Recent content by Archibald

The trick is that the major front expense is paid by Gulf states - Iraq and Saudia Arabia, with all their petro-dollars. Then France pays his due (a little serie of aircrafts). So not that expensive. The missiles were Magic 2 but the Super 530F (= Sparrow) was planned. Later MICA (AMRAAM)...

De Gaulle 4eme DCR fought in Moncornet on May 17, then in Abbeville 10 days later on May 27. Both times with limited success. One can ask, where was De Gaulle and his 4eme DCR when you need them - on May 22 - 23, the day the French and British attack from Arras in the direction of the south ...

Looks like the May 21 BEF Arras offensive scared the shit of OKW and Hitler and led them to order a halt ?

Looks like the Hercules were ordered in 1965 and the first was delivered in December 1966.

Saddam hussein is run over by a truck in 1977, Iraq never declares war to Iran in 1980, and buy Mirage 4000s in 1980. Saudi Arabia follows in quick succession, after Israel lobbied the U.S Congress for Saudia Arabia never get more than 60 F-15s (it really happened OTL, hence the Tornado ADVs...

French armies were really starved of funding after 1991. I can't see how could the Rafale program go faster. First Rafale entered service in May 2001 with the Aéronavale and a very limited F1 standard. Now the Typhoon, that's another matter. Supposedly, the alliance of four countries was to...

The AdA improved over time, although it was not until early June that substantial progresses were made. The British did their best, sending as much as the RAF as was possible without threatening their own security. spitfires flew over Dunkirk, how far south could they fly ? Abbeville is 100...

Essentially these two battles made into a single one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Arras_(1940) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Abbeville (De Gaulle last fight with the 3rd DCR) OTL they were separated by nearly a week (May 21 and May 27). funnily enough, look at the small...

They weren't divided by May 22, 1940 when these events happened. The rift grew after Dunkirk, early june, when France was obviously lost, Great Britain had to think about their own security and future in a "No france left" scenario. And French leaders started to realize the scale of the...

The French had initial success at Abbeville (with De Gaulle), and the British did the same in Arras. Not exactly the same day, and not coordinated, and in both case the 88 flak guns saved the Germans. In both case the Panzers could do nothing against De gaulle B1bis and Gort Matildas. I would...

Transall and Argosy probably have very similar performance, somewhat 80% of a Hercules. Which one is best for the RAF, I don't really know. Probably the Argosy, but not the one with the Shack wing. Looks like the former flew in 1959, the later in 1964. For the record, the Transall flew in 1963...

I had done the math a long time ago, thanks to Nasaspaceflight.com. Now I have to dig that file among 10 000 of them :p

I wanted to write "shoot the plane" but that felt cruel and out of place. Better to play "survivor" with them.

Canada F-104 buyout was different, out of Lockheed bribery scandals.

Put Stone, Manafort, Rove, Gingrich, Trump, O'Reilly, Murdoch, Ailes, Limbaugh and Beck into an aircraft bound for an Antarctic island without water or food. Wait for some years before searching for survivors. (I forgot Alex Jones, damn it)