DailyDirt: Never Get Involved In A Land War In Asia...?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Thu, Dec 29th 2011 5:00pm — Michael Ho

While there has been a lot of talk about the threat of cyberwarfare, there should probably be more concern about actual warfare and new secret weapons that can shoot things that explode. Not to be too paranoid, but the US has been focused on terrorism for the last several years, but regular armies/navies/etc haven't been standing still. Here are just a few possible examples.

A Chinese aircraft carrier has been spotted by satellites in the Yellow Sea. Some people think it'll still be years before China's navy catches up to the US, but it's pretty hard to say exactly how advanced China's super-secret navy actually is right now. [url]
China is usually known for its Great Wall being visible from space, but there are some other weird structures that haven't been explained yet. These strange formations can be seen via Google Maps, and they *could* be weird pranks like crop circles. Or not. [url]
Submarine technology is supposed to be really stealthy, but what ever happened to the Chinese sub that surprised the USS Kitty Hawk? In 2006, a Chinese submarine surfaced within 5 miles of the US carrier, but foreign subs shouldn't be able to do that... [url]
To discover more interesting tech-related content, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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Filed Under: aircraft carrier, crop circles, navy, satellites, submarines, war, weapons

16 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 29 Dec 2011 @ 5:08pm

"but foreign subs shouldn't be able to do that..."
Yea, stupid commie foreigners. ONLY THE UNITED STATES HAS GODS GIVEN RIGHT TO DO THAT.
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- Michael Ho (profile), 29 Dec 2011 @ 7:03pm
  
  Re: "but foreign subs shouldn't be able to do that..."
  Frak, yeah!
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vegetaman (profile), 29 Dec 2011 @ 5:15pm

But only slightly less well known is this:
Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line!
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- Pixelation, 29 Dec 2011 @ 5:35pm
  
  Re: But only slightly less well known is this:
  Inconceivable!
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Pixelation, 29 Dec 2011 @ 5:45pm

I wonder if we will have a Gulf of Tonkin type incident with the Chinese soon.
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abc gum, 29 Dec 2011 @ 6:33pm

Yeah - the dogs of war keep pissing on the olive branch.
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- Atkray (profile), 29 Dec 2011 @ 8:40pm
  
  Re:
  as I sit listening to dogs of war by Pink Floyd.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Dec 2011 @ 7:57pm

Weird structures seen from space.
One theory is that those are calibrating patterns for spy satellites.
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- Michael Ho (profile), 30 Dec 2011 @ 12:17am
  
  Re: Weird structures seen from space.
  AC, but doesn't it seem strange that spy satellites would need to have special structures built just to calibrate them? Why wouldn't they use existing buildings of known dimensions?
  
  I think there were also some guesses that fractal antenna designs were behind the patterns, but that's also an unsatisfactory explanation because it's not clear what a fractal antenna of such a scale would be useful for....
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  - Anonymous Coward, 30 Dec 2011 @ 2:11am
    
    Re: Re: Weird structures seen from space.
    /Puts on tin foil hat
    
    I think this is all a plot to confuse the hell out of the western military commanders.
    
    When the US-China (or China-US...whatever) war begins, the US will be wasting it's ammo levelling useless cardboard structures in the middle of the desert, while the Chinese park an Aircraft Carrier in the president's front yard. Yeah, that's right, the Aircraft Carrier is another plot. It actually has wheels!
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- abc gum, 30 Dec 2011 @ 8:36am
  
  Re: Weird structures seen from space.
  Maybe the Nazca culture moved to China recently.
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazca_Lines
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TtfnJohn (profile), 29 Dec 2011 @ 8:39pm

Don't tell anyone BUT
The US Navy's "stealth" subs do seem to have a problem hiding from the Royal Canadian Navy. The RCN can always find them. Mind you, we've specialized in submarine finding/hunting since we got escort duty across the Atlantic in WW2 and have kept it up ever since.

The basic rule is "if it's moving down there, we'll find it". Next step in war, of course, is "then we'll destroy it".

The USN and RCN regularly hold exercises to see how long it takes our frigates to find the subs, then the USN goes back and tries to figure out how to make it longer.

MORAL: If you're sub commander and hear a RCN frigate above you kiss your ass goodbye, if you have the time. ;-)
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- Pixelation, 29 Dec 2011 @ 10:01pm
  
  Re: Don't tell anyone BUT
  Thank God you Canucks are there for our protection.
  
  Couldn't resist.
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Call me Al, 30 Dec 2011 @ 4:29am

Sub Technology
I remember reading about the UK's new stealth subs.

Apparently they were so stealthy that they were actually quieter then the sea around it... unfortunately this then made it rather easy to spot the thing.
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Claiborne (profile), 30 Dec 2011 @ 12:58pm

RE: Sub Stalking US Fleet
I am sorry, but the Washington Times is about as reliable as Fox News. It is a propaganda tool of the Unification Church and Sun Myung Moon.
Either of the following are more likely to share less biased information. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/14/world/main2179694.shtml
http://defensetech.org/2006/11/14 /behind-the-kitty-hawk-incident-updated/
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Jason Lei, 8 Dec 2013 @ 1:41am

Reasons for Warfare
I would be more scared of cyber warfare because this can actually set of real warfare. It's important look at the cause not just the possible outcome.
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