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Post by 101ABN on Nov 10, 2014 10:49:11 GMT -8
As Russian forces were drawing back from a swift and violent incursion into Ukraine this fall, Moscow was delivering another powerful military statement many miles to the north.. A new 40-foot Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile, capable of delivering an unparalleled 10 nuclear warheads, was launched by a Russian navy submarine on a test run over the icy White Sea. The weapon was a clear signal to the world that as Russia battles tightening economic sanctions intended to block Moscow's aggressive posturing on NATO's frontiers, President Vladimir Putin has another card to play. "I want to remind you that Russia is one of the most powerful nuclear nations," Putin declared earlier this year at a state-sponsored youth camp. He reinforced the message last month, inviting the world to "remember what consequences discord between major nuclear powers could bring for strategic stability." www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-nukes-silos-20141110-story.html#page=1 |
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Post by Sailor on Nov 10, 2014 17:53:57 GMT -8
How many new missile systems has Russia finished development of since the days of the USSR? How many new warheads?
And how many has the US developed? None. We actually scrapped our most modern land based system, the Peacekeeper and depend now on a system that was in service when I first signed up, the Minuteman III entered service in 1970. Our most modern missile is actually the Trident D-5 SLBM which entered service in 1990.
How many of our warheads are now degraded due to a lack of tritium which can only be produced in certain nuclear plants and which has been out of production for a number of years? The stuff decays, eventually making the warhead a figurative noisemaker.
I know, I know ... "our defense budget is already 'X' number of times larger than the next 20 nations combined."
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Post by 101ABN on Nov 10, 2014 19:20:08 GMT -8
Best not to be behind the curve on this.
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Post by Sailor on Nov 11, 2014 13:37:45 GMT -8
Playing "catch-up" can be far more expensive than staying on top to begin with, both in terms of treasure and lives. Just ask the WWII vets.
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Post by warrior1972 on Nov 11, 2014 16:16:27 GMT -8
How many new missile systems has Russia finished development of since the days of the USSR? How many new warheads? And how many has the US developed? None. We actually scrapped our most modern land based system, the Peacekeeper and depend now on a system that was in service when I first signed up, the Minuteman III entered service in 1970. Our most modern missile is actually the Trident D-5 SLBM which entered service in 1990. How many of our warheads are now degraded due to a lack of tritium which can only be produced in certain nuclear plants and which has been out of production for a number of years? The stuff decays, eventually making the warhead a figurative noisemaker. I know, I know ... "our defense budget is already 'X' number of times larger than the next 20 nations combined."
The problem is what we wasted our blood and treasure for, in the past, militarily, in conflicts that produced little or nothing to forward our cause, going all the way back to the end of World War II. Look at the outcomes, and what we have to show for it. Korea is prosperous in the South, but with the last vestige of...of all people...STALIN, ruling in the North. (And it was Truman seeing the resemblance between Korea and Vietnam that got us involved in Vietnam, by the way.) Vietnam is Communist. The Middle East? Iran is still Iran. Iraq is still every bit a basket case. Afghanistan is still just a stone's throw from the Stone Age. And our border (which, sadly, I DO feel the need to consider yet another conflict...)....?
Our border is a sieve, and the situation in the Latin American countries, particularly Mexico, right on our border, is getting worse by the day... so much so that those people are desperate enough to risk their very lives fleeing across our borders, almost like the Berlin Wall, with poverty the thing to escape from instead of Communism. WE just never wised up, got smarter, and got the right people on our side. The Russians and Chinese??? How many costly long term "low intensity" conflicts have THEY been in since the end of World War II? The Russians are recognized as some of the smartest chessplayers in the world, along with their sometime allies the Chinese, and got their proxies to fight their battles against us. And over the years, we spent trillions of dollars and thousands of AMERICAN lives, and what do we have to point to as a result? We are more than seventeen trillion dollars in debt, while our REAL enemies, the ones who can challenge us, are rearming and modernizing. If there is a solution, Old Sailor, Please, point it out to me. I'm all ears, man.
All ears. And I am truly sorry to post this.... ....On Veteran's Day. My apologies, gentlemen. |
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