IDK stuff
Considering the amount of budget it’s wild how many issues there are. I get that the money is used inefficiently/ grifted /gifted straight into the defense industry. It’s still continuously funny how all this funding in the world and the barracks suck. I mean who cares about the actual humans when we can have this whiz bang stealth gizmo that doesn’t work?
Gatekeeping paxlovid is completely nonsensical there’s gotta be mountains of surplus doses.
I feel like Pfizer, would also hate the gatekeeping. I’m sure they want as much flying off the shelves for their profits.
I think it’s clearly gotta be the aliens. They’re mad we’re talking about them all the time now. Definitely can’t be anything else
With revenue from high energy prices, Russia’s security services and ministry of defense have been able to smuggle in the microelectronics and other Western materials required for cruise missiles and other precision guided weaponry.
This line caught my eye. How crazy do the electronics/ microchips have be? Isn’t there a pretty good chance between Russia and China they can just make this stuff? I’d be really shocked if they’re smuggling anything.
I thought it was a pretty solid book. Definitely really enjoyed the section on ride sharing and whatnot. I’m sure there’s very well read folks on the topics it covers, but I think it does a good job at its premise and provides a lot good information without being super dense.
It’s not completely tied to Chile (and a lot of folks I’m sure know this already), but is still relevant enough and I remembered it skimming some notes:
From the book: Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation by Paris Marx
"Australia is currently the largest producer of lithium, but the countries of the “lithium triangle” in South America—Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile—are expected to overtake it as the major suppliers for the coming boom in global demand. The region is estimated to hold more than half of global lithium reserves, but its extraction requires sucking up vast quantities of salt brine to be evaporated. The process is not only water-intensive, but as the amount of brine is reduced, the water table drops, pulling fresh water from nearby sources and, by extension, the communities that rely on them.
“While many of the key minerals for electric vehicles can be extracted from a range of countries around the world, existing production tends to be more geographically concentrated than oil and gas, and new projects can take many years to get started. In the short to medium term, that could create political opportunities or challenges for the countries with existing production or significant reserves.”
Makes sense, it reads like something written for that purpose. I think there’s a section for each entry in the report where they tackle the cyber security aspects, which wildly vary in how well they hold up or if they’ve been tested at all yet. Haven’t looked for a specific section.
Yeah, after I wrote the comment I started finding some answers, it’s just a chore when they define an acronym once in the report somewhere and then use it nonstop so you get paragraphs like this:
During early developmental testing, reliability concerns were identified with the Electro Mechanical Actuators (EMA) that are used to raise and lower the JBDs on the Ford class. Several modifications were implemented on CVN 78 during the PIA to improve reliability. During the August 2022 CQ, the ship experienced EMA failures on all four JBDs, which caused the ship to cancel the remainder of CQ and return early. The cause of the EMA failures 170 CVN 78 was corroded fasteners in various components of the EMA. The root cause of the fastener corrosion is being addressed, and repairs were completed prior to September’s CQ. During the September CQ, JBD performance did not adversely affect flight operations.
So I had to go through and find what like JBD (Jet Blast Deflector) was and then piece it together. It’s a brutal document to skim because of that.
Another example of the acronym insanity lol
An adequate survivability assessment depends upon a combination of Full Ship Shock Trials (FSST), extensive modeling based on surrogate testing, and a total-ship survivability test (TSST). Sufficient data to assess ship survivability against close- aboard explosions should be available by the end of FY23. From June-August 2021, the Navy conducted FSST on CVN 78 including three shock events of increasing effect. The FSST identified several survivability improvement opportunities for CVN 78 against underwater threat engagements. In 1QFY23, DOT&E will publish a classified FSST report that details these results.
It is surprising to me how many things haven’t really been tested and they’re putting this thing out on deployment.
So that Pro Publica article from the previous thread on the LCS being a piece of crap had a little comment and hyperlink about the USS Gerald R. Ford having reliability issues. Looks like its a PDF from the DOD with all kinds of reliability information from the different weapons programs. Honestly not sure if there’s a more secure way to link to the PDF, but let me know so I can update it.
There’s some gems in there like for the Gerald Ford Catapults:
During testing from March through June 2022 (after the PIA), EMALS achieved a reliability of 614 mean cycles between operational mission failures (MCBOMF) during 1,841 catapult launches (where a cycle is the launch of one aircraft). While this reliability is well below the requirement of 4,166 MCBOMF, EMALS showed slight improvement in reliability from FY21 (460 MCBOMF throughout 1,758 catapults). However, during the first underway of IOT&E in September 2022, EMALS reliability appeared to regress and slowed CQ. While the data are still being analyzed, the adverse effect to operations on two of the ten days of CQ was significant.
Fun blurb on the ships self defense systems
There may not be enough data to determine the operational effectiveness and suitability of the self-defense capability ofCVN 78 against anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs) due to testdata that will not be available for reasons discussed in the Ship Self-Defense System article of this Annual Report.
Which leads to this in a different sections of the report:
The Navy will not complete the remaining planned firing events against the SDTS configured with a representation of SSDS Mk 2 Mod 6 due to there being no AN/ SPY-3 radar set available to install on the SDTS. Additionally, the Navy planned to use data from live operational firing events from the USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) IOT&E, but modifications to the DDG 1000 AN/SPY-3 radar no longer support the use of the DDG 1000 test data for validation of the Probability of Raid Annihilation (PRA) test bed. The PRA test bed is the high fidelity model and simulation the Navy intends to provide the remainder of the SSDS Mk 2 Mod 6 performance data.
In FY22, the Navy conducted no tests on SSDS Mk 2 Mod 1 (Nimitz-class) or Mk 2 Mod 5 (Whidbey Island-class and Harpers Ferry-class), as a result of funding shortfalls, prioritization of remaining funding to conduct CVN 78 operational test on the SDTS, and Strike Group availability.
Some of the lingo goes over my head but nonetheless, the US Navy doesn’t seem like its doing so hot.
Editing in another thing I saw that was interesting
I guess this JAGM is supposed to replace the Longbow Hellfire and HELLFIRE Romeo missiles and caught this:
JAGM is survivable against a nascent or limited cyber attacker. JAGM is not survivable against a moderate-to-advanced capability threat. The Army mitigated key vulnerabilities found in two cyber test events conducted in 2017. The most recent Navy testing revealed additional vulnerabilities.
It’s just wild. I feel like at some point after multiple failed and more on the way to failing weapon acquisitions somewhere there would be a correction. Instead they’re going to keep trucking along because the defense industry is sucking in the money and the kool-aid tastes sweet. It’s actually incredible seeing it override the US Militaries ability to have an effective fighting force.
Reads like a repeat of the F-35 articles. Almost through the latest blowback season and that just further cements how much of the US Military spending is just a pure racket to give as much money to private companies over building an effective military. I think the only thing I’ve been super curious about is it just top to bottom drinking of neoliberal coolaid? Or is this actually a intentional attempt to siphon money? Or both, I’d guess both.
Was about to post this if nobody else had. Not surprised myself, I mean last world cup or Euros I can’t remember the Ukrainian national team had the “Glory to Ukraine!” and “Glory to the heroes!” slogans on the jersey. Plus I remember some documentary thing pre-invasion explaining the Ukrainian Ultra groups were really big into fascism and Azov.
Edit: I can’t find really anything on Ukrainian Ultras and Azov links now on YouTube. Just one on some anti-fascist Ukrainian Ultras going to fight Russians and a bunch on Poland.
it can get exceedingly dry when you hit the full paragraphs detailing army compositions and their commanding officer
I still haven’t read the full series of book they put out on it but they do the same in the Stalingrad books too. It’s just very funny because I knew it was coming and was like here we go again
The mainstream Western perception of WW2 on Eastern Front is essentially distilled Nazi propaganda that was consciously pushed once WW2 slid into the Cold War, and the Soviets became the designated enemy.
Yeah if the eastern front is talked about at all it’s generally people pulling from straight nazi propaganda. Honestly, I originally never learned anything about it but I could tell you all about the US in the Pacific or Africa or whatever.
“When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler” by David M. Glantz and Jonathan M. House is a good read on the topic if anyone wants to read something about that front. It’s got the obligatory whine about the purges and Authoritarianism but otherwise is a good summary. Currently loaned my copy to a friend who was interested, which reminds me I need to get it back
Besides all that even if someone wanted to disregard all what we discussed here, it was also pointed out many many times how the Turkish army embarrassed themselves with these shit tanks by using them “wrong” in Syria.
Kind of wild how the video pivoted into the tank is fantastic, turkey has no idea what it was doing.
It’s also funny the assumption that you just have to use the tanks “correctly” and that Ukraine is definitely going to be able to do that.
Frankly I’m not sure any current tank can really wade into urban combat or really any combat (especially unsupported) and not take losses. But pretending if it’s used in an exact specific manner against a peer/ near peer adversary and be flawless is a pure fantasy.
Saw this from SCMP While under US sanctions, where did Huawei get the advanced chips for its latest Mate 60 Pro smartphone?
This was also in the Washington post: New phone sparks worry China has found a way around U.S. tech limits
U.S. sanctions were intended to slow China’s progress in emerging fields like artificial intelligence and big data by cutting off its ability to buy or build advanced semiconductors, which are the brains of these systems. The unveiling of a domestically produced seven-nanometer chip suggests that has not happened.
Industry experts cautioned that it’s still too early to tell how competitive China’s chipmaking operations will become. But what is clear is that China is still in the game.
Willy Shih, an economist at Harvard Business School, said Huawei’s breakthrough was evocative of what happened with Global Positioning System technology, now commonly known as GPS. The U.S. Defense Department developed the technology and restricted its export, wary of it in the hands of rivals. But the export restrictions pushed Moscow and other governments to develop their own versions, Shih said.
“So it went from a situation where the U.S. really dominated that technology and everyone would come to the U.S. to buy it, to now there are all these different alternatives,” he said. “And you have to wonder if the same thing is happening now with Huawei.”
Miller says a considerable gap remains between SMIC’s capabilities and those of TSMC, the industry leader that produces the newest chips for companies like Apple. It also remains unclear if SMIC can produce advanced chips at a scale and cost that will make its products globally competitive.
Shih said that regardless if SMIC can reach the cutting edge, the foundry will certainly be able to produce older-generation chips at scale, possibly pushing down prices of chips worldwide. “We will see price pressure and commoditization pressure,” he said.
U.S. companies like Intel and Qualcomm have already lost significant sales in China, the world’s second-largest economy, due to the U.S. sanctions, crimping their research and development budgets. U.S. executives fear this could weigh on their long-term strength, in an industry where only a few of the strongest, fastest companies tend to survive.
Yeah that’s pretty much what I did as well. I read it I think 4 years ago now, I just remember reading that section
That is an excellent book. The china chapter drove me nuts but otherwise is excellent
That’s a heck of an article. Just a mind boggling amount of brutality and immiseration being inflicted on the Gabonese people and I had no idea. Clearly the greenwashing and propaganda worked to have that level of exploitation and its not frequently talked about.
Hopefully the coup can materially improve the conditions
I mean the worst that ever happens is like some congresspeople get a little pissy in a congressional hearing and then a unanimous vote approving the military budget plus some extra. There’s like no downside to keeping the blatant fraud going.