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Comment Re:Subs as aircraft carriers (Score 1) 75

Range and stealth when you need to to launch an aircraft rather than a cruise missile, with the advantage of his enemy staying with little way to know where the aircraft came from.

Uh, cruise missiles have greater ranges than aircraft and, except for stealth aircraft, have lower radar signatures. Also, a sub would have to surface to launch aircraft but can launch missiles while submerged.

Comment Re:Subs as aircraft carriers (Score 4, Interesting) 75

In the beginning, Barbarossa was launched with the assumption that the Soviet Union would collapse quickly. This did not happen, for various military, economic and political reasons.

Its easy to tell why it happened: HItler got distracted. Hitler pulled resources from the drive on Moscow and diverted them to the attack in the Caucasus for the oil fields. Had he continued the drive on Moscow they would have more than likely made it before winter, Stalin would have had to abandon the city, and most Soviet resistance would have collapsed. HIs insistance on personally controlling the war cost him the war and eventually his life.

I always found it interesting that, in the waning months of the war, many in the German high command clung to the hope that they would ally with the Americans and fight the Russians. Reading histories with 1st hand accounts and personal war diaries of the Wehrmacht can really change how you look at the war and really humanizes them.

Comment Re:Subs as aircraft carriers (Score 1) 75

In fact submarine aircraft carriers is a good idea

Why? Subs can lauch anti-ship missiles out of their torpedo tubes. They have vertical launchers for cruise missiles for land bombardment. A German firm is even developing sub-launched anti-air missiles similar to Sidewinders in capabilities. Aircraft carriers these days are more defensive weapons designed to protect fleets than they are offensive weapons, while subs are excellent offensive weapons.

Comment Re:Subs as aircraft carriers (Score 5, Interesting) 75

The germans had great engineering, but between this, the Bismarck, and the Tiger tanks (with engines/transmissions that broke down frequently and couldn't handle the load), they had major failings too in the economy department of bang for your buck [reichsmark]. Leadership was mostly to blame.

As the war dragged on, Hitler became increasingly convinced that technology would turn the tide for the Germans. The V-series rockets, the ME-262, the Tiger/King Tiger, all were intended to make up for the fact that they were increasingly sending young boys and old men onto the front lines. Numerous advisors and ranking members of teh military (at least claimed to have) attempted to persuade Hitler that these programs were a waste of resources but he was adamant in his support of them. I wonder if a lot of it was due to he increasingly deteriorated mental state as the combination of stress, drugs, and mental diseases (Parkinsons and possibly syphyllis if I am not mistaken ) took their toll.

Comment Product of the military culture of Japan (Score 5, Insightful) 75

If you do any significant amount of reading regard the Japanese in WW2, you notice that there was often an over reliance on trickery, subterfuge, and a focus on the means rather than the end goal. Part of it was desperation borne out of being completely outmatched technologically, but part of it was also a deeply entrenched belief that the fighting spirit of the Japanese soldier would allow him to overcome any hardship, any adversary. Examples such as Guadalcanal, where they landed the 900-man Ichiki Detachment with orders to destroy the 10,000-strong Marine landing force; the countless instances of forsaking strong, pre-prepared defensive positions for banzai charges that killed hundreds or thousands of Japanese at the cost of a handful of Americans; to untrained high school boys with just enough flight training to be able to take off and fly level piloting aircraft with nothing more than an airspeed indicator and a compass trying to sink aircraft carriers. Necessity really is the mother of inventions, but when it is combined with desperation it can spawn some of the craziest ideas, which more often as not result in disaster.

Comment Re:Technology allows (Score 3, Insightful) 636

Are you joking? People in "educated" countries don't "stop having kids" because they're educated. They stop having kids because they're "focusing on their careers". If there is no "career" to focus on, what keeps you from having kids? People in rich countries don't have kids because they're TOO BUSY WORKING. People in poor countries have lots of kids because THEY'RE UNEMPLOYED (or underemployed) and guess what? the only fun thing they can afford is fucking their wife.

Poor countries tend to have a hjigher birthrate because they have higher infant and child mortality rates due to unsanitary conditions and a lack of access to adequate medical care. Also, employment in poor countries tends to be almost exclusively manual work such as farming, simple manufacturing (textiles, etc), or even scavenging. These types of jobs pay very little, so the more kids you have, the more income your family can bring in and the more likely you are to not starve to death.

Comment Re:Why do they not have the paper as backup? (Score 1) 263

What I'm wondering is what would have happened had this iPad crash occurred during the flight post-takeoff. Why do they not carry the paper manuals as a backup in case this sort of thing happens?

Most airlines keep a paper copy of the flight kit in the cockpit. The idea of tablets is so pilots no longer have to carry around 35lb flight bags. I find it hard to believe that American didn't have a backup hardcopy onboard.

Comment Re:Not self directed but able to compensate (Score 1) 216

So couple this with the autoscoping technoglogy, and I wonder what future sniper courses will look like, and will they continue to teach basics.

Probably not much. It's one reason why they still teach hand-to-hand combat: technology can break. A sniper still would need to learn how to stalk, recon an objective/target, and hit something at a very long range (which includes computing the shot). Anyone in a specialized task such as a military sniper should know the science and technique that goes into applying their craft. Technology can enhance but shouldn't supplant the basics. An analogy would be a mathematician who can use a calculator but doesn't know how to multiply/divide by hand.

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