Jim: They could, of course, have been used to shoot down the airliners ostensibly piloted by illiterate Moslem terruhists on 9/11, but that would have defeated the purpose.
Gavin Longmuir: “Engineering, economics, and practicality all point towards warships needing an incredible density of short-range air defenses” Can’t argue with that. But the implication is that much of the capacity of the future warship and its crew will be focused on self-preservation, not on bringing harm to the enemy — a defense-ship rather than a war-ship. Is that worthwhile? Back to the central question: Who are Our Betters planning to fight? The only people who threaten the US...
Cassander: There’s no real point in armoring modern warships. Robust construction and splinter projection, sure, but armor doesn’t buy you much. Even a small, cheap ASM like the NSM will have a 250lb warhead. A 16″ battleship shell would carry maybe 150lbs of explosive in an HE shell, less in an AP. Modern weapons can put more boom on a target than you can reasonably armor against, especially because your sensors need to be high up in the ship to be any good. As for guns, the argument...
Pseudo-Chrysostom: The effective use of an aeroplane was as a reusable boost phase and guidance package for delivering ordnance. A future float-craft-o-war may be construed as a ‘carrier’ as it will likely serve as a base platform for many high efficiency air breathing platforms for ISR-Strike purposes, though most of these will of course be operated via remote control and or autonomous expert systems. There’s also the fact that the world’s oceans are the world’s largest...
McChuck: The M198 has a longer range with the same shells, and was always more accurate. But if you really want longer range and greater accuracy, we need to bring back the old 8″ (203mm) guns.
Jim: I apologize in advance for this stake in the red, white, and blue heart. Fighters haven’t been used in a peer conflict since the Total War Against Germany. (For those unfortunate consciousnesses drifting unmooredly through time, that was Damned-Near Eighty Years Ago.) In that War, fighters were used for two purposes: to defensively escort and offensively shoot down bomber squadrons, and to defensively escort and offensively sink battle groups. Since that regretful conflict, spearheaded by known...
Bob Sykes: If you’ve ever seen film of it firing, the gun jumps all over the place. Its weight is completely overcome by the impulse of the 155 mm shell. The gun has to be completely reaimed after every round, and the extreme recoil requires frequent maintenance and repair. This was fine against militias with no artillery, but not against a full peer with superior artillery.
Pseudo-Chrysostom: Tangentially, the main problem with using aluminum as a structural material is that, unlike steels, its fatigue limit is effectively zero. That is to say, even slight loads and cycling will cause microstructure deformations that weaken the material and eventually cause failure. That is why aeroplane fuselages, for example, many of which tend to be primarily composed of aluminum alloys, have strict time limits on their lifecycles, even on light duty.
Pseudo-Chrysostom: It is also distressingly prone to just exploding and killing all the crew when you try to fire it. Doubtlessly the Poindexter’s and McNamara’s on the design committee (and you better believe it’s all designed by committee) thought it was a great idea to shave a few extra pounds off by literally shaving off from the breech as well. The radio electronics it uses to communicate with other units in the battery were also easily trackable by the Russian forces, so use of...
Gavin Longmuir: Interesting! There have been contrary reports from the Ukraine that the M777 has been disappointing in actual use against a peer opponent. The light weight of the gun means that it tends to get bent when towed in frequent moves over rough territory — a problem which the US avoids by mainly moving the gun by helicopter lift. Of course, helicopter lifts become impractical against a peer opponent. But the big smile is reducing the weight of the gun by using titanium — imported...
bob sykes: The Kuomintang is still a major political party in Taiwan, and they handily won the last round of municipal elections on the island. Moreover, their official position is that Taiwan is a province of China, and they, too seek reunification, albeit under their rule. The Kuomintang leadership also meets more or less regularly with CPC leaders. Should the Kuomintang win the next national elections (2024?), they may make some progress on reunification, and that would really reduce tensions in the...
Michael van der Riet: @Gavin “Women & children first” is a fairly new survival strategy for humans. The Birkenhead was a landmark reversal. Before that is was strongest and fittest first.
cassander: Re-starting F-22 production is a non-starter. it would take almost as long and cost almost as much as designing a whole new fighter. A huge share of development costs are standing up the supply chain, almost all of which needs to be reconstituted from scratch. And at the end of the day, you’d get an F-22, a plane designed to duke it out with the soviets over eastern Europe, not one meant to fight in the pacific. Anyone who recommends such a course is basically disqualifying themselves as...
Gavin Longmuir: Whatever happened to “Give Peace A Chance”? The Pacific Ocean lies between China and the Continental US. China has given no indications of preparing to cross half the planet to attack the US. The US has long acknowledged that Taiwan is part of China, and Vietnam gave the US an expensive lesson in the wisdom of staying out of other people’s back yards in that part of the world. But let’s stick to the practical situation rather than the strategic or moral dimension...
Pseudo-Chrysostom: Proceduralism leading to unintended (or ‘unintended’ ) consequences; a tale as old as time.
Pseudo-Chrysostom: Remote sensing and loitering munitions are having a great effect in the conflict in later days, but only for one side. Russian electronic attack forces have almost completely eliminated the use of aerial drones by the NATO Occupied Government. The numbers are frankly staggering even for those who expected electronic warfare to naturally be influential on an electrified battlefield. Over 10,000 platforms destroyed a month heretofore, over 90% destroyed. Much like its air defense...
Freddo: To paraphrase the classic: cheap, reliable and effective – choose any two. However, it seems that drones are a force multiplier that meets all three conditions.
Phileas Frogg: @bob sykes In other words, “We get to find out who has, ‘that dog,’ in them.” The Vietnamese and Taliban proved this against the US (slightly different circumstances, but same genre). As long as you withstand the initial storm of violence from the more advanced enemy, you CAN eventually drag them down into the mud with you and drown him. But it takes time. Between two advanced powers, it would happen MUCH sooner. Viet Cong and Taliban couldn’t really destroy...
bob sykes: A war between major powers would be a war of attrition, because the major weapons like aircraft and destroyers cannot be replaced. It takes ten years to build an air craft carrier. Wars end before that. It is not usually appreciated that attrition applies to highly trained troops, too. The excellent, professional British Expeditionary Force was killed off by 1916, and replaced by half-trained conscripts. That would happen to modern armies, too. Ukraine is the best current example. They are on...
Ullan: People respond to incentives, whether deliberate or situationally imposed. Change the incentives, change the behaviour, but it can be wildly unpredictable if you don’t understand people. In the US if you have a rare, endangered species of bird on your land the incentive is to shoot, shovel and shut up because otherwise you will lose a massive amount of value and control of your land per federal regulations. In parts of Europe the opposite occurs, finding a rare species is a jackpot, with the...
Isegoria, may you have a rational yet funny Christmas! ;-)
Thank you kindly, Borepatch. In fact, I’ll try to keep things rational yet funny into the New Year.
..and that’s why I come here often.
Happy coming New Year!
Happy New Year to you, too, Tatyana. (S Novim godom!)