Posted on 07/08/2018 7:07:31 AM PDT by Ciaphas Cain
Leftist thinking is so pervasive that it often slips into conservative thought without anybody being aware of it. (No? How about “capitalism,” or “HUAC”?) One such case involves U.S. defense policy, specifically U.S. vs. Soviet, Russian, or Chinese weapons systems.
We’ve already covered the tendency to credit the Russians (and the Chinese, and who knows, the Inuit) with world-beating weapons they couldn’t possibly have. Another such axiom exists governing American defense: that all U.S. weapons are junk, won’t work, can’t compete, are overpriced, will lead to disaster, and must be cancelled immediately. This is a thesis that has achieved the status of a meme: all communist weapons are the technological equivalent of Excalibur or Mjölnir, while all American weapons are Acme fireworks that will inevitably send us over the cliff.
As with most such notions, there exists a grain of truth in this. A small one, and misleading one, in this case going all the way back to the Korean War.
Korea was the first jet war, and the reason for this was an aircraft called the MiG-15. Jets appeared in the last months of WW II, first from Germany, then the UK, and then the U.S. In all cases but two -- the Messerschmidt Me-262 and the Arado-234 – too late to go into combat. After VE-Day, research and application into jet-propelled flight went into high gear, much of it occurring in the U.S: the sound barrier shattered by the X-1, the first production second-generation jets, the first jet bombers (the B-45 and B-47), and so on. The British were scarcely a step behind, and the Russians…
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Yes. A very well done article.
It shows how terrible Robert McNamara was.
The quality and productivity of folks who design and build weapons is measured by their inverse distance from Ground Zero.
Thanks for sharing the article. My air power studies are lacking. I did not remember the High/low concept for tactical missions with strategic bombing added for a third leg. However, I am wondering if the next tier for air supremacy will near-space or space UAS kinetic attack systems with ECM/ECCM.
Those that have a star to their backs have the advantage in air/space combat.
To suggest these memes are the exclusive work of the left is naive. And counter productive.
The defense establishment is constantly inflating the threat from potential adversaries. They take at face value the claims of the Chinese on their weapon systems, uncritically.
And their new systems are always facsimiles of real, US weapons.
But junk.
On a Grunt level, that bastard killed a lot of good soldiers with his Ford M-151 1/4 ton.
The point of the article is that Soviet/Russian weapons systems are touted by them, our media, and even many Freepers as being far superior and more deadly, and our weapons systems are held up as flawed, useless, and overpriced when in reality, theirs often fail in head to head competition with ours.
Training, tactics and execution do go a long way towards that record, but the reality is the Soviet/Russian stuff is not the stuff of legends, and in the hands of our military, would probably do well.
That said, I will take US military hardware over Soviet/Russian hardware the vast majority of the time.
Could we do better at obtaining better bang for the buck for our tax dollars spent and get more capable systems? Absolutely, 100% that answer is yes. And I know that old saw about quantity having a quality all of its own, but when it comes to money spent, how much is too much when American blood is on the line, and battles/wars are won and lost on the basis of that money spent?
Like you, I would like to see us do better at the “money spent”.
McNamara’s tears later in life didn’t move me a bit. He wanted it both ways. If he had genuinely owned up to his shortcomings I might have had more room to consider it.
As it is, I believe men like you bore the brunt of his arrogance and incompetence, and are the ones who have the right of earthly absolution. (IIRC, correctly, you served there during that time?)
While never a serious threat, the Me-262 did see combat. Chuck Yeager, first pilot to exceed the speed of sound, was a P-51 pilot in WWII, and was the first American to shoot one down
Anything which can be detected can be destroyed.
One of the worst this country let have any authority.
Larry Niven was far ahead of his time.
I think we know their systems are mostly junk but you don’t make money by tauting the opposition has nothing but junk. You have to put the fear of God in to the minds of politicians to get the money rolling in. That and greasing palms.
What happened with those?
B-58 Hustler. Awesome jet but but not too practical.
I thought this would be about the Iver Johnson Target Sealed 8. A true junk weapon.
We’re smart enough to buy the all logistic support to sustain the weapon system. That’s also a big chunk of the total price.
That was informative. I learned stuff.
Can the F-22 be put back in production?
That is undoubtedly one component especially when analysts and the military are overestimating communist ability.
But when the media and the Left does it, they are doing it more out of a need to knock this country down and disparage the military and our way of life.
The Soviet Superman myth is their embrace of Communism as the best thing since sliced bread.
To them, the myth of the Soviet Superman is the scientific and military equivalent to their embrace of Woodstock as the height of social goodness.
I understand the manufacturing tools were all destroyed, so that would be a huge hurdle.
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