https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3268895/philippines-warned-us-satellite-status-puts-it-under-putins-nuclear-cross-hairs

https://archive.is/kbgxw

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3268941/us-recalls-potent-midrange-missiles-philippines-used-south-china-sea-drills

https://archive.is/qq5eA

  • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
    ·
    4 months ago

    Extremely weird take by the libs at the SCMP, who are notoriously bad with military reporting.

    Some PLA watchers have reported on a recent standoff between US and Chinese electronic warfare aircraft near the Philippines:

    After a 12-hour standoff, the U.S. forces chose to retreat. However, this electronic warfare incident caused a complete disruption of GPS signals in the northern part of Luzon Island, with all communications, phone signals, and other signals completely cut off, plunging the local area into chaos.

    It is evident that the Chinese military conducted strong interference with U.S. GPS signals. Given that the Laoag International Airport in northern Luzon is home to a U.S. land-based missile system, this electronic warfare can also be viewed as a rehearsal by the PLA to counter land-based Tomahawk cruise missiles by disrupting GPS signals.

    I think that this lines up extremely well with the US Tomahawks being pulled almost immediately afterwards. If they can't fly without GPS then they're just useless targets. Certainly makes more sense than the US somehow deciding to conceed to Putin under the anti-Russian Biden admin.

    Article is worth a read if you want to get a sense of shifting military power dynamics between China and the US as well. The US drops an ASW device, China coast guard tries to recover it. US Navy ship tries to interfere, causing a Chinese carrier group to show up. Both sides blast each other with electronic warfare and in the end the Americans scamper off.

    Inshallah the US isn't far from its big Suez moment.

    • Tervell [he/him]
      ·
      4 months ago

      without GPS then they're just useless

      Something similar seems to have happened in Ukraine with various GPS-guided artillery shells and bombs. Turns out, it's not such a good idea to make your military heavily reliant on fancy precision-guided munitions, and just assume that no one's ever going to figure out a counter-measure to the guidance systems. After all, you're the best-funded military in the world, how could anyone else innovate anything?

      I guess we're heading for the CoD Black Ops 2 timeline of the entire US arsenal being disabled by electronic warfare. Game was set it 2025 too scared

      • duderium [he/him]
        ·
        4 months ago

        I guess Biden never saw Battlestar Galactica! 😤

    • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]
      ·
      4 months ago

      "The US retreated, but they inflicted a power outage on the Chinese side. What did the Chinese side inflict on the US side that made them retreat? Don't worry about it."

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      4 months ago

      I think the realization that the tomahawks are just targets is a big part of it, but I think US military may be starting to get concerned that Russia will supply weapons to their adversaries around the world. West Asia and Africa are two spots that are highly volatile at the moment and US assets could easily come under attack. So, it's not implausible to me that US military would try to get the admit to pull back on that account as well.