Strategy Page, Mar 15, 2013

choi

What Russia Has Lost.
http://strategypage.com/htmw/htiw/articles/20130315.aspx

My comment:
(a) Read only the first three paragraphs.
(b) Merkava
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkava
(Hebrew for chariot; entered official service in 1979; Four main versions [I, II, III and IV] of the tank have been deployed)
(c)
(i) Defender of the Fatherland Day
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defender_of_the_Fatherland_Day
(Feb 23 of every year since 1919 (included); section 1 History)
(ii) Red Army
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army
(1918-1946; In 1946, the Red Army was renamed the Soviet Army)

Quote: "The Red Army is widely credited with being the decisive land and air force in the Allied victory in the European Theatre of World War II. During operations on the Eastern Front, it engaged and defeated about 75%-80% of the total German armed forces (Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS) deployed in the war.
(d) battleship
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleship
(The word battleship was coined around 1794 and is a contraction of the phrase line-of-battle ship)
(e) self-propelled artillery
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-propelled_artillery

Quote:

(i) "Modern self-propelled artillery vehicles may superficially resemble tanks, but they are generally lightly armoured, too lightly to survive in direct-fire combat. However, they protect their crews against shrapnel and small arms and are therefore usually included as armoured fighting vehicles. Many are equipped with machine guns for defense against enemy infantry.

"The key advantage of self-propelled over towed artillery is that it can be brought into action much faster.

(ii) "The British Gun Carrier Mark I was the first example of a self-propelled gun, fielded in 1917 during World War I. It was based on the first tank, the British Mark I [which first saw action on 15 Sept 15, 1916 during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, part of the Somme Offensive in France and carried a heavy field gun.


(2) The Need For Speed At Sea.
http://strategypage.com/htmw/htlog/articles/20130315.aspx
("The US Navy has found that it’s actually cheaper to use a F-18E aircraft for aerial refueling than to have other combat aircraft land and wait in line to refuel on the carrier. This landing and waiting consumes a lot of fuel. If the waiting aircraft turn off their engines (to save fuel) the aircraft has to undergo an hour of safety checks before it can turn on the engines again")

Note: For F-18E, see Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_F/A-18E/F_Super_Hornet
(Additional fuel can be carried in up to five external fuel tanks and the aircraft can be configured as an airborne tanker by adding an external air refueling system)