There was recent news about at least one, which I assume this is referencing.
Honestly, I wish that NCD posts would include a “context” link, since a lot of times they reference things that have happened within very recent periods of time. I get that some people are totally up on the news, but some people – even if they generally follow military issues – aren’t going to know about the most-recent happenings.
I’ve never shot paper targets, but might this be at extreme range? I mean, those don’t look like circular holes, so I’d assume that the bullet is tumbling for some reason.
kagis
Sounds like the term is “keyholing”.
https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/308-tumbling-at-almost-a-mile.194313/
Long range noob here with some questions. Basically I was under the impression that a .308 would be tumbling by the time it reached it’s target when shooting out to a mile. Now the reason I believed this is because just last week I was shooting my .338 out to 1585 and having fantastic results. I decided to try out my Warner build .260 just to see if I could get some hits at this distance. I eventually did have about 3-5 hits on a 24x24" steel out of about 20 rounds. Upon inspection of the target there were clearly visible strikes that showed the bullet impacting sideways. Essentially keyhole imprints on the target
https://old.reddit.com/r/guns/comments/el6h5q/holy_keyhole_batman/
That keyholing image looks a lot like the image of the target that OP posted.
About 9% intercept ratio during Desert Storm, which was 30 years ago, but both the Patriot and the Al Hussain missiles were pretty much brand new.
Regarding being brand new, what I mean is that the Patriot existed for an anti-aircraft role, but its anti-ballistic-missile capability wasn’t supposed to have been done by that point.
Shit-talking aside, though, Russia never claimed that the S-500 was actually done – I assume that they just yanked their prototype onto the battlefield because the S-400 wasn’t able to intercept ATACMS missiles either (which it’s supposed to be able to – the S-400 doesn’t have an excuse). We rolled out the Patriot when it was still in a prototype, half-baked stage in Iraq, too – just that it was all we had that might be able to intercept a ballistic missile, and we really needed the capability right then – and it didn’t fare well either.
So I suppose that the S-500 guys probably don’t necessarily deserve quite the ribbing that the S-400 guys do. They were probably put in kind of the same place that our Patriot guys were.
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-s500-air-defense-system-crimea-ukraine-kyrylo-budanov-1912333
The S-500 is designed to intercept short-to medium-range targets, including ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles, according to Russian state-run media.
Less than two weeks in the field and the first S-500 has apparently already intercepted a ballistic missile of the sort it was designed to counter.
One imagines that additional S-500 systems would surely produce additional interceptions.
Decided to be conservative and leave the Picatinny-rail-to-bayonet-lug piece on the top off, I see.
The Army has officially deployed a pair of high-energy lasers overseas to blast incoming enemy drones out of the sky, the service recently confirmed, marking a major milestone for the U.S. military’s ongoing development of futuristic directed-energy weapons.
The 20-kilowatt Palletized High Energy Laser, or P-HEL, “is currently deployed to support the Army’s mission” in an undisclosed location abroad, a spokesman for the service’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office, which manages its directed-energy portfolio, told Military.com.
I think the bigger concern is enemy UAVs wearing shades.
“Mao suit”.
It’s a trademark for him and his grandfather. Here he is wearing it to meet Trump:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_suit
The modern Chinese tunic suit is a style of male attire originally known in China as the Zhongshan suit (simplified Chinese: 中山装; traditional Chinese: 中山裝; pinyin: Zhōngshān zhuāng) after the republican leader Sun Yat-sen (Sun Zhongshan). Sun Yat-sen introduced the style shortly after the founding of the Republic of China (1912–1949) as a form of national dress with distinct political overtones. The four pockets are said to represent the Four Virtues of propriety, justice, honesty, and shame; and the five buttons the branches of China’s former government (Executive, Legislative, Judicial, Examination, Control),[1][2][3][4][5] which still survive today in the Republic of China government of Taiwan.
After the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War and the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, such suits came to be worn widely by male citizens and government leaders as a symbol of proletarian unity and an Eastern counterpart to the Western business suit. The name “Mao suit” comes from Chinese Communist Mao Zedong’s fondness for the style. The garment became closely associated with him and with Chinese Communism. Mao’s cut of the suit was influenced by the Stalin tunic then prevalent among Soviet officials.[6] Although it declined in use among the general public in the 1980s and 1990s due to the increasing prominence of the business suit, it is still commonly worn by Chinese leaders during important state ceremonies and functions.[7][8] The Mao suit was also worn in North Korea by party elites.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the Mao suit became fashionable among Western European, Australian, and New Zealander socialists and intellectuals.[9] It was sometimes worn over a turtleneck.
The Mao suit is worn at the most formal ceremonies as a symbol of national sovereignty. China’s paramount leaders always wear Mao suits for military parades in Beijing, even though other Politburo Standing Committee members and other Politburo officials wear European business suits. It is customary for Chinese leaders to wear Mao suits when attending state dinners.[13][14][15] In this situation, the Mao suit serves as a form of evening dress, equivalent to a military uniform for a monarch, or a tuxedo for a paramount leader.
The Mao suit also serves as a diplomatic uniform. Although Chinese ambassadors usually wear European business suits, many Chinese ambassadors choose to wear a Mao suit when they present their credentials to the head of state.[16][17][18] The presentation ceremony is symbolic of the diplomatic recognition that exists between the two countries, so it carries a higher level of formality than other diplomatic meetings.
kagis
Apparently it’s in a “state guest house”, so probably just fancy geejaw stuff that you stick in cabinets.
Here’s the original. Apparently, Kim had a bunch of artworks of Putin made, and this was a gift to him.
Here’s a high-resolution version pulled up with Tineye that’s a little clearer as to the background:
“Drink Wolf Cola”?
It’s not a different font. Special Unicode block.
Fraktur:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraktur
Unicode does not encode Fraktur as a separate script. Instead, Fraktur is considered a “presentation form” of the Latin alphabet. Thus, the additional ligatures that are required for Fraktur typefaces will not be encoded in Unicode: support for these ligatures is a font engineering issue left up to font developers.
There are, however, two sets of Fraktur symbols in the Unicode blocks of Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols, Letterlike Symbols, and Latin Extended-E. The long s, ß, and the umlauted vowels are not encoded, as the characters are meant to be used in mathematics and phonetics, so they are not suitable for typesetting German-language texts.
𝔄 𝔅 ℭ 𝔇 𝔈 𝔉 𝔊 ℌ ℑ 𝔍 𝔎 𝔏 𝔐 𝔑 𝔒 𝔓 𝔔 ℜ 𝔖 𝔗 𝔘 𝔙 𝔚 𝔛 𝔜 ℨ𝔞 𝔟 𝔠 𝔡 𝔢 𝔣 𝔤 𝔥 𝔦 𝔧 𝔨 𝔩 𝔪 𝔫 𝔬 𝔭 𝔮 𝔯 𝔰 𝔱 𝔲 𝔳 𝔴 𝔵 𝔶 𝔷𝕬 𝕭 𝕮 𝕯 𝕰 𝕱 𝕲 𝕳 𝕴 𝕵 𝕶 𝕷 𝕸 𝕹 𝕺 𝕻 𝕼 𝕽 𝕾 𝕿 𝖀 𝖁 𝖂 𝖃 𝖄 𝖅𝖆 𝖇 𝖈 𝖉 𝖊 𝖋 𝖌 𝖍 𝖎 𝖏 𝖐 𝖑 𝖒 𝖓 𝖔 𝖕 𝖖 𝖗 𝖘 𝖙 𝖚 𝖛 𝖜 𝖝 𝖞 𝖟
I also have some questions about the fighter jet’s path, which appears to have taken it through the hull at about the waterline.
A few more bits:
From a skim, aside from the one carrier (different form of conventional power) and two cruisers (nuclear) that Russia has, it sounds like pretty much all of Russia’s large warships used Ukrainian gas turbines and are affected.
Apparently, Russia arranged for a Russia-based gas turbine manufacturer (UEC Saturn) to make new gas turbines of this sort (D090 and DT59). It sounds like, however well their engines work, their production rate is limited, so it’s going to take a long time for them to put out enough new gas turbines for the fleet.
Russia apparently attacked the Ukrainian gas turbine plant in question, Zorya-Mashproekt, on March 13, 2022.
https://www.csis.org/analysis/spotlight-russias-attack-ukrainian-marine-gas-turbine-supplier
As the imagery indicates, Russia’s stand-off strikes damaged significant portions of the plant and caused large fires, likely crippling the plant’s ability to produce turbines in the near term.
This is in Mykolaiv. Looking at the Battle of Mykolaiv timeline, it sounds like the strike happened at about the point that it was clear that Russia wasn’t going to be able to take Mykolaiv. On the other hand, I doubt that it had a lot of near-term military utility to Ukraine – Ukraine’s navy had no large ships at that point. It essentially just killed Russia’s chances of somehow capturing it. However, given that Ukraine didn’t have ships to use gas turbines from it in, and Russia probably wasn’t getting them in the near future, the immediate impact was on India, which operates some Russia-originating warships (including some that Russia was supposed to still be building). Ukraine had been providing India with parts, and so the practical near-term impact of Russia hitting the manufacturer was to dick over India’s navy pretty hard.
At present, most of the Indian Navy’s warship uses the marine gas turbines from Ukraine’s Zorya as their primary source of propulsion. These warships include Veer class missile corvettes, surviving Rajput class destroyers, Delhi Class destroyers, Talwar Class frigates and newly commissioned Visakhapatnam class destroyers.
Four more Talwar class frigates of Russian design are under construction at shipyards in Russia and Goa, also use engines from the Zorya facility. To power all these warships, Indian Navy needs more than 130 marine gas turbine engines and few spare turbines.
On the whole, it kind of sounds to me like Russia would maybe have been better-off leaving it alone.
Also, from a commercial note: it also doesn’t sound like the effect was to cause India to go with Russia’s UEC Saturn, winning Russia some funds and leverage with India. Subsequent to the attack, apparently, India (Bharat Forge) decided to buy a controlling interest in the Indian arm of the Ukrainian manufacturer and try to build up their own indigenous production capacity.
Hah! Fair enough.
I remember going to the arcade once with those laser guns you hold up, all you can play for however many bucks, fuck my arms were sore.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1007641151?pid=889663
The Pole Cat Tall Bipod shooting system is a great shooting platform for kneeling or standing situations.
I imagine that arms getting tired might be part of the cost computation for all-you-can-shoot deals, though, so I dunno how well people tromping in the door with those would go over with arcade management.
Two tires?
Oh, sorry, I was looking at the unicycle. You were indeed talking about the golf cart.
It probably won’t trigger an anti-tank mine, so there’s that.
thinks more
And it probably actually impacts a relatively small area to detonate mines, increasing your chance of getting through a minefield without triggering an anti-personnel mine, though I imagine that there, it’d be inferior to a pogo stick or possibly stilts.
Yeah, you can see in the image where one of those was a hit below the waterline there in the Salton Sink:
The lowest point of the sink is 269 ft (82 m) below sea level
I’m afraid that this is probably it for the United States.
It was a brave experiment in democracy and republicanism that was influential on much of the world, though; its cultural and technological contributions will be missed.
On the silver lining side, it looks like the long-sought-after more-direct Northwest Passage between Europe and East Asia will be practical.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Passage
For centuries, European explorers, beginning with Christopher Columbus in 1492, sought a navigable passage as a possible trade route to Asia, but were blocked by North, Central, and South America, by ice, or by rough waters (e.g. Tierra del Fuego).
No doubt this will have significant effects on the transit-related economy in Panama.
Coast Guard’s source
Pretty sure it’s the other way around. The Coast Guard is intercepting shipments of them and the CIA is snorting them.
The reason for those was that the bombers were vulnerable to fighters approaching from below. I don’t think that this’ll be applicable for a number of reasons:
No reason to use a large aircraft like that. All they need is a plane that can get altitude and hold two people.
My guess is that one issue for the B-17 in WW2 was that they needed to fly in formation, couldn’t maneuver much, to achieve the “interlocked fields of fire” that was their defensive doctrine of the time. So becomes harder to deal with a blind spot by maneuvering, so there’s a need for exotic things like the ball turret.
The drones that they’re shooting down are defenseless. If Russia does start sending out drones with some kind of air-to-air capability, my guess is that a ball turret won’t be a good counter.
I’m pretty sure that those ball turrets used .50 cal machine guns. They probably don’t need that. My understanding is that the round caliber in WW2 that a fighter carried depended on what they expected to run into. It was a the reason that the US only used .50 cal machine guns, not 20mm autocannons, in its fighters – the 20mm was only considered necessary to bring down a bomber, where the thing was a big structure, big struts, could potentially absorb a lot of damage. The US wasn’t fighting anyone who was going to be using much by way of heavy bombers against them. I suspect that the lightest of bullets will probably mess those little drones up badly. Honestly, they’d probably do best with a shotgun or automatic shotgun at the very short ranges that I’ve seen footage of them engaging at; that’s more likely to expend kinetic energy inside the drone, hit a lot of stuff in there. Also reduces collateral damage to whatever is off in the distance behind the drone.