re: Does our military suck that bad???

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According to reports

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That's the first issue. Where are these reports originating from? Communist countries love to inflate their numbers to make their military seem more powerful than it actually is. Remember this photoshopped pic the Iranians sent out years ago?



Remember how pathetic the Iraqi forces were in Desert Storm? Some of them didn't even have matching shoes, many were so hungry they just gave up.

China's carrier fleet exists of 2 carriers based on 1980's technology, a third in the shipyard and a fourth on the drawing table. Their first one (Liaoning) was an unfinished Ukrainian carrier it purchased back around 2012.

China's other carrier (the Shaidong, I think?) is just an updated version of the Liaoning. The 3rd one is planned to be based off current US carriers from data they've stolen over the years. It will not be until the 4th one (which is still on the drawing board) that they attempt nuclear propulsion.

This is also in the face of the US being vastly superior in the air. The brunt of their air power is the Chengdu J-7. This is the weak sister to the F-15 in pretty much every way (speed, ceiling, payload capacity, range, etc).

Where China is a worry is their expansion into the South China Sea via artificial islands (including expanding upon existing reefs).



This expands their military capacity in this area considerably.

While they have tons of warm bodies, the problem for them is the logistics in getting them from point A to point B and then continuing to support them. They have some capacity to do that in the short-range theater, but not farther out.

As they work on things like their naval base in Djibouti though, that begins to change.