Yeah, if for a 5-6 month period. Not 100% sure if I'll end up where I requested or out in the Middle East with the rest of infantry. Will try to visit Neo when possible.

Well, Good luck and God be with you.

quote raijin1999

Enlisted in the Marine Corps! I'm heading out August 21st

Hell yes; thanks! I don't like the color red back there, though apparently it's a Marine's favorite color <_<

Too lazy to edit it out. Will use.

The RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) is going to purchase up to four Boeing C-17s and have a support facility set up at the RAAF base at Amberley in Queensland. This will enable Boeing to provide logistics support for the C-17s. The C-17s of the RAAF will be able to airlift the Australian Army's new M-1A1 main battle tanks due to be delivered next year.

Also there is plans to consider the early retirement of the RAAFs fleet of F-111Cs due to maintance cost and wear and tear on the aircraft.

Finland's government is considering of buying two tankerplanes and more missiles for our Hornets. Also a friend of mine in the finnish airforce told me that we are slowly retiring our Hawk's that are used for pilot training.

Who knows what's the future of Finland's airforce. In the past, we've had both swedish and russian fighterplanes. And now we have the Hornets.

A question: How many fighters can one tanker support in flight?
Anyone know, or even have an estimate

My country's navy, that would be the Mexican Navy or Armada has begun to upgrade a lot of its equipment as our oil mining operations keep extending themselves across the Atlantic, through a lot of negociations with Sweden the purchase of several early warning radar systems and AA defences has been agreed, of course, the one thing the Navy is most interested about when its airplanes, and although the recently retired Viggens were offered, lets say, for a cheap price, thi offer was turned down with the argument that they wish to adquiere something more advanced, so there is the posibility that México, either its navy or airforce, becomes the first country in the American continent to operate JAS 39 Gripen fighter jets, yet, nothing has been decided about it, as the Navy has already placed and order for the purchase of several Su-27 and a few more advanced Su-30 from Russia along with the neccessary weaponry, their purchase can be already considered as a fact with the last details arranged last November, yet the Gripen offer is still there, if the Navy does not takes its, maybe the Air Force will.

I think it would be great to look up at the skies as see those planes fly up there, this is a most peaceful country, political tensions in México are practically non existant, unlike South America, so the need to have an Airforce ever since the legendary 201th's P-47s from the "Mexican Expeditionary Air Force" that operated in the Pacific during WWII has never been appreaciated, and indeed, ever since that conflict, there has been no need of one for dutties other than patrolling the skies, but you never know with these times we are living on.

I just find it strange, that being USA's neightbors, we didn't even consider an offer from their part, as there was none (although they do export a lot of fighter jets, especially F-16s), and they are not trying to prevent us from buying Russian planes either... I guess you can say the Cold War is over.

EDIT: I dont know how many fighters can a tanker support but Ive seen pictures of over five or six fighters around the tanker, being refueled one by one, I mean... it can only refuel one at a time right?

This message was edited by Knight of Gold on Jan 29 2007.

my Country of Indonesia are also upgrading their forces,with newly arrived SU-30MKII and SU-27SK,and Army with new MI-35 hind for Counter insurgency ops unfortunately,those aren't armed yet so for now it's a "Paper tiger",but soon a squadron of Sukhoi will fly on our airspace,guarding our Homeland from greedy assailants, thirst for our Sovereignty,Natural Resources,etc but too bad they're already in my Country, ruined our economy and stealing valuable resources,poisoning the environment as well as corrupt our Government..... but however i will put an end on those as soon as i grew..well our navy are also planning to upgrade their forces with new Zigma Class Stealth Corvette,he..he hope we can built a warship with similar feature.

Finnish military to scrap 350 tanks and armoured vehicles


The Finnish Defence Forces (FDF) said in a statement Friday it would sell for scrap about 350 tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and armoured personnel carriers.

In an agreement struck with Swedish recycling group Stena Metall, the FDF is to receive an average 10,000 euros for each vehicle. The three-year agreement also covers the collection of scrap metal from depots and the fragments from the Kittilä explosion area.

The vehicles in question are T-72 tanks, BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles and BTR-60 armoured personnel carriers, all Soviet-made.

-------------
*Pictures not related to above article*
Here´s a nice pic of two finnish Hornets


And this is finnish Sisu XA-203 Pasi, with an Advanced Mortar System, AMOS


Another Sisu, XA-180 Pasi, used by UN

What do you think of our APC´s?

Yet another Sisu, NA-110 "Nasu" (piggy)



And here are some of the weapons i got to use/try in the service:

Valmet 7.62 caliber KvKK light machine gun


Valmet 7.62 cal. RK-62

This is is the one i had. Only the front grip was different.

FN P-90


Ak-47




This message was edited by Coi Cki on Feb 23 2007.

Mi military service didnt include much weapon combat except for that of short weapons and assault rifles, we didnt get to crawl under a tank either, though as I mentioned, we did manage to get our hands on some imported HK G36 which at the time were being evaluated in order to aquiere a licence to manufacture them locally under the name of FX-02 or M-2 for the short of it, just as it was done with the HK G3 which will be slowly replaced with time, name locally M-1, it is the current official assault rifle of our armed forces and the one I am most familiar with although several thounsads of american weapons were bought as well as they were offered in stacks on a "cheap" prize from time to time, which is why could find several M-16s, C-13s, M-60s, American made granade launchers, rocket launcher... many of the weapons used by the infantry are american along with all weaponry mounted over the Humvees, to be honest, we lack a propper armoured corp, very few heavy track vehicles, though we have a lot of anti-tank weaponry on the Humvees and other light armoured, fast moving units... but as I said, except for a few american made tanks, we dont have heavy armour corps nor large artillery except for that of long range missiles... oh yeh, we do not have a space programme but we do make our own satellites which either Russia or France (depending on who is on a better mood and makes the best offer) takes to space in either one of their Soyuz or Ariene rockets respectively..

Anyway, as I said, military service, it only lasts a year and appart from that year and the compromisse that if a "war" should be declared we would answer immediately in order to perform our noble duty to our sovereing motherland, you have to enlist yourself for real active duty in order to recieve serious training and not just a kick in the ass nicknamed "physical conditioning" and a lot of shouting about "These are the filtiest sink Ive seen ever since...." ... I had several rides on the Humvees and several drills about jumping from a Me helicopters at low altitude over the grass supposedly "under fire", and yeh, made some good scores on the firing range, but to be honest, I spent most of my service ditch digging, literally, and the problem with being on the military service is that you are not considered above the ditch you are digging, even a private can yell at you.

There was an airbase near to us, next to a private small civilian airport but there wasnt much to look at there, only a bunch of rusting F4U-Corsairs that havent taken off since 1961, old Me Helycopter and a graveyard for discarted transport planes and other kinds of stuff... they keep all the operational combat aircraft at Santa Lucia Air Base...

Air Power is about to undergo modernization, funny, although USA is next to us we dont buy much stuff from them, appart from infantry equipment and light vehicles (which I think are French now that I recall), most stuff is from France, Russia (Helycopters and amphibious vehicles, LOTS of them) and some other places, recently, there is a lot of Swedish equipment, we got an offer for several of their old "refurbished" for sale Viggens recently, but they found us in a good mood and though nothing is official yet, negotiations for Gripens may take place within the years of the current administration, what is official, yet very disscused topic, finding a lot of support from one side and opossition from another, is the modernization of the naval air power, which would be done by forming several squadrons of Su-27 Flankers, each squadron would include a Su-30MK as well, which would act as an squadron leader, coordinating the computers and targeting data of the the other single seat flankers in order to, with the support of the new AWACS units, achieve air superiority over the enemy, as our oil interests move deeper into the Atlantic, it seems we are left in a vulnerable possition were we attaked, this is why the process has begun to take flight, but as I said, there is plenty of opossition to it, specially since Mexico has been a peaceful country for many many decades now and the possession of little fire power and a rather large "rescue and salvation army" has been the symbol of this.

Gripens for the Air Force and Flankers for the Armada, I find it quite a unique and interesting combination of air power was it carried out.

Does anyone know what the next line of fighters are, upgraded from, sorry im a noob at this stuff. Let me explain: What's next after aircraft like F-22s, Typhoons Sukhois. Oh and btw have Russia started mass producing the Su-47? I looked on wiki it says only 1 was ever made

I´m sorry for the loss of one of the Blue Angels pilot, who crashed his plane during a show.

My condolences for his family...

Its something fighter pilots got to live with, even if they fly for entertaining the masses, the grim ripper is always flying along, for one little mistake and its all over... Same kind of tragedy has happened to a lot of aerobatic team, I remember when the Russian Knights, dunno how, flew their Flankers into a mountain slide and lost half of the team, 3 pilots I think, or was it 4? Cant remember, but just the same way they are warriors and must learn never to give up they are also artists and know that simply... the show goes on... I am sure the Blue Angels will retake the skies soon enough, thats what their downed buddy would have wanted.

*walks in and sees Raj's Marine enlistment*

OMG!

The Marines is a general full time job. We're likely to not see Raj very much, if at all.

That's sad...

Anyone seen the new S.Korean battletank, the XK-2?

Here´s a test video.
XK-2 battletank