Today, at 3:30pm Eastern, the President will present a posthumous award of the Medal of Honor the 1st Lt. Garlin M. Conner for his actions in battle with the 3rd Infantry Division in World War II.
The Royal New Zealand Air Force first bought the A-4K Skyhawk in 1970, primarily for the maritime strike role. A few years later, when Australia retired their last aircraft carrier, New Zealand bought 10 A-4Gs to supplement the existing fleet of 14 A-4Ks.
By the late 1980s, the RNZAF Skyhawk fleet was facing obsolescence, while the airframes still had quite a bit of service life available. Serious consideration was given to purchasing the F-16. That, however, would have been prohibitively costly. At one point, the US government considered simply giving retired early block F-16As to New Zealand, but the costs associated with training, infrastructure, spare parts and other expenses would still have been too high.
Instead, the decision was made to upgrade 21 of the 24 Skyhawks in service to a new, common standard known as the A-4K Kahu.
An APG-66 radar was installed, as well as entirely new avionics, mission computers*, weapons computers, and radar warning systems.
The Kahu was a reasonable success, greatly adding capability to the RNZAF at very minimal cost.
In 2001, the New Zealand government decided that maintaining any combat aircraft capability was too expensive, and withdrew the Kahus from service. They did, however, continue upkeep and kept the jets in storage.
In 2012, Drakken International bought 8 of the Kahus, and today operate them from their Lakeland, FL facility, providing contract adversary services to the US Air Force.
*Yes, the Data Transfer Module for the mission planning system is the same cartridge you used to have to blow into to get it to work on your Nintendo.
Guys, if you see an Arkansas Beta in the game, show a bit of respect. They've been playing the game a looooong time, and tend to know what they're doing. That and Steve is just about the best player I know, makes for fun and engaging video.
By now you know I love my Wyoming (don't have an Ark B), but the secondaries on the Ark B deserve some serious respect.
There's a lamentable tendency today among many people to think we are smarter than our forebears.
We may well have access to more advanced technology than our predecessors, but arguably, we're quite a bit dumber than our forefathers. I can operate a computer, but other than clicking on a mouse and keyboard, I can't really explain what is going on inside. Back up 150 years ago, and guys with no access to computation beyond a blackboard were designing steam propulsion for ships and trains that is still remarkably sophisticated.
I came upon an instance today that got me thinking. One of my Facebook groups posted a video of a Russian reproduction of a 18th century wooden ship of the line. And of course, someone lamented the fact that it was made of white oak, saying that such old growth timber could never be replaced.
This is, of course, ahistorical bullshit.
White oak has been the preferred wood for planking on wooden ships for about 500 years. And because shipping and navies were strategic assets, it follows that white oak was a strategic asset. As such, growths of white oak were carefully tended, replanted, expanded, surveyed, and managed. Quite a few countries made major efforts to expand the tracts of white oak. Some with limited ability to grow white oak made strategic alliances with countries that had large reserves. White oak takes a long time to grow to maturity. Long term planning was a thing.
With the introduction of ironclad and steel shipbuilding about 150 years ago, demand for white oak collapsed. But while harvesting of white oak plummeted, the acreage of white oak did not decline at nearly the same rate. And today, those old stocks of white oak are now mature.
Today there is more old growth live oak than at any time in modern history.
I'm so very tired of people that are convinced history began last year, that they're the first person to give thought to a particular subject.
Here is my response to them: Look, I'm smarter than you, and let me tell you, people a lot smarter than me thought about this stuff a long time before I was born. Maybe skip the lecture?
I've long known about Project Tom Tom, an attempt to extent the range of fight type aircraft by hitching a ride on a B-36, but I'd never seen video before.
The Navy’s inspector general is investigating its top enlisted sailor, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (SG/IW) Steven Giordano, amid allegations that he has fostered a hostile work environment inside his small Pentagon staff, Navy Times has learned.
Sailors who have worked with Giordano say that he has a ferocious temper, a bullying leadership style and can be verbally abusive toward his own staff members in front of other office personnel, according to numerous senior sailors interviewed by Navy Times.
“This is a man defined by a passive-aggressive leadership style, laced with a horrific and unpredictable temper,” said one former staff member who spoke to Navy Times on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
“Behind closed doors, MCPON Giordano takes on an alter ego that is condescending and defaming to the senior leaders and junior staff alike on a regular basis, totally contradicting his own publicly preached values and beliefs of being a ‘quietly humble leader,’” the former staff member said.
It's crap like this that has had me long convinced that supergrade NCOs should top out at the O-6 level command. They serve no genuine purpose at higher commands.
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