Chinese missile could shift Pacific power balance

[OntarioVanMan]

always said them sneaky Chinese were the ones to watch out for...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100805...DeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA2NoaW5lc2VtaXNzaQ--
ABOARD THE USS GEORGE WASHINGTON – Nothing projects U.S. global air and sea power more vividly than supercarriers. Bristling with fighter jets that can reach deep into even landlocked trouble zones, America's virtually invincible carrier fleet has long enforced its dominance of the high seas.

China may soon put an end to that.

U.S. naval planners are scrambling to deal with what analysts say is a game-changing weapon being developed by China — an unprecedented carrier-killing missile called the Dong Feng 21D that could be launched from land with enough accuracy to penetrate the defenses of even the most advanced moving aircraft carrier at a distance of more than 1,500 kilometers (900 miles).

Former Navy commander James Kraska, a professor of international law and sea power at the U.S. Naval War College, recently wrote a controversial article in the magazine Orbis outlining a hypothetical scenario set just five years from now in which a Deng Feng 21D missile with a penetrator warhead sinks the USS George Washington.

That would usher in a "new epoch of international order in which Beijing emerges to displace the United States.

 

[DaWhale]

The Brit's learned in the Falkland Islands that surface vessels are susceptible to missiles. FWIW, one of the last tests of SDI was launched from a ship in the Pacific.

The idea that sinking an aircraft carrier somehow shifts the balance of power in the Pacific US doesn't make much sense. Shocking, absolutely, but has anyone has come up with a solution for the Ohio and Los Angeles Class submarine?

The Chinese, India and others will displace the US economically which is what really matters. Principally because our government and big business support activities and policies that weaken us.

 

[bobwg]

Ok I am going to bite. What activities and policies by big business weaken us?

 

[chefdennis]

DaWhale wrote:

The Chinese, India and others will displace the US economically which is what really matters. Principally because our government and big business support activities and policies that weaken us.

Exactly....

bobwg wrote:

Ok I am going to bite. What activities and policies by big business weaken us?

Just off the top of my head, "outscourcing" most of our manufacturing base after the Fed Gov started taxing them to dead...

Since you didn't ask, I won't get into how our own Government has weakened us...

But before the military power balance is lost...if China stays solvent and doesn't g belly up financially, they will bankrupt us before they defeat us from the military standpoint...

 

[bobwg]

Chef I agree on the outsourcing but part of the blame for that is the GOvernment, Unions, the American public (wants cheap products), and the greedy investors (who own the stock ie retirement funds, Pensions, 401ks) etc

 

[greg334]

I would normally agree with you all but I seem to think there is a lot more to these economic issues than China and India becoming a economic superpower and outsourcing being one major cause of it.

I don't think many realize there are two real important facts that are ignored, one is even though we have had a lot of work off shored to Mexico, China and India, we still face the other issue of our productivity has risen well above our competitors, like the EU, Mexico, China and India. For example while it really only takes 3 people to actually assemble an engine (from GM engineering bulletin), they use 15 because of their management style and the union contract. While Toyota, Honda and Kia seem to be looking at streamlining operations and raise productivity, GM, Ford and Fiat have been using older labor resource models in their planning.

Coupled with that fact, there is also an emerging manufacturing technology that small and medium business are focusing on and progressing ahead very quickly. This allows even higher productivity while lowering costs to the point that what took five people to plan, create, test and market a product or part- now takes two.

As for China and the missile, well doesn't Russia have something like that and they are in Asia too.

 

[DaWhale]

well one can not launch a quick air attack from a submarine...or have air support for maybe a ground attack without the carriers...depending of geography...this missile will limit what the carriers are designed for....we will not be able to freely roam the high seas anymore without risk...like we do now...

Drone aircraft, cruise missiles, Metal Storm, stealth technology, satellite based weapon systems.

Desert Storm proved the fallacy of large bodies of armored, or air supported infantry having a significant impact on the modern battlefield. Carriers are projectors of power, but are just 1 arrow in the quiver.

 

[bobwg]

Drone aircraft, cruise missiles, Metal Storm, stealth technology, satellite based weapon systems.

Desert Storm proved the fallacy of large bodies of armored, or air supported infantry having a significant impact on the modern battlefield.

Desert storm had large bodies of armored tanks and troop carriers and had air support with fighter jets and attack helicopters. Second drone aircraft and cruise missiles need a platform to launch and with out a carrier that means jets having to fly a long way from the home base.

 

[DaWhale]

I don't think many realize there are two real important facts that are ignored, one is even though we have had a lot of work off shored to Mexico, China and India, we still face the other issue of our productivity has risen well above our competitors, like the EU, Mexico, China and India. For example while it really only takes 3 people to actually assemble an engine (from GM engineering bulletin), they use 15 because of their management style and the union contract. While Toyota, Honda and Kia seem to be looking at streamlining operations and raise productivity, GM, Ford and Fiat have been using older labor resource models in their planning.

Coupled with that fact, there is also an emerging manufacturing technology that small and medium business are focusing on and progressing ahead very quickly. This allows even higher productivity while lowering costs to the point that what took five people to plan, create, test and market a product or part- now takes two.

I agree completely. Robotic technology, virtually anything that must be done more than once can be mechanized. Nanotechnology, the ability to create assemblies on a sub atomic level. Just like the Jetson's and Star Trek. What are we going to do to entertain ourselves, we all can't explore new worlds and boldly go where no man has gone before.

But we also have to face the reality that the dynamics that created the American economy; cheap labor, abundant natural resources, a ready domestic and foreign market and rewards for risks are available to most nation's now.

Business as well as government have to focus on what's best for Americans, perhaps to the point of subsidies, tariff's and protective trade practices. Competition with China is biased when one currency is artificially supported at the expense of the other. I don't think India has an EPA, OSHA or a minimum wage. Apple, Microsoft, Levi's, the list goes on have no business selling products to Americans at premium prices when they've taken those jobs away from American's. There must be some type of punitive action to promote the common welfare, since I don't think that we have the discipline to collectively boycott goods and services, branded by American company's, but produced overseas.