Miscellaneous News

manqiangrexue

Brigadier
It would be interesting to see if the attrition rates for their aircraft are simply due to the massive size of the air fleet or significantly above the expected rates. But I don't know if we can find info about that sort of thing in the public record. Does feel awfully like the multiple destroyers crashing into civilian ships incidents a couple of years back (USS John McCain comes to mind). If it is far above then one wonders where all that defence money is going....
Well if you compare this year to previous, you can see that there are many more incidents than before. I don't know why or what changes were made. I don't remember ever hearing about American military aviation crashes in such frequency. This year America literally beat India in the number of wrecks by far. It's unprecedented.
 

LawLeadsToPeace

Senior Member
Staff member
Moderator - World Affairs
Registered Member
Well if you compare this year to previous, you can see that there are many more incidents than before. I don't know why or what changes were made. I don't remember ever hearing about American military aviation crashes in such frequency. This year America literally beat India in the number of wrecks by far. It's unprecedented.
Based on what Ive been hearing in the past year or two, for the navy and air force, there is a lack of mechanics to maintain all of the aircraft. Plus, the morale among the current mechanics is really low. So to be honest, it's not surprising to see this kind of stuff happening.
 

Chish

Junior Member
Registered Member
The day will come when Comrade Chang (Gordan) will receive his Medal of the Order of the Republic at the Great Hall of the People, before breaking into perfect Beijing Mandarin for the cameras.

(A joke, which may... or may not be true).
Actually I was thinking the same. He does a better job than a CCP recruit. Americans trust him.
 

hashtagpls

Senior Member
Registered Member
Possible change in Chinese military doctrine, to cite threats to China's development as necessitating military action; could this be a response to the US' plant o embargo microchips to Chinese firms?
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manqiangrexue

Brigadier
Now that China and Russia are on the Human Rights Commission, we should really start to look into things like this...
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US Ice officers 'used torture to make Africans sign own deportation orders'

US immigration officers allegedly tortured Cameroonian asylum seekers to force them to sign their own deportation orders, in what lawyers and activists describe as a brutal scramble to fly African migrants out of the country in the run-up to the elections.

According to multiple accounts, detainees were threatened, choked, beaten, pepper-sprayed and threatened with more violence to make them sign. Several were put in handcuffs by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers, and their fingerprints were taken forcibly in place of a signature on documents called stipulated orders of removal, by which the asylum seekers waive their rights to further immigration hearings and accept deportation.

“The abuse we are witnessing, especially right now against black immigrants, isn’t new, but it is escalating,” said Christina Fialho, executive director of an advocacy group, Freedom for Immigrants (FFI). “In late September, early October of this year, we began to receive calls on our hotline from Cameroonian and Congolese immigrants detained in Ice prisons across the country. And they were being subjected to threats of deportation, often accompanied by physical abuse.”

One of those involved, identified by the initials BJ, said that on 27 September, Ice officers “pepper-sprayed me in the eyes and [one officer] strangled me almost to the point of death. I kept telling him, ‘I can’t breathe.’ I almost died.”

“As a result of the physical violence, they were able to forcibly obtain my fingerprint on the document,” BJ said.

Another detainee, known as DF, said that he was ordered to sign his deportation order by an Ice agent on 28 September.

“I refused to sign. He pressed my neck into the floor. I said, ‘Please, I can’t breathe.’ I lost my blood circulation. Then they took me inside with my hands at my back where there were no cameras,” DF said. According to his account, he was then taken to a punitive wing of the Adams county centre, known as Zulu, and subjected to further assault.

They put me on my knees where they were torturing me and they said they were going to kill me. They took my arm and twisted it. They were putting their feet on my neck. While in Zulu, they did get my fingerprint on my deportation document and took my picture,” he said. DF was one of the detainees on the 13 October flight to Douala. It is unclear what has happened to him since.

A third detainee, CA, said he was forced to the ground, sat on, handcuffed and pepper-sprayed. “I was crying, ‘I can’t breathe,’ because they were forcefully on top of me pressing their body weight on top of me. My eyes were so hot ... I was dragged across the ground,” he said. “The officers told me to open my eyes. I couldn’t. My legs and hands were handcuffed. They forcefully opened my palm. Some of my fingers were broken. They forced my fingerprint on to the paper.”
 

AndrewS

Brigadier
Registered Member
Well if you compare this year to previous, you can see that there are many more incidents than before. I don't know why or what changes were made. I don't remember ever hearing about American military aviation crashes in such frequency. This year America literally beat India in the number of wrecks by far. It's unprecedented.

I suspect it is general burnout due to the Coronavirus quarantines/precautions, plus still trying to operate at the previous unsustainable pace.

US Navy viewpoint below.

Sailors only spending 3months out of 18 months at home.
That is a wartime deployment duration, but the US isn't actually in a physical war.

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supersnoop

Major
Registered Member
I suspect it is general burnout due to the Coronavirus quarantines/precautions, plus still trying to operate at the previous unsustainable pace.

US Navy viewpoint below.

Sailors only spending 3months out of 18 months at home.
That is a wartime deployment duration, but the US isn't actually in a physical war.

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Pay continues as a big part of the morale issue. Payday loan sharks have been a problem amongst the US military enlisted for a long time.
Just as a comparison, US E-1 pay is ~$1700/month, Canadian military pay for the lowest rank is ~$3000/month.
According to some sources, 22% of US servicemembers have taken at least 1 payday loan (vs. 16% for the general population).

It doesn't explain the issues this year, but always an issue overall, and certainly exacerbates any particular situation.
 
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