Last night an ambush video was aired showing an alleged Pfizer executive boasting that variants were being created with a vaccine ready to go, or words to that effect.  That’s before he realized that he’d been recorded and went full blown loony tunes. Surely the company will fire the guy and say they barely knew him.  But he did have an impressive title.  If he wasn’t talking through his hat, gain of function research is on the table, which doesn’t look right for the company selling vaccines.  He called the ploy “directed evolution.”   That’s before he called the police and then started rushing people.  We may see a lot of this before it’s over.  Newsweek has already published a “fact check” attempting to discredit the whole episode.  Pfizer has yet to comment. 

We found out this week that the United States is sending Abrams battle tanks to Ukraine.  Purely a defensive measure mind you.  It’s been explained that the U. S. had to send a battalion of tanks so Germany could in turn send twice as many Leopard tanks.  Is that how diplomacy works?  The argument is that Putin is on the ropes, and if he doesn’t win in Ukraine something will happen internally to take him down.  Apparently there isn’t any anti-war movement in Russia.  Putin’s successors might be even more aggressive.  His popularity doesn’t seem to be suffering, assuming you believe the polls.  But the tanks.  That seems to be ratcheting up our involvement in something that could turn ugly, as if it’s not ugly enough.  

The whole thing seems an exercise in playing chicken with W. W. III.  But nobody asked us.  Did they ask somebody?  Somebody’s going to have to tell me what the pretender said, because trying to decipher words and meanings has become impossible.  Who’s making these decisions, and are they the right ones?  The guys standing in the backdrop in uniforms and medals don’t inspire a lot of confidence either.

Where does this end up? Or does it? There are some things yet to happen. If the Davos crowd gets it’s way it would all happen at once.  It looks like they want to have the power over what people think, publicly at least.  Nobody would dare question global warming without severe punishment.  Or for that matter entertain any of the “conspiracy theories,” especially those that turn out to be true. If the media is any gauge, we must all believe the same things and speak with the same voice.  They’ve gone to great lengths already, but some of us aren’t buying in.

It’s not like the public doesn’t already know too much, on a whole range of subjects.  But the mainstream keeps banging on like the public agrees with their conventional wisdom.  Polls are conducted and released to banish any question about what the public believes.  We’ve got “analysts” that come on television to tell us what we believe.  It’s enough to make you talk back.  

Mark 

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The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – January 27, 2023 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Following the Yom Kippur War, West Germany decided to upgrade their Leopard I to a new standard—the Leopard II.

Here’s What You Need to Remember: The Leopard II is slated to serve the German Bundeswehr around 2030. Regardless of what replaces it, the Leopard II has served with distinction.

In the 1970s, it became apparent that anti-tank warfare had progressed far beyond the capabilities of 1950s and 1960s era armor. West Germany went back to the drawing board and came up with a winning design—the Leopard II.

Aging Armor

The Yom Kippur war in 1973 showed the limitations of 1950s and 1960s tank design when faced with 1970s anti-tank missiles. Israel armor had struggled at the beginning of the conflict, and lost a large number of American M48 Pattons, British Centurions, and other armor to Soviet-supplied anti-tank missiles.

European observers were startled—and realized that advances were needed in armor, quickly. West Germany decided to upgrade their Leopard I to a new standard—the Leopard II.

The Leopard II entered service in 1979, and had a number of improvements and upgrades compared to the Leopard I, its predecessor.

American-German Improvements

Initially the United States and West Germany planned on jointly creating a tank that would equip both of their armies, the MTB-70. The MTB-70 was incredibly advanced for the time. However doubts concerning some of the tank’s technical advancements, like the redesigned main gun and finicky gas-turbine engine arose, and the entire project was rapidly shelved.

West German designers returned to their current main battle tank, the Leopard I. Their initial goal was to upgrade the Leopard I to try and get close to the capabilities offered by the MTB-70.

Designers took some of the MTB-70’s better qualities—good mobility and effective armor—and created a prototype that had spaced turret armor that was steeply sloped. The prototype’s suspension and transmission were improved as well.

A computerized fire control system for greater hit probabilities at 2,000 meters, or 6,500 feet was added, as was a fully electric turret drive and automatic stabilization.

Ammunition was stored in blow-out compartments too—in case of ammunition “cooking off” after taking a hit. This meant that any resulting explosion would be pushed outwards away from the crew, rather than exploding internally.

Another upgrade meant that, with minimal preparation, the Leopard II can ford thirteen-foot deep bodies of water using a quick-deploy snorkel. With no prep, it can ford over three feet of water.

The Leopard II was born.

Incremental Upgrades

Throughout the life of the Leopard II, incremental upgrades have steadily been incorporated, resulting in many versions of the tank.

To protect against IEDs, improvements to underbelly armor protection has been added to some models, as well as a thicker spall liner to protect the crew. Additionally, a heavy ballistic skirt was added to protect the Leopard’s tracks.

Due to German political sensitivities, the Leopard today does not make use of depleted uranium armor. Instead, the tank relies on steeply sloped armor to defeat projectiles, though it has smoke projectiles along the turret.

The Leopard II was picked up by a number of NATO member countries, including notably by Canada, Austria, and the Netherlands, who contributed Leopard II variants to their respective missions in Afghanistan.

Today

The Leopard II is slated to serve the German Bundeswehr around 2030. Regardless of what replaces it, the Leopard II has served with distinction. The Leopard’s website proudly states: “The Leopard 2A7 + was developed and qualified for the new tasks of the German Armed Forces. The system components, optimized to protect the crew, prove their worth.”

Image: Reuters

Source: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/leopard-ii-tank-europe%E2%80%99s-finest-180941

The post The Leopard II Tank Is Europe’s Finest first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.