Dear Friends and Frenemies,
I thank everyone who has visited this blog for their thoughts, ideas and constructive criticisms which have helped promote better understanding of defence and security matters.
I am grateful to those of you who rallied behind the cause to improve defence information management. You know who you are and the contributions you have made. For that, I am ever thankful.
To the outgoing DD, adieu.
We continue to watch, with keen interest, our defence matters.
Sharp-eyed netizens might want to examine the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) Christmas card (above). Will be interesting to see who is the first to spot the interesting collection of weapon platforms selected for the card. The Primus SSPH and Formidable-class stealth frigate I can understand. But the choice of warbird?
Check Six!
Season's Greetings.
And the best part...it appears to be our neighbour's Su-30MKM ;)
ReplyDeletei think IT IS a su-30mkm.....or maybe they wanted a F-15SG instead but somehow can't tell the difference between F-15SG & SU-30?
ReplyDeleteIt's either an honest mistake or transformers more than meet the eyes.
ReplyDeleteA couple of takeaways from this:
ReplyDelete1) I believe the design of the card is an outsourced job. While the graphic designer can be forgiven for not being able to tell that the RSAF doesn't use Su-30s (especially if he/she is a foreign talent from overseas), the one(s) vetting the design has no such excuse. Which leads us to...
2) Had there been a dedicated MINDEF Image Gallery containing high-res images of SAF personnel and equipment backed up by informative captions, the designers could easily have been able to source their images from there for the design, instead of being (presumably) left to the tender mercies of Google's search algorithms, which leads to...
3) There is a distinct lack of recent high-res images of RSAF aircraft doing what they do best (i.e. flying through the air, taken from another aircraft) and what little there is, is ironically almost exclusively hosted on the websites of foreign armed forces (Australia and US). Go figure.
Dear Mike and Milnuts,
ReplyDeleteMany of us sound like broken records repeating the same old call for better internet images of the SAF.
Alright, we shouldn't over-interprete the X'mas card glitch/honest mistake.
But if processes are not tightened, imagine for a moment if the graphic designer had been asked to show HIMARS and replaced it with a Nodong missile? Or replaced a Leo 2SG with a Merkava. And SAF big shots sent the card overseas and wished their counterparts Merry Christmas. Would that be funny?
The SOs concerned should consider themselves lucky that certain Air Force generals have moved on in their careers. Had they been in charge, I think there would be hell to pay.
No detail is too small.
David
Haha ! Singapore, China we get a lot of. Haven't heard Singapore, Malaysia for a l-o-n-g time.
ReplyDeleteEither that, or there's a surprise defence aquisition coming down the road
Reminds me of an urban myth ions back before we got the F-15 - RSAF won't acquire any twin tail aircraft, lest we have a blue on blue situation, bearing in mind what our neighbours have in their inventory. Makes sense as things looks fuzzy in the heat of battle.
ReplyDeleteFast forward to this day, peacetime....no pressue, plenty of time to double check, yet mis-identification occurs - are our boys in uniform that dense that they can't tell an Su-30 from an F-15?
Who knows? For all you know, it could be a deliberate dig...
ReplyDeleteCan we confirm the jet? I honestly didn't think it was the SU-30 MKM - More like the F/A-18 Super Hornet.
ReplyDeleteFinalFive, its definitely a Su-30, and judging from the scheme likely a Su-30MKM
ReplyDeleteFinalFive, Look at the profile of the canopy. The Su-30 have a steeper cockpit design as compare to the F/A-18
ReplyDeleteAn hour or two of research on Wikipedia by the designer of the card would have prevented this silly mistake.
ReplyDeleteWhat is even more silly is that whoever was in charge of this project did not even check for errors, and probably buggered off to the golf course after signing off on it.
Add this to the litany of silly mistakes such as the "inverted colours" incident CJ touched on in his previous postings. And I'm quite sure that some innocent PA or NSF clerk will be punished for eithering not calling out the error before it made it to print, or calling it out anyway to the guy in charge.
or drinking at Wala Wala..
ReplyDelete