Ukraine War | Russia launches (I)CBM (not nuke) at Ukraine?

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gtyellowjacket said:
Heck yeah we should spend $100B or $200B every few decades to neuter Russia. Heck yeah we can sell arms to the 21st largest economy in the world to make a Chinese invasion impossible.

Don't conflate that with spending $900B every single year on our defense. Its more than the next nine countries combined and 6 of those are our allies. Its way too much money and doesn't serve any purpose beyond getting politicians reelected.
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Wrong. We are using missiles that were produced 20 years ago. Even if we want to just restock our inventories, how do u think we are going to do so? You think those factories are going to just sit idle until the need comes up? Do u think the equipment will never break down? Do u think the expertise won't retire?
 
tonman said:
Wrong. We are using missiles that were produced 20 years ago. Even if we want to just restock our inventories, how do u think we are going to do so? You think those factories are going to just sit idle until the need comes up? Do u think the equipment will never break down? Do u think the expertise won't retire?
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I think it can be done much more cheaply while needing to engage in less parts of the world.
 
gtyellowjacket said:
I think it can be done much more cheaply while needing to engage in less parts of the world.
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It's economics. We are not mass producing these weapons. We're not using them up each year unless we're in constant wars. We're paying for the ability to have these weapon systems for a specified life. Otherwise you end up using North Korean artillery and Iranian drones.

A hammer cost $400 because we're not making hammers for home depot and the hammer has to meet spec. Because if the hammer doesn't work as intended, people may die.
 
gtyellowjacket said:
. . .. Don't conflate that with spending $900B every single year on our defense. Its more than the next nine countries combined and 6 of those are our allies. Its way too much money and doesn't serve any purpose beyond getting politicians reelected.
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Yeah, but let's see what tune you are singing when the ALIENS! in their fancy UFO's come for our women. When the USA! smacks those ALIENS! back from whence they came and women all over the world turn their adoring eyes to AMERICAN MEN in gratitude for being saved from the Aliens' breeding farms, you'll think every single penny was well spent and well worth it.
 
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tonman said:
It's economics. We are not mass producing these weapons. We're not using them up each year unless we're in constant wars. We're paying for the ability to have these weapon systems for a specified life. Otherwise you end up using North Korean artillery and Iranian drones.

A hammer cost $400 because we're not making hammers for home depot and the hammer has to meet spec. Because if the hammer doesn't work as intended, people may die.
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The reason the hammer is $400 is actually a funny story. TLDR, it was a weird accounting issue. The government was buying a bunch of spare parts, one of which was a hammer. The accounting department spread the cost of r&d and some other stuff evenly across all the spare parts so the hammer got the same markup as a jet engine.

The myth of the $600 hammer

The myth of the $600 hammer
www.govexec.com www.govexec.com

And again, spending more than the next nine countries, six of whom are our allies, makes no sense. Is the UK using North Korean or Iranian weapons?
 
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05C40 said:
Yeah, but let's see what tune you are singing when the ALIENS in their fancy UFO's come for our women. When the USA! smacks those ALIENS back from whence they came and women all over the world turn their adoring eyes to AMERICAN MEN in gratitude for being saved from the Aliens' breeding farms, you'll think every single penny was well spent and well worth it.
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That's ridiculous. If aliens do come down and start stealing our women, all we need to do is recruit our inexhaustible supply of drunk crop dusters and utilize our computer programmers to create a computer virus that can cripple the computers of an interstellar race but somehow can't transfer from Windows to Mac operating systems. If we were able to do that in the '90s, I pity the foolish aliens that would try to steal our women 25 years later.

Alcoholic general aviation pilots and a few computer programmers are a whole lot cheaper than what we spend on checking a bunch of Russians who can't fight their way 300 mi closer to us and our third largest trading partner who can't cross the Taiwan straits.
 
gtyellowjacket said:
That's ridiculous. If aliens do come down and start stealing our women, all we need to do is recruit our inexhaustible supply of drunk crop dusters and utilize our computer programmers to create a computer virus that can cripple the computers of an interstellar race but somehow can't transfer from Windows to Mac operating systems. If we were able to do that in the '90s, I pity the foolish aliens that would try to steal our women 25 years later.

Alcoholic general aviation pilots and a few computer programmers are a whole lot cheaper than what we spend on checking a bunch of Russians who can't fight their way 300 mi closer to us and our third largest trading partner who can't cross the Taiwan straits.
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But your way the drunk crop dusters and computer programmers are the ones who get all the women, not US taxpayers in general.
 
05C40 said:
But your way the drunkncrop dusters and computer programmers are the ones who get all the women, not US taxpayers in general.
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As a computer programmer, I can assure you that your fears are unfounded.

I can't speak for crop dusters. Those fly boys seem to get all the chicks.
 
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Politically, it'll be very difficult to cut the military budget. It'll mean cutting bases and factories which are the primary revenue generator for some areas. I agree we do need to cut back military spending if we actually want to balance our budget (along with tax increases, so a double whammy for those politicians).
 
ronjon said:
Politically, it'll be very difficult to cut the military budget. It'll mean cutting bases and factories which are the primary revenue generator for some areas. I agree we do need to cut back military spending if we actually want to balance our budget (along with tax increases, so a double whammy for those politicians).
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Agreed. And if you cut the budget, you also have to cut the missions. My goal would not be to ask our military to do more with less, but to scale back the number of overseas commitments and scale back the cost.
 
gtyellowjacket said:
If aliens do come down and start stealing our women
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Genesis chapter 6:

When human beings began to grow numerous on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw how beautiful the daughters of human beings were, and so they took for their wives whomever they pleased... The Nephilim appeared on earth in those days, as well as later, after the sons of God had intercourse with the daughters of human beings, who bore them sons. They were the heroes of old, the men of renown.
 
hedge said:
Genesis chapter 6:

When human beings began to grow numerous on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw how beautiful the daughters of human beings were, and so they took for their wives whomever they pleased... The Nephilim appeared on earth in those days, as well as later, after the sons of God had intercourse with the daughters of human beings, who bore them sons. They were the heroes of old, the men of renown.
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That's a different work of fiction. I was actually referencing the 1996 scify/action blockbuster, Independence Day. But the bible is a decent yarn too.
 
Ukrainian forces are withdrawing from the old front line north of Krasnogorovka as Russian forces are assaulting Zhelannoe Pervoe. Russian forces are also advancing inside Selidovo, and are on the outskirts of Ukrainsk. The southern front is heating up. I fear the Russians are very close to breaking through in several areas and advancing 7-10km a day. Things are bleak for the UA.
 
Batt Boy said:
Ukrainian forces are withdrawing from the old front line north of Krasnogorovka as Russian forces are assaulting Zhelannoe Pervoe. Russian forces are also advancing inside Selidovo, and are on the outskirts of Ukrainsk. The southern front is heating up. I fear the Russians are very close to breaking through in several areas and advancing 7-10km a day. Things are bleak for the UA.
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It seems both sides have sacrificed some defense to bolster their offense. It's odd though, the Ukranians have forces they can use to defend this area, they're just choosing not to do so. Some Russians think something is up because of this.

The Ukranian military leadership also wants to change this war from WW1 style pound each other (which favors Russia) to a mobile war with tactics and movement (which favors Ukraine). Not sure if this is part of that strategy or not.
 
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