Yeah all of those weapons are ancient and developed quite a while ago , same age as most Russian gear basically. The only high profile new equipment the west provided is MRAP, NLAW and UAV systems, note that age does not mean they are incapable, ultimately the west is still in a fully peace time economy.
Those weapons are today's standard. The West have still not moved on beyond Challneger IIs, Javelins, M777s, HIMARs etc. If you say that those are ancient, then most of the West is running on ancient stuff. So is the British Army ancient by your standards? Because they are issued Challenger II, HIMARS, and Javelins?
I keep seeing people repeating that Europe is getting deindustrialised but there is little evidence of it, in fact this is almost just as bad as people repeating that Russia will economically collapse any minute now. The truth is that most nations are more resilient then naysayers on the internet realise.
Take your head out of the sand and pay attention to the European economies. Have you not seen what is going on?
If you ever think that deindustrialization just won't happen to the West. Go and ask the British who lived through the Thatcher era. Deindustrialization doesn't happen overnight. But the process has already started. And the end result will be sorely felt by the Europeans.
Can new generation Chinese used to the new prosperity suddenly go massively backwards in standards of living in the case of AR, if so why can't the West?
Yes the current generation of Chinese can take the economic hit in AR. Because it's a war for the defense of the motherland.
The Westerners are used to seeing war away from home over some small nation that they can stomp on, while they can sip on Starbucks and wine. They thought that Russia can be stomped on like Afghanistan, just because they sided with Ukraine. When Russia cannot be stomped on, they are going into copium mode. Many Europeans claimed that they can take the economic hit, as long as it helps Ukraine win. Bullshit! They are not happy with their politicians. They are not happy with the inflation. They are not happy about losing jobs. All those strikes, and street protests. They are happening, but the Western MSM is underreporting it, and suppressing them with riot police.
The West is taking Russia as an existential threat. They are doing everything short of direct war to bring Russia down. They do the dirtiest things to Russia. But they want to do all of that without pain. They want their internet on, so that they can gloat to the Russians about being inferior to them. They still want their Starbucks and their cocktail bars. They still want to watch their sports. You tell me, that such a society can endure wartime economy and general mobilization?
If you still say yes, just look at how they handled themselves during Covid. It was a life and death situation. How well did they follow the rules? How well did they accept the science? How well did they accept reality?
Again and again people keep assuming that people in the west are some how balloon that pop at the sight of a slight breeze and extrapolating the behaviour of a very minor subset of the population to entire countries, look at the level of support for the war in Iraq post 9-11. The vast majority supported the war despite initially expecting tens of thousands of casualties.
Yeah, and? Support for a war doesn't equate to the ability to ensure the war.
BTW, they were not expecting thousands of casualties in the Middle East. They expected to wipe the floor with the Afghans and the Iraqis. They expected another 1991 Gulf War. But when the body bags start coming home by the thousands. When the war dragged on long after Bush Jr declared 'Mission Accomplished'. That's when they start to get upset. That's when they start to question the politicians. And you think this kind of society can endure WW3?
Another point is that the US government has never cared about public opinion when going to war, not in Korea, not in Vietnam and not in the Middle East, why would you think the public will have any sway when the hegemony is at risk?
If the US government had never cared for public opinion. They wouldn't have gotten out of Vietnam and allowed North Vietnam to overrun South Vietnam to win the Vietnam War.
Most of the Western public are used to imperial wars in other people's shores. They are part of the imperial hegemony. They always liked their wars, until they find out that they're not winning. Then the wars become unpopular. Yeah, they do like a WW3 now. But let's see how they like WW3 when it really happens.
What does cheaper mean in this context? In a contest of nations the monetary value of system means little, only the numbers. Tha absolute number of planes, submarines and even large UAVs (reaper/predator) available to the US is still greater than Chinese stocks.
Yeah the Chinese can procure their jets, ships, and missiles cheaper than the Americans. What is so insignificant about that? The Chinese can buy two Type 055s for the price of 1 Burke. You do the math.
When you talk about numbers, understand the bigger picture. The US have more warplanes, heavy surface combatants, CVNs, and SSNs than China. But can they all be at China? What about Russia and Iran? What about their homeland? Their world empire still needs to be maintained.
China has less of the big ticket stuff, but they have numerous frigates, corvettes, and SSKs. These things matter when war is being fought on China's doorstep. Their airforce is not as big as the USAF, but they can overwhelm the USAF forces stationed near China. Should China build a bigger force now to deal with the US? Absolutely, and China is doing all it can to stay out any war to buy time for that.
In terms of industrial capacity of course China is going to be greater, but the gap is not so insurmountable that anyone can draw conclusions like 10x out produce the West or that the US will drown in missiles.
China's industrial capacity is bigger than the US and Europe combined. No one have said that China can produce 10x the arms production of the West. 2x to 5x is already bad enough for the West.
Col. McGregor, not a fan of China, had once said that China has the war production capacity that is 2x the capacity of the US in WW2. Take that with a pinch of salt. But no one can deny that China has significantly larger war production capacity than the US.
The ability to outproduce and outnumber your enemy is a winning formula. That's how WWI and WWII were won by the Allies.
Interestingly the Qinghai-tibet railway use all American manufactured rolling stock of Diesel electric rail cars.
Yeah. And the Boston subway is using Chinese rolling stocks. And many of the electric buses in the US are Chinese-made. And practically all consumer drones in the US are Chinese-made. China produces more ships than the US and Europe combined. Try harder.
