Clark Griswold

Nope - just the container ship MSC Alabama - can be tracked here: https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/MSC-ALABAMA-IMO-9123166-MMSI-371602000 Picture not showing. I admit that the odds that China is going to invade Taiwan are low and the odds you would see bunch of these guys busting out of a container ship in a Taiwan are low too however... this is the nation that brought us the ever quotable Sun Tzu, the most apt quote here being: All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. They are very good at deception and timing deceptive tactics with sudden quick conventional action to catch their opponents off guard and multiply the effect, good paper from the NWC on this here. Would they go for the dramatic and sneaky like this? Doubt it but would not put it past them to do what they did in the Korean War, have a diplomatic delegation fly to NYC then invade right as they get there when leadership is thinking they are interested in a diplomatic solution.

True - just pack the containers better than this.

Turkey has decided which side it's on... Isis launches attack on Kobani from inside Turkey for first time Not surprising with Erdogan pretty much the sultan... NATO (and the EU) need to really think if we need them on the team

Again back to China, more conjecture but worth a read about how China might try to invade. Container ships, Trojan horse attacks and using container ships for an initial invasion instead of landing craft. Creative, it would have the benefit of surprise and if timed with a follow on attack and conventional support, it could crack the door open wide enough to jam your foot in. China's container ship fleet and Taiwan's security Reading a bit about this, one author raised a good point that we may be projecting our thinking on to what we think they may do based on how we would do it, they could do nothing or something completely different. This is how the U.S. thinks China could invade Taiwan

Something about China getting ready to invade somebody or something, honestly I forgot...

Happy Thanksgiving and be grateful!

Well I was running to it then I saw this girl and... But back to China... With their acquisition of IL-78 Midas tankers, a budding airlift capacity with the new Y-20 Strat Airlifter and then this possible new helicopter they will have more of what they need to move quickly and sustain forces... China likes to teach her neighbors a lesson from time to time (Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai publicly said the war was intended “to teach India a lesson"). Starting to seem someone is going to get a lesson in a few years. China’s Military Gets Expeditionary

China And Russia Team Up To Build World's Largest, Most Powerful Chopper Might be mostly civilian use or building up an expeditionary capability, either or but I would start to worry if I lived next door.

Copy that I figured part of the mix and match reason would be for a higher gross weight in a smaller model but had not thought of the boom and tail strike issue on rotation Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Copy all - I had heard of the multiple 767 versions being cobbled together but have never seen an explanation as to why - just seems that buying a straight -200 or -300 would have been fine and lowered the risk Don't doubt there are integration issues with mode 4, crypto, link 16, etc. but just a guess that these would have been solved by Boeing with the C-17 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Photoshop Air Base in the great state of Fantasyland my friend. Website that pic is from has a few pics he's linked to from the Speed Agile concept (stealth tac airlift) that I have also seen proposed as a stealth tanker also. Not necessarily a bad idea (maybe) but put a 0.069% chance of happening ever.

Just put a boom and hose/basket on this... done...comes with a built in cost multiplier and multi-year delay delivery... Now back to reality.... to an OPSEC acceptable level, what cape(s) does the 46 have that the 767 lacks that makes it worth the time, money and trouble? Saw an Italian 767 tanker out on a trip a year ago and it just twisted the knife for how screwed up the acquisition of what should have been a fairly straight forward job.

Collapse or at least put a dent in petroleum / NG prices - no money means no power. New weapons would be good, particularly a new BVR AAM (even longer than AIM-120D sts) and a mucho expanded EW & SEAD-DEAD capability. No way - there's still some more paper we can print.

Good article on a strategy not just flinching tactics to deal with Putin's Russia. How to Defeat Putin We should help rebuild a free Ukraine that will undermine totalitarianism in Russia. 1- Lower energy prices worldwide. 2- Rebuild and support Ukraine. 3 - Begin to or try to pull away client states in the Western Hemisphere (Cuba, Venezuela, etc.) 4 - Rinse, Lather, Repeat.

or a strongly worded letter...

That's how we won WWII - hug it out and our enemies will become frenimies.

Agreed - have flown with DACs (Dept of the Army Civilians) and that level of experience, knowledge and maturity they carry is sorely needed in many places in the USAF. I haven't flown or worked with the GS pilots serving the USAF but I have no doubt that he was great, let the facts come out and make the call then.

No because AIDS is already here and very well understood, expensive to treat but manageable and far easier to prevent. Ebola is incredibly virulent, vastly more contagious and not completely understood. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

LMFAO Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Knowledge acquired - thank you. Further Google post-football research, good article on probability of Ebola evolving to an airborne virus: Fact or Fiction?: The Ebola Virus Will Go Airborne What I think is most worrisome is that as human infections rise, is that Ebola will jump from primates to another species and find a new reservoir from which to infect us. The flu will commonly go from species to species and raise hell, so why not Ebola? 2

21 days may not be enough time now to tell if someone is infected. New Study Suggests 21-Day Ebola Quarantine Is Dangerously Short I don't think it's time for Code Red 28 Weeks Later lock down but we need to really err to the side of caution.

There is a reason why Ebola is classified as Biosafety Level 4 hazzard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosafety_level#Biosafety_level_4 The longer we screw around and not stop this in its place, the more chances it has to mutate and become airborne, head for the bunker at that point. Or alternatively, it will find a natural reservoir here in the Western Hemisphere, as it is suspected it is in Fruit Bats in Africa, at that point it is endemic. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/23/ebola-outbreak-blamed-on-fruit-bats-africa

You might be surprised how good and how often some units prepare for these incidents. We just need an Executive wiling to use the capabilities that exist, the civilian leadership is afraid of looking panicky and overreacting, I think it would inspire some confidence (which is sorely lacking) in the Federal Government's competency / seriousness. Guard’s civil support team trains to respond to chemical, biological warfare

The first question the AF asks its potential leaders is not whether or not you did a good job but did anything go wrong on your watch? Even if your performance was at best mediocre but nothing went wrong (probably because said "leader" was so paranoid and conservative that hardly a wheel turned unless that pro-sortie just had to be flown to kill those beans) then you move up. If your approach by hiding behind a reflexive no to anything that entails any risk allowed you to move up, why would you change it when you move up and the stakes get higher to move up to the next level?

Despite all its problems, it is developing some friends. The US jet fighter that can do it all—maybe