captainbananas posted:

This is all exceptionally lmao-worthy, yeah. We just need a looping gif of Abbott eating that raw onion, skin-on.

IMO the part about the US sailors crewing the australian subs has to be about the reactor engineering teams. Nuke propulsion is loving insane poo poo and if the US hadn't had an autistic visionary establish an intergenerational choke-hold on its naval nuclear force I think it's safe to bet there'd be dozens of little elephant's feet scattered across the floors of the atlantic and pacific by now. small mercies

Fell Mood posted:

You know what? Good for them. It's much easier being a colony. What would be the point of Australia having an independent foreign policy and military? What would they do with it?

Fell Mood posted:

You know what? Good for them. It's much easier being a colony. What would be the point of Australia having an independent foreign policy and military? What would they do with it?

The Oldest Man posted:

you know the US is still making them pay for the aukus sub deal right

Fell Mood posted:

You know what? Good for them. It's much easier being a colony. What would be the point of Australia having an independent foreign policy and military? What would they do with it?

Pidgin Englishman posted:

Plus oops it's now an extra 200 billion for our used subs sorry

No, now please

DancingShade posted:

Also to take delivery they'll have to wear this frilly dress and ride a unicycle at all times. For uh (sniggers) technology transfer reasons.

captainbananas posted:

Hyman Rickover

captainbananas posted:

Hyman Rickover was a 4-star admiral who is generally credited with creating the modern nuclear navy in the US. USN initially was thinking of making nuclear surface ships (cruisers or destroyers? dont remember), but RIckover was a former submariner and understood how nuke subs would be complete game-changers. For his insolence in trying to pull one over the surface fleet he was assigned to an advisory duty (a do-nothing career-ender) in a decommissioned women's restroom in D.C. So he went around everyone and went straight to Nimitz to make his case because Nimitz had also been a submarine guy. It worked, and Rickover ended up running navy's reactor program.

He had made a career out of taking no poo poo from no one but simultaneously being smart and canny enough to use indirect methods to win (e.g., leapfrogging several layers of brass to plead directly to Nimitz). As part of that cunning, he played the bureaucratic politics game such that he had direct control over the appointment of any and all naval officers on nuclear-powered ships in the navy. Like literally all of them, whether you're an ensign fresh out of the academy or OCS, or set to take up command of a supercarrier. And he was famous for having unusual interview techniques (not in the tailhook way, at least as far as i've ever heard) where, for example, one guy made a positive impression by violently throwing all of Rickover's poo poo off his desk. But he understood talent development, and also understood that he needed to select for leadership that would excel in environments where there could be zero tolerance for engineering or other technical mistakes with ship propulsion. So the submarine force in particular ended up with (on average; no one is perfect) a much stronger talent pool. Anecdotally this carried forward into the 21st century tacit knowledge when I heard 1st class midshipmen (naval academy seniors) talking about how if they wanted to make admiral they'd have to go submarine or aviation; surface fleet was a dead-end.

He was also totally loving ruthless in holding private contractors to account on projects he managed. And he managed every single nuclear reactor and, by extension, every ship that had a nuclear reactor, in the USN. His struggle against the grift was ultimately his downfall; he was forced to retire under Reagan when private equity ghoul turned Secretary of the Navy John Lehman found a sufficient cover story to justify shitcanning him. The Reaganites considered Rickover an obstacle and called his management of the nuclear navy a cult. Generally dynamics, aka the monopolist primary contractor for submarines, was allegedly bragging that they finally "got" Rickover after he was forced out.

So fast forward to today and forty years later you have the uss connecticut running around in the south china sea and the investigation found among lots of other poo poo that no one was being held accountable for making navigation mistakes. the nuclear disasters are likely now just a matter of time (and whether or not they can hide rather than report them).

Fell Mood posted:

You know what? Good for them. It's much easier being a colony. What would be the point of Australia having an independent foreign policy and military? What would they do with it?

double nine posted:

people in charge now in west africa are trained by the us, or the people in france are trained by the us ?
I wasn't aware of a mali/burkina faso/niger - us connection so I'm assuming the latter?

Animal-Mother posted:

this guy would take prospective nuke officers out to eat and wait to see what they did with the salt. if they salted their meal without tasting it first to see if it even needed salt, he wouldn't hire them.

Animal-Mother posted:

this guy would take prospective nuke officers out to eat and wait to see what they did with the salt. if they salted their meal without tasting it first to see if it even needed salt, he wouldn't hire them.

Animal-Mother posted:

this guy would take prospective nuke officers out to eat and wait to see what they did with the salt. if they salted their meal without tasting it first to see if it even needed salt, he wouldn't hire them.

The Oldest Man posted:

you know the US is still making them pay for the aukus sub deal right

gradenko_2000 posted:

https://www.wsj.com/politics/nation...edwebview_share

Army Plans Major Cuts to Special-Operations Forces, Including Green Berets

Frosted Flake posted:

Big Army is back baby

Frosted Flake posted:

Big Army is back baby

quote:

Most senior special-operations officers, including SOCOM commander Army Gen. Bryan Fenton and Christopher Maier, the assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, opposed the cuts out of fear that the reductions will deprive the command of the flexibility it needs to conduct counterterrorism and training of partner nations.

“It’s why the Ukrainian army has been so lethal against the Russians—it’s undeniable, why would you cut that?” said one person familiar with the proposal. “Anyone can squeeze the trigger, but in order to hit something, you gotta be trained.”

fits my needs posted:

interesting

Cao Ni Ma posted:

Did I not say like 2 weeks ago that you had some generals at the top that only know afghanistan and iraq not understanding the reality of the current wars?

Trabisnikof posted:

cutting army special forces doesn’t mean cutting special forces if the other branches just grow their special forces budgets instead.

fits my needs posted:

interesting

Trabisnikof posted:

cutting army special forces doesn’t mean cutting special forces if the other branches just grow their special forces budgets instead.

fits my needs posted:

interesting

Animal-Mother posted:

this guy would take prospective nuke officers out to eat and wait to see what they did with the salt. if they salted their meal without tasting it first to see if it even needed salt, he wouldn't hire them.

Best Friends posted:

the marines can rely on the army for artillery, but they need their own planes because apparently they can’t rely on the navy, which they are nominally part of, for CAS

fits my needs posted:

assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict

Centrist Committee posted:

Centrist Committee posted:

the us is losing ww3