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Comment Re:Submarines are the undisputed... (Score 1) 439

1. The natural counter to a submarine is cheap mass produced surface vessels specifically tasked with anti-sub duty. There's be scarcely few, 1 in fact, kills where an underwater submarine killed another underwater submarine. The predominate number of submarine on submarine kills during WW2 were surface to surface or underwater to surface in which the target killed was on the surface making it's sole difference from any other surface vessels its low profile.

2. The B-52 mission the US flew to Iraq requires two mid-air refuelings which meant it required a friendly base for the air-tanker to launch from where the B-52 could have launched from in the first place.

Comment Re:This, and then some (Score 1) 439

A 16" Mark VII turret cost $1.4m to install which I cannot tell if that's adjusted for inflation or the cost in the 1940s. The guns themselves were probably at least $200,000 apiece so the total turret + gun combination was probably around $2-2.5m in sunk costs. Each projectile costs about $10,000 to produce (according to a 1999 GAO report I found). Cruise missiles will always be far more expensive than artillery fire.

Comment Re:You sunk my battleship (Score 1) 439

The battleship class would need a signficant relook but I have a feeling that direct long range fire provided by guns and turrets is obsolete. I could see the battleship revived as a new class with large gun turrets removed and the ship's direct fire capable handed over to cruise missiles (more compact) and having the ship bristle with CIWS or other anti-air systems.

I would also expect such a ship to have its belt and underwater armed strengthed and see these vessels being close escorts for carriers.

Comment Re:Big Data (Score 1) 439

In WW2 battleships were cycled off into a direct fire role for amphibious operations as well as a large platform for anti-air weapons. There were very few ship-to-ship gunfights in WW2 involving battleships. I don't think we'll ever see battleships again, at least not as they've been defined, however I definitely see a potential for battleship sized vessels that serve the direct fire and anti-air roles just as well if not better than battleships ever did. If we work from a root that the battleship size/displacement were instead to be a vessel with the maximum amount of CIWS possible while relying on cruise missiles to serve its direct fire function you could have a serviceable replacement for the battleship.

Comment Re:What? (Score 1) 68

Muons are deflected by heavy materials like nuclear waste. The object your looking for does not need to be between the detector and the atmosphere (implied to be underneath the object). The object can and that would work in the sense that you would have a blank spot in the detector corresponding to where the waste is. Instead they're relying on the muons being deflected by the waste where detectors on the surface can pick up those muons and use the array of collects and deflected muons to triangulate where the waste is located.

Comment Re:They brought it on themselves (Score 1) 379

Wheeler's statement contains very few things to be positive about. They're not going to do last-mile unbundling which means the monopolies are secured. There won't be any rate regulation so without the competition there's nothing to stop them from raising rates without improving service. End user throttling has been the majority of throttling issues while the big published ones alleged to be throttling are actually congested routes so this statement doesn't address that. I just don't see very much that's positive.

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