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1. Brian_K_White · 1791088849 · focus · HN ↗

   A few years ago up until this year I laughed at Russia turning out to be a completely inept paper tiger.

   1. Haven880 · 1791095667 · focus · HN ↗

      Well Russia still quite impressive holding entire NATO wiping so many French and Brits commandos in the last 4 years. As for Americans, we know for deacdes already for defeat at Afghanistan, Yalu River, Vietnam where the opponents nowhere near Ukrainian forces. The most impressive is their system of defence. The Afghan government they protected and left survived longer than USSR. American Kabul? Not even 24 hrs. So many American boys wasted for nothing.

      1. mna_ · 1791103127 · focus · HN ↗

         Please provide evidence for your claims.
2. vachina · 1791089205 · focus · HN ↗

   Cheeky cheeky American spies
3. t-3 · 1791091067 · focus · HN ↗

   Iran previously reverse engineered US drones to create the Shahed. Now they will expand the arsenal.

   1. Ancapistani · 1791092583 · focus · HN ↗

      I’d like to see some evidence of this.

      The Shahed isn’t a very complex system, and is a lot closer to a Bayraktar than an RQ-170, which is the only UAV of note that Iran has captured from the US to my knowledge.

   2. spwa4 · 1791108249 · focus · HN ↗

      I think you'll find western weapons depend greatly on material science. Which has the advantage that you could have full specs, including ALL the recipes on how to create everything ...

      And 99% of countries wouldn't be able to duplicate it, because they don't have the ability to create sufficiently precise compounds.

      In fact, "the West" is also limited by this precision. In most cases we know perfectly well how to improve the performance of western technology, but we can't make things precise enough. There are silicon chip batteries (not exactly the optimal chemistry for a battery, that) that beat liquid fuels on every metric, energy densite per weight and per volume. There are theoretical battery designs that beat liquid fuels by a factor (think planes that can stay aloft for weeks). But it doesn't matter as we cannot economically produce them. Same problem.

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