China missiles filled with water, not fuel: US intelligence
oops
US officials now believe Xi is less likely to contemplate major military action in the coming years than would otherwise have been the case
So this is a good news story.
this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2024
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Mmm.
Hopefully.
Unless you think war is inevitable.
The current Chinese doctrine in a theoretical conflict with America relies heavily on saturation of missile defenses to take out things like carrier groups.
If they didn't know they'd have a 10% failure rate or whatever it could have completely invalidated their tactics.
But it you accept both that war is inevitable and that China will be the aggressor it would have been better for them not to discover this and thus be unprepared for the conflict, like we see with Russia and Ukraine.
War isn't inevitable. Back in the cold war it was averted multiple times, and the USSR had a much more closed economy than China's. China going to war with NATO would lose them all their largest trading partners.
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Unless you think war is inevitable.
I don't think it's inevitable, but I do hope that one day West Taiwan will be liberated.
If China ever wants to be able to take Taiwan, it'll have to do so within the next few years. Due to a large number of factors, like economy weakening due to over ballooning, an upcoming extreme population decline (they have a serious problem on their hands there alone) and more, they find themselves in the best position to grab and conquer Taiwan now, or never. I do expect the next 4 years in this world to be shit, no matter what US president we get, just a matter of "really shit" or "holy fucking hell its the end times" shit.
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I mean...the US Navy is roughly 40 times more capable than the Chinese navy just looking at aircraft carriers compared, nevermind the carrier group components or the planes. A US super carrier is so much more capable than the 2 Chinese carriers combined.
China's ship building capacity is greater than the US. They may be able to overwhelm the US Navy in an extended conflict.
That said, China is looking at a demographic cliff from the One Child Policy. Too many old people and not enough young ones to take care of them. If they're going to start a war, it has to be in the next few years or not at all. It's possible the window is already closed.
Imagine what their demographics would look like if they also started a war and killed their young people though.
Not saying they won't do it, and they do currently have an excess of young men specifically, but a country with a population problem isn't in a great place to start a war imo.
They can’t. China is a green-water navy with but-water dreams, but a complete lack of ability to produce the right type of ships for the task. Their missile boats are concerns in littoral areas, but effectively worthless anywhere else, and that’s all they can produce at any appreciable speed. Their carriers aren’t even sea worthy.
China is a green-water navy with but-water dreams
Butt-water Dreams. Band name.
That's like saying if we produce enough preschoolers fast enough we might be able to overwhelm that SWAT team.
The US Navy could likely sink their entire fleet without losing anything of significance outside of ammunition and fuel, it doesn't matter how fast they can build such inferior ships.
When it comes to engaging with developed nations the US doesn't do extended conflicts, that's a luxury of third world occupations. We'd take out their Navy and then invade or force a surrender based on extended range weapons.
A war can also solve another problem China has: too many men and too few women. War deaths will not only reduce the man to female ratio, but as in past Chinese wars soldiers will bring home war "brides".
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Time to get the South China sea under control. What are they gonna do? Start a water balloon fight?
Except for the families of those related to this flop.
That's an occupational risk when working for a corrupt one-party state.
Well, if they flushed out the corruption that undermined their capabilities then one might expect their capabilities to increase afterward.
China missiles filled with water, not fuel: US intelligence
Somebody fucked up the actual story somewhere along the way. A normal problem with liquid ICBMs like a DF5 is tiny amounts of water contamination in propellant. N2O4 is meant to sit in a missile for months but if even just the humidity in the air gets in to it, it forms nitric acid and corrodes the missile. That happened to US ICBMs like the Titan II constantly and the US never reliably stopped it, they just switched to solid fuel. If contractors cut corners building a silo water contamination causing corrosion is the first thing that would go wrong. Meth heads siphoning rocket fuel and trying to replace it with water and dying instantly in a massive explosion didn't happen.
I hate to be that guy, but source?
All the info I could find is derived from the Bloomburg article, which clearly says "water instead of fuel", and also silo doors that don't fully open lmao
The accusations as I understand it is the fuel never got to the missile, it was sold black market elsewhere and someone filled the missile with water instead because you can't really check it given how it reacts with moisture in the air.
No source it's just pretty much physically impossible. Even if there's no safety system setting off alarms N2O4/UDMH is denser than water, you can't fit enough water in the rocket to make it weigh like it's full of fuel, it's going to read like 20% is missing either way. And if nobody cares about that why are you putting anything in it at all?
Water contamination and the 100 ton armored door not working are both super likely results of generals embezzling money, water instead of fuel is dumb and Bloomberg has a track record of fucking up this kind of thing
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Bro but like chinese walter white???? /wwww
A significant delay could be the ballgame in Taiwan for the foreseeable future.
The B-21 will be in service in 2027 and sixth generation fighters a few years later. The Chinese will need a very long time to try to come up with countermeasures for the new tech.
Given how defensive warfare is showing its strength in Ukraine, without air superiority, I doubt China could take the island right now. And I think the US and all of its allies would make life hell for the Chinese. Just submarine warfare would cut Chinese oil off like it did to the Japanese in WWII.
True, and unlike Russia China is not even remotely self-sufficient. Fuel, food, etc. all imported on a massive scale.
And unlike Ukraine, Taiwan already has a lot of protection against incoming missiles and no direct border. Having to ship everything by sea makes it so complicated, I believe the only option for china would be to nuke Taiwan. But that would have a whole lot of other repercussions...
Not the least of which being that if they nuke it, they don't get it. At least not in the way they want it.
But honestly, way theory aside, massive open warfare against Taiwan would be horrific for Taiwan, but outside of the region, it would really doom China as it exists.
Even if they did manage to take the island, likely with just an overwhelming wave of soldiers, at that point, the entire world, aside from a few exceptions (NK, Iran, Syria, Russia, Belarus, and maybe some African nations) are going to effectively strangle the Chinese economy with sanctions if not an outright embargo.
It might not change things overnight, but hitting China square in the economy is far more effective than it is for Russia, because China is so much more of a player in the world economy. They depend on the world buying their goods. As long as the rest of the world can keep unfulfilled consumer demand from triggering crippling sustained double digit inflation for years on end, there may not even be a need for large scale, near-peer open warfare.
Aww. China invading Taiwan with Super Soakers.
Water guns and nerfs are now mostly made in China after all.
So… Chinese Watergate?
Chinese Waterballoon
Could be why they used weather ballons to spy on other nations, instead of spy planes. 🤣
They used balloons because it's deniable and cheap.
Taking lessons from the US. No risk of having your plane shot down, your pilot captured, and backing yourself into a corner with your own lies if there is no plane or pilot in the first place.
Obscure dictatorship armies are corrupt as fuck and barely functioning? I would not believe it if I didn't hear it with my own eyes.
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