Bob , I am going to follow Grey Area ‘s advice and I ‘m not going to respond to your post , even if I wish that I could . I am sorry .

But 2 things needs to be clarified :

-1) While I was indeed in the French Special Forces in 1985 , I did NOT participate . The Op was undertaken by DGSE personals and NOT by any Commando Units .
-2) I use “We” instead of “them” (the French) because I accept what my Gov did .
If you want to go further on , PM me or just let it go 🙂
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J Boyle , thank you for the link but it doesn ‘t change a thing , really .
Only 3 facts remains :
-1) No weapons usable by Hamas have been found on the ships
-2) No one on board the ships was a “terrorist“
-3) Yes , it was a strong political move 😉

From there on , Israel can be blamed and it was most probably the secondary goal of the Convoy . They did very well on both accounts , it has to be said and noted .

To me it also shows 3 more things :
-1) Mossad didn ‘t have a clue
-2) Bad decision from the Israeli Gov
-3) Atrocious “assault” from the Israelis (if one can call such ****-up an assault :mad:)

Israel only let through 20% of the total needs to Gazza . Only 81 products are on the “Green” list . I could post what can go into Gazza and what cannot , you would be very surprised but it is not the topic .
Gazza is nothing else but a huge concentration camp , left on its own with only organisations like the Red Cross (and many others) and the pseudo good will of Israel to die slowly .
Without the tunnels and the help from Egypt , the Gazza people would be dying by hundreds right now .
That would give place for the Israeli colons …

Gentlemen , keep in mind that I am for Justice and my only flag is the French flag .
It is about time to force Israel to give up on Gazza and find a way to the problem .
Just my 2 Euros …

Cheers .

Comet :

Like the appalling act committed by your country (I see from your location that you are in France) against the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland? Innocent people were killed on that, I find that inexcusable.

Like EGPH said , it is somehow uncalled for .
Nevertheless , we are talking about a totally different situation . France could have fired on the Rainbow Warrior on multiple occasions when it entered National and restricted waters around Moruroa atoll . We did not .
We decided to sink it in the port of Auckland .
One only death because the man did returned to film the damage :

“”Agents had boarded and examined the ship while it was open to public viewing. The agents attached two limpet mines to the ship and detonated them 10 minutes apart at around 11:45 p.m. Agents intended the first mine to cripple the ship so that everybody would be evacuated safely off when the second mine was detonated. The ship sank four minutes after the second explosion.

However, the crew did not react to the first explosion as the agents had expected. While the ship was initially evacuated, some of the crew returned to the ship to investigate and film the damage. A Portuguese-Dutch photographer, Fernando Pereira, returned below decks to fetch his camera equipment. He drowned in the rapid flooding that followed the second blast. The other ten crew members were either safely evacuated on the order of Captain Peter Willcox or were thrown into the water by the second explosion.””

We took every precaution to not cause any casualties , knowing that local Medics would be on site in matter of minutes . It was a deserved punishement (sinking the ship) for breaching French AND International Laws .
An illegal act , sure , but one have to understand that the Rainbow Warrior was flying non-governmental colors (private ship) and can ‘t be considered an act of war .

Cheers .

Grey Area :

Does Israel – or any other nation, for that matter – actually have any authority over the movements of civilian vessels under way in international waters?

No , none whatsoever .
The only case where a civilian vessel can be stopped in International waters is on the demand of the UN or Interpol , as long as a “Red Notice” has been issued or a “Interpol-United Nations Security Council Special Notice” .

Cheers .

benyboy :

The video footage clearly shows the ships crew beating the Israeli forces with metal bars, setting them on fire, throwing them over board.

Yes and rightly so . This is what many don ‘t want to understand .
It was their right and duty to do so against an act of piratery or an act of war .

EGPH :

Israel simply cannot be militarily defeated, not by Egypt, Turkey, Syria and any other countries combined.

Of course Israel can be defeated , I can ‘t see any decent reason why they couldn ‘t be defeated . But again , this is not the primary goal .

What needs to happen is for the US to say enough is enough and force Israel, through the threat of cuts to their military hand-outs to sit down with the Palestinians and broker a mutually acceptable deal. I do not think the State of Israel should disappear entirely however the Palestinians must have a homeland over which Israel can exercise no control. It won’t happen overnight but I believe it is possible.

I agree but I also believe that Obama will not act in such strong manner . So , who will do the job ?

Cheers .

Erkokite , your link is also an “eye opener” . 😎

I ‘ve noticed the ease of use for such a skin .

Its thickness is almost acceptable , it covers most of the X band and some of the Ku band (fighters and some A2A missiles bands) , the output power needed is minimal and the RCS reduction is said to be -20 db . Very good … 🙂

Obviously , there are some difficulties to implement such a skin on an aircraft ‘s airframe but it sounds very clever and doable 😎

I like it 🙂

Cheers .

Arthuro :

What makes AC likely is the coordination of three things : Sweetman article, A&Cosmos weekly and the french defense budget for year 2010. The sources are diverse enough and from very different horizon. That is no wonder professionals take it seriously.

There are far more than just 3 sources in the public domain . In fact , dozens . If you have a secret defence clearance , probably hundreds .

jackjack , you ‘re just in bad faith mode 😡
What you don ‘t get is that active cancellation has been planned for the Rafale from day ONE , right from the blueprint .
Dassault and Thalès worked hand in hand from the very beginning and if Rafale looks like it is , it is because its shape has been designed by both .
One only has to download the Fox-3 publications and read through :
http://www.dassault-aviation.com/fr/defense/rafale/publications.html

It is as official as it can gets . 😎
jackjack , check the No1 (Spectra) and No4 (The Survivor) 😉

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As I said earlier on , true active cancellation is NOT part of the actual Spectra suite . As far as I know … 😎
It is an ongoing business , both from the labs and the flying Rafales .

Yes , since the Rafale has been flying with the various Spectra suites (from 1991 to today , that ‘s 19 years) , Spectra has been used to record everything within its range : French radars (ground and fighters) , Nato radars (ground and fighters) , everything going on at various TigerMeet , GreenFlag , Redflag , ATLC , etc , etc .
Dassault and Thalès perfectly know how RF emissions react on the Rafale , clean or heavily loaded .
In fact , they only validated the tons of data recorded during the months spent in various anechoic chambers (Fox-3 No4 jackjack) .

Now , some people are telling us that the external stores are a show stopper for real AC . Well , what do they know ? :confused:
Every weapon and pylon going to be fitted on the Rafale also went through anechoic chamber . It still continue today with the future pods .
The AASM also did .

If you think that only the supposed best nations are working on AC , one should look at what Brazil has been doing since 2007 :
http://www.sel.eesc.usp.br/jmo/issues/vol_7/v7_n2/v7_n2_paper_pdf/v7n2a8.pdf

Nice “eye opener” isn ‘it 😉

All of this to say that the Spectra T5 will protect an A2A loaded Rafale (2 Meteors , 4 Micas , one central stealth fuel tank) against almost every know radars and force the SAMs to shut-up and the adverse fighters to come very close .
All of this to say that the Spectra T5 will protect an heavily loaded Rafale (2 stealth external fuel tanks , 2 stealth APACHE cruise missiles , 2 Meteors-2 Micas or 4 Micas) from SAMs while still forcing the adverse fighters to come closer .

I repeat again , it is not about making the aircraft invisible but to reduce greatly any “track or lock” .
As far as I see it , in 2018 , a T-50 PAKFA will have more chance against a Rafale than a F-22 . 😀
Since the Russians don ‘t have any “lobby” (LM , Boeing) and no Congress , they can “by-pass” the BS and work on what is working , meaning IRSTs , LRFs , IR long range missiles and strong ECMs .

Basically , everything the F-22 doesn ‘ t have 😀
Irony at its best …:rolleyes:

Cheers .

sounds like the 2 layers of electrified mesh that makes part of the composite sandwich of the f-35 to me, but its a secret and i cant tell you

Yeah , my sandwich is a nice BLT (bacon-lettuce-tomatoes) and it does plasma screen on my stomach 😀
Be serious jj … 😉

Cheers .