XBradTC

Via John F. DeLio’s Facebook page.

Currently, the estate tax exemption per individual for 2016 is $5.45 million. For a married couple, after the death of the second spouse, that amounts to a total exemption of $10.9 million.  That’s right smack in the heart of a successful small business or farm.

I used to make a lot of money working with families to mitigate the harm the estate tax would do to their families. There’s an entire industry devoted to that.  Between paying lawyers and those of us in the financial industry considerable sums, they could, with some care, completely avoid paying any estate tax.  So the government got nothing. But the capital of the families was reduced by the regulatory burden of having to mitigate government interference with their livelihoods.

Finally, the estate tax is perhaps the most clear case of the government mentality that all wealth belongs to the state eventually, and the citizen is merely allowed to have some small share of it some of the time.

Coolest thing you’ll see today: Navy’s F-35C 5th gen fighter lands on the Carrier USS George Washington during tests pic.twitter.com/2xmdL6czDO

— Military.com (@Militarydotcom) August 15, 2016

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FYI, DT-I and DT-II were fantastic successes.

Perfect is the enemy of good enough.

One of the few bright lights in the Army’s acquisition of land combat vehicles has been the Palladin Integrated Management program, fielding the new M109A7 155mm self propelled howitzer.

The original M109 was fielded in 1963, and has been routinely updated since. The currently fielded M109A6 has been in service since 1994. The primary problem with the A6 model was its lack of mobility, and inability to keep pace with Abrams and Bradley units.

To address this, and to simplify logisitics, the PIM office worked with industry to rebuild the hull of the A6 to utilize the engine, transmission, suspension and tracks of the Bradley. The Field Artillery, and big Army in general, is delighted with the update, and have placed the A7 in limited production, and are seeking to sign a contract for full rate production.

But the DoD IG says not so fast.

The Paladin M109A7 PIM — the latest in America’s line of tracked artillery pieces — has an automated fire-suppression system known as an AFES. But during survivability tests, the AFES “did not protect the entire crew compartment” and that “howitzer crews are at increased fire risk” according to a report by the Pentagon’s Inspector General released in August.

Oil, lubricants and the heating system inside the Paladins are all potential fire hazards. And for obvious reasons, there is a risk of fire if the vehicles take a big enough blow. And that’s big trouble for the crews.

Well, now, that is a problem, isn’t it?

The Abrams and the Bradley have automatic fire suppression systems. Optical sensors in the troop compartment sense a fire, and automatically discharge fire bottles. The idea isn’t so much to extinguish the fire, but rather to suppress the fire long enough for the crews to get out. In my day, the agent was Halon. I have no idea what they use today.

So the DoD IG thinks the A7 shouldn’t be cleared for production until the AFES is up to what it believes is snuff.

The only  problem is, the fielded M109A6 doesn’t have an AFES system at all. And after over 20 years of hard use, the A6s are in desperate need of replacement.*

*In actuality, rebuild- the A7 is really a kit of components that A6s will be rebuilt using.

"The KC-46 is ready to take the next step," Gen. Dave Goldfein, Air Force Chief of Staff, said in a service release. "Our Air Force and Boeing team stepped up to meet the recent challenges.  I'm especially proud of the employees on the floor of the Boeing plant, and employees of all our industry partners, who work every day to deliver game-changing capability to the warfighter.  My hat's off to them and our program leads."

As part of the Milestone C requirements, the KC-46 had to prove it could refuel an F-16, C-17, and A-10 off of its boom, as well as use the hose and drogue systems on an AV-8 and F/A-18. The KC-46 also had to take in fuel from a KC-10.

via www.airforcetimes.com

Finally. The entire program has shown just how cumbersome the DoD acquisition system is, and how it hampers what should have been a relatively simple program.

Boeing developed and built the entire KC-135 fleet in just about a decade. The competition to decide which tanker to buy took longer than that.

A brief video showing the interior of the M4A3 Sherman tank. What’s interesting is how similar the layout of a modern tank is.

The Tier X US heavy cruiser, the Des Moines has very rapid firing 8" guns. But they do have some drawbacks.

Australia is moving. This isn't so surprising—all the continents are on the move, and Australia drifts 70 millimeters to the northeast every year. But that journey is starting to mess with systems that rely on pinpoint accuracy, specifically GPS.

The country its currently updating its very longitude and latitude to correct a divergence with global satellite navigation systems. Geoscience Australia, a part of the Australian government, is behind the project of getting the Geocentric Datum of Australia, the country's national coordinate system, up to code and bring it in line with international data.

via www.popularmechanics.com

Australia has moved 5 feet since the last update.

Which, among other things, actually has some implications for aviation.

URR here.  I swear I could transform a desert into a rain forest by just deciding to wash my car.  But today was a new level of car-wash karma.  While I was IN THE CAR WASH, the sun went behind clouds, it got dark, and started raining like mad.  All in the space of about five minutes.  

If you’re interested in metalwork, this is pretty fascinating.