1.3 Billion Pounds of Thrust

It flies more than twice the speed of sound. Radar absorbing materials (RAM) in conjunction with fan blade design making it virtually invisible to direct radar. It's the F-22 'Raptor'. Most men marvel at one exuding 70,000 pounds of thrust let alone one fully loaded with eighty thousand pounds of bombs, missiles and cannons. An engineer gets excited like a kid in a toy store at the sight of one of the beasts you don't even hear coming, provided they're on your side. My office wall has a picture of two of them flying next to the F-15 'Eagle' they were built to replace.

On Wednesday March 25, an F-22 Raptor crashed in California killing the test pilot. The cause of the crash was not immediately known but obviously the smallest oversight becomes catastrophic at 2,500 km/h. This was by no means the most expensive crash at $140 million dollars either. About 13 months ago, a B-2 Spirit crashed in Guam just after takeoff. The two pilots ejected safely but the hull was completely destroyed at an estimated cost of $1.4 billion.

I don't think the 1.3 billion Chinese from the People's Republic realize just how powerful they are yet.

When you add up all the numbers, the United States military budget totals about $500 billion a year. While it's obvious that president Obama doesn't have much of an appetite for military spending, the United States' creditors, rather than it's citizens will effectively decide how much capital it can sustain on the military. As we've already seen China flexing it's economic muscle in the past several days just by mentioning concern about the inherent risk of their treasury holdings. The USD's universality is currently the only thing holding the United States economy back from hyperinflation in the medium term. I don't think the 1.3 billion Chinese from the People's Republic realize just how powerful they are yet. The use of military force against Iran will hinge upon China's agreement. China would likely take exception since Iran provides discounted oil in exchange for economic protection. I talked about this 'nuclear option' in previous posts (see America In Recession). Now I think this may take years instead of decades to happen. The world may need to get used to five yellow stars on red rather than fifty white stars on blue.