Comments by "The Zero Line" (@The_ZeroLine) on "Ed Nash's Military Matters" channel.

  1. The B36 was indeed insanely cool. I love how strange the XC-99 looks. The ‘40s-‘60s were such an entertaining time in aviation designs. Wonder if we’ll ever see something like it again.
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  2. Trillions for the EU/US in under two years factoring lost trade, efficiency, paying for items like low orbit sat coms, etc. The craziest part is the US was making money off this war: A. Replacing Russian NG + oil in the Euro market B. Prior to the Munich speech, record orders/profits for US defense contractors via orders primarily from 🇪🇺 (for themselves + Kyiv) and C. The real world price tag on our aid to Ukraine is under $50b considering as the vast majority of the arms given were surplus stock that was retired or going to be and was/would costing us billions to dispose of (DPICM, M113s, MRAPS, HMMWVs, M50 based engineering vehicles, etc.).
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  3. It’s ironic that YouRube is the only place to get hard news these days. Even with how much they censor, only YT, podcasts and specialist publications cover this type of stuff.
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  4. Ed Nash for US aviation procurement tsar! Never mind his “odd” accent. I love how short the service life of so many aircraft were during the 50s - early 70s.
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  5. Beyond being a great aircraft, the Gripen’s by far the most practical option in terms of logistic/ops for 🇵🇭 / any state w/out experienced maintainers, non-ideal infrastructure and especially if they’re in range of Chinese stand off range cruise missiles and want (should be in this case) want to use roads as runways for dispersal of aircraft. As usual, the US will likely muscle Saab and Sweden out of finally getting the overdue and purchases it deserves so well. The main obstacle for any country right now in building up an air force is that there is literally a years long cue for fast jet pilot training. The West and especially the US since it has so many customers is at literally around 10% of the necessary capacity for meeting pilot training demands. Even our own Air Force is 1,000+ pilots short of where they want it to be.
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  6. Yup, it’ll be the F-16, but the Gripen makes so much more sense in terms of their needs (can land almost anywhere, huge tolerance to FOD which is the exact opposite of the F-16, can be rearmed and refueled by a crew of 4 conscripts with ordinary hand tools and so on and so). The dispersion aspect is especially important. That and I’m sure they don’t have any existing military runways that are in pristine condition, which is what the F-16 requires.
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  7. As an analyst who works for consulting firms, I am comfortable saying we tend to know a lot more about our area or areas of focus than journalists who tend to only be partly focused on a particular country or conflict. If one needs proof of this, simply look at how inaccurate, behind-the-curve the media’s reporting on Ukraine has been. It’s why ISW has become basically the de facto journal of record on the war. Ukraine: The Latest, a group of Telegraph journalists who do nothing but cover the war and have a daily podcast of about 45-90 minutes is the only mainstream reporting on the war doing a good job.
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  8. And even when you get a proper MRF, it’s going to be a long wait to get any pilots trained, especially if it’s a US aircraft. The cue for fast jet pilot training is quite literally years long right now. With so many aircraft customers and our own military wanting another 1,000 pilots, the US’ pilot training program is at only at about 10% of the necessary capacity for meeting training demands. Europe has a backlog too. Not as bad though.
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  9. YouRube really doesn’t like comments about this topic. They delete almost everything.
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  10. It was actually Santa Barbara. Not San Francisco: In 1916, the company relocated to Santa Barbara, CA, the same year Santa Barbara resident Jack Northrop (aged 20) took his first job in aviation working as a draftsman for Loughead Aircraft.
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  11. Fantastic video. Thank you.
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  12. Yup. As usual, group based internet meme opinions are almost always comically uninformed, devoid of context or nuance, etc. and therefore just useless.
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  13. Ed Nash, you beautiful man. I’d like to think this in-depth content is a response to my irritating pleas for more under-covered conflicts. Ed is so humble he’s never even mentioned his book once.
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  14. He was good, but more of a genius than Kelly Johnson? Not even close. Johnson figured how to fix a major aero riddle in the industry while still in college (his professor couldn’t even grasp his solution) that senior Lockheed engineers had failed to. He personally brought the solution to the CEO who instantly hired him and put him on the job. Then he just went on producing one revolutionary design after another for decades.
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  15. They’ve given up on Taiwan after seeing what happened to little Vladi who had a task 100x easier. So, they’re setting their sights on something more feasible.
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  16. BTW, “healthy survival and development…” is some interesting wording. I could see the PRC doing it just to get some actual real experience for its utterly amateur soldiers and officers.
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  17. This election should serve as an example to Western countries what will happen if they continue to let Russian and PRC disinfo goes unchecked. - Sincerely, a US citizen living in the end days.
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  18. When my neighbor died, I just walked in and said “This is mine. He willed everything to me.” When they asked for proof I just said “nine-dash line.”
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  19. Yes, Boeing and Lockheed’s virtual monopoly on commercial and military aircraft in the US is not good for the country and it’s not even optimal for them. I’d say there’s a glimmer of hope as some new companies are finally gaining real traction in the Pentagon’s procurement ecosystem for the first time in decades.
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  20. I live in Santa Barbara where the Lockheed brothers flew their first plane. They’d even let people take a ride for $. All these planes took off from the SB marina.
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  21. Thank you for this additional context. Very helpful and interesting.
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  22. And thank you, Mr. Eubank, for doing Texas values right.
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  23. Glory and victory to Nay Myo Zin! And thanks to Ed Nash being one of the very few to be covering this at all in the West. Stop deleting all my comments YouTube!
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  24. Thanks for your sharing your perspective.
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  25. It doesn’t surprise me the Japanese basically lost no Dash-8’s. They tend not to do anything half ass. So, no “could have” about it. It was.
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  26.  @patricknorton5788  By the time the B-52 retires, the last pilots to have flown them will be the age of the first pilot’s great grand children and even possibly their great great children. Simply amazing. And the F-15 in EX guise is still good enough to dominate a war.
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  27.  @UJLite  No doubt, they’re heavily involved in Burma. It is possible they could have had a hand in this if they want to get rid of Min because his incompetence will cost the Tatmadaw power. Something they wouldn’t like.
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  28. Like Perun? Mainstream journalism, on the Ukraine war for example, is absolutely worthless. It’s why individual sources are becoming so dominant.
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  29. Yeah. It’s pretty cool and ironic that most of the fastest airplanes to ever fly came out between roughly 50-70 years ago.
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  30. Like a pirate ship barrel?
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  31. I’m assuming it’s that and YT’s automated review system has lost its mind.
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  32. The new bot line is “Well! Well! We still have 20% of Ukraine!” and they conveniently ignore that 85% of that 20% was already occupied before the 2022 invasion.
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  33. I hope liberals are strapping up now since we’re about to elect a madman king.
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  34. It would be a waste of time and resources to incorporate this plane. They’ll also likely not add the Mirages to their Air Force until after the war and even then only if they get at least 20+ if at all.
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  35. Bigger? Sure. Stronger? Maybe. Better? Hell no. The Soviet military was always an utter mess. There are countless reasons, but having political commissars in every single unit, department, etc. who could countermand actual experts was enough alone to guarantee it was a mess.
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  36. This could be of long term use (as in making up a component of its Air Force after the war) and then only if it’s the “entire” remaining number of the small amount they have left. In the short term, it’d just be a logistical headache. RE: the Olympics, it’s ironic that Russia may be one of the few political bodies more sleazy than the IOC.
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  37.  @josephahner3031 And the A-10 sucked in almost every way, including its primary purpose, which was to kill tanks. It also resulted in lots of blue on blue deaths. While I, like others loved the sound and troops loved to see it, it was and is sh*t at its job.
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  38. Are you kidding? He isn’t remaining mute on Myanmar. His channel is about the Ukraine war. He isn’t a news organization nor is he a reporter. Basically, this sounds like Kremlin shill talk.
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  39. Another fantastic video. Hope you continue providing us updates on the smaller conflicts. Your Myanmar reports have been great as well as greatly appreciated.
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  40.  @JoshuaC923 Yeah, except my comment was based on a group internet me. Sure, OP’s comment was formatted in the style of a meme, but amusingly so.
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  41. Karen Buddhists seem far from enlightenment. Didn’t know Buddha was big on turncoating.
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  42.  @DogefromBroa The fact that the the most accurate, insightful and in-depth, reporting on a subject as important as China is done by a pair of YouTubers (an American and South African) who lived in China for 14 years shows either how badly the mainstream media is failing us. There’s no reason why these huge outlets shouldn’t have people like this working for them.
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  43. The cost should be judged on what it’s protecting rather than the cost of what it’s hitting.
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  44. I badly want to fly a BV40. It looks ridiculously fun.
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  45. Not to mention the A-10s have proven almost completely useless at doing its job of taking out enemy armor while racking up many blue on blue kills. Sure, I love the plane and its famous brrrrrrrr, but if we’re just going to keep it around for own entertainment, it should focus on air shows.
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  46. They’re a regional force. Not a national entity. It’s also important to note that they’re not controlled by China and had a major political split with the CCP decades ago. This is a case of which bad guys are less bad or what’s better in terms of weakening the junta for the other powers trying to take them down.
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  47. The Wa are no tinpot republic. 😉 Or they are, but in the most lucrative sense. The Romans only wished the rich tin mines of Britain had brought similar stability.
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  48. Even if you included aircraft 🇺🇦 would never be given, like the F-35, The Gripen is far and away the best platform for 🇺🇦. So, if 🇸🇪 was actually going to provide more than just 10-12 Gripens, it’s a real shame if they paused the plan against Ukrainian wishes.
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  49. 25 hours? You weren’t kidding about a short shelf life. Makes an F1 engine look like a Honda Civic in terms of service life.
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  50. PS - I am Ukraine’s biggest supporter, but the odds of this jet is flying in Ukraine within the next 12 months is near zero. I’d put the time frame more along the lines of 16-24 months and only then if civilian contractors are made available (or, more unlikely, active military maintainers).
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  51. Ukraine is showing how common sense and the use of COTS (aka off the shelf tech) can do the job of absurdly overpriced, long lead time systems for literally 99% less $.
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  52. You must get so annoyed watching movies with snipers in them let alone the movies where some doofus is making shots with a revolver from more than 10’ feet. Anyway, security isn’t doing 90% of the things people imagine they are. It’s much easier to do than people think. It’s just simply that attempts are very rare and attempts by competent individuals rarer still.
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  53. Everyone’s heard of the F6U! Even its model designation sounds like a personal insult. At a time when every jet was obsolete by the time it hit the runway and every production model jet at the time really being trial and error en masse it’s no surprise why there are literally countless jet models from the 40s and 50s.
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  54.  @TheRealBillBob Cope harder, Ivan. 90% of that 20% was already held before the full scale invasion started. So, congrats, you’ve ruined your army, economy, future and so on for 5% more.
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  55. That’s why they call him Edgar.
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  56. As a political consultant in the US, I can tell you the Trump admin is, unfortunately, highly unlikely to help Burma. Also, Musk’s Tesla would shut down overnight w/out the PRC whom he helped white wash the Xinjiang [rhymes with ecocide].
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  57. Exactly, Ukraine has shown what you can accomplish with very little money and nearly off the shelf tech. Blowing up most of 🇷🇺’s Black Sea Fleet w/essentially jet ski engined drone torpedoes and low profile craft + cheap drones providing extremely cheap and effective ways to destroy tanks, APCs, transport trucks, stationery aircraft, etc. and provide better surveillance than billions dollar satellites (which have their place too).
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  58.  @Robert-Feeds-The-Machine Well, not quite sure you can call it a trend in the U.S. yet. Ukraine showed the world that FPV and quad drones could do the job not only more cheaply, but better than main of our expensive loitering munitions, surveillance drones, etc. and I hope the DoD fully embraces this pretty much common sense concept. There are many roles for expensive + over engineered platforms, but they need to recognize the areas where it’s a huge waste of money. Naturally, military contractor lobbyists have played and will play a role in trying to slow the “learning” and adoption of common sense.
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  59. If you’re only facing a rabble with mostly light machine guns, this thing is still a god of war. It’ll get disabled by old school RPGs, but it should still save the crew. The PLA is extremely incompetent and doesn’t have great ATGMs either.
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  60. Hate the owner, but yeah the Starlink Mini is amazing because it puts government level tech in the hands of an individual for what is basically free to anyone w/a decent job. Those Burma drones were fairly primitive tech 5 years ago.
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  61.  @johnshepherd9676 The Navy wasn’t so quiet about it at the time.
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  62. One more note: even the best news publications have become so weak and shallow in their geopolitical, armed conflict, etc. reporting that OSINT has become vital for private citizens to be well informed.
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  63. A little side note: about three weeks ago rumors emerged from within the PRC that Xi’s iron grip on power is slipping. Even if untrue, it is significant simply for the fact that during years of providing clients updates on the poli, economic, etc. situation in China, I’ve never even encountered rumors concerning Xi’s position simply because one quite literally risks their life talking about high level CCP officials in this manner let alone Xi. One thing is clear and that is many among the elite are far from happy about the direction Xi has been taking the country, especially when that direction is hurting their bottom line. OT, but I find it stunning how apparently clueless Western media are regarding matters within China. There has been nearly nonstop flooding for two-years in a row that make the human and infrastructure toll of Japan’s 2011 tsunami look like a minor incident by comparison. There’s barely been a peep about it in the media. You see short lived stories now and then with media repeating official Chinese statistics about lives lost and damage that to call naively comedic is far too kind.
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  64. I wonder if the woman who didn’t believe the plane could possibly fly got to see it take off. Assuming the “Young man, what kind of fool do you take me for?” isn’t apocryphal.
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  65. Don’t be silly. 2 mins of soft news is not preventing its coverage. The news today basically covers almost nothing that is relevant and what they do report is often woefully naive and inaccurate.
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  66.  @funguseaterAI I said there are specialist publications and podcasts. Point me toward good coverage of Myanmar from legacy media. I dare you.
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  67.  @funguseaterAI BTW, it’s clear you have no idea what you’re talking about. Ed has been personally involved in Burma on the ground and has countless contacts there. Where do you think he gets much of his information? Hint: it’s not from newspapers.
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  68. That and the fact that the cost should be judged on not only that, but the cost and importance of what it’s protecting from being hit or spotted rather than the cost of what it’s hitting.
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  69. And, more than 80% of Americans still say they’re not favor in of a peace which cedes Ukrainian territory (meanwhile, 43% of Germans are IN FAVOR of that). It’s just clearly obvious they don’t pay enough attention to realize Trump’s peace plan is that and so much worse.
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  70. It’s maddening that not a single news publication has run a story explaining how this war is actually making the US money (since the MAGA crowd is primarily swayed by the misconception that we’re bleeding cash over this war while Europe is doing nothing). -Replacing Russian NG + oil in the Euro market -Prior to the Munich speech, record orders/profits for US defense contractors via orders primarily from 🇪🇺 (for themselves + Kyiv) which has created thousands of jobs and billions in tax revenue. Now these orders have stopped and many unfulfilled orders will be canceled (and with the huge backlog that’s a huge deal) -The real world price tag on our aid to Ukraine is under $50b considering as the vast majority of the arms given were surplus stock that was retired or going to be and was/would costing us billions to dispose of (DPICM, M113s, MRAPS, HMMWVs, M50 based engineering vehicles, etc.) and any stuff that wasn’t surplus means buying it from a domestic manufacturer thereby recovering a big chunk of the cost via corporate/income taxes + big savings for our own procurement due to volume, etc., etc.
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  71.  @jebise1126 He didn’t say it countered artillery shells themselves. Anyway, the cost should be judged on what it’s protecting rather than the cost of what it’s hitting.
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  72. Agreed on the first part, but the CCP don’t have their hands in the coup rumors.
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  73. We want more uncovered conflicts coverage, Ed! Don’t do what you enjoy. Just what I enjoy! 😉
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  74. OSINT can do a lot of the work that intelligence agencies and firms like RAND did/do, but there are obviously countless different needs that can only be done by intelligence services. And, yes, some of the self-labeled OSINT sources are really bad, but they’re fairly easy to spot and by the same token, there have been many totally incompetent gov. analysts.
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  75. That was an astronomically dangerous rate even back then. You didn’t see any of the famous aircraft of similar size being lost to accidents at that rate.
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  76. Hell, even the Russians found it too dangerous.
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  77.  @MeragRealm  Wow. Thanks for the news flash.
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  78.  @SMGJohn  That’s the best they can do. Exercising to see if they can make a blockade work.
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  79. It’s odd that there are two F-4s.
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  80. I care.
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  81. You mean Russia is. Ukraine isn’t. Ukraine was gifted about 35 M-55s from Slovenia, which had Israel create an upgrade package for its T-55s.
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  82. If this was still the Dulles brothers (the two worst Americans ever) era, we (the US) would be fully engaged in this conflict. The current American DOS, WH, etc. seems to have little ability to maintain influence or focus in areas that aren’t directly in the spotlight. Just look at what basically ignoring Central + Western Asia and Africa is costing us. Aside from the built up areas, how are these groups getting access to internet? Slow speed satellite or are there any low latency satellites like Starlink? I can’t imagine there are enough mobile towers for much rural internet.
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  83.  @johnstirling6597 Speaking of monsters, who else would love to see the Goblin / XF-85 flying today? I love that little thing.
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  84. Military matters! And yous matters to mes, Ed!
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  85. Some people call me Delta Feces. I just assume it’s meant to be a compliment. No real life official document has ever said “terminate with extreme prejudice.” Maybe it did after Apocalypse Now. The intelligence agencies love believing they’re as cool as the movies portray them.
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  86. You can tell De Havilland was a good bloke since he credited the plane’s inventor in its name rather than just pretending the thing was all his own vision.
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  87.  @jeffreyross-zb8cz  The only chance I think we have of seeing lots of unique airplanes is if they succeed in either their modularity mission which includes a standard fuselage but with lots of different wing, nose and tail elements and/or when 3D printing and other advancements in materials and manufacturing tech become robust enough that they can manufacture all new designs without having to do all the custom tooling normally required to make an all new plane.
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  88. And short sighted.
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  89.  @whitewidowgaming4887 Way to miss the point AND make a rebuttal that does not prove anything. Basically, your premise is that if someone has pioneered a new tech they cannot be wrong about anything else. 🤦‍♂️
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  90. They already had scary assassin drones prior to the Ukraine war. The scary thing is that now people all around the world can do it cheaply too. The truly scary thing is they now have tiny bug sized ones that use toxins.
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  91. Russia wasn’t defending that border because Putin expected Biden/Scholz to forbid 🇺🇦 from crossing into 🇷🇺. They likely would have too had Kiev’s opsec not been so good or been foolish enough to tell them ahead of time.
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  92. Chinese Muslims fleeing persecution…sounds like more things change, the more they stay the same. 3:30 Portraits of Stalin and Mao are usually a good indicator peace and prosperity are on the way.
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  93. 431 mph is an incredibly fast top speed for this type of aircraft. And I don’t think there’s a traditional helicopter that’s ever gotten close to that speed besides maybe a few prototypes.
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  94. I’d love if you did a video on the PBY Catalina.
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  95.  @deltavee2 That “awaken a sleeping giant” quote is a myth. He may have believed it, but he never said that.
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  96.  @deltavee2  it’s the reverse you can’t prove a negative. Provide me proof that he said it. You know that line is famous because of a movie, right?
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  97. This is what half of China has looked like multiple times for the past two years, except even worse and instead of trying to rescue people, they focused on covering it up.
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  98. Bin Bong Bang hasn’t been deposed? What a shame. Anyway, anytime I see a CCP ceremony, it’s amazing how miserable everyone looks. Apparently, $ can’t buy happiness.
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  99. It’s has a bit of Baloo’s TaleSpin seaplane vibe to it.
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  100. Must admit, I’ve either completely forgotten about this aircraft (the older I get, the more it happens) or have never seen it. I think it’s the former. It rings a very muffled bell. A 4t bomb capacity is nothing.
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  101. Most talk about the 🦟’s wood airframe in a “whoa, that’s cool” spirit. Only one that knows nothing about aviation would cite the fact in contempt & few outside the 🇬🇧 not into mil-av would be aware of its existence. OTH, the Albermarle deserves contempt. An awful aircraft in every way. It’s arguable that they’d have been better off w/nothing than that thing. Even its name was awful.
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  102. PS: The Mixmaster must be among the oddest names ever for an aircraft of that era.
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  103. Some great history here. Thanks. Amazingly myopic program management (developing a drone w/a range 8x further than your radar).
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  104. Judging by US and Western European policy, there is a wide gap between their intelligence services’ efficacy and their actual understanding of how Kremlin and CCP leaders think, what they truly believe and what is just posturing, domestic messaging, etc. how they perceive our actions, what they think are true agendas are and so on.
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  105. It’d be a waste of time and resources for 🇺🇦 to incorporate this plane. Even the Mirages are unlikely to be added to its AF during the war or even after, unless they’re in numbers of 30+.
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  106. The divergence of your “tale” or “tail”?
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  107. As an American, every time I look at the news it’s just another gut blow leaving me feeling completely sick. The most ironic part is that these decisions won’t even slightly benefit the US. The exact opposite. I will say though it is ironic that the US has never gotten any credit for the aid it provides all over the globe and has gained a bad guy reputation. Something it will finally be truly earning now.
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  108. @PaxAlotin-j6rlol, your comment was highly original. 🙄
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  109. HTS is just Al-Qaeda rebranded. Amazingly, they’re the only group even worse than Assad’s supporters (which is saying something).
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  110. Best episode stinger ever, Ed. Thank you. Anyway, ironically, there are also whispers coming from inside of the PRC that a quiet coup is in the process of going down and those kind of rumors are basically unheard of. Any gossip of that type will get one wiped out. The rumor goes that he’s been put under house arrest and those who’ve done it want to keep him as a mere figurehead before eventually totally “transitioning” him out totally.
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