What does this mean for the U.S. – can it counter this emerging threat? What if it cannot? Can the U.S. dollar remain the global base trade currency if the rest of the world begin to lose faith in the nation’s potential to win a war with a given adversary? I mean, it’s not like industry can any longer vouch for U.S. strength seeing as it high-tailed it to Guangdong province itself and, let’s face it: if it wasn’t for America’s armipotence, the “GFC” would have all but collapsed the nation’s economy. Is the import of this apparent new arms race as clear as it needs to be in the U.S. congress?
What of China – why do they keep agitating so? Are they really that pathologically ideological about annexing land and sea they believe is theirs? Or are they anticipating their bubble economy built on “ghost cities” to pop and so are spoiling for a sharp shift in focus towards nationalism? Could they have designs on the Orient and Occident?
Whatever the case, our Sino pals are working away feverishly to become top military dog on the global block. So much for the “peaceful rise of China”… :rolleyes: That C.I.A. prognostication of a major regional conflict in Asia by 2025 - PDF - looks to have been a conservative timeline estimate.
The Red Queen smiles. If you base so much of your foreign policy on technological superiority don’t be surprised if others look to increase their own. Especially given that eternal improvement is unlikely. There will be local equilibrium, moments of diminishing returns given the state of known science. Others will catch up on their own.
It also reminds me of the double amplification of the Cold War, where it was in both sides’ interest to pump up the Soviet threat. The USSR for national prestige, the U.S. to justify spending trillions on defense. The last thing I expect U.S. planners to say is oh yeah, China is making this new missile but it’s kinda crappy. No worries, bro.
Personally, I’m still waiting for the war against the Persian menace I was promised long ago. They’ve been a year away from a bomb for like 8 years now. No line skipping, China!
The United States could have been destroyed many, many times over by the Soviet Union over the course of several decades. That didn’t stop the United States from owning the preeminent currency for world trade.
If investors and businessmen thought for many years that the strength of the United States’ currency is that we were immune to thermonuclear war launched by the Soviet Union, they were a bunch of fucking idiots.
The idea that a relatively small number of hypersonic missiles that may or may not be deployed in many years’ time will lead to the downfall of the U.S. economy is just mind-bogglingly wrong.
It’s also nothing new. The Chinese have been claiming to be developing hypersonic missiles and other super-carrier killer weapons for years now. They recently put their first (retreaded Soviet era) carrier to sea and are planning to build a bunch of home grown carriers as well. They recently up-gunned their (old, Soviet era crap) tanks with new, better barrels as well, and have been making noises about creating a true blue water navy as well as real amphibious landing capabilities.
Like I said, none of this is new…it’s all part of the same progression we’ve seen for years now. And it’s really on par with their space program…it’s there to impress their own people and show them some tangible proof of the sacrifices they make, as well as window dressing for the rest of the world to say how great and modern China is.
God I hope not. I’m against any kind of new Cold War. Honestly, I don’t give a damn about China having one or two types of weapons better than us. As we’ve seen in North Korea, if you have just one of the big types of weapons, or if deposing you would cause untold global calamity, you’re safe.
Repeat after me, paranoid people: THE US IS SAFE NOW AND IN THE FUTURE! WE WILL NOT BE CONQUERED!
I think we should put exactly zero effort to countering this missile and spend our money on better things elsewhere, like medicine or energy savings
Why should the rest of the world care about that? It’s simply not relevant to anyone whether or not China could win a war with the US. Especially since both sides have nukes, so in a real war both nations would be ruined anyway.
The same reasons everyone with pretensions of international power does. There’s nothing special about China there. Just look at how Argentina is making noises about the Falklands again
Land based laser anti-missile defenses will make such weapons moot. The speed of light is a lot faster than Mach 10, or Mach 100 for that matter. Hypersonic missiles, or travel for that matter, is easily disrupted, very difficult to achieve and the faster it is, the more likely something will go wrong. A powerful laser hit, or a directed EMP will screw up such weapons right away.
Faster than sound travel is really the only plausible long term use, and only the very rich will want it.
I think the Iranians have become the enemy of our enemies and so are now our friends… and China is a far greater potential threat, were she to turn hostile - a California University study estimated the real Sino nuclear arsenal may rival both Russia’s and the U.S.'s - than the rudimentary nuclear program of the Iranians (which the Indians could likely handle on their own). That, and as you implied, the people have grown bored of the paturient, forever anticlimactic U.S.-Pursian conflictual heavy breathing – the war game clearly needs more “DLC” to freshen up proceedings.
It’s not the missile itself that does the potential damage, but the payload. Moreover, I doubt whoever harnesses this kind of delivery system will be so obliging as to send one ‘package’ at a time. Also: The Seventh Fleet…
That carrier was years ago now (I think I made a thread on the very subject matter) and if this was all a storm in the teacup, why the concern by those in the know?
The recent NASA Orion test launch spoke of how difficult it was to send humans past near-Earth orbit. If the Chinois do land on (colonise?) the Moon, it would sure make slingshotting those hyper missiles easier…
Perhaps this is the real threat: Kimmy and co. getting their hands on Chinese-developed tech of this kind.
I think you’ll find fiat currencies rely greatly on their nations’ perceived strength; and if this strength cannot be conveyed economically, guns are the only measure left. $600 billion dollars p.a. (despite an $18 trillion-dollar debt) says so.
The Falkland pismires are a far cry from the expansive zone(s) the Chinese have demarcates as theirs.
No; we irrationally hate them still, just as we have for decades.
Because many people find it useful or desirable to whip up fear. Many people really miss the Cold War and have been looking for a new bogeyman ever since.
No; beyond the level needed to make your nation not worth invading, military power is largely useless in the modern age. And doesn’t impress anyone either, which is why America spends so much more on its military than everyone else, yet no one else is even bothering to try to match us. Because nobody cares.
Not to dismiss your hubirs, because I acknowledge laser weapon technology is indeed being developed. However, it might be worth noting that real life isn’tStar Wars (especially not the prequel trilogy!). That is, from what I’ve read and seen (which is certainly limited, given such tech much surely be Mulder/Scully-esque secretive), these lasers take time to down their targets – i.e., they have to literally ‘burn’ the targets in order to make them fail. Moreover, there are apparently issues regarding air turbulence lessening the intensity of the laser, also hampering range and accuracy (*I stand to be corrected, as this all falls under ‘IIRC’). At mach-10, I’d wonder whether even a Dr. Evil "L A S E R " would have much effect; especially if they were raining wormwood from the heavens.
Speak for yourself. My business card has a Photoshop’d mock-up of ‘Xerxes’ from the film 300!
Therefore the greater the risk of miscalculation. No?
That’s an interesting, contrary view of things. I’d argue that, if no one cares about the U.S.'s perceived military supremacy, why do they all run to the U.S. whenever they need help? Why do they expect world policing from the nation? Why, indeed, would the Chinese be developing the technology in question, seemingly explicitly in order to circumvent U.S. counter measures, if they don’t give a whit about Merricu’s Rar! Rar! Rar!-ing?
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That carrier was years ago now (I think I made a thread on the very subject matter) and if this was all a storm in the teacup, why the concern by those in the know?
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It was last year that they finally started to work it up at sea…they have been working on it for quite while to get it ready for operations. It IS pretty much a tempest in a tea cup, in the wider scheme of things. It’s a concern mostly because it shows that China is at least thinking in terms of more extended blue water operations. And, of course, there is the Taiwan angle.
I’m not sure what you are getting at here. The Chinese already have the technology for intercontinental ballistic missiles with or without a space program. By the rest I’m assuming you are thinking they would use these missiles from orbit for kinetic kill type weapons? As far as I know from memory the Chinese were working on hypersonic weapons that would be used against carriers, so they wouldn’t be dropping them from orbit but firing them from ground bases or maybe subs. Assuming they ever become more than vaporware.
There is about zero chance that the Chinese will be landing on and colonizing the moon any time soon. It would be a huge technological achievement if they can just GET to the moon with a manned mission and bring the astronauts back to earth in one piece. Colonization isn’t really in the cards for them (or us, for that matter, at least not in the next 50 or so years at the present course of manned space exploration technology).
I really hope they do a manned mission to the moon, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
North Korea doesn’t have the manpower to take over Florida, let alone the US. And an EMP attack is not going to cripple the entire US. And even if somehow we were to be hit by a particularly massive one, then what? Do you seriously think an army of millions will be laying just outside of our radar range, awaiting the second when our electricity goes out to swoop in and take over? That’s sci-fi bunk.
Realistically, here’s what I think would happen. Let’s say some space phenomenon shoots a cosmic EMP directed at the US, wiping out most of our electric circuits in the continental US while leaving other countries untouched.
The first thing that would happen isn’t Russia or China or North Korea counting their lucky stars and sending over as many warm bodies as they can to plant a flag on US soil. After the initial shock, we will be helped by our allies, Canada and Mexico being the first because they are on our borders. Electronics will be shipped in and crews will begin working to restore our seats of power, our military, power grid, hospitals, essential stuff like that. Nobody will attack the continental US. Presumably, Hawaii and our battleships and whatever we have in Alaska, along with our troops and equipment from abroad will be recalled.
The reason why I’m absolutely confident about this is that the US has allies and resources and the manpower to bounce back. Sure, maybe a few of our fringe bases will be attacked, we won’t be able to project our power forward for probably decades. But we will be back, and its physically difficult to hold an area the size of the US, especially if even the attackers will not be able to use our existing infrastructure. North Korea can barely keep its own lights on, its not going lay a million miles of cable to light up the US to take it over.
We should do absolutely nothing against some supposed super weapon from China. Nothing will happen, stop worrying.
You are kidding, right? I would absolutely attribute the same motivations to the US, since they are still our motivations today for much of what we do (and, frankly, they are the motivations of most countries). We did a space program to compete with the Soviets and impress the world with how great we were and how superior our system was to that of the Soviets. It was also a tangible way to demonstrate to our own people what their sacrifices were for (i.e. why we pay our taxes).
The only aspect that’s different is we don’t need to show the world how modern we are anymore…not since out European masters let us out of the school yard on our own, anyway.
