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The Empire Pushes Back
The
US and China as the two current real world powers, have a push and
shove relationship. This does not mean that it is directly combative,
but it does mean that these two nations are bumping into each other, on
all of the world’s stages, especially of late. This was never so clear,
as the build-up to and then visit of President Hu with President Obama.
Currently, China
is on the rise in both economic and military terms. While everyone
knows of the economic growth that defines the Chinese story, fewer
people are following the rejuvenation of the Chinese military and its
capacity to forward project offensive capacity. The first real sign of
this was when China fired a missile of theirs, hitting a satellite in orbit.
They quickly followed that up with a demonstration of a domestic missile defense test
of their own. The first test pointed at the US and its ability to spy
from the sky, while the second was pointed at Taiwan and its inability
to hurt the mainland in a hostile exchange of military hardware.
In the days
leading up to the Hu visit, there was an exchange of minister level
representatives, as each side worked out what could and could not be
discussed in public during the meetings of the two world leaders.
In a very public
attempt to make a point, China unveiled its newest fighter aircraft. The
J-20 airplane, a new aircraft design indigenous to the Chinese military,
has been developed with obvious stealth features built into it.
While the
aircraft is not expected to be deployed by front line units for another 5
years, it is obvious that China is a lot farther along the road of
stealth technology than the Pentagon expected. It is also possible for
China to ramp up production of the design, if it is more than a
prototype.
There are some obvious design features of the new J-20
that have not been discussed in the main stream media. The first is
that due to some of its specific design features, such as the estimated
size and scale of the aircraft, that it is not designed to be an actual
fighter aircraft in the context that an F-15 or F-16 is a fighter.
The design
appears to allow China to send stealthy aircraft loaded with internal
weapons, for long distances to provide surprise tactical bombing
missions. The aircraft is too large to be a fighter in the normal
sense, and the rear of the aircraft has not been optimized to be
stealthy.
In my opinion, this aircraft is a modernized version of the old F-111 aircraft of the US air force.
The new J-20 is realistically a fast moving, stealthy medium bomber. I
am sure that this was not missed by the Pentagon or Japan, during the
rushed unveiling of the aircraft details before the Hu visit to
Washington DC.
The return of
China to the world’s military stage is long overdue, and not
unexpected. However, China is not yet ready to fully flex its new
muscles. They are on a crash course to design and build their own aircraft carriers.
This is a long lead time item and will not be deployable in the same
fashion as the US navy air craft carriers are for at least 5 years or,
more realistically, 10 years or more. It takes a LONG time to train a
crew of men & women to operate an aircraft carrier at sea,
especially when the carrier is brand spanking new.
While China is flexing its new anti-carrier missile defense system, the US is designing and planning on upgrading its Navy with rail gun technology.
Additionally, the design of the Chinese missile’s flight envelop will
allow the US to target the missile from shortly after the time it is
launched until after its peak ballistic arc. The tit for tat expansion
of technology does not mask the current situation though.
The first and
foremost aspect of the US Empire is that it currently has a couple of
million combat hardened troops, both active duty and reserve duty. The
US has spent the last decade putting a combat edge on its military.
Currently, the US
is winding down its war footing in Iraq, while unleashing the Marines
in Afghanistan. This has caused the US to find itself in the opposite
situation it was in a few years ago. That is, what to do with its
military when it is only fighting one real combat mission.
It appears during the Hu visit to Washington DC, this topic was brought up by the President of the United States. 
Obama warned his
Chinese counterpart, President Hu Jintao, that if Beijing did not step
up pressure on North Korea, Washington would redeploy its forces in Asia
to protect itself from a potential North Korean strike on U.S. soil. …Obama first made
the warning in a telephone call to Hu last month, and repeated it over a
private dinner at the White House on Tuesday, the U.S. administration
official said.White House
spokesman Robert Gibbs first hinted at the stepped-up pressure at a news
briefing on Thursday, when he told reporters that Obama’s meeting with
Hu on Wednesday had helped shift entrenched attitudes on the Korean
peninsula.
The dinner was
Tuesday night; the North Koreans contacted the South Koreans about a
resumption of communications between the nations within hours. This
event was not noticed in the US press, but it was noticed in China.
“Playing tough
like this, it might just backfire, I’m afraid,” Wang said. “If this
article represents the real thinking by American leaders, the danger of
war on the peninsula can never be dismissed.”“China has its own strategy in trying to influence North Korea. It wants to find the least costly path to solve this crisis.”
The implications
of the above are clear, to those who want to see them. The US, while
tired, poor and distracted, is still the world’s only military that can
deploy anywhere in the world, supporting its war making capacity, while
taking over a hostile and armed nation even holding it for years.
The ability is
sometimes called “Sustained Forward Offensive Capacity”. Via UN
peace-keeping missions, the US has been able to export this spare
capacity in other nations to weaker states. This has left the US with
the only deployable (and able) untapped military in the global political
arena.
This was not
missed by Hu at the dinner; The last thing China wants is 100,000+
combat hardened American’s stationed in a ring of pearls around the
Chinese coastal waters on islands held by Japan, Philippians, and other
coastal locations like Vietnam.
Confessions of a Macro Contrarian www.JackHBarnes.com
Links in the article
- http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=82932502-b5c7-4952-8944-ee2f73aa0d30&k=0
- http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2010-01-11-china-missile-defense_N.htm
- http://www.ainonline.com/ain-defense-perspective/single-publication-story/browse/0/article/china-reveals-new-combat-aircraft-design-28160/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[mode]=1
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dynamics_F-111_Aardvark
- http://www.macaudailytimes.com.mo/china/21361-China-restores-Soviet-aircraft-carrier.html
- http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=57690
- http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE70K6OP20110121
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I suspect, but am not certain, that you are missing the point. Once the rail mechanism is installed, then the ammo (bullets of straight metal) are much easier to manufacture than million dollar equivalent scramjet missles. So it's not the first rail bullet that does it, it's the 30th consecutive one. And a half ton of metal flying at mock 5 isn't going to respond to a Gatling gun, electron laser, or anything short of major missle countermeasures. The only way to stop it is to sink the ship before it's rails get within range. Hence air support and electron lasers to stop aircraft fired cruse missles.
The bottom line is, however, simply this: the rail gun is a child of the Reagan-era SDI suite of Defense Department development programs, and remains a prototype weapon years from functional deployment. The "Sunburn" -class anti-ship missiles are currently in deployment, on active service in sizeable numbers by the Communist Chinese, and in lesser numbers by the much more unpredictable Iranians. The USN currently has very little in its defensive arsenal to deploy against them.
Why confuse what's good for America and the banksters' objectives? The banksters' policies created modern-day China when they sent all of our industrial capacity and the solid middle class jobs that went with it (to say nothing of the wealth generation aspects of having a robust industrial capacity) over there so they could pay them a dollar a day (Nixon, Kissinger and Bush sealed the deal with Deng Xiaopin, the communist leader who famously said, "To get rich is glorious"). CONgress in their endless bankster ass-kissing for a scrap or two of campaign money and being bestowed a look of approval from the "great men" actually gives them tax breaks while they're at it! In other words, the people responsible for our society's economy being on life support with "our central bank" having to print money night and day or we're doomed now want us to go die for them. HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT?
Besides, an American invasion of mainland China would be something on the scale of WWW III with both sides possessing nuclear weapons. I don't see how either side could win without nuclear war.
Tactical nukes! Radical, dude! Yea, I want kind of world... hell's yea! Uhhh.. why didn't I think of that before??
Eyes on the prize: FREEDOM!
The centerpiece of Rothbard's writing, however, remains the Federal Reserve. He tackles this topic over the course of the following four chapters. In part 2, "The Origins of the Federal Reserve," he uses his distinct methodology to dissect the exact reasons behind the Federal Reserve's foundation, and in doing so illuminates the government's method of directing the economy. Rothbard writes,
One of these cartels would soon become the Federal Reserve System. Rothbard alleges that there was a union between big-business and government to push through the legislation needed to cartelize the banking industry. The businesses were to profit by allowing them to inflate the money supply at will, without having to fear note redemption as a limitation. Government, on the other hand, saw the Federal Reserve as the perfect source of funding for big government programs, including war. As Rothbard concluded,
Rothbard's version of the origins of the Federal Reserve sits in stark contrast to that of Friedman and Schwartz. In A Monetary History, Friedman and Schwartz see the origins of the Federal Reserve instead in the Panic of 1907, and attribute to the Federal Reserve a benign role in increasing the elasticity of the money supply.
The US for all its faults and problems and China resemble that old parable about the bet between the wind and sun over who can make a man take off his coat. The wind begins to blow and the harder he blows the tighter the man clings to his coat. When the wind finally is exhausted the sun just begins to beam and, sure enough, the man feels its warmth and takes off his coat.
China is not going to expel the US from the Pacific littoral. It is our sea too and the harder they try the nations that ring it will cling tighter and tighter to their American protective coat. Hope they realize that and try to be more 'sun' like.
The Chinese are buying time thats all, they are building up their military for the sole purpose to use against all the US weaknesses. The stealth fighter (which everyone is correct is actually a stealth bomber) would be used as a sneak attack vehicle against ships or US targets on the mainland. The Sunburns are extremely dangerous and remember China has been trying to make their own versions with modifications to them. These missiles are designed to destroy ships and to sink carriers, so instead of having a massive fleet, you have a large fleet of missile ships that can change configuration depending on the mission. Also these missiles can be launched from the shore and are long ranged so they would force a fleet to think about deploying an amphibous force at all. Because if they get to close the missiles would sink their ships and if they are to far out the amphibious forces wouldn't have the fuel or support or even enough protection to get to the shore. Imagine that you have to launch landing craft (if possible for some of the craft) 100 miles or more off the coast of some China territory. Thats 200 miles minimum there and back on rough seas most likely, with a full load of men and material and fuel to burn (hopeing all hope that your craft doesn't break down or get damaged or they miscalculated the fuel their and back and essentially making it a one way and/or one and a half way trip), and on top of that you lose the advantage of the fog of war because your our in the open for attack and not hugging the shore (radar systems and sonar detecting the flotilla in deep water).
The railguns are only being used to launch projectiles over a hundred or more miles over the horizon with tremendous speed and kinetic energy to either pinpoint saturate or just saturate an area well out of range of enemy counter battery fire (unless they have missiles).
+1...Note also that the "Sunburn" presents a difficult target to neutralize, for as it is a cruise missile, it has the capability to fly at as low an altitude as 20m ( that is meters ) above the ocean's surface.
The Russians have been eager purveyors of the SS-N-22; Iran has also purchased these missiles...A potent anti-ship weapon to deploy at the Straits of Hormuz.
Hi Don,
I agree the Sunburn is a formidable weapon, however have you researched its ballistic flight path?
The US is developing a new modern navy approach, using the Carriers at a distance, with the Aegis enabled ships based closer to shore and the Littorals rushing up close to launch their forces.
The mixed modernization package with usage of the latest weapons platforms can more than offset a single weapon design, as yet untested against US defenses. However, complete agreement about its usage in the Gulf and the Straight. That would be its best usage location in my opinion.
The Chinese have also purchased the newest generation Russian anti-ship misdile, the SS-N-26 "Onyx." Mach 2.9 cruising speed -- at 45 feet above the sea surface. The range is estimated at >200km...a "shoot and forget" vehicle which would present a difficult firing equation for any Aegis-class vessel. The Russians never discontinued their anti-ship missile development; the USN took a different path, that of a theoretically superior defensive, anti-missile shield.
Recall the tragic attack upon the USS Stark, back in 1987: two Exocets very nearly cut the frigate in half. Both the Sunburn and Onyx vehicles are magnitudes ahead technologically ( and much larger warheads ) than the small, French air-launched missile. Bring those rail guns on line...
Spot on. Few appreciate the real advantage America has gained from the 'unnecessary wars' of the past decade. The combat training of its forces.
There was a song in the 1930's which alluded to the importance of small scale but more or less continous warfare for any nation to be the global superpower. It was called "Bang Bang, Here come the British" and it dryly noted that if the 'sun never set on the British Empire' the fighting never stopped either !
China, for all its military potential, has never really been an imperial power in the western sense thus its combat prowess is typically found wanting. It has found this out to its dismay on several occasions most notably when it sent a huge military force to 'punish' an uppity Vietnam and had the Vietnamese army give them a bloody nose.
The ( currently prototype ) naval rail guns had better possess highest-order tracking systems in order to neutralize the lethal "carrier-busting" Russian SS-N-22 "Sunburn" Mach 3 ramjet anti-ship missile...a recent purchase by the People's Navy.
I believe the rail-guns are to replace cruise missiles, while new electron lasers are for anti aircraft/missile defense for the navy.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/01/20/raygun-breakthrough-revolution...
Well, you could say their like Dumb and Dumber.
Except WE hold both those names, in regards to their Chess playing ability.
As an outsider, watching the moves as an American I am truly humiliated at our hubris, and stupidity.
Even the Russians are playing us like a fiddle.
We are in short, like NERO.
(deleted)