posted on Nov, 23 2002 @ 12:22 AM
Just a few personal anecdotes when I was in the US Navy. Back in 1990, I was on board a supply ship that participated the RIMPAC exercises around the
area of Hawaiian Isles; The participating ships split up into various teams to engage in mock battles. Ships from various navies were there too,
including Canadian, Japanese & German.
The Princeton used the Ageis Weapons System at that time (What they have now, I don't know), which was capable of targeting & engaging up to 250
different targets at once. At one point during the exercises, the Princeton cruised silently into an ongoing "battle" between 2 of the teams
(Princeton was a member of a third team). Once they were in a good position, they lit up the Ageis & took out over 20 targets by surprise (almost
*all* of the other two teams) before it was located & "sunk" by one of the two US submarines in those other teams.
I got the chance to see the Missouri (last of the US's older wooden-decked battleships) test-firing its 16" deck guns (This is a measurement based
upon the bore of the guns)...They lobbed artillery shells (That weighed about the same as VW Beetles) over the horizon. Even with binoculars on the
upper deck of my ship, I couldn't actually see the point where those shells were hitting the water...Only the "plume" that they kicked up when they
did hit.
Even back more than a decade ago, the US military had the capability of firing multi-warhead missles over the horizon (Remember the Tomahawk
Missles?)...And you're saying that the Chinese are only getting that far with their weapons-tech NOW?