Good read! I am cautiously optimistic as I admire the bang-for-buck Japan achieved with Mogami compared to US shipbuilding fiascos. But risks & challenges of adaptation are not negligible as U.S.'s Constellation program shows.
I think he's saying though that it's all part of an ordinary song and dance a politician does to cater to their particular constituency, not some deep political commentary.
![William Walton: The Battle of Britain (1969) Battle in the Air [Dods-CBSO]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:xez5ea3uzgxl427hymvslwvq/bafkreiafs7cgpctpnk7ipe7rh2eafiwinqukc5gstiodpyxpdfeajmohdm)
Indeed, yeah the selection above is his! Famously used in the sequence where the RAF is devasting unescorted Heinkels over the Channel. Now contrast with Battle in Air by Walton used for the final battle-cataclysmic rather than triumphal, emphasizing terror and chaos. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFJe...
I'll add that this soundtrack actually mixed material from TWO composers--Ron Goodwin and Sir William Walton. Goodwin's brought a more cowboy-ish aesthetic of heroism and adventure, plus buffoonery for Germans. Walton's hit hard with anxiety and horror. Different takes on epic air war with Nazis.
The deeply stirring score from Battle of Britain! War is an atrocity but guys going up there in open-cockpit propeller planes to stop kamikaze drones from destroying their country is uncomplicatedly heroic. 1/2
This also makes me think of importance of attachments. Generally, I think of U.S. Rifle platoon by 1944 fielding a sniper, medic and bazooka team. But the medics actually are from a battalion-level unit; the bazookas distributed downstream by company heavy weapons platoon. And snipers were adhoc.
Yeah, U.S. rifle squads were CHONKY then with 12 guys (and Marines eventually did one better with 13 on the Raider model.) They did at least begin adding an extra BAR in many squads late in war. I liked how old Close Combat games made you interact with this TO&E using fireteams rather than squads.
It inspired a huge multi-media effort by Lucas Film at time for what I felt was a very mediocre & deeply tangential narrative. Xizor a big rival to Vader? Sure, right... But EU really latched onto some bits of the lore, ie. Dark Sun.
The actual X-wing vs AT-AT engagement is very one-sided in this book; makes one think they absolutely should have just used those at Hoth rather than fiddly T-47 tow cable shennanigans, could have gone like 1st Battle of El Alamein. I guess the X-wing really isn't an all-weather fighter?
As a bonus, here's my older article on the JF-17, a joint-Pakistan-China product stemming from two other countries aircraft: a modernized take on Soviet MiG-21 and its Chinese J-7 clone, mixed with F-16 avionics courtesy of 1980s-era China-U.S. defense cooperation on a 'Super-7' variant of J-7. 2/2
Pakistan is deploying JF-17 fighters to Saudi Arabia in fulfilment of their Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement (SMDA)-despite Islamabad's mediation between U.S. & Iran. You can read my comments to BBC Arabic on why that pact is being activated now & implications for targeting & deconfliction.1/2
Washington has mastered the art of hitting things without knowing why. Tactical wins mean nothing when the strategy was never there to begin with.
Bombs and missiles hit their targets, but the war's actual goals keep shifting by the day. A ledger of destruction is not a substitute for a theory of victory.
Madman theory is in the news again, cited post facto to justify Trump's unhinged threat to destroy Iran. It so happens a decade ago I wrote a piece on Trump's proclivity for mad man rhetoric & why it had a consistent track record of risky failure under Nixon.
Hmmm, supposedly weighing only 4 pounds. Does indeed sound incredible...
But seen from another point of view, could be an isometric perspective of a B-Wing!
Perhaps targeted by the spammer onslaught?
How the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran have left its schools and hospitals in ruins
Free gift link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
This is where things stand in terms of aircraft losses, by my count.
First Ukraine, now the Vatican. (Ok, to be fair Taiwan and its factories are in there too...)
In short, numbers don't obviate need for smart employment and reliable mission execution even if Western companies infamously err towards gold-plating. For more on conundrums of FPV drone warfare (including info on Replicator, unit-level 3D-printing), read my article for Inside Unmanned Systems.4/4
But users of cheap FPVs have also published criticisms of their inefficiencies, or wasteful use against low-value targets. (See Ryan O'Leary, and Jakub Jajcay on @warontherocks.bsky.social). Low cost-per-attack doesn't guarantee effectiveness. 3/4 lsc-pagepro.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/...
Ukrainian drone teams using FPVs and just as lethal heavy bomber UAVs neutralized two NATO battalions in a Hedgehog exercise. And it's undeniable FPV proliferation has transformed the Ukrainian battlefield, making those of 2026 radically unlike 2023. 2/4
In 2026 the Pentagon will begin procuring 300,000+ FPV kamikaze drones at low $1,000s unit prices, reflecting their impact on Russia-Ukraine war. But if U.S. loitering munitions have been too costly, what's the right balance in quality vs. quality? 1/4 insideunmannedsystems.com/beyond-the-g...
The forgotten Trump- North Korea nuclear crisis of 2017! The way this got memory-holed foretells the catastrophic narrative about the 'anti-war' Trump.
The title of this one is perenially relevant! (I do also recall enjoying it.)
Lady of Larissa Flies Again: Incredible New Footage Emerges of the Secretive RQ-180 Spy Drone
New videos give an even clearer view - unquestionably our best ever - of the legendary classified stealth drone.
Story: theaviationist.com/2026/04/06/i...
One of my favorite examples of this is the Battle of the Barents Sea. British captains were willing to take on far more powerful enemies and it freaked the Kriegamarine out. nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/th...
Wheels up all friendlies out. C130 got a wheel stuck in the sand at the FARP and a Delta element had to come in and blow it in place. Whole op sounds dicey as hell but they pulled it off.
On the other hand, the way Honor has to devise elaborate tactics to prevail in 'Basilisk Station' using an awkward and impractical weapon system is just the best. The military historian in me loves that kind of thought-through stuff and the 'math wars' of its naval battles in general.