Lessons learned from the Top 10 Air Forces in the world

The Top 10 air forces in the world according to Soldier of Fortune Magazine (in ascending order):

10-Japan Air Self Defence Force
9-Deutsche Luftwaffe (Germany)
8-South Korean Air Force
7-Indian Air Force
6-Armee de I' Air (France)
5-People's Liberation Army Air Force (China)
4-Royal Air Force (UK)
3-Israeli Air Force
2-Russian Air Force
1-United States Air Force

Lessons learned from the list:

1.  You do not have to be a big country to have a powerful air force.

Just take a look where Israel is (as well as the UK).

2.  You must have your own aircraft manufacturing capabilities to be in the list.

Only India does not currently produce its own jet warplanes.  But it produces propeller-driven warplanes and has an advanced aerospace industry.

3.  Three (3) countries in the list did not even exist (and has no air force experience) prior to WWII.

I am referring to South Korea, India and Israel.

4.  Only two (2) countries are not yet fully industrialized.  But they are fast catching up.

China and India are only being held back by their extremely large populations.

5.  Only three (3) countries do not currently possess nuclear weapons (Germany, Japan, SOKOR).

And this is only due to international pressure, not for the lack of technological capability.

Hopefully, the Philippine Air Force (PAF) will make it to the list one day.


#BetterPhilippines #AFPModernization #WestPhilippineSea #NineDashLineFraud #OccupyPanatagShoal #GoHomeChina

Defend Our Freedom of Expression - watch "The Interview"

I was hesitant to make this post at first.

What if the same dastardly force which tarred and feathered Sony will hack my accounts too?

But initial fear quickly turned into seething anger...

Will I just be content to live in a world where any two-bit looney can dictate what or what I should watch?  This is not just an assault on Sony.  This is an assault on Our Freedom of Expression!

Freedom does not come cheap.  Some even pay for it with their lives.

For now, I will just pay for it with my credit card...

F-22 Raptor – the best fighter plane in the world

This is the best air superiority fighter in the world right now.  It means that it could beat any fighter plane out there in air-to-air combat.
 

But because of the lack of any real threat (take note, Chinese "stealth" fighters), and its high cost (about 50% more than the F-35, adjusted for inflation), the Pentagon stopped its production at 195 units.  About 180 of which are currently combat-ready.

What does the 180 count means?  It means that, with just this number of F-22s on hand, the US can already attain air superiority anywhere in the world.  Anytime.  A sobering thought for those who are harboring ambitions of challenging US air superiority.

Unfortunately, the F-22 is not available for export.  Even to close US allies.  If they want something similar, they will have to settle for the F-35.  That is how important the F-22 is to US national interest.

The F-22 is probably the main reason why Beijing's new-found air power has remained sheathed in the West Philippine Sea (at least, until now).  Despite the much-publicized capabilities of Beijing's new generation of "stealth" fighters, they are still nothing more than flies... to the F-22's fly-swatter...

 

 

 

Are Robot Legislators the future of Good Government?

Renowned British scientist Stephen Hawking warned in a London press conference last Tuesday that, at the rate we are developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, machines will eventually dethrone humans as the most intelligent inhabitants of our planet.

This triggered a few "what if" scenarios in my head.  The most significant of these is:  What if one day we will have the technological capability to produce Robot Legislators?

The Constitution will be the first data that we will embed in their AI.  They will be programmed to make decisions solely with the National Interest in mind.  They will be immune to the influence of family, friends, relatives, and special interest groups.  Or will they?

I closed my eyes for a moment to visualize the resulting utopian world... And the first thing I saw were floating Robot Legislator Viruses... There goes the Influence Peddling Virus... The Pay-For-Play-Virus... The Bridge-To-Nowhere Virus...  The Ghost Project Virus... The Padded Payroll Virus...

Back to square one...

This is the Honey Badger...

"The honey badger is the only species of the genus Mellivora.  Although in the 1860s it was assigned to the badger subfamily, the Melinae, it is now generally agreed that it bears very few similarities to the Melinae. It is much more closely related to the marten subfamily, Mustelinae, but furthermore is assigned its own subfamily, Mellivorinae.  Differences between Mellivorinae and Melinae include differences in their dentition formulae. Though not in the same subfamily as the wolverines, which are a genus of large-sized and atypical Mustelinae, the honey badger can be regarded as another, analogous, form of outsized weasel or polecat.

Honey badgers are intelligent animals and are one of a few species known to be capable of using tools. In the 1997 documentary series Land of the Tiger, a honey badger in India was filmed making use of a tool; the animal rolled a log and stood on it to reach a kingfisher fledgling stuck up in the roots coming from the ceiling in an underground cave.  A video made at the Moholoholo rehab centre in South Africa showed a pair of honey badgers using sticks, a rake, heaps of mud and stones to escape from their walled pit.

As with other mustelids of relatively large size, such as wolverines and badgers, honey badgers are notorious for their strength, ferocity and toughness. They have been known to savagely and fearlessly attack almost any kind of animal when escape is impossible, reportedly even repelling much larger predators such as lions (underscoring mine, but take note, lions!).  Bee stings, porcupine quills, and animal bites rarely penetrate their skin. If horses, cattle, or Cape buffalos intrude upon a honey badger's burrow, it will attack them. They are virtually tireless in combat and can wear out much larger animals in physical confrontations.  The aversion of most predators toward hunting honey badgers has led to the theory that the countershaded coats of cheetah kittens evolved in imitation of the honey badger's colouration to ward off predators." (Wikipedia)

They can also survive the bites of deadly snakes such as cobras...and even puff adders...  which, by the way, form part of their regular diet...