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posted by martyb on Friday March 24 2017, @11:26PM   Printer-friendly
from the which-swamps-are-we-draining? dept.

President Trump has proposed a $54 billion increase in defense spending, which he said would be "one of the largest increases in national defense spending in American history."

Past administrations have increased military spending, but typically to fulfil a specific mission. Jimmy Carter expanded operations in the Persian Gulf. Ronald Reagan pursued an arms race with the Soviet Union, and George W. Bush waged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr. Trump has not articulated a new mission that would require a military spending increase. This has left analysts wondering what goals he has in mind. Erin M. Simpson, a national security consultant, called Mr. Trump's plans "a budget in search of a strategy."

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/22/us/is-americas-military-big-enough.html

Donald J. Trump - Military Readiness Remarks

[Related]: 2017 Outlook for Navy Shipbuilding

What do you think about the proposed increase in military spending ? Does USA really need more weapons ?


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  • (Score: 2) by pvanhoof on Saturday March 25 2017, @09:22AM (2 children)

    by pvanhoof (4638) on Saturday March 25 2017, @09:22AM (#484062) Homepage

    What I understood about stealth is that the radar cross-section becomes as big as that of a relatively big bird. The problem, however, is that birds don't fly in straight lines at multiple hundreds of kilometers per hour.

    A little bit of software tracking the trajectories of birds and seeing if any of them travels at a certain speed, and/or in a straight line, will identify the F-35 from the birds.

    And if you are wrong, then militarily seen there is relatively few harm done to sending a SAM or GTAM to the object that is flying fast in a straight line towards one of your military infrastructures anyway.

    Differently put: if you start flying with stealth airplanes over Russia and/or China in those straight lines (which you have to, given that your pilots can't withstand the G forces if they'd make fast turns at high speeds), and at speeds faster than the fastest birds (which you have to, else *really amazingly* simple technology will detect, track and shoot down your airplanes, then you will be shot down by a massive amount of SAM and GTAM missles.

    You also can't detect the Russian and Chinese SAM and GTAM launch platforms, because during the Cold War have the Russians (who sell these systems to the Chinese) been developing mobile platforms. You know, launch platforms with wheels that constantly move around the countryside and that look just like any truck when viewed from a spying satellite.

    In every possible scenario are stealth airplanes worthless against a serious enemy (Russia, China, etc). You will get shot down. Probably the same airplane multiple times: a first time by two or three simultaneously arriving missles, and a second time the wreck that is falling out of the sky. Just to make sure. And then a last time a few bombs on the metal that crashed on the ground. Your pilot will be tracked while shuting to the ground and he'll for absolutely sure will be tortured repeatedly to squeeze any information out of the poor sucker.

    That will happen no matter how advanced the technology is. Unless you find a way to silence the planes completely (physically/theoretically impossible).

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @12:58AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @12:58AM (#484234)

    "like a bird" is kind of average. It blinks in and out depending on the exact angle.

    The SAM has to be guided. Any onboard radar is inherently poor due to limited power and limited space, both for the computer and for the antenna. The antenna limitation is serious; no amount of technology advance can compensate for this. (basic physics issue) If the SAM is guided from the ground, then it will be unguided because the ground stations get attacked.

    You damn well can detect the launch platforms. There are special aircraft designed for exactly this purpose. One can also hack into communications to determine locations. One could do even better, hacking in and doing various things.

    Ultimately though, you just have to give things a best effort. Anything less is an automatic loss.

    • (Score: 2) by pvanhoof on Sunday March 26 2017, @09:44PM

      by pvanhoof (4638) on Sunday March 26 2017, @09:44PM (#484447) Homepage

      The best-efford goes both ways.

      The "special aircraft" will get shot down by more capable missiles if needed. Russia has space-rocket capability since decades, and can surely hit your average spying plane just fine. In fact, they have proven it repeatedly.

      If you want to loose expensive gear, pilots + training and and face the music in international media by having fancy toys shot out of the high skies: fine. Because that's exactly what your "special aircraft" will encounter. RT will even put it on youtube for all to see. Even and especially if you cry-baby in the Western media about it. Shot down they will.

      Another example: the blinking-on-radar by no means implies that even simple amateur software can't find a pattern of a straight line going at a certain speed out of it. It easily can. And will. And then your fancy expensive fighter jet gets shot down anyway. With all the international media drama to go with it, too.

      You see. "The other side", the Russians, also invested in defence. If you fly over them in ways that they don't want you to; you get shot down. Plain and simple.

      You can leave your US cowboy hat at home. As it'll get shot down, too.