Modern World (Plz Read)

Out of all the countries who's the next likely to become a superpower or an emerging power?

Will Russia ever emerge as a major power in the world again? What will Russia have to do in order to achieve this and what obstacles currently prevent it?

If America ever goes to war again, i.e against Iran, North Korea or China could any of them threaten the US Aur Force or Navy? How would they be able to even the score? Could they have concealed AA defences and what defence do they have against weapons such as the HARM anti-radar missile?

What kind of foreign policy can we expect if Kerry comes into office?

These are just questions i was curious about, fire away!

1) China, maybe the EU

2) Yes. They must improve their economy first and formost. Then they must improve their domestic computer tech.

3) The Air Force, no. The navy however is very vulnerable to tactical nukes. This is illustrated best in US war games, where nuking CBG's is not allowed. Nukes even the naval war, but as of now, the Airforce is close to untouchable.

4) If Kerry is elected you can expect a weak, yielding foriegn policy - there will be no war, even if it is "needed" (by this I mean the correct thing to do).

IMHO, you won't see any new US conflicts unless N. Korea invades the south. China won't attack Taiwan - they don't have the abillity to, nor do they want a direct showdown with the US. Iran won't make an agressive attack anywhere in the ME as long as the US is there, and the US won't attack them as long as the Iraq situation is unstable.

Why's the US Air Force 'untouchable'? Surely they can be countered by the new Su-34 & Mig-29 planes? What if a country had dense AA coverage, including lots of SAM's, AAA and an excellent radar coverage?

Originally posted by Flyboy211
Why's the US Air Force 'untouchable'? Surely they can be countered by the new Su-34 & Mig-29 planes? What if a country had dense AA coverage, including lots of SAM's, AAA and an excellent radar coverage?

Russian planes are great, but the fact is that none of the mentioned countries have sufficiet numbers of said planes couples with good training in said planes, to make a difference. AA coverage would be defeated through a combination of EW, stealth spearheaded attacks, and cruise missles. Remember, between spy sats and SR-71's we could identify most AA targets and take them out without risking our non stealth planes. In addition none of those countries have the cash to put a dense enough system together. Think about it - China is a HUGE country. They couldn't put coverage over their whole country. As for Iran and N. Korea, they don't have the cash to do that and have adequate ground defenses. Don't forget, there would be thousands of M1 tanks rolling through their country - if you can't fight the ground war against the US, they don't even need their airforce.

Another point I'd like to make is inharent in the conversation - the US will ALWAYS be on the offensive. The enemy couldn't attack the US (with the exception of China's ICBMs, but if we go there then we are al dead), so they will be losing infrastructure, power, ect ect ect. Meanwhile the US would continue to just pick off targets at a distance.

Ok so what defenses would a country need in order to successfully halt a US air and ground offensive attack?

Isn't there a way of concealing AA weapons, camouflaged & entrenched?