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Noone could’ve seen this coming, how were they supposed to know that the strait of hormuz is so important!
by bootsmann 7mo ago
Noone could’ve seen this coming, how were they supposed to know that the strait of hormuz is so important!
- yxhuvud 7mo agoI'm actually somewhat surprised Iran is openly telling us they are using underwater drones for this. That piece of technological advance has gone mostly under the radar (!) so far.
- chinathrow 7mo ago> That piece of technological advance has gone mostly under the radar (!) so far The Ukraine would like to have a word.
- simonw 7mo agoUnderwater drones, not drones in general.
- bootsmann 7mo agoUkraine has been sinking Russian warships in their harbor using underwater drones for at least a year now.
- yxhuvud 7mo agoThe drones that are mainly used there are the flying kind.
- trynumber9 7mo ago"Mainly" but they've been assaulting Russian boats and ships with USVs and submersibles. For example - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Baby#Sub_Sea_Baby https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Baby#Sub_Sea_Baby
- cyberax 7mo agoUkraine completely locked up the Russian fleet inside its bases with the underwater drones.
- bootsmann 7mo agoIt’s Ukraine, no “the”.
- comrade1234 7mo agoIn many languages the article is necessary. I assume English is their second language.
- bootsmann 7mo agoYes but as one of the other commenters pointed out, its a charged term when it comes to Ukraine so its worth mentioning to people that use it accidentally.
- technothrasher 7mo agoFYI, "The Ukraine" is politically charged wording held over from Soviet times, and implies that it is part of Russia. The independent country is known simply as "Ukraine".
- cloche 7mo agoHow do you explain "back in the USSR"?
- jjgreen 7mo ago... or "Born in the USA"
- SideburnsOfDoom 7mo agoFor the same reason as "The UK" or "The USA" - all of them are acronyms starting "The Union of ..." or "The United ...". Similarly you say "The commonwealth of Massachusetts" but not "The Massachusetts". This does not apply to Ukraine, unless you want to say "The Republic of Ukraine".
- noumenon1111 7mo agoYou don't know how lucky you are, boy...
- comrade1234 7mo agoThere are plenty of languages with gendered country names. Ukraine is die Ukraine (feminine gender) in German and the article is necessary since changing the article changes the meaning of what you're expressing. Whenever I see/hear "the Ukraine" I assume English is their second language.
- chinathrow 7mo agoYes, my bad, I am not an english native, thanks for the reminder.
- RobotToaster 7mo agoWhat defense is there against something like this? AFAIK only a few US aircraft carriers are equipped with anti torpedo torpedoes, and one of those sitting in the straight would be pretty vulnerable. Of course that could be the entire idea.
- SideburnsOfDoom 7mo agoThe calculation is that of course there are defences, but if you have a big stockpile of $20K drones, and your opponent has a limited number of $2mil drone interceptors, then you can keep throwing drones and keeping your opponent busy there, and you're coming out ahead even before one finally gets through. See: https://bsky.app/profile/mekka.mekka-tech.com/post/3mgrvx5grf22r https://bsky.app/profile/mekka.mekka-tech.com/post/3mgrvx5gr...
- wing-_-nuts 7mo agoThis is very much a 'you break it, you buy it' situation. The US should be running destroyer screens for convoys a la WW2 today, yet AFAIK the US fleet is sitting hundreds of miles out of the Persian Gulf, within bombing range, outside of easy strike range.
- mothballed 7mo agoIt would be cheaper just to build an oil pipeline around it than to cover insurance and risk through that Strait. It would do well to just forget the Strait exists, our conflict has taken it out of commission for the indefinite future.
- lm28469 7mo agoLet's replace a choke point by an even smaller single static point of failure transporting highly flammable content, are you an adviser for the white house? If not you should apply
- mothballed 7mo agoYou might be surprised to find out the Abu Dhabi pipeline, which does this exact thing, is still running.
- wing-_-nuts 7mo agoCheaper but less resilient to attacks. Pipelines are fixed infra, and are imminently targetible by even the smallest drones. One successful attack and your entire pipeline is down. Probably a 'why not both' question though. If the US could quick deploy enough pipelines to support the entire d-day offensive back during ww2 I don't see why we couldn't do so today
- lenkite 7mo agoGood idea, but pipeline would need to be 100m underground
- jmward01 7mo ago
- RobRivera 7mo agoI see what you did there
- altmanaltman 7mo agoThey forgot to add "check all angles (including the OBVIOUS ones!)" in the AI prompt.