Back in the 20th century, when China itself was carved up into various “sphere of influence,” US went in with its “Open Door Policy” to the benefits of both nations.

This is the truth of the matter. Nothing short of massive espionage is going to prevent China from becoming the global power, any aggression or war would just be a pointless waste. North America has plenty of means to live on in a normal existence even when this becomes a reality, if it has not yet already.

Tyler your article broke this story months ago with absolutely nothing of this being covered by any U.S., UK, or German TV networks. Foxtrot Alpha is quickly becoming the most trusted military news blog on the web.

It’s too late to challenge China in regards to the islands they’ve been propping up the moment they started building them. You can bitch and whine, but nothing will come of it as they already have a permanent physical presence there, so short term wise China has already won this round. Sending P-8s overhead is great…

you forgot steal underpants!

Iran, the Peaceful

Agree with everything you said. My popcorn.jpg did not convey the sarcasm I was hoping for!

How can the government/military have so much money available for weapons systems and so little for the care of veterans? I’m not trying to be snarky, I genuinely want to understand what causes that and what (if anything) can be done to fix it. The fact that we have homeless veterans is astonishing and appalling after…

Less than lethal, except to the dude with the pacemaker.

If you want a good illustration of solid fuel rocket robustness, watch the Challenger’s boosters keep flying after the shuttle and main tank had blown up. NASA had to send a self-destruct command to those monsters.

I think some of their capital ships had rudimentary radar systems that were obsolete before their debut. On the other hand, we put radars on even the smallest ships. Supposedly this helped tremendously in Leyte Gulf—our tin cans were landing punches when their big guns had problem finding their Mark.

I think the fundamental problem with the program, or my view of the problem , isn’t the raw performance of it or what it can offer. It’s the price point for that performance (and r&d setbacks). It could have been so much better (see Tyler’s other articles). I think of it like dropping $60k on a Toyota Camry that you…

I’m old enough to only know the historic definition. And probably happier for it too.

Nail on the head. With all of the F-35’s woes the fact that it hasn’t killed any test pilots is both unsaid and unusual. All the fiscal shit aside, the most important thing is the lives and safety of those tasked with operating and maintaining this aircraft.

As much as this program has overrun and has been an example of how bad government procurement is, I’m hoping this all goes well. I’d hate for this aircraft to be a total bust after all of the follies it’s already gone through; especially when the F-35B is the whole reason why the A & C are so compromised.

Yeah, the Navy is about the last thing to complain about. No other country on earth continually deploys such a force not only for military purposes, but more often, humanitarian ones.

I’m not sure about the percentage left that’s original. It’s largely irrelevant though. In the past they’ve taken great pains to only use techniques and materials that were used in the original construction.

Lots of laminated Douglas Fir used. These are actual pieces for the Constitution incl. the mainmast before shaping. I helped write the specs.

It’s about time it came in for a refit. How can any ship in the US Navy not be equipped with a CIWS and at least one vertical launch system? There might even be room for and AEGIS system... but that would require a really long power cord back to shore.

I love how the Constitution still has a commanding officer (Cmdr. Sean Kearns). How sweet of a job must that be?