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Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

ukdefencejournal.org.uk

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Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#61

Post by ethbr1 »

Barrin92 wrote: post #51
morkalork wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The list of countries "casually arming up" and talking about bringing back conscription is a little concerning.

As someone who went through conscription in Germany, the last year to do so (I think), it's a huge relief to me. Almost three decades of neglect and naivete have made the world less safe, not more. Deterrence works.

Deterrence + democracy.

Deterrence + autocracy is pretty unstable, because eventually the generalissimo gets to thinking that if he already has military capability sitting around...

Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#62

Post by whimsicalism »

_heimdall wrote: post #58
rappatic wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off-topic as far as the article above goes, but do you think it's more likely for global(-ish?) war to erupt because of Europe/Middle East compared to Taiwan? A lot of the discussion around global war pre-2022 was for the late 2020s when China attempts to invade Taiwan. I personally doubt the major global powers will allow the conflicts in Israel and Ukraine to escalate to Western countries actually engaging in comba…

I have been expecting that, if another world war were to kick off, theaters of war would exist both in Europe/Africa/East Asia as well as the Pacific. A big risk for Taiwan, at least in my amateur view, is China feeling emboldened both by seeing an anemic response to other major conflicts and a West that is already distracted by said major conflicts. I grew up with the story that Hong Kong was just as off limits to C…

> I grew up with the story that Hong Kong was just as off limits to China as Taiwan was

Not sure when you grew up but that has been obviously false for at least 40 years

Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#63

Post by SllX »

cue_the_strings wrote: post #44
groby_b wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some major global powers (i.e. China) have a vested interest in that escalation. Having the US tied down in two other conflicts means significantly less resources. Which means Middle East and Ukraine are already part of a global-ish war. Proxy wars, so far, but in service of a larger goal. (No, I don't think China necessarily instigated, but they're sure supporting ongoing conflict) As part of that, I'd also assume t…

I'm under the impression that time is actually working for China and that they don't really require a war; they'll catch up economically soon enough (5-10y) that a war doesn't benefit them at all, and only the US would benefit from one right now, while they still have a chance of nipping their primacy in the bud.

If Nationalism weren’t a factor, there is essentially zero reason for the PRC to ever invade Taiwan.

Nationalism is a factor and the PRC is a totalitarian dictatorship. They’re going to go after what they consider their “rogue province” sooner or later, and whether it benefits them economically or not is a footnote.

Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#64

Post by whimsicalism »

jldugger wrote: post #32
ineedasername wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small arms dumb weapons aren’t going to do much by themselves either. Anything more than a rifle? Chips

I think it's the [artillery shells]( https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/ukraine-... ) that's been a bottleneck thus far in Ukraine. It's like NATO keeps around 3 serious war days worth of ammunition on stock.

in an actual great power conflict, it will be more about cruise missiles and drones - at least initially

Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#65

Post by SllX »

mmoskal wrote: post #22
moomin wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It makes no sense but it’s common parlance. It’s like “Northern Rivers” in Australia meaning “an area on the east coast south of Queensland”. Similarly “The North East” rarely means an area containing Aberdeen, which would make more sense.

Don't get me started on Midwest in the US...

Coming from the Best Coast I’d call it the Mideast if that wasn’t already taken. I begrudgingly accept calling it the Midwest for only that reason.

Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#66

Post by chasil »

amy-petrik-214 wrote: post #60
pstrateman wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's much more effective at extremely high frequencies used in compact radars, like the kind used on fighter jets. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallium_arsenide#GaAs_advantag...

Yea fo sho', and it was the Cray 3 supercomputer actually based on gallium arsenide at the time, meaning faaasssttt clock rates, about 6x faster than compeititors in terms of Hz. So that would be something like a 50 ghz processor today, wild

My phone is faster.

Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#67

Post by PHGamer »

whats the process node it can do. im suprised a fab built in 1991 is stil valuable. the us is trying to build a 5nm fab in arizona and by the time its done well be at 1 or less. granted still probably worth it since it would only be about 7 years old process but 1991. thats gotta be old unless they kept upgrading it

Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#68

Post by mkl »

thebruce87m wrote: post #18
modernpink wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "North East" is the proper name of a NUTS 1 [0] region of the UK. It is distinguished from your interpretation of it as the "north east of the UK" by its use of capital letters, as is standard in English [1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Territorial_Leve... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proper_noun#Modern_English_cap...

Unless I am missing it, all references to “North East” in your first link are accompanied by “England” directly after.

It seems to be used both with and without. In the main table with the maps it's not directly after, there's a comma. The ", England" is specifying the country, same as where it says "Yorkshire and the Humber, England", "East Midlands, England", etc. There's no comma part for "East of England", because there it is part of the name. In the demographics table it is directly followed by "England".

A more official source puts "England" in brackets, as if it's not part of the name but just to disambiguate: https://www.ons.gov.uk/methodology/geography/ukgeographies/e...

Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#69

Post by PHGamer »

whimsicalism wrote: post #62
_heimdall wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been expecting that, if another world war were to kick off, theaters of war would exist both in Europe/Africa/East Asia as well as the Pacific. A big risk for Taiwan, at least in my amateur view, is China feeling emboldened both by seeing an anemic response to other major conflicts and a West that is already distracted by said major conflicts. I grew up with the story that Hong Kong was just as off limits to C…

> I grew up with the story that Hong Kong was just as off limits to China as Taiwan was Not sure when you grew up but that has been obviously false for at least 40 years

the brits gave up hong kong in the 90s. as soon as that happened no one was expecting them to back the case. however, i suppose the brits were optimistic so they didnt have to have regret about losing a colony.

i think taiwan might get some defense but only cause shit is made there and the west cant pretend the chinese wont flex their power

Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#70

Post by Reason077 »

johnfarrelldev wrote: post #37
spacebanana7 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The last of the steel industry is Indian/Chinese owned and is in the process of closing down [1]. There’s actually 23 semiconductor fabs in the UK, presumably with a diversity of owners [2]. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/sep/10/bri... [2] tech uk report: https://pixl8-cloud-techuk.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/prod/p...

It's not closing down, from the article they are moving to newer furnace technology which requires less workers to run.

Correct. There are two major steel producers still operating in the UK: British Steel's Scunthorpe steelworks in the North East of England, and Tata Steel's Port Talbot steelworks in South Wales.

Both have announced plans to convert from blast furnaces to modern electric arc furnaces. This will greatly reduce emissions - they are among the largest industrial polluters in the UK (along with the Drax wood-burning power station). But conversion to arc furnaces also means that fewer workers will be required.

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