01.05.11

Made in China: Stealth fighter — yeah, right

Posted in Crazy Weapons, Made in China at 11:38 am by George Smith

The Chinese make many things. To our regret.

And they make things just good enough. Which really isn’t very good at all but when one has no choice in the matter, crap magically becomes the new excellence. Because it’s all you can afford and it’s all that’s in stores.

So socks that develop holes after a couple washings, wooden painted toilet seats that blister and crack a week after purchase or stub wrenches with no burrs become the new normal. Heck, you can still use a toilet seat that’s blistered or which immediately took up a yellow stain. It’s just unsightly but not quite useless.

Then there is the regular parade of stories about new Chinese weapons.

In these stories one hardly ever reads reasonable doubt about Chinese manufacturing skills or why one should think they can make alleged superweapons any better than the usual stuff.

Today’s Chinese whoopie cushion is the J-20 “stealth fighter.”

Here it is, the hot item at GlobalSecurity.Org. Ooh, pretty!

“Chinese combat aviation has made remarkable strides in recent years, moving from a collection of obsolete aircraft that would have provided a target-rich environment to potential adversaries,” it reads. “Today China flies hundreds of first rate aircraft, and even flies more Sukhoi Flankers than Russia …”

It adds that Chinese capabilities are still twenty years behind the US.

Reauters found an American military man to put it in perspective. In other words, to show the blistering toilet seat capability:

China is still years away from being able to field a stealth aircraft, despite the disclosure of images indicating that it appears to have a working prototype, a U.S. Navy official said on Wednesday …

“We’re anticipating China to have a fifth-generation fighter … operational right around 2018 …”

2018.

In 2018, the middle class will be mostly gone, the little still left having been shipped off to China. Except, of course, robot weapons manufacturing.

Now let’s divert.

Every Predator drone in action in the wars costs $4.5 million, according to the New York Times. They are not made in China.

“The Air Force’s fleet has grown to 195 Predators and 28 Reapers, a new and more heavily armed cousin of the Predator. Both models are made by General Atomics, a contractor based in San Diego,” reported the Times piece. “Including drones that the Army has used to counter roadside bombs and tiny hand-launched models that can help soldiers to peer past the next hill or building, the total number of military drones has soared to 5,500, from 167 in 2001.”

195 + 28 = 223.

223 x $4,500,000 = 1,003,500,000

From the San Diego Union Tribune, one day ago:

The Defense Department says it has awarded $85 million to General Atomics Aeronautical Systems of Poway to provide logistical support for its Warrior A/Warrior Block 0 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which is being developed for the Army. The work will be performed in Poway but represents support to four unnamed sites outside of the continental United States. The company still refers to the UAV as Warrior, although it is technically known as the MQ-1C Grey Eagle. The aircraft is a refined version of the company’s well known MQ-1 Predator drone, and is part of the Army’s Extended-Range Multi-Purpose UAV program.

According to Washington Technology, General Atomics 2010 revenue was $661,619,386.

For 2011, “[more] than $2 billion will be used to purchase unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, which the Obama administration has used increasingly over the past year to target suspected terrorist hideouts in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” stated a news report from TruthOut, published way back in February.

By contrast, the FDA — which handles food and drug consumer protections for the entire United States — is requesting $4.03 billion to “Transform Food Safety System, Invest in Medical Product Safety, [and provide] Regulatory Science.”

As a thought exercise consider that General Atomics and US manufacturing of killer drones sops up at least half, maybe more, than an important domestic US regulatory agency spends for the betterment, health and welfare of society.

General Atomics employs 5,000 people. The FDA, by contrast, employs a bit over twice that.

As another thought exercise, consider that a domestic arms manufacturer of flying killer robots and very little else is now half the size of the regulatory agency for food and drugs in allegedly the foremost of western nations.

Ah, so where were we? Lost. Talking about some rubbish having to do with a Chinese stealth fighter.

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