[plalleste]

Originally posted by Kidicious


I bet you pay more in taxes for those that procurement than you get in dividends. I got almost all of my (Federal)taxes back last year.

[Toossehew]

Originally posted by Asher
Freeloading warmonger Christians

Go sing Kumbaya with Nikolai. My dad is a Jew.

[gopsbousperie]

but I bet this one has a highest cost per measure of time after all time is money

[bitymnmictada]

Does a nuclear explosion qualify as a fireball?

Because the R&D for those is probably quite expensive too.

[Tusethede]

Originally posted by Alinestra Covelia
Does a nuclear explosion qualify as a fireball?

Because the R&D for those is probably quite expensive too. Yeah, they do count...

[evarekataVame]

Originally posted by Riesstiu IV
I suppose so.

Off topic but is any else amazed at the longevity of the B-52? How long have they been in service, since the mid 1950s? Do they have any plans to retire them? They should soo be in civ, can you think of any "modern unit" that has lasted that long?

[rhybrisee]

Fireworks are cool .

Originally posted by Darius871


Link? This one?

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/...676970856.html

( Big Bada Boom )

Cold War hotted up when sabotaged Soviet pipeline went off with a bang

The former US president Ronald Reagan approved a CIA plan to sabotage the economy of the former Soviet Union, which resulted in "the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space" a Reagan White House official says.

The CIA covertly transferred technology containing malfunctions, including software, that later triggered a huge explosion in a Siberian natural gas pipeline in mid-1982, Thomas Reed, a former air force secretary, then a member of the National Security Council, writes in a new memoir.

Reed says the pipeline explosion was just one example of "cold-eyed economic warfare" the CIA carried out, under its director William Casey, during the final years of the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

The US was trying to stop western Europe from importing Soviet natural gas, and there were also signs that the Russians were trying to steal Western technology. A KGB insider then gained access to Russian purchase orders and the CIA slipped the flawed software to the Russians.

"The result was the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space," Reed recalls in At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War, to be published next month.

"While there were no physical casualties from the pipeline explosion, there was significant damage to the Soviet economy," he writes. "Its ultimate bankruptcy, not a bloody battle or nuclear exchange, is what brought the Cold War to an end.

"In time the Soviets came to understand that they had been stealing bogus technology, but now what were they to do? By implication, every cell of the Soviet leviathan might be infected. They had no way of knowing which equipment was sound, which was bogus. All was suspect, which was the intended endgame for the entire operation."

The CIA learnt of the full extent of the KGB's pursuit of Western technology in an operation code-named Farewell Dossier. Portions of the operation have been disclosed earlier, including in a 1996 paper in Studies in Intelligence, a CIA journal. The paper was written by Gus Weiss, an expert on technology and intelligence who served with Reed on the National Security Council and was instrumental in devising the plan to send the flawed materials to the former Soviet Union. He died last year.

In January 1982 Weiss proposed slipping the Russians technology that would work for a while, then fail. Reed said the CIA "would add 'extra ingredients' to the software and hardware on the KGB's shopping list".

"Reagan received the plan enthusiastically," Reed writes. "Casey was given a go."

The sabotage of the gas pipeline has not been previously disclosed, and at the time was a closely guarded secret. When the pipeline exploded, Reed writes, the first reports caused concern in the US military and at the White House.

"NORAD [North American Air Defence Command] feared a missile lift-off from a place where no rockets were known to be based," he said. "Or perhaps it was the detonation of a small nuclear device." However, satellites did not pick up any telltale signs of a nuclear explosion. "Before these conflicting indicators could turn into an international crisis, Gus Weiss came down the hall to tell his fellow [National Security Council] staffers not to worry."

The Washington Post Thats actually quite spy thriller/movie material, wiki has some info about technology scam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farewell_Dossier.

[TCjwwhcY]

No more fireworks then.

[mrllxp]

Originally posted by Lonestar


My dad is a Jew. Then have him buy yer extra 5 damn carriers.

[sXVUOUVC]

B-2 Spirit Specifications
Primary Function: Multi-role heavy bomber

Contractor: Northrop Grumman Corp.

Crew: Two pilots

Unit Cost: Approximately $1.157 billion

Powerplant
Four General Electric F-118-GE-100 engines (17,300 lb each)

Dimensions
Length: 69 feet (20.9 meters)
Wingspan: 172 feet (52.12 meters)
Height: 17 feet (5.1 meters)

Weights
Empty: 162,000 lb (73,482 kg)
Typical Takeoff: 336,500 lb (152,634 kg)

Performance
Speed: High subsonic
Ceiling: 50,000 feet (15,152 meters)
Range: Intercontinental, unrefueled

Armament
NUCLEAR
16 B61
16 B83

CONVENTIONAL
80 MK82
16 MK84
36 CBU87
36 CBU89
36 CBU97 PRECISION
16 JDAM (2,000 lb GBU-31)
8 AGM-154 JSOW
8 GBU-37 Bunker Busters
8 EGBU-28 (Enhanced GBU-37)
AGM-158 (JASSM)

Service Life
First Flight: July 17, 1989
End of Service: N/A
Number Built: [21 total]

[nryFBa9i]

"Where's Major Kong?"