Posted on 04/25/2025 9:40:30 PM PDT by Red Badger
How did the US military get Thor’s Ax?
Sales clerk scanning the bomb at the check out stand, “Do you want the 10 year electronics warranty on this fuze too?”
Government lawyer, “No, just the bomb. The regular warranty. See, it says right here in the fine print “Guaranteed not to break under normal use and conditions for 90 days.
Handle with care. Do not drop.” “
How often might those self-destruct charges accidentally go off while our planes are carrying those live weapons, de8stroyong our planes and killing our pilots? No thanks.
“Sales clerk scanning the bomb at the check out stand, “Do you want the 10 year electronics warranty on this fuze too?””
I expect that the DOD’s Chinese electronic components (since we no longer bother making our piece-parts) have some ‘duds’ in them, EXACTLY for this purpose.
“How often might those self-destruct charges accidentally go off while our planes are carrying those live weapons, de8stroyong our planes and killing our pilots? No thanks.”
As often as the main charges go off. You’re either armed or not armed.
I still remember Gary Powers and the U-2 spy plane shot down over the former USSR in 1960.
Also, one of our most advanced stealth helicopters in Pakistan when Obama killed bin Laden.
The stealth helo was blown up by USA troops, but it is impossible to destroy every classified technology.
U-2 wreckage in a Moscow museum...
The good news - since the USA is rarely attacked, we do not get as many intact foreign weapons as our enemies do.
Hah! First thing I ever did to make my wife laugh was a “Marvin The Martian” voice impersonation. “OH No, Someone has stolen my Plutonium U-238 modulator!”
Lowest bidder.................
The U.S. had radar fused artillery shells that could produce air bursts far more effectively than timed or barometric fuses during World War II. They were withheld from combat until the Battle of the Bulge, for fear of the Germans reverse engineering them, as they did with bazookas captured in North Africa.
If you throw ordinance around, a certain amount of duds will fall into enemy hands. Probably the most valuable intelligence lost is a crypto-keyed GPS receiver. The keys have a limited validity life, and are supposed to be tamperproof. A competent enemy (e.g., China) could get an appreciation of the performance of military GPS, but not reproduce it, at least in principle.
Salvage fusing is more or less a default feature of ordinance. Nothing is 100% reliable.
When I last worked on Patriot, around 2014, Chinese parts were excluded from DoD contracts, with certain exceptions. Pretty much everything was U.S. made. The only exception I recall was LCD displays in the engagement control station to replace LED numeric displays (like on clocks) because China was the only source. The contract required a 20-year buy, in other words the logistic chain was loaded with 20 years of spares. If the spares got short, alternatives could be found.
Around 1998, someone at Beech Aircraft, then a Raytheon subsidiary, purchased Chinese hardware for Air Force training aircraft, because they were cheaper. He forgot to include the cost of the associated fines and the end of his career. Everyone at Raytheon was required to attend a hastily thrown together hectoring “ethics class”. What was most infuriating was being lectured about ethics by a government headed by Willian Jefferson Clinton.
Agreed! Looks fake based on the size of the sand grains.
I seriously doubt any of those ever being sold or given to Ukraine. They don’t have the advanced capabilities to use them.
Definitely not saying it is real (you can see the excess spray paint on the whole thing).
Wouldn’t it be funny if it was booby trapped so if someone tries to reverse engineer it it explodes.🤔
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