Free Republic

Laser anti-drone weapons are about to begin deployment over in Israel, and the test battery actually did pretty well in the recent Iranian war. The Iron Beam system had just been accepted for service and was to begin higher rate mass production.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Beam

Our closest natively developed equivalent still requires mounting to a warship and costs a lot more. Thanks, Senator Proxmire and your spiritual successors...

The problem with this is that the defense contractors *can’t* make that kind of money on it.

They are on record as being quite happy to, but being unable to produce replacement munitions at even a normal peacetime pace due to a shortage of secure computer chips. Which we *still* haven’t permanently fixed. Last I checked, Raytheon was doing well to get enough chips to produce one (1) missle per day per line. Which was up from 2022 of one missile per day period.

I did say ‘if’. Thing is, they will have to be forced to end support through jail sentences and funding halts - as in “no Federal funding for the state of CA until they obey the laws” - nothing in-state only will work.

I keep saying the ‘peaceful’ solution to Gaza is to ship all ‘Palestinians’ back to their masters in Iran and be done with it.

They’re going to have a hard time doing that with their main supplier rather busy with reconstruction right now (Iran).

Not in CA, lots of them don’t work for organized business and/or are essentially on welfare.

Don’t know about that. If California could be forced to stop supporting them through legislation, litigation and withholding of Federal funds, it could be cleared up this term. We’re already seeing mass self-deportation elsewhere.

Exactly. Women who have served are less likely to vote to start or join a foreign war.

It’s easy to vote to start a war when you know there is zero chance that you will have to go fight and die on the front lines.

It’s compensation for the inevitable lawsuits.

No, I’m using them as an example. I think Ukraine is being stupid about this and should be desperately clamoring for the peace process. I don’t think we should be supporting either side.

The fact still remains that the initial invasion saw a lot of untrained civilians taking up arms and getting killed for no gain or even delay.

Look back at our own frontier period - women had to know how to use firearms if they wanted to survive on the frontier, what with bandits and hostile tribes. I personally feel that basic training should be a required part of high school or post secondary education, even if they didn’t choose to continue in service afterwards.

(It would also cut way down on antigun proposals.)

Enough to be emergency infantry and not embarrass yourself or be a gigantic problem for your unit.

You’ll also learn why you perhaps should not vote for military adventures...

Equal rights, equal responsibilities. All adult citizens should be trained to defend their country.

Does that mean I think that women should be deployed in wars abroad? No. But Ukraine has demonstrated that if the war comes home to you everyone needs to know how to fight. It will also free up men from guarding rear areas.

Yeah, the remaining Tornado operators are having problems getting parts as is. There’s no logistics support available, so that wouldn’t work out well. Additionally, the Tornado turned out to be pretty badly vulnerable to later Russian air defense.

Negative. Biden admin ran out of old stuff and was transferring front line munitions at the end, especially after Kamala lost. Easily verified by looking at video from the war - those aren’t ‘old’ HIMARS or MLRS missiles being launched, you can tell from the terminal effects.

This implies we will give Israel the B-2. Baaaaaaad idea.

We should not support Ukraine to the point of emptying out own arsenals, which is the point at which we find ourselves. We can no longer supply the munitions Ukraine wants without disarming ourselves. This is a really stupid idea.

It continues to make me wonder what would have happened if the State Department hadn’t been their blind Francophile selves and told Ho Chih Minh to screw off and go back to accepting the French as his overlords when he came to us as a WW2 ally that fought the Japanese alongside us but instead told France that no, they couldn’t have Indochina back.

Um, not worse than I can imagine. I was pointing out that those were frontline new non-export models being used over there and only to be shouted down by the usual idiots here at FR.

Yes, and they admit it - but they’re also working on the problem, unlike in LA/SF. Additionally, the percentage is reportedly *far* lower and you generally do not see them on the streets. Check out this Reddit post of a (presumedly) American asking the Vietnamese where all the homeless people are:

https://www.reddit.com/r/VietNam/comments/12v8xuu/where_are_the_homeless_people/

See above - we can’t smelt lead for lead acid (car) batteries. We can’t make some kinds of computer chips because the manufacture process has hazardous chemicals and the EPA won’t allow it even if properly controlled and fully automated. True hexavalent chrome plating is banned in parts the US due to the toxic chemicals involved. Glock initially could not manufacture firearms in the US because their Tenifer finish, while non-toxic after manufacture, involved chemicals that are barred by law from being used in the US for manufacturing purposes. There’s no shortage of industrial processes that cannot be run in the US despite modern safety measures and emissions controls.