@_Mastercord_@RadarFennec It absolutely was independently developed by Israel, judging aircraft by looks is not a reliable indicator of design pedigree. Israel just couldn't make the engines on their own, nor can they now because engines are hard.
@Tom_Rowsell Celtic mercenaries show up a lot in the annals of the Hellenistic period, so it doesn't seem like a huge stretch to guess there was some degree of contact a few centuries prior.
@lefineder Is there any evidence they weren't getting paid? Soldiers have a tendency to wander off and become farmers, sailors, or literally anything else if they're not getting paid.
@walzmyn@monsterhunter45 Depends on the bullet shape. For spherical projectiles, smoothbore is adequateish. Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes. The further the projectile is from being spherical, the larger the overturning moment of the CoP relative to CG and the more it randomly veers.
@Buma11252252@Sam_Cranny There have been various programs to upgrade the Sagger to SACLOS guidance (like what a TOW has), for example the Iranian I-RAAD. But just upgrading the guidance only goes so far, the Sagger is rather slow and unmaneuverable, so it's best to just get a whole new missile.
@Buma11252252@Sam_Cranny Yep. Flown with a little joystick while looking through a narrow-view periscope. AIUI, most of the problem is that narrow field of view and parallax mean the operator can't effectively fly the missile for the first 500m or so.
@Buma11252252@Sam_Cranny Minimum range for the (rather primitive) guidance system to really start working! This range varied in practice but is often given as a massive 500m. I'm not exactly sure how long it took the warhead to actually arm, but much less than that.
@OGTaylorB@romanhelmetguy Not likely. Remember that when we say that Alexander reached "India" what we're talking about is the Indus River Valley, which is mostly in modern-day Pakistan. The subcontinent alone would have been a chore, let alone marching over the Himalayas.
@FeherTamasex2f@Kreyton_M1E1 Gas turbines usually have a J-hook shaped SFC curve, with max efficiency at something like 80% of max output.
But gas turbines also scale efficiency with absolute size. A teeny tiny baby GT in the 1500 horse range just isn't very efficiency and never will be.