White Wolf Behavior
From the nearsighted cat
Identify the Aircraft
1
2
Russians Recruiting in Central Asia (opinion)
(RL/RFE – h/t Claudio)
The Dangle: “She said if I became a contract soldier I’d no longer need a residency permit or a work permit and could get a Russian passport after six months of military service. I would also earn about $3,000 a month,” Umarov claimed.
The Russians view Central Asians in much the same way as they do Negros. Essentially they are viewed as soulless animals useful as beasts of burden or simple tasks. I know this because I dealt with Russians directly and understand how the mindset runs. They’ll kit them up, and send them forward as cannon fodder in human wave attacks, followed up by regular Russian troops. The idea is that Ukrainians will expend ammo and artillery on the Central Asians that will be wasted and will pave the way for an exploited battlespace.
They won’t live to collect a dime and their remains won’t be returned home. I’d be surprised if they gave the Central Asian troops loaded weapons. It doesn’t mean that the Russians are running out of soldiers. It means that they found a need for cannon fodder.
RFE Report on Sudan
(link) The Sudanese Government hired my company last August. Things could have gone better. Now they’re back. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes. There is the Wagner Group, the Red Chinese (Ministry of State Security), CIA, AFRICOM, religious NGOs giving away soap and Bibles to the natives, and little nondescript outfits like mine – maybe. Sudan is Sudan. The RFE article is worth reading.
The Terror Torpedo
Strategypage – Recent North Korean military exercises, monitored by South Korea and the United States, included a new North Korean AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) that North Korea later revealed could be used with a nuclear or conventional warhead. Called “Haeil” (tsunami), this was the first open sea test of the system. North Korea described the new AUV as designed to make sneak attacks against enemy ports or ships at sea. Haeil will purportedly be towed by a surface ship to the location it will be launched from or launched from a North Korean port. If a nuclear warhead is used, it is purportedly supposed to produce a radioactive tidal wave in enemy ports or destroy ships at sea with a large radioactive shock wave.
What could possibly go wrong?
Strange Sails
It’s the Schooner Columbia River (1916) with siparum topsails.
From Popular Films
Identify the Aircraft:
1. B-17 fitted with J65 turbojet by Curtiss-Wright for testing.
2. Convair XC-99
Yes!!
B-17 reminds me of this ship–
https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/1970_s_era_firebombers_including_a_B_17F_turboprop_conversion/5-1488843/
Somewhere in a dusty box I have a magazine article. IIRC, with the Rolls Royce turboprops it was possible to exceed maximum rated airspeed in level flight. Consensus after the crash was that air attack should have been grounded that day due to conditions.
Consensus, after the fact…
There are no old, bold, pilots.
Too many bold ones lost fighting fires. Recycled aircraft never designed for the repeated G loads are part of the problem, IMO. Once again, identifying a problem without offering a solution.
The plane was flying too low, too terrain following, too stressed without being properly maintained. Doing medium bomber work with a heavy bomber not designed for those conditions. It was an accident/incident waiting to happen.
https://t.co/L8gFPtHd5j
I hope this link worked. Worth a read.
Dr. Hanson’s writing is always worth a read. This was a pretty depressing summation of the problems in the US today. Especially poignant thoughts on the anniversary of the “shot heard around the world”.
x2 – VDH is always measured and rational…what a concept.
Thanks for sharing the RFE read. Sounds like you’re company has its work cut out for it.
Catturd (heh) lines it out. Yet we will have the mentally deranged defy the facts because it doesn’t fit their narrative. How does that happen that so many brains are warped? College.
Pro-Tip Gleaned from “The War” (that we aren’t actively on the ground involved, wink, wink):
‘Don’t be a target.’
I saw a plane similar to that second one many years ago at Kelly AFB. It was off the track and open to where you could go inside and imagine what it must have been like.
You all be safe and God bless.
That RFE article is ‘interesting’ for what it says, and what it doesn’t say… Yes, you’re going to be busy! Re the sails, that is truly an odd configuration!
It’s about matching funding with the scope of work.
Yow, be careful in the Sudan, LL. That place hasn’t been a place in a thousand years or more.
-Kle.