"“We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I am definitely a little worried.” "


Chinese premier Wen Jiabao 12th March 2009


""We have a financial system that is run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, and we'd like to do our best to preserve that system."


Timothy Geithner US Secretary of the Treasury, previously President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.1/3/2009

Friday, October 31, 2008

German Typhoon EF2000 First visit at Cornfield Range


On the Western end of the Island of Vlieland off the Dutch coast is a live gunnery range NATO codename Cornfeld. A German Typhoon E2000 2 seat trainer , visited on 28th October to practice strafing with 100 bullets from the wing mounted Mauser machine gun. More pics at link.

Picture above from here and a 3 minute recording of the event can be overheard here, in which the pilot says they are tight on fuel having flown from Neuberg - home location of Jagdgeschwader 74 which have been on QRA alert since January this year .

With increased activity from Russian bombers, maintaining aircraft on QRA for the RAF is a major burden, while the Tornados now guarding the Falkland Islands need to be replaced ( planned October 2008).

Many believe that the RAF simply can’t spare a frontline Typhoon squadron for an extended overseas commitment (Afghanistan) , though others expect that a much smaller, brief deployment might still be made to demonstrate the capability. (For purposes PR etc).

Plans to deploy RAF Typhoons to Afghanistan in July were abandoned - meanwhile with just two frontline squadrons operational and a shrinking Tornado F.Mk 3 fighter force, maintaining the RAF’s existing fighter commitments is becoming problematic.

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(C) Very Seriously Disorganised Criminals 2002/3/4/5/6/7/8/9 - copy anything you wish