Politics

This capability has quietly matured a lot over the last twenty years and long before space force. Though not a classified budget item, the work has not gained a lot of public attention. Also, the various programs have been managed by DOD through the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), not the air force. There is no indication that MDA's responsibilities will change as a result of the creation of space force. It, like the other three services will manage programs specific to their role under MDA. I would anticipate the air force would eventually transfer mid course intercept and sensor programs to space force.

MDA has awarded $7-11 billion a year since 2002 for a total of approximately $200 billion through 2004. Patriot modernization and THAAD are managed by the Army. (though Patriot has too short a range to be effective against nuclear weapons.) The Navy manages AEGIS related programs.

As you suggest, space is where the interception battle will be fought and that has been the centerpiece of MDA's efforts. The primary corporate players over the last twenty years have been Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon. That initial space-based intercept capability could be in place fairly quickly. The technology is is mature, but there has not been a will to deploy it - which, of course, will be quite expensive.

ICBMs do not go into orbit. They, like intercontinental hypersonics, do go into space for the mid-course of their trajectory.

The biggest challenge over the last 15 years or so has been decoy technology. A Russian ICBM payload, depending on the missile, would contain five to ten independently targeted munitions along with at least an equal number of decoys. This obviously complicates the intercept challenge.

The second challenge is the emerging hypersonic technology. A traditional ICBM follows a fairly predictable ballistic trajectory. A true hypersonic, unlike anything Russia has yet fielded, will have the ability to maneuver somewhat during its mid-course glide phase. It flies a lower trajectory than an ICBM providing less time for mid-course intercept and introduces the maneuverability problem.

The backbone of both Russia's and China's arsenals will remain standard ICBMs and SLBMs for decades to come.
2002 through 2024
 
Correct. Your OP had 40%, which is the error I was pointing out.
I figured he'd hit Shift-5 instead of Shift-4 when I replied to the OP. Thought it would be pedantic to point it out as he had made his point.
 
Log in your pet stock or speculation purchase this afternoon before the Tax deal is announced. The market will be on rocket fuel afterwards.
 
Hitting some of the YouTube sites already....Cyril must be squirming ever so slightly in his seat...

View attachment 686431

Ramaphosa brings in Ernie Ells and Retief Goosen as examples of Whites who have done well in South Africa and Goosen proceeds to talk about the family farm and the problems they face of farms being burned and a white farming neighbor being killed. Pretty hilarious if it wasn’t so sad.
 
Ramaphosa brings in Ernie Ells and Retief Goosen as examples of Whites who have done well in South Africa and Goosen proceeds to talk about the family farm and the problems they face of farms being burned and a white farming neighbor being killed. Pretty hilarious if it wasn’t so sad.

Whats particularly funny is.. Ells spends most of his year living OUTSIDE of South Africa.. he has an estate in the UK that is his primary residence, and house in Florida that spends a lot of time (good weather year round for practicing)..

He does still maintain a house in South Africa and my understanding is that he still frequents it..

But he's hardly "doing well" in South Africa.. he is rather a South African that as soon as he was doing well and able to get out, did so, and relocated to the UK and the US..

Not exactly the example I'd want to put on stage of what white South Africans should aspire to do as soon as they have enough money and/or prominence to do so..
 
Whats particularly funny is.. Ells spends most of his year living OUTSIDE of South Africa.. he has an estate in the UK that is his primary residence, and house in Florida that spends a lot of time (good weather year round for practicing)..

He does still maintain a house in South Africa and my understanding is that he still frequents it..

But he's hardly "doing well" in South Africa.. he is rather a South African that as soon as he was doing well and able to get out, did so, and relocated to the UK and the US..

Not exactly the example I'd want to put on stage of what white South Africans should aspire to do as soon as they have enough money and/or prominence to do so..

Agree.

South African leaders aren’t used to getting pushback from the UK, EU or America. Ells and Goosen were supposed to be window dressing. Watching The facial expressions and body language of Ramaphosa’s support staff during the video of Julius Malema leading chants of kill the Boer were pretty funny.
 
Agree.

South African leaders aren’t used to getting pushback from the UK, EU or America. Ells and Goosen were supposed to be window dressing. Watching The facial expressions and body language of Ramaphosa’s support staff during the video of Julius Malema leading chants of kill the Boer were pretty funny.

I knew about Ells, but just did some googling on Goosen...

Hes really the same story..

He is still an RSA Citizen and maintains a home in South Africa..

But his primary residence is in the UK, and he also has a residence in Orlando, Florida...

Ramaphosa is actually making Trumps case for him..

South Africans that are willing to work hard, achieve something, etc are welcome to relocate to the US.. and apparently many of the most successful South Africans are doing exactly that..

Elon Musk resides in the US..
Charlize Theron resides in the US..
etc.. etc..

So Ramaphosa just brings more South Africans that are now living the American Dream to demonstrate to Trump how great it is to be a white South African?

I would have thought he and his staff would be a little smarter than that..
 
I knew about Ells, but just did some googling on Goosen...

Hes really the same story..

He is still an RSA Citizen and maintains a home in South Africa..

But his primary residence is in the UK, and he also has a residence in Orlando, Florida...

Ramaphosa is actually making Trumps case for him..

South Africans that are willing to work hard, achieve something, etc are welcome to relocate to the US.. and apparently many of the most successful South Africans are doing exactly that..

Elon Musk resides in the US..
Charlize Theron resides in the US..
etc.. etc..

So Ramaphosa just brings more South Africans that are now living the American Dream to demonstrate to Trump how great it is to be a white South African?

I would have thought he and his staff would be a little smarter than that..
Ramaphosa and his staff may be a lot of things, smart is not on the list.
 
Ramaphosa and his staff may be a lot of things, smart is not on the list.
They are normally treated with kid gloves because - well, let's leave it that they are normally treated with kid gloves.
 
They are normally treated with kid gloves because - well, let's leave it that they are normally treated with kid gloves.

I was thinking the same thing, but I couldn’t figure out how to say it tactfully . Well said.
 
I find that very strange as a reaction of the Canadian people... What can a US citizen really do about what happens on the political side, on the highest echelon's, between two countries? That's as if I would treat a random Russian I meet in the street, any different than before.

Sounds like something short-sighted people would do. Substituting the individual for the group.
But I’d bet a Ukrainian would treat a Russian wearing a Putin hat differently
 
So your presumption is that all Americans wear MAGA hats?

Should we all presume you are personally a shit bird because Trudeau led your country for 9 years?

Or do you think you get a pass while you at the same time get to indiscriminately judge everyone else?
 
I watched a podcast type YouTube video today in which the guest asserted the folks in Alberta are truly pissed at their government and the succession movement is a real deal. I believe he cited 48% support and 52 against (from my depleted memory). He was optimistic as this is quite early in the discussion without truly a public debate on the issue. The host went on to say, many Albertans welcome being the 51st state.

My reason in bringing this up is that his opinions seemed to be quite contrary to the sentiments given by our Canadian forum members.

I have no information about the host or the guest. I'm curious as to our Canadian members thoughts.
 
I have a very hard time believing that a real separatist movement will get enough traction in Alberta to be meaningful beyond simply moving provincial politics further right.. most Canadians I know are proud to be Canadians and wouldn’t have any interest in actually switching teams.. (although most I know have as much contempt for Quebec as many Americans have for California)..

Texas has had a separatist movement forever as well… but it’s never happening…
 
So your presumption is that all Americans wear MAGA hats?

Should we all presume you are personally a shit bird because Trudeau led your country for 9 years?

Or do you think you get a pass while you at the same time get to indiscriminately judge everyone else?
No, actually it’s not. I was just making a point (possibly poorly after a 14 hour day at work) that he may judge his neighbours a tad differently if their elected leader had a raging hard-on over the idea of taking his country over. At the end of the day, come on up for a visit. Negative encounters will be very very few and very far between, while the media with either make a big deal about glorifying/vilifying dependant on the favour of the day. We will do our best to make you feel welcome because it’s what we do.

And I’m probably a shit bird for many various reasons without even bringing politics into the mix.
 
I have a very hard time believing that a real separatist movement will get enough traction in Alberta to be meaningful beyond simply moving provincial politics further right.. most Canadians I know are proud to be Canadians and wouldn’t have any interest in actually switching teams.. (although most I know have as much contempt for Quebec as many Americans have for California)..

Texas has had a separatist movement forever as well… but it’s never happening…
Our premier is catering to her far right supporters (likely because she owes them a favour for support) and lowering the bar to allow for a referendum to be called. I wouldnt be surprised if they get enough signatures to call one, it for it to pass is a long shot (I hope).
 
To be clear, knowing the concerns Canadians have, anyone from the US that purposely wore a MAGA hat in Canada right now, would deserve nothing short of an ass whipping by Albertans or any other Canadian IMO… he/she would very obviously and intentionally be trying to be an ass…

What is interesting to me is how many people from outside the US believe that the majority of Americans are hard right wing MAGA loyalists… that is simply not true..

Trump absolutely has a very loyal following..

But Trump taking office the second time has far more to do with the atrocious alternative that the left presented than it does with the US population at large being on the Trump train… had the left put an even remotely sensible candidate forward, I feel pretty sure we’d still have a Democrat sitting behind the Resolute Desk..

Don’t get me wrong, the populist movement is real in the US, and the pendulum is definitely swinging right at the moment..

But the majority of “conservatives” in the US are a good bit more centrist than they are hard right wing…

With world leaders like Merkel, Macron, Trudeau, Carney, Ramanposa, Trump, Biden, Van De Leden, etc… the truth is pretty much every country on the planet has had leadership it should be a bit less than proud of..
 

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2RECON wrote on Riflecrank's profile.
Hallo Ron, do you remember me? I´m Michael from Germany. We did some Wildcats on the .338 Lapua Case.
.375 i did, and a .500 and .510 you did.
Can you please contact me again (eMail please)

Best
Michael
 
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