gonna need some anti-ship missiles tho
Oh man can you imagine if the first aircraft carrier the U.S. loses gets destroyed by Venezuela? Lol
legit i was just thinking this. the headline reminded me of that line about how empires collapse inward from the periphery.
so the natsec apparatus having the door slammed on its junk trying to reassert itself over the largest oil reserves in LatAm would be on brand as hell.
now combine it with the constellation of the federal shutdown / uncertainty over troop pay + the AI bubble bursting taking out some big banks at the knees (another uncertain bail out?) just while some have extended loans to the randroid Milei and all bets are off. personally, if SNAP craters, i think the most populated state with the worst buffer and social support network is Florida, which is home to some pretty significant military bases in terms of projecting forces over LatAm. that’s a novel stew.
i was thinking earlier about how the resilience of the system here can probably weather 1-2 big problems at a time, but this administration seems content to not resolve them while pretending they don’t matter. so its pretty possible that we can enter a scenario where multiple structural problems interact to create a complex scenario that doesn’t have a linear solution.
and lets be real, i am not seeing anything going on with this administration that would imply they can respond competently to a novel problem. they have like one play (attack immigrants and minorities) and i dunno how much harder they can push that button before it breaks.
its pretty possible that we can enter a scenario where multiple structural problems interact to create a complex scenario that doesn’t have a linear solution.
so its pretty possible that we can enter a scenario where multiple structural problems interact to create a complex scenario that doesn’t have a linear solution.
This reminds me of the sinking of the Moskva in the black sea smh, spooky similar.
Side note: Russia and the US are eerily similar as well but also opposites in some ways (huge country by area, low population density yet urbanized, huge expensive army, …).
I can, and I love it.
I want ansar allah to do it though. American exceptionalism as CIA propaganda would be crushed immediately
Xi please do this one fucking thing
༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Dongfeng 21s, take my energy! ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
They have some, but all relatively short ranged. The biggest threat to US ships would be Kh-31 supersonic cruise missiles launched by Venezuelan Su-30s, with a maximum range of 38-60 nautical miles (nmi)/70-110km. But I highly doubt that the Venezuelan air force gets off of the ground in the event of war. Even if they do do get off the ground, the SM-6 missile (launched from AEGIS equipped ships or F/A-18s) has a maximum range estimated in excess of 200 nmi/370km, and the AIM-120D (launched from F-35s, F-22s and F/A-18s, as well as other fighters) has an estimated maximum range of 90-100nmi/160-180km, and the AIM-120D-3 in excess of that. Venezuelan aircraft are far out ranged by US anti aircraft missiles.
Other than that they have some Iranian patrol boats with Iranian versions of C-701s, subsonic cruise missiles with a range of 20nmi/37km. They may also have a single frigate (and maybe some patrol boats) in service with Otomat Mk2 or C-802 subsonic cruise missiles, which have a range of around 100nmi/180km. But that’s their longest range anti ship missiles. Again, vastly out ranged by US anti ship missiles or aircraft. AGM-158C LRASM has a range in excess of 500nmi/925km, SM-6 can also be used in an anti ship role, then there’s AGM-84 H/K SLAM-ER with a range over 155nmi/270km. AGM-84 Harpoon between 70-120nmi (130-220km) depending on if surface or air launched. That’s not mentioning that US aircraft could just drop laser guided JDAMs or SDBs on Venezuelan ships.
you ever play the game Command: Modern Operations? you’d probably be good at that.
I’ve looked at it a bit, but the big issue is that it uses public estimations for the capabilities of systems. That makes perfect sense of course, but it’s very different to real world performance. Unless you can put your own values in for system performance (which militaries using similar software do for wargaming), it’s more of a strategy game vs a predictor of real world performance.
I think you can modify all that stuff iirc, but I don’t know if it would be worth the hassle. There’s so much stuff there.
Not sure it can be considered “cold” while the US is killing civilian boats off the coast.
what do you mean you’ve seen this - it’s brand new? / s
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Yankee go home
I’m so depressed over this
deleted by creator
These are Igla-S/SA-24 Grinch man portable air defence systems (MANPADS). Basically equivalent to the Stinger missile in NATO. Maximum range of 6km, and an altitude ceiling of 3.5km for the Igla-S.
This poses zero threat to fixed wing aircraft, who can just fly above it’s maximum altitude ceiling. Gadaffi in Libya also had hundreds of these at least, and they did nothing. For rotary aircraft (helicopters) that’s a different story. They fly low enough to be in range, and it’s a significant threat. But these MANPADs require the operator (the solider slinging it over his shoulder) to visually acquire the target first. There’s no radar, but it has a built in infrared sight, so the operator can use the Igla-S at night. There’s still the limit of actually seeing the target before it sees you at very short range, with lines of sight and things like that. Attack helicopter pilots do train for that, to exploit the terrain.
The implication by Maduro here is more what happens to this stockpile of 5000 MANPADS if the government falls in a US regime change operation/coup, along with shoring up domestic support among those who don’t know the specifics of how thse systems work. Maduro and the Venezuelan government know that these MANPADS pose a minimal threat to fixed wing aircraft in combat operations, and will do little to deter the USA. He’s trying to position himself as a rational actor in terms of being in control of the stockpile, maintaining law and order. With the implication being that if he is arrested or killed and the Venezuelan government falls, that this stockpile of MANPADs will end up in the possession of basically anyone, and that will be an impossible situation to control.
That seems like a desperate play from Maduro. IIRC it’s not that unlike the shit Gadaffi and Saddam tried to to serve to the Americans.
The US is more than happy with letting some stingers go missing just like they have all across Syria. As long as the heavy equipment is dismantled or shipped off to Ukraine they’ll risk a few civilian airliners for that sweet, sweet black nector.
Gaddafi did the same yeah. It’s desperate, but the situation is desperate if war breaks out.
