Bored of Peace? Let's Mambo! - Trump Thread #158

[Spandauer]

Cuba - the appetiser to Greenland?

Previous thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5501326-war-huh-good-god-what-is-it-good-for-absolutely-nothing-trump-thread-157

You know Moores law ? About computing power, price and performance ?

Some variant seems to apply inversely to military spending, capability and corruption. The US appears to have increasingly paid more for less.

Oh, Good Grief!

if you know your West Wing, you'll get it

Agree in principle. Can I add in necessity?

The US has fantastic kit. And the corruption there does not diminish the capacity or performance of it. The corruption in the US is not that truck tires fall apart after 5 miles, it's that every truck tire is over specified for what it might need to do.

Ukraine also has had the corruption, but above all it has necessity. And it is showing it is the absolute best in the world at fighting a war.

The US should really be the best. They have the biggest practice at it, the biggest budget, but they don't really have the necessity ?

I’d forgotten “Sgt Tackleberry” from Police Academy pops up as a 3-Star in WW 🤣

I also think if you have a bag full of sweets the temptation to show them off wastefully to kids who want them must be high. I would love to know how much they have already spent and what benefits they think they have achieved. It doesn't seem to be value for money to me now the world has seen they are desperately weak to drones and had no plan.

The US has fantastic kit

Well that's what they say. I am less convinced.

They may have the ideas of fantastic kit. But that is a different proposition.

It might be worth looking at all the places that currently think they do have US protection and see what's going on there. I wonder how you could monetise the knowledge ?

Posters on this thread will understand why this cartoons suddenly make we think of the similarities between Epic Fury and Brexit.

We hold all the cards.✅
Easiest deal in history✅
They need us more than we need them✅

in reality

reduction in GDP✅
massive loss of world influence✅
international laughing stock✅
decades to undo.✅

It's almost like the plans were recycled

@RedTagAlan isn't wrong.

The tech specification of a lot of their kit, certainly in the aviation/missile world, is generally way ahead of anything the opposition (possibly with the exception of some Chinese equipment) can field.

Problem they have with it is unit costs, which has exposed them and client states to the consequences of asymmetric warfare...quantity had a quality all of it's own, etc.

There can also be an issue of "all the gear, no idea"...you need to look after your high value assets and sometimes they don't ; E-3A plus tankers at Riyadh being a case in point.

You need to add ‘Don’t mention Russia’ to the list.

Thiel, Miller

Isn’t the point of the navy and air force to project power as much as anything else. As a deterrent.

So it is a monumentally stupid idea to start a war in which that power isn’t hugely useful and show the world your rubbish hand.

I have well over 30 years of reading impressive specs. And then working with them.

It's amusing that with our privileged peek behind the curtain, thanks to Trump, we can see the incompetence and corruption and blatant criminality that is the US military political complex, and some people are wowed by it.

Who remembers the US inability to change tank tracks in the desert, whilst the UK Challenger tank just rolled from old to new wherever needed ?

There's also the time an English Electric Lightening overflew the supposed unflyoverable SR-71.

Sky just now:

"More UK troops on way to Middle East to defend allies against Iran
Extra British troops being sent to the Middle East will help the UK's allies defend their skies against Iranian attacks, Defence Secretary John Healey has said.
On a trip to the Gulf nations, Healey ran through the countries he said would benefit from the move.
The UK will deploy the Sky Sabre air defence missile system in Saudi Arabia and extend UK Typhoon jets' action in Qatar.
Bahrain and Kuwait have also received additional air defence teams and systems.
These four nations, along with Cyprus and Jordan, have benefited from regular defensive missions from the RAF during the fighting.
Healey said "Britain's best" will protect its Gulf partners.
Sky Sabre - and a Royal Artillery battery and the battle space managers who operate the system - will arrive in Saudi Arabia this week and be integrated into the country's defences, the MoD said.
The UK's Lightweight Multirole Launcher has already arrived in Bahrain.
And Rapid Sentry, a ground-based short-range missile launching weapon, is now in Kuwait, where the RAF's counter‑drone Orcus system helps soldiers to detect Iran's suicide Shahed drones early."

Sky Sabre. I bolded it. I need to look that up. I suspect its an updated Rapier.

But yeah... here we go. Into a war by stealth. Grrrrrr.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/fox-news-laura-ingraham-questions-122737021.html

I hear they've placed massive orders for The Art of the Deal and Mein Kampf to pack the shelves.

When Russia comes up with a blueprint they do a good job of it.

@SerendipityJane

There's also the time an English Electric Lightening overflew the supposed unflyoverable SR-71.

I'd caution belanecdotes like that, I've never heard anyone claim the SR-71 was supposedly unflyable over, the rumour I heard way back, one that did the rounds for years but never confirmed was it waa U2....Now tjat may have been true, maybe not, but unlike a U2 or a SR-71 the Lightning would be not been "up there" for long so it's a bit of a "and..." (never flew the Lightning myself, flew something else pointy and fast, but did know lots of people who had flown it)

You can cherry pick the niche aspects of any spec and show A is better than B for something but when it comes to an entire package you won't find anything in current production in the west that beats the likes of the F-22 for Air defence and the F-35 for single seat strike attack...but they're horribly expensive.

UK Sky Sabre "we" are sending. Rapier system replacement. Kinetic projectile. Anti aircrft, drones and laser guided smart bombs. So says the blurb. Ballistic missiles is noticeably absent. Looks ok. I remember it now.

So basically Trump, the resource vampire, is sucking up all the "free worlds" air defences.

Bad case of fat thumbs in my p p, apologies.

Agree. The "eternal friendship" revisionism was interesting to watch on PRC state media. Same with India and Vietnam. Nobody is really a friend of the PRC. Russia has been stung too often. And very recently too. Make Russian aircraft under license ? Cool. Lets do a deal. What, now you are have cancelled the deal and are saying the aircraft is 100% Chinese designed ?

Is is exactly what I feared when I read the news about UK troops on their way to the ME, plus the parachute drop exercises on Salisbury Plain.

Which is no less than the US did in the 1800s and 1900s

QlVance has written a book about his grift. Sorry, I mean his personal journey to faith.

I’m kind of ok with sending defensive stuff to shoot down missiles/drones to our gulf partners. I’d rather it wasn’t necessary but mostly they didn’t start this war.

I’d prefer if we closed our airspace to US bombers if we are focusing on something.