Iran unveils latest high-tech weapon...

Post Reply New Topic

Well, actually there have been several cases when due to a software glitch, the missiles have tried to launch themselves.

And if that happens, our missile defense system will shoot down the missile before it reaches the upper atmosphere. I'm sure the military doesn't want a quote "unholy multiplayer nuclear clusterf**k" endquote, just because some Air Force computer programmer misplaced a bracket in the launch authorization algorithm. Even if no one else had the capability to nuke back, it would still be a diplomatic nightmare within a nightmare. Those laser aircraft and Patriot missiles are there in case of a missile being launched a against us, but they're also there to prevent any f**kups on our side from going "oops" and glassing <insert city here>.

Besides, the warhead and the missile are two different entities that would need to be activated separately and simultaneously. I'm pretty sure most of our warheads would not detonate unless armed, even if the missile was launched - they're built like that in case of such an accident. So even if the glitch armed the missile but not the warhead, all you'd have would be an oversized lawn dart in someone's backyard. Of course, a situation like that would be even worse because then any old Joe off the street could walk up to our "broken arrow", grab the warhead and do evil things with it - provided of course they can figure out how to arm it. But that's likely not to happen because as I mentioned above, the military would most likely turn our missile defense systems inward to destroy said missile.

Strategic nuclear weapons are not weapons of precision they are weapons of deterrent. Despite what our patriotic friends here are telling us they will never be so stupid as to use such weapons over something as trivial as a glorified floating metal air strip.

Most of the nukes in our arsenal are tactical nukes. Some of them can be man carried.

Making "back-pack" nukes is well know technology these days, which should send a frisson of fear through your body.

ruveyn

That's quite a long post for someone who just invented my opinion all on his lonesome.

I don't relish the idea of big bad America chucking nukes around in a fit of pique, but it takes a special kind of a**hole to think that nuking places is a fun pastime, and i do not relish the possibility of other nuclear nations taking offense at it, or of responding in kind, or even using the same excuse "Oh, you just killed our brave Iranian compatriots. Thus we are completely justified in attacking you and yours." I certainly don't think that sheer arrogance and hubris of a "We are the US, nobody would be mad enough to attack us." is a safe defence to hide behind. Especially I dislike the fact that our government has spent the past few years inserting itself so far up the collective American anus that we are automatically linked to you in whatever you do, win or lose (mostly lose these days.), which no doubt includes when you start a nuclear war.

Wargear being twenty years old doesn't stop it being good. The F-14 is pushing 40, was only retired by you in 06, and is still in use by..Iran of all people. Wonder where they got that? Lots of military equipment is older than 20 years and still functions more than well enough. How old is the Ak-47 now? It urinates freely over the M-16 as a weapon, and thats getting on in years as well. Soviet war-gear might be 20 years old, but there is a whole world to buy new toys from, including it seems the Americans. Unless you mean 20 year old nuclear weapons? Because obviously a 20 year old nuclear weapon won't make a f*****g big hole when you detonate it...

It wasn't ME who suggested nuking Iran by the way, and I have no problem with declaring war where war is due, or suitably chastising a nation for direct affront. Certainly I don't think we should just let nations get away with murder, which INCLUDES America.

As for Dresden..Isn't carpet bombing a nation EXACTLY what the Yanks do every time anyone sneers at them? WE happened to have been engaged in total war since 1939. I don't know where you lot got to. Oh wait, I do, you were selling things to the Germans and voting to stay as far away from the conflict as you could get until someone declared war on you.

Which is exactly why even the Americans might resist setting a nuke off. Because then its open season on America for the portable kind, and a lot of the world would be happily right behind them. America didn't exactly make a lot of friends with its behaviour in Afghanistan and Iraq just with conventional weapons. Start turning Persia into a sheet of glass and a lot of the rest of the world will fall out with America rapidly, and nuking American targets back becomes a whole lot more justified. Thing is, a lot of prime American targets aren't IN America. They're over here, in Europe and the near east, and one of the most notable things about a nuclear weapon of any yield is that they tend towards the indiscriminate. When Ramstein Airforce Base turns into superheated dust, I'm sure that the good people of Kaiserlautern, Ramstein-Miesenbach and Landstuhl will be most upset, in the moments before they get blown to the four winds. (And as Ramstein-Miesenbach is right next to the base, I suspect that's where the epicentre would be, rather than trying to get IN to the base.) I can't imagine that German public opinion would be very pro-american after that, even if the German government was on side, and public opinion changes governments.

Of course this whole line of debate.. "If they use their sh***y flying boats to shoot at us we will nuke them into the stone age" is pretty much exactly why the sh***y flying boats are a great propaganda coup, and doing a sterling job without firing a round. Getting "GI" Joe public all pissy and warlike only helps the Iranians prove that Americans are warmongering lunatics who hate and fear the Muslim world so much that they would scorch it out of existence given half a chance.

It comes from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, as you should know. I trust their analysis.

As it happens, I remember (though young) expecting missiles in the Eighties, have a physics degree and make a hobby of knowing where the nukes live these days... but hey, let's just leave that feeble ad-hominem.

Back on-topic:

El Reg

I was thinking that a mass attack would overwhelm Phalanx systems - they only have a limited supply of ammunition, and for all they're quick, still take a little time to track and aim - but a CBG with escorts has a lot of Phalanx guns, leaving aside CAP planes (not sure if they could hit a low target like that, I'm guessing they could.) I wouldn't bet on the flying boat horde.

And these (absurd) claims are based on how many years of military service and how much experience in defense analysis?

Or are you basing this on video games and what you've read on janes.com and fas.org?

Iran would lose 90% of its navy, air force, armor, and air defense assets in the first few days of any war with the US. Actually they'd lose air defense and missile capability in the first few minutes, never having seen their enemy. Things would just start blowing up in the middle of the night.

The might of the conventional US military is almost beyond comprehension. Trouble is, we are trying to fight groups of 3-5 people armed with old rifles, hiding in the monutains or amongst civilians in urban areas. Paradoxically, that's a tougher fight to win than taking out all of Iran's military.

If the "promotional footage" I just saw of Al Qaeda soldiers "training" in Pakistan is anything to go by, then the might of the US military really isn't trying hard enough if it can't deal with these yokels. They are clearly ridiculously good at hiding because they certainly don't know how to use any of the weapons they are trying to use.

I know. Generally speaking they can't shoot for s**t.

Which is why they hide in a mosque basement, and come out at night to plant a Giant Ass bomb on a road that the US vehicles might take tomorrow.

Or maybe it will be a local school bus? Who knows. They sure don't care as long as they get it right once and get one american convoy.

Some of these a**holes hide in a dark corner in a house and wait for an american soldier to come in so they can shoot him in the face (no armor). They will be killed by the other soldiers, but THEY DON'T CARE if they die.

That's the enemy we "fight". They can't really fight, so they try to inflict casualties any way they can.

For people who can't fight they sure kill a lot of our troops.

ruveyn

What they CAN do is build land-mines. Lots of them. And that's not difficult. Nor is hiding them.