The Awesome Military Photo Thread

[Kunal Biswas]

 

[Kunal Biswas]

 

[Kunal Biswas]

 

[john70]

boy stoning an Israeli Merkava

 

[Blackwater]

boy stoning an Israeli Merkava

this kid must have come from training camps in pakistan

 

[john70]

Up to skies.

 

[john70]

Mig-29 check before flight

 

[john70]

"Although the A-10 can carry a considerable weight of disposable stores, its primary built-in weapon is the 30 mm GAU-8/A Avenger Gatling gun. One of the most powerful aircraft cannons ever flown, it fires large depleted uranium armor-piercing shells at a rate of about 4,200 rounds per minute (50 rounds per second during the first second, 70 rounds per second thereafter). The massive shells and high muzzle velocity allow the Thunderbolt II to destroy heavily armored main battle tanks with as few as six direct hits. The gun is accurate as well, being capable of placing 80% of its shots within a 20-foot wide circle from a distance of 1 mile while the aircraft is in flight."

 

[Kunal Biswas]

Indian Army BMP at UN..

 

[john70]

 

[john70]

F-16 at 30,000 feet - Photo by SteveAnaco :

...... I recently found a pile of old photos in a box and ran across some good old memories. I took this photo from the observation window in the back of a KC-135 refueling plane at roughly 30,000 feet over the Gulf of Mexico sometime in the early 90's. It took me nearly 5 hours to repair this photo removing scratches, dust and water spots. Considering that it was shot with an old 35mm point and shoot through two layers of acrylic window and has been floating around in a cardboard box for well over 10 years it aint bad.

 

[john70]

A SUPERB ONE :
F22 Partroling around Atlantis Lauch. by Oni-rican

 

[Ankit Purohit]

this kid must have come from training camps in pakistan

BlackWater my friend well set

 

[Bhadra]

boy stoning an Israeli Merkava

A very good and expressive photo worth a price

 

[john70]

A very good and expressive photo worth a price

yeah you are right, I am just feeling the anguish of this child who feels that his lands are controlled by the Israelis and wants to throw them out even with the stone in his hand. I am not saying or taking sides, that they have to decide. But you are right the photo deserves recognition.

 

[LurkerBaba]

HAL Tejas (LCA).

Old pic, but awesome nevertheless

 

[W.G.Ewald]

 

[asianobserve]

boy stoning an Israeli Merkava

This is not a Merkava. It's a Magach 6B.

 

[john70]

Some Fifty two years ago, Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the USSR in his Lockheed U-2.

The legendary spy plane outlived its successor and is still flying today. To paraphrase Iceman, "We like you because you're dangerous." Amen.

The U-2 was, and is, one of the most dangerous and difficult-to-fly aircraft in modern military history. It outlived the SR-71 Blackbird, one of the coolest planes ever built, because of its simplicity, altitude capability, and relatively low operating cost. Pilots call it the Dragon Lady. Men have been known to get the bends — the same thing that affects deep-sea divers — from flying it at altitude. It's currently used in Afghanistan and Iraq, commuting from a base in the Persian Gulf. The commute flight alone lasts twelve hours.

The following passage is an excerpt from an excellent piece on the difficulty and romance of flying the thing in the New York Times:

The trade-off of a plane built light enough to fly above 70,000 feet is that it is almost impossible to control. And 13 miles above the ground, the atmosphere is so thin that the "envelope" between stalling and "overspeed" — going so fast you lose control of the plane, resulting in an unrecoverable nose dive — is razor-thin, making minor disruptions, even turbulence, as deadly as a missile.

...As I was told before one of my tryout flights, "Landing the U-2 is a lot like playing pool. It's not so much how you shoot as how you set up your shot." Or, as my former wing commander said, "We've all had moments when we could just as easily have made one tiny move the other way and ended up dead."



...Were the risks worth it? Absolutely... It was worth it personally, too. I'll never forget the adrenaline surge of landing what was basically a multimillion-dollar jet-powered glider on its 12-inch tail wheel from a full stall while wearing a space suit. And I'll always remember the peace of sitting alone on the quiet edge of space, out of radio contact for hours.



Reconnaissance will outlive the U-2, but there will always be a divot in the hearts of those who have seen the curvature of the earth, the stars seemingly close enough to touch, and known the satisfaction of having completed a mission with the Dragon Lady.

Awesome. Anyone else get chills from reading that?

 

[john70]

Spitfire IV
by ~ukwreckdiver

ML407, the Grace Spitfire, performing aerobatics over the grounds of Blenheim Palace during the 2011 Battle Proms event.

This aircraft was built in 1944 and is credited with shooting down the first enemy aircraft during the D-Day landings.