“That may have been a launch (show of force) from a Russian or Chinese submarine.”
35 miles off the coast of LA?? That isn’t a show of force. That’s stupidity and the kind of thing that could cause an over-reaction by our nim-witted CIC.
If (and that’s a BIG IF) either the Russians or Chinese have the gonads to be firing SLBMs that close to our coast, then we have just entered a new geopolitical age.
Thats what I was thinking. New geopolitical age.
There is an explanation, and I can’t think of any that have a good outcome.
Our CIC would fold like a cheap suit, he’d be under the desk sniveling.
I think your comment is more prescient than even you realize.
Taking at face value that this isn’t a US military launch, the chances are that this is a SLBM from an unfriendly power. What a demonstration! Get within 35 miles of the enemy coast and launch, undetected. No warning. Red October, anyone?
If we can assume that the news helicopter was shoreward of the launch site, the trajectory of the missile appears to be away from the mainland. They seem to have taken the precaution that the projected trajectory would be away from the US mainland. They were pretty confident they could get away too, that we wouldn’t (or couldn’t) prosecute an attack on the launching sub.
And I while I agree that this was, at best, reckless, it seems to have worked. Our entire national defense apparatus is standing there with their mouths agape, having NO CLUE. They didn’t detect the LAUNCH, let alone the sub. We are reduced to looking at some traffic chopper footage to figure out what happened. It couldn’t be any worse than if they set fire to a bag of dog poop on the front porch of the White House, rang the bell, and took off.
Our coup have been counted, so to speak.