Posted on 04/30/2022 10:54:18 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
China was able to reverse-engineer much of the former Soviet aircraft carriers and improve its own related technologies -- despite previously having no experience with them.
But if the armor of the Varyag is based on former Soviet standards, the sinking of the Moskva will only make Chinese leaders fret over its vulnerability to incoming advanced missiles.
Since its commissioning in 2012, the Liaoning has been considered one of the Chinese navy's key assets. It often sails near Taiwan, including through the Taiwan Strait.
But following the war in Ukraine, if Chinese President Xi Jinping, chairman of the Central Military Commission, decides to use force against Taiwan, the Liaoning could be seen as too vulnerable to deploy.
Perhaps China's second carrier, the Shandong -- the first to be domestically produced -- has better defenses. China's third aircraft carrier remains under construction but is said to be close to being launched.
Yet, if Chinese aircraft carriers were to sail near Taiwan or try to enter the Pacific, they would come within striking distance of anti-ship missiles.
China, which has not ruled out the possibility of unifying with Taiwan by force, must be shocked by the weakness of Russian forces. Russia should be overwhelming Ukraine's defenses in all aspects, Beijing thought, as it enjoys superior equipment, troop numbers and funds.
If he decides to use force against Taiwan, Xi could make the same mistake the overly optimistic Russian President Vladimir Putin made with regard to Ukraine. Xi's target would be more difficult to obtain in that it lies across a sea.
In addition, Taiwan, with its many steep and high mountains, is a natural fortress in the central part of the island. If China fails to quickly win the initial battles, reinforcements from the U.S. military and other nations would arrive.
(Excerpt) Read more at asia.nikkei.com ...
Ukraine ping
Developments in Ukraine reverberate far beyond its borders. The Chinese are now reviewing the possibility that their navy’s operations will be more vulnerable to Taiwanese anti-shipping measures than previously thought.
If China is going to seize Taiwan, they’ll have to do it through a blockade.
[If China is going to seize Taiwan, they’ll have to do it through a blockade.]
I have read a lot of speculation here over the years that perhaps such staples of warfare such as aircraft carriers, tanks, and even manned fighter jets might be becoming obsolete.
China want the chip fab in Taiwan. Move it to Texas.
I would also tend to agree with the speculation. A large enough drone swarm is pretty hard to stop, if not impossible.
Unfortunately this will just educate China to not export drone tech and to militarize it more for themselves. Missiles are missiles but 10K drones coming at you... when they are AI coordinated... Not good.
When everything can be handled by a missile, warfare gets easier.
I am by no means a hippie peacenik but the fact that we have these actual or potential armed conflicts in our world at this point in time seems pretty embarrassing if in fact we are “progressing” towards something better. And yet almost no money is spent on things that seem far more urgent, like the water supply, real public health as opposed to the imaginary hocus pocus of mandates, and border security.
The “special operation” in Ukraine is about the equivalent of some idiot deciding to take a crap in front of his own house for the whole town to see. Taking Taiwan (which I don’t think is ever actually going to happen) would just wreck the place and accomplish nothing for anybody. Then you have all the pointless agitation throughout the Muddled East.
When most middle class people live roughly the same way in all these different lands, or at least they aspire to do so, and it seems absolutely pointless to be trying to change ideological masters when the end result will be more or less the same anyway. So it is all done to benefit the ruling master class, or professional idiots as they are showing themselves to be. This is why they hate Trump, all he wanted to do was restore decent and honorable government like maybe we once had back in the day (or maybe not, argument for a different time and place). Restore it or create it for the first time, works for most of us. But it is so ray-cist to want to live undisturbed and pursue liberty and (globalist false gods forbid) happiness.
Tools for jobs. If your target is within 100 nm of your own land-based air, don’t send an aircraft carrier.
Drone swarms could be subject to non-nuclear EMP weapons.
Would be pretty slick to see ten thousand networked drones
drop into the drink, all at once.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=non+nuclear+emp+process&t=h_&ia=web
It all depends on which type of fight you get into and who you are fighting with, but yeah, all of those things are in some way obsolete.
Tanks have been obsolete in force on force battle since the late 1970s. Aircraft carriers have never been tested in modern force on force battle, but they will most certainly lose.
The only reason we have pilots in fighter (actual air to air fighter) aircraft anymore is for career advancement.
We haven’t even gotten to water drones yet.
Interesting verbage:
“UNIFYING BY FORCE”
It'll be all about drones. Our jets are obsolete. Carriers with dozens of drones on them would be the way to go.
yup. Taiwan in any case is heavily economically integrated with the mainland.
The case for a war is only to assuage one man’s ego - just as in the case of the war in Ukraine - the former man being Xi and the latter being Putin
You can jam their their comm links and also their GPS. On-board autonomous guidance does not do any good with GPS gone. And it is unlikely they would have geo mapping like cruise missiles to keep heading towards their targets. Plus then directed energy beam and laser weapons could come into play also.
Or you send up a swarm of 20,000 drones that act like suicide bombers and meet them.
The game of cat and mouse, measure and counter measure will be never ending.
If you’re gonna copy a navy, you don’t pick Russia’s. Ask all the Russian submariners on the ocean floor.
Thank God that moron is in charge of China.
Pretty much everything is obsolete.
China's "toy" drones from DJI and others are not the threat. The US is by far the leader in military drone technology and it's not remotely close. Even in Ukraine, it's their domestically produced R18 octocopter drones and the Turkish Bayraktar that is killing Russian armor, not Chinese consumer level drones. Against an aircraft carrier, or any warship at sea, cheap consumer drones are not going to be effective. Military drones will. Anti-ship missiles and torpedoes are still the primary threat to ships.
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