Modern Jet Fighters are WWII Battle Ships.

[Nmr1981]

You said that they have one old carrier, and that it caught on fire.

I’m not putting words in your mouth, bud, that is exactly what you said.

The reality, they have three carriers, at sea, and they have several more in various phases of construction. Real carriers. Better than the UK because they have a catapult design. Nearly equal to our own.

Rose colored glasses allow you to pretend that things are better than they are.

So, it is quite clear I am not the one with rose colored glasses. I am not wishing away potential problems by grossly under-stating another nation’s capabilities. Everything I have told you in this thread comes from unclassified sources. Not rhetoric. Not politics. Facts on what the Chinese have said, publicly, what they have done, what they plan to do.

I am a realist. I am aware of the military build up and capabilities of other nations. Not just the Chinese. Comes from decades of having a vested interest in the military landscape and being involved in analysis to define future US capability needs.

I am not faulting the Chinese for their ambitions, but I am accurate on what they are doing to achieve those ambitions and I am not pretending that the ambitions, and the build up, are not happening just to feel better about the current state of world affairs.

This is exactly what I tell my students. There are countries in the world that are constantly improving their militaries to probe our responses and capabilities. It dates back to mercantilism and the race for resources being a zero sum game. I gather a finite resource to deprive you from obtaining it. Many students feel like we could win any war against any foe, with minimal losses. Then we talk history and why we study it.

 

[y_p_w]

This is exactly what I tell my students. There are countries in the world that are constantly improving their militaries to probe our responses and capabilities. It dates back to mercantilism and the race for resources being a zero sum game. I gather a finite resource to deprive you from obtaining it. Many students feel like we could win any war against any foe, with minimal losses. Then we talk history and why we study it.

Even messier in the days of privateers and pirates.

 

[BusyLittleShop]

In 1921 Billy Mitchell proved that the so called unsinkable Battleships were crunchy on the out side and soft in the middle...

Mitchell used his influence in Congress to allow the U.S. Air Service to participate in naval bombing tests that took place during the summer months of 1921. The U.S. Navy put tight controls on the tests to restrict Mitchell and the Air Service. The targets were captured German navy ships, including a submarine (U-117), the USS Iowa, a battleship converted to a radio-controlled fleet target ship, a destroyer (G-102), a German light cruiser Frankfurt, and finally, the German battleship Ostfriesland. The sinking of the Ostfriesland on July 21, 1921, was the most controversial event of the bombing tests. Ignoring the Navy’s restrictions about pressing the attack too vigorously, Mitchell decided to sink the Ostfriesland in direct fashion. After an attack by aircraft carrying 1,000 lb. bombs, his airmen dropped six 2,000 lb. bombs on the battleship, and in a twenty-minute period, the Ostfriesland was sent to the bottom of the sea. No direct hits were scored, however. The Navy protested vigorously that their construction experts were not given enough time to examine the ship, but to no avail.

The father of the USAF who predicted the Pearl Harbor attack...