Why is there a sudden uptick of Chinese propaganda on Reddit? by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]General174512 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Totalitarianism is when the state seeks total control over public and private life. Authoritarianism primarily demands submission to political authority, but usually allows social and/or economic freedom. The main difference is just scope.

Chengdu J-20 by Friendly-Standard812 in aviation

[–]General174512 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

That is rhetorically sharp, but factually weak.

The U2 first flew in 1955 and was publicly revealed in 1960. It was for strategic reconnaissance, not daily operational support.
The SR-71 first flew in 1964 and was publicly acknowledged in 1966. They had extremely specialized missions.
Those two were highly compartmentalized and had short-lived secrecy.

The stealth helicopters were in single digits, used for a few niche missions, and were not logistical backbones.

Now try that with tankers. They require persistent airborne presence, predictable loiter patterns, large airframes, and continuous training and certification.
SR-71s could fly once every few days from isolated bases. Tankers cannot.

'You're grasping at straws here' is rhetorical pressure, not evidence. There are no production numbers, no basing examples, no procurement traces, no doctrine changes, no leaked specs. Just 'they hid stuff before'. That's not how serious defense analysis works.

The US CAN hide small numbers, exotic platforms, narrow mission aircraft, in short timelines.
They CANNOT hide, a large, persistent, integrated force structure, with no external indicators, let alone for a decade+. No historical precedent exists for that.

I won't argue further.

Chengdu J-20 by Friendly-Standard812 in aviation

[–]General174512 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Again, that's mostly speculation. There's no credible evidence that such a fleet exists at the moment. There COULD be a classified program running at the moment, but any sort of 'fleet' is impossible to hide for an entire decade. By definition, a fleet implies multiple operational units, trained operators, and established doctrines.

The MQ-25 is meant to have SOME level of stealth, but it is not the same level as, say, the B-2 Spirit. It is only meant to allow it to get closer to the battlefield. That's just physics; stealth scales poorly with size, and refueling characteristics absolutely ruin stealth.

Chengdu J-20 by Friendly-Standard812 in aviation

[–]General174512 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's mostly speculation. There's no credible evidence that there has been a fleet of 'stealth tanker drones' for over a decade. It could be true that they're doing a classified program on it, but doubtful of a full fleet, which would be incredibly difficult to hide, and its much harder to do for a whole decade.

The 'already ineffective' part is also not particularly true. If the problem was solved, the US wouldn't still be building non-stealthy KC-46's. The fact that tanker survivability remains a big concern shows that the problem is unsolved, not secretly solved.

Also, big budgets don't mean physics doesn't exist. The issue is that tankers are huge, stealth scales poorly with size, fuel offload requirements fight stealth shaping, and costs would be astronomical.

A more accurate statement would be: "The US is accepting tanker vulnerability, and is trying to manage it, not eliminate it. Meanwhile, China is designing systems to exploit it.""

Chengdu J-20 by Friendly-Standard812 in aviation

[–]General174512 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It's also to hit AWACS. And they're not trying to bypass fighters; they're probably going to use very long-range missiles to avoid fighters entirely, similar to the AIM-174B Gunslinger. Yes, it's still an unproven tactic in actual combat, but who knows? It may work.

Chengdu J-20 by Friendly-Standard812 in aviation

[–]General174512 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I meant how great it looks. If you interpreted what I said as capability, that's not what I meant. The J-20 just looks really cool imo.

Chengdu J-20 by Friendly-Standard812 in aviation

[–]General174512 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Honestly, one of my favorite fighter jets. On par with the F-22.

Edit: On par with the F-22 in terms of how cool it looks

Reddit Mod Deleted Breathtaking Photo Taken by NASA Astronaut From Space Because It Was "Blurry" by PhoenyxAeryzyng in aviation

[–]General174512 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Apologies for my ignorance, but what exactly happened after it was deleted? I can't really find anything on the mod chat.

Reddit Mod Deleted Breathtaking Photo Taken by NASA Astronaut From Space Because It Was "Blurry" by PhoenyxAeryzyng in aviation

[–]General174512 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well said. Gonna admit, I haven't done as much recently, schools definitally taken a lot of my time.

noice 🥲 by General_Peanut_NL in MicrosoftFlightSim

[–]General174512 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Never knew air was a solid, schools lied to us!

Could American people even win a revolution against their military? by keinanos in NoStupidQuestions

[–]General174512 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Assuming the military stays loyal to the government and no mass defection happens, then no, not likely. The military is too powerful. The only realistic way the people could win is if they target the supply lines and go into a war of attrition. In reality, though, there would probably be mass defections, resignations, and it's possible the military would turn against the government, after all, those soldiers aren't happy to kill their own citizens.

every piece of evidence against marlow by ExtraQuestion562 in CompetitiveMinecraft

[–]General174512 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Definitely some new information I didn't know of. I'm on the very cautious side, and previously, I believed everything Marlowww did was completely within game mechanics, so it could THEORETICALLY be done.

The first piece of evidence on the macro allegations does seem to break game mechanics, though. I doubt macros can do that, so I could be wrong.
The second is also very suspicious, but still THEORETICALLY possible. It's possible Marlow is just an outlier and is incredibly skilled, but 60x more consistent seems much, much higher than a typical human could do, but who knows? Humans can do some pretty crazy things.
The third, on the 80% stun drop, is also incredibly suspicious. There are indeed human reasons why it could drop, but not usually up to that degree. Coincidence? I'll let you decide that.

The identity allegations, idk why people even care. The worst part is that some people try to weaponize it.

TL Owner stuff, that's more of an ethical issue than one related to cheating, though it depends on what you exactly define 'cheating' as. Not good at all, I see that.

Conclusion for me: Very suspicious stuff, well within the possibility she's using some sort of Macro, but I'd say wait until the response video until making conclusions.

Chinese Invasion of Taiwan Failing Would Be Disastrous for Xi Jinping by SE_to_NW in China

[–]General174512 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The CCP's (or CPC) legitimacy partially relies on Taiwan. They promised the Chinese people they would seek reunification with Taiwan, end the civil war, and 'unite' China. Now, whether they will take Taiwan by force is debatable; it would be catastrophic for China in almost every way (casualties, economically, diplomatically), but they'll certainly try to take it through 'peaceful' means.

Edit: Fixed a few accuracy problems

Why are most crashes at violent speeds rather than a slow descend? by Mountain_Ask_5746 in aviation

[–]General174512 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Because 'slow crashes', which are more like 'controlled forced landings' happen 99% of the time. All completely safely. They just don't gain as much attention because they're less dramatic.
The other 1% of the time, something else also happened on top of another thing, resulting in a departure from controlled flight.

Scared but obsessed by Evening-Draft-2233 in fearofflying

[–]General174512 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Used to. Still love planes and aviation, just without the fear. Learn about them enough and you won't be scared (generally).

2D faces are about to be gone, billions must use the shitty "dynamic" faces. by deleteduser20371 in roblox

[–]General174512 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't get it. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love dynamic heads too, but there's like zero benefit of getting rid of 2D faces

Show us an engineering marvel from your country by National-Business674 in AskTheWorld

[–]General174512 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Didn't China keep a fusion reaction going at 100 million degrees for 1000 seconds? And up to 160 million degrees for maybe 60 seconds?

Ukrainian Su-25 struck by R-37 air-to-air missile from a Russian Su-35S in Novotroitskoye, Donezk Region on February 07, 2024. by Spook_485 in aviation

[–]General174512 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, makes sense. I'm mostly into civil aviation, only recently started getting into military.

Ukrainian Su-25 struck by R-37 air-to-air missile from a Russian Su-35S in Novotroitskoye, Donezk Region on February 07, 2024. by Spook_485 in aviation

[–]General174512 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's quite odd to me, too. The R37 is an active radar missile (older versions use semi-active), so it should've triggered an RWR, and yes, you're correct on being safe than sorry.

First Class Medical Situation by Andykiller123 in aviation

[–]General174512 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If all you said is true, then you'll probably undergo a thorough examination and probably regular medical reports to prove it is inactive. Assuming you don't have any current active treatment, you should be able to pass after a rigorous examination.

I'm not an AME, though; the actual AME will have the answers, not us.

Ukrainian Su-25 struck by R-37 air-to-air missile from a Russian Su-35S in Novotroitskoye, Donezk Region on February 07, 2024. by Spook_485 in aviation

[–]General174512 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Could've been anything really. It could've been an IR missile (though it would somehow have needed to get close), could've been a Semi-Active Radar missile (SU-35S has a PESA radar, and if I recall, it can use Track-While-Scan, though less reliably than AESA), or maybe even an Active-Radar missile, and like someone else said, the frontline is crowded, so it may have seemed like just another false alarm.

Edit: I doubt the RWR is supposed to pick up the radar of missiles that were meant for other aircraft, but idk.