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Addendum about F-16 and F-35.

Fourth Generation F-16:

F-16s are considered vacuum cleaners by military experts. The problem for Kiev is that they don't have airfields that are FLAT enough for F-16s. Even when you have flat airfields they have to be clean enough to prevent F-16 from sucking up dead birds and other debris !!

How long will it take Ukraine to upgrade their airfields for F-16s?

Can they upgrade these airfields without detection by the Russian IRS (Intelligence Reconnaissance Strike) group?

Can they fight off the new Russian R-37M air to air hypersonic missiles launched from Su-35/Su-57 & MIG-29?

Fifth Generation F-35:

Please don't dream about having this junk in combat. You'd better buy an F-15 instead.

F-35s have been flying for 8+ years but have NEVER reached the FOC (full operational capability) because they're plagued with hundreds of software bugs that CANNOT be fixed (Lockheed). A lot of hardware issues and the GAO last week reported that the DOD couldn't account for 1 million spare parts.

South Korea bought this junk and at all time, only 1 in 49 is ready to fly. After each flight you need at least 11-24 hours of maintenance.

How in the hell could Ukraine ever use such a junk in the war zone?

I forgot to mention that F-35 also requires new airfields because it's a BIG bird that cannot fly from tiny runways!

Wait! F-35 is sold to NATO vassals as "stealthy". They're not. Even Hamas in Gaza was able to lock on an Israeli F-35 in 2021 but didn't have long range missiles to take it down.

Russia is just laughing at the idea of sending F-35 to Ukraine.

You know why?

Because as they did with the Patriot battalion sent by the US last month, the S-350 and S-400 will obliterate the F-35s and Lockheed will lose customers en masse!

No sane person in the world believes in the US Patriot air defence systems (NATO defence backbone!) anymore after their defeat in Saudi Arabia by the Houthis's stone age missiles and in Ukraine by the Russian hypersonic Khinzals.

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LOL - you are so well over the target my good and knowledgeable friend 'N'. Thank you so much for freely sharing your invaluable knowledge to my readers. You are a star and I thank you beyond measure for being here for me.

Blessings

AP

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There's a lot to be said for a simple cheap jet as part of your fleet, as they are usually available. I'm somewhat out of date as my last experience was the Hawker Hunter and the Hawk both very capable. I learned, during the Falklands war, that you can fit almost any missile onto almost any aircraft, quickly, with enough effort and will.

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LOL - I was a model aircraft enthusiast Greg - from age 7 through 16 (after which I met some girls and my priorities changed! - puberty is HELL). I was mad on aircraft and subscribed to Air Pictorial (AP) and have 2 bound copies - 1950s. I also studied WW2 aircraft of all kinds - some very obscure - which test my memory these days.

I remember the 'Flying Bedstead' and all kinds of experimental types like the X-15 - look at this lot! http://www.astronautix.com/u/usrocketplanes.html

When I worked at Sterling Dynamics they were building a 'fly-by-wire' device for the Hawker Harrier Jump Jet - I actually sat in the simulator test-bed as we manoeuvred to collect a re-fuelling pipe.

I also did a consultancy at 'Rediffusion Simulation' in Crawley where I saw the dual Hawker combat simulator in the early 1990s. And in 1991 we did a job for the RAF at their fighter air traffic control at Heath Row where they were replacing their old mainframes with DEC VAX (32 of them!).

A colourful career I guess!

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The 1950s was a wonderful time in British aviation, IMO, especially the experimental aircraft. The Harrier was great, but was like the Hunter, in that I prefer to fly with a spare engine! Having had engine failure more than once, it's nice to know that you have another one to get you home even if, in the Gannet's case, with the wheels down, you are also only going down!

Also, rods, cables and, in the Harrier's case, bicycle chains are far preferable to fly by wire, IMO. I also worked in high intensity EMC for a while so am a bit prejudiced.

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I stand in awe - you are well ahead of me Greg but thank you for sharing.

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https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2014/11/06/did-nato-promise-not-to-enlarge-gorbachev-says-no/

According to Gorbachev, no promises were give to not expand NATO eastward.

The U.S. did make a deal in 1994 with Ukraine, known as the Budapest Agreement. Ukraine actually had the third-largest nuclear weapons stockpile. This was because the newly-founded Ukraine ended up with the Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons in their territory after the Soviet Union collapsed.

This agreement meant that Ukraine would destroy the weapons and the U.S., United Kingdom (U.K.), and Russia would guarantee Ukraine staying secure.

I’m suspect Ukraine regrets that decision now.

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Good to see some truth emerge. The NATO expansion limitation is one of those pieces of re-cycled propaganda. Recite often enough, plausible enough, thus new truth. The 1994 agreement between the parties was severely violated by Russia perhaps to fit an advisor to Putin opposed to the collapse of the USSR. What has been demonstrated over time is that former USSR members, once released are not prone to re-alignment. Ukraine and Russia were on relatively good terms until Russia started more open political interference. Now Ukraine has gone nuts to reject all thing Russian even bringing back the sad Holodomor business.

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Thank you HH - that is a very wise observation and IMHO you are over the target. As you say it does go back a long way to the 1991 USSR crash. I was in Belarus in 1994 (and , yes the nukes were there then). We were working with the local scientists monitoring the effects of radiation on the human frame.

They told us then that the Exclusion Zone (which we entered for the allowed 2 hours) would be uninhabitable for 10,000 years. I learned a lot about how radiation works but I am pleased to say that the area is now recovering. LOL Nature is indomitable! The pathetic efforts of humans to destroy God's planet have a problem with their egos. They should become humble and celebrate our Creator's works.

"After that God saw everything he had made, and look! it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day. [Genesis 1, 31]

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a YHWH. This one was in the beginning with God. All things came into existence through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into existence. [John 1, 1-3]

It is written and it is true IMHO - the word for me is DNA - the magic of creation. And these A-hole scientists think they 'know' everything. I say bollocks - they know nothing when compared to our creator.

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That's news to me Bill, thank you for the link. This rabbit hole is getting deeper all the time. But 'Brookings' are the Globalist enemy so can this be disinformation? I call BS but I am ready to be convinced otherwise.

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Thanks P&S. Yep the trivia bs blanking out any real news a speciality of all msm, world over these days,

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The “Climate Change Scam” is just the latest attempt by the UN to get its own funding and thereby control of all nations.

-- The UN, fed up with begging governments for money, first tried to get direct funding through the Financial Transaction Tax (Tobin Tax), first suggested in 1972. However, although the UN suggested a tiny tax to start with, the principle horrified financial institutions as they could see where this was going, ie get the principle established then slowly ratchet it up. The UN had to think of something that didn't frighten the banksters.

-- So called Climate Change was a gift to the UN as it could raise money directly from rich governments and decide where to redistribute it – real power. I became interested when it issued its 1992 report, as many contributing scientists were horrified that their submissions had been altered to support the UN’s politicised objectives. I watched closely then onwards especially how China, India and Russia excused themselves from the de-industrialising process.

-- In the late 1990s Michael Mann published his doctoral thesis that became known as the Hockey Stick thesis. I read the original – not recommended as, in my opinion, it was very poorly written and a difficult read. It puzzled me but then Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick did an excellent demolition job on its misuse of data and data analysing techniques. None the less, the UN promoted this as it was a great simple graphic (hockey stick shaped) showing how we are all doomed unless we pay it lots of money.

-- I read all of the 2009 university of east anglia climategate emails, sad character that I am, which showed the deceptive nature of so called climate academics, sorry, scientists, but, sadly, this scandal got brushed under the carpet quite quickly.

..and so it goes on and on, Paris Accord etc but if we can be scared sufficiently, we will comply, wont we?

You will..

drive EVs, but only occasionally

live in 15 minute cities

eat bug and plant based food

install slightly useless, but expensive, heat pumps

pay through the nose for solar farms, windmills and hydrogen plants

heat only one room in winter, and take short showers twice a week

accept prime farm land being given over to rewilding

and be happy - that's mandatory!

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Clearly my good friend Greg, you are extremely well informed and thank you for a stunning exposé of the man-made crisis that has befallen us - hat tip BIS et al. I learned a lot from your share - something that I have not tracked - Tobin Tax etc.

I believe that this is all leading up to CBDCs as a mechanism to save their Ponzi scheme after a collapse of fiat which is already baked into the cake. They will bribe the 80%+ to comply with UBI and goodies and the masses will bend over and get screwed bigtime.

The trouble is that the collapse is moving faster than they can implement the NWO which means that their fantasy wealth will evaporate from whence it came BEFORE they can get the new system in place. You can see the flailing and scrabbling with some 60 countries all trying and failing. FedNow is another trial/pilot.

This is why I am returning to SA & the sun before this winter comes on yet again and we will NOT suffer another 8+ months of - well you know - crap climate? Better poor and warm - than cold, damp, hungry and sick (the specific aliments of the Brits can be Googled.)

Thank you Greg for your time and good thoughts - you are over the target! :-)

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A wise decision. I'll just try to grow more veggies.

Meanwhile, on the subject of 'fantasy wealth' collapse; from the ONS: "Public sector net borrowing (PSNB ex) in April 2023 was £25.6 billion, £11.9 billion more than in April 2022 ... Central government debt interest payable was £9.8 billion in April 2023, £3.1 billion more than April 2022 and the highest April figure since monthly records began in 1997.." So for each tax payer, we are on the hook for £326 a month just for the interest payments. Simplistic, I know, but I like to see how it affects me.

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Great way to look at it Greg - makes it personal - LOL :-D

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In your comment last week regarding 1177BC - The Year Civilisation Collapsed, you quoted: "The failure, he [Eric Cline] suggests, was systemic. The highly complex, richly interconnected system of the world tipped all at once into chaos. It was their very interdependence that hastened their dramatic collapse and ushered in a dark age that lasted centuries - sound familiar?"

.. and here we have, in so many different ways, "leaders" trying to make this an even more complex interdependent world. Can't possibly go wrong, can it?

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LOL - thanks Greg - yes - it not only CAN it go wrong - it WILL go wrong, sure as eggs is eggs! Murphy had it in one: "If something can be put in the wrong way round - one day - someone will put it in the wrong way round."

Our airlines are the safest travel system in the world because they use exactly this principle. When I was consulting to a company in the aircraft manufacturing business (Westlands in UK) - I met this principle first hand involving helicopters.

Actually these beasts defy logic: They should screw themselves into the ground - so why don't they? "If the blades rotate so fast that the tips go supersonic, it would result in the helicopter becoming uncontrollable. This is thanks to what is known as “Dissymmetry Of Lift” (also known as “retreating blade stall”), which is when there is an uneven amount of lift on opposite sides of the rotor disc."

To move upward into the air, the helicopter must create an upward force, known as lift, that counteracts the downward force of gravity. One principle that helps accomplish this is the difference in the air pressure above and below the rotating blades of the primary rotor on top of the helicopter.

https://blog.flyhaa.com/blog/helicopter-101-how-does-a-helicopter-fly

And here's some fun with paper helicopters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRcfcuwyCLk

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If I may, retreating blade stall is a bit different to that which you describe. It's more to do with forward speed. Also from memory, the problem with the civil version of the Bristol Belvedere was that the tip did go supersonic so that it was very noisy. It was hoped to fly the civil version to and from the Thames heliport but the noise was totally unacceptable hence the development of the civil version was cancelled.

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Well reported Greg, thank you. My knowledge of aircraft engineering is somewhat scant. I picked up a little (dangerous) knowledge when consulting for a company in Bath (Richard Moore at (MID) Milsom Industrial Design, Bath and with Bob Sterling at Sterling Dynamics in Clifton, Bristol) in 1995-1999. It's not my discipline, thus I am open to correction. However, I did collect this amazing after dinner speech about air traffic control in the 1970s: What goes up, must come down. Very funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KbUNzi58wM

MID provided contractors to Westlands in Yeovil and my sons Adam and Ben both worked there - a lot of water under bridge since then and I then left UK to work in Cape Town for ten years.

Blessings

AP

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