aurcovGovernment debt (what the government owes) is a completely different thing from foreign debt (total liabilities of individuals, corporations & government within a country to individuals, corporations & governments outside it). Adding them up makes no sense, since you’ll be counting some government debt (all that owed abroad) twice.
I’m afraid I don’t count anything twice, since the CIA factbook clearly states that one is the foreign debt and the other one is the internal debt.
Then, you have to consider the difference between gross (what the CIA factbook gives) & net debt: if you owe nobody anything, I owe you £1000, but someone else owes me £5000, does that make me more indebted than you? Or more in credit?
Canada, for example, had a gross foreign debt of USD440 bn at the end of 2005, but a net foreign debt of Can$162 bn. Quite a difference
This would imply that Russia is a major investor/lender abroad–it’s not the case…
Japan is a huge net creditor internationally, due to the huge overseas investments of Japanese corporations.
In this case , US (the biggest investor abroad with $ 7000 billion in non-US assets owned by US citizens) is even bigger…
The USA has gone in the last 25 years from being the largest net creditor internationally (far more owed to it than by it) to the largest net debtor, owing about $4000 bn to the rest of the world.
This is the only point we agree…
Much Japanese government debt is owed to other government agencies, & the Japanese government has large financial assets (e.g. US government bonds), so net government debt (although large) is much smaller. And it’s mostly domestic, owed to Japanese residents.
Debt is debt, whoever the lender (foreigners or your own citizens) and interest must be payed; so the finacial effort is the same…
For all who are so “concerned’ about the state of US finances, is worth spending a ccouple of minutes:
aurcovThey already claimed Su-34 as 5th generation with no equal anywhere in the world.with practically immune from all kind of missiles by jamming and destroying missiles in any direction. and can simultaneously destroy 10 ground targets. Infact there own DM has put 1 Su-34 as better than 1 dozen flankers.
so if these claims are not in english magazine it does not mean that those claims do not exist or have less credibility.
and there economy is practically immune from middleastern priced Oil and asian borrowing that is its greatest strength
So now the Su 34 is the Russian 5th gen. aircraft? Gee, I thought that it was the PAK-FA…
aurcovFor Russia I think it is a disgrace to soak himself in debt to pretend as if she is reach.
:p
Check: https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/rs.htmlRussian internal debt is 12.9% of GDP and the foreign debgt is 31 % from GDP. That’s a total of 43.9% of GDP :p . Any country in the world has a large debt(internal+external) and US debt is not as high compared to the GDP (US ranks 35 as thed percentage of total debt relative to GDP). In your mind, probably Russia is far far richer that Japan, since Japan debt is 160 % from thits GDP, while Russian debt is only 43.9% :p.
The relative improvement of Russian economy came from high oil and gas prices. In fact judging from the exports, Russia look like a 3rd world country (oil, gas and timber make more than 80% of total!)
No electronic component is 100% produced in the U.S if you think the aircraft processors have solely been produced without any component originating or being processed outside of the U.S then you must be joking.
OK than, please do me a favor and name some electronic components that are not made inside US from the following: F 22, F 15, F 16, AWACS, AMRAAM, Sidewinder, HARM…
aurcovHere is a link to the LM site (the LOCAAS manufacturer) http://www.missilesandfirecontrol.com/our_products/strikeweapons/LOCAAS/product-locaas.html
aurcovNow dismantle any American aircraft or piece of military or civilian hardware and check to see if 90% of computerised components-semiconductors are not from Japan in the 60,s and recently from Taiwan and South Korea.
:p :p Since when? You’re confusing PCs/Ipods/DVD players with aircraft processors. These ones are made in US; there isn’t a single one made outside US, and certanly not in SK or Taiwan.
aurcovDo you know your debt? It is a gargantuan $5.8 trillion of which $2.5 trillion is being serviced by foreign countries.
Here we go again…Do you realize that you’re talking about US? #1 economy in the world? The one with a 13,000 billion GDP? While huge in absolute number (by the way, the figure is 8.5 trillion!) the US debt as percentage of GDP (64.7%) is 35th in the world! One clue: Japan debt is 160 % of its GDP!
And if you think that a few dozens of billion thanks to the recent obscene levels of crude oil prices will solve overnight the problems of Russian economy and allow them to build something even remotely comparable to Raptor, you’re dreaming…
aurcovWhat is all the non sense on engaging Russians?
Where did engaging russia even come into question?? why do some members always take threads which envolve russian equipment to US-RUssian war ?? and then nuclear destruction ?? This trend has to stop for crying out loud ??
GarryB simply can’t resist; he must grab the opportunity…
aurcovI know jdams are certified for interal carriage on the raptor but i was asking about jdamd with flying harness like the diamondback set. Tried googling but all i found was some other people asking the same question without getting an answer. Judging from the picture, that kit would all 2-3 inches of width to the 1000 lbs jdam. Is that still enough to be carried internally on a raptor?
The RAptor can carrry 8 SDBs with diamondback. Don’t know if the 1000lb JDAM can carry the kit while on Raptor, but the SDB can.
aurcovKeep in mind that not only do S-300/400’s have radars that are easily the equivalent of SPY-1A on paper working for their benefit, but they will also have ELINT systems like Kolchuga and Vega, with which the US has precisely ZERO experience dealing with.
Passive systems, like Kolchuga works only if the attacker use conventional radars for targeting, terrain following radar for low flying, or TACAN for navigation. An F 22 won’t use such systems. An older B 1 or F 15E would use them, but these planes will come only after the F 22 and B 2 sanitized the area, or would use ALCMs or JASSMs to stay out of trouble.
aurcovwould prefer HARM for anti SAM tasks than any JDAM or JASSM. We just wonder how many JDAMs never truly hit targets in Serbia, just decoys or purported targets that weren’t. Using GPS munitions against SAM sites suggest you need an intel network that is up to date by 15 to 30 minutes, because that is how fast (actually faster) a SAM battery at the max, can haul down its antenna, start the engine, and drive away into a new location, while you drop a bomb on the old now empty, location. These SAMs and their radars got wheels you know, and furthermore, it’s not like a stationary shelter where everything is together in one place. The missiles, the fire control radar, even and the search radar are all in seperate trucks, and taking out the search radar for one thing, does not nullify the fire control radar, and all these batteries work together like a network, so one compensates for the other. So long as one fire control radar is on the ground, it can guide missiles from seperately located batteries, where each set of cannisters are being driven around in their own set of wheels.
HARM lets you target SAM radars at the immediete opportunity when they light up. You don’t need to find out their location by GPS and input them, they just let go and seek the targets autonomously.
In fact the latest improvement on HARM is that the missle got a GPS-aided (fiber optic) INS replacing the existent laser INS. So now, even if the radar is shot-off (like the Serbs did in 1999) it won’t help too much. See for yourself:
It seems that the missile is accurate enough to use it as a high-speed ( at 4 Mach it is probably the fastest a-g missile anywhere) against time-sensitive targets, not only against radar sites.
Which is why we should be using GPS-guided cluster bombs in a SEAD role.
Such as: SLAM-ER, JSOW (the B variant) or WCMD with the new “Long Shot” kit. All offer GPS guidance, robusst stand-off (250 km for SLKAM-ER, over 60 km for the others)
I hope you arent seriously going to argue that the F-22 can in any way really take the place of an AWAC’s type platform. Even with the best SAR mapping function you can ever hope to fit in a nose cone size radar it simple not up to the level of the sorts of sensors you find on an E-3. The F-22 will never have that kind of ELINT capability.
In fact, pilots say that the situational awarness is such that they feel that stay in an AWACS operator seat. OTOH, the Raptor doesn’t yet have the same intelligence disemination capability as an AWACS.
Flankers were designed with the mini-awac role in mind and most people dismiss this capability in a heart beat when talking about Russian aircraft, even though the latest BARS has one hell of a SAR function.
Flankers were designed with this role, because the obvious lack of “real” AWACS in Russian AF.
By the way, SAR is an air-to-ground dedicated function. Did not undestand what it could possible has to do with the supposed use of Flanker as a “mini-AWACS”
aurcovWhoud 120 deg qualify as a Cobra?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeczZtRLFZc&mode=related&search=
aurcovThe main problem with coal-to-liquids (coal gasification followed by Fischer-Tropsh synthesis) is that the process releases huge amounts of CO2. In fact about half of the carbon in the coal ends as CO2. Thats ~3.5 tons of CO2 for every ton of fuel.
aurcovCorresponding to current figures the known reserves of coal hold for anbother 300 years if consumption is constant.
…And US holds the largest reserves in the world; this explains the interest of USAF.
Did anyone use diesel engines in tanks in WW2?
The most produced tank in WWII (T34) was diesel powered…
aurcovSniper wont be carried for all A2A missions. The number of pods is always restricted (bar the US).
Sniper is carried on a chin pylon that doesn’t affect the total weapon load. Also, it is the only pod that (thanks to its shape) allows the plane to fly supersonic.
The Irbis specifies 400 KM detection (if true) for 3 Mtr Sq RCS.
:p Now, this is a good one…
aurcovLike I had said earlier, MiG29Ks with RCS reduction (~~1 Mtr class, 1.5 with weapons) and a more powerful radar (120-130 vs 5 Sq Mtr) + new IRST, with State of the art ECM will have a definite advantage, vs non RCS reduced F-16s (5 Sq Mtr class) with an APG-68 series (100-110 km ranged radar for a 5 Sq Mtr target) and downgraded ECM.
-The RCS of USAF F 16 is ~ 1.5 sqm for years;
-The air-to-air detection/aquisition ranges of Sniper are bigger that the “new IRST” of the MiG 29k;
-what do you mean by “downgraded ECM”? The current F 16s in USAF have the ALR 56M RWR and the ALQ 184 jamming pod. Can you name a Russian equivalent of these? I don’t even mention the all digital ALR 69(V)A, or the Falcon Edge in the blk 60…
USAF didn’t uses right now V9, they uses V5 (V7 is for export oriented Block50 of the 90s), they plan to introduce V9 technology as MLU of those radars, it’s called V10.
About 650 F 16 C/D blks 40/42 and 50/52 are in process to be upgraded in the CCIP program. It involves the upgrade of the radar to the specifications of export APG 468(V)9.
So 70 miles (110 odd km) does not sound that great.
IN US, when speaking about miles, they are alway Nmiles. So the detection range for the APG 80 is 127-146km.
See of late i’m used to seeing larger radar specs throwing out tons of power and detecting little a/c at 250 or even 350 km (Irbis Bars NO11M)
Those ranges (if true) are for planes like AWACS, bombers, transporters etc. For fighter-sized aircraft the figures are half, at best.
According to atleast the published information and brochure ( which may not represent actual no.s i might add) the Su-30MKI’s current radar is about 10% better at 1m^2 target then the Apg-80 which speaks volumes of the latters capabilities .
Not to mention that the Flaker RCS is ~ 10 sqm :p
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