Posted on 02/14/2003 4:27:31 PM PST by vannrox
Edited on 07/12/2004 4:00:56 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Russia delivered the latest batch of advanced SU-30MKK fighter bombers to China within the past month and additional jets are on the way, according to U.S. intelligence officials.
Russia's arms exports used to be public. But under pressure from Beijing, Moscow agreed to keep secret its major weapons systems transfers to China.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
Then you only half agree with John. He insists that Communist China is no threat to Taiwan, either (not in this thread, but in many, many others).
Your projection of China's threat to America puts the country in a heap of trouble smack dab in the middle of my baby girl's (and her family's) lifetime. That scares me as much as any immediate threat.
The only way to eliminate all foreign threats to the US is to eliminate all foreign nations.
My estimate: all things being equal (which they aren't), China is not going to be a serious threat to US interests before 2030 at the earliest. However, China isn't going to make it past 2015--they are Enron with a nuclear arsenal and huge social problems looming as a byproduct of one-child-per-family.
HOWEVER
One never tested in combat
Puts it at a distinct disadvantage to any proven design. Now perhaps it is good enough that there *are* no disadvantages, but that is not very likely. Particularly since Chinese pilots have never tested in combat either...
Or at least eliminate (or deter) the ones who make threatening the U.S. a matter of public policy.
China considers us their greatest enemy, and their greatest obstacle to world domination. That and the size of their armed forces should at least be enough to put them near the top of our foreign threat list.
Isn't aids brought on by questionable social behavior? If so, why should the US tax payer subsidize bad behavior?
Time to arm the Japanese
Except that the F-14D is being phased out and replaced with the F/A-18E/F, which can't carry the Phoenix (nor can anything else except the Tomcat, the result being that our carriers are much more vulnerable than they were in the late 1980s).
AIM-54 Phoenix Missile
Description: Long-range air-to-air missile, carried in clusters of up to six missiles on the F-14 Tomcat.
Background: The Phoenix missile is the Navy's only long-range air-to-air missile. It is an airborne weapons control system with multiple-target handling capabilities, used to kill multiple air targets with conventional warheads. Near simultaneous launch is possible against up to six targets in all weather and heavy jamming environments. The improved Phoenix, the AIM-54C, can better counter projected threats from tactical aircraft and cruise missiles.
Good Point
You'd think so, but you'd be wrong. The only thing we have to "replace" Phoenix is AMRAAM (the AIM-7 sorta replacement), which has about a third the range. The "no good reason" for the loss of the Phoenix was a brain-dead "peace in our time" attitude that cut military spending to the bone and transferred the money into social programs. In other words, it was the belief of the Clinton administration that, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the major threat to carriers (that the F-14/AIM-54 was designed to protect against, i.e., massed bomber or strike aircraft with large numbers of anti-shipping missiles) no longer existed.
In objective numbers, the results is that our carrier groups are now about eight to nine times as vulnerable to such attacks as they were in the past (i.e., there are a number of strategies available to our opponents which could kill a carrier now, which would not have worked during the Reagan years). On the plus side, however, our surface area defenses have improved somewhat (the SM2 block IV / AEGIS ) over the years, in spite of dangerous cutbacks there as well (insufficient funding for the SM3). But our carriers are still far more vulnerable than they should be.
WHITE PAPER: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CORPORATIONS IN SUPPORT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
February 14th, 2003 A.D.
Given the various strikes against the West and our allies, including the EP-3 attack, 9/11 and others, it has become abundantly clear to truly discerning analysts that massive conflict between the Trans-Asian Axis and ourselves, as described by such authors as Jan Senja, Anatoliy Golitsyn, J.R. Nyquist, Yossef Bodansky, Col. Lunev, and Dr. Alexandr Nemets, is inevitable.
In addition to overt threats posed by terrorism and WMD against the West and allies, there are dangerous behaviors that we, in the West and truly allied nations, theoretically have ultimate control over. What we are specifically referring to are behaviors demonstrated by certain corporations based in the US, or operating in the US, which, ultimately, based on the observation in the first paragraph, serve to undermine the security of the West and our allies.
Certain corporations have, for some years, done, and continue at present, to do, the following things:
A. Sell dual use items and technologies to customers in nation states whose goals include the destruction of the West and our allies.
B. Conduct operations in nations whose goals include the destruction of the West and our allies.
C. Recruit, hire and employ citizens of nations whose goals include the destruction of the West and our allies, both for assignments in their own nations, and, in the West and allied nations.
D. Source supplies and services from nations whose goals include the destruction of the West and our allies.
Based on the apparent geopolitical timbre of the times, these behaviors not only constitute a long term threat, due to the likely future supply and business interruptions, of corporations themselves, but may actually constitute treason, espionage and violation of the Patriot Act. In order to prevent any further damage to Homeland Security, the following explicit recommendations are made:
1.All employees of corporations based in or operating in the USA and abroad should be thoroughly investigated by the FBI, US Attorney, Homeland Security, and others as applicable, for treason, espionage and terrorist activity or support. This must include all managers and executives in order to be maximally effective.
2.All operations in, export to and sourcing from, the following nation states should be ended or proscribed by no later than June 1, 2003: The People's Republic of China, Russia and other former Soviet states, The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Angola, Brazil, Venezuela, Cuba, and, Libya.
3.Focussed investigations should be made by the CIA and DIA regarding operations involving MCST in Russia, the Russian government and governments of Soviet states, the government and army of the PRC (and companies partly held by them) as well as the government of Pakistan.
4.Aggressive prosecution, for any crimes described herein, of employees, management, executives, partners, board members and others having specific relationships with offending firms.
We surmise that only by taking aggressive action in these regards may we prevent further compromise of our Homeland Security and our position in coming military conflicts.
The Founders of the New Alliance, Concerned Employees and shareholders of General Electric, Concerned Employees and shareholders of Hewlett Packard, Concerned Employees and shareholders of Dell Computer, Concerned Employees and shareholders of Sun Microsystems, Concerned Employees and shareholders of Tyco, Concerned Employees and shareholders of Boeing, Concerned Employees and shareholders of General Motors, Concerned Employees and shareholders of IBM, Concerned Employees and shareholders of Daimler Chrysler, Concerned Employees and shareholders of Microsoft, Concerned Employees and shareholders of Cisco Systems, Concerned Employees and shareholders of Solectron, Concerned Employees and shareholders of Loral Space Systems, Concerned Employees and shareholders of Hughes.
CC: FBI, Homeland Security, U.S. Attorney
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.