Frosted Flake posted:

I swear I just posted about this, probably in another thread, but the CSA collapsed because it turns out "arm slaves as slaves (without emancipation)" does not and cannot work even ideologically.

The Oldest Man posted:

They'll have to get NYPD and LASD blocking detachments

sullat posted:

IIRC the only CSA general that seriously proposed arming slaves was told to lead a suicide charge shortly thereafter. CSA collapsed because it turns out that desperately trying to avoid industrialization is not a long-term strategy, at least in terms of getting in an actual shooting war.

mawarannahr posted:

Unfortunately they don't have much to work with beyond that:

quote:

Some potential recruits also fail to pass the aptitude test required to join the Army, called the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, or ASVAB. Last fall, Army leadership said post-pandemic only about one-third of applicants passed the ASVAB, down from about two-thirds pre-pandemic.

Frosted Flake posted:

BitcoinRockefeller posted:

WTF did they make the ASVAB harder or something? It's got whole sections for shop kids even, my impression was it's designed so everyone can kind of pass some part of it and go somewhere in the army.

All the local Kwik Trips are hiring at $16, $18 for third shift. Go straight from high school to stocking gas station shelves and make more than a newly minted E5, do it at night and it's more than an E6.

BitcoinRockefeller posted:

All the local Kwik Trips are hiring at $16, $18 for third shift. Go straight from high school to stocking gas station shelves and make more than a newly minted E5, do it at night and it's more than an E6.

Mister Bates posted:

I think we've had conversations about this in other threads before but China produces more steel than every other country on the planet combined, and the second and third place producers are the I and the R in 'BRICS' (with the B at 10, and Iran sitting at #11)

Delta-Wye posted:

Delta-Wye posted:

www.ft.com posted:

The last time the US came together with Britain and Australia to combat aggression in the Pacific was more than 70 years ago when the three nations fought against Japan.

When US President Joe Biden meets British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Anthony Albanese, the prime minister of Australia, at a naval base in San Diego on Monday they will do so with a new potential foe in mind: China.

The three leaders will unveil the results of an 18-month negotiation under the Aukus defence pact to provide Canberra with nuclear-powered submarines as part of a wider push to counter Beijing’s growing military might.

## The submarine deal

Australia, which currently operates a fleet of six Collins class boats powered by diesel-electric generators, will become only the seventh nation in the world to operate nuclear submarines.

The plan, which will have three main stages, will try to bridge a capability gap for Australia in the 2030s after its Collins boats come out of service and before the deployment of the Aukus boats around 2040.

The agreement promises jobs and technology-sharing across the three countries over several decades. Independent estimates put the costs of building and supplying at least eight submarines over 30 years as high as A$125bn.

Yet the industrial and operational challenges to deliver on the pact are immense.

## Production capacity

All three countries will need to invest heavily to upgrade their defence industrial base. US and British shipyards are already working flat out on domestic orders. Worker shortages and strained capacity is a big concern for Aukus.

“It’s not about any nation buying more weapons platforms off another, it’s about building the industrial capability of all three countries,” Pat Conroy, Australia’s minister for procurement, told the Financial Times last month after visiting Britain’s Barrow-in-Furness shipyard where BAE Systems builds Royal Navy submarines.

Britain is already investing heavily in its submarine business just to meet existing demands. The Barrow workforce is increasing from 10,000 to 17,000 to fulfil both the Dreadnought programme, which carries the UK’s nuclear deterrent, and the next generation of attack submarines.

In the US, General Dynamics Electric Boat, which makes the nuclear-powered Columbia- and Virginia-class subs, employs just less than 20,000 people. The US group has 17 Virginia-class submarines in a delivery backlog stretching out to 2032.

## Submarine design and propulsion

The next-generation Aukus submarines will be jointly developed and built between the UK and Australia, according to people familiar with the agreement.

This would be a “hybrid platform” with a “pragmatic design” based on a variant of the UK’s next generation of nuclear submarines, called the SSN (R), that is due to replace Britain’s current Astute-class submarines.

British industry’s design work remains at a stage where it can still include Australian input in developing the vessel. The Aukus variant has been nicknamed SSN Aukus.

BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce, which builds the reactors for all Royal Navy submarines, have been involved in the talks on the UK side, while General Dynamics and Westinghouse have been involved from the US.

Rolls-Royce is seen in prime position to provide the propulsion system. The company is building the advanced PWR3 reactor to be deployed on Britain’s Dreadnought submarines, which carry the nuclear deterrent.

US content in the form of weapons and combat systems will be extensive, including Lockheed Martin-made Tomahawk cruise missiles and MK48 torpedoes.

## Investment costs

Estimates by analysts at London consultancy Agency Partners suggest that if Aukus is based on a modified Astute- or Virginia-class submarine, the average cost of each new boat could be between A$5.5bn and A$7bn.

Adding the cost of weapons and combat systems, through-life support and training, as well as the necessary investment in production facilities in Australia, could see the total cost of the programme rise to A$125bn.

A “big part of the cost of Australia building this boat themselves, alongside the investment in production facilities, is the learning curve”, said Nick Cunningham, analyst at Agency Partners.

Given the long lead times, analysts said any potential bonanza for defence contractors will be some way off, with much depending on which company secures lead positions.

Nevertheless, Aukus could offer a lifeline for Britain’s submarine enterprise, which has historically been dogged by cost overruns and delays. Some experts believe it could have as big an impact as the UK’s agreement with Italy and Japan to build the Tempest fighter jet. “It gives you 25-plus years of visibility,” said Francis Tusa, editor at Defence Analysis.

## Technology transfer issues

America’s closely guarded nuclear-propulsion secrets are at the heart of Aukus’s first pillar, which governs the submarine deal. US officials are optimistic that a way has been found to share these with Australia.

But concerns remain over Aukus’s second pillar — which envisages co-operation on artificial intelligence, hypersonic weapons and undersea capabilities.

These hurdles relate to technology transfer requirements under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, and a classification called NoForn that bars information sharing with non-US nationals.

## Australia’s capability gap

With Aukus not likely to enter service before 2040, the three nations have agreed on a two-stage process to bridge the capability gap.

Washington has agreed to deploy several of its Virginia-class submarines to Australia, manned with an American crew, to help with training.

The US will also sell Canberra as many as five Virginia-class submarines as a stop-gap. Concerns remain about the capacity of US yards to take on the extra work.

Delta-Wye posted:

BitcoinRockefeller posted:

WTF did they make the ASVAB harder or something? It's got whole sections for shop kids even, my impression was it's designed so everyone can kind of pass some part of it and go somewhere in the army.

All the local Kwik Trips are hiring at $16, $18 for third shift. Go straight from high school to stocking gas station shelves and make more than a newly minted E5, do it at night and it's more than an E6.

Redezga posted:

Our participation in the Falklands War was completely motivated by embarrassment that New Zealand put their hand up to send forces in first.

Weka posted:

You have answered your own question. Why join the army when you can get a normal job? There is consequently a higher proportion of people to dumb to pass the ASVAB or get a job at a corner store applying to join. No disrespect to those people on account of their intelligence intended.

In our defence, there were sheep at stake.

Frosted Flake posted:

disgusting fat bodies

BrutalistMcDonalds posted:

saw this new U.S. army recruitment ad. what's interesting about it is that it seems to take some inspiration from PLA videos with the parade of vehicles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ItEHJc330Q

mlmp08 posted:

"Passing" the ASVAB to join the army isn't really how it works, because the ASVAB scores are converted into percentiles of the US population taking them. The minimum requirement, without a waiver, is to score a 31%, meaning scoring 31st percentile. That's also why 99 is the highest score, not 100. No one scores higher than 100% of people.

Given general bell curve, there might be very little actual raw score differenc between someone who's a score of 45 vs someone's who's a 55, whereas at higher and very low percentiles, the difference in raw performance between percentiles grows larger.

The top reason people do not qualify to enlist: overweight.
After that, you get things like drug use and lack of education requirements to enlist (High School Diploma. To join with only GED, they raise the minimum ASVAB standard)
Other major disqualifiers are drug use and criminal background.

If someone has an overall "ok" composite ASVAB score, but just straight sucks or excels at one particular portion of the test, that can block out select jobs and funnel them somewhere where they do better. Like someone who's good at shop/mechanics, but isn't good at writing skills, or someone who can't write well, but is great at arithmetic and logic reasoning.

The US army estimate is that about 23% of young people are eligible to join, and most of the reason that it's only 23% is people being too overweight to enlist. The other huge problem is, uh, people just don't want to join, and who can really blame them?

The Oldest Man posted:

The mid 20th century in America was really just an anomalous recognition that you have to limit your exploitation of the laborers a little so that you can have a fit army, low social disruption, etc. in order to make your imperial war machine go brrrr

Now we're back to max score Austro-Hungarian empire yolo mode

Weka posted:

Mate, here's the article that kicked this off. I guess this guy knows more about it than you.

https://www.army.mil/article/260123/army_leaders_implement_measures_to_bolster_recruiting

"Army Chief of Staff Gen. James C. McConville said ... that typically two thirds of all prospective recruits pass the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery Test which is required to enlist, and currently only one third have passed."

mlmp08 posted:

Can't exactly have the artillery coordinator or the datalink manager scoring the army minimum.

A Bakers Cousin posted:

buddy from real life personal experience you certainly can and do

AgentF posted:

Makes sense to me. They had an ideological competitor that they had to demonstrate a high quality of life advantage against.

mlmp08 posted:

When you meet someone who truly, actually was the army minimum, not just someone's who's kind of a dumbass or doesn't care, it can be alarming.

Frosted Flake posted:

lol how loving stupid are the Aussies that they were played this thoroughly?

quote:

Asked if Australia is more likely to get new or used Virginia class submarines, Courtney said “when it comes out you’ll see” but assured Australia that “what you will get is of the highest quality”.

“The shelf life of a Virginia class submarine is 33 years and it has life-of-boat nuclear reactor, it doesn’t require refuelling.”

“No one is going to be foisting off clunkers on good friends and allies.”

mlmp08 posted:

When you meet someone who truly, actually was the army minimum, not just someone's who's kind of a dumbass or doesn't care, it can be alarming.

Slavvy posted:

My friend these are the highest quality used submarines, one careful owner, always washed and garaged

Slavvy posted:

What kind of missiles does the speed boat swarm carry?