EEEWWWWWWW!!!! Ever see the movie RV, with Robin Williams? It's called "The Shower of Sadness". "What happened to you, dad?" "Oh, he was covered in turd!"Now go outside and do the MUAHAHAHA thing. Don't worry its just a... rain cloud, yeah, thats it, just a little brown and green rain.
One of two possibilities:mwhittington wrote:And how do you confuse a helicopter battery, which I'm guessing is rectangular, similar to a car battery, with a cone-shaped nuclear fuse? I just hope they don't confuse them with suppositories.
It demonstrates that the timing system for an implosion type bomb was within the technological capabilities of the US in the 1940s.Cpl Kendall wrote:And this somehow changes the technical challenge of timing?
And was a great portion of that effort devoted to building the fuses? I would guess not.The US had the full resources of a nation involved in the construction. A nation that's industry wasn't even operating at full production. As well as the backing of installations in Canada and the UK, it took four years to even detonate a bomb.
But Pakistan did in fact build a functional nuclear weapon, did it not? So by your own argument, these fuses are within the capability of even an "incompetent" nation today.Contrast that with Iran, North Korea or Pakistan. The first two have barely enough resources to get two sticks to make fire with and Pakistan was simply incompetant. As well as the fact that this information is not just simply out there to take. Nuclear fuses and triggers are highly classified and restricted information and technology. Unless someone shares it with you, you have to develop it yourself. That involves a fair bit of trial and error, see North Korea with it's duds (they were dumb enough to buy the plans from Pakistan whose first bomb failed in the same manner).
They did but they fucked it up for years.GrahamKennedy wrote:
But Pakistan did in fact build a functional nuclear weapon, did it not? So by your own argument, these fuses are within the capability of even an "incompetent" nation today.
This I can only chalk up tp the sheer ignorance of military matters displayed by numerous people on the internet.I'm not suggesting that nuclear fuses are something that you could pop down to your local hardware store and buy. But nor are they the one great super-sophisticated gadget that is the stumbling block stopping everybody in the world from building nukes. It just seems to me that the way some people talk about this, it's as if they think North Korea has completed nuclear bombs sitting there, useless because they just can't build those darned fuses.
Fuses are just an element, and given that they were within the capabilities of the US sixty years ago I'd bet that they are far from being the most difficult element at that.
My all time favourite quote on military matters was during the build up to Gulf War 1, when reporters commented that there was so much hardware around that even their own helicopter was inspected by a fighter at one point. They showed footage of an F-15 alongside, which they described as "an F-111 from the nearby carrier..."Cpl Kendall wrote:This I can only chalk up tp the sheer ignorance of military matters displayed by numerous people on the internet.
My all time favourite is from ITN during the first morning of land operations in Gulf War II:GrahamKennedy wrote:My all time favourite quote on military matters was during the build up to Gulf War 1, when reporters commented that there was so much hardware around that even their own helicopter was inspected by a fighter at one point. They showed footage of an F-15 alongside, which they described as "an F-111 from the nearby carrier..."Cpl Kendall wrote:This I can only chalk up tp the sheer ignorance of military matters displayed by numerous people on the internet.
The F-15 was never designed to be a carrier based fighter, it lacks the arresting hook and reinforced landing gear that carreir fighters require just for a start.ChakatBlackstar wrote:And I don't think F-15's can serve on a carrier. Not without extensive modifications. F-111's are so old, I don't even know if they were carrier based, which is saying something considering my knowledge on US fighters.
But...but, they couldn't see the shoulder flag! Seriously though, there are countries that use British gear. Your best bet is to look at their AFV's if your in doubt.My all time favourite is from ITN during the first morning of land operations in Gulf War II:
They where doing rolling news coverage (the nadir of reporting IMO) and had a "trio of experts to provide you with analysis of the pictures as they received them". First footage arrives, minus sound. A pair of soldiers, frisking surrendering Iraqi troops. Ah yes, says one, British soldiers, dealing with prisoners. The reporter pipes in, saying there's no sound, and they don't know where the pictures came from: "Are you sure they are British?" The "experts" confer and announce that they are unidentified Allied troops somewhere in Iraq. The soldiers where wearing British helmets, British desert camouflage, British style webbing and were armed with SA80's. I'd stick my neck out and say they where British.....
There's also their weapons. Who in their right mind would use an SA80A1 unless there was nothing else available?Cpl Kendall wrote:But...but, they couldn't see the shoulder flag! Seriously though, there are countries that use British gear. Your best bet is to look at their AFV's if your in doubt.
Maybe anyone whose only alternative was an M4?Captain Seafort wrote:There's also their weapons. Who in their right mind would use an SA80A1 unless there was nothing else available?Cpl Kendall wrote:But...but, they couldn't see the shoulder flag! Seriously though, there are countries that use British gear. Your best bet is to look at their AFV's if your in doubt.
The M4 has had serious problems with stoppages, but the original SA80 had similar problems, and I haven't heard of any cases of the M4 falling apart. Nor of it being nigh-on impossible to get the bloody magazine to lock.Mikey wrote:Maybe anyone whose only alternative was an M4?
