NationStates Jolt Archive

I have three things I have questions about.

1. When people lift max range on specs for aircraft, is that litereally max range like they fly that far in a straight line until they run out of gas and fall hurtling to the ground, or is that as far as tehy can go and still get back?

2. I have my military standing at about 23/4% of my total population, thats including Amy, Airforce, Navy, Marines, Coastguard, and the reserves for all my armed forces (not counting national guards). Is that too much? I heard someone say that you shoudl keep it to 11/2% of your population but I thought that since it included both coast guard and reserves and since my nation has compulsory military service it might not be too high, even if the person who told me 11/2% did know what they were talking about, which even though I have no evidence to back it up I have the feeling he rarely does.

3. On International Incedents I bought a TON of tanks off of somebody. Im using T-84 Oplots like light tanks, though I would not venture to call them light tanks, they just happen to be faster than my MBT, and I use Challenger 2s as my MBT. Thing is I have a lot of T-90's sitting idle. My question is once I grow enough that I use all of my Challengers (I am only using 12% right now) should I begin to incorporate the T-90s as well or would it be better to use them for my national guard (along with the T-84s that aren't on active duty) and buy more Challengers (or Abrahms if they are cheaper at the time) to add to my main force? basically what Im asking is is there any disadvantage to adding in the T-90 "misfits" since they use the same ammo as the Oplots so I woudl be carrying their ammo anyway?

I have three things I have questions about.

1. When people lift max range on specs for aircraft, is that litereally max range like they fly that far in a straight line until they run out of gas and fall hurtling to the ground, or is that as far as tehy can go and still get back?

2. I have my military standing at about 23/4% of my total population, thats including Amy, Airforce, Navy, Marines, Coastguard, and the reserves for all my armed forces (not counting national guards). Is that too much? I heard someone say that you shoudl keep it to 11/2% of your population but I thought that since it included both coast guard and reserves and since my nation has compulsory military service it might not be too high, even if the person who told me 11/2% did know what they were talking about, which even though I have no evidence to back it up I have the feeling he rarely does.

3. On International Incedents I bought a TON of tanks off of somebody. Im using T-84 Oplots like light tanks, though I would not venture to call them light tanks, they just happen to be faster than my MBT, and I use Challenger 2s as my MBT. Thing is I have a lot of T-90's sitting idle. My question is once I grow enough that I use all of my Challengers (I am only using 12% right now) should I begin to incorporate the T-90s as well or would it be better to use them for my national guard (along with the T-84s that aren't on active duty) and buy more Challengers (or Abrahms if they are cheaper at the time) to add to my main force? basically what Im asking is is there any disadvantage to adding in the T-90 "misfits" since they use the same ammo as the Oplots so I woudl be carrying their ammo anyway?

1. As far as I know, it's the range till it falls down (actually, till it needs to have landed or refueled)

2. It varies. A highly militarized nation will have more than a very liberal one. It depends on how you RP it. Also, compulsory service tends to make it higher.

3. Since you would already have the ammo, it can't hurt to use them too.

I have three things I have questions about.

1. When people lift max range on specs for aircraft, is that litereally max range like they fly that far in a straight line until they run out of gas and fall hurtling to the ground, or is that as far as tehy can go and still get back?

Ignore what the previous poster said. Unless you're a former Soviet Air Force commander sending, say, a Polish Air Force pilot on a nuclear sorte, the max range for an aircraft includes time to target, time on station and time to RTB.

2. I have my military standing at about 23/4% of my total population, thats including Amy, Airforce, Navy, Marines, Coastguard, and the reserves for all my armed forces (not counting national guards). Is that too much? I heard someone say that you shoudl keep it to 11/2% of your population but I thought that since it included both coast guard and reserves and since my nation has compulsory military service it might not be too high, even if the person who told me 11/2% did know what they were talking about, which even though I have no evidence to back it up I have the feeling he rarely does.

Even that's a bit high. I'd say go with about 0.5% or so. That's reasonable.

3. On International Incedents I bought a TON of tanks off of somebody. Im using T-84 Oplots like light tanks, though I would not venture to call them light tanks, they just happen to be faster than my MBT, and I use Challenger 2s as my MBT. Thing is I have a lot of T-90's sitting idle. My question is once I grow enough that I use all of my Challengers (I am only using 12% right now) should I begin to incorporate the T-90s as well or would it be better to use them for my national guard (along with the T-84s that aren't on active duty) and buy more Challengers (or Abrahms if they are cheaper at the time) to add to my main force? basically what Im asking is is there any disadvantage to adding in the T-90 "misfits" since they use the same ammo as the Oplots so I woudl be carrying their ammo anyway?

Why you're using tanks from two different manufacturers is beyond me. The support and maintenance costs would be trimmed by a lot if you bought from one supplier. Dump the Challengers on some other nation, and go with the T-90s.

Ignore what the previous poster said. Unless you're a former Soviet Air Force commander sending, say, a Polish Air Force pilot on a nuclear sorte, the max range for an aircraft includes time to target, time on station and time to RTB.

That's the thing. There are usually two different ranges posted. The combat radius (which you're describing) and the ferry range (which I described). Ones that say only one range could be either one, but most likely ferry because it's a bigger number and those market well.

That's the thing. There are usually two different ranges posted. The combat radius (which you're describing) and the ferry range (which I described). Ones that say only one range could be either one, but most likely ferry because it's a bigger number and those market well.

Sure, if the buyer is completely ignorant.

When you boil it all down, though, it's a moot argument in most every case anyway, as long as you've got a mid-air refuelling capability.

Looking at some info I have .5% seems low. Im not a big country like the US. If you count active duty and reservists (and no paramilitary since I don't include that in my count either) there are several countries who have plenty higher percentages than that.

North Korea: 4.7% active duty, 20% Reserves
South Korea: 1.5% Active duty
Taiwan: 8.5% Combined
Turkey: 1.25% Combined
Israel: 2.6% active, 6.3% reserves
Spain: 1.25% combined
Eritrea: 9% combined
Greece: 1.65% active, 2.7% reserves
and the list continues...

Thanks for the help though, both of you. I was pretty lost until I found the info I did. I think Ill try to cut my active force down some and increase my reserves to make it more realistic.

The bigger you are, the sillier the numbers get. The Hack has a population of roughly 9,200,000,000 citizens. With a 1% figure, I'm still looking at 92,000,000 in my military. That's... a little high, ya know?

The bigger you are, the sillier the numbers get. The Hack has a population of roughly 9,200,000,000 citizens. With a 1% figure, I'm still looking at 92,000,000 in my military. That's... a little high, ya know?

That's why I went with such a low percentage. NS nations can get so large that it gets absurd after a while.

My advice to you: Ditch the real life tanks and buy some NS-designed tanks. They're far superior in the long run.


EDIT- Wooo post 2500.

1. the Rnage figure on an aircraft is a funny value as it can mean so many different things. Combat radius is generally how far an aircraft can go, compelte its mission and then return to base with soem reserves. On combat aircraft you often find a ferry range which generally how long a one way trip can be with maximum external fuel, generlaly a ferry rnage is a bit shorter than the true maximum rnage as it will include a reserve factor for diversions. Civil aircraft generlaly give a max point to point rnage (often a number of them for different combiantions of fuel/cargo payloads), Civil aircraft will also have at least another 20 mins to 2 hrs flight time beyond the stated max range as a safety reserve.

3. As for the tanks, while i am a challenger fan i would ditch them as the T-84 and T-90 combiantion will be easier to support (seeing as they use the same ammo and possibly share a number of parts) but still you would have 2 tanks design to do the same job so i would ditch the T-90s as well and stick with the T-84s. Now if you want good NS tanks you could always buy from Crookfur Arms ;)

I know Im a new er country.
I think the answer is always in the Role-Play, Stats play a purpose but I think good RP trumps stats. Im trying to RP as a Struggling third world nation
e.g. Older weapons . But try to make Tech deals and CO-OPs with larger nations. Work those embassies :) and Work that RP

OOC: I won't bother with the first and third, but as regards the second...you can literally RP whatever military size you want, limited only by your population. If you were a nation of 5 million, you could say "My million-man army CROSSES THE BORDER AND PWNS J000!!!!

But you have to understand WHY it is that people set arbitrary 'limits'. To follow the example above, you have every right to RP a 20% army. But then you'd have to RP the economic failure, the inability to feed your soldiers, the riots, the revolution...etc. You can RP whatever size army you want, so long as you have realistic consequences. These 'rules' are false, but they are there to serve as guidelines. They don't tell you what HAS to be the case, but they point out the general area in which your military size should be.

ooc:Send me a telegram, colony west if your still looking to get rid of some of those tanks.