The US is threatening #Canada (again) if we don't buy their F-35s.
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@wbpeckham @elasticsoul I would still steer clear. All these aircraft need is a back door on the computer management systems and they could all be rendered completely useless by a keyboard in Kentucky
@peterbrown @elasticsoul yeah, but they already spelt the millions of dollars and they already have the aircraft. It doesn't make sense to just junk them. Better to turn your white hat, hackers on that software and ensure that if there's any back door you have an extra key to prevent it from opening.
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I'm against Canada supporting the US War Machine (other, friendlier countries have War Machines worthy of our tax money).
I do have to note that most military combat aircraft spend as much time in the hangar for maintenance as they do in the air on-mission. I should look that up ...
Availability is really bad for combat aircraft. Like, *really* bad. Worse, I gather for the F-35 because of all the whiz-bang stuff, but they are all bad.
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The US is threatening #Canada (again) if we don't buy their F-35s. Here's what Denmark said about the ones they bought, and regret buying:
"They're in for repairs about half the time or even more," he said, "so the Americans have all the power of actually destroying our air force just by shutting down [parts] supplies."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/norad-canada-us-f35-9.7059800
@elasticsoul I am not inclined to believe a single word that comes out of that ‘ambASSador’
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@RichRARobi @elasticsoul I think the German TAURUS cruise missile is somewhat stealthy (not entirely sure). Though, for cruise missiles, flying low and adapting the flight path (like TAURUS does) may already be sufficient to avoid air defence
Would it be possible to make a cheap (as in disposable) mothership, to get one or two of those a bit closer?
Are they too heavy to fit under a cessna or similar? Trundle trundle trundle whoosh!
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The US is threatening #Canada (again) if we don't buy their F-35s. Here's what Denmark said about the ones they bought, and regret buying:
"They're in for repairs about half the time or even more," he said, "so the Americans have all the power of actually destroying our air force just by shutting down [parts] supplies."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/norad-canada-us-f35-9.7059800
@elasticsoul Take the first batch which are coming off the production lines now, cancel the rest. Then go full-on with the Gripen.
This fulfills the NORAD commitment the nazi's are crying about.
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The US is threatening #Canada (again) if we don't buy their F-35s. Here's what Denmark said about the ones they bought, and regret buying:
"They're in for repairs about half the time or even more," he said, "so the Americans have all the power of actually destroying our air force just by shutting down [parts] supplies."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/norad-canada-us-f35-9.7059800
@elasticsoul Thanks to #DonaldTheDeplorable #Trump the #F35 deal with #Canada is about to become the #FAFO
deal. Tough luck, #LockheedMartin. -
@elasticsoul @EricLawton Warning of “consequences to the defence pact” sounds exactly like gangster language. The US now only operates with threats and ‘preemptive’ strikes. Canada should think carefully about buying any equipment from a seller that can and will disable it at will.
@pedrobizbikedu @elasticsoul @EricLawton
Trust is more valuable than the dollar.
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The US is threatening #Canada (again) if we don't buy their F-35s. Here's what Denmark said about the ones they bought, and regret buying:
"They're in for repairs about half the time or even more," he said, "so the Americans have all the power of actually destroying our air force just by shutting down [parts] supplies."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/norad-canada-us-f35-9.7059800
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The US is threatening #Canada (again) if we don't buy their F-35s. Here's what Denmark said about the ones they bought, and regret buying:
"They're in for repairs about half the time or even more," he said, "so the Americans have all the power of actually destroying our air force just by shutting down [parts] supplies."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/norad-canada-us-f35-9.7059800
@elasticsoul A wild Gripen appears!
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The US is threatening #Canada (again) if we don't buy their F-35s. Here's what Denmark said about the ones they bought, and regret buying:
"They're in for repairs about half the time or even more," he said, "so the Americans have all the power of actually destroying our air force just by shutting down [parts] supplies."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/norad-canada-us-f35-9.7059800
@elasticsoul oh... let's play this game:
"Because of the US tariffs, Canada has not enough money to buy F-35 Jets"
It makes no sense, but Trump does not make sense, so he will understand. -
@troy_frizzell @elasticsoul Filling the border with a cloud of dual-role drones, that can be used as artificial bird-strikes loaded with jagged tungsten crusty-os, or air-to-ground mobile claymores can be done for a fraction of the cost of a hangar full of dead F-35s.
@su_liam @elasticsoul @troy_frizzell
By my profoundly uninformed back of the napkin calculations, one should be able to scare up more than half million basic, disposable drones for the cost of one F35
I’m imagining the effect of lifting a cloud of a couple hundred of these into the flight path of a fighter jet, especially if they could be remotely detonated above the flight path to create a plume of shrapnel…
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@su_liam @elasticsoul @troy_frizzell
By my profoundly uninformed back of the napkin calculations, one should be able to scare up more than half million basic, disposable drones for the cost of one F35
I’m imagining the effect of lifting a cloud of a couple hundred of these into the flight path of a fighter jet, especially if they could be remotely detonated above the flight path to create a plume of shrapnel…
️@DavidM_yeg @su_liam @elasticsoul @troy_frizzell Yes. Ukraine defence against what was the second strongest army in the world (and now the second strongest in Russia) has completely changed the technology of war.
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@su_liam @elasticsoul @troy_frizzell
By my profoundly uninformed back of the napkin calculations, one should be able to scare up more than half million basic, disposable drones for the cost of one F35
I’m imagining the effect of lifting a cloud of a couple hundred of these into the flight path of a fighter jet, especially if they could be remotely detonated above the flight path to create a plume of shrapnel…
️@DavidM_yeg @elasticsoul @troy_frizzell That’s how I’m seeing it. The one limitation I’m seeing is altitude. Modern aircraft might be able to fly above the cloud of cheap drones. But what would high altitude drones cost? If they cost 10 times as much as those cheap ones, that’s still like 50,000 drones to shove down the intakes of an attacker. Let’s be more conservative and say 10,000. That’s not a border cloud, but used judiciously it’s an F35 killer.
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@DavidM_yeg @elasticsoul @troy_frizzell That’s how I’m seeing it. The one limitation I’m seeing is altitude. Modern aircraft might be able to fly above the cloud of cheap drones. But what would high altitude drones cost? If they cost 10 times as much as those cheap ones, that’s still like 50,000 drones to shove down the intakes of an attacker. Let’s be more conservative and say 10,000. That’s not a border cloud, but used judiciously it’s an F35 killer.
@DavidM_yeg @elasticsoul @troy_frizzell And after each dead F-35, most of those can be reused. How many Canada geese with a clear and focussed goal of going up a jet intake does it take to kill a fighter? I’d say one could do it if it’s full of metal shurikens.
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@DavidM_yeg @elasticsoul @troy_frizzell That’s how I’m seeing it. The one limitation I’m seeing is altitude. Modern aircraft might be able to fly above the cloud of cheap drones. But what would high altitude drones cost? If they cost 10 times as much as those cheap ones, that’s still like 50,000 drones to shove down the intakes of an attacker. Let’s be more conservative and say 10,000. That’s not a border cloud, but used judiciously it’s an F35 killer.
@DavidM_yeg @elasticsoul @troy_frizzell Double or triple the price, so they don’t have to commit suicide and you have 3,000-5,000 angry killer high-altitude geese that can hunt aircraft again and again. If you could get it up to 100k suicide birds, nothing is flying without permission. Eight of the genuinely best planes in existence(not F-35s) won’t change the air supremacy state. 80,000 drones will ground the USAF.
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@DavidM_yeg @elasticsoul @troy_frizzell Double or triple the price, so they don’t have to commit suicide and you have 3,000-5,000 angry killer high-altitude geese that can hunt aircraft again and again. If you could get it up to 100k suicide birds, nothing is flying without permission. Eight of the genuinely best planes in existence(not F-35s) won’t change the air supremacy state. 80,000 drones will ground the USAF.
@DavidM_yeg @elasticsoul @troy_frizzell Realistically, they’ll have to be LOS controlled. Satellites will be denied, and the longer the range, the more effective the jamming. So the operators will be vulnerable, but if you divvy it up 50/50 between expensive anti-air and cheapass DP drones, that’s still 40k for air defense and(250,000 x 8)about 2 million flying claymores. Afghanistan was a snap…
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Would it be possible to make a cheap (as in disposable) mothership, to get one or two of those a bit closer?
Are they too heavy to fit under a cessna or similar? Trundle trundle trundle whoosh!
@RichRARobi @elasticsoul Well, why not, but the question is whether the benefit (if any) over traditional launching is worth the time and cost of development.
Wikipedia says that a TAURUS weighs ca. 1.4 tonnes, while the maximum total take-off weight of a typical Cessna 172 is <1.2 tonnes (including the aircraft itself which is 800 kg). Also, I'd assume that a cruise missile needs a certain minimum launch velocity that the aircraft must fly at.
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The US is threatening #Canada (again) if we don't buy their F-35s. Here's what Denmark said about the ones they bought, and regret buying:
"They're in for repairs about half the time or even more," he said, "so the Americans have all the power of actually destroying our air force just by shutting down [parts] supplies."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/norad-canada-us-f35-9.7059800
@elasticsoul after threatening to invade Canada surely they’re not surprised that they don’t want to buy their planes?
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@alessandro @elasticsoul Why buy any F-35s at all? They have a laundry list of issues, including problems in harsh environments, and apparently the US military has been hiding poor performance compared to older models, like the A-10 warthog. They were over hyped and are not at all worth their asking price.
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@DavidM_yeg @su_liam @elasticsoul @troy_frizzell Yes. Ukraine defence against what was the second strongest army in the world (and now the second strongest in Russia) has completely changed the technology of war.
@NovaNaturalist @troy_frizzell @su_liam @elasticsoul
I’m reminded of a novel I read back in the 80’s (David’s Sling… I think?) that included an interesting look forward at some of this cheap disposable warfare: amongst other things they posited satellites carrying a bunch of mostly inert but self-targeting metal missiles (basically crowbars with control fins and simple sensors) that could function as bunker and silo busters through simple inertia. I’m not sure how practical that specific idea is, but the general idea of being able to cheaply produce essentially disposable weaponry is likely to be revolutionary over the next decades.
