History, Politics And Current Affairs

Very interesting video on how the elderly low-tech Spartan APC is far more effective in Ukraine than you might think. (No, I'm not a treadhead but I found it very interesting) Might have implications for TLW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2vtpN-4MRc Title "Ukraine Turned UK’s Junkyard Armor I...

Hi James Won't be D*14, be more like D+5 when they are staffing this. And almost certainly a couple will be available. The South American offshore oil and gas industry is building up at his date. (#2 son's PhD is in this field so I asked him) I have to explain a bit. Within 15 years from its establi...

Gral: As for M Parnaíba, big problem with sending her: there is no connection between the Paraguay Basin and the Amazon Basin. She would have to go down all the way to the River Plate, then go up the coast to get to the Orinoco. Simply not a problem in any way, shape or form. Just use a flo-flo to c...

James, yes the logistics here are 95% of the issue. A thrust up T-10 ca only be light, fast and wheeled, with helicoptered small units jumping ahead to take the bridges. The mainstream logistics have to go by sea. There's no choice. So what's the Venezuelan garrison in Georgetown? Can the Brazilians...

Heh. We used these types of dockside automatic steam boilers quite a lot when we had steamships like my old frigate, the Charles F Adams class etc. I do agree with the old carriers, the crew sizes are ridiculous and they'd be in poor condition, needing massive remedial work. But the option has to be...

Agree overall. I fully recognise that the F-5A is not an option by 2005. The important thing is to get to 2005 with any kind of PAF capability at all . In TLW-verse, Them arriving at 2005 with a basic capability based as described and a project for F-16 (or even a few actually in-country) would be s...

Thanks James. I 'get' that A-6 is going to be needed. Have you considered that the A-4 fleet might be suitable for use in secondary theatres to take some of the low-end land-based and even sea-based missions? I am thinking here of two options. Firstly, there's still a handful of Essex class still ar...

What chapter was USS America sunk in? I have not read that one.

CHeers: Mark

Once things between Indonesia and Australia go to hell in 1999, just how does Malaysia respond? We've got Singapore going on an arms buying binge, but they have the money to do it. From prior conversations with Mark, Malaysia doesn't have the money to embark on a crash arms buying binge and force s...

Hi James ASEAN It's complicated, and ASEAN is very complicated. IT IS NOT COMPARABLE TO EUROPEAN TYPE ORGANISATIONS. It's not a multilateral organisation (although it has multilateral outcomes ). It's better thought of as a web of bilateral arrangements made within a multilateral-adjacent system whe...

Strait of Malacca: Does Indonesia, or the Soviets, mine this as soon as WW3 kicks off? The Indonesians won't as it would have devastating repercussions for ASEAN. The Soviets might if they want to cripple the Chinese, anger the Indians and drive ASEAN into the arms of the western powers. It would b...

I am constantly amazed at what old military aircraft still lurk in odd nooks and crannies of the USA.

https://cowboystatedaily.com/2025/09/27 ... ting-bids/

I count 5 KC-97 tankers in this drone scan

Cheers: Mark

I'll get to FPDA later. Time is short as I have essays to mark. RAAF C-130E - In TLW I simply see no way where these are sold off! If nothing else, old aircrew will be recalled and they'll be running cargo runs in the continent and out into the islands, NZ etc. That liberates the new C-130 for front...

Makes sense for both the F-18 force and the transport issue. OK.... Into this gap stepped Viking Air of Victoria, British Columbia. The company, a manufacturer of replacement parts for all out-of-production de Havilland Canada aircraft, had purchased the type certificates from Bombardier Aerospace f...

This is canon?

German F4F " Like many NATO countries, Germany quickly became interested in the McDonnell F-4 Phantom II as a replacement for the Luftwaffe's ageing F-104s in Jagdgeschwader (interceptor) wings, as well as the G.91 in Jagdbombergeschwader (fighter-bomber) wings. The Luftwaffe was initially inte...

Hmm. Good article here on the RAAF DHC-4 refurbishment program. https://www.ausairpower.net/SP/DT-Turbo-Caribou-July-05.pdf OK, in 2006 the Lithuanian Government bought 3 C-27A for $75 million USD. So that outs a C-27A in (say) 2000 at approx US$22 million each. That's roughly AUD30M per. There's no...

Craig: There were (by 2000 @) a load of DHC-4 (20-30 odd) on their original engines working small, el-cheapo cargo flights across the Florida panhandle and parts west along the Gulf Coast to Galveston, I seem to recall they had a good deal going along the small airstrips across southern Louisiana. A...

On the transport side, I can find no 'pool' of these transport aircraft. The RAAF has 17 DHC-4 Caribou in 2000 in-country and on the books but only 8 were serviceable with 38 SQN. 35 SQN transferred its last Caribou to 38 SQN in 2000 and was reduced to 'paper' status. We used these aircraft very ext...

Also, in this timeframe we still had C-47 with radial engines in service at RAAF Edinburgh. So we already had the aircraft, pilots aircrew and maintainers and the subcontractors in and around the place to maintain them. So that's just re-expanding an existing capability, then the second stage is get...