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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jun 11, 2011 - 08:33pm PT
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Remember...
Do you really wonder why we have f-22's??? And that program got killed?
Do you understand why we have about 7 carrier fleets?
Never again, Johnson.
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 11, 2011 - 08:56pm PT
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That re-enforces my point, it does.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jun 11, 2011 - 08:57pm PT
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Hitler had zero carriers. Jess sayin'. Hopefully we'll be down to zero in
a few years given other options. We certainly don't need eleven today but
they're really popular as floating pork barrels.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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Jun 11, 2011 - 09:09pm PT
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Floating pork barrels...too funny!
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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Jun 11, 2011 - 09:10pm PT
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Blue Ring is getting wound up again...cool...
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Jun 11, 2011 - 10:00pm PT
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Whenever there's a hurricane, an earthquake, a tsunami, etc, way off in some far-flung shithole, who shows up first with relief?
The United States Military, usually in the form of a carrier group.
It's a good thing we have enough military capability to MORE than cover our national defense needs.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Jun 11, 2011 - 11:57pm PT
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People beat themselves off with War strategies but the fact is, It's unimaginable to fight with a remotely equal power. We have to fight the very poorest undeveloped countries and even then ten years later they are still there.
Relief mission are nice but we're spending multibillion dollars on each carrier. Our own country needs some relief.
50 years from now, even poor countries will have bioweapons that could mess us up hard and be hard to trace.
best for humanity to grow up and wake up or kiss our asses goodbye
Peace
Karl
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 12, 2011 - 12:49am PT
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Karl, you're kinda right, but we still need carrier groups and nuke-subs!/
The whole 3rd world conflict sh#t is politics, man. Either kill them all (mostly) or get the f*#k out. We aren't Islamic cops!
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apogee
climber
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Jun 12, 2011 - 01:51am PT
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"Either kill them all (mostly) or get the f*#k out."
bluering.....
ah, feck it.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Jun 12, 2011 - 02:07am PT
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I think the issue has already been decided and that's been signaled with the appointment of the current CIA director as the next secretary of defense and the most experienced leader of unconventional forces as head of the CIA. Drones and good intel plus special forces is where the money of the future is going and there will be much less of it to spend.
Carriers are still important though not in the numbers we have probably. The U.S. stopped a potential invasion of Taiwan some years ago by sailing a carrier back and forth in the Taiwan straits to signal our intentions. The Chinese haven't "tested" their missles off the coast of Taiwan since.
Another very interesting development is that the U.S. Navy has made it a goal to have 40% of their energy use come from non renewable sources by 2020. That effort but will no doubt contribute some good technology to the civilian sector in the process.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Jun 12, 2011 - 02:54am PT
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Once upon a time an aircraft carrier and its compliment of fighters and bombers, way out there in the watery wilderness, was pretty much the ultimate stealth weapon.
Now it's just a big, fat, slow-moving target. Effective against foes that do not have sophisticated missiles (i.e. the kind of foes the US is fighting these days), but not against a modern military.
Think of it this way: Is the US at risk from attack by aircraft based on a big boat? Hardly. So unless the enemy is a small and backward place like Iraq/Afghanistan/Libya/etc, an aircraft carrier is of limited value.
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 12, 2011 - 02:55am PT
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apogee, it's 'armed' conflict. You either do it it, or not...
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bookworm
Social climber
Falls Church, VA
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Jun 12, 2011 - 06:34am PT
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"first in harm's way"
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the kid
Trad climber
fayetteville, wv
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Jun 12, 2011 - 09:55am PT
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what is your point and what does that have to do with WW2?
our capabilities are such that we can attack and kill at will from many different platforms.
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stevep
Boulder climber
Salt Lake, UT
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Jun 12, 2011 - 10:57am PT
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Ghost has it right.
The carriers are dinosaurs against a sophisticated opponent. Cruise missles will easily take them out. Against a less sophisticated foe, we've probably got more of them than we need.
The only real non-discretionary weapons system we have are the missle subs. Those are our real deterrence against a large and sophisticated foe, because they can't easily be targeted.
When it comes down to it, alot of military spending is pure pork and job generation.
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 12, 2011 - 11:12am PT
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Drones and good intel plus special forces is where the money of the future is going and there will be much less of it to spend.
Carriers are still important though not in the numbers we have probably. The U.S. stopped a potential invasion of Taiwan some years ago by sailing a carrier back and forth in the Taiwan straits to signal our intentions. The Chinese haven't "tested" their missles off the coast of Taiwan since.
Another very interesting development is that the U.S. Navy has made it a goal to have 40% of their energy use come from non renewable sources by 2020. That effort but will no doubt contribute some good technology to the civilian sector in the process.
Good post!
The day after we retire our carrier-groups, the world will change. And not for the better.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Jun 12, 2011 - 11:18am PT
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Now it's just a big, fat, slow-moving target.
With a nuclear reactor aboard to boot!
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Jun 12, 2011 - 11:28am PT
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When was the last time the enemy sunk one of those big, slow moving dinosaurs?
Has it happened in your lifetime?
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apogee
climber
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Jun 12, 2011 - 12:16pm PT
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"...it's 'armed' conflict. You either do it it, or not... "
Actually, it's more complicated than that, bluering. However, chickenhawk neocon Repubs prefer things very simple....which is why I say....
awwww, feck it.
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