An F-35B Lightning II jet touches down on the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp © US Navy
WNU Editor: Analysis is true from Austin Bay at Instapundit ....
SOUTH KOREA EXPLORES HIGH PERFORMANCE NAVAL AIR: Will South Korea purchase stealthy Vertical Take-Off and Landing F-35Bs? The post doesn’t come out and say it, but the betting line is yes. South Korea intends to build at least one 30,000 ton warship that looks a lot like a Japanese DDH (destroyer helicopter carrier). A DDH, depending on configuration, can handle a dozen F-35Bs. A dozen supersonic, stealthy fighter bombers can be a potent, multi-mission force, a point I made in a column written in 2017. It’s common knowledge South Korean naval planners have urged their government to buy F-35Bs, and the post notes that. I’ll add this. The F35B can also be dispersed on land to “hide locations” that are not airfields. The British Harrier had this capability and the British touted it. The post doesn’t mention that tactic, but it is a capability that defense planners world-wide discuss, especially in countries that confront enemies who just might try to launch a surprise attack on key airfields. Here’s a photo from 2011 showing a test model F-35B turning to approach the U.S. Navy’s amphibious assault ship USS Wasp. This photo from 2019 shows an operational F-35B “thrust vectoring” as it takes off from the USS Essex.
2 comments:
Yet for all the bitterness and uncertainty that it stirs, the impeachment process is also a reaffirmation and test of the democratic codes of self-government first set down in Philadelphia nearly two-and-a-half centuries ago.
It will provide the most significant judgment yet on a riotous presidency that has already skipped past one existential scandal in the Russia election meddling scheme.
The Democratic charge that could see Trump shamed as only the third impeached President in history could hardly be more grave. He is effectively accused of committing a crime against the nation itself and the political system that guards its freedoms.
Specifically, Democrats charge Trump with conspiring with a foreign power to influence a US election, an offense many observers believe satisfies the impeachable standard of "Treason, Bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors."
The eventual case may encompass campaign finance offenses, the flouting of his presidential oath to uphold the law and the Constitution and allege obstruction over his withholding of witnesses and evidence. In more symbolic terms, it would validate the fears of America's founders of one of the greatest threats to their democratic experiment.
"History and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government," wrote the first President, George Washington, in his farewell address.
F35B can only take off vertically when it is stripped of all munitions and the fuel tanks are almost empty. It is too heavy, otherwise. The vertical takeoff is for all realistic intents, useless other than for short ship-to-ship or ship-to-shore hops, of a few hundred feet in distance. Basically, 'parking' the aircraft in a different spot without needing a crane or a tractor.
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