The Combat 75 Military Surplus Thread. Past, present and future.

[spitfire]

 

[bellaozzydog]

And on a lighter note...
View attachment 252504

RAF dits are normally verbose, self regarding, dull and deliver punchlines that fizzle out damply at best

this is an excellent example of an RAF dit

10/10 Carry on chaps

 

[bellaozzydog]

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/12825877.pdf

May I refer you to chapter 10 for correct application of dits

 

[David Clapson]

I hope she will boast better CO2 emissions than their current flagship...

View attachment 251046

I read somewhere that countries she sails past always go on alert in case she sinks. She is usually accompanied by a Russian tug.

 

[David Clapson]

Has anyone ever given much thought to socks worn by aircrew of high altitude aircraft?

I happened to buy these Russian aircrew boots on ebay:

I bought the correct size, but they're a really terrible fit - very big and sloppy. The leather is very thin and flexible. The toe box is the only stiff part. It turns out they're for Mig-31 pilots. They wear a partial pressure suit in case they have to eject or the canopy falls off at 90,000 feet. The suit comes with inflatable socks, which are quite expensive. But RAF inflatable socks can be had quite cheaply. So I got a pair and hope they will make the boots comfy. I haven't yet worked out a way to inflate them while the boots are on. Or a way to keep the air in.

 

[bellaozzydog]

Has anyone ever given much thought to socks worn by aircrew of high altitude aircraft?

I happened to buy these Russian aircrew boots on ebay:

I bought the correct size, but they're a really terrible fit - very big and sloppy. The leather is very thin and flexible. The toe box is the only stiff part. It turns out they're for Mig-31 pilots. They wear a partial pressure suit in case they have to eject or the canopy falls off at 90,000 feet. The suit comes with inflatable socks, which are quite expensive. But RAF inflatable socks can be had quite cheaply. So I got a pair and hope they will make the boots comfy. I haven't yet worked out a way to inflate them while the boots are on. Or a way to keep the air in.

let us know how you get on next time you eject from your 1980s fighter.

 

[DownwardDog]

Has anyone ever given much thought to socks worn by aircrew of high altitude aircraft?

We used to get issued some green monstrosities that reputedly had some amazing flame retardant properties. Like almost all of our equipment they were garbage and you were better off buying your own. We used to buy our gloves from a friendly SAAF officer who was running a black market operation like Sgt. Bilko.

 

[Gromit]

and within minutes of posting on this thread, this pops up on my fb feed, as a "Suggested for you"

ffs.

EC-135P2 of 301 Sq Irish Air Corps at RAF Northolt

View attachment 249237

So did you buy it?

 

[HAL9000]

 

[kebabking]

It looks like the unwanted consequence of a hate-fuelled one night stand between a Model T Ford and an F-117.

 

[A380]

I can see that on the school run...

 

[DownwardDog]

It looks like the unwanted consequence of a hate-fuelled one night stand between a Model T Ford and an F-117.

It looks like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, I am struggling to understand exactly what problem this is solving.

 

[A380]

It looks like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, I am struggling to understand exactly what problem this is solving.

How to transfer government money to a mate of a procurement minister?

 

[HAL9000]

It looks like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, I am struggling to understand exactly what problem this is solving.

I think V shape, is perhaps to make it better at surviving a blast from a road side bomb.

Perhaps the funny shaped bonnet is design reduce radar return.

But it is ugly.

 

[LDC]

... I am struggling to understand exactly what problem this is solving.

Not looking like Batman as you repress anti-Putin demonstrations?

 

[A380]

 

[T & P]

I can see that on the school run...

FWIW it's lighter than a Range Rover

 

[A380]

 

[2hats]

View attachment 251439

That's the KC3 with the VIP fit for when Bozo pilfers it for a jolly (note the union flag livery rather than the usual "air superiority grey").

The visible wavelengths are the once with the strongest natural radiation on Earth. They also pass through the atmosphere with minimal interruption unlike IR or millimetric wavelengths . Its the best wavelength for passive detection. The problem with active detection is that your emissions can be tracked and interfered with.

No, passive bi- or multi-static RF setups have much longer ranges, 24/7 coverage, no locating the receiver, no cloud/smoke obscuration.

 

[kebabking]

Later.

 

[kebabking]

 

[David Clapson]

I once met a Western aid worker in Kabul who drove herself around the city, alone. All the other aid workers had a clean, new Land Cruiser with a driver and a guard, just like the UN. She had a dirty old Hilux with a cracked windscreen, just like the Talibs. I hope she got away with it.

 

[ViolentPanda]

The Royal Navy had some interesting names - not least the Flower Class Corvettes used for convoy/anti-submarine duties in WW2 - Which included HMS Chrysanthemum and HMS Mimosa.

And of course the WW1-era HMS Cockchafer

A bit more acceptable than HMS Beetle!

Also HMS Spanker...!

That's the RN for you! Never far from the sex play!!!

 

[ViolentPanda]

Camouflage on the battlefield isn't really about not being seen, it's about introducing a moment's indecision and confusion to the enemy's see-think-shoot chain. It's about who can get a firing solution first: he who shoots first usually gets the kill.

Or, if you're artillery, "he who shoots first, misses and claims it was a ranging shot".

 

[spitfire]

Now we're talking.

 

[likesfish]

This and plenty more. As spitfire said in the other thread, this shall be the home for anything military that moves that isn’t tanks, choppers, or Cold War era planes.

I wanna talk 5th gen fighters, hypersonic re-entry ICBMs and stealth ships- not necessarily tonight, mind

I’ll post the maiden question though. I’ve actually looked this up on Google, but I must be daft because I’m still unclear about it. What is actually meant by ‘wired missiles’? They’re not actually physically linked to the launcher by a wire as they fly towards their target, are they? Or are they? I remember seeing a video on YouTube of one being fired in Syria, and it flew weirdly slow for a missile, a s in a wobbly way.

Yeah they are Milan a manportable missile has 1950m of wire like thin electric fence wire that you have to wind in after shooting one takes forever.
Although in Wartime you'd leave it.

 

[kebabking]

I'll lob up an IR and DR thread in P&P in a bit, but I thought this graphic was illustrative/hilarious/appalling...

 

[DownwardDog]

View attachment 256330

Five of those are J70 Land Cruisers NOT Hi-Luxes!

 

[ska invita]

ome interesting looks at what passes as gospel nowadays. Particularly looking again at the story of the Battle of Britain.

can you link to those B of B epsiodes? Its hard looking through 285 episodes!
having lived in the shadow of a BoB RAF base, and having everything around called Spitfire this and Hurricane that Im curious what theyve got to say

I am reading Blood Metal and Dust at the moment. The story of what went wrong in Iraq and Afghanistan wars. A lot of military info. vehicles, equipment tactics. Not just politics.

Kind of suggests that there is an alternate history in which those wars could've gone "right". They couldn't.

 

[spitfire]

can you link to those B of B epsiodes? Its hard looking through 285 episodes!
having lived in the shadow of a BoB RAF base, and having everything around called Spitfire this and Hurricane that Im curious what theyve got to say


Kind of suggests that there is an alternate history in which those wars could've gone "right". They couldn't.

I think it was this one. Episode 168

168. The Battle of Britain

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” Well that was Winston Churchill’s view. Now, 80 years on, Al Murray and James Holl

podcasts.apple.com