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Article is fancy money begging but has some truth in it. From my layman understanding core defence rests on GPS and hypersonic misiles. China has their own GPS

Article is fancy money begging but has some truth in it. From my layman understanding core defence rests on GPS and hypersonic misiles. China has their own GPS and good satelite tech. US has Starlink, space millitary branch. So that’s enough to prevent all-in war. The Taiwan war if happens will be more boring than you think. Probably it will be chinese embargo for Taiwan and US. But that’s not profitable unless you secure other core customer (EU). Win would guarantee higher currency value against dollar but you get embargo anyway so again no profit. Also with economic issues means less export. Drones probably will be important but US has laser tech to fight them. Can invest into better/faster image recognition. I think communication systems could be improved. You still find that command is often poor (soldiers act autonomically but dont have enough context info - AI could help with broadcasting). Not relevant for Taiwan issue. Cybersecurity is obvious AI target, because the point is for things to go wrong ;) Taiwan war would need to be siege or total destruction as assault by sea is not feasible AFAIK. Siege means economic war or stupid attrition war. If chinese would be stupid enough to go for attrition war then US has advantage in the sea and air. In such case air defence would matter in Taiwan and then also logistics, that why Starship delivery is needed tech. Economic is also not that sure as US can block Singapur choke point and then you need to go around Brazil to trade by sea.

machiaweliczny 4y ago
If I was Chinese I would invest into energy and food and ignore every other country (as they have most rare-earth). When it comes to computation then photonic computing could be the leap needed.
bee_rider 4y ago
I’m also not involved in weapons development, but I’m pretty sure by hypersonic missiles, you mean ICBMs. Technically ICBMs are hypersonic and missiles, but when people say hypersonic missiles, they mean something more like a hypersonic cruise missile or glide vehicle. The idea being, they don’t follow a ballistic trajectory and can maneuver a bit, harder to shoot down, and so scarier to our carrier groups. In the end of course, the final “core defense,” as you put it, for major powers rests on the fact that we have a bunch of nuclear ICBMs, so, a real existential war between us can’t actually end in real victory for either party (the “loser” in a nuclear war just gets to be first in line in Hell, where we all be for destroying civilization). Anyway, the reason I bring up the distinction is that ICBMs are old tech, relatively simple, while hypersonic missiles are a recent thing, never tested in battle. Less interesting to the US I think, they are mostly for scaring away carriers, so obviously China would like them!

machiaweliczny 4y ago

If I was Chinese I would invest into energy and food and ignore every other country (as they have most rare-earth). When it comes to computation then photonic computing could be the leap needed.

bee_rider 4y ago

I’m also not involved in weapons development, but I’m pretty sure by hypersonic missiles, you mean ICBMs. Technically ICBMs are hypersonic and missiles, but when people say hypersonic missiles, they mean something more like a hypersonic cruise missile or glide vehicle. The idea being, they don’t follow a ballistic trajectory and can maneuver a bit, harder to shoot down, and so scarier to our carrier groups. In the end of course, the final “core defense,” as you put it, for major powers rests on the fact that we have a bunch of nuclear ICBMs, so, a real existential war between us can’t actually end in real victory for either party (the “loser” in a nuclear war just gets to be first in line in Hell, where we all be for destroying civilization). Anyway, the reason I bring up the distinction is that ICBMs are old tech, relatively simple, while hypersonic missiles are a recent thing, never tested in battle. Less interesting to the US I think, they are mostly for scaring away carriers, so obviously China would like them!