I sure as hell wouldn’t want the job of securing logistics in the northern woods with a bunch of angry Canucks running around.

This guy seems like he might know what he’s talking about but is there a version that isn’t a 3 hour video?

Like an article or something?

They do work. They’ve been using them to blow up tanks.

The way they’re used there isn’t much time for that. With regular drones they hunt around for something to kill and then dive in. The wired drones stay hidden until the target comes into range and then they just come out for the strike. The defenders only have a few seconds to react.

Wire guided missiles have been in use since WWII.

Markus Reisner has a pretty good explanation of how they’re deployed in one of his videos.

They have much shorter range so they basically set them up as ambushes. The wired drone gets hidden somewhere at a choke point. An other operator flies a recon drone at long range. When they report that a good target has come into range the wired drone takes off and hits the target.

I thought this would be a thread where we post our unhinged snacks.

My goto smoothie:

• 1 banana
• 2 scoops of protein powder
• 3 heaping tablespoons of Benco cocoa powder
• 1 heaping spoon full of peanutbutter
• 2 cups of whole milk

Clocks in at about 1000 calories. It’s great if you’re the type of person who chronically forgets to eat

Exactly. The real debate is on which parts should be off limits.

Most people can think of some speech that they consider so horrible that nobody should be allowed to say it.

People often try to hedge that position by arguing that they’re not even really infringing on anyone’s speech because their form of restriction doesn’t meet a sufficient threshold of censorship.

Does anyone?

The closest I can think of to “real free speech absolutists” is the old-school doctrinal libertarians. Even they have limits on what they believe should be allowed and specifically state that contracts should be legally enforceable.

That sounds like a much more modest proposal.

Stealth is part of it. The those two systems are the most advanced in the world on many factors.

It’s unlikely that anyone will develop a superior system any time in the next decade or so.

That’s sad but I understand.

You brought joy to a lot of people but it must have been a ton of work.

Sorry. That was an error on my part. I’ll correct it.

I’m confused.
That’s not a poem.

I was assured that Sprog bestows awesome poems upon the masses.

China has more rare earth deposits than the US but that’s a bit misleading. Rare earths show up in trace amounts all over the world. China has them in higher concentrations.

The bigger issue is that China has been the main refiner of rare earths for decades. That means they have all the infrastructure for actually making it available and they’ve developed a bunch of technologies and processes to do it way cheaper and more efficiently than anyone else can.

I don’t know the pricing specifics of EV motors but I have some familiarity with electric motors, in general. The technology hasn’t really changed much in a long time. We’ve have 3 phase motors and hall effect sensors for ages. They’re better than older electric motors but the huge technology leap, that made EVs practical, was the batteries.

Fighter planes are very expensive to develop.

The F-35 program cost something around $1.7 trillion. That’s several times the annual GDP of Canada. That’s more than half of Canada’s annual GDP.

A better bet would be to enter some joint development program with partners in the EU.

From what I understand, those are fine if you’re going up against enemies that don’t have stealth (and all the ancillary technologies that go with it).

The general military analysis is that the F-35 and J-35 are superior to anything else in the air and are similar in capabilities to each other. Conflicts between them will come down to who can make more of them faster. Conflicts between one of them and an older generation fighter seems to be, they’ll blow you up before you can see them.

EU better get cracking and start making stealth planes.

What would they do instead? Get a bunch of J-35s, like Egypt?

Longer than that. China has been promoting battery technology as a strategic initiative since the 90’s.

Every major country subsidizes R&D. That’s what federal research grants are all about. The NSF, NIH, etc do exactly that.

Other US subsidies on EVs aren’t specifically restricted to R&D but US companies could apply it to that, if they want.

edit: typo

It’s a combination of issues. In no particular order;

• precursor availability: All the stuff that EVs are made of, is made in China. If you want to build EVs it’s easier and cheaper to get all the parts in China than it is in the US
• logistics: China has more modern roads, railroads, ports etc. That makes it much easier to get parts in and finished products out
• government aid: China has prioritized EVs for a long time and has all kinds of policies to encourage EV production
• EV infrastructure: China has more EV charging stations than the US and EU combined
• limited ICE competition: China doesn’t have any big ICE vehicle companies. There are no significant groups in China advocating against EVs

Labor costs don’t seem to be a factor at all. EVs are made in modern factories that are almost completely automated. The biggest part of “precursor availability” is likely batteries. The main innovation in EVs was the batteries. The electric motors, chassis, computers, etc are all secondary to batteries that can safely hold a lot of charge and discharge reliably. China dominates that market too.