I thought this would be about the declassified UFO
Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches
121–130 of 181 posts
Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a farce. The United States is done fighting Great Power wars. No one talks about it publicly at all because doing so would shatter America's self-image as the Lone Superpower. The military the United States has now is quite capable of wrecking any nation that is not another Great Power. I say wrecking and not defeating, because as should be obvious from the last three decades, the United States has zero inter…
I guess, but ISIS still seems to be a thing. Or in geek-speak. We have the Death Star, as we are the Empire. The Empire still lost.
ISIS got fairly wrecked though.
Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches
#123Wife and I stopped in at Edwards AFB perhaps around 2000? Maybe 1998 or so.... Have to dig up the photos to be sure. The armed guard let us on the base so we could head to Dryden Flight Research Center (now the Armstrong Flight Research Center). In those days I figured you just tried to do a thing until someone said you couldn't. It didn't occur to me that there would be a problem driving in to Dryden. The guard aske…
Wonder if you saw the x-34
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_Sciences_X-34
Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a farce. The United States is done fighting Great Power wars. No one talks about it publicly at all because doing so would shatter America's self-image as the Lone Superpower. The military the United States has now is quite capable of wrecking any nation that is not another Great Power. I say wrecking and not defeating, because as should be obvious from the last three decades, the United States has zero inter…
I guess, but ISIS still seems to be a thing. Or in geek-speak. We have the Death Star, as we are the Empire. The Empire still lost.
Any complex system eventually breaks down. If not this rebellion then the next. Or the one after that.
The system accumulates damage over time, maintenance can't fix everything, eventually it's not worth it to keep it operational. Looking at Trump and Biden I'd say that time is near.
Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
> [...] military supremacy and having the best weapons in the world is a huge part of why the dollar is THE global currency. However, in "How the United States Could Lose a Great-Power War" (RAND, 2019)[0], we read: > [...] For now, U.S. forces appear poorly postured to meet these challenges. That's because both Russia and China have developed formidable networks of missiles, radars, electronic warfare systems, and t…
This is a farce. The United States is done fighting Great Power wars. No one talks about it publicly at all because doing so would shatter America's self-image as the Lone Superpower. The military the United States has now is quite capable of wrecking any nation that is not another Great Power. I say wrecking and not defeating, because as should be obvious from the last three decades, the United States has zero inter…
>The unspoken assumption is that there never will be a "real" war with China or Russia or any other 'near peer'.
Yes, because despite Wikipedia saying that the Cold War ended in the 20th century, we still have thousands of nukes ready to launch at each other in five minutes. There may someday be unconventional war, proxy war, or cyber war, but there will not be a great war unless it begins and ends with a nuclear holocaust.
Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Space Force is now responsible for all DOD launches. However I believe that the payload itself still belongs to the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. Most of the people operating it may be "on loan" to the Space Force, but aren't actually members yet (I think there's only ~100 people so far in the Space Force)
> I think there's only ~100 people so far in the Space Force It has to be more than that, now - I'm pretty sure more than a hundred just went straight there after graduating from USAFA a few weeks back
According to the Wiki article, there's 88 people in the Space Force and 86 of them are 2nd lieutenants
Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches
#127Sat here in lockdown, I have just rewatched Matt Damon's The Martian and yes, we want to go up and out. I am so glad someone is still trying. I am also blown away by the American Federal budget - this is a classified military space program . How much does one of those cost ?!
It kind of reminds me of another bit about the size of the US military budget (What's the largest Air Force in the world? The US Air Force. What's the second largest Air Force in the world? The US Navy)[1]. In terms of budget, the United States probably has at least the top 2 biggest space programs in the world and depending on what parts of the military/intelligence budgets you lump together, #1 is probably not going to be NASA.
[1] I believe that this is actually true if you combine the Navy and Marine Corps and don't count helicopters
Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches
#128That they send it up for years at a stretch mostly indicates that they have not discovered any good uses for it yet. If it were in demand, they would need it back before two years have passed.
Keeping it parked in a hangar when it's not needed would get embarrassing. Leaving it in orbit makes it seem to be doing something, particularly if you pretend it's all hush-hush.
Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is my understanding that we already spend more in healthcare than military. What would you like to fix specifically?
The US spends substantially more on health administration than other nations. Removing that administrative burden (ie the private health insurance organizations as arbiters of health care delivery) would substantially lower the cost. As a percentage of the GDP, the health industry is a larger proportion than military production, but as a percentage of the US Federal budget, the military consumes roughly half.
Covid response was of course badly botched in the US, but look at Germany for comparison to its single-payer neighbors. A decentralised, competitive healthcare industry is worth a lot if push comes to shove.
That said, I agree that the american healthcare market is predatory and has way too high margins. But they are only part of the "problem". Doctors make a lot more money in the US than almost anywhere else, and pharmaceutical companies often get more than half their global revenue from the US market alone.
Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches
#130One day after https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/12617475806665523... can’t be a coincidence right
If Bill Pullman ran for President I'd vote for him in a heartbeat. Hell, I'm tempted to write him in this time around.
> Hell, I'm tempted to write him in this time around.
Another Trump vote, then?