In article ,
"John" writes:
"phil hunt" wrote in
What would be sensible strategies/weapons for a middle-ranking
country to employ if it thought it is likely to be involved in a war
against the USA or other Western countries, say in the next 10
years?

To deal with the US Army...
Use SUVs with anti-tank rockets and a millimetric radar mounted on the back.
In iraq US gunners opened fire at 5miles. Since the rounds travel at a
mile/second, this would give an SUV 5 seconds to dudge, which would be
simple with guidence from the radar. Meanwhile the top-attack missiles tear
through the thin turret roofs. Buy a few otto-76mm armed tanks with dual use
surface/air to deal with incomming aircraft/missiles/bombs/helicopters and
to rip enemy soldiers to pieces.

5 seconds to dodge... Dodge where, exqctly? In what direction? How
much? To be at the least effective, you're going to have to somehow
get 1 vehicle's size distance away from where you were. Since SUV's
don't move a 1 mile/second...
Oh, and what if the Rascally Americans don't open fire at 5 miles
Becasue there's in a city, or there's intervening terrain, or you're
not a visible target, and engave at a shorter distance? (Which is what
happens. Even 500m (1500') is long range when you're not shooting at,
say, Iraqi tanks in the open desert. In that case, they wouldn't be
engaging SUV-type things with Main Gun rounds. ('cause it would go
through the SUV, and the SUV behind the SUV, and the Tree behing the
SUV behing the SUV, and the School behind the tree - you get the
idea) They'd use either the .50 cal MG on the turret top, or teh .30
cal co-ax. (Don't discount the Coax. It's got a dedicated gunner
with a telescopic sight, a laser rangefinder, and is mounted on a
65-ton tripod. In that case, you don't have 1 round to dodge, but
several dozen.

As for the top-attack missile - when is it going to be fired? Who's
going to guide it? How are they going to maintian guidance for the
20-60 seconds it will take to reach its target while riding in a
moving/evading/exploding SUV?

To deal with the US Air Force...
Buy old airliners and fit with reloadable missile launchers and modern AA
radar, counter measures, and refueling probe. Take old fighter designs, and
hang them fully fueled and armed from ballons. That'll multiply thier
endurance by a factor of ten at least. Fit search-radar in envelope and have
them patrol your boarder. Network them together and you'll have an end to
surprise US attacks.

I'd pay good money to see an F-104/Mirage II/MiG-21 launched from a
balloon.If you could make that one work, Ringling Brothers would give
you a contract But Quick. As for refrobbing old airliners as
long-endurance Patrol Fighter AWACS - well, first, they're easy to
detect, and therefore, neutralize. You can either shoot them down,
or go around them. Being airliners, their ability to move crossrange
will be poor. They'll also need improved airbases, and, as you
mention, tankers. WHen the bases disappear, so does your Air Defence.
(It's always struck me as amusing how many folks seem to think that
all you need to improve aircraft range is a probe. You also need
tankers. Lats of tankers. Lots of big tankers. Consider that in
1982, the RAF used its entire tanker force to get one Vulcan from
Ascention Island to Port Stanley. (Victors, in this case - Not a lot
of tankers, and not a lot of transfer fuel. The same mission could
have been flown, by the U.Ss. with 3 aircraft - 1 B-52, and 2 KC-135s.
The U.S. tanker fleet alone outnumbers most other nations entire Air
Forces.

To deal with the US Navy...
Buy old torpedos and fit to larch home made rockets (see X-prize entries)
with 50-100 mile range. Get the rockets to dump the torpedos within a few
miles of a nimitz carrier groups and you're garanteed to blow up something
*really* expensive!

A _lot_ harder than you think. And the launches will be detected. A
Numitz at flank speed would be a significant distance from the inital
impact area before the Super ASROC you've described gets there. At
which point, the torp, if it survives the impact intact (not a trivial
thing), is goig to have a hard time finding a profitable target.
In the meantime, you've now 1: Revealed your intentions in an
unambiguous manner, and 2: Nicely marked all of your launching
sites. making it damned hard to clain that it wasn't your doing.
Teh end effect, even if you do hit a ship, would be an awful lot like
kicking a nest of Africanized Bees.

Alternatively buy the following:
1 million RPG-7s
5 million RPG-7 rounds
10 million AK-74s
1 billion bullets
Distribute evenly through out your population, train them, set up a
Swiss-style monitoring system, and let the Americans invade. Then blow up
everything of value they own the second they let their guard down. They'll
leave in a few months and you can go back to normal.


In order to do that, you have to have a population that thinks the
country you're leading is worth fighting for. But then, countries
that its citizens thing are worth fighting for tend not to be high
profile targets to the U.S.

Alternatively fly a few airliners into american nuclear power stations. The
aftermath of multiple chernobles will destroy America as an effective
strategic power.

Well, the onlu problem with _that_ one is that Chyernoble, bas as
it was, didn't depopulate large stretches of the Ukraine or Russia.
U.S. racotrs have far superior containment, and, in fact, are required
to be designed such that they can shrug off a direct hit from a large
airliner.

You are the illegitemate son of Robert S. Macnamara, and I claim my 5.00!

--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster