The new members introduction thread.

[usernamee]

Hi everyone !

i'm just a student for now from Romania

 

[cdxbow]

Hi,

I am a game developer from Oz who has been trolling around here for a while, trying to get up to speed on current military tech. One day we want to do a game 'China Wars' the story based on the PLA running rampant through SE Asia much as the Japanese Imperial Army did during WWII. In the story the US would take a big hit trying to defend Taiwan and after losing a few carriers, they basically withdraw from the western pacific, leaving their ex allies, all alone. It's in the unthinkable category for Oz defence planners, in fact I bet there is no plan for defence of Oz without US help.

 

[I_am_a_Spoon]

One day we want to do a game 'China Wars' the story based on the PLA running rampant through SE Asia much as the Japanese Imperial Army did during WWII.

Sounds interesting! What dev studio are you with?

 

[cdxbow]

Our own indie group, TeamXbow. We have MekArcade coming out this year, initially as an open source game. We are using Red Eclipse as our 'engine', which does multiplayer online very well, to do "China Wars' the engine is going to need a bit added, so we wouldn't be looking at starting until 2014. We may try releasing the story earlier, as an illustrated ebook. A lot depends how we go with MekArcade.

 

[gf0012-aust]

It's in the unthinkable category for Oz defence planners, in fact I bet there is no plan for defence of Oz without US help.

Not the case at all. I hope you don't build in your assumptions into your games .....

So. I'm guessing that you've got no input from friends or family who served in the military (at a planning level anyway)

 

[cdxbow]

Not the case at all. I hope you don't build in your assumptions into your games....

.

No one much talks about what would happen if the US was unable/unwilling to support Oz during a military conflict. I guess thats one of the things I want to explore with the storyline, how it might happen and what could be done about it. As I started researching the back ground I started to see increasing parallels between now in SE Asia and 1930's europe. Then I saw a quote from Hugh White suggesting the risk of US and PLA over the next 20 years was around 10%, which is pretty scary.

So. I'm guessing that you've got no input from friends or family who served in the military (at a planning level anyway)

No, a lot of civilian soldiers in my family during the world wars but nobody ever in planning. We were always scrubbers.

 

[Whitehead]

Hello everyone,

My account name is my real last name. Not meant to represent zits and what ever else you can think of. I am currently a sophomore at a University of Wisconsin school, majoring in Marine Biology. Some cool facts about myself, used to be a History Major, but I switched it after a year because I felt I could not really "use" that degree to get a decent job. I am a huge history/military buff. Another fun fact is I am currently enrolled in Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps, (AFROTC). My current plan is to try and make it through the program and become a pilot within the United States Air Force! I actually find pretty soon if I will be going to our official training which takes place for a month in the south.

Thanks,
Whitehead

 

[mAIOR]

Hello. I'm a Portuguese guy who likes military stuff. I got a first degree in Physics and a Master in surveying Engineering which allows me to play with some expensive toys in terms of sensors and whatnot. Been lurking on and off in this forum but recently, I began to study a bit on modern navies in order to better understand modern warfare and I felt the need to contribute in order to learn more. I like the policy of this forum of basically posting only when you think you have something relevant to say and that made skimming through big threads (as in India, USA and Russian navies/airforce) very time consuming since I end up reading almost every post in excruciating detail.
I studied a lot of WWII and, more recently, Age of Sail. I hope to learn more and to be able to inform about something as well (though this is more likely to be in the physics behind theories since the kind of knowhow and access some of you guys seem to have... Wow...).


Cheers

 

[RobWilliams]

Personally, nothing leads to a better understanding to a respective countries navy than reading through all the pages, it's what I did for something close to a year

 

[ADMk2]

Hi,

I am a game developer from Oz who has been trolling around here for a while, trying to get up to speed on current military tech. One day we want to do a game 'China Wars' the story based on the PLA running rampant through SE Asia much as the Japanese Imperial Army did during WWII. In the story the US would take a big hit trying to defend Taiwan and after losing a few carriers, they basically withdraw from the western pacific, leaving their ex allies, all alone. It's in the unthinkable category for Oz defence planners, in fact I bet there is no plan for defence of Oz without US help.

Of course, if the US lost a carrier or two they WOULD just pack up and go home...

The US wouldn't retaliate with B-2, B-1B, B-52, their massive SSBN and SSN fleets, their own enormous ballistic missile fleet (which everyone conveniently ignores in the froth and bubble over China's various ballistic missile programs) their enormous surface combatant force, the USMC and so on...

It's very easy to ignore the sheer scale of the US military, but for exercise purposes let's just throw a few numbers of operational vessels out there.

Number of USN aircraft carriers - 10.

Number of USN air capable amphibious warfare ships - 9.

Number of USN ballistic missile submarines - 18 (4 converted to mass Tactical Tomahawk cruise missile launchers, capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk missiles per boat.)

Number of attack submarines - 55.

Number of cruisers - 22.

Number of Destroyers - 62.

Numbers of tactical fighter/EW aircraft - 1268. (409 USN Hornets in-service, 475 USN Super Hornet / Growlers in-service, 56 USN/USMC EA-6B Prowler, 229 USMC Hornets and 99 USMC AV-8 Harrier II).

Planned future fleet of USN/USMC - 1313. (Consisting of 340 F-35C fighters, 515 F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters, 118 EA-18G Growlers and 340 F-35B fighters.)

Not even considering the US Army, US Air Force, Missile Defence Agency, Strategic Air Command and the Air National Guard, that is an insane amount of combat power, just to pack up and go home, should they suffer the loss of a carrier or 2...

 

[cdxbow]

Of course, if the US lost a carrier or two they WOULD just pack up and go home..........................

...................Not even considering the US Army, US Air Force, Missile Defence Agency, Strategic Air Command and the Air National Guard, that is an insane amount of combat power, just to pack up and go home, should they suffer the loss of a carrier or 2...

Yes, the USN rules the waves much as the RN did for the brits and just about any naval battle anywhere in the world the USN would cream the PLAN.

But I am concerned that any battle (most likely over Taiwan) will be in China's backyard and that 21st century missiles may whip what are basically 20th century ships. I am not confident at all about missile defence in a situation where thousands of missiles could be thown at the targets in a short space of time, backed up by about 80% of worlds industrial capacity. And the PLA could do it again, and again and again. It seems to me we may be at in a revolutionary period of naval ship building, you either have to be a submarine, or a small, stealthy and fast surface ship or if you are big you need to able to take a few hits and keep functioning, like WWII battleships did. Look at what a mess 'old fashioned' exocets made to the aluminium destroyers in the falklands. Some didn't even detonate and the ships sunk.

 

[StevoJH]

The US (& allies) have 21st Century missiles as well, and the majority of Western Fleets are more modern, and better protected then the Chinese Equivilent.

Look up the types and numbers of Chinese Combat aircraft for example (don't forget their age), then look up the equivilant list for the USAF.

Now look at the numbers for the RoK Navy, Japanese MSDF, RoK Air Force and Japanese ASDF.

And before you think again about China running rampant, don't forget about the Elephant in the cupboard, India.

 

[cdxbow]

The US (& allies) have 21st Century missiles as well, and the majority of Western Fleets are more modern, and better protected then the Chinese Equivilent.

Look up the types and numbers of Chinese Combat aircraft for example (don't forget their age), then look up the equivilant list for the USAF.

Now look at the numbers for the RoK Navy, Japanese MSDF, RoK Air Force and Japanese ASDF.

And before you think again about China running rampant, don't forget about the Elephant in the cupboard, India.

That would be an Indian elephant in the cupboard, then. India certainly will be another super power in the region. Lot of industrial capacity, good coders, heaps of manpower, established indigenous weapon development, an interesting mix of russian and european weapons built on a base of some old british traditions.

Remember I am projecting about a decade. The PLA arsenal is likely continue to grow, the US will probably contract.

 

[gf0012-aust]

This is a members intro thread area - not a debating area.

feel free to start an approp thread in the approp area

thanks

 

[Mike35]

Mike, I have deleted your post as I think you need to revisit your introduction details.

Happy to discuss offline, but take note of the fact that when members elect to pronounce prior or current service, we expect to see supporting material provided to the Mods for independant assessment

 

[King Wally]

G'day all, new visitor to these forums and I must say I like what you guys have going here. Just an average Aussie civvy with a side interest in all things military, certainly no expert but do enjoy talking about issues with likeminded individuals.

 

[Dan Jones]

Hello all,

Glad to find a community of like minded individuals, and equally glad to see strict moderation - the lack of which has often made me ignore such forums.

Using my real name here, as I see no reason to use a pen/forum name. I'm currently a Defence Analyst intern, hold a BA (Hons.) in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of York, and am a recent graduate of the University of Leeds with an MA (High Merit) in Strategic Studies.

I spent an inordinately short amount of time (1/2 weeks) in the RN back in 2000 before the service decided that my borderline S2/S3 eyesight standard was not sufficient for the Warfare branch. This is stated as an anecdote rather than a claim to service, which would not be fair to actual or ex-servicemen on these forums.

I'm not technically minded, which is a weakness for me. I hope to work on that through research and communication with fellow professionals. My own strengths lie in political context and analysis - particularly EU Strategic and Defence issues, upon which my master's dissertation was based.

I'm currently working on research of soldier modernisation programs (FIST, IdZ etc) but this is likely to change often.

My personal research interests include Geo-Strategy, Defence co-operation, the so-called 'RMA', Civil/Military relations and its impact on human geography, and Post-Westphalianism & Chronopolitics. I hope to pursue a PhD in International Relations from the LSE or a PhD in War Studies from KCL in the near future.

As an intern, I am unsure if I would count as an 'industry professional' but my academic studies and current work history would appear to be moving in that direction. Advice would be appreciated on this.

Thanks!

 

[michael jordan]

I am Michael Jordan

Hi defensetalk users i am new to this forum. I am a defense enthusiastic person who reads and follows about military, navy, air force industry related news. While i am searching in google i got this site and found interesting . I am looking forward to give my 100 % good contribution for this site .

 

[gf0012-aust]

welcome all, we look forward to your contributions

a general comment worth absorbing is to have a solid read of the threads that you intend to post to etc - just to ensure that you get all prev discussions absorbed before comment

enjoy your time on here

gf

 

[arfrzk8]

introduction

Hello everyone! i'm just ordinary civilian but really interested in military discussion. i hope this forum will be another source for me to keep updated with military issues while i concentrate in transportation engineering.