Steve TouchdownActually I have had 5 CDs of punk various artists on the multi player helping me through the quieter moments today – so Theatre of Hate with Do You Believe In The Westworld or Spear Of Destiny and Never Take Me Alive are currently the sounds of the late spring for me…;)
Flood.™
Interesting choice, Flood 😮
Aren’t them there bands one and the same with a different moniker? I saw them once in St.Albans supported by UK Decay…but can’t remember which name they were at the time.
Coincidentally, my Old Nan’s (God rest her soul) last words were “You’ll never take me alive, Copper”.
Steve TouchdownOh its ok i am on a island 😀
Never heard a traffic island outside the Whitgift Centre made to sound so misleading! 😀
Another couple of choons currently making the MP3 playlist whilst the sun is out….
Bobby Womack “Across 110th Street”
Age of Love “Age of Love” (Jam & Spoon Remix)
Pity it’s gonna rain tomorrow…hope the underpass don’t flood, me Old Croydon Mucker :p
Steve TouchdownBrussels? That’s local! Apart from the small stretch of Channel I think Florennes is closer to my place than Waddington.
Go on and enjoy yaself, Steve.
Steve TouchdownMassive Attack “Unfinished Sympathy”
Be careful of the traffic out there in the middle of the road, Chaps 😀
Steve
Steve TouchdownThere were more Hips produced than Hueys. I think the total B204/205/212/412 family (all the way from XH-40 to the not-to-be-built-but-actually-rebuilt UH-1Y) production run is a bit below 15,000 (just under 10,000 of which were for the US Army alone). The Mi-8 family (Mi-17 is just an export designation, officially it’s the Mi-8M) has a production run of over 17,000.
Are you in a babbling mood again Ja? :rolleyes: Tell me what Czech military aircraft or helos you think have been upgraded by IAI, and i will tell you they weren’t…
😀 As subtle as a morning erection in silk pyjamas as always, Art! 😀
All those figures of yours above look right to me, and with the Mi-171 the ‘Hip’ family is still going very strongly indeed.
When the first batch of Mi-35s were delivered to Prerov they were found to be without almost any of the required/expected avionics fit and had to fly within sight of the airfield (don’t laugh, it’s true) but all of the installation and upgrade was completed locally within a fairly short timeframe. I think it was done either at Brno or their homebase of Prerov.
Best regards
Steve Rush ~ Touchdown-News
Steve TouchdownThe new Air Fan has lots of infos about it.
As soons as I’ve got it, you’ll have your answers.
Anyway, the first F2 is posponed to September but the target is still 4 (or 5 ??) rafale F2 for 2004.
Thanks Glitter, looking forward to some concrete news as things seem to have gone very quiet indeed lately.
I’ve just come back from a great weekend in south-west France and, yet again, no sign of any Rafales either new or old. Bear in mind that the Armee de l’Air are celebrating their 70th anniversary and, for the 2nd weekend in a row, huge crowds at an Adl’A “Meeting Aerien” but no sign of a single Rafale. In fact the Rafale doesn’t even make it into the very glossy brochure that has been produced for sale at all of this summer’s meetings.
A stake-out of Merignac on Friday by some friends of ours resulted in Indian AF Mirage 2000THs being seen, along with lots of new Falcon 900/900EX exec jets, but still sight nor sound of any new Rafales…..the delay until September would account for this, so thanks for the update, Glitter, much appreciated.
Best regards
Steve Rush ~ Touchdown-News
Steve TouchdownWell it’s been another six months since I last asked this, and got no firm reply:
What is the current status of the Rafale programme?
All the info on-line is either outdated (4 years old on the official Adl’A site) or just not there (“abyss” is a great description of Dassault’s site)…so what gives?
Still no new-build Rafales seen at Bordeaux, no reports of intensive testing at Mont de Marsan, none seen during a small open day at Istres-le Tube on May 10th, none at Orange-Caritat’s “Meeting Aerien”.
What’s the latest news, if any, coming out of France via Air & Cosmos or Air Fan do you know, Glitter? Any recent updates more than welcome.
The silence is deafening!
Best regards
Steve Rush ~ Touchdown-News
Steve Touchdownwho says Berg was killed as revenge for the Abo Garib attrocities? do we even know when he was killed ?
As far as I know the statement read out on the video footage referred to the prisoner abuse at Abo Garib jail and was used as “justification” for Berg’s murder, kfadrat.
Steve
Steve Touchdown3 ME countries denounce Berg murder
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/13/iraq.berg/index.html
Interestingly enough, his parents blame the US b/c according to them, he was detained and held by US forces without due process. Why he was detained and visited by the FBI is again, fishy.
Google, although none of this should detract from what was a savage and (IMHO) non-sensical murder, you can take another step backwards and ask: why was he in Iraq in the first place? I understand he was urged to leave, via charter flight to Jordan, but refused and intended to cross overland into Kuwait instead.
Steve
Steve Touchdown-1- I think the Nick Berg murder would have happened regardless.
-2- Yes, i feel sorry for the prisons involved in the tortures. Being imprisoned (rightly or wrongly) by a bunch of aggresively looking people with guns and uniforms, and who speak a language you don’t or hardly understand is an unnerving experience in itself. If those captors then make an effort to humiliate you in all sorts of ways, that is just disgusting.
Can’t disagree with any of what Arthur has said above.
The latest on the abuse in the prison has taken a further step today:
Legislators view images of ‘sadistic’ prison abuse
As the military ordered more courts-martial stemming from abuse in Iraq, lawmakers saw unreleased Abu Ghraib photos.
By Wire services (Published May 13, 2004)
The abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops went beyond the photos seen by most Americans, shaken lawmakers said Wednesday after viewing fresh pictures and video that they said depicted forced sex, brutality and dogs snarling at cowed prisoners.
In Iraq, the U.S. military ordered courts-martial Wednesday for two more American soldiers accused of abusing naked prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison.
And for the first time, the military disclosed evidence that seemingly undercuts contentions that military intelligence units had asked military police at Abu Ghraib to “soften up” prisoners. Wednesday’s charging documents note that some of the abuse occurred before military police units were reporting to intelligence officials at the jail.
In Washington, some members of Congress said they feared that releasing the images they saw would inflame international outrage and endanger Americans still in Iraq. The private screening of more than 1,600 photos in a top-secret room of the U.S. Capitol came one day after Islamic militants announced they had beheaded an American in Iraq to avenge abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison.
“I don’t know how the hell these people got into our army,” said Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., after viewing what he called a fraction of the images.
“I saw cruel, sadistic torture,” said Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif. She said she saw a man hitting himself against a wall as though to knock himself unconscious.
Others said they saw images of corpses, military dogs snarling at cowering prisoners, women commanded to expose their breasts and sex acts, including forced homosexual sex.
Not everyone reacted the same way to the additional photos.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said he thought “some people are overreacting.”
“The people who are against the war are using this to their political ends,” he said.
Many of the photos appeared to include the same small group of soldiers who were in pictures that had already been made public. And pictures of abuse were mixed in with travelogue-type photos.
Some questionable photos appeared to have nothing to do with prisoners, including several that lawmakers believed were of sex between male and female U.S. troops.
—
Steve
Steve TouchdownThese are the latest info I have !!!!
GT003 98+33 01/08/03
GT002 98+32 23/09/03
GT004 98+34 08/10/03
GT005 98+35 14/01/04
GT006 98+36 04/03/04
GT007 98+37 22/04/04… does anyone know anything about 98+31 ???? :confused:
Deino 🙂
98+31 (GT001) was delivered to TSLw1 at Kaufbeuren in mid-February 2003. As far as I know it’s still there for technician training.
Regards
Steve Rush ~ Touchdown-News
Steve TouchdownAs the saying goes, “the proof of the pudding in in the eating”…and they have always tasted just perfect to me 😀
Steve
Steve TouchdownThe 98+xx should be renamed to 29+xx in the near future. I’m not up to date about the status of the MiG’s in Laage. Are they still there or already handed over to Poland ? This could be a solution, because if they are still active, then the 29+xx numbers are still in use.
One addition to the Tranche 2 negotiations:
http://www.airpower.at/cgi-bin/forum/robboard.cgi?action=display&num=21956
Thanks, Aurel.
Only some of the Fulcrums have been handed-over to Poland so far and 731’s “final Fulcrum fly-out” is planned for August 3rd, 2004.
The only thing is, I thought the Eurofighters were set to become serialled in the 30+xx range?!
Cheers
Steve ~ Touchdown-News
Steve TouchdownI think you’d be VERY surprised where some of Jane’s info originates from, Ja. :p
Best regards
Steve Rush ~ Touchdown-News
p.s. great job, Frank and the rest of the team. If any of you Guys want to see how much work and info ‘Scramble’ generate every month then I urge you to get hold of their current 300th issue. I’m sure it shook Art out of bed when it hit his doormat! 😀
Steve TouchdownSo still with 98+ numbers while at an ‘operational’ unit? That should be a first. It will be interesting to know when they get renumbered: either very shortly, or perhaps only when JG73 gets declared fully operational rather than being a training unit?
Would have loved to have them at Pferdsfeld. Now that was a relaxed base to spot at.
Yeah, it surprised me too to see that Steinhoff is flying them while they’re still 98+..
Just catching-up with the latest Eurofighter news and it seems that 5 is the current total at Laage, though I’m still not sure of the ID of the 5th.
Pferdsfeld would have been cool, but I’d have thought you’d have been happy enough with Hopsten too…I know I would have! Those F-4F pics I posted here a while ago were taken on the fence at Hopsten with a 300mm lens.
Anyway, back to the EF 2000:
Germany puts its first Eurofighters into service 30 April 2004
The German air force announced Friday that it had officially put its first five Eurofighter jets into service in the northern city of Rostock.
The five aircraft, which will be used mainly for training purposes, were given to the Steinhoff fighter squadron based in Laage.
Germany, which was the first country to take delivery of the European-made fighter but the second to put it into service after Italy, has ordered 180 of the combat aircraft at a cost of 80 million euros (95 million dollars) each.
The Eurofighter Typhoon is a multi-role combat jet with a range of 2,500 kilometres (1,560 miles) and can be equipped with a mix of missiles depending on its mission.
It is built by a four-nation consortium involving the French-Spanish-German group EADS, Britain’s BAE Systems and Italy’s Alenia.
Britain has ordered 232 aircraft, Italy 121 and Spain 87. Last year Austria became the first nation outside the consortium to place an order, asking for 18. Greece has committed to 60 with an option for a further 30 aircraft.
Germany sees second Eurofighter tranche by summer
German junior defence minister Peter Eickenboom said on Friday he expected the four nations building the Eurofighter military jet to have agreed terms for a second tranche of deliveries by summer.
But Eickenboom declined to speculate on what the final cost of the fighter jet could be amid German media reports that Germany’s 180 planes alone could cost 19.5 billion euros rather than the 18 billion euros estimated so far.
“The negotiations that are now going on are about deciding how the money is divided between the second and third tranches and on this point we are getting close to an agreement with industry,” Eickenboom told a news conference to mark Eurofighter’s entry into service with the German air force.
“We hope we can go with the draft to the (German parliament) budget committee by June so we can get authorisation to give the go-ahead with our partners during the summer break,” he said.
Friday’s ceremony was 16 years after Germany, Britain, Italy, and Spain first agreed to build what is now known as the Eurofighter, whose development has been plagued by delays.
Those four nations have ordered 620 of the jets being built jointly by EADS, BAE Systems of the U.K. and Italy’s Alenia Aerospazio.
Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily heralded the plane’s entry into German service with the headline “Empty shell in the air” and said the plane could fly only in fair weather.
But industry and military officials at the launch ceremony dismissed the report that the two-seater version of the Eurofighter that has already been delivered was not fully operational.
“It’s ridiculous. We fly in winter all the time,” said Wolfdietrich Hoeveler, head of military aircraft communications at EADS.
Hoeveler said more than 135 Eurofighter jets were in production or had already been delivered out of the first tranche total of 148.
He said second-tranche production was fixed at 236 planes and that had been confirmed by all partners, dismissing reports Britain was seeking to change the size of its commitment.
Hoeveler said that what needed to be negotiated were the conditions and requirements attached to the second tranche.
Best regards
Steve Rush ~ Touchdown-News
p.s. congrats on your promotion, Art 🙂 Are your new duties underway yet?
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