"Chad Irby" wrote in message
om...
In article ,
"Thomas J. Paladino Jr." wrote:

"Chad Irby" wrote in message
om...
In article ,
(robert arndt) wrote:

The strange thing is that our "friends" are
putting more money into anti-stealth than our "enemies"...

You might note that most of Europe still worries about Russia, which
has
worked on stealth aircraft in the past.


LOL!

Sure....That must be it....

Yes, it is.

The [often duplicitous] Europeans are pouring significant amounts of
money
into anti-stealth radar and weapon systems to counter a hopelessly
bankrupt
Russia which cannot even afford fuel for it's current aircraft; and even
at
the height of it's power didn't come close to fielding a stealth
aircraft.

No, they had some reasonably-stealthy stuff, they just couldn't afford
to make it in large quantities. For enough cash, the old Soviet arms
labs would certainly make something stealthy for pretty much anyone who
has a cash.

Well, thats pretty much the problem; nobody has the cash. As it is now, the
USA can just barely afford stealth, the EU cannot afford it at all, and
Russia is hopeless. Perhaps China, but even that is a long stretch (and
politically, considering the historic paranoia and anxiety that Russia feels
towards it's neighbor, I don't see Russia selling a weapon more advanced
than they are able field for themselves to China). As for the rest of the
world, it simply is not an option at all. As much as the third world despots
may want a stealth capability, it is simply not within their wildest dreams,
unless a major breakthrough is made regarding it's production costs. And nob
ody except the US has the research capability to make such a breakthrough.

The export market for stealth is almost nil. The export market for
anti-stealth, is, however, vast.


Not to mention the fact that Russia has sided with 'Old Europe' far more
often than not lately, and that these Europeans have taken seemingly
every
step possible to attempt to thwart any American geopolitical and
military
advancement in the last three years. But I'm sure these systems are to
counter all the imaginary Russian stealth aircraft that will never be
built.

Sarcasm aside, you have no clue as to why the Europeans have built this
hardware. If they were defending against an American threat, as you
suggest, they'd be building more actual *weapons* like planes and tanks,
instead of a few defensive systems that don't make sense unless you have
a superpower's military to back you up.

Read my statements more carefully. I never meant to say that the Europeans
are hoping to defend themselves against a military attack from the USA
(which, regardless of political attitudes will just not happen anytime
soon). But that developing these systems could give them negotiating clout
in global matters which the USA may want to act upon in the future, as they
currently have almost no say at all. It's a political objective, not a
military one.

Take, for example the recent Iraq situation. The 'Old Europe' powers were
staunchly against the invasion (for various reasons, none of which are
relevant to this discussion), but the USA was obviously determined to invade
Iraq, regardless of their opinions. The European powers were, essentially,
powerless to protect their interests in Iraq, and had no effective
negotiating clout with the Americans. They were brushed aside and there was
nothing they could do about it.

However, imagine the situation if there was a possibility that, perhaps,
Saddam may be able to purchase (or be 'leaked'), through, say, the French, a
deterrant system capable of rendering our most valued and expensive weapons
systems vulnerable. Suddenly the European point of view on the matter
becomes far more relevant.

Think about it... what is the REAL market for anti-stealth systems?
Third
world dictatorships and despots who would like to carry an ace in the
hole
against the American forces, and are willing to pay highly to get it
(but
cannot develop it on their own). Period.

This has a certain amount of sense to it, but it's a pretty iffy
conclusion. For one, you have to assume that these things *work* versus
stealth planes to a huge degree, and that's definitely debatable.

Thats true enough, though it is disturbing to me that this research is being
carried on in the first place.