Posted: Today 1:03:39 PM EDT
China has been at this for years and Vietnam is getting in on it. In the day of GPS guided munitions having a large fixed asset that sits on unstable ground sounds like a bad strategy that is ignorant of history. Am I missing something?  China Just Built Another Island in the South China Sea... |
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote."
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
|
First off, GPS guidance isn't a given on the modern battlefield. Second, you can't sink an island. Third, land based ASGMs do not take up as much space as you'd think, but they can have a much longer range than ship borne missiles. There are trade-offs, logistics mostly. The US is reactivating WW2 airstrips all around the Pacific and looking into expeditionary / forward basing arrangements for the Army and Marines to set up exactly the same kind of things on small islands around naval choke points. |
Life is about choices.
If you make a mistake once, it's a mistake.
You make the same mistake again, that's a choice.
If you make a mistake once, it's a mistake.
You make the same mistake again, that's a choice.
|
Originally Posted By redoubt: First off, GPS guidance isn't a given on the modern battlefield. Second, you can't sink an island. Third, land based ASGMs do not take up as much space as you'd think, but they can have a much longer range than ship borne missiles. There are trade-offs, logistics mostly. The US is reactivating WW2 airstrips all around the Pacific and looking into expeditionary / forward basing arrangements for the Army and Marines to set up exactly the same kind of things on small islands around naval choke points. We can sure try to sink an island 
|
|
Bombs are dropped from aircraft which can be shot down. It's difficult to approach an island in the middle of the ocean without being seen, stealth is of limited use. Jamming GPS is also trivially easy, it's standard practice in conflicts worldwide now. The chinese islands aren't just about physical control, they are a place to put intelligence collection and early warning hardware. The land is chinese territory so we won't attack it unless unrestrained war with china breaks out. So it's a great idea from the chinese perspective. |
|
Originally Posted By redoubt: First off, GPS guidance isn't a given on the modern battlefield. Second, you can't sink an island. Third, land based ASGMs do not take up as much space as you'd think, but they can have a much longer range than ship borne missiles. There are trade-offs, logistics mostly. The US is reactivating WW2 airstrips all around the Pacific and looking into expeditionary / forward basing arrangements for the Army and Marines to set up exactly the same kind of things on small islands around naval choke points. 
|
Live your life as you would wish to have lived, when you come to die. Confucius
When words lose their meaning, a people can move neither hand nor foot. Confucius
When words lose their meaning, a people can move neither hand nor foot. Confucius
Decadence is no longer morally acceptable.
Joined:
Jan 2014
Posts:
43550
EE: 100% (6)
ID, USA
|
All the preparations for a war with China are amusing to me. Especially since so many seem to expect that it will be some kind of fucked up combination of WW2 and the occupation of Iraq which will drag on for centuries. As opposed to a series of escalations that take, at most six months. Which ends with all of mainland China sterilized by nuclear fire and a decent sized chunk of the US in a similar state. |
Exaggerate the essential, leave the obvious vague.
|
Originally Posted By redoubt: First off, GPS guidance isn't a given on the modern battlefield. Second, you can't sink an island. Third, land based ASGMs do not take up as much space as you'd think, but they can have a much longer range than ship borne missiles. There are trade-offs, logistics mostly. The US is reactivating WW2 airstrips all around the Pacific and looking into expeditionary / forward basing arrangements for the Army and Marines to set up exactly the same kind of things on small islands around naval choke points. According to the guy in the video the islands sink on their own without application of explosives.  Those US bases from my understanding are on real islands not stacked sand and are more about mobile missile launchers for anti ship operations not fixed storage, but maybe I missed something |
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote."
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
Member
Joined:
Dec 2023
Posts:
9371
EE: 0% (0)
MI, USA
|
Originally Posted By nightstalker: Wow, that will be very attractive as a duty station! Originally Posted By nightstalker: Originally Posted By redoubt: First off, GPS guidance isn't a given on the modern battlefield. Second, you can't sink an island. Third, land based ASGMs do not take up as much space as you'd think, but they can have a much longer range than ship borne missiles. There are trade-offs, logistics mostly. The US is reactivating WW2 airstrips all around the Pacific and looking into expeditionary / forward basing arrangements for the Army and Marines to set up exactly the same kind of things on small islands around naval choke points.  At best they're a deterrence, at worst you fight a delaying action and hope big Navy and Army show up quickly to help. At least its warm
|
When the going gets tough, the tough go cyclic.
|
Originally Posted By Hesperus: All the preparations for a war with China are amusing to me. Especially since so many seem to expect that it will be some kind of fucked up combination of WW2 and the occupation of Iraq which will drag on for centuries. As opposed to a series of escalations that take, at most six months. Which ends with all of mainland China sterilized by nuclear fire and a decent sized chunk of the US in a similar state. They’re gonna nuke the Democrat cities. Wonder what our MIC will hit? Probably the cities that are against the globohomo “rules based global order”. |
mene mene tekel upharsin
That others may think
That others may think
|
Originally Posted By redoubt: First off, GPS guidance isn't a given on the modern battlefield. Second, you can't sink an island. Third, land based ASGMs do not take up as much space as you'd think, but they can have a much longer range than ship borne missiles. There are trade-offs, logistics mostly. The US is reactivating WW2 airstrips all around the Pacific and looking into expeditionary / forward basing arrangements for the Army and Marines to set up exactly the same kind of things on small islands around naval choke points. Listen, I'm no military strategist, but we can for sure make islands even with sea level again
|
"Oh, bother," said Pooh, as he pulled the pin on another grenade...
|
Originally Posted By 2tired2run: According to the guy in the video the islands sink on their own without application of explosives. Those US bases from my understanding are on real islands not stacked sand and are more about mobile missile launchers for anti ship operations not fixed storage, but maybe I missed something Originally Posted By 2tired2run: Originally Posted By redoubt: First off, GPS guidance isn't a given on the modern battlefield. Second, you can't sink an island. Third, land based ASGMs do not take up as much space as you'd think, but they can have a much longer range than ship borne missiles. There are trade-offs, logistics mostly. The US is reactivating WW2 airstrips all around the Pacific and looking into expeditionary / forward basing arrangements for the Army and Marines to set up exactly the same kind of things on small islands around naval choke points. According to the guy in the video the islands sink on their own without application of explosives. Those US bases from my understanding are on real islands not stacked sand and are more about mobile missile launchers for anti ship operations not fixed storage, but maybe I missed something |
"The state is not the solution. It is the problem." --Javier Milei
"If this is how the state treats its law-abiding citizens, it doesn't deserve to have any"
--Solzhenitsyn
"If this is how the state treats its law-abiding citizens, it doesn't deserve to have any"
--Solzhenitsyn
|
Originally Posted By redoubt: First off, GPS guidance isn't a given on the modern battlefield. Second, you can't sink an island. Third, land based ASGMs do not take up as much space as you'd think, but they can have a much longer range than ship borne missiles. There are trade-offs, logistics mostly. The US is reactivating WW2 airstrips all around the Pacific and looking into expeditionary / forward basing arrangements for the Army and Marines to set up exactly the same kind of things on small islands around naval choke points. You can for sure sink this island. They just dredged all the fill to it last year. |
|
Originally Posted By redoubt: Second, you can't sink an island. While technically islands, those are really little more than built up reefs. A couple good cyclones could render them inop. If they did solid concrete from the volcanic stone they might last without constant maintenance, but looked like they just piled dredged up coral and sand slurry and poured concrete on top. Some of the early ones look like they are already deteriorating rapidly. We went through with this Johnson Atoll in WWII and the Cold War. Take a look at that now. All but taken over by nature. It's a maintenance nightmare to keep something like that operational. These are built on sand and coral that collected on volcano rims that just barely reached the oceans surface, as opposed to volcanic islands that reached 10 to 1000 feet above the surface. |
"Once Open AI is good enough we will ask it to find a way to become profitable."
- Sam Altman
- Sam Altman
