Well, I sure didn't expect that it was actually feasible to do all of that within this decade, or even the next. Yeesh, we're going to need smart guns to be the default weapon type in the next few years' near-future FPS games if we want those games to be realistic at this rate.

---

OK, I just found the ending of this ad for the TrackingPoint weapons to be quite hilarious.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

-face palm- That was horrible. Fucking Texas.

Who watches the watchmen?

@Gabrel: numbers games are b.s.

The US has a lot of "war stocks", but that's what they are, equipment (a lot past it's prime) kept in reserve. We also have units tied up in: South Korea (8th Army), Kuwait, Bahrain, Afghanistan (we are drawing down) and a few other locations.

China, Russia and many middle eastern nations have tanks that pale in comparison to the M1-A2 SEP. But our tanks have to get there. Ditto aircraft.

Many Teen Series fighters (F-15, 16, and 18) are aging rapidly. That's why we have both the F-22 and F-35. The B-52 and A-10 have been able to soldier on, mostly because one has a ton of spares and TLC, the other is the A-10. The number of A-10s is ~300, so I question the site's numbers.

China, Russia, India, South Korea, Japan, Europe and even Pakistan all have programs to replace their aging fleets. Korea and Japan are worried because improvements in Chines and Russian aircraft threaten them directly.

Again, the USAF and USN have to get there. One of the reasons a THAAD unit is in Guam and Patriot is in Okinawa, we need those bases intact. The Not Secret is that China has drawn crosshairs on them.

Same with manpower. Only a small fraction actually is a soldier with two boots, a rocksack, combat helmet and a rifle. Soldiers at the Rear outnumber the shooters by 7-10 for every infantryman.

All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48

I wanna post my horrible marksmanship to facebook.

edited 18th Dec '14 1:44:51 PM by LeGarcon

Oh really when?

Mind you, things aren't as rosy as you'd expect. In Britain, I've heard that force reductions for "Force 2020" are ahead of schedule due to people leaving the military, and those that are left are very hard-worked and need a rest after Afghanistan.

Keep Rolling On

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/115896/dfa-wont-appeal-us-stand/

Custody war of Pemberton is now starting. Stay tune.

"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"

The website Gabrael posted is not meant to be an end-all-be-all of military capabilities throughout the world. It's a ballpark assessment of military resources, and it's obviously meant to be taken with a pinch of salt.

I was surprised to find Iran ranked number 4 in naval power, but it makes sense if you think about it.

edited 18th Dec '14 2:53:23 PM by Aprilla

Maybe in terms of local antiaccess, since speedboats, SSKs, mines, and truck-launched Exocets can make life hell for nearby surface combatants. It's the oceanborne equivalent of guerrilla warfare. The flipside is that such weapons are not suited for attacking opponents except for the occasional ambush; minefields aren't power-projection tools.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

Well, unless you lay them thousands of miles from your home waters...

Schild und Schwert der Partei

The problem with the site is that it's purely a numbers comparison. It makes no distinction based upon quality. That's why North Korea is ranked as having twice the naval strength of the US, because it's got a ton of coastal defence craft, even though half those craft are useless from a military perspective. It's even worse when you look at specific categories, as micro-submarine rust buckets that can barley get under the surface are weighted the same as a modern nuclear powered submarine with state of the art stealth technology and ballistic missile capabilities.

Well, of course it is, silly rabbit.

There are plenty of other websites you can visit if you want a more detailed, side-by-side comparison of military capability across the world.

My 2 cents. Regardless of how any number of sites or groups categorize comparisons of militaries from where I am sitting it is all just varying forms of pointless dick waving. None of them actually contribute any sort of meaningful knowledge and much like plans pre-war stats never survive contact with the enemy.

Who watches the watchmen?

True. It's just fun speculation, if nothing else. The bulk of real-time simulators based on real-world nations fall somewhat firmly into that category.

This thread is too dull:

Jean-Claude Van Damme FTW!

All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48

I think it's the axes

Oh really when?

Beards, their sappers get to grow beards and wear those leather aprons....

All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48

Ah, the FFL. Some interesting skeletons in that particular closet. Compare and contrast...

edited 18th Dec '14 6:32:16 PM by Achaemenid

Schild und Schwert der Partei

Bit late, but my personal favorite is Operation Pocket Money. For the cost of one morning's work without any casualties, the USN did in one operation what years of bombing failed to do: shut down Haiphong Harbor. Turns out you can lay naval mines from A-6s and A-7s just fine.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

And is now in Leavenworth for desertion.

"Yup. That tasted purple."

Yeah, Big Army don't play with that. All those deserts who fled to Canada in OIF and OEF found that out the hard way.

All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48

Interestingly he deserted so that he could fight, after he got stuck in doing admin in a stateside medical unit or something.

"Yup. That tasted purple."

Aprilla: Some of them yes. But for me I see a larger focus on those tactics and strategy trying to learn how to use your equipment not so much lets try and compare on paper type arrangement.

The French Foreign Legion has a lot of mythos and romanticism built up around it. Much like many other storied units that draws fascination. For example see March Or Die starring Gene Hackman.

Wow we don't have a page for that one. I need to rewatch it and make one now.

edited 18th Dec '14 7:40:20 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Who watches the watchmen?

If he was smart he'd have stayed in france.

As for those who run to Canada, I can kind of understand(don't agree with but understand) draft-dodgers, but joining the army voluntarily then running when it's time to fight? Fuck that.

I'm baaaaaaack

Woo, just finished "A Call To Arms", the first book in Timothy Zahn's Manticore Ascendant series (it takes place in the Honor Harrington universe, so you know I'm all about that). Set a few centuries before the main books, it focuses on a new recruit in the Royal Manticoran Navy dealing with the service's nasty case of dry rot as the government tries to decide if it's even worth spending the money to keep them at all.

Pretty fun read, though I was a bit annoyed at how all these officers had this weird compulsion to keep this enlisted rating around so he could help them figure out solutions to various problems when ordinarily they'd likely just send him off to do his actual job.

In New Mexico, the state requires a chain welded to parts of the under carriage to keep them from dragging on the pavement so a HMMWV is "street legal".

All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48