[Ratmagiclady]

Now that the election's over, I'm suddenly worried about the 'fiscal cliff' and being slightly short of *100* red balloons.

Is there a 'red balloons gap?' *gasp.*


Just for anyone too young to remember them boys at NORAD tracking Santa Claus with the DEW line: a little update:

You Tube

You Tube

You know, speaking of the Religious Right, for all the fuss and sturm and drang about this election, as prophesied 'Apocalypses' go, I have to admit I've seen better.

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Last edited by Ratmagiclady; 11-16-2012 at 05:28 PM.

[Medium FormatPro]

You should be! Take it from a 30 year US Navy veteran that visited Russia and walked through Checkpoint Charlie more than once. As long as we have dangerously incompetent people in charge of our government that refuse to see the threats we face, we are all at huge risk.

Add to that a ten year Special Operations combat veteran, father was a pilot, and I've worked for Jane's.

america surpassed in yet another field. This will come back and haunt us directly. Places such as China and Russia are selling mass amounts of hardware to countries that are now directly involved in fighting us.

[Medium FormatPro]

The above statement is quite the over exaggeration, if the article is our only source of comparison. So it's mildly more agile, has a longer fuel range, and is more stealthy to the specific radar we use. But the article doesn't tell me anything about the computing systems (FA-22's forte), speed, adaptability (FA-35's forte), etc

Better air to air jet fighter; both at onger range and also close quarters dogfighter. Considerably more manueverable than any active combat fighter we have - withthe exception of the vertical takeoff version of the F35 - considered a failure by most of america's armed forces. Also faster and hgher flying than most anything we have. Better aerial missle systems, better guns.

Also please feel welcome to research any pilot whom has ever flown in an F-35 (but especially the vertical take-off one). It's an accident waiting to happen. Should be interesting to watch that mechanical driveshaft fail when hovering over a carrier deck. Take that into consideration under ideal flight, imagine if the plane sustains any damage at all.

[dadipentak]

As long as we have dangerously incompetent people in charge of our government that refuse to see the threats we face, we are all at huge risk.

We got rid of the dangerously incompetent crowd in 2008--you know, the ones who blew out the budget on tax cuts for the wealthy and idiotic military adventures.

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Last edited by dadipentak; 11-16-2012 at 07:57 PM.

[rawr]

Places such as China and Russia are selling mass amounts of hardware to countries that are now directly involved in fighting us.

Huh?

Not one bullet is being sold by Russia to anyone in Afghanistan, which is the only place where the US has an active official fight on its hands atm. The only Russian pseudo military gear being sold to Afghanistan (a few old design helicopters with no armaments) have actually been ordered by the US Govt. And Russia is actually a key logistics partner for the US in Afghanistan. Plus no-one but exclusive partner India - the largest democracy in the world - is going to be buying the PAK-FA.

Remind me who else the US are fighting at the moment - sometimes I forget who the US enemy du jour is.

And China sells (or 'gifts' would be more accurate) most of its export combat hardware to that great US friend and ally Pakistan. Most of the rest of their stuff goes to backwaters in Africa.

I can't understand American insecurities. The US already garrisons literally the whole world with over a thousand military bases on foreign soil and spends more on arms than all the rest of the world combined. Yet folks like the journos at WIRED go all doom-and-gloom when they hear about [communist] China or even [non-communist] Russia merely developing a new jet or carrier or submarine.

[Medium FormatPro]

Not one bullet is being sold by Russia to anyone in Afghanistan, which is the only place where the US has an active official fight on its hands

Let me start of with the most incorrect part first. america still occupies Iraq - it's just not the official military anymore, but - more like tens of thousands of hired guns and other financed people. And if anyone out there still needs a job, companies like Halliburton, (and companies like) and Blackwater are still to this day hiring for Iraq. Interestingly enough this rarely makes the news - as the same does not also not quite make the news when an american gets killed over there now. Let's also stil remember though that american news companies such as NBC are owned by General Electric - one of the world's largest defense contractors.

Next point - also a bit disputed. It's refered to as the arms market. While america holds the largest arms market, and nothing quite compares to that - Russia is number three in the world - are we're talkig many billions of dollar to literally whomever wants to purchase it. Quite frankly I'm almost suprised that some facton in Russia hasn't sold someone a nuke as far as we are aware. But again they will sell just about anything to anyone.

Case in point... In Latrobe, PA at the municipal airport there are several people who go over there once a year to purchase Russian fighter jets. One of these people own the latest unarmed version of one of Russia's latest generation fighters. You'll even see items like this at airshows all of the time.

And yes, on the ground in Afganistan today there are weapons that have been purchased/traded/whatever (somehow managed to get there) from Russia being used to kill americans.

Also in places such as Iran... Wonder who sold them the ability to sink any one of our carriers - with a one shot land to sea missle? That would be China. But also, Russia sells them quite a bit of interesting goodies to this very day (actually as far back as about two to three months ago). Reference - (something unlinkeable by contract) Jane's.

So not if (but when) america goes to war with a place such as Iran, it will be places such as Russia and China that will supply those weapons that will kill americans.

I can't understand American insecurities

Nor can I, but then again. We are are talking (writting) about the same country that was brought to it's knees by less than twenty highjackers armed only with boxcutters, and still the same country that likes to try to claim that Pearl Harbor was a suprise attack - it wasn't

[rawr]

And yes, on the ground in Afganistan today there are weapons that have been purchased/traded/whatever (somehow managed to get there) from Russia being used to kill americans.

If the Russians wanted to seriously supply Afghan bad guys, those bad guys would have access to more than just old small arms and ammo sourced from across the middle-east and eastern europe (and Pakistan), which is all you ever see.

But also, Russia sells [Iran] quite a bit of interesting goodies to this very day (actually as far back as about two to three months ago). Reference - (something unlinkeable by contract) Jane's.

Russia has indeed sold Iran some interesting stuff - short-range air-defence missiles (but not long range systems like the S-300, since they cancelled the S-300 contract in order to play nice with the US and Israel), some cool electronic-warfare stuff, some spares for the motley collection of older Russian planes they have, etc, but nothing like the Yakhont supersonic anti-ship missiles that would be a real threat to US carriers in the Gulf. Iran has Chinese supplied missiles as you note - and their own indigenous designs - for that role.

But of course the best way for the US to avoid any risk to its carriers (or any ground troops) would be to not send them into the Gulf in the first place, especially to engage in pre-emptive strikes agaist Iran on some bogus pretext about nuclear weapons.