To: koan who wrote (341353 ) 7/16/2025 1:20:06 PM From: combjelly Respond to They have the ability to immediately knock out every aircraft carrier we have on the oceans No they don't. Sure, they have made that claim, but as we see with Trump, claims don't necessarily map to reality. On paper, the D-21 could do the job. Especially if nuclear tipped. Bur on paper, many weapon systems can do amazing things. Navigating a hypersonic reentry vehicle is not particularly easy. Getting sensor data in and out of the plasma sheath is, well problematic. So it is going to be blind until it can slow enough for that sheath to dissipate. Slowing reduces the advantage of being hypersonic. Carriers can move fast. Remember when that carrier slung a fighter overboard because it had to make an emergency turn? Now that probably wasn't quite as dramatic as it sounds, but the supercarriers are almost a quarter mile long. As long as two football stadiums with delusions it is a ski boat... Certainly China can deny any nearshore activities by US carriers. But they have not demonstrated any capability beyond that. Prior to the latest round of shooty unpleasantness, that was of some concerns. But the recent Israel attack on Iran changed a lot of things. You see, stealth works. At least as well as some of the more wide-eyed claims. Israel dismantled what was the best air defenses on the planet outside of maybe Moscow, with zero response. AFAIK, they never got a lock to launch a missile, much less hit anything. I mean, sure. No doubt Israel knew where the launchers were and no doubt had the lunch menus for the crews. but even so, they might as well have had slingshots for all the good they did. And that is huge. Here is the thing, the bigger the plane, the easier stealth is. So bombers, if anything, are even more likely to slip through the air defenses than the comparatively petite Fat Amy. Cue the B-2 and its Mini-me, the B-21. You probably didn't notice, but the Air Force decided their planned flock of B-21a needs to be much bigger. Why not?, when you have proof that no air defense on the planet can stop them. Or even slow them down. If Ukraine could secure a brace of B-21s, the war with Russia would end in months. With Battle Penguins, it would take a bit longer. Those facts have got to be giving China nightmares.
