Ukraine Sinks New 500 Million Russian Warship Makarov

[Donald H]

If Putin were to use a tactical nuke he'd be playing a game that has no winners, with the odds of him being it's biggest loser. There are no scenarios where Putin comes away scoring some victory, none. Even china would abandon Russia. The only question left to ask is, how big can Putin lose, not whether he will.

If Putin uses a tactical nuke, the decision would fall into the hands of the US on whether to start a nuclear war. You need to think that through from an unbiased POV.

Every time the question is proposed here on this board (and elsewhere) the complete answer is left hanging unanswered.

That could be because nobody has the stomach for facing the question.

The MSM has been guilty of the same thing. Just consider the impact on the American aucience if the question was answered completely to it's conclusion.

There is a very big effort being made to keep the impact of MAD out of the conversation. Even when it's becoming a tossup on whether Russia will use a tactical nuclear weapon.

The possibility of either the US or Israel using a tactical nuclear weapon on Iran has been thoroughly discussed in the past, without invoking the MAD theory.

 

[Donald H]

The time of Naval power conveyed by surface ships is virtually over. Even then new and most mighty Gerald Ford with all of its sophistication and fire power is nothing more than a super expensive floating target. It simply cannot defend itself against the new hypersonic weaponry that has demonstrated the ability to hit a fly in the eye from thousands of miles away. A read up of the newest addition to China's massive anti-carrier missile paints is as a massive instrument with huge weight and striking force. It's trajectory is especially deadly. It climbs very high and then comes down with constant acceleration reaching unheard of speeds thus adding force multiplication to the strike. Some of the articles I read...NO LONGER AVAILABLE BTW ...I should have copied them to a file....indicated that at the last moment, just before impact....huge stiff fins open up to increase the force transfer surface from projectile to target. In short, even if the munitions which are enormous btw, did not detonate the strike alone would actually break the external hull of the ship just from the force of the impact. Add to that the fact that China is now mass producing them and you have an instant ingredient list for a fleet of dead Air craft carriers. They would all be at the bottom of the ocean in several months. It looks like the future of force projection is with the submarines.

JO

Thanks for that. You've raised some interesting questions.

Mainly, as I see it if that's all true, are AC's meant to be expendable containers after the aircraft are off on their mission?

 

[justoffal]

Thanks for that. You've raised some interesting questions.

Mainly, as I see it if that's all true, are AC's meant to be expendable containers after the aircraft are off on their mission?

No...they represent a lag in technological understanding and highlight a major weakness in the defense production/manufacturing process here in the states. It takes nearly five years from start to finish for a large AC to be produced, commissioned and debugged. The procurement process alone is two to three years. In the meantime technology marches forward and passes the old technology; Problem is the money has been promised and the procurement has been approved and there's no going back. The commissioning of the Gerald Ford happened ( just recently ) AFTER not BEFORE it had become a great, big, fancy, floating, obsolete-object. That's GBFFO-O for short . China is building a Navy...but I think they have enough foresight to avoid a fleet of huge, expensive surface ships. I believe their emphasis will be on submarines and they probably have many more than we know about already. China is abreast of the Technology not behind it. Their choice to highlight learning as opposed to putting dresses on men has put them squarely in the position of Global leadership graduating 250,000 engineers per year. They will prevail simply by amazing numbers superiority.

JO