Countering Possible Sale of F-35 to Taiwan

[below_freezing]

The strength of US is in their military powess and global reach. The weakness is also hidden in their bases around the world. Overall the numbers are strong but individually the bases are isolated. They must have the majority agreeing with them in any important conflicts they embark on.

Effectiveness of carrier battle groups is dimished without naval base supply/support.

War is an extension of politics and cannot be considered separately

The US is worried about Egypt uprising because of their potential of spreading to other arab countries where the US has bases in. (currently there is under 1000 US military personel in Egypt and can be evacuated reasonably quickly, they will be watching till september)

On the first Gulf war, people likes to debate whether US should have taken out Saddam and overthrow Iraq back then. They ignore the fact that the Gulf war were not fought by US alone but by a large group of Coalition countries (Though US troops makes up the largest share ) supported by Arab countries.

HSR link to south east asia and central asia are an effort to change dynamism in the regions around china.

Even more reason for an orbiting solar laser. The potential to precisely burn away many isolated bases from 500 km in the sky is too great to ignore.

 

[gambit]

The strength of US is in their military powess and global reach. The weakness is also hidden in their bases around the world. Overall the numbers are strong but individually the bases are isolated. They must have the majority agreeing with them in any important conflicts they embark on.

Effectiveness of carrier battle groups is dimished without naval base supply/support.

War is an extension of politics and cannot be considered separately

The US is worried about Egypt uprising because of their potential of spreading to other arab countries where the US has bases in. (currently there is under 1000 US military personel in Egypt and can be evacuated reasonably quickly, they will be watching till september)

On the first Gulf war, people likes to debate whether US should have taken out Saddam and overthrow Iraq back then. They ignore the fact that the Gulf war were not fought by US alone but by a large group of Coalition countries (Though US troops makes up the largest share ) supported by Arab countries.

HSR link to south east asia and central asia are an effort to change dynamism in the regions around china.

That is where you are wrong. Do not confuse peace time operation with war time necessities. An aircraft carrier group can sail from CONUS to any theater and provide support without touching a single port. The US have done that many times, in war and in peace time exercises. In an exercise in 1984, the USS Ranger entered EMCON Alpha and basically disappeared for two weeks in the expanse between West Coast US and the Hawaiian Islands. In that time, her fighters 'attacked' Hawaii practically daily with no surface ships able to find her. Emission control (EMCON) Alpha is when the ship emit no trackable EM emissions.

Give this a read => USS Ranger CV-A 61

Speculating on weaknesses of a weapons platform where one has no experience at wielding that platform is a huge mistake stemming from arrogance.

 

[no_name]

Lol no experience maybe, but not arrogant.
Just throwing my thoughts around.

 

[CardSharp]

Lol no experience maybe, but not arrogant.
Just throwing my thoughts around.

Shame on you! Don't you know that Gambit never admits he's wrong! and if you reason with him, he'll smack you upside the head with his qualification.

tisk tisk.

 

[no_name]

Actually I was a bit relieved that only that point was challenged, because I do usually just write what I think.

 

[gambit]

Shame on you! Don't you know that Gambit never admits he's wrong! and if you reason with him, he'll smack you upside the head with his qualification.

tisk tisk.

No 'qualification' here. More like relevant military experience and sources. The latter is something new to many.

 

[Akasa]

Nope, this is what I said:

Naval ships stationed at Taiwan would be target for cruise missiles. And there would be no air support.

 

[no_name]

Naval ships stationed at Taiwan would be target for cruise missiles. And there would be no air support.

Hey!...I also said this:

If you also have major airbase on the island, this forces the enemy to neutralise the bases on the island first, the island would be under cover fire from PLA rocket artillery units, the sea around Taiwan can be patrolled by diesel subs.

 

[ephone]

I do not think China need be as strong as US militarily since it will be way too costly.

China just need be strong enough to protect its coast, reclaim taiwan and protect its resource lines. That is it.

Such strengthening process is ongoing and soon it will reach there. There is no need to have that many carriers as US has. I think 3 to 6 should be enough. We have three fleet so that at least each fleet should have one, or at most two since there should be some carriers out to protect the resource lines.

As far as taiwan, it seems that the tension is much less than before. With China's continuing strengthening, the disparity will be growing even quickly. In addition, taiwan has more and more businessmen and investment into mainland. Both sides still recognize they are chinese: Republic of China vs People's Republic of China, exactly what is the big deal???

So I bet the reunification will happen soon. If not, we may have to use a little force just like what Qing Dynasty's KangXi emperor did more than 300 years ago. About outside possible interference, well, China won't ever be intimidated at all.

We fought with US over Korean War (directly) and Vietnam War (indirectly), with USSR over a small Zhenbao Island. Considering Korea and Vietnam are not even part of China territories, we will back down for Taiwan? I really have not seen any reasons.

So the priority of taiwan issue will move to the top one sooner or later. It will not be off table for that long.

 

[Akasa]

Hey!...I also said this:

Yeah, like rocket fire and subs are a good countermeasure against incoming missiles

 

[no_name]

Then do something about it, I though you should know all that HQ-9, HQ-16, type 054 stuff.

Hey, bullets also kills people, so why not just give up (?)

Seriously, I'm willing to discontinue this discussion, peace bro

 

[Akasa]

Then do something about it, I though you should know all that HQ-9, HQ-16, type 054 stuff.

Hey, bullets also kills people, so why not just give up (?)

Seriously, I'm willing to discontinue this discussion, peace bro

Taiwan isn't even part of China yet.

So none of our arguments will actually come into play.