chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on May 28, 2019 16:41:43 GMT 12
I was very much inclined to agree that the increased budget figures related mainly to the P8 introduction but if the capex spend for the total project is spread through to 2026 then perhaps there is something else quite lumpy in the next year that the government will commit to. With four years to go before the aircraft arrive there will be a large amount of work required to start at Ohakea very soon so who knows. If nothing else it is a small step in the right direction.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Apr 25, 2019 16:09:36 GMT 12
I am with Bruce here, I have attended Anzac parades for about 30 years all over the country and never seen pikes. I used to wear green and paraded in uniform many times. The standing joke was that we should not be allowed to have bayonets fixed as someone would cut themselves. I did see cadets carrying toy rifles a few times and this seemed so wrong but have never seen spikes and certainly not by serving soldiers. Our military is, if you talk to those who currently serve, becoming more and more PC and this must be a reaction to recent events.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Apr 21, 2019 11:43:59 GMT 12
Interesting post on Milweb with a Chevrolet for sale that may have been used by Freyberg. www.milweb.net/webvert/a3864/95951 . Would be kind of cool to see this back in this country but cannot imagine a museum chasing it.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Jan 15, 2019 16:40:28 GMT 12
It is not just us, I worked in California and one of my staff had done his basic military training in Nebraska based in stone barracks that had been used by General Custer and his troops! My guy reckoned that little had been done in the intervening years and they are still in use apparently.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Oct 16, 2018 19:34:34 GMT 12
Sad to see the passing of Paul Allen at only 62, his Flying Heritage and Combat Armor Museum is one of the great aircraft collections and it will be interesting to see if this collection stays together now. Paul was a founder of Microsoft and his donations to charity exceeded US$2 billion, he was a truly great individual.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Oct 14, 2018 16:18:45 GMT 12
I was in Munich recently and had lunch with an Airbus Military guy, he was currently working on the Eurofighter Ground Attack project for the Luftwaffe but had been involved with the A400. He argued that the problems with the A400 were due to Airbus pulling too many key people off the project to work on the A380 ten years ago and as a result the A400 has always struggled. As he put it, to build a short wing heavy lift transport with propellers created challenges that they could never have envisaged. His view was that it will be several more years before Airbus can claim to have resolved these issues. Personally I think that this aircraft would be perfect for NZ.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Oct 2, 2018 19:07:13 GMT 12
Exceptional, thank you very much for sharing.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Jul 9, 2018 19:04:20 GMT 12
My understanding is that there was never any alternative option to the P8 and it was significant pressure from our allies (Australia in particular) rather than any local political party that forced the decision, I understand that it was more a buy in or bugger off sort of option so the current coalition had no choice but to commit. Whatever the deal thank goodness that we have something impressive to look forward to.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on May 21, 2018 17:38:59 GMT 12
Huge RNZAF RC Iroquois, has been on youtube for a while thought that it may be on here but could not find it. A cool model for sure.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Mar 29, 2018 17:44:32 GMT 12
The 'mouse' incident was at Buckingham Palace on the first change by the NZ unit. The officer involved was Major Frank Rennie, founder of the SAS and one of our great warriors. He was officer commanding the new guard and the officer in charge of the retiring guard was meant to do the pretend handover of the keys and added the mouse. Rennie to his credit did not flinch. The UK media made much of the Kiwi unit, and given that the duty was in mid winter marveled that the kiwis did not wear graet coats whilst the Guards did. Truth was that being NZ Army, the only great coats available were WW2 issue seconds and looked awful. It took about ten days for UK tailors to fix them for our troops. The Guards never mentioned this to anyone to try and save some dignity.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Nov 7, 2017 18:24:38 GMT 12
There has been a very nice looking transport sitting at Mangere for the last few days, assume someone important is here.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Oct 8, 2017 15:48:39 GMT 12
Had a coffee with someone in the company recently and they said that the infusion of cash from the Chinese investor was purely to give them the time to grab the IP before shutting the business down and taking what they had back to China. Management are apparently encouraging their key engineers to look for other employment. Assume that we shall see a delisting and closure about April next year.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Nov 3, 2016 20:25:53 GMT 12
There is an awful lot of facebook activity trying to get people out on the water for the fleet entry, all anti US driven.A bunch of idiots is going to get a lot of media attention which is exactly what they want.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Jul 11, 2016 18:25:04 GMT 12
Hopefully not a Chinese whisper but I have a good mate who is a banker in Luxembourg, he is German and one of his best mates is apparently quite senior in the Airbus military marketing team. So according to my guy, who loves NZ to bits, there is a plan afoot to bring an A400 down here soon. Have asked for specifics, operational aircraft? nationality? demo model? etc. Will hopefully hear more.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Mar 2, 2016 19:33:18 GMT 12
A very well made programme and a stunningly successful rebuild. He could not have picked a better aircraft to model the rebuild on, hats off to him, very few could have done such a job. Really wish that we still had some like him here.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Nov 30, 2015 17:22:42 GMT 12
The following article highlights the fact that the replacement programme for the C130's is in trouble according to Treasury. Looks like there are serious concerns about the pricing for the future fleet. One would assume that a much cheaper alternative option will need to be presented to get this programme moving forward. www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11553549
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Sept 14, 2015 20:27:41 GMT 12
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Aug 7, 2015 21:03:53 GMT 12
The Americans, both the army and navy, were determined that only American forces would finish the war against Japan, the British (and all other allied forces) had been relegated to clearing areas that were irrelevant to the outcome of the war. In the event that an invasion of Japan had been undertaken it was to have been a purely American exercise.
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Feb 26, 2014 22:21:02 GMT 12
This is one of those 'how long is a piece of string' questions and the variations in numbers are huge. An infantry platoon normally has 30 soldiers (three sections of 10) and a company has 3 or 4 or 5 platoons. A battalion would have 3 or 4 or 5 companies ( 3 infantry, a support weapons one, hq unit etc) and so it goes on up the scale. A division is normally about 12,000 soldiers but the NZ division in North Africa got to about 26,000 at its best I think. A Corps would have up to 5 divisions to make it up. Tank and artillery units have lesser numbers of men. The make up really depends upon what the military leaders see as the most beneficial structure and size for the mission facing them and yes the numbers vary from country to country. The British system has generally served as the basic structure that everyone starts with ( they started with the 30 man platoon, 120 man company etc).
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chasper
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 80
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Post by chasper on Feb 22, 2014 15:32:37 GMT 12
Nice pictures and a nice looking aircraft, could well end up being our transport and mpa replacement, you never know.
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