chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Jan 25, 2022 10:54:47 GMT 12
The comments re the American statement remind me when I first visited the Pentagon back in about 2003. I was being taken along the ANZUS corridor which had an assortment of photos, storyboards, uniforms, weapons etc. relating to our past relationship which was pretty cool and was, I thought, very NZ heavy compared to the Australian content. As we walked along my escort said to me, 'Sir, this is when you were on our side', just had to chuckle. Otherwise though the people that I worked with there had enormous respect for our forces.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Nov 25, 2021 4:15:07 GMT 12
I don't think so, I spent a bit of time at Edwards in 03/04 and was told about it several times but very few had actually heard it.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Nov 24, 2021 19:47:39 GMT 12
There is an audio recording of Yeager's communications as his aircraft fell. Apparently all test pilots that pass through Edwards AFB have to listen to it as Yeager kept doing his job and communicating all of the actions that he was trying to take and the effect (or lack of) that these had to the aircraft. It is an amazing insight into the skills of the man I understand.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Nov 24, 2021 15:48:53 GMT 12
The vessel is the USS Howard which is based in Japan. It has already undertaken a refueling exercise with Aotearoa as it heads to Wellington.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Nov 7, 2021 8:46:03 GMT 12
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Sept 16, 2021 12:40:14 GMT 12
Certainly a big call by Australia, it will impact their trade relationship with China and the complexities of building something like a Virginia class boat without any real prior experience will be a huge and very expensive exercise. The US has maintained a policy of building at least one submarine every year for the last forty years to ensure that the skills and knowledge required are always available. This will be interesting to follow.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Aug 16, 2021 19:05:28 GMT 12
I have just spent 20 minutes on the phone to a truck driver based at Linton, the call was about his dad's upcoming birthday but I asked him about this salary issue and he was adamant that those under the minimum wage had been consistently told that as NZDF staff there was no requirement to meet minimum wage and there were some seriously pissed off people in our military as a result. Personally I would doubt that any payroll system has trouble adjusting to alterations in minimum payment requirements, it is a very simple process so I suspect (as is so often the case) that there is a huge amount of political spin here. As if it isn't hard enough to get young people to join our services these days, this really pisses me off I have to say, they all deserve better.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on May 5, 2021 14:57:53 GMT 12
I see that TEK and Aotearoa are to join the UK task force later this year when transiting the South China Sea and for exercises off the Malaysian coast with a P3 also attending. I guess one of the ships at least will have a CIWS system fitted by then given the very real potential for confrontation.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on May 3, 2021 17:10:24 GMT 12
One thing is that the CIWS gun has disappeared. It was not there when she came back from Canada and is still not on the vessel. Does anyone know if the new missile system has replaced it or is it to be added at some later date?
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Dec 6, 2020 13:05:22 GMT 12
She came back in at about 8.30am this morning. Impressive to see I must admit.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Jul 1, 2020 16:12:07 GMT 12
My understanding was that they were down but not out and had held on to their Wynyard Quarter base for the return of seaplane services later this year. Losing that is probably the death knell for that operation.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Jun 30, 2020 17:33:47 GMT 12
It seems that Auckland Seaplanes may be a thing of the past. They must move from their base because of the developments for the America's Cup in a few weeks and are yet to find an alternate site. A very sad say for Auckland I think. Perhaps they are able to hibernate and emerge after the event but who knows.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Mar 10, 2020 15:54:46 GMT 12
One thing that seemed a bit odd is that the builder is delivering the vessel to Auckland. I cannot recall a navy vessel ever having this done. I thought that they used the delivery voyage as a shakedown/training voyage. Is this standard? And as for the lack of weaponry.....this seems to be our modern military.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Feb 17, 2020 16:52:36 GMT 12
A Whangarei based company, not sure if they want their name out there but they are very well known for their naval work.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Feb 15, 2020 12:47:02 GMT 12
The issue is with the cabling. When the contract was first given to the Canadian yard a NZ company that had significant experience with the ANZACs approached them and offered them a software system that manages the cabling but the yard declined and was comfortable with their paper based system. Needless to say this NZ company has now been engaged to help sort the mess out.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Jan 25, 2020 18:52:26 GMT 12
The ANG aircraft in California always had huge yellow numbering on them, both on the tail and behind the cockpit, 1, 2 and so on so very high viz. the aircraft were camo painted but you could see them and identify them from far away.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Jan 24, 2020 17:28:00 GMT 12
I lived in Simi Valley, California and the ANG C130's used the MAFFS2 system in the fire season. It was somewhat reassuring to see a line of 5-6 C130's blasting down the valley at about 500ft when the smoke was all around. The MAFFS 2 system left no retardant on the aircraft which was highly corrosive. The system was (is) a wheel on wheel off system with only a side door change required. I worked sometimes at NAS Point Mugu where the squadron was based and the crews loved that they could do this work.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Oct 11, 2019 15:54:58 GMT 12
We were given a special 'stealth' turret as a test unit and this has been retained at no cost to us apparently. Just curious about the return date of Te Kaha, if things had gone to plan she would have left the refit in February so clearly there are some major issues, no doubt software related.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Jun 30, 2019 19:09:31 GMT 12
Prior to delivery the armoured vehicles were identified as unsuitable due to the rise in the use of IED's and soon after they were delivered they experienced a wide range of mechanical problems due mainly to the increased weight. I think all were withdrawn some time ago. The other versions have also had significant mechanical issues, I think gearboxes were a major problem. We obviously work these sort of vehicles hard and the fleet is now in very poor condition, the trick will be to find something affordable that is fit for purpose and is durable. The old landrovers were brilliant in that they soaked up enormous abuse and still kept going.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Jun 12, 2019 19:23:24 GMT 12
I would assume that the army is intending to raise another infantry battalion, they have always been keen on having three regular force infantry battalions as it enables them to rotate each battalion through training on an annual basis having one ready for any deployment, one in training and one in rest. The additional numbers would I assume make up the support units required for this. With regard to armour I guess we would follow Australia in its commitment to replace their LAVs with the new German Boxer APC.
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