"Ralph Mowery" wrote in message
"Robert Green" wrote in message
"Ralph Mowery" wrote in message
"K. Lance" wrote in message
"Ralph Mowery" wrote in message
stuff snipped
I am saving my boxtops for one.
Either that or order one from China.
That's not as funny as you think. If China for any reason had to go to
war,
they have tremendous manufacturing capacity (as we had in WWII) to make
weapons. Right now they're making anti-ship missiles and special
"carrier
killer" torpedoes in amounts that are essentially indefensible against.
They're able to do it using former Soviet weapons designers and because
they
have mass manufacturing know-how (they got from us!) and cheap labor.
Our
military may not be ready to face a force that can seriously hurt it -
we've
been up to our necks fighting goat-herders and suicide bombers, not a
credible national military force. Especially one that wants to prove it
deserves a place at the table of world powers. Taiwan is where you can
expect WWIII to start, and if we open up any more SOLIC's like Libya,
they
may feel the time may never be better to assert control over Taiwan by
military force.
--
Bobby G.
I agree. China has the population and could crank out lots of war
materials
if they need to.
If it really comes to WW3 our carrirers will not be worth much. A nuke
exploded within a couple of miles will take them out. What does China
call
their anti ship missle, a Silkworm ? Anyway if they launch 6 or 8 at a
time,the carrier does not stand much chance even without a nuke. That is
what hapened to Germany in ww2. They had a superior tank, but the US
would
send 5 of the Shermans after one. Usually lost 3 or 4 to get each German
tank.
Precisely. The battles are won by the side that can take the biggest hits
and still fight. That was us in 1945 and it's China in 2011. They might
even come out ahead with a forced population reduction. The Silkworm is
really old technology compared to these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VA-111_Shkval
"The speed of the VA-111 far exceeds that of any standard torpedo currently
fielded by NATO. This speed is a result of supercavitation: the torpedo is,
in effect, flying in a gas bubble created by outward deflection of water by
its specially shaped nose cone and the expansion of gases from its engine.
By keeping water from coming into contact with the surface of the body of
the torpedo, drag is significantly reduced, allowing extremely high speeds.
In effect, the Shkval is an underwater missile."
These supercavitation torpedoes, invented by the Russkies, dropped in a ring
around a carrier group in sufficient numbers or predeployed in clusters as
mines will be all that's needed to erase a US carrier group from the earth.
They can be armed with nuclear warheads, they travel underwater at 250 knots
(some reports say 300!), are cheap to make and very hard to counter.
Everyone in the Pentagon knows this, but they've all got their heads stuck
in the sand the way they did before the last WW when Billy Mitchell tried to
explain how valuable airplanes would be. They court martialed him for his
wisdom.
The carriers are the Navy's pride and joy and are often used by US
Presidents to "project power" in distant locations. The USN will *never*
give them up without a disaster forcing them to. My own estimate after
reading dozens of articles is that in a confrontation with China, we will
lose at least one carrier and perhaps a dozen support ships to the Shkval
and its cousins. I can almost see the video in my head the way I see the
WTC collapse.
China's already shown they can knock out our satelites and those play
heavily in a carrier group's defense against attack by reporting the
appearance and coordinates of missile plumes. China's entire military
strategy seems based on knocking out our carriers and knocking them out
fast. I'm sure they know where every US carrier is every second of every
day. With enough Shkval torpedoes in the water, there's no chance of a huge
ship like a carrier evading all of them. If they have nuke tips, ever a
near miss will end in catastrophe.
I think part of the Vietnam problem was we did not really want China to
get
involved and that was close to 40 years ago.
That was probably a smart decision. My old boss who fought in the Korean
War said he's never seen an enemy as determined, ruthless and fearless as
the Chinese troops sent to reinforce the Koreans.
--
Bobby G.