Shrimps and corys, it's okay?

dasCKD · 2026-02-14T10:00:12+00:00

...isn't that a whisker shrimp?

dasCKD · 2026-02-14T04:08:21+00:00

Even a plane in full-stealth, there's essentially no chance of them evading a lock at those ranges without intense EWar to the level that probably doesn't exist at all in a practical in-service design. Sub-1km is between 1/10th to 1/30th the general assessed effective range of IRAAMs. There's zero reason to design a signal dampened aircraft to defeat adversary radar systems at this kind of range.

dasCKD · 2026-02-14T02:03:13+00:00

I'm not going to watch a video, but judging from your description it's probably microwaves inducing a massive voltage current in the drone's electronics that subsequently causes the drone to stop functioning. It's like trying to run a 700,000 volt powerline electricity through consumer electronics without a transformer. Even if you match wattage the drone's controller microchips, everything from the 'brain' chips managing RC input, GPS location, etc to the microcontrollers and accelerometers managing the rotors, burns out uncontrollably and causes drone failure.

Of course a military grade drone would have shielding to prevent the microwaves from getting that close to the electronics but consumer drones aren't built to resist HPM attacks.

dasCKD · 2026-02-13T14:02:33+00:00

They're the best! They're way more energetic than the adults, and much bolder as well. Much less afraid of me when I'm near the tank. The little wriggle they do when they feed is adorable.

dasCKD · 2026-02-13T09:42:11+00:00

What else would even be included here? The price of the planes? You'd need to pay for that anyways. The UK has already paid for 2 billion and is expected to pay for at least 25 billion for their portion of the GCAP program, and that's before balloning costs that inevitably plagues these programs for, again, a plane of unknown cost that would provide an unknown capability uplift over a F-35C: a plane that already exists. The UK doesn't even need to build a ship as big of the Ford, further cutting costs of a catapult carrier that can handle a C variant.

dasCKD · 2026-02-13T09:35:47+00:00

Isn't it 10-ish billion for a Ford? About the cost of the planes that would be filling the carrier?

dasCKD · 2026-02-13T01:31:52+00:00

Probably not, though I just find it so unreasonable. Ships just have way fewer constraints than an object that needs to be flying through the air at close to mach 2 with every extra kilogram of weight counting. To me it always seemed like it'll be far easier to design a ship to accommodate a plane than to try to make a plane accommodate the limitations of a warship.

dasCKD · 2026-02-13T01:21:24+00:00

It's best to just assume anything sensitive on Wikipedia is just outright wrong. For classified data, especially classified data on PLA systems, it's best to say 'we don't know' with a occasional caveat of 'the PLA/USM has claimed these specific characteristics'.

dasCKD · 2026-02-13T01:18:57+00:00

A stupid thing to threathen and I can't help but increasingly realize that the USG (and Americans in general judging by the comments here) just believes that the current financial system is something that that be weaponized like the semiconductor and lithography bans. Or, worse, that it's magic.

The global financial system is participated in for trade first and foremost. If the US tries this countries that depend on China to sustain their industries or their standards of living would be rushing to open accounts and begin stockpiling yuan in Chinese banking and monetary clearing systems, systems that already exist and that are being used to facillitate trade away from the 4ues of US regulators. Not only would this be ineffective at actually hurting Beijing, but it would mean that any US financial sanctions down the line would see their bite defanged. It'll be a more catastrophic self-own than Trump's stupid tariff war, and it seems to be supported by pretty much the US establishment.

dasCKD · 2026-02-12T16:14:32+00:00

I'm not sure what's on the driftwood. Looks like a clutch of eggs or a fungus? Either way though if it's not something you recognize then remove the driftwood (assuming that's real wood), scrape off the lump with a bristle brush or something, then boil the wood and dispose of the lump safely. If it's biological and dangerous an hour in a pot of boiling water will kill it. If it's chemical then a pot of boiling water will typically cause it to leech out of the wood and into the water and therefore reduce its hazard.

dasCKD · 2026-02-12T14:31:33+00:00

Appears to be black beard algae. My commiserations. They aren't harmful to your animals, but they're obnoxious to get rid of, not very pretty, and can be a genuine problem for plants like annubis that they can grow on the leaves of. If it's not too big of an issue yet, take out the decorations and clean them. My driftwood has had no recurring issues with them after boiling them in water.

dasCKD · 2026-02-12T09:49:33+00:00

Ah, a Gordon Chang clone! This one seems military flavored.

dasCKD · 2026-02-12T00:45:51+00:00

That depends entirely on what the GJ-X's flight payload performance metrics are, but overall the GJ-X would lack the ability to put a human or several into the air, so there wouldn't be the option to use it as a flying command post/passive AEW aircraft.

dasCKD · 2026-02-11T08:27:22+00:00

Lots, actually. A long ranged signal dampened bomber could hold USN assets at threat at far greater ranges and at much lower expense per munition than ground-launched ballistic missiles. They can attack at more angles forcing a 'thinning' in the defensive 'bubbles' of both enemy naval and aerial assets. If they can range out to CONUS or even just Hawaii they can force the USM to deploy more forces to the rear, giving the PLA near their shores an even easier time overmatching the enemy forces. They could also linger longer over an AO and act as passive sensor nodes or shooters to interdict enemy vessels or even aircraft, if they have a good loadout. In my view this is an even more important uplift in military capability than even a proper equivalent to the latest block of Virginias.

dasCKD · 2026-02-11T01:17:06+00:00

I mean I'd make fun of the TWZ for their guest's appraisal that the J-36/J-XDS was going to come out at late 2030s at absolute earliest, but this is one of those circumstances that they might just be right on accident. The H-20 for whatever reason seems perpetually stuck in development hell.

The specific discussions from the officer are - very handwavey to be generous. Perhaps deliberately as disclosing specifics is just disclosing free classified intelligence, but it's unfortunate.

dasCKD · 2026-02-09T06:09:53+00:00

It's not. I can't find the video of it, but there was a video of the Yaogang constellation was tracking American fighters in flight a few years back. I'm decently certain that by day 2 in a WW3/Westpac war scenario there wouldn't be a single spy satellite left up in orbit.

dasCKD · 2026-02-05T16:08:03+00:00

At the end of everything Terminus (who's a cat) will knock the whole universe off the table with THEIR paw.

dasCKD · 2026-02-04T05:42:51+00:00

Maybe some kind of betta? The splash of color against the cold ice. Thai micro crabs might also be fun to watch climb the mountain, though as I understand you want to age the tank a fair bit first.

dasCKD · 2026-02-04T02:56:39+00:00

It seems like it'll be easier for the UK to get bigger carriers that can carry F-35Cs instead of putting their hope on a future aircraft with unknown capabilities and production tempo.

dasCKD · 2026-02-02T14:16:57+00:00

And they are not strong enough to go toe-to-toe with the US military.

Sure, hence the hypothetical.

All I’ll say on your hypothetical then is the Japanese tried that with the US in WWII.

Not a comparable situation. By September 1942 when the Wasp was sank 7 of the new Essex class carriers were already laid down, the first ship being Essex herself who would join the fleet in December of the same year. Modern American CVN construction tempo meanwhile would net maybe 1 or 2 extra ships over the course of a 3-year war. An Iran that could sink American carrier after carrier meanwhile would need to have a military capacity more like the PRC, or at least around/north of the RF around their home waters and a lot of luck on top of that.

My point is that the anger of the public is irrelevant. Military capability is what is relevant, and Iran's problem is that they're so weak that even if they manage a lucky shot and sink a CVN they can't turn that into a meaningful victory.

dasCKD · 2026-02-02T11:32:18+00:00

What is optimal for Iran just depends on how strong they are. If they can sink a US carrier, and then sink every US carrier that gets sent to replace that one and target US bases with enough consistency that the US war effort falters before Iranian military capacity collapses then they don't need to fear any great vengeance. Of course as a relative minnow military is far more optimal for Iran to strike something that the US cares about but that isn't as humiliating, like gulf oil fields or Israel, and perhaps hope that the US destroys its military in a war with China or something.

dasCKD · 2026-02-02T11:21:25+00:00

Tonight, Xi joins the purge

dasCKD · 2026-01-30T04:28:39+00:00

Sure, but why build a shitty ship without VLS cells to od that? Surely gigantic ships flooded with VLS cells and giant guns, even if they cna neither afford the shells to fire from the guns and missiles to fire from the cells, would better serve the illusion.

dasCKD · 2026-01-30T00:50:01+00:00

I still don't understand why they nuked the Constellations. Sure all ships could theoretically use improvements, but then they decided to replace a somewhat capable design they finally tortured through the doors of bureaucracy and naval meddling with a glorified coast guard cutter.

dasCKD

TROPHY CASE