Russia a 'risk’ to undersea cables, defence chief warns
BBC Headline today,
"Defence budget: New equipment at risk over MoD savings 'doubts'".
All the recent Defence spending news has indicated severe cuts are in the offing. Some big things are going to be effected and yet, interesting that the rumoured proposed cuts have so far generated resignation threats by a Minister, mutiny threats by Tory MP's and requests for more time by the Minister for Defence.
Where will the axe fall and what specifically was CDS trying to protect with his speech?
OAP
"Defence budget: New equipment at risk over MoD savings 'doubts'".
All the recent Defence spending news has indicated severe cuts are in the offing. Some big things are going to be effected and yet, interesting that the rumoured proposed cuts have so far generated resignation threats by a Minister, mutiny threats by Tory MP's and requests for more time by the Minister for Defence.
Where will the axe fall and what specifically was CDS trying to protect with his speech?
OAP
Well I expect China is not too worried about this "threat". They will dominate Earth for the next few generations at least due to their huge, fast growing population, high intrinsic IQ (some 10% higher than average Caucasian IQ), massive investment in education, total (belated) commitment to stamping out corruption and environmental vandalism, and substantial strategic investment in Africa/Australia where true-value mineral resources are located.
The must be laughing out loud at Trumpie's latest "strategic vision" for the USA...
The must be laughing out loud at Trumpie's latest "strategic vision" for the USA...
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Well I expect China is not too worried about this "threat". They will dominate Earth for the next few generations at least due to their huge, fast growing population, high intrinsic IQ (some 10% higher than average Caucasian IQ), massive investment in education, total (belated) commitment to stamping out corruption and environmental vandalism, and substantial strategic investment in Africa/Australia where true-value mineral resources are located.
I mention that purely because your post, whilst containing some facts, lacks any sort of realistic perspective, and having witnessed the place first hand frequently over the past eight years, I'm inclined to put the record a little straighter than you have.
Here's the other side of the coin...
More than 50% of the population are as thick as mince and besotted by mind-numbing activities like shopping for cr@p, staring blankly at social media and taking endless selfies.
They have virtually no evolved financial services industry.
The vast majority cannot travel overseas, outwith heavily regulated travel arrangements.
The commercial sector is polarised between corruption and complete over-regulation.
Not for nothing is their IT interface with the Western world called "The Great Firewall of China".
They have rampant property inflation.
The current leadership trend is towards more totalitarian rule, not less.
Their manufacturing base is migrating to other Asian countries (like Malaysia and Indonesia) where labour costs are much, much lower.
Sure China is a Great Power, but its problems are as great as any affecting the Western world and it's forward path is anything but linear.
I was interested to read the Defence Staff guys concern about telecom/internet cables ( same things /same technology) since its been my job for many years including spells on the international body that seeks to develop better ways to protect them.
It is true that there is quite a bit of diversity but losing two systems in one ocean will cause big problems for all the Googles and Facebooks of the world. Yes, IP technology can self heal through rerouting but there are not that many trans oceanic paths .
Why would the Russians do this anyway-are they even a credible enemy these days-Boris made a speech this week saying they were but as he said it its probably wrong and he has confused them with another country. Seriously though are the Russians really an enemy state -according to the Daily Mail one would think France is more of an enemy and as Andytug points out in an earlier post-high frequency trading-the biggest scam ever invented by the crooks of Wall St is far far more likely to cause the world really serious harm than Vlad and his cohorts. After all population wise Russia isnt that big a country compared to China India USA and others and of course all their former Eastern European allies are now likely to be on 'our' side.
Shouldn't we decide who our enemies are likely to be and equip/plan for that rather than take the view we have lot of old military kit so we need to keep on having the same enemies or its useless
It is true that there is quite a bit of diversity but losing two systems in one ocean will cause big problems for all the Googles and Facebooks of the world. Yes, IP technology can self heal through rerouting but there are not that many trans oceanic paths .
Why would the Russians do this anyway-are they even a credible enemy these days-Boris made a speech this week saying they were but as he said it its probably wrong and he has confused them with another country. Seriously though are the Russians really an enemy state -according to the Daily Mail one would think France is more of an enemy and as Andytug points out in an earlier post-high frequency trading-the biggest scam ever invented by the crooks of Wall St is far far more likely to cause the world really serious harm than Vlad and his cohorts. After all population wise Russia isnt that big a country compared to China India USA and others and of course all their former Eastern European allies are now likely to be on 'our' side.
Shouldn't we decide who our enemies are likely to be and equip/plan for that rather than take the view we have lot of old military kit so we need to keep on having the same enemies or its useless
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Indeed. Placing Russia as the culprit is clearly inflammatory since The Philippines, Venezuela or Iceland would be equally capable of cutting cables (and equally, would suffer financial harm as a result)
