even more nostalgia

Read one of Tam's recent posts this morning, which made me giggle more than a bit.  Even though I was one of those guys, I can't help but mess with 'em when I have the chance.  It's all out of love though.  In all my time, I have never known a more heartfelt, dedicated, selfless, and caring bunch than those men and women I served with.  Even living in this epicenter of Mormonism that is the Salt Lake area, I still give shout-outs, high fives, and offer rides to those guys.

None of us are perfect; we can't walk on water, but walls are much easier.

Unless I somehow manage the impossible and get married and have kids at some point, I'll always regard those two years as the best of my life.

Never know what you'll be doing one day to the next, but it's guaranteed to be hard work with no pay.

Man, I wish I had the money to still wear a suit every day.  You just feel like freaking James Bond while wearing a sharp suit.

random memories

I remember when I was real young, sometime when I was around 9 or so.  I got a bit sick.  But, despite feeling this way, I just couldn't sleep at all; I was really tired, but just couldn't get to sleep.  So late one night, I was up reading some book when my mom told me to go to sleep.  I told her her that I didn't feel like sleeping, and we went back and forth on the issue for a minute, when my step father jumped in and said, "I can get him to sleep."

So, with that, Mom went to bed, and my step father wheeled the television over to the couch I was sitting on.  I asked what we were gonna watch, to which he replied, "Something I KNOW will put you to sleep."  So we turned it on and I proceeded to watch The Hunt For Red October for the first time.  Being a bit of a different kind of kid with different interests than most, the night didn't turn out as he expected.  I was wide awake for the whole thing, excitedly following every detail of the movie, whereas my step father was quickly fast asleep.

Dunno why I suddenly started thinking about this memory or why I even wrote it down, but it is a fond one. I still love watching my collection of Clancy movies.  Though, The Sum of All Fears doesn't count; stupid Ben Affleck ruining one of my favorite characters.

The saga continues

The top aircraft is not the answer.

Yes, it's been longer than I wanted from my last post, but it's finally here.  So, time for some actual number crunching!

So, for this segment I also wanted to focus on the Super Hornet, as opposed to the hornet, but I'll likely get to that in another post.  I primarily wanted to compare the Super to the F-14 as well, because the Navy was basically given only two choices of which fighter to buy: an advanced Tomcat or a redesigned Hornet.  the Super Hornet was developed at nearly 22 times the cost of developing a new version of the F-14 Tomcat (the Quickstrike), which is well known to have had longer range, is much faster, has better acceleration, more capable radar, is just as maneuverable (if not more overall), and carries far more ordnance than the Super Hornet, without an upgraded version.  The ST-21 (Super Tomcat 21) in this one and many other's opinion, would have been the far better choice of aircraft to super-size as opposed to the hornet, both economically and operationally.

Planned incremental improvement of the Tomcat family.  This would also allow for a large number of retrofitted aircraft to be converted until new build aircraft were produced.

Suffice to say, the "Super" was developed because the original Hornet never lived up to any of the range, speed and payload requirements given it.  In fact, the Hornet carries considerably less ordinance to less than half the range of most of the aircraft it replaced (other than the A-4).

What's that you say?  The fact files say the Super Hornet can carry over 17,000 lbs while the Tomcat only carries 14,500 lbs?  Well, this is a very misleading statistic.  True, the E/F CAN carry a good amount or ordnance, however, in order to carry it to the same distance that the Tomcat can (500 nmi), you have to add a couple of external fuel tanks to it that subtract it's potential payload by 7,200 lbs.  The tomcat on the other hand, can do that distance on internal fuel, and even with it's two external fuel tanks, it's payload capacity is completely unaffected.

'nother music post

For the life of me I was having the hardest time finding a version of this song on youtube that sounded right.  This one came the closest.  Enjoy.

Gayane's Adagio - Khachaturian

Laziness achieved!

Well, in my defense, you know it's been a long day when you can't even type the title of your post without misspelling both of the simple words.  Yeah, today was a bit more eventful at work than I thought, along with the fact that the car is in the shop and won't be done until tomorrow.

I was planning on doing some basic number crunching to follow up on my last post, but I am just swamped with stuff to do.  But, in the meantime, I'm thinking you should kick back, and read up on a new blog I discovered, which is proving to be quite educational, and offers some very good insight into the military aviation industry.  Check it:

http://elementsofpower.blogspot.com/

America: your government doesn't know basic math or practicality.

and it screws you over because of it.  Okay so that's not exactly a news flash, but still.   If you hadn't guessed, this is another ridiculous aviation rant, but I tried to make it fun for everybody by mixing it up at about the halfway point.  So, if you don't give a crap about anything I say, at least stick around for the last half.

Now, I don't consider myself particularly good at math, or even at understanding the procurement process of the department of defense in depth, but it doesn't take a genius to do some basic math and find out our light fighter planes (the F-18 and F-16) just suck when compared to the planes they replaced.  Upon doing some homework, I can't help but notice some really f-ed up things about the current state of Naval Aviation.  Particularly in the use of the F/A-18 Hornet and F-18E/F Super Hornet.

At least it's a nice looking aircraft...

Why am I so critical of the Hornet?  Because it's not as capable or efficient as older generation airframes.  The Hornet has excellent technological advances, making it more precise, more maneuverable, and more reliable perhaps, but these are improvements that could have been made to older, and otherwise more capable airframes just as (if not more) easily.  The original Hornet replaced aircraft such as the A-7 Corsair II, A-6 Intruder, A-4 Skyhawk, along with Marine Corps F-4 Phantoms and various other aircraft of other nations.  But today I'm going to focus solely on the American aircraft.

So, why do we have the F-16, F/A-18 and it's "super" successor replacing these aircraft?  Well, some of it is quite straightforward, while most of it isn't.  Some of the practical reasons are that the current airframes of the time were ageing and nearing their flight hour limit, which greatly affects maintenance hours and costs.  Also, the Navy wanted improved systems to deliver dumb ordnance more accurately in all weather conditions, while using a new airframe (for longer flight hours) and increased growth potential.

These are all very legitimate problems, but the question I ask is, "Was it worth developing the Hornet airframe for it?"  Or...

First, I'd like to take a look at the replacement of the F-14 Tomcat by the Hornet/Super Hornet.  The real driving force behind both the Hornet programs (other than greed, lies and politics), was that the DOD/Pentagon decided for the Navy, that they should be forced to buy these smaller, lighter fighters that will be far cheaper to maintain, and will be much cheaper per unit, therefore saving the taxpayer money.  (much like the Air Force's F-16, which suffers from the exact same problems I discuss here).  The only real arguments that had any merit for Hornet supporters, was the fact that the hornet is far cheaper per unit and only required about 20 maintenance hours per flight hour, whereas the F-14A Tomcat needed around 40-60.  However, this is a canard as well, since the F-14's maintenance problems were for two reasons: 1) the airframes were old and 2) the A model was never intended to be a full production model and had numerous reliability issues that Grumman was willing to fix, but no one was willing to pay for, despite being relatively cheap.  The later B/D models and other new-build Tomcat's maintenance hours were far lower than those for the A model, nearly getting as low as the Hornet's.

What they fail to point out to the taxpayer, is that (for the most part) this method of buying cheaper per unit light fighters doesn't work.  Why?  Well, the Navy has constantly been pushing for larger, heavier fighters in the past, because it allows for a far greater range and payload capability than smaller fighters, and will offer more flexibility for the airframe, and the range helps reduce the risk to the carrier, as well as allowing long range missions to be carried out far easier and cheaper.  Also, the development costs for using existing heavy fighter designs and then adapting them to perform SEAD, DEAD, Anti-shipping, CAS, and strike roles (even if producing brand new aircraft) was proven to be far cheaper than developing an entirely new aircraft.  Not only that, but the Super Hornet doesn't have the capability to use the quite effective long range weapons the Tomcat has, nor does it have any equivalent weapon to replace it with.

For example, here's a quick gallery of Tomcat flexibility:

Did you know that?

Did you know that in western Utah on Nov. 15th 1949 was the first successful launch of a surface to air missile, and that the launch site and bunker is now a state landmark?

Or that we have an inland sea base located on the coast of the great salt lake that is stocked with tropical fish?

Or that western Utah is the site of a Polynesian town that was abandoned because of leprosy?

Or that I used to live within biking distance of a plant that produced rocket fuel for ICBMs and the space shuttle?

Or that you can see the remains of a WWII Japanese American internment camp site?

Or that there are more than three uranium disposal sites dispersed across the state?

So, yeah.  If you can't tell, I recently found a fun website: The Center for Land Use Interpretation, which is providing me endless entertainment.  Why I haven't found this site earlier, I just don't know.  But there is a ton of stuff listed in my state that is both cool and previously un-visited by yours truly.  Whenever I have enough money to just leave and go on another road trip around the country, I'm using this site as a guide.

And now you know...

Also, I'm a really terrible blogger

I did it again.  Forgot to post some enjoyable tunes to listen to yesterday.  So here's some of the good stuff.

Little Richard - Long Tall Sally

On an unrelated note, it kinda saddens me how freaking long it took me to write my last post, and what with new developments, I had to re-write the dang thing multiple times, and it eventually got drastically shortened (possibly for the better).

Because even though you suck, we hate you a little less now...maybe.

Funny how I posted a movie review where I do nothing but go on a nerd rage rant about the new trek movie, but now I'm making a post mocking the cult of HundK.  Hypocrisy.  I haz it.  So buckle up, and grab a hot coco, cause I'm gonna have me a rant about the good ol German arms manufacturer and their well deserved meme coined by Larry Correia.

I have always liked H&K's products, possibly stemming from some minor mall ninja tenancies from my formative years.  Could be all the Rainbow Six I played, or the peeking at the Soldier of Fortune mags hidden away like porno in the supermarket. but nobody can deny that HK makes some superb products.  I still drool as much as the next fanboy when I happen to see a G36 or an MP5, but that doesn't excuse their horrible prices, terrible selection for the civilian market, and equally reprehensible service/support to their civilian customers.

They will never live down this little SNAFU.

Now, fast forward to today, and I can't help but notice there are a few more HK focused articles on The Firearm Blog recently.  Most of which seem to be rallying the fanboys to the comments section like trekkies to fanfiction (or flies to the turd).  The moment anyone mentions the funny (and highly true) meme of "because you suck and they hate you", I see several arguments from the angry fanboys as to why that's not the case, but anyone with deductive reasoning, along with more sense than money, can see right through them.

My biggest complaint with HK, was the fact that they sell absolutely nothing that the US public actually wants to civilians, unless you're a cop.  Then, of what they do sell, it's priced so ridiculously, that I could go out and buy several cars as an alternative.  Now, some of this can be blamed on the incredibly hypocritical US importation laws, but a vast majority of the blame rests on HK.

Holy crap, that's overpriced and ugly!

For example, If you look at the difference between the European SL-8 and the one available to Americans, the layman would think it's a completely different rifle.  However, the only big differences between the SL-8, G36, and XM-8, are cosmetic (other than different magwells and stocks).  Back in the day, HK shipped a ton of manufacturing equipment over to it's american plant to start manufacturing the XM-8.  When congress pulled funding for the program HK lost a ton of money and had to figure out what to do with all this now worthless (in their eyes) equipment.  Instead of simply modifying it, and producing a civilian semi auto M-8, or maybe a proper SL-8 to sidestep all those dumb importation laws (which I guarantee would sell like hotcakes), they simply sold off most of the equipment at a great loss.  And this is just one of many scenarios in HK's sordid history with missed opportunity and money in the American civilian market.

But alas, I may have to eat my words, as it seems as though they are beginning to show signs that they may be pulling their craniums out of their posteriors to see the light.  As evidenced by a new article I saw today on TFB about the possibility that they may be selling civilian legal MP5SDs!  Now, I can't get overly excited, as I'm sure they will be priced competitively with the cheapest of supercars, but it is nice to see them finally offering a product that people have actually been wanting.  So, is the old and still hilarious meme of "you suck and they hate you" coming to an end?  Boy, I hope so.

I am drooling so hard right now.

the month of Augustus

Another topic I find interesting on occasion, is the modern calendar; all the how, why where, whens, and who's can be rather fascinating.  That darn Roman Empire's influence is still present in small ways across the world.

As for me, well, things are busier than usual, what with the roomie gone, there's still a few things that need some sorting out, I still have major studying to do, I need to get the car fixed up a bit, and despite having a roommate at the moment, I still gotta keep an eye out for one, just in case.