Posted on 07/30/2023 3:51:42 AM PDT by know.your.why
I’m sure the sensors could be impacted by lightning. And rain will likely impact the stealth characteristic...
But it’s an unavoidable reality of today. Get stuck in the past, reminiscing about a cavalry frontal assault after Mr. Gatlin, or build trenches after Mr. Tank appeared, and you’ll be disappointed.
Likewise, today it’s all about electronics: sensors, computers, networks... And avoiding sensors spoofing, jamming etc.
I’m sure it can fly in IMC.
It just might not have all it’s capabilities in targeting.
But that’s the nature of high tech. An LGB years ago didn’t like clouds. And GPS doesn’t like triple canopy jungle and metal fences for ground troops. Wire guided systems don’t like water, lasers don’t like dust/smoke/foliage between the target, but I don’t think anyone would argue that a laser guided bomb, GPS, or laser ranger finders on tanks haven’t proven their value many times over.
High tech works in the realm of probability of intercept/hit with variations in effectiveness depending on the conditions.
A clump of steel is a clump of steel. It’s RHA is the same at -50 or +50C, it don’t matter if you hit with an EFP, HEAT or a penetrator, it’s RHA is what it is. But it also weighs a lot.
Like Trophy for a tank, it used to be ineffective against dive attack munitions, or volley fires... ERA is ineffective under certain conditions (multiple hits in small area - EFP) The point being is that these new technologies tend to bring with them constraints, no doubt, but that doesn’t mean they don’t work.
#11 Was that a Canadian Grey Goose drink at the 19th hole?
These systems often get bad mouthed when new.
The B1, F15, M1 tank, M16, were all claimed to be overpriced, ineffective... The M16 was in its original fielded version defective but that was the DODs fault, trying to save a buck and deleting the chrome star chamber and lined barrel.
Without a conflict you have no story. The media says a lot.
It is precisely our tech, industrial output, and access to resources which makes us what we are. You saw that in WWII, today in Ukraine... Every country has young men willing to fight, but NO ONE can do what we can do materially.
Our ability to $hit a p51 in 6 months, build b29s, develop an A-bomb, mass produced Sherman’s, mass produced M1 garand... we literally put a carrier to sea every month by the end of the war... Is unmatched.
Love it or hate it, it’s our war industrial base which sets us apart from others.
That is exactly why China is our real existential threat. Russia is a twerp, a has been, who we have been rolling up slowly over the last years all while decrying how they are this huge threat... But it is China that is challenging us industrially, gaining serious steam in their own national R&D and high tech arena...
https://www.statista.com/statistics/267364/world-cement-production-by-country/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_steel_production
https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/ranking/manufacturing-output
https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/electricity_production_capacity/
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/countries-new-patents/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal). By 2030 (Before 7 years) they will pass us.
The point being is that what made us the powerhouse in the past will soon belong to the PRC, they will be the world’s most industrial nation, the one that can clobber an enemy into submission by throwing material at them.
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