NGAD & the US Navy

The Navy is ever fearful of dropping behind the Air Force, so they’re dumping money into the Air Force’s next-generation fighter, which has flown (for what it’s worth) in testing. Will it be useful to the Navy? I have serious doubts. Naval Aviation has a completely different set of requirements.

The venerable F-18 Super Hornet is still in production despite the promise of the F-35, which is a VSTOL replacement for the Harrier (F-35B) but may not be reliable enough to serve as a fleet defense aircraft.

How long will the F-18 remain in the fleet? As an answer, I have a picture below of the next generation of F-18 aviators.

 

Picture of the Admiral

Admiral Kuznetsov in its drydock, taken in better times when it wasn’t constantly catching on fire. The Russians don’t have the money to fix it, so it goes into drydock. Then they do a work-around-patch, float it, start it up, it catches fire or the engines stop working all together —- rinse, repeat.

 

Is Arizona going to the Dogs?

The answer is yes…

 

Animal Proxies

“War pigs” were used during the siege of Megara in 266BC to combat “war elephants”. The pigs were coated in oil, set on fire, and sent towards the enemy’s elephants. The squealing pigs terrorized the elephants, causing them to panic and trample and kill anyone close by.

“War dogs” were continuously used by ancient peoples. They were often sent into shield walls to disrupt the formations. One of the only counters was to keep female dogs – which were in season – to deflect the war dogs from their mission. Domesticated wolves were often used as were specialized breeds (subsets of wolves).

My only personal access to using mammal proxies was with the US Navy’s program. The seal program was at Glorietta Bay (Naval Amphibious Base, Coronado – bay-side) and the dolphin program (Naval Ocean Systems Center – NOSC – Sea Side). At that my exposure was limited, but you don’t want to be in the water as a combat swimmer when a trained dolphin goes after you to take you out. Trust me, if they can finish off a great white shark, they can take you out as well.  The US Navy strongly denies that it uses mammals. If they say so, it’s so. I must be wrong.

A year or so ago, a Beluga Whale, trained by the Russians, wearing a harness, showed up in Norway. The whale wore a harness that appeared “specially made,” with “mounts for GoPro cameras on each side of it,” said Jorgen Ree Wiig, a marine biologist at Norway’s Directorate of Fisheries.

 

American Government (in a nutshell)

 

European Soft Drinks

They’re not all delivery systems for sugar and caffeine. There are ‘diet’ versions. But do they appeal?

American Soft Drinks

If it’s a diet beverage, I edge toward Diet Dr. Pepper. If it’s to be sweet (sugar), I edge toward Squirt.

Squirt was created by Herb Bishop in 1938, after experimenting with a citrus drink known as Citrus Club. The result used less fruit juice and less sugar than some other drinks.

The Squirt brand has changed ownership several times and is currently the property of Keurig Dr Pepper. Your tastes may differ.

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52 COMMENTS

  1. I thought the European soft drinks were beer and wine?

    San Pellegrino makes some good sodas, but Chinotto, the one I like far and away the best
    has become almost impossible to find around here.

    -Kle.

    • Availability of San Pellegrino products is spotty at best – in the West. But I agree. They have produced some good sodas in the past.

        • This is the national forest. There are no huge liquor stores unless I drive to Phoenix (5 hour round trip). It’s 118 degrees in Phoenix today…I won’t be going soon.

          • Have to got to Fort Collins Thursday, if Sams has it I’ll buy an extra case and UPS it to you…least I can do for your service to us.

          • I appreciate the thought but don’t spend money on my account. In due time, I’ll descend into the inferno and go shopping. I’m reluctant to do it but I do need to stock up on supplies eventually and I’ll see what I can find.

  3. My favored soft drink is Modelo Negra.
    The Hostess meme seems right though I have doubts about the “Now even better tasting!” part.

  4. I was stationed on USS Dolphin AGSS555 at NOSC finger pier mid 70’s. We had a float (dolphin) between us and the pier. Checking drafts and lines on the mids we sometimes were “visited” by a dolphin escapee. We would call over to those people who were not there to remove them.

    • I dunno, but apparently Hostess has a picture of one on their fruit pies now, so maybe they can tell us.

        • They poured pitch on them. I am guessing that they had that petroleum taste about them. That’s where the BBQ sauce comes in.

      • Everything else aside, can SOMEONE please take that person aside and give that person some tips on makeup and clothing?

        I get that some women are dealt a suboptimal hand in the looks department (and the substrate of a stout, jowly, mentally-ill man is about the worst possible hand a woman could be dealt), but FFS, a more suitable haircut, glasses that complement the face, and some proper makeup would be a good start. Even Betty Friedan and Bella Abzug managed to look better than Dr Levine, and it’s not as if either of those were natural beauties.

        • Levine’s problem – chick with a stick – is that he was a hideous guy before he made the change. I agree that a make-over and serious plastic surgery, combined with a radical diet to drop 150 lbs couldn’t hurt. Sometimes you just can’t overcome DNA.

          Look at Jenner, the woman of the year, still looks like a 70-year-old guy in drag, and he had an inexhaustible supply of money.

  6. Well, the G7 went as expected with The Hologram trying to hear his lines then deliver them, then going off script…Syria/Lybia…”Come on, man…What the Hell, They all look the same. ” What a disgrace and embarrassment for America…and the next one in line is worse…and the next one in line is evil and more senile. Heck, the entire administration is packed with nudges, morons, and imbeciles…the lowest denominator types with positions of import. The Dem’s motto: “We give you our worse, our most stupid, our immoral.”

    DJT worked his a$$ off, these people ponder their navels. Joe gets into office and Israel loses Netanyahu, arguably leading the safest period in their history.

    • PaulM your standards for the presidency (not a booger-eating moron) means that we’d never have a Democrat in the White House again. It’s fine with me, but it’s not very woke.

      • Sorry, maybe I need to lower my expectations a smidge. Nah…the Left can take it’s new “woke” idiotic terminology and…well, let’s leave it at that before I say something I’ll [maybe] regret.

        I saw what a real President could do, anything below that level is marginal at best and doesn’t bode well for America and its citizens (the legal ones).

  7. The Admiral Kuznetsov’s drydock sank a while back in an epic Russian-style mishap. It’s apparently not recoverable. It was also not built in Russia, but Sweden if I recall correctly, and is thus most unlikely to be replaced. No more repairs for that carrier, unless the Russian Navy sends it abroad…

    • They need to turn it into a fish habitat in the Baltic or something. Why put good money after bad?

    • Can’t help you there. While I wouldn’t mind having it, the starting bid is more than I’d want to pay right now. Something to consider as well. It is a pre B and as such will not take standard CZ75 magazines unless it’s been modified. You can get get magazines that’ll work through CZ however.

      • Quite right about the price and the magazines, Jim. My one and only CZ75 is in fact a pre-B and when I got it, the correct mags were very hard to find. So after much tongue biting, I pulled open the file drawer and did the modification myself. And, it worked! Slow and careful got it done.

  10. You talk about the life of the FA-18.
    If they slow it down a bit, it could last as long as the B-52. How many skins and refits has it had?

    All good stuff. Thanks, LL.

  11. Off topic but mighty interesting , CNN says today USA passes 600,000 corona deaths . Reuter’s said yesterday all of Africa had 123,000 corona virus deaths. How is that possible, anyone care to guess?
    They must have some fantastic juju , or living in sh!t is a prophylactic. Maybe all the parasites eat coronvirus.

    • Figure 6% of that number to be true Sars COV 2 deaths, not unlike seasonal flu. If I walk into a n old barn and rummage around I don’t want Hantavirus, so I either grab the N95 out of the pickup or hold my breath….I don’t NOT go in.

      • I think that Paul’s on the mark. US numbers include anything that they can construe by any means to be a COVID death including auto accidents. George Floyd’s death was ruled COVID-related even though he died of an overdose.

        • LL, clearly you were not selected for the Chauvin jury with that attitude, everyone knows Floyd died from a racist knee on the neck, not the swallowed baggie of Fentanyl that would kill Jonah’s whale.

          • There’s also the factor that 99% of Africa has no interest in getting, nor ability to perform, and accurate count.

            For more imaginary statistics, see the PRC.

            -Kle.

          • Kle…the Amish didn’t get Covid, outside working from early t9 late every day, and they don’t have TV.

          • Hah, the TV is definitely one of the prime vectors of the Covid Panic, for sure!

            We could all do with a general shunning of the “press”.

            -Kle.

  13. That’s a loaded up Hornet, there. 10 AMRAAMs and two Sidewinders. Somebody’s gonna have a bad day. I’ll take a SWAG and say the Hornet has another 25 years left in it.

    Those pups look like they’re having a good time. Just kickin’ back chillin’ with their buds.

    I’d say Hostess has been “woked”, but thenI realize it’s satire.

  14. Fun fact: The US Navy’s newest Carriers, the Ford Class, were not designed to operate the F-35C!

  15. I guess my attempt at humor failed, but it’s my understanding that they hand out ivermectin, and hydroxy like candy on the dark continent . Pony paste for the win.
    “Release the pig” , just doesn’t have the same cachet as “Release the Kraken”

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