Iraqi army, words do not exist to describe how stupid this decision was, to effectivly put over 100 000 armed and militarily trained men on the streets unemployed is just madness. This was the one force which could have been used to provide additional security and basic infrastructure reconstruction instead they turned against the new rulers.

Then I guess everything is legal and illegal, American Govt has nothing to whine about and it has everything to whine about.

Got it in one. 😉