Tuesday 20 June 2017

Dutch F-16AMs Shoot Down Unarmed Mig-29

F-16 Fighting Falcon News

How Dutch F-16AMs Shot Down an Unarmed Mig-29

On April 21 1999, Four F-16AMs of the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNlAF) were among the first NATO aircraft to enter Serbian airspace on the night of 24 March, followed by another four armed with air to ground munitions. Within minutes, the Dutch had achieved their first air-to-air victory since World War II, shooting down a Serbian MiG-29.


The engagement also marked the combat debut for the F-16AM, the most advanced F-16 in operational service. 

In an interview with Jane's Defence Weekly, Lt Col Jon Abma, RNlAF,commanding officer of the Belgian-Netherlands Deployed Air Task Force DATF) described the events that happened during the first moments of Operation Allied Force.

"At 19.30hr local time four F-16AMs took off from here for a fighter escort mission to protect one of the first NATO strike packages. After an in-flight refuelling over the Adriatic Sea, the flight crossed over Albania into Serbia. Upon entering Serbian airspace, they were informed by AWACS that three MiG-29 aircraft had taken off from an air base near Belgrade," Col Abma said.

That base is understood to have been Batajnica, home of the Yugoslav Air Force's only MiG-29 unit, the 127th Fighter Aviation Squadron 'Knights'. Abma added: "The four F-16AMs headed out toward the threat, working to detect the MiGs on their own radars. Subsequently, one of the MiGs was picked up by all four F-16s. When within range, our flight leader fired one AMRAAM against the MiG. It was an instant hit, after a flight of 30 seconds."

The AMRAAM, credited with a speed of over 4,000km/h,would be capable of covering a distance of more than 33km in 30s econds. According to RNLAF personnel at Amendola, the head-on missile was launched some 28 km from the MiG-29 and impact took place 18km from the lead F-16.

"The pilot involved visually saw a fiery explosion. At the same time, the AWACS recorded that the MiG disappeared from the scope," Col Abma continued. "We have never seen the other MiG-29s, but around the same time two US F-15s shot down two of those aircraft."

Col Abma said that the rules of engagement (ROEs) for air-to-air engagements require that the target has been tracked by AWACS throughout its flight, and that four other parameters also must be met. Other RNLAF officers said that among those are a positive IFF identification and an approval from the mission commander.

Flying in the air defence role, the F-16AMs at Amendola each carried four AMRAAMs, two external fuel tanks and a Northrop Grumman ALQ-131 ECM pod. In addition four of the eight aircraft also carried two Raytheon AGM-65G Maverick air-to-ground missiles each.

"This is so that they can react instantly when a ground target needs to be attacked urgently," said Col Abma, adding that this 'swing role' capability was much appreciated by NATO's Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) in Vicenza, Italy, which plans and leads the air campaign." 

First reported by Lieven Dewitte

Wednesday 10 May 2017

ALIGNMENT OF PICTURES IN BLOGGER


    ALIGN PHOTOS IN BLOGGER: A GUIDE

The free blog posting system, Blogger, does not provide the latest in technology to help your blog prosper. It is a daunting task to make money from your blog on Blogger. Getting photos in a neat line or position is impossible unless you know / understand HTML. Paragraph spacing, font sizes, indents, etc., is next to impossible. I have written a tutorial on how to arrange photos in a neat line, not strewn around the post with only the size and area under your control. The only limiting factor here is that the total width of all photographs should not exceed 700 spaces. 
             

1. Select the blog you want to insert photos into and click Edit. You get two options, Compose and HTML. In the  Compose mode, select the place where you want the pictures to appear and upload the pictures you want to put into your post at that place. They will appear one below the other. You can leave the sizes as they are, or use the options available to select small. Now click HTML and move into Blogger’s unwanted miles of data. Most of it is dispensable-try it and see for yourself. This is what you will see:


<w:WordDocument>

  <w:View>Normal</w:View>

  <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>

  <w:TrackMoves/>

  <w:TrackFormatting/>

  <w:DoNotShowComments/>

  <w:PunctuationKerning/>

  <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>

  <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>

  <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>

  <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>

  <w:DoNotPromoteQF/>

  <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>

  <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>

  <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>

 
 mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; plus scores of similar lines.



Use Control + F and a slot opens up bottom left/top right. Insert <a href= and press ‘Highlight all’. You’ll soon see the HTML zone you want to use. These are the lines you want:  

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">

" src=" https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SJY2Fbwx2T4/ WRDCxq_WEQI/AAAAAAAACos/nl4gw1RtOgwRhJina3OFzREbF1sa8qoDwCLcB/s1600/buch8.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>

<br />

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">

src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tNeX5Uo_WFw/ WRDC6rUix0I/ AAAAAAAACow/ ZecaDlueunM4uunpcOquRMkxg4-NK8eRACLcB/s1600/fort.jpg " width="180" /></a></div>

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">

</div>

Look for the src= and then copy the URL leaving the inverted commas out, from http:// all the way along to xxxxxxxxxxx.jpg    This example showed placement of only 2 pics. The height and width are relatively small. Now add your bit below the last green width if you have more than one picture to put in line and above the pink div class="separator line. There will also be an image height slot; use 300.  



Change the width dimensions as required to fit best.

Paste the yellow highlighted URLs into the yellow highlighted URL above. This set can take 4 pics. For more, just add more lines. Ensure total width doesn't exceed 700 pts. Update the post, publish it and finally, switch back to Compose (text) from HTML. Delete the random pics. 
This is for 7 pics.
<table>
<tbody>
 <tr>
<td><img height="xxx"><img src="  " width="xx" /></td>

<td><img height="xxx"><img src="  " width="xx" /></td>
<td><img height="xxx"><img src="  " width="xx" /></td>
<td><img height="xxx"><img src="  " width="xx" /></td>
<td><img height="xxx"><img src="  " width="xx" /></td>  
<td><img height="xxx"><img src="  " width="xx" /></td>
<td><img height="xxx"><img src="  " width="xx" /></td>  


</tr>

</tbody>
</table>


Let's start with an example, Glen Orrin. Copy that pic onto your desktop, in your docs/pics/just desktop. Edit/crop it as required using MS photo manager or MS Paint. Now upload this snap into your blog in the Compose mode. Switch to Edit mode and this is what you will see in HTML: <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d2kFAx3q6Ms/ XW41czpzQlI/AAAAAAAAHEE/xfJB_KsvA1ENatmzWAKvBl_IMgG9Hr1hwCLcBGAs/s1600/aldi-supermarket-glen-orrin-blended-malt-scotch-whisky-M41WGB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1016" data-original-width="251" height="200" width="49" /></a><span style="font-family: 
Verdana, sans-serif;">&nbsp;</span><br />

What this means is that you copied the Glen Orrin pic with original dimensions of 1016 by 251 pixels. You then edited/cropped the photo to one fifth, down to height="200" from 1016 pts from its source (src), which resized the width to ~a fifth of 251, i.e., 49. You can increase height to say 300, i.e., a 50% increase, so you must increase height to 74 pts. And, when lining it up with others in HTML, do ensure the others have the same height of 200 or 300 or whatever. The blue shaded portion is to be copied and pasted into the "src" window.
<td><img height="xxx"><img src="  " width="xx" /></td>
-------------------------------------------------------


     



Scotch is back with a bang. Global exports in 2016 turned positive after three long years, with values mounting 4% to £4 billion (U$5.2bn). Single Malts took the biggest share of the pie in percentage with a solid revival: exports soared by 12% in value to cross the £1bn (US$1.3bn) barrier for the first time. Johnnie Walker and Chivas Regal both saw losses, yet others, including Ballantine’s and Black & White, saw impressive gains. William Grant & Sons also flourished, with volume sales climbing by 9.5% to 1.21 million cases for Glenfiddich putting daylight between it and main rival The Glenlivet, owned by Pernod Ricard. Glenfiddich is attracting the next generation of premium whisky drinkers through the release of high­profile new expressions, particularly The Glenfiddich Experimental Series, a range of unexpected and unusual variants created by malt master Brian Kinsman, taking single malt into a bold new direction and helping to define a new Scotch era, according to a company spokesman. 


Sales of Scotch Whisky in Million 9l Cases
BRAND
OWNER
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
% +/-
Johnnie Walker
Diageo
19.70
20.10
17.90
17.60
17.40
-1.14%
Ballantine’s
Pernod Ricard
5.81
6.01
6.13
6.22
6.70
7.72%
Grant’s
Wm Grant& Sons
4.46
4.71
4.37
4.35
4.48
2.90%
Chivas Regal
Pernod Ricard
4.83
4.68
4.59
4.39
4.26
-2.96%
J&B
Diageo
4.20
4.00
3.70
3.50
3.50
0.00%
William Peel
MBWS
2.50
2.65
2.75
2.90
3.00
3.45%
Wm Lawson’s
Bacardi
2.58
2.80
3.06
3.11
2.99
-3.86%
Dewar’s
Bacardi
3.04
2.95
2.70
2.68
2.80
4.48%
Label 5
La Martiniquaise
2.51
2.51
2.58
2.58
2.59
0.39%
Bell’s
Diageo
2.50
2.50
2.50
2.20
2.10
-4.55%
Black & White
Diageo
N/A
1.20
1.30
1.40
1.80
28.57%
Passport
Pernod Ricard
1.20
1.43
1.63
1.94
1.74
-10.31%
Buchanan’s
Diageo
1.90
1.90
1.60
1.40
1.70
21.43%
Teacher’s Hi’land Cream
Beam Suntory
2.10
2.02
1.99
1.62
1.55
-4.07%
Clan Campbell
Pernod Ricard
1.31
1.66
1.65
1.61
1.55
-3.73%
Sir Edward’s
La Martiniquaise 
1.38
1.43
1.54
1.54
1.54
0.00%
100 Pipers
Pernod Ricard
1.58
1.32
1.38
1.45
1.44
-0.69%
White Horse
Diageo
N/A
1.50
1.70
1.50
1.30
-13.33%
Glenfiddich
Wm Grant& Sons
1.03
1.05
1.05
1.11
1.21
9.50%
Vat 69
Diageo
N/A
1.20
1.20
1.30
1.20
-7.69%
The Glenlivet
Pernod Ricard
0.90
0.97
1.04
1.06
1.03
-2.83%


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