The AK needs better ammo, but the basic weapon is more reliable, and has more stopping power than an M4. I was much happier with the M14 than the M16, but then I never used full auto and actually aimed.

The RPG-7 keeps getting better ammo, which makes it a PITA to defend against.

Almost everything we fly is “fly by wire” these days, but they don’t seem to have the problems. It is probable that the tailless design of the B-2 makes it even trickier, but the damn thing has been deployed for over a decade and these problems should have been found and fixed.

Everything in the B-2 is servo controlled not just assisted. The pilots have no “feel” for the airplane, it may as well be a video game.

Now, as you point out (maybe), we’ve had inherently unstable aircraft in the Air Farce inventory before. The F-16, for example, which is why it’s such a great dog-fighter and why the F-15 jocks refuse to dogfight with F-16’s. But the F-16 at least doesn’t fall out of the air when its sensors get wet. The notion that in 2008 we have a bomber which does… well, I guess that’s why our next war is going to be over Iran. Because Iran is dry :-).

As for crappy Russian weapons systems, an AK-47 won’t penetrate modern body armor, and a MiG-21 up against an F-16 with AWACS support would be more appropriately named “scrap metal” because that is what it shortly will be. I must admit however that the RPG-7 has proven to be far more effective recently than you’d expect given its antiquated provenance… and Su-30’s appear to be every bit as good as F-15’s, if not up to F-22 standards.

– Badtux the Snarky Penguin

An old fashioned gyroscopic attitude indicator would have told the stupid computer that it was going to stall the aircraft, but it depended on a flawed sensor system. You can’t fly the thing without a computer, so you are at the mercy of a programmer. Not a comfortable feeling.

And I just love the way so many Americans laugh about the Russian crappy weapons systems. LOL Pot, meet kettle!

What a joke.