Slashdot Mirror

I bought some badasss UAVs for my nephews and youngest son at Christmas for a hundred quid ($142.50) per kid including some spare parts ans extra batteries. The poor US unmanned bunch pays $40 million US per MQ-1 Predator.

But every time I played it, it broke down with inevitable real life fights and arguments.

You got off lightly. I had fatalities once. Mind you, it turns out I got the wrong kind of RPG. Could happen to anyone.

US Military Basic Pay Scale

That explains it all. Anyone with the intellect to do cyber warfare can make a lot more money in the private sector (and without all the gung-ho macho bullshit).

E1 2 years pay = 1531.50 per month x 12 = $18,378/year, though this doesn't count the benefits (shitty barracks, shitty food, and medical/dental/vision health care... also a reasonable retirement if you stay in and advance for 20 years).

http://www.militaryfactory.com...

Military pay grades are in the public record. Many sites (the above is just one) publish them.

Presumably if the NSA is refusing to provide this information the person in question may have been paid more, perhaps significantly more, than the normal pay grade scale.

http://www.militaryfactory.com...

Military pay grades are in the public record. Many sites (the above is just one) publish them.

http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/imgs/chancevought-f4u-corsair.jpg

* I've always loved those - Almost a flying car alright, combustion engine with pistons, non-turbine design/no jet!

( A flying car? More like the flying "motor in the wind" I'd actually like to have... close enough & close enough for me!)

APK

P.S.=> Corsair - "Accept NO Substitute"... I'd love to be able to afford one - there's no stop signs, or speed limits (other than physics) upstairs (afaik, air traffic controllers & others feel free to respond with corrections, provided I'm off on that account also, of course)...

... apk

I spent 7 years in the Army.
http://www.militaryfactory.com/military_pay_scale.asp
I knew how much each of my co-workers was making.
There wasn't a problem with that.

When person X find out person Y makes 10K more / year then them, for "the same job", they will want that 10K more as well - even if they do not deserve it, either because they do not have the same level of experience or because they simply are not a good performer in their job.

No. The problem happens when the less experienced person managed to sell himself as worth MORE than the more experienced person.

Companies need to focus more on what skills are needed at what levels and how to test those skills.

Why would you have a problem with someone at a higher grade making more than you if you know what skills you'll need to work on to get to that grade?

...and of course it shows a small plane.

Here's a modern plane, the airbus a380:
http://www.airliners.net/photo/0957790/

Here's a picture of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner:
http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=764

There isn't an analog gauge in sight.

Guys, this argument was over 20 years ago.

How about this ?

Flight International test pilot -- and former Red Arrows team leader -- Peter Collins gives the Dassault Rafale a ringing endorsement in this week's magazine. "If I had to go into combat, on any mission, against anyone, I would, without question, choose the Rafale," Collins concludes in his six-page flight test report published in our Dubai Air Show preview issue.

In 2010, there was a Red Flag exercise. Rafale won 6 out of 7 fights (lost the long-range due to F-22's improved stealth). In medium range it still wins because its cameras can see the F-22. Even in Dassault this was a surprise, as the internal motto is "second only to the F-22." As for the F-35, who cares about a plane that nobody but the US can afford (read: are willing to finance so to keep jobs), if even.

America is a great country, but it's not the best country. There's no best country. America is barely a teenager in the history of nations, and it fucking shows by how dumb some of you guys are.

For the record, I Googled as you suggested, and I don't think there's anything to be ashamed of. History didn't start 100 years ago. Also keep in mind that until recently (and especially in the middle ages) the power of balance was not as, well, unbalanced as it is today for the US so these victories actually meant something. Having a fucking 100 years war of attrition is not like dropping "smart" bombs on Fallujah.

I think I got trolled.

Maybe they did.

'Someone in the india ministry of defense should google "french military victories'

Top hit for me is below, it describes a string of victories (And some defeats) going back to 387 B.C. In particular Joan of Arc and Napoleon where involved in french victories.

What is you point, other than documenting your typically ignorant American attitude, i bet you call still call them freedom fries at your house.

http://www.militaryfactory.com/battles/french_military_victories.asp

Oh come on.
http://www.militaryfactory.com/battles/french_military_victories.asp
When you cherry pick from the history of any country, you can come up with a long list of defeats.
I don't remember Japan, Germany or Russia being too successful in the last hundred years.
Even America got it's capital burned to the ground in 1812, and was defeated in Vietnam (in fairness, after France too).

You should at least actually know the history you're attempting to use as an example.
The Vietnam War for the USA wasn't actually a defeat.
The Tet Offensive was a massive defeat for the Viet Cong.
Perhaps the footage of VC being fought (and defeated after a short battle) inside the US consulate grounds made you belive otherwise?
The defeat was so crushing that the Viet Cong still had not recovered and played little part in the invasion of South Vietnam by the North Vietnames regular army two years after the USA pulled out of South Vietnam.
It was South Vietnam which lost it's war to an invading North, long after the USA had left.

Oh come on. http://www.militaryfactory.com/battles/french_military_victories.asp When you cherry pick from the history of any country, you can come up with a long list of defeats. I don't remember Japan, Germany or Russia being too successful in the last hundred years. Even America got it's capital burned to the ground in 1812, and was defeated in Vietnam (in fairness, after France too).

That's because Smedley Butler was talking about WWI, which was the most recent major conflict at the time when he had written that.

According to this, your average enlisted Marine is making about $24-30K a year plus room and board. If you apply Butler's rule that no defense industry executive can make more than that, the CEO of Lockheed would go from making $22,000K to $30K, which would still dampen his enthusiasm for the war quite a bit.

We're just wrapping up the longest war the US has been involved in since World War 2
Hmmm, let's see.

Vietnam ran, conservatively, from the Gulf of Tonkin (2 August 1964) to the Vietnam Ceasefire (5 Feb 1973). During those roughly 8.5 years there were 56820 US casualties (http://www.militaryfactory.com/vietnam/casualties.asp). Of course, there was a US presence there before and after those dates.

During the roughly six years from 20 March 2003 up to today the Iraq war has resulted in 4266 US casualties (http://icasualties.org/Iraq/index.aspx).

Not the longest war.

Had we seen daily pictures of dead soldiers on TV for seven years, the public acceptance would have been far lower and diminished far faster than it did.
During Vietnam we DID see pictures of the body bags holding dead soldiers and sometimes the press even slipped in a photo of an (unidentified) body or two. Almost every day. We saw more dead in a week than we've seen in months in Iraq.

No, I'd say your premise is highly suspect.

Now war really is hell and only those who have been through it can truly know what it's like. But, if you're going to play politics with it then at least get your facts right.

These guys are 50 years too late. It has been tried before.

Actually, I was thinking of the GO-229 as seen here. It never entered production, but was a prototype in the Luftwaffe's final throes.

It was my favorite plane in the Lucasfilms game "Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe".