re: US Navy's new destroyer is impressive

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Probably nuke EM's and ET's followed closely by Sonar Techs. The nuke mechanics were usually pretty "normal". By normal I mean they'd be more likely to get an eyeball tattooed on their dick (true story) than to play Magic the Gathering or some shite like that.

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Concur with Nuke ET's...they also typically had the UGLIEST damn wives

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what's with the upturned deck on that Chinese flattop?

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Ski Jumps are used on non-nuclear powered carriers. Conventionally powered ships cannot produce enough steam to efficiently operate the catapults. The new magneto catapults might change the game in that regard soon

Ski jumps require longer take off distances and thus lower the amount of sorties you can fly per day as you cannot launch/recover aircraft at the same time as efficiently

Excellent. I find the submarine life peculiar and fascinating. I'm sure I don't have the temperament necessary to cope with the stresses that inevitably come with the life below.

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the stresses that inevitably come with the life below.

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It's not gay it you're under way.

Thailand is really working hard using a ski jump AND a VTOL Harrier.

The final views of my old ship USS LaSalle AGF-3 during Sink EX 2007.

LINK

The Great White Ghost of the Arabian Coast, AKA The Great White Whore of the Arabian Shore.

Navy has already cancelled this ship program due to its extremely high cost for a ship that basically provides support for carriers. Regular destroyers can do the same job and will be built for a fraction of the cost.

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Yeah, not more then a regional threat...at most

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Exactly. But you know the difference between those two and the US? We're in every single region. We can't afford to bring all of our military might to bear in one region because they're needed elsewhere.

Imagine a war in the South China Sea scenario. Will we have great fleet v fleet carrier v carrier battles like in WW2 against China? Of course not. And if there were we'd slaughter the Chinese. Are China's pieces of X equipment as good as American counterparts? Almost certainly not. But they have a lot of aircraft and a lot of missiles stationed on the mainland that can reach out to the South China Sea...and they are upgrading these things all the time.

You're right. China isn't close to matching our spending nor will they be able to project power like we can. But all of China's military in a war right next to their mainland against only a fraction of the US military (even if it is a significant fraction) is a worrisome though. Even if we won such a war, depending on what the end goal is, would likely be extremely costly.

It's a shame really. The First Gulf War was a great victory for the U.S. While the U.S. expected to win Iraq's military was expected to put up more of a fight. It was large and had mostly Soviet equipment which still demanded respect. Assuredly, the estimated costs were supposed to be much higher than they actually were for the U.S. Instead the U.S. mopped the floor with the Iraqis... that was great for us but it scared the shite out of a lot of people and you better believe they haven't been sitting around just accepting the fact that we can send in carrier groups where ever the hell we want with impunity to get them to back down like we did with India and with China multiple times.

IWRI