Elvis~SPARTA~

Comparables can be found here: http://www.gunbroker.com/All/BI.aspx?Keywords=DPMS+AR-15 New or used? Also compare here: http://www.gunsamerica.com/ Add shipping, plus the $20 or so you'll have to pay your FFL holder.

http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-SAM-Effectiveness.html

WASHINGTON ? Moscow is to increase its annual defense spending by 59 percent by 2015 as it attempts to modernize its military ? while the United States looks to ways to downside in the face of major spending cuts, according to a report from Joseph Farah?s G2 Bulletin. Increased spending reflects the latest in Russia?s military doctrine that is meant to address its security strategy and what it defines as threats to the homeland. Among the five points outlined by then-Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev ? called the Medvedev Doctrine ? Russian defense doctrine calls for protecting its citizens ?wherever they may be.? ?Our foreign policy decisions will be based on this need,? Medvedev said. ?We will also protect the interests of our business community abroad. It should be clear to all that we will respond to any aggressive act committed against us.? One element in redefining its regional and global outlook is Russia?s new doctrine in not accepting the monopoly the United States has over the global system. This also includes not accepting the Western alliance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to barge in on its regional area of influence. Russia is expected to concentrate its modernization efforts in command and control structures and the ability to project its conventional forces within its regional area of influence, designed primarily to project Russia itself while relying more on its nuclear arsenal to thwart attempts to gain influence by other countries. In an effort to streamline its command and control structure into joint strategic commands, the military will create four districts to replace the original six it has had. Within each, the military?s air, land and sea components will operate independently from military forces in the other districts. It also will transform brigades into stand-alone self-sufficient units while reducing the number of brigades in an effort to fully man them. The idea is to create a more rapid force with greater flexibility while doing away with complicated command structures that existed under the military?s previous structure. This will bring down the number of brigades from 85 to 64. The new arrangement also calls for cutting military personnel from 1.2 million to some one million with a change in the numbers of officers, non-commissioned officers and enlisted personnel. Analysts say these changes are designed to create greater civilian control over the military by placing more civilians in the defense ministry. In addition, the general staff will report only to the defense minister, although previously they reported directly to the Russian president. By placing the military under firmer civilian control, it is expected that it will shift the power balance away from the general staff, while the GS itself will be downsized, as well as create more incentive for reforms in the years ahead. Russian military reform has been seriously under way since Russian President Vladimir Putin became president the first time, even though there was no discernible plan to do so until recently. While this latest effort is to redefine its military doctrine from the old Soviet days, there will be major constraints, including the ability to pay for it. That depends on how high or low the price of Russia?s oil exports go. It still has dated ? some outdated ? military equipment and weapons which gradually will need to be replaced. The annual increases in budget have sought to do just that. However, Russia will need to rely on increased military funding not only to maintain its current combat capability but to increase it to meet its local, regional and global military commitments. In so doing, Moscow will need to determine what its military priorities will be.

Unfortunately, the US will be unable to fund a lot of aircraft, piloted or otherwise in the years to come, while China's defense spending is forecast to match that of the US in 12 years or so. After that, it will be in the lead. China's theft of technology represents another serious problem. In the meantime, China and Russia continue to work together to destabilize the US economy, much like the US did to undercut the USSR (such as convincing the Saudis to keep oil prices low to deprive the USSR of oil revenue.) Russia and China have implemented numerous agreements to conduct trade in currencies other than the dollar. Removing the dollar as the world's reserve currency, especially the reserve currency for petroleum trading, will increase costs to the US for imports (The US doesn't have to pay a conversion fee to convert its currency into the reserve currency at present, but will have to as countries leave the dollar. Further, because there will be fewer dollar users, the dollars will be worth less, and will buy less. The optimistic view is that for most of the last few thousand years, China has been the top power in the world and didn't use their power to attempt to conquer the world.

Really nice. Thanks for the post.

O.k., so it's not 100,000 in silver on a high tier tank. However, it's an M level score on a light tank, tier 4. Yes, 2x experience for the day with premium padded the numbers. The 18 hits on the one tank -- he was stuck in the rocks. Took some time to chip through the armor with the pea-shooter I had mounted. Going back to a heavier gun.

Now China is testing its second stealth fighter, probably able to be carrier based. Of course, they stole the plans for both from the US, so we can take some credit. People in Taiwan can be really happy with our security. http://chinesemil.blogspot.com/ http://english.chinamil.com.cn/

More photos of the J-20. In the next year or so, interest payments on American debt held by China will fund the entire PLA budget. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/photo/2012-05/02/c_131563172_2.htm

France surrendered. With apologies to Zeno.

Thanks for the invite. In the middle of a massive download.

OK. My bad. Back to the mosquitos. Texas. Mosquitoes, west nile, death. All bad.

Durka is right. And B of A and other very large banks are drug laundering mega criminals that will shaft you in a heartbeat. Patronize someone else.

OK, it's the shoulder. The sunburned shoulder of one wearing a wife-beater undershirt, with a zit on it that's festering having been excessively picked due to a rather nasty crack habit.

I'm in. Elvis__ (that's two underscores)

I will not have you insult Florida like that. Georgia is the armpit of the US. It wouldn't be summer if it wasn't for the spraying. Is it raining outside? Nope, it's the malathion.

Another look. No answers here.

And now China has a second stealth aircraft in prototype, the F-60 (F-22 knockoff) : http://freebeacon.com/beijings-raptor-knockoff/ Of course, nobody has been shot down by a prototype

Awesome. My first was MS Flight Simulator. It ran on a mac. Came on a floppy. Things have improved.

Happy Birthday!

That's not how to hover. My old boss, he knew how to hover... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5nTuEzMpzo&feature=relmfu

Used to fly those bad boys over my house in Long Beach. Very huge. If they shut down the production line, Long Beach will be a ghost town compared to its former history in aviation.

Thanks everyone. It was a great day. We're getting settled in after the move, finally. We still have a lot of our stuff in boxes in storage, and the storage unit is 75 miles away. Road repairs will take that down to 35 miles. http://www.udot.utah.gov/restore14/ This will make life much better. We should have the family room complete in two weeks or so, and that will mean more room for the kids to play around in. We found a cat outside and have been caring for it. It's lucky to be alive, as it was in the 30s last night, and was in the 20s when we found it. Will post a photo sometime. It needed a buzz cut to remove its matted fur. One very happy mountain cat it is.

I get pushed out of shape and it's hard to steer when i get rubber in all 4 gears.

Ubuntu One is also a good one to try. Of course it works with Ubuntu, but also with Windows and your Android devices.

I've decided to pull the pin while I'm still young enough to enjoy it. Yes, children, 52 is still relatively young. So March 29 will be my last day as a dedicated public servant after starting way back in 1984. We'll be moving to the recently remodeled cabin and leaving behind the following: Heat Humidity Sand gnats Biting flies Attack turtles Attack snakes Attack gators Attack neighbors Attack hurricanes This is not to besmirch my ancestors that fought on the side of the Confederacy (fighting against my other ancestors at Gettysburg, thank God I come from a family of bad shots), but it's time to relocate to more hospitable climates. Like 8400 feet up in the Rockies. The house just sold, all is well. Packing soon, be online again mid April from the new home base.